Assignment for Emerging Technologies

This is an old blog that I have not submitted anything on in well over a year. I decided to go ahead and use this for my assignment rather than create a new blog. A blog is an online web entry where you can keep your journal or write about a topic that interests you. Blogs consist of well-formed sentences, good detail, and nice graphics and pictures. I was a consistent blogger off and on for 8 years. I blogged the majority of my oldest sons first year and then off and on once my younger son was born. I feel very flustered with the fall semester this year. The semester started and I had a couple of rough assignments which included a group project where no one did the assignment and then the group leader never submitted it and an issue with getting enrolled in the correct online course which started me off with three zero's on assignments. This was very difficult for me to handle after having a 4.0 last semester and a 3.8 the semester before that. I have let it go and realized that my grades may not be as high this semester but I am finally only one semester away from finishing my associate's degree and that is what is important to me at this point! Another reason why this semester was difficult was how busy my kids have kept me not just on the weekends but during the week as well. We get one night with absolutely nothing to do every other week. Both of my boys are in sports and my oldest son is on a travel team that meets for practices multiple times a week and has tournaments almost every weekend. I will never let my schedule keep them from doing the things that they love to do so it just requires me to be that much more organized.

Bad blogger!

Life has been insane to say the least! CJ went back to work in the middle of January & then early last month he missed a week of work because we thought he had broken his leg. Thankfully he did not and apparently it was just a really deep tissue/bone bruise. We will be going back to Mayo at some point (hopefully this summer) but we are still waiting to hear when (and have been since February).

Deqlan is finishing up the school year. Next Thursday is his last day! Hard to believe he is going to be in 4th grade. Baseball season is almost over. The regular season ended last night and then the tournament is Monday and Tuesday nights next week. He didn't make all-stars but we knew he wouldn't. He struggled with his hitting all season (as in only has one hit in 12 games). He has grown leaps & bounds defensively though. We are hoping to get his hitting lessons started again and continue them through the off-season and then come the fall he will be ready to try out for a travel team and hopefully put rec ball to rest.

Hayden graduated preschool a few weeks ago! He was too cute in his little cap & gown. He just finished his first T-ball season last night (he was not a fan). Not sure if he will play again next year and probably won't know until the day to register comes. He is so indecisive. He will start Kindergarten in August and he CANNOT wait to be at the same school as his brother. This mom is super excited to only have to do two carpools a day (potentially only one if my brother moves into the neighborhood this summer)!

I am still having some knee issues. I had Supartz injections done in April and while my knee has dislocated as many times as it would normally it is still doing it on a regular basis. I am having a mole removed from my back today. The doctor said it's benign but it's been bothering me so we will go ahead and remove it and biopsy it just to be safe. I am taking one class this summer and then just registered for fall classes (and am praying that my financial aid appeal is approved so I can go full-time in the fall)!

I've been cleaning the house like crazy the last week trying to get rid of baby stuff. We've made a decent dent and have been able to sell quite a bit. I have a new kitchen table being delivered on Monday and then I will have a dining room again instead of toy storage :-)

My Knee & Tough Decisions

So I am 13 months post-op from my patella tendon debridement. I knew going into the surgery that the success rate was only 50% but with the amount of pain I was in it was worth the shot. Unfortunately I was in the 50% fail rate. So I have continued to see my orthopedic surgeon on a regular basis (every 6-8 weeks). In any event I had an appointment with him about 3 weeks ago and the weekend before my appointment I started having some major issues. I was trying to walk down the stairs and my knee completely locked up (he said that it dislocated) once I got it to bend again it completely gave out on me and I fell down the stairs. The next day it gave out again and I had another lovely trip down the stairs. That night I had bowling and on my very last shot of the night it gave out and I fell.

When I saw him the next morning he was absolutely convinced that I tore my meniscus (I have all the symptoms of a torn meniscus so this is ALWAYS his answer). So we did X-rays (just so insurance would cover an MRI) and then got my MRI scheduled for the next week. Tuesday night he finally called me with my MRI results and no I did not tear my meniscus but my knee is getting worse. My tendon is holding up nicely from the surgery but is very slow to heal (you can still see the stitch material in my MRI). During my surgery he saw how damaged my cartilage was but there was nothing he could do to fix it (at the time). My cartilage is my major issue. He can't tell how much more damaged it is but we know that it is definitely worse than what it was 13 months ago. Unfortunately the surgery that could possibly help me is very new and there is not enough research to state how long this surgery could potentially last. The recovery period would be absolutely insane (4-6 months on crutches and then 18+ months overall). So with not knowing how long this surgery will hold (ideal would be 8-10 years) he does not feel comfortable doing it but we will readdress the situation when the time comes. So of course his suggestion is for me to quit bowling, I was absolutely heart broken to hear those words come out of his mouth Tuesday evening. I told him when I saw him yesterday that I am not ready to give it up yet. It is something that I have done for 24 years and I just don't know how I would handle being in the bowling center multiple times a week not being able to bowl (yes I did it last year but I knew I would bowl again). He was ok with hearing that :-) He said good for you for telling me your not ready! So he wants to do an injection of some time of lubricant gel (he said it's basically WD-40) but to get insurance to pay for that he had to give me a cortisone injection first. I don't do needles so this tends to stress me out but he really gave me no time to think about it...He knows how I am! Thankfully the injection wasn't too bad and should last me a week and a half to two weeks and then I'll get the lubricant injection.

As much as I am not ready to give up bowling I will re-evaluate at the end of May. I have two leagues that end in April and then Nationals in Reno in the middle of May. If I think the injection is holding and working then maybe I will continue to bowl if not then I will seriously consider quitting. Honestly this will be one of the toughest decisions I have had to make. I love bowling, I love my bowling family, and I love my yearly girls weekends BUT as the boys get older and more active (especially now that Hayden will be playing ball this year as well) I need to be able to get up and move around! I am tired of missing out on things because of my knee!

So that's whats been going on with me :-) CJ is back at work and worked almost 80 hours this past week (because of Superbowl) and the boys are definitely acting out because of it! I am ready for all of us to get adjusted to him being back at work!

Snow & other things

We don't get snow here very often...and when we do everyone freaks out and the state/city shuts down for days! A week and a half ago we had pretty snow first thing in the morning, it was so pretty to watch it coming down and then that was it, no sticking because it had been too warm. Last Tuesday evening it snowed about 2 inches at our house which gave us a 2 hour delay Wednesday morning. And now they are calling for more snow starting tomorrow evening into Wednesday! This seriously could not happen at a worse time. CJ is super busy at work this week because of Super Bowl Sunday and can't afford to miss a day because of bad roads or even go in late (since Wednesday he has already worked 50+ hours and he still has today-Wednesday before he's off). I like watching the snow come down but I'd really like to have my husband home and not at his brothers house tomorrow night!

Deqlan is 8 1/2 and in 3rd grade. He's always been super smart and ahead of the majority of his peers. He finished 2nd grade reading on an end of 5th grade level. He gets so bored in class that there are many times he has a hard time focusing on the easier work. In any event, he has been doing tests for AG placement for next year. He took the first test (CogAt) in October and did wonderfully so he took the 2nd test (IOWA test) in December (after missing 3 days of school). He scored above 99% of the kids exactly his age! We are good friends with one of the teachers at his school and last night she was telling CJ that she was talking to the principal and Deqlan happened to come up and the principal mentioned that Deqlan KILLED the Iowa test :-) Makes me so happy to know that we are doing something right with that boy! As frustrating as he can be sometimes ;-)

The last two weeks we have really buckled down with Hayden on working on things he needs to know for Kindergarten next year. He's in preschool 5 days a week (and was last year too) but he gets distracted so super easy! We've had a few melt downs when we ask him to do his "homework" (one night it was work sent home from his speech therapist) and when I say melt downs I mean full blown temper tantrums about doing his homework. Next year should definitely be interesting when he has homework every single night :-)

I'm sick :( I've been battling sinus issues since the first of the year. Two trips to my PCP with a round of antibiotics and a steroid spray plus a ton of over the counter medicine and I was still feeling like crap. I made my first visit to an ENT (both boys have seen one) last Wednesday where he was oh so kind to shove a camera up my nose! Came out of that with more pain than I had to begin with, a steroid pack, and a different antibiotic. The antibiotic has been causing some nasty migraines for the past four days and I really don't know how I'll be able to function until Saturday on them! If I have another bad day today I will have to call tomorrow morning to see if they can recommend something different. I am still waiting on my MRI results (talk about frustrating) so I need to call the office today to make sure they are planning on calling me with them!

All in all things are going pretty well around here considering it's CJ's first full week back at work and it was an 8-day work week! I'm definitely ready for him to be home for two days so I can rest and try to start feeling better!

Weekend

We are still in weekend mode around here. Deqlan had a half day on Friday and then is out today & tomorrow. Hayden goes back to school tomorrow (which he will not be happy that Deqlan doesn't have to go). CJ is off of work til Thursday because of some D.O.T issues. We didn't get much accomplished this weekend but before CJ goes back to work on Thursday all of my Christmas decorations better find their way up to the attic! It's all taken down & put away but just sitting in my bonus room!

Tomorrow evening is my MRI for my knee and I am hoping to have the results by the end of the week (my doctor tends to be a little slow on calling people) so if I expect to hear back by Friday and hear back earlier I will be pleasantly surprised! I also have a board meeting tomorrow night for the pool (well it is supposed to be tomorrow but one of the members keeps trying to move the date because she has somewhere to be). And now they are calling for snow tomorrow evening starting around 5. The last thing I want is to be out driving in the snow (it shouldn't cause too many road problems because it is supposed to be 60 today but we don't get snow often down here and people do not know how to drive in it)!

I got Deqlan registered for spring ball last week and now I need to go by the athletics office and get my check back. His coach for quite a few seasons will be coaching in another town this year so we are making the move with him. We have the promise that Deqlan will be put on his team and should be able to stay with him for as long as he is coaching. So I need to get that taken care of this week and get both of the boys registered in the new town. But before I can register Hayden I need to call and get some information on their t-ball program (nothing online). I need to go through Deqlan's baseball gear and see what still fits (hopefully all of his under armour shirts)! We bought new cleats during the fall so he should be all set with those.

That's about all we have going on around here. I need to make an appointment with an ENT for me and move CJ's pain clinic appointment but both offices are closed today for the holiday. So it looks like it will be a much needed lazy day at home for us!

Back to Normal

CJ went back to work Monday! Which means life is back to the long days of being by myself and the boys driving me crazy until Daddy comes home (CJ worked 14 hours on Monday...welcome back). We lucked out in that he was able to get his route back. With his company if you are out for 6 months you are supposed to lose your route but everyone has to bid on new routes this week so they figured they might as well let him keep his for the next month before he starts his new route. So he went back to work Monday and then was off yesterday and today :-) He will work Thursday-Monday as his work week and then his days off will change and he will have to work 7 days in a row. We are just so thankful that he is able to go back to work and that his company held his job for him.

Kindergarten registration started Monday. I haven't made it up to the school yet to get Hayden registered but I probably will get that done next week just so it's done and out of the way. He is currently in speech therapy at his preschool and has been since the end of September/beginning of October. He is improving but still has a long ways to go. He tries to talk so fast that you just can't understand him and he doesn't enunciate everything as clearly as a 4 1/2 year old should. He is going to be my tough child when it comes to school. He doesn't catch onto things as easily as Deqlan does and it is so hard to not compare the two. I had bought workbooks for Deqlan when he was in preschool that we never used so I pulled those out today and will be making some games for Hayden to work on recognizing his letters (the child can spell his first and last names but cannot tell you what the letters are) and to work on his writing skills. I have to remind myself that Hayden will be one of the youngest kids (if not the youngest) in his Kindergarten class since his birthday is just 10 days before the cutoff (b-day is Aug. 21 cutoff is Aug. 31).

Deqlan is doing well. School is incredibly easy for him and we cannot wait for him to start the AG program next school year to give him a little more of a challenge! We had to have a heart-to-heart last week about him not putting 100% effort into his work. He is so bored that he doesn't feel it's important to do his best. Since our chat he is doing much much better. I got him registered for spring ball on Monday and had a little chat with the head of our parks & rec program. He was trying to convince me to get Deqlan to play select ball again this year. As much as we would LOVE for Deqlan to get an extra 4 months of practice and game time in it will be the same coach as last year and the same coach who cheated Deqlan out of a spot on the all-star team (Deq was nominated & had the votes-his son had none-but was left off the team so the coaches son could play). I told the man at parks & rec that he could call Deqlan himself and ask him to play...so he did and Deqlan said, "I will not play for Coach W." His two best friends from select last year are not playing either because of the coach. I also told them that he will not play Spring ball for him so don't put him on that team or you will be refunding us our money. Coach W completely killed Deqlan's love for baseball last year and I won't let him do it again.

I am doing alright. I think I will be back to my usual self in a short period of time since CJ is back at work. I have been battling some sinus issues for almost two weeks now that I just can't seem to get to go away even with antibiotics and steroid sprays and over the counter medicines. Last week was an incredibly lazy week for me because of how poor I felt. Thankfully I am getting my energy back and my house is very thankful for that! I am having knee issues again (still) and had an appointment on Monday with my surgeon. I had some issues over the weekend with my knee completely giving out on me (once while bowling) so I will be having another MRI soon to make sure that I didn't tear my meniscus (the doctor always thinks that is my problem because I have all the signs of it). He wants me to take some time off from bowling again BUT I am just now getting back to where I was before surgery so I will wait and see what the MRI says. Hopefully if I did tear my meniscus we can wait until the end of May to do the surgery so I don't miss out on my Reno trip for Nationals.

I think that's about it from around here. I am working on getting caught up on house work and getting the last few things of Christmas packed away. I spent yesterday organizing and cleaning out some kitchen cabinets (formula dispensers, sippy cups, plastic containers, etc) and I ended up with two full bags of trash/recycling. I cannot wait to have this house back in order!

Finding a New Normal

Happy 2014!!

I have been trying to blog for the last month or so and just couldn't find the time or the words to do so. One month ago today CJ & I were in Minnesota at the Mayo Clinic and he was getting ready to undergo surgery that was (still is) totally experimental! The procedure they did (cyroablation) had never been done on the spine before CJ's surgery. While it was a very scary feeling of not knowing how it would go and knowing all of the potential risks we knew we had nothing to lose but everything to gain in doing it. The risk of paralysis were fairly high but we could not and did not let our fear stand in the way of getting him healthy and back to a normal lifestyle.

I am very happy to say that everything went as well as the surgeon had hoped and we had no complications whatsoever! The first night in the hospital was rough with getting his pain under control but the next two days while we were still in Minnesota were wonderful and very few meds were taken. I did have him take his pain killers before we flew home since we didn't know how the pressure would affect him (the flights up were not pretty). We have seen him get his strength and energy back a little bit more each and every day. He is hardly taking his narcotics anymore. I think he has taken them maybe 3 times total since we've been home and twice was within the first few days of being home. He does still have a very weak spine but that will always be the case (he sneezed and fractured a vertebrae). We are remaining positive that this procedure is going to continue to work and he will continue to be almost completely pain free!

He has been cleared to go back to work. We are currently waiting on the letter from the doctor stating that (since he is on disability he has to have a note), so once we receive that my husband will be back to work! It has been a very long 6 1/2 months with him home but the boys have enjoyed each and every minute of it as much as they could. With CJ going back to work (and his schedule changing dramatically within a couple of weeks of his return) everything will once again fall on me. While we are driving each other crazy it has been nice to have help with carpool for half of the school year!! He's been able to go to events at the boys schools that he wouldn't normally get to do.

Christmas was smaller this year for us. The boys still had a wonderful time thanks to a very generous family member. CJ and I skipped doing presents for each other so we could really focus on the boys. Money has definitely been tight thanks to the disability company not doing paperwork in a timely fashion and the Mayo doctor refusing to fill out paperwork but we thankfully had some money in savings (not anymore)! We are looking forward to catching up on bills and things of that nature once he is back at work. We have enjoyed not eating out as much and will continue to do that to save money. Deqlan will not be playing travel ball this spring. He didn't have the chance to work on the skills he needed to or for hitting lessons during the off season. So now we will gear up for rec ball starting in March and go from there. His first love is bowling and that is where we have been able to focus while CJ has been home.

We are already planning our crazy busy summer! We only do a family vacation every other year so we will be home all summer (except maybe a trip to VA to see my aunt and finally take the boys on that train trip I've been promising for two years). Both boys will do swim team again this year and we will be bowling in the youth/adult league one night a week as well. I love keeping the boys busy during the summer and swim team has been an amazing thing for Deqlan to do! Hayden wasn't too sure of it last year but I'm hoping that him doing it again this summer will help him. We spend as much time as possible at the pool so I'm thankful that they either know how to swim or are learning.

I'm looking forward to getting back into blogging again now that life is getting back to "normal"