the update

Doesn't he look so grown up?
Surgery went pretty well last Wednesday. We headed in on a early 6:15 a.m. appointment so he didn't even wake up until we got there, which was good because he would have probably been so grumpy because he would want to eat and couldn't. Funny story about the time - the receptionist had called and asked us to be there by 5:45 a.m and then called back and said that she didn't catch that he was so young and to bring him in instead at 6:15. I chuckled after I hung up the phone because... well, what's a half an hour at that time? Luckily Ron's an early riser and didn't mind driving us down. We sat around the room for a little while where Jorel was waving bye to all the people that walked by - he even climbed on my lap, said up and waved bye as in telling me he was NOT going to stay. The nurses brought him in some meds to reduce his anxiety and that seemed to work okay. Then off he went with the anesthesiologist without much of a fight. About an hour later the surgeon, Dr. Ryan Lewis (very explanatory and good) came out and told me the status. Said he did great and everything went very well. He was still in the recovery room and I'd be able to see him in about 30 min. After we went back to see him, the nurses handed him to me and he was SO passed out, well, not when the nurses were prodding him, he really just wanted to be left alone. When they moved him, his IV was having trouble so 2 of them were hovering over us. Well, I definitely take after my mom because as this was going on, the smell of surgery and the anesthestics were crawling into my nose and since I hadn't really ate anything - I almost fainted! I couldn't believe it and I was kind of embarrased, but I snapped out of it and my color returned... so it was okay, but super funny. Jorel had a hard time waking up, but we finally got home around noon and he slept until about 3. Then he got up and played as much as his body would let him and slept again from 6 to about 8 and was up until 10. You wouldn't have guessed he had surgery later in the day cause he decided he wanted to run around the table a bit. He's doing pretty good, a little fussy at times, but that's probably not from the surgery! He's just a complainer some times, he's a baby :) Anyway, there's my detailed long post about Jorel's day.

He really was just unhappy that I took the camera away

My Fainting Chair

The Incision

Also on that day, Hurricane's Wal-Mart opened. Markus and I went on Friday to check it out and it is pretty nice. I guess it always helps that it is so clean right now and I just oh so hope that it can stay clean! They even had an Indiana Jones made out of LEGOs - I should've taken a picture, it was pretty amazing, haha. J was also definitely back to normal for the most part yesterday and today just running around like crazy and getting into everything!

@ the new Wal-Mart

Being a Goof

Oh and all you moms out there: I so apologize for taking so long to get us together! We're going to plan for sometime in April - How many can make it on Thursday the 9th around 10:30? Let me know! I would also like to extend this invite to Dad's too... didn't mean to leave you out, but you are all totally invited!

like {mother} like [son]

After the consultation on Thursday, the surgeon confirmed that J definitely has a hernia, like I did at his age. He explained all sorts of stuff that I didn't really understand or listen too and said it was up to me if I wanted to do surgery or not, but I thought it would just be best to be taken care of. It runs the risk of getting bigger and a rare risk of getting intestines fused into it and stuff like that so it might as well be taken care of. His day of surgery now is Wednesday, not sure of the time since the surgical center calls the day before to confirm time. So there you have it...

deceived

so i found out this morning that jorel is NOT having surgery today - just a consultation. this makes sense, but i wish one of the few people that i talked to would have said - we need to set up the consultation first or something!!! i'm just a little frustrated...

i mean come on, my sister even flew in. grrrrrrr.....

my kid is falling apart

Not really... but amongst softball and school this last week, Jorel ended up getting a good ear ache. After 2 nights of him tugging at his ear and drops not helping, I called the doc and took him in last Wednesday, it didn't take very long to confirm that he had an ear infection so he got some antibiotics for that. I had a couple of other concerns about J that I needed to bring up anyway, plus you could tell that he was in quite a bit of pain - although such the trooper! So while the doc was checking his ears, I asked him a couple of more questions - 1) was that I thought that he might have eczema on his leg, which was confirmed - and 2) was that he had a bulge on his little scrotum - SO not normal! He didn't check because he knew he wouldn't see anything, but the symptoms were leading to either a hernia or a hydrocele. Basically a hernia is when there is a weak spot in the lining of usually the stomach or such where your insides try to get out... and a hydrocele is a fluid-filled sac around a testicle that may cause the scrotum to swell. Poor little guy... so I had to take him in for an ultrasound on Thursday. The results were back later that day and, since I was at softball practice, my mom had the info for me when I got home. The ultrasound confirmed that it could be either one - hernia or hydrocele - and both would have to be fixed so I had to get him an appointment to have surgery! :( I just feel so bad for the poor little guy, he doesn't even know what's coming, but I guess he won"t remember it either. The word 'surgery' just seems so big for someone so small - even though I had hernia surgery when I was about the same age - I've still got that scar! I know its not something too big to worry about, but I am so grateful that it isn't anything worse... and my heart goes out to those parents that have had to endure worse. So this next Thursday we'll be in the operating room either fixing a hernia or a hydrocele... I guess we'll find out when we get there?

Regardless of all that is going on with the poor kid, he's still playing on (and his hair is getting so long - the cutest is all the curls he's getting in the back!)

lefty

Jorel has been coming to practices and apparently he has been paying attention...

and then just some more of him being super-duper cute...

finished project

Now that the weather is getting warmer, I made a [scarf]... maybe next season I'll get to wear it, actually I was thinking about selling it - and then maybe make some more and sell them too... idk :)

[softball season]

[Bobby Sox 1995]

Today we had tryouts for softball - I coach at Hurricane High School for those of you who didn't know, where I played all four years of high school. It's my second season with this team and I have high hopes. Even though I've been an Southern Indiana softball alumni now for almost 3 years {weird} I still get a little Uncle Rico on the subject. I guess I'm just not ready to give up fast-pitch softball and settle for the slow stuff. This is a sport that I've played since I was 5. I started out in California playing Bobby Sox Softball with great coaches and made some great friends. When we moved from Cali, I had to wait a couple more years until I was a freshman to tryout for the high school team. I played all four years and then almost gave it up. Thanks to my friend Amber, who was going to Western Nebraska Community College to play volleyball, I decided to tryout for their softball team and made it. After graduating from the NJCAA (DI) school with my associates degree, I was picked up by the University of Southern Indiana NCAA (DII) to finish up my eligibility. I then had the opportunity to play in Australia with some other college girls for a couple of weeks. I stuck around Evansville another year after that to finish up my degree and got to be a student assistant coach in the meantime. Its been a great experience that has taught me a lot about not only softball but about me and about major issues in life. I'm really glad that I didn't stop playing after high school - I wouldn't trade it for the world and am now appreciative that I get to teach other girls on of the greatest games in the world - and speaking of coaching, I may be doing some private lessons this summer if you or anyone you know may be interested.

[HS senior year]

[WNCC freshman year]

[WNCC sophomore year]

[USI junior year]

[USI senior year]