Michele’s Musings

UGH!  Enough with the snow already!  Rowan is supposed to start outdoor soccer in one week…. ya right!  Here is the view from our livingroom window.

Grandma in Ontario sent flowers, so here she is with them!

We got home from the hospital last night and I wanted to update everyone quick…. but I didn’t even think of using the blog lol  Can we say a little sleep deprived???  Still am truth be told!  Below is the message I wrote last night, edited because I remembered stuff etc.

Wed night around 7, just as I was finishing cooking supper, Keely fell outside roller blading and broke her arm, she just tripped and fell wrong, no big stunts or silliness, just bad luck. Yes she was wearing her helmut, no she wasn’t wearing her wristguards. They went missing over the winter in storage somewhere and I guess she was too anxious to be out in the nice weather to take all her precautions….and I didn’t notice she was not wearing them. lesson learned… she has to deal with the consequences, surgery and pain, punishment enough

Anyway…. She was really freaking out and in a lot of pain but I didn’t think it was too bad, I’m not a panicker so I packed up a “keep busy” bag and headed to the NorthEast ER with her. We got in right away, I mentioned to the staff in triage that I had packed snacks for her as we hadn’t eaten supper yet, no one said not to eat…. so she started having a Special K bar, 2/3 done and we were called into an exam room, dr snatched bar out of her hand and I got crap for feeding her because she might have to be sedated, like I knew? oh well…

Off to x-ray, they discover both bones in her left forearm are broken. The plan was to give her drugs for nausea to get her tummy emptied and then get sedation to reduce the fracture and cast her. They told us it might not work and that surgery might be necessary, well as soon as Keely heard that she wanted her daddy!  So I called James to join us.  I told him to call Stacey and Sheldon about bringing “the boys” to their place for “the night”.  Instead he brought Rowan there and left Arran home for his first night home alone overnight ever!  Nurse accidentally gives her wrong drug, she got a small dose of ketamine which is the sedative they were going to give her 2nd rather than the nausea drug, momentary panic, nurse felt horrible, we accepted apology, hold no grudges, no harm done, what can ya do? It was an accident. Wait for that to wear off, James arrived as we were waiting for that.  Then they gave her the right drugs in the right order, they reduce fracture while James and I take a walk, we couldn’t watch them yank on her arm! Waited for her to come around from the drugs, it was really funny!  She was so stoned lol  When the drugs wore off we went off to x-ray again, reduction didn’t work….. with two bones broken they are not stable enough, so they had to call for transport to Stollery Children’s hospital for the ped ortho to reduce the fracture and possible surgery if it didn’t work. I rode with Keely in the ambulance, it was a good trip, wonderful EMT’s.  James went home to pack up some clothes for her and met us at the Stollery.

Got to Stollery around 11 pm, had to wait for bed to be available in ped’s ER so the EMT’s had to wait with us for an hour until they could take her in. The first cast was removed, more sedation, another reduction that we didn’t watch…. another cast, she chose green, another x-ray, digital x-ray’s are cool, they take the picture, pop the exposure into the big machine and presto the picture appears on a digital monitor!  I take a peak at it as it’s displayed on the monitor and see right away that the bones are not matched up, so I knew we were in for a long night….. we are brought back to the cast room where we waited and waited and waited…. Keely slept on and off.  None of the dr’s came to talk to us for a long time, the nurse in charge of the room popped in and checked on her and was surprised the dr’s hadn’t been in yet, went in search of them… then one of the dr’s who was there for her reduction popped in on his way off shift I guess… because no one had looked at her he checked her out in a couple hours, saw the swelling, fingers turning purple, told us the cast would have to come off.   Another dr from before came in  after he left and didn’t completely take it off at that point, just opened it up to reduce swelling. The cast removal was one of the worst things for her, the saw doesn’t cut skin obviously, but on a fresh break the vibrations really hurt her, lots of crying and screaming over that procedure every time it was done. After standing around her room for a couple hours the nurse brought us some chairs.  Finally around 3:30-4 am she got moved to the “pediatric pod” of the ER so she could be better monitored and there were recliners for James and I to nap in her room. She got a cute little bag from the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation sponsored by TRU with stuff to do and toiletries etc. There was a little purple stuffed hedgehog she named Bob.

We were all able to nap on and off until 7 am when James got up to go home and get the boys ready for school and to notify work that we wouldn’t be in.  James came back to the hospital just in time for the dr to finish removing the 2nd cast (and all the drama involved with that again). More waiting…. We were initially told that she would get surgery around 4 pm, which would mean staying overnight again, but they got a cancellation for an elective surgery and she got operated on around noon instead. Only a 45 minute procedure, 2 pins and another cast….  James and I called the Grandmother’s to tell them what was going on while we waited.  Only an hour before she was ready to go did we find out that she didn’t have to stay overnight.  She got a couple doese of antibiotics, some pain meds etc.   She got released at 4 pm, just in time for us to hit major construction/rush hour traffic driving home with a nausous Keely *sigh* Thank gawd she didn’t puke! We bought her a new Webkins in the gift shop while she was in surgery, a Racoon she has named Crash. She goes back to the ortho dr in 3 weeks to check it out.

We were all very tired…. When we got home we settled Keely on the couch with blankets and pillows and Arran babysitting so we could go pick up the car we left at the first ER, then James hit Safeway to fill her Tylenol 3 Rx and get her some pudding to crush it up in (she doesn’t swallow pills) and some gingerale and popsicles. She has to stay home from school today to rest so I don’t go back to work till Monday.  We are going to have a girls hang out and do nothing day.  I also have to get her bathed beause she stinks!  All that sweating! 

This was our first real broken bone (not including Arran’s “fake break” in grade 6) and our first surgery for one of our kids so we were a little overwhelmed. Poor thing went about 20 hours with no food when all was said and done, and we didn’t bother to eat more than a bagel or muffin ourselves… oh and coffee… lot’s of Tim’s! All the HCP’s were great, even the one who gave me crap about the food, and the one who messed up with the drugs, they were all upfront and honest with us about what was going on, and answered all our questions and they fixed our baby for us which is the most important thing.

She is doing really well this morning, although she woke to a small nose bleed, probably from the dryness in the hospital.  I woke at 7 to her screeching for me, and in my sleep deprived state I was totally stunned, I’d forgotten all about the cast and surgery lol  Took me a moment to clear the fog from my brain!  She is snacking and watching TV.  I am hoping to catch a nap!

So we did end up celebrating our anniversary as a family last night.  We took the kids to Tony Roma’s for supper which was very yummy for eveyone but Arran, he has a cold and couldn’t taste his ribs lol  Poor kid, the rib were a treat for him….  Then we went to see the movie 10 000 BC which was REALLY GOOD!  All 5 of us really enjoyed it.  I didn’t realize it was going to be a love story as well, so we got some action, adventure and a bit of romance, fun for the whole family :) 

So I let James buy a new TV…..  he has been wanting a bigger one for awhile, did some shopping around for a couple months.  He waited patiently for our new London Drugs to open, which was today.  I took Keely with me for a look see this afternoon, it wasn’t too busy because the grand opening officially starts tomorrow. I checked out what they had on sale in the new AV dept, then called him at work and he dropped everything and joined us lol  We picked up a 47″ Toshiba LCD, he can’t get away with anything bigger in our wee livingroom!  I am happy wth the purchase because our current TV is also an LCD (32″) but it dosn’t have very good pixel quality, I’m hoping movies will look better!  He also wants a PS3 and Rock Band, but I’m making him wait until this is paid off!  We also told Arran we wouldn’t get those two items till after report cards come out in June, he needs to get his grades up in LA and I’m not above bribery….

I can’t remember how I came across this site connected to my maiden name http://www.ubgga.com/  but some time back in December I did and I registered for a log in.  In all the hub bub of the holiday’s I totally forgot about it and today while home I came across the email I received confirming my registration.  I tried to log in to the member area but my login didn’t work so I replied to the email.  While doing so I also answered the guy’s question as to my father and grandfather’s names.  So he replied today and it turns out he has written my grandfather’s nephew Raymond Graveline in regards to connecting certain family members together, but Raymond hasn’t replied to him yet.  Anyway…. It turns out I am a descendant of Urbain Baudreau dit Graveline who was one of the original settlers of Montreal, arriving in the mid 1600’s.  He was also an elected trustee of the colony and owned parcels of land on the St Lawrence River.  Kinda neat!  I had no idea when my family came to Canada, now I know at least one branch has been here almost 400 years!  I also learned what dit means.  It’s an old term used in Scotland, France and New France as an alias.  The alias describes something about the person such as military service, a branch of a family or a location.  I think our “dit Graveline” is for location, as there is a town on the north coast of France named Graveline.  So the descendants of this Urbain Baudreau dit Graveline have surnames of Baudreau, Boudreau, Graveline, Gravlin etc. some ended up picking one name or the other as the “dit” part became in some places illegal (as it was an “alias”) or unused, such as when they did a census, people had to pick one surname.  And the different spellings were because most people were illiterate and went by the phonetic spelling which could vary… Anyway something neat to share with the rest of the family and he kids   Too bad I don’t speak French! 

Check out the link!

Michele & James Proof Album

Now I get to decide which one to make the portrait package from!

On another note, I am deeply saddened at the death of Heath Ledger this week.  I feel so badly for his family, especially his little girl.  I am also angered at the speculation surrounding his cause of death, just wat for the official toxicology report for pete’s sake!  Don’t make stuff up just to have a sound bite on TV!

I can’t believe she’s 10 already!?!?!?!  Where did the years go?  She was such a sweet baby, I miss those early years *sigh* 

We are ordering pizza for supper (her choice) and I am buying a small cake for just the familiy.  This weekend she is taking her friend to dinner and a movie.  I haven’t even bought her a present yet!  BAD MOM!  I might stop by London Drugs after work lol

We spent all weekend trying to get the laminate installed in our hallway, what a PIA!  We had the laminate installed in the kitchen as far as the main hallway, but we have another hallway that goes behind our kitchen (the wall the fridge is on) to the powder room, so Saturday James got the flooring installed there working towards the main hallway so we could continue it.  I got the livingroom prepped in anticipation of being able to do it today (big square room it will go fast when we finally get to it!) I took everything off my bookshelves and entertainent unit, what a CHORE!  I have way too many books    But James started getting frustrated doing the main hallway last night so we stopped, we have learned that is a good idea when we are feeling flusterd, have a drink and get a good night’s sleep!  So today we started off optimistic…. we spent a big chunk of the day cutting out part of the hallway wall for a cold air return, then got to work on the flooring…. just as we were getting the last few pieces installed we realized we had a problem, something was out of whack somewhere, causing the boards to not align properly.  We tapped, we whacked, we wrecked some boards….. we took boards apart……  James finally decided to take the back hallway apart and then reinstall it backwards to see if it was maybe just not meeting up right….  But after all that, he discovered that some of the boards we were installing in the hallway were slightly wider than others  hmmmm James says he noticed a problem when he was doing the kitchen with one box of boards being slightly thicker than the rest, so they set it aside to use it for the stairs….  so we are back to almost where we started.   I really want to get the first floor DONE this week so we can decorate for Christmas!  I’m a stressin’ out!  Tues night James has a council meeting and I have my work Christmas party, Wed is Keely’s 10th birthday….   I tried to push James to continue getting more done tonight but his knees couldn’t hack it anymore, all that up and down and kneeling, and my sciatica is yelping at me.

Well something funny happened this weekend, we pulled up some of the livingroom carpet thinking there would just be underlay on top of subfloor…. nope!  There is REALLY UGLY brown “wood look” lino tiles under the underlay.  Hard to believe when this place was first built that those tiles were the livingroom floor and the hallway and kitchen was a nasty dark green lino tile  did people actually think that look GOOD?   Good news is they are popping off the floor really easy LOL

Wish me luck the rest of the week, I am going to need it!

I can’t believe it’s been over a week since I updated here, but I guess that’s yet another syptom of being too busy!

We are simultaniously planning our kitchen reno and our first big camping trip with the kids EVER lol  We have been buying camping gear, looking at cabinets and counter tops, running between Ikea and Rona every other night, and Ikea is a 45 minute drive away!  We have drafted our kitchen, we are getting the Stat white cabinets from Ikea, we have decided to get the laminate counters at Rona though, it’s a bit more $ but they are faster and we get Airmiles!  Now we just have to decide on a colour.  If you have any suggestions please leave a comment!!!!!  We have to order them before we go on vacation this weekend.  So with white cabinets, white appliances (the top of the white ceran stove is black with white speckles) and wood laminate floor what colour would YOU pick for your counters?  I want something neutral that will go with a lot of colour options for the wall because we haven’t decided on that yet.  Initially I was thinking dark, but now with the new stove in with the black top to it I’m not so sure…

I have also been working full time this week except for today, Keely is sick :(  so I have to take my first sick day at my new job.  Not sure what she has, but there was a fever, headache and tummy ache, hoping a day of rest will get her back in shape because I have to go to work tomorrow and then we have our holiday’s and she has to be better for that!