Monthly update

I guess this has turned into a monthly update blog instead of event updates.

Alyssa had surgery on Sept 19. She did FANTASTIC. The surgery was on a Thursday and by the Saturday you would of had no clue that she had surgery. She was eating chips and running around like nothing happened. It was night and day difference from what we went through with Colin.

On Sept 23 Chris left for Kansas for work. He is working in Liberal Kansas. He is working 12 hours a day 7 days a week. So we talk to him at night on the computer but that is about it. He finally gets to come home on the 8th. We are all excited to see him.

My business is doing well. We just hit 30 kids. So we are doing really well, and we are continuing to grow in staff and children. The staff all seems to be enjoying their jobs and doing a good job. We have our last big state visit here in the next week or so. Our last visit we didn't have a single violation and we are hoping for the same this time. Though this one will be an all day visit so lots of stress with this one.

We are now getting ready for Colin's next surgery. He will go into the hospital next Saturday (Oct 12). He will have two days of antibiotics through IV and then surgery the afternoon of the 14th. We will be in the hospital anywhere from 2 days to 7.  We have ticket to the circus on the 19th so we are hoping we are out of the hospital by then.

So that is us in a nut shell. Hopefully it will be less than a month with another update.

Surgery, Surgery, Surgery

Alyssa has surgery Sept 19. She is going to have removal of tonsils, adenoids, and ear tubes. Since she doesn't have the medical issues that Colin has she gets to come home the same day as the surgery. In fact when speaking with the nurse they said that probably within 2 hours of the surgery being complete we will be home. This is amazing to me, yet thinking back to Colin he was feeling great right after surgery, it was when the medicine started to wear off that he felt crummy.
  I'm really hoping her recovery is easier than Colin's yet after going through Colin's I at least know what to do for Alyssa to make her comfortable. She is a lot easier to bribe and reason with than him.

Colin also has surgery scheduled for Oct. 14. He is going to have the stitch repair. We are hoping and praying that that this will cure his chronic sickness. We have had 10 confirmed cases of pneumonia. With this stitch it should keep him from aspirating and that will hopefully cure the pneumonias. So we will go into the hospital 2-3 days before the surgery to put him on IV antibiotics to make sure he is well enough for surgery. He will then have the surgery. He will then spend at least one night in ICU and another on a regular floor. He will spend somewhere between 2 and 7 nights after surgery in the hospital. It will all depend on how well he recovers from the procedure. I am preparing myself for 7 but hoping for 2.

Lets hope that this is the last year we have to meet our deductibles. Maybe 2014 will be our year of awesomeness.  

What is love?

I was reading another blog tonight and she wrote that she recently went to a wedding and the bride asked for her opinion on what makes a good marriage. This got me thinking about my relationship.

What makes a good marriage is so different for each couple. There are many times I look at another person's relationship and think "there is no way that would work for me." As I'm sure other people look at my relationship and think the same thing.

But I do know that I have a husband that loves me. He may not speak it in words every day but I know through his actions that he loves me. He isn't sending me flowers on a daily basis or renting a plane to fly a banner professing his love, but he does know the little things to do that make my day just a little brighter or easier.

There are many times I wonder how I got so lucky to have a man that not only does his fair share of household chores and cooking but also loves his kids with everything he has and still has enough time and love to support me in all my crazy adventures.

I know I'm not the easiest person to live with. I have a very strong type A personality. I struggle often with giving up control and having things done my way. And though I know at times he thinks I'm crazy and I catch him smiling and rolling his eyes at me, he will still do it if he knows it will make me happy.

So for me, love is taking the time to say I love you, giving a smile across the room, bringing a soda and brownie to a lunch date, and holding my hand when I'm scared.

I have a really good husband and I really good life. Sometimes I think I just need to slow down to appreciate it. And I really hope he feels the same way.

Sleep Study

Tonight Alyssa goes for a sleep study to find out if she has sleep apnea. They suggested I do this about 6 months ago and I put it on the back burner.
We had a sleep study done for Colin about a month ago and it showed he was having up to 12 apnea issues an hour. At this point I decided it was best to get Alyssa's looked at too.  She already has to have surgery in October to have the tubes in her ears removed, so if we need to do tonsils or adenoids with it we can.

We let her her pick who went with her since Chris had some time off work. She said she wanted Daddy to go with her. I am nervous that I won't be there if she gets scared but I know that Chris is very capable of  taking care of her.

After all we have gone through with Colin in the past week with his tonsils I'm really hoping that hers won't have to be removed, but I have heard that Colin is more on the rare side for that age and that usually they bounce back quicker.

I guess only time will tell, we should have the results in a week.

Alyssa update

I have posted about Colin in the last few rare posts that I have put up, so I wanted to update on Alyssa.

She turned 4.5 on Tuesday! I can't believe what a young little girl she is turning into. Chris and I have started to talk about the path we are going to take for her for kindergarten. She is a very bright little girl and already knows a lot for only being 4. I'm worried that she is going to be bored in school and not enjoy it. So we are discussing our options that are in the area. We have not made a decision and I can't even say we are more inclined one way or another at this point.
Alyssa can count to about 20 with accuracy. She can recognize all of her letter and is getting better with her numbers. She can write her name, knows her address and is learning her phone number. She has become really good at tracing and coloring.
 We are still working on cutting and other super fine motor skills.
She loves to help and will help fix dinner, or clean up with ease. Today she spent the day outside with Chris and she came up with ideas on how to make the wood they were cutting to fall quieter, and was able to sweep the garage without help.
Alyssa has very strong opinions and ideas on many things and it is fun and frustrating at the same time to watch those ideas come into focus.

I am one lucky mom to have such a wonderful little girl!  

Tonsil removal

On Monday Colin had his tonsils removed. When he woke up from surgery he was in a lot of pain. In fact we were never able to get in front of the pain until 2:30 Tuesday morning. We spent Monday night in the hospital and from Monday at 4:00PM until 1:00 PM on Tuesday Colin refused to eat or drink anything.
We finally went back to the thing that has gotten us out of the hospital twice before and had Chris bring a milkshake. He drank that all down so we had Grandma bring another one. When he drank that one We called the nurse to ask the doctor if we could go home that night. Finally about 6:45 PM on Tuesday night we were released from the hospital. He was on tylenol every 4 hours and oxycontin every 4 hours that were separated by 2 hours. So every two hours he was getting a medicine.
We are now on Sunday we still have not been able to space his medicine out. Every time we try he turns into a drooling horrible mess. He is also starting to cough more than he was in the hospital. It is a wet cough but doesn't seem to be bringing anything up so I am a little concerned about that.
  I think I will be putting a call into the doctor tomorrow to see what we can do about all of that.

Tonsil removal has been the hardest surgery he has gone through so far. He is miserable a fair amount of the time and you can just see in his face that he is in a lot of pain still. I'm really hoping in the next day he will turn the corner and start to feel better.

Another Month

Hopefully August will be a better month for blogging than June and July were.

I have been telling everyone that August will be better. I will have more time, I won't work as many hours, I will have more free weekends, etc. I have no idea what makes me think that once it turns Aug it will all magically get better, but that is what I keep telling myself and anyone that asks.

The good news is for right now Chris isn't working as many hours and has been able to take a day off here or there and spend time with one or both kids.

My business is doing well. I'm suffering a little, the hours are long, the stress is hard and mommy guilt hits hard and strong at times. I have talked to my doctor and we have started a few medicines to help me out until I figure out our new normal.

Colin has another surgery on Monday to have his tonsils taken out and do another bronchoscopy with a wash. This will be surgery number 6. We will then schedule surgery number 7  once he is recovered. Hopefully 7 will be our lucky number.

Alyssa is doing much better with the long hours and new friends at daycare.

Both kids really look forward and enjoy our weekends at the lake. They are both little fish and are old enough that they can swim in the water while I sit on the dock and watch them.

They have also enjoyed our day trips to Grant's Farm, peach picking, parks, bike rides and other fun activities we have done to keep up busy.

Hopefully I can get back to regular scheduling blogging sooner than later.