My, my, that tastes an awful lot like....Freedom!

Yes People, on this, Wednesday, December the 9th, I left the confines of my bedroom. For the first time in 5 days.
Considering that I'm the type of person that doesn't ever spend more than a day or two sick (save that one pneumonia incident 6 1/2yrs ago, but we won't discuss that), and the annoying lady who has babies and two days later is out and about being normal again, this is a momentous event.

I have done my best to be a good little patient and rest up and recover. This has not been easy. At all. Don't get me wrong, those around me have done everything possible to make it easy for me; meals have been delivered every night, people have taken the kids for playdates to prevent my husband from going certifiably insane, and my husband has been nothing short of a Saint in taking care of every possible thing in this house so that my daily routine can consist of sit, lay, sit, sleep, choke down pain meds, sleep, suck on a popsicle and sleep. But during my concious hours (well, you've read the blog recently, I'm not sure how concious I've been), I know that I could get up and just clean up the bathroom a bit. Go round up the dishes and start a load. Pick up the shoes that have been left at the front door. Granted by the time I reach my bedroom door I am pretty much dizzy enough to pass out, but I'd like to think I'm tougher than that.

Enter today. My husband's birthday. Isn't this exactly how you would want to spend your birthday? Your spouse stuck in bed starting her nose dive into the "worst of the recovery"? Trying to figure out how to run the daily chaos of the house and all seven kids? Feeling like you haven't slept in 5 days b/c you've been so strung out that you've barely slept in, well, 5 days?

Fun, huh?

But hey. You should all know that despite my brain fog I did actually remember that it was his birthday today. And as I stumbled to the kitchn at 5:09 this morning to get my pain meds, I had enough actual thought process to get out the crepe paper and the "Happy Birthday" banner and string them up! And to email my parents about coming out to our place for an hour tonight. To let my husband (and myself) have a breath of fresh air.

Yes, we went out for his birthday.

Sheild your jealousy folks, I sucked it up for long enough to do my hair and makeup, fancy my wardrobe up from PJs (hey, I DO have cute PJs), to some rockin jeans and his favorite top that I own, and even throw on some jewelry. Then I held it together long enough for us to make an exotic trip to..........

Arctic Circle.
For Milkshakes.
Because that's about all I could stand to (still) painfully choke down.

But it was a blissful hour. And it was so nice to be out of the house! For both of us! And it was such a treat to just be together. And laugh. even if it does hurt to laugh.
And even if I can still only whisper and everything I say is followed by him leaning closer and saying "What?". And the people sitting next to us looked at us funny b/c he was speaking normally and I was whispering.

I will never again take for granted the ability to be up and around, to come and go (mostly) as I please.

And though it wasn't anything exciting, I'm sure neither one of us will ever forget this birthday.