hALLoWeEn!!

It has been a busy few weeks for us. We have been over at my parents house quite a bit. My mom was in the hospital a few weeks ago with a DVT, a blood clot in her leg. The clot is long, going from her hip to her knee. For a couple of days she noticed her leg swelling and being quite painful. About a week and a half before that she had had a cardiac catheterization where they used the artery from that same leg. She just assumed the soreness and swelling was because of that. I was bugging her to go get it checked because she had classic symptoms of DVT. She was very hesitant but after MUCH nagging she finally gave in and went to the emergency room. After she had an ultrasound of her vein and they told her she did in fact have a blood clot she was terrified. I felt terrible because she is laying there in the hospital bed, completely mortified, not wanting to talk or move because the doctor told her if the clot moved it would go directly into her heart. So she was in the hospital for 5 days on lots of blood thinners waiting for her blood to be thin enough for her to be released. Since then, she has not left her house except to go to the doctor's office. I finally got her to go with me to the store the other day... it was a miracle. Assuring her daily she is not going to die has become my calling. She is getting a little better everyday. The doctor told her now she needs to start getting up and around more, but being sure not to do anything too strenuous with that leg. I am totally shocked at how dedicated she has been to being so good.

Since she has been at home for so long she has had a lot of time on her hands. She decided to start canning a few months ago and these past few weeks we have been doing a ridiculous amount of cutting up different meats and veggies and pressure cooking. I am an old pro at it now. I think I could teach a class on "oh that needs 15 psi for 90 minutes...." Anyway, Rikki and I just about have a year supply of food just from the last few weeks. It has been crazy, but fun. So if anyone is interested in canning anything, especially meat, call my mom. She can get some great deals.

So on to HALLOWEEN!! Ezra was so excited for Halloween this year. He dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow. He was so dang cute. He walked around for days practicing, "Aargghh!" and "I am going to sword you!" Chandler was a bumble bee. She was pretty cute herself. It all started with a yellow and black tutu. Then yellow and black striped leg warmers. . . I think I had more fun showing them off then they had.