Recovery

I've thought a lot about what to write regarding this recent surgery. Many of you have been kept up to date on my progress and have often reminded me of your prayers. Thanks will never be enough to let you know what those prayers have meant. With that said, let me try and summarize the experience and share some thoughts about what I've been learning through this.

For those that don't know, almost 4 weeks ago, I had a lipoma (fancy name for benign tumor) removed. We had the same procedure done 5 years ago, but they must have missed some of it, because it grew back. This time we had a different doctor in the same practice and to his credit (and thankfully the radiologist's keen eye) they made two incisions and feel like they got all of it this time. However, that meant a much more lengthy recovery process for me.

The first two weeks were harder than I ever imagined! I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but I can't begin to describe the pain I felt during that first week. Thankfully, the pain medicine took the edge off and kept me fairly lethargic and loopy. I was given strict orders not to lift anything over 10 pounds for at least a month. That meant very limited playing with the kids, especially Dade who likes to be chased around the house and tossed in the air and across the couch. The incisions healed nicely, but some unexpected and unknown complications have kept the pain lingering around longer. I'm moving around much better, but find myself frustrated that I still can't get around like I used to. Please pray for the final follow up visit this Wed. We hope that they will be able to help us understand why the pain is still there and help us figure out where to go from here.

Despite all of this, I have seen God at work, teaching me little lessons that continue to amaze me. Within the last week, Dade has finally started feeling comfortable enough to be near me without a fear of hurting me. What a neat illustration of our relationship with God - sometimes we feel like we've hurt God with our sin. There are times we draw away because of guilt or fear of what we've done. And yet, through it all He just wants us to draw near to Him, just like all I wanted Dade to be near me.

For fear of losing many of you with the length of this post (Jill warns me about this constantly), I'll share one more thing.

As the pain failed to completely go away, I failed to share with many of you who pray faithfully for our family, all of the frustations and fears I felt. Jill had to reprimand me one night, asking why I hadn't shared these with anyone. The next day, I sent an email to many of you and tried to explain the situation and share some of what I was feeling. The reponse I got was immediate and felt!!! I realized that what I share with men about relying on each other and letting other's prayers give us strength during difficult times had fallen on my own deaf ears. It just reinforced to me what I've always known.....we can't do this alone. To walk with Christ takes a complete reliance on Him coupled with a reliance on fellow believers who will lift us up.

I used to say that I was looking forward to the day God had to quit teaching me the hard way. In hindsight, I hope He never does. It's going through the hard times that I see my relationship with Him grow deeper and stronger and more intimate.

Game night

Tonight we decided to play UNO Attack (a new and improved UNO that we highly recommend). Dade works hard and this time he actually won the game. Somehow we missed training him in the joy of winning because he promptly said, "I'm out of cards - can I have some more?"

Since the game was going well, we let him have more cards and Dara promptly became the second "winner". She decided to take pictures of us playing "for the blog site" so here they are. We had a blast and like all good times - things eventually got too silly to continue...

Dara planned the "bunny ears" with much giggling on everyone's part but mine who had to pretend not to know what was going on. I love this age!

Joel is still slow to move around since his surgery, but he's able to grab Dade without too much difficulty and great efficiency.

Soon the bunny ears weren't enough and I became a peacock. Isn't it lovely?! :)

Then Dade got the camera so Dara could get in on the action of making me look silly (these are supposed to be antlers) - we need to work on his photography skills, but at least it's in focus.

p.s. the bathroom is all one shade of blue as of this afternoon!

Dade rides again (or at last...)

Well, here is a short video of Dade's accomplishment today. He finally learned to ride the bike. Joel has worked with him a bit over the summer, but today it was all Dade. In the video you can see our neighbor and his son. They watched Dade keep working on it while I ran in to get the video camera. Joel is recovering from a surgical procedure (he's fine but hurting) and he watched Dade from the window in the dining room. It's so neat to know that he has finally learned how to ride - a skill that one never forgets. I know it's not much but at least it's a post. Hope you enjoy watching our little boy grow up. God is good! P.S. The bathroom is still three shades of blue. :)

There are just some days...

that you wish you could do over. It all started yesterday (Friday) when I decided to use the perfectly matched paint from Home Depot to touch up some scratches on the bathroom walls. We're trying to get the house ready to sell and find lots of little things that we think will help. It didn't take long to realize that the "perfectly matched" part wasn't quite accurate. (I am not bashing Home Depot, they did great with my dining room paint.) So I painted quite a bit with my little brush and decided that today I would get a roller and make better progress.

Well, the quart of paint ran out - no problem -> back to Home Depot. I took Joel with me because he's just my favorite person to be around.

We also came home with a new pedestal sink. We originally had a little wall-mounted sink. (Our bathroom is quite limited in room but very serviceable.) So we both had our projects and set to work (the kids are at a friend's house for the day - making it a perfect day to enjoy working together). I'm painting away without a care. Joel's mumbling to himself things that he doesn't expect me to respond to like, "last time I did this..." or "did it go this way?" Our house is older and any small, quick project easily becomes quite involved.

Do you know how paint looks different when wet? Well, this new paint looks different dry as well. My painting and my mood slowed down considerably as the project progressed. I called my sister and whined and I whined to Joel. Did I think that whining was going to make the paint suddenly match? I think it was a dread of doing it all again next weekend (this time with the kids). But Joel was right (he often is) that this is really just a minor thing and no amount of complaining will change things. By the way, his sink looks great. (Notice the two shades of blue around the top of the sink as well.)

The moral of the story is to buy a gallon of paint vs. a quart and to not waste your time getting down about things outside of your control. Maybe instead of repainting, I can just pray that whoever buys the house will want a painting allowance to paint it themselves and won't care because they'll change it anyway.

The verdict is in!

I filled up this afternoon and the result was not impressive. I ended up with 17.6 mpg. (But I honestly think - and Dara agrees - that my original mpg was 16.6) So at best I was able to get 1.6 mpg more by accelerating slower than my grandma (who doesn't even drive!). I don't have much else to say...I was just hoping for more. Oh well. At least I can go back to driving normally, and won't have to hear Joel say, "I could run faster than this" as I go up a hill. :) If any of you have newer cars (which most of you probably do), you might try the experiment for yourself and let me know if it works. I really want it to work for someone.