The Shafferland Shuffle

Well, we made it through one whole week of DST. Woot woot for us!!!! Anyone else been on the staying-awake struggle bus? Anyone? ANYONE?

Here's how we spent week one of time change!

* Last Sunday, we had leftover pizza for lunch and someone, who shall remain nameless, dumped a huge piece all down the front of himself. I laughed so hard, not at him, but just because he seriously never does anything like that and it was funny to watch him react! Later in the day, he took me to Starbucks and I went venti because, well, DST. By that night, I just wanted to bake cookies, but our kitchen looked like this, so no cookies.

* Monday was Mom's first day to come to outpatient physical therapy. She was just assessed, so it was a pretty easy appointment as far as "working out" went, but I think she really enjoyed getting out of the house. As of that day, she was just a day short of being 3 weeks post-op, so I thought she looked great! After work, I watched my friends' kiddos, and the next-to-the-littlest wanted to hold the littlest. Always an adventure. :) We came home, and Ryan worked on the cabinet project. Again. Still. Whatever.

* Tuesday was our one year house-iversary! Not of moving in, but just of purchasing. We celebrated by moving all the stuff back into the cabinets. LOL!! It was also Pi day, which in my mind makes it pie day. It "just so happened" that my mom had shared some pie with us, so we got to actually celebrate! And I welcomed back my restocked kitchen by making a Texas Sheet Cake for Ryan's work.

* Wednesday was Mom's first TRUE day of therapy and she got to work with Ryan! It was fun to watch him in action for a whole session. He's so good at what he does! After work, I met up with my friend Amber for a coffee date, and then I worked on chores at home while Ryan worked on the cabinet doors. (Are you seeing a theme here??)

* Thursday was my first speaking day for the spring season. I have several speaking dates lined up, and this one was a luncheon for a small group of women. They were kind, warm, and welcoming and I completely enjoyed meeting with them! Ryan had to work really late and then I'm sure it will shock you to know he came home and worked on the cabinets. :)

*Friday, I went to visit Ryan at work and he was wearing something very different from what he'd been wearing when he left home. Crack me up!!! We went on our "D" date Friday night. (If you missed the earlier memo, we went out of order and did the "E" date last weekend.) I'm not sure that St. Patrick's Day might be the best choice of nights to go out. Good thing we went early! Anyway. Can't wait to tell you all about our date!

 * Yesterday was full, full, full!! And I can't wait to tell you about it, too! Ryan had the day off, and we did a county tour AND an alphabetical date all in one day. We trekked north to St. Joseph County and had all kinds of fun despite the fact that it rained/sleeted most of the day. And at the end of the day, we enjoyed a very special surprise alphabetical date planned entirely by Ryan. Blew my socks off!

The Shafferland Shuffle

Well there certainly has not been a shortage of events this week!! Full, full week! Here we go!

* Last Sunday, Ryan had to work, which is a rare thing, but it does sometimes happen. (By Friday, he had worked 13 days in a row, and we were both exhausted.) When he got home, we went to an open house for a recently built house in our neighborhood. We love to see what's new! Ryan likes the light fixture and I photo-bombed. :) And that night, we began the first of allllllllll the visits to the hospital. That night? To see his mom.

* Monday I spent an hour and a half at the Goodwill, buying clothes for my spring capsule project (more on this later). I think that may be a record for the amount of time I've spent at the Goodwill in one day. That night, we went back to the hospital to see Ryan's mom again, and then out to my parents' house to drop off the 30 freezer meals I made for them. (They were surprised!)

* Tuesday was Mom's surgery day, so I hurried to get all my chores done in the morning and then we spent the whole afternoon and evening at the hospital with her. (And threw in some visits to Ryan's mom while we were at it.) We had Bible study that night and made minor pigs of ourselves on the snacks provided, because we'd never gotten around to having dinner!

* I'm sure it will surprise you that I spent part of Wednesday at the hospital, attending Mom's therapy sessions and delivering flowers. Ryan and I went back that night to see her again and to get our daily hospital selfie. We tried to get one every day this week, but this was the last day we actually remembered to do it.

* Thursday morning, we went on the first portion of our "C" date (more on this to come), and then while Ryan went to work, I went back to the hospital to be Mom's therapy coach. Even got to eat lunch with her! Ryan and I went back that afternoon to help with her release and to get her home and into the house safely. Quite a production!

* Friday morning, my dad had a previously scheduled appointment, so I went to sit with Mom while he was gone and to help when the home health nurse came. (Lots of questions and Mom was still pretty groggy from all the happenings of the week.) Came home, worked all afternoon and then that night, Ryan and I had part two of our "C" date. We were so tired, we ended up sleeping on Mo and I missed the entire end of the movie we watched!

* Woke up yesterday to SNOW. COME ON, INDIANA! Snow was so last month. Let's move on to spring! We went out for the third and final portion of our "C" date, and then I had to get back home for a podcast interview. It was Ryan's first day off in two weeks, so he enjoyed updating his phone and doing other fun at-home chores. Well-deserved. We paid a quick visit to my parents, and it's great to see Mom doing so well!

The Amazing Human Body

Thanks so much for all the kind words regarding my mom yesterday. She apologized for "spoiling" my post with her rules about pre and post op pictures. {hee hee hee.}

I. Am. Absolutely. Amazed. at her progress in 24 hours. Amazed, I tell you!

I'll be the first to tell you I was a science failure in school, so I don't have a commanding comprehension of how the human body works, but being married to someone in the physical therapy world has helped me understand its ability to heal and adapt after surgery.

So I sort of had an idea of how things would go for Mom, but even "sort of an idea" didn't prepare me for how well she would do in the first twenty-four hours.


When I got to the hospital yesterday morning, she was already in a therapy session, and when I walked in, she looked totally normal! Dressed in her own clothes, with her hair done and her glasses on, she was up in a chair, stretching her leg!


I stayed for a while and watched while she got up to walk for the first time. It was painful for her, but she powered through. She took it nice and slow, one little step at a time, and she actually would have gone longer than she did, but they reminded her it was just the first of many sessions, so she needed to take it easy, and she did listen and take a rest!


Though I promise to spare her the posting of any therapy photos or videos, I will share this one I took of her with some of her flowers...can you even believe this was less than 24 hours after surgery??

I left right before lunch so I could come home to work for a while, and when Ryan and I went back after work, I was shocked to my very core. She got up for walk, and she just powered through the whole hallway at breakneck speed, compared to her morning speed! It hadn't even been twelve hours, and she was walking as fast as she did before surgery. Maybe even faster!


It truly does amaze me how a person can be up and moving so soon after having whole new PARTS put in! The body is an amazing thing, and I am grateful God built in all the things He did to make such healing and adaptation possible. As Mom told the hospital chaplain yesterday, she's grateful for the knowledge and skill of the medical community, but she's also grateful for God's help and healing! Great teamwork between the two!

We're excited to see her on the road to recovery. This waiting for surgery thing was so drawn out that she had a lot of time to overthink it and worry, and I didn't blame her. I would have done the same! So we're just excited for her that the day has come and gone and now she can get well soon!

Brain Mush

I sat on the living room floor last night and said to Ryan, "I have no idea what to blog about tomorrow." He said I could do something of spiritual significance, and then remembered I probably have no brain cells left with which to be profound in any way.

Truth!

So...yesterday Mom had a hip replacement. And she told me I was allowed to document the day {NOT the surgery itself}, but I wasn't allowed to embarrass her. And my sister told me I wasn't allowed to post the dorky selfies we took. So I have very little blog-worthy material for you to enjoy today.

Nevertheless, I'll fill you in!

Mom has been waiting on this hip replacement forever. It's just kind of been a long comedy of delays that weren't funny at all, so I guess that makes them just delays, and not comedies, right? She's been a fantastic patient leading up to it: doing all her pre-op exercises regularly, reading her long manual about surgery, and trying not to freak out about surgery.

When I arrived at the hospital yesterday, she was in the holding tank {what is the real word for that? I have no idea} in her pretty little gown and skid-proof socks, awaiting surgery. I got a picture together with her and dad, but I'm pretty sure she'd kill me if I posted it, so I won't. My birthday is coming up. I don't want to jeopardize my present. HA!

But I will tell you this, because it was hilarious. The surgeon came in to go over last minute details with her {SUPER nice guy}, and at the end, he said, "I always treat my patients like they're my own family." She did not miss a single beat before she said, "Yes, but do you LIKE your family?"

The entire room busted out laughing, including nurses tending to other patients. Good question! Legitimate!!!

They came to get her right on time and she went back into the OR, and I went to the little coffee shop around the corner because, well, obvious reasons.

 Best latte I've had (not homemade by my friend Mike) in a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng time.

I took books and activities, but it was hard to concentrate in there, so I fear I wasn't very productive. Ryan had JUST walked in the door after work when the surgeon came out to meet with us. He said the surgery went very well and he thought she should feel like a whole new woman. Apparently her hip had been quite a mess.

I went down the phone tree and texted/called a bunch of Mom's friends and then we were able to go back and see her.

I was sorely disappointed, you guys. I was expecting a repeat of Ryan's post-op experience. Hilarity. Silly questions.

She was sleepy, you could tell, but she was 100% coherent and even kept saying, "I'm not saying stupid things am I?" Sadly, no.

My favorite part of the recovery room was when she said her hip hurt {well you had surgery, you know!!} and Ryan asked if she needed to move it a little. He moved around to that side of the bed and started maneuvering her leg, right as the nurse showed up. She just kind of stared at him and I was like "Ummmm he's a therapist. He knows what he's doing." {Although right before that I was like, DON'T BREAK HER! SHE JUST GOT THAT!!!}

The nurse just laughed and said "Well I know he's family and we can't tell family not to do something..." but you could see relief on her face that he had training at least. HA!

We stayed until she got settled in her room and then we let her have her space. After all, she had a pretty major surgery.

Interesting side note: Ryan's mom is in the hospital too, so we got to visit them both!!

So there you go. My least picture-represented blog post ever. And I'm not even sure it makes sense. But my brain is mush. So there's that. I'll try to be more with it tomorrow!

Meanwhile, we are so thankful the surgery went well and are eager to see Mom up and around without pain!

What I Learned in January

How in THE WORLD is it the end of January???? When I did my week planning on Sunday, I flipped over to February's tab in my planner, and it was just so weird. But weird or not, the end of January has arrived, and I am prepared to carry on with my monthly tradition of sharing the things I've learned in the last 30 days. Hope you enjoy!!


Before I share my list, it is Tuesday, which of course means there's a new podcast! You'll get to hear a little more about our "A" date (see yesterday's blog for photos of that) and also Ryan's big dream fulfilled this weekend. (And I didn't even know it was a dream!)

Listen here.

Okay...NOW on to the lessons learned in the not-super-wintry month of January! 

1. The materials used on floats in the Rose Parade have to be all-natural. 

Maybe I'm the last person on earth to know this, but I sure did not have a clue until this year! Ryan isn't a big parade lover anyway, but he knows I like them, so we watched a bit of the Rose parade and I kept hearing all the talk of ground rice and coffee beans and such things being used on floats, so I had to look it up. True story! All natural items are required. Impressive to see what they came up with and how authentic it all looked!

2. I like reading old books.

Like ACTUAL old books. Old copies of old books. Not reprints of old books. Mom gave me her copy of The Secret Garden, which was given to her in 1947, and it was extra fun to read this American classic from pages that were equally classic. 

3. Writing Scripture is a helpful practice.

One of the new things I'm trying this year is writing out a few verses each day. I'm following the plan from here, and I'm learning that pausing to focus on verses long enough to write them out with my own hand is a good thing for me. It makes me ponder and retain the topics, and I'm looking forward to learning much through this practice this year!

4. We {as in the Shaffers} were not created to live on chicken alone.

Ryan's gallbladder issues this month forced us to eat a very bland, all chicken based diet for a while. Now, we love chicken as much as anyone else, but we sorely missed variety in our diet! Thankful that Ryan was able to have surgery so quickly to remove the offending gallbladder, and we have enjoyed reintroducing variety and flavor to our diet! 

5. Potty training a ten-year-old cat is definitely classified as an adventure.

If you've somehow missed the posts this month, well, I'm sorry, first of all, but the news is that Ryan has decided he's so over cleaning out litter boxes, so Braeya has been on a toilet training adventure. Because when the folks on Shark Tank say you can train a cat to use a toilet, he took them seriously. Somehow I think it has to be easier to train a tiny human than an old cat, though she has done better than I expected. I'll give her that! {And yes, in this photo, she has curled up in the litter to rest. Sigh.}

6. Ryan, coming out of surgery, is HILARIOUS.

I am just straight up sorry all of you had to miss having a front row seat to watching Ryan come out from under the anesthesia after surgery. He was absolutely hysterical. I wanted to film the whole thing, but alas, I was afraid the nurses would yell at me for it. (Even though I knew he would want me to be filming and has completely enjoyed the short clip I did get. I knew what I was doing.) So funny. I don't want him to require surgery ever again in his lifetime, but if ever he does, we know we're in for a treat on the flip side!

7. Out of eight new recipes I tried this month, six were good enough to make again.

Between getting back to a stricter version of clean eating (after a very UNCLEAN! December) and Ryan's diet needs during the gallbladder days, I tried a lot of new dishes this month. My two failures were, ironically, the first two things I made, and it made me a bit nervous for the future of the month! I tried a slow cooker spinach quiche that we ruled out because it wasn't flavorful enough, and a skinny Baja chicken taco recipe that had a clean Chipotle sauce on it, and I'm pretty sure that contributed to Ryan's worst gallbladder attack. OUT with that recipe! But you can look forward to seeing (at some point) recipes for chicken taco soup, a spinach chicken salad with oranges, cranberries and almonds, chicken nuggets, Blizzard cookies, chicken noodle soup, and chicken Parmesan strips! My goal was to try one new recipe a week, and while there were a couple of weeks when I did not, the number I tried averaged out to double the goal!

So that's what I've learned in the merry month of January! :) How about you? Any new things?  

Linking up with Tamar!

Back to Life as We Know It

Well, my friends, gallcation is over. {Apparently, being male, Ryan preferred to call his a "gallcation" rather than a "gallternity leave."}

Friday afternoon, Ryan picked up his surgeon's note and HR clearance to return to work today. He's definitely had a rougher go of it than I had where the pain has been concerned. We'd been told that was a possibility. I believe the kind way the surgeon phrased it was, "Those who have tighter stomach muscles have more pain." Yeah. I'm pickin' up what you're layin' down there.

So no more afternoon dates that look like this:

Sad indeed, isn't it?

But my goodness, what an unbelievable privilege it was for me this last week to have the freedom to serve Ryan at home. We had dinner with his family last night to celebrate his sister's birthday, and I think every single person there asked him if I had been a good nurse. He kindly said yes, while I sat beside him and shook my head vehemently NO. Was I a willing nurse? Absolutely. But willing and good are two TOTALLY different things, and let's not misrepresent!!

But even though it's not my natural gift, I did thank God multiple times a day that I was home and able to take care of Ryan and also have time to spend with him. We had many good talks, a lot of rest, a lot of quality time, and I was just thankful.

We reintroduced foods and learned that he can handle everything he could before the gallbladder conked out. {Whew! Gotta get back on an eating schedule. I "helped" him with reintroduction and that was a lotta treats in one week!}

And on Saturday, we got to see our favorite girl!!

PHEEBS!!!!!!

She came over to play, and partway through our time together, we were invited to hang out with our friends Mike and Angie - to play more virtual reality games. We just packed Phoebe up and took her with us, and we had a GREAT time!

Mike made his famous lattes:

 And Phoebe hung out in my lap while we played. It was such fun! {Ryan won...bet you can't tell.}

A good and fitting conclusion to our week. Fun, togetherness, treats, healing, rest, laughter, friends...and now a return to reality for everyone!

And as a fun piece of useless trivia: it was two years ago yesterday that I landed in the ER with the beginning of my gallbladder diagnosis!! Full circle, baby.

The Shafferland Shuffle

I feel like I should begin today by thanking you profusely for all the many prayers, texts, messages, and gifts you've showered on us this week! We've eaten well and this girl is grateful for the break in cooking as so many brought meals this week! Thank you!

And now...a  slower look at our week.

* Last Sunday was the last day before Ryan's surgery, and we were grateful to have the day at home with no obligations! Ryan caught this super cute picture of Braeya peeking out between the curtains. I baked zucchini bread to keep us going throughout the week, and we ended the day with Ryan's last meal before surgery: Subway on flatbread!

* Monday was Ryan's surgery, and though you've already read about that, I have to say again how grateful I am for the way God worked out the timing and carried my nervous heart through the day! Ryan was brave and cool throughout the whole thing, and I was thankful for my parents, and Ryan's dad and step-mom, who sat with me and kept me distracted throughout surgery and recovery. And I appreciated our friend Shawn, who drove a fairly good distance to check on us that night!

* By Tuesday morning, Ryan was doing much better in the nausea/alertness departments. He was up and drinking coffee that very morning! We took it easy on food that day, sticking close to chicken soup and other things we knew would be safe, and that night, Ryan's boss and his wife delivered dinner to our doorstep, which was a lovely blessing! The day itself was dreary and blah, so it was nice to be home together all day!

* Wednesday was another dreary day, so we enjoyed most of it at home, looking at the pretty flowers my family sent Ryan. Our friend Troy brought over our lunch (and we had enough for several leftover meals!), which was delicious, and that afternoon, Ryan thought he was ready for a little outing. So of course: Starbucks!! On the way home, he wanted to stop by his work and see his friends, so we did that, and it really seemed to do his heart good! Made me happy!

* By Thursday, Ryan was feeling well enough to spend a few hours in the office and get some things done he'd been wanting to try! He also got brave enough to try eggs for breakfast. Eggs had been on the NO list prior to surgery, so that was a big step! He rested a lot that day, which was good for him, and that evening, our friends Mike and Angie stopped by with homemade lattes for them. Their labeling is prizeworthy!!

* Friday morning we watched the Inauguration, and then went to the surgeon and HR offices to get Ryan's clearance to go back to work. I'm happy he's progressing so well but sad to think about our time together coming to an end! We did a little shopping while we were out, and that night, he wanted to try fast food and see how that settled with his tummy. We went to Wendy's, he got his favorite meal, and other than being really FULL from how much he ate, he felt great! YAY!!!!

 * Yesterday was our last "down" day before returning to normal. And guess what?! We got to spend most of the day with Phoebe!! She missed us, I think! And we got a surprise invitation to go hang out with Mike and Angie last night so we could play virtual reality games again. We packed up Phoebe and took her with us - and I think she had fun!

Linking up with Tamar

Little Choly Shaffer

Yesterday was Ryan's sister's birthday, and we had to miss the whole thing because you know: birthing a gallbladder. So as a birthday gift, Ryan told Bre she could name the gallbladder. So she named him Choly, which is short for cholecystectomy, which is apparently the fancy pants name for gallbladder removal.

So anyway. THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your kind words and thoughts and prayers and texts {you get the idea} throughout the day yesterday! I have a full report for you today, but before I get to that, IT'S PODCAST TUESDAY!!! So here's a little bit o fun for you.

Listen to the podcast here.

Now. Back to Little Choly. 

When I had my surgery, it was early in the morning, and we were home by lunch. Ryan's wasn't scheduled to START until 2:45 p.m., and I was pretty sure by that time, we'd be lucky to see 2:45 Central time! Forget Eastern! 

He actually worked all morning, because he saw no reason to sit home and burn half a vacation day when he could work. So he got home, changed his clothes, and we headed to the hospital for the great removal of 2017. He was so cool about the whole thing. While he waited to be called back, he read the sports section.

When they called him back, I wasn't allowed to go at first, which is apparently a new HIPPA thing, and I am not a fan. So he went back and I vented to my sister about my thoughts on the matter, and after a while, they finally came to get me.

My parents came to sit with me during the surgery, and so did Ryan's dad and step-mom, so we all just hung out, awaiting the thing to start.

They finally came to get him, only about a half hour late, which I didn't think was so bad!! He looked awfully cute in his hairnet. {Highly effective, too, I bet.}

They wheeled him off, and much to my credit, I did not cry a single tear. Not when I said goodbye, not when I walked out to the waiting room...not at all. I credit Sunday's massive meltdown and the power of the many people praying for us yesterday with this miracle of unexplainable proportions.

I had taken my coloring book and journal and other activities for the waiting room, but I spent most of my time talking to our parents and answering texts from folks who wanted to know how things were going.

The nurses told us it would take about 45 minutes for the surgery, and 45 minutes ON THE DOT later, they came and called for me to go back and meet with the surgeon. While I sat in the consult room, I heard someone groaning in the hall, and I heard a doctor say, "You're waking up. It's okay." I knew it was Ryan, and I hated it that he was hurting! {I know. It's sort of a by-product of surgery.}

The surgeon met with me and told me everything went great, all looked healthy, minus the gallbladder of course, and he got it out with no problem! He even had an 8x10 of pictures from the procedure we could bring home to frame. LOL!

So when I went back into the waiting room with the family, I said, "IT'S A GALLBLADDER!!!"

We waited a bit and then they said we could go back to see him, two at a time. Now you should know, this was Ryan's first surgery, so we had no clue how he would respond to anesthesia. I was praying my heart out that any reaction would not involve throwing up, as that is the ONE THING I cannot handle.

So I asked him about every two seconds if he was feeling okay. Sometimes he was, sometimes he wasn't. But in between the answers, he was SO FUNNY. He could NOT open his eyes. Said he felt so heavy. Kept asking me to scratch his forehead because when he picked up his hand to scratch it, he couldn't find it. I laughed right out loud. He was so cute and funny. And yes. I took video. :)

I told him I wanted a selfie, and he said he would smile. This is the smile.

He's so cute, even all loopy and out of it!

He also kept asking, every five minutes or so, what the doctor said. I kept telling him it all went well, and he just wanted to know if we got to keep little Choly in a jar.

Uh no.

He really struggled to wake up - much more so than I did. And when we got him up and dressed, the nausea hit full force, and that began quite a rough few hours where he just couldn't get it under control.

But I had to bring him home and be the caretaker, even if that scared me to death and was probably the worst thing for him. {The nurse at the hospital probably wanted to call for a well-being check on us!! I don't think she had ANY confidence in me when we left. Me either, sister.}

When we got home, my parents brought over food, which I hid in the garage and ate, so he wouldn't smell it. And our friend Shawn came to visit, so he stayed with Ryan for a bit while I calmed down. THANK YOU, SHAWN!!!!!

As the evening went on, Ryan felt better. He ate some crackers, then wanted a cereal bar, then asked for some soup, and even had some coffee. {No food all day will catch up to you!!}

He'll be off work for the week, and we'll do our best to get him on the mend quickly!

THANK YOU for praying with and for us. Such a blessing.

And we'll leave you with our two-years-apart-almost-exactly photo opps.