Another Marathon

Bethany and I have run 5 half marathons together.  She's a great running partner.  She was signed up to run with me two years ago for the Shamrock Marathon but got bronchitis and pneumonia right before the marathon so she couldn't run with me. You can defer your spot for two years.  So this was the year to do it.   

I debated about running this year but Brent and the kids said to go for it so I trained all winter.  It meant very early Saturday morning runs  And it was really nice to always come back to a clean house after a long run. Brent and the kids cleaned while I ran.  It was a nice trade off!

The kids sent me this video during a training run.

 Bethany and I met in Richmond for our 20 mile training run.   It was the weekend before Joel's surgery and I think for my anxiety just what I needed.  Everyone needs a friend who encourages you, challenges you, and draws you closer to God.  It was just what I needed that weekend.  Sarah was in Japan so she left me her key and we stayed at her apartment.  We met another friend Molly for dinner Friday night and then on Saturday went for our run down Richmond's Capital Trail. It was a beautiful day and the trial was really pretty to run on....however it was 80 degrees and we had a hard time finding water to fill up our water bottles.  Richmond - you need water stops along the trail!  Bethany joked that she'd rather run in snow.

Well..... maybe we should've have joked about the snow because it actually happened!  Snow, sleet, torrential downpour, and worse was the gale force winds! 

Bethany and Kristofer came down Friday night and stayed all weekend.  We spent Saturday night looking up how to survive a marathon in the rain. We wore large garbage bags for the first 16 miles! They worked great but then they were slowing us down since we were running right into the wind and it ended up pushing us backwards because it made its own parachute.  So we had to take them off. 

Miles 8-11 were the worst.  Heavy sleet and the gale force winds along the boardwalk kept pelting us and it really hurt. We had to stop to walk a lot because we had to brace ourselves against the wind.  But in some ways it helped the miles go by fast.  We were so focusing on getting through it that we didn't think about the miles. 

We had our own cheering section around mile 19.  

Those hugs were the best! 

Colin ran me across the finish line again.  He said he will always run me in.

I told Bethany I was so glad she didn't want to  give up.  A lot of people were dropping out and a lot got carted off in ambulances.  But after all the training I'm glad we did it. 

The birthday girl got her huge medal! 

The kids made signs. I loved them!

Not the best beach day but a fun experience. We came home and right as we were pulling into the driveway the sun came out. Go figure.  Ma-ma-maa and Grandpa came over for dinner to celebrate Norah's birthday with cake and presents.  Bethany and Kristofer left Monday morning and Norah wants them to come back next year for her birthday weekend.   Despite the weather it was such a great weekend. 

FIVE

This sweet girl turned FIVE on Sunday!  FIVE!  How has it already been 5 years!   5 is always such a hard birthday for me. They start school and it seems like life goes so much faster after that. Out of all the kids I think Norah is the most ready for school.  She  can not wait for kindergarten.  Joel told her a long time ago that in kindergarten they have puppies so she constantly repeats that when she is five she will go to school and see puppies!!!!! She might be sad the first day of school when her puppies aren't there....

Norah was so excited for her birthday.  For weeks has been counting down for her birthday.  Then the week before she would wake up and say 6 more days until my birthday, 5 more days until my birthday 4 more days until my birthday... she was so excited.

Saturday she helped me make a cake. The more sprinkles the better for this sugar loving girl.

I felt very conflicted this year because I signed up to run the Shamrock marathon but this year it fell on her birthday.  I told Norah she could have my medal so she quickly started asking me how fast I was running after each training run!  She wanted to make sure I won her a medal! 

She's no longer afraid of fire, makes me a little sad. 

Joel wanted to make Norah a birthday present and made Norah her very own unicorn crown!  He was very proud

Happy birthday sweet girl!  Its hard to believe you are already five. You love your brothers yet at the same time know exactly how to push their buttons - mainly Joel's!   Colin has figured you out and can convince you to do his chores for a simple lollipop.  He is well aware that once you are in school and get to go to the treat box each week you will be getting your own lollipops so he's making the next few months count! 

You are still very much attached to mommy.  You will go into your awanas class by yourself but you wont go into Sunday school unless you can be with your brothers. Or even the childcare at the gym.   You tell me you will miss me too much and that you are shy.  I've asked you about kindergarten but you said you will be too busy with school stuff to miss me. 

You are my best helper and can remember any grocery item that I've forgotten.  If I really need to make sure we pick up something at the store then I tell you before we leave and you  make sure we don't leave the store without it.

Its fun to listen to you play pretend.  You tell me "Mommy don't listen while I play" and you enter into this wonderful  imaginary world.  I just make myself busy in the same room and love to listen to you act out your imagination with ponies, dolls, stuffed animals, etc. 

You and Joel fight over who gets Mommy to put to bed at night and I'm not sure why because Daddy will tell stories for hours and Mommy makes you go straight to sleep. But its Daddy you want in the middle of the night to snuggle with.  And its daddy you want in the mornings and you tell me every morning after Daddy goes to work how much you miss Daddy.  You still wake up almost every night and we are hoping that stops soon.  When Joel had surgery you slept on his floor all night in a sleeping bag each night so we are going to attempt to put you in a sleeping bag each night. 

You are still my girly girl and love accessories, and makeup.  You beg all the time to do "pale nolish" (nail polish) If you like a certain outfit its not uncommon for you to wear the same thing for days on end.  And yet  other days you change clothes constantly. 

We love you sweet girl!  You have been the perfect ending to our family and we can't imagine life without you.  What a gift you are to our family! 

march madness

Filling out our brackets. Colin's love of basketball has increased march madness fun around here.  I picked my Hokies to go all the way because during march madness anything is possible.

Unfortunately Virginia Tech didn't have as much hope because they lost their first game so my bracket is all messed up. 

 Joel didn't see what I had written and just started in with "I'm just going to put VT on all these" Favorite  child at the moment. He just filled out the VT slots and then stopped.  I'm not sure he really cares about this in any way.  But his slightly filled out bracket is hanging up with the rest of ours.

Colin slowly filled out his bracket looking up statistics on what was the lowest seed to win the tournaments.   Colin is very calculated in almost everything he does so its fun to see his approach to this. He couldn't believe I filled mine out in minutes - which also explains why Colin is doing so much better than me in our brackets.

Birds

Sunday we were invited to Charly's 5th birthday party. It was at Hunt Club Farm and the bird aviary was a huge hit with Colin. 

It was so fun to just watch Colin's face as the birds started landing on him. Priceless!

They also had pony rides.  Colin was excited that he wasn't too big for the pony ride.  Its hard sometimes growing up - Colin is almost in that in between stage of kid/teenager. 

I had told Joel that he wasn't able to do the bounce house or play on the playground but he could do the pony ride if he wanted.  But he said no, his side hurt so he stuck with the chicken coop and the birds.

It was a fun afternoon!

Recovery

The pain finally hit Saturday afternoon for Joel. Poor thing.  But I was part relieved that he was feeling it.  It made him not move from that couch for several days.  It was amazing to see how quickly his bruises started to heal once he rested.  He kept saying he thought it was going to be fun after surgery, that we didn't prepare him for the pain. Sorry Joel, if you knew what was coming you wouldn't have been so cooperative!  Sometimes its nice to not know whats coming. 

I took the kids to see the new Lego Batman movie.  I figured it would keep Joel still for a few hours.  But then when we were sitting there I kept thinking what an awful idea this was because the seats could be full of bacteria and I kept making sure Joel's shirt was tucked into his pants.  Because his incision is at his waist he has to fold down his underwear and keep his pants low on his hips.  So he was relaxed but I was nervous the whole time!

Joel got tired of Norah going into his room so much so he made a sign.  As of right now he claims she owes him several dollars. Good luck Joel in trying to retrieve said money. 

Joel isn't allowed to do any chores.  In fact he told his class we were his servants because he can't do anything and he rings a bell. I gave him a bell to ring thinking it would keep him lying on the couch and I can hear it outside.  He likes to use it and I think as much pain as he's in right now, it will be a hard adjustment back to reality when he needs to start doing some chores.  He should enjoy it now while he can!

We can't take that masking tape off - its a special tape that the surgeon will take off. But he's starting to heal and except for this small hole at the right it looks really well. His skin is so tight at his waist - I keep thinking this is what a tummy tuck is like. 

 He is back at school.  But he comes home each day complaining how he can't play at recess and has to just sit on this one bench, looking out at everyone having fun.  Some kids come up and talk to him for a few minutes and that makes his day.  Also the kids that come up to him on his bench are his new BFF's - and I dont blame Joel for giving them that title.  Poor thing!  The weather has been so nice too for outside recess.  I've gone to pick him up early so he wont have to ride the bus and also because around then is when his pain medicine wears off.  He comes home exhausted.  Bedtime is so easy right now - he crashes but then he moans all night long.  I've been sleeping with him but I don't sleep much because I have to keep him from laying on his stitches. Brent was gone over the weekend for a previously scheduled work thing so all the kids slept in Joel's room. Norah and Colin were in sleeping bags - they all wanted to help take care of Joel. Colin has been really sweet to Joel and helping keep Joel still yet entertained.  

We go back to the surgeon tomorrow and I'm hoping he likes what he sees. I'm curious to see what is behind all the tape and dried blood.  Its been very comical how Brent and I have learned to bandage Joel's incision.  He could take off the original one after 48 hours but then we need to keep something there because we can't risk his pants/underwear hitting his stitches or Joel scraping it. So they gave me some gauze and tape as we were being discharged. The first time Brent was out of town and I had no clue. It was so bruised that I was afraid to hurt Joel and ended up using the entire roll of tape. Joel said it felt like a diaper on his hip.  Brent wasn't much better but we've been to the store several times and finally found gauze/tape that worked well.

Our Brave Boy

Joel's surgery was very successful.  The doctor was able to remove the entire birthmark and had enough skin to pull really tight to close him up.  I asked the doctor how many stitches and he said oh pick a number that it was too many to count.  And I said 100 and he said sure. He said there were more internal stitches that will dissolve than external and we needed to limit Joel's activity.

So we were expecting Joel to be in a lot of pain and not moving the next few days.  We couldn't be more wrong.  I've had to tell him to stop jumping rope and to stop running.  He went outside while I was in the kitchen and pulled our trashcans up to the house after seeing that the garbage truck came. My neighbor tried to help and took him over to her house to sit inside and pet her dogs.  It calmed him down for a little while.   I stopped his pain medicine today and he's more subdued and lethargic so I think he's starting to feel it but I've been paranoid that he will rip himself open. It also doesn't help that I had a nightmare before his surgery of him ripping himself open so I'm a little stressed making sure he stays still!  Colin keeps telling Joel that sitting around watching TV and playing video games all day sounds like a great thing.  Joel's not convinced yet. 

Brent took Joel while I dropped Norah off at a friends house to play for the day.  The day before we had met some friends at a playground near our house and Joel tried to jump this creek. He landed in it and his shoe came off.  Colin fished his shoe out with a stick as it went floating by.  Well I thought Joel grabbed his flip flops but nope.  He put on his tennis shoes that were still soaking wet.  I walked into the exam room and was met with the most awful smell.  I looked down and Joels wet, gross shoes were lying there.  It was so bad we went and asked the nurses for a plastic bag to seal up the smell.  hahahaha

Poor thing had been awake since 4:45. He woke Brent up by saying "daddy I'm really scared"  But he was so brave.  They asked if he would need a sedative and Brent had told them no. Brent has never been with me during a doctors visit when Joel needs shots! But he went willingly. The nurses said he was so good and listened and breathed his special gas just like they asked him to.  He was so cooperative with them.  I think he was part terrified but whatever works.  He is also in love with those hospital socks and think they are the greatest thing ever.

It was hard seeing them mark him up.  I knew it was large but when you look at this and see the amount they took out of him and then had to close shut.  Its amazing that they got it all in one surgery.  I was also reminded that God knows just what Joel needs.  He was my child that wasn't gaining weight at all when he was little that I was so worried but now he's on the complete opposite end and chunked up so much that I'm worried now. But if he hadn't gained weight this past year then they wouldn't have had enough skin to close him shut.  A few years ago they said to remove it would require a huge skin graft so I'm thankful that its just a ton of stitches that don't seem to bother him at all.

Our small group threw me a birthday party a week ago and gave me this scripture coloring book.  I brought it to pass the time. 

"Cast all your anxiety on Him for he cares for you"  I think that was very appropriate for Joel to color while waiting to get wheeled back. 

Then they wheeled him back and I had to hold back tears.  Thankfully our friend Laura works at the hospital and came and sat with us while we waited for Joel to come out of surgery.  They have this tv screen that has a number on it kind of like an airport has the screens with the flight numbers.  You can see exactly where the kids are - in the operating room or recovery.  Brent and I must've taken turns every 5 minutes looking up at that screen. They said it would take 45 minutes but then an hour goes by and another half hour and you try not to get nervous but its hard.  Finally the doctor came walking in the room and I've never been more relieved.  He was all smiles and gave us the good news. 

He had a hard time waking up.  He also had a breathing tube down this throat during the surgery so he sounded strange and raspy and his throat hurt.  A slurpee helped.

He was so relieved to have it all over with and also a little high on the strong medicines they gave him, that he came home and was ready to play like normal. I will be very ready to get the all clear from his doctor for him to resume all activity. 

Thank you all for your prayers.  We felt them all and would read all the texts and messages to Joel. I told him people were praying for him all over the world.