the one with the kidney stones and a birthday

If any of you are familiar with the episode titles of 'Friends', you'll know where the post title is coming from...

Steve is obsessed with cars. Like Ob. Sessed. One of his favorite shows is Top Gear, his favorite reason to go to Newport is to car-watch, and in his free time he watches all sorts of YouTube videos of cars revving their engines and racing around. The sound of an Aston Martin Vanquish really gets him going, I have to remind him to focus if he hears one while driving...

So I kept hearing about this Indie Racing Experience you could buy on Groupon, and kept putting it off. For his birthday back in May, I finally bit the bullet and got one for him. A couple weeks ago he got to go! He was pretty excited...

 He even got to meet Buddy from Cake Boss! 

But then there's the part where he came home pretty upset. To make a long story short, he wasn't able to go as fast or as long as he could have because the guy communicating with him via radio while he was driving wasn't doing his job right and totally cut down on the experience. He came home with the saddest little pout you ever did see. He only got to go 145mph, but Buddy (and really anyone that had a guy doing it right) went 169mph. He had his heart set on the latter, and was really disappointed, so you know I got all up on the phone. I got the necessary contact info and emailed someone in charge to explain everything to them, so we are currently awaiting a response. We're hoping for a re-do...keep your fingers crossed! You'd be surprised what you get if you just ask...

 We were at IHOP for my free birthday meal, and Parker was going nuts. When is he not? That's when we bust out the sugar. I usually have an emergency stash of treats I never give him that I only pull out when we're in public and I'm desperate for some peace. This was the occasion. We were dangling the fruit snacks above him, and his whole body would convulse and he was making the funniest hyper faces. He keeps us entertained. Always.

 Another restless evening out with our little man child. We had a groupon to use up one night (I promise we don't go out that often, really). All of these pictures were taken within a matter of 2 minutes. The kid is hilarious.

 He's finally taking baby steps toward walking! YAY!!! 15 months last week and I think we might be almost there. He's able to push the walker all on his own, or Ethan in a car....either one! Ethan's mommy, Rachelle, watches Parker once a week while I work for a couple hours (Steve has him the rest of the day) and Ethan and his older sister, Makenzie love playing with 'baby Parker'. I watched them all the other day, and I'm almost considering having another baby or two just to watch the cuteness! Parker immediately starts giggling when he sees Ethan, and Ethan does the same back. I love it!

 A couple weeks ago, the Student Spouse Association for the school (comprised of the married LDS guys) had our Halloween party and decided to do a bonfire on the beach. We had cider, doughnuts, smores, creepy background music, and everyone came prepared with a creepy story to share. It was such a blast! Bastians, if you're reading this, Steve shared a story from his mission, then later we thought of your midnight visitor story and shared that one too. BTW, I always think of you when I walk by our front door as we're going to bed!

 Love him.

 And them.

 Oh and then a week later, we decided to go to the ER.

A couple days prior, Steve had complained of some lateral back and groin pain that was mild and temporary. We thought it was probably something kidney-related, but it went away so we didn't think much of it. A couple days later, we had a great Sunday, got some chocolate cake and visit from some friends, went on a walk with Parker, and were just hanging out. Steve starts complaining of that same back and groin pain. I think he and the rest of my family are at a disadvantage with me being a nurse, because I'm usually not extremely empathetic towards minor aches, pains, colds, etc. I've always seen worse. Like way worse. So I didn't think much of it, but offered to go grab him something for the pain. At this point, the pain is starting to get worse, and he's looking pretty uncomfortable. We start talking about kidney stones, and wondering how bad it could be. Pretty soon, he's on the floor, writhing back and forth and moaning. I had some leftover pain pills (from that one time a big baby came out of me) so I gave him that and the ibuprofen from earlier. Then he gets really nauseated and runs to the toilet to throw up. Next, he tries to call his friends to come over and give him a blessing but he couldn't really get the words out so I finished the phone conversation for him and they come over. He couldn't even move from his laying-down half-fetal position on the bed for them to give him a blessing. I told him he had to make the decision to go to the ER, because only he could gage how bad the pain was. With kidney stones, unless they're blocking the outflow of urine, the only thing they'll do is give you IV meds for pain and nausea control. He tells me to find out how much the copay would be for the ER, so I'm trying to figure that out, and he finally decides that we just need to go. My angel of a friend, Aubrey (a nurse at the hospital we went to....mine was too far away) comes over to sleep on our couch while Parker's sleeping. We get to triage, answer some questions, and he throws up twice. We go back to the room, get seen by the doctor, then the nurse, and he finally gets some drugs. They wheel him off to get a CT scan and he comes back as high as a kite. So relaxed, totally pain and nausea free, and hilarious. The nurse didn't have the best bedside manner, so I decided to tell her I was a CVU nurse and that I was going to want to know what meds she was giving him, what his labs were, and what the plan was (I was nice about it!). She got real nice after that. I talked to Aubrey, and it turns out she's a pretty new nurse with an....interesting personality. Turned out he had 5 kidney stones, one 4 mm one and the rest were smaller ones. The plan was to let him pee to get a urine sample, make sure he didn't have an infection, and send him home with pain meds.

Pain and nausea comes back, he's returned to his previous writhing, moaning self. Poor guy, I felt so badly for him! He was obviously in so much pain! He got more drugs and he was back to telling me random stories from his childhood and giving me his honest opinions on our current president. 

I was dying.

Fast forward 2 liters of fluid and several failed urination attempts, in goes the catheter...

not his favorite moment of the night.

Urine was clear, we could go home.

Pain comes shooting back, back to the writhing, more drugs, happy camper. He had to be wheeled out of the ER because he couldn't walk straight. We pit-stop for some Gatorade and to fill his prescriptions, and make it home about 4 am.
His pain is already coming back along with nausea, so he's over at the toilet while I'm loading him up with drugs and whatever Gatorade he can stomach. We both finally pass out and he wakes up to more pain after a couple of hours. This was the cycle most of the next day, but as we neared the end of the day, things were finally under control. We saw a decent-sized stone that he passed, along with several other small tiny ones, so hopefully it's over! It's been a week and his left kidney is still a little sore.
Moral of the story?
Drink lots of water people!
A couple weeks ago, my friends Anna, Aubrey, and Carly and I went out for some girl time, and somehow ended up in a dueling piano place. What?? Have you heard of these places? There's two pianos/players, and people request songs by putting money in a jar on the piano, and the guys compete with each other to see who can get the audience most into it, or play and sing the craziest, etc. The crowd gets up and dances and sings along...similar to karaoke but with live music.
So we had such an amazing time dancing and getting crazy without the nasty club scene....or our combined 6 kids!

 There was no birthday post for me last year.
We did nothing to celebrate my birthday. Not a thing.
Steve kept telling he wasn't sure he was going to be able to do anything because he was so busy with school (I think finals or something was going on) so to just prepare myself. My birthday comes and sure enough, it's a normal day of me hanging out with Parker while he's gone all day. I even had to go get an ultrasound done for something that day because my insurance was ending. That evening comes, and it's getting close to dinner time. I'm thinking for sure he's coming home to take me out to dinner at least.
Nope.
Nothing.
So needless to say, I began reminding him of my birthday in July of this year.
He definitely made up for last year!
Luckily, he had most of the week off, including my birthday because his teachers were all at a conference, so he planned out an entire day. My only wishes were to go shopping by myself without Parker (this was after a particular shopping trip gone awry a couple months ago) and for a real birthday cake with candles and everything for me to blow out. I hadn't had one of those in years and missed it!
It's the simple things, really. Especially when you didn't get those simple things a year ago...
So I had a delicious breakfast with my visiting teachers, then got to do my toddler and stroller-free shopping. It was LIFE-CHANGING! There was no buying of un-tried-on clothes because there's no time, there was no storming out of the store after I've tried the item on and tried to wait in line, but toddler starts fussing because the stroller has stopped, there was no picking up of everything he can get his hands on to throw across the store, NONE of it!
Glorious.
I came home and we dropped Parker off at our friend's house and headed down to Newport Harbor to do some paddleboarding. So fun! The weather was nice and sunny, we didn't fall in, and we checked something off we've always wanted to do!
Then we got Sprinkle's cupcakes (the Black and White will forever be my favorite), saw an early movie with some more groupons after stopping to stock my purse with a drink and those fake gas-station nachos (you know you like those), dinner at this thai place Steve spent forever researching (meal was free after Steve found a long, black hair in his rice), and ended with dessert at The Chart House for the chocolate lava cake. Delish.
I loved all the activities, but in the end, I seriously cherish days like this when Steve and I can actually spend so much time together! He's my best friend and I just miss him most of the time.

 He came through on the cake wishes. Isn't it beautiful! It's been my breakfast for the past couple of days, and it's seriously amazing. He got the recipe from his sister, Michelle, and made it from scratch (cake mix plus additional ingredients) and the frosting from scratch. He was on the phone 3-4 different times with his mom asking various questions (like if it's OK to leave the batter in the pan sitting out for a little while, or would the batter explode or something if left out? Is canola oil OK instead of vegetable? Can I frost a hot cake or can I put it in the fridge? How about the freezer? Because I have ten minutes before Steph gets home!), but got it done and I was definitely impressed.
Thanks babycakes, you've redeemed yourself :)
(I'm 28 and yes, this is close to 30, but no, I don't feel it.)

 And this one just because. See? All sorts of reading still going on over here....