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I had the worst day ever today. I got a call from a real estate agent wanting to show the house first thing this morning. I cleaned like the wind and called her back to tell her it was ready. She said they’d already gone way out in the country and they’d be back in Madison after lunch. Finally, while I’m at the park with the kids, she calls me at 2 saying she’s on her way to my house. I RACE home to get Seiko, and hurt my back trying to get her in the car. The kids, Seiko, and I hang out at the park for 30 more minutes. We’d already been there for an hour, so we were hot, sun-kissed, and over an hour late for Heidi’s nap. Nevertheless, we stay away so she can show the house. She calls me 30 minutes later and apologizes, saying “We’re still here…” She tells me she’ll call when they leave. I give her 15 more minutes, and fed up with the park, we head home. Nobody’s at the house, so we go in and make ourselves comfortable. I figure she jut forgot to call when they left. I put Heidi down for her nap, and let Seiko inside. I plop Tru and Heidi’s school bags, my purse, and a bag of groceries on the counter and turn the TV on for Tru.

About 5 minutes later, the doorbell rings. It’s the real estate agent. They hadn’t even seen the house yet! Apparently, they spent all that time while I was waiting on them at some other house. Grr. I race to clean up the house, shuffle Seiko outside, wake Heidi up from her nap, and go on a walk. Seiko poops in the yard of the nicest house on our block, which happens to be having its roof replaced at that very instant; thus, the yard is full of witnesses to Seiko’s offense. I have to scrounge up a scrap of shingle packaging to pick it up and go all the way back to our house to throw it away. I get poop on my finger in the process. I can’t go inside to wash my hands, though, so I just have to wipe it on my jeans! BARF. I drag the kids and the arthritic dog kicking, screaming, and whining around the block, stopping at Susan Sibley Beams’s house to wash my hands. (I LOVE YOU, Susan.) The last block of our walk, Heidi is so sleepy that she kneels to rest every 15 feet. We finally got back a few minutes ago. Now I’m off to wash my poopy jeans.

ETA: Just got a request for another showing today! I’m glad for the interest, but I am sooo tired!

We had a very scary day two Wednesdays ago. Tru, Heidi, and I were at a local flooring store picking out new carpet for our house, which we listed for sale last week. We were waiting on the salesman to help us. He apologized for being on the phone and told me he was trying to direct his son to a particular store. The son was in his car looking for the store, and the salesman didn’t know how to tell him where it was. I offered to look it up on my phone. Heidi walked off, and Tru followed her. I went off after them, and the salesman said, “Oh, they can’t hurt anything.” I motioned toward the unprotected basement stairs, and said “Well, either of them could fall down the stairs.” He said, “Don’t worry. I’ll look after them while you look that up.” Not 2 seconds later, we heard a crash. We were about 10 feet away from the kids, but in the hallway. We walked into the room where the kids had gone, and Heidi was lying on the floor underneath a solid wood exterior door that had been propped up against the wall. Apparently, the store had just moved into that location and hadn’t finished their renovations and had left this door unhinged, leaning up against the doorway. Tru thought it was a regular door and had tried to open it, knocking it right over onto Heidi, who became pinned to the floor underneath it.

We called 911 and got her out. She may have been complete knocked out for a second, but we’re not sure. The salesman pulled the door off of her, and she looked so tiny crumpled up on the floor. It really looked like she was very badly hurt. By the time we picked her up, her eyes were halfway open and she was flailing, quiet, and unresponsive. As she became more responsive, she began grimacing with only half her face, twitching one of her arms, and flexing her legs together very severely. She started crying about 2 minutes after the door came off. She and Tru and I rode in the ambulance to the hospital, which took forever and a day. When we got there, they did a CT scan and X-ray of her head, chest, back, and arms and didn’t see any injuries. I am just flabbergasted that she didn’t have any broken bones.

She acted lethargic for the rest of that day, and sore and tired the next day. She got happier though, so we were surprised when she spiked a 103.5 fever on the third day. We took her back to the hospital, and the doctor told us there was a small possibility that a tiny skull fracture could have been invisible on the X-ray but still been large enough to allow spinal meningitis to develop. We were to wait it out. Luckily, Heidi didn’t develop any more symptoms and eventually got over what was apparently just a virus. Unluckily, the rest of us caught it from her, and we are just now beginning to feel better. A real estate agent warned us this would happen! It’ll take you 2 weeks working your butts off to fix up the house to sell, she said, and as soon as you list your house you’ll all get sick!

Tru must have had a hard day at school today. She’s been sleeping like this, in the chair Papa and Nana gave her for Christmas, for an hour now!

I found this picture on my phone today. I had forgotten about it! This is Tru in her nitrous oxide mask. Her dentist called her “Rudolph.”

So sorry it’s been so long since we’ve written anything here! It’s been very busy this last month or two. We had a great Christmas. Papa and Nana Spiceland came to visit and celebrate Christmas and Tru’s birthday, then Papa, Missa, Ally, and Kerri came. We had a wonderful time with everybody. We were supposed to travel to Memphis to spend Christmas evening and the following days with Bama and Jessica, but all six of us were sick. We had an interesting but effective Christmas over Skype video conferencing.

Tru had to have two fillings last week and has to have three more in the coming weeks. Her dentist says that the location of the cavities tells him that better brushing could not have prevented these cavities. She’s just inherited Mike’s teeth and may have issues her whole life. I sure hope that Heidi inherited mine! I’ve never had a cavity in my life. Her experience was hilarious, though. We’d told her ahead of time that she’d have to smell some yummy-smelling air during the procedure. Somehow she’d gotten the idea that they were going to stick things in her nose to make that happen, so she was very relieved to find out that it only involved breathing from a small red nose covering. The dentist called her Rudolph the whole time! She got very relaxed and very happy on the nitrous. She kept saying funny things like “Mommy! I looooooooooooooove yoooooooouuuuuuuu!” and “I’m DIZZZZZZZYYYYYY!” After we went home, she bit her lip pretty badly, so it’s all swollen in the only snow pictures we managed to take this year.

We had half an inch of snow the day before her dentist appointment, and amazingly, some of it has stuck around. I believe today is day 6 with snow on the ground. Many lakes iced over, and the temperatures were in the teens and twenties many days. Tru had a blast playing in it. Check out the pictures section of our website for new pictures.

Tru got a new bedroom before Heidi was born, and it was just now clean enough today for me to take pictures of it! It only took me 19 months. I took about 20 pictures and made a collage of them.

Bedroom. Click to enlarge.

Bedroom Collage. Click to enlarge.

Mike and I are leaving in five minutes for the hospital for my laparoscopic cystectomy. Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers. It shouldn’t be a big deal. We’ll update everyone when we get back.

Update #1 5:00 PM: I’m home! I’m sore, but otherwise, I’m fine. I’m in pain when I’m not medicated, but I have lots of fun drugs to help me with that. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts!

Update #2 Nov. 18th: Got confirmation last week that the tumor was benign. Yay.

Das pumpkin.

Los pumkinas.

I have been having some abdominal pain for a few weeks. Since I just stopped using my hormonal birth control in favor of a nonhormonal type which does not prevent ovarian cysts and I have a history of ovarian cysts, I figured my cysts must be back. When the pain got worse than I’d experienced from cysts before, I called my gynecologist and made an appointment. Today at that appointment, she did an ultrasound on my ovaries and found what she is pretty sure is a dermoid cyst, or ovarian teratoma. An ovarian teratoma is a tumor made from various types of body tissues, which can include skin, organ tissue, hair, neural tissue, bone tissue, and teeth, that grows inside an ovary. Most ovarian teratomas are noncancerous (benign) and can be removed very easily with laparoscopic surgery. She told me there is a small chance that this is a normal ovarian cyst with solid tissue inside that will be absorbed naturally by my body, but she’s pretty sure it’s a teratoma and that it will need to be removed. There is a small chance (1-2%) that it is malignant, but it is usually very easy to remove all of a teratoma since these types of tumors tend to form inside nicely secluded, sealed membranes. I have a second ultrasound scheduled for a month from now. If the mass is still there, she will schedule me for surgery sometime in December.

Please pray first and foremost that God’s will be done in this situation. Secondly, pray that this is indeed a benign tumor that can be removed easily.

Tru and Heidi had adorable matching Halloween outfits on yesterday that they received from Papa and Nana. I had to get a few pictures, including these: