Not funny...

Do you know that my husband doesn't think I am funny?  In fact, he claims that my sense of humor was not one of things that attracted him to me.  My question is "what the heck?"  I don't think I am funny but I do think I have a fairly decent sense of humor and he has yet to see it.  I am going to have to keep working at it.  Maybe I should start pulling some practical jokes.  Some of my college favorites were putting Vaseline on the toilet seat and short sheeting beds.  Somehow I think he wouldn't appreciate those things and they would seem far less funny since we share both the toilet seat and the bed.

Things are going well.  Joel is doing better and better and the hardest part is keeping him from being too active.  I have caught him playing catcher for our son's baseball team and picking up our niece (she is over 15 pounds).   I have been blown away by how much he has improved and changed in such a short time.   He quickly volunteers for "fun" jobs but I have yet to catch him vacuuming and dusting.  There must be another surgery to help with those things.  I am patient.  Doctors are amazing.  Some female/wife doc out there is bound to come up with some fix soon.

Exhausted...

Some weekends I feel relief when they end.  As this weekend comes to a close, I feel a satisfied exhaustion.  I am not going to lie, I don't think we could have fit anything more into the weekend without collapsing.  Now, I am worried that Joel might hit a recovery relapse because he was feeling so good and did so much that even in his pre-pre-surgery state, he would need a few days to recover.  Hopefully, this weekend is the post-surgery "normal" Joel.  If this is the new normal, then I may need to undergo the Chiari surgery to increase my energy level.  

I think I am feeling a pain in my neck which might lead to arm numbness.

The weight of a laundry basket...

When first discussing the recovery of the Chiari surgery with the nurse, she was telling us that after the surgery Joel could fix light easy meals but needed to stay away from housework such as vacuuming and laundry.  Light dusting as on the ok list but we only dust twice a year and his surgery didn't fall during one of those times.  The doctors recommend that after surgery people seriously limit their lifting.  When necessary the weight limit for lifting is 5 pounds.  After a month they could start doing more activity and increase the weight limit 5 pounds per week.

Yesterday marked the one month or four week anniversary of Joel's surgery.  Do you know what that means?  Joel can start lifting again!!!  His weight limit can go up 5 pounds.  Today begins the week he can lift 10 pounds.  Now, 5 pounds is about a gallon of milk.  This is a fairly easy comparison.  Ten pounds, is a little harder so there is room for subjective interpretation bearing there is no scale around.

So as Joel and I were discussing his increased ability today his inference was that a load of laundry weighs more that 10 pounds.  Tonight he was corrected.  One of our full laundry baskets weighs 8.4 pounds.  I think laundry is a great place for Joel to try out his new weight limit!!

The call to change....

After trying to limit my readers to people I know, I decided that it wasn't worth the headache.  I am a public blogger once again...enjoy!

Warning: This will make you gag....

When Joel and I first met, one of thing that attracted me to him was his sense of humor.  He loved to laugh and in time, he has learned to laugh when he is at the butt of my jokes as well.  Since he started having symptoms several years ago, he has suppressed his laughter or stayed away from things and people that might be funny for fear of having his head feel like it might explode.   I did not understand the extent of this pain until this weekend when I again was able to watch Joel laugh hysterically without holding back.  Now, he has been laughing in the last few years but nothing like the uncontrollable laughter he participated in on Friday night.  It was awesome!! 

Recently, I read another person's blog about the positive affects of laughter and how important it is for our overall health.  Do you know four year olds on average laugh 300 times per day and adults laugh as few as 15?  Amazing. 

Our goal: Laugh more!

Rain, rain go away...

On a typical day, blogging happens at night. Today we are experiencing our second day of rain in a row so blogging seems like a natural choice.

The second day of solid rain causes us to change our activities. I have heard a quote which is stated something like "Boredom is the precur to creativity." I tried to look up who said it and I couldn't find it through "google." When I heard that for the first time I was struck by how true it is. When my kids have a long weekend or a vacation like Christmas or Spring Break, the first day is wonderful, the second and third days are a war, and then they get into REAL playing with forts and pretend characters. By the time they are going back to school, I don't want to see them go.

So today, we are being called to turn things upside-down. We are playing baseball with Candyland people. We are putting the fish in instead of "fishing" them out in "Let's go Fishing."

Rainy days cause us to think about typical games in a whole new way. There is no knowing what we will come up with next. I am thinking nap time then maybe breakfast for dinner.

One of those nights....

Tonight has not gone well.  AHHHHHHHHH!!!! How come some nights go so well and other's feel like our roof is about to blow off.

Nevermind, I figured it out.  It rained ALL day.  My kids didn't get to see the sun or play in the grass or ride bikes today.  How do people in Alaska do it when it is dark and cold all day long?  I would have to invest in an indoor sports arena which was decked out with soccer goals, a pitching machine, basketball hoops, and giant gerbil wheels.  

Joel is doing better little by little. Today was a relatively tiresome day where he didn't feel like doing very much of anything.  However, his mushy head is gone which is a really good sign.

Elijah looks at Joel's head everyday and tells him "Daddy your head is all better. Want to play catch?"  To which Joel has to say "no."  The next two months are going to be long ones for a four year old ready to play baseball with his dad every chance he gets.

On the plus side, I am getting better at kick ball which is now the game of choice since it has been decided by the kids that I can't pitch a baseball.  On Mother's day, we played my sister-in-law, Elijah (4), and I versuses Jonah (8) and my nephew (6).  We won after two innings (I couldn't gone on). 11-6. I am putting that in my blog for proof.  I am not sure I will every beat Jonah again.  He is already better than I am.

Here's hoping the sun comes out tomorrow!!

The other of the bed...

On our wedding night Joel and I made a sacrifice.  Joel gave up his side of the bed and I gave up my side of the bed.  In other words, because we were in the midst of nearly disgustingly happy love, I decided to change sides of the bed because I thought the right side was his and he gave up the left side for me.  (Neither of us talked about it because we thought we were being nice and it wasn't a big deal.)  It didn't come out for months what we had done for each other.  As I have heard recently, the difference between a wonderfully cute quirk of a spouse and a really annoying issue is about 6 months.  This was true of this issue with our sides of the bed.

Now in my opinion, in our marriage when one of us does something the other doesn't notice we like to point it out for recognition. For example, "did you see I took out the garbage?" "doesn't the room look nice, I vacuumed?" and "doesn't Jonah's hair look good, we got his hair cut?"  

So after being married for a year, the phrase "well I gave up my side of the bed for you" crept into a conversation and the truth of our sacrifices came out.  However, neither of us wanted to let go of our martyrhood to switch sides.  Truth be told, we had become comfortable with the side we were on and didn't want to change.

Well, when Joel had his surgery we decided to try switching sides for multiple reasons: air flow in the room, closer to the computer and tv, etc.  It was horrible!!  I don't think I slept at all the first night.  I kept rolling into Joel when I thought I was rolling to the edge and at one point I had to get out of bed for the kids and ended up hitting the wall because I didn't know where I was (in the middle of the night getting up with the kids is pretty close to sleep walking).

It took three days before we switched back.  Marriage is about sacrifice and knowing yourself well enough to admit you are wrong.

If I were rich...

Provided that I had money to burn, I would gladly spend money to install video cameras in our bathroom.  Or maybe a key pad on the bathroom door where each kid has their own code so I know who is in there when.  I want evidence of who is spreading urine and tooth paste EVERYWHERE!! I watch them and see nothing.  Then I leave the room and come back to urine on the toilet seat and toothpaste on the floor.  What in the heck goes on while I am in the other room?  I am befuddled!

There I had to get that off my chest.  Joel didn't think that last statement was funny.  Maybe it is him!!!

So, Joel is doing really well.  He definitely reaches his limit on how much activity is too much but is doing a really good job at listening to his body and resting when he needs it.

We did go back to the doctor last Friday and we are still watching his head for any change in swelling or mushiness but all seems to be well.  

A little test...

Tonight we are trying a little experiment. We are trying to find out how long it will take for the kids to put themselves in bed. So far it is 8:04pm and I have 3 naked kids who are bouncing off the walls. At this rate they are going to be awake until 11pm.

About 10 months ago I realized that a 7:45pm bedtime was not determine by how tired the kids were. It is determine by the time at which I am done.

Now it is 8:26 and I broke before they did. I couldn't take it any more, I had to put them in bed. Now I am going to find some chocolate and do the dishes. Then "Glee."

Yes, "Glee" is not as quality as "Modern Family," and yes, sometimes I just need some mindless time. Try it if you need some entertaining music in your life.

Mushy head

Joel had kind of a rough day yesterday with a lot of head pain and feeling yucky overall.  I know those are kid-words but when I spend all day with kids, "yucky" is really a great word to describe how he looked and felt.

Today, his top incision is feeling mushy like he has fluid collecting under the skin.  Technical term: "Water balloon head." We called the Chiari care center and went for a 15 minute visit this afternoon.  They put him on pre-emeptive antibiotics and he has another appointment on Friday at 9:30am.  The doctor is happy that it isn't his main incision and thinks he could have popped an internal stitch where they extracted his skin graft.  We will let you know as this story progresses.

I was just asked by Joel "Are you making the post funny?"  He doesn't realize that it is a work in progress. Funny takes time and pepsi.  I am trying to moderate my caffeine intake so I might be making a run to Chick-fil-a for the new banana-vanilla wafer shake.  I bet I can achieve funny on sugar as well.  We will have to have a blind reading test.  I will post two different posting on two different nights, have you vote, and then reveal which substance, Pepsi or shake, I am on.

Now Joel is trying to distract me.  I can't achieve funny in this harsh circumstances.

Joel update...

I know my posts have taken a turn toward myself instead of Joel so here is the update.

Joel is doing amazingly well.  In fact, he has had a few outing and people are shocked to see him up and around.

So, your thoughts and prayers are working!!! Thank you!!!! We have been very blessed with a fairly easy recovery so far and we couldn't done it without the help!!