Year 4, August 30th-31st, 2019: Labor Day Weekend 2019 Part 1

Ok, I've postponed this enough.  I did leave my laptop home and wrote out the "blog" on paper so I'll type that up here. But it was a very long, painful weekend for me, so I didn't take nearly as many pictures and I didn't even get out the big DSLR camera I brought.  It was slow, quiet, and I did get some rest.  I am grateful to Nina and Jared who did all the cooking and cleaning up, and took care of the kids' needs. I slept a lot on the travel days and on Sunday when I got sick from medication interaction and didn't even make it to church.  But overall, I'm glad it was quiet and slow and that we could keep Ron and Nina company over the long weekend.  None of their kids or grandkids were available to hang out with them.  It was just Jared, I, Justin, Keturah, and Abishai because Gary had to preach somewhere else, Leah wanted too do her volunteer thing, and Benaiah needed to work.  Benaiah stayed at our house all by himself for the four days we were gone.  Actually, I'm not sure he was home except to let the dog out and sleep.  He did accomplish all the tasks I asked him to do, including a load of his uniforms, emptying the dishwasher, and making sure the dog was taken care of including locking the back door. I gave him some money for food and it did fine with that.  He kept things cleaned up, too.  He worked on Friday during the day, then hung out with Ava. On Saturday, he slept in and then worked his normal 3-12am shift.  On Sunday, he was on tech team, so he was there most of the day. There was no crave, so he was home Sunday night. And then on Monday he spent lunch with Ava and her family and then did another 3-9pm shift (they closed a little earlier than normal because of the holiday). He survived on his own just fine.  I'm very proud of him.

Ok, back to our travels.

Where's the pain killers?  Why didn't they give me any? And to be stuck in the car for 9 hrs because we made long stops? Ouch!  At least I slept through some of it.  And I didn't have to make dinner.

Not bad for 5 people for 4 days and 3 nights.  And that includes things like a PS4, all my meds and supplies for my arm, my special foods, swimming gear, board games, a few toys, and even our travel soccer net and ball.  Yes, we took Jared's car and managed just fine like we used to!

Squished, just like in the days before 2012.  Three kids in the backseat.  I was surprised that Justin didn't complain about his long legs being cramped.  We have some great travelers.  Video games do tend to help, as well as sleeping through part of the trip.  I still give all three of them travel medication which helps their tummies and helps them to take naps.

Abishai insisted on staying in his pjs.  We stopped two extra times on the way up and that's why it took so long.  This stop was because I had to use the restroom, although CFA was only 30 minutes away.  So everyone ate an apple so we weren't hangry went we got to the South Bend CFA, our normal stop.

Aww!!! A monarch butterfly on the milkweed at this first stop!  Gorgeous!

While we traveled, our great friend Brenton Dickieson was defending his PhD thesis in Chester, England.  He said there's a few things he needs to fix before he would publish it, but he did pass!  After 8 years of hard work, traveling, researching, earning a living for his family, watching his son become a teenager, preaching occasionally at church, teaching at several schools, including online, he did it!  He passed!  We all couldn't be more pleased!  His thesis was roughly 100,000 words and on how Christianity influenced C.S. Lewis' life and worldview.  And remember, the Chronicles of Narnia, especially "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," are not allegories.  They were heavily influenced by C.S. Lewis' Christian worldview, but he did not write them to be a strict allegory of the life and sacrifice of Christ.  Anyway, for a poor kid on a little island called Prince Edward Island, who saw his father and brother die in a house fire when he was a young teen to now become a PhD in one of the Inklings is incredible. Way to go Brenton!

While Benaiah was working at our CFA, we were enjoying the labor of other CFA employees.  We never tire of it.  Not cheap, but quick and easy and safe for me to eat.

Abishai asked why we didn't have a cow car in our CFA playground.  Well, our playground is a bit smaller than others and it has different elements.  He loves bouncing in the car though.

There's Keturah! Can you find her?

Now can you find her?  She's hiding because she knew I was taking her picture.

Oh my.  Yes. I remember being at the cottage last year and first of all, knowing that Bryce had run away that weekend, and second, knowing that our dear friends' son had committed suicide and 5 of his organs had been donated to 4 people that week.  They also shared earlier in the week, one of the donor families had reached out to them and wanted to meet them.  What great timing!  And Gary and Leah's small group sent them cards and I made sure to text them as well.  They wer definitely surrounded by love this week.

CFA makes you sleepy!

Third stop was Miss JoJo's house in Muskegon.  Since Willie, Donna and JoJo were going to Willie's family's cabin to prep for hunting season, we weren't going to see them at Uncle Ron's cottage.  So we stopped at their house for about 90 minutes since we pass right through Muskegon on our drive up.  JoJo had just gotten up from her nap and was a bit cranky.  But she warmed up to us quickly.

Thank goodness Josephine was a little out of it, otherwise, I don't think she would have let Abishai ride her favorite horse!  She's been riding this since she could walk and would watch this one kid's TV show about cowboys while rocking on it.  Oh yeah, she definitely has the Johnson rocking gene.  And I love how simple and humble Donna's house is. I don't think it has changed much over the years.  Always perfectly clean, too. Lol.  Oh, funny story, Willie had just gotten home and Donna was cutting his hair in the kitchen when we pulled up.  But he was in his boxers, so they had to finish quickly before we reached the door!  Lol. Fun times!

Donna said that they do have friends that come over sometimes, so JoJo does know how to share her toys and it seemed like she liked having Abishai to play with.  I think Abishai was underwhelmed by the small trampoline though.

But this water table was a big hit!  When you put water in the top, it rains down to the bottom. Love it!

Abishai loved this cardboard truck!  Donna said it was hard to put together, but the great thing is, when they are done with it, you can recycle it! I've seen multiple different versions of these cardboard toys, like a fruit and veggie stand, a gingerbread house, etc. and they are around $25 on Amazon.  Great concept!

A nice sharing moment between the preschoolers, although it took a little encouraging.  Donna and Willie's house is a little bungalow like ours in Beech Grove was, so part of their basement is finished making a nice playroom/tv room and half of it is storage and laundry.  Love it!

First thing when we got to the cottage, the kids claimed beds and lined up all their stuff.  Jared had grabbed these cars at the last minute, and didn't check inside them.  Well, a few marbles and Lego pieces came with us!  Whoops!  They weren't really played with much this weekend.

Looks like Keturah claimed this spot.  Actually she wanted the top bunk but Abishai had spoken first.  She has a top bunk at home so it's Abishai's turn anyways.

Abishai even organized all his stuff including his toys!

He had insisted on putting his toothpaste and toothbrush in his own toy/clothing bag, so I guess he knows that he should lay them out in the bathroom.  I don't think Keturah helped him.  I didn't know my kids were so well organized!

Keturah kept her things pretty neat in this one little area under the bed.  Justin, too, kept his stuff together or in his bag.  Kudos to very organized kids!  Justin slept below Abishai and Jared and I took the small room with the pillow top mattress.  We should have taken the bed Keturah was on because neither one of us like pillowtop mattresses.  And the second night, I ended up on the futon because my incision was hurting so badly.  It was awful.  And then as you will see, I spent most of Sunday on what was Justin's bed because I didn't feel well, so we just switched with Justin so I could prop up my arm better.

First night on the lake.  Only Jared and Abishai went with Ron and Nina out on the boat for a short cruise.  It was very, very windy and quite cold when we arrived at 7pm.  Nina had made sloppy joes for supper so it was awesome to have a warm meal.  But we closed all the windows and put on sweatshirts when we got there. I think the overnight low was 57 degrees.  They even put on their electric fireplace the next morning to warm things up a bit.

This is what a day of travel looks like two days post op with a bandage on all day.  Wow, as I write this, I'm 9 days pre op and I can tell a world of difference.  I still don't like the bandages, but my skin is a lot less red and definitely not as swollen.  Wowzers.

Different angle and lighting. My sister thinks the line looks pretty jagged, and I guess I can see why from this angle.  But when I look down from my perspective, it looks fairly straight.  The stitches are only painful when you move around.  But I was able to take a shower and the soap didn't sting or anything, so that's awesome.  I have to be careful not to reach too far with this arm when washing my hair so I don't pop my stitches.

Breakfast! I didn't get up until 9:30/10am which felt so good.  I just let Nina and Jared take care of the kids' physical needs.  Well, mostly Abishai's, but I didn't feel guilty sleeping in.  This was my only chance to really take it easy so I took advantage of it.  I thanked Nina later for doing most of the cooking and letting me have a break.  I'm sure she didn't mind staying busy with that.  She only really cooked dinner and it was simple meals each night, sloppy joes, hot dogs and beans, and hamburgers.  Pastries and eggs in the morning with toast, sausage or bacon. Deli sandwhiches or leftovers for lunch.  Just like we do at home. I got pretty spoiled over the weekend.

Justin was on the hunt for paddle boarders first thing.  He donned his swimtrunks eager to take on the lake.  We made him wait until the air temp was 65 degrees, (so maybe 11am?) before we let him loose.  He was out there for maybe an hour tops. But as long as he wasn't in the water he felt fine.  I think he was a little disappointed that Luke wasn't there, but he made the most of it. Luke was on a camping trip because we didn't know we were coming.  I hadn't confirmed our plans with Nina until that previous Monday.  I'm glad we were there so Ron and Nina weren't lonely.

See! 65 degrees and in the water!  He donned the life jacket all on his own and got out the kayak he flips over to use as a paddle boat and the paddle that we had replaced after we broke one during the Memorial Day weekend.

Keturah got brave and went into the water for a little bit too.  The water was the warmest it is, but the air temp made it seem cold.

Justin doing back flops off the kayak.

Off she goes!

This is the first time in a long time that these two laughed and played together.  Nina remarked how great it was to see siblings having fun together.  It was a great reminder for me, too, that they can get along because all they do at home is fight.

Abishai went with Jared and Ron to the dollar store to buy some groceries and things and I think they also went to the junkyard for something Ron needed and they came back with this $7 battle cruiser complete with sounds and airplanes and guns and a helicopter!  Oh, and all the pieces store in the ship's base! Jared said, "Well, he didn't bring many toys, so,..." And what will we do with it when we get home?  Oh well, it was lots of hrs of entertainment for wee one this weekend.  He was quite pleased with it and knew lots of terminology about it.

Do you see it?  Somewhere up there, there's a black squirrel!  They are pretty common up here, and we saw there of them on Sunday. They love all the beech nuts in the beech trees.  The nuts were falling like rain drops and you could literally hear them fall by the dozens all at once.

Abishai needed a turn out on the kayak.  He lasted about a minute, but doesn't he look so big and that he can do it?

Go get 'em!

Just a short little paddle out.

Abishai wasn't too sure about the cold water and no one to swim with.  I think he spent more time getting in and out than playing in it. 

Do I jump? Not sure.

Baby footprints.

Time for Minecraft!  Of course!

2nd night we all went for a cruise. Abishai just had to bring his boat along with him, but we left all the other pieces back at the cottage.  Abishai was all over the place during the ride.

Are you comfy Justin?  The temps were in the upper 60's/lower 70's so quite cool.  I'm glad we all brought long sleeves and/or hoodies.

Aw, the 5 of us.

The floor is water, Mom!

All bundled up and quiet.

First signs of fall.  I didn't take that many pictures of the kids playing or the views along the lake since they aren't much different than they were 3 months ago.

Something's funny.

Making farting noises by blowing raspberries on Daddy's arm is such a hoot!  The game lasted 10 minutes and brought tons of giggles!

Hold onto that kid so he doesn't fall overboard! Stir crazy kid needs to go to sleep!

Ron had started a fire before we left on the cruise and the smoke drifted down a few lots because of the slight breeze.  It's a great way to keep the mosquitoes at bay!

Time for smores!

Yummy!  Smores while we are in our pjs (note yes, they are the same pjs as the day before, and we barely got him to change for church on Sunday #cottagelife). I don't mind him wearing long sleeves because it saves me the hassle of putting on sunscreen and bugspray.

Redneck way of keeping a fire going? I thought Gary and Leah and Aaron and Shauna would get a kick out of it, but they didn't seem to care.  Oh well, nice fire!  And great thinking to use a leaf blower!

What happens when you are stir crazy and add more sugar to the mix, you run in circles!

Nice!  And nice chats with Nina, too. I did get to eat one marshmallow before they were all gone.

Picture perfect.  And the northern lights were visible if you were looking for them.

The middles got to stay up and watch "Bruce Almight" with Ron and Nina, who had never seen it.  They were all laughing and loving it.  I laughed, too.  It's a very fun classic Jim Carey movie.

The End

Year 4, September 3rd-5th, 2019: Will Life Get Any Better? I Hope So!

After a rough weekend, I guess I should have expected it to be a rough first day back at home. After a rough night sleeping for me, it was hard for me to get up and get everyone else up. Everything was done from the day before except laundry needed to be put away.  I had to have Justin lift it for me of course. Keturah and I butted heads as usual, but today was worse because I was short tempered from lack of sleep and increased pain and anxiety.  So, Jared had to be put on parenting duty and make sure Keturah finished her homework before bed.  Did he? I will find out tomorrow I guess. Justin finished almost everything on his list, and Abishai played and played and played.  He played toy store, Simpsons chess, lots of Lego building, wrestle time with Daddy, and screen time.  Jared and Benaiah had their normal routines.

Meanwhile, I had yet another consult with the gynecologist about my upcoming polyp surgery.  I was able to cancel the cyst surgery because it's elective at this point.  It's 5cm vs 10 cm when it must be removed.  And in another twist of the plot, my blood pressure that has been on the higher side of normal might be because of the estrogen in the birth control pills I'm taking to stop the bleeding from the polyps.  So, after just getting my prescription refilled today (thank goodness I hadn't picked it up yet), a new prescription will be sent to the pharmacist for progesterone only pills (the kind you take when you are breastfeeding).  Alrighty then. I guess I'm glad we got that figured out quickly.  The doctor didn't like my new self prescribed protocol for the cyst, but whatever, we will prove her wrong on that one. Next step is to schedule the polyp surgery, and I'll just have to make sure I'm well on my way to healing from my other incision before then.  Thankfully, this one won't be an incision, but there will be bleeding and maybe cramping like after giving birth.  I definitely can handle that.  I just have to be careful what they use on the day of surgery and what I'm prescribed afterwards, etc. I had two other appointments scheduled this week, but moved one routine chiropractic adjustment so he wouldn't have to try to avoid my wound. That also frees me up tomorrow afternoon to pick up prescriptions and a couple of groceries before taking Keturah to dance.  Justin's small group starts the following week.

In other news, Shauna did get the biopsy results back and there was NO CANCER in what they removed during her lumpectomy! At least one person's hopes, dreams, and prayers have been answered. She won't need radiation at all.  She will still do the highly recommended double mastectomy at some point, but it can wait a little bit. That's great news for her.

You have to read to the end of the book so you don't take things out of context, but, here goes.

That's how Job and I feel right now.

Great partnership.  My mom would have loved Dolly Parton and the Smallbone brothers together.

Post op day 6. still very tender on the lower half where the red is and at the very end were the stitches' knots are.  Plus I get shooting pains at times, too.  Trying some OTC lidocaine 4% roll ons to see if it will calm down enough for me to function.

Time for these to hit the trash.  I'm glad I picked up a new pair a few months ago.  Pretty pastels, same style, only stripes.

On Wednesday, my arm and I had a long day keeping life afloat. I worked on everything from paperwork and phone calls, to going back to the dermatologist because she wanted to see me before prescribing antibiotics (which she did end up doing), to picking up my mediations and some grocercies, and then taking Keturah to her first theater dance class.  My arm and I hurt like crazy and just want to cuddle up with YouTube and our phone games.  The kids worked on their schooling but I'm going to have to make sure I get time with each of them tomorrow.  We simply ran out of time today.  They also had their first Bible class of the year with Grandpa Johnson and the cousins.  Yeah!

The dermatologist said that I probably have a staph infection and/or my body doesn't like the external stitches so I'm reacting to that.  Only 6 more days of outer stitches! Can't wait!  So, I have antibiotics (and I'm taking probiotic to combat it), and antibiotic ointment to use.  I got my polyp removal surgery scheduled for the first week of October, which means my arm should be ok for that one.

And just like Shauna got great news yesterday that they found no cancer in the tumor they removed, which means she is cancer free, so am I! They got all the melanoma!  Yeah! Cancer free!  Now, for the hard part of healing.  Which is a great analogy, it takes a year or more for an injury to heal, why do we expect people with any mental, emotional, spiritual drama to heal in 6 months to go about their business as always.  We need more time to heal, change,

Pikachu' visited us this morning!

Benaiah bought these pumpkins for us!  I don't know why he didn't buy a B for himself though.  And I was just in Kroger today!  Ugh!  Next time I'll get a "B" just for him.

Time to change some attitudes.  But It's been hard being in pain and focusing on my own health symptoms.  My patience doesn't last that long theese days.

Respect the boundaries.

Thursday I woke up with some vertigo, and maybe I could have pushed through and gotten to my counseling appointment, but decided to postpone it a week.  I'm glad I did because I got to stretch out my day and not feel rushed with school.  Keturah and I had a heart to heart chat about both of our bad attitudes in the last two weeks, so maybe, just maybe, she caught on to what I was saying and understood at least some of it. She won't share her real feelings with anyone, but says she's writing in her diary. which is a good start. She seemed to be calmer after that and more smiley and giggly with her siblings.  She gets her homework done, but not always in a timely manner and definitely not with a good attitude.  It's been a weird and rough two weeks. Thank goodness the next surgery is a full month away.

Meanwhile, I was able to take a walk with Abishai after lunch and all was cute and fine until it was time to leave Grandma's after spending an hour with her.  We played board games, talked, played with the wooden bowling set, and then Abishai made himself fall off his trike into the grass for a good laugh. Grandma and I talked too long, so Abishai went back inside and said he was sleeping over.  That was the beginning of the hugest trantrum this kid as ever had.  He creeped along the hallway to Grandma's bedroom, where Grandma held him down while I attempted to put his socks and shoes on.  I left the room because Grandma said she would just carry him to the car and drive us home.  Well, they came out of the bedroom with Abishai crawling on his hands to try to get away from Grandma and Grandma holding him by his ankles in the "human wheelbarrow position. Leah and I just laughed and laughed.  But when Abishai continued to wail, we stopped laughing and Leah picked him up, and went through the house to the garage to the car.  I went out the front door and by the time I saw them again, Abishai was upside down in Leah's arms. We forced him into the car, I was in the backseat and he crawled into my lap, but I had to hold his arms down so he wouldn't open the back door and cover his mouth so he wouldn't scream so loud in our ears.  I almost called Benaiah who was home at the time to come help us.  It was awful! So, we got him home, I got him to calm down by watching a couple of videos on my phone (he had already had his screen time for the day), distracted him from the screen after I shut it off by some books on music sitting by us, and then all was calm. He spent the rest of the day being off and on clingy to me, but no more tears.  He just started throwing these big fits last week.  I don't know what the deal is besides me having surgery must have triggered something.  He does look at my stitches with concern.  I don't cover them up at home because the bandages itch and irritate my skin no matter what I use. So, that was a fun episode of life.

Speaking of stitches, I finally took off today's dressing that I had on for about 7 hrs, and wouldn't you know, I popped the bottom stitch!  Ladies and gentlemen, I have been SO careful and protective of not overusing my arm like the doctor said.  I have occasionally reached a tad too much, or maybe held something a tad too heavy, but it wasn't terribly much.  Anyway, I can't find the knot on the bottom end of the stitches and at least one whole stitch is undone.  I'm able to tighten the current last stitch and have taped the end in place for now.  But if I move too much, it will come undone on it's own.  I can't retie a knot because the end is too small.  So, I guess I'll call the doctor tomorrow to see what I'm supposed to do over the weekend.  If it's ok to let the new last stitch out, I can go ahead and pull it, have a better tail, maybe retie it, or at least tape it better to my arm until Tuesday when the stitches are supposed to be taken out in the office by the nurse.  Annoying, but at least I know that the stitches don't hurt when they slide back and forth under the skin. I was so worried what next Tuesday would bring.  I think they will hurt a bit depending on how the skin is forming under each one, but it won't be excruciating pain.  I'm such a fun patient, aren't I?

Other than that, it was a beautiful day, and I tried again to get myself and the kids out for a bit.  And again, I wasn't that successful because despite being up "early" at 9:30, including Keturah, school wasn't done until 3pm. Ok, then, whatever. I made sure all the windows were open so we could at least feel the fresh air. I started losing energy right before dinner too, so I didn't put up a fight about it. Hopefully we will get to go to park day tomorrow, but that depends on what the dermatologist says.  Oh joy.

100% yes.

"I'll cut it for you, Mommy! Just watch!" And boom, he did!

Is this how you line up bowling pins? Lol.

There's extra light on the wall and on the door and if I had taken a video, you could see how the light was "dancing."  Keturah was in the hallway with her kitty cat shirt that has the sequins on it and the sun from her window was reflecting off it and bouncing off the hallway walls.

This is my song, Mommy!  And the pwiano student needs to do this page in this book!  Also, Abishai sang the whole verse to "Good morning to you." twice today in the sweetest voice to wake me up.  He also sang Happy Birthday to Jdustin (not a typo, Abishai puts a D in there somehow), who turns 14 in just 4 days!

Can see the little line in the crevice below the last actual stitch?  That's the tail of the stitches.  Eeek!

Not the best lighting, but the square patch of irritation on the bottom there is now a triangle shape so the antibitotics are working.  8 days post op. Still tender.  Now itchier and more yellow/loose skin that I'm cleaning off before I put more ointment on.  Don't know if it's the remnants of cream, normal skin dandruff, or extra stuff, but I'm being careful not to pick too much and making it raw.  A bit more blood to clean off tonight though from the dressing rubbing on it for 7 hrs. At least I got to keep some of my freckles and moles, eh?

The End