It’s been a mundane vibe at our home for the past couple of weeks. There’s been doctor’s appointments sprinkled here and there, but nothing too crazy to get my blood pressure high like in the months of August to mid October.
We have Ellis’ heart cath procedure the second week of December and a couple more appointments this month too. Her pre-op appointment and heart cath were supposed to be this week, but I needed a mental health break before diving into another hospital thing. So Chris and I decided to postpone it and the hospital was okay with that.
This meant that I could take both kids to their 4-H meeting this Monday and we’ve been consistent with their school lessons too. Thankful for the slowness and for the fun trick-or-treating we had last week. Each year, our community has a party with a row of houses that open their garages with tables for treats, hanging out, music, and popcorn, cotton candy, and s’mores. Ellis was so excited to be out and not feel sick or anxious. In the midst of walking around together, she told me that even if she gets sick tonight from hanging out without wearing a mask or from overexertion, she has “no regrets!” It was a passing comment, but it made my heart sting because she carries a lot of burden about her condition. We had a lot of fun! And all our goody bags were taken by the end of the night too.
It was fun to be out with both kids and to enjoy the night together. Elliot asked me to take a picture of him in his costume, and I interpreted that to mean that he was happy and pleased with the evening too.
We have a heart clinic appointment this coming Monday. In the meantime, we are staying home, enjoying our time puttering around the house, doing our own things, and eating candies leftover from trick-or-treating.
Thank you for everyone for stopping by and I hope you are all having a good November! And this is the first year for me, but I started Christmas decorating already. Usually, we bring out our Christmas things after Thanksgiving, but this year was rough and we’re starting early. How about you?
28 responses to “Mundane times”
Mundane is good, as far as I’m concerned! Did Elliot just have a growth spurt??
I’ll take mundane! I relayed your comment to Elliot and he was all smiles. I think he grew about an inch in the past month or so. He’s been wanting to grow taller and getting frustrated that it’s not happening as quickly as he’d like! lol Thank you for noticing and making Elliot’s day.
You’re welcome! I noticed his new height right away.
He was beaming!!
Was someone actually making cotton candy to hand out? I’m jealous! I love that stuff, but I haven’t seen any ‘real’ cotton candy in forever. I’m glad everyone had a good time!
This was the first year that a neighbor had a cotton candy machine and was making it for each person in line! I thought they had rented it, but she said it was theirs. They know how to party!
Oh my, it looks so fluffy and sweet, but it is pure sugar. Maybe if you go to a fair, they may sell some.
With constant in and out of the hospital, “normal” sounds mundane to you, Esther! I hope you’ll have more stable times. I’m glad Ellis enjoyed her trick-or-treating. She has a good spirit about her heart condition. <3
I hope so too, Miriam! It makes me grateful for the boring days, even when it gets boring, I have to remind myself of the alternative when life gets chaotic with medical issues.
Yes, she had a great time trick or treating and roaming around the neighborhood. She usually has a positive mindset about her heart condition and we reassure her that we are at one of the best hospitals. But when the talk of heart failure came up this summer, we all had mental breakdowns in our own ways. It was a tough one to hear.
I love the hot dog costume, Esther!
I read about the cath procedure. I am guessing Cartiologist needs to better see her developing heart to assist with how to best move forward with her quality of life as Ellis has grown. I will be thinking of your family. All my best. ❤️🍎
Thank you, TD! I was an inflatable dinosaur at first but then it started to deflate as we were starting to trick or treat. So the hot dog was a default costume.
We are trying our best to have a positive attitude and to stay hopeful as we navigate this heart journey. We were in absolute shambles this summer when we first found out about heart failure and the doctors just talking about it like it’s nothing. Whew…we’re coping. I’ve been thinking about you too as we go through this.
It is nice to see the words “mundane” and “fun” in the same post Esther, as well as smiles on all of your faces. I like Ellis’ mindset about the evening and her positivity. I like your hot dog costume – very cute!
Right?! Yea, we are savoring the mundane and I’m getting my doctor’s appointments out of the way in the meantime. Tomorrow we have another appointment for Ellis at Stanford. One of them is an exercise test.
My hot dog costume was silly and I found a kid who wore the smaller version of it! We took pictures together. lol Thank you. I’m glad you like it. 😛
I hope the appointment went well – I’m guessing it like a stress test on a treadmill? It was cute though – right down to the relish. 🙂 We had a costume party at work when I was at the ad agency and another secretary and I went as cars. She was petite and I was/am tall, so our client was Lincoln Mercury, so she was a Bobcat and I was a Cougar. We spent a lot of time working on the costume which was coreboard and we painted them, had tape reels for hubcaps, tiny kid’s bike horns on each of the cars. I made bumpers out of gray satin and we put bumper stickers on them and wore black pants and turtleneck sweaters. We were sure we’d win the $100.00 prize but a devil costume, bought at a costume shop won instead.
Oh man, you both should have won the costume contest! The Bobcat and Cougar costumes are creative and original and it represented your client. hmph…people don’t appreciate cleverness.
Appointment went well and we are happy that it was just an afternoon. We were so happy to come home and not get depressing news. We have another MRI next week, so that means another trip there. It’s great that these appointments are spaced out and we get time to recover.
Yes, it was fun putting our costumes together and I had a small cassette player and so I taped the long commercial (60 seconds) over and over again, so it played as if it were on a continuous “loop” over and over as we walked around the party.
Yes, that’s good, for sure, to come home with no bad or depressing news and you can relax a little before part two next week.
Yes, it was fun putting our costumes together and I had a small cassette player and so I taped the long commercial (60 seconds) over and over again, so it played as if it were on a continuous “loop” over and over as we walked around the party.
Yes, that’s good, for sure, to come home with no bad or depressing news and you can relax a little before you venture into part two next week.
You both should’ve won the costume contest! Seriously, you even got the commercial playing.
Yep, part 2 coming up soon. Ellis has been practicing her crocheting this week. We joined a crochet project for 4-H and she starts this coming Monday. I think she’ll start with learning how to read a pattern,
Yes, it was a lot of fun – I thought we should have won as it was original – the other costume, the Devil, was just bought at a costume store, so not as creative.
P.S. – No Christmas decorations up yet, but I plan to decorate for Christmas for the first time in 15 years, not dragging out everything like I used to (an all-day affair because we had a lot of stuff and it’s a small house, so knick-knacks and doo dads all had to be tucked away to make room for the holiday items). Next year, if my house is in order I will add a little more.
That’ll be nice to decorate again after such a long hiatus! It should be a fun thing to do, so do as much as you think will make you happy.
I’m going to do some fun things with bears this year Esther – my Boyds Bears Christmas Ceramic Christmas tree and a tapestry jacket my mom bought which was a “flat version” of the tree. And I’ll mention and show those 52 teddy bears from my collection – you will have to show the kids. I think I sent pics of the bears once to you.
Oh nice!! I remember the bears. The tapestry jacket sounds interesting. Christmas is a time to wear crazy things and have fun.
We got a new Christmas tree today and put it up with all the ornaments. I thought we would stick with our two tiny trees from the past two years, but they were big enough to hold all our ornaments. Target had a 50% off sale on artificial Christmas trees and I was on it right away.
Yes, I’m looking forward to doing the post and including the Christmas tree and jacket and the photos of all the bears … a special Christmas post the Sunday before Christmas. I hope I can capture the magic with the candle You got such a good deal there!
I hope the pictures comes out great and you capture that magic!
The tree was a fantastic deal and the lights change colors too; that was a bonus for us discovered when randomly pushing the plug remote. lol. And I thought we had to wait till after Christmas to get a good deal on a tree.
I hope so too Esther. I have not seen the tree since 2008. I really don’t think I put anything up in 2009 – too much going on at that time with my mom. Changing colors is great – that will make for some nice photos. I hope you take some. Many years ago, in the mid-60s, we had a silver tree which was all the style and they had flood lamps trained on the tree. Ours was blue bulbs with a blue floodlight, but some people had a color wheel that went around in a circle and they put multi-colored bulbs and it had a magical effect.
Nice word mundane! Really as well as smiles on all of your faces. I like Ellis’ mindset about the evening and her positivity. I like your hot dog costume.. I am guessing Cardiologist needs to better see her developing 💜! Elliot is just have a growth! 😄
Tack Care, Esther 😄!
Thank you, Raj! The hot dog costume got a lot of love from fellow trick-or-treaters.
Elliot did have a recent growth spurt and he’s very excited about it! He’s growing up. Ellis wants to get taller too, but she’s just a very petite gal all around with her weight and height.
I hope you are doing well!
Yes,Iam very well & u? But both kiddos happy & well ,Iam so…so glad , Esther! Good she’s got weight & height! God bless you & get good health & happiness.