Let's See. Where to start?

Yes, I know.  I have been a bad blogger.  So much has happened recently.

I cut back on my hours at work, to 2 12 hour shifts per week.  I really like it so far and I think we will be ok, money-wise.  I have noticed the boys talking so much better since I have made the cut.  

In case you didn't see or hear it, Todd got rear-ended on 96th Street a couple of weeks ago.   We were really hoping they would total it, but no.  Only $6K in damage.  The stang will never be the same.

The boys are keeping me outside lately.  Consequently, my house looks like crap inside.  I can't do any cleaning if I have to be outside all day long.  I'm getting a nice tan, but it's a farmer's tan. 

I think I am done with physical therapy.  It has really helped this time around.  I have gotten a lot of strength, but the grinding continues.  They said, unfortunately, it probably won't go away.  Bummer.  I sound like an old person when I walk around.  At least it doesn't hurt.  

I am taking Christian to the allergist tomorrow.  We had a little problem with hazelnuts a few weeks ago.  He was vomiting all day after he ate a candy bar with nuts in it.  His eczema is getting worse too.  I know it is because he is playing outside, but what am I going to do?  Lock my child inside?  He loves to be outside.  

Last night, it got quiet.....  Then, we saw this:

 

Christian had gotten ahold of the butter and started chowing.  Todd blamed me for being on the computer and not watching him.  I blamed Todd for getting the butter out and not putting it away.  The funny thing is, my mom has a picture of Bob doing the exact same thing at that age.  

All Taped Up

Well, I have had a lot going on recently.

Took the kids to the dentist and everything was a-ok.  Christian has all of his teeth.  No cavities in either kid.  Awesome!!!

I went to the ortho doc, Dr Theiken.  I really like him.  It turns out my meniscus is fine, but my tibia is bruised on the MRI.  He said that would usually happen from an injury or from stress on the knee.  He said if it was stress, he would expect the meniscus to be damaged and mine isn't.  So, that means I have injured my knee sometime in the past 6 months.  I am sure I smacked it and blew it off, thinking "I'll have a nice bruise there tomorrow."  

He said there isn't anything to do, except physical therapy.  I started that about 2 weeks ago and it is going much better than last time.  They are doing McConnell taping, so I am walking around with a bunch of tape on my knee.  It is really helping with the pain though.  After trying the taping 10 years ago in PT, I didn't think it was going to work, but so far, so good.  Alyssa is watching the boys for me during therapy.  It's great because it gets the kids used to their future babysitter.  They just love her.  And they are good, which is surprising.  Why can't they be good for me????

Bunco is Thursday night.  I have spent the day planting flowers and trying to make it look like children don't run my house.  I love spring flowers!!!!!  (Incidentally, if anyone is interested in picking up flowers, Marsh has the exact same ones as Lowe's and they are a lot cheaper.)  And, yes, Todd has not fixed the canopy yet.  I strongly suspect I will be on a ladder Thursday afternoon.  Hopefully, I will post some pics of Bunco.  

Good News!

Well everyone, I found my ring.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I came out from my shower to find the boys at their usual place, playing in the sink.  Christian was so helpful and removed every cup from the cup dispenser.  So, I started to pick up the cups and I asked Jake, "Where's my ring?"  I have been asking him that a lot lately.  Then I look down to continue the clean up and it is sitting there plain as day.  It must have been inside the cup dispenser, even though I had picked it up and shook it a half dozen times in the past couple of weeks.  

In other news, I am hosting Bunco next month, so if anyone wants to come, let me know.  I have asked Todd to try to mend the deck a bit so that we can play outside.  We decided to build a new pergola.  I warned him that his time is limited, but he thinks he can get it done.  We have so much afternoon sun that it is hard to be outside on the deck then.  It gets very hot.  

My schedule for this week includes taking the boys to the dentist tomorrow, and an ortho appointment for me on Thurday.  The boys are pretty good at the dentist.  I just love their doctor, Michelle Edwards.  She is so great with them and has so many distractions for the kids.  

Thursday, I am going to break down and get my knee checked out.  It has been clicking since November.  (I know, I should know better, I'm a nurse.)  Then, the pain started in December.  This month has brought about ankle pain as well and I can't sleep well at night because my knee hurts.  I got an MRI in March.  My doc was on vacation when I called for the results, and the staff said it was fine.  So for the last month, my knee is getting worse, and I'm thinking "What is going on.  There has to be something wrong if it's getting worse!"  I went in this past week and she said, "It's not fine.  There's fluid in there and you have some band thickening."  She wants me to get checked out because they aren't sure if it is from my last surgery (10 years ago) or if it is something new.  

So, I will try to update and keep everyone posted on all of the above.  :-)

Yet another expensive mistake...

What is a mom to do????

Yesterday, I decided to take a shower.  The boys were being angels, watching TV and I told them what I was doing.  Within a few minutes they had made their way up to our bathroom and were both playing at the sink.  Now, I don't know which one did it, but when I got out of the shower, I could only find my wedding band.  No engagement ring.  

I asked they boys what had happened and got no response.  Looked around everywhere.  I mean I was crawling around on the floor all day looking for it.  When Todd got home, I told him the good news.  He took a clothes hanger and went fishing in the sink.  He said that he was pretty sure the ring wasn't in there, because there was so much crap in the drain, it would never have made it through.  

The good news is we tried our little metal detector trick and both boys came up clean.  Now, I just have to keep searching.  Hopefully, it will turn up.  If not, maybe I can get a new one at some point.  I have thought about turning it in to our homeowners, but not sure if I want to do that just yet.  And for those of you who are thinking it, NO, I didn't lose it on purpose just so I could get a new one.

My Little Change Machine

So, I had some fun yesterday evening.  

I caught Jacob with some coins in his mouth, so I promptly took them away and told him to quit.  I didn't think any more about it.  A few minutes later, Todd was getting ready to take Jake outside to play when Jake said "Eat coin" and pointed to his chest.  After discussing it, I said that he had some in his mouth.  Todd took him outside and decided to dig out the metal detector.  It started going off once Todd stuck it up to Jake's chest.  I didn't believe him at first, but he tried it on me as a baseline, then Jake and it continued to beep.  

So, I took him to the St. Vincent Urgent Care.  I knew that if it was in the stomach, it wouldn't be a big deal.  It would pass on its own.  Our luck was a little different.  Stuck right in the middle of the esophagus.  You don't need to be a radiologist to see this one:

So, from there we went to the Peds ER at St Vincent where we were met by Dr Maisel.  I have always liked Dr Maisel.   She is an amazing person.  You can imagine my relief to have a doctor you know and trust taking care of your child.   After waiting for an OR slot, we went to surgery to get the coin out.  The surgery itself didn't take too long.  They just gassed him and snatched it out.  It was a 1996 penny:

After recovery room, we got to go home.  Jake was starved.  He acted like he hadn't eaten in a month.  

Needless to say, we have been lecturing him about not putting things in his mouth.  I figure I will frame it with the xrays and the bills to let him know just how expensive this penny was!