Getting Back to Normal....What is Normal

It's has been almost 4 months since I have blogged, that's a long time! A lot, and I do mean A LOT has been going on at The Cottage during the past 4 months.

The Major ReDeployed. It was such a wonderful feeling when he Redeployed and he was finally back home with The Two Teens and I.  He took a month's worth of Leave and we just hung out around the house. We did make a trip to the Mountains(just The Major and I). We got apples and we did some hiking and Letterboxing. With the kids' school and band schedule they were not able to go with us, but that was ok since we had our family Cruise coming up the week of Thanksgiving.
 
September came and went, The Major went back to work the first week of October and then before we knew it, it was Halloween. We love Halloween, and our Neighborhood gets swamped with over 500 kids every year! This year The Major and I dressed up as Pigs in a Blanket.

Not but a few days after Halloween, 3 days to be exact, The Major woke up on Saturday morning in excruciating pain down his right leg. With seeing how much pain he was in, I took him to the ER. We spent all day there and we were sent home with pain meds. The next morning he woke up to numbness in his right foot and right foot toes, this ended up being another day spent at the ER. With the conclusion of the 2nd day in the ER it was found by MRI that The Major had a problem with his L5S1 disk in his back. Although he was not having any pain in his back this is what was causing his pain throughout his entire right leg. So the following week included lots of phone calls and waiting. We were seen by his Doctor on Post, then we were seen by the Neurologist. The Neurologist referred The Major to a pain management Doctor and the following week we were seen on one day and then the next day The Major received 2 shots in his back. Results from the 2 shots could take anywhere from the moment he got them to up to a few days, with that being said, the shots did not work. A follow up trip back to his Neurologist left us with a plan for Surgery and waiting, a few weeks of waiting for the day of Surgery, a month already out of work and our Family Crusie canceled(take out the travel insurance when you book a cruise, so glad that I did!).

I must also put in a side note that Teen Two broke his right foot as all of this with The Major was going on. He broke his foot at Wrestling Practice which resulted in a nice, pretty, red cast on his right foot for 4 weeks! Cast is still on and Teen Two hopes and prays that he will have it off in a few weeks and be able to Wrestle again :) You can see his pretty red cast in our funny family picture below that my Awesome Sister-in-Love took of us at Thanksgiving !

Yesterday was the big day and The Major had surgery. He was very nervous about having the surgery, but knew that he had to have it and give it a try since the shots didn't work. All went well with the surgery and immediatley when he was in Recovery his Doctor let me know that reflexes in his right foot were back! This was a major praise because The Major had had no reflexes in his foot at all. When I finally got to see The Major he immediatley told me that he had no pain in his calf on his right leg. This was so wonderful to hear! Today, he is resting. His face is still alittle swollen from being put completely out during the surgery and having to have laid on his stomach during the surgery with his face down. He has pain today where the incision is on his back, but as far as significant pain in his right leg and foot, there is none! He keeps saying that he is so glad that he had the surgery. As for me, I continue to be his nurse and keep him well fed, taken care of and up on all of his pain meds. He hopes that by the end of next week he can go back to work, because to him, the walls of The Cottage have passed starting to cave in on him, they have already caved in on him! If you know him you know that he is not one to sit around, he likes to stay busy! On another note, he has said that he will never complain about work again.....I think I will be constantly reminding him about that quote in the weeks and months ahead! I think we're getting back to "normal" but these days I don't even know what normal is anymore, I just know that we're together and that's all that matters!

Must also put in a another side note about Teern One. Yesterday morning, the same time that The Major was getting his Surgery, she got her braces off! If was hard for Mommy(as the Princess calls me) not to be with her. Her appointment to get her braces off was scheduled way before all of this happened to The Major, I am praising God that she can drive and she was able to drive herself to get them off :) I must also add that she received her class ring in November too!

Although we've had a lot of things going on in our Family, we continue to give God the glory and the praise. We know that God gives us nothing in our lives that He knows that we are not able to handle and we know that He is continually there for us every second, every minute, every hour and every day of our life.

I also have to add that The Major and I celebrated 18 years of Marriage on the 26th of November(we were High School Sweethearts, so if we get all technical about it we've been together 20 years) Another picture of us looking for all the time that flew by  :) I love this Man and coulnd't imagine my life without him!