An Update or Two

I had my gallbladder yanked out yesterday.  FINALLY!  After years of having issues off and on, and then it getting worse and worse, I finally went to see the surgeon (he's pretty much become our "go-to" surgeon since doing Margie's 3 surgeries) in June, and his recommendation was "yank it - it's obviously making you miserable and you have a family history of bad gallbladders."  So when he took it out he said it was very inflamed and scarred from extended inflammation and spitting out gall stones. So I guess it is a good thing that I went ahead and had it taken out.  He assures me that I will feel like a champ now :)
The worst part of it is the CO2 gas that they pump you with so that they can see easily inside at all your organs.  Wow, that leftover air is quite painful when it settles under ribs and in shoulders and collar bones.  Made it impossible to lay down last night, and the little bit of sleep that I got was done sitting up on the coach.  Hopefully that will go away soon!

Jim (Grandpa J) was moved into a hospice facility this week.  It's tough to know he's not in his cabin with a view of the pastures and lake, but it's good to know that he's getting the needed 24/7 care and it lifts a huge weight off of Emily. We'll spend Thanksgiving in NY this year - a first for us all to be together on Thanksgiving :)

Silas made my day this week when he enthusiastically hugged me one morning and said "I love you more than a poisonous snake!!" - really the only thing better would have been if he said he loves me more than his beloved "junk food"!

We've been in the thick of Parent/Teacher conferences.  All of the kids are doing very well in school, and Ella and Silas definitely have their teachers fooled again.  "Really??  (insert Ella/Silas) punches, kicks, throttles, (his/her) (sister/brother)?  I never would have guessed based on how good and cooperative he/she is in class!"  That is when I whip out the Flip cam and show the teacher just how they behave at home!

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

and I'm too cheap to turn the fireplace on!!!
the kids were freezing after playing outside and I turned it on for about 10 seconds...

Justin is at a work meeting (well was when I started this post) - and I decided to take a few minutes to catch up on blogging. We had 5 things we were supposed to go to tonight. A conference for Mason (but he did not give me the right info so we missed it,) the zoo lights opening, Justin had another work meeting that he missed and the calling hours for Doug. In case you are not a BTeam blog reader - check out what the moms in her neighborhood made the family:

These are bears made out of Doug's shirts - how incredibly cool is that? One for Sheri and each of the kids. A true treasure.


We got some wacky, crazy, snowy weather again this evening. Ella and Si went out and played in it a bit while I made dinner. Si gave me a bit of a disgusting fright when he walked in saying "blah, guck, blah" and I saw snow and brown goop hanging from his mouth - I'm truly hoping it was just mud.
Ella lost another tooth recently - the tooth fairy was a little late getting to her but we told her Miss T. Fairy does not work on the weekends...


Dinner tonight was pizza and I cut up carrots, radishes and celery. Silas absolutely CHOWS on celery - the kid will say about 20 times "more cel-ry, more cel-ry" and Ella loves radishes and carrots. I cut up REAL carrots, not those watery baby ones - I always forget how much more flavorful real carrots are.

Speaking of dinner, the other night we were all eating dinner and Si had some broccoli on his nose. Justin picked it off the end of his nose and put it on his plate. Silas looked at him (much like the face in the picture below but without red eyes) and said
"why you put my boogie on your plate??"


He's been saying the funniest things lately but most would be Too Much Information for most. Though I will need to blog them eventually so I don't forget them.
He is also doing a very good job with the potty training.

Ella had her Parent-Teacher conference this week. She is going a bang-up job in Kindergarten. of course her teacher LoVeS her..."always as sweet as can be" - I'm going to video the head-spinning-spewing-green-goop thing that she does when she doesn't get her way - to show her teacher...