Picture post #2

Let's call this post "Movies and Mud!".

Movie night a few weeks ago....

Timothy enjoyed the popcorn

Elizabeth found a great place to watch (yes, those are her Daddy's legs)

Caleb's crazy face

And now for the mud....

How our children came in the other day from playing outside

Their backs

Elizabeth loves the camera!

Stay tuned! More to come! Right now, I have to break for dinner.

Hang on to your girdle, Myrtle!

(I've always wanted to say that! Ha!) TONS of Stevens family pictures coming your way! Maybe like 10 posts?!?! It was WAY past time to download off the camera!

First up -- Lydia is 8 weeks old today!!! Here she is!

Thoughts

Things are starting to settle down to our crazy version of normal around here. Last week was just a killer. It may sound terribly naive but I never really expected my recovery to be that bad. After all, my doctor had me convinced that it was okay if Jonathan only took surgery day off, that I'd be fine to home alone with 6 kids the day after surgery. Really should have thought that through more. Anyway, I'm glad to finally be feeling better. Saturday was so nice out so after dinner we decided to take a walk. That was more painful than I had anticipated, especially going up hill. It was nice to be out in the sunshine, though, especially after such a rainy week last week and with rain that started yesterday and isn't supposed to end until Wednesday. Ugh! Many thanks to the Rolston's who so graciously brought us dinner Thursday night. It was very yummy and made great leftovers for lunch on Friday, too. Nice not to have to think about what to cook or actually having to cook. Thank you! And the kids insist that I ask where those rolls were from. (If you made them from scratch, you can just pretend I didn't ask!) :)

Lydia's 7 weeks old today -- can you believe that? I think I forgot to blog it but she weighed 10 pounds even and was 20 3/4 inches long on 4/6 @ her 1 month check-up. She's starting to change a lot, you can tell she's getting bigger, and she's given away very few precious "real" smiles. April, like March, has gotten away from me. In fact, I'm just now getting around to taking down March's calendar. So I just skipped straight to May, didn't even put April up there. Why bother with only 10 days left? May is going to be crazy, especially the weekends. We have a party to attend on the 9th, we're having a combined party for John & Elizabeth on the 16th, and I'm going out with the ladies from our former church on the 23rd. John's birthday is the 5th & he'll be 4, Elizabeth's birthday is the 18th & she'll be 5, and my mother-in-law's 60th birthday is the 21st. Some times, it just doesn't seem real. Like watching the special on the Today show this morning, marking the 10th anniversary of Columbine. Those kids would have been in their late 20's now. I was 6 months pregnant with Nathan then which means he's about to be 10. Crazy!

Lots of stuff going on around here. Trying to figure out how to get through the day with 6 kids at home, homeschool, and housework isn't going very well but I'm trying to count it all as growing pains. I know they won't all be this young forever which is a good thing although it saddens me, too. Trying to come up with a routine isn't easy either as Lydia is still young enough to not be on a predictable schedule and it never fails that she either interrupts school or the 3 Musketeers (Caleb~Elizabeth~John) interrupt everything else. Some days I'm completely envious of the mothers who's kids are in school! But then I'm reminded that not only am I called to do this, I'm also privileged to be with my kids all the time. Speaking of kids, I should find out what those 3 are up to....

Easter Egg Hunt 2009

Surgery day

Well, here goes....I was called Friday and told that they had bumped up my surgery time and that I now needed to be there at 7:30 instead of 9. Wasn't thrilled about getting kids up before 6 as we needed to leave Candace's house by 7 and had 2 stops to make before we could even go to her house but I was happy about getting out of the hospital early. That didn't happen! Once I was checked into an outpatient room, I dozed off about 8:45 and woke up at 9:15. 9:30 they finally came and took me down to pre-op but I hadn't seen a doctor or anesthesia yet and still didn't have an IV so I knew there was no way I'd be in surgery by 9:45. I must say, though, that was the best IV experience I've ever had! Gave me a shot of lidocaine (sp?) before they put the IV in and I didn't feel the IV at all. I was bummed, though, that when I left the outpatient room to go to pre-op, they made me give my glasses to Jonathan so I sat in pre-op for over an hour without being able to see. While I was waiting, they brought down this woman who was crying and moaning and constantly repeating "Oh my God" and "Please kill me"....took 3 doses of pain meds to get her to shut-up. Definitely very interesting. They gave me some relaxing meds about 10:45 and finally headed toward the OR. I remember getting on the operating table, having special boots put around my legs that would periodically squeeze them to keep the blood flowing, and an oxygen mask put on my face. Last thing I remember was wondering why they snapped the oxygen mask to one side of my face but not the other. Was dreaming about Caleb, can't remember what, when I was woke up. My left calf was killing me which sent everyone in the recovery room into panic mode. They started paging everyone they could think of. Finally the doctor called back and said "She was in stirrups during the procedure so it's muscle strain, she's fine". It's nice to have such a varying opinion -- 1 panicked nurse and 1 panicked nursing student versus 1 "You guys are nuts" doctor. Wasn't really in terrible pain but was given something for that. Finally around 2 they got me back into an outpatient room with the game plan being get me out of the bed, into a chair, have me sit for an hour, and go to the bathroom before going home. That last part didn't go according to plan....took 2 IV bags of fluid, 1 glass of coke, 2 glasses of water, and 1 1/2 loops around the outpatient surgery floor before I was able to check that off my list. Finally got out the door and in the van around 4:45. 2 stops to pick up the kids who were at Candace's and Jonathan's parents (thanks, Shandi, for being our backup!), then a swing through McDonald's drive thru and we were home right around 6. Didn't really feel hungry but after I got over the initial it-hurts-to-swallow-food (I'm assuming from the tube they put down my throat during surgery?), I was able to eat some McNuggets. Doesn't really fit into the "light meals" I was told to eat for the 1st day but, hey, they were there and they tasted pretty daggone good! Took a vicodin and went to bed at 7 only to be up by 8:30 'cause the vicodin wasn't making me sleepy and I couldn't get comfortable. Watched the last hour of Biggest Loser and a few other things on t.v. before trying to go back to bed around 11. Up again at midnight 'cause I still couldn't sleep and Jonathan was having trouble getting Lydia settled. I stayed up until 1 getting her settled finally in the swing and taking a 2nd vicodin before going to bed. Thankfully Lydia slept until 6 and Jonathan got up with her. I slept until 7:30 when Timothy woke up while Jonathan was in the shower. I'm feeling some pain, mostly just an ache that's similar to a pulled muscle, right above my belly button more than the other 2 places I have the small incisions. Having extreme troubles bending over, going from sitting to standing/vice versa, and picking up Timothy but all is tolerable. Jonathan's just now leaving for work after helping me get the house in operating order. He's got to go to church tonight to teach RA's and will take the older 4 with him but since I'm having trouble picking up Timothy, Candace has lovingly agreed to come sit with me during church after she goes to potluck (the Stevens Clan will regretfully not be attending the poutluck but will be ordering in pizza). Orders are to remove the bandages after 2 days and then I can shower; otherwise, take it easy for 2 weeks, no strenuous activities or any exercising, not supposed to do any lifting, etc, and to make an appointment for 4-6 weeks from now. I think that's about it Thanks for all the prayers! Wasn't an easy decision to make and it still makes me sad to close the book on this phase of my life but I'll leave that for another blog....

First picture

It's not the best one in the world (Lydia's head is a tad bit cut off) but it is the best we got this morning! All 6 kids together in a picture for the first time! Happy Easter!

Update

My surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, April 14th @ 11 a.m.-ish. I'll have to be there between 8:30 and 9. It's supposed to be a very quick surgery, done laproscopically (sp?), and once I come out of the general anesthesia, I'll be able to come home. So if all goes well, I should be home by dinner. I've got to see if I can find someone to help Candace with the kiddos. Jonathan's taking the day off but I need him with me and I know having 6 kids all day will be killer (in addition to her own 2 and being pregnant, especially considering 3 of the 8 total kids are babies). My mother-in-law was going to help but it's unlikely that she can switch her usual Wednesday off to a Tuesday and the hospital only does these types of surgeries on Tuesdays. They had an opening for this coming Tuesday but it's the 1st slot so I'd had to have been there at like 4 in the morning (No thank you! I can wait another week!). While part of it saddens me, which I'll blog about later maybe, I am confident we've made the right decision for our family.