More health stuff

Good evening everyone. Hope your weekend is going well. Ours could be going better, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Yesterday morning we headed to one of our favorite breakfast spots, Old Country Buffet. This is a restuarant that is close by, and every weekend they’ve got this breakfast buffet that we just love. We headed out with Tank and filled our plates. I got the Belgium waffles and topped that with strawberry topping. I also grabbed some bacon and a few links of sausage. The Mr hit up the omlette station, making one with onions, tomatoes, bacon, and cheese. We filled ourselves up with food, then headed out for The Mr’s doctor’s appointment.

A few years back, The Mr hurt his ankle pretty bad, and that ankle has caused some issues in his knees, hips, and back. Well for the last 2 weeks or so, he’s been having some pretty bad pain through his ankle and knee. We figured he’d get told the same thing he has every other time he’s gone to see the doctor about this pain; that the pain was due to him favoring the bad ankle. Imagine our surprise when the doctor actually thought there was something else going on. The doctor thinks either gout, or rheumatoid arthritis are the root of his extra pain. This was quite a shock for us, yet it was nice that the doctor looked beyond the ankle injury for other possible explanations. Right now, we’re just waiting for the test results. Whatever happens, we’re here for each other, and that’s all that matters.

Yesterday, grey storm clouds began rolling in. We hoped for rain, the Gods know we could use it, but yesterday did not produce rain, at least not in our section on town. Around 4 am, I woke up to the wonderful sound of rain.  Today wound up being grey, cold, windy, with both freezing cold rain, as well as about 5 minutes worth of hail (yes, hail in March!!). So what’s a gal to do when the weather has taken a turn for the worse? Make a hearty beef stew!

There’s my finished product, along with a loaf of sourdough bread, butter on top, of course! Every beef stew needs a piece of fresh sourdough.

In other news, I have finished the  Game of Thrones book (the first in the Song of Ice and Fire series), which is what season one of Game of Thrones is based on. The Mr is working on finishing the book, as well, so tomorrow we can start Clash of Kings. We’d like to be a few chapters in that before season 2 starts on April 1st.

Alright, everyone, I’m going to log off, so I can finish watching Celebrity Apprentice with The Mr.

In a last minute quickie, Tank has stayed dry for 3 naps in a row!!! Okay, now I’m done, night all!

Question of the Day: 

What are some of your favorite shows that are on right now?

What shows are you looking forward to the most?

Yummy Dinner

Hi all. So The Mr and I decided that we didn’t want the buffet OR Chinese food, so instead we opted for Texas Roadhouse, a very yummy steakhouse that’s just down the road from us.  If you live in Phoenix, we often go to the Metro location. The staff is friendly, service is great (for the most part), and the atmosphere is fun.

As usual, we ordered a Cactus Blossom for an appetizer, but kept to iced tea for our drinks. A Cactus Blossom is like an Awesome Blossom or an Onion Bloom, depending on which steakhouse you’ve been to before. The Cactus Blossom was delicious as usual. For Tank, we ordered chicken strips with french fries, while The Mr and I both ordered the 6 oz sirloin, cooked medium well. I ordered mine with the salad and french fries, while The Mr ordered his smothered with onion and mushrooms, with a side of cheese covered fries and a rice pilaf type dish. Unfortunately, the one issue I’ve had with this restaurant has continued with tonight’s dinner. Every time we’ve been there, my order has NEVER been cooked the way I wanted. Tonight I ordered medium-well, yet there was absolutely no pink to be seen anywhere. The first time I ordered it well done, I was brought out medium-well. Oh well, there are worse things that could happen, and the food is so delicious, no matter how it’s cooked, I never complain and always enjoy my yummy steak. I feel bad that I didn’t take any pictures of my food, I’ll try to remember to start doing that, sorry!

Do you want to hear something amazing? Remember how I went to the doctor today? While at dinner, I missed a call from the doctor’s office. I had asked them for something regarding Tank, so I figured the missed call and subsequent voicemail was from Tank’s doctors’ nurse. Imagine my surprise when I checked my voicemail and found it be message from the doctor I saw today, checking to see how I was feeling after my adjustments. To have the doctor actually call me up, himself, is really some amazing..um, customer service? Is that the right term to use for something like this? Hmm, either way, it definitely makes me want to stay with this practice. Our family practice is coupled with a pain management group, so I just had to travel upstairs, which is nice and convenient.

In other amazing news, we’ve been having a difficult time potty training Tank. In the last 2 weeks, he’s actually been going potty at school. In the last 2 days, he’s been going regularly on the potty here at home. Today, I put him in a clean pull-up right before nap, and that pull-up has lasted until bed time. That’s right, he’s kept dry since 2pm today! Squee! Here’s hoping this is a trend that will last for a while and be expanded on!

Alright all, I’m going to go get comfy on the couch and catch up on episodes of NCIS and Friends. Hope to see you all later!

Headaches and such

Good afternoon, everyone. How are you doing? I’m not doing too bad, myself. Had a couple of appointments between yesterday and today. Let me go back a little. About 5 years ago, I started having headaches every day.  At first, I wasn’t surprised because I was pregnant. Pregnancy means more blood running through the veins and that increase in blood often causes headaches. After my daughter was born, I continued to have constant headaches. The last 2 years they’ve been getting worse, and this last month they’ve been getting really bad. I finally broke down and went to the doctor, who ordered some x-rays, an evaluation by the physical therapy team, and gave me a prescription for muscle relaxers. Today, I went and saw physical therapy team and got my x-rays. Apparently, my neck is supposed to curve and instead it’s straight. There’s another issues, where I’m supposed to have this space between 2 of my vertebrae. This space is supposed to be equal distance all around, mine is squished to one side. Apparently, these horrendous headaches actually have a reason behind them. My messed up neck causes extra tension on my muscles. The muscles and messed up vertebrae cause pressure to my nerves, which in turn cause the headaches. Go figure.

So today I headed in after Tank got picked up by the bus. I had my x-rays done, which should my messed up spine. Electrodes were placed on my neck, kept on there for 10 minutes while I lay on a massaging table. Oh my, that was nice. It was meant to elongate the spine, and it felt amazing on my back, especially my lower spine. After 10 minutes, I was then given a deep tissue massage on my neck, shoulders, and upper back. That felt amazing, too. Finally, I was given an adjustment to my upper back and neck. Oh boy, I’m going to be sore tomorrow. I can already feel the stiffness and soreness in my neck. Tonight I’ll be taking half a muscle relaxer. Last night’s muscle relaxer knocked me the eff out. I’m hoping to avoid that tonight.

On to a different subject. Spring break ends after this weekend. The Mr has school on Monday, while my class doesn’t start until Tuesday. On Monday, Tank’s spring break starts. Oh boy, it’ll be an interesting week. I’m supposed to have a follow-up appointment, with more therapy, next week, but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get it scheduled. Ugh.

Already working on our school schedule for next semester. I’ll be taking 2 classes again, but I may wind up only having 1 physical class. We’ll see what happens. There’s a Developmental Psychology class I want to take, but I’m not sure what my course load is for my Chem 130 class will be. I want to make sure I’ll be able to focus on that and not take 2 super hard classes in one semester. We’ll see what happens.

Anyway, I’m going to get going. Gonna go pick up The Mr and figure out what we’re doing for dinner. We’re debating between ordering Chinese food or go to the salad buffet. Hmmm, I’ll let you know what happens!

Take care, everyone.

I’m a slacker

I am the first to admit that I slack off, at times. This blog is one of the things that was put on the back burner for a bit. The Mr and I started school in January. Between the two of us, we were in school 5 days a week. One of my classes is an English class, which means essays and, since it’s 102, this means essays where I have to do lots of research. Needless to see, while I spend a lot of time on the computer, most of it is spent either doing English stuff, or studying for my Biology class. When I’m not doing school, I’m being a mom and a wife, so this had to be put aside for a bit. Spring break started this week, for both of us. The kids are still in school, the Princess doesn’t go to school, so she doesn’t do the spring break thing, and Little Man’s spring break isn’t this week. So the nice thing is, I’ll be able to relax while he’s at school. Call me selfish, but I like the idea of not having to do anything during the day when he’s gone.

Of course, just because I wasn’t assigned any homework, doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to do. I’ve got my second essay due for English at the end of the month, which doesn’t leave me a ton of time once we get back to school. Thanks to this reduced time, I’ve decided to get some work done on my essay all this week. The first essay for this class was broken up over a month or so period. The last two weeks of it, I was a madwoman..every available, waking moment was spent hunched over my computer, working furiously on that essay. My poor husband didn’t get to really enjoy time with me during that time. I’d only allow myself a little bit of relaxation every night to avoid getting too far behind. That’s what I’m trying to avoid this time around, hence getting a head start on things.

This weekend was a great one. My grandfather’s 78th birthday was Saturday, and there was a huge celebration for him. Normally, 78 isn’t a huge one to celebrate, but last year on his birthday, he had a stroke. So this year was not only to make up for last year, but it’s also a celebration of how far he’s come since the stroke. There were lots of friends I haven’t seen since I was younger than 10 years old. My dad also made a special trip out from Tennessee for the party. My dad made his initial greetings to the kids, then basically ignored them until the last hour we were there, with the exception of a couple of brief interactions. I could write an essay on the issues I have with my father, so I’ll just leave it at “The kids really enjoyed getting a chance to see their Paw-Paw”. All in all, it was a fun day.

Unfortunately, the weekend ended on a bit of a sad note. The Mr’s grandpa is in the hospital, following surgery. He’s going to be okay, we went to visit him today, he seems to be doing well. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go work on my essay a bit. I’m going to try to post here more often, so hopefully I’ll see you guys sometime this week. *waves* Bye!