We had a few visitors this summer. My dear friends Kristen and Kelly came up for a short visit. It was so great to see them as it had been too long. Two of my favorite men, My Tom and Don came to town for their semi annual business show they do. I love it when they come up because they always remember to see me! Dwayne and I also took the boys and Baxter on a fun hike up on Mount Charleston. Baxter was soooo excited he literally dragged me up the mountain. Zach did great, he didn't do any complaining until he fell down just before we reached our destination. Calvin was loving it until he too fell down then all he did was say how stupid it was.....UHG.....8 year olds!
We had a very rough patch right before school started. During this time I went on a journey to find a bench in a large local park that was dedicated to my grandparents Mimi and Papa who lived here. No one in my family here had found that bench in years because the maintenance people had moved it when they'd redone some landscaping years ago. I had no idea where it was yet I walked right up to it! It was the first place I looked! I sooooo needed that to happen at that moment! It gave me a sense of peace because I knew that my Mimi and Papa were looking out for me. A few weeks later I took my father Tim out there to show him where it was. He was thankful I showed him so now he too has a place to go and think when times get rough. I won't bore you with the details of our rough patch, just know that things are finally starting to smooth out....well that was until Friday November 5th...but I'll get in to that later.
Calvin is in 3rd grade this year. His teacher's name is Ms Dahlke and he really likes her. He was tested for the Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) program at the beginning of the year and sadly he was only 2 points shy of qualifying for it. He was really bummed about it but like I said, things were a little crazy around here then so he wasn't really concentrating on school as much as he does normally. The teacher in charge of the program was very impressed with him and really liked him so she will re-test him again in 6 months. Since then he has been getting straight As and even recently won a citizenship award for his good behavior, so as usual we're very proud of him.
Zachary is still our little Dennis the Menace. He's in preschool one day a week (we had him enrolled 4 days until that dreadful day I haven't mentioned yet). He was a little leery of school at first but now he really loves it and his teacher really likes him too. She calls him her little love bug. He seems to be on his very best behavior while he's there....why he can't be like that at home I have no idea? At home he loves to maul our poor dog, terrorize Calvin, hang all over Dwayne and swear like a sailor....ok not that bad but he's pretty sassy. And then he can be so sweet and adorable. The other night Dwayne asked him "Doesn't your Mom look pretty today?" and his response was "NO (LONG pause which made us think "oh no this could be bad") she looks beautiful." He's sure to charm the ladies with lines like that.
Halloween was fun. Sandi and I carried around our festively decorated plastic wine glasses full of vino as our boys trick or treated from house to house. Calvin was the Grim Reaper, Zach was a cowboy (he wanted to be Woody from Toy Story 3 but I refused to let him wear one of those tacky nylon costumes) and Sandi's Christopher went as an astronaut. Normally I don't like living in a gated community but I have to admit it makes trick or treating a little less stressful. We didn't have to constantly worry about someone zipping around the corner so we could relax and drink our wine! Yay for us!
Now for me. Well, I had finally found a job I really liked a lot so I could quit working at Victoria's Secret. I never really liked working there, pushing over priced bras and panties just wasn't my thing besides I was only getting 4-10 hours a week so it was kind of pointless. I had signed up with a temp agency a while back and seemed to really connect well with the agent. She worked very hard to find me a job and it took her a long time because of the big gap in my resume. A few Mondays ago she called me up with an offer I couldn't refuse so I scrambled to secure daycare for Zach and Dwayne took a few days off to get us through that week. I started working the next day (Tuesday, November 2nd) at Treasure Island in the Finance department processing their voucher coupons. I really liked it because the hours were great (8am-5pm Mon-Fri!) and I got to do my own thing at my own pace and listen to my Ipod! I was doing great, my supervisor really liked me and I got a delicious free lunch every day. Then Friday morning as I was walking down a slight decline my right foot slipped out from under me and I slammed down hard on my left knee....and I heard a loud POP!! Long story short I broke my knee cap!! It snapped in 2 pieces and was fractured in 3 other places!
Thankfully my wonderful Mother in Law Lynn came to stay with us for a week to look after me and the boys...including the dog. I had surgery a little over a week ago, and they pinned and wired my poor old busted up knee cap together. They gave me a nerve block from the hip down so I was pretty good the day of the surgery. When that wore off 24 hours later..... OH! MY! GAWD! It HURT! I was in some serious pain, and mind you I'm no sissy..... I had 2 babies with no drugs for crying out loud! After a few days the pain finally subsided and I was feeling much better. I even got to venture out of the house for a few hours thanks to Lynn being my chauffeur. A HUGE thanks goes out to Lynn and Sandi and all they've done for us during all of this!
Lynn went back to Seattle this past Monday and took our little clown Zachary with her so I could relax and recuperate. She should have taken Baxter instead, as he's kind of been driving me crazy! In and out in and out in and out in and out. He gets great pleasure out of chasing Archie now as well! Grrrr! He's so bored, he's used to burning off his energy running away from Zach. Dwayne's sister Lori and her husband Denton will be bringing Zach back the day before Thanksgiving. It will be nice to have some of Dwayne's family here for Turkey Day. It will be a feast, with Sandi and family included! And I won't have to cook! The only good thing about being a gimp these days!
For now I'm laid up on the couch with a giant leg brace on my left leg and about 20 staples in my knee! I had a follow up appointment today and all looks good....well except my knee....GROSS (don't look at the picture below if you're squeamish because it WILL make your crotch hurt!)! I get my staples out in 2 weeks and that's an appointment I am NOT looking forward to! I will be in this big ol' leg brace for another 6 weeks and then I will start rehab. It looks like I'll be some what out of commission for about the next 3 months!
It only looks wrinkley cuz it was wrapped so tight in gauze and an ace bandage.
Now don't yall have pitty on me, save your pitty for Dwayne! He has to do everything now.....clean the house, do the laundry and the two funnest tasks of all.....cleaning my precious Archie's litter box and Christmas shopping! He's never played Santa before so that should be interesting!
I will do my very best to keep this updated. The next one will be full of pictures of Zach's visit to Seattle and all the adventures he went on with his Aunt Leah and little cousin Lili. (Thank you Aunt Leah!)I hope this finds all of you in better shape than I am! Until next time this is GIMPY signing off.
