The Elbow Journey

AKA. Adam's Wenis Removal (as his students like to say)

I think it's safe to say that Adam's elbow journey has come to an end!
But here's where it started...

Adam has gout {sad but true} and sometimes when you have gout you get tophus {or tophi when it's plural}. Unfortunately, Adam has tophi in both elbows, his hand and left big toe. Well, actually, now he just has one little one in his right elbow because this is the story of the left elbow tophus' eviction!

I honestly can't remember when it started, but probably 6 months ago Adam's "Gout Ball" {as it was affectionately known around our house} on his left elbow started getting bigger and yucky-er. So after a number of doctor visits and a whole lot of bandages and blood and just plain oozing {seriously, it was so gross!} surgery was scheduled for the morning of  September 28th.

In the car on the way to the surgery center
(we took "head on" pictures too, but the thing was kind of open and the pictures are WAY too gross to put on here!)

In the waiting room.
See how big it was just sticking off his elbow!
As we were waiting Bennett accidentally knocked and it totally started bleeding - YUCK! 

The surgery was actually really quick, but they did knock him out because they said, "In case we open it up and we have to dig in the muscle, we want you to be asleep."  {SO GROSS!!!} Anyways, Adam was home by 10 am and he was just a "happy, hungry little stoner" with all the drugs still in him but around noon'ish {after eating like a teenage boy} he pretty much passed out and slept for like 5 or 6 hours.

Here he is that night putting on a nice smile for his crazy wife :) 

That first "nap" {drug induced coma} after surgery was Adam's last time sleeping in bed for about a week and a half... he didn't want to accidentally bump his elbow by rolling over so he just slept on the couch where he literally wasn't able to roll over.

Here he is sleeping on the couch and "spooning" the iPad his school lent him for his recovery since he was one handed
... pretty sweet "get well" present if you ask me! 

Due to the pain meds Adam was on, he wasn't supposed to drive so for the the next week and a half Bennett and I drove him and picked him up from work everyday.
Bennett LOVED going to "Dad work" and has actually been very sad since we've stopped.

Adam's hand ended up getting really swollen from lack of circulation with his elbow in the sling for 8 days ... poor guy.

8 days after surgery it was time for the "unveiling" {we were told to not touch the bandages and we were good and followed directions} so we went into the surgeons office to take a look.

Fresh out of the gauze

Bennett enjoying the doctor's visit and his Daddy's new toy! 

 After the doc looked at it and said no heavy lifting for 3 weeks, the nurse came in and took the stitches out and for a couple days he had these little strips on his elbow, but they fell off pretty quickly (a day or two)

He had his last follow-up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon this past thursday and all is well!

His hand is still having a bit of a "being able to make a fist" issue, {as in he can't do it completely} but the doctor said that's normal for up to 8 - 10 weeks post surgery and he was happy with how the elbow looked. So other than keeping stuff on it to help the scar heal up nice clean we are pretty much done with this journey which is nice considering we are just 6 weeks aways from baby time! {yikes! we really need to pick a name!}

Life ...

this is life right now...

... and and I don't mind it a bit!

Date Weekend!

Without really planning to Adam and I had an awesome weekend of dates last weekend!

On Friday I got a call from my old boss offering us matinee tickets to Hair the next day in San Diego and since we were free we gladly accepted! After a quick phone call to my mom for a babysitter we had it all worked out and Saturday at noon we took off to one of our favorite cities on the planet!

Our seats were pretty great {honestly, I think they were the best we have ever had!} and we had some very nice ladies behind us {who snuck in our first picture} take our picture just as the lights were dimming for the show to start! 

See how close we were! And right in the middle too! 

{Also, side note, right next to me was the WORST case of "Denim on Denim" I have EVER SEEN! However, he was sitting in the chair next to me, so I never got a picture to document, but just know, it was soooooo photo worthy!}

Back to the story....

Not having ever seen Hair before we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into... {awkward!} but it was a really good performance that had lots of audience involvement so that always mixes things up and makes it fun!

Then on our way home we stopped at In-n-Out and got a shake and fries, to have in the car, it was cute! :)

THEN... on Sunday, Adam and I went to see the matinee performance of the school play at the High School he works at. It was called Quilters, and seriously, it was fantastic!

I was really impressed by the fantastic performance and it made me so grateful for the things we have now {like cars and heaters and fire extinguishers}!  But at the same time the play made me think crazy things like "Maybe I should find a group of friends to do a "Dear Jane" quilt with me!" And who knows, maybe I will... {Shayne, what do you think?!}

Thank you Lori for a surprise, impromptu date on Saturday and to both our mom's for babysitting Mr. B!
{It's so nice to spend time just as "us" and come home to our happy, rested sweet little man!} 

33 weeks!

Look who has their own dresser and shelf in the closet ...

Yes, it's true, I guess the "Nesting" has started in, or it's just my need to be organized and have everything all ready to go ahead of schedule, which is a constant plague on my day to day life ... but either way it feels good to have freshly washed and hung up little things!

Those clothes really are so small and precious!

It makes me so excited to meet this new little one!

Here we are ...

.... with mommy in her pj's and apron {that is starting to not be so good at covering my sides!  hmmm....}

Caution ... Awesome-ness ahead!

We went to the sweetest little boys birthday party last weekend! I could not believe the creativity of this family! Seriously, it was just perfect!  Aside from walking into the house to a GIANT tower of chocolate and sweets ... the backyard was the main attraction! This place was a 3 year old boys dream!

There was LOTS of dirt and tractors ...

There was a wrecking ball...

And of course lots of tools to fix things with ...

There was even a house to paint...

Then every little worker (and the big workers too) got a brown bag lunch ...

And to top it all off the little workers got to break open the wreaking ball with hammers...

...AND dive into the giant pile of chocolate goodness that was waiting inside!
{seriously, when you walked inside, the whole room smelled like chocolate ... it was pretty rad!} 

Happy 3rd Birthday Sweet Cade! 
Bennett loved your party and is still telling people about the tractor he got to take home from your house!

Nap time

Two days a week I have a little side job I do from home during Bennett's nap time {usually around 1pm} This day, however, things were a little different and Bennett didn't get into bed until about 2. I was thinking that he would go right to sleep because he was up past his normal nap time. So, I left him with his pile of books like usual and made my way to "the office" to start working.

For about an hour and a half, while I was working 3 feet from his bed {there is technically a wall between us, but our walls are more for looks and not so much for keeping noise out/in} I listened to Bennett "reading" books to Buzz Lightyear and rolling around and making tents with his blankets ... the kids was NOT tired! But he stayed in his room, never came out once, and I got all my work done, so I wasn't really that worried about it.

For about the last 15 minutes of my working I didn't really hear much coming from the room, so when I was finished I went in to check on him.

Poor guy, when I picked him up he was so freaked out!
I don't think he had realized he had even fallen asleep!

Like Father, like Son

We went to the park to celebrate "Baby La-La's" 2nd Birthday...

... and our son "Adventure Boy" had so much fun!

Take note of the fireman's pole to the left in the background....

Who taught him how to do this?  Not me or Adam!
We were rather surprised by his "go get'er" play ground personality!

So... ya know, it was a pretty typical playground, and the only people at the park were with the birthday party so yeah, we might not have been watching "adventure boy" every second as we were sitting in the shade on the picnic tables talking with friends ... that is until we heard the cry! {you know, the real cry, the "I'm in pain cry"}

The first thing I saw was Bennett crying and falling into the sand each time he tried to stand up and take a step towards us! It was about the saddest thing I've ever seen! As retold by Gunnar (and eventually Bennett when he calmed down) Bennett had decided to go down the fireman's pole but missed and basically just jumped about 4 feet down and then landed wrong on his ankle! He kept telling me, "Me jump, down, down, down!" {complete with hand motions of course}

The next couple days our sweet, usually fast moving, little man looked like this ... it was pretty pathetic {but still, so cute}

Harvesting Fun!

We always love to get an invitation out to the picture perfect Taft home and this time was no different! We had a great time with our sweet Shelton friends (and their families too of course)!

This was Adam's frist time on a horse since leaving Texas (he was 10 when he moved), and what a handsome "Country Boy" he is!

It took Bennett a few hours {no joke} to decided that he did in fact want to get on the horse. Up until this point he enjoyed looking at it, feeding it and petting it but every time someone asked if he wanted a ride he quickly responded with "No!"

But once Adam offered to get on with him ... I didn't even offer {I'm a really nice mom, I know} he changed his tune and finally said "Yes!"
So here he is, first time on a horse ever! YAY big boy!!

They had a bit of a ruff start getting the horse to even want to move but once they got it going Bennett and Adam were all smiles for their one lap around!

The horse fun of course continued and the funny {I mean sad} thing is this little guy is the horse he fell off of!

Jenny's family pretty much goes all out for anything so of course they had all the typical cuteness you would expect from a Harvest party all set up!

This picture is quite possibly the funniest family picture from the scariest hay ride {we for some reason kept going up and down hills} that there ever was! I can not get over my "city girl" pearls, Adam's "Country Boy" shirt and Bennett's Hillbilly "smile" full of cookie!
I seriously crack up each time I look at this picture!
{If we were doing Christmas cards this year, this one would be in the running! Ha ha!}

All the kids got marked down on the chart ... made me happy, 'cause this means it's going to happen next year too! :)

And what Harvest party is complete without decorating your pumpkin to look like a sparkly pirate! ha ha!
Bennett loves his pumpkin and tries to pick his "pun-kin" as his toy to bring in the car every time we go somewhere!

Taft family, thank you once again for a fabulous afternoon/evening full of great family memories!