Night Out, Nerd Style

We officially have cabin fever. The whole family is sick of being cooped up at the house. Unfortunately, the weather is still not nice enough for many outdoor activities, so we headed to a movie instead. After seeing The Lightning Thief, we all wanted to read the book, so we headed over to Barnes and Noble and were soon snuggled in chairs with novels and tasty beverages.

As you can see from the kids' expressions, the novel was VERY different from the book, as we had been told. But having seen the movie first, we were less offended. In the end, we all decided we liked the book better, but we liked the movie too. As long as you don't expect them to actually tell the same story, no reason not to enjoy both!

Of course, some of us are bigger nerds than others. Apparently, Kairi can't go anywhere without running into friends, so she was accosted several times for hugs and squeals. She's just too popular for our family!

Enough Already

It's been snowing since Wednesday night. It keeps melting as it snows, so the Morning Call is having a field day yelling at area districts for closing yesterday and today. But lets be honest - would you want to drive on the road in the picture? Plus, the wind is killer, and is whipping the snow around to whiteout conditions. So while the totals aren't as impressive as our last storm, the constant snow and wind is pretty daunting. And pretty depressing. I am missing ANOTHER drama rehearsal with the play a week away. Kai is missing a jazz band fest rescheduled for tomorrow - but her horn is at school because she didn't know she'd be out two days in a row. So how is she going to be in Saturday's performance? Scott stayed home from work yesterday and the roads never got covered with all the melting-as-it-falls that was going on. Today, he HAS to go (more or less) and the snow and wind and roads are nasty.

One of the songs on the Relient K album says "It's always nice to look out the window, and see those very first few flakes of snow... when February rolls around I'll close my eyes, turn a cold shoulder to these even colder skies, by the fire, my heart it heaves a sigh for the green grass waiting on the other side." I am definitely rolling my eyes today. Isn't it spring yet???

Busy, Busy, Busy

The last few weeks before a production are always brutal, but it seems especially bad this time around. Not only am I trying to get ready for "Taming the Wild, Wild, West... In A Dress", I am also up to my neck with regular school work. The kind of constant, brutal work that has me coming home completely wiped out every night. But my to-do list is slowly getting "to-done" and I can see the end in sight. Now if I could just sell some tickets! I have to blur the faces of my cast for privacy reasons, but here's some of our really great promotional posters:

We've got the costumes. We've got the props. We've got the scenery. They've got the talent. Now all we need is the audience. And for them to finish memorizing their lines. *sigh* And for this stupid winter weather to stop cancelling rehearsals. What do you MEAN the next storm for Thursday into Friday has the potential to be "memorable"???!?!?!

Why Lincoln?

Nicky's always been just a little bit obsessed with Abraham Lincoln. Don't ask me why. He came home last weekend with two new library books about Abe, and challenged us to come up with any facts about Lincoln he didn't already know. We lost.

He's even writing an extra credit report about Lincoln for no particular reason. He insisted we buy a special binder and put a picture in the front cover. He's up to about 6 typed pages. So when I saw that the Lehigh Valley Historical Society had an exhibit on Nicky's favorite president, we had to make the time to stop by.

The museum isn't particularly impressive. Three small exhibits showing Civil War memorabilia, the history of Lehigh County, and a tiny energy display make up the whole collection. But the Lincoln display entranced Nick, as did the dedicated guide who showed us around. He showed us each picture and artifact. Nick was enraptured, and took pictures (or had me take pictures) of everything from the clock that was in Ford's Theater on the night of the assassination to the signature on a Congressional memo. I don't really know why Nick reveres Abraham Lincoln so much, but how can I object to such an educational interest?

Sweet Celebrations

A Valentine's Day that falls on the Sunday of a long weekend is a pretty sweet deal. True, we spent most of Saturday running around getting things ready for my upcoming drama production. But Sunday was a great day all around. We got the usual gifts of sugary goodness for our own kids and the boos. Since we had Junior Church, we got to make crafts with the kids for their parents. And our kids gave us the Valentine of the night out.

We checked out the River Grille in Easton. We got a great table in view of the open kitchen and had a delicious and decadent dinner. Scott gave me some beautiful jewelry, and I had a fun bouquet of fruit delivered to his office on Friday. All in all, it was one of our better Valentine's Days.

Snowmageddon 2: Return of the Plow

Okay. Got the big snow this time. Ended up being about 18", and smack in the middle of the school week. We were out all day Wednesday (they called off the night before) and by halfway through Wednesday they were already calling out for Thursday, too. Then I got a 2 hour delay on Friday to boot.

Be careful what you wish for. Now my lesson plans are all messed up and show no signs of being corrected as more and more storms keep causing delays and cancellations. Add in a few team days and a few scheduled holidays and we'll be stuck on the same units forever.

Who asked for this snow stuff??

Snowed In

Well, we didn't get the 18" that Philly picked up, but we woke up this morning to a decent snowfall. Our schools had been closed early on Friday due to the impending storm, but by the time we went to bed, not a single flake had fallen. Ah, well. We still haven't had any snow days this year, so it's no big deal that we lost that hour or two. Although now my one reading class is ahead of the other and yet another drama practice was cancelled, so that's a bummer.

Nick went out to play in the snow, which I think is kid code for get as soaking wet as humanly possible and then track mud all over the house. But he had fun tossing and catching his football, which would disappear completely into the snow every time he missed - it's a very light, powdery snow.

Still, the cold air put roses in his cheeks, and it's not a bad thing at all for him to get some fresh air in February. Kai is at a sleepover, so at least the snowball fighting was kept to a minimum!

It All Started With Some Chinese Food...

At least, that was the running gag for the five days we just spent in the hospital. Here's the long story:

On Saturday, Scott was ill. He had severe stomach pain and indigestion. Eventually, he threw up, so we assumed stomach virus, or maybe something he ate. (Apparently, he thinks eating expired yogurt is a good idea.) By Tuesday, rumors of a stomach bug were in evidence at both of our workplaces, and I had an upset stomach, too, so we figured Scott had just had a bad case of it. His abs were still feeling sore, which we attributed to having thrown up so much.

He was feeling generally better by Wednesday night, so after Nicky's TKD, we opted for take-out Chinese as a treat. The General Tso's pictured above was actually Nick's - we had chicken with broccoli and tried a little Hot and Spicy Shredded Beef, which we agreed was neither hot nor spicy.

Around ten o'clock, Scott tried to lie down on his right side to go to sleep. He was overtaken instantly by viscious pain in his chest and upper abdomen. Long story somewhat shorter, I took him to the ER. Apparently, the magic words in the ER are "chest pains" because they hauled him back to a room and had about 6 techs hooking him up to all manner of equipment fast enough to scare the heck out of both of us. He was still in really bad pain, but as the night went on, it started to ease back a bit. Once they had ruled out heart attack, the pace slowed down. Morphine and what they called a "GI cocktail" of Maalox and Lidocaine ditched the rest of his symptoms. Through blood tests and ultrasounds and various poking and prodding, they determined that Scott had gallstones. So our question was, okay, how do we fix that? Turns out you remove the gall bladder. Now, it's been a LOOOOONG time since life science, and I was a bit shaky on the purpose of the gall bladder. Turns out, it's useful, but fairly optional. Okay.

Then things got weird. Plan A was to figure out exactly how long Scott had been sick. Do they count from Saturday? If so, he has to leave and come back to get the surgery later, cause the gall bladder is probably too inflamed to remove. Do they count from Wednesday? If so, time to have surgery, RIGHT NOW. They needed blood tests to figure it out.

Problem was, the blood tests came back showing elevated liver numbers. This meant a shift to Plan B. If Scott's liver numbers were high, that meant he might have a gall stone in his bile duct. So, before they could decide when and how to operate, they needed to do a procedure called an "ERCP" or something like that. In plain English, they needed to stick a camera down his throat and poke around in his bile duct to get rid of any stones. Cause if the stones went into his pancreas, that was BAD.

So they admit him. I call Cyndy, who rushes to watch the kids, who had been sleeping alone at home. We get half an hour of sleep or so, and spend the day waiting for his procedure. Finally, they say that it will be on Friday at 2:30. At this point, Scott is actually feeling fine, although there are nurses and visitors in every half-hour or so, which precludes any actual rest. (I had used Facebook to send out an SOS and our family and friends were in the know. The visitors and cards were nice, because Scott couldn't sleep anyway.) So most of Thursday passes uneventfully. At least we know WHEN they plan to do the next test. I ran home to shower and came back with everything Scott needed to be as comfy as possible. The kids wound up spending the night at Barry's. We owe Cyndy and Barry big time.

Friday, they take him down for the procedure. They assure me I can just wait outside the door. Scott is a bit nervous, cause, hey, camera down throat. But everyone is acting like it is very simple. An hour passes. Then another. Finally, they wheel him out and he is vomiting all over himself and looks frankly horrible. I try to follow but get stopped by a nurse who wants me to talk to the doctor and not go near the recovery room, but go back upstairs and wait. That's completely not going to happen. I am clear as crystal that I can't go in the recovery room. But I can sure as heck stand in the hallway outside so I can walk him up. Turns out later, he was asking for me from the second he woke up, which I could have told them. Anyway, I talk to the doctor, and he's basically, "I'm sorry, the procedure failed, we couldn't get into his bile duct. Now we have to do an MRI." I was thinking, okay, so if an MRI works, why not do that FIRST? Cause it's a whole lot less invasive. But he insisted that for most people, this works better cause they can get the stones out at the same time this way. Whatever. Didn't work for Scott. So Plan C was do the MRI. If there was a stone in the bile duct, immediate open-abdomen surgery. If not, leave, and come back for a laparoscopic surgery in two weeks.

The day before and Friday morning, Scott had been feeling pretty silly to be in a hospital bed. Frankly, he felt fine, and it was weird to be hospitalized with no symptoms. Not so after the ERCP. All of his old symptoms came back, plus additional post-anesthesia garbage. He was sick and miserable Friday night and Saturday. During this time, he got no word whatsoever about when the MRI might take place. Meanwhile, the kids stayed with Barry again and then with Jon and Laurie. Poor things - bounced all over the place.

Sunday morning, still nothing. So we took to being annoying. Everyone who came in, we asked when Scott's MRI was going to happen. I had left for an hour or two each day to take care of various aspects of our life, and on Sunday, I had to run our car (which thought now was a GREAT TIME to break down) to the mechanic. The brakes had started making dangerous sounds when I delivered the kids to Jon and Laurie's for overnight babysitting on Saturday. When I got back, they were finally wheeling Scott downstairs.

The MRI went smoothly, but we were again back to waiting, with no information being given. We knew that either Scott would get surgery right away, or he would be sent home. Either way, all that needed to happen was for a doctor to look at the MRI. So we waited impatiently until after 5. Finally, I decided I needed to go home and get the kids something to eat.

Trust me. The words "We just won the lottery!" or "We're going to Disney World" have nothing on a phone call saying "Come get me! I can go home!"

The doctors didn't find a stone in the bile duct. So we got to take Scott home late Sunday night. I had to practically lock him in the house to keep him from going to work Monday morning, but I'm glad he didn't because he's been sleeping or staring around exhausted all day.

He has to go back for a follow-up, where they will determine if the multiple antibiotics he is taking have fixed the inflammation. Then, he will need to schedule surgery, and he will probably miss some work after that as well. But at least he's home for now!

Here's the kicker to all of this. Most of you know Scott has lost 96 lbs. Turns out, weight loss can cause gall stones. How much does that suck? He worked so hard to get healthy, and it made him sick!

Thanks all, for your prayers and well-wishes! Please keep Scott in your prayers as he finishes this process out with surgery later in the month.