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Category Archives: Tom

The Ottoman Saga

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The first one they tried to deliver had a cracked foot and a really ripped corner. The foot actually totally split and fell off in our house. We didn’t accept it.

The second one had a ripped corner. The third one had leather squares that were totally different colors (I sadly didn’t get a photo of that).

Today was their fourth attempt and it had a little bit of discoloration again but not as bad as the last try—but the interior (when you lift the lid) was all scratched up. So we had to send it back again.

This one was actually the least ruined of them all so far and we told the customer service person that we would accept it at a discount and she offered us $50. On a $1500 ottoman. Ummm no. But sure, let’s keep messing around.

So now we get to wait two weeks for the next attempt because they are getting some new ones direct from the manufacturer in the hopes of getting an acceptable one. With all the prior attempts it was generally 3-4 days.

Our fingers are crossed but we really don’t think it’s gonna happen until number eight or nine.

Happy 9th and 12-1/2th birthdays!

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The show must go on! We had paid for the double birthday party and the weather was gorgeous and we were not cancelling—even though lots of people told me they wouldn’t have been surprised. Really, though, most everything was taken care of by the staff—we basically just had to haul in the drinks and snacks and then had the pizza delivered. I pretty much stayed on the picnic table the whole time.

A great time was had by all!

Lake Forest, Day 5

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8:01a — The surgeon just came in and confirmed the survey is still scheduled for 1p. If everything goes great I could be going home tonight. But since the surgery is a tiny bit later (the surgery takes about an hour, and usually it takes about an hour to wake up) they may want to keep me overnight one more night.

Look at all my gidgets and gadgets!

Heart monitor — my pulse was usually under 50 which slightly concerned them. The first time I went to the bathroom it shot up to 90 and a nurse came running in to check on me.
Original IV
Secondary IV plus a blood draw location.
12:17p — We’re almost to the finish line!!

And look at what Owen texted me? I love him.

How are the kids doing? Just fine. They’ve been spending a lot of time at Anna’s with the boys and today she treated them to ice cream!

3:30p — The surgery went very well. I personally haven’t had the post-op discussion with the surgeon but the doctor apparently told Tom that my gallbladder was large and they needed to make an extra-large incision to remove it…and it was FULL of stones!

There are no crazy videos of me coming out of sedation! By the time I got back to my room where Tom was, I was pretty coherent. Sorry!

I know I had thought I might possibly be able to come home tonight (since this is typically an outpatient procedure) but with the bigger incision plus my pain level getting in and out of bed, I was actually glad to be staying another night.

I actually felt the best I have felt in days so I invited Anna to come visit for a bit so I actually felt human again eating CHICKEN POT PIE from the real food menu and visiting with people who weren’t staff.

By 7 o’clock or so, I was able to maneuver pretty well and didn’t need help getting out of bed. I kicked Tom out so I could catch up with my bestie and we actually took three laps around the wing.

Then—SURPRISE!—I had to switch rooms so now I’m in the even quieter mom/baby unit so hopefully I’ll get a full night’s sleep. They said they won’t bother me unless I page them. Fingers crossed.

So all is well. Now I just need to fart (AND poop!) before they’ll let me leave! #tmi

Hospital #2: Lake Forest, Day 2

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Technically day 2 since I started at hospital #1 on the 10th and it was now the 11th.

4:15a — Arriving in the bowels of the hospital.

Being taken to my room, this was the elevator—Living Lippy, right?! Obviously the pain meds were working at this point.

Everything went well…until Tom showed up and they wouldn’t let him stay because it wasn’t visiting hours! WHAAAAAT?! No one told us that so we were really annoyed. Thankfully they at least let him come up to see me for a few minutes and drop off a bag for me (with some clothes, my glasses, lip stuff, laptop, and makeup remover wipe—it was driving me crazy that I hadn’t been able to do my nightly skincare). Oh, and surprise—no kids allowed as visitors!

4:36a — Let me tell you—a Fooops! wipe never felt so good!

I finally got about three hours of solid sleep from 6-9. The pain started up again so I’m on morphine again. Have talked to a few docs and the surgeon and they’re tentatively planning the surgery for tomorrow morning. Today is antibiotics, an MRI to see just where everything is, and pain mediation. And trying to grab whatever sleep I can.

2:40p — on morphine and feeling fine

6:40p — I’ve been sleeping most of the day. Just had the 45-minute MRI (actually an MCRP) and fell asleep in there for a bit…and now have to wait for the doc to figure out which surgery I need—endoscopic plus lapriscopic or just lapriscopic.

Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) is an MRI exam that produces detailed images of the liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, pancreas and pancreatic duct. It identifies gallstones and can show gallbladder or bile duct inflammation or blockage.

https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info/gallstones
Boring broth, boring jello… But the Apple juice and Sprite were amazing!

I knew I couldn’t have Tom bring ALLLL my skincare, so I had to narrow it way down. My Overnight Lip Mask was a definite yes. I had to dig through and empty my whole backpack but I found it! My lips are now happy!!

The rest of my bare minimum skincare: Climate Control, evening moisturizer (for day and night since I’m not going outside), Shea Butter Body Cream and the lip mask

Soooo, they said it might be 24-48 hours (!) of observation?! So much for “emergency surgery” eh? But apparently my gall bladder is so pissy they need to calm it down first (lots o’ antibiotics). It depends what the doc says. So I’m waiting for her to come discuss my ultrasound results.

#pissygallbladder

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PLOT TWIST, continued!

Out of nowhere about 9:15 I started having extreme pain in my chest and just felt really crappy—enough so that I texted Tom to come home because I was NOT GOOD. It was time to start getting the girls ready for bed and I couldn’t even think straight so needed him to come handle it.

It wasn’t reflux or gas or anything I’d felt before—and I knew women’s heart attacks had different symptoms and that’s all I could think of. I googled and it didn’t seem like a heart attack but whatever was happening was not normal. I thought if I could just go to bed and hopefully fall asleep…maybe I could sleep through it. But the pain wasn’t going away and it was actually a little scary. And then just like that I felt better! Weird. I sat up in bed and just as I was getting excited that it was over…BAM, it came screaming back. At this point I called Tom upstairs and actually told him I was scared and it was at this point (about 10:30) that I said I needed to go to the ER.

Someone obviously had to stay with the kids—and Tom wasn’t able to drive safely (remember, he’d been at a poker night with the boys)—so he called Anna and she got here—from a dead sleep—within about 10 minutes. She drove me to the ER as I writhed in pain and tried to breathe through it. We spent the next five hours at the ER (10:30p–3:30a), most of which I was in about a level 7/10 pain.

11:15pm

I was on morphine for the pain (thank God for morphine) and it was weird how I could feel the pain ramping up (I started breathing differently) and knew to ask for more. Anna was googling trying to figure out what it could be. She was staying in touch with Tom. She was updating the sleepover moms on my phone. When I wasn’t incoherent with pain we visited like normal.

After some tests and bloodwork—my heart was fine, kidneys were fine, my liver was a bit elevated but not worrisome, and overall bloodwork was all fine. But the ultrasound. The ultrasound showed a really pissed off gallbladder. Stones and something else I forget. So then it was my first Covid test ever (which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be) and a leisurely ambulance ride to another hospital to be observed and prepped for emergency gallbladder surgery! Anna went back to our house to stay with the kids while Tom drove to the hospital to meet me there.

3:45am — mask on and ready for transfer
3:57am — off we go to the ambulance
In the ambulance. No sirens but I think the lights were on.

Not exactly how I planned to spend Katie’s birthday…

But I cannot thank Anna enough. Seriously. She was my angel tonight—from the initial car ride to admission to keeping Tom in the loop to grabbing nurses to texting the sleepover moms…to relieving Tom at home (and watching the kids) so he could come see me. Whatever I needed, she was there.

Finding furniture we want is a bitch.

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So the hardest part of this living room redesign is finding the last piece of furniture. We have specific designer-mandated rules to follow on what can fit in the space…plus we know what we want…and it’s impossible.

Oh! The other problem is…due to Covid, the wait times on ordering furniture can be up to eight months. So we were also looking for something that was in stock.

I really really loved our sectional because it gave me a super comfy corner piece where I always sat. With the new furniture, I don’t have that anymore. The room looks big enough to get what we want, but in reality, we do not have that much space.

We found the exact thing that I wanted—called a Cuddler Couch—but it was waaaaaay too big for the remaining space.

So we kept looking, hoping to find that same thing but in a smaller form factor. It didn’t exist.

We ended up looking at chair and a halfs (they had more of the cushy feel I wanted but only gave us one more seat) or loveseats (which gave us seating for potentially 2-3, but didn’t have the same cushy feel I wanted) and were excited to find this:

It had the cushy feel, could easily fit three, was in stock, fit all the design parameters…but we measured it and it was too long. I just couldn’t believe it so we actually taped out the floor at home.

And I just about cried because it didn’t fit. We even tried switching places with the other couch and that was actually worse.

So the hunt continues…

Twenty and done!

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Oh, did I forget to mention Tom is a civilian again today? Twenty years in the USMC and today is the first day of civilian life! We aren’t quite sure yet what the future holds but we’re in it together! Cheers!

P.S. I realize this might seem really anticlimactic after 20 years—after all, there’s usually a big ceremony and celebration—but Covid really messed things up and honestly by this point Tom was just done and had no desire to go back for anything. That said, we are having a combo retirement/anniversary/housewarming in August…

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

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Tom’s youth baseball coaching career is off to a great start—the Phillies are the Gurnee Youth Baseball Mustang Champions! It took two days and 9 innings but they did it!

What made the win even more exciting is that they beat the undefeated Cubs to win! (And the Cubs had actually slaughtered us in a previous game—something like 17-2.)

It was a nail biter for sure—they caught up and we were tied 12-12 which then pushed us into an extra inning! And after no scoring, another inning! And then in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, we scored—which meant the game was immediately over!

A special sidenote: Anna and family showed up again to cheer the team on!

Still waving hats from the baseline!

We hired an Interior Designer!

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I’ve always wanted to hire a designer so I can end up with a put together room/house…and it finally happened! A friend is an interior designer and came over to give us some guidance! We figured since this is our forever house, we’re ready!

We talked about what we wanted, what we liked, what we didn’t want —and decided on a color scheme, the curtains and rods, the mantle (Tom will build it), and carpet size.

So she sent us to look at furniture and we found a bunch of things we liked right away at the first store—a couch, leather glider chair (to replace Tom’s recliner that will no longer match), a new chair for the front room, a lamp, and an end table!

That night I searched online for the perfect rug and found it! So we have a good start!

Internet ax murderers found each other!

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On our way to dinner!

A TiVo member was going to be passing through on a road trip so we all gathered for dinner! It was so great seeing them after almost a year and a half!

Dinner at The Turf Room was amazing, too!

PASTRAMI SALMON BRUSCHETTA

SMOKED FAROE ISLANDS SALMON, GRILLED SCALLION GOAT CHEESE MOUSSE,
PICKLED MUSTARD “CAVIAR”, GRILLED PRETZEL BAGUETTE, MICRO GREEN

MONTE CRISTO CROQUETTES

FOREST HAM, BACON, PEPPER, ONION, PEPPER JACK, SWISS, CHEDDAR, SAMBAL SOUR CREAM

SEA SCALLOP CARBONARA

PAN SEARED SEA SCALLOP, SWEET PEA, BACON, SHALLOT, PORTABELLA MUSHROOM, LINGUINI, SMOKED WHITE WINE PARMESAN EGG YOLK CREAM

IMPERIAL AMERICAN WAGYU FILET

8OZ IMPERIAL NEBRASKA AMERICAN WAGYU FILET, GRILLED ASPARAGUS, ROMESCO SAUCE, LEMON OIL

SOUS VIDE FRENCH TOAST

NUTMEG, CINNAMON, VANILLA BEAN, BACON SYRUP, VANILLA BEAN ICE CREAM

Heading home…

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Our first (of hopefully many!) vacations together really couldn’t have gone much better! Lots of laughs, relaxation, drinks, excellent food, shopping, outdoor stuff, and tons of memories…with only a few kid squabbles. It was over way too soon for sure. Thanks to my dad and stepmom for hosting our motley crew! Can’t wait to do it again!

Up North Date Night

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Dad and Lin offered to watch the kids so we could have a date night—so we took them to The Fitz! It was sooooo delicious… And then after dinner we sat on the deck and enjoyed the weather and the view.

And on the way home, I might have stopped by a HUUUGE lilac bush and made David jump out and grab us some. (They were ALLLL over the place and I hadn’t gotten any fresh lilacs this year so I was kind of going crazy.)

And then…as Anna and I were enjoying the small bouquet…we realized that David was still cutting…and then he thrust a huge branch at us through the window!

Which we thought was absolutely hilarious.

Then we stopped at the Eagle Harbor Inn to see their bar (per Linda’s directive, so we could see their bar rails for ideas) and of course had to have a drink. My pretty one was Mermaid Water.

Then they wanted to go up Brockway Mountain Drive—and since I was the only sober one, I got to drive Dave’s truck!

And when we finally got home and went to get the ice… Ooops! With the crazy drive up and down the mountain and the bags Nott being tied tightly…

The date night continued when we got home—the weather was so nice that we went out and watched the sunset then had a fire!

And this is what happens when you tell drunk Tom we need more wood and there’s brush handy from when he cut branches earlier in the day.

I LOVE having a handy hubby!

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From little things like hanging light fixtures and fixing cabinet drawers to big things like building pantry shelves or building a table, he can do it all.

This was his most recent project — now that we’re in our forever home and Owen has been upgraded to a Queen bed, I wanted him to have a cool headboard. I found about what we wanted…and Tom built it!

Owen loves it!

And here’s some pics before the lights went on!

Maker Faire

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The local college held a zoom Maker’s Faire so all four kids did it at Anna’s! They started by making rockets! It was only a bit of a cluster the rest of the day but they had fun!

And Tom and David built a rocket launcher so the kids didn’t have to go to the college to see them launched! It brought all the neighborhood kids over!