In a nutshell

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We went to Brooke and Justin's, along with my dad. Brooke has hosted Thanksgiving the past couple of years, and even though she was nine months pregnant this Thanksgiving, she still wanted to have it at her house and cook the turkey, make the pies, etc. I only had to show up with green bean casserole, green jell-o, and candied yams. Our kids made "Apple Turkeys" which was a Lee family tradition as I was growing up. The apple is the turkeys body and the kids use toothpicks lined with colorful gumdrops, some raisins, and some marshmallows to craft the feathers and head. Using the materials I just listed, Andrew instead choose to create an alien (or as he pronounced it L-E-N).

This year our wedding anniversary fell on the day after Thanksgiving. We have now been married a little over eight years. It is a lot of fun being married to Ben. He keeps me laughing.

A lot of you know how anxious I have been in the days leading up to Zack's surgery. Even though I realize that removing tonsils and adenoids and placing tubes in ears are all routine and statistically safe surgerical procedures, I was still very apprehensive about the anesthesia part and Zack's recovery. I can remember the excrutiating pain of having my own tonsils and adenoids taken out. Of course, I was a senior in high school at the time and they say surgeries like that get worse the older you are. Whether or not that is true I don't know, but I can say it was more painful than giving birth. It hurt to breathe, talk, yawn, cough, eat....

Zack's surgery was Thursday morning. We arrived at the hospital early in the morning. Other than telling him we were going to the hospital, he didn't really know what was coming. He was in a quite cheery mood before heading back to the operating room.

The surgery went very well.

Zack had a really hard time settling down as he came out of anesthesia. He was kicking, flailing, screaming, crying, biting, and trying to pull out his IV and his oxygen monitor. It took two doses of morphine and a sedative to calm him down. It was awful to witness.

He was doing much better when he got up to his own room on the pediatric ward. The nurses were very patient and calm and extremely wonderful to him. His IV kept getting kinked, so Zack was frustrated that they had to keep coming back to readjust it. He seemed fairly comfortable and enjoyed watching tv, and loved receiving some balloons from Grandfather. Maddie, Andrew, and Mylie were all being watched by Ben's mom, so Ben and I were both able to be with Zack the whole time at the hospital.

This was very fortunate, because it took both of us to try to keep him under control. Apparently Zachary has an extremely high tolerence for pain. By the evening, after eating a yogurt, drinking apple juice and milk, eating ice cream, and even a plate of macaroni and cheese, Zack was ready to explore the hospital playroom. In the playroom he found a wagon, a ride-on toy, and a toy lawn mower. He spent the next 45 minutes racing up and down the hallway of the pediatric ward, screeching as he went. He had a monitor on his ankle that would shut down the elevators if he got to close to them, which is a protective measure so that kids in the pediatric ward can't be kidnapped or escape on their own. Zack shut down the elevators twice, which also sets off a very loud alarm like a fire alarm. Zack kept getting back behind the nurses station, which was off-limits. So, after feeling well enough to make a general nuissance of himself, we opted to take him home to go to bed rather than spend the night in the hospital as had been planned.

Zack is recovering very well. He is eating and drinking. We are working with him on settling down, because his activity level puts him at risk for bleeding and needing an additional procedure to stop the bleeding. His throat is really swollen, and he doesn't feel very well and he wants me or Ben to be with him all of the time. He hasn't been complaining, but I know it is hurting him. Right now he is sitting next to me and pulling on his neck in an effort to make it feel better most likely. Still, he is quite smiley and enjoying some special attention from everyone. Last night he cried and cried that we wouldn't take him to get some chicken nuggets. We finally ended up taking him to IHOP to get some pankcakes and scrambled eggs. He ate them very well, and since they were on his doctor approved list we felt ok about letting him eat them.

I am relieved that everything has gone so well. Ben and his dad gave Zack a blessing before Zack went to the hospital and blessed him that all would go well and that he would have minimal discomfort. I am convinced this has much to do with his smooth recovery so far. Of course, we're only 48 hours past surgery and it is supposed to be rough again seven or eight days post-op, so we aren't out of the woods yet, but I am relieved not to need to force him to eat or drink.

I am grateful for the help we've received from our family and friends who are so wonderful to lend a hand with our other kids during this week.

My sister Jessie and Ben's sister Abby both celebrated their birthdays yesterday (Nov 30). Happy Birthday!!!! Jessie is coming to town on Tuesday and we are so excited. She'll be here to help Brooke when she goes to have her baby. Brooke is scheduled to be induced on December 6th, however, she could certainly go into labor before then. She's had elevated blood pressure and headaches, so the doctors are monitoring that to ensure her safety and the baby's.

We put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Mylie is in LOVE with the tree. Her absolute favorite thing to do is to strip it of its ornaments and bring them to me. She is so sure she is helping. Currently, we have had to move all of the ornaments up high and out of her reach, so our tree is naked anywhere Mylie can reach.

Andrew is getting very excited for his birthday. He will turn five on the 19th of December. He talks about this non-stop. He's hoping to go to Chuck E. Cheese. He recently got himself stuck in the railing and had to be freed by Ben's sister Suzanne.

Maddie is enjoying her basketball practices. She loves getting the mail and spends each afternoon scouring the toy catalogs that keep clogging our mailbox and revising her letter to Santa with additional MUST HAVES. She is also excited that she has a pen pal named Lucy who lives in Texas.

That's what we've been up to lately.