April 20 - April 27

4/21 (Monday)
Took Evan to the Podiatrist and he said everything looks good and that we were instructed to go back in two weeks to take everything off.  Evan still needs to wear his boot in the meanwhile which he really is not too fond of as the weather is getting warmer.  As the Dr. was changing Evan's bandages, he asked about my children because he is sending his daughter off to college this fall.  I told him that Jeannie, our oldest went to BYU and is currently serving a mission in SF.   He asked if we are Mormon and I said yes... then he carried on with a conversation about some Dr. he did the residency work with years ago are Mormons and he was really impressed with their work ethnics.  It's good to hear from other people's comment on our members who were great examples.  I hope we are keeping the standard high.  :)

4/24 (Thursday)
So, I went to scripture study today and Susan Coox lead a discussion on visiting teaching.  I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and brought back the good memory of Rachelle Dunforx.  We just moved to Lewisville not long after we graduated, and I hardly knew anyone in the ward.  We were expecting our 3rd child but then I lost the baby after a car accident.  I was a clam and totally shut people out the door, but this visiting teaching would climb all the way to the third floor to come and take me and the kids for a check up and entertained Jeannie as I was at the Dr's office.  She was so incredible!!!  I would never forget how much I appreciated her genuine service and I kept telling her thank you.   One of the remarks she made stuck in my mind was "I bet you would do the same too!"  That statement remains in my heart for the rest of my life!

4/25 (Fri)
Dad turned 65 today!!!  Can't believe he is getting old... to me he is still the dad that I've known 20+ years ago.  I often wonder when I will be able to take care of them, and I was hoping that as we were serving at the church, we'll be able to call home to serve a mission and take care of our parents.  :(  And I doubt they wanted to give  up everything to stay with us for the rest of their life.

Had a really nice discussion with Mia today on how we learned not to judge but to take a higher road and be with those who sinned to help them feel loved.  Because of the choice of Miriam, many members or even herself feel uncomfortable being at the church.  My thoughts has always been with them -- "How could I not love them when they already felt so bad about what they did? -- in her case being pregnant without married. Michelle G. as well.... not that she doesn't believe, she is weak to break bad habits such as smoking.  How could I cast judgement on them when they are already struggling.
 

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!  Wonder what Jeannie is doing at the moment!

Went to church early this morning and practice with the choir.  They sang okay... as we all knew that more rehearsals were needed but a few members insisted that they were ready to perform so they kind of ignore the pleadings from the rest of the choir members.  I hope the experience had taught them that singing in the choir is a team effort.

We came home and ate the leftover from the restaurant.  Then we watched the Lamb of God, took a nap and painted the eggs.  Together we also made lamb chop, indian bread while Jady sliced the cucumber for salad and strawberry for dessert.  It wouldn't be as special if the kids were not helping.  I wish my missionary is here for the fun evening but I am sure she is being taking care of.  After dinner, the kids did Easter egg hunt... I don't know how Evan did it but he did -- even climbing on the trampoline!  Crazy kid........  :)

Essential/Not

4/19/2014

Went out to dinner with the Greens and took a quick stop at Wawx for a smoothie.  A teenage boy with his younger brother were standing in front of me trying to pay for their sandwiches and juice bottles with a card. The cashier asked how much he has in his card because it wouldn't go through.  I wasn't aware of what's going on at first until I saw this little hand sticking inside the grocery bag taking out a bottle of juice.  The older brother tried to slid his card again and the cashier repeated the same saying.  This time, the teenager was a little frustrated because he thought there's enough money to pay for everything in his bag the second try.  The cashier shook her head and almost instantly the little hand reached to the bag and took out the last bottle of juice.  

I turned around and saw this little boy might just be the same age or a little older than Jady.  My heart ache... how would I feel if they were my own children?  I quickly asked the cashier how much they owed so I could help pay the rest.  She said she wasn't able to figure out.  I didn't want to see more food being taking away from their bag for there were only two sandwiches left.  I told the cashier that I would pay for their food. The teenage boy stood there and didn't know how to react... I paid and told him to take the sandwiches with him.  

I told Evan the incident this evening as we were making naan together because Johnny and I felt that he's been spending too much time on the computer looking for stuff to buy.  I told him that we don't need much to be happy or to survive.  We've been so blessed with abundance of goods while others are struggling with basic needs or just to get by.  I hope he understands the lesson here and that he would be mindful in the future with what's essential and what's not.    

On The Road to Recovery (4/17, Thur)

It's been a good three days and Evan is doing so much better.  He came home the first night after the surgery and had a hard time sleeping because of his pain.  The pain is finally subsided after two days, and he is off the pain medication now.  It's kind of funny that he is actually pretty well adjusted to using his crutches, so I think he should be ready to go back to school if the Dr. say so tomorrow.  :)

Spring Break (4/15, Tue)

It was a pretty relaxing spring break.  The mammogram went well and everything is good for another year!  :D

Yeah, we made homemade pizzas (anchovie and chicken)!  I got the dough from Traders Joe and the kids did a wonderful job cutting up the ingredients and assembling them together.  Got to give them an A+ for team working!  :)

 

Evan's Surgery Day

Yes... the office called again at 7:45am that the surgeon would like an x-ray from Evan before the surgery.  Great!!!!  I told myself.... I am not coming back ever again to your office!

Well, anyway.  It's been a long day:

10:15 Dr.'s office for Evan's x-ray
10:30 Surgical Center (paper work and stuff)
10:45-12:15 Meeting with the surgeon, nurse, and waiting for the surgery
12:15 Operation
1:10   Dr. came out from the surgical room with all details of post surgery information.
1:30  The nurse called me at the lobby and walked me back to the pre-op. room (Evan was already awake and eating)
1:50  Evan got dressed and we went home.

Evan thought he was doing pretty well the first few hours as we went home and that we worried too much. He even argued or tried to negotiate with us about walking on the floor is not a bad idea even when the Dr. suggested of minimal activities, elevated feet about hips and ice treatment at the ankle for four days.   But as the time goes, his anesthetic started to worn out, he could feel the pain and stitches on his toe.  Bless his heart... I pray that he will recover soon.

2:00  Eat and practice piano
4:00 Cook for dinner

6:15 Left to Stake Center for Trek mom and pa meeting (It was fun and I am not too worry about it for now... except the babysitting part)

Blessings I Don't See At the Moment

April 16, 2014

There were so many things to take care of before a surgery and being the inexperienced mom of course all these unexpected, last minute calls just drove me nuts.

I called the Dr's office early in the morning and tried to make sure everything was line up with Evan's surgery. The nurse supposed to give Evan a call for the pre-surgery instruction two days ago but we didn't get any until 2:11pm after the office lady called about the change of his surgeon and time for the surgery.  I supposed to get Evan to the surgical center at 11:00am according to the letter but the surgeon wanted to squeeze Evan in at 12:00pm, so we needed to be there at 10:45am.  And since Dr. P Bernsteix was not feeling well, his brother would fill him in -- a Dr. we have never seen before!

I tried to be nice and not complained about this (I just want Evan to have the surgery done, that's it), but at the same time I was kind of upset of how disorganized it is!  What's more?  The office lady on the phone told me that the Dr. would like me to get a prescription of crutches and medication.  I thought we could get everything at one location since she called Paoli Pharmacx for crutches and Pathmarx for his pain medicine.... so, I requested her to fax the prescription (crutches) to CVX in Berwyn.  Little did I know that it's a challenge to find a local, in network medical device provider.

It was passed 3:00pm since we started calling back and forth with the prescription.  Somehow, I had an impression that the prescription was sent to CVX through the conversation with the office lady .  Since I don't have access to which stores carries the crutches, so I called the insurance for help.  The first person gave me a pharmacy in KOP but I later found out that the store didn't have any.  I was surprised and pretty desperate as I called Store #4 in Wayne but it turned out that they actually carries them at the store but it was 4:45 as I called and they close at 5:00pm.  There's no way for me to pick up the prescription at CVX and be there at Wayne on time.  Not to mention that I wasn't able to get the prescription from CVX because the Dr. never sent one to begin with.  I was beating myself up at that moment!

However, here's one of the most important lesson that I learned -- As we went back to the car, Evan said "Let's borrow the crutches from the Urbinx's".... That's right!  They had it and we could borrow from them.

The big lesson here:  Sometimes, we only see frustration along the path and not being able to vision the end of the tunnel (the blessings) ahead of us.  It's so much brighter and well planned that we could ever think of.  Why do I have to be on the phone for two hours and didn't get anything done before 5:00pm?  $45 or more was saved for those 2 hours!!!!