Wednesday Rambles

Rainy Wednesday...

Jack got home last night from DC.  Scott picked him up at the airport at 4:30 and they were home by 8:30.  Some VERY happy brothers to be reunited....and grateful parents for Jack's protection while he was away.

This morning I had the blessing of a friend stopping by with breakfast for Max and me.  Stopped in to check on us...sweet.  She has 3 girls the same exact ages as our 3 older boys.  HUGE Nebraska fans!  Fun to have her come by.

I then proceeded to fold 4 loads of laundry...the poor dryer can only be turned back on so many days to fluff and be ignored.   Had all been dry and in dryers since Sunday I think.  Oops... It was time to bite the bullet and start folding.  Still have 2 more to go....maybe I can talk Scott into doing those later tonight.

 I am sitting down still trying to get some medical stuff organized...seriously these insurance and flex spending people like to make it interesting don't they?  Blogging seemed like more fun.

I just played taxi driver for the past 2 hours for haircuts.  NOT kidding.  The way our boys schedules are I have to take them over lunch to get haircuts.  With sports every day after school Tommy and Drew have no other options....Saturdays are full of golf matches, track meets and baseball tournaments. So it started with picking up Drew at 12:10  at school over his lunch...dropping he and Max off for haircuts while I ran to pick up lunch for Drew and Max and go back to get Tommy.  While I was away Emina, our stellar hair lady...worked on Max then Drew....by the time I arrived back with Tommy AND with Drew's lunch he was just done...I dropped Tommy for his haircut and took Max with and Drew back to school.  I then turned around and went back to pick up Tommy...he grabbed lunch next door to hair place at Panchero's...and I ate with him and Max picked at the chips since he had already had lunch.  Took Tommy back to school since his lunch was over....drove home to get Jack who had just walked in the door from his Early Out at school...and ran him over to get his haircut at 2.  NOT joking...this is a well oiled and choreographed machine JUST to get their hair cut.  CRAZY life isn't it?  I really can't make this stuff up.

We have been blessed by meals from friends ever since surgery....waiting on a dear friend to drop off tonights.  It's a real treat and blessing to not have this on my list of things to do.  I am feeling SO much better this week.  Really feel like I have turned the corner and am going at about 85-90% which is nice.  Can't wait to be on the other side of this surgery.  Cannot imagine.

I love this rain we are getting...it is almost as if you can watch the grass turning green.  I love it.  Saw geraniums out the other day...a little early for those with these chilly nights but I cannot wait.  I love the change of seasons.

Bills, laundry, groceries...they don't go away and other Monday Rambles...

Well I had a nice "getaway" from the realities of life.  I have been mainly off laundry duty, groceries, bills...for the past 2 weeks.  Sigh...didn't miss most of those things.  It is time to get back.  I have spent the morning getting bills organized, medical stuff figured out...flex spending for Monsanto organized...sigh.  So much with 6 of us.  The laundry is going...Max has officially trashed the main floor today with toys everywhere.  Where does he keep finding them?  They may disappear for a LONG time after today.

Jack is still in Washington DC with my parents, and we are missing him a lot here.  It is amazing how much quieter it is around here without him, and I mean that in a sweet way.  Max misses him MOST of all...he talks about him NON stop.  Not kidding.  Those two are BONDED.  Drew misses him a lot as well.  And I am sure Tommy does in his own way.  :)  Sometimes Tommy and Jack need a break from each other.

I am feeling better the past two days.  Trying to wean myself off of 3 hour daily naps. Trying to do ONE big thing a day, which basically means ONE baseball game, one trip to the store...just ONE outing a day.  That seems to help.  I have only been driving for 4 days.  It's hard not to race out and do everything on my list.   That's not so easy.  I think after this week I will be good to go.  That is my hope and prayer at least.
 
Once again I am so grateful for Scott helping do all the stuff he normally does PLUS all the stuff I normally do.  So grateful for friends who have been providing meals for 2 weeks and continue this week and have filled my freezer for another week at least after that.  SO blessed to be so loved.

Off to shower...haven't been doing much of that lately.  Then to tackle this mess Max made while I worked. 

Post Hysterectomy Humor

A few of my friends were blessed with gift bags of goodies from me....

Feeling better every day, and I think my sense of humor may be coming back which is a good sign

Taking the 2 bigs to see the DMCS musical tonight.  Excited to see it.

Survived our first night with Scott out of town last night, back to STL he went and we made it.  He has been the BEST and I mean THEE BEST nurse ever.  One of the things I have ALWAYS loved most about him is his protective nature.  I LOVE that he is protective of me.  It is one of the things that makes me feel most loved by him.  He has genuine concern for me and always my health.  He "gets" that if there were no "US" there would be no littles around here...and he also "gets" that it may be a LONG time from now but there will be a day when it's just "US" again and he makes an effort to keep our marriage special and our friendship real...it makes for a beautiful relationship.  And he makes me laugh, many many times a day.  He is the best...and I adore him.  He and I recently got "Twitter" accounts so we could keep up with Tommy and the "times" and his first hashtag was for me and it was sweet and it was romantic...I will end with this...

#theonlyoneforme

love that man!

Letters to his daughter

So my Dad has always written me letters....this was one I got from him last week that I wanted to have documented in this blog.  I was having a sad day recovering from this surgery...feeling like I had failed one of our sons lately with my impatience...frustrated with not being able to do much other than lay around...

here is what he sent to me...

I know I am blessed...and I am beyond grateful for my Dad.

Dear, Dear Susan,

You need once again to hear, you are a wonderful Mother.  You have provided so much love and care for your boys and have been and are an outstanding example of what a Mother should be.

I have had the blessing of having an outstanding Mother in the person of your Grandma T, and have been privileged to see up close another outstanding Grandma-namely your Grandma Lu, and I have lived up close with and shared 50 years with another absolutely outstanding Mother in the person of your own Mom.  

You are from this same lineage of wonderful, outstanding Moms, and please know that what you learned from these Master Grandmothers is that same love, care and nurturing that you have been and are providing each and every moment of every day.  You, too, are an absolutely wonderful Mom.

I am so proud of you and all you do...such a wonderful, loving , important and caring job you are doing!

Remember I love you and Mom loves you and God loves you, too.

Xoxo

Dad

Buckeye Blood

Scott sent this to me....

I picked Drew up at school after he finished taking his Iowa Basic Skills Tests.  I asked how did they go?  Drew said fine.  He went on to say that they were pretty boring.   Then he said Dad I figured out why the test are so boring.  I asked why?  He said I noticed on the bottom of the last page the test were written at the University of Iowa.   He said that explains a lot Dad.

This kid is a Buckeye fan to the core.

Things that make me smile

 So funny today....

My sweet friend Makila made one of these for her house and I begged, 

asked her to make one for us too.  

Growing Up

Sigh....get me more kleenex

How does this happen?

Tommy drove to school this morning.  Yes, he has his school permit, and a truck, and he was off....  Scott followed him there more for our peace of mind than anything.  How is it they grow up so fast?  How is it that our Ordinary days of playing with play doh, napping, baking cookies...watching Franklin have gone and now we are busy with school, golf, basketball, baseball...truly a BLINK and here we are.  As much as my heart wants to soak it ALL in, every single day....one day has led to the next, and the next...and here we are.  Oh how I want many "Do-Over-Days" with Tommy, with each of the boys.  Oh how I pray for him, for his heart, for his relationships.  Oh how we pour our love and energy into our children.  Oh how I lay awake at night replaying conversations, good and the bad.  Oh how my heart desires for him to love God, to follow God...to have a soft heart.  I pray for him to be bold, and brave, to be a man of integrity.  Oh how often I mess up.  Thankful for grace.  So thankful.  

Don't blink....

Feeling blessed

Well it feels like forever since I sat down to write on the blog, the last post I had written a week ago and just had it set to post.  It is a quiet morning here, boys are all at baseball of one kind or another.  Which leaves me here, in the quiet humm of laundry and the dishwasher.

Be forewarned the rambling begins...

Let me back up a week or so ago...

On Tuesday I got a phone call from my Mom stating that they indeed would now be here for my surgery.  The original plan was that my college friends Lisa and Niki were coming on Wednesday night for our annual hang out time with ALL of our kids...and then Thursday Niki would take the kids back to Minneapolis with her to my parents.  Saving them a trip down.  Well...my Dad didn't like that option as the time got closer.  You see once you are a Daddy's girl I guess you always are.  As much as I told Mom we had it logistically figured out and that I would be fine with Scott....he insisted.  So I am grateful for the grace and understanding of Lisa and Niki to allow me to cancel their visit so Mom and Dad could be here.  And MAN OH MAN I was glad they were here, don't think I had factored in how much I would want or need them here.

Thursday morning came, we had to be at the hospital by 5 am.  Scott and I left, spoke with a police officer about 1 mile into the trip to the hospital...oops stop sign.  He was kind and let us go.  I got all settled in and my parents got down there around 6.  We had friends covering all of the other boys at home...thanks VanSoelans, Wubbens, Milligans and Fishes.  It takes a village people.

My regular OB Dr. Hoegh was going to be there to assist his partner Dr. Whitney Brink.  If you are looking for an OB I HIGHLY recommend this group...no one cares more for their patients.  I am convinced of that more than ever.  Dr. Brink came into the OR as I had just gotten on the table.  I was crying, shocking I know...and she came over and held my hand, and wiped my tears and told me it was going to be okay over and over...I fell asleep to that.  I have had several surgeries in my life and NEVER has the Dr been the one to do that....it's always the nurse.  THAT alone says SO much about her.  SO much...

When I woke up, I was asking for my "Love" in the recovery room....of course that nurse had no idea that was Scott....and I couldn't come up with the words to explain who or what my Love was...think she thinks I was crazy.  that's about all I remember from there...then onto the regular room and according to scott all I kept saying was "Where is my Mom?  Where is my Mom? Where is my Mom?: and a random Where is my Dad every once in awhile.  I wasn't asking for him....which I tell him now is because I just KNEW he was there. But he is a bit sensitive about that.  SO thank GOODNESS my parents both were there....

Surgery went great, it was way easier than they had expected.  40 minutes shorter than they expected...all wonderful news.

Boys came that night in shifts.  First the little 2 came after school and visited.  Then the older 2 after dinner with my Dad and watched part of the Buckeye game with me...spilled a full glass of ice on me, had to change my gown, part of my sheets and don't think any of them hardly noticed they were all standing watching the TV.  I have low blood pressure....and they should have been checking theirs as I guarantee you theirs was HIGH as we played ISU.

They all went home to bed...I fell asleep soon after.  I was woken up at midnight with blood pressures...and mine were dramatically too low.  70/33  So then they brought in other nurses and a dr and everyone made me get up and walk to the bathroom and back more times than I would have preferred.  They stopped all orders for the IV Pain meds and morphine....bummer huh?  And after about an hour or so back and forth of this it went up to 80 something and they let me go back to bed.  Not without coming in every hour to check ALL NIGHT long.  See I should have let that close Buckeye game get to me more.

Friday morning the Dr came in and told me if I did a few things on her list of to do's I could leave....that's all I needed to hear.   I am NOT a hospital fan.  So I did my laps, ate my food, sat in a chair, proved I could do it all.  And around 1 I was released....Mom and Dad had taken big 3 boys to MN and we had Max home with us.  Thanks Ruth for keeping Max on Friday.

The weekend was not much of an Easter weekend for us...home and in bed most of the time.  I can summarize the last week as a lot of that....home, bed, couch, eat, nap, bed, home....

Big boys went to Benson to see my Grandma for Easter.  We watched Easter on the I-pad with a local church service....Bedside Baptist we were.  Our Easter meal was a donut and Starbucks.  And leftovers from food friends had brought.....

Monday we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary...pretty simple celebration. :)  But a great reminder to me that we are in this together, forever, in sickness and in health.  This happened to be a little bit of the "in sickness" part this year.

We have been SO blessed by meals and help from friends.  So blessed.  My Mom was here Monday-Thursday and she helped with driving, laundry, Max, keeping things picked up...SO helpful.  She listened to my tears on Wednesday when I didn't have such a great day....I don't sit well.  I don't like that I can't drive yet...and my nurse here is being VERY strict with me.

Last night we ventured out for the DMCS Benefit.  We only went for part of it, but it was nice to be out.  I can feel it today and am a bit tired.  But mostly I feel better each and every day.  I give it another week and then I am hopefully going to be ready to go.

Baseball is in high gear, Tommy made the Varsity golf team, we bought the boys their first car/truck.  Lots of milestones it seems...

Thanks for your prayers...sorry for the rambling.  You may not have even stuck with this note......
Some pics from my phone for you...if you are still here....

Still waking up from surgery...Scott was out finding me the perfect crushed ice,,,and I was holding my Dad's hand...under that pile of warm blankets I guess.  Mom took this.

 After school Max and Jack came to visit....Max slept the whole time but it was still the best medicine for me and my heart

 Drew climbed in bed with me to watch the game...

 The game was close here, Drew pacing, me holding my Dad's reassuring hand

 Max spent the day with my friend Erin and her kiddos...evidently he felt quite at home there and took his shirt off the minute he walked through their door.  He played with Zoe a lot and helped with baby Cameron too....thanks ERIN for watching him ALL day.

 Off to MOA with Grandma on Friday...she spoils them.  Lego store for Jack

MOA Nike store...Tommy sent this...OSU basketball uniform.

 My TV show buddy in bed with me

 DQ in Edina for the boys...'

 Facetime with Jack...Max showing him his new tricks.

 My sweet friend Carol sent me this care package from CO, so kind and thoughtful.  It arrived the day I got home from the hospital

 On the way to see their Great Grandma in Benson for Easter....

 Lots of snuggle and TV time with this little guy

 My Mom seriously makes the best JELLO ever...

All set for the Easter Egg hunt...in the snow on the farm.

 In Benson with my Grandma Lu, their Great Grandma...so blessed

 Waking up from one of our many naps...

 On the farm in Benson with cousins, and more cousins

 Family room fun....

 My nurse taking a well deserved nap

 Happy Easter

 Easter morning baseball

 Easter morning in Benson

 My personal Dr giving me a check up

 Mom sent this...think he is tired?

 How my parents must be feeling...

 Mom, Grandma and my dear Aunt Sandy

Max could NOT have been more excited to have his "Jackie" home...pure joy

 That was then April 1, 1995...

 ...this is now April 1, 2013

 Lego building with Grandma

 Coloring with Grandma

 My Love brought home these beautiful tulips the other day....our house has so many beautiful flowers in it right now, I love it.

 A special baby visitor came yesterday...made my day to get to snuggle him

Thanks for all of your prayers and sweet words, meals and love for my family.  I am feeling so very blessed.

Bridesmaid-of-Honor

As our 18th Wedding anniversary is today and I wanted to share one of my favorite all time stories on our blog....it is about my cousin Annette.

Annette is a year older than I am and the daughter of my dear Aunt Sandy and Uncle Dean.  Annette has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  As little girls we played Miss America, Miss Universe we shared baths at Grandma's house, we laughed and laughed and laughed.  I cannot tell you at what age I learned, or realized that Annette had some special needs.  It was just a part of Annette and she was who she was and we all just adored her.  She was honest, and sensitive, and funny, very funny. But at some age I realized it....and she is the reason I wanted to major in Special Education.  Because I adored Annette, and I thought people with special needs were terrific.  It was so natural for me to be drawn to that area in college.  

One thing you need to know about Annette is that she is honest and I mean brutally honest.  It's what we love most about her.  She is never afraid to tell you her opinion and she doesn't really care if you agree with it or not.  It has been entertaining to grow up with.  

When we played Miss America as kids we BOTH always won, she liked it that way.  When I started dating Scott and she met him for the first time, she looked right at me and said "Dump him, he's too old"...yep right in front of Scott.  And I cannot remember his comment back but it was witty and quick and I think it made her adore him even more.  I could tell she loved him, despite her comment.  He could keep up with her humor and they would almost spur one another on.  

So....fast forward to the fall of 1994.   Annette and I had pizza together on a Thursday night, while unknown to me Scott had taken my parents out to dinner to ask their permission to marry me.   Scott and I were engaged the next day of Friday and by Sunday my Mom had whipped up an Engagement Party for us at home.  Annette was there.  She was excited and thrilled and told me she would be getting engaged soon too, she has been engaged several times. :).  But the best thing happened when all of the guests had left...we were sitting at the kitchen table.  Annette across from me and Scott next to me...here was our conversation. (granted we had been engaged 36 hours at this point) I still remember it almost word for word...

Annette : "So what's the deal, am I in the wedding or not?"

Me: "Sure what do you want to do?"

Annette:  "What are the things to do in a wedding?"

Me:  "Well you could be a bridesmaid"

Annette: "What do they do?"

Me: "They basically stand up front and look pretty next to me"

Annette: "well that sounds boring,  What else is there?"

Me:  "well you could do the guestbook? Or hand out programs."

Annette:  "I don't think that would be fun, I would have to talk to a bunch of strangers.  No"

Me:  "Well you could stand at the table with placecards at the reception"

Annette:  "I don't want to do that because I want to sit with my Mom and eat."

Me:  "Well what would YOU like to do?"

Annette:  " This is what I would like.  I want to dress up like a bridesmaid with the dress and shoes and everything and look pretty.  I want Scott to walk me down the aisle but I don't want to stand up front I want to sit with my Mom.  Can I do all of that?"

Me:  "Sure, you can do all of that and we will call you our Bridesmaid of Honor"

...and that is just what we did.  She looked beautiful on April 1, 1995.  Scott proudly walked her down the aisle before our Mom's were seated.  And he seated her with her parents.  She had a bouquet and everything.  Looked just like the bridesmaids but didn't have to stand up front with all of them, that's BORING.  In the video from our wedding you can see her tell her Dad "I feel pretty" as she is seated.  It is honestly one of the BEST parts of our wedding for me.  

It was an easy decision for me, and I didn't even have to look to Scott to see what his opinion would be I just knew.  She did JUST what she wanted to do.   It's is one of our most treasured memories of that day.  

 Too tired to figure out how to turn the picture...but THIS was taken the night Scott had my parents out to dinner to ask them if he could marry me.  We ate dominos and chips at home.

At one of my bridal showers...

Snapped this out of our wedding album...Annette on the far right.