Beads!

So I did a lot of shopping while I was on maternity leave. Part of it was having my husband home every hour of every day. My time off with Nicole really was a bit of a vacation (once I got the hang of caring for a baby). This time, I knew how to take care of a baby, and was prepared to have a fabulous relaxing vacation. But I wasn't prepared to have company (other than Jake, of course).

So, I shopped. Over the course of November and December, I wound up watching a lot of What Not to Wear on TLC. Dangerous, dangerous thing to do in large doses. I wound up paying close attention to how they dressed other women that were close to my size and shape. I then headed to the mall with "the rules". It didn't take much for this to turn into an obsession. Once I had enough pants, tops and jackets to fill my closet, I then headed for the shoes. I never ever wore heels to work. I now wear them four days a week.

The last thing I ever thought I'd do was accessorize. However, on my last day off, I let Nicole drag me into one of those mall jewelry stores (I think it was Icing). I started looking around, and found myself strangely attracted to some beaded necklaces. So I purchased a few in some colors that went with my new wardrobe. Mind you, I wear one piece of jewelry 24/7, and that's my wedding ring. When I go out, I add my engagement ring, and a birthstone ring. That's it. No earrings, necklaces, or any other type of jewelry.

But I went back to work sporting a new wardrobe, complete with high heels and necklaces. After that first week though, I realized I still had several outfits that lacked the appropriate beads. So what did I do? Shop for necklaces? NO. I went to the craft store and bought an assortment of beads, wires, clasps, and whatever else I thought I needed to make necklaces. Lo and behold, I now have a new hobby. Bummer. My wallet didn't need that. But here I am, nearly $500 later. I have actually made one necklace, and I'm absolutely crazy about it. I have enough beads to make at least 100 more necklaces, I'm certain. I hope beads will continue to entertain me, because while I do really like my homemade necklace, it sure as heck isn't worth $500. :-)

Where did February go?

Holy crap! Where the heck did February go? I meant to continue my story, apparently several weeks ago. But alas, it's somehow March.

Anyway, this is the last backstory post. Hopefully anything I decide to blab about in the future will actually be about current goings on. Not that anyone cares really, but who knows.

So it's Friday night (December 8th). Jake is 3 weeks old, Rob finished out the week at work, and the next day we were scheduled to host a party welcoming the new baby. My mother-in-law wanted a shower, but there we had an issue with the whole gift solicitation thing for baby #2. So we talked her into just a plain ol' party. Well, the party wasn't to be. In the middle of the night (around 1am), Rob started making some odd noise and convulsing. It woke me up immediately. I tried to talk to him (yell at him was more like it) and hold on to him , but I wasn't strong enough. He was thrashing around so hard that he fell completely out of bed. It took him a few minutes, but the convulsing eventually stopped. His eyes were open, and he was attempting to move around, but he was clearly out of it. He looked like a deer in the headlights. He had no idea where he was or who he was or even how to talk. He truly looked scared to death.

Once again I called 911 and some of the same guys that had visited our kitchen came again. It had been 5 weeks, but they still remembered him. Only this time, I was able to tell them that I thought he'd had a seizure. He eventually came to, but he was seriously confused for at least a half hour. They asked him his name, and after giving it some thought, he told them. They asked him his age. Again he responded with his name. They got him up into a sitting position, and it didn't take long for them to spot that something was very wrong with his right shoulder. At any rate, they packed him up and took him to the hospital.

After they were gone, I fed Jake, woke up Nicole, and took everyone to the hospital. It was a very long night. His shoulder was dislocated, for starters. But his arm was also broken. They put his shoulder back in the ER, and did another CT scan and some other tests. Once those were back, given that this was now the third incident, he was admitted to the hospital for observations for four days. I had left voice mail for Rob's mom once I was at the hospital. I figured she probably was sleeping and didn't hear the phone. But she had thought she heard her cell phone, and came as soon as she got the message. She took Nicole home and put her back to bed around 5am and stayed there until I got home with Jake.

After sleeping for about an hour, I got up, and proceeded to call everyone on our guest list and cancel the party. Then I called my mom. I asked her to keep the kids for a couple of days, since they weren't allowed in the unit Rob was in. So I packed up the kids and drove them out to my mom's house. Most of the next few days was spent at the hospital. Mom had the kids Saturday and Sunday. Rather than spend the night in an empty house for the second night in a row, I went out to my parents house and spent the night there with the kids. Nicole went back to day care on Monday, and my MIL came to watch both kids in the afternoon/evening so I could go back to the hospital.

The next several weeks were draining. Rob had surgery to repair the break at the top of his arm, and I spent every day running Nicole to and from day care so that I could concentrate on the baby and Rob. None of the tests that were done in the hospital revealed anything abnormal. So the doctors are just saying he has a late onset of epilepsy, and a regimen of anti-convulsives were prescribed.

Things eventually got easier over the next two months. There were lots of doctor visits (I still had OB follow-ups, and the baby still had check-ups), physical therapy, and just lots of driving around in general. Rob ended his medical leave around the first of February and started working from home. I returned to work on February 12th.

And now it's March. Where did all of that time go?