Win or Lose?

Last night the scrabble dictionary and I won Steve fair and square 324 : 291 :)

It was a fun game.  I hope Steve thought that losing to me was still more fun than losing against himself times 3.  Or... how would you describe a game that you played all four players yourself?  It's always distressing when you're rooting for player #1 and player #3 skunks him.

That's what happens when your worthy scrabble opponent is tossing in turning in Vancouver :)

A Good Bad Sleep :)

I asked Cara if I could share her pictures.  Partly as an easy way to share them with people who specifically asked for them... hi Gramps! :)  and partly just in case it might help someone who heads off to do something similar.  We didn't have a clue what was going to happen and I could answer very few of Cara's questions except to reassure her there were no shots involved. :)

We showed up for registration early and so we sat in the lobby waiting for a while.  Our respiratory technician introduced herself as she came in for work (a little girl with a suitcase at the registration desk is a dead give away for someone expecting a little girl for a sleep study!) and let us know it would be a bit while she got organized.

Soon enough she showed up and chatted with Cara as she brought us to a quiet part of the hospital.  Thankfully they are able to use a unit that's used for day procedures like IV antibiotics etc. so it's really quiet.  

Quiet as in we were the only ones there. And Cara needed only one technician to look after her. So, after the (super friendly, wonderful, everything as sparkling as could get) Maria went home, Heather, the tech, had a night shift to sit through all on her own!  No one to talk or play Dutch Blitz or Scrabble with.  I thought that would be tough.  So, I got out of bed a lot and just talked with/to her.  I'm sure she was delighted to hear half of my life's story :S

Cara was super brave for all this.  I think she had 5 or 7 leads on her head, plus one behind each ear...

 one on her forhead, one beside each eye, two on her chin, one under each collar bone and one under each knee.  Thankfully the tech said running the leads up and out the top of her jammies was perfectly acceptable, so Cara was able to wear her favorite jammies.  Not until later did I realize why these may be her favorites!
The leads were all gathering information about her movements so they can relate them  to her breathing.  She also got the nasal prongs, which weren't really prongs to measure the air flow there.  Last of all she had two belts, one under her arm pits and one around her belly to measure the movement there as well.  It was quite the colorful bundle of wires!

 Chipper and wondering how she was EVER going to fall asleep!

 So we tried to take some selfies in the dark.  Twenty in we decided she just wasn't going to be able to look toward the flash AND keep her eyes open.  I figured we'd spent enough time on stall tactics and forbid trying again. :)

Once Cara was all set up the nurse moved to just outside her door with a computer screen that ran sqiggly and flat lines all night long. She also had a continual video feed of Cara (like night vision googles as it was pretty dark in the room) and a microphone as well.  There's nothing that happened that night that didn't go recorded.  Probably even my shuffling trying to get comfy on the stretcher got picked up!  Cara had some very tough times of sleeping (good though because that's what we needed to record) and she also had some very comfortable, restful sleep. At one point she was so restless I figured the reason she doesn't like 2 piece jammies is because they must get twisted and pulled up and leaving her feeling cold and scrambled. Not the best night, thankfully! but not her worst either.  Just very thankful for all the info they could collect.

This morning they woke us up at 5:30 so we could be gone before the ward had to open.  This is what you look like when you have lots of gooey waxy kind of glue in your hair and you can barely get your eyes open. :)

Cara's opinion?  She didn't like getting the leads on her face, legs or torso removed because it was worse than bandaids and the whole business wasn't as exciting as she had thought it might be.

Very thankful this part is finished and that the amazing team of doctors trying to figure out Cara's (relatively minor in the Children's Hospital scheme of things) puzzle got this new set of information.

Also very thankful to know it wasn't all in my head because I was getting slightly discouraged by the number of times I was told, "parental perceived apnea is usually not true apnea."

Sixty

The kids had a couple of reactions to Steve's cast that were worth recording.

Cameron came in, took one look and started to tenderly rub Steve's arm and chest.  "Oh Daddy, oh my Daddy," he said  in the most sad voice.  He does not like change and seeing his Dad stuck at home has been a bit hard for him.  Telling was his "signing" of Steve's cast.  "Dade likes work and I like him."

Cara, our resident "I'm going to be a nurse when I grow up" came in, took one look and asked very concerned, "Did you have to have a shot?"  When Steve assured her there were no shots involved she was very jealous that she was not the one with the cast.  "I wish I was Daddy if there were no shots involved!!!"

 I didn't hear this one myself but...Cody went to a birthday party and apparently the discussion came up about smarts.  The birthday boy's Mom reassured Cody that when he grew up he was going to be smart because his Daddy is smart.  Cody disagreed.  "My Daddy's not smart, he fell off a ladder!!!"  That boy is something else and there's no telling what all goes through his mind!

Trying to stay positive, Steve said for the three days the twins were in school he was going to pretend we were 60 and we could practice being empty nesters.  So today he did some errands with me (I don't think we've done that since he was still a student and we only had Leah to truck around :) )  We also folded some wash and we sat and ate lunch quietly together.  Also unheard of for a few years - quiet lunch not wash folding!  While we ACTUALLY CONVERSED UNINTERRUPTED about the kids and parenting I couldn't help make the observation to him that while we joked about being 60, we were still really in the stage of trying to do the right things the right way for our kids. When we're actually 60 we will probably sit around and discuss what we could and should have done differently, hindsight being 20/20!

Of course, there's also no guarantee that either or both of us will make it to that milestone either.  It's quite something to just think about the past and future in the light of God having everything in control, no matter what comes our way!

Boy's Minds :)

Today Steve picked up the papers that Daniel has spent a few hours preparing for us, plans for an addition that we can present to the city for a permit.  Huge step for us and it wouldn't have happened without Daniel's help or time so big thanks to him!

Cody took one look, spotted the toilet and within 5 seconds, literally, had an 8.5x11 sheet of paper and pencil to draw his own set of drawings.

 Fascinating stuff because he started with the outline of his house as though looking at a front view and proceeded to fill it in as though it was a floor plan.  If you look carefully you will see the new bathroom at the bottom of the page but the existing bathroom, which is at the "top" of the drawings is in the attic :)  The room in between that he is in the middle of drawing is just as important as the bathrooms, it's the "lego room".

 Sam and Cam decided they needed 11x17 sheets to do it right.  They could easily have postponed bedtime by a couple of hours as they had already decided to make replicas of the drawings.

The girls, mind you, didn't even bother to stop for a look at the plans :)

Uh oh

For someone who loves to be working hard.... it's not a real prize winning situation here this morning.

Ladder 1 Steve 0  

Casted for 10 days until the swelling goes down and they can re xray to get a better picture of what's going on.

Funny kids.

When Cara and Cody have a home day they often ask for a "special lunch."  

Requirement:  lots of fruits and veggies.  They're a bit funny those two!

Hooray!! It's Working!

After a couple of VERY frustrating days trying to upload pictures we are back in business.  No small thanks to colossal neighbor Josh who messaged hints and suggestions until it worked.  I think I owe him a major Timmy's card by now for all the computer work he's helped us with!

Our new year started out marvelously with a somewhat last minute planned visit by Mom and Dad!

 There was a lot of showing of our newest treasures... like our soccer jerseys from Uganda from Auntie Shelly.

 Lots of stories and putting up with Cody who likes to climb and hang all over like a little spider monkey.

 Lots of snuggles!

 And hugs too!

 And a highly anticipated "Uncle Billy" story just before bed.  I think you've been telling those since Epp drive Dad?  I don't know how they got started but when I sneak around for pictures I sure hear some interesting things! :)  Uncle Billy learns all kinds of life lessons.

 There was game playing...showing off all the moves Gramps has taught us.  :)

 And more stories.

Probably Dad's favorite part was getting permission to clean up the shop and take a load to the dump!

By the way, Dad, do you know anything about the gas gauge in the van???!!!!  :)

Too bad I didn't take a picture before he started but let me tell you there wasn't any patch 2 feet square of empty space at 8:30 that morning!  Getting to the freezer was an obstacle course for the BRAVE!

Saturday we got together with EVERYONE in the Fraser Valley - which means we were still missing our favorite ON people - for a very gorgeous afternoon of playing together.  So much fun now that the kids are getting older.  Opa and the Dad's played some soccer and then a couple of games of capture the flag.  

Today Sam came home from school very excited about how many pages he had filled during creative writing.  When I asked him what he wrote about he said it had to be about his best part of the holiday.  His pages???  they were filled with stories from this fantastic afternoon we spent together!  I can hardly wait to read it.  It was the kind of afternoon that the kids will probably always remember.  So special!

The Dad's might have done a bit of moaning about the length of some of these kids' legs and how fast they're getting :)  We've come a LONG way from 7-8 years ago when we were constantly interrupted and getting up to referee the toddlers trying to "share" Opa and Nana's toys! 

 After going inside for an early supper and rest we played some games, ate dessert and had a sing song.

A truly WONDERFUL way to start the year!

ps. Dad M.  there was some discussion about our living room light fixture.  That story is coming yet!!