Long Weekend

Ryan is not totally enjoying his new duties. One of his supervisees got into trouble and has to work extra duty, which includes 12 hours shifts 7 days a week. If no one is there, Ryan has to be there to watch over him. So Ryan worked 6-6 yesterday and 6-??? today. He was supposed to be home at 6, but there is a wind advisory so he had to stay to pull everything inside. Everyone he called did not answer so it's him and his trainee guy.

Natalie has been a bear all weekend. Partly because Daddy is not around. Partly because she may be teething her last teeth or still having an ear issue. Partly because Mommy is worn out from having her from wake up to bed time for the last 7 days. Not looking forward to the next five. I hope Friday comes quickly!

We just hung around most of the weekend. We tried working on some potty training. She went twice on the potty, twice on the floor, once in her pants and then I gave up for the day. It's very exhausting. We went to church on Sunday morning, hung out with Sondra and Maddie during the afternoon, and went to a BBQ and served in the preschool room at the night service.

Here are some pics of Natalie modeling a new dress and bows!




And GET THIS CAMERA OFF OF ME!!!

More Back...I know...

So those of you who have interest follwing my saga...

My MRI showed no pelvic abnormalities. My X-Ray showed severe scoliosis and some malfunction in my hipjoints. I need one more MRI now on my spine to check for herniated disks.

Basically, in addition to my tailbone that healed wrong (90 degees in instead of down and NOW is also crooked), the scoliosis is pulling on all my muscles, which is causing a huge knot in my shoulder, more tailbone pain, and the lower back/SI joint pain. Until I get the next MRI (which is Sat night at 7:45 PM) my treatment plan so far is more tailbone pain injections, and trigger point injections in my shoulder, butt, and hip joints. Also I am taking a new muscle relaxer 3 times to day, up to 3 pills at a time. These pills are literally the size of a dime and are supposed to turn my pee blackish green.

Anyone have scoliosis? What treatments have you had? When they did the test in 5th grade I got x-rays and it looked in the normal range. Just one leg was longer and the curve balanced me out. Is it normal for it to worsen over time/pregnancy/etc?

Deja Vu?

We bought a van! I know, you are thinking you saw this post at the end of last year. Well, we upgraded. The van we bought was a 1999 and had a few issues with the speedometer and the sliding doors and a check engine error.

We saw a 2005 Odyssey at the Toyota dealer by our house. Ryan went to go inquire about it, and ended up talking them down 5,000 off the price and gave us a really good deal on our trade-in.

We are really excited that it has the 7 year/100,000 mile warranty on it still. It also has some better safety featuers like the LATCH car seat system (no more seatbelt threading) and front and side airbags. It also has fun features such as DVD, seat warmers, dual climate control, in floor lazy susan storage, sunroof, leather, switches from 6 to 4 cylinders for better gas mileage, an 8th seat, and probably more.

I am very excited. We were not planning to get one for 2 more years so we would be done with our other car payment. But now we have 2 'new' cars, an 06 and 05, and are going to keep these for a long time. Ryan was too worried about taking the older van on such long trips and wanted it to be safer for Natalie and I.

Time Goes By

So a week has passed since we returned from our vacation. It seems I still had pictures on my camera to upload from our visit to Eckert's to shop for peaches and to visit Great Grandma Joan. We had fun, and Natalie had yet another milkshake. This was a homemade banana milkshake and she loved it! Great Grandma also gave her tons of 'pretties'. We kept them in a little bunny basket in the car. Well, at home we put them in the playroom. Anyway, yesterday we were in the car and she picked up the bunny basket and started crying 'arms' (translation = braclets) and "pretties" (translation = necklaces). I was very surprised that a week later she remembered they had been in the basket and was upset to see them not where she left them. She's smarter than I give her credit for, sometimes I still think of her as the helpless newborn who couldn't do or think or remember much of anything. Here are a few pictures from that day.



Nothing much new is going on at home, we went full steam back into our busy life. I had my MRI, and will get results from that and my biopsy on Tuesday. We got back into our routine of going to the YMCA daily. I got to meet my friend Kelly (The Marderosian's) new baby girl, spent time with my girlfriends, and went back to church.

Ryan is getting used to his new duties at work. He spends half his day working and half the day doing paperwork, which is a big change. He is looking to CLEP a speech and math class to get his Community College of the Air Force degree, which he can then transfer to University of Maryland to speed up the road to his bachelor's degree. He is also going to retake the ASVAB test to see if he can crosstrain into a different career field for a change of pace. Lots going on for him too!

Reunions

I had some really great reunions during the past few weeks. It reminds me how special my friendships are to last over such time, space and distance.

My first reunion was with our group of Ryan's friends from high school and their spouses. No matter where we ask them to meet or on short notice they all come through for us. Now there are 4 (or more) of us with kids, so the group just keeps growing! Thank you so much for including us, making the drive to my parents house, and always being fun to hang out with. Between the BBQ at the Talley's, the date night out, and the party at the Zeisset's we hung out a lot this week!

My next reunion was with my high school friends. It's amazing because Meghan came all the way from Austrailia!!! We are all so different, and in such different places in geography and in life. But when we get together, it's like 10 years have not even gone by and we are sitting in the commons, on a band bus, or at the lacrosse field. Now 2 of us have kids, Liane has graduated from Harvard Law, Meghan just got engaged, and I finally got to meet Allison's husband and see her house. I had so much fun when we had pizzas, drinks and games. Although the topics of conversation may have changed, I felt like I was 'home'. I love you girls!

I also met up with 2 of my college roomies. Hilary is busy being a new mom and doing a great job. I loved getting to hold baby Ben for a little bit! Amanda and I got together with our husbands for dinner. It was nice getting to talk to her and her hubby and catch up on their lives. I miss my 802 Bo's. I still think we need to do something for our 5th year out of college. Come on girls, we've seen each other every year, let's not skip this one. We have 5 months left!!!


And now I am back home joining my VA friends. I am so blessed to have all these people in different places in my life! Sniff!

Our Trip in a Nutshell

Wow, we had a LONG vacation. We spent 2 weeks in the St. Louis area. We drove the 14 hours in our van, which worked out pretty well. We drove mostly during afternoon/night so Natalie would sleep or watch 1 DVD. She was a great travel companion, and was pretty quiet!

We spent our first week with Ryan's family in O Fallon, Missouri. We met all our friends at a BBQ to welcome home Sam (The Talley's) from his second tour in Iraq, and to celebrate the 4th. We also visited the Magic House, a really cool children's museum. Grant's Farm was another day, it's owned by AB so we got our free beer samples, as well as saw lots of cool animals. Natalie was nearly mauled by the goats. A family BBQ on the 4th was fun. Then we we out on a date night to dinner and a bit of gambling on the riverboat.

Then we moved across the river to stay with my parents in Waterloo, IL. We stopped a hotel downtown for swimming with my cousins and Natalie's second cousins. While with my parents we saw Great Grandpa and Great Grandma. We saw the animals at the St. Louis Zoo, and visited the elephant that was born on Natalie's Birthday. The City Museum was one of our best stops. It's an artist who has welded all these old and new things into an amazing place to climb and play. They had a 3 story slide that Natalie loved.

Although we hate leaving our family and friends, it was nice to get Drake back and settle back home. Here are a few pictures, but I have over 500 in various My Space albums if you want more Natalie!