another exhausting day...

Tired. Exhausted. Pooped out. Tuckered. Beat, zonked, fried, done in.

Kathryn, Evelyn, and Suzanne accompanied Camille and I to my appointment with the surgeon today. I picked the girls up a bit early from school because I thought I was picking my niece up at college today, but anyway...we had a bit of time before the appointment, so I surprised Camille by taking them to McDonalds to play on the slides for a while. I had a large coffee and a fruit parfait, and dang it, at least ten or twelve fries. I need to go back to my old strictness and have NONE.

These girls are fun, Kathryn is 13, Evelyn 12, and Suzanne 11. They are silly and loud and...honestly, they don't bear much resemblance to the sweet quiet little girls my older ones were at this age. They are good though, despite how funny they think everything is. After leaving the office today, Suze was telling me how sorry she felt for the old man in the waiting room, which I was glad to hear. They have nice soft hearts.

After seeing the dr. and hearing that I cannot lift anything for three to four weeks, at all, seriously, and that my soreness in the belly button incision is perfectly normal (how can he really know that? How can he know how much pain is normal? It still feels like I am being stabbed all the live long day...) Normal, he said. blah. He also said that most patients lose from 5 to 8 pounds during recovery. Why I had to set him straight is beyond me, but I said, "Not me! I ate pumpkin muffins all day right after the surgery!" I was exactly one pound heavier today in the office than I was at the pre-op appointment. oops.

Anyway, after seeing the dr., we headed over to Wegmans for milk and spinach and eggs and cheese and burger and chicken. I told the girls to get their own cart, and sent them for three gallons of milk, and let them pick out some candy in the bulk food section. I walked around the store with my sister-in-law who had already done her shopping, but was without kids for once (she has twelve), so we walked around and talked while I put things in my cart.

Quick stop at the dollar store....five loaves of Pepperidge Farms cinnamon raisin bread for a buck each, some markers and glue, new pencils, Valentines plates marked down to a quarter a pack, and some Toblerone chocolates for a dollar a pack.

Home...ah, home. In with the groceries, and it was time to make dinner....but first, the dishes I hadn't done before I left this morning. And Evelyn was cleaning out the drawers because I had bought a new silverware organizer. We threw away sippy cup tops and bottle tops and broken cookie cutters...she vacuumed and cleaned the drawers and put things back in nicely, while I washed dishes and made beef stew from last night's leftover roast. I was also baking some of the already made frozen cookies I had bought for $2.99 a package the other day, for the girls to bring to Girls' fellowship. They were eating them as they came out of the oven, and I was scolding them to leave them be...the cookies are delectable, pumpkin with milk chocolate chips, chocolate chip with a hint of coffee flavor, and chocolate - rich and chewy and chocolaty. I didn't eat any whole ones, but broke off a few pieces for tastes...oh dang, my brain was trying to convince me to just have a few. But I didn't.

Eating-wise, I did quite well today. Since the dr. said I cannot even think about working out for at least three weeks, preferably four, I am thinking I should really think about getting my jaw wired shut, or breaking out the duct tape. Or just re-finding that really amazing self-control that is in me somewhere. He did say I could go walking, but that is all, no running. ha, poor me.

The kids are not settling down tonight at all. They are going to be tired tomorrow, and it makes me sad. Emily is picking Jonathan and Charlotte Claire up from school. She always does fun things with them when she picks them up, like the library or the diner for milkshakes and fries. Jon is planning to ask her to take them ice skating. Suzanne and Sonja are going to my niece Susan's house to "help" with those little baby twins. Susan is a saint to share her babies so much, and have her home open to my girls all the time. It is SO nice for them. Those babies have been such a blessing to everyone.

Mirielle and Aaron are leaving tomorrow to go visit Benjamin and Ashley in Washington state! They are flying out of a small airport about an hour south of here, and need to be driven down. I don't even know if I am taking them or not, probably. I wish I was going with them. But when I say that, for some reason neither Aaron nor Mirielle has jumped up and down and told me to just come...they are really looking forward to spending some time with Ben because he is leaving very very soon. I think this is a really nice diversion for him. I am sending the kids with some of Ben's favorite things, and something for Ashley too.

I am going to cry now. I miss my Benjy, and I do not want him to go to Afghanistan. I still can see him as three years old, vaccumming the livingroom all by himself. And at six years old, when Mali was born, and he loved wrestling with the nice girl who stayed with us to help out for a few weeks. And when he was eight, his new teeth still too big for his face, always wearing his Syracuse hat, his voice high and squeaky. He always had way too much energy and needed so much affection, he loved hugging and holding the little ones. He was a sugar-aholic, and if candy was missing, the wrappers were under his bed. He got a job down the road at the Alpaca farm at thirteen, because he really wanted a paintball gun and had no money. He put notes in the farmer's mailbox in his messy writing, telling the man what a hard worker he would be. I was really surprised when he was hired, working at first on just Saturdays...by the time he was fifteen, he would drive down here on the guy's fourwheelers to get snacks, and was working even after school every day. He ended up being able to buy his own four wheeler...

Anyway, I am glad they are going to see him. He misses home so much, it will be nice for him.

I am tired, didn't I already say that? When I am tired, I tend to go on and on, so I think I shall turn in now.