An Eventful December

December was an incredibly busy month! I normally avoid all retail stores in December because of the crowds full of crazy people. This year, I had to face the frantic masses. I even picked up as many extra hours as I could. Brandt started at the bank and continued to work at Target after he was mostly recovered from his surgery.

Brandt's Gallbladder Recovery

Brandt started at the bank a week after his surgery. He spent two weeks training and, fortunately, spent most of that time sitting down at a computer. Now Brandt is officially working as a teller! He went back to Target two weeks after his surgery and had some difficulty bending over to reach lower shelves but it's slowly getting better.

On December 31st, we went in for Brandt's last procedure to remove his impacted gallstone and the stint. Everything went well and I brought him home a few hours later. He was only given Tylenol, instead of the great drip  in his IV he had after they removed his first gallstone. He felt nauseous and had a headache all day. He's feeling a little better today but still has a headache.

Cary Elwes Came to Powell's Books

A view from where Cary Elwes was speaking.

Brandt and I are both big fans of the Princess Bride and the actor who played Westley wrote a book about the filming recently. He came to Portland and we made sure that we were there. I had hoped to get a signed copy of the book but it was a much more popular event than we anticipated and they were sold out. The store was packed and people were filling up the interior of the mall as well. We were able to squish in among the book shelves and could hear him perfectly. After he began speaking, we moved and could even see him from our new vantage point. Carey told stories we'd read on the internet but with much more detail. He is a wonderful story teller and hilarious. We even heard a few new stories.

We were over among the shelves on the left.

After we got back, we put Princess Bride quotes on our love frame. We wrote funny ones and sentimental ones. I had to take a picture of Brandt's sweetest quotes.

That was the first night in a while that I fixed my hair,
so a selfie felt necessary.

Our First Christmas in Portland

Fortunately, we set up our tree before Brandt went to the hospital. We enjoyed decorating it together and this is the first year I've had my childhood ornaments. It was fun for each of us to talk about Christmas memories as we each went through our ornaments.

We have a fireplace, but no mantle. We hung our
stockings under the kitchen opening in the hallway.

We decided that our Christmas gift to each other would be tickets to Zoo Lights at the Portland Zoo. We didn't think we'd have anything under the tree but we were happy to have the day off together. Then our families surprised us! We received several packages from loved ones and our tree was filled. It's been hard being so far away from home and it made us feel a little closer knowing our families had us in their thoughts.

Our new tree skirt. I love it!

Even the dogs got presents.

A house divided but still full of love.

My 1989 ornament. The dog's head bobbles!

Brandt has several adorable mice ornaments.

An ornament from my preschool is still in good condition.

Brandt's Chicken Coop Choir. It "bawks" a song when you
plug in the lights.

One of my favorite ornaments, for its simplicity.

Skyping with the Family

Some of my family crowded around the computer during our chat.

My family got together the weekend before Christmas to celebrate. Obviously, I couldn't be there so my sister-in-law set up a Skype date. I rushed home after a 10 hour shift and loved my first experience on Skype. It was great to see everyone and it was adorable when the little kids argued over not being able to see me on the screen. Brandt was at work so the dogs joined me while I chatted with family. It made the distance feel a little smaller.

Opening Presents

We opened our stockings from Brandt's mom on Christmas eve. The first thing I did was give the dogs their presents and Cedric enjoyed them the most. He claimed all three as his own and now associates crinkling paper with joy. It was hilarious to open presents the next morning and see the excitement in his eyes as he hoped for more squeakers. We spent the rest of the day watching Christmas movies and enjoying each other's company.

Cedric loves his Jabba the Hut squeaker.

Buddy wishes all the presents were his but this one was for Brandt.

Christmas aftermath!

Brandt's Birthday

Brandt turned 30 this year and hasn't exactly been looking forward to it. I got him an ice cream cake, like his mom always does. This year, I splurged on one with Reese's Blizzard instead of the white layer. It wasn't very good. The chocolate layer ended up being white and the middle part (as everyone knows is the best) was not made right. But it was an ice cream cake and still tasted pretty good.

He decided to open his presents on Christmas and after work on his birthday (the 26th) we got a pizza and played video games. It was a great evening!

More about our Zoo Lights adventure tomorrow!

Sparrow is 5

Sparrow isn't a fan of the birthday hat.

Sparrow turned five last week! I'd had Ellie for several months and it was clear she needed a friend. Ellie was very needy, full of energy, and never left me alone. I loved my puppy but I didn't have the energy to constantly entertain her. When I saw Sparrow, I knew she was perfect! I took Ellie with me to meet this possible new family member and the puppy chased Ellie all over the yard. I hadn't planned to get a puppy that day but I took her home any way.

I named her Sparrow because cavaliers are supposed to have patches over both of their eyes but she has one. I love pirates so I named her after Captain Jack Sparrow. Both girls are very different and it's easy for me to tell them apart, however, Sparrow's eye patch is the first thing I point out to strangers that think they're twins. Sparrow is also thicker, likes people, and snorts.

Sparrow has a short snout and always snores. She's always vocal with her grunts and snorts and I love it! She has a cowlick on the back of her neck, like her dad did. His was worse (so was his snorting). Sparrow licks incessantly and nothing I've done can make her stop. I hate being licked so I have trained her to stop then she licks the air instead. She loves to go outside and is always excited when I say we're going for a ride, even though he hates riding in the car. I think she looks like the Joker when she breaths with her mouth open, which is most of the time. One of her favorite things is belly rubs. She goes completely limp like a rag doll.

Sparrow and Ellie are best friends, as I knew they would be. When we brought Cedric home, Sparrow and Cedric became immediate friends. They still chase each other and wrestle. The hair on one of Sparrow's ears is shorter than the other because Cedric chews on it when they play.

Picture time!!

My puppies together.

Sparrow is always happy!

She used to cuddle when she was little.

You can see her cows lick here.

Yin and Yang. Best friends.

Sparrow loved Brandt right away.

Pretty puppy!

Sparrow likes to "suffocate" people she loves.

Sparrow really loves Brandt.

The girls waiting for Brandt to come over.

Belly rubs!

She can be a little creepy...

Always cuddling together.

Brandt loves the girls too.

Sparrow is terrified of my brother's dog so she hid in our
mom's plants. Notice, she's still smiling!

Brandt's Battle With His Gallbladder

Sorry for the delay about Brandt's negative experience with his disfunctioning gallbladder. It's been an insane week and I'm writing this post as quickly as I can. Please excuse any incoherent portions.

Recently, Brandt was experiencing stabbing pain in his stomach. He started experiencing small bouts after eating certain foods, which some times included throwing up and fighting pain all night. Just before Thanksgiving, his pain was so terrible that he couldn't eat. He visited an emergency care clinic and the doctor diagnosed him with indigestion. All the doctor did was give him lidocaine and Malox. When Brandt couldn't feel the pain any longer, the doctor deduced it was heart burn. Brandt knew he was wrong but filled the prescription for heartburn medicine and ate any way. Turns out, it wasn't heart burn.

Brandt's insides. He had a gallstone blocking his
"Vader" and needed the gallbladder removed too.

He correctly diagnosed himself via the internet, with gallstones. After speaking with his mom, he found out many members of his family had their gallbladders removed, which helped confirm his self-diagnosis. Immediately after eating, Brandt had another attack and went back to emergency care and saw a different doctor. This doctor knew what the problem was and sent him to the ER. At the ER, the doctor drew the amazing picture to the left. Brandt had a gallstone blocking his ampulla of Vater (AKA an Angry Vader) and would also need his gallbladder removed to prevent any further stones from causing problems.

Brandt wouldn't let me help him into his
gown, despite the sign in the ER.

It was the day before Thanksgiving and the ER rooms were full. They hooked him up to an IV and he got a room four or five hours later in the children's ER. We didn't have to wait much more than 30 minutes to admit Brandt and he got a private room on the 8th floor.

Brandt's description of his Angry Vader.

They scheduled a procedure to remove the gallstones blocking his "Angry Vader" for Thanksgiving day. That morning, we learned that only one operating room was open and only available for emergency cases. Brandt spent another night at the hospital and enjoyed his pain killers and fluid diet. He said it was almost like a vacation in a hotel room, except for the interruptions every hour or two to check vitals or take blood. We spent Thanksgiving hanging out in the hospital and then I went to work at 5 p.m., because Target opened at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day... that's a different rant for another day.

Thanksgiving view from the 8th floor.

They removed Brandt's gallstone via a tube through his throat, through his stomach, and back up into the duct leading to his gallbladder and liver. They successfully removed one stone but another was impacted. They inserted a stint and plan to go back at the end of the month to remove the stone. Brandt immediately felt better (besides the weird sensation of feeling the path the tube took inside of him.) They had to wait at least 12 hours before removing his gallbladder to allow the swelling to go down. His surgery was scheduled for 9 a.m. the following morning.

A rare sunny shot after Brandt's surgery.

Of course, his surgery started late but that was because there was another surgery before his. They took him in at about 9:30 and I spent the next few hours sleeping on a couch in the waiting room. His surgery was supposed to end at 11 a.m. and I had both of his parents' numbers so I could text and let them know how it went. I woke up at 11 but thought the surgery went late. This is where things went awry. The surgeon didn't go to the information desk after the surgery so my pager was never activated.  I ended up having terrible dreams but was awoken by a call from Brandt's cell phone. He was back in his room and more than a little upset. I rushed upstairs. He was stressed that I wasn't there and his phone had been blowing up since I left it in the room. I told Brandt what happened and that helped make him feel better. His surgery went well and his gallbladder was gone. They performed it laproscopically so he had three bandages on his side and one in his belly button.

I made Brandt a sign to welcome him home!

Brandt stayed in the hospital one more night and then I was able to bring him home! More miscommunication at the hospital happened the entire last day of his stay. The gastroenteritis never came to see Brandt but made notes about her "visit" with him in his file. We never ended up seeing her before we left either. Brandt couldn't be released until the surgeon completed his paperwork. We finally had a tentative time set for 7 p.m. The last surgery went late but the intern was able to make it in and finish the paperwork by 7:30, which quite surprised me he was able to finish that quickly.

I also got Brandt a grabber.

Brandt has been in a lot of pain but doing better each day. He is able to take the dogs out when I'm not home and we went to the store two days ago and even that walking around left him in slight pain. He also drove his car to the mailboxes yesterday. I wasn't thrilled about that but it turns out he hadn't had a pain pill in seven hours, so he was OK to drive. Brandt can't lift more than 20 lbs and should be able to go back to work in another week.

Brandt is Employed!

Brandt has not just one job, but two! The stock photo to the right depicts his excitement at being so awesome at working. 

He started working as a part-time seasonal team member at Target on November 1. Of course, they love him and already have him working in electronics. Our schedules haven't overlapped much this month, in fact, we've had mostly opposite shifts. It's fun to see him at work when we do have shifts together.

Brandt had orientation this morning for his new position as a teller at Wells Fargo. He won't officially start until December though. The leads at Target have whispered about keeping Brandt past seasonal, which he is considering. He'll be working a lot of hours but hopefully it's something that won't be necessary for the long term.

Now here's a picture of a businessman with a trophy. Why? Because it's almost as funny as the first stock photo. But seriously, Brandt should win a major award for how hard he works to do his part to support our little family. The dogs and I love him!