Healing Days Day 2 & 3

Let the healing begin....

After our long day at the hospital, Emily was glad to be at home to do the remainder of her healing. Morning brought some delicious cupcakes from our friends the Lacey's!  Emily was so excited! She loves cupcakes!

Emily was not in too much pain but just wanted to be laying on the couch.  She was not eating much of anything, sipping on Gatorade and dipping into some Jello but still not hungry.  Her pain was very manageable to my surprise!

She chatted for just a moment on the phone with Grandma.  She still was very sleepy and not much energy.  She loved the pick me up tho...every little bit helps!  Emily put on a hat and big sunglasses and did sit outside for a moment to enjoy the beautiful day! Wouldnt you know it..it has been the nicest weather this weekend!!

Saturday brought a puffy eye and a bit more pain and discomfort.  After today the swelling and redness should start to subside.  She has been snuggling this bear almost every second of being at home!!

Saturday morning also brought another fun surprise!! A CANDY BOUQUET!  Emily was beaming when this showed up at the door! It is so cute! Thank-you Grandma and Grandpa and Kristin, Brent & Ben! She LOVED it! 

(apparently it was supposed to arrive on Friday...but due to our extreme heat they couldnt deliver it! LOL)

Emily's Surgery Day!

Strabismus Repair

Last month we were in to see Emily's Opthamologist and we discussed with him a procedure that Emily could have done called Strabismus repair. Basically it is a manipulation of the eye muscles to bring the eyes into alignment better.  Her right eye was left with no sight following her surgery as a baby and the eye does not align properly with the seeing eye.  This was something that we knew could be corrected when the time was right and we were in no rush.  We discussed it with Emily and her doctor and agreed the time was right.

The night before Emily's Surgery was so fun for her!  She was in the tub following her pre-op instructions (she read every word and followed the directions) when the doorbell rang and it was her cute friend Emma Nash.  She had come to deliver the cutest little package of fun things for Emily! She brought a cute cd, bath products and fun treats for when she was feeling better! Emily was THRILLED! Then the doorbell rang again...

It was the Humphreys with the FUNNEST balloon! It had a message attached and everytime you hit the balloon we could hear their good well wishes! SOOO cute! They also brought the softest teddy bear which went right into her hospital bag! And lots of cute cards and treats!  SO FUN! Emily was so thrilled and wasnt expecting anything!

The little package also included some new books about a girl named Clementine. Emily had the 1st one read that same night!! She LOVES to read!

Here we are arriving at the hospital with our admitting papers. Emily was getting a little upset that I was taking pictures...but she will thank me later ;).  Ill post more about that later. Emily was a trooper. She showed not a moment of nervousness at this point and I was impressed. I had butterflies in my stomach wondering how I could put her through this.  I wondered throughout the day how we ever got through a brain surgery with her...

Emily arrived at her little bed. Bed 31.  She unpacked some of her stuff and we put on her cute hospital wear.

She was not thrilled to look like a candycane but I told her she looked delectable :). The little bear did not leave her side...he even went into the OR with her. I wasnt even allowed in the OR but Mike was able to go in with her.

We had a lot of waiting time prior to surgery. Emily read and read. I played a fun game on my phone called Diner Dash. Emily and I would pass it back and forth trying to get our restaurant bigger and better. It was a fun app to get through some waiting time.

  (Emily and I are so NOT ready for a job in the restaurant business. Our customers were not happy with us.)

Mike was on trauma service but popped over from the Foothills which is conveniently right across the street.  He passed some time by reading through Emily's THICK hospital file shown here. Some hard memories are tied up in those files. Soon it was time for surgery.  Emily had a few moments of nervousness and a few tears but was such a trooper. I was truly amazed.  She was in surgery for just about an hour and another hour in recovery. We were paged when she was being returned to her room and we beat her there.

Now Emily has had a general anesthetic numerous times and she usually wakes up very irritable, panicked and sick.  That is what I was preparing myself for. However, she reacted totally differently. She was sooooo sleepy.  We would try to get her up to drink something and she would sleep sitting up!  Any way we placed her she would just mumble to us and go back to sleep. She was quite sick and could not drink anything! After discussion back and forth with the endocrinologist and her anesthetist we came up with a treatment plan and finally around 10pm we passed most of our criteria for discharge and we were on our way home!  I was relieved...we did not want to stay the night! 

Emily was still very sleepy and I got her into the wheelchair and she fell asleep. She looks like she is in pain here...but she isnt...she is fast asleep.

I got her into the van and..yes..she fell fast asleep.  I got her home and tucked into her bed and she fell fast asleep and slept alllllll night.

As far as how her surgery went...we think it went great. She is in very little pain and had just tylenol in the hospital to manage pain. I was completely surprised.  Her eye is very red and slightly puffy and she keeps it closed. The few times she has opened it for me and looked at me...I can notice a difference already.  So we are optimistic that we will get a good result! I will post more on her recovery and results! So far so good!

Thank you to all of you for your sweet gifts, phone-calls, emails, texts, messages, etc. I love technology...Emily felt so loved and supported!!

Thai Chicken Noodle Salad

THAI CHICKEN NOODLE SALAD

Marinade:

3 Tbsp lime juice

3 Tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic minced

1 1/2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Marinate 4 chicken breasts for 1/2 hour, then bake @ 350 for 40-60 min. or til done.

(Note: We BBQ'd the chicken tonight and it was great too)

 

Peanut sauce:

1/4 c. peanut butter

1/4 c. honey

1/4 c. soy sauce

1/4 c. water

Heat sauce ingredients together, whisking til combined.

 

Layers for the salad:
romaine lettuce chopped or torn

rice vermicelli cooked (follow pkg)

cooked chicken sliced up

chopped green onion

chopped peanuts (optional)

peanut sauce

chopped cilantro (opt)

My sister Kristin is in a recipe funk (see her blog link) so she wanted me to post a recipe. This is one of our favorites and perfect for summer!  My friend Christy made this for me when I was on bedrest and I LOVED it!  All my girls LOVE it too!  I also want to plug my SIL Christine's blog if you are looking for some delicious recipes. She has been posting some awesome Vegetarian Dishes (complete with pictures)...so drop by her blog for some fresh new ideas!

Grandma and Auntie Mary Visit!!!!!

We were so lucky this week to have fun visitors! My Grandma Bullock and Auntie Mary were on a road trip and our house was one of their stops!

James was so friendly and LOVED the attention!  He would bring all his toys over to Grandma to play. He would play peek-a-boo and try and find his new friends when he woke up in the morning!

The girls LOVED getting to know Grandma and she taught them some new card games!  They loved playing and hearing her stories!  We laughed and laughed. As soon as I picked up the girls from school the first thing they would ask was if Grandma and Mary were going to be around! So cute! 

 I loved visiting with my grandma and hearing how everyone is doing. I loved her stories from the past including the story of my Grandpa's cousin from Taber that was 'murdered'!! What scandal!  At one point my grandma said....

'Oh we NEVER thought we would be this old! (giggle giggle). When I married your Grandpa I would have bargained for just a few years! It was war time and you just never knew how long you would have to be together.'  

My grandparents have been married 67 YEARS in June! My grandpa will celebrate his 91st birthday in August. He has always treated my grandma like gold!! What an inspiration!  Im also so impressed with my Grandma's memory! (WOW). She is so good to point out the good in people and overlook their faults.  She says 

'In the end....you just have to treat others kindly...nothing else matters.'  

What a gem my grandma is!! Auntie Mary was a bubble of sunshine and just how I have always remembered her!  These ladies were BUSY while here. They had so many old friends to connect with and they had such nice visits with each of them!  We loved having them come visit! Thank you Grandma and Auntie Mary for brightening our home for a few days!!

(I didnt even get a picture of Auntie Mary...she was so popular and off visiting!)

I forgot to mention that my grandma went out to the air museum at the Calgary Airport. They are working on a display that will hilight my grandpa and his helicopter business that he started with his 2 brothers here years ago...BULLOCK HELICOPTERS. The display is called 'From Horses to Helicopters'. My grandma loved this title.  He did many things with his helicopters and one hilight was mountain rescue. Before helicopters the rescues were done by horse. What a change the helicopters brought! My grandpa and his brother sold the Helicopter business when the 3rd brother was killed while flying in one of the helicopters.  This was devastating for them and they lost all enthusiasm for the business. The display will be up in July with a similar helicopter that they flew.  Cant wait to see it.

Calgary Zoo

The sun was shining FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY so we decided to head to the zoo. We had tried around Easter break but there was NO parking anywhere and we decided it would be far too busy...and Im not one for crowds.  So we ventured off today and it was busy...but the kids had so much fun! We went with the Humphreys and Marissa was so great at keeping the kids entertained.  They had as much fun climbing rocks and exploring caves as they did seeing the animals!!

The climbing rocks were PACKED...but Stephanie found a climbing spot all to herself and struck a pose.

CUTE GIRLS!!

We did see animals and James was very interested. The bear gave us a nice show and came right up to us!  The baby mountain goat was so cute dancing on a rock and the whooping crane was strutting his stuff too!

The hippo was hilarious and we all started singing 'I like em chunky' from Madagascar II.  He was sunning himself and then went for a dip and the crowd was watching!!  I felt sorry for the buffalo (this one is blonde) and voted him ugliest animal in the zoo (didnt help that he was shedding his winter fur).  The giraffe's were active and the baby adorable. We even viewed a video of the baby giraffe being born...the girls were all quite disturbed by it!

Fun at the park!

These were some funny shots....I LOVE the one of Erica being a bear!!  She is far too cute to be scary.  Missy was striking a stunning pose on the rock with her Sunny D. Paige was posing with the Elephant's behind...and if you look closely...Missy is poking her face in there too! The girls all had a ton of fun and James loved all the sites!

This picture was my favorite of them all!  She reminds me of Florida!

My personal highlight of the day was the baby gorilla! She turned 1 yesterday and she was playing with her mom. It was the CUTEST thing to watch them!  It reminded me of the way Mike plays with James! Adorable! She was the cutest little thing....for a gorilla!

Our 1st Tree

Paige was SOOOOO excited to get a tree at school today!!  She could not wait to get it planted.  Unfortunately we are just starting to do our yard...so if we planted it today...it would not survive the yard work ahead in the next few weeks.  Soooo we compromised and decided to put it in her cute pot she made until we could properly plant it in our yard!  She got it all planted and then was concerned when she read that the tree could grow to be 30ft tall!  She thinks she will need a new pot! I explained that we would house it in the pot for a few weeks until we could get it planted in the yard. Then we could just sit back and watch it grow to be 30ft tall!  She cannot wait to see it full grown!  Hopefully we wont kill it in the meantime...wish us luck!

RDL Walkathon!!!

Friday was the school walkathon!  James and I were volunteers and assigned to walk with K-Grade 2...who were walking 4 km.  Emily and Stephanie were walking 8 km and Mike showed up at the last second to walk with their age group!  It was a special treat to have him there!  After the long walk there was a great lunch put on and the kids were HUNGRY!  Luckily the rain held off until we were done and it started sprinkling as we left the parking lot. It was a really fun event! Thanks RDL!!

Private Island

I was browsing today on the web....home with a sick baby.  I decided to look for vacation spots when I ran across this private island!

This is a beauty, located in the Bahamas, you can rent not just one but 11 islands, which have amongst them 40 private beaches.  You can stay in a grand 10,000 sq foot manor or a number of other choices. You can go alone or bring 24 of your best friends and spread out amongst the accommodations.  There are numerous activities including a huge drive-in theater with lounge chairs on coconut beach, numerous pools, biking, snorkelling, kayakingall the meals and snacks included, all tropical drinks included, etc etc!

Are you convinced yet that this should be your next island getaway??? It is all yours...they only rent to one party at a time!

Isnt that sand just beckoning you??? Amazing!!! You can have all this at 

MUSHU CAY in the Bahamas!!

Oh and the cost for all this luxury is only $37,500/NIGHT for up to 12 ppl.