Happy New Year! I thought it was better to post today instead of yesterday because of the natural break in things with New Year's. I guess break is just about over, just as well because it's been awful the last few days. Beth had her total knee replacement on Dec. 27th, last Wednesday, and she's suffering big time. The surgeon told us the first week or two would be just survival, but still we weren't prepared for how bad it would be. We went to the hospital early in the morning, her surgery was at around 7 and she was done by around 9 or so. Maybe earlier. They already had her walking a little bit, even up and down a few stairs, as soon as the anesthesia wore off enough that she could feel her legs. But she is sore sore sore. They sent her home around 3:00, which is still kind of amazing to me that a total knee is outpatient surgery. We borrowed a potty chair, a shower chair, and a walker from the Churchills (Virgil's had both knees done, and Sherrie's had back surgery) and a good thing we did. She could not no-how have done the stairs at the house. So we set up the potty chair and everything at home and for the first several days she sat in the couch, only getting up to go to the potty, and in terrible pain whenever she got up. A few accidents but not on the carpet, at least. I was sleeping in the recliner for the first couple nights, then on the floor, then back to the loveseat... which wasn't great for me either... getting up to help her get up whenever she needed, getting her meds, cleaning up. Alex and Missy were working so I got them to work when needed, and cooked dinner if nobody was bringing us a meal (we did get a few). Otherwise, nobody left the house much. She's now getting to the point where she can get up and down the stairs leaning heavily on the railing, and she walks from the living room to the potty to the kitchen and back around a few times a day. Things are getting better, but not yet to the point where the pain is less than what it was before the surgery. The day after, Beth and I went back in to see the doctor at his office so he could look at her, because we were getting scared at how much pain she was in and how much the incision had bled in the past day. He checked her out, changed her dressing, and said what she had was no unusual and told us that the first week or two was just survival mode. We just weren't prepared for how bad it would be at first. She has showered a couple times now, once upstairs with her leg out of the tub because she couldn't get it over the side, and once downstairs with her leg out of the shower because there wasn't enough room for her to sit in it and close the door. I'm keeping laundry going to keep us in clean towels and bedding, and trying to keep the bathrooms good and clean because her getting an infection scares me to death. 

Last Tuesday, the day before the surgery, we all went back out to Ohio and took Natalie out to dinner for Christmas and gave her her Christmas presents. I'd told Alex and Missy that they didn't have to go if they didn't want to, but they both wanted to (maybe because we were going to Flat Top Grill). We got there, drove back into FW, had dinner at Jefferson Pointe, and drove back to drop her off. She still seems to be doing ok, although we do wonder where the money for the house and food and everything is coming from. Seems to be coming from her friend's family. I just hope things stay stable for her. Dinner went fine, though. She didn't speak to the other kids much if at all, but she seemed to appreciate her presents (mostly gift cards). 

This week, I finally finished (pretty much) the Lego project I've been working on for basically the last year. I've been re-assembling the kids' old Lego sets, ordering any few parts that have been lost, and putting kits up for sale on ebay. I always knew there was a reason I kept as many of the instruction books as possible for this long. Well, I got them up for auction this holiday season, starting in November, figuring it would be the best time to sell Lego sets on ebay. All in all, I sold 42 old Lego sets and profited a total of $920.10 for them. Ninjago sets went like crazy...the biggest sale was for "Ninjago: Epic Dragon Battle" which went for over $120 and profited me $111.69. I'm just passing the money on to the kids, so Alex made $545.19 and Missy made $374.91. The only things that didn't sell were a few mini Star Wars ships and some "Legends of Chima" speeders. And I only have a small container of miscellaneous Lego parts left over.