Meth Mondays

It's a "Meth Monday" here in the Pladsen house.  Mondays mean Katie gets to take 8 pills instead of her regular 3 every day.  These pills are really very easy for her to take and so far we haven't had any side effects.  (Knock wood)

The blue ones are Naproxen.  The bigger yellow one is the Folic Acid and the 5 mini ones are the Methotrexate.  If I were pregnant I would have to hold those Methotrexate pills with GLOVES on.  If my skin touched them I would have to wash my hands immediately because of the severe danger of birth defects.  You'll see there were no gloves....ergo....no Pladsen baby.

If a woman wanted to have a baby she'd have to be off Methotrexate for 6 months before even attempting.  Obviously it can't be taken while pregnant and there are mixed results on breastfeeding.  So we'll worry about that much, much later.

The injections went well.  She ended up having to be awake for her knee, which she was NOT thrilled about.  The doctors were not comfortable transporting her between procedures while under anesthesia.  Her knee had to be done in one room using a special x-ray machine and her jaw injections had to be done in another room using a special ct scanning machine.  I was able to be with her during the knee procedure and while she went under general.  I'd rather her not have to go through either of those things again, if possible. 

Friday night when we got home we picked up Chinese - Katie's favorite.  Unfortunately her jaw was so uncomfortable that she really couldn't eat anything.  She said it sounded like Velcro whenever she moved it around.  The anesthesia made it difficult for her to sleep that night, but there hasn't been a problem since. 

Now that it's been a few days we don't really see much improvement and she says it still feels "uncomfortable."  Her rheumatologist felt that her knee would be fairly stubborn, so it's not too surprising. 

For now she just keeps taking the pills and we wait for our next appointment in August. 

I think the next entry should be an update on Will!!

Friday's procedure

Originally we had been scheduled to have Katie's knee injection on Wednesday.  However, once the radiologist and her rheumatologist looked at her jaw MRI from last week, things changed.  They found that Katie has increased synovial fluid on each side of her jaw.  The left side is fairly significant and has enlarged temporomandibular joint space.  Here's what they sent to us in BOLD:

"While there is synovitis in both temporomandibular joints, marked on the left and moderate on the right, the findings appear much more severe on the left, with a short condylar neck and a markedly deformed condylar head with a poorly developed condylar fossa suggesting long-standing inflammation and abnormal development."

Perfect, just what every parent wants to read.  There are a lot of words that I have very little hope of understanding in that paragraph, but even my mathematically centric brain knows what "inflammation and abnormal development" mean.  That damn inflammation has been there long enough to affect the bone and to begin deteriorating tissue. 

They absolutely didn't want to wait and do injections in her jaw later - they wanted it all done at once.  So tomorrow at 1:00, Katie will have steroid injections in both sides of her jaw along with her right knee.  She will still be under general anesthesia. 

Here are her knees today....you can see that the one on the left (her right) is a little larger...about .5 inches larger to be exact.  That's all synovial fluid. 

 

 

Can't get you a picture of her jaw. 

 

Due to the inflammation present in her jaw - they were able to officially label the type of JIA that Katie has.  Ready?  Let's sound it out together....

 

Rheumatoid Factor Negative Polyarticular JIA



Good job.  Now here are some "fun" facts.

• It affects 20% of kids with JIA
• More common in girls
• Affects joints on both sides of the body - including neck and jaw
• Risk of eye disease
• More likely to last into adulthood

So that's it for now - after the injections (in a couple weeks) they want x-rays of her hands and elbows.  If the medications are working we'll see improvement.  If they aren't working, then we move onto injections at home or infusions.  I'm not spending much time thinking about that - one bridge at a time.

Older and wiser

Here we are - back again.  I won't spend a lot of time catching you up over the last 3 years...vacations were taken, people died, people got married, etc.  Just not all in the same trip...although Key West was a bit crazy. 

I am resurrecting the blog partially because it's an awesome way to keep track of the kids' day to day events, but also to pass along information.  I thought about putting this all on Facebook and then thought - ugh.  I'd rather save the funny cat/dog videos for that outlet.  Here, you can choose to read it or not.  At least it's a way to keep family and friends in the loop.

As some of you know, Katie has struggled with a swollen knee since about 2010.  Yes, 2010.  You can read more about it in a post HERE.  It was basically a cluster-fuck of information.  Some useful (as it turns out) some not.  It was a lot to deal with at the time and thankfully Katie wasn't having regular pain.

Fast forward to 2017.  Katie had been complaining of knee pain off an on again for the past few months.  John and I decided that we needed to reinvestigate this again, but were unsure of where to start.  I took Katie to my chiropractor first to see what their opinion was of the situation.  They said there was a lot of swelling and did not feel like the manipulation they would perform would be a good idea until we spoke with an orthopedic surgeon.  His father-in-law, Dr. Bob, was a retired surgeon and so a week later we met with him.  X-rays were taken and he agreed there was a lot of swelling.  He worried that there was a torn meniscus that could be the cause of her pain.  An MRI was scheduled to evaluate the function of the knee.

A week LATER we met with Dr. Bob again where he went over the MRI results.  The good news was that the knee function looked good - no torn meniscus, no broken cartilage.  He felt that we needed to be evaluated by a pediatric rheumatologist next because the swelling presents like arthritis.  He spent 45 minutes getting us phone numbers and a list of labs that would need to be done prior to the appointment. 

Labs were taken and the biggest red flag was that ANA (Antinuclear Antibodies) was positive as well as the Rheumatoid Factor (RF).  We went to see the rheumatologist on July 10th and Katie was given the diagnosis of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA).  All her joints were evaluated - twice.  More blood was drawn.  We spent over 3 hours there, but it was very productive.  The doctors and nurses at the U of MN Masonic Children's hospital are unbelievable!  They were so patient and willing to answer questions as we were trying to understand what all this meant. 

First step was getting her on some aggressive drugs - then to do a steroid injection into her knee.  They suggested that she be put under general anesthesia for that one. 

Her rheumatologist also wanted an MRI done of Katie's jaw as soon as possible.  It appeared to her that there was inflammation present and she wanted to see how affected that area was.  There is a more aggressive form of JIA that affects the jaw and so I assumed it was to evaluate that.  We were back at the U last Thursday for her MRI where Katie received her first IV!  She did amazing.

Bad news is that the MRI showed inflammation on both sides of Katie's jaw - with her left side being much worse.  We meet with the Dr. on Wednesday to discuss those treatment options. 

Are you ready for some good news?    Kids with this form of JIA are at risk to develop a vision threatening eye inflammation called uveitis.  They need screening at least every 6 months because the inflammation shows NO symptoms until considerable damage has been done.  We were at the ophthalmologist this morning and he saw NO SIGNS of inflammation!  Cross that sucker off the list.

Back to the meds....Katie had never swallowed a pill.  She is now a pro at swallowing the small ones with water and the bigger ones with a tiny bit of applesauce.  She takes 2 Naproxen Sodium (generic Aleve) pills every day along with a prescription of Folic acid.  Once a week she takes 5 methotrexate pills.  Once a few weeks have gone by and those build up in here system a bit more, they are the ones that have the possibility of causing side effects including fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite, and a few others that freak me out far too much to type. 

So now we gear up for Wednesday - another IV and sedation.  I wonder if they'll offer to sedate John and I as well.

California Debriefing next

I know, I know - you all are finding it difficult to move on with you own lives because you are wondering how our California vacation went.  Well, worry no longer.  I am finally here to at least starting telling you!  Now I just hope I remember correctly!  Maybe John will jump in if I am totally off base.

We left on a Wednesday, after the kids got home from school  Our direct flight didn't leave until 7:40 so we had plenty of time to grab a bite to eat and get through security.  Katie and I were seat buddies on this flight and Will and John were right ahead of us. 

We got into CA around 10:45 (their time).  There was an issue with baggage claim because it took FOREVER for anyone's bags to show up - we waited probably 30-45 minutes I bet.  Then we took a shuttle to the car rental place which was another long wait.  Not sure what the guy's problem was but he was certainly not very quick.  We got our car finally - and headed to our hotel near Disneyland which was a good 30 miles away yet.  On a positive note - the freeways were relatively clear at midnight.  Got the kids to bed so that we could do Disney the next morning!

The hotel offered a breakfast buffet - kids ate free with adults.  We ate and then walked to Disneyland because the entrance was only about two blocks away.  I must admit - I'm not a Disney fanatic, but I was fairly excited to be going to Disneyland.  It's easy to get excited because everyone around you is excited as well.    The guidebooks say to get there about 30 minutes before the park opens....so that's what we did.  Then we waited til 9 am for the park to open.

 

Waiting.....but it was a nice day!

 

First celebrity siting - Minnie!  We also saw Goofy and Daisy Duck.  We were making the most of our time in the park so we didn't get in lines for pictures.  The kids were well aware that it was just people dressed in costumes anyway. 

 

Sleeping Beauty's castle.

Thanks to Netflix and a DVD about Disneyland - we knew to walk through the castle and look for a steel nail driven into the walkway, which marked the exact center of Disneyland Park.

 

 

Before the trip, I had gone back and forth trying to decide between planning the day out, carefully picking which rides we should do at what time or just letting the day take us and do things as we came across them.  I read a few guidebooks from the library and both STRONGLY advised against the latter approach.  They said your wait time would - on average - for the entire day would be about 3-4 hours longer in total.  Well, that decided it for me.  So, I worked out a vague plan of what we should do that morning while the park had fewer people in it.  Then, later in the day, doing rides that we happen across or that we notice have shorter wait times. 

 

Along with the guide book, we used an app on my phone that updated people about wait times at certain rides.  We also took advantage of the FastPass option certain rides have.  You go to the ride, scan everyone's tickets and then they issue you a window of time to return later in the day to ride, at which time you won't have to wait in the regular line.  It isn't available on all rides, and there only a limited number for the day so it's best to get them early. 

 

Here's a list of rides we were able to go on -

- Peter Pan's Flight

- Snow White's Scary Adventure

- Star Tours (A Star Wars virtual ride...which was awesome!!!)

- Space Mountain (used FastPass)

- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters

- Autopia (The kids got to drive cars along a real road course while John and I were passengers.  It was terrifying!)

- The Haunted Mansion

- Disney Railroad

- Mark Twain Riverboat

- Big Thunder Mountain (used FastPass)

- Gadget's Go Coaster

- Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

- Pirate's of the Caribbean

 

I think that's it!  It's a Small World and the Indiana Jones Adventure ride were being refurbished so we couldn't do those.  We also skipped Splash Mountain because we didn't want to get soaked.  We tried to do The Matterhorn, (bobsled ride) but the wait time was too long and they weren't doing FastPasses for that. 

 

Space Mountain scored really high on our list of favorites as did Star Tours.  But it's REALLY hard to pick a favorite.  They were really awesome.  And yes, the wait times were long.  Snow White's Scary Adventures was the shortest wait - at about 5 minutes.....but we did stand in line up to around 50 minutes.  BUT Disney has kind of thought of everything and most of the time they do make waiting in line a part of experience.  So they have stuff to watch, and see while you move along in line.  They also weave you back and forth and in and out of areas so that the length of the line is very deceiving.  Sometimes you think you are SO CLOSE, but then realized there's an entire section of the line you haven't been through yet.  But I do have to say the kids (and John) were total troopers about waiting.  They didn't complain or whine while we had to wait - it made it much more tolerable!

 

 

C3PO spoke to the crowd at we waited in line for Star Tours.

 

R2D2 was there too!

 

Mark Twain Riverboat

 

Riverboat ride around the lagoon.

 

 

 

Splash Mountain action shot.

 

 

 

Will and I making our way down Main Street USA.

 

The kids wouldn't cooperate, but "I" wanted my picture in front of the castle!

Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster!  This one was wild and lots of fun -

Funny story....I got a FastPass for this one around noon that said return between 5:30 and 6:30 to ride.  So we went back to hotel around midday - went swimming, relaxed, snacked, etc. and then came back to the park to do some more rides that evening. The wait time in the regular line was WAY over an hour.  We walked past HUNDREDS of people while we were in the FastPass line and got right on!  It was great!

 



 

Every night there is a parade.  They suggest lining up for a spot an hour before it starts.  Well, you've seen one parade, you've seen them all.  We did sneak some peeks, but it was also a VERY slow parade....so we waited til we saw Mickey and then took off to do more rides.  If you squint you can see him too. :)

They didn't have fireworks that evening.  Oh well! 

 

Katie and Will had a giant pool almost all to themselves.  That's Katie back floating in the middle there.  We had taken along their life jackets - I just thought they might need them, not knowing how deep the pools would be, etc.  We never even unzipped them!  (

Note to me: Next time we'll leave them at home!)

 

Not even 15 minutes after we returned to hotel for the evening........

 

.....they were both out like a light.

 

 

Up next: Day 2!  We hit the beach and head to the desert!



Warmer weather

Time for a new post - gotta get that blond mess in the picture farther down! 

It was warmer here Monday and Tuesday and then yesterday it got cooler again - cooler today too....although it says 29 degrees so we should be happy enough with that.  It's sunny.

Our garage door broke yesterday.  It wouldn't close.  When I hit the button to close it, it would hit something and then go back up.  Sometimes this happens in colder weather and it just needs help going down.  So I got out and was helping it go down, but still not working.  Of course this was occurring as we were heading out the door to school and had about 2 minutes to spare.  So I detached the door from the automatic garage opener and was going to close it that way - which is a pain, but always worked...in the past.  Even that wouldn't close all the way.  One side seemed to go down, but then that threw the other side off alignment.  Who knows. 

I called John to tell him about it and that he'd have to go in the front door when he came home, instead of the garage.  When he got home he noticed that the cables on one side had snapped.  He called some "garage door" people and they said it sounded like we would need a new one. 

So the guy came this morning to look at it and confirmed that we would need a new one - so they are coming back at noon to install it.  It should be all taken care of today!   I like those quick fixes....of course you have to pay for them....but I still like them.  Oh, and they are also going to install a new entry keypad as well!  It will be nice to have a new one of those.  I have to remember to tell them to install it about a foot lower so that the kids can reach it if they need to. 

I better run - I have a reading group at school to meet at 10:30.  This week has been utterly crazy - it was book fair for 3 days and I am co-chairing it with another mom. But THAT is over and now it's on to taxes.  I'd LOVE to get them mostly done before we go on vacation!  We'll see.....

All over....

The kids and I have wrapped up another musical. We had 4 Shrek performances this weekend and it was quite exhausting - as it always is. A week of late night dress rehearsals followed by a weekend of late and all day performances will have that effect. Friday was opening night and it was exciting as ever. Will told me later that he was a bit nervous, but you wouldn't have been able to tell. He was nervous onstage because one of the other dwarves accidentally knocked his hat off, but he recovered. I accidentally dropped my walking stick during my dance - actually one of the other blind mice did too. So we reluctantly changed the dance a bit to exclude that part. Katie also missed part of one scene due to a miscount of kids, but no worries - it was on to Saturday! Saturday we had a 2:00 show and a 7:00 show so we were there all day. Volunteers made supper for us between shows and it was so delicious - turkey, baked corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, pasta salads, rolls, etc. It was ridiculously good. Katie's teacher came to the afternoon show which made Katie very proud! And John came to the Saturday night show, which - I think - was the best one, at least from what I have gathered. Sunday's show was a bittersweet ending to 2 months of preparations, but we were also glad to close the book on Shrek for a while. Pictures keep coming in, but here's some that I thought I would share.....

 

Getting Will's make-up on.  He let me do his, but Katie preferred the work of others. :)

 

 

Will having fun during his song.

 

Katie leading out the Farquad dancers.

 

Me and my mice (I'm in the middle....)

 

Dopey the Dwarf

Will has his big number with Farquad who reveals that his Daddy was "Grumpy". 




Will is "Dopey" - the one in the middle in green.  He is excited because he's the only dwarf with "buttons" sewn on his costume AND he's the only one who doesn't have to wear a beard.  (The other dwarfs don't have their beards on here either - they are trying to save them so that they don't fall apart before the shows this weekend.)

Here are the words to the song in case you'd like to follow along.

Ballad of Farquad

My daddy was a miner
So he wasn't much around
Foraging for diamonds
A life spent underground

Daddy didn't talk much
He barely said hello
He'd simply mutter "heigh ho"
And off to work he'd go

Daddy was grumpy...

My momma was a princess
Who left her crown behind
Daddy was her true love, so
Momma didn't mind

I never knew my momma
But she could've been a queen
She married way beneath her...
Beneath her knee, i mean

Ohhh, daddy's bed was lumpy
So mommy couldn't sleep
Daddy built a new one
So tall and so steep

Twenty-five mattresses she slept upon
One night she rolled over...
And momma was gone

So daddy was grumpy...

Me and my old man  (Video starts here)
A tale as old as dirt
A bitter distant father
In a tiny undershirt

Daddy up and left me
Left me good as dead
Now he lives in squalor
Sleeping seven to a bed

(spoken)
You abandoned me in those woods, daddy.
Well i crawled out! And up! Oh, if only you could see me now, daddy...
I'd invite you to the wedding but you have to be
This tall to get in! Hahahahahaha!

(sung)
My bride-to-be is gorgeous
Her wedding dress, designer
The guest list will be major
Without a minor miner

Guards
La la la la la la la la la la la la la

Farquaad
Packs of royal lackeys
Playing violin

Guards
Strings of royal underlings

Farquaad & (guards)
Who will not let you in!
Ha ha, ha ha, ha ha!
Tricked out carriage!
(tricked out carriage)
Twenty stallions!
(twenty stallions)
With a coachman named raoul
(with a coachman named raoul)
Big reception!
(big reception)
With a boy band!
(with a boy band)
And a royal deejay by the pool...

Yes! I can see my future
And so it shall be done
It's total domination
With some torture just for fun, hee hee!

'Cause i will have my wedding and i will have a queen!
And once i get that crown on
You will get the guillotine

And i'll punish you daddy
'Cause i'm all grown up and bigger than you'll ever know!

You're gonna pay daddy!
It's any day daddy!
I'm off to work
Heigh ho!

Sneek Peek

Shrek dress rehearsals have started and so I have a few pictures to share!

 

Here are the Duloc Dancers...you know the song, "Welcome to Duloc".....

"Please keep off of the grass, shine your shoes, wipe your.....face.  Duloc is a perfect place."

Yeah, Katie likes that a lot!  That's her on the very far right.

 

I'll be getting a better picture of Will tonight, but "Dopey" is the green dwarf sitting on the stage.

 

My turn - that's me, the blind mouse on the right....

 

....and again here on the right.  Shrek told me that blondes have more fun. 

 

Katie is also a "rat dancer" - it's her favorite costume....that's her WAYYYY over on the right towards the back of the photo.  Again, I'll work on my pictures tonight!

5 days!

That's right - 5 days.  We have had 5 days of school called off for the cold weather.  It may not seem like much to some from the rural areas - where the school year is typically filled with late starts, early dismissals and snow-days....but up here it's something unusual.  I think in the last 6 years that we have been involved in the school system the most we have ever had is one a year.  The teachers are really freaking out that they are so far behind and the superintendent just announced that we will not have President's Day off.  We also lose our 2 late-start mornings.  They are erring on the side of caution because we still have a lot of winter left.

The kids were off school Monday and Tuesday this week.  Luckily, we pretty much saw it coming and by Sunday afternoon they had officially canceled school.  I was scheduled to drive down to Rochester on Monday for our annual audit at work.  It's the first time we have ever had to arrange schedules to accommodate a no-school day!  So John worked from home that day and I headed south. 

I cannot even begin to tell you how weird that whole day was.  It was so surreal to be back in that same environment like 10 1/2 years hadn't passed.  Thankfully they were in a new building - otherwise I think my head may have exploded.  I've had dreams over the last 4-5 years of being back at work - at the same job.  Those dreams revolved around me forgetting that I had left the kids at home by themselves or not ever being able to leave work.  And now I was really there.  (Without having to worry about the kids.)  It was a really fun day - stressful at times, but overall it was a nice step back into who I was pre-kids.  I found out she's still hanging around.

And then on Tuesday I stayed and worked in my PJ's 'til 3.  That was pretty darn nice too.

 

Not too cold

Hans and I finally were able to go for a walk this morning - it had been a while.  It's in the 20's here which made it seem so nice out!  Even though there is no sun and everything is cloudy, it was so much warmer.  So when we got back to the house I was even able to pick up the dog poop in the front yard.  I know, I know - it's a glamorous life I lead.

The kids had a short week this week - only 3 days.  It seemed harder to go to school on Wednesday after being off those two days than it did last week when we went back after the holiday break!  They have a full week next week and then are off a day the following week.  It's kind of nice to have a few shorter weeks in there for them because February is usually a long month (oddly enough).

I get to go to school today to do "Book Nook."  I read 5-6 books that I bring from home to the kids before lunch.  It's always fun to see them enjoy books that we read ALL the time at home and are our favorites or see them get so excited because they have the same book at home. 

Katie started choir at school yesterday morning.  She decided to join the optional 4th/5th grade choir at school.  They get to do fun things throughout the rest of the year like touring other schools to sing or sing the National Anthem at basketball games. Her rehearsals are at 7:45 which means we have to get up a little earlier than usual, but I'm sure we'll get used to it. 

Work has been going well - it's getting a little easier to communicate back and forth with my boss.  It certainly helps if I can get away to run on the treadmill for a half hour or so.  It's not a daily routine, but I'm trying to squeeze it in 2-3 times a week.  I have this whiney voice in my head that gets going every once in a while and all it says over and over again is "I'm so busy......I'm too busy.....I'm so tired......." etc.  Do we all have a voice like that?  Looking for excuses?  Some people's voice isn't just in their head and instead this stuff spews out of their mouth.

Then my much louder voice shouts back "Too bad!  It's tough all over!  Deal with it!  Just do it, then it'll be done!"  That usually works really well. 

What's that?  You want a Friday Funny?  Ok.  Quit whining.

2014

Happy 2014. 

I'm one that likes even numbered years, so I'm looking forward to 2014 for no other reason than that. 
We had our family Christmas here the weekend before Christmas and then spent Christmas week down in IA.  We came back up here and John took off New Year's Eve to do fun family stuff.  So today is actually our first "back to normal" day.  Almost 2 weeks of being off schedule sure makes it hard to climb back on the wagon.  By 1:00 today I was ready to call it a day.  How can there be so much stuff to catch up on already?!

We went down to IA on Christmas Eve.  My side got together that evening.  We played cards, dice and some of the younger ones opened a few gifts.  It was pretty low key and it seems everyone had a good time.  My brother had been going through some health stuff recently and so it was good to talk with him.  He seemed to be doing very well. 

Wednesday we went out to the farm and had a partial Christmas there, which included tubing down a hill.  The kids had a great time.  Will really liked his mini pool table and Katie had a good time experimenting with her new microscope.  We finished up Christmas at the farm on Thursday evening when John's aunt could join us.  Again, the kids got quite the haul and there was even an authentic Mexican piñata. 

I had to leave a bit early that evening because I got word that my brother was being taken to the ER after suffering (what we thought) was a seizure like episode.  He spent the night there, with no real answers.  We decided to stay in town a bit longer so that my older sister, my niece and I could take him to the big city hospital the next day for an MRI.  Long story short - we still don't know what's going on.  His headaches, tremors and shakes that he was having have seemed to improve, but the MRI was all clear.  He was diagnosed with Lyme's disease years ago and struggle with that for a very long time.  They are exploring whether these episodes and symptoms have anything to do with that. 

We, as a family, have been keeping it pretty quiet - especially since there is nothing to tell, no answers to why these things are happening.  But, I shared on here because I felt like it.  So there. :)

By New Year's Eve the kids were pretty tired.  They didn't even ask to stay up late.  We went roller skating that day....it was awesome.  John has a great video of Will skating that I must share - and will -  as soon as I get it from him.  John and I stayed up - like we usually do and watched TV.  Now that the expanded cable is gone, we were stuck with what the networks were showing and I must say, most of it sucked.  Today everyone was a bit slow getting up and out the door, but it's a short week and I think we can do it.  Play practice starts this weekend - we'll see how that goes!

Are YOU still here?

I usually start an overdue post with saying "I'm still here."  While, that's great....a better question might be "Are YOU still here?"  Do you check back with hopes of a new post even when they are dashed again and again?  Hope so.

We celebrated our family Christmas here at home Sunday morning (just yesterday).  The kids had a good time and I would say it was fairly calm and quiet.  Let's see if I can give a re-cap.

Hans got a new ducky chew toy that squeaks and homemade dog treats, compliments of the Girl Scouts.  Molly got a new scratching box thing filled with cat nip.

Will got a new maze ball, some Skylander figurines, books, bed sheets, yo-yo, PJ's, Despicable Me 2 (movie), a magic set, and a combination safe to keep all his goodies secure.

Katie got a new chair, books, 2 fidget friend things (they make noise...that's all I know), a knitting loom for scarves,  yo-yo, Rubix cube, clothes, earrings and a necklace, and Rainbow loom bands.

It seems there were some little stocking stuffers too - candy and whatnot.  Santa gave me a gyroscope that I have been looking for the last few years.  I had one when I was younger and thought they were just awesome.  The kids weren't that amazed by it, so I guess that's why Santa gave it to me.

John got some IA state sweatshirts, lotion and a new pillow.  I also have another gift coming for him, but shipping has totally been derailed and it hasn't arrived yet.  Free 2 day shipping has turned into 2 week shipping. 

I got new snowboots!  I haven't had snow boots since probably 7th grade.  Once I was out of elementary school they weren't necessary anymore, nor were they anything I thought about getting for myself.  Sort of like not having a winter coat in college.  I just didn't need one.  (I went to a college that was connected via tunnels and you rarely had to set foot outside.  If you did, it was just to run across the street.)  Now that I am forced to be outside more by dog, kids, and husband I have been wearing my hiking boots.  While warm, they have no traction on ice and are very low on the heel so they allow all kinds of snow in.  Now if I fall on the ice while walking the dog, it's my own fault.

Anyway - I also got a new coat and a shirt from Athleta.  You know that annoying commercial on TV for Jarod Jewelers?  The catchphrase is "He went to Jarod's."  Maybe it's a MN thing, I don't know...anyway you are supposed to be really excited just by the fact "He went to Jarod's" because anything they have is great.  Whatever. 
Well, I get it now....my phrase will be "He went to Athleta."  Because before I even open the box, I KNOW I'm going to love what ever is inside.  It's a women's apparel shop that specializes in more comfortable active wear.  They are wonderful.  So yes, I got a new down-filled coat and an awesomely cozy new shirt.  Oh and gloves!  I got new purple gloves.  

Katie also bought me a Peanuts character serving plate that I may just have to bring along to the other family gatherings in IA so that I can properly display my baked goods. :)

Thanksgiving week

It's Monday - a short week this week.  I've been working this morning and now I am trying to decide if I should go to the store or wait for a phone call.  I just KNOW that the phone call will come the minute I walk into the store. 

That's been the hardest thing about working from home, I spose - deciding when I can run my errands.  There are things that HAVE to get done some days and while I don't have time limits - the stock market does. 

The phone call I am waiting on is from my boss.  We were going through things around 9....a good time of day to go through things.  Then, mid-conversation, clients "pop" in unannounced and we have to switch gears.  I got some things done for them quickly, and now I am waiting to finish going through things with the boss.....waiting for about 3 hours.

We have Thanksgiving letters that HAVE to get printed today and mailed out.  If I were there in the office, I would just print them and be done with it.  But the way it works now is that I send a test letter to our joint printing "queue", he prints it to check margins, etc and then tells me it's ok to load the other 170 letters.  I do that - send it to the queue and he prints them.  The last 3 letters have been printing oddly.  The "z" and the "k" in the address label of the letter are substituted as a funny symbol.  It doesn't happen on my printer - only his.  I have had him reinstall the driver, but still it happens to about 15 letters.  I am told it is a printer memory problem by some software tech people but I think that is bull and of course they won't give me an answer as to how to solve it.
So while working virtually has it's pluses - it also seems to make some tasks take a lot longer. 
You can't just shout something across the room - which we used to do a lot.  You have to send a text or email and wait for a reply.  And then wonder why the other person isn't replying soon enough.

I just checked our joint schedule and I see that he has an appointment from 1:30 - 3.  That means that I can safely run to the store and maybe even squeeze in a workout.  Will a shower be asking too much....

And of course he will be free to touch base at around 3:30 - just as the kids are getting off the bus and chaos is beginning to unfold.  That seems to be the norm for a few days of the week. 

On a positive note - I don't have to worry about scheduling time off for Thanksgiving.  I just go.  We haven't talked about holiday pay.....I send him monthly invoices for what I expect to get paid.  Should I be nice and not charge for Thanksgiving - which is what a normal, hourly person would do - or should I just charge for it anyway?

You all know I'm not going to charge for it, so I don't even know why I'm asking. 

On a side note - I'd appreciate any positive vibes you have to send to a friend.  The associate pastor of our church, Pastor Kristi, is in Rochester today.  Her husband is having surgery today to remove a brain tumor.  He was just diagnosed last week.  They are absolutely some of the most sweetest, kindest, sincere people you will ever meet.  They could use a good thought.  Their Caring Bridge page has been added to the list in the upper right corner.

36

I have now been 36 for a little over 24 hours.  Doesn't seem too bad. 

We went out to eat last night and had a good time - the kids ate well and were manageable and agreeable, which goes a long way.  And of course, we had key lime pie for dessert. 

Katie, Will and I all auditioned yesterday for the "Shrek" musical at church.  Will didn't have to read or sing since I convinced him that his first year should be a small, group role.  He'd rather be Peter Pan.  I sang Away in the Manger, and Katie sang Jingle Bells. 

She is a quiet girl - not one to seek a lot of attention in front of people, BUT she flips a switch when it's time to audition or get on stage.  I'm serious - you can SEE it happen.  She gets up, stands next to the piano and belts out Jingle Bells, complete with expression and hand movements.  I knew she'd do fine, and it was fun watching her.  But what was MORE entertaining for me was watching the audience react to her.  Their jaws were hanging open.  I got so many comments and whispers about how she blew them away and that they forgot what a good singer and little actor she is.  She read her scene, and again - had them laughing.  She didn't use the script provided because she's had it memorized already and she did with such little attitude that everyone really enjoyed watching her.

(Ok, I may be a LITTLE biased here - I realize that.  BUT, she did really well. And it takes a LOT of guts to stand up in front or 30 people or so and SING......ALONE.....with everyone watching.)

I told her how well she did on the way home and how proud she should be of herself.  Then I asked, "How did I do?"

"Well, Mom, you've done better.  You weren't the worst, but you weren't the best."

Brutal honesty.

We should know our parts by early December.

I AM still alive

Spending more time at the computer working every day means I spend less time at the computer doing the enjoyable things I used to do! (Like blogging here.)  I have started writing a few times and then I get a "chime" that a work email was delivered and I switch to that. 

But not today!  Today I am determined to get something written here!  Let's see - what's been going on...we had Halloween!  Hans was a butterfly, Katie was a devil and Will was....drumroll......Batman.  That's 3 years, I believe.  Talk about easy costumes!  Overall, this Halloween was pretty low key.  I have a picture of Will, but nothing of Katie I just realized.  And no pictures of our pumpkins that John carved.  (Amazingly, of course!)  We had a Batman symbol, a cat, a bat, and a scary face. 

We had school conferences, and both are doing great.  Katie and Will are both in high math and reading classes and enjoying them very much.  Katie is just finishing up a 3 week project on health disorders and diseases.  She chose epilepsy and presents her research during a school health fair Friday afternoon.  I WILL have pictures of that! 

Will starts basketball after school today.  It is every Wednesday and lasts til mid December I believe.  He is VERY excited! 

Hans and I attempt the CGC test on Saturday again.  There are 10 test items and we only failed 3 of them last time.  I'm hoping for 8/10 this time or better.  It's still the "accepting grooming" that give us problems.  The kids, John and I can brush him and he's totally calm.  But let someone else take the brush and it becomes playtime.  However - if my hand had an overpowering smell of chicken that seems to keep him distracted enough to allow someone to brush him.  So I (literally) am going to go out between test items and lather my left hand in "broth a la chicken."  I can't "treat" during the test, but I can have a smelly hand.

Auditions for the church musical are this weekend too!  The musical will be "Shrek!"  Will wants to be a part of it this year as well so I am taking him with us and asking that he be made part of the "townspeople" or "kingdom" mob.  Katie wants to be "Gingy" (the gingerbread man).  I have a list of possibilities, but am very happy with anything outside of Shrek, Fiona, Donkey or Farquaad.  Pinocchio seems like a LOT of fun, but I'm not sure if I could talk and sing in a squeaky voice for that long!  Otherwise, the "shoemaker elf", "fairy godmother", or other fairy tale creatures will all be fun.  Each has lines and solo parts.  I bought the DVD of the musical so we watched it the other night to get a better idea of what each part consisted of.  We should find out in December!

New Office

I picked up a filing cabinet this weekend along with my new computer. It has a dual monitor - so that's something new to get used to. So far it is awesome and makes things a lot easier to do. They are also nice giant sized monitors and I've been able to get new programs running very quickly on it. The last step is hooking up the printer to this computer. Things are being a little funny here and there, but I'll get it figured out. Work has been good and I'm getting things done on all fronts.

Will got an ant farm for his birthday in July and I just got around to ordering the ants last week. We got them yesterday and put them into the "farm." It's a plastic case full of a gel type material that also serves as their food source. They are tunneling away and I'm happy that I think only 2 are dead. (Out of approx. 30) It says that their life span is about 1-3 months, but some will die sooner while others live longer. These are harvester ants. They are bigger than your everyday garden ants - very easy to see their chomping mandibles. Oh, and they sting. There were warnings everywhere about how you are NOT to touch them or handle them. They came in a vial, and in order to get them into the case we put them into the fridge for about 10 minutes. Since they are cold blooded, the temperature change slowed them down so that I could pour them in without them going wild and escaping. After about 30 minutes they seemed to really perk up and started tunneling a few hours later. By this morning they had about 4 tunnel areas they were working on. I'm supposed to remove the dead ants - and there are 2 (I think) laying on top, but I want to make sure if I open the case the others don't get out. I think I will wait until there are more tunnels and less ants on top. Plus, they advised waiting a few days to make sure the ants are truely dead....sometimes it's hard to tell. Another cool thing is that when the ants die in the tunnels, the others will bring them to the top and leave them there. At least they are supposed to.

Wednesday....

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood today - literally.  I took Hans for an extra long walk this morning and I think I am going to do another one after this.  Yesterday afternoon I was going to force myself to do a workout DVD from Netflix, but then I suddenly realized that I could go for a bike ride instead.  (One of those realizations that come after the kids have been in school for 3 weeks.)  Don't worry, Hans got his morning walk too - and training class last night.

Work has been really unpredictable this week.  I don't have a lot going on right now - I have projects that I have been chipping away at, but nothing pressing - so I've had some more free time.  I figure I will take it while I can get it.  I cleaned the kitchen counters yesterday as well as sorted out the fridge.  Today the windows could use a washing....

I also had a dentist check-up today.  I had a loose crown that had been loose for a bit, but I was just trying to ignore it.  She popped it off and reapplied some better adhesive to see if that works.  She was pretty confident that it would, but the alternative would be to put in a "post" and build the crown around that.  This was quick and easy and hopefully is fine for another 10 years.  I also have 2 areas where the "pockets" of my gum are pretty deep.  I have been aggressively trying to take care of these areas each day, but the pockets aren't getting better - (the other areas sure are - my hygienist barely had to clean ANY plaque off and commented that she was amazed at how little I had.)  So they figured that there is bacteria in the pocket that we can't get to.  They inserted 2 doses of antibiotics into the pocket area and over the next 28 days, that should clear up what's there.  They were super easy going in, but now it feels like I bit into something and part of it got jammed into my gum.  Ever had that happen?  It's annoying and a bit uncomfortable. 

So that brings me to my thoughts on this whole dentist issue.  I went to my appointment today because it had been scheduled for a while, and I don't want to skip it and put it off while I look for another dentist.  I had a very frank conversation with her and Will's hygienist (who is really quite wonderful) about my concerns about the care that we are receiving with their practice.  They were about as upset as I was to hear that Will had a second abscess, she re-examined the x-rays from his previous visit (and showed me) but we could see no evidence of any type of infection festering in that tooth.  Over the past week as I have been thinking about whether to move us to a new dentist and where and I am really sick of pointing fingers in places that they probably don't belong.  From what the oral surgeon said the filling in this tooth looked well placed and would not comment on anything the previous dentist had done. 

The reason we changed to our current dentist in the first place was because the pediatric dentist we WERE seeing in Eden Prairie had told us that Will had a cavity which she recommended treating under general anesthesia given his age. (He was like 3/4)  It was a tiny little thing and his first one.  John and I didn't want to do that so I went shopping for a new dentist.  We came to this one and she said, no, she wouldn't recommend him to go under general - she would just fill it normally.  Finally!  We got the answer we were looking for - so we went with her.  That was Will's first abscessed tooth. 

Now - what would have happened had we gone the other route?  I hear people say all the time in regards to the medical community - if you don't like what one dr says, keep looking til you find one that says what you want to hear.  Maybe we went the wrong route?  Maybe the exact same outcome would have happened either way.  I feel like blaming what the dr's are saying is just a way of not pointing the finger where it should be pointed - at me. 

And maybe there doesn't need to be any finger pointing - that's a bad expression.  What I mean is that if there weren't cavities in the first place -there'd be nothing to fill.  I had weak enamel as a child and therefore, at the age of 3, had all my baby teeth capped.  It was a process - that's for sure (one that I still remember very clearly) but I had no cavities in my baby teeth.  It could be that Will and Katie have inherited a bit of my weak enamel - or it could be that we are just not brushing as well as we should be.  Either way I think I need to shut up and do the work.

When people need to lose weight, or get in shape they can bellyache about how the fast food industry is out to get them or they just don't have to time to be healthy, or their dr picks on them, etc.  But either way the only way things get better is to take responsibility for it and do what needs to get done.  So that's where I'm at.  I feel like we don't do much candy or pop - but it IS there at times.  With Will's dairy allergy it has become a lot easier to avoid - that's for sure.  I'm flossing Will about 4-5 times a week and have been for the last 6 months.  I need to make sure I'm doing that for Katie as well.  The brushing is automatic and always has been, but we just need more adult interference there too. 

Ok - this post got way too involved and I didn't mean it to.  I need a walk.... and some ibuprofen.

Day after

Will did a great job yesterday and was very brave.  The tooth came out and is now healing well.  He says it doesn't hurt at all, but I am still doing ibuprofen every 8 hours.  Today will probably be the last day we'll have to do that.  He stayed home from school today - although judging by his energy level this morning, I probably could have sent him. :)  He'll be back in full force tomorrow.  Tomorrow is picture day, library check-out day, AND first spelling test day.  He will blow a gasket if he misses that. 

Work has been really slow this week because our servers went down. I don't have access to my e-mail and my boss has been in training the last few days.  (Oddly enough like 10 miles from my house!)  I am hoping that e-mail gets restored today.  Next weekend I have to go to Rochester to participate in a 5k that we are sponsoring for one of our non-profit clients.  (My only 5k of the year!)  While I'm down there I will pick up my new computer and a new filing cabinet to use for the home "office." 
I'm a bit excited about the filing cabinet because it will free up 2 plant stands that I've been using instead and basically hide all sorts of disorganized mess. 

Good thoughts today...

I would appreciate any good thoughts you can send Will's way today.  He has an appointment at 1:30 for a tooth extraction. 

Remember last year we went through this?  I can't remember if I blogged much about it or not, but I must have mentioned it.  Anyway - this would be his second abscessed tooth.  From what I understand an abscess is caused by bacteria or decay getting to the pulp part of the tooth.  In adult teeth it would call for a root canal, but they don't do those in baby teeth so they just take the tooth out.  What kills me is that most of Will's cavities (4 total, I believe) were so small they were filled without even numbing him.  This one was bigger - he had it filled in January and I do remember them numbing him.  None of the cavities caused him any pain or discomfort.  His tooth that had to come out last year had a tiny one that they did NOT numb for.  Does that mean that they don't get all the decay out?  Obviously that's impossible to prove and no medical professional is going to tell me it's the dentist's fault because the cavity shouldn't have been there in the first place.  But, I suppose we will be shopping for a new dentist.  She's filled 4 cavities, and 2 have resulted in loss of tooth - that's not a good statistic for me. 

Because he's gone through this before he knows a bit more of what to expect (and so do I) - that's good and bad.  He is being beyond brave and has plans to take his stuffed shark along because he has enough teeth for both of them.  I also ordered new books he's been wanting on Amazon, which will be delivered to our door by the time we are home AND have a new Lego set hidden for him under the bed.  That should give us some time to cuddle together for the next 36 hours or so. 

Happy Birthday to Hans!

Here is little baby Hans....

And here is Hans today - 1 year old!

 

 

I would have totally forgot about his birthday, but his foster mom (who housed the 8 puppies while they were being adopted) sent us birthday wishes already.  He's already had treats and a walk this morning so I think he's happy.