A Week of Recuperation

Last week was rather interesting, to say the least, as we tried to figure out a new normal for Taylor. We are so fortunate that this is a temporary setback but remember we're dealing with a 'tween so a few moments of drama were certain to arrive :-)

Overall, though, she did tremendously well. This cheesy grinning girl (she was on pain meds when this was taken, y'all, cut her some slack) has not complained AT ALL and has been such a sweetheart throughout this entire process.

On Tuesday, a special delivery from Tay's dad arrived. She was thrilled to get these beautiful flowers - they certainly brightened her day!

Boppy also came for a visit on Tuesday (did I mention we all basically just caught up on sleep Monday?) and brought white roses along for the ride. Aren't they beautiful?

Nana and Boppy also brought a cute stuffed kitty and a plush dog to the hospital. She named them Muffin and Gilbert (after my parents' animals) and they kept her company while she was inpatient.
This was the name tag waiting in her room that her sweet nurses made upon admission. She thought it was really cool of them to do that and insisted we bring it home. We, of course, obliged.

On Wednesday afternoon a sweet surprise arrived on our doorstep as Aunt Erica, Uncle Ben, Aadin, Nanna and Paw Paw sent her some awesomely delicious cookies. They are one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth. And that's saying something because, as you know, I'm a fan of food. Particularly sweet ones.

We had lunch with Davey on Wednesday as well. Tay and I both needed to get out of the house and the hospital was hosting a book fair so it was the perfect excuse for the little one to get a couple of new books. And a screaming chimpanzee who flies through the air. You turn your back for a split second and something like that ends up on the pile, right?

It is hilarious, though.

Thursday morning brought another surprise as Nanna dropped off a High School Musical 3 bear who had been made and decked out at Build-a-Bear. It is adorable and kept her company on the couch for the rest of the week.

We also made a trip to Wal-Mart for groceries that day to help Tay continue to build stamina. It was highly successful and then we all took yet another nap that afternoon. It's amazing how long it takes your body to recover from lack of sleep and then getting up around the clock to give pain meds.

Friday was cold and rainy and rather lazy for the Bowers' household. Dave made chicken 'n dumplings (Tay had been asking for them and we were going to pick up the ingredients the night she was injured) so we ate those all day and just chilled. It was awesome :-)

Saturday morning we met Nana and Boppy for breakfast at IHOP, purchased Tay's birthday present (an iPod Touch that had a short in it and had to be exchanged on Sunday), and watched the Toy Story double feature in 3D at Galaxy 16. It was super fun and was a good way to get the little one out for a while.

Tay and I had very good intentions of going to church Sunday morning but just didn't make it. We, instead, baked candy brownies for both daycare and her 4th grade class for her birthday, exchanged her iPod Touch, downloaded lots of songs and a couple of videos onto it, caught up on laundry, cooked dinner and I finally got back into workout mode.

So there it is - Miss Thang's full week of recuperation :-)...

Thank you for all of the prayers, kind thoughts, emails, Facebook messages, etc. After my initial breakdown on Friday evening upon learning she needed surgery, I felt nothing but a sense of peace for the remainder of the week. There's no doubt in my mind this was directly caused by all of the prayers lifted up for our family and I truly can't thank you enough.