Bein’ Franklin

Posted by mommyfranklin at May 1st, 2008

With Scott being busy wrapping up the Spring semester and me recovering from surgery, the kids haven’t gotten just a whole lot of attention from mom and dad. They haven’t been ignored, and got lots of good grandparent time last week. But, there just hasn’t been much family fun going on with just the five us. I have been improving steadily and Scott was able to take a break from his course work, so we decided that tonight would be a family fun night.

Around here, family fun night means no tv or computers after school. Scott was already home when we all got home from school. A friend was coming by with a meal at 5, so we straightened the house up a bit and then had a quick errand to run. After a great dinner, we decided to go for a walk around the block. Emily’s participating in a Marathon Miles activity at school in which she walks or runs 26 miles. They are allowed to get up to 5 of those miles outside of school miles, so we’ve been trying to do our part to help her reach her goal. After that 1/2 mile walk, I had reached my activity limit and the boys were ready to do something else so we went to a park.

As I sat on a park bench watching the kids play, a group of kids caught my attention. A girl, probably around 8 or 9 years old, was explaining to a group of boys that looked to be a year or two younger than her that they should not touch the rabbits that were at the park because they have rabies. One of the boys shot back, “you have rabies.” As the girl started chasing the boys, I stopped paying attention to them and switched focus back to my own kids.

It struck me that, for the most part, elementary school aged kids really haven’t changed that much in 25 years. Remember when the real way to insult someone was to add the word “head” to end of it? “You cootie head!” were real fighting words!

Anyway, we had a lot of fun just hanging out together. It felt good to put everything else aside for just a little while to spend time together.

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 29th, 2008

I am generally the type of person who doesn’t like to be fussed over. I go along in life doing what I need to do and try to remain behind the scenes. I focus on my kids and overall well being of my family.

Unfortunately, something came along about eight months ago that forced me focus on myself. At Emily’s 7th birthday party at the end of August, I noticed a lump about the size of a ping pong ball in my right groin. It didn’t hurt, but it was a little disconcerting. In the following weeks, I kept track of the lump. It changed size and would go away with no apparent reason. I mentioned it to my doctor at my annual checkup, but all she could do was guess what it could be since that was during a time when the lump was not there.

Fast forward to mid-February. The lump is still coming in going, and I decide it’s time to get it checked out. I actually made it in to the see the doctor at a time when the lump is there. My doctor didn’t know what it was. Whatever it was, she knew it would have to be removed so she referred me to a surgeon.

When I made it in to see the surgeon two weeks later, of course the lump was gone. The surgeon guessed it was a lymph node or a hernia, but couldn’t be sure with it not actually being there. Those guesses were based on the location. He gave me instructions to call him the next time it came back. That chance came just a couple weeks later. This time the doctor felt pretty sure it was a lymph node, so he scheduled an ultrasound and possible biopsy for the next day.

The ultrasound had surprising results. Instead of the expected lymph node, it was confirmed that I had a femoral hernia. Surgery was our only option. At that time, the question was when. The answer came the next week. The surgeon’s office called me while we gone to San Antonio to discuss the results of the ultrasound. I asked if we could wait until summer to get it repaired, and they really didn’t encourage that. The longer we waited, the greater the risk of strangulation. At that point, it would be emergency surgery. Scott and I talked about it and decided we would schedule it as soon as we could.

After we returned from our trip, I called the surgeon and scheduled the surgery for April 25th. They told me that it was an outpatient procedure with about three days recovery, which made April 25th ideal because it was during a four day weekend from work. I wouldn’t have to miss any work. That is why I really started to panic when I came down with a sinus infection on the 18th. I really didn’t want to have to reschedule.

Luckily, I was feeling mostly better by the 25th so off we went to the surgery center at 10:00 that morning. After a visit with my surgeon and the others who would be involved with the surgery, it was time for my nap. I had told the anesthesiologist about the sinus infection, so she added some steroid in with the anesthesia to help with that. The next thing I remember is being in recovery with Scott close by. Apparently, I woke up at the end of a conversation with the surgeon. As it turned out, I had two hernias in my right groin. They have both been repaired, and I am well on my way to being back to my old self.

This is not my first visit to a hospital / surgery center in recent years. But, this is the first time it is about something that centers on me. The three other times that I’ve had surgery in the last 7 years, the end result has been a baby. We were always surrounded by our very supportive family and had a wonderful Sunday School class in Plainview that was very good to provide a meal or two and to stock us up on diapers.

I have to say that the show of love around me over the last weekend has been very humbling. Our new Sunday School class, which we’ve only been in for about 4 months, provided meals for 3 days. The wonderful ladies that I work with sent food for another day. Another group I have joined since we moved here has called and promised to bring meals soon as well. Mom and Dad came for a week to help corral the children and to care for me while Scott had to work. There have been more emails and phone calls than I can count. I returned to work today and was really pampered. I almost feel like I shouldn’t be feeling as good as I do, but the truth is that I feel okay. I am tired and a little sore, but I am doing really well.

When we get bogged down with all the awful stories that we hear on the news, it’s hard to feel like there is any good left in the world. But there is. I have seen it this week.

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 18th, 2008

The day started out normal enough. I got Emily up so she could get ready for school. It’s Friday, so Scott took her to school so the boys and I can leisurely get ready for our day. There is no Parent’s Day Out on Friday, so we have extra hour to get Timothy to school. Zachary and I have declared Friday mornings as “mama-time.” Unfortunately, this time is generally spent running errands. Today was no exception.

First stop after taking Timothy to school was to my surgeon’s office to pick up a lab slip to get one more piece of lab work done in preparation for next week’s surgery. Then I ran over to the lab, where Zachary entertained everyone in the waiting room. He had the very important job of choosing which chairs we would sit in. He takes this job quite seriously. This particular waiting room has mostly purple chairs, and some flowered print chairs scattered throughout. Zachary felt it was quite important that we both sit in purple chairs. But, finding two purple chairs together was not enough. It had to be among five purple chairs seated beside each other so that there would be chairs for “Emoy” “Timo” and “Daddy.” I reminded him that they were not coming, but he was insistent. He wasn’t bad, but he just really wanted five purple chairts together. Luckily the room was not too crowded and we didn’t have to wait too long. The receptionist entertained Zachary as I was being tended too, which means he left with a green bandage around his arm and several Chicken Little Stickers stuck on his shirt. I didn’t need any bloodwork this time, so I didn’t even get a bandage. People probably thought he was the one that was getting something done. Oh well.

After leaving the lab, it was time to head to a family doctor. I have been fighting this head cold and fever for over a week, meaning it was time to get something done about it. We haven’t decided on a family doctor here yet, so I decided to try out the closest place to our house. It’s brand new. Zachary and I got there about a half hour before my appointment. There were no other patients in the waiting room (which by the way has pink chairs and green chairs in an alternating pattern), so Zachary had no one to entertain. It wasn’t long until we were called back. The nurse asked about Zachary’s bandage, which he proudly announced was green! I assurred her that he had not had any blood drawn today, but that he had accompanied me to have labwork done. After I answered her questions about why I was there, she stepped out only to return a moment later with a piece of paper and three colors (all different shades of green). Zachary happily colored on his paper for the rest of the visit. The doctor came in, diagnosed me with a sinus infection, and sent me on my way armed with two prescriptions. I liked the doctor and the clinic. I thought it was particularly cool that they used tablet computers instead of file folders for charts. It was nice not to see piles of charts laying around.

After my appointment, we had just a little time before it was time to go get Timothy from school. Zachary and I headed home to rest a bit from our errands. After we got Timothy, we went to pick up my prescriptions and then headed to McDonald’s for our weekly lunch date. As we’re standing in line to order, my phone rings. It’s Emily’s school nurse calling to tell me that Emily has a temperature of 101, so she needs to be picked up. Much to the boys’ dismay, I order our lunch to go and off we go to get Emily.

After lunch, I called the pediatrician’s office to see about getting Emily in. We made an appointment for 2:00. I was fairly confident that she also had a sinus infection. We got to the pediatrician’s offce a few minutes before 2:00. Zachary didn’t even notice the color of the chairs, as this waiting room is quite kid-friendly. Bee Movie was on the TV and there was a table full of toys. We had to wait about 30 minutes and were then called back. The nurse supplied the boys with crayons and pictures to color, and then we were able to visit about Emily. A few minutes later the doctor came in and confirmed that Emily did indeed have a sinus infection, and filled out a prescription for her. By this time, the boys were done coloring so they just had to show off their Happy Meal toys. If you haven’t seen the latest toy from McDonald’s, they are these really cute American Idol dolls. They each play a different song. Zachary has Rockin’ Riley and Timothy’s has Hippie Melody. The doctor made a great show of humoring the boys’ excitement about their toys and said she would be taking her own kids to McDonald’s this weekend so they can get a toy like that too.

On the way home, I promised the kids ice cream for being so good at the doctor’s office. I had forgotten that we had thrown out all our ice cream yesterday because our freezer had stopped working (it seems to be better now that we’ve defrosted it). It didn’t matter anyway, as Zachary had fallen asleep on the way home. I’ll have to make it up to Emily and Timothy later.

Tonight should be fairly relaxing. All we have on the schedule is t-ball practice. Maybe we’ll all go to Sonic for some ice cream.

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 17th, 2008

This week, Emily’s school has been raising money for cancer research. At least I think that’s what it’s for. All I know is that she has to bring a dollar so she can wear something “unique” to school. They’ve had crazy hair day, hat day, pajama day, and, today, super hero day. She remember this at 8:00 last night. Had this been for one of the boys, we would have had plenty of choices for a costume. Not so with Emily. She has lots of dance costumes, but nothing that she deemed appropriate for a superhero. So, it was time to hit the internet to see about finding a picture of a female superhero. Of course, she wanted to use her new laptop (my old one) for this search. We finally decided that her blue eyes and blond hair lend themselves quite well to dressing up as Bubbles from the PowerPuff girls, the group of supergirls from that cartoon on cartoon network. She and I can count on one hand the number of times she’s actually seen this particular cartoon, but felt it would be easy to turn Emily into Bubbles. All it took was a piece of black felt wrapped around the midsection of a blue sundress, tights, black dress shoes, and a couple pigtails. It was a little cool today for a sundress, so she wore it all over a long sleeved shirt and was good to do. She said nobody at school knew who she was, but she had fun being dressed up.

Timothy’s 5th Birthday is 20 days away. Party planning is well underway. We’ve already made the guest list which consists of 10 girls and 2 boys. He’s quite the ladies man. Anyone who asks him how old he is now gets the response, “4 and 5 quarters.” Isn’t that a great response from the son of a couple of math teachers? Scott’s tried to get him to say “4 and 11 twelths,” but he has a hard time remembering that.

To hear Zachary tell it, he will soon be four. Nevermind that it’s still 8 months until his 4th birthday. He’s pretty set in his ways these days, and is not afraid to let us know exactly what he wants. He’s pretty easy to please, as long as he gets something green. Breakfast will not be eaten with anything except the green spoon. Juice will only be drank with the green straw. If it comes in green, he wants it.

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 17th, 2008

It seems to be the time of year that everyone is getting haircuts. Yesterday, I decided it was time to get my summer ‘do. I’m still not feeling great from the cold that I’ve been fighting for the last week and I have stressful week coming up, so I decided I needed a little pampering. I kept my long layers, but my hair now rests just below my ears. It’s very fun and carefree. I love it. If I can ever figure out how to upload picture to my blog now that it’s been upgraded, I will get one loaded for everyone to see.

I’m not the only one with a new ‘do. In fact, Emily is only one in the family who has not gotten a haircut in the last couple days. Scott got his cut today. The boys have been in need of a cut for several weeks, but Zachary has been pretty adamant about letting us know that he does not want one. Well, it hurt when we brushed his hair after bath last night, so Zachary finally consented to have it done. He told everyone he saw today that he was getting his haircut tonight. On the way home from school, Timothy asked me what would happen if they never got haircuts. I told Timothy that his hair would end up look like a great big puffball. He has been blessed with curly hair from my side of the family. It doesn’t grow down, it grows out. Zachary’s is straight, so I told him that his hair would look like Emily’s if we didn’t cut it. He thought about this for the rest of the drive home. Scott worked from home today, so he was already home when we arrived. The first thing Zachary told him was that he doesn’t want to be a girl so he wants a haircut.

We finally had time to give the haircuts just before bedtime. Zachary remained excited until he saw the clippers. Then, there was chaos. Through Zachary’s screaming, Scott managed to give him a great looking hair cut. Timothy was next. He has his moments of screaming and tears, but the end result was quite nice. Good job Scott!

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 9th, 2008

I took another day off to recover today. Emily had to stay out of school another day anyway, since her fever had stuck around until 3:00 yesterday. When I called in to update my boss, she had asked that the boys stay home today just in case they were starting to get sick. No need to spread this thing around.

Scott did a wonderful job caring for me and the kids yesterday. He even gave the boys their bath and remembered to turn off Emily’s alarm clock before putting them all in bed. He went to Plainview today, so he left around 7:15. The house was quiet until 8:00, when we had small hail storm pass over us. That was all it took for the kids to wake up and insist on knowing what that sound was. Lucky for them, the storm had woken me up so I had a feeling they would be down soon. Anyone who knows me very well know that, in general, it’s a bad idea to wake me. It’s even worse when I’m not feeling well. I managed to not lose my cool with them since the storm is actually what woke me.

I finally dragged myself out of bed about an hour later to get everyone dressed and fed. We had a couple errands to run. I was not completely at the top of my game yet, but felt that some activity out of the house might help me feel better. It did seem to help a bit.

I was still pretty tired, so I did end up spending most of the day in bed while the kids watched TV. Things were really going fairly smoothly, and I am thankful that I was able to rest. At one point, I went in to the living room and found that the boys had found an interesting way to entertain themselves.

A few months ago, my parents got a new rug for their living room. Their old rug matches our furniture perfectly, so they brought it to us. We have hardwood floors, and have been casually looking for a rug but hadn’t found one that we just had to have. Well, the one from mom and dad is a perfect fit.

The boys found a whole new use for the rug today. I can’t figure out how to upload picture with the new version of wordpress, so I am going to try to describe this for you. They were sitting on opposite ends of the rug and had wrapped it around the legs. When I asked them what they were doing, they explained to me that they were mermaids in the living room. I reminded them that the rug is not to be played with like that and suggested that they use their blankets as tales instead. The blankets didn’t work as well as the rug, so the blankets were soon being used as superhero capes instead. Oh well.

All in all, it was a good day to be home.

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 8th, 2008

So, my plan was to go to an early yogalaties class at a new gym down the street today. Instead, I woke up with a 102 degree fever and really bad stomach cramps. Fun times. 20 minutes after Scott took Emily to school, we got a phone call saying that she had a fever and complaining of the same symptoms that I had. So, Scott went to get her and she joined me in bed. The boys went to school and had a fine day.

I still have a fever, but I am feeling some better. Emily’s fever is gone, but she’ll be home another day. She has to have 24 fever-free hours before she can return to school.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 6th, 2008

As promised in Scott’s blog, here is a highlights reel from Timothy’s first t-ball game. Pay no attention to the crazy lady screaming in the background.

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 5th, 2008

Remember these pictures from last year?
On Deck
Fielding

They were taken last year at one of Timothy’s last t-ball games of the 2007 season.

These were taken this morning at the first t-ball game of 2008.
On Deck
Fielding

A year makes quite a difference. In the field, he paid close attention to the ball and ran for it everytime it was hit. He played 3rd base, which means the ball didn’t come to him much. But when a left handed batter sent the ball his way, he sure didn’t let it get past him. We are working on his swing, and he hit better today than he ever has. He did great and had tons of fun.

Way to go Timo!

Posted by mommyfranklin at April 4th, 2008

At Dairy Queen today, an older gentlemen asked me if the boys were twins. I’ve gotten used to people telling me that the boys look exactly alike (which I really don’t think they do, but have stopped arguing about it), but this is the first time I’ve been asked if they were twins. I told the man that they are not twins, but are actually a year and a half apart.

People may think they look alike, but I think if they spent even a little bit of time with them that they would know that their personalities are quite different. Maybe that’s what I see when I look at them, so I don’t notice them looking alike.