Better late than never

We actually did Tom's birthday cake celebration today because Brittanie was at work when Tom got home last night and she is not working today. So here are the pictures from Tom's little celebration. By the way, the picture of Tom poking Katie in the eye was obviously an accident. He meant to poke her little nose and she moved and he got her eye instead.

Ironically, it is National Prime Rib Day too!

Last night, Tom and I went to Charlotte to take Brittanie and her friend to a concert and Jessica was kind enough to take care of Katie and Taylor for us so we could celebrate Tom's birthday, just the two of us. We had a good time even though the restaurant was a bust. I'm sure there are lots of people who like Lonestar Steakhouse, but it just isn't for us. The BBQ sauce on the ribs was not good and the Thousand Island dressing on the salad was down right nasty. But the worst part was the live entertainment. Tom and I are faithful watchers of American Idol so we did have fun critiquing the caterwalling of each song....Simon style. lol But I am going to take Tom to O'Charley's and get his blackened prime rib that he loves so much. He had a Cajun ribeye last night that he said tasted good but it was overcooked and thus very dry. You just can't be O'Charley's for really good steak....and ribs for that matter.

Brittanie had a great time at the concert and we were able to meet her coworker/friend, Courtney. She is beautiful and so nice. We liked her. Taylor and Katie had a blast with Jessica. She took them to a Japanese restaurant so they got to watch the chef do the cooking and a little bit of entertaining right in front of them. They loved it! Then she took them shopping and came back home and made cookies in Taylor's Easy Bake Oven. Jessica is awesome. Katie has been excited all week that she was going to see Jessica last night. She just loves Jessica. But what's not to love, right? Katie told me this morning that she just loves Jessica and she is so pretty. She's right!

Carolina Panthers Day at Finlay Park

Brittanie convinced me to let her get out of school early today so she could go to the Carolina Panthers Day in Columbia at Finlay Park. She was able to meet the cheerleaders and had her picture taken with Chris Gamble and Keary Colbert.....first stringers! Here are a couple of her pictures.

By the way, after Brittanie passed the written part of her Fountain Master test at Sonic, Max (the manager) gave her another 25 cents an hour to take that 5 raises in less than 6 months and now she is making $7.00 an hour. Once she gets observed and deemed proficient, she will get another raise!

Gotta love Sonic!!!

For the 4th time in the 6 months that Brittanie has worked at Sonic, she has gotten yet another raise. This time it was a 25 cents an hour raise. The main manager worked with her Friday night and they had a burst of customers after the Kenny Chesney concert let out and Brittanie evidently handled it like a pro and the manager showed his appreciation by giving her a raise.

Working at Sonic is fast paced, hard work but they know how to treat their employees. Well I suppose I shouldn't make a blanket statement like that. Let's say the Sonic that Brittanie works for knows how to treat their employees. Brittanie feels appreciated there.

God is so good! He got her out of Subway, where she was mistreated, unappreciated and paid minimum wage and gave her a job that gives her the hours she needs and the appreciation and respect she deserves. To God be the glory, great things He hath done!!

Addendum: Since I posted that stuff above, Brittanie has passed her Fountain Master written test with a score of 101 (she got the bonus question right). Now she just needs to be observed by the owner doing her job, which she obviously does well since she has gotten 4 raises in 6 months. If the owner thinks she is an efficient worker, she will get a raise of another 25 cents to make that an even $7.00 an hour!! I certainly didn't make that at 16. Go Brittanie!

In case you are wondering

For those who are curious as to what happened to cause the police officers to be everywhere at Grace Wednesday, here is the story on WLTX.com. Click here.

Emergency Day

Today is Emergency Day for Kindergarteners at Katie's school. They are supposed to come dressed as either a doctor, nurse, police officer, or fireman. Katie wanted to be a police officer, like Paw-Paw. So we hunted Harbison over and there wasn't a costume to be found. So once again, Sandra (or as Katie calls her, Mammie) to the rescue. I called them to ask if they may have a costume and Sandra suggested we get a shirt and she has the patches since Jimmy (or as Katie calls him, Paw-Paw) was the Chief of Police in Gaston. Well it was late and all of the stores in Gaston was closed. The next day, Sandra was going to town and offered to pick up a shirt for me and do the patches. She is wonderful!! I don't know what we would do without her! Anytime we need her, she is there. She brought over the shirt, a whistle and handcuffs with a retractable badge holder that would tether it to her waist. So Katie was set. So Katie's costume has real patches from a retired Chief of Police. I told Katie this morning that she was not just an officer, she was the Chief of Police!! If you look closely, you can see that the patch on the hat and her sleeve are official Gaston Police Department patches. Sandra did a great job and we really appreciate it. Katie was excited to go to school as Officer Sightler this morning. I almost grabbed Brittanie's name tag (it says Sightler) from her JROTC uniform to put on Katie but I was afraid Katie would play with it and lose it. But she looked great just the way Sandra put the shirt together! Here are some pictures of our little Chief this morning.

After the VT tragedy

What is the last thing you want to see at your child's school? Lots of policeman. This morning when Tom went to drop Katie off at school, there were at least 5 police patrol cars at the church at Katie's school. (She goes to a Christian school.) Well the church is connected to the Kindergarten building so they were all over the place where Katie needed to go. They just sent the Kindergarteners to the after school daycare building. But after what just happened at Virginia Tech, it is quite unsettling to go to your child's school and see all those police cars. It makes you think of what could happen. I just pray daily that God protects our children.

I have good news, despite being sick for a week and a half and having 2 weeks of kids being home on spring break and going through surgery, I managed to get completely caught up on my typing Monday. Now granted, my boss was on vacation but hey, it still counts. He is the best boss and doctor in the entire world. He has been so patient with me being behind and it is because of that that I'm going to make a concerted effort to stay caught up. I know I'm stressing out him and his staff, as well as myself. But I'm very thankful to have the boss I have. He is wonderful and an excellent doctor. I'm VERY picky about physicians. I know lots of them and he is the best by far.

My "female" problems are much improved since the surgery. I was told to expect the same things I had after having my babies. This is ALOT less "yuck" than after the babies so it is wonderful. Dr. Holladay says I should be back to normal in 2 to 4 weeks. So I'm thrilled. By the way, if you are looking for a good OB, I highly recommend Dr. Holladay and all of the physicians at SC OB/GYN. When I had the small bowel obstruction when I was pregnant with Katie, I saw EVERY OB in that practice at least once a day. They were on top of the situation at all times. I know that God sent me to that practice. They made sure both Katie and I were going to be ok.

Tom and Brittanie are planning a "history" trip this summer instead of the roller coaster trip originally planned. Brittanie decided that she would rather do the roller coaster trip the summer after she graduates and this summer she wants to see important places in American history. So she and Tom are mapping out a trip to DC, WestPoint, Charleston, WV, Philadelphia, etc. They will get at least one theme park in (Six Flags New Jersey) while they are on their trip. But I'm glad they are going to do this. I would have loved to have done something with my dad, just the two of us. She LOVED their roller coaster trip a couple of years ago. It is one of her best memories. She and I are extremely close. This is a chance for her to bond even closer with her dad. They love each other and she is close to him but not as close as she and I are. He's just an outstanding daddy! I couldn't ask for better!!

Ok well my dictation is in and I'm going to get to work. Yesterday I was done typing by 2:45!!! I was so happy! I was able to play games on pogo, cook supper, and watch Katie play outside. It is great!!

Dog ears!!!

Have you seen the KFC Commercial with the mom walking the babysitter around the house giving instructions on how to care for her picky kids? Well last night when the commercial came on, Brittanie and Tom both went "oooh" and held their ears when the mom and babysitter walked down the stairs. I said "What?" They both heard a high pitched sound. We have TiVo, so I rewound it and listened to it again. Once again, they went "ooh" and winced at the sound....the sound I couldn't hear. I rewound it several times and couldn't hear it. Well the commercial played on a different channel today and Tom, once again, winced at that high pitched sound that I couldn't hear. I thought they were messing with me last night but he didn't even know the commercial was on today when he heard the sound and turned around and saw it on TV. I know my hearing isn't very sharp because I played my music WAYYYY too loud in my car as a teenager. So let me hear from my readers with good hearing. Does it take dog ears to hear it (which Tom and Brittanie both have) or can someone with normal hearing hear it too?

Today, Katie climbed up in Tom's lap and they were watching TV together and it was so cute that I had to take a picture.

Tom's clone

Hey Mark, got any room in MIS for Tom's little clone? Right after these pictures were taken, she closed her laptop, got off the recliner and said she is going to work. I asked her where does she work and she said "At daddy's work." Make room for Katie B. She has the same attitude as Tom. I don't know if the company could handle two Toms! hehehe

I'm home!

I'm home and doing fine. I did scare Tom to death by having to stay in Recovery for 2 1/2 hours. My oxygen saturation kept dropping.....at one point it dropped down to 89. The normal is 100 and they wouldn't let me go to Outpatient Recovery where you get dressed and get discharge instructions until it was at least 95. But when I finally did get in Outpatient Recovery, my friend, Shannon, who I hadn't seen in 5 years, came in to see me. She is a surgery tech at Baptist and they were slow so she came and sat with me and we caught up. It was great.

The arrogant butthole that gave me my epidural when I had Katie was my anesthesiologist again today. I named him Dr. Butthole. Imagine Tom as an anesthesiologist! Now I'm in love with Tom, so his buttholeness (is that a word? lol) is part of his charm. But a doctor shouldn't have it. Thank goodness Dr. Butthole wasn't alone. There was a nurse anesthetist named Howard and he was a sweetheart. So he made up for Dr. Butthole. I LOVE Baptist Hospital. Everytime I go there, everyone is great! (well except Dr. Butthole)

I came home, ate something, and went to bed. I just got up. Other than still being congested and coughing and a little hung over, I'm feeling fine. As soon as I finish this blog, I'm going back to bed.

Oh! This morning in preop, I was in the bed waiting to be taken to surgery and they had given me Versed, which made me loopy. Well I started cutting up and tickling Tom....he was standing beside my bed....and he started acting like the Dog Whisperer. We love that show. He said (in his fake Mexican voice) "You need to be in a calm, submissive state." And would make that same sound that the dog whisperer does "pssst!" He said "Wife Whisperer." That's the goofball side of Tom he doesn't let people see. But I LOVE it. He's such a nut.

This morning, Tom got up to go to the bathroom and to me he went too fast...he says no....but he accidentally kicked the door frame. He is still limping tonight and said that it hurts all the way down his foot, towards his ankle. If he is still hurting by Monday, I'm going to make him go to Dr. Hook and have an x-ray done. Right now it only hurts when he walks and it is isn't swollen. But I still think he should have it looked at.

Today is Brittanie and Randy's one year anniversary. He took her to the Black Bull (it used to be Captain George's but now is fine dining complete with valet parking) and then they are going to see a movie.

Special thanks to Sandra and Samantha for not only taking care of Katie and Taylor for me today, but Sandra even drove to West Columbia to pick up Katie from school and to Sandhills to pick up Taylor from school and took Katie to get a Happy Meal at McDonald's after school, then she took Taylor and Katie to Wendy's for a Happy Meal. I don't know what I would do without Sandra and Samantha. They are absolutely wonderful. We are very lucky to have them in our family and as our neighbors. My girls LOVE them....and so do we!

Katie surprised us today by counting to 109! I was shocked. We had just played the "you have have as many M&M's as you can count" game for Easter. That would have been a disaster having her eat 109 M&M's. lol

Taylor was evaluated all week at Sandhills, as promised, and they deemed she meets the requirements for Resource. So we are VERY excited. She starts Resource Monday. But since my meeting with her teachers and the Student Intervention Team last month, the teachers have really made a point of giving Taylor extra attention, even tutoring her at recess for Math, Science, and Social Studies. It has really helped. She came home with a progress report yesterday that was great. She usually had "Satisfactory" in Language Arts but Math, Science, and Social Studies all said "Having Difficulty." This time she had all Satisfactory and Math was borderline. But they are allowing her to take a test that she doesn't do well on...like she made a 76 on a test yesterday.....and take it home and let us work with her to redo the problems and then resubmit it. They know we aren't going to do it for her. In my opinion, parents who do their kid's school work, especially Math because it is a building subject...you miss one part and you have screwed up everything for years, are being irresponsible. But anyway, things are going great with Taylor. I'm so proud of her. She is working hard on her school work, as well as her attitude at home.

Well I've blogged alot for someone that had surgery today. lol So I'm going to bed. Thanks to everyone who prayed for me. I really appreciate it!

Stubborn!!

Yesterday afternoon, I put Katie down for a nap around 4pm. She slept until almost 6. When she got up, she had such a nasty attitude. She told me, "I need food!" I asked her what she wanted to eat....giving her several choices. She told me, "Just give me food!" I told her that I'm not going to fix anything until she tells me what she wants because she will just tell me that's not what she wanted and won't eat it. Taylor then told me if I told her what to fix, she would fix Katie something to eat, since I was typing. I said "Well she won't tell me what she wants." That's when Katie screamed at me. I don't know what she was saying but I popped her mouth (Don't freak out...I didn't punch her. I gave her a firm, quick pop on the lips.) and told her that she will NOT raise her voice to me and for her to go in her room until she is ready to apologize. She got to the door of her room and said "I'm going to stay in my room all night!" I told her "yes you will unless you apologize." Well she climbed back in her bed and went to sleep. She got up an hour later and came in the living room. I said "Are you ready to apologize?" She said "NO!" and went back in her room and fell asleep for another hour. The last time she got up, it was a little after 8 and I asked her again if she was ready to apologize and she didn't answer me. She just walked back into her room and got back in her bed and didn't get back up until 7:15am this morning! I had my pre-op labs this morning so Tom took off to go with me. We were both still in the bed when Katie got up and she climbed up in the bed and got between us. She told Tom good morning. When she told me good morning, I said "Are you ready to apologize?" She didn't answer me at all. I went to get in the shower at 7:30 and Katie came in the bathroom and told me "Mom, I am sorry I was ugly to you last night." I told her that was very sweet and I accepted her apology but I do not ever want her to talk to me like she did last night ever again. She told me she would try to do better.

I just couldn't get over how stubborn she was being and chose to stay in bed for 13 hours rather than say she is sorry! The major drawback is that she got almost 15 hours of sleep so she is HYPER beyond belief today!!!

Are we sure it is spring?

It was in the 80's last week and then this weekend it got down into the 30's. Is it any wonder that we all got sick at our house? Poor Katie wasn't able to hunt Easter eggs because she was so sick. I kept her home from school yesterday but Taylor said she would hide them for her this afternoon when she got home from school. Everyone is back in school today after two weeks of spring break (one week for Katie then the next week for Brittanie and Taylor). I couldn't be happier!! Now if I could get to feeling better, that would be the icing on the cake.














I did get some sad news on Easter Sunday. Back in January I reported that my mom's 1st cousin, Aunt Melda, who she was VERY close to all of her life, passed away on my dad's birthday (January 23rd). She had had progressive Alzheimer's for quite a few years. She loved her husband, Uncle Tony, and he loved her too. He would tell us that she was the love of his life and how he prayed daily that God wouldn't take him before her so he could watch out for her until her dying day. God answered that prayer. But 2 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days after God took Aunt Melda home, He called Uncle Tony home as well. I have older parents so family members dying is not new to me. But this couple really hit home because I have so many memories of going to visit them in LaPlace growing up and playing with their granddaughter, Annette. They had five children and tons of grandchildren and they loved each one of them. I went to high school with their grandson, Scott. He and I graduated from Belmont the same year. It just doesn't seem real that they are both gone. My mom is taking it pretty hard. Aunt Melda was a couple of years older than mom and Uncle Tony was 4 years older than mom. But no matter what the age, it is hard to lose the people you love. I know what she is thinking because I'm thinking it too....this is pushing her to the head of the line and her days are getting shorter. But I just saw a 102 year old woman hitting a hole in one on TV yesterday. My mom has been VERY physically active all of her life. I think she could very well out live us all. But you still can't help but think about it when your parents are gone, your older sister and her husband is gone, your husband is gone, and now your closest cousin and her husband are gone. Please pray for my family during this time. I loved Uncle Tony. He was the smartest man in our family....the only Republican! hehehe He will be missed!

There is good news. Brittanie and I started doing the Atkins diet last Monday. Brittanie joined Carolina Girls Fitness in West Columbia, which is right up the road from Sonic so she can work out before going to work....and she has been going. Well Brittanie lost 8 pounds this week. I know the first 10 pounds is water but still. She was thrilled to see 8 pounds gone in a week. It gave her more motivation to stick with it. She has to lose 55 pounds to meet the ROTC scholarship requirements. She is also working on her endurance for the 2 mile run as well. She was getting discouraged because that is alot of weight to lose. But Atkins will drop it off of you quick. So she is motivated now! I'm proud of her.

My update (Guys, you may not want to read this!)

I have been having extreme bleeding for some time now. I went to my OB/GYN, Dr. Holladay, and he did an ultrasound and they found a 2 inch mass above my uterus. He gave me birth control pills and eventually Premarin 1.25mg to take twice a day and told me to come back in a month for a repeat ultrasound. Well I went back last Friday and the mass seen on my first ultrasound was not present on the second one. He told me to drop down on my Premarin 1.25mg from twice a day to once a day dosing for seven days and then discontinue altogether. I knew what would happen after I stopped the pills.....massive bleeding again. He told me to call him back if that happens. Well I'm not even done with the pills yet and the massive bleeding is back. So they called me in some more Premarin 1.25mg bid and have scheduled me for a D&C next Friday (April 13th) but I asked his nurse to please convince him to do an endometrial ablation instead. I don't want to have to keep going in for a D&C every few months, because this has been going on for months and I want it to stop. So they will get me to go into the office next Wednesday and do the preop stuff and I should know then exactly what procedure is going to be done. I am going to REALLY push for the ablation. Most patients never have another period after an ablation. That's what I want. I have been having those disgusting things since I am 9 years old and it is time for it to be gone forever.

I do have good news! Last night I slept for the first time without using my Afrin. I'm now coming up on 48 hours of being Afrin free. I have been mildly congested on and off today but nothing I can't handle. I'm thrilled!!! I really really wanted to kick this addiction before I went to Louisiana (we are leaving May 25th) and I did it with a month and a half to spare!! *happy dance*

Let's just hope she doesn't have children!

Since Brittanie started driving by herself, back in May of last year, I have let her run errands for me. She knows how to use my debit card, so I would just give her the card and let her pick up stuff I needed. In the last 10 months, she has lost 5 debit cards. So when I got my new debit card a couple of weeks ago, I told her that from now on she would have to use checks. So I would make the check out to say Food Lion, sign it and leave the amount blank and she would fill it in. Well they require you present a driver's license. Guess what? She lost my driver's license yesterday! I went to pick up Katie from school today and realized that I don't have my license. So I came home and was just going to get it back from Brittanie. That's when I learned she couldn't find it. She called Sonic (she worked last night) and the owner had it. It had fallen out of her pocket when she went to the restroom yesterday. But now she has lost her new debit card that is connected to her checking account that I opened for her in September. That makes 6 debit cards lost and my driver's license. All I can say is, let's hope she doesn't have children. Those you can't reorder.