Surgery and Sedation

Rock star in his new shades.

Mac had surgery today.  To be technical it was for Strabismus and Amblyopia.  In English, he had his lazy eye fixed... hopefully.  He had surgery on both eyes to make sure they would move in tandem.  We love the surgeon, Dr. Moody.  He brought Mac a super soft teddy bear, a shark 'cold' pack and a pair of sunglasses just before they took him back for surgery.   So, you know, it was similar to all our military doc surgeries.  Ehem.  We have many friends that are military doctors, but there is no way I am going to pretend that having surgery in a military hospital even comes close to having it elsewhere.  And today, Mac's operation was at a great pediatric surgery center.  Every staff member was kind and polite and great with the kids... they gave him a small stuffed monkey too.  He made out like a bandit!  The surgery went great.  Doc says he may develop 2 black eyes.  I say: if he does, we'll make up some amazing story as to how he got them :)

Right after surgery.  Asleep thanks to an extra sedative... no fisticuffs today. *see explanation below.

My sweet Mac is very passive aggressive.  So, passive aggressive that he usually wakes up from surgery screaming, kicking, biting, spitting and hitting.   I'm glad this surgery center actually listened to me when I told them that and decided to give Mac an extra sedative after surgery to keep him calm.  Worked like a charm.  Though this time he was quite weepy, like I usually am.  Ask Geoff about it sometime... I remember waking up and begging for my husband so pathetically that they finally brought him back to me.  Later he told me he could hear me crying and calling for him from out in the waiting room.  So sad.

Even though it's a bit sad and pulls at the heart strings, it is also quite humorous and adorable (NOT like me) when children are waking up from sedation--as long as they aren't trying to kill someone. Here are some of Mac most memorable comments after surgery today--all said while he was slightly weeping and/or whimpering:

*upon first waking "My eyes were casted."--really they were just patched for a little bit--which was closely followed up by, "I can't see, mom.  How'm I gonna get to the car?"

*a few minutes later, he awakes from a snore. whimpers."I can't open my eyes. When will I be able to see my beautiful mother's face?"*yes, moms heart squeezes at that... he thinks I'm beautiful :)

He was also very concerned that he wouldn't be able to actually see Geoff whenever he gets home.  See what I mean about the blind thing?  The poor kid thought his eyes were permanently damaged.  Anesthetic is an evil necessity.  I sure don't want to have surgery while awake... I guess I have technically, since I've had 2 c-sections.. but I digress.  I just really, really don't like what the anesthetics do to me and my kids.  Worst. feeling. ever.

Big hug for mom when he could finally open his eyes enough to see me.  I think he thought he was literally going to be blind for the rest of his life.  It was so sad, can't imagine what that would feel like to wake up thinking you are blind.  Glad to know he'd miss seeing me.

*again later after more sleeping and snoring and whimpering
"But mom, my eyes are all blurry. How am I supposed to do my chores and stuff?"
**such a great kid! he thinks mom is beautiful and he's worried about doing his chores while laying in his recovery bed! he must have been seriously drugged :)

Updating our many adventures in 2010, so far :)

I was going to start with, "It's been a long time since I've written on here" and then had a bad flash back to writing in my diary when I was 10. So, we'll skip that intro.

So far 2010 is proving to be a most memorable, busy and altering year we've had in some time.

Just after Christmas break, the kids and I got to go home to Indiana for my grandmother's 80th birthday. It was a great, though short, trip.

Grandma Waters, Daeglan, Mac and Uncle Morgan

The trip started on Wednesday, or it was supposed to, when we got up at 3 am to get to the terminal on base and hopefully catch a military hop to Kansas where I had a friend waiting for us. We were turned away, the flight had been rescheduled, please come back at 7:30. We came back, waited for nearly 2 hours and then were told the flight was full. I'm not gonna lie, I walked out of the air terminal in tears. I had to go home and call my dear friend, Traci, I wasn't coming to Kansas.

The next day we tried again and were successful. It took nearly all day for check in and then

sitting and waiting for them to ready the plane, but eventually, we boarded a C17 (click here for a look at the C17) and were on our way to Delaware. Yes. I said Delaware. The flight was.... an experience. C17's are cargo planes and this one was loaded with jet engines, 2 huge jet engines. See?

We sat in jump seats that folded down from the sides of the plane. We enjoyed our in flight meal of ham sandwiches, snickers and pop. We drank lots of bottled water. We broke the toilet.... seriously, my kids broke the toilet. Ever fly on an overseas flight with a broken toilet?

Good thing the crew was so nice. The pilot took the kids up the cockpit and let them fly the plane. It was a great treat for all of us, especially for me since he keep them entertained for a whole half hour. Here's a picture of the boys lounging on the floor of the plane, another great benefit of fly military flights :)

After nine hours of flying and spending the final two hours calming my sensory overloaded child from the noise of the plane (cargo planes are very loud), we finally landed. We got a taxi to the hotel. All was good. Until we found out that our hotel room was actually about 2 blocks from where we had checked in.... and I had already sent the taxi away. So we loaded our luggage on the bell hop trolley and walked in the dark to our room. My kids cried the whole way.

"Daddy should be here, he'd protect us." "Mom, you should have never made us come." "Someone is going to jump out from those bushes and kidnap me." Finally, we made it to our room!

The rest of our trip, actually followed this crazy, unpredictable pattern. The rental car company charged me $800 for my $150 car rental, making it so that I couldn't use my card to get gas when we stopped two hours after taking off for Indiana. Driving on the right side of the road kepy me on edge all day and I did, in fact, turn into the wrong lane (only once!) when getting off the highway for dinner... it was dark, leave me alone. Our time in Indiana was too short, but we got to see all the grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and cousins we'd been longing to see.

On Monday, we left Indiana for Texas with Mackenzie and Emma. The drive was long, but actually went well... oh wait, I was sick and throwing up for some of it... well, it went mostly well. While in Dallas, we got to go to the Dallas Aquarium, a Butterfly house, Chuck E Cheese, Applebee's and Old Navy! It was a great American fix.

The cousins, minus Sophie Jane, at the Dallas Aquarium

Leaving was bitter sweet; the kids and I were more than ready to be home and with Geoff, but it was hard to say goodbye to family and our dear America. We took a rental car up to Kansas and got on the first flight we tried this time, thank goodness. This time we were on a KC135, a refueler. (click here for a look at the KC135)

This flight was... even more interesting. We broke the toilet, again. Yes, we did. This time before take off. It took them 3 hours to fix, during which we sat patiently on the plane. The kids stayed awake the whole flight, finally giving it up at hour 9. Unlike the flight on the C17, there was no room to stretch or lay out, so it was a bit trickier keeping them happy. And, believe it or not, this plane was louder. Good thing I had gone to Walmart and bought Brody a nice set of hunter earmuffs to block out the noise. The boys got to go into the belly of the plane and see all the refueling equipment... again a nice treat, keeping my kids entertained for a half hour. Air Force flight crews, you rock. So we were finally all asleep and someone wakes me to tell me we are emergency landing in Ireland. Ireland? Yes, our navigation system went out hours ago and we are flying with a hand compass!!! Thanks for not telling me hours ago. YIKES. We landed fine. But since most of the flight was U.S. military flying on military orders, next to no one had passports. Me and the kids had ours, but not one other person did. We sat on the plane, on the tarmac for 4 hours while the U.S. and Irish governments decided what to do with us. After 18 hours of being on the plane--which of course, by that point we had eaten all our food hours ago and were thus starving--we finally descended the steps and got straight on a bus. They took us to a nice hotel, that I paid $240 to stay in. We ordered room service for the first time and slept all day, 13 hours solid.

Our room in Ireland

Our Irish room service. Yes, those are elf-sized bottles of 7up. Not Tolken elves, Santa elves.

We made it home, and in one piece the next morning and ran into daddy's arms. And I am tired now just remembering this trip. I'm not sure we'll do it again.

More adventure updates to come :)

What kids will do...

...To each OTHER!!!

This is what happens when I am busy cleaning one room and think the kids are finally getting along and playing so good together; appreciating the quiet!  HA!  All I can say is, thank goodness for washable markers.

Christmastime is Here!

It was Christmas Program/Play day at school today and it was so fun.  I have to give props to the teachers and staff at the Little Norman School and the Norman Primary School for all the effort and work they put into the programs.  It was fantastic to have school programs that were focused on the true meaning and principles behind Christmas.

First, I got to enjoy Emeryss's program with no distractions.  It was so cute.  It was the Nativity Story and the kids were so cute.  Emeryss was an angel and so pretty (thanks to my mom for making her angel dress!).  I didn't have a halo for her, but she was a perfect with her pink headband and pink, feathery wings!

                

Next it was Mac and Daeglan's class play that was also about the Nativity.  All the songs were set to nursery rhyme tunes.  Mac and Daeg were shepherds and since their teacher had them take off their shoes, socks and pants to make their costumes more realistic, and boys do not know how to sit in a dress... it was interesting.  The world (or at least everyone at the Great Hall of the Norman School) got to see Daeglan's spiderman underwear...  his baggy spiderman underwear!  Neither boy could sit still, nor did they sing much, but their costumes were a hit and they made the crowd laugh a time or two by shooting their fingers at the three Wise Men, wrestling with each other and singing opera style when they did sing!  I love my boys!!!

Brody's program was the last on the docket today.  His class did a musical play all about believing in the magic of Christmas.  It was partially written by the class and everyone did a great job.  I don't have any pictures of his program because I used up all my memory stick on videos (that reminds me... I need a larger memory stick).  But here is a clip of his part in the play.  You can hear Brody's voice over the others and pick out his false British accent (I don't think he did it on purpose, he just sang the songs as he learned them, which happened to be with British pronunciations).  And if you pay attention you can tell that he still mispronounces the word remember!  It's too cute.

All in all, it was a great day!  Fun was had by all and the plumber finally showed up and fixed my leaking pipes (which I assure you was very exciting as it's been a long time in coming).  After dinner I took the kids out for some well deserved ice cream for working so hard and doing so well on their programs.  (Well, maybe Mac and Daeglan didn't exactly deserve it for their great effort, but their performances did entertain so...)

Merry Christmas!

This is Halloween...

This is Halloween... Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.....

Well, one holiday down.  Only finals, a move, a school change, Thanksgiving, G's deployment and Christmas to go...  oh yeah, and New Year's.  Not to mention Guy Fox day and Boxing Day!  No sweat, right?

I told you about the window decor we put up for Halloween this year and here it is....

*I'm not sure who added the hearts up there.*

This year I broke down and bought the $3 carving kits for the pumpkins.  We had a fun FHE carving pumpkins.  With two kids with severe gag reflexes it was... hilarious.  Brody and Emeryss both started gagging as soon as the first top was off.  The smell alone was enough to get them going, but then to see the gooey, oozy, stringy guts of the pumpkins being torn out...  Well, for those of you who know Brody, you know what I mean and yes, Emeryss is almost as bad.  Oh, so much fun!  And as you can imagine, G and I did most of the work.

      Geoff hard at work.

Daeglan's Spider-Pumpkin          Brody's creation--Red Serpent of Death... I don't know ask him.

Emeryss's Happy Princess Pumpkin     

     Mac's call to Batman!

And my ode to Bella and Edward!      

I know... it's a sad obsession.

And what Halloween would be complete without costumes?  

   The kids in all their glory.  Hulk Mac, Pirate Daeglan, Faerie Princess Emeryss and Dino/Godzilla Brody.

Here are some of the cutest pix of the night.  Wish I had more, but it was crazy hectic doing Trunk or Treat/dinner at the church and house-to-house Trick or Treating around base housing all without daddy.  You'd think I'd have the hang of things by now, but an extra set of hands can go a long way with four little monsters!

       

The Joys of the Season

We've really enjoyed this last week (minus daddy being away).  It's finally truly Fall, my personal favorite season.  This week we made a Halloween scene for our front window (something Nana always does and we decided to make it a tradition for us too).  The other day we journeyed around the village on the walking path collecting fallen autumn leaves.  Also, we've been going through all our costumes deciding what to be (so great that they want to use costumes we already have!) 

                 

Here's Emeryss in her Fairy Princess costume I found at the thrift store for a grand total of $2.00.  This picture was just too cute not to post it!

And today we got to go to the Pumpkin Patch.  It was an experience!  The kids loved tromping through the fields and looking at all the pumpkins.  There was a maize maze that we went through; we weren't aware that a haunted shack was in the middle that we had to go through to get out, but the kids did well considering it was their first time through a haunted anything.  There was some crying and laughing (I'm a bad mother, I laugh when my kids cry).  

We also got to see a magic show and get balloon animals and eat fresh, hot homemade donuts!

                                                      

*in case you can't tell from the pictures, Brody got a skeleton, Daeglan got a spider and Mac got a bat.  Emeryss decided she didn't want an ugly balloon.

And of course, the kids all got to pick a pumpkin.  We already had some bigger ones at home so they each got to pick a small one.

It was just fun to be out and enjoy the weather and this beautiful country we're living in.  Do you ever just have a joyful day?  Today was mine.  It was great to just enjoy my children, God's beautiful world and anticipating my love coming home.  I hope that each of you can find joy in your everyday living.  Life truly is so much better when you can appreciate the little joys the surround you.

The Name of the Game...

... is 6th folder, 6th frame.

Go to your 6th folder and then choose the 6th frame/photo.

Here's mine:

Marrott's o' plenty

Daeglan, Seth, Ada, Cannon, Brody, Genevieve, Camilla, Ondine, Emma, MacEwen, Gabrielle, Marguerite, Emeryss

Tag, you're it:  Melissa

While the Cat's Away...

The mice will play!

Our first day with Daddy gone and this is what I found my little mice doing.

         

          

All Hale Queen Ryssie!

So there was a little shop there at the Castle (of course) and we decided to let the kids all pick something.  Boys will be boys... they all chose swords, really cool hand carved swords.  And girls will be girls... Emeryss chose a princess hat.  This is what happened...

With no prompt to do so, I assure you, the boys kneel at Queen Emeryss's feet simultaneously and Brody says, "My Queen, what is our mission to fulfill for you today?"

Emeryss says, "Go and slay the Dragon."

And of course, they did.

Feeling The LOVE!

What more can I say?  Except maybe where this is... An ancient tree at Castle Rising.  My ancient I mean, the stone below it said it was planted in 1662... we think, it was hard to read, it too was ancient... the original dedicative stone for the tree...  Crazy cool history.   Really, how cool is it that we live in ENGLAND!

In order of appearance:  Back to front:  Daeglan, MacEwen, Broderick, Emeryss

Havin' Fun!

So after working hard to clean the house, I decided the kids needed some good old fashion fun.  We pumped up the volume and danced the night away.  It was so much fun.  Here are some clips of the kids lettin' it loose and rockin' out.  I have to say, Brody's got rhythm, he takes after his mama:)