We saw another side of Grant today.

Grant's "surgery" went very well.

We went in at about 7:15, got him dressed in his little blue gown that looked so cute, and then we waited...and waited...and waited...and waited. Grant couldn't have anything to eat or drink so he was a little less than Mr. Happy, but still good. He even fell asleep in my arms for 45 minutes or so. Finally, about 9:30ish, they explained the procedure, the anesthesia, and, that when he woke up, he would be really angry. In the words of the nurse, he would be similar to the Tazmanian Devil. Then they carried my little baby away. I handled that surprisingly well. Knowing the surgery took about 6 minutes eased the pain (but did give me a moment to pause on the exact amount his doctor would be making per minute...).

Before we knew it, he was safely passed out in our arms again. And he looked so peaceful and dreamy.

Then he started to wake up.

Turns out Tazmanian Devil is an appropriate term. Arms flailing, legs flopping, red-faced screams. Oh, he was MAD! Nothing helped - pappys, daddy's arms, momma's pacing, nothing. Just screaming. But it wasn't scary or anything. I could tell he was just confused and upset by what had happened to him. He wasn't hurting or anything.

After 15 minutes or so we were told we could leave.
He cried leaving.
in the car.
at home.
being rocked.
nothing helped.
Until I convinced him to drink a bottle of warm milk.
In mere minutes, Grant returned and the Tazmanian Devil faded.
Thank Goodness!

The rest of the day has been uneventful. Lots of dirty diapers, not a fan of the three times a day drops, and kind of cranky, but pretty good overall. Now, if I can just figure out how on earth I'm going to keep water out of his ears for the next 6-9 months...

a bad case of the Mondays.

I cried like four times yesterday. It was like a rainbow of emotions kind of day, but most of the colors were over in the gray spectrum.

Why the tears? Well,some were appropriate. Some were me just being unusually emotional.

The first tears came when at about 8:05am, I was told the cost of Grant's surgery. No small thing. I thought it was going to be bad, but not...that bad.

Then i had a little money melt down. Somehow all my billpay accounts are missing. So the act of paying bills was just as challenging as the chore of determining how.

THEN, I cried because Grant is so cute and he has to have surgery! I had to sign all these "this may cause paralysis...and even death." papers. I know it's only tubes, but still...he's my baby.

Then the icing on the cake - my computer totally freaked out on me. I was on it, installing some fonts, when grant unplugged the cord from the wall. I have a desktop so the computer instantly died. To make a long story shot, when it restarted, the desktop fonts were all in this boxy gibberish font and everything was just weird. I restarted again. The fonts got weirder. Restarted again in safe mode. Scary SCARY stuff. Then I called my computer genius brother. We tried a few things with the end result being a computer that wouldn't even start up. I hung up the phone with him and called my mom in tears. Like sobbing ridiculous - i-can't-handle -not-having-my-computer tears. She calmed me down. Then Micah called back, we restarted the computer and somehow, by some true miracle of GOD alone, the computer repaired itself back to normalcy. So I cried tears of joy.

Then I cried over the sweet pictures of my boys. And Imagined them getting bigger.

Geez.
It's 6:32 am now. I haven't cried yet. That's good, right?

Just one more...well, two...for now.

This one is a little pose-ish but still cute...look at their hands.

I love this one. It's just so them! Grant is ALWAYS pointing. I haven't at clue at what. And Mason speaks with his eyes. And they're just...brothers. Sweet brothers.

a rare thing.

A cute picture of my own children.

I couldn't decide which I liked better so you got both!

Mason the entomologist.

Here's my son, the bug catcher. He wanted this costume bad. We wandered around wal-mart and target searching for ideas. This was the only idea he liked. Well, he did like the idea of him being an apple and Grant being a worm, but there was a shortage of apple/worm costumes and I was short on time...and know-how.
So bug catcher it was. : )

a wee bit stressed.

um.
so.
yeah.

Money is getting a wee bit tight.
Oh, we're fine. RIGHT now.
BUT.
If anything happens in any of the tomorrows that stretch out before me, we might be in a bit of a pickle. Or up a creek without a paddle...or a boat. Or unable to count any eggs in a basket we have on loan.

I'm a wee bit stressed. It's one of those things I've tried to just kind of let my mind glaze over in fragmented thoughts...oh, this will happen.... If we can just...then we'll...and it'll be okay...and really we're gonna start...

but the glaze is getting a bit watered down over here and I'm starting to see things a bit too clearly.

I'm trying not to worry about it - I've seen God's work in our finances before. He can write a pretty hefty paycheck just any ol' time. And he has. I have no doubt that he'll take care of us.

BUT.

we have to do our part, right?
(insert parable of the talents analogy)
We have to spend better.
Save more.
Waste less.
and, simply, Make more.
God can totally pay all our bills and then some, but I don't think he just hands it over without us doing our fair share.

So, Sprinkle is going to have to go crazy. I'm cranking it up a notch...i don't really know how yet, but, oh, it's crankin'!
I think I'm going to actually look into the teaching-writing-to-homeschoolers idea. I get little butterflies of excitement about that idea.
I might try to sell some artsy photographs somehow...how, i don't know. But I think I'd love trying. I REALLY get butterflies over this idea.
And I have about, oh, a dozen or so, other ideas bouncing around in this flighty brain of mine.

It'll be okay.
I just like to know how, you know?
But we'll be fine.

i'm just a wee bit stressed. Today.

But tomorrow...Tomorrow is a whole new day...

I know how some of you feel about this.

I know you may not approve.
You think it's distasteful.
A few of you may have done it yourself a time or two. You'll be on my side.
but this will definitely shock a few of you.
But i need to let you know...

I got a tattoo.

Yep.

I now have two jack-o-lanterns and two bats on my left bicep.

Courtesy of Mason. He's a great tattoo artist.
Oh, and I went ahead and splurged on a black cat for my right calf.

I'm so cool now. Try not to be envious. : )

(I had to have at least a few of you fooled for a second, right?)