Numbness and tingling

Well, it seems that I'm experiencing my second side effect from the wreck (besides the slight sore neck). My left arm has been going numb on me since yesterday. I feel like I need to keep waking it up. Well, it's not exactly tingly like it's waking up from being asleep, but just a weird numb feeling. I do hope that the chiropractor will be able to determine what's causing it.

He can do it himself

Eli can now bathe by himself (i.e. Mommy & Daddy not there to hold him up) in the bathtub with either big brother or big sister. Of course Daddy or Mommy are right there watching the whole time, but he does a great job. He knows to avoid getting his face to close to the water and mostly just sits and plays with toys. He does such a good job. And I think he likes taking a bath with Geo or Gigi, probably makes him feel like a big boy :) Tonight he spent half of the bath time just laughing his head off, mouth wide open, big grin, and just giggling for all he was worth. It was pretty funny. My baby is almost 1 (sniff!). Can't believe he's that old already. Wish you could put a speed governor on time.

Things are finally starting to happen

We finally got a insurance case # or some such thing so we should soon be able to get our rental. We also went in and got an initial exam by a chiropractor (we'll get adjusted some time next week after she's had a chance to look over our x-rays). The kids seemed to like her so that's good. DH was hoping that we'd get adjusted today as he's pretty out of whack in his back and his foot from mashing down on the break milliseconds after impact to avoid hitting the car in front of us. I'm really going to enjoy getting adjusted after so long.

What a day

Well, I finally got Eli to sleep at 4 this morning and was able to sleep till about 7:15 when I got up to get ready to leave for the hearing. We were late and out the door at 8:45 (Daniel was aiming for 8:30) and were making pretty decent time when we were stopped by a red light. We were sitting there, minding our own business when out of nowhere (well, from behind I guess), an old lady in an SUV came and WHaMMo! turned out small trunk into no trunk and gave us all a good jolt (and hours later whiplashy symptoms). Geo started screaming right away, Eli started crying because Geo was crying, Gigi was a delayed reaction, but she finally chimed in too. What a cacophony that was! Geo was bordering on hysterical and kept asking if we were going to buy a new car, why did that lady crash our car, what were we going to do?... on and on and on... I finally sat the older two down and we had a prayer of thanksgiving that everyone was relatively unhurt (no broken bones, no one died, etc.) and that helped them calm down somewhat. I distracted Gigi with the prospect of coloring and after awhile Geo joined in too. I couldn't put Eli down so he just wiggled and wiggled in our arms. The lady who hit us was so apologetic, she said that she had started slowing down for the light, but her new shoes had slid off the break pedal and she had slammed into the back of us. I felt really sorry for her, she certainly hadn't mean to do that and I could tell she felt awful about it. The police got there pretty quickly and we sorted everything out. Long story short it was a looong day and not a very good one either. I do hope that their insurance will cover chiropractic because I feel like I could really use an adjustment or two. Not sure what's going to happen to our car, they will probably total it and give us not enough money to cover a replacement car. That would be the worst case scenario. I'm not sure what I'm hoping for exactly. I wish it had never happened, just hoping that some good can come out of this somehow.

Sick again?!?

I don't know what we did to deserve this, but we're all (minus DH so far) sick again. I think we might have gotten it from someone at the church social this last weekend since it was a pot-luck style meal and lots of kids were there, but I can't be sure. It started with sore throat which is now gone, now we all have sniffles, then tonight I had a twinge of a headache that I ignored (big mistake) which was joined with stomach upset. I tried to go lie down at 10 pm but the headache had gotten so bad at that point (can't remember a headache that bad ever, maybe because I'm really not prone to headaches) that I couldn't go to sleep. I took some Tylenol, DH made me some hot tea which I sipped, I put some frozen stuff (mixed veggies?) on my head and went to lie down again with a heating pad on my feet (one of DH's migraine tricks, draws the blood away from the head) and before too long the headache was gone. But then Eli woke up with a fever and has been restless ever since. I never did get to sleep and Eli hasn't slept a wink (that I know of) since then. He can't breath well and I know he doesn't feel well. He's been nursing almost non-stop since he woke up and I'm not getting any sleep. I finally decided that if he's not going to let me get some sleep, that I'd come in here and let him play while I bum around on the computer till he finally starts showing signs of sleepiness. Our bankruptcy hearing is tomorrow and DH is worried about having to drive and hoping he doesn't get sick from not enough sleep so I made a bed for myself and Eli in the living room. Hopefully that'll work!

He's walking!

Well, I think I can officially say that Eli is walking! He still crawls some but is making a concerted effort to walk more than ever and is toddling all over the house. Still very unsteady on his feet, but he'll only get better every day. He doesn't seem overly phased by his achievement, but he does seem to enjoy trying something new.

We did it!

Yesterday Daniel

1) got some Dry Gas or some such thing to add to the bad gas in the gold car and got it running again,

2) helped me get the washer working again, and helped do a few loads of laundry (!!! :)

and

3) (along with a little help from moi), got the wire hooked back up to the starter on the truck and got the truck running again.

Woo hoo, it was a good day. We still have a riding mower that won't work, but 3 for 4 isn't bad. It was kind of fun fixing things and getting them to work. Today we need to get the blinkers and brake lights running again so we can get the tags up to date.

I got the job

of doing a church directory that is. I figured with a database driven mail merge, it couldn't be all that difficult. So far I'm having so much fun coming up with different layouts (2, 3 and 4 column pictorial layouts, compact text-only layouts...) and learning more than I ever did before about mail merging in Word. Yeah, I'm a geek, but what can I say? lol

As American as Apple Pie

Our church had a social yesterday which got the kids and I out of a wedding that DH said was actually very nice and he was able to meet up with a bunch of friends he hadn't seen since academy and college. So good for him, but the kids and I had a really nice time at the social. It was at the pastor's house and the weather couldn't have been nicer. The kids played, there were veggie-hotdogs and accoutrements, and a pie contest. I took an apple pie and, while I didn't win, I overheard someone saying (not knowing I'd made it) that it was just about the best apple pie they'd ever had, and someone else agreed with them that it was really good and someone else told me that they really liked it too... so I guess it wasn't too shabby :) I was happy with it. The kids had fun even though they looked like they were going to fall apart at one point, but they kept it together and ended up having a really good time. After it was all over, I got directions to the wedding reception (a back way/shortcut) and we went and picked DH up. So we all ended up having a good time (tho poor DH came home with a headache from all the smoking that was going on at the reception). We stayed up last night taking the washer apart, then I conked out at midnight or so... feeling like a nap right about now!

My recipe for Apple Pie

1 bag of Granny Smith apples (bought cheep from Aldi), peeled, cored, sliced
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. flour

Mix the dry ingredients together and either alternate layers of apples and sugar mixture in pie pan, or mix them all together in a big bowl and pour into pie plate.

Crust:

3 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1-2 Tbsp. sugar
3/4 c. oil
a little milk, maybe 1/4 c.

Mix dry ingredients together. Add oil, mix till well combined. Sprinkle cold milk onto dry/oil mixture, mix with a fork till it starts to come together. Mix with your hands gently, don't overmix. Form a ball and separate it into two halves slightly more in one lump for the bottom crust and slightly less for the top crust. Roll out dough between sheets of wax paper. Lift wax paper from one side, flip over and remove wax paper from other side, place pie plate upside down over crust, carefully slide hand under wax paper and flip pie plate and crust over, carefully remove wax paper and gently nudge the crust into the shape of the concave pie plate. Fill with apple mixture, repeat procedure with top crust. Dot apples with a few pats of butter (helps pie not to bubble over all over your oven and tastes great too :), put top crust on. Trim crust to 1/2" from edge, fold under and flute the edge with fingers or fork to seal it and make it look pretty. Poke some holes in the top of the crust to let out steam. Bake in a 400° oven for 40-50 minutes. Place aluminum foil on top of the pie or at least around the edge to prevent over browning. Let pie cool before serving. Mmm, mmm, good.

Toasted couplers

Speaking of the washer breaking... An appliance repairman was supposed to come by Friday, but he never showed up. I started snooping around online because I was suspecting that it was a broken belt not yet knowing that our washer isn't belt driven, but rather a direct drive washer and stumbled upon the Samurai Appliance Repair Man's website. What an AWESOME!!! resource, and funny... You should go check it out, if only for the amusement factor. It's hilarious reading and it's helpful too. By reading on his site, I determined that the drive coupler on my washer was probably bad and upon finally getting the washer apart (DH doing most of the work me consulting the fixitnow.com website and telling him what to do next), found that the Samurai and I were quite right, the thing was toast. Since I had a batch of once washed, rinsed and mostly spun out diapers sitting in the washer, I was really hoping that we'd be able to get a new drive coupler today, but being that we got the washer at Sears and being that all the repair places are closed on Sunday, I'll just have to wait till tomorrow. In the meantime, this is the solution we came up with to save the dipes (I'm giving thanks for a beautiful, sunny day):

And this is only 1/2 my stash! Someday I hope to get a clothes line above the edge of the flower bed/herb garden.

A boatload of ouch

A week ago Tuesday, I was running in the house, chasing Geo when I slipped on the family room carpet, my feet flew out from under me and I landed "plop" right on my tail. OOOhhh, I was in agony. I rolled over in fetal position and just moaned and groaned for awhile till I decided that I could still feel my toes, didn't think my hip or pelvis was broken... and decided that I should try to stand. I made it to a standing position and hobbled around for awhile, but didn't feel like I could do much standing, walking or sitting. I called DH and told him I didn't think I'd be able to make lunch, but after awhile I found that I could make lunch, but it just wasn't much fun. I sat sideways on pillows a lot that first day, gradually over the next few days things started to get a little better. But I keep having setbacks, like when, last week on Thursday, the washer started making terrible noises when I was spinning out, I jumped up to turn it off; another time was when I was running into the living room to rescue Eli who was being rolled up like a burrito in a comforter by Geo and crying for help. I'm wondering how long it's going to take to heal up completely. I really don't think that the tail bone is broken, more like a whiplash to my tail bone area or strained and pulled ligaments or muscles... who knows, but I know I can now sit and stand, no problem, but when I have to bend down or pick something (or someone) up, I have to go really slowly and gingerly or it'll start hurting again.

Molar magoo

I was beginning to wonder why the last few nights haven't been especially restful when I discovered that Eli is trying to sprout a couple of molars. Poor guy, that can't feel good. Another thing that doesn't help is that he hates and I mean hates to get his diaper changed, especially in the middle of the night. It's a chore the 3-4 times I change his diaper. That's why I'm so very excited that my order of Haute Pockets are coming in the mail, probably next week sometime. I think I'll be able to stuff them well and because of the stay-dry liner, maybe I won't have to change his diapers so often during the night saving us all some sanity.

Eli is taking more and more steps, standing more, crawling like a spider (up on hands and toes, I call him a little spider monkey, lol), walking with a walker or pushing a small plastic chair across the floor... It won't be long before he's walking everywhere. It's started to be a problem with him getting into my kitchen cabinets so I'm improvising (till I can get some latches) with some heavy duty rubber bands which he can't get off the handles, it's working so far.

He has started playing with shapes sorters and actually gets them in sometimes by himself, likes to hit his leapfrog drum, loves things with bright lights (like cell phones, I also call him a bug because he's attracted to light), and is very playful. He's very observant and tries to copy things he sees like holding the phone up to his ear or brushing his hair or blowing on tubes like they are a trumpet.