Joys In My Life

October was a very exhausting and interesting month!  I'm looking forward to some more quiet in November, please.  We did our annual pumpkin purchases at Glen Willow Orchards.... Every year they bring out their hay sculptures.  The kids look forward to it! We went to the Renaissance Faire three days after my surgery.  Phoebe fully dressed up, I went with comfort. The boys are all about the pirate ship there.  It's always the first stop! Tommy and I when on the manual ride.  I think I did most of the rope pulling. Liam opted for a new form of time-out... Then it was time for King Henry XIII to kick off some jousting! After this, the camera ran out of it's battery charge, LOL.  Tommy was taking lots of pictures. These last two were from him.  We celebrated Phoebe's birthday the next day. More to come ... our 20th wedding anniversary, an in-school suspension for Phoebe and a change of schools coming...

Phoebe turned 14 last Monday.  Wow has time flown by!  Next year she will be in high school.  Please excuse what she's wearing.  All the kids got comfy at this point, as it was a Monday night and we took the kids out for sushi and Chinese (Phoebe's request and the boys didn't complain).  We went to Whole Foods afterward and Phoebe picked out a pear tart for her birthday cake.  Phoebe does not like cake.  We're not big fans either, so we all love a pear tart standing in for cake!!!!  For her birthday we got her a movie "The Fault in Our Stars".  She's read the book and saw the movie at the theater this summer.  She absolutely loves it.  We also let her get the upgrade for her phone to get her the new iPhone 6 (not the 6 Plus).  This may seem extravagant, but she is on her phone all the time, so it makes the most sense for a gift. She listens to music on it, texts her friends (sometimes about homework, LOL), watches movies, surfs...

I have so much to write about.  Phoebe turned 14 years old yesterday!  I haven't downloaded the pictures yet, so that post is yet to come.  However, I was tagged today on Facebook to list the 10 books that had the most impact on my life.  I've been wanting to do this for awhile, so I'm going to post it here too with some additions.  I've been wondering if I should do the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge .  I've read quite a few of these already.  However, right now I'm trying to finish reading "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.  Good book so far. Dune - Frank Herbert Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen Emma - Jane Austen Scarlett - Alexandra Ripley The Godfather - Mario Puzo The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis Bridget Jones Diary - Helen Fielding (I've loved her other two following Bridget Jones books too!) The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan Brave New World - Aldous Huxley Bonus additions: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle M...

Just dropping a quick line out there to let everyone know I'm feeling great.  A little sore in the belly, but I've had worse post-laproscopic pain in the shoulder due to air still in my belly.  This one is not bad at all.  Thanks!!!  Talk to you soon!

Tomorrow morning will be a very pivotal point in my life... I'm having my tubes tied.  I am 43 years old and will have my 20th wedding anniversary on October 22nd.  I am ready to officially say I'm done trying to have babies!  Not that I've been taking the pill for the past 5 years doesn't say that already, LOL.  The truth is that the likelihood of me getting pregnant is slim to none due to my endometriosis issues; however, if I ever did get pregnant on my own, the doctor's say it would most likely be ectopic and that could be dangerous.  I'm also having a LEEP done at the same time.  I've had abnormal pap smears the past several years and this is something they would recommend doing to treat that, but only if there is no plans to have more children.  I'm nervous as always before being put under anesthesia.  I've never liked that concept.  I just need to get through now until the moment when they give me the relaxing meds and I won't care an...

I'm so glad I posted yesterday's post.  I'm also really glad the doctor and I decided to do a throat culture on both boys when we saw her yesterday.  That face the boys were making in the last post, it's still exactly how I feel! Tommy's fast strep test came back positive.  He also has an ear infection.  The doctor ordered him to be put on Omnicef and we were crossing our fingers for no allergic reaction to it.  He's had yesterday's dose and today's and still no issues.  Whew!  Hopefully this latest antibiotic which he'll take for 10 days will do the trick. Liam's fast strep test was negative; however, I called the doctor back to check today, as she ran an overnight culture and it's positive today.  We still don't understand if the allergic reaction he had was really the Clindamycin or the Omnicef, but we do know he had a definite allergic reaction to the Rocephin he had at the urgent care, so we're going to try Biaxin tonig...

Above is how I feel about the way the boys still haven't quite seemed to be able to shake feeling under the weather.  Both boys still have swollen tonsils and Tommy has a huge lymph node in his neck that he says hurts when I touch it.  Neither boy has had a fever, they both have gotten back on a regular sleeping schedule for school days (8PM to 6:15AM) and they've been eating just fine.  However, because this doesn't seem to be getting much better this week, I'm taking them to the doctor's this afternoon for a checkup.  Hopefully, we can get over the hump of this bug and I can stop spraying everything down with antibacterial Windex or Lysol wipes obsessively.  I'd also like to stop walking around the house with a thermometer and flashlight to check out throats! The one nice doctor's appointment we had was Tommy's eye checkup with the pediatric ophthalmologist.  He sees her every six months these days.  We all agreed his eyes are looking straight o...