Another Piece of the Puzzle? (273/365)

I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor today to check my cumadin level and to see how I'm doing now that I'm home. My cumadin level is still a bit high, so he adjusted my dose and we'll recheck in two weeks. The genetic testing I had done while in the hospital finally came in, and the only one that came back positive was the MTHFR gene mutation (I'd link you to an article, but I can't find any one that explains it nicely, and I've given up looking for one. Basically it's a risk factor for blood clots). Thankfully it is heterozygous so it probably shouldn't cause me any major clotting issues, but my doc is sending me to a hematologist just to be safe. He thinks that it may just be part of the puzzle as to why I had this PE. From what I've read, doctors don't agree on if heterozygous MTHFR should be treated at all, my doc seems to think that I should be on baby aspirin for the rest of my life so we'll have to see if the hematologist agrees.

I don't know if the rest of you directly related to me need to be tested for this or not, but I will get the opinion of my hematologist when I go. I obviously inherited this from Mom or Dad (my guess is it's Mom, based on her miscarriage history) which means Dad could have it, and my brothers as well. And if both Mom and Dad are heterozygous, there's a chance that one of you boys is homozygous, which would most definitely be something you should know so you can take the proper precautions to avoid blood clots. Better to know before a clot than find out after like me.

So this could have played a role in the formation of my PE, I don't know that we'll ever know for sure, but we'll see what the hematologist says. I tell you, with me it is just one thing after another!

Things That Make Me Feel Good Wednesday (272/365)

• Izzy totally misses Alice when she's at school. Today when we picked
Alice up from school, Izzy started squealing, flailing her arms and
legs, and she exclaimed "Aaa-iii!!" (or Alice, for those of you who
don't speak Izzy).

• My kiddos jammin' to my kind of music. Hearing Alice ask to listen
to Wilco or Izzy sing Pink Floyd sure makes a Mommy proud.

• Reading chapter books to my big girl and watching her fall in love
with reading right in front of me.

• Dinnertime with the family. With Matt in a super stressful class
right now it's really the only time we see him during the day. I'm
sure we'll all be happy when this class is over - especially stressed
out Matt.

• Weddings. Mary is getting married next weekend! I'm looking forward
to good times with family and to seeing Tori, who is coming up here to
watch the girls for us.

• Cooler weather. Fall is definitely upon us, and I'm loving it!
Pulling on my fleece slippers last night was pure heaven!

• Driving. Did I mention that I actually LIKE to drive now? I still
haven't gone on a longer trip on my own, but I'm going to go see my
MIL on Friday, so that'll be an experience, I'm sure. I still get
nervous, but I'm at a place now that I never thought I'd be.

More of the Same (271/365)

Still feeling crappy, but I was able to get more accomplished today.
We even went outside to enjoy the beautiful weather and work on
Alice's bike riding skills. Too bad I didn't think to take a picture.

Izzy's been worrying me like crazy lately. She doesn't eat well at
least one meal of the day (today it was all three meals), she's
getting tired easily (she usually falls asleep DURING lunch), and
she'd sleep all morning (and afternoon) if I let her. She also asks
for water all the time. She drinks so much that she leaks through her
diapers on a daily basis. I'm talking dry/slightly moist one minute,
and totally soaked the next. If she keeps this up I'm going to have
to call the doc. I'm hoping it's just teeth/growth spurt, but I just
don't know.

Alice has been more than excited to get back to school this week. She
was even jumping for joy when I told her she had homework to do, and
it was the first thing she wanted to do this morning! I'm so glad we
decided to put her in school.

Not a Good Week for Blogging (270/365)

After a full day if doing lots and accomplishing nothing, I'm too
tired to do much else. In fact, Matt woke me up to write this.

I do have one good thing to report, however - I'm off the Lovenox!

Thank God.

I'll be going back to the doc on Thursday. Hopefully all goes well.

A Few Pics to Tide You Over (269/365)

I'm tired and I have a terrible headache so I'm going to just leave these here.

First Full Day Home and What Did I Do?(268/365)

Nothing.

Ok, I read to the girls, and played with them a bit, and kept them in
check, and talked on the phone, and Skyped with Jess, and surfed the
web, and watched Ponyo for the 900th time, and ate pizza, and took a
nap, but I still consider all of that doing nothing. We're going to
my in-laws tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. I don't know if I'm
tired for no good reason, but I certainly am tired.

Matt is back to work after an unintentional week off come Monday. Like
it or not, things will return to normal soon. I'm doing well for the
most part. I woke up this morning with that excruciating pain again
and so I'm more convinced than ever that the pain that sent me to the
ER truly was muscular/skeletal. I think it got better in the hospital
b/c I had the awesome bed that made it so I didn't have to sleep on my
side. Now that I'm home and I have to, it makes perfect sense why it
came back. I'll be talking to my doc about that when I see him in a
few weeks.

Matt is getting really good at giving me the shots. I don't have a
single bruise on my belly (my arms, a different story - OUCH!), just
some pin prick spots at the injection site. He's so good that I barely
feel the needle go in, and sometimes I don't even feel that. I'm sure
he'll be glad when I get the OK to stop the Lovenox!

Thanks for thinking of me, and for the many phone calls I've received
lately. I love you all and it's nice to know that so many of you care.

I'm Home!! (267/365)

Need I say more?

Things I Learned Today (266/365)

• Lovenox injections burn like hell.

• Apparently Matt was a nurse in a past life.

• I have no clots in my legs - woo hoo!

• Hospitals are super boring when you feel pretty good and are
confined to your floor.

• Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland wasn't as bad as I was expecting
(much better, in fact) - too bad I had to check into the hospital to
see it.

• I don't sleep on a hospital bed, I sleep on a jet engine.

• I am probably getting released tomorrow - woo hoo!!!

• I have the best family in the world - love you all.

Guess Where I Am…(265/365)

I may be in the hospital, but I'm in good spirits. I have a small
pulmonary embolism that they found on a fluke, it turns out. My doc is
pretty sure the pain I had this morning (less so tonight) is muscular.
Lucky for me I had that back pain!

I may be going home soon on Lovonox injections instead of the Heparin
drip I'm on now. Pray insurance will cover it, b/c if it won't I'll
have to stay here 3,4, maybe 5 days. I'd rather be home.

I'm off to bed now, muscle relaxer kicking in. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and there's only 100 days left in the year. Can you believe it?!

What a Fabulous Day! (264/365)

Lazy morning with Grandma, eating animal crackers (the kind in boxes)
in the car, spending all afternoon at The DuPage Children's Museum
with my hubby and kiddos, having a very late and tasty lunch out,
napping, then ice cream for dinner.

Does life get better than this?

We're Here! (263/365)

And we can't wait until 8pm!

Steamrollin' With Grandpa (262/365)

And she couldn't stop giggling.

Tomorrow Matt and I are heading to the city for a Roger Waters concert. Mom and Dad generously offered to watch the girls for us, so we're going to heard over tomorrow after lunch. We'll spend the night, then, if the weather cooperates, head to the zoo on Tuesday. I have to say I'm really looking forward to it!

What a Nice, Lazy, Rainy Day (261/365)

• Izzy tried on her Halloween costume (my MIL found it used and
bought it for her).

• Alice decided she's going to be a CareBear too.

• I discovered that they don't make CareBear costumes in Alice's
size, so now I'm going to make one.

• Alice played with Auntie Tori's "cowguuuurl" boots for the 900th
time this week.

• Both girls were hilarious as usual.

• Alice took a tumble off the couch.

• Izzy asked us several times to put her costume back on her.

• I got nostalgic over Scholastic book order forms (my God are they a
deal - I'll be ordering tons this school year I'm sure). I will be
ordering several easy readers and chapter books for Alice.

• Matt studied for school. Did I mention this was his first week of
grad school? Wish us both luck (him more than me).

• He also reminded me that the Roger Waters concert is on Monday!
How could I forget. He's got two days off, now we just have to fill
them up with fun.

• The girls sat and ate lunch together at the picnic table. All on
their own Izzy laid her head on Al's shoulder and what came next you
see in the last picture. I can hear the collective "awww." coming
through my computer (er, phone) now.

It's Finally Open! (260/365)

The girls and I braved the crowd today (seriously, you would not
believe the amount of people who were there) and had lunch at the new
Chick-fil-A. I've been waiting for it to open for months now and now
that it has I have to say I was underwhelmed.

It's been about 10 years since I've eaten at a Chick-fil-A and I
remember their nuggets being super tasty, and their waffle fries being
one of the best fries ever. Well the fries are still good, but the
nuggets, meh, definitely not what I remember. Maybe I'll try it again
sometime when the crowds die down and maybe next time I'll try
something else.

I have to say, I was totally impressed with how they ran their grand
opening though. It's located right by the mall so they had extra
parking set up at the mall, and mall security guards stopping traffic
for pedestrians. One lane of traffic was designated the drive through
lane, and it stretched on for FOREVER. If only those poor saps knew
that they'd spend 10+ times longer waiting for their food than I did
walking in.

They were so efficiant that I walked in, walked right up to a cashier,
ordered (didn't even have time to look at the menu first), paid, had
food in hand, and had a staff member carry my food to a table for me
in less than 5 minutes. Talk about service! Staff members were
walking around refilling drinks, taking trash, giving out toys for
kids, putting sticky disposable placemats in front of small kids (I
declined one), fetching just about anything you can think of, etc. Now
I know it is just for the huge grand opening crowds, but I have to say
it made the experience delightful despite the huge let down that was
their nuggets.

Anyway, the girls both definitely liked the fries (super surprising
considering Alice typically HATES fries), but like me, thought the
chicken was just ok. Of course I did have the fact that it was Izzy's
naptime working against me so that could have been why she was not
interested in eating. And Alice just had SO much to look at she got
easily distracted (though she did eat pretty well overall).

Meeting their cow mascot was really the highlight of the trip though.
Alice COULD NOT wait to get outside to talk to the cow. Can you tell
from the pic she was being super shy?

When they got home they cuddled on the couch before nap time. It was a
good end to a great afternoon with my girls.

FREE TO A GOOD HOME (259/365)

Two Unruly Children
Aged: almost 4, and 17 months
Names: Alice and Isabel

Will trash your home for you in less than an hour. One speaks pretty
good English, the other mostly swine as she's quite the squealer.
Guarenteed not to listen to a word you say and to give you a headache
with their protests. Unfortunately only one is housebroken.

Please call at 555-ineedadrink if interested.

10 Randoms on Wednesday (258/365)

1) Izzy is sporting a mullet or faux hawk these days. I'm not sure if
I should trim it, or just go with what God gave her and spike it up.

2) Izzy LOVES Led Zeppelin - and this makes her momma very proud.

3) I bought or was given (how about just saved) WAY too many winter
clothes when Alice was in 18 month clothes. I FINALLY got all of
Izzy's "new" wardrobe put away and it already takes up 3/4 of the
closet. And that's not counting transitional season clothes, which we,
unfortunately, don't have much of. I'm going to have to downsize once
winter gets here and I need to go buy Alice sweaters and such. Ugh…
such a PITA.

4) You can make good tasting meatloaf without eggs.

5) Alice will eat well if she really likes what's on her plate - go
figure.

6) Al can be such a good helper when she wants to be. She actually
cleaned up toys in under an hour today (she usually gets side tracked
and I have to keep reminding her to work) and that was without much
prodding! She also asked to help with laundry, and you know what, she
did a good job of it too. Having kids is finally starting to pay off. :)

7) I'm going to have to start putting Izzy in the extra absorbent
night time diapers during the day. Nowadays she drinks SO much that
she pees through her diaper in no time flat. Four outfits that kid
went through today and I've had enough. She's not outgrowing that
diaper size, she just drinks cups and cups of mostly water a day. The
most frustrating part is that I'll feel her diape and it won't feel
too squishy, but 20 minutes later she's busting at the seams. At this
rate I'll be changing her diaper more times a day than I did when she
was a newborn.

8) Alice really, REALLY loves school. This morning I had to take her
in the building myself (usually the teachers get them out of the cars)
early because she HAD to go poop. By the tine she was done the kids
were coming in one by one and she practically sprinted to her
classroom, ran to her cubby, and hung up her backpack. She didn't even
turn around to say goodbye. Makes me so glad we enroled her this year.

9) This afternoon I put Alice down for a nap. When I was tucking her
in Alice scrunched up her face and said, "PPPPPPUUUU!! Mommy, what's
that STINKY smell?!". I about died laughing and told her I just
farted. Through her giggles she said over and over "Eww, Mommy
faaaaarted!". I'm here to entertain.

10) I don't typically wear makeup during the week (thank you Accutane
for making that possible), but today I decided to gussy myself up a
bit. When I strapped Alice in her carseat this afternoon she's in the
middle of telling me something and she says, "*gasp* Mommmy! WOW,
you're SO pretty today!!". Not gonna lie - it totally made my day.

So I Had a Cavity Filled Today (257/365)

And let me just say it is certainly a weird experience to have half of
one's nose immobilized. I've never had that issue before since I've
never had a cavity in that area before, and I hope I never do again.
It wasn't uncomfortable, but it sure was weird only being able to
flare one nostril. Once I discovered this do you think I stopped doing
it? Nope, did it until the meds wore off. I started to freak at one
point because I thought I'd never had issue with being able to move
something after dental work, but eventually I realized I was half
talking out of my mouth due to my lip being somewhat effected as well.
For a bit there I was worried I'd never move my left nostril again!
Yeah, I'm weird and I know it.

Alice was a pain today. I'm not sure what her deal is, but I was quite
happy when she finally went to sleep so I didn't have to deal with it
anymore. Hopefully it won't carry on into tomorrow as well. She wasn't
on her best behavior at school on Monday (she played with a girl's
hair and the girl didn't like it, she wanted to wash her hands first
so she unbuckled the shoe of girl first in line and bothered her. She
got told to stop and Alice cried) and I'd hate for her to have a
repeat of that. Ugh…I sometimes hate letting her go and letting her
grow up. ANYWAY, I just hope she is a good girl tomorrow. I will not
have another day like today!

Oh, Erin. (256/365)

(IZZY, laying on the floor getting changed by DADDY after a bath.)

DADDY: Izzy, lift your bum. Don't be a lazy baby!

ALICE: (laughing) Izzy, she's almost Iike Uncle Chuck!

MOMMY AND DADDY: What?!

ALICE: Because Uncle Chuck is LAZZZY!

MOMMY: (through hysterical laughter) Who said that?

ALICE: Me and Erin.

Happy Birthday Week, Grandma! (255/365)

I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. :) Happy 5-6, Cindy!

Our Last 24 Hours (254/365)

Consisted of:

- driving down to J'ville.

- meeting up with Tori for dinner because she couldn't come home this
weekend.

- when we got home I was expecting a very surprised grandma, turns out
Dad had spilled the beans and she already knew.

- watching a movie with Dad, and he actually stayed awake for the
whole movie!

- I got to sleep in till almost 10am, Dad and Cindy were up at 6am
with the girls. Aaaaahhhh!

- Izzy fell in love with the neighbors' playhouse and protested
leaving it to come inside for lunch by channeling her inner ostrich
and burying her head in the sand.

- Alice "had her first dwivin yesson" behind the wheel of a Big Wheel,
and she plowed down her sister once.

- the girls went on a nature hunt with Auntie JJ and Amanda. Alice
came home with lots of naturey stuff, and Izzy came home passed out in
JJ's arms (both of the girls decided nap time was play time today).

- we ate a yummy chicken dinner Koinonia to help them raise money for
various things.

- Izzy ate well, but she was much more interested in Uncle Chuck's hat.

- we came home and the girls watched most of Dumbo before heading to
bed.

- Matt and I are off to see The American, starring George Clooney,
here in a bit. Hopefully it's worth the $$$.

Peek-a-boo! (253/365)

Thankfully, this is usually how my mornings go when we have to drop
Alice off at preschool. We wait in line and one by one the teachers
come to the cars and take the kids inside, but we're usually 15-10
minutes early so this is how they kill time.

I'll Be SO Glad When We Are Done Having Kids (252/365)

The change of seasons is nearly upon us, and that means it's time to go through the kids' clothes and box up the old, and bring in the new (or in Izzy's case, new to her). Let me just say that there is almost NOTHING I hate more than sorting through boxes of clothing, picking out the items that may work (because there's the whole born in different seasons issue), washing, putting new clothes away, folding and boxing up the old clothes, labeling the boxes, etc, etc. If it weren't for the totally wasteful nature of it all, I'd almost rather just go to the store and buy everything new. After sorting through FIVE boxes tonight I'm done, until tomorrow that is.

All will be well with the world again once I'm done, and I can't wait.

Do You See It? (251/365)

Alice brought this painting home from school today. I thought it was a picture of a cat, boy was I wrong! I had her retell me the story while recording her on my phone so the second telling wasn't nearly as awesome as the first, but you get the picture.

Or do you?

I sure don't!

Top 10 Things That Sucked About Today (250/365)

10) I slept on the couch last night and woke up with a back ache. I
forgot that the loveseat is actually more comfortable than the big
couch.

9) Getting two kids ready to go to the grocery store takes entirely
too long.

8) Shopping with two kids at said grocery store takes entirely too long.

7) Shopping while feeling like you're going to puke, pass out, or pull
your hair out from the headache pain SOOOOO not fun.

6) Biting my tongue while a cashier who would rather oogle my kids
than pack my groceries properly while I feel like I'm going to hurl or
fall over. Next time I will ask her to double bag it herself if she
intends on stuffing my bags so full.

5) Lugging groceries up my rediculous stairs while feeling like crap
with screaming children in tow. I curse Matt's name for buying a place
with such steep stairs every shopping trip!

4) Having to sit down and eat something before putting groceries away
for fear I may pass out if I didn't.

3) I stupidly made taco soup when I got home because it's what I had
planned before I started feeling sick. Big mistake.

2) Waking Alice from that late nap to eat dinner. I need to learn not
to poke the bear.

1) Izzy having a major sick poo diaper blow out all over herself and
her highchair. Then having to help clean it up while queezy. I'm
pretty shocked I didn't lose my dinner.

Hopefully we'll all be ok in the morning. Ugh!

By the way, Happy Birthday, Grandma Cindy! Had we not had the day we
had you would have had a video. Maybe you'll get lucky and get one
tomorrow. Love you and we miss you!

Labor Day is Not a Day of Rest in Our House (249/365)

Everyone, especially Matt, was put to work today. Alice's favorite gig
- helping Daddy assemble some shelves that have been sitting
unassembled for months. She's pretty good with a hammer, if you ask
me! We accomplished almost every task on the list, so I'm quite happy!

I Think We've Been Away Too Long (248/365)

I have a feeling the girls have both missed going to Grandma and
Grandpa's house on Sundays.

Something tells me the girls were missed as well. (By the way, that
crazy pic of my FIL is of him playing with the girls. They sure do
enjoy their Boompa.)

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAGS!! We all hope you had a great day.

Oh How the Girls Love when Uncle Chuck and Erin Visit (247/365)

Our days activities consisted of early morning wake up calls (Alice
was making noise with Velcro so They would wake up and Matt got a
right hook to the face), Duncan Donuts, upside-down laugh fests, Izzy
being crazy attached to Erin, being lazy together on the couches,
Ponyo, and we ended it with icecream. Despite the laziness, I think we
all had a good day.

Imelda Marcos Anyone? (246/365)

Izzy is still obsessed with how things work, putting things together,
and anything cooking, but lately she's been obsessed with shoes. It
doesn't matter who they belong to (these are Auntie Kathy's), she'll
try to put them on and walk around. Sometimes she doesn't even bother
to take off her shoes first. Other times she'll pick up shoes and try
to put them on my feet. I can't help but feel a bit like Cinderella
when she puts my shoe on my foot, or like one of her step-sisters when
she tries to put her own shoe on my foot.

Minus the whole chopping off toes thing, of course.

Can You Guess What Izzy is Doing? (245/365)

I'll give you a hint, she is NOT looking for something she dropped.

Give up? Poor thing is actually sleeping! She started to get crabby
during lunch and was very slowly eating her food. Next thing I know
she's pulling a Grandpa Charlie and she's sleeping sitting up. Then,
just like G'pa, her head gets heavy and starts to flop…right onto her
highchair! She must have been super tired because it didn't even
phase her, she just sat up (while sleeping), then laid her head down
like this.

Wanna know the craziest part? Once I put her to bed (about 5 min
after she fell asleep) it took her an hour to go back to sleep! Silly
baby.

Day 2 of preschool tomorrow. Cross your fingers all goes well!!

Why Can't She Feel the Same Way at Home? (244/365)

Alice started preschool today! As I predicted, she didn't have any
seperation issues - and neither did I, in case you were wondering.
Unfortunately I wish she had been old enough for the afternoon class
because it took me a half an hour to get there this morning, and it
should have taken 15 minutes. I know now why people get road rage.
Due to jerkstores and a rediculously short light, we were stopped at a
green light - TWICE. Needless to say we made it JUST in time. Some
day I'll live in a less cogested area…some day I'll live in a less
cogested area…

Anyway, as you might expect, Alice loved it! She sang songs, played
games, made new friends, and learned how to do "crisscross-
applesauce" (a method for teaching kids how to sit Indian style). What
was her favorite part you ask?! When she told me I was certain my kid
had been replaced with a pod person - cleaning up the toys!
Seriously, kid?! That is EASILY her least favorite part of the day
here at home, even when I make it fun.

At least now I have something to hang over her when we clean at home.
In fact, I've already used it!

ALICE: "NO! I. DON'T. WANT. TO. CLEANUPTOYS!!!!!! Hmmph."

MOMMY: "Remember when you said cleaning up toys was your FAVORITE part
of preschool? Let's pick up toys please."

ALICE: "Ooooook, Mommy."

After school we played, ate lunch, then we ALL took a 4 hour nap. Even
Mommy. It was a long night as Izzy was not a happy camper (thankfully
she seems much better today) and I didn't sleep well. Tomorrow we
clean because Uncle Chuck and Erin will be here this weekend and the
house is trashed. And not Auntie Annie's version of trashed - really
trashed! You know we love you, and your OCD. ;)

One last photo, Alice enjoying one hell of a celebration s'more. I
found these massive marshmallows at the store the other day and I
could not pass them up. We roasted them over an open flame in our
kitchen, just like Mom used to, and boy were they delicious!