October

I've been a huge slacker, I know.... Here's a quick post to catch you up.
The last week and a half was pretty insane, starting with Thanksgiving weekend. My sister Christi and her family were here for the long weekend, although they spent most of it with Mike's bro and his family. James and Sharon were kind enough to include us in their family dinner and after dinner, Mike and Chris came over to see the new place. They spent a few hours with us on Sunday afternoon and then came over again on Monday morning to spend the day and night at our place. Mike and Trev worked their butts off putting up drywall in the morning while Christi and I watched the kids and made dinner. We headed to the pool in the afternoon and then just chilled and played games that evening. I've never had a sibling stay at my place before and I loved it!
After they left on Tuesday, I spent the day preparing for Mom & Dad's visit. They came Wednesday in time for supper and were here until Saturday morning. Mom and Dad were in town because their friend, Rudolfo, from Cuba was here, so they spent a good deal of time with him. Mom & Dad don't really know how to just relax, and I gotta say, I'm glad! Just kidding, but we got a lot done! My whole kitchen has been painted, walls and trim! They're such hard workers! I was honored to have Rudolfo (and of course Mom & Dad) for dinner on Friday night. I feel like I know Rudolfo pretty well through what I've heard from Dad, but it was really neat to visit with him. What a great guy!
Saturday afternoon, Trev's mom and his sisters and nephews came for a visit. We had such a great time together. The kids played so well and I really enjoyed getting out to do some shopping with Laura and Nicole. We got to take Gavin swimming for the first time and he loved it! Val bought me a house-warming gift, a 7 ft. tall apple tree! I'm so excited to see it in the spring, blossoms and all. I've never had so many people in my house at once, but it went really well... Lots of room for people to sleep and the backyard worked great for getting the kids to run off their energy!
So, perhaps you can see why I haven't been blogging.... Who has time when you're cleaning frantically in between company!
A couple of other things going on in my life....
I had an MRI last week to see what's happening in my back. I went to the neurologist on Tuesday of this week to get the results. Since I fell during my pregnancy with Sam, I've been having so much pain in my back and now I know why. The cartilage in the L5 disc has been torn and so the disc keeps slipping through the hole that shouldn't be there. It's putting some pressure on the nerves, which is causing the numbness and dead toes. Unfortunately, I don't qualify for surgery at this time, although that may come later. The doc put me on some nerve blockers and has booked me in for a cortisone shot (not until Dec 9! That's the earliest available appointment!) I kind of got the feeling that there's not much they can do outside of surgery and since cartilage has so little blood flow, healing is unlikely. The doctor told me that what I'm feeling is the same as when someone tears cartilage in their knee... very painful! In some ways, I was surprised to hear that it wasn't something simple to fix... Physio won't help since building muscle mass won't repair the tear and hold the disc in place. I was happy to learn, though, that it's not just all in my head. I think that was my biggest concern; that it was nothing and I was being a baby. Anyway, I'm going to my family doc next week to ask him some questions about promoting healing and what kind of activity I should engage in or avoid.
The other thing going on in my life is that I'm donating my hair tomorrow! My mom mentioned to me a while ago that I should think about donating my hair for a wig for cancer patients and although she was suggesting it only if I was going to cut my hair anyway, I've decided to do it for her. She's a cancer survivor and I'm so proud of her for winning her fight! I called a salon yesterday to ask about the requirements and learned that I do, in fact, have enough hair to donate and since it's not been dyed or permed or treated in anyway, it's perfect for this purpose! I'm really excited about it. I plan to grow it long again, but it'll be a fun change for now!
Anyway, now you're caught up.... Here's a slideshow detailing the last couple of weeks!

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