Christmas thru the Years

Xmas Projects

Kristjan came home with a bag full of christmas projects he made in preschool. Last set of projects of 2010!

Hammocks

Pete has another (crazy) idea. He wants to switch from sleeping in a tent when camping, to sleeping in hammocks. A while back he sewed his own hammock. He also made one for each of the boys. He wants the boys to get used to sleeping in hammocks before next summer, so he wanted to take down their bunk bed and put up their hammocks. I disagreed with this, and for a few weeks Pete and I discussed (and argued) about this. Two days before he went in for his surgery, he took advantage of me taking an afternoon nap. Down with the bunk bed and up with the hammocks. The boys were excited. I was not. But it's already done and over with. I agreed with Pete that the hammocks could stay up until after the new year, then we'll talk with the boys to see which bed they like better. If they want the bunk bed back up, then back up it goes. If not, the hammocks stay, at least until we move next summer. By then, I'm hoping to buy the boys new twin boys.

Post-Op Appointment

Pete went in today to see his surgeon for a post-op appointment. After a quick look, the doctor said Pete is healing appropriately. He'll still have pain for about another week and to continue taking his baths. I made sure to ask the doctor when he can get back to helping with normal things-like vacuuming and cleaning toilets. It all depends on his pain level that day, but for sure in a week he should be able to back to a normal routine :)

Pete goes back in three weeks for another check up. A week after the surgery Pete seems to be doing much better. He's still hobbling around in pain. He's been working from home and plans on returning to work Monday.

Surgery Update

Pete's surgery went well. The doctor estimated at the most that the surgery would take an hour, but it only took about 20-30 minutes and two hours in recovery. The doctor came out to speak with me while Pete was in recovery. After a very thorough exam he said the cause was an inflamed hemorrhoid, which then led to the abscess. The abscess itself wasn't very big but very infected. The doctor had to remove a little bit of muscle tissue. Pete will be very sore for awhile. He obviously has to take it easy and take plenty of short baths to soak the area. I asked the doctor if he checked to make sure there wasn't anything else wrong with his colon; he said he took 'samples to test' (sorry, I don't remember the exact doctor lingo he used, but you get the idea). Pete will have a post-op appointment sometime next week. I'll post later on how that appointment goes. Thanks for all the prayers!

Kristjan was such a good boy during the entire 6 hours we spent at the hospital (Clifford had school, then went over to a friends house to play)
Goofing around before being wheeled out for his surgery. At least through all of this Pete never lost his sense of humor!
After surgery and spending time in the recovery room

Surgery

Pete goes in for surgery this afternoon. In case you're not up to date as to what's going on, here's the details:

Last Friday Pete went to the doctor due to pain. The doctor said it was a hemorrhoid with a blood clot. He was given some pain meds and cream, and told it should get better within a week; if not, return back. By Sunday morning, he was in the bathroom literally crying in pain, so back to the doctor he went on Monday. She sent him for a CT scan to see if there was an abscess. (After 4 hours waiting for the scan and results!!!) The scan showed no sign of an abscess. Pete was then sent to a specialist yesterday for a more thorough exam. This doctor thinks there is an abscess but it's just not fully developed so it didn't show up on the CT scan. So now Pete goes into surgery this afternoon at 3pm. The doctor will also give Pete another thorough exam while he's under just to make sure there's nothing more serious going on with his colon.

Please pray for Pete. We're hoping the surgery will go smoothly. We're hoping there isn't anything more wrong with his colon. We're hoping he doesn't get an infection from the surgery (which is a possibility with this type of surgery). I hope Pete will feel better and recover soon. Then we can tackle the next big thing with this: the bill! :)

Preschool Projects

I've been a bit behind on taking pictures of Kristjan's preschool projects for his memory book. As of today, I'm finally caught up! Enjoy :)

Christmas Lists

Tonight Clifford and Kristjan made their Christmas list, with the help of Pete writing it all down. Here's what they came up with :)

Clifford:
lego snow monster
lego harry potter train
mario
super mario legos
lightsabers
guns
knives
vampire
stuffed animal
ben 10 legos
army watch
xbox 360
nintendo ds
wii
lego watch
skateboard

Kristjan:
barbies
yoda lego watch
barbie car
spongebob bath toy
tangled toys