Lee's Words I Love

Lee is getting a lot of words right now.  Some are not fun (MINE! NO!), but some are very, very fun.  He doesn't say them right and the mispronunciation makes them all the more endearing to me. I'm not even going to try to spell out how he says them.  I'm just writing them to remember.
Nap time
belly button
please
Kara (Charlotte's friend)
Poop
Yuck
Suzie

What's for dinner?

Today I sat down and planned our food out.  It's printed out and currently hanging on our fridge.  Then I wrote a list and went to the store and purchased all that food.

All that took from 9:30 until 1:30. And also about $250. Gah!

But, it's worth it for the feeling I have when I look at a fully stocked fridge full of food that promises to be delicious.  As I was checking out the lady behind me noticed a box of pop tarts to the side of the register and asked, "These aren't yours are they?" To which I shrugged and said, "No." Then she said, "They didn't look like they belonged with the rest of the food you had there."

I thought that was funny because I'm not opposed to pop tarts every now and then.  I didn't want them today and whats more the part of the food that was left was all produce, baby lettuces, avocados, onions.  She didn't see the four boxes of mac n cheese (one of the few things I can count on Lee to actually eat) or the hot dogs (a favorite of Greg).

Often I wonder if I'm really feeding my children and my body the right things.  I hope I am.  I don't consider myself an extreme of healthy living or eating, but I'm certainly not buying boxed dinners every night.  I've never done a fad diet, but I've also never had frozen dinners nightly either.

And for me, for this family, for us maybe that's the key. Middle of the road.  Sometimes cookies are eaten instead of apples.  But so long as my kids know what asparagus, and turnips, and celery are I think I've done my part.

Now ask me that tonight when I have a young boy that throws my dinner on the ground instead of even trying one bite and you might get a different answer.

Dan

When I was young my parents bought me an electric mattress pad. I loved that thing. My room was in the daylight basement and that house was cold. Nobody else believed me, but I was cold I tell you. My mom thought it was funny that I would keep it on even in August. I'll tell you what though, last July when I was there for a visit I turned that thing on. 

I was thinking about that electric mattress pad last weekend when Dan was in Dallas. Then he came back and I realized he's better than one of those things. Just his body heat keeps the bed warm enough. And if it isn't I can scoot closer and be in his circle of warmth. 

He must know this because every day when he gets up at 4am he reaches down, pulls the comforter up and covers me so the warmth won't leave me. Now that's true love.

A not very flattering photo of us with Dan yet again asleep.

Opposite Day

Charlotte woke up this morning and declared today opposite day.  The problem here is that everyone else either A) Doesn't get it or B) Doesn't care.  It produced some funny and frustrating moments during our morning routine.  Here is one of them:

C: Lee, today is opposite day so we get to say that Greg is a girl.
G: NO I'M NOT!
C: Greg, it's opposite day so that means we call you a girl.
G: BUT I'M NOT
C: Girls are the second most complicated thing there is!  Right behind rockets. Don't you want to be the second most complicated thing?
Me: I think he just wants to be a boy because he is a boy.
G: NO! I want to be a cheetah.

After that followed a discussion of if he wants to be a cheetah then we need to call him whatever the opposite of cheetah is and what is the opposite of a cheetah anyway.

After I found out she would do whatever I asked her to so long as I played along with her opposite game this little gem happened:

Me: Charlotte the dishwasher doesn't need to be emptied so you don't have to do it now.
C: What? Oh! OK! She walks over and starts emptying the dishwasher.
C: Greg, the silverware isn't clean and doesn't need to be put away.
G: OK. Then he keeps playing with his cars because he still doesn't get it.

Dan's Gone

Having Daddy gone shouldn't be such a big deal anymore, but it is.  He had a very busy week this week wherein he saw the children once on Wednesday night then left for a training meeting Thursday and wont see them again until Monday.  I'm trying not to let it get to me because if it does the kids will let it get to them.

Every time the front door opens Lee runs to it so he can welcome Daddy home.  Then is very disappointed to find out it was just me taking out the garbage. He is also very funny and very frustrating and changing every single day.  He is totally communicating with me now, even though much of what is communicated is non-verbal.

Ice skating lessons started last night.  Charlotte was so proud to be moved up to the red group.  Probably I should figure out what that means exactly since I realized that after three seasons now I should consider getting a bit more involved.  Greg joined her last night and was so cute on his hockey skates.  He got off the ice and said he didn't like falling down, but he can't wait to try again next week.

Charlotte is having her first violin recital on Sunday.  She worked so hard and her teacher told her on Thursday that she will actually get to use the violin for the recital.  She was thrilled and I was thrilled.  We've been playing "pretend it's recital time" wherein she practices her twinkle variation while standing on top of the arts and crafts table.  Then we all clap and cheer wildly for her.  She even received a new dress for the occasion (thanks grandma).

This, this is what Daddy is missing.  Usually it doesn't get to me because I know my children know that their daddy loves them.  He loves them so much and they are precious to him and he finds ways of showing them that even though he misses these things. I just wish medicine didn't have to take over this particular weekend.

A Big Sigh of Relief

One trait of the women in my family is that they love trees.  I was practically raised by druid women.  The last time I counted my parent's 1/4ish acre lot my parents had planted 25 trees on it.  It looks beautiful.  Our yard boasts 7 trees 2 of which are evergreens.  That means 5 trees turning beautiful colors and dropping leaves.

I spent all of October holding my breath in dread over these 5 trees.  Or really over 3 of them.  You see one in the back yard got sick and then I think might have infected the other two.  Or, if you ask Dan, maybe not.  At any rate two of these trees are a total source of joy in my life.  They grow quickly and are beautiful in the summer. In the spring the tiny leaves are so funny to see growing on the branches making them look like fuzzy caterpillars. They also provide shade and privacy.  The problem is that they are not sturdy trees. They just aren't.  Each big storm we look out to see what branches tore off of them. So you can naturally see how I spent my October worrying over them. September was unusually warm.  Then it turned cold quickly so the leaves didn't really get a chance to turn colors and drop.  I was in constant fear that it would snow on those weak branches with leaves still on and our trees would be goners.

Worry no more my friends. Last night was a cold windy night and I woke up this morning to a blanket of gold covering our backyard.  Beautiful.  And now if it snows I'm less worried over the trees. Though if it snows on top of the leaves in the grass the lawn is a goner.  Well, win some lose some right?

My Favorite

So you know what my favorite holiday is? Thanksgiving. I like it so much we celebrate it every day for a month.  We do tons of stuff, some of it service oriented, some of it religious, some of it turkey hands and the like. We check out Thanksgiving books from the library and read them all month long. Usually this gets my creative juices flowing and I enjoy doing these things with my kids. I thinking spending so much time being grateful makes our whole family happier.

Somehow I have had a hard time getting into it this year. I took down all our Halloween decorations, but have nothing to put up for Thanksgiving.  I was thinking about skipping the thankful bowl entirely this year until last night when Charlotte asked about it.  I guess I'll have to put some more effort into my celebrations this year.

Anybody else have ideas that I could use?

Medicinal Thoughts on Medicine

I went to Utah last weekend for Grandma's funeral.  All I can say is that it was lovely and she had picked out her own pink casket.  All other thoughts and feelings haven't settled enough to articulate.

***Disclaimer***These are just thought's I've been having lately.  They have nothing to do with any actual cases my husband has had or things he has encountered.  I've actually requested that he tell me about work only in generalities because, not being a doctor, I think it's gross.


In the mean time, I thought I'd share some thoughts I'd had about medicine recently.  And no these thoughts have nothing to do with the delivery system of healthcare (Affordable Care Act).  Mostly I've been thinking about how mind blowing it is that people have surgeries at all.  Before I left it in the back seat of my grandparent's car (different set than above) I was reading the biography of the Mayo Brothers.  Interesting book.  I had only gotten through the part of Dr. WW Mayo (the father).  He lived during a bridge time where when he first started practicing medicine abdominal surgeries were unheard of and extremity surgeries were mostly just for amputations.  Then during his career lifetime he first read about then saw and then improved on the surgical technique of ovarectomy. Or however that is spelled. When he first did it the only reason was that the ovarian tumor was going to kill the lady anyway so she said to give it a shot.  She figured as most physicians did at the time that she would be dead.  She didn't die. Crazy huh? Then during the career lifetime of the Mayo brothers antiseptic measures were proposed that made surgeries much less prone to secondary infections.

Today people routinely go into surgery.  Take my husband for example.  (Or any generic orthopedist if you prefer.) People come to him who have problems that are debilitating, but 100% not life threatening.  Then they ask him to cut into their body dig some things out and sew them back up. My husband puts cement into people's bodies. Cement! (You know the body kind of cement.) In any other scenario but a surgical one a person sustaining that kind of injury would be dead. But not only do we expect these people to not die, we expect them to fully recover and to improve their lives. And this isn't supposed to be remarkable.

I can't imagine being the person who calls the shots in that scenario.  No back up, nobody to hold your hand, nothing.  Of course there are people in there to help and assist. Without those people I'm sure much of modern surgeries wouldn't be possible, but when the chips are down and a decision needs to be made that will effect the rest of someone else's life there has to be one person to make the call.  I am so glad it isn't me.  I could never go to a profession that has that much stress all the time.  Because bodies aren't the same.  And you can make mistakes. And even if you don't make mistakes sometimes people die anyway.  Or don't fully recover or the surgery you thought would be perfect for them didn't help them as much as you would have hoped.

Also, I'm glad that Dan is the kind of person who can handle that stress.  And also that he enjoys helping people.  He really truly does enjoy helping others. And it amazes me the knowledge and skills he has gained in order to help others these past 8 years.  I am blown away by what the medical profession can do.