Friday, November 30, 2012

The Rain Got Me

So, I wish I had a picture of this to show you because I am sure that it was a pretty funny scene to all who saw it.

Today I walked to school to pick Madison up and just as we were leaving her school it started raining. Yep, we literally had just started our walk back home and still had about two miles to go. I had Madison hop in the stroller and I started running as fast as I could so that the kids wouldn't be in the rain for too long. Thankfully, it was an okay temperature.

It rained the whole way home, but there were parts of it that it was simply just that annoying mist/sprinkle type of rain. Nevertheless, we made it home and thankfully, I was the only one who was soaked. I was fully prepared to have to throw both of the kids in a warm bath/shower to warm them up and then get them in dry clothes, but the BOB did a great job of shielding them from the rain and I had a blanket with me that my dear friend Melissa had made for Hudson, that the kids were able to use to cover their legs.

It was definitely something! I was dog tired when I got home. I had already run about 3.5 miles on the treadmill this morning and I ran hard (I started at 6.1 and increased by at least .1 after each lap, so by the time I was done with my run I was at 7.5). My legs were shot, but I felt bad that I had the kids stuck in the rain, so I ran at every spot possible...there were some spots that my legs just wouldn't let me run up the hills, so we walked those, but everything else was a quick run.

We finished up the evening with pizza and movie night....Ratatouille. I just think that movie is so cute!

I am looking forward to tomorrow. I will have some fun stuff to post about...we have a busy, busy weekend ahead of us, but it's all fun stuff!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Just Another Day, or Was It?

Well, today has come and gone.....

I could easily say that there was nothing special about today because it was a gloomy/overcast day and nothing out of the ordinary happened, but instead I am going to choose to see it differently.

Today I was blessed with the opportunity to wake up in my warm bed, while it was stinking cold outside. I was blessed to be able to wake up early, before my kids were up, and have a wonderful quiet time with the Lord before starting my day. Then, I was blessed to be able to feed both of my beautiful children breakfast and give them both vitamins that nourish their bodies and help keep them healthy. I was blessed to be able to clothe them in warm clothes and then to get them both in the car and drive them to school, while listening to Christmas music.

Today I was blessed with knowing that when I dropped Madison off at school, she was going to be in a class with a teacher who LOVES teaching and adores his students. Then, I was blessed to be able to go home with Hudson and spend the morning loving on him and watching his eyes light up with excitement as he practiced more words that he's learning or as he brought me books to read to him. I am blessed to be able to stay at home with my sweet baby boy and to get to watch him reach fun milestones!

Today I was blessed with the opportunity to see Alex via Face Time for a few minutes before having to leave to go pick up Madison from school. And, let me just say how very blessed I am that God chose to give me Alex as my husband and partner in life! He is my very best friend and for that I am truly blessed!

Today I was blessed with the ability to walk to Madison's school to pick her up. I am blessed by having a daughter that loves to be outdoors as much as I do and enjoys our walks home from her school (which for is about 2.2 miles each direction). I am blessed that Madison loves school and really applies herself while she is there. I am blessed that she enjoys talking to me and sharing with me all that she is learning and doing in school.

Today I was blessed with a wonderful evening at the park with friends. I am blessed to have a park within walking distance of my house. I am blessed to live in such a wonderful neighborhood with amazing kids for my kids to play with and with amazing, supportive friends that know exactly what each other is going through in some fashion or another!

Today I was blessed to have an extra half an hour with Madison after Hudson went to bed, to just read stories and to laugh and to giggle. Today I was blessed to be able to tuck both of my kids into their beds tonight. Today I was blessed by all of the hugs and kisses I received from my wonderful children.

Today I am blessed to call myself a child of God, a wife, a mom, a daughter, a daughter-in-law,  a friend, and a neighbor. I am blessed to be a military spouse and to stand behind our men and women who are overseas. I am blessed to have a husband who loves God and his family. I am blessed to be married to a man who stands on principles and integrity. I am blessed to be madly in love with the man I call my husband, my hero.

Today I was blessed with the gift of life and with a little perspective. I pray that I remember each day to count all of my many blessings and to remember that they far outweigh any negative or blah thought that might come on any given day. Today in and of itself is a blessing simply because God's Grace has been freely given to us and each day is made new.

Today may have seemed like just an ordinary day and it would have been so easy to just call it a day, but when we take the time to stop and count our blessings, it helps to keep our days in perspective! I pray today that you can look back at your day and count your many blessings and find a smile not only upon your face, but also in your heart.

I also just wanted to wish a Happy Birthday to my friend Jess! Hope you had a great day and enjoyed your night out!!! I am blessed by you! :)

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Christmas Lights

Yesterday, Madison asked me if we could go for a walk around the neighborhood and look at all of the Christmas Lights and of course I said "yes."

On a side note, we do this every year, but last year was the first year Madison really got into it and I think she's finally caught onto one our Christmas Traditions. I love this time of year for a million reasons, but one of the things I love most are all of the family traditions that we're starting in our family.

Anyway, we decided to go for that walk tonight and we asked our dear friends the Beard Family to join us! It's still November, so there weren't a ton of Christmas lights up yet, but there were enough that all of the kids had a blast and really enjoyed their time. I let Madison take hot chocolate with her on the walk and she was in heaven (however, the aftermath of the sugar high was a tad bit crazy, maybe we'll save hot chocolate for our walks that are followed by a non-school day).

Here are a couple of pictures that I took:



This one is of the kids in their jammies getting ready for the walk.



This one is the kids all bundled up and ready to go in front of our house with our Christmas lights on.


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Such a Thoughtful Gift

Today was a pretty typical day, but something extra special happened today when Madison, Hudson and I got back from getting Madison after school.

When we arrived home there was a package at our doorstep! I had no idea what it was because the only things I am expecting shouldn't be here for at least a week. I looked at the return address label and there was no name. I became very curious! Well, when I opened it, the sweetest, most thoughtful gift was contained inside. There was a beautiful oval plate with the sweetest bible verse on it. It was from my dear friend Melissa. She wrote in the card that she'd seen it and it made her think of me and so she thought I needed to have it!

I can't explain it, but when you're husband is deployed, gestures like these mean even more!!! To know that Melissa saw this, thought of me and then took the time to get it and mail it to me (just because) it really touched my heart on a very deep level!  Here is the beautiful plate! I can't wait to use it and until then, it's on display in my kitchen!!


Thank you Melissa for making me feel extra special today and for always being a constant! You are a wonderful friend and I am truly blessed to have you in my life! :)

Merry Christmas from Afghanistan

Here is Alex's Office Christmas photo from Afghanistan!


Monday, November 26, 2012

Back to Our Routine

Today, we were back in our routine! Yay!!!

I dropped Madison off at school (which she was so excited to be back at) and then went to the Y. I pushed myself harder than normal because I want to jumpstart my weight loss again. I didn't gain any weight over the holiday, but I didn't lose any either! Anyway, I enjoyed my workout.

Then, when we got home, Hudson went down for a nap and I had the chance to talk to Alex on Face Time. It was so good to catch up with him. We hadn't really had an in depth conversation in about a week an a half. I enjoyed my lunch date with my handsome prince!

Once we were done talking, it was time to get Hudson up and to feed him lunch. We, then got ready for our walk to school to go pick sister up! I walked with Kristyle today and we had a great conversation. I always enjoy our walks.

When we picked the kids up their teacher had their school pictures!!!!! Yay! I love Madison's school picture, but a little frustrated that they had the kindergartners take their picture after recess had already happened. Madison still looks adorable, but you can tell that she'd been playing...just a little frustrating when you pay all that money for the pictures (before seeing them) and then they don't even take the time to let their faces cool off from running or to fix their hair.


This evening Kami came over for dinner and to just hang out! It was so wonderful to see her and to catch up! Life has been crazy and it's been hard to find time to hang out, so this wonderful visit was much appreciated! We love you Kami and can't wait for your next visit! :)


Sunday, November 25, 2012

Sunday's Best

Today we went to church. Both of the kids were super excited because they were wearing new outfits. Madison wore a new dress that my parents found for her and Hudson (who is 21 months old today) was wearing a sweet hand-me-down sweater (oh how we love our hand-me-downs). :)


After church we came home and listened to Christmas music, ate lunch, read a few stories, went to the park, and then the kids went down for quiet time. Once they were up, we went for a walk/run (about 5.5 miles). It is so cute watching the kids interact with each other while they are in the stroller and I'm exercising! They just love each other so much! It makes my heart swell with joy to see their bond!

One last fun/cute thing that happened today was while Hudson was in the bath tub! I was taking advantage of him being occupied to start getting Madison's stuff ready for school tomorrow. I walked by the bathroom carrying Madison's backpack and he looked right at it and pointed and said, "back pack" as clear as day! I didn't even know he knew what a back pack was, let alone knew how to say it. Now I wonder how many other things he's been holding out on me. My phone was charging b/c it was basically dead (from my walk where we were using my Nike app and listening to music) so I wasn't able to take a video of him saying it, but he kept saying it. Madison, the sweet big sister that she is, kept praising him for doing such a good job "using his words."

I love my kiddos and today just added more reasons as to why I love them so very much!!!!!! They make my heart happy!!!! I thank God every day for these two sweet, wonderful blessings He's allowed me the privilege to the mother of. I have learned more from being the mother of these two than I have any other time (I will post on that in a separate post some time).

Hope you all had a beautiful Sunday and that you're ready for the week ahead!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Mail.....

This morning, after we had all gotten up and eaten breakfast (Here is the Link to what we had), my parents had to load up their car and head home!

It was a beautiful day outside, so after my parents left, we decided to go for a nice walk! We enjoyed the peace and quiet of the outdoors and the wonderful fresh air! We just did a small walk today (3.5 miles) and then headed home for lunch.

On our way back to our house, we stopped at the mailbox to check the mail and today was a WONDERFUL mail day! Madison had a special box in the mail from Auntie Emma, Uncle Jordan and Cousin Mason. Then, in addition to that fun mail, Madison and Hudson both received a fun package from Daddy.

The package from Auntie Emma and Uncle Jordan was just darling. They had built a bear on line and had it sent to Madison. It came with the cutest little cookbook and they had also picked out a Cinderella dress and crown for Madison's new bear! She absolutely loves it! The one thing she told me would make it better is if she was playing with it WITH Auntie Emma and Uncle Jordan and Cousin Mason! She really does love them so much!



Then, the second piece of mail that they opened was from daddy! There is a special program offered at the USO on most bases called United Through Reading. The idea behind this, is that the deployed service member can record themselves reading, a book they have picked out for their child, onto a DVD. Then this program mails the DVD and the book to the child. Well, while Alex was in Kuwait (in limbo while he was waiting for a flight to Afghanistan), he went to the USO and recorded a book for each of the kids. They had told him it would only take a couple of weeks to get here and so when a month went by and we still hadn't seen it, we just assumed it had been lost in the mail. Well, today, it finally arrived and the kids were soooo excited to not only get mail from daddy, but to be able to watch a DVD with daddy reading to them. It's so funny because Alex recorded himself reading a bunch of stories before he left, but something about getting this in the mail, made it extra special! 



This evening we finished putting up all of our Christmas Decorations. Well, almost...I like real Christmas Trees, so we have to wait a couple of weekends to get our tree, but other than that our decorations are up! Now the kids are asleep and I am watching Christmas Vacation, mine and Alex's tradition the weekend after Thanksgiving. I sure do miss having him here to watch it with me, but it makes me feel that much closer to him!

Pictures from Alex's Deployment

The other day, Alex was able to send me some pictures he's taken while he's been deployed. He's only allowed to take his camera into certain areas because where he works is classified, but he was able to take some pictures of where he's been living. There are also a few good ones from Kuwait when he was waiting to make it to Afghanistan! I am posting the captions Alex typed out and sent me!


"This is a picture of the C-17 that we took from Kuwait to Afghanistan, parked on the tarmac at Bagram Air Base while we stopped there."  


"This is a picture of what McDonalds looks like in Kuwait."  


"This one is my can (his living quarters), in case you couldn't tell!"


This is Alex somewhere outside on the base...his caption was more of a silly for me and didn't really explain much as to where he is or what is behind him, so I didn't post it.


"This is the a view of our living area, with the cans in the background and the shower trailers in the foreground."


"This is a picture of the sun setting over FOB Geronimo (in Nawa, Afghanistan)." 


"This is a picture of me at FOB (Forward Operating Base) Geronimo while I was doing my investigation there." 


"This is a picture of Camp Leatherneck a few days ago, after the clouds started rolling in and it started to get cold. "







Friday, November 23, 2012

Don't Fall in the Lake!

Today is the last full day that my parents will be here, so we made the most of it.

This morning we had a yummy breakfast. We had our traditional country ham (yes there is a difference if you've never had it), big fluffy biscuits, scrambled eggs and sliced cheese so that we could make our own yummy southern breakfast sandwiches!

After breakfast we headed to the Post Office to mail Alex his next care package (babe, it's all homemade goodies)! Then we were off to Santee Lakes to feed the ducks! Hudson had a blast feeding ducks for the first time. He got the hang of it rather quickly and the ducks were rather friendly. They surrounded him as long as he had bread! Hudson then decided he wanted to throw the bread in the water to the ducks that were staying in the lake and that became rather nerve wracking. He is very quick and he would try to get close to the edge so that his bread would land in the water. Needless to say, I had a great workout while Hudson was feeding his ducks. Madison, on the other hand, is an old pro at feeding the ducks! She tears off little bitty pieces to make her bread last longer. She searches for the ducks that look the "hungriest" and she holds very still so that the ducks will come super close! :)
We had such a fun time, and this was the first time I'd taken my parents to the Santee Lakes!





After our duck excursion, we went for a little walk around the lakes and then we headed back to the car so that we could go to lunch. My parents hadn't been to the Corvette Diner yet, so we decided to go there! It was perfect timing. We got there right as it was opening and we were sat right away! The kids, as always, had so much fun. They shared the mini sliders and fries and Madison lucked out with a chocolate shake afterwards! In the collage below, this is both of the kids watching the waiters and waitresses doing their first song/dance of the morning and they had so much fun dancing to the music and clapping along!


Once we were home, the kids both went to quiet time. The power was out when we got home, so we played some wild rounds of UNO! I love UNO!!! I always have! Within an hour, the power came back on and I was able to open up the garage and work on getting our Christmas lights up! I have always helped Alex by holding the strands of lights for him, while he put them up. So, this was my first time ever putting Christmas lights up. My parents helped hold the strands so that I didn't drop them on the ground and break any of the bulbs. So, I now feel empowered! I put the Christmas lights up! I missed having Alex there for our first lighting with the kids this evening, but he was there with us in spirit.



When the lights were finished being put up, we threw on White Christmas! Madison joined us for the last third of the movie or so. Once it was over, my dad and Madison played some serious rounds of WAR. I am not sure who won, but they had a blast! Madison loves that card game! While they were playing cards, I started busting out our indoor Christmas decorations! :) I LOVE this time of year! Could you tell?!?

Then, of course, today is Friday, so naturally it was homemade pizza and movie night. We watch Secret of the Wings because my parents hadn't seen it and Madison wanted to share it with them. Tonight we made two pizzas: one cheese and one all veggies.

We had a lovely evening and we hope you did too!!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Being Purposeful with My Time....

Today is Thanksgiving.


Thanksgiving is a day that I LOVE. I love to have people over. I love to cook for people. I love to help people feel comfortable and happy. I love this time of year.

It's very tempting to use the holidays to just make the time go by faster until Alex gets home (I will admit though that they are a great distraction every day, but the actual day of the holiday is when his absence is very evident). But I digress, I don't want to just pass time until Alex gets home. During this time, my kids are getting bigger, my walk with the Lord is getting deeper, many of my friendships are growing stronger, my relationship with my kids is ever so sweet, and so on. I want to soak up each minute of each day and not ever just wish one of the days away. I am thankful for this time in our lives. While I miss Alex every day, I feel like we're growing by leaps and bounds as a family!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am so thankful that God felt our family was strong enough to endure this separation. I am thankful for all that I am learning through this time (about myself, about my kids, about my marriage, about my friends, about just about everything). I am beyond thankful for the amazing man that God has blessed me with to have by my side through everything, while also calling him to have a unique roll in defending our country. I am so proud of the man I am married to and wouldn't hesitate one second to marry him all over again!

Today was a beautiful day, in more ways than one. It started very early this morning, with prepping the turkey and getting it in the oven, prepping the food we weren't able to prep yesterday and getting the table all set up and ready. Below is a picture of my table in the process of being set up for Thanksgiving (somehow I missed getting a picture of it once it was completely done).



Here are a few pictures of me and the kids from the course of the day:






As my previous posts have talked about, my parents are here for a few days. In addition to my parents, Alex's parents were here and our friends Kristyle, Kolten and Ashlynn were here. It was such a joy to have a full house and to just spend time cooking for, laughing with, and enjoying a meal together with friends and family!

Kristyle made these cute Turkey Hats for the kiddos, which they loved!





Before we sat down for our Thanksgiving lunch/dinner we were able to Face Time with Alex and he said the blessing for our meal. Oh how I love that man. God has placed him as the leader of our home and even from over 3,000 miles away, he still made time to be with us as we thanked the Lord for all of the blessings in our lives.


After lunch/dinner, we all just sort of hung out for a little bit and then we busted out the dessert. Hilda brought a cookie/chocolate moose pizza. I made sugar cookies for the kids to decorate and we also had a pumpkin pie. 

Throughout the day we all just sort of talked, relaxed, and the kids played. Below is a picture of Hudson definitely not having any trouble relaxing today.


To finish off the day, after everyone went home, we watch The Polar Express in our Christmas Jammies, while eating some popcorn! The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and looked so stinking cute in their jammies. 





Wednesday, November 21, 2012

A Turn of the Key

Today we had a fun day with my parents, who are in town!

We had a Breakfast Strata to start the morning and then we headed off to the mall. The main reason we were going to the mall was to go to Boudin's for lunch (I was still craving that salad I posted about about a week ago), but we also didn't want to deal with crazy parking, so we went to the mall just as it was opening. Since we were there early, we headed to the Disney Store in hopes that we would get to be there when they do their special unlocking of the doors with their BIG key! We were just in time, and lucky Madison was the only one there to help them unlock the doors. Here is a picture of Madison...she was so excited!


Once Madison was done helping, they gave her an ornament that looked exactly like the key she was using to unlock the doors! It was so cute and it made Madison's morning! Madison also scored big time at the Disney Store! My parents, but my mom in particular, is a sucker for all things Disney (now you know where I get it from), so she let Madison pick out a few things. Hudson lucked out too. 

After we were done at the Disney Store we went to Macy's for our tradition of picking out the kids Christmas clothes (we always do this over the Thanksgiving holiday and we have always gone to Macy's, and we always get an amazing deal). I was going to post pictures of what we found, but decided to keep their outfits a surprise for Christmas! :) 

Today was a busy day at home. We did a lot of holiday prep for tomorrow. Madison helped me bake sugar cookies. My mom and I prepped the stuffing muffins. I baked mini pumpkin muffins for breakfast tomorrow. We did a lot more, but those were my favorites! 

This evening we watched a movie called GONE!!! It was so good! It is a suspense movie that I highly recommend, if you're into those kinds of movies! 

Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow! We will be spending the day thanking God for our men and women who are overseas away from their families (especially our Marine) and praying that God will help all of the families feel the presence of their loved ones despite the distance between them. We will also be spending the day with my parents, Alex's parents, and some of our friends (Kristyle, Kolten and Ashlynn). 

Tomorrow when you're remembering all of the things you're thankful for, please remember to thank God for sending His son to die for our sins and for the Grace He has freely bestowed upon us! How truly blessed we are by the One who sustains us and gives us life!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Just Because....

I saw this today and thought it was hilarious, so I thought I'd share it:


Nothing too exciting to report...just more getting ready for my parents to get here (cleaning, errands, etc...)

My parents are still driving here...they took a different way, trying to avoid LAX traffic and they ended up hitting yucky traffic anyway, so it's been a long night on the road for them. Now, just praying my soup isn't mush by the time they get here! :)

Hope you all had a lovely day!

Monday, November 19, 2012

What a Day!

Today was very productive!

We all got up, had breakfast and then headed off to the Y. The kids love the Y for all of the fun playing they get to do and I love it for the great workouts I am able to fit in! After the Y we ran to Walmart (to find some fun stuff for Alex's Christmas Care Package and to get a new candle) then we ran to Costco! We always have so much fun at Costco! :) We had a few key items I still needed to get for Thanksgiving!

We came home and ate lunch! Then the kids had quiet time and I continued to work on my "to do" list for getting everything ready for my parents to arrive tomorrow evening!

When we went to get the mail today, there were two letters from Alex, one for Madison and one for me. :) Alex sent Madison the coolest Afghan coin in her letter (I tried to take pictures of it to show you all, but they just kept washing out the detail on the coin) and my love wrote me a ten page letter! I love receiving his letters. He has been writing about his favorite memories and this time he chose to write about our first "date!" It was so much fun to walk down memory lane through his letter! :)

After the kids went to bed, I heard some sad news. I would like to ask you to pray for Alex's grandma. She is not doing very well. Please pray that God would bring her comfort and that He would fill the whole family with peace and strength, as she is in her final days.




Sunday, November 18, 2012

Lesson Learned...

This morning we went to church...Madison was very excited to be going somewhere. Being cooped up in the house for the past two days was making her crazy. :)

She did okay last night, but woke up 3-4 times complaining of how stuff her nose felt (it was the swelling from the surgery) and the last time she woke up it was about 5:00 and it was too late. Her body had already thought she'd had a full night's sleep. She was good and stayed in her room until it was really time to get up, but it was another early morning for her. Here's to hoping tonight is a normal night :)

As a treat, I took the kids to In-n-Out for lunch, well we went through the drive through and brought it home. They loved it and it was a nice treat for me too! I've been super strict with what I have been eating so that I can maximize the results of all of my working out. I have to say though, that while it was tasty (as always) it wasn't nearly as satisfying. I was hungry almost an hour later, when normally I eat half the calories for lunch and am full until my mid afternoon snack. Anyway, lesson learned! :)

After the kids quiet time, we went in the backyard and enjoyed the nice day! We played volleyball. We played soccer. We played hide-n-seek. We also taught Hudson how to go up the ladder to the slide, all by himself! He was very proud! He must have done it about a dozen times! Here is a video of Hudson successfully making it up the ladder and then down the slide!



Also, here is a picture of the kids both on the glider:


The kids are at their AWANAS Thanksgiving Feast right now! I am sure they are having a blast! They were both super excited to get there! :)


Madison received her first patch and her wings tonight (the wings keep all of the jewels they earn)!
So fun!


This was Hudson's craft for tonight! They learned that God made moons and that Jesus loves them!


Saturday, November 17, 2012

Simply Beautiful

We had a laid back kind of day to give Madison one more day of rest, just to make sure her healing stayed headed in the right direction. :)

The kids were up crazy early (Madison at 3:45 and Hudson at 5:00), but I kept them in their rooms until about 6:30. But, even though they were in their rooms, I heard Madison singing and talking to herself and once Hudson was up, I heard him too....so needless to say, I have been up since about 3:45 as well!

Madison was doing much better today! She was feeling back to herself (almost), but like I mentioned earlier, we kept today low key on purpose...so she'd continue feeling better! Thank you again to all of you who have been praying for her!

It was a nice day today, so we played in the backyard some and after the kids both got up from their quiet time, I plopped them both in the stroller and went for a run. I initially set out to go for a walk, but was feeling rather motivated and ran 5.5 miles with them (the stroller, plus the kids totals around 100lbs).

Here is a picture (which doesn't even do the sky justice) of the beautiful canvas God painted while I was running!


Well, the kids are in bed now (a little earlier than normal due to their early rise) and now I am off to shower and to watch my next Netflix movie...not even sure what's here...hope it's a good one! :)

Friday, November 16, 2012

My Brave Little Girl


 Today was another first in the things I've experienced both as a mother and as a Marine Spouse whose husband is deployed.

 Today Madison had her surgery to have her adenoids removed. Her surgery took place at Rady's Children's Hospital in San Diego. We had a wonderful experience there! Rady's is an amazing hospital. From the second we stepped foot in the doors we were greeted with the friendliest of people and the most amazing staff.  Here is Madison's picture right after we finished registering her and we were waiting to be called back.


Once we were called back, they took her vitals and then had her get into her "pj's" as they referred to them (actually her scrubs). She had to wear special no slip socks too. Madison said that she thought they made her look like she had duck feet. haha! Here are some pictures while we were waiting in the pre-op room.




It was in this room where Madison's doctor, anesthesiologist, and nurse came in at all different times to talk to us and just run down what was going to be happening from all of their perspectives! They were all wonderful! At about 8:25 this morning, Madison was taken back for her surgery and I went to the waiting room to wait for my "pager" to go off to let me know the doctor was ready to see me. 

At about 9:05, the pager went off and I went back to meet with Madison's doctor. She told me that everything went well. She said that she was very glad that we chose to remove her adenoids at the time we did because when she actually got in there, they were much larger than she was able to see in the x-ray and that there was also a lot of puss back there too. She said that Madison did fine with the whole process of getting the mask on so they could sedate her, but that she was a tad bit teary-eyed. Once I was done talking with the doctor, I was asked to wait back in the waiting area. 

At about 9:40, my pager went off for the final time, to let me know that they were ready to take me back to see Madison. When they walked me back, Madison wasn't there just yet, but she arrived shortly. As Madison was coming around the corner, I could hear that she was crying (broke my heart) and calling for me. They said it's very typical for kids of this age to cry as they are coming out of anesthesia, especially if they were emotional before being put under. Once she saw me, she was very disoriented and didn't understand what was going on. She kept asking when the surgery was going to happen (must have asked me about 15 times if she'd already had her surgery). She wasn't feeling too great when I first saw her, but shortly after allowing herself to just lay in the bed, watch some Mickey and Friends, and just be still, she started to feel better. They then brought her a popsicle, which got a smile out of her. It was then, that she tried to start talking a lot, but her throat and tongue were still pretty swollen from being intubated, so it was pretty hard to understand what she was saying b/c it's like she was talking with a numb mouth and not everything was working together when she was trying to talk. 

Here is Madison's first picture as she arrived and was given her first popsicle.


This is Madison as she's finishing her third popsicle, starting to feel a little better. She was having trouble smiling because she was still so swollen and numb. 


Once Madison had had her three popsicles and a glass of apple juice with success (not getting sick), they began the discharge process. Madison was still feeling pretty lousy when they discharged us, but she had met all the requirements, so they allowed me to take her home. We were discharged about 11:00.

***Here's a funny (well kind of) side note: I was told by Madison's doctor that it would probably be close to a week before Madison could easily breathe out of her nose b/c of the swelling involved and whatnot. Well, here is a tid bit of news to help you understand just how large her adenoids were. While we were waiting to be discharged, Madison tried to breathe through her nose and she said, "Mom, I can finally breathe out of my nose. I haven't been able to do that in a long time." So, despite the swelling, apparently, it is no where near as bad as how big her adenoids were that were blocking her nose!***

Once we arrived home, I set up a bed on the couch for her, so that she could veg and watch movies all day. She never fell asleep (which actually surprised me), but she did lay down pretty much all day. She enjoyed a plethora of popsicles, ice cream, and frozen squeezie yogurts. 

Here is the first picture of her trying to eat a banana almost immediately when she got home because she was starving. It didn't go over so well. She ate about two bites and then set it down. We quickly switched pace and went back to the popsicles, which had a much better outcome. 


This picture was taken a couple of hours after we'd been home and she was just relaxing and watching movies.


This is a picture of Hudson trying desperately to see how Madison was doing. He couldn't stand it. He kept trying to climb up in her lap and just sit with her. It was so cute!


We were extremely blessed with more thoughtfulness from many different people. Brittney brought over the most amazing box of popsicles for Madison. The box contained fudgesicles, regular popsicles, and the popsicles that have the vanilla ice cream in the middle. Then we were also blessed with a visit from our dear friend Devan (who also happens to be our PCM). We love her so much! She came on her lunch break and brought Madison some Ben and Jerry's. We had a lovely conversation and really enjoyed our time with her! 


Later in the day, we received a fun delivery from the UPS truck! Alex sent Madison "Get Well" Flowers and the sweetest card. (He also sent me beautiful Thanksgiving Colored Roses and a beautiful card). 




Then, when the mail arrived, Madison had a sweet little package in the mail from my parents. They sent her a cute little bear (which had a little perfume bottle with it). She loves it! She hasn't put it down since receiving it!


Also, my sweet friend April, who watched Hudson for me (and arrived in the wee hours of the morning, in order for me to get Madison to the hospital in time), also made us dinner so that I wouldn't have to worry about that today! So very thoughtful and very much appreciate! Thank you!


Thank you to everyone for the all of the prayers, emails, texts, Facebook messages/comments and phone calls. Today really went rather smoothly and I am hopeful that Madison will be back to normal tomorrow.