Sunday, June 29, 2014

100 Happy Days: Ninth Ten!

For those of you unfamiliar with the sunny little campaign that's making the rounds on social media click here.

Here's round nine (Only one more to go!) of my daily happy. In case you missed any they're here are one through ten, second set, third set, fourth set, fifth set, sixth set, seventh set and the eighth set. Ready, set...round nine of looking on the bright side.

Here's eighty one through ninety

Day 81

Taking my Little Miss to see the ladies on her shirt today! #100HappyDays #Day81 #ImAHero #FrozenLove

Day 82

My car being fixed (I hope, fingers crossed) It's been a loooonnnng time. #100HappyDays #Day82 #IMissedMyWheels

Day 83

Sesame Street is so awesomely weird. I adore it. #100HappyDays #Day83 #PBSLove

Day 84

Carmel latte & company #100HappyDays #Day84 #GirlsCoffee

Day 85

My career as a bone model is really taking off! #100HappyDays #Day85 #SexyBones

Day 86

It's finally pajama time! #100HappyDays #Day86 #IHeartBedtime

Day 87

Happy Birthday, litter sister! #100HappyDays #Day87 #LavenderCakeAmazingness

Day 88

We got a postcard from Riley today! It says: "Dear Mommy and Daddy, I went to Hawaii and was in a hula show! There were pink curtains. Yours truly, Riley" #100HappyDays #Day88

Day 89

Winning things is awesome! #100HappyDays #Day89

Day 90

New bling! Riley made me a patriotic bracelet. #100HappyDays #Day90

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Something New at the Ortho...

Shoulder Xray

I called my "back liberation squad" after the second back attack to report it. I informed the nurse that I was a genius who only needed two severe pain episodes that started suddenly and lasted hours to figure out their cause. I explained the shoulder blade connection, smugly. I wish I had more exciting things to be smug over. She promised to relay the info and I hung up. As long as my feet-dragging lasted I had finally done the right thing. Good job, me. Now there would surely be a return call applauding my deduction and a decree to "take it easy" (yeah. right.)

The response was, "We'd like you to see our shoulder guy, immediately." Now I was full on throwing a toddler style tantrum internally because: It's NOT fair! They scheduled me with the shoulder guy less than 48hrs after the phone call. Those jerks! Were did they get off! Being all concerned about this? Dammit. Damn, damn, damn. Here I was all "I just have to not pop my shoulder blades out." Then they're all "cause for concern...blah...see the specialist?" Who has time for all that noise? Geez.

Seriously, I start to unravel at the suggestion. What if the loose hardware windshield wiper-ing my soft tissues left more than just scar tissue behind? What if this is serious? What if they can take the shoulder blade pain away (after four long years)? What if it's another fracture? What if it's a spinal tumor? Ok, seriously why do doctors always feel compelled to share worse case scenarios with me all the time? Their horror stories haunt me at times like these.

It was an unusually long wait, over an hour. I was cold and I'd forgotten my book. I read all the anatomy charts on the walls (not good for my run away imagination). My mom texted me at this point and asked where I was. I told her the Ortho and followed that with "I live here now." She asked if we'd be holding my sister's birthday party there. "Of course", I replied, "we'll have a cast pinata and ace bandage streamers! It'll be perfect." Shortly after this conversation ended I was finally lead to radiology.

My appointment finally began with some more bone modeling. I have to say shoulder x-rays are the advanced class! Back x-ray: stand with your back to the board. Hip x-ray: lay down and turn your foot out. Shoulder x-ray? Stand here, a little more to your left, good. Now point your feet this way, but keep your torso straight. Now turn slightly to your right, not that far, a little more, good. Now put your left arm across your body and rest your hand on your waist. Higher, too high...there! Now hold your breath and don't move!!

X-rays looked good. Range of motion looked good. For a minute I thought he'd say "take it easy" and send me home. No dice. The x-ray process flared up the pain and the exam made it worse. Stupid shoulder blade, everyone knows once you make the doctor appointment the pain is supposed to go away! Duh. Anyway, he claims I have a muscle imbalance which seems likely. Then he writes me a prescription for four weeks of shoulder physical therapy. SIGH! There goes the ignore it for another 4 years approach.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Summer Camp Week 3

Miss Roo

Japan1 Candy Sushi
Chopsticks Chopsticks2

This week was international travel week! They learned about England and made their own Big Ben. They learned about Japan, had candy sushi, and practiced using chopsticks.

Wet Wednesday BearinPurse

Funky Friday

They had Wet Wednesday and this time they got to run through sprinklers! Thursday was New Zealand day and they cooked anzac biscuits, sweet coconut oatmeal cookies. Friday they learned about Mexico. Roo picked out her outfit Friday with no guidance at all. All I did was her hair that day. Speaking of hair...

Elsa Hair Heart Hair

Mom gets a gold star for a successful Elsa braid on Friday! Woohoo! Another semi-successful hair experiment we did was hair hearts. It did NOT look like the Pinterest pin, but they did resemble hearts. She wanted hearts in her hair to match her new leggings that are pictured above with little white hearts. I tried it at 7am free-form twisting and pinning. I wish I'd done it on wet hair to start, but it held up great. Everyone at school recognized that it was supposed to be hearts.

Isaac

Last Day of Camp

Official last day of camp photo.

Alien Mask

Sadly, this is Isaac's last week of camp. Monday he finished his "About Me" power point presentation. Tuesday he played hookie from camp to go to a theme park. It was a trip his grandmother took him on with his cousin to reward them both for completing 5th grade with good grades.

Wednesday the kids at camp broke into teams and launched rockets. He also presented his "About Me" power point presentation. He said the presentation went well. At home he completed his first Tenmarks (a math website) goal for the summer and earned a Slurpee. Thursday was the final day and they took a field trip to the aquarium. Fun stuff! When he got home on Thursday we went to the library for some more science experiments. There was even a robot dance party and alien mask craft this week!

Week Three Video Wrap Up

Weekly Wrap Up Questions
1. What did you learn that you didn't know before?
2. What was the worst part of your week?
3. What was the best part of your week?
4. What was your favorite meal?
5. What was the weather mostly like?
6. What was your favorite activity/project?
7. How many books did you read?
8. What were they called?
9. Which book was your favorite?
10. Where are some places you went this week?

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Weekend Adventures!

Family mini-cation overnight at the beach!

Low budget, quick camping trip? Yes. Planned. Packing started. The weather! Oh no. Cancel. Bummed. Break is needed. Beach? Maybe...Research. Discuss. Discuss again. Decide not to. Discuss some more. Change our minds. Ready, set, go! Um, someone's already in that room?!? Take two. Pool! Dinner...There's no cheese on my cheese burger?!? Ice cream!! Beach! Sunset. Seaweed mound. Crutches in the sand. Back to the pool! No bedtime! Pool's closing guys. Ok, bed ZZZZZZZZ. Roo it's 7am, go back to bed. Nope. Saturday morning cartoons? Where are the Saturday morning cartoons?? Treasure hunting movie. Breakfast poolside. Walk back to the beach. Crutches on sand some more. "Ok, Mom you fill my bucket with sand I gotta hit the water!" Time to go back. Dry clothes. Packing up. Is vacation over? We'll have "vacation" lunch and a "vacation" nap at home later.

Sunset
Family
Crutches
Usie Sleepy Heads

We go home that afternoon and rest. Roo and I had somewhere to be in the morning.

Which Frozen shirt? Can't wait! Hair Glitter=Ice Powers!! BFF quality time (x2)! Frozen soundtrack at full volume on repeat. Was that my turn? Did I just pass the place? Great parking spot. Check in. Swap shoes for neon gripper socks. Did we miss them? Are they here? They're here! Hugs that could knock a girl over. A long chat with the royal sisters. Pictures! Time to jump. Boing! Boing! Jump dancing. A picture with the moms! The girls get back in line. One as mini-Elsa and mini-Anna! Let's all be in one. Everyone be Sven! Now be very cold! More jumping! Pizza break. Snacks. Cake pops. Anna and Elsa come to say goodbye. Raffle tickets? Didn't win. Potty break. More jumping. I'll help you up...uh-oh, help me up! A couple games. How many tickets, is it? Two lollipops, a bracelet and a ring. Want to share? Of course! Treats for good listeners in the car. Shoes back on. Bye! Frozen sticker books for Boo & Roo. More Frozen soundtrack! Home again. Nap time.

Elsa & Anna, Boo & Roo

Saturday, June 21, 2014

100 Days of Happy: Eighth Ten

For those of you unfamiliar with the sunny little campaign that's making the rounds on social media click here.

Here's round eight (Can you believe it? Almost Done.) of my daily happy. In case you missed any they're here are one through ten, second set, third set, fourth set, fifth set, sixth set and the seventh set. Ready, set...round eight of looking on the bright side.

Here's seventy one through eighty

Day 71

I escaped! Pizza at home for the kids, steak out for mom & dad. #100HappyDays #Day71

Day 72

Modern Medicine. #100HappyDays #Day72

Day 73

New fish friend. He's an Oscar we named Mr. Nebbercracker.#100HappyDays #Day73

Day 74

Father's Day dinner! #100HappyDays #Day74 #Traditions #Yummy #ThreeGenerations

Day 75

Milkshake #100HappyDays #Day75

Day 76

That's silly! #100HappyDays #Day76

Day 77

Sibling sweetness on a stormy summer evening. #100HappyDays #Day77

Day 78

Sweet dog saying hello. #100HappyDays #Day78

Day 79

Goodbye sun... #100HappyDays #Day79 #NoFilter #Sunset

Day 80

Someone's being adorable again... #100HappyDays #Day80

Friday, June 20, 2014

Summer Camp Week 2

Miss Roo

Seahorse1 Seahorse2

Riley dove into her second week of camp, pun absolutely intended! These were their themes this week:

  • Monday 6/16: Scuba Diving Day
  • Tuesday 6/17: Hermit Crabs
  • Wednesday 6/18: Seahorses
  • Thursday 6/19: Sea Turtles
  • Friday 6/20: Ocean Scavenger Hunt
  • B for Barracuda & D for Diving

They had finished the school year with an ocean theme so naturally Roo had requested ocean themed attire. Unfortunately, she grew out of her seahorse outfit, shark shirt and even her Nemo shirt recently. As you can see by the time she started camp on Monday I had come to the rescue with not one, but two seahorse shirts. God Bless, Kohls clearance. The one she wore on Monday is pictured above. It has a big seahorse and then a fish and sea star friend. She was thrilled!

Isaac also cleaned out his jam-packed book shelves and passed down two new ocean books to his grateful little sister. He gave her I Wonder Why Fish Don't Drown by Annabelle Donati and Into the Deep: Life through the depths of the ocean by: Dr. Mark Norman and David Paul.(That one seems to be out of print so try your library). It's a book of beautiful underwater photos. She brought them to camp to share during the week.

Hermit Crabs Hermit Crabs2

These paper plate and hand print hermit crabs made my day. The class read Eric Carle's A Home For Hermit Crab. The main characters in the story has eclectic shell decorations. Aren't they lovely? Roo says hers (on the top row next to the one that looks tie dyed) has sea urchins on it. I just love them. They also made a sea turtle shaped snack out of apple and orange slices this week! Yay for cuteness and healthy cooking projects. Last week was Greek Salad.).

Building Building2

Everyday when I arrive to take her home is a struggle. She's always disappointed to stop what she's doing to come home where there are no friends to play with. These pictures where taken on Tuesday (and that is her second seahorse shirt) when she was building an impressive tower out of Picasso Tiles, magnetic shapes. I allowed her to finish her structure, but when I told her to demolish it and put away the pieces, negotiation broke down. That's when I used the trick that sometimes worked with Isaac's Lego creations and offered to take a picture. You can't tell by her expression, but peace was restored after this picture. I'm glad she loves her friends and teachers so I try not to take the daily "Oh, Man!" response to my arrival personally.

Isaac

Chart
Book

Isaac scored his second free book of the summer this week! This kid is on fire! He completed six tasks on the library's summer reading game. I included a picture of the chart. So far he completed: Read a book, Do a Science Experiment, Read a book that's part of a series, Watch a movie based on a book, Read a book by an author that is new to you, and Read a fiction book. You can see (if you click the picture of the chart to enlarge it) he scrawled which book he was using for each task. I'm his witness all of them were completed. The stamp in the corner indicates a librarian verified his six tasks were done and allowed him to pick his book. Since it was still June there was quite a selection. He went with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (remember that one? I do!). He'd read it cover to cover within the hour and has re-read parts of it several times!

Week Two Video Wrap Up

Weekly Wrap Up Questions
1. What did you learn that you didn't know before?
2. What was the worst part of your week?
3. What was the best part of your week?
4. What was your favorite meal?
5. What was the weather mostly like?
6. What was your favorite activity/project?
7. How many books did you read?
8. What were they called?
9. Which book was your favorite?
10. Where are some places you went this week?

Just to clarify, they didn't really light him on fire during his field trip. He's referring to an outdoor, black fabric maze under the June sun being uncomfortably hot.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Back Attack Returns

Gravity

I put Riley to bed the other night. While I was hugging her for the tenth time my left arm completely crossed my body. That's when I felt IT. The evil, deep-in-my-back, horror show of pain that started the "attack" last week. I called Mike in my least panicked, but still stern tone. He came quickly and I greeted him with, "It's happening again." I made it back to my room without alerting my little Miss. It was time to test the new cream...

And speaking of...I spent an entire day in tears over that stuff. I went to the Ortho on Friday (the only day my back liberation squad hangs out at the office) and I was told I'd have it on Monday or Tuesday. On Tuesday instead of something that would help with my back pain I got a phone call. I was informed by a pharmacist that they can't fill "anything" through my insurance. Nice, huh? I said, "Ok" and hung up. I was stunned because the Ortho's office has always been on the ball. I called the Ortho and left a message. I had officially boarded the emotional roller coaster being in pain and frustrated lends itself to. Before I got a return phone call from the Ortho I called the pharmacy back. When I inquired what it cost out of pocket he replied, "It's very expensive." I'm not going to lie I totally flashed on the shopping scene from Pretty Woman.

So, here I am coming unglued about the whole situation because I only had to keep it together until Tuesday! Now it was Tuesday and there was no way to make it stop hurting without being less functional than the pain was already making me. After repeating that paying out of pocket was not an option without giving me a number he told me that they had a "Low Cost Option." He explained that it would have to be approved by the Ortho and I would only receive a 15 day supply for the bargain price of $60. I told him to send the Ortho the paperwork. Shortly after that the Ortho's prescription person called and I informed her the paperwork was coming. She told me that the compound I would get would have "fewer ingredients."

At this point I became concerned. I mean what the heck does that mean? I don't even know what he prescribed in the first place only what it was supposed to do. Hours of stress slowly ticked by before the pharmacy called to get my address. I insisted on hearing every ingredient in the original and modified prescription. I Googled as she explained until I was certain I understood what they were selling me. They told me to expect it within 48 hours. It arrived on schedule.

Which brings us back to the second back attack. Back in my room I told Mike that this time I knew exactly what triggered it. My left shoulder blade popped out. That first pain was identical to last time. I turned around and weakly pointed at my left shoulder. Mike made a grossed out sound and said, "It's not in the right place." He pressed on it while I cursed and screamed and then he applied newly the obtained cream. I was completely frustrated that this was happening again. I was also completely relieved to know the cause. Hopefully, a chat with the Ortho will help me prevent any more of these buggers. Obviously, I have to be fit for nighly hug duty!

Sunday, June 15, 2014

100 Happy Days: Seventh Ten

For those of you unfamiliar with the sunny little campaign that's making the rounds on social media click here.

Here's round seven (Can you believe it? Gold star, me) of my daily happy. In case you missed any they're here are one through ten, second set, third set, fourth set, fifth set and the sixth set. Ready, set...round seven of looking on the bright side.

Here's sixty one through seventy

Day 61

Sick in bed today, decided to give myself a manicure. #100HappyDays #Day61 #OPIobsessed

Day 62

Last day of school preparations! #100HappyDays #Day62 #ChalkRocks

Day 63

As of 1:30pm it officially became summer at my house! To the pool! #100HappyDays #Day63

Day 64

Being at the library when it opens! #100HappyDays #Day64

Day 65

Free Donuts! Happy National Donut Day! #100HappyDays #Day65

Day 66

Don't try this at home, boys & girls. Dangerous science is awesome! #100HappyDays #Day66 #PlayingWithFire

Day 67

The Sunday paper in bed, thanks to Leeloo. #100HappyDays #Day67

Day 68

Craving fulfilled! Squeal! #100HappyDays #Day68 #DontJudge

Day 69

When I leave the store feeling like I won. #100HappyDays #Day69

Day 70

Getting lei-ed! #100HappyDays #Day70