I went on vacation.....

but not what you are thinking.

Just a vacation from my blog. Not to sunny Arizona or California, not to London or Boston-my favorite cities, not to Utah to see great friends and family, not to Mt. Vernon to see the Tulips.....no just from my blog.

Guess I'll catch up now.

I'll call this the rest of this post: the good, the bad, and the ugly

The good:
~I started a new photography class the teacher is great!!
A lot of it is review, but has been explained to me much better than the last class I took.
I'll do a post on that next:)
~Today was Sarah Price's baptism: Yeah Sarah!!!
~Jordan is reading better and better every day. She will read books to her brother at bedtime-sooo cute!
~having a diagnosis on my back problem and starting physical therapy. It's going well and I feel improvement. Learning how to do more with butt and leg muscles vs my back.
~crocus blooms-purple ones-spring is coming!!!
~tulip buds coming through the flowerbeds!!
~yummy girl scout cookies
~I did cook a couple yummy meals this week.
~Having a friend call and ask me if she could bring me anything while she was out. Then she knocks on the door with yummy cookies. Why do cookies make things "all better?"
~playing outside today
~going to Spencer's preschool and making cookies with his class. They had little chef hats and aprons. I took all the pre-measured ingredients and utensils, etc and had the kids help do all the dumping, stirring, etc. They LOVED it and I had a BLAST. I'm going to do it way more often!


The bad:
~tons and I mean tons of laundry
~ugly gray cold days
~getting Jordan to sit down and focus on doing her homework-
like pulling teeth so suggestions welcome!
~being too lazy to start potty training Landon. Tonight he put underwear on himself and didn't want a diaper. Too bad he doesn't realize what he has to do in order to wear them. Soon....
~sick children and sick daddy and mommy with horrible cold.
~when Spencer tells Patrick (the little boy I watch) to throw something at a light fixture hanging from the ceiling in the basement and from the kitchen I hear glass shatter
~eating wayyyyy too many girl scout cookies.
~we had a couple "what ever you can find" dinners this week...whoops!
~when you call your husband and he tells you he thought he was feeling sick until he realized that one of the children had turned the thermostat all the way up and the house was 80 degrees!!

The ugly:
~Barf....lots of it. Especially bad when it's on my bed twice in one week.
Here's the children's preferred barf schedule:
Jordan at 3:oo am, then again at 3:30
Spencer: first day at 11:00 & 11:20 ishpm, second day 1:30 am
Landon around 9:00pm.
Notice it is NEVER during normal waking hours!!!
~one impatient, exhausted, worn out,yelling at the kids too much,
some days no shower taking, messy haired mom.
~putting off mopping the floors wayyyy too long.

but....I'll end on the best news we've had all year:

White House Easter Egg Roll: Here We Come!!!!

a day in the life

I just sat down to do this while Jordan, who is home sick, is supposed to be doing her homework due tomorrow, suddenly starts to whine for me. I have lots of posts I want to do-have been too sucked in by the Olympics and other projects at night to do them. But today I wanted to get a post in just to get back in the saddle.

My day started bright and early. Here goes:

3:30ish am: Jordan is suddenly standing by my bed covered in puke. "mommy, I threw up in my bed." Yup, she did. lots. Quick wash down, clean clothes and remade the pain in the butt loft bed after just having done her linens yesterday!!

After I put her back to bed, carried Landon back to his bed from ours. I didn't even know he was in our bed because he was in a little ball snuggled up in the fold of Darin's knees and rear end. That kid.....
*any ideas about how to keep a nearly 3 year old from coming in your bed every night are most welcome.

5:50am: wake up afraid I overslept for the start of my physical therapy which is at 6:30. Think to myself "oh, I can sleep for about 10 more minutes...not a morning person, remember!! Wake up at 6:08 and fly into the shower. Run out the door at 6:20 and walk into the PT place right at 6:30. Really like the physical therapist. Learned a lot and was given some exercises to do at home.

7:30 arrive home and try to get Jordan up. She has a slight temp, but has dark eyes and isn't looking too hot. She keeps telling me "my tummy hurts." She has water to drink, but won't eat anything. Keep her home from school.

Feed kids and get them dressed.

9:30 ish let kids watch Word World and Dinosaur Train so I can mop and clean kitchen and dining room.

10:30-10:45 ish finish and do some writing with Spencer. He's doing really well. After that he gets picked up by a friend and goes to school. Jordan has a nice long nap on the couch.

12:30 ish I start to smell something foul in the living room. I take the trash bag out thinking that was it from the chicken guts from lat night. Still smell, can't figure it out. Then I got to sit by Jordan and ask here how she is felling. "I peed" she tells me. Two things-good thing we have a leather couch, and good thing I did at least put a sheet down for her to lay on while she rested on the couch. Don't really think Lysol type wipes are meant for leather couches, but this called for a massive wipe down. Living room no longer stinks.

I take her Landon up for a bath. The play forever while I finish watching the Bachelor in my bedroom. Hey now, no judging.

Landon was quite insistent on wearing underwear after his bath. I got out a pair, but it had "james" on it and not "thomas" He would NOT let me put a diaper on him. I thought ok, we'll get settled, then I'll start to take him every few minutes. Jordan got dressed, then we started downstairs. Within about 10 minutes, he was on the steps and said "I peed." Oops. Didn't think it would come so fast. We got a diaper this time, but Landon did put his own pants on. Getting closer.....Glad we did put a diaper on because then he was poopy within a few minutes of that.

We finished as much of Jordan's homework as I understood (Spanish) and read for 15 minutes, now she and Lanny are watching a video.

I just checked the barfed laundry and it needs to go through again. Now I have a few minutes 'til I pick the boys up from school-yes, it's plural-I have Patrick today.

But I saved the best for last: after I pick the boys up, I'm going to pick up the Girl Scout Cookies Jordan sold...Samoas tonight!!

A pain in the butt....

literally.

That's what I have. Darin tells me he always knew I was a "pain in the butt" I tell him that I "have" a pain in the butt.

So I finally had my rescheduled (thanks to the blizzard) appointment with the spine Dr. today. It was little comedy of errors for a bit. It started great-I got a prime parking spot, and anyone who knows the INOVA healthplex parking is AWFUL. So I went to ask for my xray. Didn't have my wallet so had to run back to the car. Next to the primary car doc to get the referral. Took the elevator to wrong floor. Got back on and thought I got out at 3, but it was really 4. Took the steps down to 3 to get the referral. Back up the elevator to 5 where the doc is located. Get all checked in, wait....read...wait....read get into room wait....wait....read....wait...read...doze off wait....wait...read...wait...doze off....wait....read some more and finally doc comes in!

He looks at the xray and the report and this is what I have:

grade 1 spsondylolisthesis at the L5-S1 level
bilateral spondylolysis at the L5
small posteriour soteophytes
mild levoscoliosis

more here my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/Back_Pain/hic_Spondylolysis.aspx

OK, I cannot figure out how people do the thing where they type "here" and a website shows up. Ugh.

translation:vertebrae out of place, arthritis, bone spurs...not sure of what else.

Basically the bone-the vertebrae- has little cracks in it and so it gives too much and slide behind the bone above it and is not in line with the rest of the spine where it should be. The Dr. was really nice and explained it to me with a little model of the spine and then showed it to me on the xray.

Also cool-the doctors bring in laptops to input all the information. He had a little trouble entering my prescription..."if I can figure out this computer" he said. Funny.

He gave me a muscle relaxer called "mobic" which he said was his favorite and he kept some in his medicine cabinet in case he needed any. When I filled it I got a warning from the pharmacist to "eat it with a meal...not just a banana, but a big meal or it really hurts your stomach" Nice. made sure I had a nice dinner tonight so I could get going on it.

I will also be starting physical therapy next week. I am crazy and have an apt at 6:30 am!! But I figured if I don't have to factor in child care it will be much better. The doc told me to work on my core because the more I strengthen it, the bone will have a chance to move back into place.

I also have bone spurs from arthritis. Lovely. It's fun to read the report of the xrays. I got online and looked up what all the words meant.

I asked the doc what forms of exercise I could do. He told me nothing jarring, no jumping and said specifically "no jumping jacks" Nice-I have been doing them in the biggest loser Wii game for about 3 weeks leading up to the pain I had that lead to all this. He told me I could do the elliptical or whatever has no impact. Interesting that the whole time I was losing weight way back when I did it all with swimming and doing the elliptical and didn't have any back issues. Hmmmm.......mo more Biggest Loser for a while.

Hoping to talk Darin into a membership to Lee Rec so I can swim.....tax money coming....

so that's the story.... a real "pain in the butt."

Sledding Fun!!!

Darin was out shoveling and told me the neighbors said we could use their sled if we wanted. I was so excited because we haven't been able to find any sleds anywhere. Thy just don't carry them in stores here, except maybe a few at the beginning of the winter. Anyhow, we borrowed it and walked down to the end of the street. We are pretty lucky that there is a really great sledding hill at the end of our street. People come to the street just to sled there.

Anyhow, the kids have never been sledding before. We got there and I sent them down and the LOVED it!! The took to it instantly, which I am very happy about. I grew up sledding and tubing and would have been very sad and disappointed if they didn't like it. One house we lived in we had our own hill and would sled everyday. We had those long orange sleds that were awesome.

When I was really little one of my uncles worked at John Deere and would bring home the inner tubes from tractor tires and would blow them up for us to go tubing. We would drive out into the country and find great hills in farming country. We would pack as many people on a tube as we could....sooo fun!! Such awesome memories.

This is the view I had from the bottom of the hill as I watched the kids come down.
Here they are walking up from the first time down. The were so cute carrying the sled together.
I just really liked this shot.

My favorite shot of Jordan
Up the hill again.
random shots. I love the one of Spencer just laying in the sled as he goes down the hill.

Jordan tries to pull Spencer up the hill. Going up and down the hill didn't bother her at all. Half the time when Spencer would go down, she would roll down the hill after him.
It really was a perfect day to go. It wasn't too cold and was really calm-no wind which makes for happy children.

Here we have the tunnel we dug in the huge snowbank

Ahhhhh.... I just lost a pic of Jordan in the tunnel-one too many backspaces. I think Blogger needs to make the software so you can insert pics where you want....

Oh well....here's Spencer in the tunnel. I love this pic-it is one of my favorite from all the storms. So cute!

The snow is getting to everyone

I think the snow is getting on everyone's last nerve! Here's the story:

Over the weekend Karin and Marion were here and parked their car in the spot Darin had his car in-the one he spent hours digging out. We did manage to find another spot for Darin's car. Anyhow, they left this morning and I went with them to the temple. I took Darin's car in case he needed the van if anything happened with the kids. While I was gone, he moved my car from our reserved spot to the spot next to it-where Karin's car was-to his to make sure I had a spot when I got home.

I pulled into the open spot and my neighbor-an older fella who lives a lone and who is usually super nice-was outside shoveling snow. He got my attention and gave me and earful about how he couldn't get out because the van is longer than Karin's car and it wasn't pulled in enough and he thought he was going to get stuck in a snow pile an had a really hard time pulling back in..yada...yada...yada. I was a little taken aback because he hasn't ever talked to me like that so I just mumbled something about Darin putting it there so I would have a spot when I got home and that I would have him move it.

So a couple thoughts come to my mind. We are all dealing with this snow, sir!!! It annoys us all. It frustrates us all. We all have a hard time pulling out of our spots. I can't help it if you have a super long huge truck!! And really, if you are having such a hard time getting out, you know we are home-ring the door bell and ask Darin to move the van out of the way for you.

Darin went out to shovel right when I got home and talked to the neighbor. He said he wasn't mad, it was just hard to pull back in the spot and there were cars on both sides of him and the road is only able for one car to pass at a time. Well if you aren't mad, don't talk to me in such a cranky way. Simply explain the situation and ask me nicely to move the van.

Ahhh this snow has got to go!!! Come on Mr. Sun.....get shining and get rid of the source of everyone's frustration!!!

Woo Hoo

Bon Jovi tickets for my birthday...can you say happy girl? Woo Hoo!!!

Another snow day....how did we keep busy?

It is beginning to feel like the movie ground hogs day. Get up, eat, clean up, kids watch cartoons, entertain them, lunch, more entertaining, craft or something, reading, torture Jordan by making her do homework,go outside, dinner, video, put kids to bed. Over and over again. It's funny because on holidays or Saturdays, even if we don't go anywhere, it doesn't seem so hard to keep everyone occupied. Must just be the thought that we can't go anywhere even if we wanted to.

So here we have today-the snow is falling again and the wind is blowing like crazy. What could we do different? First off, I must mop the sad neglected floor to maybe stop everyone's feet from sticking. I spend an hour on the kitchen and dining rooms. The kids keep themselves busy by watching cartoons, then when the alloted time is up and mom is not quite done..

Play "city bus" on the chairs that mom has moved out of the dining room.
Was actually pretty cute to see them take turns as the bus driver picking people up.
So now we have a clean dining room, let's start a project mommy and Jordan want to do. We shall call it our "love wall"

first you get out the cricut and start cutting hearts and letters out.
such a fun toy
Jordan loves typing in the letters to tell it what to cut
Next step: start taping them to the wall. Meanwhile daddy is in the family room downstairs keeping the boys happy by playing "mario wii" as they call it. Thanks daddy:)
OH dang it,.....one too many backspaces and lost a cute pic...too bad....not going to add it now...oh well.

But Success!! Our finished project. Our "love wall" We started doing the names on the cricut, but then it was taking a very long time so Jordan started writing on the hearts. We have tons more names we want to add, but this is it for now:)


And onto daddy. While he is home, we must all sit on him at the same time.


Here we are in a little "love fest" then later in the day watching Star Wars Empire Strikes Back
And the day wouldn't be complete without at trip out into the snow!

Poor daddy-this has been his life for days now....
Spencer had a blast on a huge mound of snow up at the end of our row of houses.
Jordan loves sticking her face in the snow. They were so funny-the wind didn't even effect them-well Jordan and Spencer anyhow. They thought it was fun to run around the neighborhood and climb on all the snow piles.
Love how the snow freezes to Jordan's hair
Here's Landon before a gigantic gust came and falling down in the snow in his face
And here's Landon after when we came in....
Jordan resisting coming in the house
and finally this is how we found Landon when we came in...that is after searching for him all over-we didn't even see him on the couch-it was the corner by the railing, so we just missed him Poor fella....