Busy Times and Health Updates

Sorry for procrastinating - I know it's been a while since I updated. I've been busy with regular life and also with non-every day situations. A very dear friend of mine will be moving away soon so I've been spending quite a bit of time with her. She's Jack and Emma's mommy (from the zoo pictures), so the kids will be missing each other, too. Thankfully, they will be moving to
Coeur d'Alene, ID, which is right on the way to the grandparents' houses in Montana, so we will be able to visit them fairly frequently as we visit our own families in MT. Jeremy has been on a tugboat trip since last Tuesday, so it's just been me and the boys, which makes life seem busier. I've also been doing a bit of researching on carcinoid tumors, because my father found out last week that he has this type of cancer. He is having major surgery to remove the tumor and the piece of intestine where it is located this morning, so PLEASE PRAY for him today and as he recovers over the next few days (or weeks). Jeremy, the boys, and I are planning on going back to Montana to visit the family towards the end of this week, so you could pray for safe travel, as well. :-) We were planning on at least the boys and I going back to MT for my cousin Connie's wedding this Saturday, and when we found out my dad was going to be having major surgery we really wanted Jeremy to come, too. Thankfully, he was able to get a week-long trip with just the right timing so that he can come back, too. We are going to leave on Wednesday or Thursday, and Jeremy will come back to Oregon on Sunday. The boys and I are going to stay in Montana a bit longer and come back when we feel ready (it would be too much driving for the boys to endure if we went on Thursday and came back Monday). So we've been busy thinking about and preparing for all of those things.

I have one other interesting incident to tell you about. Yesterday the boys picked out bright yellow fabric with John Deere tractors on it to make a special pillow for Grumpy. The plan is for him to keep it on his lap so that the boys have an easier time remembering that his tummy is owie and they can't jump on him or rough-house with him (which will be very different than any experience they've had with their very active Grumpy - he's usually their horse and their wild bucking bull and their wrestling partner). I decided to make each of the boys a matching pillowcase out of this same special fabric. I hung out at my friend Christina's house last night and borrowed her sewing machine to make the pillow cases. As I was making the very last stitch of the very last pillowcase, I was chatting away and not paying very close attention to what I was doing. I don't really know what I was attempting to do, but somehow my thumb got in the way and I ended up putting a big fat sewing machine needle all the way through it. You readers are fortunate that we didn't have a camera on hand - it was quite a sight! More of the needle was protruding through the bottom of my thumb than was sticking out the top. The needle seemed to be stuck in the fabric, so we had to cut into my finished pillowcase to separate my thumb from the machine. Aric's pillowcase will always have a memorable notch in it. :-) Then we had to remove the needle and the foot from the machine because they were all stuck together. It was pretty humorous to see this human sandwich: top of needle, thumb, sewing machine foot, yellow fabric, bottom of needle. I was surprised that it didn't hurt worse than it did. We put our heads together and formulated our plan of action. We discussed going to the ER, but we needed someone to stay with the kids and I couldn't very well drive myself, because I was a little bit in shock. We called Rebekah, a good friend from church who is a mother of 5 and who's got a strong stomach, and when she came, she offered to pull it out. I had been wanting to do that, anyway, rather than go spend hours waiting around at the ER (by this time, it was nearly midnight). Now that we had enough hands to get it out (I don't like puncture wounds; I'd much rather have blood and gore than punctures to deal with, so I didn't trust myself to be part of the "operation"), we assembled a motley assortment of garage tools. In the meantime, we allowed a few Tylenol, a lot of ibuprofen, and an ice-pack to take effect. As Christina held my thumbnail in place with a wrench, Rebekah used needle-nose pliers to swiftly extract the needle. Then I soaked my thumb in a succession of cocktails - first rubbing alcohol, then hydrogen peroxide. Then we hung out for another hour having uninterrupted girl time for the first time in a long time! :-) This morning, I will go get a tetanus shot since it's been about 12 years, but other than that, I'm doing quite well. My thumb's a bit tender and throbbing, but does not hurt nearly as bad as I would've expected. I spent the night at Christina's and she will watch the boys while I go get vaccinated. Thank goodness I was at her house and not my own when all this happened! I thank God for my good friends! I'll try to keep you posted on whatever exciting occurrences come next during this grand never-ending adventure I call my life. Hope you all have a great week!