Still trying to figure it out.....

It has been a year of chronic back pain and while it got better when seeing the physical therapist in June and July, he told me I could go on my own.  I was pretty diligent about doing my exercises and icing for a few weeks and then I stopped because I just didn't have to be accountable anymore.  He told me to do it every day for a month, 5ish times a week for the 2nd month and 3-4 times a week the 3rd month and if it got bad again, to come back.

Well, as you can guess, the back pain is back in full force, the heartburn is back (although my regular doc did a blood test and says there is a 90% chance I don't have an ulcer) and last night I was miserable.  I woke up at 3:30 AM with extreme back pain and some heartburn (not as bad as the night I ended up in the ER).  I took my heartburn meds as well as a percocet as recommended by the ER that night and tried to go back to bed.  Percocet makes me feel happy and relaxed but I have a hard time actually falling asleep.  Around 5 AM I woke up with severe nausea and spent 20ish minutes with the bathroom on hand but never threw up although I tried.  I finally had some doterra peppermint oil and it calmed my stomach enough for me to go to sleep til 8 AM.

All day long I have felt nausea on and off and it has calmed down some but I still feel ill to my stomach and still have some back pain.  I did go to the chiropractor and get an adjustment and I had Justin and my home teacher Chris give me a blessing.  I have another appt with my family doc tomorrow to discuss if anything else may be going on (perhaps an issue with my gallbladder?)  Anyway, still trying to figure out what is causing so much back pain when I was nearly back pain free seeing a chiropractor once a month for 5 years.

Apart from the back pain, I have really tried hard to read my scriptures focusing on the women in the scriptures and I have felt very content and peaceful lately.  I'm sure it doesn't hurt that Timmy has started school and we are back in a good routine and it is finally September and cooling down a bit, but I feel happy and peaceful and just, content.

Summer Swimming Lessons

We all participated in swimming lessons this summer.  Timmy and Allie in wave 2 and Mikey and I did a parent/tot class at the same time.  Mikey started out so well, floating on his back and blowing bubbles and pretty much doing whatever I had him do.  Then as time went by, he started fighting everything and crying quite a lot and the Thursday morning before his last class I took him to the doctor because of a high fever and he had an ear infection.  No wonder he had cried and cried the few days before when going under water. 

Also, Timmy was still pretty shy in the water, did not pass level 2 and was even recommended to go back to level 1 or 2.  Allie, my little fishy passed level 2 no problem and is ready for level 3. 

Here are some pictures from the last day, hence Mikey is not dressed for the water.

Take time to be Holy

I heard the phrase, "Take Time to be Holy" a few weeks ago and it has really stuck with me.  For the past several years, I have read scriptures with my family in the evening and Justin and I have read scriptures on and off through the years, but I have not done personal scripture study in quite some time.  When I heard this phrase coupled with another one, "If you don't have time to pray and read your scriptures daily, you are more busy than God ever intended you to be," I am feeling prompted that I need to spend some personal time with the Lord every day. 

I read on Pinterest about a Women in the Scriptures Challenge (see link on the side) and I am ready to do it.  I got a fresh new Book of Mormon and started reading the first few chapters and I am marking everything to do with women with a pink highlighter.  I even wrote my name on the inside cover and wrote below it, "Women in the Scriptures" so I would always know that this Book of Mormon is the one I followed the women in. 

I am also going to try and watch better television.  I have been watching Desperate Housewives and shows like the Bachelor Pad which are entertaining to be sure, but probably don't bring the best spirit in me and in my home.  It's time to make better decisions and behave in a more righteous way. 

Summer Fun

I have never felt super busy before, but I seem to be going all the time these days!  Isn't summer supposed to be a more relaxing time?  Well, not here!  Here are some pictures, not necessarily in order of things we have done in the past few months.

 Allie and I went to City Creek

 Visiting Fountain Green near Wales, UT

 Fountain Fun at the Gateway with Aunt Liz

 At the Gateway Fountains

 Allie on Bulgy the Whale at Lagoon

 Allie and her friend on the swings at Lagoon

 Mikey at the Zoo

 My Mom's 58th Birthday at Murray Park

 Hiking in Maple Canyon near Wales, UT

 Timmy on Bulgy the Whale

 Mikey loving the water ball at the Zoo

At the big elephant at the Zoo

Justin and Allie in the Wales children's parade

32 is the age I guess

32........It's the age when I'm starting to feel old.  Not really old, but having issues with my body.  First I had my leg injury 6 weeks ago, I have had chronic back pain for 9 months, and then I ended up in the ER a few weeks ago.  I woke up with severe chest pain and after a priesthood blessing and a call to a nurse, I was advised to go in.  It was decided that my heart is fine after a chest x-ray, EKG and blood work and that I probably have an ulcer due to taking so many ibuprofen and nsaids for my back pain.  I am now on meds for a month so hopefully things will get better and so far they have.

Since then I have started physical therapy to help with my back, stopped taken nsaids and I even started running again a few days ago, just 2 slow miles. 

Other than that, life is going well.  Justin is working less hours and is around more working the 9-80 schedule which allows him to take off every other Friday.  Timmy finished up Kindergarten and is enjoying the summer.  We have lots of fun activities planned and we are going to go on vacation up to Snowbird with Jer and his family instead of Portland which we had originally planned on.  Once we saw how many hours we would be driving, we decided Mikey wouldn't do so well in the car that long.

Today is Father's Day and Justin enjoyed going to church with Tim and Allie and I stayed home with Mikey since he is still sick a bit from him shots on Thursday.  We are headed to a BBQ with my family at Sherri's and hopefully we'll have an enjoyable evening.  It's been a nice day!

Torn Calf Muscle

On May 3rd I was playing futsol (indoor soccer) with the stake women and I was playing defense.  I kicked the ball and stepped backwards and felt like someone had thrown a baseball at my leg.  I kept turning around looking for the culprit and quickly realized there was no one behind me and the pain was coming from inside my leg.

I couldn't walk and others started noticing I was in pain so a timeout was called and I hopped over to the chairs on the side.  It felt like the worst charlie horse ever and I couldn't calm down.  One of my teammates helped me to relax but I couldn't find a comfortable position.  They called Justin and he came quickly to get me and left the kids home alone (Mikey was asleep).  I had to have help out to the car and we decided a doctor visit was in order due to the amount of pain I was in.  I called my neighbor Sarah and she ran over and took care of our kids for us.  I was so grateful for her help.

We went to the Instacare by Syracuse High School and the wait for about a half hour.  I had Justin get the wheelchair to get me inside and I still couldn't find a position that didn't hurt like crazy.  I saw the doctor and he ruled out an Achilles tendon injury and deduced that I had torn my gastroc calf muscle.  He said the recovery time was about 3 weeks and the likelihood that it happens again is really high unfortunately.  No surgery required, just rest and allow it to heal on it's own.  They tried to fit me with a cam walker walking boot but it hurt too much so they gave me crutches, a prescription for pain, a muscle relaxer, and an anti inflammatory.  He told me to use crutches for a week and then try and walk after that.  The entire visit Justin kept making jokes.  I guess that's how he handles worry and seeing his wife in pain, lol.  I got home and tried to settle in but was in so much pain.  Justin had to go get my meds and I didn't get to bed until 11 PM.  I didn't really fall asleep until around 2 AM with so much anxiety running through me.

The medication worked so well that my pain went down considerably during the night and in the morning I wasn't in very much pain.  The doc said the next day would be very painful with several muscle spasms but that wasn't the case for me.  He also said my leg would turn black and blue but it didn't started bruising til a week later.  I used crutches for about 3 days and then started hobbling around on my own, it was just easier and not painful if I didn't put too much weight on my right leg.

I rested all weekend and let my husband take care of the kids and allowed ward members to bring meals in, it was so nice and relaxing!   I canceled all of my plans for that weekend and just stayed home to heal.

On Monday my Mom came to help and she slept over and over the next 3 days I had some help from women in my ward.  They would come and help get lunch on the table and get Mikey down for a nap so that I didn't have to work so hard. 

I didn't end up driving for 12 days and finally tried to drive on Tuesday, May 15th.  I only drove a mile to Walmart and went grocery shopping very slowly.  Each day since then I have gotten better and better and now I don't walk with too much of a limp.  In another week or so, I think I'll be walking normally again and look forward to my other strained leg muscles to heal and feel better.  Because I have been limping, the muscle below my calf has become strained and hurts also.  When I wrapped my leg, it helped the lower leg muscles but then my upper leg muscles and butt muscles started to ache, I just couldn't win!

Anyway, as hard as it is to get injured, it sure is nice to have everyone take care of you and give you extra love and attention.  I got to sleep through the night for over a week because I couldn't get around very well.  I started to not even hear my kids wake up in the night, wow, what a nice feeling.  Since my injury occurred a week and half before Mother's Day, I felt like I was receiving Mother's Day treatment for 10 days instead of just 1.  On Mother's Day, Justin still treated me like Gold, he's the best.
 

Picture of Me

Here I am in my red dress I love.  Really just posting it so I can make it smaller, lol!

Birthdays, Birthdays and More Birthdays

On February 10th we celebrated Justin's 33rd birthday! We had our neighbor watch our kids overnight and we went up to Logan. We ate at a yummy mexican restaurant and then had fun going to the hottub and relaxing with no kids.

Allison turned 4 on February 28th and she loves being a big girl. We had a small family party at home on her birthday and we were watching a few neighbor kids so they joined us for dinner and cake and ice cream :)

On March 14 Mikey turned 1! He is crawling like crazy, can say mama and dada, and is cruising along furniture but probably a month or two away from walking still.

We had a huge party for my Dad who turned 60 on March 12th here at our home on March 17th. We sang to my kids also and they got some presents from their grandpa. Then the kids had a huge friend party on Saturday the 24th of March. It was crazy but lots of fun! Then on Sunday March 25th we had another little birthday party for the kids with their Grandma and Grandpa Roberts (my mom and her husband Dennis).

Needless to say, we have had our fill of birthdays around here. Of course, Timmy's is coming up on Easter so we will have 1 more, but then it will be quiet until November.

Here are some pictures!!

Justin's new shirt

Justin's new socks

Happy Birthday Dad!

Allie's new Hello Kitty slippers

New Pinkalicious bike

Allie's Dora tent

Allie's castle cake

Happy 1st Birthday Mikey!!!!!

Happy 60th Birthday DAD!!!

Tim and Allie's Friend Party

Cute kids

Here are a few cute things from my kids lately. I taught my kids the little saying "Find a penny, pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck." They love it and say it all the time and kept 'finding' pennies in our house and telling me they were going to have good luck :)

Well, one day Timmy took one of his lucky pennies to school and when he came home he told me he didn't have it anymore. I asked him where it had gone and he said he gave it to a girl at school because she was sad. What a proud mom I was! He can be so sweet sometimes.

Then today Allie was coloring a picture with her paints from her birthday and she told me she was drawing hair on her girl and the colors were green, orange, blue and secret red. Secret red? Oh yes, secret red she says because it's so beautiful :)

Mikey is starting to wave and clap, I love it!

Mikey, please stay well!

Well, Mikey has been by far my sickest child. He gets sick every 2-3 weeks, especially during the winter poor guy. He has had a double ear infection, many colds and coughs, a lung infection, strep throat twice, pink eye, an allergic reaction to amoxicillan, and croup. Poor little guy has been on tylenol and ibuprofen constantly and it is starting to burn a hole in our pocket with how much medicine we have had to buy for our little guy. He has a fever quite regularly and through it all, he still stays so sweet.

He got strep throat at 10 months old which is really young and went on amoxicillan. After the 9th day he ended up getting a rash over his whole body and the doctor said it was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic (see picture below). He also had croup at the same time so they gave him some prednisone for 4 days and within hours it cleared up his croupy cough and rash, wow. Then he had fevers again last week for 3 days so into the doc again we went and he was diagnosed with strep again. I joked with the doctor telling him that I was paying for his summer vacation :) With his allergy, he was given the antibiotic Cefdinir and I am not a fan of this medication. It causes him to have bad diarrhea for several hours after taking it and he occasionally throws up from it too. It's hard to say what's worse, fevers and cranky baby or upset tummy diaper rash baby instead. At least his sleep has improved and he's sleeping through the night again since he only has to have the medicine in the morning and the effects are worn off by night time.

Luckily Justin is done with his proposal and home to help out now. I was seriously feeling drained from being up so much with kids in the night (I averaged being up 3 times each night) and my immune system was starting to wear down too due to lack of sleep and being a single parent. I am very much looking forward to spring and summer and less sickness around this house.