Ramblings {Wednesday Edition}

I find it easier to just do one big "ramblings" post instead of daily posts lately. It helps me remember all the fun stuff we did and I don't feel like I have to post daily :)

Since little Haylee was sick 2 weekends ago, she stayed with Grandma and we took Natalee to the AZ Science Center. I won tickets to have breakfast with Elmo which included tickets to Sesame Street-The Body and admission to the science center too.

Natalee had fun but kept asking where Elmo was. We didn't exactly have breakfast with Elmo, we had breakfast with Roxie since Shamrock Farms hosted the event,

and Elmo came out for 10 minutes for pictures. Natalee had fun in the Elmo exhibit though. She went into "Elmo's World", laughed at the farting noises, went to the grocery store and posed next to cut out characters.

The rest of the center I think was too advanced for her. She didn't really care about any of it, she preferred to ride the elevator.

We've been to Schnepf Farms twice now to feed the deer.

They are so gentle and love to eat grapes from our hands.

As soon as we walk up to their cage they come right up to the fence and wait patiently for us to feed them.

They are so cute but I feel so bad for them. They are covered in flies and the skin from their antlers is shedding and hanging all over their face. It's a sad sight.

Josh finished his 1st weight loss competition at work. In just 5 weeks he lost 24 lbs. and came in 2nd place. The winner lost 10.4% of his body fat and Josh 10.1% so it was so close. Most importantly, he is a lot healthier. He hasn't had a soda in 7 weeks, he only drinks water, he's eating healthier, juicing and working out. I'm very proud of him and how disciplined he is. I am such a bad influences buying tubs of red vines and eating a snack in bed every night. Sorry babe :/

Haylee and I both got our haircut right when school started. Not Natalee though. I won't let anyone cut her curls!

Last Thursday would have been my Dad's 60th Birthday.

I made spaghetti, we ate cupcakes, sang Happy Birthday and let balloons go. The girls and I wrote messages on the balloons before sending them up.

Natalee asked why Papa Reggie wasn't at his party :(

Friday was my long awaited appointment with Dr. Song, a spine surgeon. I prayed and prayed for this appointment and was so nervous. I met with Dr. Song, he looked over my MRI, explained why I was having the leg pain (disc pinching sciatic nerve) and he gave me 2 options. He said the first would be to try a steroid/epidural injection. That would help with the pain while my body recovered. Other than that, surgery is an option and that is one he does quite often. He said he'd make a small incision, take care of the herniated disc and I'd probably go home that day. I agreed to the injection and was sent to AZ Back Pain Institute in tears (I was terrified). After meeting with Dr. Fedoriw we came up with an initial plan. He started me on 2 rounds of oral steroids, gave me pain meds to take when needed and told me to start using an inversion table. He was confident buy looking at my MRI the disc could easily be sucked back into place by laying on an inversion table. Have I mentioned how it's next to impossible to lay upside down at a 45 degree angle with a head cold??? So that's the plan for now. I'm also getting a CT done of my leg and I'm going to a spine PT to learn how to pop my disc back into place myself. If all else fails, THEN I can get an injection. So I'm really praying the inversion table does the trick!

 

Haylee is finally over being sick, Natalee has gotten over the worst of hers and now I have it full force. And we're leaving for Vegas tomorrow. Yay.