Wednesday, July 16, 2014

This Post Made Possible By Aldi's

Before going any further, I received no compensation or other incentives from Aldi's....just a really good deal on produce. Ok. On to the post.

Now that the pain meds are out of my system, it might be possible to put together some sort of coherent post. I'm not saying that it will be, but it's possible.

The last couple of weeks have been full as always. Our little girl has continued on her impressive growth spurt. She managed to gain almost 2 pounds in only about 3 weeks and is now long enough that when she's sitting on my lap, I can no longer type on the laptop without her having the range on her feet to kick at the keys and buttons. Not too shabby! Other moments and milestones include: "discovering" her feet and that she can move and grab them, a whole bunch of new (very loud) squawking sounds that are oddly reminiscent of what you would hear from cats yowling at one another, beginning to learn about the fun of splashing in the bathtub, and the beginnings of maybe allowing us to have a somewhat regular nap schedule instead of the "go until you crash and pass out" routine that she's employed to this point. She's getting the hang of assisted sitting and standing and loves doing both, and she absolutely loves to making Daddy's character die on his video games while Mama gets stuff done in the kitchen. (Mama thinks it's pretty funny too.)


In non-baby related events, thanks to some fantastic sales on produce and some cooler weather, I've gotten a chance to get some yummy food stored away without having to swelter to make it happen.

First off, we now have plenty of dried tomatoes for making sauces and other delicious dishes. I know that tomatoes have a ton of water in them, but it's still mind blowing that 20 some pounds of tomatoes that completely covered one of my counter tops don't even fill a gallon plastic baggie. Next up in the dehydrator will be some fruits and possibly jerky.

Even more fun than the tomatoes, I started working this year's jams. So far, we have strawberry, strawberry/rhubarb, and strawberry/raspberry. Yes. Strawberries were on sale, and I wanted to make sure that we had enough jam to get us through until next year. I remembered the number "20" from last year, so I got 20 pounds of strawberries. As I was hulling and crushing them for jam, I remembered that last year I got $20 worth of berries and it was about 9-10 pounds. Oops. So I guess that we're going to have plenty for PB&Js this year. I also was given the mother load's worth of rhubarb. We're going to need a lot of peanut butter.

Charlie had been really nervous for awhile now about taking the compass test for school since it's been so long since high school. While I kept telling him that he was more than capable, we both knew that his test anxiety might mean that he might struggle with the test. However, he was able to calm himself about it and did fantastic on the test. Now all that is left before he can start classes next month is for his high school transcripts to arrive. The program is expected to be full, and they use a first come first served basis, so we'd love prayers that those arrive post haste.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Murphy Strikes Again

It's amazing the changes that can happen in a couple of weeks. Starting about three weeks ago, my stomach started having arguments with my food after I ate it. I was hoping that whatever it was would clear up on its own in time. Looking back, I should have realized that our life NEVER works that way. Murphy practically lives at our house.

The Cliff Notes version is : two trips to ER Saturday, lots of tests, and then emergency surgery Sunday morning to remove what the surgeon called a "really bad gall bladder." Then two more nights in hospital recovering to the point that I could go home yesterday. Apparently, it's possible for gall stones to not show on either the ultrasound or the CT scan but still be jam packed inside that little balloon. I'll get to see/keep them after my follow up appointment in a couple of weeks after pathology and everyone else does their thing.

Elska is still a bit upset about having limited access to Mama and the Milk Things. (We won't even go into how upset her tummy was with the small bit of formula that she got during the turmoil. That won't be happening again if we can help it.) We've been doing lots of extra snuggles to ease her mind about it, and she was thrilled to have both Mama and Daddy to snuggle this morning. Ok, she wasn't the only one thrilled about it. Mama and Daddy thought that it was pretty awesome too.

We are incredibly grateful to all of the folks who prayed for us and who helped with all that needed doing these last couple of days. Thank you for helping get me back on that road to health as quickly as possible!