February Activities

-I've been posting my favorite romance movies for this month as a counter to scary movies in October. This was a fun one, I picked them out months ago so now when I post one I keep saying "oh man that one is SO good!" haha.

-Pierce, and sometimes Charlie, has been loving when we have Family Zingo nights (and Charlie crashing

-Larry decided it was time to introducing the kids to The Never Ending Story 1 & 2 (one of his favorites growing up). Pierce couldn't hang long, but girls seemed to like it. (2/1)

-Gwen LOVES playing teacher, so I dedicated some time for her and she read me a book, made me do math problems, we did recess, and more math problems.

-In having Larry do laundry a lot of fun things got switched around (love him for helping so I'm NOT knocking him helping out). I decided doing some sort of laundry item on a Friday night so I don't get distracted with my phone while watching my movie. One Friday I decided I should get the kids socks re-organized (they were just a tad chaotic). The bonus is I got the extra small ones together and put in our donation pile because we had just too many. I also got their closets moved back to normal (and moved out clothes that were too small to storage bins) so now all their clothes are looking better than they were before! 

The chaotic socks and underwear

-Workshops were fun this month, but because of plans on the days we ended up just grabbing and going so we built them at home. It worked, but I like it much more when we build them at the store so that's the goal for next month. Also, Pierce feels left out, so I had him "build" some Legos with his play hammer, he seemed to enjoy that.

-Lucy's coupon this month was Family Game Night where she chose the game. She chose Mario Kart, but since you can only play 4 at a time, Larry and I took turns switching off (between playing and taking care of Pierce) and we all had a lot of fun, it was a good night.

-On President's Day Marie was down so she took the girls out for lunch and to the Bean Museum for a fun afternoon. I ended up going to lunch w/Cindy and Tanny. We met up at Dees (which I haven't had it in so long and it was so delicious). The girls had so much fun with their Grandma and I REALLY enjoyed driving for the first time since my surgery, it felt so good (rather than nervous about if I could twist or what other cars would do).

-We had our first Screen Free Day on the 22nd and it went really well. Unfortunately, Larry had to get up REALLY early for a work thing so he was exhausted already. I found not being able to rely on screens a little bit was a tiny bit tiring haha. We dropped Cara off at a birthday party earlier in the day and then we went to Costco for a few snacks. We came back for naps and games (Lucy wasn't feeling great so her and Larry had a mini nap), we then went out to Golden Corral for dinner, which was fun for most of us (Gwen ate too much sugar and got sick) and it was a good day.

-Silly kiddo pics (Lucy silly hair 2/1,Gwen splits 2/1, Pierce with shirt up while playing 2/13, Cara waitress 2/22)

Post Surgery Updates

So it's been just over 7 weeks since my surgery and it's been a fun time, let me tell you. Officially they say recovery takes 4-6 weeks, however, in the recovery group I follow, they mentioned it could be 6-8 weeks. I think I might be closer to the 8 week time, I'm definitely getting back to normal for most day to day things, but there are things that are still a little tricky for me. It's unfortunate it's taking a little longer to feel all the way better, but I have to take my time and not rush it with such a major surgery.

Luckily I've been making my little goals for each day/week. I made a list of things I can't do yet (that I could before) so I can pick a couple each week to focus on. Mostly making sure I get my steps in, drink my water, do my stretches to help me straighten up, etc. This really helps me focus on my progress rather than what I can't do yet. Each week  it feels like I'm getting closer to how things used to be/usually are. I can feel more and more of my old self coming through.

So nice that there aren't lumps under my shirt anymore!

I wore jeans, for the first time, on the 9th (for the Super Bowl) and it felt like such an exciting moment to get to. I made sure to wear ones that were stretchy (between the little bit of swelling and wearing the binder most of my jeans are still too tight). Now I've switched to wearing my workout pants with a shirt...I've become one of those women, haha

Yes, I dress like THOSE women now,
But I've never been more comfy haha

I was so happy when I could shower, mostly regularly, without the chair I was using. Every few days I feel like I can stand a lot more straighter (Lucy loves pointing out how I'm finally straight now. Or saying "mom used to be like this (she holds her hand up with her fingers bent forward) and now she's like this (she straightens her fingers)"). I'm getting a lot more steps in each day. I'm doing laundry again (with help from Larry - he does the heavy lifting for me), and I'm feeling productive again, which is HUGE for me!

I was told at my 2 week mark to make my next appointment for the month mark, when I called in to make that, it got pushed back to closer to 6 weeks. Then the day for the appointment came and we had a HUGE snow storm so it got moved back another week, so it ended up being last Wednesday. It was SO nice to go to that one, they reassured me on a lot of things I was a little nervous for. They said I could go back to doing normal things, but to listen to my body and if it feels like it's too much, then slow it down. I also have officially switched over to compression tops (rather than my binder) and that's been really nice! I feel like it's really helped with the swelling I have right above my lower incision

I was able to get out of the house and walk Costco back on the 15th and that felt amazing (I went from struggling walking from my bed to the bathroom, then from the office to our kitchen, and then just walking Ridley's to walking all of Costco with NO issues whatsoever!). I've been wanting to get up to walking stores again and so I was happy for that. This also meant I was able to go grocery shopping with the family on the 16th, that's the first time since before my surgery!

I was even feeling like I could let Larry sleep in on Saturday's again so on the 15th I got up, quietly, and went down to get the kids breakfast and about 15 minutes later Larry was awake and downstairs, haha. I told him I was trying to let him sleep in, but he said he had a weird dream that made him think too much so he couldn't go back to sleep.

I've been focusing on my eating a lot too. Since I'm not moving as much and I wanted to tamper down all my crazy snacking I was doing (apparently taking a few weeks off didn't really help my cravings) I've been tracking my eating and trying to stick to 1,200 calories a day. They said I could go back to working out again, but I have to keep my belly button shaper in and I'm not sure about those two things together (because moving causes more swelling and my belly button got irritated so I'm worried about too much swelling). So, until I get back into working out I'll probably stick with this "diet". It's been quite the transition (mostly on Family Movie Nights...I just want all the popcorn and candy). I have my next appointment on March 19th so we'll see how things are looking then. My goal is to get back into working out in April. I told Larry I'll probably start with doing workouts on Sundays and then work up to adding in my other two (I definitely have to get used to getting up early in the mornings again, it's been nice to "sleep in").

The first day (17th) that I felt GREAT
Driving again.

I'm really excited to see what these next couple weeks bring. I am so ready to feel like recovering isn't my first thought when thinking of doing something and it goes to the back of my brain. Like the day I feel "hey! I've been doing stuff like normal for a while now...totally forgot I had surgery!" will be SUCH a happy day for me.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day this day was a little different. For one, we didn't end up making our new recipe that we usually do (I kind of thought with the Super Bowl food we didn't need more in our fridge haha). Second, it was Friday movie night so we kind of had to rush doing "bingo for gifts" and did it while Larry was showering. I still had to finish dinner so we were on a bit of a time crunch. Lastly, instead of Bingo for gifts, we did Zingo for gifts, which made Pierce so excited haha.

For their gifts this year I got them each a craft (or something that'll go into the activity closet), a Tonies character, an outfit, and some candy. Pierce really wanted the candy, Cara immediately started putting the Tonies characters on the box to listen to their things, Gwen started playing with her craft, and Lucy just put on her cute little outfit. 

Larry surprised me with some Reese's hearts, which I felt bad because I didn't get him anything at all. But I think I'm feeling up for handling mornings on my own so I'll let him sleep in tomorrow morning as my gift to him (the first time he'll get to since my surgery). 

As a silly bonus, it was Larry's choice for movie night and he chose Stardust, so it kept with the romance feelings. Plus, Cara said it's now her new favorite movie haha.

So Happy Valentine's Day out there! It's a good day to feel loved.

Super Bowl 2025

Oh man, I swear each year I love the Super Bowl more and more. It's my second Thanksgiving where it's all about food, eating, and enjoying Football haha. I had decided this year I wanted to do a 6 foot sub and I was SO excited about that (I've always wanted to do a 6 foot sub for something!). Well after thinking about it, I thought instead of one large sub with the same stuff on it, why not get 6 1-foot subs from Subway and we can get 6 different sandwiches to try out? So that was the plan (we got a meatball one, a BLT one, a regular turkey one, a philly cheesesteak one, a spicy crunchy one, and a club one). You, of course, have to do chips and dip, and then I thought a salad would also be a good side. I wanted to do a dessert too, but it took too long for me to figure out what would be best, so I just decided to order some Crumbl cookies.

Wearing jeans for the first time.
Crooked still, but so happy!

This year, I also decided to order some fun decorations (mostly to cover the tables and counters I knew I wouldn't be able to clean properly, due to still recovering from my surgery). I also found some fun Football themed games for the kids to do (a commercial  bingo and a kind of pool questionnaire - like who would win the coin toss, what would the first commercial be, who would score first, that type of stuff) and then I had  to get some prizes for those games. 

Yesterday we did the cleaning, so I had Larry help the kids pick up while I cleaned the bathroom. The kids were even excited to help me clean the walls in the bathroom (they were looking pretty bad and I offered them $1 per wall, which was a nice incentive). They liked it so much that when we woke up this morning they were already up saying they had cleaned up even more so that the house looked good for Nana and Boomer (Cara was REALLY excited they were coming over haha).

With all the prep work and then getting the food out, the kids were really excited and kept asking when the game started. Once the game did start they all kind of checked out and played their own things. We enjoyed watching the game though. It was a REALLY good game! I kept saying I hope the Eagles win, but we all know the Chiefs will win. Guess I was wrong, huh?

Mom and Will left a little after half time (which we didn't really watch much of...I don't know much about that guys so it wasn't anything exciting for me). Then we cleaned the food up (which all turned out so delicious! Larry said he wished we had gotten two of the spicy crunchy ones because he really liked it). We have LOTS of leftovers, but I definitely don't mind that!

Larry took the kids to get washed up while I finished the game in our room (SUCH a great ending, even if you saw it almost the whole game through). We all celebrated the Eagles win after they were done and then we put them to bed. I've still got laundry to finish up (feels so good to be able to get that done again), but I'll get to that while I watch a movie (back to usual haha).

While I'm sad Football is over, it was a really fun season. Here's to hoping the Packers (or Cowboys, even) do much better next year and we get to see one of them get closer to the Super Bowl (if not actually make it all the way!).

I was telling Larry I loved hearing the kids get so excited for Football and he asked me what I'd do if they were into a different team than the ones we cheer for, when they get older. I told him it just gives me an excuse to watch more games so that's not a problem in my book haha.

Final Surgery

So I am 4 weeks out from my recovery journey and, let me say, it's been rough! I figured it wouldn't be a walk in the park, but I was told the first couple weeks were the worst and then it gets easier after that, which was not the same for me. I didn't mind the first two weeks, actually. I was on all the pain meds and just relaxing, heck the the day of my surgery I couldn't even stay awake for longer than 10 second. I hardly remember getting home and was confused by all the people that were there. I hear I had a hard time waking up from the anesthesia and it took a couple hours haha. Getting up to walk every hour wasn't my favorite (mostly because I was always so comfy on the bed and I'd just want to be sleeping instead), the breathing tube exercise thing I had to do was also rough at first, and the drains are the absolute worst to deal with, but overall it was manageable.

I was so happy to be down to 1 drain
Getting them both out was SO nice

The first weekend was really smooth since the girls had their sleepover at Nana's and Pierce got some good mom and dad 1:1 time, which I think he liked. I thought we wouldn't need that, but it ended up being really nice for us. 

My setup the first day with my
Leg Compression machine. Larry
Hated it because it was so noisy at night

One thing that made it nice is I took some ex-lax a couple days before my surgery and then stuck to the liquid diet for the first couple weeks so that helped keep things calm. I took Dulcolax to help for the next week or so. Those are things I'd highly recommend for anyone thinking of doing this surgery.

Another nice thing was the first week I'd literally just do whatever sounded good in the moment. If it was reading my book, I read. If I needed a snack, I'd snack on whatever snacks I had on my nightstand. If it was watching a show or movie, I watched it until I got tired. Sometimes I'd be in the middle of an episode or movie and get tired and I'd just pause and take a nap. It was really nice because I NEVER do that. By the second week a little bit of "the old me" would peek through and I'd start to plan which part of my day was for reading, which part was for watching a movie, and which was for shows. I crossed A LOT of movies and shows off my lists (most were good, some bad), and got a couple books read just within the first two weeks. I felt pretty productive in that area haha.

Another difficult part was showering. I took a shower the day of my surgery and straightened my hair so I felt I looked decent, but after a few days I really needed another one. I thought making a shallow bath and sitting in that would be the best, but it turned out that was a bad idea because I couldn't get into a sitting position in the bath and then I ended up freezing and it felt weird to shiver. So I found out (one my tummy tuck recover group on FB) that they make these shower caps that you don't need to wet your hair, you just put the cap on, massage into your scalp, and take off and your hair is clean. Unfortunately, it's just made my hair REALLY oily and gross so that hasn't been as useful as I had hoped. I tried different things with it to see if there's something that would make it work, but so far I'm like 0 for 4 attempts. I also had these bathing sponge wipes, but those dried up my skin pretty bad.

Another thing I didn't think about was how intense the first car ride can be. Each bump is so scary (especially when I'm not driving), but when we left the house and I realized it had been a full week since I left the house, it was kind of a weird thrill haha. 

A lot of recovery pages show people getting back to normal after a couple weeks and it's been so hard that I haven't yet. I'm not standing straight yet and then sickness hit our home that I caught the cough and trying to keep that at bay (because it HURTS so bad and I'm scared of popping a suture) has made being patient so difficult. I enjoyed the down time for a couple weeks, but now I get frustrated with the things I can't do. However, I feel I'm starting to turn a page. I'm finally working up to taking regular showers, but I use a chair and it's a little complicated keeping my stomach area out of the water.

Keeping pillows and water nearby to help
When coughs would hit

Luckily, my scars are looking much better than I expected. They are pretty flat and just look more like scratches. Also, watching Larry do laundry is pretty funny. The kids keep asking if I can go back to it yet because he has things all over the place. 

Feeling like I at least look normal with 
Mostly regular clothes on

Some things I've done to help my mental health is to make a list of things that I can cross off as I accomplish them that gets me closer to back to normal. I've also set little goals each day to help me focus on my progress. Goals like changing my clothes regularly, taking regular showers, making step goals each week, no matter how pathetic they seem (it started with 1,000 steps a day, then up to 2,000, and now I'm up to 2,500 each day). 

Yay for over 1K steps!

I think the hard thing was I thought "okay, I'll be out for 6 weeks and then I'll be back to my normal routine," I figured I'd have to work back up to my normal workouts, but that's the only thing I thought I'd have to start over with. What I didn't realize is you don't go back to normal immediately, you work up to it AFTER the 6 weeks, not throughout the 6 weeks so that you. When I can't do things I have to remind myself I'm still healing. I don't think I'll be anywhere near my normal by 6 weeks, but I'll keep working on my progress and hope it won't take much longer than that.

So anyways, right now I'm happy my surgery is done and over with, but I'm not to the point where I'm happy I got it done or wanting to recommend it to others. I'll be so happy to see where I am in a couple weeks. Wish me luck!

January Activities

-Prep for my surgery: we went out to eat at all my favorite places, I got all my medicine filled and ready (some of them I have to do the day of surgery), and enjoyed as much family time as we could before I knew I'd be down.

-Gwen is OFFICIALLY potty trained! She has been fully trained during the day for a long while now, but she's such a deep sleeper that night was a bit harder. She was doing good before my surgery, but we wanted to keep her in pull ups until after the Nana sleepover (just to make sure she didn't have accidents there, with it being a new place). She reported dry that whole weekend so we've made the switch and she hasn't had an accident since! We're so proud and happy to have 3 full time potty trained kids and just have one in diapers now (what a great way to start the year!)

-:Lucy got her recital costume and she's SO excited to wear it. She loves any chance she can to try it on. We're all so excited to see her dance!

-Finding ways to keep entertained while being stuck in the house was challenging. Good thing we got a bunch of games and crafts for Christmas. Pierce is obsessed with Zingo and asks to play it multiple times a day.

-One boredom buster is making homes out of boxes, which the kids have been overly excited to do. Cara even gave them addresses:

-One of the "Memory Makers" we did this month was letting the girls go to Parents Night Out at their Gymnastics. Really, it was because I felt bad keeping the kids inside on weekends (since weekdays they have school), so we saw the Parent's Night Out flyer and I decided to sign them up last minute. They went out on a Saturday, it runs from 6-9, and kept Pierce in for mom and dad time (you have to be potty trained to go).  They came back talking about how much fun it was and how they want to do it again. It is extra $$ to go, but I may just let them do that more with how much they liked it.

-We found out that Cara passed her A.L.L. test and gets to start taking honors classes next year! This will mean transferring schools, but we're so proud of her and cannot wait to see what this girlie does in life. It doesn't surprise us she passed, she's so smart and loves going to school.

- Another thing we did was hit up the dollar store and we found some fun shrinky dinks to have the kids do. I thought they'd get to color them, but turns out they came pre-colored so they weren't too exciting, but still cute.

- We had to hit up the dollar store to get some things for the kids big "100 days of school" celebration day. We got the kids some fun dress up stuff and they were really looking forward to dressing up. They all also looked so cute!

-Some other silly kiddo pics:

Even after the 100 days, she's
Obsessed with wearing the 
Glasses still

Making Snow Cream

So being cooped up in the house all the time can be a bit rough. Especially when it's been such a warm winter. The kids have been real troupers. This morning, I was feeling mostly good and it actually started to snow and I remember seeing one of my parenting influencer pages making snow cream and thought it would be fun to give it a try. I looked up a recipe real quick and saw we had all the ingredients so I sent Larry out to gather as much clean snow as our big pot would hold and we got to putting everything together.

It wasn't the best tasting stuff, but it was fun to make and the fact that it was spontaneous made it more fun. Lucy and Pierce liked it. Cara said it was too sweet and Gwen ate it, but didn't want anymore of it, haha. 

I love finding little activities, like this, to do with them. Right now it's harder to fully do things like I used to, so these easy ones really help ease my mind about that.