Birthday, Valentines, & Anniversary

Wow, don't think I've made it this long without doing a post before. It's been a crazy month, and I don't even think I have any pictures of any of the crazyness. With my Birthday, Valentines Day, and Anniversary all within 10 days of each other it ends up being quite busy.

I have really started disliking my Birthday, it's a hard transition from childhood birthdays to adult birthdays. I know it's hard for Lee as he tries to make my birthday special but he is busy and I don't want him to have to worry/stress over it. My sister and friend Andrea and mom came over to spend the day, and brought some cake over. Lee had work and then a meeting so he didn't get home till really late. We were going to go out in the evening but babysitters fell through and I didn't want to go out super late since it was a weekday. Needless to say my Birthday is just exhausting and stressful.

Valentines Day was really fun. Lee, Carole and I took the kids to Gnomeo and Juliet. It was Carole's first time to see a 3D movie. (blurry iphone photo)
Then Carole stayed to watch the kids while we went out to eat at Montana's (our favourite restaurant) and then we snuck over to my parents place (they were in Arizona) and I had a relaxing jacuzzi while Lee watched sports.

Then.. on our Anniversary Lee surprised me by taking me to Legally Blonde, a broadway musical.

I love broadway musicals, so it was really fun. Best part was he got them off of kijiji for 1/2 price, I enjoy myself a lot more when I know we got a deal. We went to the Keg before our show (my soon to be new favourite restaurant) where I had the best steak dinner of my life. They had fresh BEETS for a side dish which I love, and they have this option called chicago where they char your steak on the outside which was so good.

Our new addition

This is Misty, our new addition to the family.

Lee and I went to the Calgary Humane Society on Monday while Zoë was in school (Lee had called in sick as he wasn't feeling good, but by the afternoon he was feeling much better). My mom had somewhat jokingly said we should get a cat for my Birthday, and so we decided to just go on a casual trip to the SPCA and just look. We went past each cage of cats and picked our favourites. We didn't want a little kitten as I wanted to skip the stage of cat scratching, litter training, and mischief, but I didn't want an old cat either. Misty (aka Darling at the SPCA, is 7 mos old) was the first cat we wanted to see in the adoption room, she instantly became a favourite and we brought her home that day. She never takes her claws out, and is so passive and cuddly. She is SO good with the kids, lets them carry her around and play doctor with her. So far she's been great at home, hasn't gotten into trouble, no bathroom accidents, and the kids are entertained. I like having cats as they can fend for themselves and don't mind being left for a few days on their own, unlike dogs, if we go on a vacation.

I am hoping the novelty of having a kitten wears off a little bit with Zoë as she is VERY attached. She doesn't want to go to preschool to leave her, and she finds it very hard to leave Misty alone while she's sleeping or eating. I am constantly telling her to give Misty a break, I am sure she will eventually....

She is a grey tabby, with a bit of orange patches.

Randoms

I love these pj's at Walmart, they have all these different super hero pj costumes. The cape just velcros on, and Dreyton loves to play the part.


The kids and I worked on a craft to display their art work.

Dreyton was beyond excited when Zoë let him help her

S & S/Pretty Girl

My baby girl likes to dress nicely, even while she's sleeping...
I do put her in pajamas but she likes to play dress-up.

This is a very typical Dreyton response. He is a mix of sweet and sour, always says how much he loves me but HAS to finish it with a goofball head.

Jenn gets baptized!

My sister-in-law Jenn (Lee's brother Jesse's wife) got baptized on Saturday! She started going to church after Neil had passed away, and after going through the steps and getting taught by the missionaries she was baptized by Jesse.

Last couple weeks

Zoë and Dreyton are in two classes right now together. They are in swimming lessons with art/gym time at the end, the other is crafts/gym time at the YMCA. It's been SO nice having that time to myself. They get very excited to go, and I have a great time doing errands/groceries/or just reading a magazine in the library ALONE.

In one class they made igloos by gluing(iciing) marshmallows on a cup. They didn't get to finish during class, so they came home and finished their projects after.

Last weekend we decided to go to the cabin with my parents for Lee's birthday. I was able to do a bit of shopping/relaxing/going in the hot tub etc.

Dreyton and Daddy going for a ski doo ride




Daddy and Zoë making a snowman

as much fun we had at the cabin, getting out was a BIG issue. It had rained all night the day we were heading out, and it was just below freezing to make the roads a skating rink. It was supposed to be a 15 minute trip which ended up being close to 2 hours to get out. It was very scary not making a hill and having to hit the small snowbanks on the sides while sliding down sideways to try turn around and get down without sliding and hitting a bank too hard on the bottom, as there were steep cliffs on the sides of the road. We weren't able to get out the normal way we usually take to get out so we had to go on a road that we had never travelled before to go the back way, which ended up being way worse. Even the roads that were straight were made slanted so we would slide into the snowbanks then as well.

This is after my parents did a 180 and then proceeded to slide down the rest of the way with 4 wheel drive...

Next time we will definetely be getting chains for our tires!

Gallbladder Attack

Last night at like 7:30pm I was talking on the phone and started to feel cramping in my stomach, within a few minutes it was getting extremely painful. I got off the phone and tried walking around, sitting, laying trying to get comfortable but nothing was working.

Lee had just finished putting the kids to bed and came downstairs with me and went to go get tylenol to see if that would help. This had come on so fast and so quick I started to have a hard time breathing, so I told Lee to call 911.

While we were waiting for the ambulance I was having a hard time breathing, my fingers and toes were going all tingly and my mouth was extremely dry, and I was in huge amounts of pain in my upper stomach area.

When the paramedics had gotten here they asked a million questions which I was getting irritated with since I just wanted some pain medication. They explained the reason I was having a hard time breathing, and feeling all tingly was because I was hyperventilating and I had to slow down my breathing. I was getting so bad that my hands and feet were numb and my hands started to look like this picture (Carpopedal spasm )

and I was going in and out of consciousness. With help I got my shoes, coat on and they helped me in the ambulance. I started to watch my breathing and was able to calm the hyperventilating down and the pain had started to subside just a tiny bit. They hooked me in an IV and took me to a urgent care center downtown (supposedly it was going to be alot quicker to get in there then to go to Peter Lougheed Hospital). By the time I got there I was doing alot better, the pain was almost gone so I had to sit in the waiting room for awhile...

Lee had beat the ambulance to the hospital while my parents took the kids to their house for a sleepover. After about 45 minutes waiting (9:45 pm) the pain had come back and I was once again in huge amounts of pain. I was extremely thirsty and they wouldn't let me even have an ice chip since they weren't sure what the abdominal pain was from, and the doctor would have to see me first. After about another hour (10:45pm) in huge amounts of pain in the waiting room I was called in and got a bed in urgent care. I kept asking for pain medication and they said I would just have to wait till the doctor saw me. They took blood and urine samples and sent them off to the lab. I had to get 4 different veins poked because each time they would start filling up a vial my blood would just stop flowing, so they would have to try different veins. After many hours of tossing, turning, moaning in pain it had started to subside around 2:00am. The doctor was able to come see me at 2:30am after I was feeling alot better, besides being tired. She said that my liver enzyme levels were off and that's a big indication of gallstones, and my symptoms were textbook symptoms for gallstones. She sent me home with a fasting ultrasound booked for the next day and that if I had another attack during the night to come back. Lee and I got back home around 3:30am this morning.

I won't get the ultrasound results for another couple days, so i'll have to see if I should be getting the gallbladder removed or not. I have had a gallstone attack when Zoë was about 6 months old as well. Reading on the internet I figured out some pills I have been taking could have been a partial factor in my gallstone attack as well.

The Calgary health care system is SO horrible. I can't believe they couldn't have sped up the process while I was in huge amounts of pain, or at least give me pain medication. In Edmonton, the first time I had my gallstone attack I was on morphine within 5 minutes of being there and was able to skip the huge waiting room lineup and that time I didn't have an ambulance drive me.

Zoë Ice Skating

Zoë has been having lots of fun learning ice skating, she uses the walker to support herself.

My big boy

It's been a huge week for Dreyton, he's already very independent but he had a few milestones that made him much more grown up.

He just moved up to Sunbeams in church, he did really good and was smiling at us when Lee and I would peek in.

We just took him off pullups at nights, he's been really good for a couple months staying dry, but we took Zoë off a little too early so we decided to not rush it this time.

He just started a couple classes WITHOUT mommy. At the YMCA they have a swimming/variety class that he is in with Zoë. They do a swim lesson seperately, then after they do snack time/craft/and gym time. He did amazing the first 1/2 of the swim lesson, then he just seemed to breakdown when he couldn't find where I was sitting and pouted the rest of the class. Luckily, he had Zoë after swim class to take care of him and hold his hand and he loved that and had a lot of fun.

New Years Eve

We threw a very short notice New Years Eve get together this year, we had a fondue and the guys and girls split up and played some different video games. It was really fun, we had my brother Ryan and Katya, brother-in-law Jesse and Jenn, and Andrea come over.

The kids had fun trying on Grandma and Papa's New Years Eve hats the next day.

The 5 Sefcik cousins together, Anya wasn't too happy