Toolio was fat

LUCKY GIRL

So right now Hubby is upstairs tending to the baby because he is having a hard time going to sleep.  At the same time Bubs is waiting outside to "practice fireworks" as soon as his dad is available.

Hubby is tending to both children while I sit here with my strawberries and cream.  He does this after work, after taking the entire family out to dinner, after stopping to buy fireworks with the 4-year-old.  There is some version of this on any given night in this house.  A scene where Hubby takes over all details for me, the kids, and the house, and does it with a smile.

Some evenings he may have to fit in some extra work or stop by Mom's to help her out.  Other times he completes a home project like landscaping or cleaning the garage or just cleaning up the kitchen because I didn't get to it.

Yes - he is good.  No - he is not on drugs.

This man is responsible.  He is the epitome of the "guy who takes care of it".  I never worry if he has to get something done.  Never.  It'll get done.  I have so much faith in my husband that it's become passe.  I'm sure I take it for granted way too often.

And the family's been talking a lot about dads in general - mostly because Grandpa (Hubby's dad) is moving pretty far away.   And so I vote my husband as Best Daddy, too.  He really does take half the responsibility of the care for my boys.  He can feed them, change them, put them to bed and make them stop crying.  He is the main authority figure and their best friend.  Hubby knows the kids as well as I and lately has been doing a better job at the care-giving because I've been down and out.

And somehow he is able to put up with me, too.  All of my drama and emotion.  My chatter, my neediness, my shoes.  Yes - I think I am a good catch and I most definitely believe I am a main source of his happiness, too, but I can be a handful.  Ya' think?!

It's true.  I have a little diva in me.  I might be a tad high-strung and a little emotional.  All things Hubby is not.  This is very good.  If every Jules in this world had a Hubby to match, we'd all be very happy and balanced.  Practical and dressed well.  Clean and fun.  Loud, but mellow.  Playing the music and dancing to it, too. 

Everyone needs a man like mine.  Too bad not everyone can have it.  I don't think for one minute that I am not he luckiest girl around.  I know I am.

TODAY'S OBSERVATIONS

Just a few things on my mind:

1.  Starbucks marketing to kids now?  So what~  Why is it bad that they offer kids drinks?  If I'm ever in the mood for a $5 kid's juice, I now know where to go.

2.  Amendment to ban flag burning?  Are you fucking kidding me?  Aren't there - oh I don't know - about 5 BILLION other things to worry about right now?  I'm glad I'm not a politician, because then I might start shooting those idiots with their own fucking guns.

3.  Bubby made friends with a new kitty yesterday.  He's been meowing at the back door all night/morning.  I wonder if it has anything to do with that tuna we gave him?

4.  Deso has a wicked cold.  Poor kid.  He's been wanting to nurse 5 or 6 times a day again (he was down to 3).  He even came into my bed at 4AM.  WAIT!  Maybe he's not sick at all; maybe he's just really, really smart.

...and now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

DON'T YOU HATE IT WHEN...

Don't you hate it when you take your 4-year-old to a birthday party and have to get taken away in an ambulance?  And then all the kids ask your kid why Mom went away in an ambulance?

Or how about when you're in the hospital and have to have emergency surgery, but the most pressing issue to every nurse - on every shift - is whether you've pooped or not?

Or when it's the weekend and you've completely run out of Vicodin and the doc doesn't open until Monday AM?  And then it's too late so forget it...

yeah, me too.

SO HERE"S WHAT HAPPENED

Alright - so I've been missing for awhile.  In a nutshell?

Emergency surgery.

Okay -so remember when I had that nasty pain in my chest a couple of weeks ago?  Yep; again.  Except this time I was with Bubby at a birthday party and the nasty pain wouldn't go away.  This was last Saturday.

I get carted off in an ambulance and they get morphine into me within minutes.  Relief!!  Then more pain at the hospital and then more morphine.  Fortunately for me, I got the same ER doc from the last nasty-pain-in-the-chest-ER-visit.  Different hospital, but same doc.  He knew right away I needed an ultrasound.  And the pain?  My lovely gallbladder.

So I had emergency surgery to remove the gallbladder, deal with the infection to the liver duct and kidneys and take the pain away.  Yeah - I know.

I know!  What the hell, right?  So I'm a really healthy person with a stable weight, low body fat %, great looking heart, low cholesterol, no hypertension, no sugar problems.  But there had to be something.  Geez- It hadn't been even three weeks since my last surgery.

I've been out of commission until...well...now.  Hubby had to cancel his much-anticipated trip to Boston and Grandma C practically moved in.  I was in the hospital four days. 

Now that it's been a little over a week, I am feeling semi-human.  The well-wishes have been so thoughtful, too.  I've got flowers and cards and flowers and flowers.  And, of course, Grandma is still here helping me.

So there it is.  I'll be back more as soon as I can sit upright for more than a minute~

WE GOT MARRIED!!

Today is our 5th wedding anniversary.  We have been together for nearly 12 years, but today marks the moment we made it legal.  We had the greatest wedding day.  Everything went well; except for the best man - but he's out of the picture and that's a long story.

In honor of Hubby and I getting married, my 4-year-old wanted to play "wedding" repeatedly yesterday.  So he gathered a bunch of my jewelry (no diamonds, no gold, no Granny Stuff) and we had several wedding ceremonies throughout the afternoon and evening.

Bubby would pick a ring for each of us and then a bracelet to match.  If it was a super fancy wedding, he got out some of my fancy shoes (uh, yeah, I have  LOTS).

"okay Momma, you wear this ring and this bracelet.  And I think you need these red snakeskin shoes for this wedding.". 

And, of course, he would either wear the blue snakeskin's or the purple velvet shoes.  Thank God my husband wasn't home.  There was a definite channeling of Liberace here for about an hour.

"SO momma, that is a beautiful ring"

"Yes it is, honey.  Shall we get married now?"

"Yes momma.  Ready?  Okay...

I love you momma."

"I love you Bubby"

mmmmwaaah.  Done.

"Is that how you and Daddy got married?"

"Just like that, honey"

GET YER UPDATES

I know...where have I been?

No where, really, but between eye surgery, visits to the ER and "practice" camping, I can hardly make it to the bathroom, much less the Internet.

So the 'ol eyes are working pretty well now.  My vision fluctuates when my eyes get dry, but I see well most of the time.  I'm told the varying vision could last 3-4 months.  nice.

AND -  we met with Doc about the strange chest pain that sent me to the ER in an ambulance.  We've decided we may never know what it was.  The good news - it was most definitely not my heart.  In fact, the ticker is in perfect condition, especially considering my history with hypertension and heart issues.  "just like Superman" is what I think I heard.  Well, duh.  Ces't moi, n'est pas?!?  heh.

AND - we just did our second weekend of practice camping in the tent-with-wheels.  We are getting pretty good at this.  The boys are having a great time and they're both sleeping through the night when camping.  I know. Awesome...

Our camp trip this past weekend parked us next to a character named Luigi.  Luigi and his dog, Pugnacious.  Uh, yeah, the dog is a pug.  Anyhoo - Luigi is quite a character.  He made friends with everyone in the campground using his stories of his life and his motto's.  He is convinced that everyone in Texas and Montana hates black people.  He is a P.O.W (I'm guessing Viet Nam) and he thinks I am black, too.  Maybe he knew my dad?  Heh.

So now we start a new week counting down to the Big Week when we leave on vacation (4 weeks to go).  I think I can get used to the whole camping thing as long as I have a door.  And a bed.  And a heater.  And a toilet (real porcelain!).  And a fridge.  And a shower.   

See!  I can rough it for a few weeks. 

I wonder when I get my girl scout badge? 

Does it come with a free pedicure? 

Heh.

AND....WE'RE BACK

Okay - so we can see alright apres eye surgery.  We are feeling pretty good (right now).  We are excited about Bubby's last day of school tomorrow.  We are full from dinner and happy from the wine with said dinner.

And...uh...we just came home from the hospital not 3 hours ago.

That's right folks.  Me and my unlucky family just spent another day in the infamous local ER (aka Harrison Memorial).  What is it with me and hospitals?  HAYZOOS KREE.

(sorry I didn't call you, mom)

SO -  at approximately 8:30 this morn' I was giddy with happiness over nursing my baby, listening to Hubby and Bubby remain asleep, and enjoying my yummiest. omelet. ever.  And then...

BAM!

I had the absolute worst pain in the chest.  I mean worst.  I mean almost-bad-as-childbirth-after-4-days-of-labor-and-4-epidurals-and-morphine worst.  9/10 is what I told the medic.  Yes, medic.  As in gettin'-my-ass-to-the-ER-in-an-ambulance-type of medic.

And after 3 EKG's and a weird <abnormal> blood test, that led to a CATSCAN, that led to weird medicine, that led to no nursing for 24 hours...we don't know.

Okay- we do know it wasn't heartburn.  And we know that poor Deso will not be nursing until tomorrow morning when he wakes up.  Funny...he decided to go ahead and take a bottle after dinner tonight.  And here we thought he was absolutely against that idea.  Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess.

So- the EKG (s) is fine.  There's no evidence of any heart-related event.  However, some test that measures for pulmonary embolism came back elevated,  so either something is wrong, or I'm the 1/7 that just gets a bad result on this test, even if everything is okay. 

Did I mention that the worst pain lasted almost 30 minutes?  This is why Hubby decided to take me and Fam to visit the ER.  Shit - it's been almost 2 months...we were due, right? 

Did I mention that the 911 operator told him to pull over and wait for the ambulance to get there and when they did, the worst pain magically disappeared?  So when they approached me, I was just fine.  Yeah- that was a little embarrassing. "um...I was just dying a few minutes ago, but now I'm just fine.  And I'm hungry..."

And we were off to the nearest ER in the "cool red ambulance".  Yeah. Cool.  Not. 

Of course, SuperHubby and Best Mother-In-Law followed closely behind with the kids in tow.  They shopped for new lawnmowers (around town) as I sat in the uncomfortable hospital bed taking test after test.

And, as previously mentioned, we don't know what it was.  My heart looks great, my blood pressure looks great, and there was no embolism (blood clot) to be found from the CATSCAN.

So my regular doc and I will meet soon and figure this out. In the meantime, I feel just fine, albeit a little tired from the trauma/drama.

My eyesight is still fluctuating, but the eyes feel pretty good now, too.

And I have just been informed that Deso went to sleep with ease.  Without Momma.  Okay - we'll be fine.

SMALL HIATUS

Small hiatus...I had my PRK eye surgery a few days ago.  I cannot see yet.  I have no clue what I am really typing here, either.

I can't read email, surf the web, or read my favorite blogs!  I can't drive.

I was in sucky pain until yesterday.  Note to self:  Vicodin no longer works for me.

NO more pain, but I'm tripping over Hubby's shoes and running into wallls.

Yes, I know...lovely.

Back soon~