Sludge Baby!!!

As you can tell from the picture, the gall bladder is quite the fine organ. At least, it is when it functions properly. My dear sweet wife's decided not to continue to function properly about a year and a half ago, and usually takes her out of commission for 4 or 5 days.
It is with much happiness that I am proud to announce the birth of our new sludge baby on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008, at 6 p.m. We were scheduled for surgery at 11:45 a.m., but due to emergency surgery, her doctor moved the surgery time back to 2:45 p.m., then to "we'll call you when we're ready, unless you want to reschedule?" Upon explanation that we had taken the remainder of our work week off for this, an agreement was reached. We got the call to head to the hospital at about 4 p.m.
Upon arrival, Amy was prepped for surgery, and then the wait began. At about 6 p.m., they came and took Amy away, and I was sent to the waiting room. I had the pleasure of watching Animal Planet or the Boston Red Sox/Tampa Bay Devil Ray baseball game. So after a few innings, several 4 wheeler magazines, and nearly two hours of nail chewing, the doctor came to talk things over with me.
This surgeon was interesting. Shoulder length brown hair, gold cross on a chain, etc., failed to hide the fact that this guy knew his business. He stated that everything had gone fine, and that Amy should be out of recovery in about 25 minutes. He said that due to the lateness of the hour, he wanted to keep her overnight. Thanks to grandpa and grandma Robinson for stepping in to cover the boys that evening.
So I met my wife in the observation rooms, and helped her transfer herself from one bed to another. The nurse on duty was awesome. His name was Chase, and he and his wife were expecting a baby. The hospital was full, at least, our wing was, but Chase took good care of us. I have to say, though, that I had one long night. Amy was pretty drugged up, and the gas they blew her stomach up with settled in her lungs and shoulder. She needed to breath deep and move to get her gas out. I'm not much of a fan of her releasing gas, but this seemed to be more of a necessity than an evil, so I dealt with it okay.
As the night progressed, the machine Amy was hooked up to kept beeping and waking her up every 20 minutes. I looked it over, and it appeared to beep every time her oxygen stats fell below 90%. So I pushed enough buttons to turn the alarm down to 85%. She was sleeping, and slept at about 89% of saturation. I also managed to turn her IV off, then on again without alerting any one, or at least, hushing the annoying alarm bell. Yeah, I'm quite the hazard around hospital machinery, and should never again be allowed within the walls of a hospital for any extended time period.
She managed to live, though, and pulled through with flying colors that night. Her toughness is amazing. The next morning, Amy was released, and I got her back home. I filled her pain prescription, and kept her medicated to a tolerable pain level the rest of that day. That night, Amy didn't sleep well, and panicked when she couldn't breath. Why she thinks she needs to breathe I'll never know, but we had a long night until she came out on the couch, and was propped up by a pillow. Since then, she has done very well. She is even in the process of making some disgusting tomato based recipe today that makes the house stink. She is taking it easy, and trying not to over do it. I wish she would have forgotten about the tomatos.
So all in all, things went very well with the birth of our sludge baby.
We also had a great time last Saturday as we got together, again, to celebrate Kaden's birthday, again. Amy let me use the camp chef to make dutch oven potatos, and we grilled chicken. Combined with rolls and a salad, a little basketball and motorcycle riding, we had a great evening. We all enjoyed ourselves, and the company of family, and think the rest of the family managed to get along as well. We appreciate all those who showed up and participated.

All about Kaden

Kaden's birthday week long celebration started Saturday, August 30th. Amy was mad but supportive that dad decided not to take the family camping with friends that weekend. A movie was decided upon at the Kaysville theatre in lovely Kaysville, Utah. (Yes, at $2.50 per person, we went on the cheap!! What can I say?) After screening Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, complete with candy, popcorn, and soda pop, the boys were ready for a barbecue.

It was just the five of us, which was awesome, and we had a great time. There's just something about Indiana Jones that makes everyone have a good time. The boys managed to stay interested throughout without a potty break!

Sunday was a very restful day. Amy managed to squeeze in about 20 hours of sleep between Saturday night and Monday morning. The rest of us tried not to wake the growly bear, and mostly succeeded.

Monday morning brought about a phone call from the friends we were supposed to be camping with inviting us to the movie. After sharing the news that we had already gone to Indiana Jones, we invited them to the Kamas Rec center for swimming. With grandpa, grandma, Ashley and Josh all in Logan, we were left to our own devices. We managed to bring everyone home that we started with, so that was a good day. Our friends have three boys that are the same age as our boys, and a little girl Connor likes, so we had fun. Kaden is shown above with his buddy, Morgan, and Connor to the left with his buddy, Blake. We had a blast, and dad and his friend managed to soak the lifeguard with some skillful cannonballs and canopeners!
After several hours of swimming, and a game of pool, the rock wall was opened. As you can see, the boys tried climbing and repelling. Kaden wimped out, Spencer made it to the top, of course, and Connor went about half way up before deciding to repell down. It was a great time, and we got to see grandma and grandpa for a minute.

Grandpa and grandma brought a very thoughtful, appreciated bag of gifts from Josh and Ashley, combined with a very much enjoyed sketch pad.

(Spencer raiding the treat bag at the top of the climbing wall.)

After this, and cheesy bread from the Summit Inn, we made it home for the evening. Not bad for a Labor Day. It was wierd not working or worrying about area coverage, but nice.

The boys had to go to school The rest of the week, but made it through. Wednesday, Kaden's birthday, was a typical day. Dad got home from work, and grilled steaks, while mom went to Ogden and picked up a basketball standard for Kaden. Kaden and dad went to young men, and spent the evening with 20 or 30 of his best ward friends playing human foosball. (Yes, it's a real game!) This weekend, we anticipate another barbecue with family and another opportunity to get together and enjoy each others company. Amy has surgery to remove her gall bladder baby next Wednesday, and I wait with baited breath to see how things work out. I'm taking a few days off to be sure her every need and whim are catered to. Mabey I'll bring HER some frozen peas this time :).