Wow, if we had known what was coming... I'd a left town

It's been an adventure these past weeks. Not going into too much detail since this is a public blog, but dad has had some pretty severe health and mental issues. He was at Lakeside in ICU for a week and unconscious for 4 days, and now he's at the VA on their psych ICU floor. He's doing SO MUCH BETTER though, that I can't believe he's the same person he was 3 weeks ago. I haven't seen him walking, talking, or interacting this well since before his car accident a year ago last March. I think part of it is that he doesn't have to worry about his "wife" pulling anymore crap, like not depositing her entire paycheck, not paying bills, or being out messing around on him. I know that I've witnessed a couple miracles since he's been in the hospital and I know that God has played a big part in getting dad back on the road to recovery. Next week, he'll have a couple classes he has to attend, but he'll be able to have some passes to come home and I know how much he's looking forward to that.

In other news, Miss Hailey is growing by leaps and bounds. She's started to say something that sounds like, "z'at" which is loosely translated as "what's that?". She's always pointing and saying, "Z'at?" -- Too darn cute! She walks on the inside of her playpen, holding on to the sides, and stands up for LONG periods of time to watch TV - apparently she doesn't like watching through the mesh! Her favorite TV channel is still Passport, where she watches all kinds of Sprout activities. She's not into the cartoons so much, but she loves it when Chicka squeaks and whoever the morning host is reads the birthday cards --- Wonder if she knows her name will be on there in a couple of months! She adores The Wiggles because she loves music and loves to dance! They can keep her attention for the entire show and she seems disappointed when it's over! Silly bug!

My Canaon Rebel died - which makes me very, very mad. I waited all winter for summer to come so I could go out and take pictures and now summer is here and the camera is dead. Well, it's really not totally dead, only if I want to use the flash. I guess I could go take outdoor pictures, but I'd like to take pictures of Hailey and all the cool things she's doing. The old Canon PowerShot 30 is about dead too. It takes a new battery about every 5 minutes. Ugh. I don't feel like a good camera is a luxury - heck, I'm the family historian! I neeeeeeed to take pictures!

Nothing else new and exciting... I haven't even had time to work on scrapbook pages or anything that I'd really like to. Hailey keeps me jumping during the day and by night time I'm so tired I could care less about hobbies!

I was seeing a new doctor (chiropractor) that was doing some real good on my back pain - but then I haven't had the time to go. His last appointment of the day is at 5:30, so I haven't been going since I've been going to see dad in the evening after Steve gets home and this week Matt has had my car because his car died and he's had to use mine. Can't have a car seat in his dad's truck. He's tried so hard to get another car, but his dad can't co-sign for him and Matt doesn't have enough credit to get a loan on his own. Steve gets mad because I let Matt use my car, but I haven't heard him volunteering to co-sign. Matt's a good kid - I know he would make sure he paid the car payment, but unfortunately Steve's been burned a little in another situation, so he's not going to stick his head out over this one. Oh well, everything will work out in the end!

So thankful to my friends at church and the missionaries, the Temple prayer roll, and a lot of praying on our part to get dad back to where he is today. Sometimes, you just can't thank God enough.

Now that that's over...

This has been a busy, crazy week. I'm so tired I'm just stupid (shut up, Melanie...) I'm used to sleeping as long as I want to, or need to, in the morning and this week hasn't afforded me such a luxury. Monday was good... I think I got to sleep late. Actually, I can't remember! lol

Tuesday morning mom had her heart catheterization. Steve and I got up at 4:45 (yikes - I have been known to stay up that late...) so we could drive them to the hospital. We had an ice storm overnight and we were afraid the roads would be pretty bad. Turns out they weren't as bad as they could have been and we got them there in plenty of time. She had to be at the hospital by 7, and we got there 6:45. Her cath was scheduled for 9:30, and she was good to go. Unfortunately, it got pushed back to 10:30, so there we sat for 4 hours before the procedure even began! I hate to wait, and I especially hate to wait in hospitals. Nerve-wracking! To top it all off, mom was getting nervous and antsy, I can't say as I blame her. They told us the cath itself would take about 30 minutes and if they had to do an angioplasty or stent it would be about 90 minutes. By 12:30 we were starting to get a little concerned, but she came back soon after that and the news we got was good, she had no problems that needed to be fixed. The cardiologist wasn't happy with her HDL, so he increased her Lipitor, but that was the extent of it. She got to go home that afternoon.

Wednesday I had an appointment with the oral surgeon to get the results of the biopsy from my mouth. At 10 a.m.! That was fine too - thank God. I'm really getting tired of being cut on this week, but at least everything was good.

Yesterday I think the dogs got me up early. To be honest I can't remember yesterday morning either! Brother...

This morning I had a dentist appointment at 10. Why do I insist on setting appointments so early in the morning? Unfortunately I kept hitting the snooze and when I woke up it was 9:32. No way was I going to make it to the dentist's office by 10. I called, hoping to reschedule, but when I called I found out the appointment was really 11. I'm not sure if I was happy that I could make the appointment after all, or mad because I could have slept longer without having to mess with the alarm! The appointment went well and I got my old filling drilled out and replaced with a new one without too much difficulty. The only problem was the stupid numb lip I had until 3:30!

Our stupid computers for work were acting up again tonight. I get so frustrated with it. First I couldn't log in and then it was so freaking' slow all night. Ugh. The only high point of the evening was dinner from Jason's Deli. Yummy.

I think, knock on wood, that my Christmas shopping is finally done! I hope it's done... I can't think of another thing for another person. I ended up getting quite a few gift cards because I really didn't know what some people needed. And I know some people have events - like new babies - coming up and would like to be able to get what they need. Hey, I aim to please!

We were hoping that my brother would get to come home and we could have a family-type Christmas for the first time in over 20 years. It doesn't look that that's going to pan out. He was going to try to come in this week with his roommate, who was coming to town for h is mom's surgery, but that didn't work out. Now he has to go to San Francisco next for a meeting and by the time he gets done he doesn't know if his roommate will be back or not to take care of the dogs so he can come. I talked to him on the phone for awhile tonight, but it looks like it'll be after the first of the year before he can get the time to come back. I'm really disappointed, I really had hoped we could all get together. The only good thing is maybe he'll get to come back when Tony is home from Cuba

So, instead of having a family early Christmas, we're going to have a birthday dinner for Mel next Wednesday. Poor Mel - her birthday is the 22nd and she's never gotten to have a special birthday dinner with the family because everyone has always been in a frenzy over Christmas. Now it's her turn. We're having Turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, veggies, and all that good stuff - and a real live birthday cake for Mel. Not a Happy Birthday Jesus cake - a Happy Birthday Melanie cake! I'll have to do a good job on it for her! She's my baby sister don't cha know?

That's about it for right now! I plan on sleeping as late as I want tomorrow! Haha!!!

I'm cured! Heh

I had my surgery yesterday. It went well although the cyst or whatever it was, was quite a bit larger than Dr. E expected. He told Steve it was quite a bit larger than an extra large egg, so a lot of it was up into the foot itself, which really explains the numbness and the foot cramps I've been having as of late. I can't work the rest of the week, I'm supposed to be keeping my foot elevated for 3 days, but I just had to take a second and blog. Maybe I should dig around for Meg's laptop, then I could play with the computer in bed...

Obviously there isn't really much else going on. I stayed in bed after I got home from the hospital and watched the first season of Gray's Anatomy. It's amazing how much better the show has gotten! I've always been a fan, but it's really, gotten better, the dialogue, sets, everything. Can't wait for season 4 to start. I know there's a way to save my season 3 off iTunes and be able to watch them on TV, but I can't figure it out. I'll have to do some playing with it this weekend.

We have some great people in church. Our RS president brought over pot roast, potatoes, and carrots with a wonderful fruit salad, and our home teachers brought over 2 chocolate cakes and some yummilicious home made pecan rolls. I have to get that recipe. I'm looking forward to having the foot heal so I can start walking again. Maybe now that the foot is fixed I won't walk so funny and my back won't hurt so much. Wouldn't that be a great added benefit?

It's going to be beautiful today, only in the 70s. I'm thinking of turning off the A/C, and letting some fresh air in the house. I think the house just starts to get too musty with 6 dogs, and 3 humans. Oh, and 2 recently acquired gerbils whose names I can't remember for the life of me. Toby was as infatuated with them as he was with the corn last week. Meg has them down in her bedroom in a cage and Toby knows it. He sat at the gate at the top of the stairs and whined all night. Meg was out and Steve was downstairs on his radio with his headset on, so guess who was the only one who could hear him. Yeah. Thanks guys.

Okay, time for another pain pill and get the foot up, it's throbbing like mad! TTFN.