An update on my mom: she is doing better with the surgery recovery. However, there is a more serious health issue presenting itself that concerns us. She keeps blacking out. Mostly, she has been blacking out at home and hasn't really hurt herself. Last week, she passed out in front of Waffle House (natch. Have you MET my parents? Waffle House and Cracker Barrel love them.) Anyway, she blacked out and hit her head on a concrete pillar. Dad took her to the ER (again), but a CT scan, an MRI, and bloodwork showed nothing out of the ordinary. This is a situation similar to when they found her aneurysms back in 1997. She kept blacking out and the only way the doctors found what was wrong was doing a dye test that revealed a weak blood vessel in her brain. As a result of that dye test, they also found the aneurysms. Kind of how in the hospital they were looking at the pneumonia on an x-ray and found her perforated bowel.
I've thought long and hard about the kind of relationship that is realistic with my parents. The reality is that they will not listen to me when I try to help them (they don't actually listen to anyone, so I don't know why this is so hard to me to process). So, I will step back and let them make their own decisions and try to accept that I have tried everything in my power to help them in a useful way. I know that seems so simple and some of you may wonder why that is so hard for me to take. The truth is, I don't know WHY it's so hard for me. It may be because I am so desperate to help them in a way that could possibly change their lives (and, in the process, lengthen the time we have time together). It could be that I just a bossy cow who is not used to people saying no to her. I think it's more the first than the second, but some people may argue that.
So, that's what I'm working on.
ON TO THE POSITIVITY!!!!!
My baby is turning TWO next week!!! WOW. TWO YEARS OLD. I can't believe it!!! He's entering the "Terrible Twos" a wee bit early. The tantrums have started in earnest. Mostly because he can't live and sleep outside, but it is pretty much anything nowadays.
We are having a Cars party next weekend. The kid literally is surrounded by Cars every day. Cars pjs, Cars cups and plates, Cars movies, Cars toys. He's obsessed. My sister and her family are coming in (WOOHOO!!) and Craig's parents are also coming in!! I love having house guests, but we were adding it up and from August 2011 to right now, we have had about eight cumulative weeks alone without any guests or traveling. So, in eight months, we've had people with us for the equivalent of six. I actually don't mind it. I know people are calling bullshit on me, but it's true. I like having family around (as long as there's very little drama. Most of the time, we make it work).
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| Johnathon and his best friends, MeMe (Mater) and Chow (as in Ka-Chow, what Lightning McQueen says) |
