a LONG update

The Sunday after Thanksgiving our family of four drove the 6 hours from the Pettit house to Fort Lewis. It was a long drive with unhappy children. But, we survived. We were scheduled to get housing on that upcoming Thursday and decided we didn't want to be away from each other anymore and would just pay for lodging those 4 nights. We discovered that Air Force Lodging is about half the price as Army lodging and this is a joint Air Force/Army base so it worked out well....minus a bit of a longer drive. We got to stay in a nice family room with a full kitchen, living room, landry room, and two bedrooms the first two nights, then they had us move into two adjoining rooms with basically just beds and a shared bathroom. We got our house Thursday, but realized we had nothing to sleep on, so we booked one more night in a hotel and they moved us back into the nice family lodging but only had a one bedroom available. So since our journey to Fort Lewis started on Oct. 25 the boys and I have moved 6 times! Crazy.
My parents arrived Thursday and stayed with us in our hotel room. Friday morning Kyle had to be at the hospital by 8:30 to check in for his surgery. My parents took Gunnar and went to our new home as our unaccompanied baggage was arriving that day. I got Kyle checked in then had to run to the house, which is conveniently 5 minutes from the hospital, to sign a paper that gave my parents permission to receive our unaccompanied baggage. Once I did that, back to the hospital I went were we sat and waited for Kyle's name to be called for him to go into surgery. He finally was wheeled away around 10:30. They told me they would call when he was finished as they hated for me to wait around with Ryker, and Kyle was insisting that I not sit around and wait as it was pointless. So once in my life I listened to him and I left, my parents already had gotten the unaccompanied baggage, the baby beds were set up as well as the air mattresses. We went and got some errands run, I fed Ryker and it was around 3:30, so I assumed Kyle would be ready to come home, so I left Ryker with my parents too.
I got to the hospital, got a run around with getting Kyle's medication, then got up to his room and I came face to face with the evil Kyle Pettit. Wow-zer, he was so angry with the world. He doesn't remember much of it, but he was in pain, on a lot of meds, and nothing was helping. The nurses told me to hang in there, it wasn't me, he was being mean in general. This is not typical of Kyle and he is usually the nicest guy around. It was pretty humorous for me, but I tried not to laugh in his face as it would only make him more upset.  After getting yelled at for an hour or so, they sent him back down to the Pharmacy. The system there just happened to not be working, and I waited over 2 hours. As I was finally getting the prescriptions I hear someone shout out "is there a Beth Pettit here?" I turned and said "yeah that's me," then this woman says "your baby is freaking out over in the nurse's tower. He is HUNGRY and your mom needs you now!" So I guess my assumption that I not be so long that Ryker would get hungry again was VERY wrong. I then rushed over to where my mom was and I could hear Ryker screaming from way down the hall. This nice lady apparently saw my mom in distress with this screaming baby and ask if she could help. My cell phone had died and last we had talked I told her I was in the pharmacy, so this is where the lady came looking for me, which was a good 5 minute walk. It took a long time to get Ryker calmed down, but him and my mom both survived, thank goodness.
I then went back up to Kyle, 3 hours later, and he was one of three day surgery patients left (the room was packed when I first arrived). So he wasn't pleased about the time it took me to get his prescriptions and he didn't understand why Ryker was so upset, but in the time I was gone they had managed to get his pain under a little bit of control and he was ready to come home.

So we got home. Over the weekend I started not feeling great, and just assumed it was the stress around me. I had a huge paper due for my master's and was busy taking care of Kyle. My parents left Sunday, and were an awesome help, I love having them closer. Monday, I laid down for a nap and got the chills horribly. I took my temperature and was at 102. I had body aches, a head ache and pain in my breast. It was like I laid down and everything hit me at once. Kyle insisted I go to the doctor, but I thought it was silly, so he called my mom, and the ganged up on me. I called my doctor and they couldn't get me in so I had to go to the ER. I sat there for 4 hours with Ryker. Kyle and his broke leg stayed home with Gunnar (which was an adventure by the looks of the house when I got home). I have mastitis, I had it when I was breastfeeding Gunnar but don't remember it being this horrible. I just have wanted to stay in bed, but I have two kids that need me and a husband that needs me too right now, so it has been rough. I am finally feeling a bit better after 2 really rough days. I am hoping the worst is behind me.
So this has been the adventures in our house, and why I haven't been blogging much lately. Hopefully now I can keep up a little better.
Here is a picture when we first got home from the hospital Kyle just crashed on the floor. Gunnar brought him a blanket and book.

 Apparently Kyle is a good place for nap.

Here is a picture of cute Ryker after a bath yesterday.

Today I decided that since I was feeling a little better I would at least take the boys out for a short walk. It is always raining and the sun was out so we had to had advantage of it. On our walk we found a park close to the house so I let Gunnar play for a few minutes.

 I know it is sideways, I am to lazy to turn it right now.

We have two camping chairs and these three important chairs in our house. While Kyle was having surgery my dad found the recliner on Craigslist. He decided the camping chair wouldn't be all the comfortable for a guy who just had surgery. He was right, it has been a huge blessing to have. Kyle's other chair is his wheelchair. We recently found out he has a SLAP tear in his shoulder (which is usually caused by a fall). He has complained to me about his shoulder since he got home from Afghanistan with his broken ankle and I never thought much of it. He has lost a lot of sleep over it. He finally got it checked out and turns out something is wrong. They figure he will have to have surgery to repair it. Crutches will only make the tear worse so he gets a wheelchair.

I finally get my rocking chair. Kyle bought this for my birthday last year when Gunnar was 4 months old. But, there was no way to get it to Germany, so I have been anxiously waiting to use it. My parents brought it over with them. It is perfect for rocking my babies.

In case anyone is interested, here is video showing what they did to Kyle's ankle. He had three tightropes put in. http://www.ankletightrope.com/