Ghost Gallbladder

Today is 6 weeks post surgery. How do I feel? FANTASTIC. Energetic. A whole new person. And a little surprised that it was so easy.

I had a little back pain for a few weeks after surgery. I also had what I've now, affectionately, come to call my lack-of-gallbladder-feeling: ghost gallbladder pain. You know, when someone has something amputated, I've heard that they have a hard time convincing their brain that it's gone. Really gone. I think that was my brain and it's tramatic parting with my gallbladder. Every day, sometimes several times a day, I would have a burny-stretchy-knifey pain where my gallbladder used to be. I actually thought it was kind of neat. However, that ghost gallbladder has also taken leave of my body. I will miss you, my fair ghost- at least a little.

The hardest part about surgery was getting back on my diet. Which I didn't. Yet. Tomorrow, I expect that to change. I wanted to try a lot of different foods right after surgery so I would know if I had any adverse affects to talk to my surgeon about. (Yes, my surgeon. I now have a surgeon to call my very own.) I tried all the yummiest, fattiest, sinfulest foods I could imagine. And I had absolutely NO problems. However, 6 weeks later, I'm afraid I can no longer use the excuse "I need to see how this affects me without a gallbladder" excuse any longer.

SAD day.

I am, however, happy to report: I gained no weight while trying all those greasy, sinful, yummy meals/desserts/snacks/etc... Which leads me to wonder-was my gallbladder hoarding calories? Or is it just coincidance that I didn't gain.

I don't actually wonder. I know. But it sure would be nice if it could have been a "got rid of my gallbladder and now I'll never gain weight again" kind of miracle.

Only 10 more pounds to lose tho!

"No Gingin'!"

Lately, my hilarious little boy has been begging "no gingin'!" (NO SINGING!) anytime we so much as threaten to sing/hum/whistle or otherwise. It's kinda cute, and sometimes, I'll admit, I even do it to get him to say it. :) Today, however, I was trying to sing to Katelyn as I attempted to rock her to sleep. She looooves me to sing to her and will calm down immediately. So. Picture me, singing-in my not so lovely singing voice-to Kate. Kaden standing about 10 feet away "NO gingin'! NO GINGIN'!!!" and I was ignoring him. Finally, i looked up to see him almost in tears, "NO GINGIN'!" and plugging his ears! PLUGGING.HIS.EARS.

I had to stop singing.

Home Depot Broke My Wallet

Yes, you read right. Figuratively speaking, Home Depot broke my wallet. It was unkind to us today as we purchased many tools, supplies, and gadgets for the near future. We are still working on the wallpaper removal project. There are moments when I wonder what I've gotten myself into, and moments where I am just so, SO excited to finish. I has become almost monumental. We have now taken down all the trim around windows, doors, and floor, since the wallpaper was on, under, or otherwise hindered by it. Most of it is junk because between wallpaper and paint it would be more work than it's worth to try to clean up. Thankfully, I had already decided i wanted to put up crown molding, so when it became a must at least I wasn't irritated. The previous owners painted all over the ceilings (and by all over, I guess I don't really mean ALL OVER. but at least an inch into the ceiling..with lovely TEXTURED gray/tan paint.) The only other option would be to paint the ceiling which reaches over the stairs, into the living room, and beyond. I ♥ crown molding.

SINCE we have the trim off....I am *hesitantly* trying to convince Luke to go ahead and do the flooring as well. I would LOVE to have laminate wood-looking flooring in the kitchen and dining room. It would require pulling up carpet to certain point in the entry, and pulling up the kitchen linolium..which, SURPRISE, is also painted all over. (And by all over I DO mean all over. Its like they flung paint...)

I think I have decided that instead of repainting the parts behind my counters, I want to do beadboard. I {think}. I am still going to browse the world wide web for more inspiration. I decided to do something other than paint when I realized that both behind the fridge and my counters IS wallpaper after all. Not only that, but it's been impossible to get more than a millimeter of wallpaper off at a time. Also, the paint over the wallpaper is peeling terribly. I'm sorry, I don't want to face it. Let's cover it.

I am very excited though. I just can't wait to see the finished project. And even if it isn't perfect, it can't be worse, and I KNOW it will be better by a long shot If you haven't seen, here is the photo that inspired this whole project...Its the one I keep going back to -daily- to remind me how great it's going to be!!!!

Making My House Into My Home. (It's not as easy as it sounds!)

Today a friend helped me tear off wallpaper in our dining room. It was fun to do with someone else, but it was work. I'm finding that I'm (already) sore. I'm not sure if it's worse just that I'm sore, or that I was feeling it within an hour of being done.

We ran into some interesting problems...which, sadly, I knew we would. It seems as though whoever owned this house before us had to have purposely done everything wrong. There is no way you could accidentally do things SO horrible. First, wallpapering walls. REALLY, PEOPLE????? No offense...actually..yes, take offense...really? WALLPAPER?!?? Second, while wallpapering, not bothering to make it the same length as your wall, and then sticking it to both the ceiling and trim randomly as it's too long? SERIOUSLY! Third, taking off just enough wallpaper to fix part of the wall, then painting OVER wallpaper the rest of the wallpaper to hide the problem???? really, people? REALLY??? Fourth, using textured paint. TEXTURED!? to "hide" (which it did a very poor job of) your wallpaper missing, putty filled (and not sanded or made even)wall? Fifth, painting OVER the wallpaper onto both the trim and the ceiling further more looking terrible and making it even more difficult to get off. Sixth, rolling on the TEXTURED paint so fast that it splatters not ONLY on the baseboards and trim, but also the floors. COULD WE DO THIS JOB ANY WORSE?

I rest my case: one must TRY to do this terrible of a job.

and to fix it....I don't want to think about it anymore.

Anyway, all that to say, we've got the wallpaper of 2 of the 3 walls (granted, one wall is VERY small...but still...a wall), and the 3rd wall will be the doozy. Going around a window, patio door and back behind the fridge means there's much more trim that they *most likely* decided to seal more with paint.

I have no words.

Somewhat Stressed

I have people coming over for dinner tonight, my house is a disaster, I need to be ready to take wallpaper off my dining room by Thursday, heading to Rapid on the weekend and have people coming on Friday night. As well as, Bible study, softball, committee meeting, hair cut, and 3 shows to close.

Why does it seem that in the summer things take twice as long as they would have in the winter??? Or it is just the 2 kids versus 1. Or have days grown shorter? Or am I slower?

Also, I feel much more stressed in the summer when it's nice and sunny and beautiful. I'm much more relaxed in the winter when its grey and cold and drab. Does this say bad things about my personality? Or is it the grey and drab that causes one to feel the need to be cozy and stress free?

I think summer makes me think I am superwoman. It's always in the nicest part of summer that I get these crazy ideas to paint and rip down wallpaper and have bbq's and play softball and join Bible Studies, and get my hair cut and have company over a LOT more often....etc...

I know this is almost heresy, but I {almost} can't wait for winter. Then I can bake without waiting for a "cool" day, find solace in the fact that I didn't make it out of the house that day, and drink coffee without ice.

My conclusions: I AM busier in the summer, and therefore more stressed. However, I'm not TOO busy, it's just that when I'm busy I still take the time to play outside with Kaden, and that gives me a few less hours each day. In the winter, I could be the same amount of busy, but easily fore-go outside playtime and not feel so stressed. But I'm not giving up my outside time!

Developmental Screaming...errr..I mean, Screening

Today I took the kids in for a developmental screening since it was free and I had some questions about Kate. For Kaden they tested his eyes, ears, teeth, and general development (like vocab, physical abilities, etc...) He was so funny. First of all, every time we would walk past the front desk (about 12 times in all) he would point at it and say "HOT!!" and keep going. Also, whenever we would be heading to another area for more testing he would think he knew just where to go. Usually he was wrong, but he was at least very confident-ally wrong!

He HATED the hearing screening. Oooooh BOY! I've never heard him scream bloody murder like that before! Needless to say, his hearing screening got postponed til he's a little older and more mature.

He was ok with the eye check...they basically just took a picture of his eyes to send off to be checked. It was a very bright flash but since they did it first he was pretty cooperative!

For his teeth, he looooved brushing the freakishly large denture looking teeth with a large toothbrush. And insisting that it was hat. When it came time for brushing his own teeth he was pretty sure that lady should not be poking inside his mouth! I was afraid he was going to bite her. He didn't, but she didn't get to look at all his teeth either.

He loved the playing part of the testing. What could be better than the FULL attention of a stranger? He was a little goof for most of it. If she wanted to know what color things were, he would tell her what they were. ("shoes!" "Boy!"...) but as soon as she decided to give up on colors and ask what things were called he was more than happy to tell her what color they were. She asked him to jump and he had to put a block on the floor and jump OVER it. It just isn't jumping unless you jump OVER something, right? He was a little irritated that I was preoccupied with Katelyn's part (they did both at once) and would ignore the lady working with him to come over and get our attention.

Then he found the hoop. And not a ball. And it was the end of the world. Until we subsitituted the duck. Crisis averted, barely.

Also, he told the lady who played with him that she was cute.

Pretty much the ladies were in love with him. I don't blame them. They said he's above average on everything they tested him on, so the only thing I needed to work with him on was treating him like he's 2 and not older. It is hard to remember sometimes that he's only 2 and just because he talks and jumps like an older kid, he still understands his "world" like a 2 year old!

Kate just hung out with us for most of it, but she did get to get out and "play" in the play room. She passed all of her "tests" with flying colors. To pass, a 3 1/2 month old has to get 18 points. She got 38. I think she passed.

The reason I had taken them in was that I had a concern about Katelyn's development. I had noticed right around 2 1/2 months old that she pretty much never looked to her right. I had begun to hang toys on just the right side of her and help her sleep on her right side. I wondered if I was crazy or if it was something to worry about.

Today they verified that she has a mild version of Tortocollis. They could tell that she had been much worse, because of the way her head is shaped, but because I caught it so young, her head will go back to normal (I can't even tell it's mis-shaped if that tells you how little it is!) as long as I keep doing excersizes with her. Basically, tortocollis just means that the muscle on that side of her neck is tight and so it is needing to be stretched out. Once it is good and stretched out she will be able to turn her head easily both ways. They told me tummy time and a certain way of holding her are the best ways to help it. As well as putting toys on her right side and a stretching her shoulder. If it goes unchecked, the pressure of always having her head to the left can deform her head and be a problem. Since we caught it early it is no big deal! I was happy to know I was not crazy, and that it is such a common and treatable thing! They think it is due to how she was inside the womb, and that even then her muscle wasn't stretched out.

Who knew?

I highly recommend going to have your kids checked if you can do it in your community. It is a lot of fun to see how they do, and how smart they really are! I learned a lot of neat tricks of how to get Kaden to brush his teeth better, and things like that. Plus, who doesn't love to show off their kids!

All Things Sleep

*Every time I go into Kate's room there is a new toy in her crib. I didn't put it there, and I'm pretty sure Kate didn't either...just now, it was a block.

*Katelyn's new idea of sleep is the longer it can be avoided the better. Also, it is mom's job to HELP her avoid sleep. This includes things like helping her sit, bouncing and anything else that will keep her awake. If she starts to fall asleep she will scream...at me...as if it's MY fault.

*Kaden's favorite sleep position is his feet against the wall and his head against the rail. In his sleep, in this position, he likes to bang the wall with his foot. A lot. In the middle of the night. Loud enough to wake mom up.

*Kaden has also learned to avoid sleep. Scratch that, he's always avoided sleep. What I mean is that he's learned a new tactic to avoid sleep. This includes running around the island in the kitchen until he's so tired he falls down, then, when daddy tells him to come get his milk, he will walk EVER SO SLOWLY, while lifting his feet almost as high as his head, walking backwards, or other such (comical) weirdnesses. Sometimes it's hard not to laugh.

*Katelyn has decided that 4am is an appropriate time to remind us that she is, indeed, alive. VERY alive. Every night.

*Kaden has decided that he will just kick the wall in his sleep constantly throughout the night to remind that he, also, is alive.

Between those two I may never see a full night of undisturbed sleep again. I've known this a long time, I just keep wondering how many new ways 2 BABIES can come up with to do it.

Also. I have yet to figure out how they sleep through each other.