Elinor's 16th Birthday-One to Remember

This post is mostly about how awesome Elinor is.  It is her 16th birthday, after all.  But before I talk about her-- I want to do a shoutout to her amazing dad, and my husband, Abe.  With everything happening with Greta being in the hospital this week, he didn't even flinch at the idea of getting Elinor to 5 AM water polo practice on Monday and Tuesday.  And I know he hadn't had nearly enough sleep for the previous three nights.  If it's important to the kids, it's important to him.  That's the kind of dad he is and I am grateful.
But back to Elinor.  She started her day with water polo practice and she is pretty excited because she gets to be the goalie for her JV team.  You might ask "Why?"  Why would anyone want to be the goalie and have really big, hard, yellow balls repeatedly pelted at them over and over again?  It is a fair question-- one I, myself, have asked.  But actually, it's really awesome that she got this position and I am crazy excited to watch her play.

A couple weeks back Elinor did her roads driving test-- it just so happened that my Uncle Tony was the teacher she was driving with.  He's awesome and we don't think he gave her any preferential treatment, but...she did pass with flying colors:)-- even on snowy, icy roads.  Welcome to driving in Utah.

It was our plan for me to pick Elinor up after her 1st period class at the high school, and take her straight to the DMV to get her license-- it's fun to get your license ON your birthday!
When everything happened with Greta, it looked like our grand plan might not work out.
But then, as I looked at the logistics of making this week work--without me at home to drive kiddos around--I realized we absolutely had to get Elinor driving this week, so she could drive herself to all her practices.

Thankfully, my dad came to the hospital Tuesday morning and stayed with Greta for a few hours so I could get away and help Els get that license after all.  Hooray!

But the day of birthday goodness wasn't over yet.  Not even close.
My big-hearted step-sister and her amazing daughter Lizzie (one of Greta's favorite people) came to the hospital in the evening and stayed with Greta so I could head home with Abe for more birthday surprises.

THIS FAMILY.  They are really something.  To start with they have an oldest boy-- who has a striking look and personality resemblance to Clark as a little kid.  Then they have a slew of darling little girls.  Sound familiar?  And now another baby boy.  I enjoy watching their family because it reminds me of my own about a decade or so ago.  But I digress.  They brought dinner to our family and a birthday cake and balloons. It was basically a perfect birthday celebration delivered right to our door as we got home from the hospital.  Are you kidding me?!?!  I will treasure this image of this family at our door for the rest of my life.

I mean, seriously!!!  The cake was so beautiful and there were rave reviews of its tastiness.  You may recall our family's tradition of hideously decorated birthday cakes and occasional downright disastrous incidents.  This cake was way out of our league.... and we liked it:)

My brother Peter (Chip) and Laura and their family and my brother Matt came over for the birthday celebration -- which was nice of them to come.  But Peter and Laura had a pretty big birthday surprise in store for Els.
Elinor has been very anxious to get a job, but her water polo and swim schedules were going to be challenging to work around.  Peter and Laura are both working full time now and they were in need of some help with housework. The two sides were a match made in teenage-housecleaner-heaven!
For the last month or so, she goes over to their house for a few hours a couple times a week, and cleans while they are at work and kids are in school.
Peter and Laura decided they wanted to get Elinor a little something for her 16th birthday....

Doesn't this only happen in movies and Christmas-time car commercials?!

In her shock and joy she fell into me saying, "Hold me, Mom!"

Elinor saying, "YOU GOT ME A CAR?!?!"

They had a new clutch put into the car (it's a manual transmission) and Abe may drive it for a few weeks to break in the clutch.  Then we'll teach Els to drive it and she'll be good to go.  Pretty freaking awesome, if you ask me.

Talk about a pretty cool Aunt and Uncle.

Cute little heads out the sunroof.

Singing happy birthday to this gem of a gal.

The day ended with a phone call from her favorite missionary brother from Dallas, Texas.  His advice to his gorgeous 16 year-old, driving, dating machine?
Shave your head, rub dirt all over your face, and eat doughnuts for a week.

Happy, happy birthday, Elinor!  You bring us so much joy and we love you.

In Which Greta Is Getting Better

Greta's recovery from surgery to remove tiny magnets she swallowed and to repair the damage to her intestines is going very well.  Over the past couple days she has taken several little walks-- which she doesn't like.  She asks in her sweet little voice, "How about we go back now?"

A walk with her "Daddy- Bear".

For as sweet and calm and mild-mannered as she has been, we were surprised when she pulled both of her IVs out during the night on Monday.  So she got the arm wraps so she couldn't reach to pull out the replacement IV and nose tube.   When she woke up she said, "I'm super strong!"

 Her Aunt Katie and cousin Edra gave her this amazing handmade mermaid and fish.  Greta adores them and likes to keep them by her. 

So sweet!

Obviously, I would never have wished this ordeal on Greta-- it was very scary and very sad to see her so sick and uncomfortable.  I am grateful for the time to be with my baby.  To read and color and sing and tell stories.  To snuggle and touch and be with her.  That part is a blessing.  I am glad for that part.

When Elinor, Faith, Cannon, George, and Peter came into her room on Wednesday, Greta just LIT UP!  she was so, so happy to see them!  It was absolutely heart-warming.  

She came to life--smiling, talking, laughing.  The difference in her demeanor was incredible.  These are her people.  She is adored completely by them and she loves them!  She was playing and batting at bubbles.

She loved her get well cards from her Chaston cousins.  

Her big brothers were so enthusiastic to help her ride a trike down the hall to the incredible playroom here in on the third floor.

It was about the cutest thing I've every seen to watch them play with her.

And for a girl who really didn't like walking down the hall, she was so happy to explore the playroom and stand on her feet and walk around for quite a while.

So much love.

The kids were having so much fun.  Greta ran out of steam, but the kids want to come back to play more tomorrow.

The boys had fun with the air hockey table.

Texting with big sis.

When it was time for the kids to say goodbye, Greta just melted down.  For the first time in this whole experience, she cried.  It was the saddest thing ever. She was so sad they were leaving.  Their visit was so good for her and I hope they come to visit again very soon.

I must take a moment to thank so many people who have carried our family this week.  Meals, rides, visits, prayers, gifts, offers for help... it goes on and on.  It has made this load feel so much lighter and I am beyond grateful.   

One last note-- my sister sent me the following pictures of the kids and myself when they arrived at the hospital.  I guess Greta wasn't the only one who was super happy to see them:)

So good to be with my peeps again.

In Which Greta Gets Really Sick

There has been a lot going on for our family in the month of February.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to have time to blog about it all this week--- as I sit with Greta at Primary Children's Hospital while she recovers from the emergency surgery she had in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, February 24th.
Here's the story.
Thursday afternoon I could tell that Greta was feeling poorly.  Around 3:30 she threw up all over me.  I cleaned myself up and hopped in the car to take Cannon to dance.  Cannon and I joked that not even baby puke can mess up our beautiful schedule.  That night she kept throwing up and I thought, "Darn it!  This stomach bug is probably going to pass through our whole family." By Friday morning she was still in bad shape-- throwing up everything and sleepy and lethargic.  I took her into the pediatrician.  She thought it was the stomach flu and she sent us home with instructions to keep her hydrated.
By Saturday afternoon/evening she was even more sleepy and out of it and she was doing a worrisome breathing pattern.  I took her in to the Riverton Hospital Insta-care.  They tested for strep, and a bladder infection.  Negative.  They tested her glucose.  Just fine.  But she was so lethargic and breathing weird.  The Dr. was going to send us home with instructions to watch her and try to hydrate her, but decided we should just go up to Primary Children's Hospital.  We are so glad she did.
I swung home to pick up Abe and we headed up.  She ate a purple popsicle on the way there.  We got checked into the emergency room and the Dr. immediately went to work.  The Dr. suspected a possible head trauma-- because of the vomiting without a fever.  They did a CT scan.  They did blood tests.  They did a GT and chest scan... and lo and behold.  The culprit.
She had swallowed a bunch of small magnetic balls-- sometimes called bucky balls.  They are about the size of BB's. Faith got them last year for her birthday and they are really fun and cool to play with.  And really very dangerous if swallowed.  I thought we had done a good job of keeping them away from little ones, but apparently not good enough.  These things reek havoc on innards when they are swallowed.  They are quite powerful little magnets.

The Dr. called up the surgeons who got ready to do emergency surgery on poor little Greta.  She was in pretty bad shape.  She wasn't talking or really responding to us or anyone much at all.  At one point, when they were trying to find out what was wrong, I asked her if she wanted me to hold her and she responded in a tiny little voice, "I'm fine."  She is a pretty tough little thing.

Just before going back for surgery.

Abe's brother Daniel came up about 12:45 to help Abe give her a priesthood blessing before the surgery.  They took her back about 1:15 and told us the surgery would be about an hour to an hour and a half.  They could see how many magnets were in there, but they couldn't know where exactly they were or what damage they had done until they opened her up and looked around.
It ended up taking an hour and a half and when the surgeon returned he reported that she had done "okay".  He said they removed 12 magnets and there were four holes in her small intestine.  It is my understanding that the magnets were in two parts of her intestine and the magnets had pulled them together and made the holes.  There was also one in her stomach that they left there, because one magnet is not a problem and she will eventually pass it.  So they stitched up her little holes, washed out her innards and put everything back.
They took her directly to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) where they took amazing care of her.  She has been on morphine and Tylenol.  Her heart rate was higher than they liked for the first day or so, but that came down as they controlled her pain and rehydration.

The NG tube (I think that's what it's called) went through her nose down to her stomach to pump our all the yucky stomach juices (do you like how medically accurate I am?)

A little oxygen because when she was on morphine, her breathing would get much shallower.

On Sunday afternoon we were moved up to the 3rd floor to a regular surgical recovery room.  And there we have been ever since.

She's had good steady improvement over the last couple of days.  Our family at home has been taken such good care of.  Bethany and Elinor got all the kids off to church Sunday morning and we have been flooded with offers of food and help driving kids around and watching kids.  It makes the load so much lighter.
They removed her NG tube around 2:00 pm on Tuesday and she has perked up and is showing signs of her usual self again.  She has been so quiet and still for so many days. She is the sweetest, most compliant little patient, but I'd kind of like to see a little more spunk!

 She's been watching a lot of PJ Masks-- her most favorite show in the world.

Bethany and Elinor came up to visit Sunday evening and they brought her her "Cat Boy".  Then a friend brought her Owlette and Rip.  She was so happy!

She has had no energy to move hardly at all, but a PJ Mask coloring book inspired a 10 minute, uninterrupted artistic burst on Monday.  I thought it was rather miraculous!

A partial family selfie on Sunday evening.  It was tough for Beth and Els to see Greta like this.

A partial Foxy Ladies meeting.

The girls and I went to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat and had a nice visit.  They've had a lot of responsibility this week.  Abe and I are so grateful and proud of them.

We are so thankful for modern medicine and the medical team that when into action to figure out what was wrong and had the expertise to help Greta.  We are grateful for the team of family and friends that mobilized so quickly to help and meet needs we didn't even know we had. 

Snow Day!!!!!

I was awoken early this morning by a phone call saying our school district was closing all schools due to the winter storm.  It was common place to have numerous "snow days" back in Virginia where I went to school for several years.  But it almost never happens her in Utah.  Life pretty much continues as normal no matter the snow fall.  So I don't know why it was different this morning, but almost everything was closed or cancelled today. 

And the fact is, we homeschool anyway!  So it shouldn't have been such a big deal.  But it was.  And it was fun.  And we went sledding and played all day! 

We brought a few neighborhood friends along with us because friends make everything more fun.

It kept snowing the whole time we were there.
And in truth we weren't there for that long, because it was cold and snowy and the little kids run out of steam pretty quick. 

George was so happy to play with his two good buddies in the neighborhood-- Dallas and Oli.

They are sort of inseparable and sort of incapable of taking a normal smiling picture.  We tried.

Elinor was very happy to meet up with her good "friend" Ben.  Well, he is a good friend, but he's also the reason she is very happy to be turning 16 later this month:)

He knew he had it coming when he tried to white wash his older sisters!!