Thursday, November 27, 2008

Chaos!

I have commandeered the computer here at Mark's folk's house, just for fun. Not everyone is here, but we have: Mom and Dad Willford; his sister Mindy; his brother Ryan; his sister Karen and her new fiance; his brother Kevin, wife Bonnie, and their 3 kids; and us. So far, that's 16. And tomorrow his other sister and her husband and 3 boys are coming, so we'll have 21 here at Mom Willford's house this weekend. Of course, the fiance won't be spending the night, but everyone else will be! Wow! A little noisy, but wonderful!

I got a call from Amanda this morning. She has all my critters at her house, and wanted to let me know that the hamster hadn't moved at all yesterday evening to this morning. She went to get it out, and it's dead. Oops.... I guess that takes care of that pet! The hamster hadn't moved yesterday that I can recall, so she died sometime yesterday afternoon, not Amanda's fault at all.

We women are debating if we want to get up ridiculously early and go to town tomorrow or not. I have never seen the crazy sales, and the insane people grabbing for everything, and I thought it would be fun to go laugh at all the nuts fighting over the last whatsit on the shelf. There are a couple things I would like to get - some jeans on sale for Nathan and some socks for Mark. Both of these have lots of holes and are somewhat worn out. It might be fun, who knows! And that's what naps are for, right?

Good new is that we are all feeling much better. Usually my yearly cold turns into a nice case of bronchitis, but I was lucky this time. It may happen later in the winter, but so far, so good. Having a humidifier in each bedroom helped quite a bit I think, so that'll be our new thing every cold season.

We were laughing on the way over here last night. I don't think I have EVER seen so many cops on the road! So many people got pulled over for speeding, and there was even an accident that shut down the lanes for a while. Do people think that the turkey won't wait for them? Sheesh! Or leave earlier in the day! Sad...

Wishing everybody a happy, wonderfully chaotic and enjoyable Thanksgiving. Eat much, take a nap, and save room for pie!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

The Best Book EVER!

No offense to all you Twilight fans, but I found a book that leaves that series in the dust. Introducing......




The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Photography by Jim Miotke

Talk about a thrilling read! I may have been up late last night, but I did not know that my camera was capable of so much! About the only things I can't do is shoot in any file type other than JPEG - but I can do plenty with my photoshop software and don't need any other format capabilities yet. And I can't take my lens off and put a different one on, like the fancy cameras. Mine does have a conversion lens adapter for using a special wide angle or telephoto lens, made by Canon. I just don't own it.

I knew that it could do lots of things, but the author has you explore the camera and owners manual to find out exactly what your camera is capable of. From phone cameras down to digital SLR's and everything in between! He explains what ISO, F-stop, and shutter speed are and how they affect your picture. Even if you can't control those on your camera, it can't hurt to know how your camera uses them. And he gives tips on composition to help you take better photos. Neat!

At 2:00 am, when I finished my 1st read through, I wanted to jump up and start playing with my camera! Unfortunately, I had to go to bed. There may just be more pictures posted on my blog soon, since I have been lax about taking pictures and posting them, because practice makes perfect...




Friday, November 21, 2008

Achoo, but for a different reason...

These achoos were for a good cause. My own house! (And a small dust storm...) I picked up a desk at the base woodpile, big and sturdy. And heavy. We stored it in the garage because I still had to clear off the old computer desk. Then, with Mark helping that family move last week, they sent him home with several shelves and pallets to make more shelves for the garage. Which got shoved in front of the desk. The garage floor was a mess of stuff that had just been tossed here and there, staple-gun staples, screws, old nails. Not a foot friendly place.

I found the energy yesterday to tackle it. Mostly because I had to so we could switch the desks today, hopefully. Amanda's truck got commandeered to serve as trash hauler, which she didn't know about until she got home. Luckily, she didn't mind. It was kind of funny actually, because the tailgate was down when she got home and there was stuff in the truck that wasn't there when she left. She was a tad confused... :-)

Technically, when you sweep out the garage, they want you to sweep the dirt into the grass so it doesn't look dirty on your driveway. I was just sweeping to get it out of the garage, and was about to brush it over to the lawn, but the wind beat me to it. There wasn't a whole lot of dust, but the wind was pretty heavy, and blew the dirt and leaves for me. Thanks!

See, I don't mind aggravating my stuffy nose when it's for my own home, and when I get thanked by a husband who looks at the garage in awe because there is now almost enough room for him to park the car. And there's more I can throw out, and will.

It felt really good to tackle project here at home after doing stuff for other people.

There have been lots of posts lately about cleaning, and home projects.... but aside from the daily runs to school and other errands, that's been about it!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Gehzunteid!

I'm not really sure how to spell that...

Oren and I missed the flu that was going around, so it stands to reason that we caught the next bug. Which happens to be a cold. I finally caved yesterday and started taking a decongestant. Cleaning my friend's house didn't help it either.

I believe I mentioned that... the one that took forever to clean the bathroom? Their inspection was this morning at 8:00, so everything had to be done by then. I wasn't going to go clean last night, the RS president sent a "please help them" email, so I figured there should be some people there. But I passed out with William around 4:00 for a while, woke up intending still to not go, but then I felt like I really should go help out anyway. I grabbed my cleaning bucket and box of nitrile gloves, and headed out for more magic erasers. I gave her a call on route, and was told that there was one Elder helping out with yard work, and one Sister "helping" inside the house. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?

The guy was working hard to get the yard done, but walking into the house, the other girl said she had finished the bathroom (the one I was working on), and done the laundry room floor. (yeah, right...) It's a good thing there were tons of sponges, scrubbers, and paper towels!

See, the housing inspectors are very picky. Every surface that you can reach without the aid of a stepladder, except lighting fixtures if applicable, is to be wiped down. Cupboards, scrubbed inside and out. Windows, scrubbed. Walls, scrubbed and rinsed. Door frames and baseboard, scrubbed. Floor, scrubbed on my hands and knees because it was that bad. Laundry room, done!

The kitchen got wiped down from the top of the cupboards to the baseboards and the floor. They said it wasn't even that clean when they moved in three years ago! The back bathroom is spotless now too.

I'm sure you all really wanted to know about all this cleaning and how bad the house was and everything, but other than the cold, that's the most interesting thing that's happened the last few days.

Oh, yeah. We all got our flu shots. But that's not really interesting.

The good thing about all this is that Mark has been saying "thank you" more when I get stuff done at home. Like when I cleaned the bathroom but didn't have the energy for the kitchen. He told me it was okay, and that the bathroom looked great, and thanks for doing that much. He has been through a few moves with me, and knows that I do keep up with things enough that I don't have to ask for help before the inspection. Thank you Mom, for teaching us how to not get stressed when moving, because when things are up to some sort of standard it's easier to get it all done when it's crunch time!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

OUCH!!!!!!

I know this is my third post today, but I LOVE TRICARE!

Weird, huh?

We just got the bill from the hospital for Nathan's surgery. For the pre-op, OR, and post-op rooms, the room in pediactrics, all the surgical instrument usage, nurses in pediactrics, OR nurses, and medications other than anesthesia....

$16,856.33

Plus the almost $900 for the anesthesia guys, and the $1900 ish doctor fee from Dr. Beck.

About $19,500!

With Tricare, our cost: nothing. If they bill the stuff under the authorized billing codes.

This is one of the reasons I think we were supposed be military. I think the Lord knew what we would go through with each of our children. Daily medications, extra ultrasounds during pregnancies, emergency room visits and ambulance rides, NICU babies, speech therapy and surgeries... I don't know what else my children will need, but I know that we are well taken care of and that my children can get the care that they need.

My Life Experiences

This looked really neat, so I thought I'd do it too!


1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (I count refurbishing, refinishing, and recovering furniture)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Adventures in Diapers

I know that my last post was potty related, so I'll just devote a small amount of space to it this time.

I am really thinking that William will be ready soon to start full fledged training soon. He has been taking off his diaper when it's wet or messy. Not every time, but still... He came up to Mark yesterday and told him "Poop." Sure enough, he was messy. He was in the bathroom while Mark was combing his hair, and Daddy was telling him what the potty was for, since William was by the toilet. William left and came up and said "Help pee!"

We're just a little excited, sorry if it's a little too much information.


On to other things! I feel so bad for missing so many things in everyone's lives, all those posts. I seem to be constantly on the go lately. Either everyone's sick, or I have to go to Boise for things, or people are moving and their house is so filthy that it takes me 3 hours to scrub their bathroom from top to bottom and it's still not done. After that, Mark agreed that our house really isn't that bad after all. Even at it's worst, it's never been quite that bad. I would go back and help today, but between Mark and I, he moving heavy furniture and taking it to the storage shed, and me doing packing and cleaning, we have put in over 12 hours already. They knew about this move 3 months ago, and put things off until 3 days before their final inspection. Lovely. Plus, Oren and I are getting colds, and I don't feel like kneeling on gross bathroom floor again.

Nathan went to see Dr. Beck yesterday. She cleared him for intensive speech therapy, 3 times a week. We go back in 3 months to see if he'll need the other surgery. He's healing well, but still has a way to go, it'll take another several weeks before everythings healed. But he's already sounding much clearer on several sounds, when we remind him to open his mouth when he speaks.

We also decided to get William off the pacifier. We cut the tip off of one, and are throwing the other ones we find away. It's time. He'll live.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Stickers are Awesome!!!!

Nathan has been mostly potty trained for a long time now. He has had no problem at all with #1, but with the muscles not working right in his throat, #2 has been a little trickier. I know, it's weird, but apperantly the two are connected some how. Those muscles tighten and help you go.




However......




For the last 3 days now, he has gone and sat on the potty.... did his thing.... wiped all by himself.... and flushed it all away! I have been waiting for this for months! Just all of a sudden, bam!

He has been getting used to his muscles moving a little differently now, and I figured we may as well try to hit the bowel thing hard. I really didn't want to hold him back from kindergarten a year because of a potty issue, since he is so much taller than the kids his age already. Now I won't have to! Since we'll be hitting the therapy hard, he should make enough improvement in his speech to be just fine.

I am so glad we did this surgery!

I put a chart on the wall. 6 blue squares, and 1 red one per row. One sticker in each square and when he hits 7 he'll get a special reward. At first we were doing a sticker just for trying, but after 2 days of that he caught on to what I have been talking about for months. I made a huge deal over this, of course, and gave him an ice cream sundae with all the works. He was very proud of himself, and agrees that it's cool not to have that squished all over his bottom anymore.

Hopefully, this will continue and my diaper budget will plunge down! Which is totally possible, because the last few days, when William poops, he doesn't want to sit down and tries to yank off his diaper. Hmmm... Is he really ready? I don't know how to train a 2 year old!

Veteran's Day Fun!

Mark had today off, being Veteran's Day, and so did the boys. You know what that means...

Family Day!

We wanted to go and hang out somewhere neat, keep the boys occupied and wear them out, where the grown ups would enjoy just as much as the kids. We have an annual pass to the Discovery Center in Boise, and so off we went!

We did hit Winco first, since it is 2 blocks away, and did some nice bulk shopping. Hurray for food storage!



They have a display of fans that blow air up through large tubes. The kids can cut up cups and send them up the tubes, to see which sort of design goes up the best. Nathan had a lot of fun with the scissors.





Oren is checking out how tuners work. You can change the frequencies and tune in to different channels, which come out over the speaker. Pretty neat!





Nathan found the veteranarian clinic. This little turtle didn't feel so good, so Dr. Nathan is giving him a check up. Good work Doctor!




I need one of these in my backyard. A huge bubble blower! The stick/wand lays in the soap dish, you slowly raise the rope to raise the stick, and see how high you can make the bubble wall before it pops. It looks really neat when you blow on the bubble, and I had a hard time pulling the boys away to see all the other stuff.



I love how kid oriented this place is! The grocery store room is awesome! Oren is shopping for bread. They have a dairy section in a "fridge", a produce department, bakery, and well stocked shelves of canned and boxed foods. All like a regular grocery store.



There is even a checkout lane, with real cash registers! You move the belt with a wheel, and the registers beep. They don't actually scan food, but the kids sure think they are neat.


The boys are trained well. Lots of fruit and vegetables, just like Mommy! :-) Of course, the fun part is trying to put it all away when you leave...

Is this a radio announcer booth? Nope. There are a couple microphones set up, and several choices of what you hear when you speak into them. One creates a delay from when to speak to when you hear it back in the headset. It is very hard to speak when you are hearing the beginnings and speaking the ends of words. One setting lets you hear the difference between a small room and a large room. I don't remember all of them, but those are the two neat ones.



Also on the menu is the bed of nails. Not sharp tipped, don't worry. Blunt tipped metal posts, about 1/8 inch wide and 1 1/2 inches tall. You lay on a plastic bed surface and push the "up" lever. The nails rise and support your weight, which really does not hurt, and then you lower them by pulling the lever down. William has been having issues with baby changing tables, not sure why, and he freaked out just the same as when I am changing his diaper in the bathrooms. Pretty funny actually, he is in the process of rolling over to grab the bar and is about 2 seconds away from doing that "freak out" cry/whine... :-)


We all had lots of fun today, got out and hung out as a family. Oren had a dental appointment, which went great. We were hungry and weren't quite ready to go home yet, so we went out to eat. The chef that was working tonight did an awesome medium rare sirloin steak! Plus, 4 and under is free salad bar, so William got to eat lots of yummies! He loves olives! Mark appreciated the all-day breakfast too...
A jog over to Walmart for WIC, where Mark picked up cocoa crispies and made the most amazing chocolate peanut butter rice crispy treats!
All in all, it was a blast! The mark of a good day is when all the kids fall asleep with no complaints at all!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Picture catch-up

I finally got the computer back from Mark, and got pictures downloaded. Yeah!


This is Nathan after surgery. Mark thought I was odd for snapping photos, but I wanted to record it for Nathan later. And for his amazing therapist, who is just as invested in this as I am. They let him take his monkey back too, and I think St. Lukes is easily the neatest hospital ever. His monkey came out wearing Nathan's surgery cap, and had his arm wrapped up too! How cute is that!?!


Suprisingly, Nathan felt well enough to try some trick-or-treating, for the last 20 minutes of the base's alloted time. We were able to find a knight's costume at Walmart, which was a total zoo. Do not shop there on Halloween night! William was a dragon that we had gotten for Oren's second Halloween. We were too jetlagged for his first...having just moved to England. We didn't even realize until we put them together for a photo. Knights and Dragons! (We were tired.)



Oren went out with our friend Amanda and her girls. She took them all to the church's Trunk or Treat the day before. We were trying to get home on time, but since Nathan passed out at Mom's, we were late. So she took him out with them around the neighborhood. He was Black Spiderman. We had gotten the costume on clearance last year, he picked it out to wear this year. It didn't come with the mask, it had either fallen off or someone made off with it at some point. Oh well! He tried so hard to get the spiderman web-shooting pose, but it's a little tricky for a 6-year old.
And this was just too funny! Daddy and Nathan went to the store for some "special" time the other day. Nathan saw this wig on clearance and just had to have it! Or did Daddy just have to have it? :-) They had bad teeth chewing gum too, so they threw some of that in the cart. The result was so funny that I had to get a picture!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

A nice, quiet evening

Today was just a nice, laid back kind of day. We don't get those often, but with Mark on leave because of Nathan's surgery, and no therapy, also because of the surgery, I didn't have anywhere to run to.

Except for the voting poll place, and the lumber store. I have never voted before, and felt very proud of myself for voicing my opinion about the leadership of our county, state, and country. Even if the opinion of many more people outweighed my choice, I am still glad I did it.

At the lumber store I exchanged a 1"x7 3/4"x48" piece of fabricated shelving board that cost $9.99, for a 1"x8"x12' (12 feet) piece of pine that cost a little over $7. Out of that 12 feet, I can get 3 shelves, for a fraction of the price of the fancy pants shelf. Why do I need shelves? For food storage! I am growing out of my existing and quite bendy closet shelves. They aren't exactly sturdy enough for 10 5lb bags of flour... and I am scared they will break under boxes of canned peaches. So I am installing on the opposite wall a shelving system. Metal posts with holes screwed into the wall. Brackets fit into these holes, and support the shelves. Each shelf can hold up to 200lbs, supposedly. I have 3 posts, so each shelf will have 3 brackets. At least 1 if not 2 of the posts will be screwed into the studs, for added stability. I am so excited! It's awesome to see my storage grow, and although I still have a long ways to go, I can see how much progress I have made!

Ha Ha! I don't really know how I forgot this bit. After coming home and doing so homemakey stuff, I ventured out to the garage to put another coat of stain on a piece for my entertainment center, and a coat of polyacrylic on a small end table/lamp combination I am redoing. My friend Amanda was on the phone with me when the fire truck sirens started going off. Being a base, they often have nothing to do and will just run the siren to "make sure it works". They went for a good while and we took no notice of it. Until her daughter yelled up the stairs "Security Forces are at the door Mommy!"

"Mam, you need to evacuate your house. Please gather your chilren and head to __ or __ or __ . No, you don't need to get your animals out, but we don't know how long this will be."

Scary right? Yeah. I hop off the phone and head inside, Mark is wrapping the formerly sleeping William in a blanket and Nathan's getting slippers on. Turns out that the construction guys working on some new housing behind us hit a gas line and it cracked, leaking gas all over the neighborhood. Not good! It probably wasn't as bad as it sounds, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Amanda and we headed for the BX and grabbed some food since I had been planning on a good big snack after finishing the polyacrylic coat. We were only there an hour when we got the all-clear to come back. See, it wasn't as bad as they thought. They were able to get it fixed quickly, and the wind was blowing in the right direction to clear the gas from the area.

Good to know they take gas leaks seriously.

After that, Mark headed out to help some people move, and I stayed and got myself and the kids nice and high. I mean, stained the inside of the entertainment center. Hey, all the windows were open, the fans on, and the doors were letting in lots of freezing cold air! I just couldn't get the thing dragged outside, and I need to get it all finished and the doors put back on. William broke one off a couple months ago, and I am finally getting it finished. We made and ate dinner. Nathan took a bath, Mark and Oren played on the computer, and William was lounging on my recliner. I, took a nap. At 8:00. I know... I was reading a bit and just sort of passed out. I woke up about 8:30, got Nathan out of the bath since he was blue with cold at this point. He thinks that he has to have permission to get out of the tub. Too funny. Then we realized that the election results should be coming in on the live feeds and whatnot, so we turned the tv on.

The younger two got sent to bed while Oren finished redoing his school work. His handwriting was unacceptable and illegible to myself and to his teacher. He is capable of better, and so we expect better. He'll be tired in the morning, but that's because he kept goofing off. We caught the tail end of McCain's concession speech, the tv had been muted to keep distractions down, and I thought that he conducted himself in a very gracious manner. Once it became clear who won, we turned it off, because we really didn't feel like listening to a bunch of analysis and yada yada. Or the "I won" speech.

It really has been a quiet evening, for us. The tv is off, the children are asleep, I had a nap which is probably not a good thing, but hey... and I am sitting here, blogging away. Before I hit the sack I will throw some polyacrylic on the inside of the EC cupboard, and call it good.

For those of you who don't know, polyacrylic is like polyurathane. It is less flameable, won't cause lung cancer quite as fast, and has far less odor. It is milky white when wet but dries clear. It does not coat quite like polyurathane, but I find that if I do 2-3 very thin coats instead of 1 big thick one, I get a nicer finish.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

6th file, 6th picture

We had some issues with our computer a while back, which resulted in my having to back up all my files to Mark's section of the computer. Somehow we have now 2 "sets" of picture files. One just reads My Pictures. The other is Mom's Pictures. Not knowing which set to choose, I did one from each!


The first one is of William after a haircut. Anytime he sees the camera he wants to run at it, and tries to climb up on my lap for his picture. This was in July, so Oren and William had basic buzz cuts. We left Nathan's a little longer on top.



My kids have this wonderous ability to fall asleep anywhere. Literally. Nathan was tired enough, apperantly, that he laid down on the piano bench after lunch, and fell asleep. How funny!


Where to begin?

Wow, attempting to cover the last several days seems impossible, but I will try.

I did get in touch with the nurses at Dr. Beck's office finally, on Wednesday, and found out that we were to report at the hospital at 9:15 for registration and pre-op stuff. On Monday the Tricare liason for their office had faxed the request for the surgery to be authorized in the morning and it had been authorized by 1:00 that afternoon. That's seriously fast for Tricare. His therapist said that the whole thing just feels like it was supposed to happen, the way everything fell into place. As for the deposit, I had a $65 credit with her office, from a billing thingy in a previous post. The Tricare liason who I have been dealing with said they would just use that as my deposit. I almost cried, it was that big of a relief!

We dropped Oren off at Amanda's house on Wednesday night, and drove over to Mom's to spend the night. William stayed with them while Mark, Nathan and myself headed to the hospital in the morning. We got all checked in, headed down to the surgery clinic, and got Nathan into pre-op. They gave him a sedative/tranquilizer sort of stuff, to relax him before taking him in for his IV. It was supposed to take 5-10 minutes to kick in. They came back after 15 to see if he was relaxed yet. Problem is, he is easy going and mellow as Mark is, and had been watching tv the whole time. We couldn't see any difference between the "sedated" Nathan, and the Nathan that had been sitting there before! :-) They took him back and we headed to the cafeteria for lunch, the surgery was at 11:15 and we were hungry. Plus, it took some time off the waiting and provided a distraction. When we got back it was only about 45 minutes until the nurse came out and said the doctor was finishing up and then they would take him down to post-op/recovery.

We waited. Then they came out again and said he was in recovery and should be waking up soon. We waited. Dr. Beck came out and told us how the surgery went. She was able to get some muscle into the flaps she constructed, which from her tone we deduced is a good thing. It went great and she said we may see an imediate improvement with some sounds and that she fully supports the therapist doing 3 sessions a week once he is cleared in 2 weeks.

We waited some more. We were told that he was having some trouble coming out, was very groggy and just kept going back to sleep. Nothing to worry about, it was just taking a while. They got us a room assignment up in pediactrics, where he would be staying the night, and sent us up. He wasn't there yet, and in fact, the room didn't seem ready at all. There was a crib and a bed shoved in at odd angles. A nurse asked us if she could help us and we informed her we seemed to have beat our son there. They didn't even know someone was coming to the room! Let's just say that they had it ready in about 5 minutes. We waited, and waited, and waited in the room, but no Nathan. We asked around and it seems that he really did not want to wake up, but should be up shortly. We waited some more and finally they showed up. The surgery was at 11:15. It was over around 12:30 ish. We didn't see him until around 3:30. They had giving him some morphine and he was pretty much out.

That was a long day... He would wake up a bit and cry and cough and gag on mucous. Then he'd go back to sleep. Then 15 minutes later we would do it all over again. He got some more meds a couple times. They came in a lot to do his vitals, which he didn't like, and it would drop his oxygen levels some. I told the nurses that we had gone through 2 NICU babies and all the moniters and readings and beeping alarms didn't phase us at all. They left us to adjust his humidifier mist line, and his oxygen blow-by as he needed. The oxygen was just to bring his levels back up after a coughing, gagging episode, he rarely needed it. They appreciated that we didn't freak out when something went off. Occasionally his heart rate monitor would pull off his finger, so I would just rewrap it, no biggie.

Night time was equally fun. Mark went back to help with William, and I stayed there with Nathan. They have a "bed" of sorts for the parents there in the room, with sheets and everything, so there was a place to sleep. He still cried frequently that night, and calmed down rapidly if I was there to soothe him. The once time I didn't get up right away, he fussed until I did and smoothed his hair and face. Poor little guy. Between that and the nurses coming in all the time it was a long night.

By morning he was so much better. He went to the bathroom, a good thing, and requested breakfast. I ordered from the room service for patients and hopped in the shower. Just as I was drying off an alarm went off from one of his machines. I poked my head out and had to laugh. "The man brought my breakfast and I want to eat it!" as he was was trying to pull his hand out of the tape that secured his arm to the board, that stabilized his wrist that the IV went through. He had pulled up the heart monitor from his finger too. Of course, then the IV alarm went off and they came in as I was trying to get his hand repositioned on the board. He had actually pulled the IV out! They figured if he was feeling frisky enough to do that, and since he had already eaten some of his breakfast before getting mad at the monitors, they wouldn't bother putting it back in. He ate most of his breakfast, and was cleared to go home.

Mark got there and we did all the discharge stuff. We had to wait for transport, but finally made it back to Mom's about 12:30. He had some tylenol with codiene at 11:30, right before we left, so he passed out in the car on the way back. We let him sleep and William crashed too. We didn't leave Mom's until just before 5. His medication was waiting at our Walmart, so we had to stop there before heading home. His mouth was finally starting to hurt, and we gave him some more tylenol with codeine at 6:00. He was feeling well enough to go trick-or-treating with Mark and William for the last 20 minutes of the alloted base time. (6-8pm) I'll post pictures and all that later.

I have been astounded at his rate of recovery! He had pain meds Friday night, at 6:00. Then another dose Saturday morning. He didn't need any for the whole rest of Saturday! He needed a small dose this morning, and hasn't asked for any more yet today either! He was wanting pizza on Friday night, but we talked him into macaroni and cheese, since he is supposed to be on a soft foods diet for at least 10 days. This should be fun... Several sounds he makes, especially "s", "g", and "c" are already better. Not perfect, but better. He is healing quickly and I am so happy that he is doing so well.

What's funny is that William threw up Friday night, twice. Then again late last night. Mark was up all night alternating between throwing up and the other forceful ejection of fluids. What fun! So today, my son who just had surgery is up running around, eating and drinking, making messes... And my husband has been lying on the couch, bed, or chair whining that he's so sick, it's something serious, it couldn't be just the bug that's going around the base. I finally got him to start eating and he seems to be feeling better. And William has been lying around being slightly fussy too. At least they both look better now.

Good grief!