Gross Foot Picture Alert

Or
How I Spent My Thanksgiving


This is me and Charlie on Surgery Day. He's trying to keep it light by taking pictures.


This is me and Charlie much later in the week, when I gave him a lesson about taking pictures from above so that you don't take pictures of your double chins. But I digress.

This is me trying hard not to look at the I.V. that has been inserted into my right hand. Have I mentioned that I hate needles?







Before surgery. Y is for "Yes, this is the correct foot on which to operate." I also have a Y on the back of that thigh for "Yes, this is the correct knee in which to insert the nerve block." and one on the front of my thigh just to make me feel like they've covered all the bases.







This is me catching the Colbert Report post surgery. I really don't remember much about post surgery. Except the part where he came in and I asked him if I had a fused toe or a regular toe and he said "You won't remember this, but the cartalidge was in really good shape so we didn't have to fuse the toe." and because he said I wouldn't remember it, I made a concerted effort to prove him wrong. Because I'm stubborn like that.

Back to the office on Monday where I get to see the foot post-surgery for the first time. Did I mention that you're not allowed to wear any polish for surgery? Otherwise you would not be looking at nasty plain toenails.

IT'S ALIVE!!!!

If I knew how to work photoshop, I would have turned this into Frankinstein Toe.

Me watching Charlie get ready for the Hootin Nanny (with freshly painted pink toenails). This is an annual Thanksgiving Holiday occurence in which all my in-laws stay up until 4 in the morning drinking moonshine and singing folk songs. Even though I was doped up on pain pills they woke me at 2:30 singing Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline at the top of their lungs, followed closely by Tiny Dancer. Before you get the wrong idea about my inlaws, I'll tell you that my brother may have been involved and he may or may not have been making up dirty lyrics to all the songs.

Ahhh, a belly full of painkillers and turkey and the Cowboys on T.V. A perfectly good end to a perfectly good Thanksgiving Day.

Boot Camp takes on a Whole New Meaning...

I had my foot surgery Friday and all went well. I had an osteotomy? instead of having the bones fused together, so my toe and I are both very happy. He won't have to live his life hiding in a sock and I won't have to knit him a sweater. I go to have my dressing changed today, so I'll get to see what it looks like for the first time. Oh don't worry, I'll take pictures to share with the class. Although my camera is broken, I have a new cell phone that has a camera, thanks to my dry cleaner.

Well, my cell phone was a "classic" Nokia and I just keep putting new covers on it to spiff it up. I have gotten teased about it, but the last straw was when I went to the dry cleaners and the lady pointed at my phone, laughed and said "You have old phone!" My trainer said "You should have said "YOUR MOMMA!" but I'm not fast with the wit.

Ya'll need to help me out with some excuses. Although my foot has not been too painful, I hope to procure at least one more refill of whatever he gave me for the pain. It's good stuff! I'm hoping to catch up with all your blogs this week while I'm recuperating. That is, if I'm not too busy doing my drugs. Getting waited on hand over foot doesn't stink either!

Much Love.....and Happy Turkey Day...

Mad Mothering Skills

We're going through two phases right now. First Ace has decided he doesn't like school anymore. This started about three weeks ago. Like every other day he gets to go to school, he grabbed out his lunch box and started throwing random snack bags inside it. He was excited and couldn't wait to go and then I turned into the parking lot and he said "I'm not going in."

"What? What are you talking about?"
"I don't want to go in."
"What do you mean? All your friends are there, blah, blah, blah..."

First we thought it was because he didn't want to take a nap. The next day I decided it was because he had gotten in "trouble". The next week it had something to do with not wanting everyone staring at him when he walked in the door. So most mornings, we joke or sing songs about whether or not he wants to go to school.

"You love school, yes you do, you love school cuz school is cool, da-da duhn."
"NO I DOOON'T!"
"Yes You DOOO!"
"NO I DOOOOOOON'T!"

Today he was riding his scooter in the driveway and I said "Come on Ace, park your scooter in the garage, it's time to go."
"No. I want to scooter."
"I know, but it's time to go."
"I want to show you my scooter skills."
*pause*
"I know, you've got mad scooter skills, but we've got to go."
"I want to show you my skills."

(What a toot.)

Then there's the potty training. We're failing potty training in a big way. He can do it. He has done it. He just doesn't want to do it. I force him to tee-tee at different intervals of the day, but I've been reluctant to start the battles over pooping in the pot. Yesterday he pooped three times. THREE TIMES! And the last time he came waddling into the room and said "I accidently pooped on the floor." No. Not on the floor in the bathroom. Behind the chair on the carpet. Not his fault that the Pullup failed. But you guys try selling a house that has toddler poop on the carpet. (I didn't tell any of you where I live did I?) Tonight it was bedtime, so I made him sit on the potty and because the pullup was dry, the odds were good that he'd have some success. After a few minutes when he didn't return, I went to check on his progress.

"Did you go?"
"Nope. I need to, I just can't execute."
"What?"
"I need to go, it just won't execute."
"Where did you hear that word?"
"In Texas."

The kid can put together a sentence like that, but still poops in his diaper.
*Sigh*

Time Flys When You're Cleaning Crumbs

Has it been a week and a half since I updated last?

We took the kids out of school after Halloween and went to check out the schools. We went to the Jr. High in Forney and they were very nice. (Unlike the rude Ho I talked to at the elementary school over the phone. But that's another story.) They gave us the tour and it was all good. They had even started a strings program this year, so John could keep playing his Viola. We did another tour of the house in Forney and kicked the tires one more time. We walked the lot we had chosen, let the kids play at the park, checked out what it was like in the neighborhood after school.

The next day we went to the Jr. High in Canton, then the High School. When we were done, we were sold. Charlie and I, that is. The school in Forney seems like more of the same of what we're experiencing here. Big School. In Canton, it's small town. The principal knows all the kids by their name and they all greet her as we walked the halls. No flying under the radar for John. We went out to the homesites we were looking at and measured out the width of the house, talked to the builder again and walked through the one he has under construction. We left him a check for earnest money that day.

We're very excited! We picked the one story plan, he got it all drawn up with the changes we asked him for and sent us to it this last Friday. We had one family look at the house last week and the wife really liked it, but the husband wants something newer. We'll see who has hand. His mother-in-law lives in my neighborhood. Our realtor said it would be dead in November, so we're not stressing about lack of traffic and are just looking forward to having all the family down for Thanksgiving. And guess what. My house is already clean. Oh yeah!

(And guys..we got a set of washers, so practice up before you get here.)

I went to the podiatrist last Thursday, because I'm looking into having my big toes fixed. Turns out I have arthritis. The ex-rays were interesting, I don't have much cartlidge, which has helped cause the bone behind the joint to move up. (Instead of like a bunion, where the bone moves out to the side.) I also have some broken pieces floating around in there. First choice is they go in and take out some of the bone behind the joint so that it has room to move back and down. That is, if my cartilidge is in good shape. If not they fuse the bones together, which is evidently super functional, but not good looking. My big toes would be kind of pointing up in the air. The fun part is, I won't know if I have a regular toe, or a Super Happy Toe, till I wake up. I'm gonna get some little nail stickers that say "WHAT UP?!" just in case.