Look at those guns

It's the beginning of a great weekend. It started yesterday with the invasion of the Chicago Rodens. It continues today with the arrival of the Texas Rodens - along with a dose of Ozog Family fun.

Last night after dinner the 4 boys took dip in the pool. Here they are giving me their best bodybuilder "pose".

My baby's becoming a man

So tomorrow Nate starts his internship at Consumer Energy. I don't think blue jeans and skull t-shirts are appropriate clothing for the work place.

Nathan has never asked for money, so I was very open to helping him get a starter wardrobe that is presentable in the "big people" world. We went to Kohls to get Nate some pants and dress shirts. I remember when I got my first job at NBD when I was 18. Like Nate I did not have an appropriate wardrobe and my mom took me shopping to get started. After 30 years I remember that kind gesture, so it's nice that I am now in a position to do the same for him.

This outing was quite stressful for Nate. He had a hard time wrapping his head around dressing like his dad or Papa. After some time he was able to purchase 4 pants 6 shirts, t-shirts, dark socks, underwear, and a belt. So he has enough variety in his attire to wear a different pair of pants every day of the week! Pretty good for someone who wears Hillsdale College shorts and some sort of Hillsdale College t-shirt every day.

The best part of the shopping trip was when the cashier let me use my 30% off coupon 2 days early. Nate said the reason we got this was as a payback for enduring my second surgery.

Send Nate good thoughts tomorrow!

Thoughts on a Tuesday

Here are some random thoughts as I sit drinking my coffee on Tuesday morning:

I'm happy that Nathan is FINALLY starting his internship this Thursday. He will soon have money in his pocket

I'm glad I no longer have staples in my stomach-got those out on Friday.

Had the flu this weekend - quite painful to throw up with stomach issues.

Feeling for Matt - he has only had two days off in 3 weeks. While he's making a lot of money he hasn't had any time to enjoy his last weeks before leaving for R.I.

We have another bird's nest in a hanging basket-this time 5 baby birds. Nate is the only one tall enough to reach the basket, it's sweet; he has named all the babies and takes great care when watering the flowers every day.

Going to the Dr. tomorrow. This appointment is with the dermatologist-hopefully no skin cancer to deal with. I'm sick of dealing with health issues.

medical update

Well it's Friday; I've been in the hospital 5 days. I am doing extremely well. The reversal surgery was on Monday-it lasted about 2 1/2 hours. Everything went great. I was out of it for about 24 hours; on Tuesday afternoon I got up and began my road to recovery. I have walked the halls continually trying to regain my strength.

I was finally allowed to eat a liquid diet yesterday. Canned soup never tasted so good (it was 5 days since I had anything to eat). This morning they brought me a "soft" diet. As soon as they dropped off the tray my dr came in to check on me. He was so pleased with my progress he has them take the soft food and bring me a tray of real food. Eggs never tasted so good.

My dr. will be back around dinner time. If all goes well with the eating today I should be going home tonight. While I have enjoyed being the test subject on a new hospital bed-I miss my own bed.

Everyone at the hospital has been wonderful. The nurses, nurses aides, shift administrators, food service workers, and janitorial staff have been so nice to me. They were so excited to have me back to get put back together. Again I have been quite humbled by the support I have gotten from complete strangers. I would recommend Hillsdale hospital to anybody!!

Now that this chapter is hopefully behind me - what will I blog about?

I know - it's been a while

Yes I am aware how long it has been since I last posted. Let's see. Since going back to work I feel GREAT. I have enjoyed every minute of being back. These last two months have flown by. Now I am getting ready for the reversal surgery. That is scheduled for June 6. So I have one more week before I go under the knife again.

I have to admit I am a bit nervous. Before I didn't know what I didn't know. Now I know what I know and some of the things I know are not pleasant to deal with.

For the last two weeks I have spent every spare minute checking research papers. I finally got those checked today. I told Dan that I feel like I need to nest-I'm trying to get everything in order before next week. Today we opened the pool and I pulled out some ornamental grass that has gotten away from me, yesterday I trimmed the scrubs, I'm trying to keep up on my laundry and keep the house in order.

Before, because it was such an emergency, we survived day-by-day. This time
I want to be prepared, both while I'm in the hospital and when I get home. The thing I'm most looking forward to, when all this is said and done, is eating fresh vegetables, especially homemade salsa.

It has definately been a journey. Going through this had made me mentally stronger. While I don't wish this for anybody-I do feel better than I have in a long time.

Kiddie Table

Even though Matt is almost 24 years old he still eats at the kiddie table. From what Matt told us about the table talk - I think it was more like Matt coaxing the boys to eat and Paige talking about anything and everything.

Nest

The other day I was outside trying to get my flower boxes in order for spring planting. This is what I saw in one of the hanging baskets on the back patio. I am going to leave it alone and wait for the birth of the babies. I'm kind of excited.