Happy Mother's Day!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, my Mother-in-law, and all of you Mom's out there!  I hope you're all having a great day.

I'm sorry it's been a while since my last post.  Everything is fine here and Harlie is doing "well."

We are in a holding pattern until tomorrow.  The doc came to get consent for tomorrow's surgery (if her wound looks good, they will clean it one last time, then close up her incision) and said she is first case.  That's great because that will give her the most time to recover on Monday - hoping that she can go home on Tuesday.  I would really, really like to be home in time to celebrate Murphy's birthday on Wednesday.  It kills me to think he'd have a birthday without me there!  He's only turning 7 - I'm not ready for that yet!

Friday was a busy day.  Heather, our social worker, came in with some Beads of Courage for Harlie.  I'll  talk more about this later - but it was the first time that Harlie picked out her own beads, which is very exciting!  And I really think that turned the whole day around for Harlie.  She was so playful after that!  And Heather brought her some coloring pages and toys.  Harlie colored Tinkerbell and wrote her name on it.

Then, Emily, a Speech Therapist came to spend some time with Harlie.

Then Brandy came up to visit.

It was great to see her and I know that Harlie enjoyed seeing her, too.  Plus, I'm sure it felt like normal again, to have us three hanging out.

Tom surprised me by driving up Friday night.  The plan was for him to come up Saturday afternoon because he had something to do for Murphy on Saturday morning, but he found out it wasn't totally necessary, so he came up Friday night instead.  And since we had a great nurse (I really feel like we've been so lucky this time around) we went out to eat.  Our nurse said she sat in the room with Harlie and charted so she wouldn't be alone.  We went to dinner at the Lebanese Taverna in Adams Morgan.  It has become a favorite of ours.

On Saturday, we had lots of visitors, which was awesome!  My Mom, niece (Maggie) and sister-in-law (Nancy) came up to spend the day.

Nancy, Maggie and Harlie

My mom and Harlie

And Tom's sister (Kristie) was in town with her daughter for a cheering competition.  So, Kristie and Tayne and a friend of hers came to visit, too.

Kristie, Kaylee, Harlie and Tayne

It was a room full of love and laughter for Harlie.  I know she loved the company, even if she doesn't always show it.  I know that it has to be so much more enjoyable to hang out in a hospital room full of laughter than one that's quiet and boring.

The weekends in a hospital can be so depressing.  It is so quiet and food is slim pickin's.  It's easy to start to feel down.  So, the fact that a Saturday was like that was great!  Tom and Maggie when to get Five Guys burgers for us all for lunch.  Yum!

After they all left, we went to dinner.  We went to Marvin (named after Marvin Gaye).

Marvin, on U Street

It was so good, I can't even put it into words.  Seriously one of the best meals I've ever had.  We had the Normandy Moules Frites (mussels and fries).  The fries are served on the side with three dippers - ketchup, wasabi mayo and curry mayo.  They sound disgusting, but the wasabi and curry mayos were awesome!  The mussels are served in a big bowl and were in a creamy sauce with chunks of smoked bacon and bleu cheese.  Seriously - the BEST thing I've ever had.

Then, as my meal, I got the shrimp and grits and fried oyster appetizers.  So, so good!  Tom got the fried chicken and waffles.  Weird combo I think, but he said it was awesome.

And we just had to get some drinks, of course!  I got a dirty martini, which was perfectly made  And Tom had a Goose Island Fleur beer.  It was really good.  After we finished eating, we took our drinks to the rooftop bar and stood around people-watching and just enjoying being in the fresh air.

Anyway, it was a fabulous dinner with the best service ever, and we really enjoyed the whole experience.  And if you're ever in DC - I highly recommend it.

We have the same nurse today that we had yesterday and she's great.  She only has one other patient right now, so we are going to go get some lunch.

Oh, and I finally started reading The Help.  I just started it last night, and I am hooked!  It is so good!

Tom is going to leave to go home sometime this evening.  And hopefully, he'll have to turn around and come back and get us on Tuesday.  My fingers are crossed!  She is so over being in the hospital!

This morning, this is what the cafeteria looked like...

So now you can see how great it was to have a room full of visitors!

That's it for now.  Please keep your fingers crossed that she's been healing great and all will go as planned tomorrow!

Thanks so much for all you support and love!  And Happy Mother's Day!
~Christy