Well, Calista graduated. From Preschool. This school year just flew by. I was so very lucky to have found a great preschool just across the street. It made getting Calista to school and back very easy. And she really enjoyed having it in someone's home. With just 5 other kids in her class, she got plenty of attention. I finally got to hear a few of the songs Calista worked on through out the year. She would tell me she learned a new song but then forget how it started. I think she sang the loudest at graduation. That's my girl! Her favorite thing to do now that the weather is warmer is to sit on the green communications box in our front lawn and belt out songs. Yesterday she was singing Annie's "Tomorrow". Love that kid.
Here is Calista with Matt (who was the only boy in her class. How about them odds?) Matt and Calista would get together after school once a week. They love to play together.
Here she is getting her diploma from Miss Bridgette.
The Grad. She was the only girl not in a dress. She is definitely my daughter.
I'm sad that school is over. It's going to be a long summer of trying to entertain three kids, but there are some things I will look forward to. Like starting up our morning walks by the river again.
Warning: Long, but I had to get all my thoughts down
I'm sure many of you have been wondering how surgery went. I guess that's kind of presumptuous, but here's an update, nonetheless. Friday morning, April 30 I arrived at the hospital and...
- checked in
- peed in a cup
- got an IV
- got 2 shots of Versed in the IV (the first one wasn't making me loopy enough)
- got an anesthesia block injected in my leg
- got strapped down to a surgical table/bed thingy
- slept for two hours
- was rudely awakened from a great nap by a guy in scrubs
- the guy in scrubs was my doctor telling me "blah, blah, blah" (so not coherent yet)
- fell back asleep
- was rudely awakened again by the woman across the room having a bad reaction to waking up from anesthesia which sounded like someone screaming in a horror film
- fell back asleep
- woke up back in my cubby room glad to see Mark again
- fell back asleep
- cried
- fell back asleep
- cried some more (I don't remember any of this. It's all from Mark)
- finally started to understand what "blah, blah, blah" meant
- probably cried some more, this time tears of happiness
- took 2 hours from start to finish in the attempt to leave; I would get nauseous every time I tried to get up.
The "blah, blah, blah" from my doctor was actually "Marcia, your ACL was perfectly in tact and healthy. There was a tear on your patellar tendon and we think you dislocated your patella, which knocked into your tibia and caused the bruise and stress fracture."
I still get teary-eyed when I think of how completely this situation turned around. It took Mark about 10 times of telling me this story for it to finally sink in. He would tell me every time I woke up but I would fall back asleep in the middle of it. I'm not sure what the future holds since my post-op appointment isn't until next week, but I can tell you that I've been walking on my own since Monday afternoon and I feel so blessed to have had a different outcome than what I thought. I was devastated knowing that I had months of pain and rehab ahead of me. But I woke up to hearing that all that changed.
And through all this I've had such an outpouring of kindness and love from everyone I know. Meghan took my kids for the entire day of surgery, Lisa had dinner brought in just minutes of coming home from the hospital, family had left messages letting us know they were thinking of me, my girls brought me my meals in bed, Mark took days off of work to be Mr. Mom, my sweet nieces came to watch the younger two girls so Mark could watch Téa's soccer game, my neighbor (who went through ACL surgery) came to check on me the next day, Leslie dropped by with a basket full of things to keep me from dying of boredom and restlessness, Carrie brought me chocolate covered strawberries, texts from the Relief Society president, more meals and goodies brought in, emails, Facebook messages. The list is endless.
Thank you.
My nightstand the day after surgery. Includes all the necessities, except for the walkie-talkie which was on the bed next to me.
Woke up Saturday morning with a very swollen left foot. Guess I didn't keep my "toes above my nose" very well. And I seriously need a pedicure.
If you are squeemish at all, don't look at this photo. Mark took this just after unwrapping my leg for the first time three days after surgery. I have never loved a shower more than that day.
My, my how time flies. I can't believe it's May. And I can't believe my oldest turned 7 today. We tried really hard to make it super special since I'm going for the meanest-mother-in-the-world award and made a new rule about birthday parties. The new rule: parties on even numbered birthdays only. And I have to say I must have been truly inspired to make this rule months ago since there is no way I could handle throwing a big bash for Téa with the whole knee thing going on. I'm recovering very well, but not that well. Not well enough to fill my home with a dozen crazy, emotional seven year-old girls. No thank you! Since there wasn't going to be a friend birthday party I knew I had to step it up a notch. How did I do that? I went all out and bought...a balloon. With helium. Yup, I'm a pretty cool mom. Well, Mark actually went out last night to purchase said balloon. As a side note, Walmart charges .50 cents to fill up one mylar balloon. Are you kidding? Moving on...
At 7 a.m. Téa woke up to this
See the cool balloon? (Please ignore the paint splotches. My walls are sick. I'm hoping they get better soon.)
Then we had her favorite breakfast, Dutch Babies (or German Pancakes, which ever you prefer). Téa was able to take her new razor scooter, with streamers and a bell, for a quick test drive outside before school and she loved it. Now if the darn wind would just stop maybe she could ride it more. We all helped make treat bags for her school class and I delivered them, with Calista's help, right after lunch. She was so happy to see me show up with a bag of goodies for all her friends. Mark's parents arrived at the house just as Téa walked in the door from school, which was a great surprise. Then it was off to Cafe Rio for dinner and a quick stop at Coldstone on the way home to pick up the cake.
As we tucked Téa in bed tonight she whispered over and over to me that this was the best birthday ever.
I rule! Oh, I mean, We rule! It was a group effort after all.
