Almost there....

Oh, the joys of parenting, and the dreaded POTTY TRAINING! It's about that time with Mr. Corlin Benjamin. He will be three in about ten days. So, today he wore underwear (yes, real live Mickey Mouse underwear, not even a pull-up!). I have to report that he stayed dry thru breakfast for MaMaw's birthday, both his big brother's soccer games, watching TV at home, a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's and a trip to lowes! He even used a real potty without his potty seat (twice), which mommy forgot at home! No accidents all day long! Yay. Here's hoping tomorrow is as good as today!

Field Trips!

We had two field trips this week. Blaine's class went to the firestation, and Quinten's preschool went to Black Island Farms for their pumpkin patch, corn maze, and other fun stuff. Here's picture proof of our adventures.

Firefighter Blaine



Picking up a firefighter's axe



Driving the fire engine with Firefighter Alex



Posing in front of the Fire Engine



And a whole bunch from Quinten's field trip today. Poor Maveri got stung, not once but twice on the same hand. One time on the palm, and the second on the finger. Her poor little hand is just so swollen, and you can tell it's really bothering her. But besides that, we had a lot of fun.

Feeding the Llama



Riding the trailers behind the tractors out to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins







Tractor driver farmer dude teaching us about the different crops at the farm!



Fun on the slides








Watching her brothers





Going into the corn maze - and amazingly we found our way out too!



Maveri's attempt at the bounce house



Teeter Tottering




and finally, the "tractor train"



Fun times were had by all this week!

Bedroom Make-Over (almost done)

So, Matt and I decided that our pink flowery furniture just wasn't "cool" so we decided to remodel our bedroom. Here's the (almost) final outcome - we are just waiting on two red leather chairs that are back-ordered, and a wall mount for the TV. But, you get the picture.

A bunch of different angles of the bed (and room in general), and freshly painted wall...









The little area above our dresser



dresser



Our awesome nightstand tables, and lamps (the shades used to be all white, I glued on the red ribbon for a bit of "pop")





The curio and TV (soon to be on the wall with an articulating mount)



And there you have it! Our new bedroom! We absolutely LOVE it, it's so nice to have a "grown up" room now!

I've been tagged.

Okay, liz tagged me. I cheated a little bit - the rules are to go to your pictures, the 4th folder and the 4th picture and explain it. However, I used the 4th album, 4th picture in my photobucket so I didn't have to upload more! LOL, sorry, I'm a cheater head.

So here it is



This would be what we call Christmas Chaos 2007, otherwise known as Christmas morning at my parents house!

I tag:

Vicki Wight

Savannah (when she's not busy being a new mom!)

because those are the only two people who I know that read my blog!!

Graduated!

No more physical therapy for me! I officially graduated yesterday! I still have some strengthening exercises to do, but can do that on my own. I now have full range of motion in my knee again! Yay.

It only took at week!

It's been one week since I've been freed of my brace, and allowed to bend past 90*. The past two therapy sessions I've been able to get to 120, and then 126. Today I asked ther therapist what they consider to be "all the way" and he said 140. So I get my knee up there, bend best I can and he measures me at 138...i bite the bullet, push thru the pain and I DID IT. I got it all the way bent after only a week (and three therapy sessions). I must say, it was much easier to get bent than it was to go straight - I still have issues sometimes getting it straight and I've been working on that for almost a month now!

I am happy to report that I am on my way to recovery - finally.

But in some not-so-great medical news.....

I got a flu shot on monday, and almost immediately a welt started to appear. By tuesday it was about a 2" diameter welt, very red and hot so that night I iced it and took benedryl before bed. Woke up wednesday morning and it had doubled in size!! So, I called the docs office. At first the nurse told me to ice it and use benedryl, but when I told her i did and it doubled she had me come in. The doc was shocked. He said it was one of the worst flu shot reactions he's ever seen. Good news is it was just a reaction, and not an infection. No cellulitis or anything like that - thankfully. He measured it at 9cm x 7cm. So, now I'm on the lovely predinzone for a few days, but after just one dose the color of the welt had faded considerably. So while at the docs office he decides to run an INR check. two weeks ago I was at 2.5, right where I should be and we thought I was FINALLY stabilized. Not so much, my INR had dropped back down to 1.6. So we had to up my coumadin levels again. I'm very glad he didn't put me back on the lovenox shots! dodged that bullet.

So, it's been a good and bad week - medically speaking. But oh well - that seems to be my life lately.

Our (yucky) dinner adventure!

We went furniture shopping today since we still haven't fixed and/or replaced our broken bed (that has been broken for a few months now). We dragged the kids to four different furniture stores, and as a reward took them out to Cracker Barrell for dinner.

On the way into the restaurant I noticed Maveri was stinky so I grabbed a diaper and wipes to change her. I got there, laid her down, undid the top button of her pants and realized this was a bigger mess than I thought. Poop was EVERYWHERE her pants covered. from ankle to belly button. I had to strip her completely wipe her down best I could and then put her in a diaper and sweatshirt b/c that was all that was unsoiled.

So, we eat dinner, all is well except Corlin isn't eating...he'd rather play with the crayons. I keep getting on his case to eat and he tells me "i cold". i start to spoon up a bite of mac & cheese for me to feed him when he proceeds to throw up all over the chair. He missed most of himself, except his hand. So we call over the clean up crew, he stands up to go to the potty and does it again all over the floor and the front of his sweat shirt. So, I run him into the bathroom, get him mostly cleaned up best I can and realize HE is stinky too. So, out to the van we go to get another diaper and then I change him, who wasn't as messy as Maveri, but it still wasn't a "clean sweep" type diaper. Yucky.

Then we came home, I had to clean up a couple dog messes - which is expected when you leave a puppy in a room for six hours! So i throw the rug and all the yucky clothes in the washer. And then, as I was typing this corlin was going pee on his little potty (yay!), but the darn thing leaked pee all over my floor so I got to clean that up too (glad i told him to put it on the hardwood instead of the carpet!).

I need a bath now - I feel disgustingly gross! I was just glad that it happened at the restaurant vs. one of the furniture stores! and also, however bad it is of me to say, glad it didn't happen at home on my couch/carpet/bedding etc. to where i would have to clean it up! Bad me, I know - but still....

Freedom!

I'm FRRRREEEEEEEEEE! Free of that monstrosity of a brace that I have been told to wear for the past two months! Free of the stares from people, and the "hilarious" comments like "you look like the bionic woman" ha ha ha, never heard that one before! Free from being forced to not bend my leg when I want to. etc... hip hip hoooray! Can you keep a secret?? I haven't actually been wearing it much other than to sleep in for the past two weeks because my therapist told me I walk funny in it and not to wear it as much. I've just been careful not to bend TOO far, although I don't know if i physicall CAN bend past about 95 degreese right now! But hey, at least now I don't have to wear it at night anymore either! That was the worst part, sleeping in it. Okay - actually the WORST part was after my swelling from the clot went away the brace would slip down and the big metal strip would land directly on my ankle bone. Talk about PAINFUL. Owchie. I couldn't take more than two steps when it would do that before I would have to fix the whole dang thing (again)!

So tomorrow I start full range-of-motion physical therapy. I've been going for about three weeks now just working on straightening my leg, and rebuilding muscle lost in my leg. Tomorrow we start with the bending process, and, to be honest, I'm a bit nervous. But, it'll be good (painful, i'm sure, but good). I just hope that I can regain full use of my knee again soon!


And in other news - my INR levels (blood thinning levels) FINALLY went up to 2.5, right where it should be on coumadin, so I got to stop the lovenox shots! I was on them twice a day for four weeks. My belly looked horrible, full of bruises. But, that is a thing of the past now too. I finally feel like I might actually get over this whole ordeal one day!