Interesting Discovery

It's been one week now since I had surgery on my foot. The pain is hardly worth mentioning and the nausea is finally getting a little better. I can do most anything on crutches considering I've spent about 9 months of my life on them. The only drawback right now to getting stuff done is that my foot swells and turns purple if I don't have it elevated for more than a minute or so. But, I expect that to start improving pretty quick.

The cast has been an interesting subject on its own. Of course, the boys couldn't wait to sign their names on it. You can see Levi's on the left of the cast by my ankle. He wrote "Levi I Love You" . He also drew a pretty good KC Chiefs arrowhead at the top of the cast. Caleb and Clay didn't fare so well under the pressure of writing in permanent ink: You can see Clay's signature written backwards at the top of the cast. Caleb's signature is hard to see in the middle, but he was writing fancy block letters and left the "a" out of his name, so that it just says "Love, CLEB".

We've also had to make some minor adjustments to the cast. Once the nerve block wore off on Friday afternoon, I discovered that the cast was pressing really hard against my foot under my little toe. It felt like it was already really bruised. The hospital called that day to see how things were going, so I let them know that the cast was too tight around the top of my foot. She suggested I go to the ER to get it recast. After I hung up with her, I asked David to bring me a pair of pliers. With his help, we were able to break the cast around the top enough to take the pressure off. I don't know if the Dr. will be impressed with my ingenuity or not, but my foot feels much better.

The first three days we were home after the surgery were pretty cold, so we had lots of blankets on at night. Monday night it was a much warmer so we were sleeping without so many covers on. We usually read for a while after we get in bed, so when David turned the lights off later, I noticed something weird. I said "Do you see that ?". There was a neon glow in the room. David sat up and we both started laughing as we realized that my cast was glowing in the dark. I'd had it on for three days and we had no idea ! We thought about waking up the boys so they could see it because we knew they would think it was one of the coolest things ever. However, we decided we could just turn out all the lights in the bathroom and show them the next day. That was two days ago and I haven't got around to it yet, but maybe today I will.

Believe it or Not

LEVI INSIDE DIVING HELMET

Since the last post was really just boring information about my surgery, I thought I would post something more interesting to go along with it. On Monday, before my surgery, the boys and I went to Branson for "preadmission testing." Since it is a really long drive, I promised them we would try to find something fun to do while we were there. My original plan was to go to the Wonders of Wildlife Museum at Bass Pro in Springfield. That morning, I looked online for ticket prices only to discover they were closed for renovation. Fortunately, the boys weren't disappointed because we learned long ago that you never tell them you're going to do something until you're walking in the door to do it. So, I decided that while we were in Branson, we would go to Incredible Pizza. We've never been to one, but the boys have heard all about how great they are. Apparently there are indoor go-cart tracks and all kinds of other fun stuff. I guess its like Chuck E Cheese only way better according to Levi. So after we got to Branson, I told the boys we needed to go to one outlet shop to find Levi some honor choir clothes and then we would go to the surprise. As we pulled into the parking lot of Incredible Pizza the boys were so excited they couldn't stand it. That excitement quickly turned into disappointment and lamenting as we noticed the "For Sale" sign in the window. So, we had an enlightening discussion on the current economy and its effects on businesses. But that didn't seem to really cheer them up too much, so I decided to take them to Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. I'm not sure it was worth the money to get in, but the boys did have a great time looking at all the weird stuff inside. We spent about and hour and a half there before we had to go to the hospital. Below are some poor qualitiy cell phone camera pictures of a few of their favorite things.

GIANT BALL OF INDUSTRIAL BINDING

REPLICA OF WORLD'S TALLEST MAN

Surgery Update

Well, this is day 4 after having surgery on my foot and I feel like it should be week 4. This weekend went pretty fast, but I'm afraid I crammed too much into it. The Dr. put a nerve block in my leg when they did the surgery, so I felt no pain at all for the first 2 days.

So, since I wasn't in pain, it seemed like a good idea to go to Homecoming Friday night. Levi was singing the National Anthem in Honor Choir and so we all went to see him and watch the game. We left at half-time because it was really crowded and there is no good place to sit when you have a cast and crutches.

Saturday we went to Levi's game where I got really sick and layed down on the bleachers. David went to the concession stand and brought back a cup for me to throw up in. Fortunately, I didn't end up using it. The game went really badly, but I was too sick to even yell at the boys. Reed and LeeAnn came over Saturday night and brought supper and visited for a little while.

Sunday, David insisted I stay home from church and by then I had begun to agree with him that maybe I should cut back a little on extracurricular activities. I did however go to Caleb's game Sunday afternoon. It was his last 2 games of the season. I'm glad I didn't miss it because he scored about 26 points and had innumerable steals and rebounds. There were 2 ladies sitting in front of me complaining about how Caleb was always stealing the ball and another lady called him the jolly green giant. Fortunately for them, I wasn't up to expressing my opinion at the time. After the games, several of my family came over to our house to celebrate my Dad's birthday.

So, the weekend was pretty busy and today Levi has BB practice after school. I'll go, but I don't feel up to doing much coaching. I've had constant nausea since Saturday morning and I don't know how to get rid of it. I thought maybe it was the pain pills, but I haven't had one for about 20 hours and I'm still queasy. I'm sure it will all get worked out eventually.

David has done a great job at cooking the casseroles people from church have sent. He even figured out the delayed start setting on the oven to cook a casserole Sunday while he was at church. I'm so glad he isn't traveling this week !

Valentine's Day Weekend

Friday the 13th we had classroom Valentine's parties at school. Clay had his preschool party in the morning at 10am and Caleb and Levi had their parties at 2pm. Since I'm the room mother for Levi's class I usually end up staying for most of his party and just try to pop into Caleb's room to say "Hi" if I get a chance. I happened to pop in at just the right time for this party. You can see the big smile on Caleb's face - it's because he knows he's going to win the "Who Can Draw the Best Heart While Blindfolded" game. It doesn't matter what game it is, Caleb plays to win !

We all had fun at the parties and the boys came home with tons of candy. With careful rationing, I think we can make it till Easter.

On Saturday, we ate breakfast and gave the boys their Valentine's from me and Daddy. They each got a box of chocolates and we got them the movie Madagascar 2. Caleb and Clay were both jumping up and down and Caleb nearly tackled me when he came to thank me for the movie. Levi, being the grown up 10 year old that he is, was too cool to act all excited but I think he was pretty happy too.

Levi played basketball games at 11am and 1pm. They were both very close (we lost by 2 and then by 4) and Levi did a great job. He made 6 points and got a lot of rebounds. (Side note: Levi was a little disappointed when he saw Caleb's basketball pictures on the blog and not his. I tried to tell him that it is very hard to coach and take pictures at the same time, but after this surgery on Thursday, I think maybe I'll be able to watch and take pictures instead of coach this Saturday.) When we got home, all the guys went out and cut wood for a couple of hours.

That night, David and I went shopping (surprisingly, his idea) and he got a few shirts and pants for work. (I got some stuff too.) Then we went out to eat at a local Thai restaraunt. It was really nice because we didn't have to wait to be seated. A couple of other places we checked on had 2 hour waits ! David and I ordered the same thing, but they have a spicy rating from 1 (mildest) to 5 (hottest) and he ordered a 4 and I ordered a 2. David really enjoyed his, but I had a hard time eating mine because my lips were on fire. I told David we should move to Thailand and I could lose all kinds of weight ! The boys were home with our babysitter watching Madagascar 2 and she had them in bed before we got home. We had a great time together and marveled at how fast time flies when you're an adult. It's hard to believe we've been married almost 15 years.

On Sunday, we went to church and hurried home for a quick bite before Caleb's ball games. He won his first game twenty-something to zero and the second game they only won by 3. Caleb was very frustated during the first game because the opposing team's coach designated one boy to "stay on Caleb" the entire time. It didn't matter if the boy was on offense or defense he was guarding Caleb. And by guarding I mean flailing him with his arms and leaning on him wherever he went. Caleb finally had enough and gave him a quick, discreet elbow to the stomach after which he backed off just a little. It was a good experience for Caleb and I'm proud that he didn't explode and push the boy down. Overall, Caleb had a great time playing.

Sunday evening, Daddy went out and pushed Caleb and Clay on the swing. I did laundry and practiced a song on the piano and Levi worked on his Columbia project. Then we all ate supper and relaxed while watching America's Funniest Home Videos. It was a great weekend.

New Dogs Mess Up Picture Day

Wednesday night when the boys went down to pick up the trash cans, they came back with more than just the cans. Two big white dogs followed them back up the driveway. I am by no means a dog expert, but they looked to me like labradors. They were really friendly and seemed to be pretty clean, which made me think they were probably not dumped (which happens frequently around here.) We checked with the neighbors on our road, and no one seemed to know who they belonged to. They stayed around that evening and the boys had a great time playing with them. They would chase a stick and bring it back and they even played football with the boys. Clay wanted to know when Jessie (our beagle) was going to get big like them. He was pretty disappointed when I told him that Jessie is as big as she's going to get. The boys were falling in love with the labs and even came up with some creatively challenged names: "Whitey" and "Dark Whitey". I'm not much of an animal person, but even I was becoming fond of the new dogs. Jessie, on the other hand, was less than excited about her new "friends." We call her the 'scaredy dog' because she barks and runs away (tail between her legs) from anything she perceives as a threat - including the cat when we got him. So, the big dogs were very intimidating and she barked and ran and was even shaking like a leaf. As you can see in the picture, the boys had pity on her and would stand her on the deck rail where she was above and out of reach of the dogs.

Thursday evening, they went out to play with the dogs and put Jessie in the garage where she could rest in peace away from the labs. After awhile, Caleb and Clay went in to check on Jessie. Caleb decided to go back and play and on his way out, slammed the garage door behind him. Now, according to Caleb, he had no idea that Clay was 1 step behind him. When he closed the door, it popped Clay right in the mouth and busted his lip and gums. When he came in, I thought he was missing a tooth too, but it was just covered up with blood. There was a lot of blood and a lot of tears and in the end, Clay's lip swelled up to about twice its normal size. He looked just perfect for school pictures the next day (yes, the ones that go in the yearbook.) This picture was taken pretty soon after the incident, and it doesn't look too bad yet.

Clay's lip eventually scabbed over and looked much worse than it did on picture day, so there's something to be thankful for. Also, the dogs apparently wandered back home because we haven't seen them for several days now. David thought he had seen them at a house about a mile up the road from us before they showed up at our house, so maybe thats where they came from. The boys still think they would like to get a big dog now, but I think that Daddy and I are pretty content with 3 cows, 3 calves , 1 dog and 1 cat.

Days Without Daddy

David is gone this week again. He left Monday to go to Reno, NV for a trade show being held there. So, like I mentioned before, we try to find things to do to distract from his absence during the week.

Monday, I went and got a membership to the Carthage library, thinking I'll need plenty of books to read after I have my foot surgery next Thursday. As a surprise for the boys I rented Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark. We saw the new Indiana Jones movie in the theater last year and the boys really liked it. I had seen Raiders of the Lost Ark many years ago and had an overall favorable impression of it. Apparently, I had forgotten several significant details of the movie - like hordes of skeletons, freshly speared people, faces melting off, and demons flying around. I anticipated a night of bad dreams for all, but fortunately no one woke up screaming in the middle of the night.

Tuesday was a perfect stay at home day. The temperature was 72 degrees (35 in Reno) and Clay helped me "smother" the garden. This was something I wanted to do about 3 months ago, but my back kept me from doing it then. I figured better late than never, and it was a good excuse to enjoy the weather. The process involves spreading a layer of newspaper, 10 - 12 pages thick over the grass, and then covering it with leaves. It doesn't sound that hard, but trying to lay down newspaper when the wind is blowing 25mph is pretty tricky. We eventually filled a bucket with water and soaked the newspaper first. Then it took me and Clay about 12 trips of filling up a wagon and a bucket with leaves and hauling it back to the garden. We spent about 5 hours total on the project, but we only had enough Wall Street Journals to cover a little less than half the garden. When the boys got home, they filled out Valentine's Day cards for their class, cleaned their rooms, got haircuts and showers, and then we watched Charlie Brown's Valentine's Day special.

Today, after Byron (who comes home with us almost everyday until his mom gets off work) left, we went to Carthage so that Levi and Caleb could get library cards of their own. The main reason for that was that for the first 30 days after you get a card you can only check out 2 items at a time. Well, selfishly, I wanted to use my 2 items for myself, so I decided to get them their own cards. They got their cards and Caleb checked out a Magic Treehouse book (#3,442 I believe (Ha)) I thought he had read them all, but I guess there's more ! He has already finished it as I am writing this tonight. Clay checked out a book about Pigs in Bed and Levi checked out an Alex Rider book and Tolkein's The Fellowship of the Ring. Afterwards we met my Dad for supper at Bamboo Garden. When we got back home, Daddy called and all the boys talked to him for awhile. When I asked him how his day was he replied "Well, nothing really bad happened." I guess you can't ask for more than that !?!

Tomorrow David's flight gets back to KC at 3:30pm so he'll be home in time for supper. It'll have to be a quick supper, because we have to go to a 4H meeting afterward. We would just skip it, but we have to make 3 of the next 4 meetings in order for the boys to qualify for the fair. (Honestly, I wouldn't shed any tears over missing the fair, but I'd be the only one.) So, we can't wait for Daddy to get home, but I know the time will go too fast before he's off to Sterling, IL on Monday and we have to start all over !

Game Day

Yesterday was Caleb's first basketball games of the season. We had about 20 minutes after we got home from church to eat and get ready for the game. Caleb plays against other teams from Jasper - there are 4 teams in all, so he is playing against all of his friends. He scored about 13 points total (he made one 3-pointer) and I quit keeping track of how many times he stole the ball after about 15. I think that is his favorite part of playing - sneaking up on the person receiving the pass and intercepting it. Caleb's team won both games 16 - 6 and 23 - 0. We had a great time watching him. He only plays for 2 more Sundays and he'll be done. Caleb and I wish it were longer !!!

This was one of Caleb's many steals.

Caleb also made several excellent passes.

Caleb shooting free throws.

Thursday Trash Can Races

Monday morning is trash day at our house, so the boys are supposed to bring the trash cans back up the driveway (which is about 1/8 mile) when they get off of the bus on Tuesday. Well, it was Thursday and the cans were still at the end of the driveway and I'd reached the end of my patience. I made Levi and Caleb stop the video games they had just started to play and told them to go get the trash cans. They grudgingly got their boots on and went out to get them.

I was busy cooking supper and I looked up at the clock and noticed it had been about 30 minutes since they had gone out. So, I went out to check on them and what I saw made me wonder if common sense is something they will grow into eventually or if we're just out of luck. They saw me and yelled excitedly, "Mom, come see this ! We've made up a great new game!"

Their new game was called Trash Can racing and involved one boy climbing inside the dirty, moldy, smelly, fly-ridden trash can and then putting the lid on securely after which the other boy pulled the trash can full speed down the driveway until they reached the finish line or it tipped over, spilling its occupant onto the gravel. And there was even some protocol attached (Levi's idea) : The person holding the trash can had to say "Come on in, the trash can's fine !" before the other person could enter the trash can. That was also the official slogan of Trash Can racing. I tried to convey the whole uncleanliness aspect of the sport, but Caleb said "Smell me Mom, I don't stink !" I declined the generous offer and they begged me to watch them each take one turn. I figured they were already germy and disgusting, one more ride each wouldn't hurt. So they demonstrated their new sport and afterwards I made them come in and immediately strip down and get in the shower.

By then, Daddy had gotten home and the boys couldn't wait to tell him about their new creation. Daddy shared my opinion on the whole germy and disgusting aspect of the sport. Levi said, "But we're going to have Trash Can Races every Thursday !" Daddy quickly nixed that idea and said we weren't going to have Trash Can races ever. We told the boys while we appreciated their creativity, imagination and enthusiasm, we valued their health and cleanliness even more.

Meanwhile, you may have noticed that Clay was unusually absent from this story. He has developed a great affinity for taking baths and he started one right when the boys left to go get the trash cans. I got caught up with cooking supper and the Trash Can races, so Clay got to soak in the tub for about an hour. So, while the older 2 boys looked and smelled like pigs, Clay looked like a tall skinny raisin. Just another relaxing night at home !

Birthday Party

After a pretty unpleasant day spent in a snowstorm in Cleveland, sitting on a tiny plane on the tarmac for 6 hours, David finally made it home Wednesday evening around 6:30pm. I'd spoke to him a couple of times during the day, but it didn't ever feel like a good time to say "Happy Birthday !" We were all relieved when he made it back. We had a semi-healthy birthday dinner of sirloin steak, baked potatoes, salad, homemade honey wheat bread and grapes. (At least nothing was fried !) The boys had all made cards for Daddy, so after supper he read all of them.

We had wrapped his present in brown paper and we all wrote messages on it for him. So, after reading all the messages, he opened his present. I was sure he wasn't going to be surprised because he had mentioned to me that he wanted a chop saw. I hadn't really planned on getting one, because I don't know anything about them. But when Levi told him on the phone the other night that we had his present, he said "Is it a chop saw ?" , so I decided that maybe we should try and get one and just save the receipt so he could take it back if I got the wrong thing. I could see the surprise on his face when he opened it, so I though I must have gotten the wrong thing after all. As it turns out, I didn't get the wrong chop saw, I got the really nice chop saw (which threw Daddy's financial heart into shock). He did really like it, but I'm not sure if we'll keep it or go back and get the base model chop saw. Anyway, we had a really enjoyable evening together celebrating Daddy's 37th birthday.

By the way, Clay decided the birthday festivities were worthy of his hulk suit, so that is why he appears green in all the pictures.

Groundhog Day

Remember when you were a kid and all holidays were big deals ? I'd kind of forgotten about that until Monday morning. While we were eating breakfast, I mentioned that it was Groundhog Day, and Clay looked at me like I had just said "Santa Claus came last night." He lit up and said "Can I get my boots on and go outside ?" I asked what he wanted to do (because it was freezing cold) and he informed me that he was going to go find the groundhog. We tried to explain that the big piles of dirt all over our yard were from moles not groundhogs, but he wasn't convinced. So, I let him go out and he was back pretty quick. He was a little disappointed because he looked in several holes and didn't see any groundhogs. We went to preschool then and when I picked him up 3 hours later, he had come up with a new plan. After we walked in the door, he helped me put wood on the fire and asked if he could go get the shovel. I said "Whatcha gonna do with a shovel ?" He said the groundhogs were deep in the holes so he would have to dig them out. I told him we really didn't need to make the holes bigger, because people might trip and fall in them. I reminded him that not too long ago, Nana came over and fell in a hole and got a huge black eye. Not to be deterred, he countered "But Mom, Nana never goes in the back yard where I'm gonna dig !" I finally let him go dig after he assured me he would put all the dirt back in the holes. I figured it would wear him out and he would take a good nap later. He stayed out for about 30 minutes digging, but he never could get to the groundhog. He did put most of the dirt back in the holes. He was a little disappointed, but he was happy that he at least got to get dirty even if he didn't see the groundhog.

Alone again

We all got up early this morning to eat breakfast with Daddy because he's leaving today on a business trip. He'll only be gone till Wednesday, but it always seems a lot longer than what it sounds like. When he's gone, we have to find stuff to do to distract ourselves from his absence in the evening. Tonight, Levi has basketball practice and afterward I think we'll go watch the girls HS basketball team play. A lot of my students from last year make up the team, so I enjoy watching, and the boys enjoy running around the gym with their friends and eating junk food from the concession stand.

Speaking of junk food, we've cut out most junk food at our house after Daddy got his annual health report back. He has high cholesterol, so we've traded in bacon & eggs for oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies for fruit. As you can imagine, the boys were a little less than excited about the change. But things are actually going pretty well. The other night we had fish and I was pretty skeptical. This is the first time I've ever cooked fish without dipping it in eggs and cornmeal and frying it in a big old pan of butter flavored Crisco (come to find out - that is not good for your cholesterol !). I broiled it with some parmesan cheese and other stuff on it and the older 2 boys actually wanted seconds. The low cholesterol diets also recommends cutting out a lot of red meat, but you've got to draw the line somewhere ! Owning cattle, we have a vested interest in people buying red meat. I have quit buying very much hamburger and am going for leaner cuts of beef - but we won't be cutting out red meat anytime soon (or ever .)

Well, its time for me to go get my baby from preschool. He is the one member of our family that needs the opposite of a diet. So when we get home, I'll probably make him a big plate of processed chicken nuggets while I eat tuna salad on 1/2 a whole wheat bagel !