Last day in Omaha

It is the last day we have here in Omaha, and as always, we are both ready and sad to go home. We have had a wonderful time visiting my family, and my brother and his wife were here too. We amazingly all stayed under the same roof, with my entire family of 4 in the same bedroom, and did not get in each other's way. My kids have been super - and Luke took to his Uncle Dave while Aidan was taken with his Aunt Laura. I have lots of great pictures, if only I could get them to load onto my blog! (Kelly, you need to help me on this). We have NOT had a white Christmas, in fact we left the snow in Texas to come to Omaha, where they have not had any snow yet this year! So, Luke packed up his snow gear, and hasn't used one bit of it. It hasn't even been too cold, except the day we arrived.

Now I can't wait to get home and get rid of stuff! Coming home with a car that is so full you can't see out the back window makes me want to clean out so bad. My kids have too many toys, and of course they are bringing back more. I want to go through their rooms, my room, my? (ok - Dail's!) kitchen, and haul a bunch of stuff off to the city mission. It is almost embarrassing how much our culture collects when others have so little.

I guess my next post will be....next year! Happy New's Years to you!

Christmas Pagent and my stupidity

Now that my Christmas cards are done, my shopping is complete, and I have a dent in my gift wrapping, I am feeling much more in the spirit of Christmas. Last night, Luke's school had a Christmas program, which was positively adorable. All the 4 year olds dressed as sheperds, and they sang their hearts out. Luke even had a speaking part, which I was so proud of him for. I brought my camcorder, and was videotaping away. I realized that my tape was almost out, and that Luke's part was near the end. So, I shut my camcorder off - you guessed it - just in time to MISS Luke's speaking part!! I had no idea they had already gotten to the last song, and I didn't even get to see him do his part, I just heard him as Dail nudged me and said, "Didn't he do great!" All the while I am trying to get the stupid thing back on and focused on him. Totally missed it - I wanted (and still want) to cry. I know he is just 4 and will have many other momentous occasions in his life, but I missed the FIRST big one!!!

On a different note - Santa and I went shopping tonight. Luke finally wrote his letter to Santa, so we could know what he wanted. It went somthing like this: "Dear Santa, I want a Ninja Turtle Tracker, Ninja Turtle costume, play kitchen, and motorcycle. Thank you, Luke. " No "how are you this year" or "I have been good" or "hope you don't get too tired lugging all those toys across the world". Short and simple I guess. I prompted him to add the "thank you", or it wouldn't have been in there either! I know nothing about Ninja Turtles, and for that matter, Luke has never watched the TV show or movie. He just knows that the boys at school talk about them and play that at recess. So, he wants everything Ninja this year. At least they are good guys, which is a prerequisite for me (aka Mrs. Claus).

34 is better than 33

Well, the first couple of days of being 34 have been MUCH better than the last few days of being 33. Dail's Mom went home from the hospital yesterday - which was SUCH a blessing! She is tired, but doing pretty well otherwise. I know she and Melvin will both sleep better in their own home. They never did give her an official "diagnosis", but I am just glad she is better.

Dail is feeling much better too. He went back to work for a half day yesterday, and all day today. Yeah!!! And, his voice has returned! We are actually going out to dinner tonight - just the two of us, which is much needed! Then we will spend some time with our friends the Trimbles, also much needed.

We had a wonderful Posada progressive dinner party for the CCC last night. We had 25 students come along, and I thought for sure we would run out of food. But, as in the bible, God provided somehow, because we not only didn't run out, we had a bit left over. It truly duplicated before my eyes!

I am on to Christmas cards, wrapping, last minute gift making, etc. Seems like the holiday is coming SO fast - and I, like everyone else I guess, am not ready!

Here's to a wonderfully calm weekend!

Trying to get into the spirit

Well, I am attempting to get into the holiday spirit, although my immediate life around me is not lending to it right now. Dail's Mom is still in the hospital (10 days now) and they STILL don't have a confirmed diagnosis of what is wrong. I feel like it must be some kind of complication from her kidney surgery - something they aren't willing to admit they did wrong or didn't do. I don't know. But, she is tired of being there, Melvin is worn out, and Dail's sisters are both back at home, leaving Dail and I to take care of things. Well, Dail has strep throat - so that leaves ME to take care of it all. I need 3 of me, one for my kids and husband, one for work, and one for Polly and Melvin. I just need to make sure I don't get strep throat, or I don't know what we'll do. As for Polly, they have drained 700 cc's of fluid off of her lungs (in addition to the fluid they drained off of the cavity where her kidney used to be). She also has a BAD case of thrush, from all of the antibiotics, so she cannot tolerate much of anything to eat. Her mouth is red as a raspberry, and it looks so painful. She has been running a low grade fever on and off ever since she was admitted, and they can't figure that out either. She currently has 4 doctors working on her...wish one of them could figure it all out and then we could get her back home.

Dail is so sick he isn't even talking. He took a pad of paper with him to the doctor so he could "talk" with her. Crazy! Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in, and he will be on the mend.

Somewhere in the meantime, I need to get my Christmas letter going, as well as Christmas labels printed, gifts wrapped (thank goodness I have them all bought!) and I have a birthday on Wednesday that may just pass without much ado. Dail even had me cancel my own "surprise" birthday party tonight (I of course didn't know it was happening until I had to actuallly cancel it).

Well, I do have faith that this will all pass, and I am an eternal optimist. So, my next post will hopefully be filled with good news!!!

A day of emotion

I had hoped to be writing about what a wonderful time we had with my parents here...which we did. But, that time was clouded by the fact that Dail's Mom went back into the hospital yesterday with pneumonia and a blood infection. She is not doing well as of now, but I hope tomorrow will bring better news. The doctors cannot find the source of the infection, thus are treating here with blanket antibiotics, hoping they will strike whatever it is. Dail is spending the night with her tonight, to make sure she is well taken care of, and to talk to the doctor when he comes at that very "doctorly hour" of 6 AM or so.

We did have a great time with my parents being here though. They left this morning, and I'm sure are finding the "lack of noise" in their car strange after spending 4 days with my two boys. The decibles in our house get quite high sometimes! We had Thanksgiving here with them, which was wonderful. Dail cooked a great meal, and we just enjoyed each other's company. My Mom and I got to do black Friday shopping, went to spin class (to work off our Thanksgiving meal!) and my Dad and I hung Christmas lights outside our house. We also went to the Electricritters at River Bend Nature Works on Friday night, which was perfect weather for it. It was in the low 60's, and the nature trail was lit with many festive animal-type displays as Christmas music played and Santa strolled the trail. Luke particularly LOVED it, although he wouldn't have anything to do with Mrs. Klaus!

I am sad to see my parents leave - and it is getting harder each time for them to do so, because Luke now cries and asks them why they can't just live here. :( I wish they did too - but maybe someday.

Going home

Finally today Polly (Dail's Mom) was released from the hospital. It has been a long week for all of us, especially for her. She has discovered that kidney surgery is very painful, and there are some caring, wonderful nurses who cared for her, and some not so wonderful ones too. But, all in all, she is doing well for a 77 year old woman who had surgery to remove an organ only a week ago. She will not have to have any radiation or chemo, as the cancer was low grade (?) and had not spread to any other part of her body. Yeah!! Her biggest battle now is pain, as she cannot take any pain medicine that contains codeine, so she is left with Darvoset, which doesn't do much for her pain.

I told Luke today that his Grandma and Poppy (my parents) were coming to visit next week and I asked him if he was ready for them to sleep in his bed while he slept on the floor in his sleeping bag. He told me that he wouldn't have to do that, because we were going to the store next week to buy one of those beds like Alec and Evan have (his friends with a bunk bed) and that he would let Grandma and Poppy sleep on the bottom while he slept on the top! Funny little guy! I sadly had to tell him that we wouldn't run out and buy bunk beds just for their visit. He's such a cutie though! We are all looking forward to their visit.

Polly's Surgery

Today was the big day for Dail's Mom, Polly - she had the surgery to have her kidney removed. It went very well - shorter than they expected - and she didn't even have to go to ICU. They did find the tumor to be bigger than they first assumed - and they do think it was cancerous. The results of the biopsy will be back in a few days. But, for now, she is resting pretty comfortably and has her own personal "pain relief" button to give herself pain meds when needed (don't worry - they make it so you can't have too much!). They anticipate she will be in the hospital for 7-10 days. For now, they don't think she will need any further treatment after she goes home. Thank you all for the prayers and concern. She is a remarkable lady - and I know she will get through this with true grace.

Debbie

Dad's in charge

Well, I left Dail in charge of the household Thursday and Friday while I went to a conference of sorts for our Diocese of Fort Worth (the church organization within which I work). Poor guy, I left him Thursday morning at 7 AM with a sick child (Aidan had a 103.2 fever) and a broken furnace (it was 52 degrees in our kitchen when I left!). He managed to take Aidan to the doctor not once but TWICE that day (the first time for his high fever, the 2nd for a goose egg on his head after hitting it on the coffee table) to which the peditrician replied "You're going to be in trouble with your wife when she gets home!" But, they all fared pretty well and I had a wonderful two days of meetings/sessions. I have enough ideas now for the next 5 years at my job I think!!! Today we took Luke to see "The Incredibles", which was quite a good movie. Although in the middle of it, Luke told me "Mommy, you shouldn't have taken me to this movie. There are bad superheroes in it, and we shouldn't be watching it." In the end, he too loved the movie, and wants to see it again. But, he certainly had his reservations during the movie.

Dail's Mom has her surgery this coming week (Wednesday). I will try to post how she is doing, and I appreciate all the prayers you have said for her.

After the craziness

We have had a week of frenzy - and now our house is finally calming down. Our friend, Rodd, has been here for a week doing team building activities with different MSU student groups. Of course one of those groups was mine - on our retreat last weekend. I actually spent the night with my students, slept on the floor (haven't done that in forever!) and participated in the pedicure-a-thon that my female students did until 3 AM! Retreat went very well, and I think my kids survived a night without Mom. Before Rodd left, he talked Dail and I into going to see "The Grudge" - and I can say that last night was a night of trying to lose ourselves in the Comedy Channel to forget the scariness of that movie. It certainly makes you jump!!! (I personally don't recommend it - TOO scary for me!) Now we have a night or two of calm before Halloween weekend festivities. If I can figure out how to put pictures on these blogspots, I will show you my kids in costume next time.

Power of prayer

Although it has been a busy, hectic day for us, it has been a wonderful one too. Dail took his Mom to the doctor today to get the results of all of her scans/xrays, and he told them that everything showed up clear! So, she just has the mass on her kidney, but nothing else. That means she will have surgery to have the kidney removed on November 10th. Keep up the prayers for her, and thank you for the ones that led to this day. Everything else today has been blah - I got my rollerblades stolen (my own fault for accidentally leaving them in the park when I took the boys) and Luke went to bed tonight telling me that he didn't want Dail or I to tuck him in because we were trying to make him sad (because he chose to play with his magnets instead of read a book, and when he asked for a book in a last ditch effort - we still said "no"). So, off he went to bed by himself, which made me really sad. Dail leaves in the early morning to go visit University of Houston and Univ. of Southern Louisiana - so it will be just me and the boys for the next couple of days.

It's Friday!

Well, this is quite unusual - it's Friday and we actually don't have plans for the weekend! Last weekend was MSU's homecoming, and next weekend is when our good friend Rodd will be here to facilitate teambuilding with several groups of our students, including my CCC students at our fall retreat. So, Dail and I are going to enjoy not having anything planned for the next couple of days. We find out about his Mom on Monday - which has been on our minds all the time. Thank you for all your prayers! We have been "shadowed", if that's what you can call it, by two MSU nursing students who come to our house weekly to assess our family's health: physical, mental, etc. It has been an interesting experience. They fortunately have bonded with Luke, so that makes their time here easier. We have to keep track of each family member's diet for 24 hours this weekend, and record it for them, and then they will evaluate it the next time they come. I'm sure their evaluation of Luke's diet will be something like "he needs more variety in his diet, he doesn't eat enough (any?) veggies, etc." Can't wait for that! Don't most 4 year olds limit themselves to PB&J, cereal, mac & cheese, and an occasional fruit snack to count for their daily fruit/veggie intake?

More Monday - I hope I have good news to share!

A week of worry

Well - this is only my 2nd "blogspot" entry - but I seem to find that either I have time to write, but nothing to write about, or LOTS going on, but no time to write! This week has been one of a lot of emotion in our family...Dail's Mom just found out she has a mass on her kidney. She will have her kidney removed soon, but first they want to do a bone scan to be sure if it is cancer, it hasn't metasticized. His Mom is older (76), as most of you know, and we are praying that she will just have a clean bone scan and recover from surgery without any complications. Not long ago she told me she wants to see both of her grandsons graduate from high school - I want that for her too! Please pray for her, and for the family as we go into the next few weeks.

Aidan's birthday

It's the close of a memorable day - Aidan's first birthday. I think since we are fairly positive we aren't having any more kids - this is much more bittersweet than before with Luke's 1st birthday - because I will never have another first birthday party again! It is so amazing to think that a year ago, I was in the hospital with a newborn. Time goes even faster with your 2nd child...and they seem to desire to grow faster than the first.

Aidan LOVED his birthday - he thought the tissue paper was the best part of opening gifts - who cares about what's inside? And since he always has a healthy appetite - he enjoyed his chocolate cake immensely.

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate. I only wish his Grandma and Poppy could have been here with us. Pictures are on the way to you though!