Wordless Wednesday

Tackle It Tuesday

My tackle it area today was our art bookshelf. A few months ago I put all their arts and crafts there so they would be more accessible. I tend to put messy things up high and they always forget about them. They have been using this heavily as you can tell and they really seem to like it.

Health Update

Since many of you are asking I figured I would give an update from my medical tests last week.

For those of you that don't know I had an episode at the end of April where I lost feeling in my right hand and I couldn't control the movement of it. It was followed immediately by a migraine. When the feeling came back in my hand I had a warm sensation going up my arm like I had in my legs when I was diagnosed 3 years ago with nerve damage in my legs. I called and made an appointment with my neurologist. He thought it was a complicated migraine (migraine preceeded by stroke-like symptoms) but wanted to test me for clots and previous strokes just in case. Last week I had a TCD test. This test involved an ultrasound that looked for blood clots. Another part of the test was injecting me with tiny bubbles to check for a leak or hole in my heart. There has been a strong correlation between migraines and a hole in the heart. If the test was negative I would just hear my normal heartbeat and if it was positive I would hear a little chirping. The test was off the charts with lots of chirping and for a long period of time. The doctor doing the test was amazed that I had two children without any health issues. My neurologist reported the results and said that it was strongly positive. He also said that the episode with my hand may have been a mini-stroke. He prescribed an anti-seizure medicine to prevent the migraines and an aspirin to prevent blood clots that could go through the hole. There is a cardiologist that is doing a study on this with the Ohio University of Medicine (I think that was the one) and he works out of a local hospital here. He referred me to him and thinks he will need to do a cardio catherization. I am also having shortness of breath and on two different, random days my heart kept racing. They will need to look and see if there is something else going on too. To make matters more fun my doctor thinks I should have my tubes tied but of course I can't do that until I meet with the cardiologist. I am waiting on the nurse from the neurologist's office to set up my cardiologist appointment.

I was shocked to find all this out. I have had a lot of migraines but didn't think much about them since Exedrin migraine usually takes care of them. I have been using that a lot lately. So now I'm trying to take things a lot easier and TRYING not to get upset with my children. I can just feel myself getting worked up sometimes and I'm a lot more likely to get migraines when that happens. I've cut back on my exercising too until I see the cardiologist.

My Graduate

Here is picture of my little preschool graduate with all his buddies (except Lance). I can't believe my youngest will be entering kindergarten this fall. I'm sure I'll need a lot of support on that day, his graduation was hard enough.

Anyway, I have to apologize to KC for not getting around to the Frog meme. I haven't had much time to blog lately because I am trying to take it easy. I will write about that in a later blog. It was hard for me to not get around to a Frog meme since I am a big frog person. Stacey is to frogs as Tina is to palm trees!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things I'm looking forward to in the summer:
1. NOT using the alarm clock
2. Time with my kids before I start working in the fall
3. Days at the beach
4. Family water gun fights (last year they all teamed up against me!)
5. Doug will be finished his training!!
6. Vacation Bible School
7. Picnics
8. Playing tennis with Doug (He loves to get beat and keeps asking for more!)
9. Not wearing coats
10. Trips to Dairy Queen
11. BBQs
12. Drive-in movies
13. Walking on the pier

Wordless Wednesday

Tackle It Tuesday

Here is my great 1st time bush trimming job.

Mother's Day Adventure

Today started with presents and breakfast in bed just like I hoped. We had to take a trip to the airport so we took it easy in the morning and picked up lunch so I wouldn't have to cook. Later we started our trip to the airport with a stop at the drugstore which made us run a little behind. When we saw the 2 mile sign for our exit we noticed that we had a flat tire with 50 minutes until the flight would leave. We called Doug's parents since Doug had to leave for his flight and didn't want me to deal with this problem alone. They left right away to start the hour and twenty minute trip. We tried to ride it as far was we could but came just short of the exit. The tire was now shredded. Doug got out (on the turnpike!) and put the donut on. Wouldn't you know it, the donut was low on air! We rode slow and luckily made it to the airport parking lot. Doug made his flight with 35 minutes to spare. The people that worked in the Limo/taxi service took me to get air in it. By the time we were done Doug's parents were there and we made it to Walmart to get a new tire put on. That took an hour so the 5 of us wondered around Walmart. How exciting!!! All in a day's work.

Anyway, we had these cute questions in our MOPs newsletter and I thought these were cute so I asked my children at different times. These are their answers:

1. Why did God make moms?
Robyn: So kids can be alive.
Garrett: So children can have moms to kiss'em and hug'em goodnight.

2. What ingredients are mothers made of?
Robyn: Sugar and spice and everything nice.
Garrett: Hair, freckles and shirts.

3. Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
Robyn: Because she's REALLY nice.
Garrett: Because he loves me very much.

4. What kind of little girl was your mom?
Robyn: A good little girl.
Garrett: Little girl with red hair.

5. What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
Robyn: If he was really good at being a dad.
Garrett: Make sure he's cute.

6. Why did your mom marry your dad?
Robyn: Because he was cute and she liked him.
Garrett: So she could have children and because he was very cute.

7. Who's the boss at your house? (Trick question since Doug has been traveling so much)
Robyn: Mommy
Garrett: Mommy and Daddy.

8. What's the difference between moms and dads?
Robyn: Dads have short hair and moms have long hair.
Garrett: Their hair color.

9. What does your mom do in her spare time?
Robyn: Reads to me and Garrett.
Garrett: Cleans up the house.

10. What would it take to make your mom perfect?
Robyn: Stop yelling at us.
Garrett: She needs new shirts.

11. If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
Robyn: Stop yelling at us.
Garrett: Turn lipstick into blue lipstick.

I Feel Healthy!!!

The last few weeks have been a little hard on me since I found out some news about my health. I may write about that another time since I won't know more until after May 22rd. Anyway, I was able to start working out again this week and feel so much better. For those of you who don't know I started exercising a little last fall and in January I found out that if I couldn't lower my cholesterol on my own that I would have to start prescription meds. I really took it seriously and changed my diet and focused on my exercise. I was able to significantly lower my cholesterol and since last August I have lost 18lbs and went down two sizes. I am two sizes smaller than I was in high school! That is amazing considering that after each of my pregnancies I was a size 14. The best news is that I feel healthier and more energetic than I have in my life. I found some things along the way that helped me get there and thought I would share them.

1. Stretchy pants are evil. I can eat a lot more when my pants don't get tight.
2. Exercise in the morning. During the course of a day I can talk myself out of exercising.
3. Shower afterwards and put on makeup and do your hair. If you look better you will feel better.
4. If you are going to feel guilty about eating it, don't eat it.
5. I drink a minimum of 32ozs a day of water. I'm not a thirsty person so I have to force it.
6. Force yourself to eat vegetables and fruit. The more you do it, the more you crave it. Different dips help me to get vegetables down.
7. If you are bored find something to do instead of watching T.V. I have become an organizing freak and it keeps me from oversnacking.
8. Snack at least 2 times a day in addition to 3 full meals. It really does keep your metabolism up.
9. Spend time outside. It does wonders for mental health.
10. If you have trouble getting motivated come over to my house. We can go for a walk or you can use my treadmill or exercise bike.

Tackle it Tuesday!

I don't have pictures of it, does it count? Yesterday I started edging my sidewalks and got about halfway through. Today I finished the other half. I was doing it with a shovel and it doesn't sound like much but I live on a corner so I have double the work. Next week my goal is cleaning and moving toys into the basement and edging my driveway.

Busy Week!

We had a really busy week at my house and I wasn't able to blog or email. My father came out to visit for the week, Doug was home and working nights (means I have to have dinner ready at 4!), our basement flooded again, I had some medical tests, I attended my first grandparent's day with my father at Garrett's school, had a sump pump put in our basement and set up and worked at Robyn's school fun fair. I thought I would be able to rest yesterday but had to deal with grocery shopping, hair cuts and working the fun fair. I thought I could rest today but realized Doug's scheduled changed again and he will be working days through Friday so I needed to cut the grass and went to church in the morning. I'm resting now, finally. I'll be shopping for Mother's day gifts tomorrow and that is really fun for me so I'm excited. This week should be a little more normal and less stressful.