Running Stitch

This week I’m having surgery (woohoo) and I’ve asked a few friends to pop by here and post in my absence because who knows what I’ll write about while hopped upon pain medication. I figure if you aren’t allowed to drive, you probably should not be writing on your blog either . I’ll see you back here next week, in the meantime, today’s post is written by Mia who can usually be found making much ado about nothing.  This is the fourth update today.

As Brit prepared for surgery, she was enjoying her new robotic arm!  According to Scott, it makes coffee.    Which is a good thing since, also according to Scott, he’s been spending a lot of time in the cafeteria, watching the medical staff plow through the lattes.   Perhaps Brit’s arm can be pressed into service as a back up for caffeine needs!

Scott is on his way up to the waiting room, even as we are speaking, because she is due out of surgery any time now!

It does my heart SO GOOD to see this picture…her smiling eyes, his silly jokes…all is well in Stitch Land, my friends!

* Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto ~ Styx

This week I’m having surgery (woohoo) and I’ve asked a few friends to pop by here and post in my absence because who knows what I’ll write about while hopped upon pain medication. I figure if you aren’t allowed to drive, you probably should not be writing on your blog either . I’ll see you back here next week, in the meantime, today’s post is written by Mia who can usually be found making much ado about nothing.  This is the third update today.

Just a quick update for right now, as Brit, on west coast time, is closing in on her 2 pm surgery time!  If you’re inclined to think happy thoughts, pray, and/or send good vibes, now would be a good time.  I’m looking forward to checking in with Scott during the surgery, and I’ll let you know how it’s going.  Fingers crossed!

Wonder ~ Natalie Merchant

This week I’m having surgery (woohoo) and I’ve asked a few friends to pop by here and post in my absence because who knows what I’ll write about while hopped upon pain medication. I figure if you aren’t allowed to drive, you probably should not be writing on your blog either . I’ll see you back here next week, in the meantime, today’s post is written by Mia who can usually be found making much ado about nothing.  This is the second update for today.

Although I promised unicorns and rainbows, this first mid-morning update involves typical ‘when it rains it pours’ scenarios that we mamas know oh-too-well!

Brit’s surgery was moved from 12 noon to 2 pm, which was the first glitch.  For Brit, of course, this means NO FOOD FOR TWO MORE HOURS and, also, WHY CAN’T I JUST GO HOME until much later in the evening.  This all means that she will be leaving for the hospital check-in around 11 am instead of around 9 am.

Now, as can happen, this scheduling change holds some unexpected benefits.  Chief among them?  Time to squeeze in a doctor’s visit for Moo.  Oh, did I not mention that?  Yeah, it  seems Moo is developing a small ~ wee, really ~ case of possible bronchitis.  So, much of last night was spent with a Big Boy who was trying to forcibly remove a lung through coughing, while also working up a decently sized fever.

Honestly, I can’t  help but think it was a gift (provided that he doesn’t actually have bronchitis, of course) because instead of worrying about today, and the sad anticipation of a long recovery, she was able to spend these last few precious hours as an active mama, well, mothering, instead of worrying.  Being able to take care of him, being there when her babe needed her, it’s the most powerful gift a mom can give…and get.

In typical Brit fashion, of course, she crawled into bed after soothing Moo and moving him from the puddle of sheets, and her mind started skipping ahead…there is just no way, no way, if Moo has bronchitis, that he will be able to stay here in the house with her while she’s recovering.  Even with the loving support of family and friends, the risk of infection would be just too great.  She rolled over, poked Scott, and, amidst his grunting and snoring, propped his eyes open with her fingertips.  “Scott….Scott!…Listen, if Moo can’t come home tonight, if he has to stay at your mom’s house until the bronchitis is gone…Scott!  Listen to me!…If he’s there for a week, you need to go set up a video camera, one of those nanny-cams?  Because I need to be able to see him and talk to him.”

Confident that he will remember this in the morning (I got your back, Scott!), she rested.  And this morning, as she readies Wah for pre-school, and Moo for the doctor’s, and herself for her surgery, I am so happy for her that she is spending these last few hours pre-surgery doing exactly what she loves to do, wrapped in support from the man she loves.   Somebody else can wash those sweaty sheets; she’s got hugs to give out and brows to wipe and encouragement to give.

Rainy Day Women #12 and 35 ~ Bob Dylan

Today the four of us attended Kindergarten round up. One of us had a great time, one of us declared that he “don’t like people, just you and mom!” and one of us had her fears laid to rest, well some of them. I think my son will be fine. The teachers are nice, he is friendly….yada yada.

There were several other parents there, that both Scott and I went to school with. One of the other dad’s (who was in my graduating class) greeted me at the door. “You ready for this?” he asked (our sons are both the eldest).

“Me? No.”

And I’m not. But I think he is…because he is ‘a big boy’ not ‘a little boy!’

And he barely remembers the fact that just four years ago…he was my one and only.

No not ready.

18 month check up originally postedAugust 23rd, 2005

Weighing in at 29lbs and 4 oz (we think, he was hanging from my neck so it was difficult to gage actual weight) and standing at 34 3/4 inches with a head circumference of 50.5cm. I give you…..a very sad Moo.

Apparently he didn’t forget his shots from last time, as he started crying the minute he saw Nurse Cathy come to get us, and was difficult to disengage from my neck.

Dr. Jim had to check his heart and lungs while I sat on the table with the buddy and then I lay down so he could look in his little mouth, which was open…

After the two shots we went to Jodi’s office for awhile to check out the fish on the computer and then…maybe make some calls.

Wait What’s that you say?
You say today is Saturday?
Goodbye…I’m going out to play.

Even though the countdown to going home is officially on I still can’t remember what day it is..Thursday right?

Things are going to be weird here for awhile. (The Blog itself-I know, I’m always weird) Things are uncategorized and awry…..but hey there is a search box there now so if you are looking for a topic, like Jul’s quilt…you can type it in there. Fun!

Hang in there. It will get better!

The college students have returned. Today as I sat at the stop light I saw the youth circling the lake. Peppy ponytails and bouncing babes ran quickly, stretching their long legs. Veering effortlessly past the usual suspects.

The mama’s pushing their running strollers, the older folks out for a morning chat, those scared in to exercise with summer only a few short days away (it won’t help…it never does).

It would be easy to gripe. About the passage of time, about the hip pain and the travelage of the body (down. Always. Down.). For once, weren’t we all graceful gazelles? Speeding along, barely noticing the rest of the world intent only on rushing forward, always forward to meet our future? Our destiny?

From my place in the driver’s seat, post 5 mile run of my own, I can see their energy and while it is beautiful and mysterious and fills me with a more than a little whimsy, I can honestly say, that I would never go back.

I would never go back to that time of not knowing. So much. Not knowing where I would end up. Here. Not knowing would I find someone who loved me? For me? Yes. Not knowing would I make the right choices? Yes. Yes. No. Really NO. Yes. Would I be happy? Oh. My. Yes.

Your whole life stretched out before you? Beautiful. And Terrifying. I am glad to be here. In this future of my own. Safe and Secure.

Yet I still get caught up in the music, of the summer, the tempo of the sun. The windows rolled down, thumpity thump thump from the car behind you and I want to drive a little faster, run a little harder, feel the wind blowing through my hair, do something! Anything! Exciting.

But from this place of comfortable joy I can feel the excitement of that time without the fear of the unknown. Maybe, though, that is part of the excitement? Maybe.

The light changes. I put my foot down and my mamamobile lurches forward in pursuit of two little boys to fill it’s backseat until it almost bursts.

“Mama is Lily our sister?”
“Mama I see a tree! another tree! another tree!”

The bouncy bodacious babes, fade into the background of my life and I think briefly of the day when my boys will be the youth at the lake, circling, circling, stretching long legs forward toward their futures, just as their Father and Mama before them.

This week marked the official first ride into town in the crunchy car. And wow, town is far away. First ride of the season, much like the first run back, is always an awakening. Fourteen miles (round trip) on your bike is much longer than in your car and while we only live five miles from town, it takes seven miles if you keep to the less traveled roads as we do.

Of course, the less traveled roads? always a treat. I enjoy the different view of my town, parts of the community that I rarely see, either because I’m running there (and focusing on breathing), because I’m driving by in a car, or because we never take that road in the car.

Interesting glimpses into other folks’ gardens and hideaways. Noticing how some folks create their own havens in their front yards, back yards, side yards or balconies. And hoping that the house that seem lacking in any special touches have those touches on the inside.

There are so many extra hours in summer, so many more outside projects to do, so many more interactions with neighbors and friends as folks shake off the damp of the winter months and blowing off that moldy smell that seems to creep in everywhere.

Garage Sales are in full swing and those of us traveling the roads, slowly in crunchy cars have a better view of the treasure that other folks are discarding. Even better than Garage Sales are those post garage sale ‘free’ piles.

And on this particular day we found a new to us treasure. This, once purple, soon to be glorious red is a new bike for my Five year old. It will join the ranks of slepnir (my bike) and Octopus (now his brother’s bike).

I’ll keep you posted on it’s christening, I know you are all dying to know this new member’s name. Taking life at a little bit slower pace, is always worth it.

or good afternoon.

a rare afternoon nap.

While this weekend didn’t go exactly as we had planned (raise your hand if you are surprised) the multitude of chores on our ‘to do list’ ranged from decide what is happening with the bathroom that we started tearing down three weeks ago to determine whether we need to actually fix the washing machine or if the rocks in the creek work just as well. (We opted for using my MIL’s washer and waiting for Leah and her appliance samurai training to come over and beat some sense into our washer-because I don’t have time or money to buy a new one…do you?)

I did finish this….

the quilting anyway. All I have left is the binding. I’m hoping it will be in the mail this weekend. Of course mailing quilts traumatizes me and need we get into my issues with the mail carrier? I think not.

Much of my weekend was spent madly quilting the last ten squares and avoiding a trip to the ER.

That’s right, guess who has a concussion. Guess who is so glad they are friends with their pediatrician and that he takes their calls because wow, I so did not want to spend Sunday in the ER. Granted, something are unavoidable but our friend put our minds at ease and put us on the look out for vomiting, or staggering or slurred speech and then told us to bring him in this morning that he probably just had a bad headache. Apparently there is not much you can do for a concussion other than keep him still and quiet.

The Hilarity! Still? Quiet? That was how we knew something was wrong he was still and quiet. We gave him Motrin for low grade fever and pain and he was up to his old tricks, tackling his brother and riding his bike.

He still is a little grumpy, but he’s also a little bit rock and roll.