Monica's Herniated Disc (a.k.a Too Much Labor... Day)

My oh my, Monica's poor back!  Monica was able to get an MRI scheduled this week, and took the results to the spine doctor she's been seeing.  The night she got her MRI we put in the CD to look at the images, and you know it's bad when even I can find the problem without assistance!  She's got quite a large herniation at the bottom of her spine (L5S1), as is highlighted below.  Her doctor said it's about 1cm in size, and referred her to a neurological surgeon and told her to call and tell them she can't wait and needs surgery ASAP!  Of course, what does a receptionist care, so we're still working the system a bit to get things figured out, but we're looking to get surgery scheduled as soon as we can...  At this point Monica just feels ready.  She's been having increasing pain from this since the start of June, so whatever fixes it and gets it over we're ready for!

In milder news, the rest of the week happened too.  The week started off with Labor Day, the day in which we DON'T work, to celebrate... well, from my understanding, that people worked before us.  We had a good time together, and I set up the slide into the splashpad again as that was a big hit at the end of last week.  I joined the girls for an afternoon of slipping and sliding.  The slide didn't work very well for me.  I don't know if it was my swimsuit, or that I'm just a little too wide for the slide, but I didn't get the same sliding as the girls do.  That's okay though, I just had to take diving slides across the splash pad, and then we played a game Brooke plays at school called snakes in the grass.  It's like tag, but the people running away have to slither like snakes.

That evening we joined some friends for a BBQ and swimming.  Grayson wasn't napping this time, so he got to play in the water too.  Actually, he really didn't want to get in the water.  He really wanted to ride on this duck, and there was a raised spot of the pool that he spent most of the time walking around.  He did fall off the wall one time, but fortunately his floaties were on and caught him, from hitting his face into the cement.  It was a close one, but the padding did a pretty good job saving him from that fall.

Grayson is becoming more of a wild one at bed time, and has recently discovered how bouncy his crib is...  This is not great, and every night I think "can this crib survive to be used for another child?"  That's not an announcement or a plan for the future, I just wonder if Grayson is going to break his bed sometime soon.

This weekend it was pretty cold here.  It rained ALL day on Saturday, and the high was in the 50!  It was REALLY nice, and seeing the sun this morning is a little sad...  Anyway, Grayson found some stylin' shoes and put them on.

Saturday afternoon Katie and Nolan came over to visit.  They brought pizza with them and we had a great time catching up and playing together!  I promised Nolan a spot in the blog if he'd take a picture with the girls, and it worked!  He hopped right up on the couch!

Last night at dinner Grayson finished a little before everyone else was ready to leave the table, and ran around giving everyone kisses.  It was really cute.  At first he was running up and grabbing Winry's head and pulling her in for a kiss, but he only did that when the camera wasn't running.

I stayed up to watch the BYU game last night, and what a game!!  I did a lot of other random things as well, and completely forgot about the blog, but I'm not forgetting today!  Anyway, the game was super great, which of course means BYU won!  It went into double overtime, which I could have done without as I ended up being up till about 12:30.  And that's everything I've got for right now.  I'm just realizing I haven't talked about a side project I'm working on at all with a golf company.  I'll have to get a video or pictures this week so I can show that off.  It's pretty neat, and I've been working on it quite a bit lately.  Anyway, I think that's everything for today, have a great week!

Rough Week

Well, not a lot of pictures this week, and it's been a bit rough!  ALL the kids are currently whiny and fight all the time and scream and hate listening to things, etc.  It's made for a long week, but we're at the tail end of it... the week that is.  Hopefully we're at the tail end of whatever all this sassiness is.  Anyway, there are, of course, always good moments.  Monica spends a decent bit of time laying on her stomach on our bed.  It helps her leg/back not hurt.  Quick aside on all that, her doctor wants her to get an MRI, and it hadn't gotten scheduled, so she called the place this past week and they said they never got an order to schedule one... so hopefully her MRI gets sorted quickly so we can get our full picture and figure out what we need to do to get things taken care of.  Anyway, back to laying on the bed, Winry and Grayson were in hanging out with her.  Winry had Monica's phone and took some pictures.  Grayson is a very willing snuggler!

Grayson loves to climb up on our feet/legs/knees/backs (if laying down) and bounce saying "riding a horse!"  Like, he does it EVERY time he can.  Well, at the park this week he got to ride a dino, and kept his mantra going.

And here's Grayson hanging out in a basket!  Also, it's worth stating that Winry and Grayson have become REALLY great friends since school started.  It's not that Brooke and Winry ignored Grayson before, but now that Brooke is off at school Winry wants someone to play with, and she and Grayson have been getting along great!

And speaking of Grayson, last Sunday night I was playing with him, and we were playing with Brooke's ice cream counter and shared some of the best treats we could make!

We had to get Jelly shaved again.  The fur on her back was SOOO bad.  On her under side she had some hair clumps, but they were most loose and could have been taken care of without a full shave, but all down her sides was just one huge crazy matted lump.  Anyway, we got medicine from the vet, and the groomer said she did great!  She thinks the medicine started to wear off at the end because Jelly got a little harder to shave, but it went well.

I always worry that Jelly might get cold after she's shaved.  She just looks SO much smaller, I'm sure it's a lot colder for her.  I found her laying in a sun spot this past week in the basement.  She still spends most days in the basement with me, but she hasn't been in the office as much, but instead over laying on a blanket or in this sun spot.  Maybe I should get her a sweater?

Oh my, Grayson, what a kid!!  Gotta be careful about making toast around him.  He's never climbed into a cabinet before, so I don't know if this is going to be a new thing or not, but it was really funny.  He never closed the door all the way, which is good, because the child lock would have locked him in.

Last night Monica and I wanted to watch the new Lord of the Rings show on Amazon, but sitting on the couch can be uncomfortable for Monica.  Fortunately, I recently came into possession of a projector, so we set things up off the foot of the bed.  Pretty nice!

The girls wanted to play in the splashpad this afternoon.  In fact, Brooke pulled it out and set it all up all by herself!  I still need to go out and clean it up, and it's getting dark, so maybe I should have done that before writing this...  Anyway, it's nice when the girls will do things on their own.  They had a lot of fun playing out there. The splashpad get's really slippery when it's wet, and it was also getting the slide wet, which made it super slippery, which turned the yard into a super slide!

I'm really enjoying this new write the blog on Saturday thing.  We'll see if there's a Sunday update this week.  I'm just watching the end of the BYU football game, and things went well in that regard today.  Hopefully this means we'll have a great season!  Have a great week!

Happy ?? Birthday Monica!

Why hello!  We had a birthday in our house last week, and it was Monica!  It was a stellar day, and I was even able to surprise Monica a time or two!  It was a pretty busy day with school and dance class, but we enjoyed our time we had together and made the most of when we could.  Here we all are at the end of the day after just having brownies and ice cream, so of course it was easy to get smiles!

I don't know if I mentioned this ever, but they repaved our neighborhood, and Monday was the day they redid in front of our house.  Those roller cars that flatten the road are SOOO loud!  When they'd roll by you could hear that the whole house was shaking.  It was especially loud down in the basement where I was working.  The new road is nice, and it was exciting while it was happening, but I'm glad they're done!

Grayson loves climbing into the blanket basket.  No, we didn't get rid of a bunch of blankets, the kids always dump it all out.  This past weeks edition of the basket was wiggly feet.

Speaking of Grayson, he also loves pushing the toy shopping cart around, and this past week was parking it under each chair around the kitchen table.

For Monica's birthday I made German pancakes for breakfast.  The sides apparently stuck this time, which resulted in mountain ranges.  Never seen this before, but it was pretty cool looking.  It ended up being a lot denser then usual, and we're guessing it's because the sides didn't go shooting up.

Monica opened presents at breakfast.  Here she is rocking her new neck pillow.  I'm honestly surprised this hasn't stayed on her day in and day out for the last week.  She also got a blanket thing for our bed, and new shoes!  Surprise 1 - I put the wrong shoes in the present, so she was surprised to open those shoes!

Monica made mint brownies in place of cake, and we had that and ice cream after Brooke's dance class.  Of course we all sang happy birthday, and then we all enjoyed the treats!

Grayson was being a cutie, and while he was jumping on Monica's lap he was singing Baa Baa Black Sheep!  The kids got a bit wild that night and were running around.  Couldn't be sugar related.  Anyway, Grayson was darting around singing Happy Birthday to mommy!

One day Winry asked Monica if she could make a car for Grayson with a box we had in the house.  So she took some tape and the box and got to work.  She needed a steering wheel and asked to use another package, and here's the car!  There are also twine seat belts, and Grayson actually loves to sit down and "drive" it.  It's both a car and a trolley, because I was given a trolley ride on it.

I took Jelly to the vet last week and it was pretty rough on her, so we decided to put a better effort into getting Jelly more comfortable going places, and outside.  We got a harness and Jelly's already liking to go outside.  She'll sit at the back door and meow and meow and meow sometimes wanting to get out.  She has snuck out a time or two without her harness, but I'm trying to teach her it's not okay without it, but it's fine with it.  We're still working on it.  Brooke LOVES to take her out, and want's to go out with her every day!

Here's Winry heading to preschool.  She was pretty nervous before the first day, but she is absolutely loving it now.  Also, Monica got Winry this new dress at a consignment sale, and she absolutely loves it!

Oh my... Grayson is such a stinker.  When he's in the backyard he mostly just plays, but he'll happily go check the strawberries all on his own.  For Grayson, ANY strawberry is a good strawberry.  That one he's eating has red spots on it, but was also VERY white, but he sure didn't care.

Before Brookes soccer game on Saturday they took team pictures!  Here she is with her whole team.  Brooke has been loving playing soccer, and it's SO fun to watch her.

Winry came with me to her game.  She brought some activities to do, but the sun was too bright in her eyes, so she actually sat backwards away from the field.  She did a great job cheering for Brooke, and even turned around and watched the game at times.

Here's Brooke out on the field.  She's number 5.  Of course I also got a video of the game as well.  I will say I wasn't watching the game on my phone while I took the video, so sorry for the times I missed things...

After Brooke's game they had a team party!  I don't know if this is just for picture day, or if this is going to be a new thing, but it was great.  Here's a booth packed with her teammates.  We went to place called Fuzzy's Tacos, and it was pretty good.  We've never been before, but everyone loved what they got.  Winry and I sat together at the table next to Brooke, and Brooke really enjoyed sitting and chatting with her team.

I think that's everything for this week.  I got started a day early this week, so maybe I'll have an update tomorrow.  I've got quite a headache tonight, so I think I'll call it here.

Too Much for Two Weeks

Well hello!  Last Sunday ended up being a bad week to miss writing the blog.  Brooke started soccer, the girls started school, Monica and I had our anniversary, and Monica had her birthday party!  Whew!  It's not every two weeks that that much stuff happens!  

On our anniversary Monica and I went to a restaurant at the local airport called The Perfect Landing.  You can see the runway and some of the planes while you're eating, and we even were there for sunset, how romantic!  Here we are at the end of our meal right before we headed back home.

We've still been playing with the stomp rocket.  One of the fins broke off, and after we took them all off (for balance) it flies MUCH higher than before!  Winry can even get it over her head now.

Brooke has soccer practice on Mondays.  Here she is at her first practice.  She's loving soccer right now, and it's a lot of fun to see her out there with her team.

Winry has preschool in the afternoons Tuesday-Thursday, so Monica is still on the hunt for fun things to do in the morning every day.  Often this involves parks, but each of the libraries in Douglas county has a different play area, and this market/kitchen one I took the girls to a while back is still a favorite!

Monica's sciatic nerve is still bothering her, and laying on her stomach helps.  Sometimes that means laying on the floor so you can keep an eye on the kids.  She was on her phone, and Grayson was VERY interested to come see what was going on.

The cozy corner is still as popular as ever!  You never know who you'll find back in there having a bottle, or just hanging out.  I even saw Jelly in there tonight after the kids went to bed.

Brooke has been sleeping with her panda sleep mask!

Grayson has been wanting to wander outside during sacrament meeting lately.  He really likes to walk along the cement right next to the building.  Also, in that evergreen bush you can see there's some plant growing in the middle of it.  Grayson would point at it and say "uh oh!"  He was concerned about something being a different color.

On Sunday Monica had a bunch of stuff after church and I took the kids up to Tyson and Tina's house.  We had a lot of fun up there.  Luke was off at obedience training, so we were out playing in the backyard and got to see the bunny.  Brooke even got to feed it this... thing.

Grayson loved the swing, and we also spent a bunch of time on their slide.  It was disconnected, but set up on a wall.

On Monday Brooke started school!  She was so excited and had a great time.  She likes her new class and her new teacher, and everything's been great so far.

It's been raining a lot lately, which has been awesome!  I really like the view down in the basement while it rains.  I've got a window well cover now, and it's fun to watch the drops splash!

One morning Monica took Winry to a park, and Eleanor came as her school hadn't started yet.  They found a bird on the ground and made a nest for it to keep it safe from the rain.  Hang in there little bird.

Here's Winry on her first day of school!  She was a little nervous about school, but she's been loving it and has so much fun every day!

For our anniversary there was work and school, which makes for a good majority of the day... Anyway, we got a babysitter and headed out to dinner.  We had a lot of fun.  We got a grilled Caesar salad and when I was squeezing my lemon onto it, lemon juice sprayed into my eye.  Oof.  It took a while, but the stinging stopped eventually.  A rather outgoing gentleman from a neighboring table came over to make a funny comment, don't remember what it was, but it made the night more interesting knowing we had a buddy watching over us.

Monica took Winry and Grayson to the creek to play.  They had a great time there with the other kids, and we brought our new bug net!

On Friday Monica had her birthday party.  They had some great snacks, sang karaoke, and opened presents.  Everyone had a great time, I would know, I was in the room below them.

On Saturday morning I took the kids to the mayors day of service.  They had Crumbl cookies which I let the girls get.

As we pulled up we saw that there was a car show right next to us.  While we were waiting for the kickoff to start we went over to see some of the cars.  I'm not really a car person, but there was still some fun stuff to see.  We didn't quite make it back in time for most of the kickoff, but we did get to hear the end.  Then we headed to the trail to pick up some trash.  The girls did a great job picking up while I carried Grayson around.

Of course the girls HAD to do karaoke!  So we did some karaoke.  Some a lot of karaoke.

Later on Saturday Brooke had her first soccer game.  She did great!  She got the ball a bunch of times, and did a good job hustling with the herd.

Grayson got to wandering eventually, and we wandered our way around the field.  Brooke happened to be taking a break while we were over there, and Grayson went to give her a hug!

Then, Grayson found a playground and headed over there.

And here was my view for the second half.  I told Monica I might need some binoculars in the future so I can watch the game.  I could kind of follow along, but I couldn't tell who was Brooke or anyone else.  The game ended tied 0-0, so still undefeated!  Winry eventually wandered over and then I ended up pushing her and Grayson on the swings for the rest of the game.  Everyone had a great time though, especially Brooke!

That's everything for now.  Hope you're having a wonderful day!