One week

It's been a week since my surgery, and I am doing great. When I first woke up after being under general anesthesia for 10.5 hours, my first thought was "OMG! I think I forgot to send the bag of goldfish for the one fish two fish counting game that Caroline's class was doing today!" So I knew right away that normalcy would return quickly. {David later told me that we did, in fact, send the goldfish}. I had the best nursing team while I was in the hospital. Late on the night after my surgery, I went on an apple juice bender (the nurse could literally not feed me enough apple juice when she came in for her hourly rounds) and my blood sugar shot up. The nurse had no doubt that it was the apple juice, but she warned me that my doctor was going to freak because he just freaks over things like that. And he apparently did freak, although not in front of me, because I had to get my blood sugar checked twice a day for the rest of my hospital stay (it was always normal after that first apple-juice skewed reading, and I've been laying off the juice ever since.). The same night I was chugging apple juice, I was telling my nurse that I planned to walk the halls once every hour the next day. So as soon as the (equally awesome) day nurse arrived, she told me that she'd heard that I was quite the eager beaver, and that she would only let me walk three times total that day. So I walked three times on Saturday, a lot more than that on Sunday, and I was discharged on Monday.

I can't believe how good I'm feeling one week out. I'd heard so many awful things about this surgery and was prepared to feel much worse at this point. The hardest thing for me is going to be not doing things. I'm not supposed to lift anything heavier than 5 pounds for 8 weeks. Eight weeks!! Do you know how light 5 pounds is? A half gallon of milk is 4 and a half pounds. My coffee pot (with coffee) is 3 and a half pounds. A casserole dish on a baking sheet is more than 5 pounds. I'm just not naturally good at not lifting things over five pounds. But I know this is an important part of the recovery process, so not lift I will.

It's a gorgeous day today, so I plan to get outside and walk. Don't worry Mom, I won't overdo it! Thankfully, this is something that I am actually supposed to do:

In other news, the girls went back to Nit Wits for a recheck the morning I was discharged from the hospital and got the all-clear. All kinds of things were getting checked on me that morning in the hopes that I could get discharged, but nothing had me more more stressed out than the lice recheck. I think I have PTSD. I may need to see a therapist to get over this.

Thanks for the real life and virtual well wishes!

how to prepare for a major surgery {a guide}

I need one more surgery in connection with all of the brouhaha from last summer. And it is a whopper. Ten to twelve hours on the operating table and a recovery time of 8-12 weeks. How DOES one prepare to be a little, or a lot, out of commission for so long when managing a busy family and a job? In particular, what is the most efficient way to spend the final week before surgery? Here's a guide.

SIX DAYS PRIOR TO SURGERY:

Get traditional pre-childbirth/miscellaneous surgical procedure pedicure with eldest daughter. Because every other part of you might look like hell warmed over, but at least your feet can look good. So far, things are right on track.

FIVE DAYS PRIOR TO SURGERY:

Learn that Girl Scouts stepping stone project that you were organizing back in November, but which had sort of died on the vine due to bad weather and lack of interest, has been resurrected. Haul 160 pounds of concrete in a wheelbarrow to the back of the library and mix/pour/bedazzle concrete with ten 8 year old girls.

Realize with troop leader that the decorative stones are not really sticking to the concrete. Go back home and google "stepping stone decorative stones not sticking to concrete" and similar searches highly unlikely to yield any helpful hits. Try random searches that seem to make some sense to your non-stone mason brain like "clear drying outdoor epoxy" and "mortar" and then spend an hour or so wading through home and garden and DIY forums that are discussing things that are not remotely relevant to your problem.

THREE DAYS PRIOR TO SURGERY:

Ask school nurse to check daughter's head because she's been itching, but you don't see anything in there. Learn from school nurse that kid has lice. Learn that other kid has lice too. Go to CVS to buy Rid, spend entire day shampooing/nitpicking/bagging up stuffed animals and pillows, washing and vacuuming. Oldest daughter is completely distraught, youngest daughter proclaims this to be "the best day ever!!" Do not want to leave this problem for the grandparents, so make appointment with a professional lice removal salon for the next day.

TWO DAYS PRIOR TO SURGERY:

Spend the day at Nit Wits with the girls. Learn a whole lot about lice from these kind women, who went into the lice removal business when their own families were hit with it. They say that their lives are divided into "pre-lice" and "post-lice" and they will never be the same. You are one of them now. Watch them work and think that they could pretty much charge you any amount of money and you will happily pay it to them; you feel it so strongly that you have to remind yourself not to say it out loud. Also think that NO WONDER lice is so rampant in elementary schools, as the Rid did absolutely no good whatsoever, and there is absolutely NO WAY that the average untrained parent can do what these women are doing. The grandparents take the kids later in the afternoon and you spend the next 6 hours doing this:

Fun fact: lice can only survive off a head for 24 hours. Therefore, should this ever happen to us again (and with God as my witness, I will devote my life to seeing that it does not) I plan to get the infected person(s) treated and then move out of the house for the next couple of days. It would be a whole lot less work! That night, David comments that a few days in the hospital might be a nice break from vacuuming and stepping over stuffed lawn and leaf bags. Friends start texting to ask if I'm ready for the surgery:

DAY BEFORE SURGERY:

Realize that Sally's Beauty Supply has quadruple charged you for the Barbicide you purchased yesterday:

I could be lining up a ride to the soccer game for Elizabeth, or drafting a list (spreadsheet?) of the kids' weekend activities/social events to help the grandparents, or running into the office for the first time all week to turn off my computer and say "hey, see ya in 6 weeks!" OR I could go get my $27 bucks back from Sally's Beauty Supply. I do the latter.

FIFTEEN HOURS PRIOR TO SURGERY

I had lunch with Elizabeth's class (I'd chosen this date to cover the class for teacher time out way back at orientation), ran into the office for a bit, and then drove to the surgeon's office for the final pre-op appointment. On my way into his parking lot, I ran over a curb:

Luckily the appointment only lasted 15 minutes, so David had plenty of time to change the tire, follow me to the gas station to get air in the (also flat) spare, follow me to Goodyear to get three new tires (I mean, we were there anyway!), and make it home in plenty of time to collect the girls to go to their school open house!

I think I'm ready.

where football is king

This is probably something that only a nerd like me would find funny. At work earlier today, I had to figure out something about the effect of receiver sales (i.e., sales of property by a court-appointed receiver). Now there are obviously specialized databases for conducting legal research, but sometimes when I'm just beginning to research something I'll start with a quick, broad google search. It's free, and sometimes I'll hit on an article or case that really helps get the ball rolling. So anyway, I googled "receiver sales alabama:"

And every. single. hit. involved wide receivers on the Alabama Crimson Tide football team.

First I thought that maybe I was just stupid to think that Google's algorithms would possibly connect the word "receiver" to "receiver of property" as opposed to "wide" -- but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed that the inclusion of the word "sales" (rather than, say,"yards" or "quarterback") immediately following "receiver" really should have helped point them in the right direction. So out of idle curiosity, I decided to substitute "California" for "Alabama" to see what happened:

Just as I suspected. In Alabama, football reigns supreme (or at least more supreme than property sales by court-appointed receivers) -- as God intended it! I guess I'll be sticking to Westlaw for this project.

Sweetheart dance

Last night was the Girl Scouts' Annual Father Daughter Sweetheart Dance, and since David was out of town, my dad graciously agreed to escort Elizabeth. I made Elizabeth put on a wet(ish) cardigan so I could snap a photo before I lost the daylight:

{It wasn't really wet, just a tad damp, as it hadn't quite finished its time in the dryer yet, but it was still wet enough to cause the generational "she's going to catch pneumonia!!!" "no she's not -- I need this picture!!" argument with my mom.}

After we finished drying the sweater, Dad took Elizabeth to Nothing But Noodles. Elizabeth always wants to go to Nothing But Noodles but I never want to take her because it pains me to spend $6 on a plate of buttered noodles that I could make for 38 cents (that's sort of the problem with all restaurants, but it's somehow much worse with Nothing But Noodles). Dad said that she had the mac and cheese and then asked for a second plate of mac and cheese (he got it for her) so I guess she made the most of that precious Nothing But Noodles time.

They had a great time at the dance. Elizabeth told my dad ahead of time that the food at the dance was always outstanding, so I'm not sure what he was expecting, but he said later that the cookies and popcorn were really good. :-) He also said that he couldn't believe how wild these girls are -- they were all just running in random directions, and he was shocked that there weren't more collisions. Yes -- kids today are completely insane, especially when they get together in large groups and there is not a teacher present. I'm pretty sure that when I was a Girl Scout our parents would not have allowed that kind of behavior. But everyone is happy and healthy, so we embrace the craziness.

Kids' marathon '13

It wouldn't be Kids' Marathon day without sub-arctic temperatures (okay so it was 38 degrees at the starting time, but here in Alabama we perceive that to feel like more like 8 degrees). This was Jacob's last year to run it (sad face) and Caroline's first. I ran with Caroline (well, it wasn't running so much as sprinting all out for about 40 yards, then walking, then spotting a friend and hugging/accidentally tackling each other, then sprinting again, etc.) They were rewarded at the finish line with blue powerade and a medal. Another one in the books!

The rant worked!!

Here is my latest first world problem: after getting lazy and taking photos mainly with my phone for the better part of the year, I decided start using a real camera again. But the photo processing program that I use with my camera (Adobe Lightroom) would not work. It looked like there was some glitch during installation? It appeared that it was corrupted. And as usual in these situations, I was completely helpless. It wouldn't let me uninstall the program. It wouldn't let me reinstall it over the corrupted program. Every time I tried to mess with it I would walk away defeated and frustrated. I spent the past two weeks getting mentally prepared to call Adobe (I hate talking on phone, especially when the conversation involves technical problems). So today poor Heather walked into my office right when I was ripe for a Lightroom breakdown.

C: I just want technology to bleeping work. Is that really so much to ask? I just want to turn it on and have it work. Do you know the only time a piece of technology actually worked for me out of the box? With some $12 replacement universal headphones I got for the car DVD player. And I nearly keeled over from the shock of them working. I didn't have to configure them, or find a code in the manual, or call customer support. I put in the batteries, turned them on, and they just worked! That's what I want to happen. I don't want to clear caches. I don't want to run a memory test. I don't want to have to uninstall things in a secret magical order or dig around for hidden temporary files that might contain the one .msi file that I need to make it all work. I just want to take pictures!

H: Here's what I think you need to do. I think you need to pour yourself a glass of wine. Then set the timer for 1 hour -- you can just hang up if it's not going well -- and call Adobe.

I decided to take Heather's advice, but thought that I'd try to uninstall/reinstall Lightroom one more time before calling. And lo! It worked! So I finally got to process a few photos I took when my cutie pie nephew and niece visited last month.

Alex takes his tractor driving seriously:

Emma just hung around being adorable:

Ringing the train bell never gets old:

David and Caroline waiting for the train:

Elizabeth acting goofy:

Best attempt at a group shot:

Their visited extended into the week, so on Monday we sent the big kids to school and I had Alex and Emma allllllll to myself (Diane and Sal were there, of course, but I didn't have to share A&E with their cousins!)

8

Elizabeth and I woke up in the local science museum on her birthday; we'd been there as part of a Girl Scouts camp-in. We left a little after 7:00 and headed straight to Krispy Kreme.

Elizabeth said that she wanted to go rollerskating later in the day. She got rollerskates for Christmas and has become obsessed. We feel like we are living in a house with Tootie from the Facts of Life:

It's just Elizabeth's preferred means of getting around the house. We have to make her take them off to come to the dinner table, get in the bath, sleep. BUT . . . as we've pointed out to some of our other children who shall remain nameless and who tend to want to give up any new activity they try if they aren't automatically perfect at it . . . Elizabeth is a poster child for the power of consistent practice. She could barely inch around on them when she first laced them up on Christmas morning, and after wearing them around the house literally every day since then, she has gotten really good at it!

I took the girls skating over Christmas break while David and Jacob were camping with Cub Scouts, and we had so much fun! I decided that this was something really fun and active that we could do together regularly, so I went out and got skates for Jacob, Caroline and myself. I didn't get any for David, because somebody needs to sit with the bags. Haha -- just kidding. He has a bit of a track record of winding up with crutches and assorted other orthopedic equipment when he partakes in activities such as this (bad knees), so I decided that I'd let him make the call about whether he wanted to try it. So far, he's happy doling out the quarters when the kids need a break from skating.

I was actually a fairly proficient skater back in the day. I grew up rollerskating in late elementary school and middle school, and then in college I started rollerblading after reading somewhere that rollerblading improves your skiing (it totally does!) I didn't rollerblade (or ski) much after college. Then just last year, in the midst of major decluttering, I finally got rid of my rollerblades. I figured that if I hadn't used them in 19 years I probably was not going to use them (that's my own personal variation to the professional organizers' "6 month rule.") I stupidly did not think about the fact that I had kids about to hit prime rollerskating age. I swear, decluttering somehow always backfires on me. Oh well -- it's probably for the best. I'm sure rollerblade technology has come a long way in the past 20 years, and mine were so old that they were probably made of twigs and acorns foraged from the woods. In any event, the new wheels are pretty sweet!

One thing about going to the roller rink is that the experience of going to the roller rink has not changed AT ALL in the past 30 years. The video games are the same:

They played Thriller and When I Hear Music by Debbie Deb. I was one happy girl. I just pretended that the Kavu bag hung across my body was actually a Jordache purse and I swear it could have been 1983.

Oh! And the kids had fun too. I got Jacob rollerblades instead of rollerskates, and he is doing really great on them, even if he doesn't think he is.

I think Elizabeth had a great birthday. We did everything she wanted to do, and because she is Elizabeth, the things she wanted to do were really fun. We ended the day with cupcakes arranged in the shape of an "8":

Happy birthday to my sweet, fun, creative, tenderhearted, smart, beautiful Elizabeth!