Who needs an appendix anyway?

What a weekend! Good times. Here are some things we learned since Friday night:

• The good people at the St. Luke's Urgent Care clinic on Clarkson are very quick to diagnose medical issues, in our case with 100% accuracy.
• They also have plausible deniability ("we don't have a CT Scan here, so we can't be 100% sure").
• You can't have surgery within 12 hours of eating--why? Because it can lead to a nasty lung infection.
• If you're in excruciating pain and think that you may need surgery, don't eat anything before you find out for sure. It only prolongs the pain (and you won't enjoy the food anyway).
• Laproscopic surgery=bad for the belly button, good for the bikini line (not that bikinis are worn here...)
• Hospitals are the worst place to be when you need rest.
• St. Luke's housecleaning crew are very militant about vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms top to bottom, emptying trash and turning all lights on...at 3:35 a.m.
• The nurses there are very good at timing the overnight "vital signs checks", exchanging IV fluids and administering doses of medicine in between housecleaning crew visits--presumably so as not to disturb the housecleaning crew.
• Appendices can, evidently, be infected and healed, infected and healed, many, many times over before they ever need to be removed.
• This is common in "older people".
• It doesn't feel very good for your doctor to tell you that he just removed an organ from your body that looked "like it came from a 90 year old".
• It only makes one feel only slightly better for the doctor to say "but that that has no bearing on the rest of your body's organs now that it's out".
• Children are very adept at sensing when the parental units are weakened, and like the Velocaraptors in Jurassic Park, will begin testing the security fences methodically in order to find opportunities.
• Many times those opportunities show up in the form of coaxing sugar from grandparents.

That being said, for those of you who didn't hear, Allison was in the hospital this weekend for an appendectomy. She is now home and recovering-- I'm recovering as well. ( I've had a raging tear duct infection since Friday afternoon.) Yes, a tear duct infection- we are waiting for the locusts. The boys are managing to wreak general chaos, as they sense that we have been divided and weakened. Now is the time for conquering, or so they think...I'm taking the next several days off so that Al can continue to recover. She's not supposed to lift anything heavier than 10 pounds for several days. Gives her a much-justified excuse to "check out". Gives me an excuse to take off work. Gives the boys even more opportunities to practice their favorite hobby of late--trying to injure me in various "unintended" ways. Win...win...WIN.

Short story on the 90-year old appendix: Evidently, it had been infected, and healed, and infected, and healed many times over. The surgeon was curious as to why she hadn't had pain before now. After we gave it some thought, it all made sense. She's been complaining of not feeling well off and on for about two months, and particularly in the last two weeks. General stomach pain and fatigue, along with an occasional low-grade fever. She must have really high pain tolerance.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers---

So what is this green stuff?

Friends and a Tree Frog

It seems that many situations lately have caused me to think about friendship and how the value of those close relationships has been made more evident as I get older.

Funny how I never planned to leave my best friend in Tennessee or see my college buddies scatter across the country. I have watched many friends move away (you know who you are)--but all the while seeing how God brings certain people into your life if even for a small time for a specific purpose. I pray that my boys will have those kind of lifelong friends- it truly is a blessing.

On to lighter topics: We made it to the dentist this week- a new dentist , Dr. Stephanie Whitley, that we loved! The office was totally cool and full of superheros and Disney characters. Ethan did great, although it made him a bit "nervous" as he put it. Andrew screamed his head off- what do you expect from a 1 year old? I realize that after going through the tooth drama with Ethan ( for those who don't know- he chipped it, and we eventually had to have it pulled when he was about 18 mos. --all the while as he is in a straight jacket screaming "No want this!") that I am terrified of Andrew doing the same thing. He is totally accident prone right now and falls every time he walks. No big deal- "they're going to fall out anyway" I keep reminding myself. Oh well.

Anyway, the rule in our house is that if you have to go to the doctor (or dentist) then you get a treat afterwards. So after our visit we headed out to get Ethan a webkinz- ever been to Webkinz world? It's out of control. I can see the appeal- it almost reminds me of the Sims game. He picked out a tree frog which he has creatively named "froggy". All the kids at his school have them and so this was a thrill for him.

Fun with Franklin

The public library is great- we had a fun afternoon reading stories with Franklin and making a cool turtle! Although he always loves it to see characters- he makes sure that I always know it's just "someone in a costume". Notice the short haircut ---compliments of me and a sunny afternoon (so I could do it outside). I think I'll be leaving that chore up to the professionals from now on.....just too hard - even with the promise of a popcicle.

Sweet Moments

Being an only child, it is really a joy for me to begin to see that sibling bond start to develop with the boys. I came around the corner the other day and found this:




















How sweet is that??

Birthday Boy

We had a blast today celebrating our sweet Andrew's first birthday. It is hard to believe how fast this year has gone! He really enjoyed his first cake and opening his gifts. Happy Birthday Andrew!

Getting Deep

So lately Ethan has been asking a lot more questions about God and heaven. Completely out of nowhere the other day while we were in the car he says:

So Mommy, if God can see EVERYONE...ALL THE TIME....is he like a big squid with a bunch of eyeballs or something?" "How does he do that?"

Then a little later in a tone that showed his real concern he asked: "Will there be a potty place up in heaven?"

I have a feeling I have several years of "How do you respond to that one" moments.