Bump Update

After reading so many blogs about adoption and infertility I’ve seen a lot of post with bump update as the title.  Ninety-nine point nine of them refer to a pregnancy bump and then the update is followed by cute little  pictures of people who have gained 5 lbs over 40 weeks.  Of course for me a bump update quite literally means an update on the weird bump I had show up a few weeks ago.  And there will be no cute pictures to follow.  Because 1) they would not be cute and 2) you would have to poke your eyes out afterwards. 

I went for my ultrasound yesterday.  I had been warned that this particular tech might be a little grumpy and quiet.  And he definitely would not tell me anything – which didn’t surprise me.  I wouldn’t have asked anyway.  But this guy and I bonded over infertility and I think we were close to being besties by the time I left.  He was very nice to me AND he did give me some slight indicators as to what he thought it was. 

It all started when he asked if I’d ever had an ultrasound before.  Instead of just saying yes I said “oh, I’ve been through infertility so I’ve had lots of ultrasounds.”  That seemed to open him up and he told me that this would be no big deal – which was exactly what I had figured it would be.  He asked where we had gone for treatment and I gave him the way condensed 2-3 sentence answer.  He told me he and his wife had gone to KC for treatment.  They decided not to pursue it and now she is 28 weeks pregnant with a boy.  Of course I showed the proper excitement for them and told him how happy I was to hear that.  After a while he said he was going to check my other side to make sure he wasn’t seeing anything  there.  I asked him if he was in fact seeing something.  He said that he did find something and that I was definitely not making this up.  He said “something looks herniated and it is going into your abdominal cavity.”  I had really not been nervous about any of this until he said that.  Then I thought what if this isn’t a hernia?  What if I have something going into my abdomen?  So all of a sudden the prospect of hernia surgery sounded much better than it had earlier.  A few minutes later he asked if the doctor had told me to come with a full bladder, which they had and I had somewhat ignored it.  He told me he was sorry if I had been uncomfortable because I really didn’t need the full bladder- that is only for ovary ultrasounds.  I told him that I had wondered if we’d be ultrasounding the right part when I read that in my instructions.  We both laughed.  It was a little bit of infertility humor – you probably had to have been there. 

Also before I left he told me that he didn't see anything life threatening and that if he had they wouldn't have let me leave.  But then he proceeded to tell me that if I feel extreme pain I need to get to the ER immediately.  Great....so not only was I worried about what was in my abdomen but now I have to worry about the pain I'm feeling and what exactly severe means.  I'm going to go with the theory I will just know it if I have it?  So far I'd consider it more of an irritating pain that makes you feel exhausted by the end of the day - but not something that is doubling me over and keeping me from functioning.  There is never a dull moment in our house.  So far March has been extremely calm for us but leave it to me to get a hernia! 

My doctor called me today with the results -  a “possible” hernia.  I am going next week to have another test made and then will be referred to a surgeon.  I’m still not 100% on what it is, I also don’t know if surgery will be required.  But I’m figuring between Camryn’s $250 strep test in December, Cade’s weird infection and now this I should have Cox paid off about the time we payoff our 20 year mortgage.  But as long as none of this ends of being a big deal I will make my monthly payments with a smile…or at least a half smile

Cade is 12!

Today is Cade's 12th Birthday.  I can't hardly believe he is that old.  Next year I will have a teenager in the house.  Yikes!!!  I was able to talk him in to one last themed party.  Since both of our birthdays are so close to St Patricks day I've always wanted to incorporate that somehow.  This year I convinced him to do a 4-H Clover and then that would give me an excuse to buy some other green things and call it a 4-H party.  At one point he told Jay he wasn't sure about this theme.  Jay said "oh, don't worry about it.  The theme isn't for you anyway - it is for your mom."  I do love a theme party.

 

Janella did our cake and of course it was wonderful.  I tell her what I want and she always does a million times better than I ever imagined.  I told her to put the clover and the 5 pigs on it.  If I was decorating it I probably would have stuck the clover in the middle and put the pigs in the corners.  Then after seeing Janella's cake I realized what I was picturing would have looked like flying pigs.  That is why Janella handles the cakes.  This one ranks up there as one of my favorite cakes she has done. 

I didn't get any pictures of the rest of the cousins because my memory was full.  I need Charity to send me those and I will get them posted.  We had a fun night.  Camryn was so excited about this cake that Charity caught her with a butter knife headed for it.  Since then Camryn keeps asking me if Cade's birthday is on or off. 

 

Prior to the party my dad and Lynn came bearing gifts. - and it wasn't just a card with money!!  Dad and Lynn and getting ready to redo our old house which means at 2 days shy of my 37th birthday I was moved out of my dads house.  He brought the contents of my childhood bedroom to my house in a Uhaul.  I wish I had a recording of Jay through out all that....

 

when I asked if he wanted to move the stuff to the garage before or after we ate 

"AFTER WE EAT - we can't deal with that on an empty stomach"

 

when I opened up the garage door to ask him how bad it all looked

"it's the most depressing thing I've seen all day"

 

when dad helped him unload the last box

"well congraulations you got rid of one room of crap"

 

when someone noticed Cade's last years 4-H cake was sitting on top of our computer cabinet

"oh great, we can give it to Cade when he turns 37"

 

after we moved in the piano

Well, we have officially ran out of house"

 

Sunday morning when I said the walls of the house were closing in

"well the garage is going to have to start puking some stuff out"

 

My dad also had a great one liner Saturday night about Charity and I getting the junk out of his house

"Remember when I wrote on Justin and Charity's picture at their wedding 'The Best is Yet to Come'? This is what I meant"

 

I think my second most quoted movie on this blog is Sixteen Candles.  Remember when girl drops a weight in the attic and it goes though each level of the house and you can hear people say "party's over'?  Yeah, that was what happened Saturday night.  But instead of a weight it was a piano.  Nothing clears out a room like unloading and moving one bookshelf and putting a piano in it's place. 

 

This was the kitchen after everyone left

And this picture doesn't quite do it justice, but this is the family room.  Cade's friend is sitting on a pile of books from the shelf that we moved behind him.  To the right of Cade is where the shelf used to be, but now a piano is there. 

And so you get the full aspect of this entire story I will share all of it. I've got a mystery lump. My doctor isn't sure what it is so I'm going for an ultrasound tomorrow - but I'm wondering if it is a hernia. It comes and goes and gets sore when I move around a lot.  After being on my feet all day Saturday before the party it was blown up and sore. Then we moved a piano - which I ended not helping with much at all.  Thank goodness my mom, Sharon  and Lynn directed some of the traffic on rug useage and door opening so my floor wouldn't get scratched.  And while all the adults were focused on moving a piano Camryn saw her opportunity to gorge herself on the cake that was left within her reach.  This was Janella's beautiful cake after Camyn put her entire face in it to eat the icing.

mystery lumps, pianos, 37 years worth of stuff, birthday's, icing overload....when  we do things we do it big!  And I appreciate having a family who doesn't mind taking over for me when I couldn't do it myself. 

Yet another pig story

Miller was out of school yesterday and Cade decided he would rather stay home than go with Jay.  Sometime in the afternoon Cade decided to go check his pigs.  I'm really not sure how all of this happened.  Cade described it to me, but I couldn't quite get the logistics of it all.  Long story short - somehow two of the pigs got out of their fence and were running through our woods.  I have no idea how Cade managed to catch them.  They are getting pretty big and harder to catch even when they are in their house.  I am surprised he didn't totally freak out.  Somehow he got them caught and locked back in the farrowing house.  Then he lifted the lid to check their water.  They needed water and to reach it he had to get in the house.  Again, I'm not sure how it all happened but the roof closed on Cade.  He was stuck in the farrowing house with the pigs.  We have no idea how long he was in there.  We are guessing about 30 minutes.  He said he was finally able to use all of his strength and get the roof open from the inside. 

I am about pigged out.   

Legen(wait for it)dary

I have a whole post I'm working on about a night Jay and I had last week.  But since that is not done yet I wanted to make a quick note.  We had a customer, who is also a neighbor in the office today.  He made a comment about our pig venture.  Oh, these stories are getting around.  Jay and his Piggly Wiggly's are becoming legendary.  That is the second customer this week who asked about our pigs.  At least that helps the newer people that I work with to know that I'm not making this stuff up - we really are this crazy. 

And for another story.  Jay had some sort of idea that he'd be able to take one of the pigs to the Greenhand Initiation at school yesterday.  He came home and put one of them in a cooler, which is what we used to haul them around when they were smaller.  He also was driving a school van.  He got the pig loaded and pulled down the our lane to the road.  I guess the pig went absolutely nuts.  It jumped of the cooler and was running through the van.  Jay said it was squealing like he had never heard before.  If you've been to our house you know we don't sit that far back from the road.  Jay made it to the road and decided taking the pig was not a good idea....especially since the initiation was taking place in the HS cafeteria.  Can you imagine a crazy pig loose in a school?  The pig got put back with it's siblings. 

The pig stories just keep coming.....

Last night I had the kids by myself.  I had to do some shopping for two  funeral dinners so we went to Wal-Mart and ate out.  I’ve heard talking to your kids in the car is the best place.  I believe it.  I can usually get more information out of Cade then, than any other time.  Here was our conversation….

Cade:  The hernia pig was a little slow tonight but he was cold.  Since we only have 1 heat lamp now he wasn’t under it.

Me: What happened to the heat lamp?  Do we need to buy another one?

Cade: (panic on his face) you don’t know about the heat lamp? Dad didn’t tell you? (completely frustrated) Why doesn’t he tell you anything?  (completely resigned) Oh, I guess I know why he didn’t tell you….

All of that came from Cade’s mouth in a matter of seconds.  He went from panicked to frustrated to resigned in a short amount of time.  I was sitting there completely confused and had no idea what in the world was happening in the front seat of my van.

Me: (completely confused) What in the world are you talking about?

Cade:  The day we took the pig to the vet the pack-n-play flew out of the back of the truck and the heat lamp was in it.

I’m reeling from the fact the pack-n-play flew out of the truck and was imagining how bad that situation could’ve been if there had been another vehicle around.  I was trying to grasp that concept.

Me:  So what did dad say?  Was he concerned about it?

Cade:  Yeah, he said “I knew I shouldn’t have done that” 

I was thinking ok, Jay saw the error of his ways with the pack-n-play issue.  Cade is going to tell me Jay said he shouldn’t have done that….

Cade:  He said he knew he should’ve  put the heat lamp in the cab of the truck instead of in the pack-n-play

Me:  He was worried about the heat lamp?  Why didn’t you fold up the pack-n-play?

Cade:  The button is broken

So that explains why the fully assembled pack-n-play is still sitting in our front yard after Jay brought the pig home.  A friend from church stopped by  Wednesday night and asked if that was our babysitter when we are outside.  Nope…it’s just sitting in the yard.  When we got back last night I was going to try to bring it inside but it was dark and Charlie was howling and I was a little creeped out.  Again, yes we are the neighbors everyone would love to have.  At least tomorrow is Saturday.  Hopefully we will be able to get it in before the end of the weekend.  I asked Jay about it last night.  He still seemed to be more irritated by the loss of the $8 heat lamp.  I'm still focused on the pack-n-play issue.  We clearly weren't seeing eye-to-eye on what the problem was. 

 So to reacap if you're not following the story not only did the pigs almost burn down my house they could've caused a major problem on the highway because of a flying pack-n-play.  If I don't end up banning pigs at our house our insurance company will.   

And just so you don't think we sit around letting junk pile up in our yard...Jay got home late Tuesday night with the pig, after taking the kids to 4-H.  He took the kids to 4-H because I was working at the parsonage and Camryn caused me a heart attack by almost sticking a key in a wall outlet.    Jay just got everything unloaded, separated the pig and then it was 10 pm.  Thenext night the church friend came over at the same time we got home and then Jay was gone again last night to the area banquet.  Hobby Farming while Ag Teaching (at least if you are any kind of a good teacher)  means you just don't have a lot of extra time to deal with broken pack-n-play buttons.   And since Jay is a good teacher I know why the pack-n-play is still in the yard and I'm ok with it....mostly ok anyway.   

Christmas in February

Today was just like Christmas morning at our house.  Camryn, woke up in a great mood and came in our room carrying her Rudolph and Clarice.  These were her santa presents at Christmas and she was terrified of them.  So terrified that I have a video of her backing away from the tree right into my lap when she spotted them.  She wouldn't go near them that day or any day after that.  We moved them to her room and just let them sit.  I guess today was the day she decided she loved them.  What a funny little girl and how fitting she happened to be wearing Christmas jammies today.

Another Valentines Day

Well Valentines Day has come and gone and I still have yet to post Christmas 2013 pictures, or tell about my mom's surprise birthday party, or Lawson's 4th birthday or any of that other stuff.  Time just seems to get away from me anymore.  Actually it feels more like I move from one chaotic event to another.  I've actually for quite some time allowed myself to feel like somewhat of something....not quite a failure, but someone who can't seem to get their poop in a group.  The house is chaos.  The checkbook is chaos (2 people with debit cards means 1,000,000 transactions that need to be logged).  I forget to check backpacks.  I forget to refill my children's medications but it doesn't really matter because I will forget to give it to them even once I get it.  I serve way too many chicken nuggets for dinner or eat out because I'm so tired that I can't deal with frying hamburger and mixing it with Hamburger Helper.  The van looked like a typical mini-van on the inside for the longest time - the only thing keeping it from being completely disgusting was the lack of wood-paneled inserts on the door.  Even Cade has taken to telling me I look really tired because I have bags under my eyes. 

I've wondered what is wrong with me - why can I not seem to get it together and keep it together for longer than 5 minutes?  Then someone from church made the comment "adding that 2nd kid is rough."  Finally I felt somewhat vindicated and maybe not so much like a failure.  This was coming from seasoned parents who added their 2nd child only a couple of years after their 1st.  But they understood.  They talked about they could still do anything they wanted with #1, but when #2 came it was like someone put on the brakes.  And that is exactly how I feel.  I know this stage won't last forever.  Maybe my brain will come back and I will quit being so tired....of course then I will hit menopause and it will all start again.  Until then though I will no longer be working at the church parsonage with Camryn.  Someone stopped her from putting my keys in a wall outlet while I was staining the kitchen cabinets. I'm all done with that.  I tried to venture outside of my home bubble this week and that didn't work.  I will try again in another 6 months.

Part of last weeks chaos involved the dreaded Valentines Box.  I still remember typing the post with his first box and I said "1 down 6 more to go."  I knew that time would go fast, but I had no idea just how fast.  We just finished Cade's 7th box.  I might have been weepy if I wasn't so tired and busy trying to find a clean spot to take a picture of the box.  Thursday night I ran to Springfield to get treats and paint for my parsonage cabinet project and Jay stayed home and did a million other things.  Once I got home we finished the box.  And I'm proud to say Cade didn't touch one thing on it.  I learned in K a Valentines Box was not a fight I was willing to have with him.  We do plenty of things to make him responsible - gluing crap on a box is not something I see as life altering.  But I did laugh that night as I walked through our hall.  I could see Cade parked in front of the TV while also looking at Jay's back while he was hunched over our kitchen counter gluing legs on the box. 

This box ended up being a group effort for both me and Jay.  He did some, I did some, but he was the one responsible for the ear notch idea.  

And after these pictures Camryn ripped the pigs tail in two.