Answering Some Questions...

Okay...time to answer a couple of questions I've had from previous posts.

First, my free Shutterfly codes come from various places: I've traded them with people, bought them on ebay (rarely), but mostly they are from a little hard work. :) Every once in a while Shutterfly runs contests. These contests are great because basically you always win. Their "consolation" prizes are things like free photobooks, 12 free photocards or a calendar. Can't go wrong there! Most of the time you can only win once per email address. I don't have only one email address. I won't say how many I have, but I have A LOT (most temporary). I also participate in a thread at http://www.slickdeals.net/. It is there that I have traded codes and found out about new codes and contests. The direct link is HERE. If you go to the first page you can find some codes that always work, for any account...like $10 off $40 or something like that. Shutterfly is AWESOME because they stack all these codes, so usually you can use a bunch of them! I placed my order today...here's what I got and what I paid:

62 5x7 Photo Cards (reg. $61.38...paid $1.98)

1 Greeting Card (reg. $2.49...paid $0)

5 Custom Calendars (reg. $99.95...paid $0)

Desk Organizer (reg. and paid $29.99)

2 11x14 Prints/Collages (Reg. $19.98...paid $0)

3 5x7 Books (reg. $38.97...paid $0)

1 Thomas the Train 8x8 Photo Book (Reg. $34.99...paid $0)

2 8x8 Photo Books (Reg. $83.98...paid $24 because of extra pages)

Total would have been... $371.74 plus like $50 shipping, so over $400!

Total that I paid with above discounts, plus free shipping discount and 2 other discounts...$27.95

I LOVE Shutterfly!!

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I also had a couple of requests for the Brownies I made from the "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook. Here's the recipe (you can right click, save as, if you want a copy) :

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Thanks again to those asking about my foot. It's healing nicely and except for a couple super sore spots, I'm really doing well. I can't put a shoe on yet, that hurts too much, but hopefully I'll be able to by next Tuesday since I have to work! :)

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I'm not sure if I'll post again this week...we have a small-group Christmas party tomorrow night and then on Friday my mom, Rebecca, Abigail and I are headed to Chicago. Why? Because we are CRAZY to go to the American Girl Store during the Christmas season! :) But it really is fun!

Have you Elfed Yourself?

This is freaking hilarious...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9605616185

I missed a Thanksgiving post. I missed a Black Friday post. So, I guess you get a "Saturday-After-Thanksgiving" post.

Abigail had a Thanksgiving Feast at school on Wednesday. They had turkey, popcorn and corn muffins. They dressed up as Pilgrims...so cute! I didn't get to go because of my foot, but Colin and my mom stopped in to see the feast. Abigail thinks it was the best!

We had a great Thanksgiving and have so much to be thankful for! We went to church in the morning and then to my parents' house for a Thanksgiving feast. It was nice to have my whole family around. We are so thankful that they all live reasonably close and that we can see them so much.

We stayed there until early evening and then headed to the Mulders for another Thanksgiving Feast...this one with around 25 people. It was Colin's immediate family and then two of his aunts, 4 cousins and then Lily, his cousin's daughter, and Miles and Marcel, the 6 week-old twins of his other cousin. It was another great dinner and again, we have so much to be thankful for!

I had a rough time staying awake all day (so I didn't...I napped) because the pain in my foot was pretty bad, so I took my pain med, which makes me sick, so I took a pill for that and that makes me drugged-up sleepy. I fell asleep at a very reasonable hour in order to attempt to get up for some Black Friday shopping.

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I LOVE Black Friday, shopping (sorry, Manda!)! I don't love the materialism surrounding it, but I LOVE the hustle and business of it. I have no problems standing in line...I love it! I was seriously almost in tears about my foot this year and having to miss it. However, with the help of some great friends, I was able to go out for a while. I just took it real easy. My friends, Lindsay and Kim, both picked things up for me and that helped so much! We aren't after any of the big ticket items, so it's not like I had to race around or anything. Just a fun day for me. I was home by mid-morning and then took a pain pill. I enjoyed a four hour nap later. :)

Every Friday night Colin and the kids come to 84 with his parents and sister to visit me. Since I'm off work for two weeks I wasn't sure if they would still go. They decided to still go, so I got to go too. It was nice to be able to enjoy a dinner out! We came home and the whole family was exhausted. Kids both went right to bed and Colin and I fell asleep on the couch around 10:00 before heading up to bed. Boring, aren't we??

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I have so much of my Christmas shopping done, just a few things to go. Hopefully we will get our tree up soon so I can start wrapping gifts and getting them under the tree. I have a HUGE Shutterfly order to place in the next couple of days that includes more gifts and our Christmas cards. Here's what I'm ordering so far (no specifics because some people who read my blog are getting them!)...50 5x7 Christmas Cards, 5 Calendars, 3 5x7 Books and an 11x14 picture. For the grand total of...$0.00. I have codes for everything, so it's all free...$200 worth of stuff! I may end up paying shipping, but at $30, that would still be a steal!

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Dinner again with Colin's family tonight. Brett and Tavid head back to Boston and Ann Arbor tomorrow so we have one more "Mulder Meal" before they leave. Lamb will be served...I just had a little dinner here...not so fond of lamb (but they don't know that!). Tomorrow will be church and we've talked about going to Rivertown with the kids. Monday, back to normal...I always get a little anxiety with Colin going back to school again...love, love having him home.

Feeling it...

Definitely feeling the pain today, but it's still definitely tolerable. The dressings fell off last night while I was sleeping, so I took a few pictures this morning before I put them back on. I definitely did NOT expect that long of an incision!

Recovering...

The surgery went well this morning. I don't remember much about it, especially in the half hour leading up to it, the surgery itself and the initial recovery. The procedure took around 45 minutes. I guess the nerve didn't look terrible, but definitely had scar tissue on it, so he took that out. He also found a bone spur that he took care of. He said that could have been causing the pain more than anything.

I took a great nap this afternoon and have been fairly pain free until recently. The area is numb, thus the lack of pain. It's starting to wear off though and I'm definitely feeling it. The area is all wrapped, but I took off some of the dressings at least to see part of the foot. It's all bruised. Here's a pic that doesn't even really show how bruised it really is:

Thanks for all the support: visits, help with kids, meals, emails, etc. I really, really appreciate it!

Surgery Day

I'm sure I'll pop in here soon again to let you know how it went. I mean, what else will I do on the couch for 3 days???

Spinach/Carrot/Chocolate Brownies and Surgery

First...thanks for the comments and emails regarding my last post. Glad to see most of you think it's humorous that my kid doesn't love me.

Secondly...maybe I never did say what the the surgery is for. Most of you know, but for those that only see our lives through this blog, I'll give you a quick summary. Basically I've had foot pain for well over a year (maybe two??). After trying a ton of different things, they've decided I have a neuroma in my foot. Basically it's an inflamed nerve, making it like a little tumor on the nerve. Of course that's going to hurt when I walk and get worse the more I walk (i.e. why it's hard walk after a long night at work). So...they are going to take a good chunk (for lack of a better word) of my nerve out. If you want to see pics of what the procedure is like, you can click here. WARNING: It's a little gross. I'll be completely off my feet through Wednesday, then starting limited activity. I'm DYING that I took Black Friday off from work this year and won't get to shop like I love to do on that day. Thanks to my friends at work for suggesting a Hoveround.

Thirdly...I've owned Jessica Seinfeld's book "Deceptively Delicious" for a couple of weeks now, but I haven't had a chance to use it until tonight. I steamed and pureed carrots and spinach, then roasted and pureed squash. I then made brownies. They have 1/2 cup of spinach puree (which is half a bag of spinach!) and 1/2 cup of carrot puree among other things. They are low-cal too (for a brownie). I just tried one (sprinkled with powdered sugar) and they aren't bad. I'm not like oohing and ahhing over them, but pretty dang good. They'd be really good with ice cream and hot fudge on them! :) Not on my list are "Blueberry Oatmeal Bars (with spinach)" and "Lemon Blueberry Muffins (with squash)." Is my Dietician friend, RAK proud of me?? :)

Have a great weekend!

Hang on Folks...It's going to be a LONG one!

Ahhh...do you hear that? It's me breathing! I feel like I finally get to take a breath after going NON-STOP since Friday. To celebrate the fact that I got a chance to breath tonight...I treated myself to one solid hour ALONE (don't be jealous all you moms out there!) at Target tonight. I think I went in every single aisle. I got to use a ton of coupons because I had time to study them/find the best deals, etc. I only spent a little over $30 and the total was like $70 before the coupons!



I needed that after today. Today, my sweet, beautiful, love of my life, 4 year-old told me "I don't love you." Wow. I was going to pretend to be sad so she'd recant, but then (in about 2 seconds time) I thought about that and decided I didn't have to "fake" being sad...I was devestated. I cried a little...she doesn't love me. Of course I know she does. Of course I know that in ten years she'll be saying much worse things to me (unless she's like me - I was only ever perfectly nice and respectful to my parents). It still hurt. She didn't recant. After school I mentioned it to her. She continued to insist that she didn't love me. After a few minutes of telling her my heart hurt, Jesus' heart hurt yada yada she said "I was just kidding, mom." Yeah, right. Later Colin talked to her and she came downstairs crying really hard saying, "I DO love you, mom. All the time." Ahh...another milestone met...my daughter hates me. Oh...why did she say this, you ask? Because I brushed her hair. I deserve no love.



What else do I have for you...oh, Henry ran away at Meijer when I had the S-L-O-W-E-S-T cashier on the face of the earth. Picture this...me with a 35 pound 2 year-old on my left hip, kicking and screaming (because I wouldn't let him run away), pushing a huge-ass (sorry, but it is!) cart to the exit. This is a full-size cart with a HUGE bench behind it for the kids to sit on. I don't usually get one of those carts, but I did today. Back to the story...so Henry's screaming, I'm holding him tight, Abigail is saying "Leave my brother alone!" and I'm pushing H.A. cart outside into the windy as heck day. Now are you all jealous of me? Oh, and to top it off Abigail says "Mom, can I ride the horsey?" No. For a million reasons, #1 being that you don't love me.



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Let's change gears, okay?



I had my pre-op appointment today. All looks good and the surgery is set for 9:20 on Monday morning. Pain could be minimal or intense...we shall see. :)



We got the results of Henry's blood tests yesterday. Everything looked good except for one level. Hi prealbumen level is quite low. That is basically a protein level. Normal range is 20-40 and his is 13. They were worried about his zinc level, but with normal being 0.65-1.05 his level is at 0.89 so that's good. They are going to have us keep a diet record to see where we can add protein into his diet. The trouble is that he doesn't eat hardly any meat, no pasta (where it would be easy to add meat), doesn't like many beans (okay, maybe none, depending on the day), doesn't like peanut butter, etc. etc. So, for now we are going to try to introduce new foods to him (ugh) and also slip him some of daddy's protein powder whenever possible. The longterm effects of a low level are not good so obviously this is something we will be working on.



I was looking back on this blog and last year, on Oct. 25 we began this journey with Hanks and his development...wow, over a year already. He's doing great!



Okay...I think that's it...for now! :)

Seriously...

Where has my week gone?? I feel so busy...ugh!! Here are a couple of quick thoughts for the days:

~Congrats to really close friends of our's who just told us yesterday that they are expecting in May! Yeah! We couldn't be happier for them! You know who you are...I don't want to post their names because I know they are making the rounds telling people and I'd hate for some crazy way for someone to find out via this blog.

~Prayers for the people who are really close to me struggling trying to get pregnant. Again, you know who you are. It WILL happen and I pray for you daily.

~Busy weekend...work tonight, craft show or mall tomorrow, work tomorrow night, Church on Sunday, Baby shower for my cousin's wife in the afternoon, family dinner at night. Then it's Monday already!

~Next week is even busier.
~Monday: Meeting with someone from church in the morning. Lunch with friends in Hudsonville. Work at night.
~Tuesday: Speech for Henry, Work for me
~Wednesday: School for Abigail, Little Hands for Henry, Staff meeting for Colin after school
~Thursday: School for Abigail, Speech for Henry, Work for Colin
~Friday: Another busy weekend begins!

~I have my foot surgery set up for Monday, Nov. 19 and the stress of that and the preparations is getting crazy!

~Henry went to DeVos today. Here's the appointment in a nutshell.
~Even though he's in the 90% for weight, they still wanted to do some bloodwork on him for his nutrition since he really doesn't eat vegetables or meat. That was a blast...doing the bloodwork. Imagine a pissed off two year-old screaming his lungs off...it was worse than that! :)
~They are very happy with his speech and how it's coming along. Yeah!
~He has started drooling again in a serious way, so they ordered an oral movement test where they will check his mouth and tongue and how the muscles do and do not work. Luckily he can have that done in Holland with the therapist he saw this summer.
~Overall, I felt good about the appointment. I mean, he is definitely making huge strides in many areas. I did kind of expect to go today and have them tell me "he's doing great, see you in a year." I wasn't really prepared for the nutritional stuff (which I'm not overly concernced about really) or the oral test, but I'm also very thankful that we have the resources available to do stuff like that.

~Guess that's about it for today. Sorry for another boring post...I promise to be more fun next time!:)

~Oh...one bit of enabling for my digi-scrapping readers...RUN to The Lilypad and get THIS from Nancy Comelab. It's only $2 for 48 hours only and I cannot believe everything in there...wow!

The Damn Wind

I blogged about the wind and cold bothering me. I blogged about being annoyed by the wind and it whipping my hair around. That was annoyance and nothing else. Today my friend had her life changed (at least temporarily) by that damn wind.

She was leaving her house, going in and out putting stuff in her car. The wind whipped the door and slammed her hand in it, crushing her hand and breaking her wrist. She's a friend from work, a server. She works 5-6 nights a week and brings home a big part of her family's income. Her life changed today...that damn wind.

My heart breaks for her. I know that the pain must be immense in her hand. I know that the pain mentally is probably worse...worrying about finances. I need to help her, but I'm not sure how right now.

The damn wind.

One of those days...

Just one of those days today. I hate, hate, HATE this weather. It was freezing today and the wind is brutal. Just going out to do errands was annoying because I was so cold and hated having my hair whip in my face. I know, I'm being a baby, but I hated it.

I have too many things going on in my life. I say "yes" to too many things. I'm done with that. The latest one is for church...I said I'd make some phones calls...I HATE making phone calls asking people to do things. Why did I say yes? I don't know...now I am super annoyed with the whole thing.

The house is a pigsty, the kids' clothes need to be sorted (still have summer clothes up here since it was HOT like a week ago!), I have to figure out all the logistics for my surgery on my foot in a couple weeks (childcare, work, etc.) and we are just TOO busy! I am feeling the strain of being gone every single morning during the week. On Fridays we are home, but by then exhaustion has set in and nothing gets done!

So, I'm pouting. I'm crabby. I'm freezing. Are you feeling nice and uplifted after this post?

I'm about to sort through my sock and underwear drawers...this is a daunting task...will probably take me all of "The Bachelor" to finish it.

I promise a more positive post next time! :)