The Meltons

A quick recap of the Melton Casa happenings for the month of March:

Jeff and I celebrated 13 years of married bliss (and by bliss I mean hard work, laughter, tears, highs and lows). We celebrated with an actual date night out and a babysitter. We did lovely things - like had a nice dinner out (we went to Copelands, which we reminisced that once upon a time Copeland's was one of the few nice restaurants in the area), then we went for dessert at Bentonville Baking Company followed by coffee at Onyx. 

We also got to see a bunch of brand new lambs out on Papa Joe's farm. Let me tell you, they are just as precious as you can imagine. They really do jump and hop around, and watching them frolic is just the cutest thing, and they are SO FLUFFY.

There were a couple of Ewes that had actually had triplets, which is problematic because we learned that sheep only have 2 nipples. So this cute little black dude with the white diamond was the smaller of the triplets and he got to come back to Papa's clinic to get bottle fed so that everyone gets a fighting chance to survive. Little Lambs On The Farm Video

I spent a good portion of the first half of the month pre-occupied by my (Teena) upcoming surgery. I poured my nervous energy into deep cleaning the house; getting everything as ready as possible for me to be out of commission for a bit. I had a hard time settling my brain because I didn't know what to expect, and the not knowing had me struggling. Jeff and Aylin were rock stars, though, and helped, and loved me through the chaos in my brain. We were thrown for a bit of a loop when we went in for my pre-op appointments and found out that the nurse who had told me the procedure would be outpatient and I would be home the same day - well she was wrong. Turns out all patients actually have to stay overnight after the procedure, which makes sense, and ultimately was a good thing. But it meant that we had to once again change plans for Aylin. But rock-star Grama Linda came to the rescue and even though it was her anniversary she met up with us to take Aylin for a few nights.

Spring Break: In spite of my surgery taking up a lot of brain space, Aylin got to have some fun. On Monday while I had my pre-op appointments Aylin got to go have a fun day with one of my sweet Taxi Ladies; she took Aylin to Chick-Fil-A, then they went and painted ceramics, and then they went out to lunch at The Crumpet. Topping all that off with a few nights with the grandparents (Shopping with Grama, lunch at Freddy's, and more baby lambs!) and it turned out to be a decent Spring Break after all for The Ginger Girl. 

Jeff and Aylin took (and still are!) such great care of me after surgery. Aylin waited on me hand and foot on Friday after coming back from her time with her grandparents. She stepped up her game big time by helping with laundry and dishes. We have been so proud of her and her willingness to help out around the house. She's a pretty great kiddo; we're lucky to have her. In some of my down time I did a little painting. I will likely do some more over the next few weeks since I'm not allowed to lift much, or do any strenuous exercise. It's been hard to _not do_ things because I've been feeling so good after surgery that it seems like I should be able to just pick up where I left off. But I get easily tired, and that reminds me that my body is still healing. So for now I have to find a happy medium between doing things I do have the energy for, and letting Jeff and Aylin pick up where I can't. They've been pretty amazing. Now I just need to find enough things to keep me occupied over the next few weeks until I'm fully healed. Aside from Netflix (which has gotten a lot of airtime the last couple of weeks) suggestions as to how to fill my time are welcome! And so are visits, and coffee meet-ups! 

A big THANK YOU to all those who helped out in so many ways last month, either with Aylin or with meals, or your checking in and spending time with me/us. It's all been such a huge blessing, and we have felt very loved on and cared for. 

We did a lot of painting for the 2 snow days we had last week. The big paint project we did was a thing I found on Pinterest, which didn't quite turn out how I had imagined, but it was unique and fun no less. It instructed us to put elmers glue on canvas, let it dry, and then paint the canvas all one color. But when I actually followed the link from the original pin the instructions were something entirely different. So due to lack of other supplies we stuck with the elmers glue. It turned out, and it was fun. Just not quite what I was expecting. Then the kiddo used up just about all of the water color paints we own. So we'll need to restock on those soon. With that, this momma is done with snow days. If we have any more, I will be having a rather stern conversation with Elsa. It was nice while it lasted, but that second day just about did me in. So, no more snow! Got that, Elsa?!