Surgery is Scheduled

Sawyer's surgery is scheduled for 10:30 tomorrow. We have to be there at 9:30. They called a day early to schedule due to the weather today. They said that if Plano schools close then they do too. Pretty much all schools are closed today because of the "ice storm." They told me at the surgery center that today's weather won't affect tomorrow's surgery schedule so that's good.

I haven't even told Sawyer about the surgery yet. I want him to get a good night's sleep so I'm going to tell him about it in the morning when he awakes. He cannot eat or drink after midnight but can have clear things like Popsicles, Jello, and water until 7:30 in the morning. It should be an interesting breakfast.

I found a neat coloring book online that a group of anesthesiologists compiled about taking a trip to the hospital. I'm going to choose the appropriate pages (he's not staying the night, for example) and we can read and color it while we wait. That's going to be one of the worst parts, I think. We'll have to wait at least an hour with a hungry child. No snacks or drinks for distraction...fun! I'm going to skip afternoon snack and make supper a little later tonight so that he will fill up and hopefully be okay until tomorrow afternoon. I know Chloe napped for at least three hours when she got home from her surgery, so I'm guessing Sawyer will do the same. It will probably take a while for him to get his appetite back, too.

I'm going to the grocery store tonight so I'm wracking my brain on which are his favorite foods so that I can have them for him. I just want to make all this as painless as possible for our little guy.

Feel free to call tomorrow for an update. We're supposed to be there for three hours max, so we should be back home around 2:00 I'm hoping. Chloe will be with Denise so that is such a weight off our minds. We know that she will be in great hands!

Chloe is Twenty-two Months Old!

I get this pose a lot these days!

Sawyer's Surgery

Sawyer's surgery is scheduled for Thursday, January 29. We don't have a time yet. I have to wait for the surgery center to call and schedule the time. All they said was that it would be in the morning, that it would take about thirty minutes, and that he could be in recovery for 1-2 hours. I feel like, "Here we go again," since Chloe just had her adenoidectomy in November. I think it's funny that happened on Election Day and we found out about Sawyer's surgery on Inauguration Day. Does that even matter? Not really, so I digress...SHOCKING!!

Dr. Kadesky (who was referred by Dr. Darrow) seems to think that Sawyer was probably born with this inguinal hernia. He said that they will use the scope to check out the left side to see whether or not it is herniated as well. If so, he said that he could repair both at the same time. Sounds great to me! I love that Chloe had an adenoidectomy and they can grow back, and now Sawyer is having hernia surgery and they can reoccur again as well. Isn't parenting fun?

I don't know that I'll post again between now and then, but I'll try to write again when I find out the time. I'm sure that all my readers will be praying, but I wanted to ask all the same.

Tips for a Better Life

I know that we're over halfway through January, which means that most of our New Year's Resolutions have flown the coop. That's partially why I'm posting this, because I can use these reminders myself. I need to work on numbers 7, 16, and 22.

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day and while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least ten minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.

3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement: My purpose is to __________ today.

4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, and almonds.

6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

7. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts, or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a
college kid with a maxed out charge card.

9 Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

11. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

12. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

13. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

14. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"

17. Forgive everyone for everything.

18. What other people think of you is none of your business.

19. God heals everything.

20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

21. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick, your friends will. Stay in touch.

22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

23. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.

24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

A Hernia, Really?

I took Sawyer to see Dr. Darrow this morning. He has an inguinal hernia. A bump kept reappearing from time to time, and we knew that it just wasn't normal. I think that we've seen it at least three times since the Christmas holidays. From what I've read it can occur due to heredity, excessive coughing, or straining. Lorne's dad has had three, Sawyer just got over RSV where he coughed for seven days, and we're smack dab in the anal retentiveness of potty training, so take your pick as to the cause.

He has an appointment with a pediatric surgeon on Tuesday. I can't believe that another one of our kids may be having surgery. One of the nurses said that this surgery would be more involved than Chloe's tubes, but I kind of guessed that would be the case.

I'll write on Tuesday when I know more.

Dinosaurs Alive!

We went with Trina, Rebekah, and Luke to the Heard Museum in McKinney to see their Dinosaurs Alive! exhibit. I met Trina through MOPS and she actually lives in our neighborhood! We've had a few dinners together as well as some play dates. Bekah will be four in April and Luke turned two in October so our kids are pretty close in age. Trina is expecting their third child, another girl, in April.

The animatronic dinosaurs were dispersed through some woods on the grounds of the museum. The kids weren't too sure what to make of the first few.









I couldn't get Chloe to sit on the dinosaur, but Luke finally warmed to the idea.

She wasn't too keen on the sandbox either.

Sawyer's Big, Big, Boy Bed

I can't believe that Sawyer is in a twin bed! I wanted to get more pictures of the assembly process, but Lorne said it would go quicker if I stayed downstairs with the kids, and he was right.

He has done great with the transition. I bought a bed rail, but we haven't put it on yet. I'm just so afraid that he'll fall out. Knowing Sawyer it will only take once and he'll never forget that it happened.

We have the toddler bed in Chloe's room, but she's still in her crib. I just can't bring myself to move her yet, especially after my reaction to going through the baby clothes. How can I be so excited that they're growing while simultaneously yearning for them to be babies again? What an interesting ride life can be!

I remember leaving the toddler bed in Sawyer's room for a while before we moved him from his crib, but the toddler bed was totally new to him. Chloe has seen the toddler bed her whole life, so it's really no big deal to her I'm thinking. I'm probably going to keep her in her crib until she starts escaping!

Family Symphony Sundays

I got us season tickets to the Plano Symphony Orchestra's Family Symphony. It's sponsored by a large chain store that already gets tons of our money, so I won't mention that part! Let's just say they're building a Super one across the street from our neighborhood so it's only going to get worse!

The Spooky Symphony back in October was the first part of the series. The four remaining concerts are in a much smaller venue in Plano and feature a few musicians from each part of the orchestra. This one was called Swingin' Strings, then there's Whirlin' Winds, Boomin' Brass, and Poundin' Percussion. I think that I'll need to bring a few more things for Chloe to do this week. She was intrigued, just not for the entire hour. Lorne gets her this week, so maybe he'll have some tricks up his sleeve.

Christmas Take Two (Or is it Four?)

We went to see Denise, Sophia, and Presea the other day so that the kids could open their Christmas gifts. We weren't able to get together before Christmas, but I think that this actually worked out better because all of the craziness is over.

Chloe got the most precious clothes from Gymboree. I'm going to be sure to get lots of pictures of her in them.

I meant to get a picture of Presea too since they were matching.

I think Chloe was as excited about the dump truck as Sawyer.

Presea tried to help Denise extract Sawyer's dump truck from its box.

We got Sophia and Presea a Cozy Coupe.

Sophia with her Leap Frog Tag books.

Presea was mostly interested in the wrapping paper I think.

I know she's too young to understand now, but I hope that she'll be excited about her cross-stitch one day. I can't wait to get started on Austin's.

Playin' With Play-Doh

Sawyer and Chloe spent over an hour playing with their new Play-Doh kit that they got for Christmas. I found it in a catalog and I thought it was so cool. It's basically a tackle box with lots of gadgets and Mr. Potato Head type pieces, just for Play-Doh instead. We also got some Play-Doh in neat colors like purple and pink.

I had to get a picture of the little guy Sawyer created.

"Cheese!"

Happy New Year!

We rang in the New Year with some special French Toast. I got the idea from my Family Fun magazine. I cut out the stencils on New Year's Eve while Mom, Lorne, and I played Scrabble. I bought the new Scrabble Me for Lorne and we played a few games before we moved on to Super Scrabble. We partied it up, let me tell ya! I think we were in bed by 12:15!

I should have propped up the French Toast to show the "2009" a little better, but I sure got some cute pictures of the kids.





We had breakfast for lunch so that I could have bacon grease for the turnip greens for supper. I made our traditional New Year's Day meal of ham, black-eyes peas for luck, cornbread, and the turnip greens for greenbacks.

The kids made some homemade doughnuts for lunch. I got Paula Deen's My First Cookbook for Christmas, and it gave me the idea.

The busy bees.

I couldn't get Sawyer in the shot, but what a great smile from Chloe!

We had way fewer sprinkles this time around compared to the sugar cookies.