So yesterday while John and I were getting dinner together, we put on some Christmas music. The kids really liked it, and started dancing together. It was totally cute, and I think I said something like, "You guys are so adorable dancing together!" Jonni replied, "We're not just dancing, we're practicing for getting married." Yes, that's my six-year-old going on twenty.
The Almighty Liz
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving Weekend
I don't really have anything earth shattering to report. We had a good holiday. We did the usual duo-dinners: one at John's parents' house, one on my side, which was my sister this year. They were both attended by lots of family, which is always nice. Erik got to celebrate his birthday again at both houses, and everyone got him cars. From great-grandparents to aunts and uncles, and nobody talked to anybody else about what they were getting. It was all chance. This is just fine with Erik though. He hasn't played with anything but his cars since he got 'em. He's in heaven.
The next day was a big extended family get together with John's side. Lots of his cousins were there, and let me tell you, it was perhaps not so great a thing for me to go. Just standing in the room with all those gorgeous, tall, blond women, none of which had less then two children, but looked like she had none, was enough to sink my self-esteem right through the floor, lol!
Saturday was surprisingly industrious. We didn't even try, but somehow managed to fix one car, get rid of another one, (so now we have two working cars instead of one working and two broken cars), and even clean up a little around the house! And get a nap in!
Sunday dawned sunny, cold, and speaking of colds, I've got a doozy. Just enough to make me miserable without really being able to do anything about it. I had all kinds of things I wanted to do this week, plans now all in ruins. On the bright side, now I don't have to do all those things, lol!!
The Almighty Liz
The next day was a big extended family get together with John's side. Lots of his cousins were there, and let me tell you, it was perhaps not so great a thing for me to go. Just standing in the room with all those gorgeous, tall, blond women, none of which had less then two children, but looked like she had none, was enough to sink my self-esteem right through the floor, lol!
Saturday was surprisingly industrious. We didn't even try, but somehow managed to fix one car, get rid of another one, (so now we have two working cars instead of one working and two broken cars), and even clean up a little around the house! And get a nap in!
Sunday dawned sunny, cold, and speaking of colds, I've got a doozy. Just enough to make me miserable without really being able to do anything about it. I had all kinds of things I wanted to do this week, plans now all in ruins. On the bright side, now I don't have to do all those things, lol!!
The Almighty Liz
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Erik's Fourth Birthday, and Other "Fun" Things
Hello all! It's been a mighty busy time in Liz World, so I thought I'd take a couple of minutes and get you all caught up.
I am doing much better. One little thing left to sew up as far as illness/injury, and then I can get back to life as usual. I hope. ;P
Before I get into the Birthday Boy stuff, I must tell you about the Hamburger Episode. Several weeks ago, John bought about five or so pounds of hamburger in one of those economic big rolls. He then put it in one of the shelves in the door of our freezer to...well, to freeze. Well freeze it did.....into the shelf! It molded to the shelf before it froze, so when it got all nice and solid, there was no removing it. It looked like this.
So on to Erik's birthday. The boy is now four. I cannot believe it!!! He had a good time for his birthday, with presents abounding, pizza for dinner, and chocolate cake, oh my!
The Almighty Liz
I am doing much better. One little thing left to sew up as far as illness/injury, and then I can get back to life as usual. I hope. ;P
Before I get into the Birthday Boy stuff, I must tell you about the Hamburger Episode. Several weeks ago, John bought about five or so pounds of hamburger in one of those economic big rolls. He then put it in one of the shelves in the door of our freezer to...well, to freeze. Well freeze it did.....into the shelf! It molded to the shelf before it froze, so when it got all nice and solid, there was no removing it. It looked like this.
So what's a husband to do?
Break out the power tools, of course!
Ew, meat sawdust.
Very determinded man here. Watch out!
Making, er...progress?
More "progress".
He had to resort to several different tools. This is a knife sharpener.
Also, creativity was a must.
But eventually, (around an hour and half later), my man won the day! Huzzah!
He made quite a mess of meat shavings. Gross!
But being the awesome guy he is, he cleaned it up himself.
And now we have this; two large chunks of frozen hamburger. Um, yay? Yes, yay!
So on to Erik's birthday. The boy is now four. I cannot believe it!!! He had a good time for his birthday, with presents abounding, pizza for dinner, and chocolate cake, oh my!
Organization is very important to an orderly present opening occasion.
His favorite so far, though only by a nose, was a floor puzzle with two sides!
We all had a lot of fun putting it together. Good stuff.
Then it was on to the important stuff; CAKE!
He blew out his candles one at a time. Hilarious!
And here are just a couple of gratuitous pics of my darling children....
...or maybe NOT so darling, lol!
The Almighty Liz
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Two Posts in One Day!!?
I know! I'm giddy myself. The reason I'm posting again is I went to my mom's today so she could do my hair. ('Cause she's just that awesome!!) I was just wondering if you could tell the difference. Let me know, lol!!
The Almighty Liz
Before...
AFTER!!
Great Erik Quote for Today
Okay, I have some appointments today, so I got up early, and am actually almost out the door. But I just had to tell you guys about my funny boy first.
I was getting on his shoes when he noticed I had my cute, stylish black boots on. He said, "Wow, mom! You've got cowboy boots on!" Now, I don't really care if he thinks they're cowboy boots, but they aren't, so I joked around with him, and said, "Oh, no, they're not!" And then he said, "Oh. I forgot. They're cowgirl boots!"
Oh, I do love that kid.
The Almighty Liz
I was getting on his shoes when he noticed I had my cute, stylish black boots on. He said, "Wow, mom! You've got cowboy boots on!" Now, I don't really care if he thinks they're cowboy boots, but they aren't, so I joked around with him, and said, "Oh, no, they're not!" And then he said, "Oh. I forgot. They're cowgirl boots!"
Oh, I do love that kid.
The Almighty Liz
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Halloween!
Erik was Raphael, and Jonni was Donatello. Their choice, of course. I think they looked awesome! (and hilarious)
Um, this is supposed to be a pic of our pumpkins. They're eyes, on the right of the pic. Okay, so our Halloween this year was super laid back what with the illness/injuries/ect that have been going on, especially considering last year's Haunted Treasure Hunt. We still had fun though, just trick-or-treating around the neighborhood! Our neighborhood is awesome. Everyone sitting out on their porches giving away candy, and we have about a bazillion kids, too. So while it may not have been as action packed as last year, it (for me anyway) was nice to set a less hectic pace. Here's a few pictures from the "hallowed" event. Get it? Hallowed? Yeah, okay.
The Almighty Liz
PS So blogger is being stupid, so the pics are above my little paragraph there. Whatever.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
And Finally Closing the Book...Hopefully...
So, it has been rather a roller coaster for me the past couple of months. Broken legs, illnesses, heart trouble...but I think that we (meaning me, John and my team of doctors) have finally gotten to the bottom of this mess, and we can put it more or less permanently behind us. (John would say I'm being too optimistic, and I would retort that he's turned into the world's biggest wet blanket) So here's the facts for those of you who don't know them (or only a few of them), in what I hope to be a shortened version of actual events. I say I hope, because we all know how much I babble. :P
Okay, the last time I posted anything was when I had what we thought was swine flu, and my general practitioner MD had discovered what was thought at the time to be mitral valve prolapse. Very shortly after that post, I landed in the hospital. My doctor was being cautious because he wasn't sure how easily I could get heart infections at that point, and I was having heart symptoms like shortness of breath, dizziness, ect. I spent four or five days there, and we learned some good things. (during this time, however, my poor husband got sick as well as both children with ear infections and such. He totally ditched all responsibility and went to stay with my mom. I don't blame him a bit. I wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as he did) I didn't have swine flu, I had a rare bacterial pneumonia. Of all ridiculousness. I don't have mitral valve prolapse, I have rheumatic fever (or rheumatoid, I can't remember the exact terminology) valvular disease. This is similar to MVP in a lot of ways, but it also has some added bonuses. More blood flow problems, not due to a valve weakening, as in MVP, but due to valve thickening. There are a couple of different ways that you can get valve thickening with this; growths or scar tissue. Growths are very very very dangerous, and scar tissue is only as dangerous as it's rate of thickening. If it builds up very quickly, very dangerous, and vica versa. The other bonus is that my heart is very susceptible to infection, so it was super good that I was hospitalized, even though it totally sucked at the time. There was a complication at the hospital, as well. The gave me a spinal tap to rule out bacterial meningitis, and the hole they made didn't close properly, so it leaked for a good long time. They gave me caffeine therapy at the hospital, which means that they put a liter of caffeine in me through and IV. That was an interesting experience indeed. I have never been so hyper and wired in my life! I know I drove my roommate bonkers for the one to two hours I was like that. Then, when they released me, I had to keep drinking copious amounts of caffeine, and stay laying flat for a full week, and in bed for a week after that, (although I could sit up), and then cautiously start moving around after that. They didn't want to rip the hole back open after we managed to close it. So I stayed at my mom's for almost a month, and was finally going to come home when Erik got croup. Like, 103 degrees fevers and having much difficulty breathing croup. So I ended up staying with mom for a few more days until Erik was well enough to come home and also well enough for me to take care of by myself. My poor mom! Anyway, during that time, I had a Dr.'s appointment with my general practitioner, and we discussed my heart stuff. Now, at this juncture, we don't have a whole heaping amount of data to go on. I had another appointment with my cardiologist in a couple of weeks at that point, where he was going to run some more tests, and then we would know a whole lot more. So, we went with worst case scenarios for the time being, and they were bleak. I won't go into details, but I spent the next couple of weeks trying to come to terms with those scenarios, in the case that they came true, I would be prepared. Happily, though, my appointment came, and all my Doc had for me after the tests was good news!! I pretty much don't have to change my lifestyle much at all. There are things we have to keep an eye on, like my heart valves (which don't have growths, but scar tissue, that is building very slowly, huzzah!), so I have to get tests done every six months for the next year, and then every year after that, and I have to be on daily antibiotics for the foreseeable future, and working out is now more important even than it was before (once I regain a bit more strength), and if I ever get strep again, I'm toast, but that's it. And my cardiologist says there's even a fifty-fifty chance I won't EVER have to do anything or worry about this again! The flip side of that coin is I will have to get valvular surgery of some kind at some point in the distant future. Which I can totally live with. Absolutely.
So, other things going on in my life? Jonni is doing so well at school that she's bored out of her mind. Erik is still not potty trained, and I'm starting to think I'll still be changing his diapers when he's thirty. John is okay, although the last couple of years have been rough enough to give him a bit of psychosis, for which he might need therapy in the immediate future (or he will be causing a reactionary psychosis in me, of the homicidal nature). I've read enough books to furnish a store, and I now have a legitimate caffeine addiction. I'm working on it though, and am down to half a liter a day. (I started at three to four liters a day. *shudder*) I'm starting to get seriously restless, which means I'm getting my strength back. Time to get back on the horse--or exercise bike, as the case may be. (although, wouldn't it be so super cool if I had a real horse to get back on?!) So, in short, life is normalizing, for which I am worshipfully grateful. I'll take monotonous over crisis any day. And since I now know that I'm going to get a very much more time than I thought to enjoy that, I'll be savoring every minute I can. At least until my kids spill yet another full glass of liquid everywhere, the cat pees on the couch again, and John keeps taking his shoes off in the middle of the floor to trip over. Ah, such bliss I cannot express.
The Almighty Liz
Okay, the last time I posted anything was when I had what we thought was swine flu, and my general practitioner MD had discovered what was thought at the time to be mitral valve prolapse. Very shortly after that post, I landed in the hospital. My doctor was being cautious because he wasn't sure how easily I could get heart infections at that point, and I was having heart symptoms like shortness of breath, dizziness, ect. I spent four or five days there, and we learned some good things. (during this time, however, my poor husband got sick as well as both children with ear infections and such. He totally ditched all responsibility and went to stay with my mom. I don't blame him a bit. I wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as he did) I didn't have swine flu, I had a rare bacterial pneumonia. Of all ridiculousness. I don't have mitral valve prolapse, I have rheumatic fever (or rheumatoid, I can't remember the exact terminology) valvular disease. This is similar to MVP in a lot of ways, but it also has some added bonuses. More blood flow problems, not due to a valve weakening, as in MVP, but due to valve thickening. There are a couple of different ways that you can get valve thickening with this; growths or scar tissue. Growths are very very very dangerous, and scar tissue is only as dangerous as it's rate of thickening. If it builds up very quickly, very dangerous, and vica versa. The other bonus is that my heart is very susceptible to infection, so it was super good that I was hospitalized, even though it totally sucked at the time. There was a complication at the hospital, as well. The gave me a spinal tap to rule out bacterial meningitis, and the hole they made didn't close properly, so it leaked for a good long time. They gave me caffeine therapy at the hospital, which means that they put a liter of caffeine in me through and IV. That was an interesting experience indeed. I have never been so hyper and wired in my life! I know I drove my roommate bonkers for the one to two hours I was like that. Then, when they released me, I had to keep drinking copious amounts of caffeine, and stay laying flat for a full week, and in bed for a week after that, (although I could sit up), and then cautiously start moving around after that. They didn't want to rip the hole back open after we managed to close it. So I stayed at my mom's for almost a month, and was finally going to come home when Erik got croup. Like, 103 degrees fevers and having much difficulty breathing croup. So I ended up staying with mom for a few more days until Erik was well enough to come home and also well enough for me to take care of by myself. My poor mom! Anyway, during that time, I had a Dr.'s appointment with my general practitioner, and we discussed my heart stuff. Now, at this juncture, we don't have a whole heaping amount of data to go on. I had another appointment with my cardiologist in a couple of weeks at that point, where he was going to run some more tests, and then we would know a whole lot more. So, we went with worst case scenarios for the time being, and they were bleak. I won't go into details, but I spent the next couple of weeks trying to come to terms with those scenarios, in the case that they came true, I would be prepared. Happily, though, my appointment came, and all my Doc had for me after the tests was good news!! I pretty much don't have to change my lifestyle much at all. There are things we have to keep an eye on, like my heart valves (which don't have growths, but scar tissue, that is building very slowly, huzzah!), so I have to get tests done every six months for the next year, and then every year after that, and I have to be on daily antibiotics for the foreseeable future, and working out is now more important even than it was before (once I regain a bit more strength), and if I ever get strep again, I'm toast, but that's it. And my cardiologist says there's even a fifty-fifty chance I won't EVER have to do anything or worry about this again! The flip side of that coin is I will have to get valvular surgery of some kind at some point in the distant future. Which I can totally live with. Absolutely.
So, other things going on in my life? Jonni is doing so well at school that she's bored out of her mind. Erik is still not potty trained, and I'm starting to think I'll still be changing his diapers when he's thirty. John is okay, although the last couple of years have been rough enough to give him a bit of psychosis, for which he might need therapy in the immediate future (or he will be causing a reactionary psychosis in me, of the homicidal nature). I've read enough books to furnish a store, and I now have a legitimate caffeine addiction. I'm working on it though, and am down to half a liter a day. (I started at three to four liters a day. *shudder*) I'm starting to get seriously restless, which means I'm getting my strength back. Time to get back on the horse--or exercise bike, as the case may be. (although, wouldn't it be so super cool if I had a real horse to get back on?!) So, in short, life is normalizing, for which I am worshipfully grateful. I'll take monotonous over crisis any day. And since I now know that I'm going to get a very much more time than I thought to enjoy that, I'll be savoring every minute I can. At least until my kids spill yet another full glass of liquid everywhere, the cat pees on the couch again, and John keeps taking his shoes off in the middle of the floor to trip over. Ah, such bliss I cannot express.
The Almighty Liz
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