Spring Fun

More catching up!

Tracy's bday at work.

Ollie before heading off to a middle school dance.

Dr. Seuss' birthday

Spring Choir Concert

Field trip bus buddy, Jacob

Flag football for Ollie with the Chiefs. His team is in the championship this weekend!

Nolan's on the Bengals and he is the touchdown king.

Nolan and his hidey hole.

Date Night! Escape room victory with Amanda and Victor.

Superbowl Rice Krispy treats for the Chiefs.

Game day ready and the Chiefs did not disappoint. That's old news now, though!

Work trip for Jon to West Texas

Vance Joy! Easily the best concert/most fun we have ever had at concert.

Jon continuing to donate blood.... I'll have to ask him, I can't remember what the milestone was here... 100th time? 

Catch!

I led the national anthem at a hockey game! My good buddy (who is the music teacher at our school) had a family emergency and asked me to step in.

I didn't even know this was on my bucket list until I got to cross it off. Ha! 

Noey's bday!

 Now that I'm finally catching up, let's hop back to Nolan's birthday! 

We celebrated at Altitude again this year. I have a feeling this same group of kids, same cookie cake, and same sweaty energy will appear on the blog in late February for years to come. Why mess with a good thing??

Jon throwing kids in has been a favorite two years in a row as well. :)

Mimi and Momo continue to disappoint with terrible gifts, like a longhorns shirt. 

Good thing we had some other loot. 

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!

Punching bag? Yes please! The amount of times we have laughed at that thing popping back up to smack someone in the face has made this purchase pay for itself 100 times over. 

Nolan, you have matured so much in the past year! We can see so many ways which you have grown:

* you can (at times) ignore brothers who want to pick a fight

* you stay  in your bed for an entire night (this was a looooong time coming!)

* I actually had to get rid of shorts you grew out of! (although one pair was 4T)

* you have learned a ton about reading 

Me: Wow Nolan, you are really turning into a great reader!

Nolan: Yeah, but my handwriting is still terrible. 

Me: Too true, too true.

* nothing new, but you continue to be able to be-friend absolutely anyone. What a gift!

* nothing new, but your energy and athletic skills abound. I would say you are currently averaging 4 touchdowns a game in your flag football league. 

* nothing new, but you have a great sense of humor and love to laugh

Nolan's fort 

Slime making!

Silliness in the school cafeteria

"Mom, can I have more candy? I've hardly had any."

Some of Nolan's favorites: 

Song: Wellerman the Sea Shanty

Food: sugar, candy, high-fructose corn syrup, chips

Friends: Parker the across the street neighbor, Brayden and Gabriel at school, Eli at Church

Show: Unspeakable Youtubers 

Sport: tag

Colors: red and orange

Love you forever, Nolan! 

xoxo

Happy Halfie!

Brothers and best friends! I need to start praying that this will never change. 

Ollie, you are almost a legit teenager! 

A big thank you to your ongoing love of Harry Potter and watching The Goldbergs with me. Listening to Harry and Ron be moody as all get out in books 5 and 6, along with watching Goldberg kids have a love/hate relationship with their mom has been so helpful. Seeing these characters experience rapid mood swings and feelings they don't fully understand has been a life-saver for us.   

You are such a cool kid. You are hard-working, driven, and kind. You are a team player and nothing fills your cup more than being surrounded by your people. You continue to be a joy to raise. 

We love you so much!

 

Surgery

 (Warning! If reading about someone's uterus is not your cup of tea, you may want to skip this post!)

Hello from the couch!

I'm looking at 4 days off of work and not feeling one bit sad! And that's on top of the 3 days that I've already been parked on my keister. This is pretty much as good as it gets for a middle aged, middle-class, working mom of 3. The kids are in school and I've got full control of the remote and food options.

A month ago, I went to get a pap smear and my nurse practitioner found a couple of fibroids in my uterus. I was not exactly surprised, as in many ways I am living out the health history sequel of Mimi. We discussed options and I went ahead a scheduled a partial laparoscopic hysterectomy, which I had last Thursday. The surgeon told me he counted 15 (FIFTEEN!!!!) fibroids in my uterus and a little endometriosis to boot. Plus my uterus was 6 times the size of a normal one. (Consider yourself lucky that I am not going to post the pictures the surgeon gave me from surgery, although if you are still reading along, maybe you are the type that wants all the details??)  Now Mimi and I have to argue about what is worse: a fibroid the size of a grapefruit or 15 fibroids? (Note: Mimi argues this point as well and says hers was the size of a small bread loaf. This is definitely not how I remember it, and feel the tale has grown as it would with any good fisherman. Ask me next year and I will probably tell you I had 25 fibroids.)    

When I found out that a hysterectomy was the option that made the most sense, I had 24 hours of pretty profound grief. Saying goodbye to your uterus felt akin to saying goodbye to an x chromosome. Plus the pictures of the women in the brochure that my NP gave me all looked 70. Come on! Where is the brochure with pictures of a woman barely holding on to her 30s? A brochure that guides you through the emotional journey of saying goodbye to her uterus? Happier brochures can be a niche market for some gen-Zer for sure.    

Thankfully the sadness and grief was very short lived for me. Surely getting rid of my uterus and all the lovely (ha- terrible) things a uterus comes along with has got to be the best thing that ever happened to me. In fact, my uterus has even scored me a meal train with it's removal. Has life even been lived if your uterus never scored you a meal train? Arguably, no. 

Jon took off for few days and he took the absolute best care of me. We laughed and joked and he was a big 'ol sweetie pie at the surgery center. It felt like a day date, which seems like a 10 out of 10 on the hospital/surgery scale. Then I got to come home to a meal train, kids at school, and days off of work? You can see why I am in such a good mood and finally have time to blog.

Here's to feeling healthier and embracing life without a defining organ that never did one nice thing for me!

Nolan has slept with this uterus for several nights now. I hope he reads this someday and it makes him laugh.