Hey Sandy, I broke my butt! (with update)

I was watching yet another repeat episode of Spongebob Squarepants last Monday. It was the one where he breaks his butt. My kids LOVE this episode. They think it's hilarious, and record it every time it's on. (I delete all episodes of SB just because I think it's stupid, but that's another story.) So last week as I was watching this I remember thinking, 'How can a sponge break his butt? He's only soft and fluffy so that would be impossible. Dumb!' Well, my posting Tuesday night about being grateful for my extra padding was posted right after I got home from pack meeting, where I landed flat on my butt. Hard. Very hard. It made my head and neck hurt immediately, and I thought my butt and lower back were saved because of the extra padding. Turns out I don't have enough to help with that. I woke up in the middle of the night with intense pain in my tailbone, hip and lumbar spine region. I brushed it off until this Monday because I figured anyone who fell hard enough to bounce on a hard basketball court would be hurting. I would feel pretty dumb if I went into the doctor with a bruise. When I finally decided that it was not getting better and the pain was terrible enough I decided to make an appointment. Because of my previous back surgery I was able to get in the same day. (Thank heavens for small miracles. I knew that surgery history would come in handy sometime!)
I went for x-rays and found out that I broke my tailbone... also known as my butt. I've turned it into a Spongebob joke so my kids will laugh instead of worry about me, but it does hurt quite a bit. And they are all being very helpful by doing their jobs, some of my jobs and bringing me ice packs whenever I need it. Drew has offered several times to give me a massage, but I politely decline because I think it would be just slightly inappropriate to have my 4 1/2 year old son massage my butt. But (no pun intended) it's still nice that he offers.

I'm still waiting to hear from my doctor to see if anything else is broken because I might need to make an appointment with my neurosurgeon. As nice as he is, if I had to go back to him for surgery, I would almost certainly need titanium hardware to be installed. My friend Taya has hardware in her back, and she assures me it's quite terrible. So if I can avoid that I'll be thrilled. The hold up on hearing from my primary doctor is the radiologist at the hospital I went to for x-rays. He or she is taking their dear sweet time looking at it and giving a report. Grr... I might give them a call later today and ask them to fax the report directly to me.

On a happy note, though, I was picking the kids up from school on Tuesday. Trevor was being himself... Oh, I mean, stubborn, that day, and I had to pull over to the side of the road to pick him up because he wouldn't get in the car. When I pulled over I opened my window and turned my head to yell at him. (My doctor said I had managed to sprain my neck (what?!) with the fall.) Well, when I turned my head to yell at him my neck made this HUGE popping/cracking sound, and I had to turn to the other side to do the same thing. I can finally move my neck! Yay!

My mother-in-law, Julie, broke her tailbone several years ago while walking down an icy sidewalk in Idaho. She broke it when she was a junior in high school, and had to have it removed a couple of years later. Sitting was really hard for her so she made a foam cushion with a hole cut out in the center. Then she made fitted covers to go over them. She made one for me, and 2 cute fitted covers too! My butt is in heaven, except when it's not. That's what pain medication and ice packs are for, though.

This is the cover I currently have on the pad. It has black, brown, yellow, white, purple and turquoise in the material so it can match a variety of outfits. Remember, this is going with me everywhere for the next few weeks- church, the movies, the UFC fight this weekend...

This is the second cover. It's black, purple, pink, turquoise and white. This is the one Natalie will steal, which is why it's not on the cushion right now. I need it more than she does.

If or when I hear from my doctor I'll post an update on what she wants me to do. Until then I'm out.

***UPDATE: I got a call from my doctor's office. The radiologist didn't see anything "significantly distorted" so I'm good to go. It'll just take a few weeks of sitting on my cute pillow for my tush to feel better. I'm glad I can stop worrying about another surgery. They are just no fun to recover from, KWIM?

Grateful

Tonight I am grateful for my extra padding. I long for the grace of my youth. 'Nuff said...

My great finds at the grocery store!

I was so excited when I saw my total at Albertson's today. I got 6 large boxes of Cheerios, 7 boxes of Fiber One bars, 6 boxes of fruit snacks, 4 boxes of popcorn, 3 water bottles, green and red grapes, cucumbers, green peppers, 6 ears of corn and a bag of ice for $44.06. I saved $76.67. Plus I got an extra 60 Box Tops for Education. Yay! That was a great deal, but on Saturday I went to Fry's and got tons of produce, meat, cereal and some baking items for $33.06. I saved over $55! I love sales with coupons! My pantry is totally full, and I saved a ton of money!

Sunday (with update)

Today is going to be a busy day. I stayed up way later than I wanted to last night so I could finish rearranging the kitchen cabinets. I decided to move 3 sections around. I would have been done relatively quickly, but Justin wanted to talk instead of reloading the dishwasher and washing dishes. That's okay. I treasure the time that we get to spend with each other.
I have already been to a scouting meeting (I'm the Wolf Den Leader), and Justin has a Deacon's Quorum presidency meeting in just a little while. I'll drop him off there on my way to a meeting at the church with the bishopric. I'll let you know when I get home what comes about from this meeting... After I'm done there we have church. I'm not subbing for anyone so I can attend class. When we come home we'll have steak for dinner. (I love finding great deals, and steaks was my big find yesterday. Hopefully they turn out well.)
After church I'll post a picture and recipe from last night on my craft blog. My kids said it looked disgusting but tasted good. Well... except Natalie and Drew. They wouldn't even try it because "(they) could tell it was so gross because it looks so gross." Nice... Nothing quite so good for my self esteem as having the kids give me their honest opinions! LOL
UPDATE: I am now the Activities Committee Chairwoman. Yay! We have a busy few months. The Talent Show is next month, a Trunk or Treat in October, helping with the Canning Committee's Preparedness Fair in November and finally the Christmas program in December. Crazy! I think we'll take a little break after that!

Drew's first day of preschool

My little Drew looking so cute before his first day of "preschool for big kids".

Drew didn't even turn around to tell me good-bye. I'm glad that he's so excited about school. I wouldn't mind if he was going to miss me a bit, though!

Drew started preschool today. In preparation for it he got a haircut last night. He looks so handsome. Fortunately he was very excited to go. He got right out of the car and ran up to the door. He had a great time with Miss Judi and the kids in his class. He can't wait to go back.

After school I was talking to some of the other moms. Drew quickly grew tired of listening to us and kept saying, "Okay, Mom, let's go. Stop talking now, Mom. Let's go." (Only it sounded more like "Wet's doe." It's kind of funny when he has a stuffy nose...) Then he and I went to lunch with our long-lost friends, Jenn and Mason DeTemple. We see them in passing at church, but with summer being so crazy for both of our families, we haven't hung out since May. After lunch Mason came over here to play for a while, and then Drew went to their house to play. He's still there. I'd probably better go get him since it's dinnertime. I hope he'll come...

August- Week 2

The 3 older kids started their first day of school this week on Monday! Yay! So much fun. They were excited to see their friends, meet new friends, see who was in their classes and (most importantly) finally be able to wear their new school clothes! Natalie was also excited to go all day long and be able to eat lunch at the school... and take her new tin Hannah Montana lunch box. Kent got them up and made sure they ate breakfast. I had packed all their backpacks full of extras Sunday night.
Trevor rides his bike so he is always the first to leave. For those who know him you'll know that this is a rare thing. This is the boy who does everything he can to delay working or anything that he doesn't want to do... and usually the last one in the car when we leave. Natalie is still too young for me to trust her riding a bike, so I'm driving her to school. And last May, Justin's bike was stolen from the bike locker area (with the lock attached). It hasn't been recovered so he's getting a ride with us. It's nice to have him in the car to talk to every morning and afternoon.

Justin, my 7th grader (yikes!), sporting his new shorter 'do. His hair is getting curly so he's really hating life (read- his hair) right now. I'm just happy it's short!
Natalie, my 1st grader, looking prim and pretty. Her shirt says, "If it's drama you want, HERE I AM!"

Trevor, my 5th grader, looking so cool, calm and collected.

This week also marked the first class for Justin. Last week, you'll remember, Trevor started his hip hop class. He loved it. He even had the routine and several new moves down. He practiced every single day. With Kristen Seare's help (and the fact that she's considered somewhat of an expert on girls since she has 4 of them), I was able to convince Justin to sign up for hip hop. I know I could appreciate a guy who could dance so he said he would do it. Well, he went with Trevor on Monday, and 2 of his friends were in the class too, so they had a lot of fun talking. When Justin came home he had a huge grin on his face. He had a blast, and feels a bit better about this undertaking.

Then little Miss Natalie came home from dance last week to say that she went to her jazz class and her teacher switched her to another class. The other class was for the other girls in the other group so when she told me this I wasn't sure what was going on. When I went in to drop the boys off on Monday I talked to Miss Mandi, and she said she switched Natalie to the other group, and that she was also now in ballet. Natalie would now be thrilled, right? Of course not. She went to ballet today, though, and now she's excited about it. There were a lot of friends in class with her so that made her happy.

Drew Dog starts school on Thursday. He has a meet and greet class in the morning. Kent will get to take him this time as I have an appointment. I sure hope that Drew is excited to go. He's had quite the adjustment not having Natalie come home at lunchtime. He has been especially clingy and whiny this week. Some of it's probably due to the fact that he had the flu on Saturday, but most of it is because my poor boy doesn't know what to do with himself now that all his playmates are at school. He'll go 3 days a week, back to Miss Judy. He's totally excited about that. I'll post pictures of his first day on Thursday.

Kent's been totally busy with work. He's about to start more training so life will be even crazier next week. At least he's staying busy with his job. Hopefully that continues...

As for me, I've been working on completely redoing my office- again. My back was especially back all last week, and I was out of pain meds. It took 4 days to get me an appointment with my doctor, but it was well worth it. The pain has been more or less under control since Friday. I've been able to do some Pilates and yoga, so that's also helped. My office is almost ready for pictures. I just need to organize a few more things. Then I have a whole lengthy to-do list that I can tackle. I'll probably take some before and after pictures so I can see that, for at least for one minute, these areas were clean and organized.

August already?

This summer has gone by so fast! Natalie and I had our trip to the east coast, and then the entire family went to Utah. We were gone enough that Natalie wasn't able to take dance this summer. She said she was happy about it, but when we went to the studio she wanted to sign up for tap, jazz, hip hop and ballet. Of those classes she wanted to take we were only able to sign her up for tap and jazz. The hip hop class she wanted was full, and the other one didn't have anyone in it that she knew... same for ballet. So we signed her up for musical theater with some of her friends.
And here's my real coup d'etat. I got the two older boys signed up for boy's hip hop. I'm so excited! They will learn how to dance and not just do the round-and-round or side-to-side dance that I experienced going to dances when I was in junior high and high school. Trevor went to the first class and already has the moves down. Justin needed some convincing so he missed the first class. He's signed up now, though! LOL! He has 2 friends in it too so they should all have fun.
Now, what have we been up to lately?
Justin went to a paintball game for a friend's birthday party. He had so much fun. Besides that he's been hanging out with his friends, swimming and some reading. This is my major challenge with him. I've struggled since he was in first grade to find books that he enjoys reading, and haven't met with much success. We're finally finding some books that he seems to enjoy. This week he has also started staying up late with me while I've been working in my office. He's just wanted to talk. It's been nice. I'm really grateful that he wants to talk to me and have good conversations about topics that I don't know that I would've been comfortable talking to my parents about. I wanted to make sure that my kids felt that they could talk to me about anything. I try to reserve judgement and let them come to me when they need to talk. So far it's been working pretty well. A lot of Justin's friends talk to me too so I'm glad for that. I hope that he always feels safe talking to me, and I hope that I can always help him out.
Trevor has been coming out of his shell a bit. He's been playing with various friends, swimming and playing X-Box, of course. He's even been helping Justin and his friends. We frequently get calls from Justin's friends (or Justin calling from a friend's house) asking Trevor to help them defeat different levels of various games. Apparently he's some sort of prodigy when it comes to playing games. So he's been doing that. He's also done some reading. While we were up in Utah we stopped at a Border's bookstore. Everyone chose out a book to read. I can't remember the title of the book Trevor chose, but it's been one that he really has enjoyed.
Natalie has been playing with a lot of her little friends. Girls are so different from boys. She and her friends are either whispering and giggling or talking and laughing loudly. They love to do arts and crafts, color, do nails and play dress up. Her friends that took dance with her also put on little acts for us. She's still mommy's little girl, although when she wants something she'll go cuddle up to Daddy. She wants to do girls' nights out every week. She really would prefer every day.
Drew has been clingy to me for most of the summer. It started when I came back from my trip with Natalie and has more or less continued the entire time. I have managed to get him to have some play dates with some of his friends. He also looks forwards to visits from his Grandma Julie. They have a real close relationship. He always says that I'm his favorite person in the whole wide world, and when I ask him who he loves next he says Grandma Julie every time. Not his dad, brothers or sisters unless they've bribed him. But then he immediately changes it back to her. (Natalie wants me to say that I'm her favorite, and her second is Justin.) He's about to sign up for his class with Coach again. He took this class a year and a half ago right after I had back surgery. With Natalie in preschool and the boys in school he wanted to take a class too. He was just barely 3, and I found a class at the dance studio by my gym, and they combine tumbling, basketball, football, soccer and baseball. He LOVED it. He's been wanting to take it again ever since. So he's going to take that with his friend Kendrick. He can hardly wait!
Well I need to try to get to bed. I am trying to sleep at a normal time since school starts next week. My back pain has been terrible again so I haven't been able to get to sleep until almost dawn this week. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to see if she can help me out with that. I'd really like to be awake for my children's first days of school. Hopefully it works!