Razorbacks and Therapy

First of all, the Razorbacks are going to cause Rob to NEED therapy. 

But, having awesome friends, like Justin and Debbie and Becca and Drew, who threw AWESOME tailgates sure helps.

The spot they got us had SCENERY! What????

And a picture of a Hog pushing an Alabama thing in the ground. The team did not see this play apparently. Sigh.......

Now lets talk about an area of our life that we are WINNING! I am sure that, as faithful blog readers (bleaders?), you remember that we have had our ups and downs in the speech department with Rylan. There was the 2 year visit where the doctor didn't think there was a problem. There was screaming of the word "NURCH" in JC Penny, there was the moment Rylan asked me "what you doing?" that I, literally, cried because I read that asking a question is an absolute positive sign that all synapses in the brain are firing on demand.

At Rylan's 3 year visit, the doc agreed he needed speech therapy. The long therapin' process began January 2012.  We live in the boondocks, and live off one income, so we chose to go with the local Speech Co-op rather than drive 30+ miles and pay out the whazoo for therapy. This is helpful on the driving and moolah front, but seriously unhelpful in the "too many kids, not enough therapists, too much work, not enough pay" category of life. 

They told me he would need to get evaluated for both developmental and speech therapy. I thought he'd sail through the developmental and qualify for speech in 12 different ways. Ummmm....he qualified for developmental therapy in 3 categories and qualified for speech in only one. I was wrong. 

It took them FIVE. WHOLE. MONTHS. to accept Rylan to speech and developmental therapy. Lots of evaluations to work through. Lots of tape. Lots of crappity crap. They accepted him May 20. School let out May 28. They work on the school's schedule. Where am I going with this? They took 5 months to accept him, and accepted him in time to take a 3 month break. 

Over the summer, I did what I could with Rylan. I got lots of worksheets from sister Tammy (who, by chance is a speech therapist FOR KIDSSSS whoop whoop), worksheets off the internet, and we got Rylan (and Max) in an actual preschool that has provided lots of classroom time, lots of playtime, and lots and lots of social interaction. From our home-work and his 2 days/week at school, Rylan's speech has gotten so much better.

Now we are in September. School is in session. So is speech and developmental therapy**. We have a lady that brings us Hippy work (basically "preschool at home) on Tuesdays. On Wednesdays and Thursdays we go to the local elementary school for speech. When Max goes down for a nap, Rylan and do extra work so that we can show the Hippy teacher and the therapists just how awesome he is. 

I am amazed at Rylan. He is a hard worker and very good and attentive with his teachers and therapists. And, I am so, so, so, so thankful that all of these things have started. It is stressful to have somewhere to be and homework for a 3 year old, but GOOD stressful. For 2 years, Rob and I have carried this weight on our shoulders and it feels like there are many people helping us carry that weight now, and at the same time the weight is getting lighter and lighter.

Practicing cutting. I got a free subscription to Martha Stewart magazine a while back 

and I am more than happy to donate that stuff to Rylan to cut the shit out of. Martha is 

not my people. Her stuff is too difficult and she has an attitude. It carries through in her magazine.

 I do appreciate her help in getting Rylan mad cutting skills.

And brother gets a little developmental therapy as well. Side note.: Don't give Max scissors. If you like your skin, hair, table, cocker spaniel ect.

**If you are wondering why Rylan, who could climb to the top of a jungle gym at 1 year of age and has been able to get himself in and out of his carseat since he was 2 and can throw trash away, put stuff in the laundry basket for me and already knows his left and right feet qualified for developmental therapy in lots of categories, I'll tell ya. Rylan has trouble with things that go in order. He gets overwhelmed. He can't count to 10, but he can stack 13 blocks. He can't say his full alphabet at almost 4 but he can recite his favorite song. If I give him a paper with several items on it and ask him to count them, he starts out fine and then just names every number he's ever heard and looses patience. He doesn't hold a pencil right, he holds it like a baby does, with a fist instead of three fingers but he can work just about any toy he was ever given. In an older person, he would probably be tested for a form of dyslexia. Developmental therapy is helping him with this. And it is getting better. The best thing is that this is what they are good at and they give me direction for how I can help him. Thankful. Thankful. Thankful.

An update and a review

An Update:
I've lost 3 pounds. Not unbelievable awesomeness, but not shabby considering I had surgery in the middle of it and caught myself laying in bed shoving Nutter Butter bites in my mouth in the aftermath!

I FEEL better than I have in a long time. The symptoms that caused me to have the endometrial ablation were not fun, then in August they put me on medicine that made me go into temporary menopause. Just a suggestion? Don't do this in August.

Menopause=hot flashes
August+hot flashes=Sweaty beast

Just sayin'. I'm a sweaty beast as of late. But its getting better. Its all getting much better. I don't lie, that I was dealing with the symptoms and trying to ignore them and I straight up puked in front of my patient at work one day. Called the doc that very day and asked for a visit.

A Review:

During my surgery recovery, in a percocet induced state, I had the BEST IDEA I'VE EVER HAD (it felt like it at the time). I decided that as part of my weight loss I was going to try all different workouts and workout videos and blog about them for the betterment of mankind. All two of mankind that will read this. So, with the help of a percocet happy high, I put approximately 42 workout videos in my Netflix queue**.

So, here's my first installment:

I like Boot Camp type workouts. For as jovial and bouncy as I seem, I can't stand happy go lucky workout instructors. Drive me nuts. I like for people just to yell at me and be super serious and I don't want hard routines that  you have to learn. I just want to get in, get out and burn some calories.

This video MOSTLY does this. I, personally, in all my 40 pounds overweight knowledge, think its inappropriately named. I don't think its a Boot Camp workout, as much as Interval Training or Cross Training. That being said, it was a good workout, had options for high and low impact, used weights and your own body weight to increase calorie burn and 30 minutes went by in a blink of an eye. And the next day I. WAS. SORE. So, obviously something got worked that hasn't been worked in a while. I have done a different Biggest Loser workout that was super cheesy, this one was less cheesy, but no without a decent amount of cheesy comments and not great music.

On a scale of 4 fat rolls being AWESOME and 0 Fat rolls being NOT WORTH YOUR TIME, I give this a solid 2.5 fat rolls.

**I also pinned about 900 things on Pinterest and earned 520 Swagbucks. Its a really good thing I didn't have a credit card at the ready, I would own like 10 As Seen On TV products.

Scenes from last week

We started the week out right with some Whole Wheat Pancakes. They aren't as good as whole WHITE pancakes, but I'm trying to drop a few alot of poundage, so whole wheat it is. Pretty dandy.

Then we ventured out to enjoy a snippet of non-rainy day

OMG the cuteness

Gosh he is so freakin cute, too.

On the hunt for acorns. 

Rylan and his sticks. Love.

I remembered why you don't put your kid in a white monogrammed shirt and go in the backyard to play.

Then, we embraced the crazy amount of rain from Hurricane (Ivan, Even, Isaac?) and went to Chuck E. Cheez. Max's newest phrase? Chuck E. Cheez. When your almost two year old utters Chuck E. Cheez with lots of spit and toddler-ism thrown in there, its so freakin cute, you race to Chuck E. Cheez. The actual mouse himself was on hand to dance with the kids and throw out free tickets. To which Max got a face like he was being chased by an ax murderer and pretty much told Chuck E. Cheez where he could shove his pizza. Now if you ask him where we went he says "Chuck E. Cheez MOUSE!"

Then I did a little of this.  Look at me with a protective hand over my uterus. "mah angry uterus is gonna get a beating!" I happily accepted all sedatives and pain meds offered. It was a pretty incident free experience. I did have to stop myself, in a drug induced state, from asking my anesthesiologist why he chose the Yosemite Sam moustache. It was really hard not to say anything. Really really hard.

While I surgeried, my sons played with Grammy and Papa. And they had a blast.

They was pepper picking

Dolls? My kids are pretty secure in their manhood.

Popsicles!!!!! Side-note, Max calls these Cocksicles. Its funny every time.

And then Rob went and picked my precious boys up and brought their sleeping selves home to me and I couldn't stop kissing and cuddling and smelling them (Percocet?). Never realized that I smell my kids till Rob handed me Max and he laid on my shoulder and I took a big whiff and sighed happily. I'm so weird.

Our awesome neighbor, Ms. Renee, made us dinner. Maxers liked the corn. A whole lot. Side note- Rylan calls Ms. Renee "misanay". I'm pretty sure its going to stick forever. Its one of those I hope does. I'll be so sad if he sees her and says her name normal.

And I rested, and Rylan snuggled me and all was well.

And we got our Max and he snuggled Daddy and Daddy read him his Razorback book 17 times and all was even more well.

My uterus is now a happy-ish place

The surgery went well yesterday. I was a little nervous about everything, my mind can play awful tricks on me. I was also not very impressed with the anesthesiologist that had done my pre-op and I thought he was going to be the one putting me to sleep. But, a nice, young doc with a smile and personality came in, and was very good.

Rob stayed home yesterday and nursed me through my first day. When we got home, I needed help getting in/out of bed, changing clothes, and had a lot of pain. By the end of the day, I was walking around the house, sitting in a chair in the living room and eating a big dinner. This morn I'm taking it easy, but feeling pretty dang good. Me, percocet, and an entire season of Snapped and 30 Rock are hanging out today.

The boys are doing good at my parents house. My dad earned tons of papa points by letting them play with his fishing plastic worms. Oh the joy. I'm sure there will be many an awesome pic to share shortly.

Couple more days of down time, then operation Slim Sara Down shall commence. I was looking at my BEFORE pic, and I really don't think it does my current "situation" justice. Even though I've lost 3-4 lbs, I'm thinking I need a before pic that really shows the lumps and bumps so that the AFTER will be so much more awesome. I'm starting to have very little shame. After all, I spent yesterday morn in the lithotomy position.**

**After viewing the link about the lithotomy position, I'm feeling lucky that that's the position I was in. Sometimes you have to look at the other side to realize the grass ain't greener! Did you see the Jacknife position? OY!

My uterus is an angry place

So, I'm shutting it DOWN tomorrow. Well, my vajajay doc is shutting it down.

I have found out why I had tough pregnancies with lots of contractions. I have inflammation in the muscle wall of my uterus.  Big name: Adenomyosis.  My name: Angry Uterus.

At first I thought my uterus hated babies, therefore tried to shoot them out early. Until I stopped putting babies in it, so it just got mad at me. I'm not going to get graphic, but girl time of the month has been horrible.  Puking, nausea, cramping, swelling, weight gain, and just plain feeling like dookie. I know, I sound hot.

So, the doc is doing an "endometrial ablation" in the morn. That's his big fancy name for making scarred tissue of my endometrium and the muscle lining of my uterus. My name:shutting my uterus down. I've wanted to punch my uterus in the face for a year, but I don't think that would actually FIX my issue, so I'm glad I sought the help of the vajajay doc.

My kids (Rylan McQuestions and Max Sir Hits-a-lot) are at my parents house. Pray for my parents. And my vajajay doc. May he be awesome with his "shutting my uterus down" abilities.
Since this means No. More. Babies., can someone PLEASE go to Africa and grab me one of those babies from the "same money as a cup of coffee a day" commercials. Cause I make REALLY cute babies, but it hurts and is scary to make the babies. And, Max is fixing to be two and doesn't want to act like a baby anymore (unless you count his mad love for a pacey) and I'm getting that "I need a baby" feeling. PLUS Rob and my genes mixed together make babies with bad ears and mean lungs. And I like to FEED babies, and I'd like to feed one of those babies for the rest of his or her lives.

Uterus in action

Above and below are positive things that my uterus produced

Awwww....the weekends

Here's what used to happen on weekends:
Sleep in
Sit around while drinking 3-12 cups of coffee
 Float in the pool reading a chick book
Take a HUGE nap
Watch 2 movies

 Then we had Mover and Shaker. And they don't like to sit around. And drinking cups of whatever requires action on my part. And one is phasing out of naps (he didn't ask our opinion) and the movies still go down, but they have names like Wild Animal Baby and Chipmunks. Left to their own devises, Rylan and Max would beat the ever living crap out of each other and eat 27 Popsicles all by 8:36 am. Its best to keep them entertained. Here is an example of a rainy Saturday:

My, that little doggie outfit is getting tiny. Still adorable. Me thinks its time to pass it on to Mr. Miles

We have become huge fans of the Rivermarket on Saturday morns. There are so many choices of what to do. We almost always hit the Farmer's Market. I know you are thinking, well that's healthy. But, we mostly go for this absolutely divine jelly that we are hooked on called Very Berry. It has every berry possible in it and its so good, I could eat it without a piece of toast. Just a spoon. Then we either go to storytime at the library, on a trolly ride, or to the Museum of Discovery. Last weekend we changed it up a little and went to the Splash Pad after getting our needed jelly.

I feel bad, because when Ry was my only child, I took him to the Splash Pad all the time and Max is almost 2 and he's never been. I did take him to a different splash pad a month or more ago, but it nearly gave me a heart attack and I never went back. This splash pad is easier to watch your kids and isn't directly next to scary climbable rocks with tunnels and slides. I lost Max like 7 times that day.

This day was great. It was overcast, and rain looked imminent, so it wasn't busy as usual. Max and Rylan LOVED it. So much fun to see their big smiles.

Eventually the need for food outweighed the need to run with wild abandon through sprinklers coming out of the ground. We dined at the Flying Fish.

My heart is currently smiling

I love Max's face, "mom, we are in a fish place, why are we taking photos?"

And, just in case anyone is thinking that the Flying Fish is a fantastic place to get your fried food fix, and I recently vowed to blast off 40 pounds, I took a pic of my beautiful and healthy meal. It was really good. I didn't even feel like I was giving anything up. I did kind of miss the fried shrimp poboy, but this is a close second. 

So, while things have changed slightly on the weekends, I feel like we are enjoying life a whole lot more. Enjoying this city we live in a whole lot more. Plus, I was told like 788 times today that Rylan loved me and I made two little boys fantastically happy just by letting them roam free in my car while I cleaned it out. There are a few coins stuck in my cd player and my lights, blinker, emergency lights, and radio all turned on full blast when I started the car, but they had a blast. Would not change that for a million of anything.