Monday, June 4, 2007

Are You Ready To Ramble Some More?

I mentioned in my Sunday Dinner post that as far as I was concerned Sunday Dinner this week was going to be eaten out. And so it was. Ducky, Cecil, Sue, Danny, Mikki, Seth and I went to a local buffet for dinner. It was pretty good and the best part was I didn't have to cook it and we walked off and left our dirty dishes for someone else to have to worry about cleaning up.

That's Ducky, Cecil and Sue in the first picture, then Danny, Mikki and Ducky
again in the second picture. We had just finished eating and were just talking and catching up here.

Danny took the pictures of me and Seth and I to
ok the others. Seth wasn't overly concerned about posing for pictures but Danny managed to get a few decent shots.

I played with Seth after I finished my meal. He's getting to be a little chunk of love! I estimate he weighs about 14 pounds now. Seth was 3 months old on May 27th, believe it or not. It doesn't seem like he should be that old already. It won't be long before Mikki will have to start feeding him cereal. He's already showing signs that he's not totally satisfied with his formula.

He's holding his head up pretty good, but he's still a little wobbly and you have to be careful or you'll have bloody nose or black eye! He has the cutest grin but I wasn't quick enough with the camera to catch it.

Look at those deliciously chubby cheeks! They are 100% smoochable and I got my share of sugar, believe me!

Seth is one little boy who looks just like his Daddy when he was a baby. He is the spittin' image of Danny when he was little, right down to the fine fuzzy blonde hair. You can't see his hair very well in this picture, sorry.

Actually, Danny got his fuzzy blonde hair from his Mama, Ducky. She got her nickname because her hair was fine and fuzzy and blonde when she was a baby and our Mama said she was her little fuzzy duck. That became Ducky and the name stuck. Her real name is Martha but that was our Grandma's name. It still seems strange to call her Martha and most of the time all of us in the family still call her Ducky.

Speaking of hair and bad pictures, I had Ducky cut my hair on Sunday while she was here at my place, and I do mean cut it. As in off. Pert' near all of it. Sorry about the bad quality of the picture but I'm here by myself and that's the best lighting in the house. In the bathroom, that is. I'll try to get Cecil to take some pics for me if she's here on Tuesday afternoon.

It really is short. As in buzzed on the sides and about 2 inches long on top. I don't do much by half measures and my hair especially. I either want it long enough to put up off my face, neck and ears or short enough that it doesn't touch me. This feels great now!

I'm having withdrawals because I haven't seen Jessica and Emmy in a week. It's been even longer since I saw Jason but the poor boy is working to make a living for them. He's working 13 and 14 hour days most of the time, bless his heart. And I do mean working. He works on a crew putting down water wells to irrigate rice, cotton, soybeans...really almost any kind of water well. It's already miserably hot here and we're supposed to hit 100F by this weekend. The only time Jason sees air conditioning is in his car to work and back home. Even their shop is not cooled. It's hard, hot and dirty work and I'm proud of Jason for staying with it and making a living for his family.

I really hoped to see Jessica, Jason and Emmy at church Sunday morning and they had planned to be there, but the best laid plans and all that...

Jessica called me at 2 am Sunday morning, crying and in pain. She told me her symptoms and asked me if I thought she should go to the emergency room or try to tough it out and not worry about it. She had been vomiting and was hurting in her abdomen, doubled over with pain. She said it was worse than labor pains or any pain she'd had before. I asked about fever and she said she didn't have a thermometer (we'll be taking care of that as soon as I see her; she needs one for Emmy as well as for her and Jason) but she didn't really feel like she was running a temp. It was upper abdomen and not lower right so I didn't really think it was her appendix.

I know she hated to hear it, but it's about time for her normal woman's cycle to resume and Jessica has severe female problems and pain with her cycle. I thought it might be that but still, her pain being that severe really troubled me. I knew it wasn't good, no matter the cause. The vomiting concerned me and food poisoning was a concern, although she said she and Jason ate at the same place and he was fine.

I had some thoughts that it might be her gall bladder because along with female problems gall stones are hereditary in our family, but she said she was hurting on both sides and I hurt in the center of my belly, just under my ribs, through to my back and radiating to my right side. I had my gall bladder removed when Jessica was less than a year old, at the ripe young age of 24. My Mama and all my sisters except Sue have all had hysterectomies and our gall bladders removed, plus several of my nieces have already had one or both surgeries. The Cook and Headrick genes, they are some strong boogers.

Since we both have such a high pain tolerance I knew she was hurting pretty bad for her to be crying and doubled over with it, so I told her I thought she needed to at least go in to the ER and have it checked out.

They ended up spending the rest of the night and morning in the ER, and after Jessica told the attending doctor about our family history he had blood drawn and then ordered an ultrasound done. By then we pretty much knew the diagnosis. Although the technician didn't come right out and say Jessica had gall stones, he hinted strongly that she did. Her doctor confirmed that she had a quarter-sized stone blocking the neck of her gall bladder and it had to come out. Jessica is 19, by the way, and now is the youngest gall stone victim in our family now. Not a good record to hold, I don't think.

Jessica had laparascopic surgery about 3 pm Sunday to remove her gall bladder and went home that evening. She is feeling much better now and glad to be out of pain. She's sore, though. She says she's more sore from this surgery than she was with her C-section. She's already been released to drive and is planning to return to work late this week if she's still doing well. She won't be doing any heavy lifting, of course. I'm just thankful that she got a correct diagnosis and got the treatment she needed, and that the surgery went so well. She can be thankful that she only had one attack before she was diagnosed and had surgery. I had 2 attacks, and the last one was right before my surgery. I've never had a bit of trouble since and I hope she doesn't either.

So, that's how my Sunday went. How was yours? ;-)

Monday Cecil and Sue brought burgers from McDon*alds for lunch and a frozen key lime pie for dessert. It was good, and let me tell you, that pie had some serious pucker power! We just lazed around and watched TV all afternoon.

One of my neighbors brought me some fresh garden green beans and some more yellow squash Monday afternoon and I feasted. I stir-fried some green beans until they were tender crisp then tossed them with a half teaspoon of sugar and some soy sauce. Talk about delicious! They were soooo good.

My mother in law is taking me grocery shopping Tuesday morning early and she's bringing me some more green beans, squash and cucumbers. I'll probably be making homemade pickles Tuesday night or Wednesday. The fresh produce is really coming in now and I am so thankful for it. Cecil and Sue and I were just talking Monday afternoon about how there's such an abundance of fresh produce in season that you get tired of it and then you crave it in the offseason when it's unavailable. Some things are good frozen or canned, but some things just aren't the same unless they're fresh from the garden.

We're just never satisfied, are we?

As I said, I have to get up early to go grocery shopping. I want to try to get home before it gets too hot. For one thing I hate the heat and another, it's better for my perishables. I have a couple of those mylar insulated cold/hot bags and they really do help.

Happy first week of June, y'all.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

i would be interested in seeing more photos of your new hair cur

wow thats L O N G days for poor Jason but yes well done to him looking after his family so well

My prayers are with Jessica

Anonymous said...

You sure had a full Sunday and Monday! Hope Jessica is feeling better soon. Make sure that Jason is drinking enough - it's easy to get dehydrated working in the heat like that.

Have fun grocery shopping!

Jeanette said...

Looks like you had a wonderful day and no cooking.
Oh look at that lovely photo of a very happy and loving Gran with little Seth he is gorgeous.

Susie said...

That picture of you with little Seth is adorable. Love those chubby cheeks! Glad Jessica got her gallbladder trouble diagnosed and taken care of so quickly. My grandpa had that same surgery (his first ever) when he was 93!
Jason sounds like a very hard working and responsible young man. I know how proud you must be.
Try to stay cool. Easier said than done I'm sure...
Love and ((hugs))

Barb said...

You know, I've worn my hair short short for years and then I decided I'd let it get a little longer. I have an appointment a week before the wedding and I'm telling her, cut this mess off. I'm with you. If I can feel it, it's too long.

That baby is adorable. It IS hard to believe it's been 3 months since his mommy was giving all of us such a scare, isn't it?

It's weird - I've been emailing back and forth with a bloggy friend this morning whose husband had a gallbladder attack over the weekend. He's having the laparascopic surgery, too.

Rob had this done several years ago. I can sure understand why Jessica was crying - I've never seen anyone is such pain as when he had his attack. Since a gallbladder attack presents so much like a heart attack, I called an ambulance for Rob. Less than 24 hours later, he was out of surgery and back home, feeling a LOT better. He returned to work three days later, too.

So I'm really glad they were able to do her surgery the easy way. 19 is awfully young, but at least it's over. You have such a history of it in your family, it was probably bound to happen.

Good grief. Sit down and put your feet up, girl! LOL Yeah, I know what you're thinking.

Rachel said...

Well Diane, your Sunday certainly turned out to be a busy one!! Loved the pictures of everyone visiting around the table and catching up!! The pictures of you and Seth are great! He's growing like a weed and I can see you wanting to get lots of sugar off those cheeks!!

Glad Jessica got her gallstone taken care of. That pain sounds awful.

I know your hair is very cool this way. I had mine cut recently but not near as short as yours!!!

The talk of all that fresh produce is making me hungry! I shall have to make a point to get to the Farmer's Market this week to see what they have available.

You have a wonderful day Diane and keep cool!!! xxoxx

someone else said...

Bless her heart, I hope Jessica improves very, very quickly.

The pictures of you and Seth are just wonderful. Watch out, though, eating out for Sunday dinner can really spoil you. I used to cook EVERY Sunday and when our kids moved out, we started going out and have ever since. I love it.

Greeneyes said...

My goodness Diane
your world is really full right now isnt it ! Poor Jessica ,"get well " wishes for her , she has been through the wringer with the section and now this , she needs a little breather . Best thing in the world from her section though EMMY!
Just goes to show how quick life can change , glad she is on the mend.
Now the pics of you and Seth are adorable , you look so good with babies cuddling in your arms , guess it feels great too !

love the new hair , wish I could do it! you have great texture and body to your hair , mine would spike like I was shocked LOL


And what a wonderful man Jason is , working so hard in that heat ! and hard work!! like I said she has a great guy there , God bless you all ..

Miss G.

Granny said...

I'm with you on the short hair as you know from the blog.

Poor Jessica. I do hope this puts an end to her health problems, at least for now.

Carole Burant said...

Hello dear Diane:-)

Baby Seth certainly has grown and what a cutie pie he is! I wish I had sisters to go out to lunch with, you always all seem to be having such a fun time:-)

My goodness, poor Jessica...she sure has been put through the wringer but I'm glad that she's had the surgery already and can now look forward to a complete recovery. I've heard how painful these gallbladder attacks can be!!

You should move here...we're having snow flurries today so it's nice and cool! lol Can you believe it?! June 5th and my furnace kicked in. Just a couple of days ago we were in the 90's!!

Take care of yourself my friend and hope you get to see precious little Emmy again real soon:-) xoxo

RennyBA said...

Thanks for keeping us posted about your Sunday and also for your visit and nice comments on my report too. Good to know we both have the same lovely summer weather:-)

Happy first week of June to you and your lovely family too!

Dawn said...

Wow, you're really having a heat wave! When I started blogging almost a year ago, you were busy "putting up" all of the garden stuff, I remember.

Poor Jessica. My poor husband had that a few years ago and would go to the den and lay in a fetal position, not telling me he was in pain. The day it finally was diagnosed, he had gone to work (walked) and ended up with a friend taking him to the ER. They quickly put him into surgery and it was much better very soon!

You've gone from long to short in the hair department, haven't you??

Linda said...

My goodness Diane. Y'all have certainly had an exciting few days!! I'm so glad Jessica is doing well. That must have been very frightening for her.
I'm with you in the hair department. Either very short or long enough to put up. It is now in the nineties here too, and much too hot for all that hair on my neck.
Take care dear friend. I hope you get to see that little one very soon.

Myrna said...

What a busy time you and yours have had! I'm glad Jessica has that over with. Sounds like it was almost bound to happen in your family.

I started lurking around on blogs about the time Seth was born. I remember reading your blog and trying to figure out who that baby belonged too. Now I almost feel like I know your family. That's the way with blogging! :)

Cecil said...

Hey Lady Di, You forget one thing.. I still have the dreaded hyster to look forward to... it's not enough to have a 2 pound ovarian cyst and a gall stone bigger than a golf ball!!! Now I have that to look forward to... Crud.... :( Stinky!..Good grief, half the grandkids have had hysters and I got left behind...Oh well... that's life...

Lyndy said...

Oh my goodness...I haven't been online and I totally didn't see this post. I am so glad that Jessica is feeling better and that this is behind her. Amazing that she got to go right home and all. I have heard that pain is horrible.

Praying she fully recovers quickly.

Love and Hugs, Lyndy

Tammy said...

I don't know how I managed to miss this post other than Bloglines has NOT been highlighting some of my feeds!
Glad all is well now with Jessica! What a trial!

kansasrose said...

Hi Hon! Wow something must be in the air right now with all these gallbladder attacks! It's been 3 weeks since my gb surgery and now I hear your dear girl had an attack and the laproscopy...she will feel so much better now and it's good to get it done when young because the recovery will be fast. I can sure sympathize with Jessica. That pain is horrendous. You have sure had your hands full too dear...I love that haircut...it will be so cool and easy maintenence. Have fun putting up your pickles! I'll be right over to help eat them!!! The pics of Emmy are just precious...she is really filling out and oh that smile she has! Love to you. Jen