It kinda hurts when they stick a 6 inch metal pole up your nose

Well today I went back to the doctor for my second followup. He said everything is looking good. He put me back on antibiotics for another week because of some open areas up in there. To look up there he numbs my nose (which knocks the pain down to ungodly instead of excruciating) and then sticks this 6 inch metal pole that is a little smaller then a straw. He had me lay my head back against the chair and then stuck it in. I learned quickly that I had made a mistake by putting my head back because then there was no place to go when the pain got to be too much as he went deeper. I kept trying to push my head back to keep him from going further and he was kinda laughing at me (not in a mean way. hes really nice). He said that he was going to take out something he had placed up there during my surgery IF it would come out easily. I told him that whatever it was wasn't bothering me and he could feel free to leave it up there because it hurt like hell when he pulled the packing out the other day so I cant imagine something that is WAY up there being pulled out. He got a kick out of that request but he ended up leaving it in because it wasn't wanting to come out easy. He said the stitches (which are almost hanging out of my nose making me feel like I have whiskers) will dissolve in time. I am still so tender in my nose that I requested him not to take them out (he did laugh at me for that) which he said he wouldn't anyway. He said that I should expect to be really sore and tender for a while still where he took out pieces and reconstructed my septum. FUN!

After I left the doctor I came home to all three of my boys being home! Dave had gotten Mychael from school while I was gone so I got to walk in to all of my boys in one room. That made me super happy because its been a while since all of us were home at the same time. It is moments when all four of us are at home that I am happiest. Even if everyone is doing their own thing while we are all here I love having all of my boys here with me.

My party (work) that I was supposed to host on Friday got cancelled. This is like the third one that has cancelled lately. Stuff keeps coming up with people or they cant get people to come. I am extremely disappointed that this one got cancelled though because I was counting on the parties I held this weekend for some extra cash for New Orleans. Hopefully Saturdays holds and as many people show up as she said would (which almost never happens but I can dream) because she said its supposed to be a huge party. It never fails that when I don't need money for anything I have parties booked out the ass but when I really want parties to hold because I want the extra cash they cancel every time. *SIGH*

Well I am off to make supper for my boys. Gotta keep em fed so they don't get cranky :)

See ya!
Christy

Roadtrip!

Well yesterday morning Brayden and I took off and went to Chester for the day. It is always so nice to be able to go and visit everyone. I tried to cram as much in as I could in the day and still didnt get as much time as I would have liked.

When we got down there we got to hang out with my mom for a couple of hours before I had to leave for an appointment in Cape. Brayden stayed with my parents for the whole day which Im sure they loved. I went on to Cape for an appointment and then ran to the mall there to get crabs. Yes you read that right! LOL. The new obsession in our house is hermit crabs. The mall in Cape has a store that has the cutest painted shells with hermit crabs in them. We had gotten 3 about a month ago but unfortunately mine and Mychaels didnt make it so I had to go buy more. So I ended up getting 4 more crabs so now we have a total of 5. They are pretty cute but they still scare me a little with their pincher's. The last ones we got werent that active so I watched the tank at this store carefully and tried to pick out the most active. They are all over the place in their tank! The cats are going crazy watching them. Im sure they are just waiting for us to leave the house so they can try to get them. They are secure though so there is no chance.

Anyway...after I left the mall I went back to Chester and met my cousin/best friend Mandy for supper. We ate at one of my favorite restaurants in Chester and got to catch up with each other. It was so nice to just be able to sit and eat and talk like we used to do all the time. When I lived in Chester it wasnt uncommon for us to do that 4/7 days a week lol. After supper I went back to mom and dads and got to hang out with both of them for a while. It was finally getting late and I had another stop before heading out of town so we packed up and left. We stopped by my sister Julies to drop some stuff off and got to visit with her and my niece Meghan for about an hour. We finally headed back and got back much later then I had planned but it was worth it.

I realized when I was down there that I really need to make it down more often. Id like a whole day to just see my family and spend time with them. I didnt even get to see my brother Jimmy while I was down there. Id also like a whole day to just spend with Mandy. I miss our time together. We used to be together more then we were apart and now we dont get to see each other near enough. So all in all it was a wonderful day that I cant wait to repeat.

On another topic I heard a new song today that I absolutely fell in love with call "Roll On". It is the first song on the playlist that you should be hearing if your speakers are on. If not turn it up! Its an awesome song to listen to! My new favorite.

See ya!
Christy

Randoms of the last few days

Hey everyone, I downloaded some pictures tonight so I thought I would post some randoms on here of what Ive taken recently and tell you what weve been up to.

The first ones are of Mychaels first tackle football practice. I still dont know how I am going to be as a mom of a football player but I feel like Im doing pretty good. I havent rushed the field yet to beat the crap out of the kid that dares to tackle by baby so I am pretty proud of myself. I was talking to my dad last night about it and he goes "Mychael will be fine" and I said "I know MYCHAEL will be fine Dad but what about me?!?!" LOL to which he answered "you'll be fine too Chris". I dont know how much near heart attack experiences the heart can take but I guess this experience will show me :)

The next set is of Brayden getting to pet Harley for the first time. Harley actually sat still and let Brayden pet him the other night. I thought Brayden was going to burst out of his body in excitement. It was so cute. Other then the occasional "Brayden trying to eat him" moments it went pretty good. We tried to teach Brayden to pet not pull but even if Brayden did grab a handful of fur Harley stayed very still and didnt bite. I was proud of him.

The next set is some random pictures of me and Brayden taken the other night when we were playing around. He was being so happy in them and they turned out so cute I had to post them

The next set is from today. Dave was going through our file cabinet and shredding all the old bills and paperwork that is no longer needed and we went out of the room for a little bit and this is what we came back to. If you look closely at the first one you can almost hear Harley saying "dude you are going to get in so much trouble if you dont get out of there!!" LOL. We let them go though and eventually (as you will see in the last picture) Chopper fell asleep in the bag. See why they drive me nuts?!?! :)

And last but certainly not least is a few pictures of Brayden. In the first one he is doing his new trick that he learned. Doesnt he look so proud of himself??

And this is what happens when Daddy feeds Brayden. I guess I am obsessive about it but I kinda keep him neat when I feed him. I was buggin out while this was going on and kept telling Dave "hes got 3 full bites on his chin! get it!" LOL so to keep myself from running for the washrag I took pictures instead.

Tomorrow Brayden and I are taking a roadtrip to Chester to go to an appointment and spend some time with my family. Im excited to spend the day down there. Im sure Ill write when I get home.

See ya!

Christy

My son...the bully! LOL

I am actually starting to feel a little better at times. I think because of the swelling it is making my eyes mess up and in turn gives me bad headaches and that is what is getting to me right now. When the meds are kicked in though I am feeling pretty normal again but oh when the meds arent working...holy bitchiness! LOL My poor family is having to deal with me being aggravated about feeling like crap. Today was the first day I had some really good moments of feeling good though so I am hoping it only goes uphill from here.

This morning we had to go to Braydens pediatrician for his 6 month checkup and the horrible shots. He is now weighing in at 19.5lbs! We could have swore he weighed more then that! Hes such a little bruiser. He did so good though. He impressed them by smiling and talking to them and then of course got that hurt look and cry when they in turn gave him a bunch of shots in his legs. Im sure he wouldnt have taken the time to entertain them had he known they were going to be so mean. So sad! So hes been a little sore tonight and has been crying and fussing a little but he is finally down for the night and hopefully he will sleep it off.

Mychaels football team scrimmaged another team tonight for the first time. This is the first time all the kids on his team actually got to play a game. The team that they were against though were HUGE! The teams all have 8, 9, and 10 year olds on them and I am pretty sure most of the kids on this other team were 10. There were two kids on the team that were as tall as me! So when it was Mychaels turn to go in who do they put him across from!?!? The big kid of course!! I thought my heart was going to stop! Mychael was so tough though and wasnt afraid to ram into this kid. The only thing that went wrong was that every time the whistle would blow and the play was over Mychael would go up behind this kid and shove him! I couldnt figure out if he just wasnt understanding that the play was over or what but I could tell this kid was getting ticked. I was just waiting for him to turn around and flatten Mychael. I was getting pretty mad though because bad sportsmanship is one of my pet peeves with any sport. There was a kid on another team in soccer that we used to play against that whenever the ref wasnt looking would go and shove or trip our boys. Us parents hated that kid! Now my kid IS that kid!! So after the game that was the first thing that came up and Mychael told us that he was aggravated because the kid was trash talking. I had to make it very clear that no matter how mad you get you never pull crap like that on the field. Mychael has always been the sweet tender hearted kid that I could picture getting bullied by some punk. I would have never imagined him being the punk bully so we have to fix that ASAP! LOL

Well I am going to go see if my dad is playing pogo and maybe play some cards with him on there and then it is off to bed with me. I have some cool pictures to post tomorrow so I will talk to you all then!

See ya!

Christy

Because of request...pictures of our other "children"

I figured I would post some pictures of the two cats that we have once I have had a request to show them on here as well. Here is a little background on both of them

Harley - Harley was the cat that Dave had when I met him. He is a wonderful cat that I think loved their bachelor life before me and Mychael came into it. After me and Mychael moved in with Dave every once in a while you would catch Harley looking at Dave with this face that purely said "lets run away from all this noise and go back to the peace we once had". Then we brought Chopper into the picture and for a long time I think Harley went into a depression. First me and Mychael, and now a cat that loves to bother the hell out of him. Now that weve had Brayden the face clearly says "look at what youve done now! when is it going to stop?!?!" Harley weighs in around 15 pounds and is pure fur! He sheds everywhere he touches and that is my only complaint on him.

Chopper - Chopper was a birthday present to me a few years ago from Dave. Dave found him in his moms back yard when Chopper was only a few days old. He brought him home with him and gave him to me and he has been the devil ever since. He is the complete opposite of Harley. He is wired ALL the time, loves doing anything that I dont want him doing, and hates being loved on by anyone other then Mychael. Mychael and Chopper have the craziest bond Ive ever seen and so it is impossible to get rid of him even though that would make our lives so much better LOL. He hates all adults touching him and trying to pet him but when Mychael walks in he automatically starts purring and follows Mychael from room to room. If I can find them I will show some of the pictures of them sleeping. When we used to tell Mychael to get ready for bed Chopper would jump up from where ever he was in the house and go in to Mychaels bed. If you would check on them later Chopper would almost always be in the exact position Mychael was sleeping in laying right next to him. It was so cute.

So here are some fun pictures of the two of them...

This is one of the first days we brought Chopper home. Harley just stood above him trying to show him whos boss...Chopper didnt care. The other is Chopper in Daves work boot.

We had this little cat house forever and Harley NEVER went near it. Until after we got Chopper and Chopper was sleeping in it one day. Then Harley decided that he had to have it...even though he didnt come close to fitting! You'd think that when he figured out how uncomfortable it was hed get out but oh no! I think he had a point he was trying to make.

I have so many more then this of Chopper and Mychael sleeping but I cant find them on our computer. Ever since it crashed I cant find where a lot of my pictures went to...

This is a couple of pictures that are more recent....

So thats the other two boys in my life. If I can ever find all of my pictures I have so much better pictures to show but for now I can at least say I acknowledged them and those of you who wanted pictures are happy lol :)

Ill post more tonight!

See ya!

Christy

New Orleans - Take Two

So some of you probably already know this about all of this but I told you yesterday that I would go ahead and tell you about it in today's post just in case you hadnt heard this story.

Okay so a lot of you know that Dave is a HUGE New Orleans Saints fan. He was born in Houma Louisiana and moved here when he was 6 years old. He has not been back since so I figured a few years ago as a cool birthday present I would get him tickets to see the Saints at the Superdome in New Orleans (he had never been) and we could go back and visit his hometown while we were there once it was only an hour or so away from New Orleans. So I gave him this present August 24, 2005 and as most of you know on August 29 New Orleans got hit by Hurricane Katrina.

After that year I became a stay at home mom with no income of my own coming in and so it wasnt really possible to plan this trip without him knowing about it and paying for it himself which I think would be wrong. Also after seeing the complete destruction that Katrina did to New Orleans Dave requested that I not try to plan a vacation for us again. It became a running joke that I was the cause of Katrina. So I did not try to plan it again...

UNTIL NOW!! With doing Surprise Parties on the side and extra money coming in I had the chance to set back some money this year for his present. So this year when Daves birthday rolled around and I was trying to figure out what to give him this idea came back to me. It would be so neat for him to be able to go down there. Ive been to New Orleans with my best friend Mandy a couple of different times and it is an experience like no other. There is so many interesting things to see and do and I know Dave would just love it. On top of that getting him to a Saints game AT the superdome was a goal that I had not givin up on so I figured I would give it another shot. So I found wonderful tickets with a great view, I found an awesome hotel 2 blocks from Bourbon St. (the bottom picture to your right) and I booked both of them. The night of his birthday I presented him with the reservation for the hotel and the tickets for the game. We were both so excited about it. That is until about 3 days later until we heard that ANOTHER hurricane was headed towards New Orleans! SERIOUSLY!?!?! What are the chances that years later I try this again at the same time as his birthday again and another hurricane hits!?!? I told Dave that if this one did what Katrina did that I SWORE I would never plan another vacation. Not just to New Orleans but to anywhere. For the sake of the people! I just felt absolutely horrible that this was happening to them again. Like those poor people hadnt gone through enough and with most of them not even recovering from the last one! I was in tears quite a bit that week.

Luckily as most of you seen on the news the hurricane blew over New Orleans with very little damage to the city (thank God) and so we are still able to go. I had planned on driving down there but Dave said that he would rather fly so we wouldnt waste a day on the road. Which is fine by me cause I would much rather fly anyway. So last night he booked out flight and we are leaving in 19 DAYS!!! I might just have to start a countdown on here for it. We are both getting so excited about it. This will be the first longer vacation that we have taken away from the kids and with each other. My mom and dad will be keeping Mychael and Brayden for the time we are gone. They are constantly saying how much they miss them so we are going to give them an overdose on them lol.

So New Orleans here we come!!! WOOHOO!!

See ya!

Christy

Feeling like a horrible Mommy :(

This surgery is taking a little longer then I thought as far as recovery. My face is very stiff and very sore. Especially with certain movements. So Ive been eating all of my food cut into tiny pieces and I cant even smile. I am feeling like a horrible mom because Brayden will be smiling at me and I cant get my face into a smile to smile back at him :( I cant lift him right now so Im not able to hold him a whole lot and it is making me feel so bad. Poor kid seems to have given up on me and is now concentrating on Daddy for all his smiles and happiness. I dont mind that at all except I do feel like he is mad at me which is I know is crazy lol. Oh well. Hopefully soon I will start feeling better and things will get back to normal. Im just getting very frustrated and impatient that it is going so slow and I am still hurting so much. Stupid sinuses!

In exciting news though Dave is booking our flight to New Orleans tonight. It looks like we are actually going to get to go!! YAY! For those of you who dont know this story I will explain it tomorrow. Once I dont see my butt coming off the couch anytime soon itll give me something to write about lol.

I wish I had some fun stories to share but I have rarely moved off of the couch in the last 3 days.
I hope everyone is doing good and I promise to become more interesting soon :)

See ya!
Christy

Ahhh silence!

The house has been so quiet today with everyone out running around that I feel like I have done nothing but sleep all day so I am going to try to stay awake long enough to finish this and then its back to sleep.

I am still feeling pretty rough from the surgery. We had to go in this morning and get the packing taken out of my nose that was supporting my septum. That was absolutely horrible. I didnt know that much stuff could fit up there. Last time I had this surgery done they didnt pack it. Last time after I had it I also couldnt sleep for about two days. This time I feel like doing nothing but sleeping. Dave is being a HUGE support and not letting me do anything at all. I stood up a little while ago and he yelled at me for getting up because he could do whatever it was I was getting up for...uh yeah buddy except pee which is what I had to do :)

Dave took Marlene to the airport today. She is going to Germany to see her family for about 5 weeks. I am glad she gets to go see them as often as she does. I dont like being an hour and a half away from my family I cant imagine being THAT far away. Id go nuts. She took her new laptop though so she will be able to get on here and see what is going on with her grandchildren while she is gone. Dave and I both think Brayden will be starting to crawl by the time she gets back. He is so close hes just so lazy he gets frustrated quickly and gives us this pathetic look like he doesnt understand why we cant just get him what hes after lol.

Dave just took the kids to Mychaels football practice. Poor Dave, hes been running non stop today. He got up at 645am to get Mychael ready for school and get Brayden packed up because we had to go to the doctor. We had to drop Mychael off at his Aunt Tanjas so she could take him to school for us. Then Dave took me to the doctor. After we got home he immediately left to take his mom to the airport. Got home from that and had to get Mychael from school, run errands, get Mychael ready for practice and now take him to practice. All of this while carting Brayden around with him and taking care of him all day. He is the greatest husband in the world. I am so lucky.

I was looking through old pictures a little bit ago and found one of Mychael in Daves firefighter gear. Then I remembered we had a newer one of Brayden is a fireman's costume so I thought Id post them so you can see our future firefighters. So cute! I consider Dave to be a true hero for his profession but I personally dont like that my husband goes running into burning buildings all the time so I could pass on my boys doing it too but all three of them sure look cute in the gear :)

I wish I had some good stories to tell but not much happens being laid up all day :) The most exciting thing I have to say is that writing this took it out of me and I am off to sleep again. I am barely keeping my eyes open. I will write more soon

See ya!

Christy

OUCH!!

Well surgery is done! He did about 5 different things with my sinuses. He did a bunch of big fancy named things and fixed my septum which HURTS! Most of my problems were in the sinuses in between my eyes and in that area so he went in and opened that up. He had told me that this was one of the more dangerous areas to work in because they are right by the brain and the eye sockets so there is always that risk of blindness or brain poking lol. Anyway..when I woke up in recovery I couldnt see. It wasnt black or anything but I couldnt make out faces at all! I could just see blurry figures walking around. Scared the hell out of me! I thought maybe something had happened during surgery that hurt my eyes. In those seconds it took to get a nurse to talk to all I could think about were my kids and not seeing them as they get older. How sad it is that people have to live like that. I cant imagine that. Anyway I was freaking out for nothing because all it was is that they put vaseline in my eyes :).

I have decided that this will be the last time I go through this. If it is messed up again then I am just going to live with it. The last time I had this done by the doctor who did it wrong (long story short...hes an idiot) it didnt hurt near as bad when I came out of surgery. Probably because he didnt do anything LOL. I am in a lot of pain now though and was in HORRIBLE pain when I came out of surgery. I have a pretty high tolerance to pain and I was crying. So happy it is done with though and hopefully this time it was done right (which I have every confidence in this doctor I see now...not the idiot) and so hopefully all will be well soon. They told me I couldnt lift Brayden for a week and if I had to hold him to have him handed to me. Uh yeah, have they no clue what being a stay at home mom entails. I kinda have to pick him up sometimes. Luckily Dave will be home for the next four days so I will be able to limit the amount I do it.

Thanks for checking out our blog! Make sure to bookmark it and check back often. There is a way you can leave comments too if you ever want to. It is an option at the bottom of each entry I put.

Well I am off to bed! Im in the recliner now but the kiddos will be home soon and I dont think the pounding in my head can take the noise. I am going to go lay in a dark room and catch up on the tivo and sleep.

See ya!
Christy

To our family and friends

Hey everyone! Its Christy. As Marlene (my mother in law) is getting ready to go visit her family in Germany I realized just how spread out all of our family and friends really are. From Illinois to Germany there are so many people that I have a hard time keeping in touch with. I figured that this might be a great way for everyone to keep up with us and the kids, see updated pictures, read about whats going on with us. I am going to try to keep this updated often with pictures and funny stories (believe me with two kids theres plenty) and hopefully you enjoy it.

I figured I would start this blog by giving everyone a quick run down of what is going on with each of us...

DAVE - Dave is still working as a fireman/paramedic for the Granite City Fire Department. He is just now getting back to full duty after having hip surgery a few months ago due to an injury he got during a fire call one night. They had him on light duty for quite a while which means answering phones for 24 hours. He had a love/hate feeling towards light duty. He loved being able to sleep at night and hated doing nothing all at the same time. Now hes back to full duty and things are getting back to normal. He also works part time doing arson investigating. He really enjoys doing it but doesnt get to do it as often as I think hed like.

CHRISTY - I am still staying at home full time with the kids. I am also still working with Surprise Parties (for those of you that dont know what that is you can check out my webstore http://www.christycook.surpriseparties.com/ that way I dont have to explain on here LOL) and loving it. It is so much fun to get out of the house every once in a while to earn some extra money and have fun teaching and laughing with the girls all night. I love being able to do both. It is different being able to stay at home all the time compared to working multiple jobs as I have done in the past but I wouldnt change it for anything. I get to be here with the kiddos for anything that is going on and I love that.

MYCHAEL - Mychael is now 8 years old with the sarcastic wit of a 30 year old. He is quick witted, funny, sweet, and just all around a great kid. He is in 3rd grade now and seems to be enjoying it this year. He is also in Idea Lab which is the schools program for their gifted students. He gets to do lots of fun extra stuff with it and he really likes that. How smart he is can be good and bad now. Its good when it comes to school and bad that he can outsmart me in most things now :) He has been playing soccer for a few years now and just started playing TACKLE football a couple of weeks ago. He is on a team where none of the kids have played before and so they are working really hard this week to learn because their first game is Saturday. Pray for my sanity and my health with this one because every time someone is going to tackle him I swear I feel a heart attack coming on.

BRAYDEN - Brayden is about to turn 6 months old and is getting so big! I dont think Dave and I are ready for it. We miss the days where we could just cradle him in our arms and just stare at him. He was a lot quieter back then too LOL. Now he wants to be on the go non stop. He doesnt even like to sit in our laps. He wants to be standing and bouncing ALL THE TIME! We finally got him a bouncer just so he could bounce as much as he wants. There are times he bounces himself right to sleep. He has also figured out how to roll to everything he wants (which is usually everything he is not supposed to be getting into) and has started getting up on all fours and rocking so we know crawling is around the corner. Time to start baby proofing!

So thats about it as far as what is going on with all of us right now. Im going to have to stop writing for now. I am in the middle of getting the house cleaned up before I have sinus surgery tomorrow and Brayden is helping me by pulling stuff back out that Ive put away.

P.S. Most of you know me well enough to know that my grammar and punctuation both stink so forgive me for both as you read my blogs

See ya!

Christy