Picking Up Jon

Ollie loves going in the car...and going to pick up Jon from school is one his favorites.

Eventually putting his head out the window is just not enough

Just waiting for my bro

There he is

The Colors of Fall

The weather has been nothing like what you expect from a typical Wisconsin fall.  Most days have still been in the mid to high 70's or even the 80's.

But the leaves on the trees are turning reminding us that, yes, it is fall.

Time to break out the fall decor.  

Where Are We Now

Nearly a week taking the Tramadol and it has helped a lot.  I still have nerve pain every once in a while but were talking about 2-5 times a day verses the 50-60 times a day I had before.  And when I do get some pain it is probably due to the fact that the medication is wearing off.  I can take 1-2 pills up to three times a day but I usually will only take a half pill 2-3 times a day.  This gives me room to increase dosage if I start building up a tolerance.

Jon is completely recovered from the stomatitis and from having his wisdom teeth removed.  Thank goodness that ordeal is behind us.  

Zack is back in the school groove.  He is, at the time being, continuing on his trend of getting all A's and B's.  He has an insane amount of homework in his English class so I am keeping an eye on that and if I find it counterproductive I will look into an online alternative.

C.J. is having the time of his life now that Halloween Horror Nights are back at Universal Studios.  He occasionally writes reviews on his blog.  For sport fanatics he also has this blog. In my opinion, I think he should become a sports writer for a living.  

Still planning on returning to Florida this summer.  I put my trust in God to clear a path for me.  This is really a leap of faith for me.  

Trouble...killed another mouse yesterday. YUCK!

24 Hours

After 24 hours taking the Tramadol and I have yet to feel any nerve pain today at all.  

Not one single time today did I feel any shooting pain throughout any part of my body.  So far...so good.

Aaand...it's a good thing I was feeling well today because guess who got himself into trouble tonight?

Contemplating mischief

Yep...him.  He has this warped idea that we like it when he rolls around in unpleasant smells that he finds in our yard.

All the way up the neck and behind the ear

Feel lucky that you can't smell photos.  You'll have to just trust me - it was bad!  

Baths are difficult when he does this because the water just ends up smelling and washing him with stinking, smelling water is counterproductive.  

So today he got hosed down outside.  I felt terrible doing it because the water was cold...and I still had to put him in the tub and wash him again to get rid of the smell.

Getting ready for his first hose bath. He has no idea what's about to happen.

Trouble maker.

On My Nerves

When I was my former self I had an amazingly high pain tolerance. After I had my second and third child I never took any kind of pain medication.  Neither did I take anything after I had my wisdom teeth out or surgery on my hand.  I even had a ruptured cyst with internal bleeding and had no pain medication besides the initial shot I was given in the ER.

My former self felt so strong and I could tolerate any pain because I knew it wouldn't last forever and that each day I would feel better and stronger.  

That's why having fibromyalgia SUCKS!!!! Nothing ever gets any better.  Every day brings pain and you just have to put on a happy face and drag yourself through the day so no one will really see that your former self is now gone.  

Thanks to the addition of a new friend called nerve pain, depression has really taken hold of me this past week or so.  

If you interested in reading about my lovely new friend you can read about it here.

 http://news.yahoo.com/nerve-damage-found-nearly-half-fibromyalgia-patients-154800253.html

If I ever questioned before whether I had fibromyalgia...I don't anymore.  The sharp shooting pains that coarse through my body are unmistakable. 

It's usually in my upper right leg but can also occur in my foot, back, arm, side, and ears. I don't actually count how many times it happens but I would guess an average of 50-75 times a day during my awake hours.  Yeah...tons of fun.  

I started a new medication today that has shown promise in about 80-85% of patients with fibromyalgia. Again, if you are interested you can read about here:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a695011.html

  I don't really like to take anything without knowing what it is so I came home and googled it before taking one.  The accolades given by people with fibromyalgia who take this medicine were impressive.

I am praying hard and hopful that this will work for me as well. 

No More Wisdom

The teeth are gone...history...a distant memory.  

Jon had his wisdom teeth removed on Friday morning.  He spent most of his weekend recovering.

His pain medication made him pretty spacey and I caught him quite a few times this weekend just staring into space or staring at random things with this distant look in his eyes.

On another note...this will be my first four day work week since school started lat month.  All other weeks I have only had to work three days for various reasons.  This may be a four day week...but next week will be another three day week for me with early release day on Thursday.

We have been enjoying the last of our nightly walks before the cold weather sets in.  

Crazy dog knows what he wants.  And he knows how to get it.

I seriously can't resist that face.

Cutest Ollie Pics Ever

Having trouble with blogger on my computer so I'm borrowing my (reluctant) son's for a minute.


Only time to post these:

Another September 11th

In December of 2000, Zack - then only 22 months old - and I were trying to get back to Florida from what was supposed to be a short visit to Wisconsin.

Unfortunately the ear infections he developed while in Wisconsin were prohibiting us from flying home.  After a 9 day trip had extended to nearly three weeks and the ears were not getting better...I decided we needed to Amtrak it home.

Our rail return routed us through New York City and due to more unfortunate circumstances, we were forced to stay overnight in the city.  

As we left Grand Central Station the next morning, I caught a glimpse of the World Trade Center.  I remember thinking they were massive.  They towered above the rest of the skyscrapers in the city.  I was in awe.

Less than a year later, they were gone.  Our nation was changed forever by the horrific events on September 11, 2001.

I still choke up watching television programs about that day.  Even now, 12 years later, I remember that whole day so clearly it feels as if it could have happened just yesterday.  

The school my boys went to taught them to sing the song "I'm proud to be an American" and we, as a nation, picked ourselves up, dusted off, and carried on.

And even in the ashes of devestation and destruction....God reminded us of his presence and power...two steel beams left in the form of a cross!

We remember today and always...all the innocent victims on the airplanes or at the jobs in the Pentagon and World Trade Center that day.  And all the policeman and fireman (and others) who lost their lives also doing their jobs.

Computer Work

Just thought I'd share Zack's PowerPoint project for Computer Class.

The assignment called for them to download a background that would describe them. 

Add their name and then add facts about themselves.

The text was to be in textboxes and then outlined.

Insert a picture of themselves.

There was animation too but, of course, you can't see the animation on here.

I think he did a great job.

A-L-M-O-S-T T-H-E-R-E

Jon's Stomatitis is just about gone - so that's good.  He has not said anything for a couple days so I assume he is feeling back to himself.

On my health front the pain in my pressure points have decreased substantially since going off the pain medication.  Who would've thought!


In the computer room I have been thrown a number of roadblocks and just when I think I have one solved...another one pops up.

The biggest issue has been the 8th grade.  There were more students than computers.   There were 21 of them and our IT guy (who has become my best friend this year) and I tried several different scenarios but couldn't get any more than 19 working computers in there. 

And even if we could manage to get 21 computers working we only had the network capability of supporting 20 computers so ----it wasn't really going to help. 

Then...they added another student.  Fine.  Make it 22 - it really didn't matter at this point.

Sooooo...yesterday my best friend IT guy came into school with a donation!  A network box that had the capacity for 40 computers!!!! I felt like it was my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one.

The two of us worked at setting up and fixing computers and the clouds parted and light began shining in the room and lo and behold there were 22 working computers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I WAS SO EXCITED. 

Yah... that lasted only as long as this afternoon...when the 8th graders came in...each sat at their own computer...that was actually working....for the first time this year... eagerly working on their projects...and then blew a fuse! 

Apparently the addition of two more computers has overloaded the circuit.

Back to the drawing board.

Still....Not Quite There

This afternoon Jon had his consult with the oral surgeon for removal of his wisdom teeth.

The doctor looked in Jon's mouth and confirmed the stomatitis diagnosis. 

In fact, he did not want to go forward with the wisdom teeth discussion until the stomatitis is resolved. (It is getting better...his throat hurts much less than it did.)

So...he is continuing to treat it (which basically means treating the symptoms and letting it run its course) and we made another appointment next Tuesday to re-check his mouth and, hopefully, move on to phase two - wisdom teeth removal