Question

A conversation with Travis this week:

Travis:  Mommy, do you and Daddy fight ever?

Me:  Yes, sometimes we do.

Travis:  What do you fight about?

Me:  Well, sometimes we just disagree about things.

Travis:  Like if you want to watch Peter Pan and Daddy wants to watch Toy Story?

Me:  Yes, kind of like that....

Updates

Here's a few family updates and progress reports:

• Travis lost another tooth this week.  Now he's down the two teeth bottom, front.  Big gap.  He's just pleased with the money he's netted so far. 

• Justin moved up to an open cup this week.  He's been able to do it for a while, but I've been putting off making the move so I wouldn't have to clean up so many spills.  He's good at drinking, but he doesn't tip the cup far enough down after drinking.  So I don't put more than about 1/4 cup in each time and then refill, refill, refill.  I'd rather do that than clean up, clean up, clean up.  He's doing really well!  I haven't had to clean up very much at all.
• Justin also is making great progress walking up stairs.  We have a staircase with spindles (and so does therapy) so he can hold at whatever height he needs.  He sometimes forgets to advance his hand before taking steps, but he remembers with just a little help.
• Randy is healing well.  We had to make a trip to the dr. this afternoon because the dressing was getting really loose.  They cut it off so we got to see it for the first time.  It looks really good!  They cut from the base of the thumb up and around where he cut it and then pulled it around to stitch it.  The stitches are huge and blue!  And you can see the tip of the pin that's in his thumb.  He said we can just leave it exposed like it is.  Randy's bumped it a few times and it smarts.  I believe him!  They gave him a splint to wear and some gauze to wrap around the thumb under the splint.  We have experimented with a few other dressings for underneath the splint and that gives him more cushion so it doesn't rub quite as much.
• I am doing just fine!  The pressing needs are being met and for now, that's all that matters.  God has been so good.  I don't usually get much "girl" time, but I think God knew I would need it so it just worked out that I have had several evenings out with my friends this past week that have been so refreshing and encouraging.
• Travis' prayers are usually very rote, but this evening he thanked God for healing Daddy's thumb today and for taking care of him and how He knew that this would happen even before He made the world and He planned for it to be okay.  So cute and honest.  Travis always is very concerned with bad things happening and so last week I talked to him about Job and that made me realize that none of his Bibles have that story in them.  What a shame!  That's hugely important for little kids!  And then guess what his lesson was about this past week in Bible class?  Of course, it was Job.  I am so in love with God's timing!

Surgery

Randy was scheduled for surgery early this morning and everything went very well.  It only lasted about an hour and no complications.  They didn't have to do any grafts!  The surgeon was able to reconnect both the tendon and the skin without cutting anything else.  He said that it is going to be tight, and he might not have complete range of motion, but it was a much easier fix than was expected.

I got some pictures to make up for none from the ER.   Here's the "before" pictures:

And here's the "after".  Randy was so adorable asking the same questions again and again.  His nurse, Janet, was so patient and answered all of his questions.  I have so much respect for people who can do jobs like that.  She did her job very well!

Check out Randy's styling blue socks!  They looked good with his sandals.

We set Randy up on the sofa with his pillow and ice packs.  Justin wanted a pillow and ice pack too!  (He is just wearing his diaper because he had an accident at therapy.  He did great the rest of the day going to the bathroom though.)

Randy is starting to get feeling back in his hand and it's not feeling very good, but the pain meds are helping.  He goes back to the doctor next week to see how he's healing.  Thank you for your prayers.  Randy's doing fine!

Do Over

This week has been one we wish we could do over for sure.  It has not turned out at all like we expected, hoped or planned.  I already told you about Randy, but then yesterday we had another set back.  My brother got married yesterday, but we didn't go because of Randy's hand.  So we had some unexpected family time!  The lawn needed to be mowed and I had planned to wash the car, and then we were going to be free.  So I gave Randy a list of what needed to be done inside, and I went outside.  Justin went with me and Travis stayed inside, with strict instructions to come get me if Daddy needed me.  In less than 5 minutes, Travis came running out and yelled, "Daddy needs you!"  I grabbed Justin football style and dashed indoors.

He was up in the attic, pouring bleach down the A/C drain to unclog it.  (Something that we need to do every few months, especially when the a/c runs all the time.)   He was adjusting his feet to be able to pour the bleach down the drain, when you guessed it, he stepped right through the ceiling of Travis' room.  And in his floundering to prevent falling completely through the ceiling, he grabbed the bottle of bleach and it fell straight through the hole.  It caught the corner of Travis' dresser and splashed all...over...the ...floor.  And then it poured out the rest of the completely brand new bottle (minus about 1.5 cups) all over the carpet.

I rushed into the room and grabbed the bottle of bleach and then realized that I was standing in bleach and everywhere I walked I would be spreading it.  I accepted that the carpet was ruined, slipped into the bathroom right next door with as few steps as possible, washed off my feet and ran downstairs to grab all the rag towels we own.  I paused only long enough to instruct the boys not to come upstairs under any circumstances. The fumes were overpowering!

By the time I dumped all the towels on the floor, Randy had made it out of the attic and he was assessing the size of the hole he had made.  Apparently it was close to the site of a previous repair so the hole ended up being HUGE compared to the size of his foot.  He set to work figuring out how to close the hole (temporarily) and I rescued Travis' blankets that were in a basket surrounded by bleach.  I think they are all safe, but the wicker baskets are a slightly lighter color around the bottom edge now.

Randy decided to screw the sheet rock back into the ceiling until we can get back to fixing it.  So he somehow managed to do this with only one hand (see previous post...).  I was very close by and praying that this clean up would not somehow become the third incident in Randy's string of bad luck.  He did a superb job and then we taped up what was left.  I cannot believe that packing tape is holding, but so far, so good!

I attempted to sop up the bleach, while at the same time trying to keep my feet dry so that I wouldn't spread bleachy footprints all over the carpet.  Fortunately with the bathroom next door, as soon as a towel became drenched, it was tossed into the bathtub.  Once the damage was done, there wasn't much else we could do!  Now all our rag towels are white!

In the midst of clean up, I got a call from my father-in-law.  "Whatcha doin' ?"  His favorite call opener.  "Cleaning up the mess from where Randy stepped through the ceiling of Travis' room."  I said, attempting to sound very casual.  "WHAT?!"  I quickly summarized what was happening and he offered to come help us.  Not really sure what else to do, I agreed.

They both came over and it was decided that the carpet where the bulk of the bleach was poured needed to come out to ensure that it wasn't seeping through the floorboards eventually to come dripping into our bedroom below.  So the guys ripped it out.  Then Travis and Justin got to help pull out all the staples.  I am not sure all what happened during that time, but there was a whole lot of giggling.  And this was the end result:

Here's the "after" from the ceiling.  The before was much more dramatic, but I forgot to take a picture in the chaos.

And while I know Randy wishes he could get a "do over" for the day, it really isn't all that bad:

• Randy did not fall all the way through, requiring another trip to the ER.  Now that would have been embarrassing!
• Travis was inside prepared to come get me, just in case.  He did awesome!
• This hole, plus the holes caused by the pipe leaks from earlier this month, means we have enough sheet rock repair that we can justify hiring someone to do it.  Yeah!  Any names of good sheet rock repairers?
• There are no bleach footprints outside of the bedroom!
• The fumes were nearly unbearable while we were fixing the ceiling.  Cutting out the carpet made the room "sleepable" again, which was good because Randy's parents spent the night last night after their A/C went out!  I love being able to help someone else out after all the help we require!

It's really all good.  We have a few more expenses than we planned for at the beginning of the month, but we are making it!  Everything is safely and adequately patched so we can sort through and decide what comes first.  Actually, we know what comes first:  Randy's hand, tomorrow morning bright and early.  After he's healed, we can decide what comes next.  Please pray for him tomorrow, and me too!  Thanks!!

Good Intentions

When Randy mows the lawn, I am usually working so the boys go outside with him and play while he's working.  Travis likes to find things and get creative in playing with them.  So a few weeks ago he found a stick that looked like a knife and somehow the talk came around to Randy whittling the stick into a wooden knife for Travis.  This was right before vacation and Travis was so upset that he would have to wait until after vacation for his knife.  So this week Randy started working on it.  He decided that since he had a little more time, he should use something a little more substantial than the stick that Travis found.  So he found a piece of scrap lumber in the garage and cut it down to the size he wanted.

The whittling project itself lasted exactly two nights.  The project ended on Wednesday when Randy sliced open the top of his thumb and we spent the night in the ER.  I called a neighbor to stay with the boys (they were already asleep).  Randy was in a little bit of shock and I never actually saw what he did until the doctor did a little coaxing to get the cloth off his hand.  It wasn't bleeding very badly by that time, but there wasn't much skin left to do any bleeding.  He cut out a chunk the size of a large thumb nail!  Randy wouldn't look, so I checked it out for us both.  Wouldn't you know it, I forgot to bring my camera!  I was so mad, but that wasn't really my thought when I was trying to get out of the house.  Sorry...  After a quick tetanus booster, they gave him some antibiotics, irrigated and dressed the wound and gave us directions to visit a hand surgeon the next day.  The doctor was concerned that Randy couldn't move his thumb up.  The doctor thought there could be some tendon damage.

While we were checking in at the ER I got a call from our neighbor who was staying with the boys and she said that Travis had woken up and he was very upset and inconsolable when he woke and found out that we were gone.  She spent most of the time we were gone telling him stories of nice happy places, praying and trying to convince him that we were coming back.  He threw around the word "abandoned" a few times to describe what we had done.  It was way more work than what we ever thought "staying with the kids" would be!  Travis didn't even fall back asleep until about 11:45 pm.  (He did sleep until 7:30 the next morning though!!!)

Ok, so back to Randy:  After we loaded up on pain meds and antibiotics at the 24-hour pharmacy, plus a Wendy's Frosty to make the pain meds go down easier, we went home.  Randy mentioned that we should be sure to look for the part of his thumb that he cut off so that Travis or Justin didn't accidentally find it the next morning.  Good thinking!  I found the chunk of skin still stuck to the blade!  We did a quick clean up of the accident site and went to bed, ready to get up early and start calling the doctor as soon as he opened.  My many years of doctor-appointment-making skills were to my advantage as we snagged a perfect slot after lunch.  :)

The morning brought the challenge of the shower and getting dressed with one hand.  Randy bumped it a few times and it nearly sent him through the roof!  Poor guy!  He even rode along with us to therapy and to Justin's blood draw (we go back to endocrine next week and the doctor wanted another thyroid reading before the appointment).  Then it was time for his appointment.  We had to explain what "whittling" is to the nurse.  They did an x-ray to make sure he didn't cut or damage the bone (he didn't) and then we met with the doctor.  He said that Randy did a really good job of cutting his thumb and that it was a tough case because he cut all the way to the bone in a scooping motion (kind of like, when you whittle...)  and so he actually cut out a section of the tendon.  When it gets that close to the end of the thumb, the tendon is very thin and fragile and so he can't just pull it back together and stitch it.  It will simply pull right out.  Instead he'll have to graft in a piece of tendon from his wrist.  As for closing up the hole in Randy's thumb, the surgeon cannot graft skin he cuts from another part of the body over the bone and cartilage that is exposed because it will not take.  It has to be "live" skin that he cuts and stretches around from the rest of the thumb.  He will then be able to graft skin lower down on his thumb over the muscle that he exposes while stretching the skin.  Pretty intense, huh?  And he plans to pin and immobilize it because the repair will be so delicate that he doesn't want it moved for several weeks.  By that time, scar tissue may form so firmly that it may not even bend at that joint.

That means surgery on Tuesday and a very long, painful recovery process.  So until then, he is brandishing a splint and some major gauze wrapping.  He is already tired of it.  He said that buttons are nearly impossible and he contemplated wearing elastic waist-banded pants to work on Monday.  I am pretty sure that's not in the dress code!


I want it noted for the record that in spite of my many incidents with knives, I have never required a visit to the ER, much less surgery.  My clumsiness with knives has become the brunt of many a joke, but this time it's not me!  I have had to awaken Randy to help bandage my hand after cutting myself washing our brand new steak knives, I have splattered blood 360 degrees around the kitchen, narrowly missing Randy standing right next to me, and I have various scars from knife slips and fumbles, but never did I do anything this good.  You know this means our children are banned from knives forever.  They are likely to lose a limb with our history!

(Travis took the picture!)

Visiting Wisconsin

It has been a long time since we have taken a long trip to Wisconsin to visit my relatives and spend some quality time visiting and relaxing.  Now that my mom is back and her treatments are completed, I thought it was time to fix that and make it a vacation.  Once we started talking, we realized that it has been more than 6 years since Randy has been to WI, so he was well overdue for a visit.  He said that he was protesting since he told me that he never wanted to go up in the winter and the last time we made him go for Christmas and there was a huge snowstorm.  He's from Texas; I can't blame him!

In spite of everything, I got all four of us up to WI in the midst of a Texas heatwave so the efforts were well rewarded.  We played outside and enjoyed the sun all day long.  We made out first stop at my cousin, Kurt's house.  He and his wife, Mary, have one beautiful daughter, Lexi, who we haven't seen since they visited us last February.  We started the visit with a walk and a trip to the playground.

It poured rain the night before when we arrived so the playground was incredibly damp.  Of course we didn't bring anything to wipe off the equipment, so Justin sacrificed himself and went down the slide first to clean it off for the rest of the kids.

Lexi finished up the job.

After that, Justin's shorts were so wet that he just got stuck whenever he went down the slide.  This is a true to life picture of how fast he went:

All three of the kids had a great time playing.  It didn't take long for them to get comfortable with each other.  They played like old friends!

And then began our fascination with bugs.  Right before we left Texas, we read the book A Pocketful of Cricket and Travis decided that he needed a pet bug.  Thus began the quest.  He found a grasshopper and enlisted Kurt to catch it for him.  The one problem was that he refused to touch it and grasshoppers are not known to sit still for very long.  So it disappeared quickly.

Justin and Lexi made friends too.  They are a good pair.

Travis found his favorite playground toy:  a sand digger!

Then we went home and on the way found a caterpillar.  I got another pet request and a refusal to touch so after watching it crawl up and down Kurt's, Lexi's, Justin's, and my arm, we put it safely in the grass and continued home.  Then Kurt blew up the bounce house and the kids jumped themselves silly while Kurt and I tried to sit and talk.  (Mary was working.)  It's hard to take pictures of three kids bouncing!

After nap, dinner, and a little more bouncing, Kurt got a fire going and we roasted marshmallows for smores.  We could never do this in Texas!  Between the fire ban and the 100+ temperatures there is no way we would stand around a campfire in Texas in August! 

I decided to let Justin have a smore (even though it has wheat) because he was refusing just the marshmallow and I figured he wouldn't eat very much of it anyway.  I was wrong.  Do you see that tongue coming out of his mouth?  That's a "Ooh, this is tasty" sweep over the top lip.  He polished off the entire thing.  Lexi barely touched hers.  Figures.

It's hard to see, but if you follow the stick all the way up, you can see the perfectly toasted marshmallow.  Not his doing by the way.  Kurt makes the perfect mallows.  He has way more patience than the rest of us.

On the way back inside to throw all the kiddos into the bath Kurt spotted another creature.  I think he called in a tiger striped frog, or something like that.  By this time, Travis worked up enough courage to touch, but not hold.  Justin thought it was pretty cool!  The next morning we found tree frogs climbing up the picture window in the living room.  Mary captured one for Travis and he touched it again.  But it was pretty jumpy!

Day two started out with a visit to the "zoo" on the way to get Daddy from the airport.  "Zoo" is a generous term, but it was perfect for the kids.  Just enough animals to keep their attention, no crowds, and the perfect price - free! 

This is Justin's sign language for "pig".  He holds his nose and on occasion we get a solid "snort" out of him!

The alpacas have some serious teeth.  We kept the kids away from him!

Daddy was safely rescued from the airport and at nap time he settled into what would be his vacation routine of napping with the kids.  Then we went to my uncle's house for dinner with my other cousins too!  I took pictures for my grandmother since she has never been there, but I forgot to take pictures of the actual house!  (My mom has since taken my grandmother to visit so no worries.)  Travis had a great time with my cousin's son, Matthew, who is about a year older than he is.  It took about two minutes to get over the nerves.  And Justin joined the fun chasing them!  The kids were having so much fun I told my aunt we'd just pick them up the next day.  She didn't go for it.  I am sure they'd take care of themselves!

(L-R) Kayla, Justin, Lexi, Travis, Matthew, and Brianna

The next day we all went to my grandmother's house.  And what visit is complete without a trip to the cookie factory?  Mary had never been to the cookie factory so we had to show her what it is all about.  Lexi enjoyed it too!   Randy hasn't been there either so it was a big trip for us.

Kurt, Mary and Lexi on their first trip to the cookie factory.

The kids definitely got their dessert that day.  I used cookies as a bribe to keep the kids in bed.  If they didn't get out of bed the whole time we were there they got to pick out one kind of cookie to buy.  And if they behaved well they got to try more samples.  If they misbehaved, they lost samples.  This only really worked with Travis, but he influenced Justin to behave by not being the instigator. :)

Three wiggly great-grandchildren and a great-grandmother!

Grandma enjoyed reading Elmo to Justin, and he enjoyed hearing it for the 150th time.

I treasure each picture that we get of the boys and my grandmother.  I want the boys to know the rich legacy they have.  It was a fabulous visit.  I got to hear more stories and I was able to cook for grandmother, although nothing compared to the years of delicious roast beef, mashed potatoes, fresh garden vegetables, and fruit-filled pies that we all enjoyed as kids.

We rounded out our trip back in Madison.  I made plans to eat at all of my favorite places:  apple fritters at Greenbush bakery, pizza at Rocky Rococo, and baked goods at Perkin's.  All I got were the fritters, and the boys got a meal at Ella's Deli.  It is a childhood dream with all kinds of carnival decorations and moving characters.  Justin was mesmerized by the moving tools.  (Trust me, they move in real life.)

Each table is decorated inside and some even have moving parts.  Here's one of my favorites, but no Continental plane.  I didn't even look for United!  Our table had a train, but it didn't work.  Big disappointment for the boys.

What carnival restaurant would be complete without a carousel?  The boys finished off the meal with a couple of spins. 

The second time around Travis got the Badger horse!  Check it out with the big "W" and even the rose for the big Bowl game.  Travis even had on his Badger shirt.  (We stocked up on our Badger and Packer gear while we were visiting!)

It has been so long since we have taken a week-long vacation that I ran out of camera battery and I didn't bring the charger.  So the flash didn't work very well for the last few shots.  We fit in as many family visits as we could during our Madison time so here's with my cousin Jeff and his wife, Michelle's kids.  Sorry for the absolutely lousy exposure.  It in no reflects on the awesome visit we had.  It has been so long since we have seen them and I am totally loving the way they all played so well together.  Anaiah even shared her pet rats with Justin.  (What did I tell you about the "animal" theme of our trip?)

We also fit in a visit with one of my mom's cousins and her husband.  This is the best one of the bunch, sorry!  But dinner and the conversation were great!  The kids love Nana's toys (our toys growing up) and they were perfectly content playing while we talked.  I so appreciate adult conversation!

Even some of Nana's not toys are fun.  She has a bucket of wooden apples and the boys spent hours playing with them and stacking them and sorting them and throwing them.  Travis even practiced counting by three's with them.

 

And then the camera died, so no pictures of my Uncle Mark and Sam during their dinner visit.  But the rest of the trip was spent helping my mom organize and clean as she unpacked and sorted everything that she brought home from our house.  We got it on both ends!  Randy cleaned ceiling fans, I mopped the kitchen and killed spiders in the storage unit.  Can I just say that I am not scared of spiders, but dark areas filled with spider webs on all sides, all currently occupied by their makers was enough to make me squirm.  I emptied the end of a can of Raid (perhaps twice as much as necessary...) and then l ran out to wait for the smoke to die down.  Even then as I scraped out the remnants with a broom, I was certain that at least one spider had survived to avenge the deaths of his friends and relatives.  Not my favorite job, but I took one for team.  I asked Randy to check my hair and back for any taggers along and he pronounced me clean only for my next trip out to find a bug clinging to my shirt.  I jumped back about a foot, like that was going to help!  But I survived and we did what we could to improve the appearance of her home.  There is more left to do, but that can wait for another visit.

We also found time to hit a Border's going-out-of-business sale, Trader Joe's, and the Brandon Meat Market for our supply of brats and bacon.  That, along with our cookies, more than filled up our bags.  Then it was time to say good-bye.  I threatened to stay until the temperature in TX got below 95, but that doesn't seem to be coming any time soon.  WI weather was beyond perfect.  Sunny, breezy and mid-80's.  Love it.  Just like I do all my family and friends who live there.  You are welcome to visit Texas in January. :)

ENT Visit: Apnea Update

We went to the ENT this morning to see if Justin's tonsils are a playing a part in his sleep issues.  One look confirmed that his tonsils will soon be history.  His tonsils have grown from a +1 (growth blocking 25% of his airway) to +3 (blocking 75% of his airway) since last summer.  Why is everything growing inside and not outside?   That's where all his food is going!  The doctor will remove the adenoids at the same time, even though she cannot see them to know if they are a problem.  I asked her why do the surgery if he will probably need CPAP anyway.  She said that it's still likely that he will need CPAP, but the removal of the tonsils means the air flow settings will not need to be as high to force air past the tonsils.  And removing the adenoids will give an extra millimeter, which will help too.  The lower flow settings will mean he will tolerate it better.  I am all for that!

Because of his age and DS he will need to spend the night in the hospital.  And the doctor said to be prepared for at least a week of complete dedication to Justin's healing.  She talked with Travis about remembering how he felt after surgery and that it wasn't time for wrestling and picking on his brother but that it was a chance to be a loving and helpful big brother.  Travis definitely said that it was no fun having tonsils out, so he can commiserate with Justin.  I am glad we didn't do them at the same time! Time to stock up on ice cream and pudding...