Discombobulated and back

Tuesday afternoon Kev called me at work… this is nothing new… what he said was…

As soon as he said “hey”, I knew something was up. He said he had a stomach ache, like he ate something that was bad. And he asked me if I could pick up the Bug. I asked him if he took anything like Pepto and he said we didn’t have any.

I left work 45 minutes early, I was going to stop and pick something up for him to take, but I had second thoughts about the Pepto. Instead, I called my Mom and asked her to come and watch Hunter so I could take Kev to the doctor. When he said that probably wasn’t a bad idea… again that internal alarm went off.

Kevin has a very VERY high tolerance for pain. He smashed his toe last week and I thought it was broken… he was like… “yea, whatever”. I’ve seen this man go to work with the stomach flu and in the almost six years I’ve known him, I only know of one time that he called into work sick… and his temp was 104.

So when Kevin said he didn’t feel good, I took it seriously. I knew he was in pain, but I was still thinking it was something he ate. He told me he has a stomach ache.

We went to the Urgent Care clinic close to our house. For some reason, I thought the Emergency Room at the local hospital would take too long. Going to Urgent Care was like looking symptoms up on the Internet… only it took longer… maybe the Internet on dialup.

Bad idea, but I did learn a lesson: unless it’s something that needs stitches or something simple… no Urgent Care for us. I can’t even think about what would have happened if his appendix would have ruptured and we were at the UC having a doctor look in Kev’s ears… I kid you not, that is how he started his exam.

Urgent Care sent us to the Emergency Room. Once there, things moved rather quickly. Kev had appendicitis and his appendix had to come out.

Now it’s just before eleven PM and I have to go home and put Hunter in his bedroom. It’s up a flight of stairs and my Mom can’t maneuver the stairs while carrying him and I didn’t want him to sleep on the couch all night.

I got back to the hospital just before midnight. When I left there were going to operate right away, but once I got back they were poking and prodding at him again saying the ultrasound was “inconclusive”.

He was finally put into a room about 2:30 AM and more questions and poking ensued. I had been dozing, in the craptastic chair in emergency for 20 minutes at a time. Once in his room I was able to take a bit longer nap, but I was still way tired. Now they were able to tell us Kev was scheduled for surgery at 7:30.

I headed home about 4:45 AM so I could get Hunter situated for daycare and switch cars with my Mom so she had a car with a carseat. I headed back to the hospital about 6 AM and Grandma took Hunter to daycare. I wanted to keep Hunter’s schedule as close to normal as possible.

They came and took Kev about 7AM and I was off to the surgery waiting room to wait… and wait. About 10:15 the doc came out and told me everything went well and he would be in recovery for about 45 minutes (read: and hour and a half).

By Noonish, Kev was back in his room and I headed home for some much needed sleep. My plan was to get about 3 hours of sleep and then go get Hunter and head back to the hospital.

I had no idea how much my home phone fucking rings during the day. During that 3 hour period of time, my cell and our home phone rang FIVE times… wtf?? It had been an exhausting 24 hours.

This is Kevin’s wedding ring on my finger. He couldn’t keep it during the surgery.

I decided yesterday was a good day to start doing the 365 challenge again.

Wedneday afternoon, August 27th - “no sleep”:

Thursday morning, August 28th - “missing half”:

Kev is home now. Feeling much better. Now the challenge is going to be keeping him from doing too much, too soon. I think he will behave since he plans on going back to work on Tuesday.

I love my husband… I’m glad he’s home again… I’m very glad he’s okay.

crap.

I totally want this camera bag.

Why does my taste have to be so damn expensive?!?

That’s what I get for going to the hoity-toity part of town to look at camera bags.

gah.

My son, the comedian

So many things going on…
Yesterday at the dinner table Kev and I were talking about my quest for a camera bag. We had decided that after dinner we would all go to the camera store. Sometimes I’m so crappy at making decisions, I feel like I need backup… but that’s another story.

There is no way to explain this so it sounds normal… so just bear with me.

So we are just about done eating and Hunter puts hands me his plate and says “all done” so I put his plate on the table. He says something about putting his plate on the table and hands me his milk and says: “put milk on the table too.” Kev and I share that look of amazement (like we have so many times in the past two years). Every day his speech just gets better and better.

I say (very enthusiastically) “We’re going to the CAMERA STORE” as I pump my fists in the air.

Hunter: “Wegoing CAMERA STORE”, mimicking my gesture. I giggle.

Kev (pulling Hunter towards him like he has something to tell him):”Buddy, you are being totally manipulated.”

Me: “No, he’s not, he wants to go to the camera store too.”, moving him back to the middle as he giggles.

I say the camera store line again and like a good boy, Hunter repeats it again.

Me: “See? He wants to go to the CAMERA STORE.”

Kev: “We going to the MIDDLE OF THE CITY DUMP”, trying to prove his point.

Hunter: “Wegoing MIDDLE CITY DUMP”, proving Kev’s point.

Me: “Come on you’d do the same thing if we were going to Bass Pro Shop.”

It’s obvious Hunter is repeating everything we are saying, you know… the parrot game.

Since my husband as a huge U of M fan, I thought it would be funny to have Hunter say something about Michigan State.

Me: “GO MICHIGAN STATE!”

Hunter: “Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”

Seriously, it took us all of ten minutes to stop cracking up and of course Dad kept giving Hunter high fives.

You don’t suppose he understood all that do you??

Hard to believe he was ever this small.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And now, from the world of irony:

Co-author of book “100 Things to Do Before You Die” dies at age 47.

spread the word

An 18 year old was shot and killed in our community the other night. His younger sister was one of the summer youth working in our department. My heart just breaks for her; so young and forced to deal with such tragedy.

One of the ladies in our office spoke to her on the phone and told her we would pray for her and if she needed anything, just ask. This person is very active in the church community and is often listening to Christian music or a Christian talk show on the radio. She is very open about her religious beliefs.

When she got off the phone she said the young girl was very upset and she didn’t ask her what happened.

One of the others people in my office got on the phone and called a friend who happens to be in a position to know what the investigation revealed so far.

Then a few of the people in my office sat around and discussed what happened to this young boy. I don’t mean the sadness of it all, they discussed the details of what happened and where and basically how the whole thing went down.

I don’t know, but this just settled uneasy with me. When I first heard about the tragedy I didn’t wonder about all the details… I felt bad for the young sister and her family. I reflected on how I would feel if that were my brother or son. The gossip of the whole ordeal wasn’t the first, or even the second thing on my mind.

I am having a hard time reconciling the two sides this woman presents as herself.

Somehow I don’t think gossip is what God was talking about when he said “spread the word.”

Photo contest - yay!

Aimee is having a contest.

Greemblepix is a new monthly photo contest and it sounds pretty cool. It’s open to all levels of photographers (which is why I can play).

Aimee has some wicked photog skillz and this is one of those site that if you visit, you will have to have some time. It’s like a photo-portal. Aimee has great pics. Aimee has links to sites that have great pics.

I find it very inspiring.

Here’s my first entry:

“Is there something on my face?”

You can click on it to go to the flickr set.

Now I know people that have some mad photo skillz stop by here… go enter some of you great photos!!

Try it, you’ll like it

I’ve installed the comment luv plugin. It’s pretty cool. When you leave a comment, it will add a link to the last post from your blog.

It’s a nifty little plugin, I must say.

I told you, the updates just keep comin’.

August 12 of 12

August 12 of 12

Hey kids, it’s that time of month again!! On the 12th of every month I take 12 pictures for the 12 of 12 project, as created by Chad . Actually I take more than 12 pictures most months and have to narrow it down to 12.

I usually try to take 12 pictures that are representative of my day. Then you post the link over on Chad’s site, with a gazillion other people from around the world.

It is quite cool to have a little peek into people’s day, via the camera lens (or cell phone lens, whatever the case may be.)

Well I’ve babbled enough… on to my day:

6:14 AM (obviously) I’m getting up a bit late today. This is never good.

6:48 AM Of course the Bug was up early today. He’s in his highchair and ready for breakfast.

7:03 AM My breakfast of champions: a bowl of oatmeal, cup of coffee (large) and the Internet.

7:56 AM Just dropped Hunter off at Daycare – see… I’m late, I should be at work by now, but I am about 10 minutes away.

5:35 PM Yep, still at work. There are no lunch pictures because I worked through my lunch… again. A huge deadline looms
and my computer just crapped out. It’s acting like the network went down… and of course all my work? is on the network. Fuck.

5:35 PM Big projects make my office look like the copier just threw up.

6:21 PM Home and on the deck with Hunter waiting for Dad to finish making dinner. I really do have an amazing husband.

6:27 PM Two pictures for the price of one… how to eat a taco, by Hunter.

Carefully put the meat back in.

7:13 PM Hubby does dishes too. I love how my husband can help ease the stress of my day when it really starts getting rough, by something as simple as doing the dishes while we chat about our day.

7:36 PM Outside play time.

7:37 PM Everyone gets to play during play time. “Come on Dad… throw the ball again.”

8:11 PM My guitar heros.

There you have it, hope you enjoyed my day. Don’t forget to check out Chad’s site and see other people’s pics.

If you’ve come over here via Chad’s link, you should click on the header so you can see my cool new site design. One gliche… you can’t see the whole header if you are on a single page post. I’m working on it, but the problem with revamping someone else’s template is you have to figure it out first.

A deadline looms…

… and Sheryl has begun the non-sleeping ritual.

I have a very important report that has to be at the State BY Friday. While I am well on my way to completing the request, I am still far enough away from it to just to the right of freaked.

I could have gone in this weekend, but I really didn’t see the benefit. Two weeks ago was by far the worse week I’ve had in a long time, at work. So I worked on Saturday, a week ago.

But this Saturday was different. I thought my time would be better spent hanging out with my family. It was quite cold for August, so we ended up inside for the most part, but that’s okay. I wanted to go in today refreshed and not grumbly because I had to work six days last week.

So while the next couple of days could be long, it will be over by Friday (for the most part). My hope of starting the week refreshed has been slightly hampered by dreaming of work all night. But at least the Bug slept all night and that is a huge bonus!!

I leave you with a Hooded Boy Wonder:

Dear Wii Fit,

Dear Wii Fit,

Hey, nice to finally meet you.

I realize we just met, but can I give you some advice?

Just because my husband and I don’t conform to normal size standards is no reason to call us obese and it’s certainly no reason to make our little Mii characters into Weebles.

Asking my husband if he frequently tripped when we walked… while that was hilarious to me, should still be considered slightly rude. And just for the record, he has amazing balance.

You are a ton of fun to play and I love that you will keep track body type stats for us, but when your personal trainers talk… their lips don’t move.

That’s kinda creepy.

Well, gotta go now. See you in the morning for some yoga.

Xoxo
~Sheryl

P.S. When my husband tried to be a smart-ass and run past the pace runner and you made him trip and roll - that was funny shit! Thanks for that.

Proud Mama

Today Hunter is less than a week and ½ away from turning 26 months.

A little over 2 years old.

I am constantly amazed at my son.

This morning while I was still laying in bed, he came into the bedroom. He said something I didn’t understand.

“Buddy, take your pacifier out, I can’t understand you.’

Out comes the pacifier…
“a..b..c..d..e..f..g..h..i..j..k..”

I’m in awe.

So I say, “l..m..n..o..p.”

“q..r..s..- t..u..v” he continues. Then in his funny deep voice…

“w..x..y..z.”

I’m laying in bed, amazed.

Hunter regularly counts to 10. He doesn’t always get all the numbers in order, but most times he does. He loves to sing the abc’s but today was the first time I heard him recite them.

He know several letters by site and does this hilarious Vanna White thing when he ‘reads’ his name. I write his name on a piece of paper and he runs his hand along the word as he says his “Hunter”.

He also knows several shapes. We draw the shape, he says what it is… “octagon” and “rectangle” are the funniest to hear him say. He has also started point out the shape of normal things, like the steering wheel is a circle.

This afternoon, Hunter comes over to us (Kev and I were sitting on the couch). He has a Pull-up in his hand. He starts pulling his shorts down.

Kev asks him “do you have to go potty?”

“yes”.. The shorts are at his ankles. Now I have tried to explain to him how much easier it is to get to the bathroom AND THEN take his shorts down… but he is a boy and would rather take Tim Conway steps to the bathroom.

Kev takes his diaper off and puts him on the potty. Hunter tries to push the door shut (hilarious!).

When he’s done, he goes to wash his hands and says “bush it” {flush it?}

Kev goes in… there is pee in the potty.

I’m sitting on the couch, amazed.

Kevin?

Calls both my Mom and his Mom. Such a proud Papa.

I know my son isn’t a prodigy child, but I am none-the-less amazed by his intelligence. His ability to grasp things that he seemingly has only heard or seen once, are amazing to me.

I definitely had to document this day.