Today for me started five years ago last night! I can't believe my baby girl is 5 today, she is so big and so smart! It was five years ago on Halloween Night that I kept saying my valentine baby will be a Halloween baby, and we sure tried to make that happen, but the little stinker had to hold out about 9 extra hours!

Last night she was coughing and came and said mom I can't sleep I'm coughing, so off to the medicine we went and got the cough calmed down and shortly after a congested but snoring Miss Faye. Somewhere through the night the coughing began again, I heard her call me, but by the time I got to her she was back asleep and I just let her be, but when Daddy went to sing Happy Birthday to her this morning, she was way congested and coughing that dog bark cough. Whooping cough is going around here and the last thing I wanted to do was send her to school for them to call me before I even got home to come and get her, so we kept her home and decided we would go and get some movies for her birthday and have a movie day with her. She got two Barbie movies, Prince and the Pauper and a Princess Sing A long.. oh the torture!

Kevin headed down to work for part of the day, but is now on his way home for her request of a daddy's steak dinner, ie.. she wants Daddy to cook steak on the grill. So cute stuff has had a good day and I'm glad she has, despite the cough and congestion.

Gosh it's been 4 days... and in 4 days....

Erica and Carl welcome Miranda RaeLin Stark into the world!!! She's absolutely adorable from all the pictures we have got to see of her, I can't wait to meet her in person, but she has a little bit of special time needed at the hospital to make sure she gains all her weight and she toughens up a bit more for this real world bull :) She's already a fighter and full of spunk from all the postings, so I am sure she will be just fine.

Part II of the knee --- the meeting with the Orthopedic doctor today..

I have fluid in my joint.. not a significant amount, what they consider the small effusion, but it's through the entire joint, and in time... a scope will be needed to figure out what is going on, but right now the doctor did not feel that it was something that he felt would give me any more comfort than that what is already being done, ie pain meds, the immobilizer for when it's at its worse.. like.. NOW. So I've still got to put a note into Dr. R tonight to see what he has to say about it and what his feelings are, but for now.. it's just going to be pain that either will or will not go away. It hasn't changed in six weeks, I am not expecting a huge change now.

On another side note, I won't go into a lot of details but I'm pretty sure I have a UTI so I am venturing to the instacare in the morning to get that checked out. Kevin's temp job ended today, so that means the apartment won't be empty for this mass inspection that is supposed to happen. So little ones off to school, I'll come home and tidy up the apartment and then I'll venture over to the instacare, unless of course i can side track that with a lab request for the test and let the doctor handle it all out of office.. now that is a good thought :)

I've promised Mrs. Erica some Enchilada's so that will be my wednesday quest for her, to make and deliver some enchilada's. After all this, she deserves them and while she is still healing and everything else.. it's the least I can do.. afterall she watched my kiddo's for me while I had the other ones!

So he's for hope of Step-Saver hiring Kevin for the local run, which they have interviewed him for, for the speedy and good recovery of Erica, for little Miss Miranda to keep thriving and doing so good so that all of us can hold her soon.

Nighty night my friends :)

The Knee....

Here is the MRI results straight from the hospital report from the radiologist...

The Knee Update straight from the Radialogist report:

MRI of the left knee without contrast dated October 19, 2011.

Comparison: Radiograph dated August 30, 2011.

History: Knee pain after injury.

Technique: Axial fat-saturated proton density. Coronal T1 and

fat-saturated T2. Sagittal proton density and fat-saturated T2.

Findings:

The medial and lateral menisci are intact without evidence of a

tear.

The ACL, PCL, MCL, and LCL complex are intact.

The extensor tendons, popliteus tendon, and pes anserine tendons

are within normal limits for the patient's age. No muscle

abnormalities are appreciated.

There are no focal cartilage defects.

There are no areas of abnormal bone marrow edema.

There is a small joint effusion. No significant popliteal cyst is

identified. There no intra-articular loose bodies.

Impression:

1. No evidence of a meniscus with ligament tear.

2. Small joint effusion.

Sooo now I wait until Monday to get the doctor to decipher this, but it seems the good is no tear, the concern is the joint effusion (which is fluid in the joint) that shouldn't be there. One step at a time.

I did speak with the physical therapist though, because everyone knows how patient I am, still recommends limiting overuse of it due to the fluid in the joint, icing, doing the motion excercises he gave me, elavation and resting it.

The apartment inspection is keeping me up and moving, which the PT said was a good thing, as long as I am not overdoing it. That is a little bit of my downfall, because this apartment inspection is like telling me that my mom is coming to visit and I want the place spotless. So I don't stay down for long and I then pay for it all night long when I can't sleep, it's a give and lose thing I think for me, but my apartment is clean, the final things will be done today when Kevin stops at Wal-mart for the stove top drip pans.

I do have to say the upside to all of this, is that my carpets are clean, I'm not tripping over stuff, it takes much less time to get the kids to get their rooms picked up and its always nice to have your house cleaned up. I did feel bad having take the kids bikes to Storage, but winter is coming and they needed to go. I'm going to have to spend a weekend next spring cleaning that storage unit and decluttering that some more!

Well I'll wrap this one up for now, as the door of in and out children on UEA break is a constant go today.

Ugh October is already half over! Where the heck has the time went??

Finally after almost 6 weeks of hobbling around in pain with this knee, the MRI has been approved and is scheduled for tomorrow at 9:30 p.m.. After a ruder than rude agent from the hospital called to set up the appointment... well first let me back track and tell the little story of this appointment getting set up.

I have an account with the hospital and the linked IHC clinics which both my regular doctor and the Orthopedic doctor work out of, the main phone number for contact on this said account is my cell phone for the very reason that the house phone being old and cordless likes to go dead without any warning. So earlier this morning I had called Dr. Hatton (the ortho's) office and put in another message, can you please get ahold of my "hand out" insurance and try to find out what is the deal with getting this MRI done. I get a phone call, on the house phone this afternoon, which I answer and it promptly dies, . I ask Adam to hang up the house phone, it rings again in the process of him getting it to the charger and he tries to answer it.. it of course dies. I wait a few minutes thinking well if it is the doctors office they will call my cell phone, after all that is the phone number that I ALWAYS tell them to call me on anyway, but no phone call comes through to the cell, so I ask Kevin to call the house voice mail and check it.. he does so.. and it was the hospital.. DANG IT!

"Danielle, this is "witch" from McKay-Dee Radiology and you have now hung up on me twice. Now either you do not need this MRI for your knee or you just do not care." ... now this is where I AM NOT JOKING. The women actually said this. She then asked me to call her back to schedule the appointment. So I called her back and got her voice mail, to which I responded. How convenient that you ask me to call you back for me to get your voice mail, I can only ASSUME that you do not want to speak with me at this time, so when you are available please call my CELL PHONE which was the number requested to be called rather than my home phone that has a tendency to die to being a old cordless phone residing in a house with children and I hung up the phone.

It was only a few minutes later that she did indeed call back, I informed her that I felt her voice mail message was very rude and inconsiderate based on the needs of a patient and she had failed miserably at doing her job as a patient care person representing the hospital, now she could schedule my MRI in the next available appointment and then give me the phone number to her direct supervisor so that I could report the voicemail message and her poor customer service. While she tried to excuse what she had done and the message she left, I finally go through the actual book my appointment and got the supervisor's phone number.

So I waited a few minutes and then I called her supervisor, which I have to say was the nicest lady and she was just in shock, when we played the voicemail back to her over the speaker phone on Kevin's cell. She apologized and confimed that the appointment had been made and that it was indeed for 9:30 p.m. tomorrow night. "Mrs. Hancock, I am very sorry for that message, it is highly unprofessional and unacceptable on behalf of the hospital. I will be taking care of this matter immediately as we get off of the phone."

Just seriously how someone after a month and a half of pain and having to be on a frakkin' prescription pain killer can say "I don't care" was beyond all belief and shock to me. Like I intentionally hung up on someone after all this time of waiting for the phone to ring! Gah!

So it'll be another busy day tomorrow, as I have a morning doctors appointment for what I am sure he is just going to tell me is viral, but I'll have good news in the I have the MRI and follow-up scheduled department for tomorrow night.

The only other thing going on in our lives that is ready to make me become an alcoholic is this inspection our apartment community is going through! We've had to replace all but one mini-blind in our apartment, the carpets were professionally cleaned today, we've scrubbed floors, walls, floor boards and everything inbetween over the last week getting ready for inspections that still don't start until next week. Hobbling around and with the help of Adam big time though it is getting done. Kevin is working almost full time each week, it's just getting up at 4am that is kicking his bumm more than anything, me it's the pain and not sleeping through the nights. The carpet cleaners today had to use some heavy duty stuff to get the red kool-aid/powerade spills out of the carpet, they all came up and the carpet looks absolutely beautiful!!

Well it's bed time.. and these kids are ... well we're sooo ready for them to go to bed!! So here's a post.. :) It'll have just make do until I write another one ;)

Three kids and first time to the Dentist.. oh boy...

First, I have to say that this Dentist office is GREAT! The walls are covered in artwork from Dr. Seuss! The chairs and everything just fit into the decor and at first I didn't realize that the one big open room was a cleaning and examination room.

I filled out the tedious paperwork when we first arrived, three duplicate forms, all containing the same information, mom, dad, emergency contacts, ect. Then we were off for x-rays. Kaylee was Ms. wiggly and would not hold still for them to do them, after multiple attempts and telling her to hold still they succeeded. TJ and Faye were a snap and they were in and out. Kaylee was off for cleaning first, she got in the chair, they showed her the tools, let her touch them and see that they wouldn't hurt and she laid there and didn't have a problem. Faye followed suit in another chair and then TJ decided he really didn't want too, but we finally got him to agree and had three successful teeth cleanings.

They were so busy they moved all of us back to a much smaller room. The Dental Assistant was back there and talked to us, helped keep the kids busy and distracted while we waited for the dentist, I have to say this would have had to be the hardest part, is waiting for the dentist, I think he was overbooked for the time frame, as I know I heard the nurse or receptionist say that they have wiggled some one in due to a vacation or something coming up and them needing to leave.

Since Kaylee had landed in the chair first, she was the first to be checked out.. I can't remember how many teeth she had, but she needed two fillings and one seal, so we would be waiting for her a bit longer. Faye was next, she has 20 teeth total, 10 on top and 10 on bottom, she did great! She loves brushing her teeth and she was done. Next was TJ, he crawled up into the chair and was just Mr. Smiley. He has 19 teeth, he had to have one very small filling.

Next all of us but Kaylee were shoo'ed back out to the waiting room. The kids played in the little play area, including Adam.. he was the waiter! It was very funny, and only kept them temporarily distracted, but it worked. Kaylee emerged with a numb left side of face and off TJ went. TJ came back and he was a champ!

I am incredibly proud of all the kids. Especially Kaylee as I had really thought that going to the dentist was going to be a major thing for her, but she did very well and the assistants and dentist made it an awesome experience for her and the rest of the kids. Up next is Adam and one more filling for Kaylee, but since she has already had one, I think it will all be a piece of cake!

Gosh, it's been so long since I have taken the time to write, my LJ is long out of date, and I've wanted something more and connected to everything else I already have, so I figured I'd start fresh here. The only thing in preexistence here is a very old picture of Kaylee when she was little.

The picture above is a picture I snagged of TJ and I at Dale and Colleen's house for a birthday party today. It's a cute picture of the two of us and those are hard to come by :) I sure love my little guy, I can't believe he is growing up so fast. Already in pre-school, definitely full of attitude and inquiry. I'm so serious when I say that he and Faye are like twins, where one is generally the other one is and who knows what the two of them are into too.

This weekend we went out as a family, something we have not done for a long time sadly, but now that Kevin is working, and we're a little more able to breath it was so nice to just make the decision to go, though the kids really wanted to test our patience of getting out the door. So Saturday was crazy, but the kids had fun and we were able to see some friends we hadn't seen in awhile, at least I hadn't seen.

A while back I had stopped attending the Ticonderoga (our Star Trek clubs) Monthly meetings, some reasons were that we had no money to join them afterwards when they went out to eat, we didn't have money to go to the activities that required us to pay for admission or whatever it may have been, lack of child care, and comments made about Department Chiefs not doing their jobs, though the last one was directed at many, I took it personally and was happy when we were told we were all being released from our positions and that new applications would have to be submitted if we wanted them back. I passed on the re-submissions. I later became upset that Kevin was passed over for a promotion for another member that could not attend the meetings due to work, but it was his decision to remain and continue to participate. So other than a banquet that we attended at the beginning of the year, this was my first real activity out and seeing the majority of them. I was a bit disappointed at the lack of attendance of the flag ship that the party was for, and from some of the other fleet ships, but was happy to see those that were there and catch up with Erica.

Well.. I've been edgy and onry the last few days, not really able to put my finger on what had been bothering me, noticed my aunt posted on Facebook tonight, on my grandfather's page and realized it had been a year since my grandfather had passed away. I didn't make it home for the funeral, I don't know if they spread his ashes, but my grandmother sold their home and moved out to live with her son. I know when I talked to my mom it was so heartbreaking for me, to think that everything I knew of my grandparents would be gone, I didn't get to say good bye to my grandfather, now their home was being sold all the same. When I get back there to see everyone, a trip out to where his headstone is is a must, a visit to my grandmother's grave on the arsenal island needs to happen, it has been far too long since I have been home to IL. Trystin is 3 and never met the aunts and uncles he has there. One thing at a time though.

Gosh, so many things to write about, I don't even know where to begin really and this could be just one thing to the next jumping of topics. So I'm tired, my knee is giving me fits.. oh yes.. my knee.. Left knee, in an immobilizer and torn meniscus, far from fun. Tomorrow will be the third Physical Therapy session, I'll more than likely be making an appointment to see the Orthopedic doctor again, as the pain is increasingly worse, the Physical Therapy sessions only seem to aggravate it and leave me in agony for the rest of the day. So we'll see.

For now.. I'm going to hit Publish... and try to relax.