March 30, 2010

The boys were playing outside while I was fixing lunch. I looked out the window to see Nick, lying down on the sidewalk spread-eagle, and Ben using sidewalk chalk to draw around him. Funny boys.

They are really doing great in their swim lessons. Today they both swam under water a few strokes out to the swim instructor who was waiting to catch them. I was very impressed, especially with Ben. He has come a long way from when we started. Nick is a little fish who spends more time under the water than on top of it these days. Ben is not far behind and wants to keep up with Nick so he pushes himself. Nick tries to keep up with Ben with reading so they are both good at challenging the other in areas where they need more growth. While I am on that subject, just a quick brag. Today Ben picked up one of the little short vowel sound readers I keep laying around and read the whole thing out loud to me. He was so proud of himself and I was pretty impressed with him too. We tend to work on reading in very short, sporadic spurts but they seem to be enjoying it so I think we will keep doing what we are doing for now.

I vacillate so much between getting started with formal lessons now or waiting until they are older. I have been vacillating on this now for a year. I had decided that we would start doing formal lessons when we returned from Arizona but then I broke my foot and was just not up for it. That is not how I wanted to start. Now spring has arrived, it is warm and sunny and beautiful, everything is in bloom and the boys want to be outside a lot. So now I am thinking I will wait until fall:). We can enjoy our summer and the boys can play and play and play. I always seem to come back to the point of, once we start, they will have formal lessons (required sit-down, learning time) for many many years and we might as well enjoy these younger, carefree years while we can:). Now that it is spring, I definitely feel that way.

Today I drove us to swim lessons:). Yay! I put on sandals because my foot is still too sore on top to wear a shoe. When we got there I changed into my boot so I could easily walk around. It worked out very well. My foot does not hurt when I am driving, although it might if I had to slam on the brakes really hard. The dear husband was a bit skeptical of me driving yet so we went for a short test drive to get ice cream yesterday evening. I guess I passed his test because he was OK with me driving today, although we both agreed I need to keep it to a minimum for now.

I do very well with walking in the boot, although it does make my hips and back hurt a bit because my gait is not smooth. The first couple of days in the boot I still used the knee scooter quite a bit because my foot was so sore. Now I am using it less and less. My foot was hurting quite a bit yesterday evening. I think I had over done it a bit and I tend to instinctively want to walk on the inside of my foot a bit, since it is the outside that is injured. When I am in the boot, this actually causes the outside of my foot to hurt more than if I just walk normal so today I have been paying attention and trying hard to walk normal and not try to favor that foot. It seems to be doing a bit better than yesterday, which is promising.

The boys and I are all so happy that spring is here. Today is shorts and bare feet weather, which is awesome. Nick has mastered the scooter pretty well so I took the training wheels off of one of their small bikes. We'll see how long it takes him to master a bike without training wheels. I think if they saw older kids riding their bikes a lot, he would pick it up in no time. I tried to work with him a little this afternoon but I am very limited with the boot. Yesterday I did get out and pitch balls to them. They took turns batting and chasing the balls. Nick kept hitting them over the fence though. He is quite the little sports guy. I need to try to get them into some sort of sports thing for the summer...maybe soccer.

Well, we are having our quiet time now so I am going to do some reading. Hope your weather is as pretty as ours is.

March 24, 2010 Part 2

No surgery needed at this time. I'm in a boot and can start walking on it now. Yay!!

I have to wear the boot for three more weeks so no driving for a while. If the small piece of bone starts to cause pain they will take it out then but, if not, it can stay and they think it will be OK.

So, all good news after all today. This is such an answer to prayer. When we left the doctor's office this morning, we really thought I would be having surgery on Friday and the only question was would they try to screw the bone back in place or remove it. So we were quite surprised, relieved and happy when they said it would OK as is, I could stay in a boot AND I could start walking on it.

Thank you for your prayers! Thank you Lord!

March 24, 2010

I had my doctor appt moved from Monday to today because my cast was too loose. When the PA saw the new XRays, he wanted to show them to the doctor. He thought the small piece of broken-off bone had moved a bit and was now to close to a joint. If it heals that way, it could fuse the joint or cause bad arthritis at some point.

I am scheduled to have a CT scan this afternoon at 3:00 so they can see the best course of action. It sounds like they will either use a small screw to put the small bone back into place or they will remove the small piece of bone completely. The surgery would likely be sometime on Friday, as they need to do it very soon because it has already been 3 weeks since I broke it.

The dear husband says that, if I have to have surgery (and we think I most likely will), it will be out patient surgery and they will likely do it with a local so I won't need to be put under. So it doesn't sound like a very big deal.

Not sure how long it will be before I am walking again. They said they might put me in a walking boot and let me start bearing weight soon after surgery, if they remove the piece of bone. Hopefully it will be a quick recovery and I will still make it to the homeschool conference in Ohio in April.

March 21, 2010

I'm really getting tired of not being able to drive. Hopefully, one week from tomorrow, the cast will come off. I will be counting down the days.

It iced and snowed and was in the 20's yesterday. Snowed more today. Then it stopped. Then it warmed up to 37ish. Lots of it is already melting. Tomorrow is suppose to be in the 50's I think. Hopefully it will soon be gone and all of the day lilies that are already poking through and the other pretties that are already getting ready to bloom will be OK.

Must keep this extra short, as the dear husband is already sleeping, has a bad cold, and I need to clip my finger nails (translation: my typing may wake him as my finger nails are making too much of a clickety click sound).

Goodnight.

March 19, 2010

Ben took this picture. He does pretty well for his age. Aunt Dasha is on the far left, next to her is her granddaughter and son. We had a fun time together at the park.
The boys with their first and second cousins.
Playing at the park with their second cousin. She is a cutie. The last time we saw her was 2.5 years ago. She was just a baby and the boys were 2.
This was at a park. They were fascinated with this cactus.
The boys were tickling each others feet at Aunt Dasha's house.

These pictures were taken at the Hotel in Tucson where we were married, 5 years ago. It was fun to see the boys running around on those beautiful manicured lawns. They had so much fun. It was very surprising to see hardly anyone here. The place seemed empty, which is very unusual for this time of year.
One of the boys took this one...I think it was Ben.
We had one of the staff to take a couple of pics of all of us together.

We went to the desert museum and had a fun time there seeing lots of different desert animals and plants. It was very pretty out there. It was really more like a desert zoo. Not sure why they call it a museum.

Blogger is very slow at uploading pictures today so I will post more later.

March 18, 2010

Today was beautiful, sunny and 70 degrees. Tomorrow will be the same. Saturday, the first day of spring, will be in the mid-thirties and we are expected to get 1 to 2 inches of snow. Monday will be 60 degrees and Tuesday will be back to 70 degrees. (I didn't catch Sunday.) Happy first day of spring and enjoy the snow. Isn't that funny?

My foot is doing fine, although the not driving / staying home thing is a bit monotonous. I go back to the doctor one week from Monday.

The boys were playing outside on the driveway today. There was a bucket of sand in the garage that had been used on the ice/snow on the driveway. They put sand in the gas tank of our van. Not a good thing. We had to have it towed to the dealer ($50). It will cost $600 to $700 to fix it. Needless to say, the dad was not a happy camper about this bit of naughtiness. I was not home so, thankfully, I have no involvement:). They are such quick, busy beavers at 4 years old, aren't they? :).

March 13, 2010 Part 3

Sorry, these are totally out of order:). Oops. I usually do a better job than this but, oh well.


Another birthday picture. Cake at home, after dinner. The dear husband brought the cake home with him. It said "Happy Birthday Sweetie" and it had little hearts on it. Ben said he wanted little hearts on his next cake too. I thought that was pretty funny.
And here are some of our vacation pictures.

The boys loved Aunt Dasha's dog, Buddy. He is the best dog I have ever known. He is so well trained and so sweet that you just can't help but love him. The boys are taking Buddy for a walk...inside the house:). They enjoyed this but we had to set time limits because Buddy is an older dog and the boys could wear anyone out.

Reading bedtime stories.

These pics were from a short hike we took. It was a beautiful day and the area was really pretty. The boys really loved it. We need to do this more often.More vacation pics to come, maybe tomorrow.

March 13, 2010 Part 2

These are some pics we took before our vacation.

A few pics of the boys, the first couple of times they used the computer.


Here is the dear, handy husband, fixing the washing machine.
Ben made a bow and arrow from the straws and connectors. He is still asking for a bow and arrows when he turns 6, although sometimes the age changes.


Here are the boys, playing the horns they got for Christmas from MaMa. They really enjoy these things, although there are times when I ask them to take them upstairs because I get tired of the noise level. They can build all shapes and sizes of horns with them though. Very cute.

Here is a picture of Nick with his first shiner. It is a bit hard to see in this picture but it is his left eye. The dad was giving him a shoulder ride and one or both of them didn't duck far enough when they went through a doorway. Oops.This was when we went out to dinner for my 47th birthday. We went to a really good fish place. Yum!

March 13, 2010

Today will be a long day for the me and the boys. The dear husband is working a 12 hour shift, from 8am to 8pm, which means I will be putting the boys to bed for the first time since I broke my foot. The boys are being very helpful though. They carry my crutches up the stairs for me while I crawl up.

We are showing the house this afternoon so they went upstairs and made their beds and cleaned up and then I crawled up to check everything out and open the blinds. It makes me so thankful for the knee scooter because I can do so much less when I am only on crutches. Upstairs I am only on crutches so it is a good reminder of how good I have it downstairs:). Ben did a very good job of making his bed. Nick had to do his over because it was obvious he had not really tried. He did a pretty good job the second time, with some coaching from me.

Yesterday a good friend came to pick us up and took us to McDonald's. She has two sons so all the boys played in the playland together and we had lunch. It was nice to get out for a while. We all enjoyed it.

The thing I have realized though is that it is so much easier to get around with the knee scooter, I have so much more freedom and speed and I can do so much more, that it I feel very very limited when I am on crutches and I look forward to getting back to my knee scooter again. It can be taken outside also but we didn't take it yesterday because it didn't make much sense. If I was going to go shopping or something like that, then I would take it. My left leg gets so tired so much sooner when on crutches and I don't have any free hands for holding little hands while crossing parking lots or carry anything.

One week down, two to go, before we go back for the next doc appointment. So far, I can't tell any difference at all. Actually, it has been hurting me more yesterday evening and this morning than it had since I had the cast put on. I think it was because the swelling was down and the cast was too loose. Since I was up working all morning, getting the house ready for showing it, it is now feeling a bit better and the cast is a bit more snug. Must have swelled up a bit.

Being called by the boys. Must go for now. Still need to post vacation pics.

March 1, 2010

The boys have been such big helpers. They help me put clothes in the dryer and then get them out of the dryer and put them into a basket. Then they carry the basket and put it near the couch so I can fold the clothes. Then they put their clothes away for me. And they do a very good job.

I am constantly asking them to run little errands for me: Take this to the trash please, please go get ......... for me, please put this over there for me, please pick that up and hand it to me, etc.

They are always helping and they do very little complaining. Sweet boys.

And, of course, the dear husband is doing so much around the house these days. I would be lost without him. He is doing all of the grocery shopping, cleans up the dishes after dinner, loads the dishwasher, runs it and puts the dishes away the next morning. That is a big thing because it would take me forever to put all of the dishes away each day and I am finding the more time I can spend sitting, the better my leg and foot feels.

Today I am feeling a bit better, although my cast is feeling very tight this morning so my foot may be a bit swollen. Pretty normal, I'm sure.

The boys slept in today until almost 7:30!! Yeah! I knew the new curtain liners would do the trick.

Ben came down during the night and had soaked through his pullup. The dear husband got up with him and took care of everything. He went to the health club to swim this morning and then came back and worked here until the boys woke up so he could change Ben's bedding.

The first day when we came back from vacation I went upstairs with my crutches to help put the boys to bed. I have not been back up there since then. It is just too hard to do it on a regular basis. We moved all of our bedtime activities downstairs. So we help the boys get their PJ's on and then brush teeth downstairs and then the dear husband takes them upstairs, reads stories, reads the Bible and tucks them in.

This morning I was reading Charlotte's Web to the boys. They are very into this story right now and they like to pretend parts of the story. It is funny to listen to them say the lines. They have incredible memories.

They are in the library playing right now. I just heard Nick say something about Templeton and Ben is pretending to be Avery, wanting to kill Charlotte the spider. They just threw a play egg on the floor and made it break open and then they both ran away holding their nose. Ben just came through the living room, where I am sitting, and told me to say "be careful with your shoes Fern". They are always telling me what my lines are. They are so funny.

I'm going to read some news now. Hope you have a great day.

March 10, 2010

I hurt all over (whine). Sorry, but this is my pity party post. My poor body has been through so much over the past week. First it was the trauma of falling down the stairs. My lower back has big, ugly bruises all over it and my leg and arm both have big, ugly bruises also, although not as badly as my lower back, which has been very sore.

And then I ended up very sore from the crutches. I am careful not to rest my weight on my arm pits, as they had cautioned me about that. But still, my hands are sore and the sides of my chest, under my arms, where the crutch pushes against me at times, is very sore also.

Then I started using the knee scooter, which really has been so very helpful. But my thigh muscles were so very painful after the first day of use. I felt as if I had gone down hill skiing, after not having been in 20 years. That lasted a couple of days and was just starting to feel better when I went to the doctor yesterday morning....when I had the cast put on.

I already had some red, sore skin on my shin and knee from the scooter. But yesterday the top of the cast was rubbing against my leg when I used the scooter and it was really raw this morning. So today I was careful to only have my knee on the scooter, while holding up my lower leg with the cast on it. By the end of the day, my knee was really sore and the area behind my knee was also really hurting from the weight of my leg and the cast.

Knees were just not meant to bear the body's weight, as if they were feet. And the weight of the cast is the cause of the soreness on the back of my knee and it really hurts.

I think it will take another couple of days for my body to adjust to this new change (the cast). Hopefully after that I will be fine for the remainder of my sentence:).

The cast is not very comfortable, surprise surprise. When they put it on they told me to not put any weight on it for at least 2.5 hours, as it takes that long to completely harden. When I almost fell in the locker room at the swimming place, I put a significant amount of weight on my cast and I think I might have smushed the cast area underneath my foot a bit, as it seems a little too tight.

Between going to the doctor yesterday, going to swimming lessons, almost falling at least 3 times, coming back to the house and helping make lunch for me, the boys and my friend and her sons (my sweet friend helped a lot but I was up on my foot/knee/scooter the whole time), letting the boys play outside on the driveway (which meant I had to back the van out of the garage and put it back in when they were done), go to the door to tell them to quit throwing rocks, quit pulling branches off of the neighbors bushes, etc. too many times while making a casserole for dinner I was up on my foot/knee/scooter/new cast WAY too much. I way over did it and today I paid for it.

I have given myself several pep talks today and, overall, I think I have had pretty good self-talk. I know it could be so much worse and, in the spectrum of problems, this is probably not such a bad one to be dealing with. Even so, my leg was hurting so much by the end of the day that I had my own little pity party and came to my room for a few quiet tears. I felt better afterward so maybe that was all I needed. I also took a pain pill and that helped:).

Fortunately the weather was beautiful today so the boys were able to spend about 1.5 hours outside playing, without coats or jackets. They had so much fun and I enjoyed the peace and quiet.

They were so tired when they went to bed tonight. They went right to sleep and we didn't hear a peep out of them. With the days getting longer and the sun rising earlier, the boys have been waking up way to early (6:30ish). They normally wake up between 7:00 and 7:30. So the dear husband bought some sun blocking curtain liners and hung them tonight. I am hopeful that will help the boys to sleep in a bit tomorrow.

And talking about sleep, it is way past my bed time and I am exhausted. Thanks for listening and I welcome your prayers.

March 9, 2010 Part 2

This morning we had to wake the boys early to make it to my doctor's appointment on time. I was in my bathroom, putting on makeup when Nick and Ben came running in to say good morning, still looking very sleepy. Nick laid down on the warm tile floor and told me "Mommy, daddy broke my good night sleep and now I am grumpy". He was not too happy about being awakened early but I got a laugh out of his choice of words to describe his broken sleep. And he got over his grumpiness very quickly, thankfully.

The funny thing is that, later in the day, I interrupted him and he told me that I accidentally interrupted him while he was talking (and I apologized). But he used the word "interrupted" when he told me. So he knows that word but didn't know it could also be used when talking about sleep.

I love how they come up with words that work to explain what they mean, even though they might not know the traditional word we would normally use.

March 9, 2010

Saw the specialist this morning and he confirmed that my foot is broken. One of the tendons on the right side of the right foot pulled a small piece of bone away from the main piece of bone. The great news is that I do not need to have surgery to fix it. He said that the piece is too small and it would crumble if they tried to screw it back into place.

The bad news is that I have to wear a cast for 4 weeks or so and I can not put any weight on it during that time. He said it will heal itself and it will build fiber (or something like that) back between the bone that broke away and the main bone so the tendon will still be able to do it's job.

Overall, it was good news and we are very thankful that I don't need to have surgery. That is a huge relief.

A good friend of mine came over and drove us to swimming lessons today. I am disappointed though because I thought I would be able to sit down and change the boys and help them but I don't know that I could do that by myself. We are off next week for spring break and I think my sister may take us the week after that, which would be great. I had thought my brother might take us once too but, if he did, I would have to do everything with the boys myself, getting their swim suits off, drying them off and helping them get dressed. I'm not sure I could do it....maybe I could.

The locker room is rather wet and slippery though and I almost fell once when my crutch slipped out from under me so that is a bit scary. I guess we will just take it week by week and see how it goes.

We are doing quiet time right now and I really needed it. I am going to rest now.

March 8, 2010

I have an appointment for tomorrow morning at 8:00am. Hopefully they will say there is no break and I can start using it again:). Wednesday will be one week since I fell. I am ready for an answer. I will update tomorrow, although it will likely be in the afternoon, since the boys have their swimming lessons in the morning after my appointment. A friend is going to drive us over there, thankfully. This no driving thing is for the birds.

March 7, 2010

Vacation pics are coming next!

We received a call from the urgent care in Arizona today. The radiologist looked at the XRays and was not sure there was a break. This is interesting as we stopped by a doc friend's office on our way home from the airport to go over the films with him. It was also the first time the husband had a chance to really look at them carefully also. Our doc friend is in family medicine with a specialty in sports medicine. After looking at the films, he and the husband both thought there were two breaks in the calcaneus bone. The urgent care doc thought there was one break in the talus bone. One of the breaks they all thought they saw seemed to be an avulsion fracture, where a tendon or ligament pulled off a piece of the bone, about as big around as my pinkie finger, and would possibly require surgery.

So now we have anywhere from no break to two breaks, with at least one requiring surgery. That is quite a range. I am so ready to see a specialist and find out what the diagnosis is. We are hoping to get in tomorrow afternoon but we do not currently have an appointment so we'll see. The husband is going to try to call first thing in the morning and see if they can fit us in.

I am so hopeful that there is no break and it will be quick to heal. I really think it is feeling much better. The first few days, if I moved my toes back it was extremely painful. Now it is uncomfortable but not as painful. I have always been able to curl my toes under without pain. My ankle seems to be fine, as far as I can tell. I am so tempted to try a little weight on it just to see if it is painful but the husband says not to until we see the doctor. Probably wise advice, since it could still have a serious break, although I tend to side with the radiologist since he is trained to read the XRays. I have new hope today. Time will tell.

The boys are having fun with the knee scooter. I am sore from using it so much yesterday. I am taking it a bit easier today.


Here is The Foot, all wrapped up.
And here are some pics of The Foot, in all of it's glory. Wednesday will be one week since I fell down the stairs.

You can click on the pics to see them full size.

March 6, 2010

Today, the dear husband and I (and the boys) went to a local pharmacy type place and rented a knee scooter.  It is wonderful! I was in such a great mood after we brought it home because I can do so much more with it and can move around so much easier. There is just no comparison.

We had to get the house ready to show this afternoon so I was really able to put the scooter to the test. It performed wonderfully and I was able to do a lot. However, I have realized that if I over do it, my knee starts getting sore. So, I have to take it a bit easier but I am still very excited to have this new freedom. I was so very limited when using just crutches. This is a huge difference and when one is trying to keep up with two four-year-olds it is the difference between...OK, I can't think of anything to put in here but you know what I mean:).

I am not sure how this broken foot thing is going to impact my trip to Ohio. I hope and pray I will still be able to go. It is all paid for and I was so looking forward to it so hopefully we can figure out a way. Maybe I will be in a walking cast by then.

March 5, 2010

We're back!!

We just returned from a wonderful vacation in Arizona. We flew into Phoenix and drove to Tucson, stayed there from Saturday through Wednesday morning and then spent Wednesday late afternoon/evening, Thursday and Friday morning in Phoenix. We flew home on Friday afternoon.

We had a great time. It was really a wonderful vacation. We stayed with my SIL in Tucson and we stayed with friends in Phoenix. Wonderful, hospitable people all around. Fun people to visit and hang out with. The boys had a ball and loved everyone they met. They were never shy and just fit right in right away everywhere we went. We visited friends and did some sight seeing, had a bit of a hike and lots of other things. I will post pictures and expound more later.

Just wanted to let everyone know we are back and we had a lovely time. The weather was absolutely beautiful.

We had one small hiccup. On Wednesday, about 2 hours or so after we arrived in Phoenix at our friend's house, I slipped and fell down the stairs and broke my foot, it seems, in at least two places. We are not sure exactly what it will entail but are hoping I can get in to see someone on Monday or Tuesday. We went to an urgent care and they XRayed it, immobilized it and gave me crutches. So I am hobbling around and the husband is having to do so much more....and we are all exhausted after our trip home.

But, we are thankful that we had such a nice trip and that we had safe travels. It is always wonderful to go visiting but also always nice to get back home. I will update more later. Very tired. Need rest and food:). Happy day!