Sniffle

Although it might at first seem like a good idea to slam one's fingers very hard in a door, it probably isn't.

Hours later, it still hurts a lot.

(At least I got the recycling out for pickup just in time.)

It's all in the family

On Saturday I split my lip.

On Sunday Carmen got a black eye.

On Wednesday Olivia got a split lip and a bruised cheek.

This morning Carmen split her lip.

Steven is not beating us, and we have not taken up boxing.

(Just for the record, I split my lip on a bolt of fabric, Carmen fell on a door hinge, Olivia bumped heads with a friend, and Carmen slipped and bit her lip.)

Quarantined

This morning I woke up with the flu.

And when I was giving Olivia a bath, I noticed that she appears to have chicken pox. For the second time since we vaccinated her.

So, the TV will be watching my children today, since it's the only thing we won't infect.

Thanks

to everyone for your support and concern. I had my surgery last night, and I guess it went well…for a surgery. I won’t say I’m feeling great – I’m sore and tired and a little bit traumatized – but it’s nice to have it over. My biggest worry was for my little girls, especially Carmen.



But she’s doing okay. She has to have formula for a couple of days while I detox, but she’s been doing well with it. Altogether, I’m grateful that things turned out so well. It wasn’t anything really life-threatening (no cancer), but it was something that needed fixing, and I’m glad to be fixed (not in the cat kind of way).



Here are my newfound pearls of wisdom from this experience:

• DON’T have surgery.
• If you must have surgery, DO have someone there with you (otherwise, it is really scary).
• If you can’t have someone there with you (because, for example, you have two little girls who your husband has to take care of), DON’T stay overnight.
• If you must stay overnight, DO make sure your husband doesn’t have to work the next day.
• If your husband has mandatory meetings the next morning, DON’T stay in the hospital all day (especially when your doctor says you can leave that morning).
• BUT, if lackadaisical or neglectful nurses force you to stay there until 2:00, in addition to providing the poorest care imaginable, DO at least make sure that you have a wonderful sister-in-law to help take care of your two little girls. Because if you do, chances are one will end up looking like this:

And that's never a bad thing.

Nervous

So, I wasn't going to post anything about this because it violates the Almighty Rule of Conversation Taboos (health, wealth and politics), but it's the biggest thing going on with me right now, and writing it, even in appropriate vagueness, helps me feel a little bit better. I am no good at being private.

For the past week, I've had a problem in my guts. This morning I had an X-ray done (that was kind of exciting - my first one, teeth excluded). The results were the opposite of what I'd hoped, and it looks like I may need surgery. This scares me for a lot of reasons.

Mouthful of foot

As I slip into my ninth month of pregnancy, I’ve noticed my “mindedness” (among other things) slipping. Unfortunately, it often feels these days as if it’s happening right when I’m supposed to be saying something. This is bad.

Let’s take, for example, my performance today in my duties as Primary Chorister for our church:

Amber: The Proclamation on the Family is a revelation from God that helps us to understand what roles each family member should have. Why would it be important for us to understand how to run our families?

Kids: (Chirp chirp)

Voice in Amber’s Mind: Don’t say anything stupid now – you need to address this carefully.

Amber: Well, how many of you have experienced, or know someone whose parents aren’t together anymore?

Voice: Doh. Okay, that wasn’t too bad – please just move on.

(Kids raise hands)

Amber: It’s hard to have broken families, huh? Now, how many of you have experienced a situation where…um, uh…the mother is not able to stay home and raise her kids?

Voice: Shut up, shut up, shut up!!!

I tried to smooth this over. I tried to make it clear that families that had untraditional gender roles weren’t bad, but the more I talked, the worse I got, and the crankier that voice became, and it all ended up in a big mess. Which just made me feel stupid for the rest of the day. My only consolation is that the kids probably weren’t listening anyway.

It’s convenient that I have pregnancy to blame this on right now, but I know there have been, and will yet be instances of idiocy when pregnancy cannot serve as an excuse. I guess I just have to forgive myself and trust that my best efforts, offered to and sanctified by Divinity, can be good enough.

Some highlights of my California trip

Seeing Court

It’s great to have him back, and we’re excited to fly him out to Houston so he can see Steven. Interestingly, in all the pictures I have of him, his mouth is open. Hmmm…

Getting bitten by a dog

In this instance, “highlight” means “notable,” not “enjoyable.” I decided to take Olivia on a walk to go see some cows, and on the way there we passed a house that had a bunch of dogs in the front. They looked to be fenced in, but as we walked by one of them got through the fence somehow, ran behind me and bit me on the leg.

Here’s how it looked right afterward:

Here’s how it looked the next day:

Here’s how it looked a week later:

Notice the smiley face?

So, I didn’t know what to do, but on my sister’s advice I called animal control. I’m just glad it didn’t get Olivia. Grrrr.

Playing with cousins

This was fun for both me and Olivia. It was great to see Meggan again and to play with Dallan and Patience’s little boys, as well as my siblings and their kids.

All in all, it was a very fun trip. There were other things I enjoyed as well, but a lot of those you can't really show in pictures. I love my family.

Ouch.

So, if you haven't done something that really, really hurts in a while and you feel like you're missing out, try pouring bleach on an open blister.

Uh-huh.