MJ Got Braces

There she is, my grown up little girl with her braces on. I'm not sure who was more excited to get the braces on, her or Jordy. Jordyn wanted to make sure that she was there to witness this exciting event. Can I just say, kids are expensive! Anyway, I picked her up from the bus stop and got the boys situated at a friends house and off the three of us girls went. I am still unable to get into a shoe and was having one of those days where I had too much to do and not enough time to accomplish it all. So I went to her appointment looking like one of those crazy ladies that they put on greeting cards. I had no make up on and I was wearing slippers. Classy indeed! Hey, at least I wasn't wearing sweats. I had nice jeans on and a very lovely top that incidentally matched my slippers! So there! :) Jordyn had a ball watching right up close, so much so, that I had to keep reminding her that the assistant needed to be able to see what she was doing. MJ's biggest stress was deciding what color of bands to have put on. Even though we tried to talk her into doing 2 colors, she held firm and went with a pretty blue. So, we have had 2 days filled with lots of Motrin and wax, but overall things are going perfect.

Here We Go Again.....

Just when I had forgotten all about building wooden cars...it was time to build a wooden car. I had 1 year off of cub scouts between Jared and Ethan. Nathan of course worked his usual magic of being out of town so who was left to build the car? Yep, you guessed it. Luckily I didn't have to do too much because the leaders are rockin this year. They brought everything to the church for the boys to cut them out there. We just had to sand, paint, weight it, and put the wheels on at home. Ethan was so excited that he couldn't wait for help and went about doing it all by himself. I get the spray paint so that it is easier, but when an 8 year old decides to do it himself.....there were some deep cleansing breaths involved! I also explained to him that the wheels were critical and absolutely not to put them in himself. What did I wake up to the sound of the next morning? The hammer pounding in the wheels. What happened? There was significant wood loss where the axels should go. Never fear when Mom is near! I got out my handy liquid nails and all was solved. We of course went up against the "Dad Made" cars, but Ethan didn't care about winning. He loved making his car and racing it. Plus he got to take home a super awesome trophy and eat a really awesome cake. The car cake and all the trophies were made by our cub scout master who is a pretty talented Dad! You've really got to get creative when there is a practically 0 dollar budget and he comes through every time! :) So pinewood derby here we come...for 2 more years...then.... I'm out!...oh wait....I still have 2 eagles to orchestrate for the boys!

E turns 8

My little man just turned 8 last week. He lucked out with the timing of his birthday and was just in time for the pinewood derby. He was so excited to build his car and he is dying to go to cub scouts. This year I brought him some fries and nuggets to his school and sat with him at lunch. The only problem with that was that sister has lunch right after and she was not happy that he was getting special treatment. So she got a quick kiss and a bag of popcorn that they sell on fridays. That made up for it. Nate was out of town, so we were on our own for celebrating. E got to pic the place we went for dinner then we had our friends join us for some cake and ice cream at the house. Simple, but special. Just the way I like it.

In true Ethan form he is already testing out his ability to make it to his next birthday! The next day while I was running an errand he thought up a brilliant plan. He took a beach ball and instead of filling it with air, he decided to fill it with water. Now what? I know, he thought. Why not drop it from the balcony in the house. Hmmmm that was interesting. It didn't pop, let's try that again. What happened? Explosion of water all over the foyer and a substantial trail of water leading all the way to the kitchen is what I found waiting for me when I got home. It is funny when you think of this little plan he hatched, but it also leaves me wondering....What were you thinking???? hahaha Maybe it will turn into a career on a science show on tv???? Who knows but one thing I do know is that he is enjoyable! He keeps us laughing and is full of love to share.

How I spent my christmas vacation

As I sit here reminiscing how far I've come in the past 3 weeks, I am trying with all my might to flex and curl my toes. If you look real close you might be able to tell that I am trying. :) Go ahead, wiggle your toes...feels good doesn't it? :) Baby steps. So, as I mentioned earlier, I spent the first week entirely in my room. Week 2 90% of the time in my room. Mostly because of the stair factor and when I did venture downstairs I realized what was going undone and it was easier to just hide. I had lots of company as you can see by my lovely picture. Jordyn would sit next to me playing on my favorite electronic toy and Ethan would just come in and give me hugs and ask what he could get for me. Those lovely little beasts on my feet are my post-op shoes that I am still exclusively wearing to this day.

We have been adopted in to our friends Christmas Eve tradition of fondu. I was sitting on the couch with my feet propped on a chair for this entire event. I did get to put make-up on for the first time in a week, so that felt good. I think I've explained how fondu night works before, but incase not.... You go around and around the table until there is only one person left standing and that person wins. You get prizes for the messiest, the cleanest and the last one standing. Usually there is a threat of vomiting. Good times.
Jordy came to visit me on the couch and keep me company. She was pretty much stuck to me like glue during the entire winter break. She would come into my room first thing in the morning and just hang out with me for at least an hour and then visit me several time throughout the day. She really wanted to make sure that I was taken care of. Sweet girl.
So, this was a vacation of watching every single Christmas movie that came on tv along with many black and white movies. I don't know what I would have done if it weren't for 2 of my friends checking in on my family, offering rides, and bringing us dinner. True angels and life savers! It will be interesting to see what the kids remember most about this winter break a few years from now.

Part Two

I have more gross pictures. :) The morning of the surgery I woke up feeling really ill. I have been through 2 previous major surgeries on my jaw, so I wasn't sure why I was so nervous about this one. I don't even remember being wheeled back to the operating room. I hate gaps like that in memory. Usually they give you a warning that you are about to go to sleep, but all I remember is them asking me if I was ready and that's it. Next thing I knew I was in the recovery room having a hard time breathing and speaking and my left eye felt really weird. Nate came in and checked on me and then left. I just remember telling the nurse over and over that it felt hard to breath and my eye was feeling really weird. I had some strange reaction to something because my lips were swollen and so was my left eye. Like really gross lid gooey swollen. That took a couple of days to go away. Nate got me home and up to my room where I stayed for a week. I had a walkie talkie and called for help when I needed anything. For the first couple of days Nate even had to carry me to the bathroom. Loads of fun. I usually just didn't tell him that I had to go and made the long trek to the bathroom by myself because I hate not being able to do things myself. A few days after surgery I had to get my bandages changed, so my friend ,C, drove me because Nate was back at work. This is what things looked like under all the gauze. Pretty, right? lol

My Dr. was really impressed that there was hardly any swelling. That is thanks to my husband who wouldn't let me get out of bed and dosed me up with anti inflamatories. The kids were also great about keeping the ice packs coming. So, now you can see my toenails. The nail beds are a bit misshaped from years of being curled, but hopefully they will flatten out a bit and not look so freaky. My toes are also a bit shorter than they used to be. They look about the same length though because of how curled they were before. At this point I am wondering if I will ever wear a shoe again and the thought of squeezing my toes into a high heel sounds extremely painful.
2 weeks after the surgery it was time to go in and get the stitches out. Boy was this fun--NOT! You can see that things are a bit more swollen and you can see all the bruising that is there now...along with all the nasty orange stuff from my feet being prepped. Completely gross! Why are you even looking at these!!!! :)

It didn't end up being that terrible to get the stitches out except for on one toe. I had been experiencing extreme pain on my second toe on my right foot. You couldn't even just barely touch it without me screaming in pain. So, getting the bandage off and then getting the stitches out and rewrapped almost did me in. After that I had adrenaline coursing through my veins for awhile. I hate that. But, I survived and the nerve pain in that toe has lessened quite a bit.
The lovely assistant taking out my stitches. She was very nice and didn't make fun of me for crying. Of course I cried! It hurt like heck! This was also the first time in 2 weeks that I wasn't wearing sweats! Yay, jeans!

This was my, holy crap I can't believe that is over "are my toes still there?" I was also having a "what the heck did I do to myself" moment. After this I gimped into my favorite burger place and refueled after my traumatic experience. :) So, that's what I've been up to for the past 3 weeks. I have seen more tv than I think I have in a year. I'm hoping that my lack of exercise mixed with my bummed out eating doesn't produce a rather large butt! I hate running, but all I want to do right now is run. I want to be able to push off from the balls of my feet, dig my toes into the ground and run...for about a block!