Catching up

I can't believe how long it's been since I've blogged! Jason being home has caused some shifting in routines, but I think we are finally settling into something that works for everyone. Jason likes using the computer for photo editing and playing games, and since those are some of the few things he can do during his recovery, we just have to work around each others' schedules.

Tomorrow is the 3 week mark since Jason's surgery; the first big "post-surgery" milestone. For three weeks, Jason has not been allowed to bend at the waist, twist his torso, lift anything that isn't really light, or of course sit upright for longer than 20 minutes. Although the "why" was never really explained to us, we assume that has to do with healing muscle and healing disc. I'm sure it is more difficult for a muscle to heal when that muscle is being used often.

While Jason will be "allowed" to do anything he wants tomorrow, I'm not sure he will do much of it by choice. It still hurts to get up and down from sitting - although not as much as it did. He is mostly off the vicadin, and has been using Advil for daytime pain for a few days. There were several days when he used nothing at all. I guess to prove he is manly and can take the pain... or something. I'm glad to say I talked him into at least trying Advil instead of vicadin, since he really didn't want to stay on that longer than necessary. I don't like to nag him, but did about that. He finally tried it, and it kind of worked. At least the advil helped some, and it isn't a strong narcotic.

So, now begins the process of slowly getting back full use of his back. He can definitely feel it when he has done too much, so I'll leave it to him to make good judgements of what he can and can't (or should and shouldn't) do. After getting groceries Saturday, he carried in a few of the lighter bags, but realized the next day he probably shouldn't have, and from memory, I think it was only maybe 5 or 6 bags that he brought in. In addition to the walking we did over the weekend, the carrying was not wise.

It seems as though his recovery is going pretty normally. We go for his first post-op check up on the 1st, so we'll see how the doctor feels about things then.

Now, to catch up on the things we've been doing the last couple of weeks...

The kids

Unfortunately, the kids have not been doing much at all. I was really busy at work the last 2 weeks, and Jason was very involved with picture stuff, so they mostly entertained themselves. We try to do board games, or book reading or something fun together after dinner, but during the day while I work, they play in their rooms together or watch movies. Julian had what we thought to be a stomach bug recently. After a few days, it seemed to be working through, but then his throat got sore, and he developed a rash all over - an itchy rash too! Poor thing. So, back to the doctor we went, and although his strep test came back negative, they went ahead and gave him antibiotics, since it had been almost a week and his symptoms were not improving - obviously it was something in addition to a virus. He finished the antibiotics just in time to take a trip with Grandma and Grandpa, which I'll write about at a later date. They spent the weekend together though, and had a lot of fun (although not much sleep - thanks to one homesick little girl, and to be fair, according to her, grandpa making noise in the night!)

This is one thing Kathryn likes to do: be a doctor. I love it - maybe one day she'll be the real thing ...

On this day, Julian thought they should cut up paper and glue it back together to make various shapes. It actually started as stapling paper pieces together, but Julian and a stapler make me nervous, so we switched to glue sticks! I also gave him some aluminum foil for some shininess, and they went to town! I think they worked on this for about 90 minutes before I made them clean up for lunch.

Jason

There has been a lot of this lately:

This and black sheets draped over something or poster board on tables in different lighting - or the kitchen table covered in various things we have in the house that might make good photos.

And don't worry - he's not really bending...at least that's what he says!

He has been working on stock photography - in the picture above (although you can't see it because of my poor lighting!) he is taking pictures of crayons:

Very artistic, no?


I won't post any more of his stock photos because his goal is to master lighting and composition so he can eventually sell them. So I can't give any freebies! (:

Our quiet weekend


While the children were with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend, Jason and I took a trip to the river to see if he could get some good pictures. We misjudged the time though. The spot we visited is for boat access, and Friday evening at dusk must be a popular time to fish. One boat after another came to get in the water, so we didn't get to use the little dock for our purposes. Although we did get offered a ride with one shirtless man who had obviously been drinking a bit before he came to fish. He looked pretty disappointed that we didn't want to go with him.



I took these pictures - I don't know if Jason has gotten his off his camera yet...

I believe Jason said the vine snaking up the tree is poison ivy! It was everywhere, and I kept my distance. I've had more contact with poison ivy than I care to recently.

It was so quiet in our house this weekend with the kids being gone. We did a lot of reading and a lot of puzzles - what an old married couple, huh?

And the highlight of my weekend

Since we didn't have the children, we thought it would be nice to have dinner with Courtney and Billy. We never get to see them sans children, and Kathryn is always climbing over Billy when she is with him. They came over for dinner Saturday night and we had a wonderful evening. We got to see Jackson who is almost a month old! He has grown so much and has changed since we saw him a few weeks ago. I'm glad he came to see us since we haven't been able to drive the distance to see him since he was first born.

What a beautiful little boy

He makes the funniest faces!

And the proud uncle.

It was nice to visit with Courtney and Billy and remember back to when our kids were babies. The days of no sleep, changing a thousand diapers a day, barely having time or energy to eat and shower...they were so long ago, but they seem so recent. I know Courtney and Billy don't feel this way now, but those days are precious, and I actually do miss them. I miss walking 10 miles a day up and down the hallway to calm a crying baby. Or singing nonsense to them to calm them down. I guess they are more precious knowing they are definitely in the past - and can be fully enjoyed as memories now! They were pretty tired but I thought they were doing really well. I can see they are becoming great parents and will get better and better every day. Jackson is one lucky baby to get them as his parents!

That's all the catching up for now (like that wasn't enough). I'll try to stay more updated, but it gets harder and harder to blog a lot. We may be running out of blogging material...I'll have to work on that!!!