More on the wrist

MRI results are back, possible tear of the cartilage. Don't know what that means for future treatment. I have to see an orthopedic doc now. This wrist is starting to get very expensive. :( Lovely.

Back to the daily grind

What a great week of vacation we had at Lake Mary! My kids had a blast and asked to go back about 2 minutes after we left. We are unsure if we will be back next year, so we will have to see what happens in the coming year and what the other family members decide.

Well I had an MRI done yesterday on my wrist. After a week of the brace and then going back to work it is actually feeling a little worse. So hopefully something that is easily fixable is going on, and not something horrible like arthritis. I'm too young for that and have too many years left to work.

Starting October 1st, I will be down to 3 days a week at the dental office. I decided not to take the job offer from Dr.C, since Dr. B wasn't real keen on my taking it. But we still needed to make some budget cuts/earn more money, so we decided to start a daycare co-op. I am actually very excited to be spending two days a week with my children and their cousins. I have started planning the school curriculum that we will do every day. I bought a preplanned one online and the "lessons" everyday are a lot of fun, and better than I could have come up with on my own. I think my sisters will enjoy have some preplanned structure to their days as well.

We have one more daycare meeting to hammer out some details, but I really think this is going to be a great adventure. I am excited to be investing in my family, to have my kids spend more time getting to know their cousins, and be able to spend more time with my kids myself. And secretly I think I've always wanted to be a teacher!

Ouch

Going to the doctor's today for my wrist. It hurt last week while we were golfing and has only gotten worse. I was thinking I would wait it out and see what happens after Lake Mary, but then this morning I put a little pressure on it and almost passed out! Maybe its just a pinched nerve, I don't recall doing anything to injure it, but either way it needs to be fixed because I can barely do anything with it. Guess we'll find out this afternoon.

A morning full of packing, and getting my carpets cleaned. Hopefully I will find some motivation to clean the rest of my house so that when we get back from Lake Mary we can come home to a clean house. The last load of laundry is in the dryer right now (I was up at 5:20 this morning doing laundry and the whole crew was at Menards by 6:30!)

Off to clean the garage and start loading the van! My kids are already asking every 10 minutes when we are leaving, it could be a long day!

100mph and no brakes

Holy busy-ness. I don't even know what we've been up to lately but I feel like we've been going 100mph with no time to rest.

This past weekend I went to my friend Jen's bachelortte party, what a blast! And I got to see all my dental school girls, it was fantastic. Can't wait for the wedding.

I had Monday off from work and got to see Katie, who is visiting from California. Hopefully I will get to go to dinner with her once before she heads back, the park with 4 kids wasn't exactly ideal for catching up.

I am the only doc in the office this week, its quiet, which is nice. I was fairly busy yesterday but will be slow today. So I decided to start some new projects. Baby stuff for all of the babies being born soon! And I need to cut out some stuff with my cricut for Lindsey's baby room.

Also been busy in my head trying to figure out all of the pros/cons and logistics of the daycare co-op we might be starting. Now I'm trying to figure out if we could start right after labor day instead of waiting. I dread telling my daycare lady that we will be done going to her, but I think it would be easier to tell her now rather than go to her for one month and then quit. Once we get over this hump I think it will be smooth sailing, as long as my sisters are as committed as I am.

My head has also been busy trying to figure out how to get Matt and Maria back to Minnesota, with jobs, and Maria being able to finish her masters in social work. I will pretty much do anything ( Josh even agreed to let their dog live here if they come back!) to get them back here. I know our hospitals will be good, we aren't ranked as high as Chicago as far as heart surgery "success", but our caring MN attitudes reflected in the nurses makes a big difference for healing and post op.

Only a few more days before lake mary, and we haven't even started packing or figuring out our food situation. Oh well, they have grocery stores in Alexandria!

Trying to catch up

Well geez, once again it's been forever since I've updated this thing. Every time I start up again I say I'll write more but then I realize my left isn't very exciting. Even my blog decor isn't very exciting. But who has time to really do that? Not this momma.

We've been having a blast this summer. All three of the kids discovered they actually like to play in the water and Coen will even run thru sprinklers (and now he'll even take a shower instead of a bath!) Probably more because Leo takes them now but whatever, as long as he will take them I don't care how he got there.

So a couple of big things happened/are happening with me. First and mostly sad I had a miscarriage. We weren't trying to get pregnant but my thyroid meds were off so my NFP signs weren't real define and we weren't exactly super strict on preventing. But because of who knows why (again could be because of my thyroid) I miscarried. And what a miscarriage it was. I thought I was start a normal cycle but then it kept going and going, for 55 days. Around day 14 was when I went to the doctor and had my hcg checked- I was a little surprised there was any at all. The levels were low so I had it checked again 2 days later, it was suppose to double, it was higher but not doubled. At this point she suspected a miscarriage but couldn't rule out pregnancy yet. Anyway, yes I miscarried. I think my hormones got a little out a whack (combined with the messed up thyroid) but other than being a little more emotional I am fine. Sad that I lost a baby, but I lost it before I even knew about it and that happens quite frequently so I'm ok with that. S

On to some better news. I have been really slow at work. (no that first statement was not sarcastic, just keep reading, it really is better news). I've been working up the courage all week to talk to Dr.B about dropping down to 3 days and I've submitted my resume to a couple of offices around the twin cities looking for some part time work (1-2 days a week). So of course I didn't talk to Dr.B this week but about 15 minutes after I left work on Thursday he called and said he wanted to talk to me about Dr.C (Drs A, B, and C- this could make an interesting Dr.Suess book.) Well Dr. C- who works in Andover (!!!) and who I really enjoy talking with, well his associate just quit and he is looking for someone to come and work with him- Fridays perhaps. So this just fell right in my lap! (Well now I'm wondering if perhaps I sent my resume to Dr.C's office without knowing, sometimes they don't list in the ad where their office is at.)

So I will be talking to Dr.B next week and hopefully things will work out. Exciting!

Extreme couponing

Ok, so I have never actually watched this show, extreme couponing, but I think I should. I always use coupons. It is rare if I go to the store without one. And now they made a whole show out of it. Granted the show is very extreme but still, these people are walking away with AMAZING deals.

I am hoping to do that today. I am headed to walmart, I have two coupons for $1.00 off and supposedly both of these products are on "rolllback" at walmart this week for $1.00! So I will keep you posted.

Also I am going to Rainbow tomorrow because on Saturday they double 10 manufacturers coupons!!! And I have some great ones to double!

***update***
So my first attempt at extreme couponing was a success. I scored a free box of bandaids and free disposable razors using the right coupon and the right walmart sale! Woohoo.

New Specs

Isn't he handsome! And totally adorable! I love his glasses. Now if I could only get him to keep them on. He wouldn't eat his dinner with them on, he said it was too hard. So we made a deal that he had to put them on right after dinner and wear them the rest of the night. He has a tball game tonight so we'll see how well that goes. He is currently wearing them now though and has been for like 15 whole minutes!

Lets hope he doesn't break them because boy were they expensive, and of course we have no eye insurance.

How soon can he get lasik???

who knew this blog would turn in to my weight loss story...

I have reached another weight loss milestone! Weight watchers doesn't recognize it, but to me it is a big deal. I have made it in to the "150's". And since I started in the "180's" this is a BIG deal to me! I finally set some work clothes aside (well moved them to the basement actually) since they were so big that they were starting to look really bad. I've never experienced that before! I am almost able to wear my pre Coen dress pants (all the clothes I bought when I started dental school and we had to dress up everyday). Which is really excited because I LOVE those pants!

If it would ever stop raining maybe we'd be able to get outside and bike ride.

The count down to Florida has started (it is now so close it has made it on to my white board calendar!) I am so excited for a few days to sit on the beach, read, nap and spend some one on one with Josh. Hopefully I can shed a few more pounds in the next 4 weeks so I look even better sitting on the beach!

Bonfires

Going to gramma's today! Haven't been there in what seems like forever. Hoping to get outside a little after the birthday celebration. Maybe find some rocks and trees to spruce up our yard. Not getting any 30 feet tall trees this time...although they did make nice fire wood last night! Hopefully we'll bring back some fire wood too. We've been having bonfires as often as we can, we start early and end early but they are still fun. We always manage to pick the windiest nights and have had trouble getting the fires started but last nights was perfect! Great way to start the weekend.

Grow ego grow

Feeling pretty proud of myself right now. Went garage sale-ing with the kids this morning. Found an awesome dinosaur lamp for $1.00 for Coen's room. Found a doll stroller for $.50 and a game that I once played and liked, compatibility, for $.50. Then I found a bunk bed, with two twin mattresses for $35, but I only had $34 so I got a bargain. The mattresses scare me a little with all the bed bug hype, but they look very nice and I have this mattress spray that is made out of enzymes that gets rid of all organic matter. So I used that. I am going to try to sell one mattress to Dad (for Jeph) and keep the other one I think.

So the proud part comes when I went to mom and dads, hooked up the trailer all by myself and loaded the bed and mattresses and drove all the way home without any incidents! Go me!

I am also proud of myself because I have lost 10% of my starting weight. My total weight loss is now 20.6 pounds! I am halfway there! Feeling good, and looking good (for me).

Not on my bucket list, but I'll do it anyway

Well it looks like I won't be able to escape the one thing I've always dreaded doing. I have been so lucky to have never done this before but now it looks like I have to face the facts and finally make myself a resume.

I dread this.

I don't know why this is such a fear, such a dreaded task but it is.

Oh well.

Don't worry. I am not losing my job. Only possibly cutting back days. We are slow, and only getting slower, with no signs up picking up any time soon. So I will be looking for a part time dentist job to get me through. I don't want to work Fridays (or possibly even Saturdays) but I guess I'd rather do that than move out of my house.

So if anyone wants to write my resume, I will pay you, in Easter candy.

Lent

So Lent is my most favorite time of the church year. It is the one time that I consistently focus on the readings, the homily, the music. I try my best to focus the rest of the year, but even the kids can't interrupt my focus during lent.

I also love the music. I love church music all year round and often judge how good mass was based on the songs we sang but during lent and Easter I love the music that much more. I always wish I was able to sing a little bit better (ok, a lot better) because I love to sing so much in church but always feel bad for the people in front of me. Oh well. God knows how much I love to sing and if he cared about the quality of my voice he would have given me a better singing voice I guess. I bet He thinks I sing beautifully, so who else matters?

Gettin skinny

Well I finally signed up for weight watchers. I am determined to lose some weight. I've been doing it (online only) for 1 week and so far so good! I weighed in this morning and am down about 5 pounds in the first week! I think that partially has to do with my crappy scale that I used last week. But I'll take it! Hopefully I can keep up 2 pounds a week- that would be awesome.

Even with Coen's birthday party during last week, I still ended up with a few extra points (which they don't recommend, but I'm ok with it) I definitely didn't starve (the first two days I was a little hungry) but I am just much more aware of what I put in my mouth. Someone brought muffins in to work the other day, two weeks ago I would have eaten half, at least, without even thinking about it. When I calculated how many points one muffin was it was about 45% of my daily points. So I said no thanks! So proud of myself.

I paid for a 3 month membership so I hope I can stick with it for at least 3 months. That plus exercising and I'm hoping I look better than I do now when I go to Florida in June.

Tonight or tomorrow we are hopefully going to try the biking thing again. I just hope Cadence gets in.

So grateful

Wow! I can't believe how fast these past four years went. 4 years ago today (in about 1.5 hours) I became a mom. Greatest moment of my life ever. Somedays I still can't believe I'm a mom, let alone a mom to three kids! Its unreal.

And its unreal how fast it could all be taken away. Yesterday was the biggest scare of my entire life. The moment I turned around and saw Cadence under that woman's car, trapped in her bike trailer. It is still so unreal. Josh and I are both having nightmares still, all of the what ifs. Josh had the worse view of the event as he was behind me and saw the entire thing. He remembers nothing of what happened from the time the woman ran over Cadence until we were all on the sidewalk.

I was a little more rational, calling 911 and moving my bike to the sidewalk. I guess that's me though, get things organized. Keeping busy, always moving.

Worst day and night's sleep of my life. Horrific, terrifying, and we all came out better than fine in the end. But why won't my mind shut off. We are so blessed to have three amazing kids, and very watchful guardian angels.

All Aboard!

Can't wait for Chicago! Our train leave at 7:50 am Saturday morning. The kids are so excited. We are all packed up ready to go. It looks like rain for the whole trip, but at least it will be warmish (50-60). And hopefully it won't rain all day every day.

We have a lot on our itinerary. Shed Aquarium, Willis Tower, Millennium Park, possibly the Zoo, Lucky's.

Pleas pray for us, for safe travels, happy children, and patient parents!

What a great weekend! (minus the loss of an hour)

Saturday during the day we replaced all of the light bulbs in our kitchen with CFLs that is 13 total bulbs (2 were already CFLs) and we installed a programmable thermostat so that when we aren't at home we won't be heating (or cooling) our house unnecessarily. I feel like such a green energy saver this weekend!
Saturday night was game night, played a new game, bezzerwizzer or whatever it was called. I really liked it even though it was a trivia game. Then we played some taboo and of course the girls won.

Sunday I did a little project I've been meaning to do for about a year now...I finally hemmed the curtains in our living room. They turned out pretty good, except for one panel. I think that panel must have been shorter than the rest to begin with because when I cut off 8 inches it ended up about 2 inches shorter than the other ones.... so don't look too closely when you come over. Overall they look pretty good though.

Then I made beef stew for dinner (we have a 1/4 of a cow in our freezer so we'll be eating a lot of beef this year) and had my family over (minus my mom). It was fun to have everyone over without a reason. Ice cream cones for dessert was the perfect way to end the weekend.

Today is(n't) my birthday

I love birthdays. I love to make a big deal out of birthdays. I think you should get to celebrate for the whole week, so at our house we have birthday week. And they are awesome. Coen has his GOLDEN birthday coming up soon and we are going to have the best party ever. This will be my first attempt at making cupcakes that are decorated and not just frosted with a tub of betty crocker frosting. I'm hoping they turn out so awesome because I want Coen's party to be very memorable for him.

I was just in the kitchen cleaning out a drawer and found 4 birthday cards that I had tucked away. 2 were from my 2010 birthday and 2 were from my 2011 birthday. The two from this year were from my kids. The first cards they have ever given me. Coen wrote "Happy Birthday" all by himself and I loved all of the nice things Amy wrote inside. The inside of the one from Cadence says "I love parties!" I love that girl!

The cards from 2010 were special to me also. One was from work. Who knew that on your birthday you got a card signed by everyone and some birthday cash! Wow! I love my birthday even more now :)

The second card from 2010 was from my sister in law Lindsey. And it had one of the most wonderful, touching affirmations I have ever received in it. I was near tears the first time I read it and near tears when I just reread it. I never acknowledged to her that I received it and was so touched (I meant to but I never knew what to say) so I wanted to publicly let her know that that note meant so much to me. I will keep it forever and hope that the things you wrote to me still hold true every time I read it. So thank you for making my birthday extra special. It felt like my birthday all over again today when I read it again. So I guess maybe I'll celebrate my birthday for the whole year instead of just a week :)

A heavy heart

Please pray for my dear friend Heidi's brother in law who passed away yesterday at only 23 years old. I never met him but my heart aches for his family.

http://www.snyderfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/obit_view.phtml?id=10490

To pee or not to pee

So I had my first, "my kid is not old enough" moment this morning. Of course I always look at my kids and can't believe how big and old they are already, but this morning was different. I am usually proud and excited for my kids to pass milestones, but not this morning. This morning it made me sad, because Coen is growing up, and he knows it.

This morning wasn't the first time it has happened, but its the first time I realized what was going on. After Coen was done using the bathroom I realized his pants were all wet and there was pee all over the floor. He admitted that he stands up to pee now. I tried to convince him he isn't ready for that yet, but he stood his ground and insisted that he should stand up to pee now. Obviously he isn't quite ready (not tall enough for one, and no one has actually shown him how) but by me telling him he isn't ready makes him want to do it more. And honestly even if he were ready, I'm not ready for this yet. It just seems too grown up and I like the innocence of him needing to sit down to pee.

Sad morning for this usually proud momma.

Puppy Love

We recently came into a house full of pets. We now have about 30 littlest pet shop pets, accessories, and play houses. (thank you craigslist) This morning Cadence brought 3 to church;a puppy, a kitten, and a sea horse. Charlotte managed to put the entire sea horse in her mouth (they are kind of little, but that girl has a jaw like a python!), and Cadence decided that the best home for the dog would be....in my cleavage. She tucked her in the top of my shirt with her little head sticking out, and she stayed in there snug as a bug. Who needs all of those fancy accessories when you have your mom's cleavage?!?

Soccer Mom (to be)

Ohmygosh! I cannot believe that I am the proud new owner of a new to me minivan! A minivan. When did this whole mom of three kids, need more space in the car for all the kids junk happen? I'm still a little shocked. Especially because we got the super decked out minivan. Remote starter, backup camera, dvd player, sirius radio and tv, heated leather seats...ohmygosh. Where do I sign my kids up for soccer?

Gearing up for a summer of fun!

Feeling pretty proud of myself. Worked out 3 days in a row to a new workout series. Its another 90 day program (initially) but the workouts are much shorter than the p90x so easier for me to squeeze it into my day. Feeling sore but good all over.

Now I just need to get some will power and eat better. Always my biggest struggle. I just love food too much. I think if I was busier at work that would help, because I sit around, get bored and end up snacking on things people bring in. Today I was good and only ate my fiber bar, which actually tastes good, but then for lunch I wasn't all that disciplined and ate a bag of chips. Tomorrow I am packing a lunch and making it healthy!

I'll never be bikini ready but I'd at least like to be "mom swimsuit" ready.

The Hoover

My kid will eat anything.
Including Polly Pocket's shoe.
Which I found in his diaper this morning.
So now what?
Coen says,"Cadence will be soooo sad."
I wonder what else is hanging out in his intestines.

We are not rich

I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting surprises in our bank account!!! Not only did our federal taxes get deposited sometime during the night but Josh got a little extra on his paycheck too!

Minneapolis school district had a pay freeze in affect for the last two years so no raises were given and no pay increases were given for completing masters degrees and such. Well last fall they determined they had no right to put the pay freeze in affect and all teachers were promised some back pay to catch them up. This was going to happen in December and January. December and January's checks came and they were a little larger than normal, we were satisfied. Josh isn't making a lot of money but it is what it is, being a teacher and all, so we were pleased with the small raise and backpay. Well then today's paycheck came...and it was bigger than the December and January's checks.

I don't really pay attention to Josh's checks, I'm only allowed to see the deposit, I don't see a pay stub and I don't know how to interpret the stupid thing anyway. I assumed everything was paid out in December in January and that our checks would be the normal amount from now on. So this came very unexpected- but what a great surprise!

Contrary to what many people believe we are not rich. Yes I make a nice income but it cost me so much money to get to that income and for the next 24 years I will be paying that back. So pretty much we live on a very tight month to month budget with not a lot of wiggle room.

Our new years resolution for 2011 was to be debt free (not including student loans and mortgage). So this will help us make a dent in our debt and get us going on our new years resolution!

Back to blogging

Trying to get back into blogging like the rest of the family. Couldn't have picked a busier time in our lives so we'll see if I keep up with it.

Cadence has been a handful lately, she's been doing remarkable well in the eating department since she's gotten her tonsils out but once her pain meds wear off she's a terror! Its been a little stressful around here, with Cadence needing more attention and Coen knowing he's getting less attention and acting out because of it. Thank God for cool, calm,chill, Noble. I love that boy- red hair and all!