Sunday Selects

I've decided to start "Sunday Selects" which will be a compilation of things from the past week I didn't get a chance to post about or things from the coming week that we are looking forward to.


From last week:
1. I am done with Christmas shopping!  I can now avoid the malls and stores until after New Years except for grocery shopping which I do during the week...YAY for avoiding crowded stores!
2. I met 2 of Zac's friend's parents over the weekend, it was nice, we hit it off pretty well.  I am having some second thoughts about moving out of this school, I'm sure I'll meet other parents but I also like the fact that this school has the highest test scores in the district. 
3. We are taking our house off the market on November 30th, with the idea that we will re-offer on the house on Chantilly around March 1st, I like that neighborhood, but I like most of our neighbors here too.  I'm really having 2nd thoughts about moving.  I just feel like if we were supposed to move, it would have happened by now.  So maybe in the time we have our house off the market, the house on Chantilly will sell and we won't have to worry about it.

The week to come:
1. I finally have my appointment with the Orthopedic Specialist, I am really worried that they will not do anything other than a steroid injection.  My knee is getting worse is some ways, it doesn't hurt as much to bend it but now it hurts to walk and it is very painful to walk up or down any steps.  The swelling is getting a lot worse also.
2. I need to do a lot of paint touch ups around the house and do a major house cleaning.  With having the house on the market and having to keep it uber clean for months, I got lazy and now really need to get back on track with cleaning on a more regular basis.
3. Santa is at the mall, this is the best Santa I've ever seen and the only Santa the boys have ever gotten their picture taken with, I think we'll go this week since Rachel needs to do her Thanksgiving grocery shopping and will probably be down this week we can beat the crowds!  I love beating the crowds!

Christmas Card Picture Picking...Please help

I'm really not sure if anyone reads my blog, I don't think I've ever gotten any comments. I know a few family members have e-mailed me about things I've posted because they couldn't figure out how to comment, as far as I know I have the comments turned on (if I don't someone please let me know at goorob@yahoo.com!) Anyhow, we took our pictures for Christmas cards today, and just in time too, because as soon as we were done we had a major melt down from Kaleb. Before I post the pictures I'm trying to choose between let me say that I've had in the back of my mind that I was going to use a picture of the boys "sleeping" and use the phrase "May all your Christmas dreams come true." on the card, but there are a couple other shots that I think are very cute also so now I can't decide what to use....so here are the contenders, in no particular order...

A.

B.


C.


D.

Beating the Christmas rush...

I had originally decided that this year I was going to wait and do my Christmas shopping closer to Christmas. I usually start near the end of summer and am done around Halloween then store the gifts and wrap them just before the big day. Now the boys are getting older and I really don't have much space in this house to hide gifts so I was going to wait, well, call me impatient, call me cheap but I found some great deals and I just could not pass them up so I bought some of the gifts already. I don't buy them much in the first place, grandma and grandpa spoil them pretty good so I don't have to worry too much which is good because our budget won't support too much gift buying. So I only have a couple things left to buy which is good but I have no place to hide the gifts. I was hoping we would have sold this house and closed on the new house and been moved by now, the other house on Chantilly has a HUGE master closet which would be PERFECT for hiding gifts in but instead I have a large brown box next to my bed, which surprisingly the boys have not asked about but is currently hiding the majority of their gifts. So it looks like I'll beat the Christmas rush again and not have to fight my way through shopping.

Constant, incessant knee pain

I've had knee pain for over 20 years now. It all pretty much started when I was kicked in the left knee when I was in Karate when I was 12 years old. Since then it's been on and off pain. It's never really lasted more than a couple weeks and on a scale of 1-10 was probably never more than a 7 or 8 at it's worst. Of course it would get worse when I would start to work out, if I went to a doctor they would say to stop working out, ice it, take an aspirin, rest it then start working out again slowly and low impact. 20 years of this got old, my knees, both of them really, are creeky, they grind, crack, pop but in January 2010 I noticed it was very painful to straighten my left leg out, it felt like something was getting stuck in the joint and I'd have to break whatever was stuck to straighten it out, it got to the point that I would be nearly in tears, definitely a 10 on the pain scale. After years of going to doctors and being told to rest, take an aspirin and ice it I was hesitant to go to a doctor but the pain got so bad I brought it up when I went to a new patient appointment in July. The new doctor said she felt stuff floating around and that it was swollen and immediately sent me for an MRI, which much to my dismay came back with the result "fluid in the knee but otherwise unremarkable". My doctor said I could go to physical therapy to see if that helped. I was truly disheartened because of the amount of pain I was in, I was just sure the MRI would show something. So I started physical therapy in September, my physical therapist, Jenny, said that the MRI is just a picture in time and at rest so it was not unusual for it to not so anything unusual. So I started PT not able to straighten my leg without a lot of pain. About 4 weeks into my 6 week jaunt of physical therapy I could straighten my leg just fine but suddenly could not bend my leg without excruciating pain and I also noticed that in the morning I had a large bulge on the side of my knee which I can only imagine is the fluid building up over night, I'm guessing throughout the day when walking it disperses throughout my leg and overnight pools in my knee. Even though I would not rate the pain a 10, I'd give it a solid 5-6 most of the time and it can certainly get up to a 10 at times. I cannot sit for more than 10 minutes without my knee and leg hurting. I cannot walk up stairs or inclines without being in pain.
I finally have an appointment with an Orthopedic Specialist (no thanks to my doctors office who has still yet to send over my file) and I will push for surgery, which I know people think is crazy but if you had to deal with the constant pain I deal with I think you'd agree. I think if the Physicians Assistant I'm scheduled to see (since it would be another month before I could get in to see the doctor) suggests a steroid shot I may break down and cry right in the office. I just want them to drain my knee and clean out all the crap in there so I can have a chance at walking and sitting and sleeping pain free. I've never been able to sit on the floor and play with the boys without being in pain, I can't get things off the bottom shelf of a cupboard without pain, I can't clean the bathtub without pain, I can't even sit on the couch or sleep in my own bed without pain.
So now I wait until Wednesday until my Orthopedic appointment to see what the next step is and if I will finally find relief.

Well, it was bound to happen...

We've been using the Parent's Night Out services at the YMCA since February 2010, every 2nd Friday of the month since then we drop the boys off for 5 hours and do whatever we want kid free. We haven't missed a month. That is, until now. We had our plans all made, we were going to meet some friends, go see a movie "Unstoppable" then go to dinner. One of the few times we actually had real plans for the whole night and only the 2nd time we had plans with friends. Jerry called me tonight and he's being sent to Kansas for work on Thursday night through Monday to work a copper theft detail. It couldn't be last month, or next month, or last week or next week. No, it has to be this month, this week. It was going to be such a fun night too, but the overtime check will be nice and is much needed also.

Training them young

That's the idea after all isn't it?

Have kids, train them to do the chores we all hate, listen to them complain about the chores we all hate, they grow up and have kids to train them to do the chores they hate...and on goes the cycle...

October in a Nutshell

Since it's been a while since I've blogged I'll just have to wrap October into one post cause I'm lazy that way ;) I think I'll do this as a picture post and just make it easy on me.

The boys got new desks, these were on sale at Toys R Us for $16 and they are worth every single penny. They both love coloring and writing at their own desks and I don't have to worry about them ruining my new dinning table.

We went on our yearly visit to Chester's Party Barn in Piedmont to the Pumpkin Patch. The boys enjoyed the pony ride as usual, and this was the first year they did not have daddy or mommy walking next to them. They did wonderfully. Here's a shot of Kaleb:
And here's a shot of Zachary:


I didn't get a picture of the 'hay' ride, which doesn't not include any hay but here is our trek through the corn maze:

This is the big slide at the end of the corn maze which all the kids and most of the dads enjoy. Here's Zac coming down:
And Kaleb going up:
They had a couple wheelbarrows out so Jerry decided to load the boys up and push them around:
Lately Zachary and Kaleb like to play cowboy and horse, Kaleb is always the cowboy and Zachary is always the horse, oddly enough this never causes a fight, this particular time Kaleb happened to have a cowboy hat and gun:

And our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
Here is trick or treating at the Haunt the Zoo:
Spider Web cookies for Halloween:
Halloween Cake Pops:
Going out trick or treating the night before Halloween (that's what happens when you live in Oklahoma and Halloween lands on a Sunday!)

The boys started swim lesson in October, at first I thought it would be a complete disaster but then we switched instructors for Zachary and he did awesome, he even graduated from the Pike class to Eel class by the end of the session. Here's Kaleb on the side of the pool:
And Kaleb with his instructor Andrew, Andrew is very nice, but is too nice, he let Kaleb off the hook too easily.
Here is Zachary with the most awesome instructor MaryAnn:
I decided for Christmas this year I wanted to get my hair done, since I'm growing it out, it is between lengths and I cannot do anything with it. It is straight as straight can be and limp and lifeless so I decided to go for an early gift and get some me time before Jerry's last business trip.
My before picture:
My after picture:
Much happier now!