Kyle awards!

Kyle has made huge improvements in the last few weeks and months in school and life in general. He has come a long way! Yesterday was huge for him, we are so proud and he is on cloud nine!

He got an award in Music class "Superstar Student" (see sticker on his shirt). This is a class that he has had trouble with before.

He got the principal's "Citizen of the Month" award, with the award in his hand and a new book. His name will also be in the weekly newsletter announcing this award.

His self confidence and overall happiness has skyrocketed lately, and yesterday he was just beaming from ear to ear (and so were/are we!).

We love you Kyle and always have known what a beautiful person you are!! It's nice to see others start recognizing that too.

Meet "Cheeto"

Okay, we may have had cheetos 2 or 3 times, really. So I don't think that it has any relation to the food. Jake just comes up with these really off the wall and fun names. He named two pirate figures he had "Artro" and "Pyro" for example.

So, the other day, he starts carrying around this cabbage patch kid I got as a kid. He named him Cheeto. He has been caring for him for about a week now. He tucks him in bed with him and we must acknowledge Cheeto and kiss him good night too.

















So, one morning, Corbin wakes up before Jake and brings Cheeto downstairs with him. He shares some breakfast with him. Beside Cheeto is "Bucky", named by Corbin.



































I came downstairs one night to find this. Corbin wrapped up in my yoga matt, telling me that he is exercising!! Too funny!
















I love my boys!

My two year old, turned two in August. He is so halarious!! The other night he went to bed in my bed. He said good night and was happily tucked in. I went up later to check on him. I found that he had gotten out of bed, opened the fridge, poured a cup of milk (chocolate soymilk), and found some McDonald's (yah, I know, but I've been really sick this week) cinamon roll left over. He must have gotten pretty satisfied to fall asleep like this. (notice the little spill in my bed) but where oh, where, is the milk container??



















So, I looked into the fridge, and did not find the milk container. Found it UNDER the covers keeping Corbin company.

















and here is the face of a happy self serve customer!! Milk mustach and all!!

















He is one smart little cookie!

Pumpkins anyone??

This is what happens to pumpkin seeds when you don't have a working oven. Your husband saves them in a bowl, with some water (why?) and "walah!" pumpkin plan sprouts! Then you plant them in a pot with your kids so you can watch them grow. It is fun to see how much they change just from day to day. What are we going to do with indoor pumpkin plants though????

Baby Sweater

Just finished (well, just need to add the buttons) this cute pink baby sweater. I was worried about the color changes and how it would all end up, but I am pleased with it. Need to sew three buttons then shipping it off to the mama to be (for the third time). :)

Bathtime fun

I am married!!

Okay, as some of you know, I became allergic to my wedding and engagement rings after the birth of Corbin. I dont' know what happened. The kick in the rear was when I went into my jewelry box to retrieve the rings (soldered together) and they were missing. I have no idea what happened to them, that was many months ago.

So, my dear husband found these great, simple rings for us and surprised me on Halloween night. It is great to have a wedding band again, and I have worn it for two days no and no allergic reaction!! YAY!!

Thank you honey, I really love you!

Happy Halloween!!

I finally got a new charger for the camera, thanks to my wonderful husband stopping on the way home from work! Here are our trick or treaters!

















After rounding the neighborhood.

















Looking at their stash!




















Wanting to hand out candy when we got home. He was so cute sitting with that big bowl deciding what to give the trick or treaters.


















Looking for more kids to come get candy at our house, comfy in jammies.

I totally love Halloween. I love the excitment of the children. I love watching them run from house to house and say "trick or treat" in their little voices. I love seeing them excitedly checking out what they got at some of the houses and oohing over their loot at home. I love to see them excited to put on a new costume and become something else for a night.

I hope you enjoyed the night as much!!

Lisa :)

new toy love

We got this motorcycle at a garage sale for something like 25 cents. Corbin found it the other day and fell in love. Luckily the little button is not loud and most of the noise is Corbin~made. He wants to have it with him all the time and all night. Last night he came into my bed carrying it (instead of his lovey blanket) and played with it in bed at 3am. He also tried to give it breastmilk at bedtime. Too cute!

Corbin's dinner spoon

Tonight at dinner, two of the boys were wanting second helpings of mixed veggies. Corbin found the best spoon for getting seconds and eating them.

embarrassed

Okay, it already happened. I no longer get a good bye kiss right as Kyle is getting out of the van at school. *sniff*

15 Year High School Reunion

My friend Laura, and her very nice husband. She admitted that everyone hated me in 5th grade because I was the new kid.

















My best friend, Melissa, and her boyfriend (also very nice). So great to see her!
















My dear friend Sheri, and her very nice husband. So good to see her and know that she is doing well!



















My dear friend Chrissy, although now goes by Chris. Very happy in life, achieved the life long dream of becoming a therapist. Married, with two beautiful girls, and happy.

I missed taking some other pictures, mostly because I didnt' want to disrupt everyone visiting to get a picture, and some beause I was talking too much and enjoying the moment!

















David and Jamie Smith and their wonderful family were able to squeeze a couple of hours with us. We really enjoyed the time together!!




















Rick, a dad of the kids I babysat for eons ago (some are graduated from college!), was able to meet us for breakfast. Thank you so much for that time!! His wife Leslie, just lost her dad that same week, and was therefor unable to meet us. Our prayers go out to your family.



Yup, hard to believe it's been that long now. I missed the 10 year, and so glad to have made this one. It was wonderful to see everyone. It really filled my heart. I think about people from class from time to time and so amazing to see them in person again and give them a huge hug.




I also got to see my mom's new tombstone. It's difficult to believe that she has been gone four years now. Dad designed the tombstone himself, and really did an absolute amazing job.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you and miss you so darn much it hurts. I am happy with what you left me in my heart, as it continues to grow and make me a better person and so much of who I am. You would have been 64 this year, passing a month before your 60th birthday.

Dad did a wonderful job, I am sure you are filled with joy.

ADHD

Attention Deficite Hyperactivity Disorder. We received that diagnosis yesterday at the pediatricians office. I had wondered and feared it for about two years now. Now we have an answer. I certainly didnt' want this for Kyle. As a parent, you never want your kids to feel any pain or have any troubles. You know they will have some, and you even know they need some to grow as individuals. You certainly cannot protect them from life, as much as you may want to at times.

I have seen how Kyle struggles. I have felt how I struggle to connect to him. I see the turmoil in his little body to try to sit still and try to do what is right. I see the emotion in his eyes when people turn away from him due to things he cannot control. It hurts him, it is hard for him, and now we have a way to help him.

ADHD is on eof hte most comon health conditions seen in school-age children. In the United States, the prevalence of ADHD is between 8% and 10%, which means that in every classroom there are likely to be 2 or 3 children with ADHD.

No one knows exactly what causes ADHD, however ADHD is thought to be caused by a disorder in brain chemistry. Neurotransmitters are brain chemicals that allow brain cells to communicate with each other. when one or more of these chemicals is in short supply or is not working correctly, a child may exhibit symptoms of ADHD. ~ exerpts taken from "Starting Today".

Please, pray for my dear Kyle. I love him so much. Pray that we are able to help him with this as soon as possible. Pray that he finds the peace he has so desperatly been searching for.

In God, all things are possible.

MRI~results

First, thank you so much to everyone for your support and prayers. They truely helped me to be patient through this whole proceedure. I was able to not run for about three weeks, which normally would have been very difficult for me. I also was able to wait for test results, without freaking out. Thank you so much for your help in this!!

I got a little nervous getting ready to go to the doctor yesterday. I started to wonder why, as I had been feeling fine about everything, no matter what the results were. Then I realized that this was the turning point. I would have an answer either way. It dawned on me then, that it had been easier for me to be in limbo!

So, the sports medicine doctor walks through the door with his hand out to shake mine. I shake his hand and say hello, how are you? and he said "I'm so happy when I'm wrong!" So I ask if he meant I didnt' have a stress fracture, and that's exactly what he meant. He then showes me the slides of my MRI since I was interested seeing them. He doesn't see any arthritis, or osteoperosis which are both good. He tells me that the reason that I am having pain in the sacro-iliac joint (I included this link to show what the s-i joint is. Look for the line that the arrow is pointing to.) is that the two sides of my pelvis are moving in different directions causing friction. One symptom is the pain and pinching in the S-I joint, and the other shown on the MRI is bone spurs on the front of my hip bones (my pubic bone). Great, now I have to worry about bone spurs too, yikes!

He tells me that the good news is that this is something they can help me fix........BUT it won't be easy. So he wants me to take physical therapy for a month and come back. What that means is that I saw the p.t. that same day (thank goodness) and I do the exercises on my own, then I go back to the p.t. in three weeks. I'm allowed to run to my pain tolerance. Both the doctor and the physical therapist want me to continue the yoga and pilates, as well as start cross training on a bike or stair stepper. So I'm doing physical therapy exercises twice a day now, and the doctor was right, they arent' easy, but they are doable. They just take some concintration and effort. I have felt pain in the front now, but hope that means the muscles are getting to where they need to be and stablizing the hips.

So that's the outcome so far. Thanks again for asking about me and praying for me!!

Lisa :)

Corbin helping

Getting ready for Corbin's birthday party, I wanted to wash the chairs. We were hoping for an outside event. Corbin thought it looked like fun so he wanted to help.

another spider-ick!

Okay I dont' like spiders, but here is another picture worthy one. It's sooooooooo nasty!! Look at it's flat, white head, and it's front legs. Looks like the front two sets are together until near the end where they seperate. NASTY!

Jake's eye

New rule in our house, don't stand on toys that have wheels. You may end up with your face on the coffee table. Ouch! It actually looks worse in person than in the pictures.

inspire, achieve!

I love this quote from the October Runner's World from Chris Carmichael, Lance Armstrong's coach and now Dean Karnazes coach: "Nobody does anything great who doesn't also take great risk. Athletics is all about inspiration. What people are able to achieve in doing the unachievable is inspiring."

MRI~today

okay, did the MRI today. went fine. I did psych myself out a little here and there. Overall it went well though. I'm waiting results, the hard part. After about 20 minutes of testing, the tech tells me that he is going to "show these to the doctor and be back". Does he take me out of the machine?? nope. why does he need to leave right now to show the doctor?? weird. so he comes back and tells me that there is one more test to do and it will be 4 minutes. I can handle 4 more minutes. Then I start to think, why one more after showing the others to the doctor?? Does this mean they didn't find anything but want to do one more angle to make sure? does this mean they did find something and want to see how bad?? the assistant at the office yesterday said that depending on the results the doctor may call me before my appt on Wednesay. Does that mean he'll call to tell me to run or to get cruches, or not call at all??? ahhhh! Please keep me in your prayers, thank you!

possible stress fracture??

so, I went to the doctor today, he is concerned that I have a stress fracture in my sacrum, where the sacro-iliac joint is bothering me. I actually had been having minimal pain and had run saturday and yesterday with little to no pain. BUT when he pushed on that spot, YEEEEOOOOOWWW! It is still hurting me right now several hours later! so after a lot of poking me and pushing on me and stretching me around, he said, "you are right, it is definitly coming from your S-I joint". that felt great to have that confirmation! He also told me that I am really flexible which is good, too keep at the yoga. It sounded like I have some muscle imbalance that could be what is causing the pain in my left leg. The longer your run is the more that gets worse. he told me that the resistance training, stretching/yoga, massage, I'm doing are all great to help fix that. so he sends me for x-rays of the S-I joint which are normal and no signs of arthritis. another good thing.

Then he lays it on the line for me. "HEre are your options, you can keep running, and doing all the other things you are doing, and see if the pain goes away. then you could be fine. You can see physical therapy to help with a more structured plan for what you are already doing. You could have an MRI to rule out a fracture or find out that you have one. In that case I couldnt' let you run until it heals, which could be 3 months." so, I'm mullng over the choices. I asked if I had to take any dye for the MRI, since I'm still breastfeeding. He tells me no, but that since I am extendedly breastfeeding that puts me at a higher risk to have this stress fracture. If I keep running and I DO have one, my hip could break and I could be in surgery and no runnign for a long time.

So he tells me that I have several factors that make me a higher risk to have the stress fracture,

runner
woman
extended breastfeeding
high mileage
He proceeds to tell me that if I were his wife,, that he would give me an MRI. So, I can afford to take 3 months off right now. I may not reach my time goal in May, but at least I have a good chance o fstill running that race. I CAN"T afford to take time off after December. I decide to schedule the MRI. ugh. I'm nervous about it. He said that if it's not too bad (if I have a fracture) that I might be able to do non-impact aeorobic activity (like that eliptical) in a month. If it's real bad, I would be on cruches.

sooooooooo, I must get off of here to go schedule the MRI, and get some final answers.

the other "great news" is that my cell phone broke. not covered under warrenty, no insurance, and not due for an upgrade until March. yup, lookin' at $100 bucks or so. it's what we use for long distance calling, emergencies when away from home, what I use on my long runs (when I can do those again) and for Kyle's school to contact me in case of an emergency.