Happy Birthday Trey Buddy!

Trey turned 9 already!  Hard to believe. 

Building a fire with his buddy, Zach.

The choco-trey monster.

Trey's friend, Peter came too!
Happy Birthday, Trey Buddy!!!!

Leah

"Mom look!  I did my hair by myself!"

It's Fall!

I love how the last week or so has felt so cool.  I'm not sure I've ever had a favorite season, but I do enjoy when it gets cooler, especially after the HOT summer we had.  Last week, I was running down our street and there were little reddish-pink flakes covering the street.  Since we live next to the elevators, I knew it was from the cobs of corn.  This is harvest season.  I said to myself "NOW it feels like fall."  I love to make pumpkin recipes in the fall.

Today, my group took food for MOPS.  I decided to take a yummy recipe I've had for a while for Pumpkin Crunch.  Dave and I had this several years ago in our small group.  Lori Larsen made it and we LOVED it!  I got up early to make it since it has to bake so long and I messed it up!  I told Dave and he said 'I bet it will still be good'. Of course I couldn't redo it so off we went!

I chuckled when several people told me how good it was and asked for the recipe.  Boy, won't they be surprised when they actually follow the recipe?

1 c. melted butter
1 yellow cake mix
15 oz. can pumpkin
12 oz. can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar (I actually only used 1 cup and it was sweet enough)
1 tsp. cinnamon (we love cinnamon so I poured in more like 2-3 tablespoons)
pinch of salt
1 c. chopped pecans
cool whip
Mix pumpkin, evap. milk, eggs, cinnamon, sugar and salt and pour into greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix on top and then pecans. Drizzle with melted butter.
Bake at 350 for 50-55 min. Top with cool whip.

So to my MOPS friends: if you want a yummy, gooey, pumpkin-pie-like base with a crunchy top (hence the 'crunch' part that was sorely missing this morning), follow the recipe.  Don't be like me!

Or, add the cake mix to the bowl with all the pumpkin, milk etc. because you are in a hurry and can't read the recipe right.  Then realize your mistake, add the pecans on top, and just about half of the melted butter since the cake mix isn't there to soak it up.  And you will have pumpkin cake instead.  lol

Or make both and compare!

I'm actually quite pleased with how the 'cake' turned out this morning. I thought it was good and I really don't know which way I prefer, now that I've done it two ways. As I am writing, my pumpkin-loving husband is eating a huge piece and I asked his opinion since it's so different than I have made in the past. "It tastes great, but I think I like the other one better."

My Dumb Foot

Back in June, my foot started hurting me.  It hurt for about a week but I just thought it was a tight achilles.  On Sat. the 9th, I did the Race for the Cure with Lexi.  (Full report over on our Tardy Rooster blog.) After that race, it hurt a lot and swelled on up and I had to put ice on it.  On Sunday, I thought I could run 5 miles with Dave.  Which I did. But every step sent a shooting pain through my heel.  On Monday, I tried to run but didn't even make it down our street.  I decided to rest and give it 3 days to heal and if it wasn't better by Friday I would call ORA.  I hate going to the dr.  I'm always afraid it's going to be nothing and I'm going to look like an idiot so I just don't go.  But by Friday, it wasn't better.  So I called ORA and I got in that very day to see Dr. Ellis. I was very excited about that because we had seen her when we went in for Zach's knees and she really knows her stuff. 
The first thing she did was order x-rays which were, of course, normal.  She said she thought it was an inflamed bursa. Told me one to two weeks of rest should cure it.  So I said, "Ummm...I'm signed up for a race in two weeks."  She said, "Not gonna lie to ya, if you want to do the race and deal with a little pain, you aren't going to make it worse."  Good to know.  Because I really wanted to do my adventure race with Dave!
On the day before the race, now four weeks in, I called ORA to schedule another appt. since it was still bothering me.  I didn't want to go that day though.  Why go back when I was planning on racing the next day?  I scheduled it for monday.  lol 
On monday, she told me the next step was MRI, which of course I didn't want to do-too expensive.  So we gave me another week and made it for the next tuesday.  Just in case it magically got better over the weekend.
So I had the MRI on tuesday and had an appt. with the dr. on thursday.  On wednesday, she called me to say I had a calcaneal stress fracture.  I was thinking Yay!  At least it's something.  And then I thought, Crap!  I have a stress fracture:(  The treatment, I was told, was a boot (borrowed from Dave's mom) which I had been (sort of) wearing the week before.  So I went home and put it on:) 

The next day, Dave and I went to see Dr. Ellis and she showed us the MRI pictures.  Most often, these fractures are vertical in nature, straight down through the bone.  Mine was diagonal- starting at the back of heel and going down through the calcaneus.  (Which, by the way, was the exact presentation of my pain.  Amazing how that works.) When we got in the car, Dave was like You can't even have a NORMAL stress fracture!  I know, right? She said I could wear a boot and walk normally, unless it hurt to walk.  And it did.  So she said I had to use crutches and be non-weight bearing for a week.  Bummer.  Back to Sue's house to get the darn crutches. 

That was bad enough, but we were leaving the next day to spend a week with my sister Laura, on her farm.  I was utterly useless.  She was very gracious about the whole deal but it would have been better if we could have done some more fun activites. 

After a week of the crutches I was over them.  I quit using them.  Thankfully, it no longer hurt to walk.

I was really wanting to run but could only bike.  Finally, on August 17th, Dr. Ellis gave me the 'all clear'.  I needed to walk normally without the boot for one week.  If that didn't hurt, I was clear to run!  Yay!  Oh running, how I missed you!  Actually, I love the feeling when I'm done running.  Not the idea of actually doing the running:)

I haven't had any pain and have been training for The Color Run in October.  I'm good to go!
Side note: the swelling on the outside of my foot still hasn't gone away.  Don't know if it ever will?

Our Next Phase of Life

Yesterday I went to a College Planning Seminar with my oldest.  College.  !  ?  Did I really just say that?  He is a junior this year but it feels like just yesterday he was this little guy.

Where oh where did the time go?

The meeting was great.  It was only an hour and was well presented with great handouts.  So glad I made myself (and him) go.  This is an exciting phase of life we are moving into!

Bring it on.

Lexi Used Her Head

Our first week of school was a little rocky around here.  It started on Sunday actually.  Leah found a tick on her head.  Dave was gone, so I called my mom to come over.  First of all, to help me decide what it was because Leah wasn't letting me look.  Second, to help me remove it.  Leah was super cooperative because Grandma was in the house so it proved to be the way to go.  I looked online and it said not to apply any crazy things, just grab it with a needlenose tweezers and pull.  So I did.  And I pulled.  And I pulled.  And I pulled some more.  Finally it let go and took a big chunk of skin with it.  Her head bled like crazy and hurt for several days but finally was back to normal.  I mention this because, albeit minor, it was our first bout with blood during our Week of Doom.
Also on this day, Trey came down with a fever.  Nothing else really.  Just a fever.  But it was enough to keep him home from his first day of school. Bummer.

Lexi woke up on Monday with a fever.  Double bummer.  This is our first day of school picture.

At least Leah was happy!  Trey got to go to school on Tuesday but not Lexi.  So on Wednesday we took a new pitcture. They got to hold up fingers for what day of school it was for them.

Pay no attention to Leah.  She hadn't started school yet!

So Lexi got to school that day but didn't get to class.  During the before-school time, she went into the storage room, got too close to the huge metal volleyball poles, and they fell on her head.  So I got a call from Dave.  I answer by saying "Who forgot what?"  He says, "Umm, you need to come get Alexis and take her in for stiches."  I say, "Are you kidding?"  Let me say here, that Dave NEVER kids with me like that.  But I always respond like that.  I just couldn't believe it.  So Leah and I picked her up and headed to the walk-in clinic since our doctor was out of town for the week.  Poor thing hadn't even seen her friends yet and here she was getting staples in her head.

Here she is pointing to where the cuts were in her head.



The week ended with Zach hurting his thumb as I described in detail in my last post.  So basically, I was really happy when that week was over and we could move on!

Zach's Thumb

I know, I know.  I haven't posted in a long time.  Something about the summer schedule being so different and starting back to school makes me want to resume my blog posts. 

I will jump right in to the story of Zach's thumb.  It was 3 Fridays ago now, that Zach was preparing to go to IC to spend the weekend with his cousins.  Dave said he didn't mind but wanted him to split wood for a couple of hours and then he could go.  Zach was totally fine with that and started splitting.  Dave mentioned to me that he needed to get something from his mom's house but I wasn't really paying attention.  I was in the kitchen making supper when I hear Zach screaming outside.  Ah, ah, ah at the top of his lungs.  For a split second I thought he was messing around with someone but I quickly realized that this didn't sound like messing around and the sound was getting closer.  I could still hear the log splitter but he was screaming and running around the yard.  I ran outside and found him running in circles with blood spraying everywhere.  I totally freaked out.  From his reaction, I just knew something would be severed. I yelled to Lexi to get Dad while wondering why he didn't come running.  Only to remember he must have left to Sue's house.  I yelled to Lexi to call her on the phone but then grabbed the phone and yelled to Sue that I needed Dave right away. Not my finest moment, but I think she has forgiven me. By this time, Zach had collapsed on the ground, still yelling and telling me how bad it hurt.  I grabbed some paper towels to hold on his thumb and calmed down a bit when I realized nothing was severed and he would live. But I bawled along with him to have him in so much pain and not be able to help him. Dave came squealing around the corner and jumped out of his truck.  Followed, of course, by Sue after having the living daylights scared out of her.  We determined that Dave would take him to the ER and I would stay home.  I was kind of glad 6 hours later when I was still sitting on the couch waiting for them.

He had gotten his thumb smashed in between the base of the log splitter and a log.  From the sides, so it bent his nail up in the middle. In the ER, they got into a room almost right away but then the waiting began.  Every half hour someone would come in and report but then leave again.  X-rays determined he crushed both bones in his thumb and his nail popped out of the nail bed.  They shot him 4 times with Novocaine in the base of his thumb so they could push his nail back under and pull his skin over.  Sounds like it would hurt, to me, but he said the worst part, by far, was the Novocaine shots.

 This is after he had his cast for a week.  Looks much better than it did at first.  You can thank me later.  He will lose his nail.

After he finally got home that night, at 1:30, he came walking in the door carrying a bag of groceries they had picked up at Walgreens (drugs, pizza to eat with the drugs and of course candy.  Because candy fixes everything:).  I looked at Dave funny and he exclaimed that he tried to take the bag but Zach wouldn't let him carry it.  Just freshly out of a traumatic experience and minor surgery and carrying groceries.  That's my Zach though.  He figures things out for himself and doesn't let life get him down.  Every time I saw him for the first few days, all I could say was "I'm so sorry you had to get hurt."  He always said, "It's alright Mom.  I'm alright."

Even though his bones were crushed, the Dr. said he wouldn't need surgery.  That's why he has the cast and we keep getting new casts because eventually the swelling will go down and it willl be loose in there.  As long as it stays immobile and the bones don't shift, they should heal normally.  So thankful, as always, that God was with us and he didn't get hurt worse. 

Suffice to say, he didn't get to his cousin's house that weekend:)