Classes Galore

Things have been in full swing around here lately - now that everyone's recovered from everything.  I'm four weeks into school and I think it's going fairly well.  My writing class is not at all challenging for me, but I did need a bit of work to remind myself how to properly format a paper.  My math class is going much better than I expected.  I'm remembering things from before and it's all making sense so far.  I do have to take an on-campus midterm in about two weeks and I'm a little nervous about that.  But as long as I remember that I can take the full two hours and not rush, hopefully I'll be able to keep from panicking.

Nathan started his dance class last week.  I would share pictures with you, but he literally just stood in one spot for the entire class and didn't move.  He did smile occasionally but still insists that he didn't like the class.  I will keep taking him though because he's turning into a homebody who doesn't want to interact with anyone new.  I know Nathan is a different child from Aiden, but he really needs to get out and do something.

Aiden begins his four week karate course today.  He's been asking for a while now and we're hoping that this basic class through the parks department will give him an idea as to whether or not it's something he wants to explore further.  He's also expressed interest in mat wrestling (yes, they have wrestling for 6 year olds - I imagine it looks pretty silly), soccer, and Little League.  Personally, I think karate would be best for him in terms of teaching self-discipline, but we'll see what he thinks at the end of four weeks.

John isn't in any classes right now (thank goodness!!), but he is looking into joining some sort of casual sports league.  I think we could handle him being out for a little while one night per week and it would be good for him too.  He says he's a little apprehensive about the social aspect of it, but he seems to do fine once he gets to know people.

So I guess we're all working on branching out in some way, be it intellectual or physical exercise.  We're making some good changes within our family and I'm excited to share our process with you as soon as I can figure out how to put it into words.  Until then, look for an update on Aiden's karate class, Nathan's dance class, and Nathan's four year check up with our pediatrician after tomorrow.  At Nathan's last check up, he was growing a bit on the slow side, so we are interested to see if he's caught up to the pediatrician's satisfaction.

Bad Mommy

I get a Bad Mommy award today.  It started at 11:30 this morning when I headed to the bus stop to meet Aiden's bus.  They've been training a lot of new drivers lately and using the kindergarten bus route to do it, so when the drop off time came and went, I wasn't all that surprised.  But 25 minutes later, I was getting frustrated. Then my cell phone rang.  "Hi, this is Becky from Brookwood.  I've got Aiden here in the office.....it was early release today."  Oh. My. Gosh.  I completely forgot.  That means my child saw that his mommy was not at the bus stop as usual and had to be driven away not knowing where I was or what was going to happen.

I ran back to the house, hopped in the car, and drove over to the school.  I walked into the school office to see Aiden sitting there, eyes puffy and red, his face soaking wet with tears.  I cried.  The amount of guilt in that moment - even though Aiden will probably grow to be a well-rounded adult despite me forgetting about early release - is more than any parent wants to feel.  The secretary tried to assure me that a parent forgets about Wednesday early release nearly every other week and that she's done it herself multiple times.  Good to know I'm not the only one, I guess.  But it didn't really get rid of how massively bad I felt about the whole thing.

Aiden cried a little more once we were in the car and I was apologizing profusely, but he said he understood that I hadn't forgotten about HIM - just about the fact that the bus stop time was different for that day.  After we were finished with Nathan's dance class (which we were almost late to because of the whole screw up), I took him to the store to pick out a new toy and get some cookies.  Then we went to the park for a little while and he got to pick out a movie to watch when we got home.  I was planning on spending the afternoon catching up on laundry and homework, but making up my mistake to my child was way more important.

In the grand scheme of things, I know we'll look back on it as "Hey, remember that time I forgot about early release and they took you back to school?  Ha, what a silly mommy thing to do!", but for today it was pretty traumatic.  I guess I still need to work on being at peace with the fact that I am human and I will make mistakes, and sometimes my kids will be on the receiving end of those mistakes.  As long as it's not happening all the time, I'll try to keep from beating myself up about it too much.  Now let's all hope I don't forget again next week.

Buster Knows

I'm a firm believer in animals knowing when someone in their family is sick.  Nathan is on day 3 of a fever and what has felt the best to him over the past few days is curling up in front of the fireplace.  Today, Buster decided Nathan needed love/protection/snuggles as he lay in front of the fire.

 Now, before you jump to any conclusions, I continually offer Nathan a blanket and pillow and he keeps refusing them.  I don't know why this is the most comfortable thing for him, but I'll go with it.

After a little while, Nathan scooted closer to the fire and Buster moved around so he could see him.

And then finally, Nathan fell fast asleep on the hard hearth.  Strange.  Buster got up, sniffed Nathan, figured out that he was asleep, and then Buster moved to the couch.  I guess he just wanted to make sure Nathan was going to get some rest.

In the half hour since these pictures were taken, Buster has gone over to Nathan a few more times.  He checks him out, then sits protectively by Nathan's head for a few minutes before going back to the couch.  It's really quite adorable to watch him take care of Nathan in his own doggy way.

Choo-Choo

AH-choo is more like it.  Life was back to normal and I was feeling great (and off the painkillers) for a full 24 hours before we were all hit by the cough, congestion, fever, and sore throat train.  And I'm comparing it to a train because it seriously came speeding into our lives like a JR500 (and if you don't know that is, then you have not spoken to Aiden).  We all went to bed feeling fine and we all woke up the next morning feeling AWFUL.

Aiden has missed two days of school, Nathan had to miss his first dance class, and I'm just ticked off that I'm laid up in bed again after being in bed for 5 days to recover from oral surgery.  I really should be happy that I didn't come down with this while I was recovering, because that could have caused some problems.  As it is, my healing has backtracked a little bit because my body is responding to this nasty cold, so I'm dealing with some gum swelling again but in general it's not affecting it too badly.  And thank goodness my classes are all online this term.  Nothing like spending the first two weeks of the term in pajamas.

While he's still congested, I think Aiden can go to school tomorrow since he no longer has a fever and the croupy cough at night is gone.  Nathan is still running a fever at night, but acts fine during the day.  John seems to have mostly missed it so far except for feeling extra tired and coming home at noon yesterday with a bad headache (but that may have been from the dental work he had that morning).  I seem to have it the worst (like last time), but could deal with it a whole lot better if this virus didn't include insomnia from 3-7am each morning.

All in all, this is only the 2nd time we've been sick this cold and flu season which is SO much better than last year's every 3 weeks junk.  I read an article this morning that said flu season is getting a very slow start this year, so it's not just us.  What remains to be seen is if the flu shots really nailed things this year or the worst is yet to come.  Now excuse me while I go curl my feverish self up in front of the fire.

Happy 4th Birthday, Nathan!

It's hard to believe that four years ago, I was in the worst pain I've ever experienced brought our little Nathan into the world.  He has brought so much joy and laughter to our lives.  He really has completed our family.

24 hours old....

Four years old....

Some likes and dislikes at age 4:

Likes:

Cheesecake

Veggies and ranch dressing

Stuffed animals

Little Einsteins

Mommy

Sleeping on the floor

Sleeping in mommy's bed

Dance

Sandra Boynton books

Building things

Dislikes:

Meat

Most foods

Going into any sort of class away from mommy

Sleeping in his own bed

Being smaller than Aiden

Getting in the car

And as far as we know, still hates Disneyland

Nathan definitely plays up being the youngest, although he also seems to not be able to stand that Aiden is older and bigger than he is.  He's very much is own little person and has become quite the little quirky, animated kid.  He likes to tell me that he wants to be on TV and I have every reason to believe him!

We love you Nathan!

How It's Going

I'm a few days post-surgery and things seem to be looking up today.  Tuesday and Wednesday were about what you'd expect - mostly unconscious from pain meds with a few periods of being awake to eat very soft food.  Thursday was my first day home alone with the boys and it didn't go very well.  The bleeding ended up getting worse and I ended up being pretty severely sick to my stomach for a good portion of the day, but eventually felt better.  Aiden did feel the need to argue with me about everything for most of the day, but John was able to come home from work early to deal with the boys so I could medicate myself some more and sleep.

So now we're on my second day alone with the boys and it's going alright so far.  I'm attempting to see if I can get through the day on just aspirin and take the vicodin only at night.  It's about 12:30 and I'm dealing with a little more pain than I'd like, even with the aspirin.  It would be nice if I could make it just to dinner before needing the vicodin.  I do need to do some shopping for Nathan's birthday party on Sunday (yes, I'm hosting a party this weekend - silly, I know) and would like to get that done this afternoon.  But I also know that pain management is still very important until I'm around a week post-surgery, so I'm not going to push myself.  They told me that if I was hurting to the point that I could feel the incision sites specifically, I've waited too long for meds - if I go by that, I don't know that I'll make it to dinner, but we'll see.

Thanks to everyone who has helped us out.  I'm definitely beginning to feel a little better, but I'll sure be happy when I can eat something other than soup and mashed potatoes.

Post-surgery

While I'm in between medicated states (unconscious and confused), I thought I'd give you all an update as to how things went today.

I was prescribed valium to take last night and right before the appointment so I could be as relaxed as possible.  I had been told by many people, including the pharmacist, that it would knock me out and cause memory loss.  Great!  Being asleep and not remembering what happened sounded perfect.  Unfortunately, I apparently don't react to it that way (go figure!).  While I was able to sleep the night before, I merely woke up feeling like I couldn't stand up straight and was a tad loopy.  But I was still nervous.  I doubled up the dosage for the appointment, but it never did make me feel tired and I was very aware and very nervous the entire time.

They gave me many, many shots to numb me up properly and those hurt like crazy.  I was able to bring my MP3 player and headphones with me to give me some distraction and that helped.  I turned up the volume during drilling and was able to focus on song lyrics rather than what was going on in my mouth - most of the time.

However, we knew that the tooth on the right side was a tooth "bud" and would be a bone extraction.  The tooth on the left side was already coming through, so there was no problem getting that one out.  He had it out of my mouth in under a minute.  Impressive!  But when he worked on the right side, the digging just kept going and going and going and he kept saying, "I can't find it!".  After 15 minutes of digging through my gums, he finally got it out.  But at that point, I was in extreme pain and had tears streaming down my face.  I think he felt bad - he kept asking if I was ok and called us a few hours later to check in again.

Here's the really gross part so feel free to stop reading now:

I was advised to change the gauze in my mouth every six hours.  But I bleed like a stuck pig and anyone who has heard my birth stories - or was there to witness it - knows this.  I made it 20 minutes before I had to switch out the gauze.  I changed the gauze in my mouth four times within an hour.  We stopped at Target on the way home so John could get my vicodin prescription filled (I stayed in the car of course!).  There was so much blood pouring out of my mouth, I had to take off my sweatshirt and wrap it around my mouth.  By the time we got home, I was vomiting blood.  After getting that out of the way, I filled up on vicodin and dramamine and passed out for six hours.

I'm in a lot of pain and am crazy hungry.  Let's face it - broth and jello aren't the most filling things on the planet.  I've been advised that tomorrow will be the worst in terms of pain and swelling, but that I should start feeling gradually better after that.  I made sure both of my professors knew what was going on and they are both being very gracious with this week's homework.

As I feel my second round of vicodin begin to kick in and my spelling mistakes are quickly becoming more frequent, I think it's time to sign off for now.  Thank you so much to everyone who was praying for me today. I kept thinking about that during the appointment and it made me feel better to know that people were thinking about me and sending prayers my way.  It really means a lot.

A Little Christmas Recap

It occurred to me yesterday that I had yet to post any Christmas pictures and thought I should get it done before I get teeth dug out of my head 24 hours from now.  My apologies in advance for anything that may get blogged while I'm on painkillers.

But anyway, Christmas!  We dragged Christmas out as long as possible.  I tried to have a Christmas activity for nearly every single day in December and for the most part, I think the boys enjoyed it.  Lots of crafts and baking.  We had no shortage of goodies in December, that's for sure!

 Making gingerbread men.

 Using mommy's fancy new pastry bag to decorate.

 Yum!

As you know, we had an Elf in our house this year.  Piper (or PiPi for short) was sad to go, but left a parting note for the boys on Christmas Eve - along with a defaced picture of our family.  What a silly little Elf!

I was all about the homemade gifts this year.  Well, not ALL about, but I did discover that I was happier with the gifts that I made myself and it was kinder to our bank account.  Plus, it makes the gift much more personal.

 I made quickbread in a jar, vanilla and caramel coffee syrups, chocolate dipped candy cane coffee stirrers, and chocolate dipped pretzels.  I had lots of fun decorating each package.

On Christmas Eve, we joined some immediate family at Tigard Friends for the candlelight service and then headed back home for our tradition of watching A Christmas Story while wrapping the boys' presents (after the boys are snug in their beds, of course).

We had a low key morning at home.  Our first Christmas actually spent in our house.  I continued my dad's tradition of making belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for Christmas morning breakfast, then got started on a double batch of pumpkin scones to take to my in-law's house that afternoon.  I received brand new stainless steel mixing bowls from John and was happy to put them to use right away!  The boys got lots of things from their list and couldn't wait to start playing.

In the afternoon, we headed to John's parents to open more presents and fill ourselves with more food.

 Kevin got a new TV!

 Nathan got to become a firefighter.

And Aiden got a new CD player for his and Nathan's bedroom.  He was so happy, he hugged it.

It was a very fun day and we were all quite tired by the end of it.  We got home and went straight to bed so we could head to the coast the next day to see lots of extended family.  I didn't get a single picture - I was still massively tired and just didn't think about grabbing my camera, but you can check out the pictures from the post on Hannah's blog (<--Click here!).

The next few days would be spent clearing away Christmas before we headed to the coast yet again to spend New Years in a beach house.  Pictures to come...

Looking Ahead

So I've tried to write this post about four or five different times.  Mainly because I don't want it to sound like a "poor me" post or anything depressing or grumpy.  I'll be honest and say that I haven't come up with anything else to post about because my brain is stuck on the oral surgery next week.  Yes, it's just teeth and I know that I have an unnecessary fear of dental work, but I've got a lot of anxiety leading up to this.  In fact, they just called to confirm and I had a mild panic attack.  She promised to call in the valium prescription right away.  I have a feeling these next few days are going to drag by.  Someone told me that since I've been through this once already, I shouldn't be nervous.  The problem there is that I remember how sick I got from the medications and anesthesia and am not looking forward to potentially going through that again.  Since there isn't going to be general anesthesia and just local, it shouldn't be nearly as bad - but I'm also not sure how I react to valium.  Bottom line: I just don't want to throw up at the dentist's office (and I'll bet they don't want me to either).

But before my surgery, there's one thing happening.  Something that I should be super excited about, and probably will be once the surgery is out of the way.  I'm starting school.  Yes, finally.  I am registered for two classes, writing and math.  I was low on the waitlist of the math class and didn't think there was any way I would get into it, but as the weeks went by, my spot on the waitlist got closer and closer until I got the confirmation email letting me know that I was registered.  The math class was what I needed to really get this started, since I can't do much of anything else until I get going on the 3-4 math classes I need.  My financial aid finally went through, so I can get this going.

Like I said, I should be excited about it.  But it may just be adding to the anxiety right now.  The classes start the night before my surgery, so I'm crossing my fingers that there will be no homework for the first week.  I'm not great at math in general - I don't even want to know how it would look if I attempted it on pain killers!  I'm sure once I get past next week, stress levels will be much lower and it will finally hit me that I am working towards my much-desired certification.

For those of you who would like to keep me and my nerves in prayer, my surgery is at 10am on Tuesday.  I'm hoping that they are able to extract the wisdom teeth quickly and with no complications, that the valium will make me drowsy enough to not be quite so aware of what's happening, and that the adverse reactions I had to the pain meds in the past will not be a factor this time around.  It will make the recovery a lot easier if my body will handle them normally.

Here's hoping this weekend can be spent playing with my kids and not thinking about next week.