From Surgery and Beyond

We have been absent from here for a while but we have a good reason . . . I had surgery last week. But let's start from the beginning - Marc and I are having a BABY! We are very excited and are even more excited now that my surgery is over. We found out at the beginning of summer that we were having a baby and I very quickly found that my pants didn't fit and I was looking VERY pregnant. Marc examined me and thought we could be having multiple babies (i.e. triplets or more!) or thought there could be something wrong. After going to the doctor and getting an ultrasound we found out we did not have quadruplets (much to my relief!) but instead a very rapidly growing ovarian cyst. Because of the size of the cyst I had to have surgery to remove it last week. All went well and I delivered our first spawn - a 2L pop bottle sized one and am very happy to be rid of it!!

Right before surgery, I look a lot happier than I felt!

Home 2 days later, Niko greeted me very calmly and very gingerly came up on the couch beside me. I have no idea what he sensed as he is usually super excited to see me after a couple of days absence but it sure was nice when he laid his head on my legs!

I am feeling better everyday and on Sunday our friend Jarrid arrived for a visit and last night we went boating with friends. Although I was unable to surf :( it was still fun to be out on the water on a beautiful day!

The leftover vestiges of corn
I am not sure what Jarrid is trying to do here, maybe make sure that all the remnants of my cyst are gone!

Marc surfing behind the boat, you start with the rope then once you feel balanced, throw it in and surf the eternal wave. DUDE!
Yesterday Marc took me to emerg and we did an ultrasound and saw our baby waving to us! (Oh the perks of having a doctor for a husband!) Needless to say, we were very relieved that all is well and excited to get on the with the more important things in life now that include multiple trips in October- one to the island this weekend, then off to Bend, Oregon for a course, to Victoria for Thanksgiving then to Ottawa and New York for Halloween!!!!

We have been so blessed by all our wonderful family and friends here with meals, phone calls, visits and flowers! Thanks so much everyone!

september is always beautiful here

the annual chilliwack airshow is conveniently located 1 block from our house.
great community event

last week kylie and i picked over 20 lbs of sumptuous blackberries on vedder mtn. i froze them for use in smoothies and other fruity drinks, along with a 20 lb flat of blueberries (for $17). i derive a strong dopamine rush from the act of picking berries. much more than is justified by the mere cost savings. my 21st century brain still wants to store up for the winter. niko likes slurping them off the bush as well.

after a busy summer we were able to once again connect with friends.

just this week, we attended our friend madison's second birthday party. where are all the people? checking out uncle kevin's firetruck of course!

"did i hear something about a firetruck?"

i have never been a daschund fan, but butch's new pup wheatsie is super cute.



and of course, the birthday girl graciously opening presents.

precious bodily fluids

"have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water? vodka... that's what they drink isn't it? never water? and not without good reason."

dr. strangelove (or - how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb) is my new favourite movie. my friend chris lent it to me quite a while ago b/c he knew how much i liked kubrick as a director. kylie and i put it on, and initially found it funny but quite slow (it was filmed in 1964 - well before "Speed" changed movies and attention spans forever). i think we only managed to watch 30 min before we started falling asleep.

a few weeks ago i put it back in to watch it again while kylie was otherwise occupied. i dont know what changed, but this time i was riveted. the dialogue is so dry and so hilarious. peter sellers is incredible in 3 roles and delivers a subtle comedic performance (at least mandrake and the president are subtle, the eponynymous dr. is anything but) that just isnt seen these days. i have since watched the movie 3 times and gone through all the special features. i love it!

my favourite character by far is general ripper. i was working an overnight shift a few days ago and my brain was in the state common to those who are still awake and trying to function normally at 4:30 in the morning. i had a friendly but fairly intrusive diabetic patient pestering me to give him a prescription for insulin or another sugar lowering medication and i was explaining to him that his problem was dehydration or lack of water. suddenly my voice turned low and gravelly and i started to slur my words like i was holding a cigar in my mouth:

"water, mandrake. water is the source of all life. seven tenths of the earth's surface is water. why, do you realize that 70 percent of YOU is water? as human beings, you and i need fresh pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids."

the patient did not catch the reference, so i apologized and explained i was quoting dr. strangelove. i didnt realize i had the scene memorized, but it is my favourite and it kept spilling out of me. i then turned to the nurses and intoned once again in a serious gravelly tone:

"mandrake, have you never wondered why i drink only distilled water (or rainwater) and only pure grain alcohol? have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? fluoridation of water?"

unfortunately my sleep deprived attempt at humour missed the mark with the nurses as well. none of them had seen the movie either. its funny to me though. i can make myself laugh just thinking about those lines delivered so seriously and mandrake's panicky disbelieving responses.

great movie... although you probably wont like it unless you are sleep deprived or a nuclear policy afficianado. extremely slow paced but funny in a way no movie is funny these days.