Birthdays and Other News

Boy, did we have a crazy weekend.

On Sunday, the dog got out of the yard, and I ended up having to chase him like the marathon runner I am NOT.  That crafty dog kept looking over his shoulder to make sure I was still behind him.  I think Aspen was having the time of his life, and thought he had invented a grand game for us to play!  He is lucky that I love him, and that I have been running on the treadmill, or there is no way I would have kept up with him.  Luckily for me, he got distracted by a pile of dog "doodoo" that he needed to sniff, or I don't know what I would have done. 

This all happened as we were supposed to be leaving for my nephew Colin's birthday party.  We were late to the party, and had only been there for about an hour when disaster struck again.  Sammy and the other cousins had already finished eating, so they went into the basement to play.  Somehow, Sammy tripped, fell, and face planted right on top of a toy box.  He took a chunk out of his cheek, and we had to take him to the emergency room.  He needed 7 stitches on the top layer, and some underneath.  I have never seen so much blood!  He also severely bit the inside of his cheek, so eating has been a challenge today.  I don't know if you can tell in the picture below, but his cheek is so swollen it looks like he has an apple stuffed in his mouth.

My poor Sammy bear!  He was impressed he got to watch Toy Story at the hospital, and he was so, SO brave.  He didn't make a peep while they were stitching him up, and he held so still.  I am so proud of him!

And today?  Today is my Charlie's birthday.  It was 5 years ago that this 10 pound, 23 1/2 inch bundle of joy was placed in my arms:

 And here is me, shortly before I was ready to push Charlie into the world.  I love how Charlie and I were both so surrounded by love and family and friends that day.  My parents were both in the room to see each of my children enter the world, and I am so thankful.

I love that my Dad is holding my hand in this picture.  I love that I had the most important men in my life holding my hands as I met my new little man for the first time.

Sometimes I miss Daddy so much it steals my breath away.  Today is one of those days.

I am thankful that God has given me Charlie, and that he is 5 today.  He is so spirited, and creative, and amazingly smart.  Sometimes it steals my breath away that I am lucky enough to be his mom.  And today is one of those days.

Despite the craziness, the stitches and blood, the sorrows, and the hard work that goes into my life, I am thankful.  And so blessed.  So very blessed.

Bible in 90 Days: Check in 7 and LOTS of other stuff

This has been one of the worst weeks of my life. Truly.

My Dad had an open heart procedure done on Tuesday morning. It was done to help correct problems he has had with atrial fib (when your heart gets out of rhythm) since he was 27. The procedure went fine, and the surgeon was just counting instruments before they closed all the incisions when my Dad had a massive heart attack on the operating table. It took the doctor a minute to figure out what was going on, but while he was trying to work through possibilities, he shocked my Dad's heart to try and restart it. Nothing. He tried massaging the heart with his hands. Nothing. So they put him on a heart lung machine, and did an emergency double bypass surgery. Unfortunately, since he didn't have time to discover where the blockage was located, he had to guess while performing the bypass. That night, we were SO THANKFUL that he was still alive. A nurse called my sister from the hospital right after the heart attack to tell her to get to the hospital right away because our dad wasn't going to make it. The doctor didn't think he would make it through the surgery. I felt so bad for my sister that she had to pass that message on to the rest of our siblings. My Mom was in such shock in the waiting room, she couldn't make the call herself.

The bypass only treated one of the two blockages my Dad had, so that first night he struggled mightily to keep his blood pressure up, and his heart still had to work so hard. They couldn't sedate him or give him much pain meds that night because it would make his blood pressure fall further, so he was aware. He had a vent in, so couldn't communicate with his voice, but at about 2:00 in the morning, my Mom figure out he was writing letters on his bed sheet trying to communicate with us. He spelled out HOT, THIRSTY, and also I WAS AWAKE. "What do you mean you were awake?" my Mom asked. "During surgery?" He spelled out SHOCK. We figured out he was aware of it when the tried to defibrillate his heart with the shock paddles. My Mom asked him if it hurt. He shook his head no. When we have told medical professionals about this, they are amazed. It would/should not have been possible for him to be aware of anything then between sedation and having no blood pressure and low oxygen. We are pretty sure he had a near death experience, especially since he did not feel pain when they shocked him.

The surgeon discovered the next day that another blockage was still making his heart work too hard, so they did an immediate angioplasty and put in a stint. Thankfully that took care of the blockage. His heart was so shocked after everything though, his blood pressure was still low, so they put him on a machine new to the US called an Impella machine to help his heart beat. He was the first patient in the hospital to ever use it! He also had a balloon pump located under the heart to help it pump.

As of today, he still has the vent, and the balloon pump, and he has been sedated since Wednesday morning. He has a temp this morning, so they are checking to see where/what kind of infection may be forming. His kidneys aren't quite up to par either, so they are keeping a close eye on that as well. We have been praying incessantly for the past 5 days. I have truly felt God's presence in every moment.

Needless to say my Bible reading got off track for a few days during all of this, but with the exception of today's reading, I am all caught up. I am reading Jeremiah, which has not been terribly comforting. To be honest, I really struggle with the Old Testament. It is hard to see the loving God I feel everyday with the God who was constantly wiping out the Israelites. I wish I was reading the New Testament through all of this trial in our lives. I am going to keep on track as much as I can this week.

Please pray for my Dad.

You can read more about the Bible in 90 Days program by visiting Mom's Toolbox.

Boys!

My preschoolers kept their teachers on their toes today.

This morning, after only 30 minutes at school, Sammy tripped while running in the gym and split his chin open. We were sure he was going to need stitches, as it was a pretty long cut, so my Mom (who works at the daycare at my school) headed off to the ER with Sammy in tow. Sammy was really impressed to be presented with a mask that made him look just like a doctor, to be asked to sit and watch Disney channel cartoons for an hour, and to be given some markers to color with. Luckily the doctor decided glue would be good enough to seal the cut, so no stitches were needed. On the way back to school Sammy asked my Mom if he was ever going to get to eat breakfast, since he had been whisked off to the hospital before breakfast was served at school. To top off his fun morning, Grandma took him to breakfast at Burger King. He was thoroughly impressed with his royal treatment. This was another one of those times when I thank my lucky stars that my mom works at the same school I do.

Charlie is lucky to be in one piece this evening. His class was on a walk to the nursing home across the street from school this morning when he dashed across the street-RIGHT in front of an oncoming car. He teacher reported it was the scariest thing she has seen in 20 years of teaching preschool. I wanted to yell at him and smother him in kisses all at the same time. He spent some time in his room tonight while the rest of us watched our nightly Christmas movie, and we said a BIG prayer of thanks to his guardian angel.

Needless to say, my boys will all be getting crash helmets for Christmas.

Thanking God for His Protection

Tonight my brother Creighton was in a very bad car accident on his way home from work. He was traveling west bound on the interstate, when he saw a large accident coming up in front of him, and he noticed that traffic was really slowing down. Creighton began to slow down as well, but was then hit from behind by a drunk driver in a van going around 70 miles an hour. The force of the impact spun his car in circles across all three lanes on the east bound side. The car stopped in the middle of a lane of traffic, facing the oncoming cars. Unable to get the car to move or to open the door, he did a "Dukes of Hazard" and climbed out the open window so he could get to the shoulder of the road.

Because of the overtime put in by his guardian angel and a God that is SO good, Creighton walked away with no major injuries. The other driver also had insurance, so we are hopeful they will replace his now ruined vehicle. Thank God he wasn't on his motorcycle, or I would be writing a very different post.

I am so thankful. SO thankful. I love that guy a lot, and I am not ready to stop pestering my little brother.

Putting All That Training to Good Use

Sammy took 20 years off my life tonight at dinner by scaring me to death.

We had some left over baby carrots from a veggie tray we had at his party yesterday, so I fed them to the kids at dinner tonight. Sammy was goofing around in his chair at the same time he had a mouthful of carrots, and fell over backwards onto the floor. He hit his head on the floor when he landed, which caused him to inhale in surprise and pain, which meant that he breathed in a mouthful of hard chunky carrots. And then-my worst nightmare (or one of them-the other being a fire in the middle of the night) came true. He started choking.

There is nothing worse than looking at your child's face when they can't breathe. When they are scared spitless.

I am praising God right now that I have had to sit through countless First Aid and CPR trainings for various daycare and teaching positions I have held. Somehow adrenaline and training took over, and I grabbed him, flipped him upside down in the football hold, and started pounding on his back. In a few seconds, even though it seemed like HOURS, the carrot came back out. He coughed and coughed and coughed for a long time after that, and a lot more came out.

I was SO relieved I started crying, and I went to sit down on the chair I thought was behind me so I could turn him around and reassure myself that he was fine. Somehow in all the excitement though I moved the chair, and I ended up falling with Sammy to the ground, flat on my back, and hitting my head REALLY hard on the edge of the kitchen chair on the way down.

What a night.

Poor Sammy. For the rest of the night he kept saying, "What happened?! I upside down! Mommy hit me!" He was so confused!

No one in this house is ever going to eat a fresh carrot again. It's a new rule. You can add carrots to my list of things I'm scared of.

I Mean Really

Obviously the Universe did not read my blog post yesterday when I begged for normalcy at our house.

Tonight during dinner, Charlie was trying to adjust himself in his seat, and didn't realize how close to the edge of the bench he was. One second he was there, and the next he wasn't!! He fell right over the edge, and on his way down, smacked (hard) his chin on the corner of the wooden bench. As soon as I looked at it, I knew he needed stitches. It wasn't especially wide, but it was really deep.

My mom flew over as quick as you can say worried grandma to watch Sam and Evan, and then Charlie and I went to Children's Urgent care. Charlie was a star patient, which was the bright side. He did not make a peep throughout the entire experience. Even while strapped to the papoose board with all of his face but his chin covered by a blanket, he didn't cry, or wiggle, or protest in any way.

The funny part was that when it was all over, and they offered him a prize from the chest for being such a big, brave boy, he didn't want anything to do with it. It was like he was thinking, "I have had enough of you weirdo people and your strange ideas. You can keep your stuffed animal!"

So for the next 7 days we have to keep the stitches clean and dry. Two words that don't really apply to boys, so that should really be enjoyable.

I am not even going to jinx myself today by asking for a normal, calm day tomorrow.