A Year of Change

This morning the misses goes to Howard Head Sports Medicine for hopefully some relief. This sure is getting old and has gone on far too long. If today doesn’t help, I’ll be calling Dr Corenman at the world famous Steadman Hawkins clinic in Vail to try to get in. He’s the top neck, back and spine surgeon in the country and a friend for about 10 years. The wife saw him two years or so ago when this flared up before. We do have an appointment with two doctors at Concentra tomorrow am which are her workman’s comp doc’s. Hopefully Dirk (the misses therapist) can do something, anything, this morning. She’s still up in bed right now and neither of us are getting any sleep. That’s all the update I have, nothing much has changed. When something like this is going on, bills, work and everything else, really don’t mean much. All we care about is trying to get through each day and get this fixed.

Yesterday the boys and I went out for awhile to give Mom some peace and quiet hoping that would help. We were gone for 2 or 3 hours and then they played upstairs for a bit before we headed to swim team. The oldest ones friend Jennifer had decided a few weeks ago, to come along and give it a try. Unfortunately it’s a bit harder than it looks (swimming laps non stop for an hour) and she only lasted 5 minutes before she stopped and went home with her Mom. The boys did really well, once again, and both are getting better each week. The oldest one is really getting fast and they keep moving him up and up into faster, more advanced groups. He’s so long and lean that he just glides through the water, kind of like a fish. Meanwhile the youngest too is swimming down and back the length of the pool which ins’t all that easy for kids his age.

We arrived home to the smell of Mom’s lasagna and garlic bread and all sat down for dinner. Mom, even with a splitting head, had the table set with table cloth, cloth napkins, and silverware ready for dinner. She just came down and is about an 8 out of 10 on the pain scale which is the best we can hope for these days. I told her to just sit down and I’ll cook breakfast for all of us. I’m headed to the kitchen now so here’s the misses…..

Hello, the big dog has his giant paw on my foot in hopes that I will pet him.  Both boys are with me on the couch.  The youngest says he is sick…it must be the Monday morning flu.  The oldest is looking very tired.

Thank you, Mom for your comment, but it is not me that tries to do all things..that is the Mister.  I used to keep a clean house (I think that was before kids) and now the house looks like a “beginner hoarder” is living here.  The “hoarder” would be me.  I have a difficult time throwing things away…The Mister is much better at throwing things away, and cleans all the time.  He did 5 or 6 loads of laundry over the weekend.  Four people sure generate a lot of dirty clothes.  He vacuums at least once and sometimes twice a day.  The dog hair drives him crazy. It used to get to me, but now I’ve decided to wear white, so I don’t have to see it. When I feel it under my feet..that’s my cue to do floors. Actually, in all honesty the Mister is a much better cleaner and I….and I am very thankful.  He has been so great… especially through this stinkin’ headache.

Love to all and God Bless,

LLF

I sure enjoy the wife’s posts ore than mine and I’m sure you do too. I end up writing more than her as I’m the one up the earliest and she often doesn’t have the time and says it takes her a lot longer to do so. Her sunny outlook sure is nice. I often get into a rant (I know I know) about things going on but sometimes I just can’t help myself with all the stupidity in the World. For instance (here I go) how about the 86 year old veteran that everyone ignored when carjacked in broad daylight.

A World War II veteran said nobody helped him in the minutes after he was attacked and carjacked during daylight at a busy Detroit gas station and he had to crawl across a concrete parking lot to get help.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/26/wwii-veteran-says-nobody-helped-him-after-was-carjacked/?test=latestnews#ixzz1nUk5sefn

This kind of shit just drives me up a wall. Here’s an 86 year old man, attacked in front of tons of people, they break his leg and he has to crawl into the gas station to call the police for help. What in the hell is wrong with people? How could no one help him or at least call for help? Boy, what is the World coming to?

Ok, now that I’ve vented I’ll try to start over. It’s a nice sunrise with lots of colors outside.   We are supposed to have high winds return today so batten down the hatches. (a Navy term, right Pa Don?) The misses isn’t doing much better, hanging out around an 8 out of 10 on the pain scale. We’re trying to keep her there until she can get into our “out of network” physical therapy at Howard Head Sports Medicine tomorrow. We’re supposed to pay the first half of our property taxes on the 29th but physical therapy will take the set aside cash instead. Let’s see, try to get rid of this freakin pain or pay the government, pretty easy choice. Pray it helps her as we have to get rid of this pain now.

Last night the oldest spent the night at the neighbors while their youngest spent the night here with our youngest. We essentially swapped kids so we each still only had two. The 2 little guys woke up at 6 and are upstairs playing Wii or Pokemon or something. I probably should have lobbied for the older kids as they’re probably still sleeping. Oh well, it’s not like I sleep in anyhow.

Yesterday I did manage to get the garage cleaned out to get ready for our 200 cases of wine. They now will arrive in Denver on Thursday and to me hopefully on Friday which means next weekend will be all about packing wine for Fed Ex on Monday. I hate this twice a year job but there’s no way around it.

I think I’ll run outside today instead of going to the gym. The kids say Mom said we’re going out to breakfast which is news to me as that’ll cost $30 or more which I’m not going to spend. Maybe they’ll forget about it or maybe we could all just show up at Uncle T and Aunt B’s door! The only problem there is they usually sleep until about our lunchtime. Looks like they lucked out.

Alright, that’s all for me. I’ll try to get the good looking one to write tomorrow and just more in general. Hope you are all well, take care and stay safe, God Bless.

Good Morning.  The air is crisp.  The sky is blue.  The clouds are pink, lavender and peach…and I can see my breath.  No, I didn’t go for a much needed and longed for run.  I was actually out checking on the youngest’s dragon head that we have been working on.  Now, I don’t know if the kids knocked it over, the garage door hit it or our dog started licking it, but once again it is missing teeth and an eye that I cannot locate anywhere.  Are you kidding me??  Some of the dragon’s spikes have been pulled out and the coat of paint looks like crap.  It must be divine intervention to guarantee that it looks like an 8 year old made the whole project and not his mother!  I have to borrow some glue for a glue gun and try to repair it a little…

The mister is at the gym, the kiddos are playing a game upstairs and as I type my pinky and ring finger are falling asleep.  To me that means this silly headache is a nerve and not tension.  I called my mom crying because my head hurt so bad yesterday.  The mister got me in with our Doc about an hour or so later.  The Doc had his nurse give me a shot in the  buttocks, and that was supposed to help.  7 injections and three massages later…still feeling fabulous.  I stayed on the couch most of the day…all day and night in fact…all I needed was a box of bon bons and a dilapidated car parked on the lawn…maybe a couch or lazyboy with the stuffing coming out on the porch and the picture would have been complete.

The boys are sore from their Krav Maga class…especially their abs and biceps.  They really had a great time and they are both looking forward to the next class. I’m really happy that they are enjoying the class and learning so much. Swimming for the boys on Sunday..and I have checked the schedule…this time there is swim team.  Soccer starts next week for the youngest and the oldest wants us to check in again with baseball.  The summer overlap of swim team and baseball may be too much for our family.  We’ll see.  The oldest is such a beautiful swimmer.  Most boys just try to do fast without proper mechanics.  Our guy has a natural smooth stroke and he really does just glide through the water.  I love to watch our kiddos swim.  The youngest is really fast in backstroke.  The fact that swimming is a “No contact” sport…team and individual times really makes Mommy happy:-)

So, the oldest just screamed, “shut your idiotic pie hole” to the youngest.  Hmm, I’ll have to think of a consequence.  Maybe vacuuming or dusting.  Please don’t mention this to him…anyone…I’ll let him revisit his vocabulary choices at a later date.  So, no teasing or questioning…thank you. Both boys just came down…so I am off.

God Bless

We’re sorry to report that the misses 50 minute massage didn’t help her head one bit. In the afternoon we went to see a doctor friend who also couldn’t do anything. The only thing left to do was to have an adult beverage to try to numb the pain. This of course only provides temporary relief and isn’t a long term strategy.

I was sore everywhere the whole day, in muscles I didn’t know I had. I was beat up, so to speak, from Krav Maga (the Israeli hand to hand combat course we take) the day before. Let’s see, not to complain but just to give you an idea, my right thumb is jammed and a bit swollen, my adams apple is bruised from being choked during drills, my right thigh is bruised from a kick from my 24 year old, 215 pound sparring partner that missed the protective pad, and my glutes, chest, wrists, and neck and just about every other muscle are just sore in general. All in all, I feel pretty good and love it!

Last night was the kids 2nd Krav Maga class. They too go through the same training as adults in a modified version. At one point when the misses and I looked into class, they were in a drill where an adult (playing a kidnapper) would grab them in a real life scenario. They are taught to first make noise as they squirm and try to get away while grabbing their attacker by the chest as they try to push away while throwing knee kicks to their crotch or midsection. They then run to the other end of the gym and face another attacker where they kick again or throw a series of three punches. It’s pretty amazing to see kids from about 6 on up going through these real life situations and knowing what to do. As a parent you pray that your child will never be in a situation like this but it’s reassuring to know that they are being trained or imprinted to know what to do. The instructors are very serious and well trained. At one point the youngest wasn’t listening for a moment, and was subsequently penalized with 50 push ups. Watching a class like this, or taking one as an adult, you can see why the Israeli defense forces are so well trained. Every man, woman and child are taught this skill in Israel. An added benefit is the kids love it, they’re taught discipline, it’s great exercise and it wears them out! The kid classes in particular are packed. Some parents drive their kids from as far as an hour away to attend. What fun.

We made it home by 6:30 and had a quick bite of dinner and before you knew it, we were all in bed. It’s now my usual 5am, (been up since 4) and I’m about to head off to the gym. I did take a break from everything yesterday as I had two workouts on Wednesday. Well try something, (don’t know what), else today to get the misses some relief. We’re out of money as all these doctors and masseuses that are “out of network” cost money. She is scheduled for some physical therapy on Monday at the place that worked two years ago but they too are out of network. We’re hoping for the best.

Today I have 200 cases of wine flying “first class” (costs us $12,000 Euros) from Siena Italy to Denver Colorado so I need to clean out the garage to get ready for their arrival. Next week will be tough as the misses usually helps me and is out of commission this year. Guess I’ll get another kind of workout! After they arrive, I need to unpack and repack about 100 cases right away and re-ship via Fed Ex to various parts of the country. It’ll be a busy week, hope the weather is good.

Time to run, hope you all are well. Take care and God Bless.

I awoke at 4am to find another tied up garbage bag of trash strewn around the kitchen. Seems like Lacey the lab decided to make a mess again. She usually doesn’t get into trash bags if they’re tied up but I guess all that’s changed. So, after picking up *#%$* I grabbed the computer only to find we had no internet. Upon further investigation, the phones weren’t working either. Surprisingly, we had tv. It took and hour or so for it to come back (as I’m writing now) as I’m sure there was some area wide outage due to the 75 mile an hour winds we had most of the night plus the heavy snow storm that blew in after midnight. You got to love living in Colorado!

Yesterday the misses headache was still here in full force. I called a friend who has a spa and we have her in for a 50 minute massage this morning to try to get some relief.

I went to exercise around noon and made it home around 1pm and after a quick shower, headed back to work before getting the kids from school. Mom was still on the couch unable to move, hopefully todays massage will help. It’s 5:39am and I think I’ll head downstairs to get some work in before everyone is up.

Sorry for the short post but having the internet down cut into my writing time. Have a great day, take care and God Bless.

Can you even imagine having a headache 24 hours a day for 3 straight weeks? I can’t. After getting a number of shots in the back of her skull yesterday, the misses still has the constant pain. She’s supposed to go back next Tuesday but in the meantime has been referred to another specialist who will inject some cortisone while the misses is under going an xray. I am not going to let her go 5 more days with no relief. I’m not sure what I’m going to do but I have to do something.

Today the oldest has his Jedediah Smith presentation in his class at 9:15 and we’ll all be there. Yesterday was the first day back to school and both boys slid right back into the groove.

We also had a first as Grandma Dixie learned how to comment yesterday, here it is,

Dixie and Don says:

Today I need to make some tough choices at work. I’m probably going to have to let 1, maybe 2 people go, or at least 1 and move the 2nd to part time. I’ll also probably bring back an employee that we let go half way through last year. Numbers don’t lie and sometimes you have to make decisions you don’t want to for the greater good. Oh well, enough of my problems, how about the misses.

We finally made it to the doctor yesterday afternoon and he, to my surprise, was 100% on our side. He told us how the insurance companies want to push you through the system and walked us out to reception to insist that the misses see the in house specialist today at 11:30. At first they said he had nothing available but our doc said, put her down, he’ll get her in and I’ll write a staff referral. Finally some movement. First off the misses will head downtown for a 9:30 appointment on our dime as it’s “out of network” which just means, we have to pay. At this point, money is not the issue. It’s trying to get the misses some relief. The place she’s going is the only place that helped 2 years ago when she had the same headaches. Of course the best place isn’t covered by insurance, right?

The boys had their last play day of the 4 day weekend and made the most of it. Most of the day was at the neighbors while I worked, mostly on the phone. We made some short ribs for dinner but they took longer than anticipated so they kids ended up with Chinese food for dinner.

Today it’s back to school for the kids and lots of work for me. It’s supposed to be really windy tonight and still cool outside. Time for me to run now so have a great day and take care. Hope everyone is well.

I finally finished cleaning one side of the basement yesterday after another couple of hours downstairs. Meanwhile the misses was trying to rest her neck and feel better. The boys played hard all the way up until swimming lessons when I loaded them and the youngest neighbor boy into the car to go. Mom was down the street getting another massage trying to get some relief. Most of her day she was working on the youngest ones dragon head for D.I.

When we arrived at the School of Mines, we were surprised to see we were the only ones there! It seems swimming was cancelled due to the holiday weekend. Obviously we didn’t get the memo, or check the website! I did convince the girl lifeguard to let them get in the  water for 20 minutes or so. The oldest guy is swimming really well and got in some laps while the two younger kids splashed around a bunch.

Our boys and the two neighbor boys had devised a plan to all sleep over at their house so after checking with their parents, we said ok. Now you’d think what fun for us to have a night to ourselves but all we did was go to sleep. It’s almost 6am and Comcast comes between 7 and 8 as we’ve had no home phones since Saturday morning. Lacey the lab tore open a big black trash bag and strew stuff all over the house during the night. I’ve already vacuumed but don’t tell me dogs have no memory as she isn’t coming down the stairs as she knows what she did.

I guess it’s our fault for leaving it out. I’ve got a bunch of phone calls this morning and then the misses and I have self defense class at noon while the little guy is at D.I. Then at 5pm , both boys have class. The misses is determined to go but I think she should take it easy until her neck gets better but her logic is, “it’s going to hurt whether I go or not”!

Alright, Mom’s up working on the dragon head and time to hit the shower. Turns out Lacey was also eating the paper mache off the dragon head as it’s made from flour and water, super. Have a great day, take care and God Bless.

First off, thanks Grandma Annette for the following comment from yesterday, she said;

The only time I had fresh bread was when Serena was a little girl and my mother-in-law made home made bread every Wed. We would go over to her house and wait for it to come out of the oven. She would make 6 loaves and we would eat 2. My Grandma Annette and my Mom never made homemade bread as my Grandpa ran general stores . We only had home baked goods at Moms when my Aunt Leona came down from Canada. She would make bread and the best sticky buns in the world. You guys better get real about making your own bread as you don’t have enough time for all the things you have going on now. Bread making is a long time consuming process and has to be done just right. What are you going to cook the bread in with no electricity or gas. You better build a brick oven in the backyard and stockpile a lot of wood or buy a generator and a lot of gas (don’t stockpile gas at the house). Gas here could be $5 a gallon by summer, maybe that will keep a certain someone out of the White House again. I hope Lori’s neck feels better, isn’t there something the doctor can do for it? Take care, love you all.

Now I had to call her and let her know, we already have stoves and ovens that run on kerosene and have about 200 gallons of fuel safely stored. Gas is too volatile to store on sight but we do have some close by that’s treated with “Satbil-ize”, a gas preservative. Grandma Annette is quite the gardner so we’ll be enlisting her help in a month or so when we begin Spring planting.

Yesterday started off with my run and then we were all off to Krav Maga, Israeli self defense classes for the boys. They were really excited as it’s lot of fun and they both broke multiple boards with side kicks at the end of class. Today they have swimming!

On the way home we dropped the youngest at d.i. (destination imagination) and went home. The misses went down the street for a massage while I started to clean up the basement. Next the oldest and I were off to pick the youngest up and then all three of us went back downstairs to go through stuffed animals and dvd’s. We came up with about 100 animals and 70 dvd’s to donate to Children’s Hospital. Meanwhile the misses was trying to stay still and get some relief on her neck. The afternoon went quick and we were supposed to go out to dinner way down south and then to a comedy show that started at 9:45. Now this would have put us home around midnight and we just couldn’t get up for it. We did have our favorite babysitter booked and felt we couldn’t cancel on her, so the misses and I were trying to find something to do.

A few days ago I had read about a new Scandinavian restaurant called Trillium. Since we couldn’t find any interesting movies, we decided to give it a try. Luckily we got a reservation for 7:30 and off we went. Long story short, it was a really great dinner. It’s fun to find a new place where the food lives up the the hype. It was also nice for the misses and I to just have some alone time. So after a great meal and adult conversation, we were home by 9. We were all in bed by 9:30 and fast asleep.

The misses just came down and her head is hurting really bad, we have to get this fixed. She has another massage today but we need to get to the root of the problem. We’ll be asking (telling) the workman’s compensation doctor to refer us to our physical therapy place of choice when she goes to the doctor tomorrow. These doctors don’t care, they rush you in and out as you’re just another name in the system. Time for me to jump in and take freakin charge. It’s supposed to be a bit warmer today, almost 50, so I’m going to try to finish the basement and get the garage done. 200 cases of wine will arrive by plane before we know it.

I’m going to finish my coffee and head to the gym and jump on the treadmill. I have to stick to my routine as I’m an all in or all out type of personality. Hope everyone is well. If you don’t know how to post a comment, just scroll to the bottom of the post and click on “leave a comment” and follow the instructions, it’s pretty simple.

Take care and God Bless,

If you scroll down to yesterday’s post, you can click on “1 comment” and see Aunt Robi’s reply from yesterdays post. Glad to hear she’s happy and in a good place. It’s so cute she actually thinks “she’s the favorite”. This argument has gone on a long time and I’ve come to the point where I just let Uncle T and Aunt Robi both think they’re Mom’s favorite as I know the real truth. Anyhow, back to yesterday.

The misses neck is so jacked up she actually broke down into tears a couple of times yesterday. I’m so pissed I’m thinking of getting a lawyer and suing the physical therapy place that caused this. We finally reached the doctor who called in some pain pills but they didn’t do much. I just took her up some frozen blueberries to put on her neck or forehead to try to sooth her pain. We’re supposed to go out to dinner tonight and then a comedy club but I don’t know, maybe we’ll have to cancel.

Yesterday afternoon, we took the boys and Jennifer to the movies. It was long overdue and they had a great time. We were planning on using Grandma Annette’s Christmas gift of movie passes but of course, when we arrived they told us we had to first book on line to use the passes. So out came the credit card as I couldn’t tell them no and leave, and into the movie we went. There’s always a catch.

Today I’m determined to get some deep cleaning done. I’ve kind of started on the basement but really only picked up so I can now start to clean. I was up at the shop (gun shop) with the guys yesterday, and we were all talking about that National Geographic show, Doomsday Preppers. You see, the gun shop around here is kind of like the local barber shop was in the old days, a bunch of us drop in on a regular basis to hang out. Some people go to Starbucks to meet, we go to the gun shop. There’s Dave, the Wheat Ridge cop, Bill, the FBI agent, Brian and Tom, ex military and so on. We all know each other well and have been friends for years. There’s always a few dogs lying around too. The tv show came up as Tom, the store owner said he couldn’t order any new guns from distributors on Wednesday as they we’re all sold out. We all wondered what was going on but as soon as I got home, the misses said, “it’s because of the show”. Turns out she was right. They had over 4 million people the first week and 5 million the second and it seems a lot of these people went out and bought guns causing an unexpected shortage, Wow!

Now we don’t need any more guns but we do need a Country Living grain mill. These are about $400 but allow us to mill our own flour and make bread for .70 cents a loaf instead of the $5 or $6 a loaf now costs! In the long run , it’ll pay off so we need to get one sometime soon. We’re always looking for ways to be more self sufficient and save money. Nobody makes their own bread anymore, in fact our kids have only had fresh bread, hot out of the oven, a few times, while I’m sure my Mom and Grandma Dixie and Annette had this all the time when they were kids. Wow how times have changed, and not always for the best. I have an idea, if anyone wants to buy us the grain mill, we’ll keep you in fresh bread! Remember, those that donate will be first in line to be taken in once the shit hits the fan, ha ha! (now don’t you Grandma’s get all serious as we know and appreciate all the donating you’ve done for us throughout our lives)

The boys played hard yesterday and are sleeping well. The oldest had so much popcorn at the movies, he had a stomach ache and had to go to bed early. I think he hit a turning point as he said “dad, from now on I’m eating no more junk, only good food”. They’re such good kids, we’re very lucky. In fact, we’re so lucky, I think we’ll win the lottery tonight, wouldn’t that be nice.

Alright, I’m going to run, literally, so I can get my exercise in for the day. It’s a holiday weekend so I hope everyone has some fun plans. Hard to believe it’s almost March, take care and God Bless.