Kate's Surgery is Over at Last...

For those of you who hadn't heard, Kate got her tonsils and adenoids removed yesterday. For a girl who can get skittish easily, she was incredibly brave. We absolutely couldn't be any prouder of her. She did her best not to let the impending doom consume her. She actively tried to put on a happy face and not worry about what was coming for her.

Here she is just before leaving for surgery and of course you can see she's sporting a smile.

On the way to the Wausau Surgery Center, she played her new DS game that she got from Aunt Becky, Uncle Jason, Chloe and Myah, along with a book, nail polish, lip gloss and popsicle making supplies! This really made Kate's day. Thank you so much for thinking of her and being so generous! Your actions were very much appreciated. On the way she said "this game rocks".

The doctor was behind schedule so we spent quite awhile in the waiting room. And as you can see, she still had a smile on her face even though she was hungry and nervous.

I don't mean to exploit Kate and how scared she was, but I just wanted to illustrate how awful a decision it is to decide on surgery for your child no matter how "small and routine". For her this was anything but "small". It killed me to have them wheel her away while she was grasping at me and begging me not to go... I pray to God that she will never need another surgery as long as she lives.

I sort of mini-hyperventilated in the car as we arrived and started tearing up too, but I pulled it together so she wouldn't see my fear. I even held it together as she cried and begged me not to go (although I felt like the worst mother ever)! When they called us back to the recovery room, we heard that she got a little revenge on the doctor and nurses. Typically children are pretty inconsolable when they come off of the IV sedation, but she apparently won the title of the worst! They said she was "madder than a hornet". They eventually gave her more medicine to knock her back out because they were afraid she would hurt herself. As the male nurse left us with our unconscious child, he asked how old she was. We told him and then he said, "well, I just got beat up by a 7 1/2 year old today." Good for her! She has her mother's spirit!!! LOL But seriously, when he left us alone, I sat by her bed and you could tell her breathing was labored and she was all hot from her meltdown. I just broke out in tears. When you make a decision like this, you constantly wonder if you made the right one. Then reality hits, and you pray that nothing goes horribly wrong. Being a parent is the very best job in the whole world and it comes with so many wonderful benefits, but on days like these, it just sucks. There no other word for it. Yesterday was awful all around for her. She threw up probably five times and was just out of it for much of the day.

I'm happy to announce that she is feeling much better today. Not perfect, but better. This morning she was still feeling pretty awful, but then she was rallying and I think it was because I started giving her smaller doses of her pain medication at more frequent intervals. But, I can't say the day has been perfect because as I was typing just moments ago, she threw up for the first time today (and it's past 5:00pm...plus she hadn't puked all night either). Hopefully that is it though. She had been moving around more and doing crafts/activities (all easy going things), but apparently it is still too much for her. If we're lucky, she will be back to normal in a day or two... we shall see...

Summer Lovin'

I am LOVING summer this year! This is the first year that I haven't been doing daycare in the summertime AND the kids are finally to that glorious independent, but still sweet, age. We have been biking (Jack just learned how to ride a two-wheeler), jogging, swimming and... berry picking! On Father's Day weekend, Josh went up to Rhinelander to spend it with his dad golfing and fishing. He said it was hard being away from us, but knew the importance of having time just with his dad too. We couldn't agree more. To make up for dad not being there, I kept the kids busy with all sort of activities and one of which was strawberry picking. Wisconsin (at least in our neck of the woods) was slow to warm up and the sunshine hasn't been ideal for the berries. The owners said it would probably be just another week before the bushes really popped. We didn't let that hamper our experience and we forged ahead finding many nice berries anyway. We'll go back in a few weeks when the raspberries pop. Those are our favorites! We like to eat many along the way...

Graduation Day!

Do you remember graduating practically every year you completed in school? Neither can Josh or I. I went through preschool and kindergarten with a hug and a kiss and a "good luck next year" as far as I can remember! Now I think the kids have graduated at least 4 or 5 times between the two of them! It is a little ridiculous, but the kids seem to get a kick out of it and feel very proud of themselves. I can only suspect that this new tradition was developed to keep that excitement alive in "at-risk" youngsters so they'll actually want to do the real thing someday... just a thought. At any rate, "We're so proud of you Jack! Good luck in first grade!!!"

The successful Kindergarten graduate.

Jack and his buddies.

Jack and his teacher: Mrs. Salter

Here you can listen to Jack singing one of his graduation songs. I tried to record them at the graduation, but I figured this would give you a better feel for it. I don't want to be rude or anything, but I'm not sure they should've given him a diploma. You'll see that he seems to struggle with winking his eye and waving good-bye, two things that surely are prerequisites to graduating kindergarten! LOL

Kids Are Krazy!!!

Do you remember when you were a kid and the moment the snow was off the ground, you were ready to run through the sprinklers???  Well I'm being reminded of that today.  The temperature is holding steady at 70 degrees and there are quite a few clouds in the sky (would that be partly cloudy or mostly sunny?).  So the kids insisted that is was TOO hot and they HAD to use the Slip-n-Slide.  I finally agreed (and was outwardly laughing when they thought the sunscreen was too cold).  Lexi (the oldest, bottom left) was the first to brave the slide.  Unfortunately it wasn't wet enough when she went which resulted in a very funny face plant.  Lucky for me (and her), she's tough and has a great sense of humor, so she just got up laughing.  I was pretty bummed I wasn't filming at the time.  Her second attempt had her going "the distance" and landing in the puddle at the bottom with a huge scream and her exclaiming: "It IS cold!"  I will have to give them credit though, they've been out there for about 15-20 minutes so far and they're still having a good time... good for them!  It's GREAT to be a kid.