Sunday, November 30, 2008

In case you didn't believe me...

Matt decided to videotape Trent doing the 100 piece puzzle today. He made this funny video. Check it out! And make sure to turn up your sound because that makes it even more funny!


Saturday, November 29, 2008

Ages 5+

We had a really busy day today. We got up pretty early for a Saturday. After getting everyone clean, dressed, and ready, we headed to run some errands. I got some new tennis shoes at Fleet Feet. I felt it necessary to get shoes made for my feet since I have RA now. I hope they make my feet feel better. We also went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond. We got a new shower head and some Christmas shopping done there. We also went to Lowe's and Sam's to get a few things. All of this with the two boys in tow. Trent was good, so we got him a Happy Meal on the way home. He took a great nap, and after getting up he got busy tracing things in his new book. I know that I am a proud parent, but I am impressed with his fine motor skills. He does a really good job tracing shapes. He also sticks out his tongue while he concentrates which is one of my habits. My Granny Trent did it too, so he gets in legitimately. :)
After doing that Trent headed upstairs to work on a puzzle. We bought a 100 piece puzzle (which says it is for ages 5+) for Trent to do with his cousin Madison. Well, he went up there and started working, and 30 minutes later he was done. I have to say I am very impressed with him. He LOVES puzzles, but I never thought he would be able to do this one by himself. I guess we will be buying more puzzles for Christmas now. I am so proud of him!!!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Thanksgiving Hangover

Whew...
It has been a busy 3 days at the Gatewood house. The last of our company left a little while ago. The tenth load of dishes in the last 3 days is in the dishwasher. And now Matt and I are just lying around being lazy. And that is nice!
Today, Matt's relatives - Elsie, Milton, and Sylvia came over for another Thanksgiving meal. We warmed up leftovers, cooked a new pan of dressing, and I made fresh mac and cheese and deviled eggs. We had a good visit. I found out some new things. Sylvia is a drug rep, and she sees my endocrinologist a lot. She told me that he is from South Africa. I knew that he had an accent, but I never knew what it was. His son INVENTED Pay Pal. He also produced the movie, "Thanks for Smoking." Weird, huh? How many of you Memphians knew that the inventor of Pay Pal went to MUS? I guess you learn something new everyday.
Anyway, Trent had the BEST time ever this last few days. He loves his cousin Madison, and he didn't want to see her go. They were so sweet together. They traded Christmas presents before they left, so as soon as Trent wakes up from his nap we are going to watch Wall-E. None of us has seen it, so it should be fun. We hope that everyone has had a nice Black Friday. We have enjoyed not helping the stores have a good one. In case you didn't know, it's called Black Friday because stores are usually in the "red" at this point in profits, but today helps them make it into the "black." I have seen and heard that question three times in the last few days, so I thought that I would share...
By the way, yes we are wearing our MSU gear in the pics, but we would appreciate no comments about the game. We already know.....




Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

First, I want to say that I hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving with friends and family. We did! Nana and Pop (Matt's parents), Susan and Mark (Matt's aunt and uncle), Madison (Matt's cousin), and we had a very enjoyable day.
The last two days have been very busy for me. Yesterday, Matt and I did last minute cleaning and straightening up. I also cooked several desserts for Thanksgiving. I made a chocolate pie (Matt's Ging Gong's recipe), a buttermilk pie, and chocolate cupcakes for the kids to decorate. Trent and Madison (Matt's cousin - she's 10) decorated the cupcakes like turkeys. Matt gave me the idea from an email he got at work. They had a ball, and they really enjoyed the cleanup - licking the icing off their fingers. Later, after a supper of Taco Soup, Trent ate one of his cupcakes. After that mess, I have to say I don't know how his daycare teachers handle cleaning up 15 kids who eat cupcakes. Not a fun task at all...








This morning Trent was the first one up and got us all moving early. My part of dinner was sweet potato casserole, green bean wrapped in bacon, cream corn, deviled eggs, and macaroni and cheese. Matt got busy frying 2 turkeys. It's always funny watching Matt do stuff like that because he is such a germ-a-phobe. He washed his hands probably 200 times today. :)
We planned a 1 pm lunch, and we were all at the table eating at 1. Pretty impressive, huh?
Oh, and I almost forgot. The oven that was supposed to be fixed went on the fritz. It was blinking on and off. It wouldn't stay on for more that 2 minutes. Luckily, the bottom oven did work, but it made us have to be creative to have everything warm at once. The workmen are coming back AGAIN tomorrow. Since this will be their 9th trip, I think that should just get us a NEW double oven, don't you?
Well, we had a great day, and we are about to settle in to play some games..






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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Demi Drama

In this case "demi" means half or small. I used this word because the drama I speak of is a three year-old's version of it. So, yesterday he took a Diego yogurt to school to eat for breakfast and took one of his plastic spoons. I told him to put the spoon in his cubby and bring it home. Trent follows directions really well (sometimes), and he brought the spoon home.
Once we pulled into the garage, I decided to clean out the Yukon and get Trent to help me out. Well, he really had to use the potty so I sent him in the house through the laundry room to our hall bathroom. Of course, he can't pee without his "bear" stool there for when he needs to wash his hands, so he went to the master bath and got his stool. Then he took care of business. This whole time I was in the garage working on cleaning the car, remember?
Then I hear him start screaming. It sounded like the cry of someone who had lost their best friend in the world. I ran into the laundry room and asked him what happened. He kept crying and saying, "sbpnnd" or something close to that. After I asked about ten times, he took my hand (he still hadn't pulled his pants up from using the potty while all of this is going on too) and takes me to the bathroom. He points in the potty and says, "my spoon." He was devastated because when flushing the toilet he accidentally flushed his spoon down. Of course, at this point I couldn't help but laugh which upset him even more. I had to reassure him that it would be ok AND that I would buy him another spoon to replace that one. Who would have thought this morning that a cheap, plastic, orange spoon could cause so much drama in one day?

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Busy Saturday

Well, it's been a busy day in the Gatewood house. We stayed up late last night playing Three Kings with Joey, and then we played Rock Band 2 until about 1AM. Luckily, Trent has started getting up a little later on the weekends, and then he is happy to eat breakfast and watch cartoons to let us snooze a little later. We got up at around 10, and then we go busy cleaning house for our company this week. It never fails. When we get busy doing stuff, the kids start doing cute stuff. We always play music while we clean, and Trent went upstairs to get the Rock Band guitar. We look up and he is rocking out on the ottoman. I took a couple of pics to show how cute it was. Also, Jack played in the doorway jumper for a little while and posed for the camera too. We got most of the cleaning done, so now we just need to do some shopping. We have to go get the turkeys tomorrow.


I have been hurting some today. The prednisone doesn't seem to be doing much today. She did only put me on 5mg, and I think that it just isn't enough. I think that I will go back to taking Aleve tomorrow. My hands, feet, and knees are what are bothering me today. I guess that I just need to give the treatment time to work. I really appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers coming my way. I got a book in the mail today from our friend Lisa. She has had RA for 2o years and is a great resource for me. I am so lucky to have such a great support system of friends.


Enjoy the pics...
















Friday, November 21, 2008

Bitterly Cold

I awoke this morning to a bitterly cold day (29 degrees). With the cold came the aching pains all over. My hands and feet were the worst places, but I also had pain in my knees and hips. I guess the cold makes RA worse. I decided to go ahead and start all of the meds this morning. I took both of the medicines the doctor prescribed at about 7AM. I read that they may cause nausea, but I have had no problems with that.
I am actually feeling great. The pain in my hands and feet is minimal. It is only certain movements that cause any discomfort. And this minor discomfort I can live with. I hope that the treatment continues to be this effective as time passes. I will keep you updated.
My only concern at the moment is my oven. When we moved into this house, the former owners said that it was easy to lock the oven by pressing the button by accident. Well, that was a lie. The oven is broken. We almost believe that we have a ghost. It turns off in the middle of cooking, it locks unexpectedly (no buttons touched), the light blinks on and off, and other weird things. We have had people out to fix the oven on 6 different occasions. It is still not fixed. I told them I needed it in working order by Thanksgiving. And what is next week? Thanksgiving, of course. The guys are coming out again on Monday to attempt to fix it again. Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I really need BOTH of my ovens for Thanksgiving since we have company coming to our house. I will be sitting here with my cold fingers and toes crossed....

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Happy Birthday Nana!

Today is Nana's Birthday. That would be Matt's mom Fran. She already got our card and gift in the mail, but I knew that she would love to see a pic of her boys today. So here it is. I put the good one and an example of the 15 other pics I took to get the good one. :)

Happy Birthday! We hope that you have a wonderful day and can't wait to see you next week!




Wednesday, November 19, 2008

My Bad Day

Let me begin this post with a little background.

When I started weaning Jack, I started to feel pain in my hands. I thought that I had gotten Carpal Tunnel from using my new iPhone too much. I wore braces and took Naproxen to help with the pain. Then the pain started to move to other body parts - hips, ankles, and feet. I had an appointment with my endocrinologist, so I mentioned my symptoms to him in passing. He did some blood work and told me to go see a Rheumatologist. He gave me a name, but when I called they said the first open date they had was February 16. Can you believe that? Someone in pain and needing some help - wait 3 1/2 months for treatment please.

So I called around and found a doctor in the UT Medical Group that could see me in just a few days. I went in and she did a thorough exam. They took 5 vials of blood, and then I headed to the hospital for x-rays. After about 50 of those, I was on my way. They scheduled me to come back on Dec. 3.

Well, I got a call last week from the nurse, and she said that the doctor wanted to see me before Dec. 3, so they scheduled me for Nov. 19.

That brings me to today.

I went in for my appointment at 9:40. I had to take Jack with me, so all of the office staff and nurses made over him. I ended up waiting almost an hour before seeing the doctor. When she came in, she went over all of my bloodwork and x-rays with me.

My bloodwork showed that I don't have Lupus. That I am very happy about!! However, my bloodwork did show that I had a high rheumatic inflammation (arthritis), and a second test showed that it was VERY aggressive. She said that the good news is that my x-rays show no damage yet from the RA. I have been put on Methotrexate (a chemo drug), Prednisone, Folic Acid, Calcium, and Vitamin D.

Now if you know me well, you know that I HATE taking medicines. I don't even take meds for headaches until they are unbearable. Well, now I have 5 meds added to my already full routine.

The doctor says that it looks like I have an issue with auto-immune diseases. I have diabetes (type 1), hypothyroidism, and now RA.

All I can ask is that you please pray for me and hope this treatment works well. I just want to be able to tie shoes and unbuckle seatbelts without pain everyday.

The doctor's only other concern is that I DON"T get pregnant again. The meds I am taking are not made to be taken during pregnancy. Luckily, Matt and I had already decided that two sweet boys were enough, but it is still concerning that I am taking something that would be poison to a fetus. I have had a very emotional day, but as I wrap my head around everything, all I can say is that I am so happy that my children are healthy and don't have to deal with any of these issues. God wouldn't give me more than I could handle. I just hope everything is under control when I go back to work on Dec. 19 (my 10th wedding anniversary).

Top Ten Names for Jack


We have made it almost a mission to come up with new names for Jack. Trent has even started calling him the nicknames we come up with on a daily basis. Here are our favorites at the moment. If you can think of a good one, let us know. We would love to hear it!


10. Jack Jack Attack

9. Cracker Jack

8. Jack in the Box

7. Jackpot

6. Smiling Jack

5. Jack-o-lantern

4. Slap Jack

3. Jack Be Nimble

2. Jack Tickleson

1. Jackeroni and Cheese


Holiday Cards Are Always Fun!

Well, yesterday I tried to take a picture for our Christmas card this year. Needless to say, trying to get a 3 year old (who knows it all), a 3 month old (who is most interested in his thumb), and a dog (who just hates being dressed up) to all look at the camera and smile simultaneously is impossible.

I did get some cute pics of each of my subjects - just not all at the same time. Here are a few of my favorite pics of the day.

If you are lucky enough to be on my Christmas card mailing list, you will see what I decided to use for the card. :)

I think that the last picture proves my point!