I'm Baaaa-ack!

So how do you begin a blog post when you have been MIA for almost a year?  Like, do you just say hello, and continue on like nothing ever happened?  Or do you start off with a long explanation?  I'm not really sure what is customary, so I'm doing my own thang.  Which will include maybe both.  Soooo..

Hello!  I'm thinking this post will be a catch up of the past year. So if you're here wanting to see home decor pics there really won't be any of those.  It's more of a " let me catch you up on my personal life, which was the reason why I stopped blogging" type of post.  BUT.  Lets pretend for just a moment that I am just ignoring the fact that I disappeared, and act like nothing happened.  The last post I wrote, I was showing you all our bathroom sink, which we decided to cement and the hallway cabinetry I was painting.  Those are all done now, so just incase any of you were sitting on the edge of you seat, DYING to know how they turned out.... Drum roll please...... 

I really liked how it turned out. Although if I'm honest, I have to say I'm not sure I've seen the bathroom this clean since the day this picture was taken.  I swear it gets cleaned and then 2.5 seconds later, it's gone to H-E double L and back.  Whatever.  I'm blaming the kids.  They're messy. 

And my hall cupboards.  I like how they turned out too. And those my friends, stay clean.  Ain't no kid touching them, smearing toothpaste on them, tossing toilet paper on them... see where I'm going with this?  So here they are: 

Ok. So now that, that is over with. I'm jumping into family life.  Just so you know it says I downloaded 71 photos for this blog post.  I some how have to whittle that down and catch up all up on the last year.  We'll see how that goes. 

So.  First up.  Lets begin with January.  January, my oldest had an appointment up at the Childrens hospital to have her back checked out.  She had scoliosis, and we knew it was severe, but I think I just didn't really want to know how severe so we kept putting it off.  I knew deep down inside she was gonna need surgery, but I still tried to tell myself, maybe it wasn't that bad.  We had taken her to her Ped and he told us it was just basically something she would have to live with.  So that just fed my whole " it's not that bad " thoughts.  Hubs took her to her appointment and he called me shortly after it was over.  Yup.  Surgery.  And fast.  It was quickly scheduled for March 1st.  Spinal fusion surgery. They had me at spine.  That pretty much freaked me out.  And I was trying to remain calm.  we were told her surgeon was the best in the area for this type of surgery.  Not that that really calmed me down that much.  I mean come on, this is my baby's SPINE we are talking about.  Her curvature was at a 72 degree curve.  Yikes.  Just so you can get an idea, here's what 72 degrees looks like.  

Actually, this probably isn't 72 degrees.  It's probably less.  This is when I first really noticed it was bad. She was always a private person.  But we were at Target one night trying on bathing suits and I was tired and wanted to sit down, so I forced my way into the room.  I was pretty shocked when I saw her back was curved like this.  It actually freaked me out. Anyway.  Moving on.  Surgery.  There are no words out there to describe the fear of having your child have a major operation.  I was a wreck.  And having a hard time holding it together.  I would find myself crying often and at the weirdest times.  But my daughter, she was brave. Or clueless. One of the two.  Clueless in the sense she had no idea how major this was, and she thought she would bounce back right away.  But I was thankful she didn't really know the seriousness of it.  I think it would have stressed her out even more.  March came super fast.  Isn't that how it always happens when you don't want to do something?  We had to be at the hospital super early in the morning.  That whole morning was just a mess.  Sam was sick, and was only wanting me. He was sleeping almost thru the night at this point and only waking up once, but the morning of the surgery, he decided to wake up at 4:30 and not go back to sleep. he was miserable, and I was still nursing, and he wouldn't take a bottle.  Talk about STRESS. I needed to be in 2 places at one time.  Which wasn't possible.  To make a long story short.  It some how worked out. It wasn't the type of work out that went smoothly, but it worked out.  Here she is all gowned up, before they tried to stick a million IV's in her.  

Shortly after this photo was taken, they came in to put in her IV. Only she had to fast for so many hours, and that made her veins hard to get too.  So after about 3 painful tries, they decided to just do it while she was under anesthesia. Which worked out better, for obvious reasons. 

The surgery itself I believe took 5-6 hours.  I was so thankful to hear everything went great.  The surgeon met with us and said he was able to get her curvature to just under 20 degrees.  As my middle daughter would say... NOICE!  :) 

For your view pleasure here are a few pics of her during recovery.  Being wheeled to her private room right after surgery. 

Sleeping Beauty.

Still sleeping.  Making sure that Morphine button was ready to push.  And holding the sweet little lamb her daddy bought for her.  She's obsessed with stuffed animals.  One can never have too many, no matter what your age is. 

This is the next morning.  What a trooper.  Managed a small smile and a thumbs up.  And check out that back!  Nice and straight!  

First time sitting up. 

First time walking. 

And a little before and afters. 

I still can't believe how straight it is sometimes.  It's pretty amazing what Doctors can do now days. And I am so thankful God gave us an amazing one.  

And here she is on the day she went home.  She was in a lot of pain in this picture.  She had been weaned off her morphine and was definitely feeling it.  Poor thing.  I'm so glad this is all in the past now. 

Full recovery is 6 months. Which it will be 6 months on September 1st.  Yay!  She can pretty much do anything she wants now.  She does have some limitations when she bends over.  She keeps her back super straight.  But I think that is mostly from fear/habit.  

Moving on.  Is there a limit on how long a blog post can be?  This might beat a world record.  And I realize not everyone will read all of this. But i'm ok with that.  

Easter.  I think Easter is when she started turning the corner in her recovery and was starting to feel semi normal again.  Here's a pic of all the kiddos.  Thanks to my BFF and her hubs, who just opened up a photography studio here locally.  

So with all my energy focused on R for those 6 weeks that she was out of school, and me playing nurse, my other sweet babies got neglected.  So I decided to take E out to see a movie ( A had already seen it with a friend, thus no photo of her. ) I love this girls style and sass.  She's got the moves. 

Next up.  These 2 cuties are apparently blind and needed glasses.  They got to pick out their own frames. Which E was a little bummed she's not blind.  She tells me often she thinks she needs glasses.  

Next up.  A decided she wanted her 2nd holes in her ears.  So of course I had to document!  

She was so nervous.  But handled it like a champ.  Love this kid.  

And can't forget Mr. Sam.  Here's a pic of him just because he's cute.  And I know you want to see him. Who wouldn't? 

Oh. and then this happened!  Happy mothers day tooooo meeeee!  This is my 5th 

err... 6th baby.  I'll let you figure out who my 5th is.  And if my 5th is reading this, I love you very much and i'm totally kidding!  

And here is a photo of babies number 1, 2, 3 and 6 photographed together. 

Actually this was the day of R's 8th grade graduation... but it was a nice lead in right?  

A few pics of her at graduation.  I think she was a tad excited to be done with middle school.  

And a rare photo of us all together.  I hate photos of me in it.  So you won't see me in many. 

And NOW.  I've caught you up to summer vacation.  Maybe I should just start a new blog post. I think I shall. Because this one is getting really long.  If you have stuck with me this far.  You're are probably family.  And you have to read this far.  :p

Stay tuned.