1 bassett + 1 empty frosting container = pure entertainment!

Brad gave Nikkie an empty frosting containter over the weekend. It was instant entertainment!

It got stuck on her nose, and she just kept licking....

and licking. After all, frosting is more important than your pride!

She eventually figured out that it was stuck. Then the challenge was getting it off!

She did get it off, though. She chased it around the linoleum floor for a few minutes trying to lick the frosting without getting it stuck on her nose again. Eventually, she picked it up in her mouth and took it to the den...where there is carpet. It couldn't escape then! Brad was the one to rescue the poor frosting container, after Nikkie had begun to play with it. After all, once the frosting is all gone, it makes a good toy (in her mind at least)! By the time Nikkie was done with it, the wrapper was hanging on only because of the adhesive, there were dozens of teeth marks and holes, including a hole in the bottom of it. I wasn't much help because I was laughing too hard!

Knee update

I saw the knee surgeon on Aug. 14th. They changed the date, not me! He seems very nice and extremely competent, always a plus when you're a surgeon.

He just had to ask "How did you fall?" didn't he.

I replied with "Do I have to tell you?"

"Well, yeah, I kind of need to know."

Drats. Of course, I couldn't make something grand up because my kids were there. So I told him the whole just-needed-a-pack-of-buns story. I must admit, telling a professional how I fell, especially when they don't know me, is somewhat embarrassing. Really, a fall this bad from a pack of buns??? I'm impressed with my knee surgeon though, he didn't laugh, he didn't excuse himself from the room so he could laugh his head off, he just blinked and said "Hmm, okay." and examined my knee. I'm guessing he either laughed later or wondered just what kind of nut he had for a patient. LOL

I have surgery scheduled for this Friday (Sept. 4th), at 10:45 in the morning. At least we'll have time to get the kids off to school first! The surgeon will clean up the two miniscus tears and do an ACL replacement/repair with a cadavar graft. He suggested the cadavar graft since it will cut down my recovery time and surgery time. Of course, these parts are treated with all kinds of antibiotics to prevent infection, but like all surgeries there's always a risk of infection. I'll be in a knee immoblizer for a while, unable to bend my knee, then moved out of that. Of course, there's physical thereapy to go through, plus about a week where I can't drive. All in all, about 6 weeks of recovery/healing. But at least when it's all said and done my knee will be better, that's all I want.

Brad and the kids have been absolutely super during this time. This surgery has made me teach my kids how to do things like laundry, cooking, loading the dishwasher, etc. All things that they need to know, and I've slowly been showing them, but now I have to show them since I can't do it all myself right now! It's all meant some changes, like one load of laundry a day instead of all the laundry in one day. Suppers are getting simpler, too. LOL I'm very thankful though, for a wonderful, supportive, patient, loving hubby and two awesome kiddos!

All I wanted was a pack of buns

On June 11th, I managed to ding my knee up. And all for a pack of buns, too.

I planned BBQ sandwhiches for supper, but needed buns. So I loaded the kids up in the SUV and headed to the local bread store, just a couple miles away, and a lot closer than Wal Mart. I didn't see the need in going to Wal Mart just for a silly pack of buns! So off we went.

I pack of buns and a few treats later, we headed back out to the SUV. I'm not real sure how, or what, I did, but the next thing I know, my right ankle gives out and I'm heading to the sidewalk! On the way down, my left knee went to visit my right knee, making me look like: ) OUCH!

The one worker in the breadstore rushed out to check on me, asking "Ma'am, are you all right?" Seeing my face, and the rest of me on the sidewalk she followed that up with "No, you're not. Do you need me to call the paramedics?" Frankly, I felt kind of silly, and just wanted to go home, get on the couch, and ice the knee and ankle down. So I asked her to simply call my hubby. Thankfully, he was able to leave work long enough to get me home, make sure I was on the couch, had ice packs, etc.

After a call to "Dr. Mom", I realized I really should have the knee and ankle looked at, just to be sure I hadn't done something more than a simple sprain. Of course, driving was a little more difficult than I wanted to deal with! After Brad got home though, we headed off to the ER. Thankfully, a neighbor was gracious and wonderful and let the kids stay over there while we were gone. The x-rays didn't show any breaks, so the doctor announced I sprained my right ankle and left knee. Talented, aren't I??? They sent me home with crutches. I discovered something. I'm terrible on crutches. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that that was the first time I had to ever use them?

A week later (June 18th), the ankle was better, but the knee and I weren't on speaking terms yet and I knew I needed to call my doctor. However, just to complicate things, Brad's car kicked the bucket, which meant he was driving our SUV while we figured out what to do about the car. Thankfully, God provided Brad wisdom (because I was too busy panicing) and Brad was able to buy a used car on June 20th that will do great for him. However, I wasn't able to see my doctor until June 29th due to me taking 8 kids from church to camp and my doctor being unavailable, etc.

My doctor played with my knee, showing me the 1 - 2 inches of give I had in my left knee that shouldn't be there. She thought I tore my miniscus and promptly referred me to an orthopedic, who also thought I tore my miniscus and scheduled me for an MRI.

July 7th, I had an extremity MRI, pretty cool by the way. The MRI machine sucked up my knee brace when it was over...made me laugh. That afternoon, I went back to my doctor and found out I had bronchitis!

July 10th, I saw the orthopedic for the MRI results. Is it bad when the doctor comes in and says "You suprised me."???? I tore my miniscus in two places, ruptured my ACL, and have a bone bruise on my tibia. All that from one fall?? One catch....we were going on vacation to NM (to visit family) that evening! So his instructions were: no squatting, bending, or kneeling; ice as needed for 15 minutes, 3 times a day; use either a cane or one crutch under my right arm; and to generally behave myself.

We're now back from a relaxing vacation, and the bronchitis is just about clear. I'm still coughing a tad from the bronchitis, but it's certainly MUCH better than it was several weeks ago. I'm scheduled to see the knee surgeon on Aug. 11th to see what he can do about my knee. He should definately clean up the miniscus tear, just not sure if he'll fix the ACL rupture.

Gee....and to think that all I wanted was a pack of buns.

Ah, procrastination!

My wonderful, sweet, intelligent daughter has done it again. She's put off an assignment until the last minute. This one is a writing assignment, a story (mystery, tall tale, or realistic fiction), must have handrawn illustrations (done by her), and completely written and typed by her. This isn't the first time she's had to do this assignment, either. It's school-wide, called "Author's Convention". Not only is this the third year we've done this, this is the second time this year that we've done this....last one was in the fall. To make matters worse, she's known about this for a good month, and the teacher has had a count-down display in the room! When is it due? On Tuesday, and this is Sunday. She's still writing the rough draft, too.

Now I know how my mom felt with me. I can't remember how many assignements I put off until the last minute! So Elizabeth certainly comes by it naturally, bless her heart. Her teacher has been giving them time in class to work on their stories, so either Elizabeth hasn't been using that time wisely, or just got stuck, I'm not sure which. Of course, she hates writing, not just the handwriting, but the whole writing process. She's got such a wonderful imagination though!

She's got a good start on her story, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it. She'll write a part, then bring it to me to read....wonderful! Except she's teasing me! Did I mention she's writing a mystery? And I absolutely love mysteries, too. So I'm looking forward to her complete story. She really does have a great, wonderful, huge imagination, which makes coming up with stories not too hard. It's just getting them started.

In her defense though, mysteries are one of the hardest stories to write, according to my sister, a 3rd grade teacher. I tend to agree with her, too. There's the plot to figure out, the plausability of the mystery, who the culprit(s) is/are, motive, opportunity, etc. And doing this on a 5th grade level, too! She's got her work cut out for her, but she's going to finish this. Quitting isn't an option, especially since this is for a grade. Think she'll learn something about procrastinating? If she's like me.....sadly, no.

Just one of those weeks

Ever had just one of those stressful weeks that wouldn't stop?? Don't lie, you know what I'm talking about.

Brad wound up working a little later Monday than he planned, so I missed my Ladies class I'm participating in at church. I wasn't happy about missing it, but I also knew Brad had done everything he could to get home on time.

Tuesday, Brad wound up staying home due to a massive headache, that I'm sure was caused by stress from the previous 3 work days. That wasn't too bad, I wasn't upset with him, I was actually upset with the situation that caused the headache, even though I had no control over it. Ok, so in hindsight that was not the best thing to be upset over. Anyways, the stress level hit EEK that day when we found out that Geico wasn't going to reissue our auto insurance policy with them when the 6 month premium ended in March. WHAT?!?!?!?! It all had to do with Brad's "use of his vehicle". HUH??????

See, Brad's employer, back in July of 2008, decided in order to help prevent them from getting sued, all employees that go on-site to customers (like Brad does), needed to extend the liability coverage amounts to 100/300. From a business end, I can understand it. From a spousal point, it was frustrating. So back in July, Brad talked to Geico, except at the time him (and his coworkers) all thought the extra coverage was to protect "company equipment". Geico's lovely underwriters were going back to that inital conversation and used that as a reason to not reissue the policy in March. No matter how we tried to explain to Geico that the extra coverage is NOT about protecting company equipment, that it's to help prevent his employer from getting sued if Brad has an accident while on the job...no matter how hard we tried to explain that, they just wouldn't listen.

Oh, and did I mention that if Brad doesn't keep that 100/300 coverage he could lose his job???? Yep, my stress level hit nuclear on Tuesday. So we spent most of Tuesday afternoon checking out other auto insurance policies.

I could go into more, but I won't bore you with any more. So it's just been a stressful week. But the good news is, we now have new insurance, the way it needs to be done so Brad's job isn't in jeopardy, and actually paying less than we were to Geico. Plus, they also do homeowners insurance and it looks like our agent will be able to give us a better rate on that, too. So we've been thanking God that He allowed Geico to decide not to reissue the policy in March.

It's just been the kind of week that I can feel the tension in my body. That's not good, is it? So I'm taking today off of taxes, dishes, and possibly laundry. I'm going to stamp and scrap today. The weekend starts this afternoon, and I really don't want to be physically stressed this weekend. In college, I would go play raquetball to relieve stress. Now I stamp and scrap to relieve stress. LOL

New Year.....New Goals?

I don't know about you, but we had a marvelous Christmas. It was our first Christmas with Nikkie in the family. I really was expecting her to try to eat all the ornaments she could, or try to eat the tree, but she was a super good girl and left them all alone. Digit was a completely different story! You would have thought the decorated tree was his personal toy! But at least he didn't get in the tree this year, so maybe there really is progress with him.

Shhh....but I still have all the Christmas stuff up! Unfortunately, I can't leave it all up all year. So alas, it must come down and be put away. It doesn't mean I can't listen to Christmas music all year though! I've never done that before, but I may do that this year. Brad got me Mandesa's Christmas album as a stocking stuffer, and I'm really liking it. Liking it enough that I could cheerfully listen to Christmas music all year long this year!

I refuse to make New Year's Resolutions. Nope, not going to do it. I will, however, set some realistic "goals". But are "goals" the same as "resolutions"?? If so, don't tell me, just let me live in oblivion. So what are my "goals" this year?

• Scrap more! In the past, I've set goals of "X layouts a week", but not this year. Life gets too crazy, and some weeks I just can't get to my scrapbooking. But I definately want to scrap more this year.
• Finish at least 1 project that I already have started. I have UFO's floating around my house, did you know that? Not alien UFO's, Un-Finished Objects.....UFO's. A quilt top I started in college, at least 2 cross-stitch projects, and that's just the ones I can think of right now. So this year, another goal is to finish at least 1 of these UFO's.
• Excercise more. Oh boy, is that needed! But going to Karate for Christ at church will take care of that, our instructor will make sure of that. LOL It's actually fun, too. And I can take it at my pace. The week's that my asthma is flaring up, I can take it as easy as I need to. And in the process, I'm learning to defend myself.

And I think that's it for this year. Some easily reached goals for me. Cautious? Maybe. Chicken? Probably. :-)