Joyeux Jeudi Deux

Who knew that you could have more than a quadruple bypass surgery?! George-Dad-Grandpa, AKA Pops McGavin, AKA Duncan's Dad, Octo Dad, etc... my father in law, had two of those today. Yeah, a double quadruple. How come? Because, he's like the Grinch, without the whole "Two sizes too small" present stealing part. Just kidding. They said his heart has more arteries than normal, which I like to believe is because he's so loving. Anyways. He had some persistent heartburn on Saturday that started to radiate down his left arm, and after a little encouragement, he went to the hospital, only to discover that there had been a minor heart attack. They decided he needed to go to Casper, the nearest cardiology center whatsit, and put him on an ambulance that night. The next day, after some bloodwork and laproscoping and such, they concluded that there were some arteries to his kidneys that needed some help too, and put some stints in there to keep those functioning, and then they hit us all with the news. He had eight (8!!!) arteries with blockage that needed to be bypassed. That would require open heart surgery. So, long story short, he wasn't in any immediate danger, but they wanted to operate as soon as possible. Surgery happened this morning, and all updates have been super positive. His heart is beating on it's own, which is great. He's not out from anesthesia yet, and he's in for a long recovery, but after a little wrestling, here are our conclusions.

-There was only a small amount of damage done to his heart, which should heal nicely.

-This very easily could have been a massive heart attack. We are so thankful that it was just a small one to alert us of the problem and get it taken care of.

-Due to his mostly healthy lifestyle, he has very very good odds of making a full recovery, and even being better off than he used to be!! With his heart functioning better, and getting more oxygen around to everything, he should be less fatigued and ready to keep us entertained with his cute little dances and mannerisms all of the time. Although, we may be getting a few less sleeping pictures... 

There are many, many more where those came from...

-Even if this had been "The One", and George went and took "A Dirt Nap" (his words), he has had an absolutely amazing 74 years. I've only known him for about 5 years now, but he quickly became one of my favorite people (after we realized that he's deaf and I'm quiet, we got things straightened out and started communicating). He is one of the most kind, faithful, fun-loving guys EVER. He has an amazing story for every situation, and while he is a man of few words, when he does speak, it's normally either profound, or completely hilarious.

So Pops, we are sooo happy to have you around. You're not totally out of the woods (you're not even awake yet... but I'm posting it anyways and sending all of this positivity out into the universe). We love you, I love you, and you're the best father to your children, and father in law to us adoptees (he will read this, because he's the most technology savvy almost 74 year old around... he'll probably see this on his iPad). We dig your act.

If this is a little scatterbrained, it's because, well, it's been a rough week.

Love you, kisses!!!

A few things that made my day.

1: I was sorting my recycling and putting it in all the correct bins when this guy with a backpack walks up and hands me a $1,000,000 bill. He just said "Here you go" and walked away. I kind of squeaked out a thanks between wondering if he was a rapist and trying to figure out if it was real money (just briefly, massive amounts of common sense set in after that). The front was pretty normal looking (except that it read $1,000,000), but it didn't have grains, watermarks or raised ink (see, all of that forgery training WAS helpful). The back had a message (in teensy tiny print) that talked about how if we've ever committed a sin, we're going to hell. But then it talked about how if we access the atonement we can have eternal life (not in so many words).  I thought it was a cute little object lesson about how that really is what it's like to be able to repent.

2: Much less serious. I was dropping some stuff off at the secondhand store outside drop-off, and spotted this amazing treasure.

In case you can't believe your eyes, it is an inflated blowfish with googly eyes (tackseedermists r us), suspended in a bird cage. I love it so much, I was tempted to steal it and use it in my new bathroom decor. But then, someone is going to pay good money for that, and that would be like taking food from the mouths of children. But I still have two questiosns; WHO?!?!?! and WHY??????!!!!!!

3: I was shopping today for my new bathroom (shush, I wanted an excuse to redecorate anyways), and got a little obsessed with green. I thought about putting a fake plant in my bathroom, but I'm not a huge fan of fake plants. Then I thought about putting a REAL plant in my bathroom, but I knew that I'd have to get one that does REALLY well in shade, or I'd have to be neurotic, and only put it in the bathroom when company comes over. Anyways, I wandered over to the plant section, and looked for a things that didn't require much sunlight. I found a cute little plant that I thought would just be fun to have in my kitchen. So I went and I found a little pot for it. The pot was really little, but it still would need some potting soil in order to let my plant grow to its full potential. So I found a bigger pot, and then I thought that it'd be kind of lame to buy an entire bag of potting soil for just this little plant and its little pot, and hey, I've been wanting to grow some kind of garden! I might as well start something useful and practice. So I found a cheap plastic planter box, and got a cilantro plant, a tomato plant, and a basil plant (salsa and pesto, yay!!!). I got them home, and wanted to get them into the sunlight so that I don't kill them on their first day, but I was going to a friend's house soon, and couldn't find the drill to drill the box onto our little railing thing outside of our door. So, I dug down deep to my "Let's make it practical, who cares if it's pretty" roots, and here is the result. 

Which you can't see at all. Argh! It's taped on. I would have used duct tape because that would've been so much funnier, but I couldn't find THAT either. But I had a good giggle about how proud of me my mom would be. 

4: Last, I spent the evening with two awesome couples, and one of the awesome couple's awesome kids. They've been so good to me for the past couple of months that we've been hanging out, and especially while Matt's been gone. Well awesome child #1, Izacc, is slightly dramatic at times, and tonight was no exception (he's four). We'd walked to a playground after dinner, where the adults digested while the boys played, and just for setup/contrast, Izacc's little brother just turned two, and is wearing some T4 clothes already. He's kind of a beast, and literally ran head first into a couch tonight and it didn't even phase him. He tries so hard to talk, and his parents can understand most of it and he tries so hard to mimic what everyone says. He will sing his entire ABC's and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and it's mainly "a ee ee ee ee ee agh, fa fa ee af ah ah ah". He tries so hard and it's ADORABLE. Anyways, Ian is a beast, Izacc is dramatic (but normally very articulate). Izacc went down one slide that went kind of fast, and couldn't catch himself in time, so he hit the gravel butt first and started BAWLING. Ian did the same thing a couple of minutes later, and just looked a little surprised, but then got totally proud of himself, and started yelling for everyone to watch him do it again. The funny part was when Ian came running over smiling and happy saying "Bug, bug!" and pointing to a slide, where Izacc was completely spread-eagle screaming "BUG BUG BUG BUG" and trying to spit on and yell at the bugs. Awesome 8.5 month preggo mom went to go save him, and reported back that there were three tiny bugs on the slide that she'd rescued him from. So funny. 

Well, I probably should prepare my Primary lesson now. I keep forgetting that that has to happen every bippin week. *Sigh*. 4.5 more days sans Matt.

Joyeaux Jeudi

I got the idea from my lovely friend Stephanie (thanks Steph) to make a Thankful Thursday post. It was partially because hers was all about her husband, and I bippin miss Matt Wright right now. And, ya know, it just seemed like a good idea. SO. A whole bunch of reasons I'm thankful for Matt.

1. Matt is kind of the funniest person on the planet. He is forever making me laugh, and making every person around him laugh, and making his entire family hysterical. Sometimes people don't understand, or want him to be "more mature" or something boring like that, but life with Matt is never boring. 
2. On our wedding day, (totally true story) Matt's lawyer told me that no two days with him would be the same. That has proven to be completely true. I am not a huge fan of boredom, or same old same old stuff, so this is a wonderful trait to me. Most of the time :-D
3. Matt really honestly truly cares for people. He is never fake, or indifferent, or two faced. He is such a sweet person, and can befriend and support people who I find insufferable. He is constantly teaching me about being a kinder person without saying anything. 
4. Matt is a talented guy. He really gets into things, to the point that he can't leave it alone until he's satisfied with the way it's done. And not like "I want to learn how to paint flowers better, so I'm going to practice for an hour each day until I'm happy with how they look." He is like "Umm, why do I need to eat/sleep/shower? I am learning how to play the guitar." He went from not being able to play a note, to being able to play almost any chord in less than a year. He would play until his fingers got so raw that they started peeling and interfered with the chords. I am kind of the opposite in this, and get kind of "eh" with just about anything after a while. I really hope our kids are more like him in this.
5. There are so many more reasons, so maybe this is "To be continued..." but Matt is my best friend ever, and makes me feel like I'm the most normal, intelligent, beautiful girl in the world. We have the best time together, and we have reached a point where, when we fight, neither of us want the other's feelings to be hurt, so we both work really hard to make it better, which just makes everything better. I can't believe that I get to be married to Matt Wright. It makes me so dang happy. 

Oh, and not only is he adorable...

 He also looks good in plaid (and, ya know, plays like a shredding hessian)...

Is adorable with children...

AND makes me laugh!!!!!