Been awhile

So life has kept us hopping around here. During the summer both Russ' mom and my dad were scheduled for surgery. Mom J for thyroid removal, and Dad M for brain surgery. My dad suffers from severe tremors in parts of his body similar to Parkinsons, and there is a surgery that puts leads into the brain that are then connected to battery packs that produce electric impulses that stop the tremors. Dad had this surgery on July 19 and Mom had her surgery on July 20. This turned out to be the first half of surgeries for both of them. Mom had a follow up surgery just over a week later and everything was great. She even got cleared to go on the cruise they had booked! My dad however suffered some complications involving bleeding in the brain creating the equivalent of a stroke. The first couple of weeks following the surgery were really tough. We had no idea how much dad was going to be truly affected but we knew his left side wasn't responding. He couldn't swallow fast enough and so they had to put in a feeding tube directly to his stomach. He was then moved to a nursing facility just a few miles down the road from their house. Once therapy began there, improvements and healing began to show by leaps and bounds! His left side has come awake again, his swallowing has improved enough that he is starting to eat again, and as of Friday the surgeon and dad's other doctors agreed that he was doing well enough to have the battery packs for the leads put in at last! These will go in by his shoulders. Dad already has a stimulator similar to these in his back and it has helped him immensely! We know from a test they did in the OR when they inserted the leads that he will get great results from these stimulators as well. We are so very excited for Dad to finally be having the rest of the surgery done and we are rejoicing that his recovery is moving along so well and so quickly!!
Mykhal and Kerrie finished their schooling before Russ came home for his 2 week break.

It was great to have him home! We got to spend some time with family both when he arrived and as he left. In between time we were at home getting a few things accomplished and having some fun. Our main project was a mini-makeover of our bedroom. We decided we wanted a new headboard that was comfy to lean against, and thus we needed new curtains which of course necessitated new bedding too! I don't have before pictures, but here are some after:

LOVE our new look and the cushioned headboard is so comfy! The lamps are perfect, and we are using these swivel side tables that hook under the mattress to put our alarm clocks and such on. Our kitten of course had to get up on the new bedding to investigate and get in the photo. She is such a funny little thing!

Lex had moved out of the front room and so Russ and I are reclaiming the space for a library/office. So the kids and I repainted it before he got home. The curtains that had been in our room will go PERFECTLY in the newly painted front room now and so I grabbed the old rods from that room to use in ours. Worked out great! Come monday some friends are coming over to help us move some furniture around and rip up the carpet in the front room. We plan to paint the concrete in there and throw some rugs down. Lex is going to take the other half of what use to be the garage that we had turned into a bedroom. It's a small space, but will be adequate for her and baby for a good while.

Russ is due back near time for baby to be born. Lex will be doing finals for her first college semester at that point also. Going to be a busy time. I'm working toward having major household projects done by the end of this month, then a couple of other personal projects done by the end of October. I really want to be able to focus on getting things ready for Russ and Baby in November. Life is never dull around here for sure! Wouldn't have it any other way!!