A Year of Change

Today we have soccer at 9am and then the State Championship D.I. competition downtown in the afternoon from about 2 until 6 or 7pm, uggh. Oh well that’s what being parents is all about. Going here and there for this and that.

The misses is still in pain (what’s new) and we’re planning on going up to the doctor in the mountains on Tuesday for some relief. The only hitch is whether or not workmans comp approves the procedure by then. If not, they say they can’t get her in for another week. The misses left another message yesterday appealing for help from the adjuster so hopefully they’ll get the paperwork done. Maybe they think the misses likes getting neck injections or something and that she’s trying to scam them in some way. It’s very frustrating to say the least.

It’s now 6am and everyone is sleeping. I’m going to get some exercise in (what’s new) as I can’t go a day without it. Snow is on the way but that’s ok as they had hail near Sacramento and the whole midwest is on some kind of super storm warning that was announced 24 hours ago which only happens in the most extreme circumstances. They say they fear some really bad tornado’s are going to form. I told the misses if we lived there, we’d pack up the kids and get out of town. I don’t know how those people live in Oklahoma and Kansas and in “tornado ally”. We just wouldn’t do it. Then again maybe lots of them would like to leave but just can’t. It’s not so easy to just say “we’re going to move”.

Guess I’ll run now so I can get a head start on everything before the misses and kiddo’s get up. Hope everyone has a great weekend, take care and God Bless.

I landed back in Denver yesterday around 10:10am after a quick 2 day trip to the Big Apple. The misses was home nursing her never ending headache and the boys were at school. I unpacked my suitcase and headed downstairs to pay some bills and get some computer work done. This morning I have a Bocelli presentation for the Colorado team at 9am and then need to head to Boulder for a meeting.

It was a bit stormy yesterday with a little rain but nothing like the day before from what I’m told. The next few days are supposed to be a mix of rain and snow which is too bad since it’s the weekend.

The oldest is playing away on his new alto recorder and has already amassed a number of colored ribbons for passing level after level. Of course this means non-stop playing around here but at least the alto is a much lower pitch than the first model he had. It’s hard to believe but the boys have something like 6 weeks of school left and then it’s summer.

Both boys were working the neighborhood hard selling an assortment of flowers, candy and candles to raise money for the school. The youngest went to all the neighbors and at dinner told us he was going to let one of the neighbors use one of our checks since he didn’t have his checkbook. We quickly explained why that wouldn’t work! They’re both up to about $75 or $100 each and Uncle T is going to take the oldest ones form to the bank next week. That’s a bit of an advantage so we’ll have to assign Grandma to the youngest. I’m sure we or he will be calling each and everyone of you this weekend as well! It’s good they’re so excited to do something to help the school when it doesn’t directly benefit them. Mom has already bought something and now I’m getting the full press. In fact, I’m telling him right now how much each of you will buy from him to deflect the $24 worth of flower bulbs he’s pressuring me to buy. He’s quite the salesman, wonder where he gets that?

Not much else going on so time to run to the gym before the kids get up and we all get going. Hope you all are well and have some fun plans for the weekend. Take care and God Bless,

Good morning.  I am a little late posting this morning because the youngest beat me to the computer.  I got the boys off to school after a quick breakfast.  The oldest slept in until 7:30….he was up until almost 10p.m. Yikes!!

Yesterday while  I was spreading mulch handful by handful, the thunder started rolling in.  I had to stop and listen a few times to make sure I wasn’t hearing things.  As I was making dinner the tornado warnings were posted on the television…along with the “take cover” announcement.  The warnings were for an area east of us and there was no moisture with the thunder at our house.  I was having trouble falling asleep last night.  Just as I was about to drift off, the thunder rolled back in at about triple the decimals as the thunder of the afternoon.  The sound was accompanied by quite the light show and a nominal amount of rain and hail.  I ran to the window to see the show and of course my “midnight brain” took over and I was debating whether or not to grab the kiddos and dogs and head down to the basement.  I turned on the television to see if there were any warnings since the storm was so loud I had doubts about hearing storm sirens if there were any.  Nothing on T.V….that did not ease my mind one bit…..especially after the debacle of the reverse 911 calls during the recent fires here in Colorado.  Anyway, I listened at the open window, breathed in the fresh misty air and waited for the storm to pass.  I climbed back in bed close to 1:00a.m. wide awake of course.

This morning there are leaves and an assortment of tree droppings all over the walkway and the new mulch…good news though…we fertilized the lawn yesterday and turned on the sprinklers, so the grass is well watered, as are the flowers and shrubs.

As we were pulling into school for drop off this morning we heard an awful noise coming from the right front tire…ugg!!  It sounded like a flat and I was dreading having to change a tire at school.  The oldest jumped out after we stopped and told me we had a flat tire…crap…the youngest said, “yep”.  Then the youngest turned back, bent down and pulled out a cottonwood stick from the wheel well and said, “Oh mom, the tire isn’t flat…it’s just a stick”.  Whew!!!  Seriously dodged a bullet on that one.

LOL just called, so I am off to give the dog a shot.

Have a great day and God Bless,

LLF

Good morning everyone.  The air is crisp, the birds are chirping and the sky is overcast with spring colors. The boys and I slept in until 7, so we missed the sunrise.  We all needed the extra sleep since we stayed up late.

We picked up the oldest’s friend Jennifer from school yesterday at her Mom”s request. Jennifer’s step dad broke his leg on Monday and her mom was taking him to a specialist…..I brought the crew home for a bite to eat and then we were off to soccer for the youngest.  After that Jen’s mom met us at our house and I took the oldest over to another friend’s with his bike in tow for a late play date.  At the youngest’s sincere request I headed up the street to pick up steamed dumplings and chicken satay. The oldest went out to dinner with his friend and the youngest played with the neighbor at our house.  Good times for kiddos.

The boys don’t have school today because of the budget cuts forced on public schools.    All teachers and faculty have to take  day without pay to save money in order to keep the classrooms at 25-30 kids per teacher (that is already too many children for 1 teacher) otherwise the classroom size could climb to 30-45 children.  It is unbelievable to me that with all of the education chatter from both parties teachers in public schools are still underpaid and undervalued.  The teachers already took pay cuts last year to keep the class sizes smaller this year…next they will be asked to donate their time.  We have such great, caring teachers at our school.  We are quite fortunate…I know not all schools have such invested teachers.  Anyway, the Furlough is why the munchkins are out of school today.

The youngest has D.I practice from 9-noon.  The State competition is Saturday…so is soccer…fortunately not at the same time.  After D.I. today I am taking them to a movie…thank you again Grandma Annette for the gift cards.  We will do some homework, have a bite to eat and go to bed early.

The Mister returns from New York tomorrow morning…hopefully it is a successful trip.

Take care…God bless,

LLF

Ok, first off, was that article not there again yesterday??? It’s not showing up now but was there when I posted the post yesterday, hmm. I guess I’ll have to re-write it myself instead of cutting and pasting.

This morning I’m off to New York for a quick 48 hour trip. That means I’ll be home Thursday am around 10am. Yesterday the boys were back at school and half way through the day we received a call form the oldest asking if we could bring $20 to school as he passed all 27 songs and graduated to the alto recorder. He’s worked so hard and is the only person in his class to move up to the larger alto flute like thing. The whole family supports him but the non stop playing of various songs can drive you up a wall. Next up the youngest one will start and we’ll have a band here at the house.

Right after school Mom wanted some black mulch for her garden and when she’s got something in her head, there’s no stopping her. So off we went to Lowe’s for 5 bags of mulch. By dinner time, those were all gone, spread over a small portion of the garden. I did a quick calculation and I think she’ll need about 20 more bags. Thankfully they’re only about $3 each. Oh well, that’ll keep her busy for the next day or two.

The youngest went to d.i. after school and then we rushed home so he could go to martial arts with his friend as it was buddy day. By 6:15 we all sat down for a dinner of pasta (we eat a lot of pasta) and then it was back outside until around 7:30. The youngest one finally got the new sheets he wanted for his bed as he says his flannel ones are itchy. By 9 we were all tucked in and now at 5:23 everyone is still sleeping. Time for me to run s I have an 8:30 flight.

Take care and God Bless. Oh by the way, I received something I ordered in the mail yesterday and wouldn’t you know it, inside the envelope was a free bible! I don’t know if you guys buy much through the mail but I’m seeing more and more of this. Companies are including things like free bibles or copies of the U.S. Constitution. Good for them, just thought I’d pass that on.

Have a great few days and enjoy the misses posts.

It was warm yesterday, somewhere in the mid 70’s. We woke up pretty early and made it to church for the 8am service. The boys sat through the sermon with us as the kids programs are not available on Easter. They did pretty well compared to what I remember I was like as a kid. It was a good sermon and the place was packed!

We arrived home around 9:10 and the boys and I quickly changed clothes and jumped in the car to run to the store to get Mom and Grandma some flowers. When we arrived back home the boys and their keen eyes spotted some colored eggs around the yard. It was all I could do to keep them inside until Mom got back from giving that annoying freakin little dog his morning shot. (we’re getting really tired of the misses having to go down the street every morning and night to give the dog a shot!) As soon as she showed up, the hunt was on. With the determination of a finally trained bird dog, they both searched out 24 eggs in a matter of minutes. Next is was off to Grandmas’s where another 24 eggs were stashed around the yard along with 2 baskets, one for each boy. That took a little longer but they were still quick. Oh yea, in between they had a quick egg hunt at the neighbor’s house as well.

Then it was off to play while we began to prepare the big feast. Uncle T called and said to keep an eye on Grandma as she wasn’t feeling too good. It turns out about 20 minutes before lunch she called to tell me to come get the food she prepared but she wouldn’t be making it as she didn’t feel to well and was just going to take a rest. Of course we were all disappointed but if she wasn’t feeling well, it is what it is. So the boys and us, joined by Ben the neighbor kid, sat down to eat ham, garlic mashed potato’s, cucumber salad, deviled eggs, french toast and assorted condiments for lunch. We joked that it takes a few hours to get lunch ready and an hour to clean up but only about 15 minutes to eat! Anyhow it was a good meal and we have enough food leftover for weeks.

The boys spent the rest of the day playing outside until around 7pm. The day included some time in the hot tub, football, building and playing in their secret fort down by the creek and a little bit of time on video games. All in all they had a fun busy day.

The misses head has been pounding again ever since the doctor manipulated it to find the source of her pain. We don’t get to go for more injections until a week from tomorrow so it’ll be a rough week. Hopefully next week will bring some sustained real relief.

In closing, here’s that article I was trying to insert last week. After you read it, it’s pretty hard not to agree with most of it. As I said, we’re pro choice but the rest of it is pretty spot on. What kind of  country have we become, does anyone think we’re actually headed in the right direction? Read it and decide for yourself.

Enough said, take care and God Bless you all,

What a great holiday! I’m sure everyone understands the importance of the day and just what it means, if you don’t, I suggest you pick up a bible. I really haven’t delved much into religion as I think that it’s pretty much each persons right to believe in whatever they want. I would however suggest, that if you do not believe in Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you do pick up a bible. If that’s too much for you, start with a book by a really smart man named C.S. Lewis and read his book Mere Christianity. You might know his name from the Narnia movies but he was foremost a noted author who chronicled his journey from being a non believer to a christian. The interesting thing about his books (he wrote many on the subject) is that he lays out proof that even the staunchest atheist finds hard to ignore. For us, embracing God provides an inner peace that can be found nowhere else. I’ll stop here as we’ve never been ones to espouse our views on God or religion as we think that’s a personal thing but we are happy to discuss it with you if you like. In any case, Happy Easter on this holy day to each and everyone of you. Know that you all are in our prayers (us and the boys) daily.

Happy Birthday to Grandma Dixie!!!!

Now onto the day, yesterday started out fine but by around noon the oldest one was melting down a bit (after 2 cinnamon rolls) so I suggested we call Jennifer to see if she could hang out for the day. This made him feel better and 10 minutes later he and I were in the car and off to her Grandma’s to pick her up. We loaded her bike up and headed home where they began to play and alas, everything was now fine. They road bikes for a bit and we let them go down to the park on their own as long as they took Mom’s cell phone with them. He checked in on schedule (too bad that nowadays you have to have your kids “check in” every 30 minutes due to safety reason) and then called and asked if they could stay at Uncle T and Aunt B’s for awhile. Of course I said yes. A bit later, we played football in the front yard with the youngest and his friend. Jen, who plays softball, has quite the arm and can really throw a football!

All this time Mom was busy planting flowers in the front yard that she had bought earlier in the day with her Echter’s gift card from Christmas. In a few hours she transformed a pile of dead grass and flowers into a colorful Spring like setting outside our door. Soon it was 5;30 and time to feed the kids so the misses and I whipped up some dinner and we all sat down to eat. Then it was time to color some Easter eggs with the boys and Jen sitting down and getting busy mixing and dipping 24 more eggs. It was just about then when her Mom showed up to pick her up. We were all pretty tired from the day and it wasn’t long before it was bedtime.

It’s just about 5 am now as Lacey the lab was barking non stop at 4:15. I had no choice but to get up and feed her or she’d wake everyone. I guess I’ll go to the gym since I’m up or maybe I’ll see f I can fall back asleep. We’re all going to the 8am service at church and then later we’ll be up at Grandma’s hunting Easter eggs. Word has it that he’s hiding the eggs up there this year. Later in the day Grandma will join us for an Easter dinner of ham, scalloped potato’s, and a bunch of other good food. It’s just us and Grandma as Aunt B has her parents coming over.

So, take care, enjoy the day and once again, God Bless.

Thankfully the weekend is here. It was a busy week and now we have Easter tomorrow. Last night we went out to dinner with our 4 doctor friends. It was Chelsea’s birthday and we all had a nice time. 3 out of 4 of them are running the Boston Marathon a week from Monday which is quite a feat. Keep your fingers crossed as it looks like the misses is going to get the design job for the dermatology office. The only hick up is they have a new owner at their building and the lease is up in a year and they need to see if the rent is going up a bunch. They’re pretty sure they’re staying since they’re one of the largest tenants in the building so the new owner will probably do whatever to keep them, plus they have no where to go. Chelsea also wants to hire the misses to help with the decorating of their new house that they’re moving into next month. Looks like the misses is now officially a designer, we’ll have to get some cards made!

The boys colored Easter eggs with Daniella, our favorite babysitter, while we were at dinner. The wholes house smells like eggs after Mom boiled 24 for the coloring fest. I’m off to New York Tuesday morning for a quick 48 hour trip. Today the youngest is supposed to have a soccer game at 9am but last night when we got home we had to perform some minor surgery on his toe. It seems that while we were at the doctor a few days ago, and he was at soccer, he took of his shoes after practice and got a large splinter in his baby toe that got infected. No one noticed until last night and we had to get the splinter and puss out so it wouldn’t get any worse. Boy can he be loud when he wants to, he screamed at the top of his lungs as it hurt pretty bad. On top of that, it turns out the oldest one has strep throat! We had taken him to the doctor 2 days earlier and they finally called yesterday to say he had strep. We’re having Grandma over for Easter tomorrow but don’t worry as he’s on antibiotics now and won’t be contagious we’re told.

It’s hard to believe it’s already Easter, where does the time go? Soon it’ll be the misses birthday, so start saving your pennies!

I could go on and on about politics (you know me) but guess I’ll give you all a break today. We all sat around at dinner though, democrats and republicans, reciting law after law that has come out that makes no sense to anyone. It was eye opening to see a mixed group of people all shocked at the governments never ending implementation of useless law after law. Think about it (I know I said I was not going into politics but just go with me for a second as this is just a general observation) every congressman and senator are now calling for an investigation into the GSA employees who spent $820,000 on their trip to Las Vegas and then mocked being told not to spend our taxpayer money in video’s! It was a blatant, in your face, we don’t care what the laws are, we’re doing what we want, event. The point is every congressman and senator are now on their high horse investigating waste in the government which, duh, has been going on forever! Where were they last week or last year? Last week it was Trayvon Martin, this week a government agency spending money that’s not theirs.  Oh and by the way, 90% of black kids are killed by other black kids, not white hispanic people. What is a white hispanic person anyhow, the guy was hispanic. But of course that doesn’t matter to the race baiters like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton does it? All they want to do is get their faces on tv. I’d better stop as I feel myself drifting into politics, ha ha.

It’s 5:49 and I’m dressed and ready to go to the gym so I’d better go while everyone is still sleeping. We’re having ham tomorrow as cornish game hens went up over 100%! Ham is up 45% but don’t fret because the President says the economy is improving even though last month was the record 40th month in a row with record government deficits. Alright I’ll stop, sorry, really, I just get so frustrated at the spin they spew out that most Americans just gobble up because they said so on tv. It’s like they believe if they say it over and over, everyone will believe it even though it isn’t true. I guess they keep doing this because it works. Sorry sorry, I just can’t seem to stop myself so I’d better go.

Take care, Happy Easter and God Bless you all.

Most of the morning was spent getting ready to leave town at 1pm for our 3 o’clock doctor appointment. We were stuck on the highway for about 20 minutes while they were scaling some rocks (taking them down) in one section near Georgetown. We arrived just before 3 and after 20 minutes of paperwork, we were taken back to a room.

First off, the same as last time, Dr. Corenman’s assistant doctor comes in and does an exam which consists of an interview, some new x-rays, and checking the misses neck and back out physically. While waiting I was reading Dr. Corenman’s book on the back and spine that is written for other doctors. It happened to be lying on the counter. Eric, (Dr. Corenman’s assistant doctor) remembered us from our last visit and we shared some stories about our boys. After 30 minutes with him, Don (Dr. C) came in. He talked to us about the whole story since the injury to date, performed some tests on the misses, read through her history and manipulated her neck in different ways. Both doctors kept coming and going looking at x-rays and the mri we brought with us with his 2 nurses. We had 4 people 100% dedicated to the misses and her issues for 3 hours! The mri we brought from workmans comp was, according to Eric, horrible. He said Dr.C wasn’t going to be happy when he saw this. That must be why they took about a half a dozen x-rays. Without going into all the details, we now have a clear complete understanding of where the misses is at and what to do, step by step, to get her problem solved. We’ll start with more injections, this time in the proper place, hopefully Monday in Summit County which is about 30 minutes closer drive for us than Vail. If that doesn’t work, then some kind of epidermal that does something and if that doesn’t work, then some procedure where they inflate each disc to see or do something. Now if option 1 does work, then we also have some options there such as burning or cauterizing the end of the nerves so the misses will have no pain. The headaches could also stop all together with injections in the proper place. Lots going on. The good news is, for as bad as the misses neck is, she has no neck pain! She is in for some lifestyle changes though, as from this day forward, no impact activities like running. We also need to sell or trade in our road bikes (the ones like ten speeds where you’re hunched over) for mountain bikes where the misses will be more upright. We also need a new bed (agggh $$$$) and she should use only a thin pillow. Swimming, biking and the elliptical are all good as is hiking and walking. It all comes down to genetics for the misses and her discs and surrounding tissues. We asked if workmans comp will try to say this was pre-exisiting to get out of paying and Dr. C said that he has her records from a few years ago and can prove that it’s not. He said he’s in court all the time and not to worry about it as he’d handle it.

We walked out, with the misses headache up a bit, but this was intentional through the manipulation so they could isolate and determine the actual source of her pain. So while she was a bit sore, we finally have some answers and a sense of relief that we now know exactly what is going on and have a plan on how to fix it. Lucky that I decided to pay out of network on my own a few years ago to go see Dr C or he wouldn’t have the records to validate that this is not pre-exisiting and was caused by their treatment on the misses. Also lucky that I had met Don at the first wine dinner I ever did in this business and have stayed friends for the past 11 years. Of course we took him and Eric a few bottles of wine as usual.

Say what you will about medical care in this country but there’s a big difference out there. In all the previous appointments we’ve had over the past 3 months, the most any doctor spent diagnosing the misses was about 10 minutes! As I said earlier, we had a team of top doctors and nurses totally focused and dedicated only to her for 3 hours! It’s frustrating to know that if the system allowed it, (meaning people didn’t have to be rushed in and out), and if all doctors were as educated and cared as much as these guys did, we could have been a lot further down the road to recovery sooner than we are now. This has nothing to do with health care for everyone but rather the health care system that forces doctors to get through so many patients in a day to get paid. Excessive malpractice insurance costs and regulations are the root of the problem, not the fact that everyone doesn’t have free care, at least according to the doctors. I knew this was the right thing to do (getting her up to see Dr. Corenman) as we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Time for me to get to the gym so I have to run but the misses can tell you more when you talk with her. Thanks to Uncle T and Aunt B for helping with the boys again! We couldn’t have gone to all the docs this week without your help.

Take care,

I think the misses is still doing better but she could be in pain and just be keeping it to herself. Today around noon we’re off to the world famous Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail for a 3pm appointment with Dr. Corenman. We’ve been waiting a month to get in and we were lucky as he’s usually a 3 month or more wait. We should be home around 5:30 and thanks in advance to Uncle T for again getting the boys…..Oops….We both thought the other had already asked Uncle T.  I’ll have to call this morning:-)

We didn’t see any comments from yesterday’s post (the last part on radiation) which is ok but hopefully you are not just brushing it off as “the sky is falling” jibberish. I’ll leave it alone but it is real, even though you cannot see or smell it. Enough said.

The misses is waiting to find out if she got the job redesigning the doctor’s office but it looks good. She’s still off work for another 2 weeks at least which is good as she’ll need to quit when they want her to go back. She just cannot do that kind of work anymore. The snow is all melted and it’ll be 70 today which I’m sure will be good for the grass.

There’s lots of things going on in politics but I’ll leave that alone too as it’s really all the same stuff. Besides there’s no changing anyone’s opinions anyhow. That’s the sad thing about politics today, no matter what side you’re on, you are not going to change your mind even if there’s reason to, that’s indisputable in black and white. If you like Obama, nothing is going to make you change your mind, and if you don’t, the same is true. We are all so polarized, just like the politicians in D.C., that I don’t see us ever coming together. Too bad my dad is gone as he’s the kind of guy that could have made people come together. Hopefully something someday will bring us all together. History shows war is about the only thing that unites the country, hopefully it won’t take that!

Oh well time to go, I’d like to go to the gym but don’t think I have time as it’s already 6am. Maybe I can get in 20 minutes downstairs on the elliptical machine. Take care, wish us luck in Vail and we’ll see you tomorrow.

Here’s your quote for the day,