Shiner

I haven't been very good at keeping the blog updated these days, and the biggest reason for that is that I haven't been very good at taking pictures these days.  I was looking for some pictures to give Mike for Christmas this year and I couldn't find very many at all.  It's crazy how fast I got out of the habit of taking my camera places.  So, my new goal this year is to go back to taking a picture every day.  At least one picture.  And, I'll try to get more of them posted on here.  So, here's the first post of the new year.  It's of Allie.  She got a black eye while sledding behind the wheeler.  Luckily, she had a helmet on, so she only got a black eye.  She's pretty proud of it and I tell her that if she had to get hurt, at least she has something to show for it.  I have been hurt plenty of times and hit in the face more than I can count, but I've never had a black eye to prove all the pain was for something.  I'm a bit jealous of her shiner...so here it is.

 First day, after the tears were dried...

 First night...

 Second day...

Fourth day.  She sure is a cutie.  I'm glad these things heal up quickly and that she wasn't hurt worse.  We've had fun teasing people when they ask how it happened.  My favorite is that she and Jake were watching Tangled and wondered if a frying pan would really work to knock someone out.
Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas!

I was a slacker this year and didn't send out cards...again.  I think my excuse is pretty good, but it's still just an excuse.
We've had a great year this year.  We were able to go on some fun trips and do really fun things as a family.  I feel like the Lord has blessed us greatly and we are looking forward to another happy year.
To anyone who still reads the blog, Merry Christmas from the Schwab family!

A Visit From Santa

We were sitting at the dinner table last Sunday and the kids were all fighting.  Allie was mad at the boys for being naughty and Jason and Nate were refusing dinner.  Mike told the kids that we were getting close to Christmas and they better be good.  Just then, someone knocked on the door.  We opened the door to Santa!  The kids were all instantly cheered up and jumping around with excitement.  Mike said "Santa!  You are just in time.  These kids were just fighting and not eating their dinner.  You'll have to get them in line."  He was "ho, ho, ho -ing" all over the place and started to talk to the kids.  Nate streaked by me and back to the dinner table.  I looked over and he was painfully shoving food into his mouth.  He was grimacing at every bite, but trying his hardest to show Santa that he could eat his dinner in order to get gifts.  It totally cracked me up.

Anyway, Santa sat each one of them down and asked what they wanted for Christmas.

Nate asked for a remote control helicopter.

 Jason asked for a remote control monster truck.

 Allie asked for shoes?  I think she was nervous and couldn't think of anything right then.

Jake asked for something that flies.


They each got a little treat and Santa was on his way to visit some other kids.  Ours were pretty good for the rest of the night.  :)

Merry Christmas!

Pop!

Jason loves it when the packages arrive when the kids are all at school.  Then he gets to hog the pops all to himself...

I have to admit that it's my favorite thing to watch these days.

Conversation in the Car...

I picked up Nate from preschool for the first time in a long time and he was happy to see me there.  As we drove home, I asked if Grandma had found the school okay when she dropped him off.  It had been several days of her driving there and I wondered if she had finally gotten used to the route.  Here's the conversation...

Me: Did Grandma drive straight here this morning or did she have a hard time finding her way.

Nate:  Yeah.  She found it!  Her glasses are like Harry Potter glasses.

Me:  Harry Potter's glasses?

Nate:  Yeah.  They are magic and they tell her where to go!  Just like Harry Potter's glasses!

Conversations With Grandma...

As you know, my mom was super mom and spent two weeks with my family after my surgery.  She'd pop back home every few days to take care of business down there, but then she'd hop back in her car and brave snow storms to get back up here and help out.  While I was at the hospital, she wrote down a few of the things the kids said to her, so I thought I'd share...

Nate:  Mom lets us have 2 treats in a row.

That little turkey is always trying to find a way to get more treats.  He'll call them "snacks" and then say he gets a snack and a treat and he hasn't had his treat yet.  Grandma was wise to him though and knew that I wouldn't allow 2 treats in a row.

Jake: Tell me when it's 8:00 and I'll start getting ready for school.

We are pretty lazy in the mornings around here.  Grandma would get them up early and have them at the breakfast table by 7;30...pretty much unheard of around here.  But guess what...they were out the door way before the bus came and there wasn't any of the before school drama that goes on when I am in charge.  The first morning I was on my own, they only made it to the bus because the bus was 10 minutes late.  Grandma is super good at getting them going.

Last story...
Grandma was taking Nate to preschool and this is the conversation...

Nate: Why do you wear glasses Grandma?

Grandma:  So I can see how to drive and read the signs.  (She then made a few wrong turns on the way to preschool)

Nate: Grandma, I guess your glasses don't work.

Apples

Before the black hole of the surgery, I canned applesauce.  Things just kept getting put in front of the apples...fun trips, hospital stays, birthdays, lame stuff, and fun stuff.  It was on my list though and I really wanted to get it done.  The kids helped out and after a surprising number of hours, we had over 70 bottles of applesauce and juice to put on the shelf.

 Nate was actually my best helper.  He put all the apples into the sink and washed them.

Jake was the muscle behind the operation.  He brought in the boxes of apples and then hauled the applesauce downstairs for me.

Jason was a great helper too, but I realized later when I was cutting up the apples that he was sampling them along the way...

Allie was the best helper for the after hours work (after the boys were asleep).

I'm bummed that I didn't get any pictures of the finished work.  It was a seriously big deal. My kids love applesauce and we didn't even wait very long to open our first bottle.  We also have a new stockpile of fruit leather.  We love apples!

Gas

We have had to have lots of uncomfortable conversations at our house lately.  I told you that Nate uses colonoscopy correctly in a sentence.  Anyway, this surgery has thrown me for a loop.  I can deal with the pain part.  I don't even really have much pain from that anymore.  The problem is that I got an ileus after my surgery.  Part of my bowel fell asleep and it took a while to get things going again.  I puked my super sore guts out and couldn't leave the hospital until I could keep something down.  I can finally eat now, but it makes me pretty sick.  I feel like I have the stomach flu all day long.  I'm not trying to complain (actually, I probably am), I'm just setting the scene for the story.  The last few days have been centered around trying to find foods that I can eat and have the least upset stomach from.  My mom and I have gotten online and tried to figure things out, so we were chatting about it this morning...here's the conversation...

Me: I wish I could have that broccoli cheese soup that I pinned the other day.  That sounds good.

Mom: Yeah, but I think that would be bad.  Broccoli can give you gas.

Me:  I love broccoli.  I'll be sad if I can't ever have that again.

Jason:  If you have gas you can go fast like a car!

Eleven!

Jake boy is eleven!  Eleven years ago, I held his tiny body in my arms and thought I might burst with love for him.  I love him even more now.
Jake is a good kid with a really good heart.  He's easy to talk to and fun to be around.  I am so grateful that he is mine!

He picked Cinnamon Toast Crunch for his breakfast cereal.

 He has outgrown fingers now, so he used his spoon to show 11!

Happy Birthday Jake!  I hope it's a great day and an even better year!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I have a good Momma.  She came up to Smithfield 2 weekends in a row to visit us.  She came up for Jason's birthday and stayed to hear me speak in church.  Then, the next weekend was my birthday and she came up again for that.  She made a yummy dinner and a cake for me...then did all the dishes before she left.  She is the best!

The kids gave me a pair of underwear in a can.  They are one size fits all and the kids thought they were pretty funny.

Things sort of got crazy after my birthday.  I had a colonoscopy scheduled for a few days after.  I had lots of polyps in a colonoscopy last year, so I was just going back in this year to see if there were any there again.  Unfortunately, there were more than the year before and this time they were pretty bad.  I had most of them removed and then ended up in the hospital for a few days because I had some bleeding.  It was all quite dramatic and Allie was a wreck, worried about me.  It all turned out okay and I was home and back to normal.  The biopsy came back and was on the border of turning into cancer, so the recommendation was to remove most of my colon.  After visiting with the surgeon, I have decided to have a subtotal colectomy.  It isn't an entire colectomy, and should leave things relatively normal (I won't have a bag), but remove the area that was leaving me at a huge risk of colon cancer.
I have the surgery scheduled for later on this week.
It has been completely out of the blue for me, and quite a shock, but I am so grateful.  The GI doc told me that if I hadn't come in last year to have the polyps removed, I'd be dead right now.  He even said if I had waited even a few more months this year, it would be full blown cancer.  And I would have had no idea!  Colon cancer really is a silent killer because I had no indication that anything was wrong.  The only reason I had a colonoscopy in the first place was because my brother had a few polyps at 36 and they suggested that his siblings go in.  He saved my bacon for sure.
I have met with a geneticist and started the process of finding out why I have such a crazy colon at my age.  I am hoping we can get some answers, so we can get our kids checked out if we need to.  I'm not sure there are many 4 year old kids who can use the word "colonoscopy" correctly in a sentence, but Nate is one.  Just the other night, as he was drifting off to sleep, he said "Mom, I will still love you the same, even after your colonoscopy and your surgery.  I will still love you."   What a good boy.
I have become a cheerleader for colonoscopies and I tell everyone I know that has any reason to go, to go.  It totally sucks the night before, but it's worth it if it can save your life.  I am so grateful that things were set in motion to let me know about my lame colon.  I have been trying to scramble to have everything ready as I go in for surgery.  I think it will sort of be like recovering from a c-section, except I won't be getting anything so cool as a baby from it.  Maybe I'll have all sorts of time on my hands and I can catch up on the blog.  I have so many things to write about.
This is all such a personal matter to be throwing out on my blog, but it is a pretty major part of my life right now.  Besides, maybe one of you reading this will realize that you should probably get a colonoscopy.  Or, maybe you can just read this and send up prayers of thanks with me that I get to hang around a little longer.  Either way, it is what it is.  Life is good and my God is a God of miracles.  I have seen them and I am so grateful.