Life’s Little Moments

I want to take a moment and say thank you to those who have emailed or commented asking about my wife. She is recovering nicely and has her two week follow up this week.

I returned to work on Thursday. I was supposed to be off Thursday and Friday, but my wife decided I was driving her crazy being home and sent me back early. While I really wasn’t ready to go back, it did allow me to put back some hours in my PTO bank.

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Saturday, my wife said she was going crazy being in the house. She asked to go to Target to walk and shop. We packed every one in the car and spent a good hour walking through the store. As we walked, my kids were literally tossing item after item into the shopping cart! We told them that they could each get one thing. Apparently, they heard one “PILE” of things.

When we got home, my wife went into our room and laid back in bed. It was a lot for her to be out and on her feet that long. I suppose that is why I was surprised when Sunday she asked to go to the Barnes and Noble. I asked if she was sure she wanted to do that. Her answer was a resounding YES.

Again, we packed up the kids and headed to the book store. The kids each got to pick a book and Sam found the one she was looking for as well as another that was recommended to her. There has been a book that I have been waiting to hit the Libby/Hoopla apps, but it hasn’t. So I decided to treat myself to it. I just hope it is as good as all the reviews I read about it.

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We had some nice weather this week, which was great for the kids. They couldn’t wait to get out on their scooters and ride them up and down the sidewalk. They are already asking for their bikes, which are all the way at the back of the garage. At some point, I need to start bringing out the spring/summer stuff so I can get them out.

It will be the annual “Seasonal Shuffle.” The Christmas stuff, which is currently in the front of the garage, along with the snow blower, will have to come out. Then the Barbecue, and other spring lawn furniture will come out. Then the riding lawnmower and lawn tools will come out. That will get me to the bikes and motorized car the kids have.

Once it is all out, I shuffle the winter stuff to the back of the garage. I’ll put the Christmas stuff up in the loft. Finally, I will bring the spring/summer lawn stuff back to the garage so that it is in the front and I can access all of it. It will stay that way until it’s time to shuffle again in the fall. Fun stuff!!

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Ella has been working on her reading.  Her teacher says she is really excelling.  Other kids in her class are working on sounding out words, too, but Ella is reading.

Tuesday, the teacher sent a book home for her to practice.  Yesterday she got to read it to the class.  She did it without help!  The teacher said her classmates watched her and listened in awe.

We are so proud of her!!

The worry now is that she will be so far ahead in kindergarten that she’ll get bored.  I hope that isn’t the case.

Thanks, Gabby!

In all the years I worked in radio I was star struck quite a few times. This weekend, I got to witness first hand my daughter being star struck and it was worth every second.

Laila Lockhart Kraner, the star of Gabby’s Dollhouse, did a meet and greet at a local furniture store this weekend and I took Ella and her cousin. She’d been counting down “how many sleeps” since I told her about it. Sunday was the big day!

She could hardly contain herself when she woke up. She was ready to go almost immediately. Sam had bought her a Gabby shirt to wear for the day, and she couldn’t wait to put it on. ”Gabby is going to love it,” she told me.

I left a bit early, figuring that it was probably going to be a bit crazy. When we pulled in, there were people waiting in their cars. It was about 10:15am and the event was supposed to start at 11. As soon as I put the car in park, Ella wanted to get out and wait at the door. Thank goodness it was like 50 degrees and sunny!

Turns out, we were the first in line. Other parents followed suit and lined up behind us. Ella kept staring inside the place, hoping to get a glimpse of Gabby. I was grateful that they opened the doors early. We were given a number (we were #2, despite being first in line) and that would be how we got to go to meet her.

They had the place decorated with lots of cardboard cut outs and such.

There were snacks and plenty of things to do. We went right into the balloon art line, where my niece got a unicorn and Ella got a dog.

They had a DJ there playing music and he was the one who would call our number. There were SO many people. Ella wasn’t quite sure what to do. It wasn’t long and they announced that Gabby was coming out to meet everyone and they played her theme song. I pointed her out to Ella as she came out and she was just in awe! They walked her over to a couch where she would be posing for pictures. Ella stood there and just watched her – star struck!

Soon after, they called out a range of numbers and it was time to line up to meet her! I snapped pictures with my phone, but my niece wanted me to take one with her phone, too. When they got up on the couch, Gabby said hello to her and I think she thought she was dreaming!

I fumbled with my niece’s phone and figured out the camera and asked if we could do one more picture, and she said “Sure!”

I guess that one is a little better. 

I thanked Gabby for giving the girls the chance to meet her and we went off to get faces painted. Gabby has lots of cats on the show, so Ella had to get a cat.

Both girls asked where the play place was. I laughed and said there wasn’t one. So they decided to play “Hide from Keith” and they were all over the place! LOL I told them I knew there was a play place at the McDonald’s down the road and we went and grabbed lunch. At the play place, we ran into many other Gabby fans who were wearing cat ears and had faces painted. They played and had a blast. 

When we left my niece said, “Uncle Keith, since we were both so well behaved, maybe you could take us to that Target and we could look at toys.” Needless to say, we went to Target, but I had to rope them both in when they began asking for $150 dollar Barbie houses and other stuff that was super expensive. They both picked a Barbie doll and we headed home.

My mother-in-law was at the house watching Andrew and was going to take my niece home with her when we got back. Ella was having such a fun time, she cried when she heard she was leaving. So I told her she could stay and I would take her home later that evening.

On the ride back home, Ella and Andrew both fell asleep in the car. None of us had dinner yet, so I drove through somewhere and we went home and ate. We stayed up a bit later than normal, so the food could settle a bit and after reading books, brushing teeth and saying prayers, we were off to sleep. 

It was a fun and exhausting day, and I hope that Ella will remember it for a very long time. I know I will.

Time Well Spent

Sometimes, you have to MAKE time. That is what I did the last time my boss asked for all of our “time off requests.” I chose one day a month and took it off to be sure that my wife and I get some “us” time. Last Friday, was the first of those days.

By the end of Wednesday night, I was ready to have that day off! Wednesday was a real mess. Everybody had really difficult patients. It was like someone deliberately put all of them on the same night to create the “Perfect Crapstorm!” I could hear Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy in 30 Rock’s fantastic line, “What is your contingency plan for a crapstorm of this magnitude?” running through my head all night.

Thursday, I came home and was able to get some sleep. I was up at my normal time, and about to get ready for work when I received a text message that there were patients who cancelled and it was my turn to stay home. I cannot even begin to tell you how overjoyed I was to have a bonus night off!

I told my wife that after dinner, we were going to get ice cream! It certainly was not on my diet, but all that mattered was that I was going to have the night with the family. We all packed into the car and went to a local ice cream place about 8 miles from us. I tried to get a family picture while we were there, but neither of the kids knew we were taking the picture …

It was a perfect night. It wasn’t too hot, but there was plenty of sunshine. One of the best moments of the evening was watching Ella willingly share her ice cream with Andrew. It was so sweet to watch.

Then came Friday. Knowing that we were planning on having dinner out somewhere, Sam and I began to discuss where to go to eat. Why is trying to decide where to eat such a chore for couples? It’s crazy. Sam said she’d be happy going to Applebee’s, which I really didn’t want to do. So we looked at the internet and our “lists.” We have a list of places that we would love to try and a list of places that we like. We decided to stay close to home and go to one of our favorite Mexican places.

Prior to us dating, we used to go to this place with one of our teachers. The food is excellent. Once we began dating, we’d go there often. Now, there is one close to our house and we eat there frequently. We dropped the kids off at Sam’s sister’s house and we went to the restaurant that was close to the college.

They brought us their homemade chips and salsa, which is something I should have avoided because of how many points the chips are on Weight Watchers, but I didn’t. Instead, I made the healthy choice of avoiding the chimichangas I usually order, and opted for the chicken fajita, which is basically all free. I ate loads of veggies and chicken. I avoided the tortilla shells and the sour cream. It was delicious.

I also did something I hadn’t done in some time – I had a beer. I made sure to get a light beer and I counted the points for it. While I enjoyed it, I realized that I really have not missed it. There was a time where I was drinking beer almost every night. It was emotionally driven and brought on by stress. Today, I don’t feel the need to drink at all. I’m happy with my coffee or water.

After dinner, Sam and I drove to Target and walked through the store. We were looking for a couple things, but mostly just browsing. We got a few ideas for the kids for Christmas and enjoyed just walking – with no real hurry to get stuff done. It was wonderful.

The time together was much needed. It was a perfect evening. Driving home to get the kids, we talked, held hands and just enjoyed “us.” I am already looking forward to next month’s date day!!

A Perfect Weekend to Celebrate

Saturday I got to spend some time with my wife and celebrate her birthday. I arranged for Nana and Papa to watch the kids so we could have some time together. I am so grateful for them.

I worked Friday night, and when I came home, I went right to bed, so I could catch a few winks before our date day. The time I was asleep was rough for Sam as the kids were a bit crankier than normal. We almost called the whole day off.

Thankfully, all fell into place. We dropped the kids off and went to our favorite steakhouse for lunch. The weather was absolutely perfect, so we asked to eat on the patio. When the greeter walked us out there, I was surprised to see no one else there. We had the whole patio to ourselves for most of the meal!

What a wonderful afternoon! We sat in the sun enjoying conversation and each other. It was so nice to just be together.

Because we got a later start than we had planned (and because showtimes didn’t really line up with our plans), we decided to skip the movies. There were a few things we wanted to do, so we just spent the rest of the time doing them.

We had recently bought a two camera baby monitor from Target. It was a nice one and expensive. We set up the cameras and for whatever reason, one of the two cameras would have trouble connecting. We could see one, then it would go out and we could see the other. It never seemed to be able to show both cameras at the same time. This bothered us because we were on wifi, and no matter where we were, it should connect. There was an app you could download on your phone and you were supposed to be able to check from anywhere. I never really did get that to work. We decided it was best to take it back.

So we walked through Target just looking around and talking. We ended up buying a few things for the kids while we were there. Then we wanted to walk through the Christmas Tree Store. They always have a lot of holiday type stuff. The Red, White and Blue wreath we put on the door for Memorial Day and the 4th of July was looking pretty ragged and faded. We hoped to find something there for the door. We did.

It was getting close to the time we told Sam’s folks we’d be back for the kids, so we jumped back in the car and drove to get them. I held Sam’s hand on the way there and was just so glad to have had a day with her.

When we got the kids loaded up, we started to head home. It was getting close to Andrew’s bedtime. He started to cry a lot in the backseat. Sam crawled over the center console and squeezed between the two car seats and made him a bottle to drink on the way home. She had to be extremely uncomfortable! Once we were home, she had to climb back over the center console to get back in her seat to exit the car. I joked with her that I should have taken video to get her back for posting a video of me trying to hop the fence in our backyard! It was a humorous way to end the night.

Sunday night, Sam had to work. I took the kids out to Sam’s Club to pick up a few things we needed at home. Ella found some beautiful flowers and wanted to get them for mommy. Sam’s loves sunflowers and roses, so it was almost as though she knew exactly which ones to get.

We hoped to get a cake while we were there, but they didn’t have any. On the way home we stopped at the little grocery store around the corner from us. There were three cakes there and Ella picked the one with a sun on it. When I asked the girl at the counter if she could write on it, she asked what it should say, and Ella just spouted off, “It has to say ‘Happy Birthday, Mommy’ on it!” The woman asked Ella what color she wanted it in and she told her it had to be pink.

When we got home, we decided to make mommy a birthday card. I wrote on it and she “colored” in it. I helped both her and Andrew “sign” their names. She was so excited to give it to her this morning.

When Sam got home this morning, we went out to breakfast. This would mark the first time that either one of our children has been in a restaurant to eat! Hard to believe, but it is true. Sam and I prepared for the worst. We expected Ella to be running all over the place and Andrew to just cry through the whole thing. We were surprised at just how well behaved they both were! It was a very nice breakfast.

The restaurant wasn’t too busy when we got there. It was mostly retirees and older couples eating. It was a tad busier when we left. Ella said that she had to say goodbye before we could go. So she stopped in the middle of the aisle and yelled, “Goodbye, friends!” It was priceless. We were getting the kids in the car and the waitress came out to stop me. I thought maybe I paid the wrong bill or something. Nope, she just wanted to give each of the kids a plastic duckie.

Sam needed to head to bed when we got home. She had to work tonight, too. Before she did, she only had one request – a photo with the kids.

This was like the fourth or fifth picture. It’s hard to get Ella to sit still long enough for one now! The first three Andrew was smiling like crazy, but he obviously only had three takes before the smile went away!

What a wonderful weekend to celebrate, Sam! One thing is for sure, I’m gonna be diligent to keep scheduling monthly date days/nights!!

Happy birthday, Sam. I love you now and forever!

Aaargh You Excited? Absolutely!

As the title of this blog suggests – I am excited. I have a couple things to be excited about and I wanted to share them with you. I guess I should explain the whole pirate flag first …

What Kind of Shoes Go With a Peg Leg?

My job often requires us to put in for time off months in advance. This is never an easy thing for me, because quite frankly I barely know what I am doing next week. At any rate, a day or two after the May schedule was posted, I found out about an event coming up that I had to go to!

There is a nature preserve and arboretum near us that is having a Daddy/Daughter event. It fell on a day that I work, so I hurried and put in a request to swap days if possible. Luckily, my boss was able to switch my schedule for the day so that I could go to this with Ella. I didn’t know much about the event, other than it has a pirate theme. Honesty, I thought it was a Daddy/Daughter dance with a pirate theme, but I don’t think that is the case now. Either way, I am excited to have a special night with my little girl.

I may have to do some searching on the internet for a pirate costume! When I thought about it, I remembered that there was an episode of Ella’s favorite show, Bubble Guppies that featured Alice Cooper (Yes, THE Alice Cooper) as a pirate named Windy Pete. Maybe we could go dressed like they did in that episode?

Of course, Windy Pete has a penguin, who he thinks is a parrot in the show. I might look a little funny with a penguin on my shoulder.

… and ear muffs! I would look weird as a pirate with ear muffs.

I can’t even begin to tell you how very excited I am to have this Daddy/Daughter event to look forward to in a few months!

Celebrating 4 Years

My wedding anniversary is coming up on Saturday. I am excited to be able to share some time with my wife. Our schedules do not allow for us to spend time together often. The schedules work well for minimizing the need for child care, but husband/wife time is lacking.

Having two children under 2 has really taken a lot out of both of us. We were lacking good sleep before, but it has reached a whole new level of tiredness. Lack of sleep is not good for anyone, and as sleep technologists we are well aware of the issues go along with that. We both tend to be a bit shorter with each other. Little things tend to get under our skin a bit more. All of it is due to our lack of sleep.

That being said, I decided that I wanted to make sure to do something special for our anniversary. My wife deserves it. I don’t know how she does it. I wish I could afford to have someone come over and watch the kids so she could sleep. She hasn’t really ever had a break and we’re both feeling the stress – her more than me!

I have never been the best gift giver. 9 times out of 10, she knows what I get before I even give it to her. I guess I really suck at that. I also am not the best at coming up with interesting things to do. I’m not sure why, but I kinda suck at that too.

I began a search of all of the nearby theaters a few weeks ago. I was hoping that somewhere there would be a play, a concert, or event we could go see. We had been talking about seeing the Symphony, but that show falls on a Sunday and she works. The only thing that I found happening on Saturday near us was a hockey game. I’m sure she wouldn’t enjoy that as much as I would (and it is not about me, but about her, so hockey was out)!

Interrupting to tell a funny story

I had taken $100 out of our account and stuck it in my wallet to use for our anniversary. I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing yet, but I wanted to have it ready. I had taken Andrew to the doctor and Sam gave me her insurance card. I put it back in my coat pocket to give back to her and forgot to do so when we got back. When I was sleeping before work, Sam was making appointments and needed the numbers off her card. So she went looking for it. No big deal, she knows the places I usually put my wallet, so she looked for her card – and found the $100.

Caught Red Handed!

When I woke up, she said she was looking for her card and asked why I had $100 in my wallet. I was so surprised that she found it, I fumbled around trying to lie my way out of why I had it. “It must have been in there for a long time and I forgot about it!” LOL – who the hell am I trying to kid?! She is my wife and knows me better than anyone! She knew I was flubbing my way through! I finally told her I was saving it for our anniversary. I should have just come out and told her, but I didn’t want her knowing I was spending that much.

This Saturday

As far as Saturday night, I knew I was going to take her to dinner. We always go to Lucky’s Steakhouse, which we love, but I wanted to do something a bit different. Some co-workers and friends offered up some really neat places (which I plan on going to in the future), but I wanted to stay semi close to home so we weren’t out all night. We have a sitter, and I know she’s totally ok with us being out late, but I know Sam would feel better if we were close.

So I have two things planned – one is dinner and the other is a surprise. I really hope that she is going to like it. I can’t wait to go. She knows what towns we are going to and keeps questioning “What is there that we can do?” She’s pretty good at figuring stuff out, so I hope that she doesn’t before Saturday.

I also ordered her a couple gifts. One has already arrived (and needs to be wrapped). The other is something that probably won’t arrive before Saturday. Again, she probably has some sort of idea about what I may have gotten her, so I hope she doesn’t figure it out. I wish that I could give gifts like she does. She hears me mention something off the cuff and stuffs it away in her mental filing cabinet until she needs it and then always surprises me. But she can always figure mine out. Example: We were at Target the other day. She saw that her favorite author, Jodi Picoult, had a new book out. I immediately think “I need to buy this for her.” If I hand her a gift bag, she will know that it is that book. (For the record – I did NOT buy that book for her! Now, I may at a later date, but not for our anniversary.

I am truly excited to have a day/night with my wife. I know she would be happy just walking the mall (as a matter of fact, she told me that!), but I am really hoping to make the day special for her. I need to make sure that I find something that we can do together at least once a month. We need a date night. It is easy to lose “us” time with two kids, and “us” is SO important right now.

I can’t wait!

A Not So Romantic Date

My wife and I have been anxiously waiting to be able to go out on a date. Our kids keep us pretty busy and they are always in tow. With Sam returning to work from maternity leave after the first of the year, we were running out of available days. We lined up Nana and Papa to watch the kids for the afternoon, and Monday, we finally got to spend some much needed “couple time.”

Did we go out to a fancy restaurant? No. Did we go to a movie? No. Did we go to a concert? No. But we got time together – and THAT was all that mattered.

We had decided that we were going to do lunch. We decided to go to this little sub place that we like. I asked if she wanted to go inside to eat. Neither one of us were real comfortable doing that. We thought about it, but we decided to just grab and go (The tables are too close together and other people would have their masks off to eat, etc…).

We were going to go to Barnes and Noble to look around after lunch, so we got our food and ate lunch in their parking lot. LOL – Romantic, right?! It was nice to just sit and talk as we ate. There were no kids crying or screaming from the back seat – it was just us. In all actuality, it was weird to not have them with us!

After lunch, we walked into Barnes and Noble and began to look around. We picked a great day to go as all the hardcovers were 50% off! I had two or three books that I have been wanting to get, so I looked for them. Naturally, they didn’t have them in the store. Same looked around and found some new books by some of her favorite authors, but decided against getting them.

She’s like me in that often times as you read a series (Stephanie Plum, Ben Kincaid, etc…) you feel like you’ve read the same story before. Sometimes, the next book in a series spends half of the book recapping the previous books so you know what is going on. Then, sometimes, even though it is not a series, books by the same author can just “feel” like the same thing over again. So she put back the books that she looked at.

So what did we do? We both went over the the kid section and started looking for books for the kids!! Here we are on a date, thinking that we’re going to get ourselves something, and we wind up getting stuff for the kids. As we walked out, we were like, “I can’t wait to read this to Ella! She is going to love this one!”

Afterward, we were off to our next exciting stop on “Date Day”….

Target! Really? Yes, really.

While I was out grocery shopping, Sam had me pick up a package of baby bottles. I sent her a picture of the ones that they had and we thought they were the ones that we currently use. Technically, they were, however the ones I bought had the wrong nipples on them. Sam looked to see if she could get the right ones on Amazon and she couldn’t. She said they had them at Target, so we made a stop there.

We walked over to the baby stuff and they didn’t have the right size nipples for the bottles. Go figure. We took advantage of being there and walked around. Sam had hoped to run up to the Carter’s store in Birch Run to get AJ some pants later that day, but she found some while we were at Target. Store number 2 and we get stuff for the kids again!

We debated going to the Christmas Tree Store, which we love, just to look around. Sam said we’d spent enough money and said if we went there, we’d put our account in the red (LOL!). Knowing that it was getting close to nap time for Ella, we decided to go back to Nana’s to get the kids.

It was nice to have some quality time with my wife. One thing I never tire of, is driving and holding her hand in mine. It was a little extra special on Monday. Next date night, I will need to do something a whole lot more elaborate! She deserves it!

Date Day Selfie

A Busy (and Painful) Weekend

Saturday

Saturday morning, I came home from work and went right to bed. Sam and I had plans to celebrate our anniversary this weekend. Originally, I was going to take her to an amazing Italian place in Troy (about and hour and 15 minutes from our house). After some discussion, we decided that since it was really the only day we had together, and I was going to sleep for part of it, that we should grab dinner somewhere closer. We decided on Outback Steakhouse. Now, Outback was the ONLY chain restaurant we ate at in Florida when we got married. We picked Outback for that reason, and because it was close to a few places we wanted to go to while we were out.

This was the first time we have been out to eat in a restaurant since all the Covid stuff. They did a good job of spreading everyone out. It has been so long since we were out, it was almost awkward. It was nice to have dinner together. It’s really amazing how something so trivial can mean so much. I will never take those little moments for granted….

After we ate, we decided to walk through Barnes and Noble. Ella loves books, so we looked through the various kid books and picked up a new book for her. She loves the Jimmy Fallon books (Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada, and Everything is Mama), and Sam found one called “This Is Baby” (which she loves just as much!). I picked up a book for me, too. It was my anniversary present from Sam. She had asked what I wanted and I told her to just get me a gift card. Instead, she went with me and I got to pick out what I wanted (More on that in a few).

With baby #2 on the way, we wanted to stop at Target to see what the double strollers looked like. I never in a million years would have guessed that I would be looking at double strollers! Anyway, they only had one there to look at, which I thought was odd. Sam is all about online shopping, but she’d like to at least see the thing before we buy it. Since they didn’t really have any, we decided to look in the toy aisle for a few things. We bumped into one of our sleep teachers, Angie, and her husband there. It’s been forever since I saw her, and we were just talking about finding a day to get together for coffee. They were out getting presents for grandbabies.

The world had changed. Normally, when I run into someone I know I offer a handshake or hug them. Here we were, all wearing masks, and kind of standing our 6 feet apart. We chatted for a while and then we had to get going because we needed to go pick up Ella from Nana’s house. This is where is was crazy awkward for me … I wanted to reach out and shake Dave’s hand and give Angie a hug, but instead it was kind of a “well….ok…..good to see you …. take care…..so long…” thing. It just didn’t seem right walking away like that. I dislike the new “normal!”

Sunday

Sunday was extra busy! We all got up and had chocolate chip pancakes. Afterward, Sam and I compiled the grocery list and I ventured out to Meijer. I always seem to have to go back to an aisle because I either walked right by something OR I didn’t see it on the list until almost the end of the trip. Ella napped while I was shopping and woke up as I was bringing in the groceries.

The weather was just beautiful. I think it was like 65 degrees. We had bought Ella one of those Cozy Coupe cars with the intention of giving it to her for Easter, but decided that the weather was so nice, we should give it to her Sunday. I’m not sure why, but I thought that it literally just snapped together…..it doesn’t. I had to go get my drill, a screwdriver, and a hammer to put it together. At any rate, She really loved it and I got to push her around the neighborhood in it.

We spent the afternoon outside in her car, in the stroller, going down the slide, and running on the trampoline. Eventually, she started to yawn and I knew it was nap time. Once I laid her down, the real work began for me.

Despite my best attempt to tell Sam that the lights on the house were “Easter Lights,” I took down all the Christmas lights. I can’t complain, and I’m glad I finally had good weather to do it. This year I had strung some up high on the front porch, so I had to drag out the ladder to get to them.

Once I had the lights down, I took the totes back to the basement. While down there, like a typical guy, I noticed this huge plastic house that Sam had in the basement so our nieces could play in it. We had talked about bringing it outside and cleaning it up for Ella. So, while Sam slept for work, and Ella napped, I took it partially apart and brought it upstairs. I had measured it and figured I could get it outside no problem. I got it up the stairs, through the basement door and once at the side door – it had to really yank it out! It was SO snug! I was able to get it outside and get it washed and back together!

After I got it back together, I was back inside making dinner, so Sam had something to take to work.

Needless to say, I was in bed early that night!

My phone sent me a notification that night that said my “panoramic” photo was ready to view. I didn’t take any panoramic pictures while we were outside Sunday. However, my camera took two separate pictures and combined the two and put Ella in the picture twice! At first I thought it was weird, but after looking at it, I think it’s pretty cool!

Two for the price of one….

Monday

Another beautiful day, this time 70 degrees. It was windy, but that didn’t stop us from playing outside. More trips around the neighborhood in her car and in her stroller. Then we played in her house. I’m thinking we need to get a chair or something for her to put in there, because she walks in and really doesn’t know what to do in there.

A Good Read

The book I got for my anniversary is called “100 Bible Verses That Made America.” So far I am enjoying it. It is really amazing to see how people of the past used the Bible and the principles to help shape this country. The only issue I have with the book is that every time it quotes a Bible verse, it quotes it from the NIV version. The NIV version wasn’t even around until the 1970’s. To me, it would seem that they would have used the KJV to quote from. Whenever it quotes a verse, I just grab my KJV and read it from there. Still a very interesting and enlightening read.

A Real Pain in the … Back!

About two weeks ago, I was getting out of bed and kind of felt like my back was tight. Over the next few days, I started to feel like it was even in my hip. I’m really not sure what I did to it. It’s been bugging me and kind of annoying. I’ve taken ibuprofen and such, but it has been getting worse. Monday, I pushed Ella in that car around the neighborhood (which meant I was leaning a bit forward to push her). Then I walked another mile or so with her in the stroller. It felt good to get out and walk! I love walking, but by the time I got closer to home, I could feel like my hip was hurting more. Later, I was feeling pain when I sat on the floor to change diapers. When I got up from bed, I could hardly move and the pain was excruciating.

I had to make an appointment with my doc for a refill on my prescriptions, and I plan on asking her about it when I go in. In the meantime, I have to wait until Thursday morning and these are my friend ….

They don’t help a lot, but they do bring some relief. This morning, when I got up, I was tearing up from the pain. I was trying to load the dishwasher and could hardly bend down. Trying to get pants, socks and shoes on only brought about more pain. I’m gonna try to get in to the chiropractor, too. I’m really hoping it is nothing, but I tend to always think the worst.

I’m off to pop some more ibuprofen…..

Thanks for reading!