What a Difference a Week Makes

Things are getting back to normal over here. It took about one long week for Hubs to feel like he was getting better and then had a really good follow up visit with the surgeon, who greeted us by saying, "What do you think of just the one incision in the belly button?" (He was the recipient of one super small incision type of laparoscopy). The doctor was wonderful by the way. Anyway I always seem to be burning the candle at both ends but I really was for those few days before the 4th of July and few days after.

It is eerie how the timing worked out for his appendicitis. I never mentioned this but after winter we were planning on taking a family road trip out West for this summer. Last summer we road tripped to CO and So. Dakota and St. Louis and the kids asked if we would go to Calif the next summer and we said Sure! So we started researching what we'd so in NM, AZ, Calif, when I would fly back, and what they'd do after I flew back. But it didn't feel right, it was too much planning, and would cost too much money. So we decided to spend a lot of time all over Florida instead.

Good move. I would have been back home, Hubs would have been in the middle of Utah or something with three boys and appendicitis. Instead we were back at home after their 22 day Florida trip and we had no plans for the 4th of July (only had to cancel a camping trip for the next weekend). And it is his summer break, which works out--he hates missing work.

When we drove back from Florida it was Father's Day and this new reclining outdoor chair (gift from me) was waiting for him, to be used for camping, or on the porch. It has now been moved inside the house, in front of the TV.
On the 4th of July I got up at the crack of dawn and watched my oldest son run the Peachtree Road Race with 55,000 other people. Youth. All he needed was a new pair of shoes and a friend to run with--no running practice at all. Here he is petting his friend's dog when we saw him mid-race.
Here are some of the other 55,000 people approaching:

And we still got to do our big-gun-bad-boy fireworks on the 4th. I went to a neighbor's party by myself and everyone came to our part of the 'hood for the big ones I bought in Alabama. My husband has some good stories and memories of his dad shooting off fireworks and my boys will have good stories of their mom buying the fireworks, and dad shooting them off.

So let's review. Hubs got in his 22 day vacation beginning the day that his 9 week summer began. His appendix is out, meaning he never, ever has to worry now about being in the middle of a deserted exotic island and having it burst. He recuperated with two batches of homemade chicken soup, bran muffins and smoothies. He is heading back to FL for another surfin safari so that he and the ocean can become one again. And he has lost 7 to 10 pounds.

Maybe I'll have cake again and this time put frosting on it.