shoot.

i cannot believe it's been over a week. well, yes i can. it's been a bit hectic. what else is new? ;0)
dad is home and doing well. have been over there a few times to check on him and even took them dinner on friday.

lots of birthday festivities. i swear we have a gillion birthdays in from june to august. it's insane.

beaner is doing well. have him on a schedule where he naps more. i guess that's what happens when dad is home with him and finds time to read a book. in the beginning it messed up his nighttime schedule. now he's a sleeping champ again! last night he went down at 730 and didn't get up until 3. rock on wee man!
were taking his three month pictures when he became a bit crabby. had to put him down for a nap. hope to continue this evening. also want to take some father's day pictures. yes, i'm behind. saw a cute, cute, cute idea on two peas ages ago and have had it in my brain since we had a boy. the ones we took before baby meltdown were adorable. going to try again and try some minus the diaper. so all you dads, i owe you pictures. and to everyone else. i also owe you pictures. hoping to order from robin soon! sorry, i suck. ;o)

have been a scrapping machine. thanks to a looming rsc deadline! off to get more work done before beaner wakes and it's off to another birthday party!

funny story.

today my mom and i drove to chicago to visit my dad.
i am beyond sick of their parking garage. yesterday i had to park on the roof. no biggie. however, when i got in the car, i noticed a funky film on my windows. tried to use the wipers, no such luck. nasty splotches that so aren't helping with visibility.
whatevs. will use some windex when i get home. and all will be well.
nope.
nick tried. it is like a sticky something or other over my entire car! have to go get a car wash. the kicker. it looks like it's going to storm like crazy. the car wash attendant thinks i'm crazy, i'm sure of it! thankfully, the car wash helped a bit. think one more go through it and it might be back to normal...
anywho. today i get to the garage and have to park on the top. again. this time i steer clear of the funky machines that spewed this filth onto my car. and park a bit aways. i tried to avoid it, but couldn't. even drove the darn garage twice. even posted on my facebook page that i was sick of parking garages.
so i'm parked. done. walk to the lobby where i'm supposed to meet mom and my phone rings. it's mom. where are you she asks. in the lobby, waiting for you. why, what's up is my reply. her answer...
i'm lost in the parking garage. where do i park? hiliarious. my mom is so not a city person. so proud of her and the fact that she drove herself up there. totally cracked up by the fact that the parking garage gave her the most trouble!
so i tell her to tell me what floor she's on. i'm walking back to the garage. i'll meet her and we can come back together. but she can't tell me where she is! finally get it out of her that she is on the third floor. great. i make my way to the elevator bay on the third floor. tell mom to meet me there since she's now found a spot.
she tells me she is there. um, no. mom are you sure you are on the third floor. um, yeah...
um, nope! she was on floor two! had to run down the stairs and meet her really quickly. ended up having to draw her a map on how to find her car when she makes it to the garage. then how to get out... follow the exit signs.
she's too cute!
love that my dad drives and she doesn't have to worry about those kinds of things.
talked to her when she got home. she made it out of the garage with no troubles. so yay!
gave her a hard time and told her she needs to valet tomorrow.
i'm the sure the garages won't be as crowded tomorrow since it's the weekend.

and dad...
he's doing good. doc is thinking he goes home sunday or monday. we'll see what tomorrow brings.

dad.

is out of surgery. things went well. spent a while in recovery. left the hospital while he was still there... just talked to my mom and he's now on his way to his room. anxious to hear from her when she leaves the hospital. makes for a long day. i didn't do much, but i'm exhausted.
thankful my godfather spent the day with us. that he was nice enough to drive my parents up there this morning. and then he spent the day with us.

the details for those who may not know...
my dad retired. became a bus driver out of boredom. has to be randomly tested for drugs and alcohol. his urine test came back with blood in it. went for a check up. doctor ordered a ct scan and that's when they found the mass on his kidney. dad's always had back pain. think he might have had pain but associated with his back problems and nothing new.
when they checked how his kidneys were functioning, they found that he had an underdeveloped kidney. probably genetic. and the lesser functioning kidney was the kidney without the mass. this meant if the removed the whole kidney with the mass, and the small kidney was left and couldn't keep up, that dad could possibly need dialysis at some point. so they wanted to only remove part of the kidney. the urologist here said he could do the surgery. he does them every few months or dad could go to university of chicago where the doctor does a few each week. of course, we're going to chicago. we have such awesome hospitals so close, we should totally take advantage of it.
anywho. that's how we got to today.
as for the surgery...
took a little under three hours. they were able to remove the tumor. about the size of a plum. so he still has part of his kidney. yay! hoping his recovery is speedy and with few bumps. and like i said, anxious to hear from my mom about what happened in recovery and why it took so long to get him to a room.
awaiting the pathology reports. the other good thing: my doctor who will be dad's oncologist doesn't think he will need anything other than this surgery as treatment. he was really lucky that he had to pee in a cup. and they caught it. has probably been growing for a few years.

k. enough details. i think that's everything. could be leaving out bits. i'm tired. and sorry if i'm confusing and blabbering...

mom just callled. dad is settled into his room. said it hurts like hell. a bit nauseated. which i can totally understand. keeps me flashing back to the c section. i even think i was nauseated with my ankle surgery. anywho. hope he rests up. and feels better in the morning.

mom and i are heading back up tomorrow morning. hoping traffic cooperates again. i made it in record time! helps that i only have to go to university of chicago.

thank you everyone for all the nice emails and messages. means a lot. ;o)

hi.

we're alive.
just super, super busy.
has been nonstop go since i went back to work. this week is looking busy too.

i survived my first week at work. wasn't too terrible. was a bit tired. nick was awesome and did three nights of ben duty in a row. i then did three to make up for it. was nice to be able to sleep those first few nights back. we've also instituted a ben watch schedule. it's nice because we each have weeknights free to do 'me' things.

had crazy, busy, fun weekend. grad parties, campfires, sleepovers. good times. lots of pictures taken. will share soon. hoping this weekend.

hoping dad's surgery goes well. have thursday off. and nick is off thursday and friday. not sure if i'm heading up there for the surgery or not. still don't know what time it will be. will do whatever we need to help out... taking it one day at a time.

benny is doing well. such a trooper. chilled at the grad parties. even slept on a picnic table at one of them! has been sleeping from 730ish to 2ish. then 2ish-530ish and back to bed and wakes up again when my mom is here babysitting. had a few nights last weekend where he was up every 1 to 2 hours. thankfully, that was not the case last night. fingers crossed it is gone and he continues to sleep!! cannot believe he is almost three months old. eeek!

k.
promise a picture post by the end of the weekend... i hope. ;o)

music love

nick and i are huge fans of sytycd. it's one of the only tv shows we watch.
for those of you not up on abbreviations it's so you think you can dance.

we've found lots of music we like through the show. imogen heap and roisin murphy. found a new one last night. it totally shocked me. emmy rossum. didn't realize she was a darn opera singer. i know she was in phantom of the opera but still. here's the song that i'm now obsessed with.
krystn, if you knew about this and didn't share... we're fighting. ;o) you know i'm kidding, but seriously next time fill me in!!

also found a few more songs that i'm diggin: winter song by sara bareilles & ingrid michaelson and moonray by zap mama. just have to investigate all of them and see what albums are worth purchasing on itunes...

and one of my favorite iphone apps, shazam, {pure awesomeness} makes it so easy to find the artist and song title of any song. great in the car and on tv! then there's pandora. can find new artists from the ones you like. so great. and i know it's old, but i'm just now using it to its full potential!

k. enough. this link happy post can now come to an end.
oh wait, if you have any music that i think i should check out, please share!! ;o)

enjoying

my last week as a sahm. aka maternity leave.
heading in to work this afternoon to get caught up on everything i've missed. baby ben is hanging with dad at work when i'm there. apparently, his staff needed their baby fix and was requesting a visit. they watched him for a few hours when i went to a doctor's appointment with my dad, so they are old friends!
ready but not ready to go back. i enjoy being with the weeman but i also miss my job. my patients. and believe it or not, my coworkers! ;o)
not going back full time. will be off on fridays. hoping that grandma lydia and ben have a fun summer together. he is going to daycare in the fall. gonna chill with aunt laura.

lots going on in the next few weeks. hoping i can be a good updater. i will try i promise.
off to upload and order some ben pictures so my patients don't yell at me for being pictureless!