Nine Years (and four weeks)

I can hardly believe it's been nine years since Jerry and I got married.  We had a funny start to our relationship as many of you know.  I mean, who has to go to the other side of the world to meet their significant other, even though we'd been on the exact same college campus for 3 years and had never run into each other (well, maybe we had, but we never knew it).  Whenever anyone asks us how we met, Jerry LOVES to tell the story of how he saw me in Hartsfield Atlanta Airport (at least, that's what it was named back when we did study abroad), then started asking my sorority sisters that I was traveling with about me until he finally worked up the courage to come say something to me.  He called me by name and since I knew I had never talked to him in my life, and me being the cynic that I am, immediately responded "How in the hell do you know my name?"  Good way to start off a relationship, right? 

Thankfully he continued talking to me, we hung out in Berlin, then I saved a seat on the bus for him when we were riding from Berlin to Dresden.  That's right - I was almost a senior in college, and here I am saving a freaking seat on a bus for him.  Whatever, it obviously worked, right? 

Our first date was in Paris and the rest is, as they say, history.  I've always told him it was a mistake to have our first date in Paris because, really, how do you top that??  But he has...he's been the most amazing husband and father I could have ever asked for.  We've been through so much in the past 13 years we've been together.....

• 5 moves (dear Lord, really?!?)
• 2 little girls
• 1 little boy on the way
• a Crohn's diagnosis
• two bad Crohn's surgeries
• two long distance years
• a dog (who is currently on my bad list for developing a taste for eating gross stuff out of the garbage....I think he's got an attitude about the impending baby too). 
• Two jobs for him, four for me (I hope that doesn't sound as bad for me as it looks)

I'm sure there are other things that I am missing.  He still likes surprising me in little ways.  Like last night - he wasn't supposed to be home until about 10pm from my calculations since he was driving back from Florida, but he appeared in the kitchen around 6:30pm, well after I had resigned myself to a night of solo parenting and had just decided that the girls weren't really dirty enough for me to have to bend over the tub for a bath :)  It was a little thing, but still made me and the girls very happy last night. 

So Whizzy & Pop Pop, thanks for raising an incredible son for me to get to marry :)  He still does some things that drive me over the edge (is it REALLY so hard to call and let me know if you are going to be late, cause that goes over much better than saying you are leaving at a certain time, then when it's well past the time you should have already been home and I have dinner waiting, then you call to say you are just now leaving....not that that particular scenario happens EVER or anything!), but I know just how lucky I am to have snagged him :) 

And today marks, at max, four more weeks before we are a family of FIVE.  I started washing Jack-Jack's clothes last night, and it suddenly hit me how real this is all becoming. Not that it hasn't been real with all of the ridiculous pregnancy issues I've had this time around, but organizing and washing up the tiny 0-3 month clothes again for the third time around hit me like a ton of bricks last night!

Five weeks and counting

So if Jack-Jack stays put until his predetermined arrival date, then I have exactly 5 weeks from this Friday to get ready for the little guy.  (No, his name is not going to be Jack, or even Jack-Jack....it's the name the girls have come up with based on the movie The Incredibles, where the baby boy in that movie is named Jack-Jack.  I've said throughout this whole pregnancy that it's not going to matter what we name this poor child, he will always be Jack-Jack to the girls....and probably me too!)  And that's a big if too - we all know Anna decided she needed to arrive three weeks early, which would make Jack-Jack a Christmas baby (well, close to Christmas, at least). 

I've never had a panic attack, or at least I don't think I have, but I sure feel like having one right now.  There's a lot to do....get the nursery ready, wash clothes, pack my bag, get the house in order since it probably will never be in order again for the next 18 years, and then there are the holidays in the midst of all of this.  The girls are acting like wild Indians, and I know it's because of Jack-Jack's impending arrival, even if they can't verbalize that's why they have lost their minds.  I have to come up with a contingency plan in case this kid does come early and we're in the hospital  for Christmas eve/Christmas (Lady & Whizzy - be expecting an email from Santa soon on where he'll be hiding the gifts in our house in case Jerry and I aren't there!!)

And this whole being pregnant while 35 thing?  It's for the birds.  I can't imagine being any older and doing this, cause I already feel like I'm falling apart.  I mean, I usually am having some sort of health issue anyways, but this is topping the cake.  Between the original issue of the SCH, sciatica, horrible carpal tunnel in my right hand, and a sinus infection that's been hanging around for SEVEN weeks, I'm done. 

I know I am just anxious about life with three little ones, how to make the finances work, and all that entails.....but I really wish I had enough vacation and sick time to just take off work for the next three weeks and have time to get ready and relax for 5 minutes before this baby arrives. 

I guess I'm "that" mom

But at least I know there's one other mom out there just like me in this case....

Carrie got a permission slip sent home with her a few weeks ago to go on a field trip to a pumpkin patch.  It sounded like lots of fun and I was ready to sign her up, until I read how they were going to be traveling to the pumpkin patch.  It was by the little school bus they have for their school....which meant only lap belts and not car seats.  This immediately made my mommy radar go up and I was like "do they really think I'm going to let my tiny little kid, who at her rate of growth will probably still be in a car seat at 16, get on a school bus with nothing but lap belts?"  I hemmed and hawed about this for a few days, and then was talking with one of my friends, Kathy, who's daughter is also in Carrie's class and is Carrie's current BFF.  Before I even said anything she echoed my sentiments and felt the same way I did about letting the girls ride in a school bus with only lap belts.  Thankfully she has a work schedule that's much more flexible than mine and was able to volunteer to drive two children (mine and hers!) to the field trip.  Crisis averted - Carrie got to go on the field trip and I didn't have to be the mean mommy and not let her go because I didn't feel comfortable letting her ride in the bus. 

I know thousands of kids do the school bus thing every single day going to and from school, including kids not much bigger than mine.  Maybe I'm just a giant worry wart, but I'm okay with that :)  I only have one Carrie!!  I guess that's another bonus to having her and Anna (and eventually baby boy) going to the school that they do - no school bus service since it's private, so her only option is to ride in a car seat in our car :) 

So....

I'm sure many of you have heard that old saying "Make plans and God laughs"???  Well, that seems pretty indicative of my life thus far this year. 

I "planned" to get back into running and do a half-marathon this coming November at the inaugural Savannah Rock n' Roll marathon event.  Instead, I ended up having surgery on my knee, promptly bringing any and all thoughts of getting back into running out of my mind for good. 

I "planned" on getting Anna potty trained and out of diapers this year, never to buy another package of diapers ever again in my life, unless it was for someone else. 

WRONG. 

Instead, I sit here writing this at 26.5 weeks pregnant.  Wha???  This was not in my life plan, having a third child.  We were getting so close to no diapers, getting out of the terrible twos (although from Carrie's recent behavior it seems that the age of 4 is more terrifying), and fully moving on from the baby stage of raising kids. 

To say I was surprised to find out we were having a third is the understatement of the century.  I mean, the irony here is undeniable:  I had to go through hell and high water with fertility treatments to get pregnant with Carrie (thankfully not having to go all the way to IVF, but we were certainly researching it), to managing to be apparently one of the 1% of the population that manages to get pregnant while on the pill (word to the wise, ladies - it DOES happen!).  Seriously? 

When I went to my first prenatal appointment I met with the nurse practitioner, standard procedure for the first appt in a pregnancy (at least at my practice).  She came in at about 28 weeks pregnant herself, with the exact same story as me - was perfectly fine with her two little girls, not planning on having another, and then BAM!  Guess what?!?  She and I both could hear God laughing at both of us at that point.  It didn't ease all of my apprehensions about adding a third little person to our family, but it certainly helped.  I remember her saying to me "it'll all work out somehow!  and just maybe this will be a boy for you like it is for me!"

About the time I started getting somewhat more comfortable with the idea of having another munchkin running around I started having some problems.  Guess that comes with the territory of being of "advanced maternal age."  As it turns out I had a subchorionic hematoma.  Let me save you some time - DON'T GOOGLE IT; you will come away from it, as you do if you google pretty much any medical condition, convinced that everyone involved was going to DIE.  That's not to minimize it, cause it was disconcerting and upsetting, but it managed to resolve itself by the time I was about 21 weeks along (hence why I have not, up to this point, mentioned anything about this pregnancy on my blog!)  Thankfully, as of my last ultrasound scan, there was no sign of the stupid hematoma, and that's after literally about an hour of both the ultrasound tech and the high risk doc looking in every nook and cranny to make sure it wasn't hiding anywhere. 

So now I feel like I've really settled into the idea of having three kids.  I am under no pretense that it's gonna be easy or anything like that.  I know that our lives are going to be thrown upside down yet again.  I know that it's going to, yet again, be a giant pain in the butt trying to figure out do we do nanny vs. daycare for this kid.  I'm not looking forward to having to get up multiple times in the middle of the night to nurse, or get up at the crack of dawn before going to work so I can pump enough for the baby to have each day.  But I also know that once I get to hold that little baby in my arms in about 12 short weeks (as long as he stays in there until he's supposed to come out, on or about 1/6/12!!), that it will all be worth it and somehow, someway, in the immortal words of Tim Gunn, we'll "make it work." 

Oh, and the crazy part?  This time we elected to find out the gender of the baby.  And when I say "we" I actually mean "I" and I convinced Jerry that for my own mental health I needed to know if it was going to be a girl or a boy. 

As it turns out, the nurse practitioner was right - it is a boy this time around.  :) 

Our big girls

I know, I know...it's been forever.  What can I say?  Lots going on, as usual! 

This has been a huge week in the Reeves' household.  Two big milestones.  First was Carrie's first day of Pre-K on Monday.  She had been going to her new "big girl" class for a week, but without the curriculum and without the uniform.  Monday was the first day of at least the uniform ("official curriculum" doesn't start for another week, but you could have fooled me!).  Here's a picture of the newest member of pre-K:

I can't get over how freaking grown up she looks.  Boo.  And here's the rest of her class as well:

Love that they have such small class sizes compared to some other schools!  What's crazy about this class is how calm it is.....Anna gets dropped off first, and of course the 2 year old class is chaotic at best.  But even Carrie's old classroom, which had pretty much the same children in it, was nuttiness at times.  This class, not so much.  You go in at any point in time, morning or afternoon, and they are CALM.  I don't know how her teacher does it.  Benadryl, maybe?  I kid.  But seriously, another mom and I were talking about this the other day.  Just two weeks ago they were running around like wild banshees, and now they are acting like they know what they are supposed to be doing in the classroom setting.  It's amazing.  Too bad that doesn't carry over to the home environment, where Carrie seems to forget how to use her ears!!

Anna turned two as well, and we had her birthday party over the weekend.  I still can't believe she's two!!  I don't know why - she certainly has the attitude to go with her age :)  I think she tries to overcompensate to be sure to be heard over her big sister.  We had cupcakes in her classroom on her birthday to celebrate the big day, and they were a big hit:

The birthday party was great fun, and it was nice to see my family from Atlanta who made the trip.  Today we had to take both girls in to get them up to date on their vaccines.  Never a good trip.  Carrie knew what was coming, and she had to get two vaccines.  Anna only had to get one. Both girls were unhappy to say the least, but the tears magically disappeared when the stickers came out.  Turns out Anna has grown three inches since her last visit in March.  I knew she was hitting a growth spurt, but good grief!  I told the doc that at this rate there's a very good chance we'll end up passing on hand-me-ups instead of hand-me-downs between her and Carrie!

Hug your kids tight

I think I'm in a bit of shock right now.  I just learned that a co-worker's 2 year old grandson drowned last Friday in the family pool.  This just absolutely breaks my heart.  My co-worker used to tell me all sorts of stories about his grandchildren, and how this particular little one kept getting into so much mischief because, after all, he was a 2 year old boy and mischief is in his job description, right?  He was so proud to talk about his grandchildren and it was easy to see how much he loved them. 

My heart breaks for his family.  It also makes me realize how quickly loved ones can leave us.  Give your kids (or any other family member/friend, for that matter) an extra squeeze tonight at bedtime.

What the.....?!

I either should have paid more attention in my developmental psych class, or taken more of them, so I would know when to expect certain things to come out of my childrens' mouths and know when they can make certain connections.  We were sitting at the dinner table last night and I had forgotten to turn off the TV, which we usually do.  The nightly news was on, and a story came on about Glen Campbell, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  The anchor was delivering the story and mentioned something about the fact that Glen had been noticing he had short term memory loss for awhile, but that the Alzheimer's diagnosis had been in the last six months. 

I kid you not - Carrie stops mid-chew and exclaims "Short term memory loss!!!  That's what Dory has in Finding Nemo!!" 

I texted Jerry to tell him what had just happened (he was at a business dinner...at Lady & Sons....which I have been begging to go to since we moved here.....but that's another story).  He called me back and thought I was making it up.  No, m'dear, not making it up.  Can't make this kind of stuff up!

Huh? 

How do they remember stuff like that?  Especially since I can't really remember the last time we watched that movie, as everything is all Princess, all the time right now.

Complete Photo Gallery!

Kate emailed me last night to let me know all of our family pics are up!!  Here they are if you are interested....

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Kate is a great photographer and I love that she's now done pictures for us 4 times.  She's soon moving to Atlanta, but perhaps I can convince her to do some shots of us whenever we come up to visit family! 

Family Pictures

It's always LOADS of fun getting everyone ready for family photo shoots.  It generally involves someone pitching a fit, clothes not looking right, and overall confusion (and not necessarily all from the children!).  We had our pics taken this past weekend with Kate Carmack, who's been taking pictures of Carrie since before she turned 1.  I am always happy with her work - she is an amazingly talented young lady, and I hope she'll keep coming back to the Lowcountry once she moves to the big city at least once a year so she can chronicle our little family growing up. 

She's posted a new picture of the fam on her blog: 

There's also a couple of pictures of the girls sprinkled into her home page slideshow (and one of Anna from last year, so that's entertaining!).  You can view the slideshow here. 

I'll be sure to post when all of our pictures are available!

Dear Beaumont

Dear Beaumont,
It's so very hard for us, but today we had to say goodbye to you. There aren't really words to say just how much you were loved, and still are, but I'll try....

It all started when Jerry decided that getting a dog while a freshman in college was a GREAT idea! I don't know all the details since I hadn't yet met him, but I know he had the best of intentions (as well as a goal to meet more girls while hanging out with you at the park!). I'm also sure that this idea was probably met with some groans of "what the heck are you going to do with a lab puppy while at school?" but he went ahead with his plans anyways, and made the adoption that would change the Reeves family....for the better, I might add.

I'm not sure exactly how long you lived in Atlanta, but thankfully Whizzy & Pop Pop took you in at Cedar Bluff. The big city was no place for a dog like you, Beau. You needed a place to run and play, and Cedar Bluff was just the place. Tons of room to run, your very own river to swim in - what more could a pup want?! I know Jerry was sad to leave you behind at Cedar Bluff, but it was the right thing to do, and you have been there ever since.

You weren't too sure about me at first, buddy. Jerry and I joke about it now, but I really do think you thought I was trying to take your spot, literally. You were so used to Jerry sleeping in his own bed at home, so whenever I came to visit and slept in that bed, you would just sort of stand beside it for a few minutes like "Look lady - I think you got the wrong place. That's my bed with my dad; beat it!" Thankfully I think I grew on you, and you realized I was pretty good with the belly rubs and throwing the tennis ball for you too.

Your love of tennis balls is legendary. We even brought our dog, Bailey, to Cedar Bluff so you could hopefully teach him a thing or two about playing catch. I'll never forget watching you and Bailey race around for the tennis ball whenever we'd throw it. Bailey didn't have a prayer those first few years of catching you - you would outrun him every single time. I think it was good for Bailey to get schooled a little bit! To this day, even though you couldn't run around much lately to catch the ball, you seemed to have one nearby at all times. It's sort of like your security blanket I guess.

One of my own fondest memories of you was when I was training for the marathon.  We were visiting Cedar Bluff one weekend, and I was scheduled to do a 13 mile run, so Jerry and I took you along and thought we'd let you go as long as you wanted, then Jerry would take you back.  Jerry was on his bike and I was just pounding pavement....and there you were, running right beside me the entire time.  There were several times that Jerry would bike farther up the road, and even sometimes disappear, but you stayed right there with me the whole time, like you were taking care of me.  You did 8 miles with me that day.  I sort of think of that as the "turning point" in our relationship, Beau.  I like to think that was your way of saying "Well, okay, if you're gonna be sticking around for awhile, I guess I'll hang out with you."

Our girls really love you, that's for sure.  Whenever we were over visiting, they loved coming up to you and laying on your belly and scratching your ears, which you took in stride.  To be such a big dog, you sure were a gentle giant. 

Even though you haven't been able to move around too much lately, the other pups at Cedar Bluff still recognize you as the alpha dog.  Tucker would try to steal the ball from you sometimes, but we always tried to sneak another ball to you when he wasn't looking....

Beaumont, I know you lived an incredibly long life, but it's still incredibly hard to say goodbye.  We know it's time, though.  It's not fair to you for us to be selfish.  You have been an amazing friend to Jerry, but I promise to take good care of him for you.  Know that any dog we ever have will always be compared to you.  Goodbye, buddy. 
Love,
Kristy

We're all here!

Yes, it's been awhile since I posted.....I went back to work in the office full time last week, so that was an adjustment to say the least. I've been doing the work at home 3 days/week thing since early March, then was at home for two straight weeks after the surgery. While I certainly enjoyed my time away from the office, I have to admit it is nice to have some adult interaction during the day again.

The knee seems to be healing nicely, at least from what I can tell. I am still using my crutches (for the most part!) and using the brace. I go back to the doc on June 1st, and I am really hoping he tells me I can ditch the crutches and just use the brace. PT is going well - my therapist is a good friend, so that makes the torture at bit better.

So things are just moving along as usual in the Reeves' household. I did come across this fun little critter on my way to the grocery store the other day:

You may have to look closely at the photo to see our little gator friend, but let me assure you that he was NOT small....brought 4 cars to a stop on the main drag of our neighborhood as he was ambling slowly across the road. Of course all the stupid humans are snapping pictures as quickly as possible (at least I stayed in my vehicle, unlike the others who were actually getting out of their cars to get a closer look - NO THANK YOU).

Here's another funny picture:

I swear she is a little boy in a girl's body. Besides the fact that she has the scraggliest hair ever seen (or at least since I was growing up, cause she's definitely got my hair), this is the dirtiest kid I've ever seen. You turn your back for five seconds and she's diving in the dirt in the backyard. And utterly happy about it.

Like New

Well, that's what I am hoping my knee is now - like new. I went in to have my knee surgery on Monday morning, bright and early. We had to be there at 7am, so Whizzy came to stay with the girls that morning to get them off to school (and she managed to get them fed, dressed, and to school by 7:30 that morning...Jerry and I are in awe).

Once we arrived I got all settled in the pre-op area, complete with my IV and then Jerry could come back. He got to meet the doc, who again explained the possible treatments he may do once he got into the surgery. After that we just had to wait a bit, so we looked like total geeks with our phones playing games and Jerry taking pictures of me with my little temperature sticker on my forehead. Eventually they came back and gave me some "I don't care" medicine (their words - not mine!), and it truly made me not give a damn. About 10 minutes afterwards they took me back to the OR, I scooted over to the other bed, and that's the last thing I remember.

Next thing I knew I was waking up being offered some coke. Anesthesia is an amazing thing. They brought Jerry back and he wsa the one that broke the news to me that they did in fact have to do the microfracture procedure. I was reeeealllly hoping they weren't going to have to do that, mainly because it just sounded like it would be painful. There was a pretty significant portion of missing cartilage on my bone (not sure which one, if it's the femur or tibia, but will ask today at my doctor's appointment), so hopefully this surgery will do the trick. Apparently if it doesn't, I'm in for another more involved surgery...but I'm not even going to go down that road yet!

So for the past few days I've just been hanging out on the couch watching trash TV, reading books, cross-stitching....doing stuff I normally don't have much time to do when I'm healthy! I wasn't having too much pain until last night. I think all of the meds finally wore off completely last night and even the percocet wasn't doing a great job of keeping the pain at bay. But I go back to the doc today so perhaps he'll have some more advice on how I can manage it better.

Carrie has been too sweet through all of this. She always wants to bring me my crutches and will come over to me and hug me and say "it's okay, sweetie." I mean, how cute is that?! Anna, on the other hand, is just as silly and crazy as ever...I just have to make sure my knee is out of her path of destruction!

Like I said, I go back to the doctor today for my post-op follow-up. We'll see what he has to say about when I can go back to work, how long I have to use crutches, and all that good stuff!

Funny Conversation

Me: Carrie, do you know what tomorrow is?
Carrie: Sunday
Me: Yes, but it's a special Sunday.
Carrie: EASTER!
Me: Very good! And what does it mean that it's Easter?
Carrie: EASTER EGGS!
Me: Well, yes, but what else does it mean?
Carrie: Jesus died on the cross.
Me: Yep, but do you know why he did that?
Carrie: Nope. Why?
Me: He did it for our sins
Carrie: Oh. What are sins?
Me: Bad things we do that we may or may not really have meant to do.
Carrie: Oh.
Me: Because he did that, one day we can go live in Heaven.
Carrie: Cool! (then silence.....) But what about our house??

Gotta love the logic of a four-year-old.

Plica bands, microfractions and arthroscopic surgery, oh my!

I had my second opinion today. It's not that I didn't like my other doctor, but let's get real - in the same breath he tells me that my plica band will almost definitely need to be taken out due to the pain/swelling....but let's wait ANOTHER 6 weeks before we decide on anything. I realize I'm not usually a patient person anyways, but I've been doing this hobbling thing for 2 months now...not cool when you have two children under the age of 5, a job, and the desire to actually do something other than sit on the couch all day long.

I immediately really liked this doctor. He came highly recommended from the wife of a board member at work who has just had knee replacement surgery, so the guy has to know his knee stuff, right? He came in and immediately put me at ease, looked over my chart, asked me all sorts of questions and torqued my knee in all sorts of directions (um, OUCH.). He took a couple of new x-rays to make sure my alignment was as it should be and that I wasn't causing myself the problem by walking funky (although by now I think I really am walking funky to compensate). Alignment was fine, so he presented me with the three possibilities of what he thinks could be wrong:
1) Plica band - an odd little band in your knee which is apparently a lot like your appendix or spleen. It doesn't really do anything to help you, but if it gets hurt it can cause problems
2) Cartilage problem - he best explained it by likening my bones to an M&M. The hard candy coating shell on the M&M "protects" it, but if there's a chip in it (i.e. chip or missing piece of cartilage on my bones), then that needs to be resolved
3) Nothing - that would suck because then I guess that means the pain is in my head??

Then he presented me with the two options:
1) Brace my leg/knee for a month or so, which may or may not help and he's not entirely sure what he'd be bracing my knee against
2) Surgery. Scope to be exact. If he gets in there and it's the plica, then remove it and I'm looking at a week or so of recovery. If it's the cartilage, then do a procedure called microfracture and everything heals up and I'm looking at another 6 weeks of crutches. If it's nothing, then they stitch up my incisions and I go home, probably with a brace to see if that can help.

I chose option 2, based on his recommendation. After talking it over with him, it does seem like this is the best option. I've tried the wait and see thing for 2 months, with my right knee completely healing and the left one getting worse. We've had MRIs and x-rays, but the problem is with the things that he thinks it may be, they don't show up on those diagnostic tools and the only real way to know what's going on is to get in there and take a peek.

So there you have it - I'm signed up for a diagnostic scope a week from Monday.

Good thing I've got great health insurance.

Oh yeah - and I've already met my deductible for the year, and I imagine I'm pretty damn close to the out of pocket max too.

And it's only April.

An Ah-Ha Moment

I promise I will post on Carrie's birthday festivities in a day or so (once I download the pics, which I know will make my mom happy!!), but I've just had this post rolling around in my head since yesterday afternoon now, and I feel like I'm going to explode if I don't get it out.

****MASCARA ALERT********

I had to add that in there for my mom, cause I'm pretty sure it will make her tear up. And I'm not putting this out there to make my mom & dad feel guilty about having to leave yesterday!!

So my mom has been here since last Saturday, and my dad came on Thursday. We had a great week. I know the girls were testing Mom's patience at times (heck, they test mine on a regular basis). Ken showed up on Thursday and we all took Carrie to gymnastics and just had a wonderful time together. Jerry got back into town late Thursday and we spent the weekend getting ready for Carrie's party and enjoying the company of family and friends.

Then after the party on Saturday came the time I knew was coming - I knew Mom would get sad at the idea of having to leave the girls. Carrie didn't help things because Mom was telling her that she had to leave to go back to Atlanta and she said "I love you Lady!" My mom told her she loved her too, then Carrie responds "I love you SO MUCH." That's enough to make anyone get sappy. So both of them are teary-eyed, which made me teary-eyed. It's a domino effect I think.

We got my parents off and headed back north, and all hell broke loose. Anna was clearly tired but thought a nap was optional, and Carrie was still getting upset that Lady and KnowMan had to leave. I knew one of the gifts she received from a friend was the movie Tangled so we broke that out and popped it in the player.

For the rest of the day, she'd be fine then all of a sudden she would bust out in tears saying "I want Lady & KnowMan!" I was trying so hard not to get sad myself in front of her, but I wasn't doing a very good job (you are NEVER too old to miss your parents!).

They finally went to bed around 7:30-8. Anna started crying because she was just exhausted, and then Carrie joined in. I went into Carrie's room and laid down with her and asked what was wrong, already knowing full well what it was. She missed my parents, and nothing I did or said was helping, so I just let her cry some to get it all out. And that's when it hit me - this is the beginning of what I can only imagine is one of the hardest things about being a parent - seeing your child hurting and not being able to do a damn thing about it. I mean, Carrie's been upset before, but it's usually because I won't let her do what she wants to do, or she's scraped her knee or something like that. Nothing like her missing a person and not understanding why she can't just see my parents whenever she wants to. I felt like my heart was being ripped out when she was crying. I wanted so badly to make everything right and make her feel better, but I knew nothing was going to help her right in that minute, and it sucked.

All I can say is I may not be able to get my parents' jobs moved down here so they can be around all the time and Carrie can see them whenever she wants, but God help the boy that breaks my baby's heart :)

Scariest Day of My Life

That was yesterday - the scariest day of my life. Why, you might ask? Because I had to drive this:

That would be my mother's car. She is down visiting to help out with the girls while Jerry's away (and thank goodness, cause I think they are figuring out finally that Mommy can't possibly chase after them). I had to stay at work late yesterday because of some meetings, which meant she would need to pick up the girls. She already had one car seat in the back of that beast, and we, being apparently as ridiculous as we are, thought we could shove another car seat in the back of the Mustang.

It didn't work.

I probably didn't even need to tell you that, huh?

I am sure it was quite the sight to see my mother and I taking turns at trying to wrestle another Britax into the back of that car. After about 15 minutes of sweating and wrestling, we gave up and came to the conclusion that I would just drive her car to work and she could use the Expo. I have always been terrified of driving my mother's cars. She doesn't get new ones very often....as in the last car she had she drove for 20 years and is still in the garage at home (I think it was 20 years - correct me if I am wrong Mom!). She takes EXCELLENT care of her cars, so that she can drive the wheels off of them. And besides that - this friggin' car is a beast. I mean, you crank it up and everyone within a 5 mile radius knows it. And it has a lot of get up and go, obviously. I was scared to death I was going to have an accident or someone was going to ram into me. Before I left she said "why are you freaking out? It's just a car!" Um, okay :) I didn't want to make that phone call to say guess what? Just wrapped your car around a tree!!

It's been awhile since I called or texted my mother to let her know whenever I arrived at my destination, but I did that yesterday. "Made it to doc - didn't bend your car!" "Made it to work - didn't bend your car!" "On my way home now - hopefully won't bend your car!"

I have to admit - while I felt like I was riding about 2 inches off the road, it was quite fun to drive something other than the Mommy SUV for a change. But I am also quite glad to have my giant SUV back today so I can see everything going on around me!

A Favorite Hangout

The girls and I were on our own tonight while Daddy is hanging out for work in San Diego (rough life, huh?). I was chatting with a friend today and she said she was taking her and her sister's kiddos to Island Playground and asked if we wanted to go. I initially told her no since I can't really chase the girls around (and by girls, I mean Anna, cause she is all. over. the. place), but she offered to keep them wrangled. So I stopped by Starbucks, got us some java chip fraps as a thank you for keeping my kids in line, and the girls some milk, and off we went. Carrie's been many times, but this was really Anna's first time where she knew what to do and could play in all of the bounce houses. I think Anna spent the first 10 minutes just squealing at the top of her lungs checking everything out. She had a great time playing with all the other kids. It was so nice because it was practically empty. Most of the times we go it's either a Saturday, raining, cold, or some other variable that means every other child in HHI and Bluffton are there. Literally there were only our 7 munchkins and two other kids. It was great to just get out and hang out with a good friend I haven't seen in awhile and let the girls burn off some toddler energy. And the fact that I captured this little picture definitely topped off the trip:

Thanks Ms. Anna (not to be confused with my little Anna!) for helping wrangle my kids and getting me out of the house!!

Mommy Guilt

Um, did someone actually provide funding for a study like this??

Cause I'm pretty sure this is a little common sense...but then again, common sense ain't common.

Like a different kid

Last night Carrie spent the night with Whizzy & Pop Pop, so it was just me, Jerry & Anna. Anna is like a totally different child when Carrie isn't around. I guess maybe it's because she's not having to compete for attention with Carrie, who knows? She was so lovey-dovey, handing out hugs and kisses to us both, and just not acting like a 19 month old typically acts.

I obviously love both of my children very much, but it is nice to revert back to only having "one" kid for a night!

Well that's confusing

So I'm on my second physical therapy appointment. They are going well so far - a few exercises for me to do, but the best is this treatment called ionotophoresis (I think that's how you spell it, but then again I'm not an MD). It is basically where they hook you up to what looks like a car's jumper cables to more effectively deliver medicine to the affected area. This works well for me since, given my Crohn's, anti-inflammatories and I don't get along very well. It feels really weird since they can amp up the juice on it and you start to feel little tingles where it's connected. Here's a picture of it (no comments about my bird legs):

But here's the confusing part - everyone treating me seems to have differing opinions on what the hell is wrong with me. The orthopedist says yes, I definitely have stress fractures on the tops of my tibias. The physical therapist says nah, it's more your bursitis that's bothering you, so those crutches probably aren't as necessary as you think. Then there's the PT Assistant who jumped on me today because I was hobbling around the PT office without my crutches, telling me I shouldn't be putting weight on my knees unless I'm doing the prescribed exercises. Orthopedist says my running days are over; therapist says I'll definitely be able to run again, but it will just be about 6 months before I can even think about starting again.

So what's a girl to do? I'd of course love to believe I'll be able to run again, but somehow I don't think that's probably my best move. Maybe I can pick up cycling after this is all said and done and eventually do some of those long cycling events (Alston, you'll have to give me pointers!). Right now I think I'll just rest the ol' legs as I've been instructed and not make anything worse! Although this whole "rest" thing? WAY overrated.

Thank Goodness for Technology

Cause if not for it, I'd probably just have to stay at home for the next couple of months and burn through all of my sick/vacation time and then just not get paid! My boss has been generous enough to let me work from home part-time while my knees are healing. For the next 2-3 weeks I'm going to work at home M/W/F and be in the office T/Th. After that I'll re-evaluate and perhaps go to 2 days at home a week for the remainder of the three months it's supposed to take to heal. Keeping my legs propped up really does make a huge difference.

All this laying around starts to work on my head, though. I hate not feeling like I am contributing. Chasing after the girls is next to impossible, and Anna's not really feeling like listening to me when I ask her to stop running away from me these days :) Carrie is being incredibly cute; every day when I pick her up she asks me "Mommy are your legs still hurt?" and she'll sit beside me on the couch and rub my knees to make them feel better.

Oh yeah, and I start PT on Wednesday. I have a feeling that should be interesting!

On the flip side....

I did actually have a very encouraging visit to another kind of doctor on Monday morning - the allergist. I've had allergy problems all my life (gee....what sort of health problems have I NOT had would probably be a shorter list. Sorry, just a little pity party I'm having today). I actually had sinus surgery a number of years ago which really helped significantly cut down on the number of sinus infections I've had, which has been a blessing. But from what I remember I don't think I've ever visited an allergist for a true testing of just what triggers me and what we can do to fix it.

So off I went Monday morning, hobbling along (and managing to take both sets of keys with me, leaving Jerry stuck at home with the girls - another long story). By the time I left there an hour and a half later, I had already gotten the whole skin test thing done on my back where they roll those little needles along your back which have small doses of allergens in them. I now know exactly why they put it on your back - because if something does trigger you, you want to scratch profusely. Anyways, as it turns out I am allergic to dust (aren't we all), several different types of tree pollens and some other random weeds. Oddly enough, cat did not show a reaction and I've always thought I was allergic to cats (maybe there's just lots of dust in cat people's homes? who knows?) Based on the results I go back in two weeks to get a more in-depth skin test done, but the doc thinks I'm probably a good candidate for allergy shots.

However, he did give me a shot on Monday, and I swear to you - I have not sneezed once since then. And let me tell you, if you step outside here in the lowcountry, you can see the pollen swirling around in the air. Everything is coated in that nasty yellow stuff, and normally I'd be a giant sneezing mess. But nothing!!! Hopefully I'm on the right track to being able to not worry about carrying around a big ol' box of tissues with me everywhere I go.

I just hope if he does decide I should do allergy shots that it's something I can give myself. Unfortunately I'm pretty adept at giving myself shots, so I don't really want to waste time driving back and forth to Savannah if I can help it!

Tibial Plateau Stress Fractures

That's my latest diagnosis, and it's a mouthful.

Seriously? Seriously. This is crazy. I was just minding my own business, trying to get back into running, and this is what it gets me. A recovery time of 8-10 weeks, and you know what they do for stress fractures? Nothing. You have to rest. A lot of rest. And elevation of your affected leg, or legs in my case. Did I mention rest? And just how does one who has a 4 year old and an 18 month old do that?

I have a friend that's a PT and she saw me at birthday party on Saturday and she had made me feel a little better when she said it was highly unlikely that I had bilateral stress fractures, since that's pretty rare in the "normal" population. Apparently I'm not normal. The ortho doctor this morning assured me "Oh, it's actually more common than you'd think, especially in army recruits."

Um, don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly wearing cammo, my friend.

And someone explain this to me - I'm not an Olympic athlete by any means, but I'm also not 100+ lbs overweight, so how is it those jokers on Biggest Loser don't come up lame like this more often???

So now I'm trying to figure out just how I'm going to get all my mommy/wife duties handled over the next three months. We are looking into getting someone to clean the house on a regular basis for us (thanks Mom!). But just the simple things like cooking dinner, laundry, and grocery shopping are all of a sudden a big pain in the ass....or knees as the case may be.

If anything, let this be a lesson to anyone who's taken steroids for prolonged periods and/or is a Crohn's patient. When I was originally diagnosed with Crohn's in May 2002, my doctor immediately put me on steroids. Like 30 mg or so a day, for months. Works like a charm while you are on them, but dear Lord it can wreak havoc on your body. Stay away from long term steroids! Because of these steroids, I managed to develop osteopenia at the ripe old age of 33 (I think that's when I was diagnosed). That means my bone density is lower than what it should be, but not low enough to be classified as osteoporosis. After I told the orthopedist this, he was 99.9% convinced this is why this happened.

So yeah, good times right now. I know I could have something much worse going on, but it's still a pain in the butt!!

Well, that's one way to cure my OCD....

So you know how I was all gung ho about running the half marathon in Savannah in November? So much so that I already went out, got fitted for new running shoes and started my training?

Yeah, not so fast....

I was running around campus last Monday. It's quite convenient since the circle around our campus is exactly 1.1 miles. So I was trying to do one measly little mile and about halfway through, my knees started to feel like someone was stabbing the inside of my leg right at my knee. Interesting feeling, no doubt. So I stopped, hobbled back to my office and told myself I'd take a day or so off.

Four days later, yesterday, I could hardly walk without having pain. Both knees were hurting, the left one more than the right one, but still both hurting. I decided it might be a good idea for me to get it checked out, and it just so happens that the best ortho docs in Savannah have an after hours urgent care clinic. I begged Jerry to pick up the girls and take Carrie to gymnastics, and I drove myself to the clinic. The nurse came in, took history, and within about 5 minutes I was getting all kinds of x-rays done. The PA came in a little after that, started pushing around on the inside of my knee, and I started coming off the table. Turns out he thinks it could be one of two things:
1) Prepatellar bursitis - inflammation of the bursa near where my hamstrings connect to the knee (I think, I don't have an MD people). Apparently this can be remedied through rest and aspiration of the affected bursa.
2) Stress fracture(s) - more likely on the left side since I almost involuntarily kicked the hell out of the PA when he was poking around. What the hell do they do if it's a stress fracture? I've tried to stay away from looking this up on the Internet cause I'm sure someone will tell me I'll have to get my leg amputated or something. I know rest is involved, but how in the hell do you keep your knee rested for a long period of time???? And please don't tell me a cast.

So I walked (hobbled) out of there with a new set of crutches, a prescription for pain meds, and a promise that I'll have an MRI scheduled for next week for both of my knees. I hope to get this figured out soon, cause I can't really sit too well without them becoming stiff and painful. And while the PA gave me a script for hydrocodone, something tells me I probably shouldn't take it while at work.

Seriously? How old am I?

I think I have some sort of sickness....

And I think it's called "OCD." Or maybe "Type A personality." I don't know the correct diagnosis, and don't really care. All I know is I function much better with a tangible goal. When I think about it, my whole freaking life has been chasing after some goal. When I was in high school, I wanted to graduate with a 4.0. (when I was in college I think I had flashes of wanting to do the same thing, but that first D in calculus I quickly got me over that and I was happy with the whole "D for Done" in that arena). When I was in college I wanted to get into a good grad school, and I got into a few and settled on GT. I then wanted to get my PhD....then thought better of it because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life struggling to get grants approved. After grad school I was focused on planning our wedding. That took a year....Got married in December and then in January decided I needed a new goal which happened to be running a marathon. That was over in June, so by August I was enrolled in my MBA program. That was over in December 2005....by July 2006 I was pregnant with Carrie. Had Carrie April 2007....then ran a half marathon that November. In 2008 we decided to uproot ourselves and move to SC and I started a new job and later that fall I was studying for the PHR exam. Passed that in December 2008, which just happened to be the same month I got pregnant with Anna. Very convenient for Jerry since he was leaving in January for Portugal for 8 months :) So I had that to focus on throughout 2009. 2010 brought the bright idea of me now studying for my SPHR exam, which I thankfully passed the very last day of January, which was also the very last day of the testing window.

And now? Now I've decided that it would be a good time to pick up running again and I'm contemplating doing the Savannah Rock n Roll Half Marathon in November.

WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?

Does anyone else out there do this? Jerry always teases me and says I am physically incapable of just being in the moment and going with the flow. I really wish sometimes I could do that. But every time I do it my mind goes into overdrive of "well, while I'm sitting here watching this show on TV I could be reading my magazine and filing these papers that need to be filed and perhaps also do a little scrapbooking."

I think I am just better at managing my time when I know I have some sort of goal hanging out there. If I know I have to get X number of miles running in this week, then I know I have to schedule the rest of my time around that because if I don't get the running in I'll look like a total fool (or hurt myself) come November.

I haven't actually signed up for the half marathon yet....taking my new running shoes for a test drive for a few weeks first to make sure I don't hurt myself. At any rate, if anyone would like to join me in November, just let me know....that would give me even more incentive to make sure I meet my goal :)

Blech.

That's how a few of us in the Reeves home are feeling these days. Just blech. This weekend Lady came to visit us, which was lots of fun for the girls....apparently so much so that Carrie got so excited and gave herself a tummy bug. We went to dinner on Saturday night to Jim N Nicks, normally one of her favorite places because of the cheese biscuits they bring out for you to munch on while waiting on your food. She ate one of them then wanted to lay down in Lady's lap. Not a good sign. She ate maybe two bites of mac n cheese and that was it. We got home and she snuggled on the couch with me while Lady gave Anna a bath. Then poor Lady came out to sit on the couch with us, Carrie crawled over there, and within about 30 seconds threw up in her lap. Pretty sure it might be awhile before Lady comes back down to visit!

So once we get Carrie feeling better, Anna starts feeling puny. Thankfully she doesn't have the throw ups, but definitely has a fever. She was feverish Tuesday but fine Wednesday morning, then I saw the school's number pop up on my cell around 2:15 and was practically packing up my stuff before I even answered the phone. So she's hanging out with Whizzy today while Mommy & Daddy went to work.

Of course, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be at work on Thursday....I've been feeling a sinus infection coming on for a day or so now, and not sure how much longer I can keep it at bay! Guess I really do need to go find an ENT/allergist like Jerry's been hounding me to do....

New Favorite Place

Anna has a new favorite place to visit - the library. She's been there a couple of times before, but back when she probably didn't really understand books all that well. These days she absolutely LOVES books and will quite literally come over to you, open your hand, and place a book in it for you to read to her. So when we entered the kiddie section of the library yesterday she thought she was in heaven. It was so very quiet in the library, as libraries tend to be, but then my kid came in. I put her down she looked around and just screamed "BBBBBOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKSSSSS!!!!!!!!" After I got over my initial embarassment of her breaking the silence, I was so excited that she was that excited. I could let Carrie wander off a bit in the kids section to go pick out a few books, which was good because Anna wanted to take every book off the shelf, flip through it, then toss it behind her and keep going.

Hopefully we have another little nerdlet in the making ;)

I'M BACK!!!!

It's been a whole freaking month since I posted. Bad Kristy!!! I know I always say this, but it's been pretty busy! One of my new year's resolutions was to post more. Guess I already fell off the bandwagon on that one, huh?

I feel like I do have a good excuse though - I now have some more initials behind my name! I took and passed the SPHR exam (Senior Professional in Human Resources). It was a loooong road - I started the class to prepare for it back in October, and just took the exam on 1/31. The very last day of the testing window, I might add. Gotta love waiting till the absolute last minute. I'm sort of proud of myself for passing - it's not a given that everyone that takes it passes. The exam typically has about a 50% pass rate (according to the governing body of the folks that put out the test). And what made me even more nervous was there wasn't anyone from our study class standing up and saying they had passed yet. Eek. But my geek gene must have kicked in and so I PASSED!!! Now I just have to keep up with the recertification credits - 60 hours over 3 years. I'll take that any time over having to study and take that exam again.

So now that I have all this "free" time, I'm embarking on new projects. You know, like cleaning my house since I feel like I haven't in a few months (not true, but you get the idea). Setting up a budget. Getting organized. You know, all the fun stuff :)

Now I'll leave you with a pretty cute picture I got from Jerry today. Carrie had to have a shoe box covered with solid colored paper for her Valentine party, and it had to be at school today so they could decorate it. I totally forgot to do it last night since I passed out around 8:45 because I was not feeling great. I got a text this morning asking me where the construction paper was, so I told him and check out what he made! :

Check out the perfect corners....I told him I thought this box was probably the most stable, well-constructed Valentine's box since an engineer made it. I don't think I'll be doing the present-wrapping in our house anymore!!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Well this has been an interesting week in the Reeves' home. First week since I went back to work after Anna being born that we haven't had a nanny in the house. Read: first week of utter chaos. I don't think it's really that bad, but at times it's felt like it!

We said goodbye to Lizzy on 12/16 with tears, hugs, and promises of keeping in touch. So far we have done so, I am happy to say! She was such an amazing nanny to the girls, and she's due to have her own little bundle of joy in 3 days, so we can't wait to meet little Elijah. Lizzy had really become part of our family and we were quite sad to see her go, but glad to still have her right around the corner. We really did become friends over the 9 months she worked for us, and I am sure it will continue. She came over the other night to bring the girls' Christmas gifts and Anna just screamed out "LIZZY!!!!" when she saw her at the door. It was too cute :)

Anna's now at the same school as Carrie, which Carrie thinks is quite cool. She likes to remind everyone that she's the big sister and that her little sister is in the "baby" room. Anna has done pretty well, all things considered, her first few days. Monday she had a few crying spells whenever the door would open and it wasn't Mommy or Daddy, Tuesday just one, and yesterday none. However, now she's gone to not really batting an eye when Jerry drops her off to letting it be known that she's not terribly thrilled about it all. Of course, once you drop her off and get outside the room to look through the one-way mirror they have so you can spy on your kids, she's happily playing with the other munchkins. I get the arguably better job of picking up in the afternoon, which means I am greeting with full on hugs and squeals of "Mommy!!"

Christmas was great. We spent it at home which is so nice after years of traveling back and forth. The girls got a ridiculous amount of stuff. It's obscene, really. Perhaps for the future I should just hand out their 529 account numbers and call it a day ;)

And the rest of the cookies....

Not bad, if I do say so myself!!