Mo's First Surgery

Last Wednesday was my first surgery ever. I had not been nervous at all until I met with my surgeon on Monday. He lived up to all the steoretypes of a surgeon. He was arrogant, condesending, and impatient. He used enormous latin words that meant nothing to me and made me very unsure as to what was going to happen. I had understood that I needed to have one fallopian tube removed. After I left him I felt like he was going to remove every organ inside me.

I couldn't believe how smoothly everything went. I woke up and was chatting to everyone within ear shot. I can't remember exactly what I said to them all but I remember saying thank you a lot. Ben said they told him I was hilarious.

It turns out that the surgeon just took pictures and didn't remove anything. Ben and I reacted to this news the way we respond to most bad things in life:). He got mad and I burst into tears. Once we accepted what had happened we decided to wait and see what the post op meeting says us before we do anything else. Ben was a great nurse and treated me like a queen. Recovery has been quick and we are so blessed by freinds and family supporting us through this adventure of becoming parents.

You can see how unvain I am as I am putting pictures Ben took of me.

This is me getting my first IV.

Calling Mom to let her know I was fine.

I hadn't ridden in a wheel chair since I was 8.

Christmas activites

THis weekend was all about Christmas. We started it with two military Christmas parties - one on Friday and one on Saturday. We won a raffle prize on Friday for a four night stay in a fancy hotel. Pretty cool and we are definitely grateful, but if we had won the prize before us we would be going on a cruise to the Bahamas:). Saturday we didn't win anything. I had volunteered to be the name tag girl. This sounded pretty easy. I imagined myself sitting at a table all calm and cool telling people to write their names on a tag. In fact I put on a lovely red wool sweater to look my best. I thought it would be a great way to meet other officers and their wives. I also had imagined someone helping me. In reality I was alone for an hour greeting guests and making sure they had paid - they had not mentioned that I would be in charge of fees. Yeah try telling an Admiral that he owes you money. Then they had pre-made name tags which was great until you had to find them in the list of 150 people and these fancy name tags didn't want to come off the sticker sheet. As the hour went on I was sweating profusely and I felt like my hair was getting bigger and bigger and taking over the room. By the end of it I honestly felt like I was greeting people with sweat dripping off of me and my hair touching the ceiling while people wondered how I couldn't get name tags off a piece of paper. They probably were thinking the Navy had asked a "special" person to do this job. I don't think I met anyone and I was slightly worried that I was offending someone who might be Ben's future boss. After my job finished I went to mingle but was worn out so I don't think I was too exciting to talk to. Overall it was fun but I don't think I will volunteer for that job again. Next time I will be the coat check person!!

We also put lights up on our house. This is the first time we have done this since being married so this house must be home for us. I will get shots of that tonight and put it up.

Our final Christmas preparation was the Christmas picture. I have been attempting to get Christmas pictures done for a few weeks now. They just kept coming out weird. I think my new camera is too good as it captures all our flaws and imperfections. Ben began to get bored of taking pictures so the last session turned into him being bored Ben which is never a good thing as he finds ways to entertain himself. I needed him to sit still so I could get the light right and you'll see what happened to "sitting still". But we ended up having a good laugh together and he claims to not be dreading Christmas shots next year.

Kindergarten Kraziness

Ok so I am not sure if I have had a rant about this before but..... The school cafeteria has some bizarre plan to torture teachers on Fridays. Christmas is in the air and the kids are already bonkers. Then at school today they had Poptarts and juice for breakfast. Great I thought SUGAR. I walk them into lunch and they are eating pancakes and syrup for lunch, more SUGAR. You might as well hook them up to an IV of the stuff. You can literally feel the sugar oozing out of them as they walk down the hall and back to class. Then are like a hive of activity while you are trying to "teach". It feels like you can hear the buzz of the cells breaking open the sugar molecule and releasing energy. Then the sugar high ends and they all complain, "My head hurts." "My stomach hurts." "I don't feel good."

My other observation for the week is beware of what you tell and show your kids. We were discussing families so they could write who they loved. One little boy said there was only he and his mom in the family. We kept asking and asking who else did he live with. Finally he says, "My friend Sarah lives with us." "No honey" says the teacher "who sleeps at your house?" "Sarah sleeps in the bed with Mommy and me," he says. "Sarah is my mommies friend and now she is mine and before Sarah there was Jane." *Names have been changed:).

Then two days ago a student came in with a hurt head. He had a note from his mom saying if it still hurt him later in the day to call her. He finally complained enough that we took him to the nurse. We are always cautious of child abuse so I was asking him to tell me how he got hurt. This is the story I got. "I was running down the hall because I really need to go to the bathroom. Then my dad scared me and I fell into the wall." "Was Daddy playing when he scared you?" "No, I was running to go the the bathroom and I didn't know he was in there reading a book so I fell when I saw him."

My final Kindergarten thought is why must they tell me every hurt and wound. Here are a few that I heard this week.

"Mrs. Leppard I have paper stuck between my teeth." - she shoved it in there.

"Mrs. Leppard my head hurts."

"Mrs. Leppard I bit my tongue." - when comforted and told to chew more carefully replies "I couldn't help it the food was there and my tongue was chasing it and got caught by my teeth."

"Mrs. Leppard my teeth are tickling me."

"Mrs. Leppard my finger is bleeding" - she bites her fingernails all day long.

"Mrs Leppard my stomach hurts."

"Mrs. Leppard I feel like I am going to throw up." - when held over trash can says, "I don't want to throw up in there it smells like garbage!!"

"Mrs. Leppard my teeth are tickling me."

"Mrs. Leppard he stepped on my finger." - Why did they have their fingers on the floor when they should be in their seat?

"Mrs. Leppard my teeth are tickling me." -Yes really for the third time. What am I to do to stop the teeth tickling? And each time I am told of this compliant I am forced to look at the two teeth causing the tickling sensation.

"Mrs. Leppard I feel sick" - from the child who just ate two cookies and a bag of chips for lunch.

"Mrs. Leppard my head hurts." - I would think so you just walked into a pole because you weren't looking ahead of you like I told you to.

"Mrs. Leppard I don't want to be here"

"Mrs. Leppard my teeth are tickling me." - now said with a whine and a frustrated look at me.

"Mrs. Leppard I'm sleepy and want to go home." - me too honey me too!!

Birthdays and more

Last Thursday was my Birthday. Considering I am now on the bad side of 35 I think it went quite well. The kindergartners were rather excited it was my Birthday. When they asked what I wanted for my Birthday I said for them to be good. They got into serious trouble in their music class so on the way out to recess one of them started wailing because "they had ruined my Birthday". It took at least 20 minutes to convince her that my Birthday was still fine.

I had so many cards, calls and presents from friends and family that I felt spoiled rotten. Ben actually got off work early and took me out to dinner and dessert. It was a good day.




On Saturday we were having a random discussion about Christmas and what we wanted. We really don't need anything but I said I wanted another kitten. Somehow we ended up at PetSmart and came home with a 5 month old black cat. We were foolish enough to think that Baci would be thrilled. Baci is terrified of this two pound creature and runs for her life. Hopefully they get on better soon. We named her Olive at first but changed it tonight to Mamba, like Black Mamba the snake. She is skinny and squirms like a snake. I know most of my friends are not cat people but I am thrilled to have a new addition to the house. Hopefully next year it is a baby we add rather than a pet:).

On Sunday we went up to Williamsburg for the "illumination" ceremony. It is a tradition to have bands and fireworks on the first Sunday in December. They also light these torch like devices down the street. It was fun to be a part of the festivities and play around with my camera.