We got up and had breakfast and then drove home from Emporia. Tim and Luke stayed behind to finish helping Dad with the truck wiring.
September 2
Tim ran sound at church. We went to James and Missy's house at 4:30 for dinner and to hang out. Vinnie woke up at 11 pm with a fever.
September 3
Vinnie and I went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, while Tim and Luke went to Greenbrier Mall to get the tire repaired on the car.
I ran home to drop off the cold groceries and then met up with the Johnson's at the Mall. Tim and Luke met us a few minutes later, having just gotten out of Brave at Cinema Cafe.
We had lunch with the Johnson's and then headed home.
September 4
Mom and Dad came in from Emporia.
September 5
I took Vinnie to the doctor for his fever, even though it was on the way out. That afternoon Luke got the fever.
September 6
Luke's fever broke, but he broke out in a rash.
September 7
We went to soccer to meet Luke's coach and pay his membership fee, but didn't stay to let him play because of the rash. Tim came home from work sick.
September 8
We missed soccer in the morning because Luke still had the rash (that we now suspect was a heat rash). We went to Melanie's "Free for All" pot luck at Portsmouth City Park from 4:30-7:30. Then we had a quick dinner and went to bed.
September 9
Tim ran sound at church. Then he went to a 4 o'clock meeting in Virginia Beach. Mom and Dad came in and we had everybody over for dinner.
September 10
The boys and I went and picked up a Superman/Batman cake pan, a Spiderman cake pan, and a Thomas cake pan. Then we went to the Post Office to mail some yarn and our swap goodies. We had dinner at Subway and then drove out to Heather's house to pick up my new snap pliers. Then we played at Logan and Gherig's house until about 7:30.
Tim had school, so bedtime was difficult.
September 11
Always Remember 9-11-01
I had a doctor's appointment at 11:30 in Virginia Beach, so I picked up Beth to go with me. She kept Vinnie in the lobby while I took Luke back with me. The doctor thinks the pain in my breast is hormonal and that the pain in my gall bladder will go away with diet modification.
After that we had CiCi's for lunch and then went to Wal-Mart to exchange some toys.
In exchange for 3 big toys, Luke got his Fisher Price Castle circa 1994. He has been enjoying it all week!
September 12
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| This is the face I get most often from Vinnie when I try to take his picture. |
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| Giving Tim "Five" he can say "five" now! |
Spencer arrived at 10:10 am. We got ready to go get Grayson, but were, as usual, late. :( He was okay though.
After picking him up, we drove to Chesapeake and went to the Post Office and Party City. We got some of the "special" Spiderman things for Luke's birthday party and some wrapping paper and headed home.
The three youngest boys took naps and Grayson "read" at the kitchen table. We mostly just hung out during the day waiting on Amanda to get there.
When Mandy got home, we all went to Outback Steakhouse for a super yummy dinner, courtesy of Lindsay. :)
After dinner, Mandy waited on her to-go order and I took the boys out to a grassy part of the parking lot to run off some steam before heading home to bed. They had a blast getting to run and play for a bit outside & the weather was perfect.
I realized fall is here and it is weird. Its like summer just faded away...and now its cool evenings and tolerable days. I'm a bit sad that we might only get one or two more Busch Gardens trips in.
It took me a while to get the boys ready for bed and they were both still up when Tim got home from school.
After picking him up, we drove to Chesapeake and went to the Post Office and Party City. We got some of the "special" Spiderman things for Luke's birthday party and some wrapping paper and headed home.
The three youngest boys took naps and Grayson "read" at the kitchen table. We mostly just hung out during the day waiting on Amanda to get there.
When Mandy got home, we all went to Outback Steakhouse for a super yummy dinner, courtesy of Lindsay. :)
After dinner, Mandy waited on her to-go order and I took the boys out to a grassy part of the parking lot to run off some steam before heading home to bed. They had a blast getting to run and play for a bit outside & the weather was perfect.
I realized fall is here and it is weird. Its like summer just faded away...and now its cool evenings and tolerable days. I'm a bit sad that we might only get one or two more Busch Gardens trips in.
It took me a while to get the boys ready for bed and they were both still up when Tim got home from school.
September 13
I woke up in severe pain. What I thought was my gall bladder hurting had gotten MUCH worse and only got more severe throughout the day. I managed to get a bit of housework done, but didn't even get the boys to take a nap and Luke had a bowl of pistachios for lunch.
When Tim got home I had called my general surgeon and she said to go to the Emergency Room....so I got a shower and drove myself in, leaving Tim home with the boys. (When this mama leaves her kids, you know something is bad.)
I left for the ER around 5:15 and didn't get home until almost midnight. They got me triaged and into a room fairly quickly and within the first hour I got blood drawn and an IV inserted (one step) and then started on some morphine.
The morphine didn't get rid of the pain and I was still in agony every time I moved, so after an ultrasound of all my middle organs, they had me drink some lidocaine and maalox. It was gross and it didn't do anything for the pain. (But it ruled out heartburn.) So, then the doctor decided to try an anti-inflammatory medicine called toradal and it FINALLY helped. So, the doctor decided that it must be a muscle related issue and that I probably strained the muscles there in my side/chest/back and there wasn't much more they could do.
I did get sent home with a prescription for Vicodin and extra strong Motrin.
September 14
Happy 1st Birthday Colton!
I was still hurting pretty badly, so my sweet and dear friend Karen came over with her son Thomas, to help me out. We hung out at home for about 30 minutes while I finished tidying up a bit & got the boys ready. Karen did all the lifting and helped me get the kids in the car. Then we went to Toys R Us to get Colton's birthday gift and some pouch baby foods for Vinnie. We discovered he likes the ones you can suck out like a straw and so I've been stocking up on the super-organic ones that he can actually eat.
After we went home, I gave the boys lunch and then put them down for naps.
In the afternoon, we had Luke's first soccer practice. He did SO well! I was so proud of him! His coach's name is Coach Cross and she has a daughter about a month older than Luke. There are more girls on the team than boys. They chose the team name "The Puppies" and will end up with either pink or blue jerseys, they don't know yet.
When we got there, we had to wait quite a while for all of his team to straggle in. While we were waiting the kids played around kicking their balls into the net.
They warmed up by running around their tiny rectangle field. Luke did well following the coach.
They practiced passing the ball to each other. Luke's partner just randomly kicked the ball (hard) all over the field and Luke kept running right to it & kicking it directly back to her. The coach kept "correcting" him, telling him to use small kicks, but he had complete control even over his big kicks (and they were practicing from 6 feet apart, so he had to kick it pretty hard.)
Then they practiced "dribbling" using "little kicks" up and down the field. Luke did really well with that as long as Tim or I stayed with him.
Next, they played Red Light, Green Light. The coach showed them that green light meant to kick their ball down the field and at red light to stop their ball with their foot on top.
Luke did excellent at balancing his ball with his foot & was the 2nd "winner" each time. There is one other kid on the team with some skills and he is about 9 inches taller than Luke and clearly already 4 years old.
The next game they played was "Kick the Coach" where in they attempt to kick their balls at their coach. Each time they'd kicked her 5 times (as a team) they all sat down and she made a funny animal noise, then they did it again.
That took up the first 45 minutes of the practice. (Also mixed in were several water breaks and one break for the coach to take her older child to the restroom.)
By this point Luke's attention span was maxed out but he was still hanging in there, many of the other kids faded away at this point. (Literally, they just wandered away!)
I moved away to nurse Vinnie, but Tim said she tried to get them to play two-on-two, but only Luke was paying attention! He did practice kicking the ball into the net with someone acting as goalie, and did NOT like it when the kid stopped his ball from going in!
All in all he was an excellent soccer star!
We had left-overs for dinner and I gave Frankie a hair cut.
September 15
Happy Birthday Mom!!
Today we got up and did housework. Then we went to Colton's First Birthday party.
After the birthday party, we dropped Tim off at home and drove to Virginia Beach. The boys got short, but much needed naps in during the ride. We got Luke's hair cut at Pigtails and Crewcuts and then got groceries at Wal-Mart.
When we got home, we gave the boys some quick dinner (Luke ate in the car) and Tim went to a different Wal-Mart to get dog food and laundry detergent.
I grilled some chicken and ate dinner with Vinnie while Tim and Luke were at the store. Then it was bedtime!
I woke up in severe pain. What I thought was my gall bladder hurting had gotten MUCH worse and only got more severe throughout the day. I managed to get a bit of housework done, but didn't even get the boys to take a nap and Luke had a bowl of pistachios for lunch.
When Tim got home I had called my general surgeon and she said to go to the Emergency Room....so I got a shower and drove myself in, leaving Tim home with the boys. (When this mama leaves her kids, you know something is bad.)
I left for the ER around 5:15 and didn't get home until almost midnight. They got me triaged and into a room fairly quickly and within the first hour I got blood drawn and an IV inserted (one step) and then started on some morphine.
The morphine didn't get rid of the pain and I was still in agony every time I moved, so after an ultrasound of all my middle organs, they had me drink some lidocaine and maalox. It was gross and it didn't do anything for the pain. (But it ruled out heartburn.) So, then the doctor decided to try an anti-inflammatory medicine called toradal and it FINALLY helped. So, the doctor decided that it must be a muscle related issue and that I probably strained the muscles there in my side/chest/back and there wasn't much more they could do.
I did get sent home with a prescription for Vicodin and extra strong Motrin.
September 14
Happy 1st Birthday Colton!
I was still hurting pretty badly, so my sweet and dear friend Karen came over with her son Thomas, to help me out. We hung out at home for about 30 minutes while I finished tidying up a bit & got the boys ready. Karen did all the lifting and helped me get the kids in the car. Then we went to Toys R Us to get Colton's birthday gift and some pouch baby foods for Vinnie. We discovered he likes the ones you can suck out like a straw and so I've been stocking up on the super-organic ones that he can actually eat.
After we went home, I gave the boys lunch and then put them down for naps.
In the afternoon, we had Luke's first soccer practice. He did SO well! I was so proud of him! His coach's name is Coach Cross and she has a daughter about a month older than Luke. There are more girls on the team than boys. They chose the team name "The Puppies" and will end up with either pink or blue jerseys, they don't know yet.
When we got there, we had to wait quite a while for all of his team to straggle in. While we were waiting the kids played around kicking their balls into the net.
They warmed up by running around their tiny rectangle field. Luke did well following the coach.
They practiced passing the ball to each other. Luke's partner just randomly kicked the ball (hard) all over the field and Luke kept running right to it & kicking it directly back to her. The coach kept "correcting" him, telling him to use small kicks, but he had complete control even over his big kicks (and they were practicing from 6 feet apart, so he had to kick it pretty hard.)
Then they practiced "dribbling" using "little kicks" up and down the field. Luke did really well with that as long as Tim or I stayed with him.
Next, they played Red Light, Green Light. The coach showed them that green light meant to kick their ball down the field and at red light to stop their ball with their foot on top.
Luke did excellent at balancing his ball with his foot & was the 2nd "winner" each time. There is one other kid on the team with some skills and he is about 9 inches taller than Luke and clearly already 4 years old.
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| This is the "big kid" on the team....Luke kept up with him pretty well! |
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| Listeing to his coach (in the red shirt) during one of the sit-downs. |
By this point Luke's attention span was maxed out but he was still hanging in there, many of the other kids faded away at this point. (Literally, they just wandered away!)
I moved away to nurse Vinnie, but Tim said she tried to get them to play two-on-two, but only Luke was paying attention! He did practice kicking the ball into the net with someone acting as goalie, and did NOT like it when the kid stopped his ball from going in!
All in all he was an excellent soccer star!
We had left-overs for dinner and I gave Frankie a hair cut.
September 15
Happy Birthday Mom!!
Today we got up and did housework. Then we went to Colton's First Birthday party.
After the birthday party, we dropped Tim off at home and drove to Virginia Beach. The boys got short, but much needed naps in during the ride. We got Luke's hair cut at Pigtails and Crewcuts and then got groceries at Wal-Mart.
When we got home, we gave the boys some quick dinner (Luke ate in the car) and Tim went to a different Wal-Mart to get dog food and laundry detergent.
I grilled some chicken and ate dinner with Vinnie while Tim and Luke were at the store. Then it was bedtime!
