Sweet baby Felix

Answer Me This -- St. JPII, book nerd awards, and mail

I'm joining Kendra for this week's Answer Me This linkup. 

1. What’s something you've won and how did you win it?

I was going to say I haven't won anything, but as a senior in high school I got the silver pen award for excellence in English. I won it (although does one win academic awards?  Maybe I'm cheating to call this a win...) by loving to read and loving to discuss what I've read, even to discuss it on paper for a grade.  If  I'd read Shogun, I'd be all over Jen's discussion of comparative themes.  Book nerdery is awesome.  I've... encouraged... tons of people to read In This House of Brede (and probably other books, as well, but this is the most recent one) so I could discuss it with them.  The reading group I'm in is basically an outlet for this kind of crazy. 

2. Do you save old greeting cards and letters, or throw them all away? Why?

I love getting cards -- mail in general, really -- but I'm not a saver.  The only ones I keep are the ones my husband or kids write notes in.  I hope this doesn't offend people who send me cards!  I do love getting them!  And I let the kids pick if they want to save theirs.  They each have a memory box for this purpose... well, Felix doesn't have one yet, but he will.  It's close to miraculous that I remember to let the kids save some, because I'm really NOT a saver. 

3. When you’re at home, do you wear shoes, socks, slippers, or go barefoot?

In summer, I go barefoot.  In winter, I wear socks or slippers.  We have a no-shoes policy in our house, strictly enforced on those who live here, not strictly enforced on guests.  As young as 2 our kids know that they go inside and take off their shoes, then put them on the shoe rack.  This is because (a) I think it's better for the kids' feet (and, heck, mine and Michael's too!) to have time outside shoes, (b) floors stay cleaner if that haven't been walked all over in shoes constantly, and (c) this way all the shoes are kept at a shoe rack by the door and nobody is running around the entire house looking for their shoes all the time -- they're either on the shoe rack or by one of the other doors. We started this because of (a), but at this point (c) might be my strongest reason. Not that I'm not in favor of strong feet, but with enough people and enough pairs of shoes in the house, one could spend FOREVER looking for shoes. 

Of course, there is sometimes confusion.  When the kids are first getting the hang of this, around one or two years old, they will take their shoes off when we're inside anywhere.  Which is fine if it's someone else's house, but not the best for places like church or the grocery store. 
 

4. Who’s the most famous person you have ever met?

Michael and I met St. John Paul II on our honeymoon in Italy. We got Sposi Novelli tickets to a Wednesday Audience (through the Archbishop's office), took our wedding clothes to Italy, and got to meet him.  Highlight of our trip!  We were there for the audience during which he signed the letter that introduced the Mysteries of Light.  Seriously, I wish I could remember who told us about getting those tickets because I would love to thank them -- it was so amazing.  And we have the picture framed and hanging in our living room (poor quality photo above). Our kids think it's so cool that we met a saint.  And we do too.

5. What has been your best work of art?

I am not an artist.  I can sew pretty decently, I have a great garden, and my children are awesome, so if you count those as art, they're probably my best.  The kids first. I appreciate art and artists, but I am not one of their ranks. 

 

6.  What’s your strongest sense?

I have a pretty strong sense of smell, especially when I'm pregnant.  I don't know that I've smelled squished ant, like Kendra, but Michael forgot to put a timer on a loaf of baking bread once and I stopped the movie we were watching and said, "The bread is done." And it was.  Yesterday it was the beans that were cooking.  "How long are these supposed to go?" Michael asked.  "I don't know, but I was just thinking they smell done." I don't know exactly what it is that makes done bread or beans smell different than baking bread or cooking beans, but they do have a different smell.  Unfortunately, it's not just good smells that I can smell strongly.  And it means that things that are supposed to smell good often smell WAY TOO STRONG to me.  Hand soaps, lotions, things like that.  But we didn't burn the bread and the beans. 

7 QT: Funny stories from a not-very-funny time

Linking up with Jen for 7 Quick Takes today!

Felix, our new baby, will be four weeks old tomorrow!  And I'm recovering from both his birth and the endometritis and septic shock that landed me in the ICU for 5 days and a medical floor of the hospital for another five.  My time in the ICU wasn't funny in itself, and many unfunny things happened, but I discovered that I'm blessed with a sense of humor that doesn't plummet in direct proportion to my blood pressure.

1.

 

The anesthesiologist who (with the other people who suddenly flooded into my room -- "They called a code on you," said my friend who's an ER nurse) came in to my room in the childbirth center to administer the life-saving vasopressins was a large, loose-limbed, jolly sort who thought conversation would do me good.  "Is this your first baby?" he asked.

 

"No, it's my fifth."

 

"Oh!  Good for you!  I have four."

 

Having just given birth to a TEN pound baby (plus one ounce), I felt justified in saying, "I bet you didn't push any of them out."

 

"Haha! Did you hear that?" he said to the others working on me, "She put me in my place!"

 

 

2.

 

The same doctor came to see me the day before I went home, when I was out of the ICU and on a medical floor.  "Your color looks a lot better than when I saw you last!" he said. 

 

 

3.

 

Less than 48 hours after I gave birth, the team of docs working on my case decided I needed an abdominal x-ray to see... whatever they would see with an abdominal x-ray.  The technician brought the machine into my room in the ICU and said, "Any chance of pregnancy?" Ha!  I guess you didn't look at my chart?  "No chance."

 

 

4.

 

The nurse I had for most of my days in the ICU (she was an excellent nurse) called me "girlie." Since she was probably at least a decade younger than me, and since I'm a wife and mom of five, this struck me as funny.  Michael, too -- "She calls you girlie!" he said with some glee.  He went home and told the kids, who thought it was hilarious.

 

 

5.

 

One of the treatments for septic shock is lots of IV fluids.  They gave me 7 liters in under 2 hours.  Luckily I realized I was swelling up and we got my wedding band off before I swelled so much it cut off my circulation in that finger.  The docs would come in and ask me how I was feeling, and as I look back I realize they were probably asking about pain or light-headedness or you know, anything relating to the condition that landed me in the ICU.  My answer?  "I feel like an overstuffed sausage," or, "I feel like an over full balloon." Then I'd hold up my swollen hand -- exhibit A. Thinking back, it's no wonder that response got some blank looks.    

 

 

6.

 

FAQ from the ICU staff:  Have you moved your bowels? And:  Is this your first baby?  When I answered the second one, "No, this is my fifth," the next question was invariably, "FIVE kids!  Are you going to have more?!" 

 

Under normal circumstances I don't love that question.  I don't love it immediately postpartum, either, because I HAVE A NEWBORN!  Can I be exempt from that question at least until this baby is eating solid foods?  So postpartum when I'm in the ICU, hooked to more machines than I have in my kitchen and unable to even sit up by my own volition?  I kind of wanted to say, "Does it LOOK like I'll be having more?" or possibly, "I'm just hoping to get out of here alive and with all my organs."

 

But I decided that I didn't have the inclination or energy to teach manners at that point, so I said, "Not today." Which most people thought was very amusing. 

 

7.

 

After 5 days in the ICU I was feeling a bit better and could actually walk short distances.  I was starting to do things like check email on my Surface and read on my Kindle.  One evening I remembered the Colorectal Surgeon Song (possibly because of the first FAQ listed in QT#6) and looked it up on YouTube. Then I tried to show it to my nurse, but it was b u f f e r i n g forever, so she said she'd watch it on her phone.  She came back laughing about it.  It was just after that when they told me I would be put in a room on the medical floor that evening.  Apparently when you start sharing spoof songs with nurses in the ICU they figure you're well enough to get out of there...







Vocabulary and History are at least being remembered...a little

Today at lunch, Michael was talking a bit about the layoffs happening -- in a company of 150,000, today 18,000 will find out they are being let go.  Yikes.  So I said,"That's more than 10%!"

Hannah added, "They're decimating the company!" Then she added, with great satisfaction, "I've been waiting to use that word!"

Because although we usually use decimate to mean destroy in a nasty way, it originates from a very unpleasant Roman custom of killing one in ten of the soldiers in the army (or a part of the army) as payback for some crime on the part of one or more soldiers.  The ones getting killed may or may not have had anything to do with the problem in the first place.

And Hannah being Hannah needed to get the usage just right.