Mickey's Knee

Almost two weeks ago now Mickey had knee surgery.  I don't know why I haven't written about it yet or why he hasn't for that matter.



It all started about a year ago.  He unknowingly hurt his knee.  He still has no idea how he did it.  The pain had been getting worse and it sounded terrible when it would crack.  I will say I actually nagged him, and I never nag him, to go see his Sports Med. doc.  He finally did.  After getting an unnecessary x-ray, aren't they always, he got an MRI that showed he had torn his minecus.  What?  How?  (This is my understanding of it.  I am not a medical professional but I do sometimes understand the jargin the doctors spew out.)  The minecus is the "padding" between the upper and lower leg bones in the knee joint.  He had a tear on the inner side of the right knee.  The flap of tissue was causing irritation and therefore pain.  Removing the flap of tissue should solve the problem.  Mickey went to a surgeon named Michael Yergler.  He was good.  And he was fast.  Mickey was in and out of surgery in about 15 minutes.  (It was laparoscopic.)   He was only on crutches for about 2 minutes to get into the house.  He didn't need any strong pain meds.  He even entertained the kids over the weekend.  He spent his recovery time playing Lego Batman with his leg propped up.



Dr. Yergler told me not to baby him and I didn't.  I didn't make him get up all the time for ice but Mickey didn't get waited on hand and foot.  I thought he should have gone back to work on Monday but he was a little tired so I didn't complain, it is nice having him home and almost to myself.  We got to run some errands together.  He went back to work and school on Tuesday.  He came home sore and tired.  He had a long walk from the car to class and back again.  Oops.  The next Friday he had an appt. to get the stitches removed.  Dr. Yergler was impressed with his recovery.  He told him in three weeks he could do whatever he wanted.  Now my only question is why did he wait so long?



I'm Mickey Standiford and I approved this message.

My First Sale

Last Friday I sold my first bag.  A few months ago a friend of a friend, but now I consider her my friend too, asked me to make her a brown version of "My Bohemian Bag".  It took a while to find the right fabrics but I did it.  I gave it to T. on Friday and she loved it.  She said there were at least three ladies at work that were going to try to take it from her.  I hope she can hold on to it.  Today I got an e-mail from one of her co-workers wanting to place an order.  Here we go.

Heroes and Villains

Tonight was the annual Trunk-Or-Treat at church.  Mickey and the kids dressed up and went.  Here are a few of the heroes and villains from Gotham City.  (Masks are not allowed so we did the best we could.)

Pumpkin Patch

Kade's school had another field trip on Thursday.  We went to Matthys Farm.  I've wanted to go there for a while but have never made it.  The school usually goes to a place in Michigan.  Matthys not only had pumpkins but a hayride, corn maze, and a petting zoo with a playground area.  It was nice. We had lovely sunshine for the trip but the temperature could have been a little warmer.



After we got there we had to wait a little while in a greenhouse for the tractor to pick us up for the hayride to the pumpkin patch.  Kade sat around and got stuck between two hay bales.







The tractor came and took us for a short ride to the corn maze.  We had to find our way through to get to the pumpkin patch.  I think this field is there for picture taking or these pumpkins are waiting to be moved up to the selling spot.  We didn't get to pick one of these nice ones.  The maze was a little tricky, Kade had to take a little rest on some hay bales half way through.  Look at that sky.

We finally got out of the maze and started looking for a pumpkin.  Before we could find one someone had a little emergency.  The bathroom was a long way away so we found a secluded place with corn that needed some watering.  Kade thought that was very funny.  I showed Kade a few pumpkins and he picked the second or third one.  We had to watch out for the rotting ones.  Gross.

We climbed back into the wagon of hay and were dropped off at the greenhouse again for a snack.  With full tummies we walked over to the petting zoo.  Kade didn't have much interest in petting anything.  He excitedly ran from one pen to another.  Here's a few pictures from that.  The pigs are sleeping.

We had a little time left before we had to leave so Kade enjoyed himself on the playground things.  Here he is driving a wooden truck and train.

Here he is sliding and crossing a bridge.

We had a nice field trip.  Kade's excited to carve or decorate his pumpkin.  I'm sure we'll post something about that later.

A Little Funny

On Friday the girls didn't have school so we stopped by the library and got some books.  One of the books Meg got was a Halloween joke book.  Both girls thought the jokes were so funny.  They were very cheesy with a little humor on the side.  Kade heard them telling jokes and had to get in on the fun.  Here's his joke:



Why did the chicken go to Wal*Mart?



To buy some clothes.



This was followed by lots of laughter, from the joke teller and his audience.  He has a good sense of humor so I'm sure this won't be the last joke we hear from him.  It will be fun to watch how his humor grows.  The joke has already had some changes.  The chicken is now buying girl clothes.  I don't know why that's more funny because Kade then explains that the chicken is a girl.







Mattey's little funny from the other day was an expression she said.  We were at the table snacking or something (I wish I would have written it down right after it happened) and I did or said something.  Then Mattey exclaims "Oh, Mother Nature!"  I can't say that I've ever heard that expression and I hope Mother Nature doesn't mind Mattey taking her name in vain.  Mickey and I thought it was very funny and had a good laugh.  Mat got mad because she thought we were laughing at her.  She hasn't learned the difference yet.  Next time I'll be sure to write it down right away so everyone can enjoy the humor.

For Sale

After thinking about it for a while I've decided I'm going to start selling bags.  Even if the economy isn't doing that great it will give me something to do, not that I don't have enough to do already but I need a creative focus.  I decided if I'm going to sell something with my blood, sweat, and tears (sometimes literally) in it I needed to have my name on it.  Last week I ordered some ribbon from Name Maker.  It came in today.  Here's my business name:







I'm so excited.  I'm putting it in the bags I've made right now.



If you'd like to place an order for one of my creations it may not get done until after Christmas.  I have a long list of things to make already but if I get time maybe I could get to it.  I can't make any promises unless a sizeable donation comes along with the order. ;-)

Taste of Fall

Mattey was given an assignment by her teacher to collect a few leaves amonst other things and make a book.  It's due next Monday so I thought we had better start on it.  We decided to walk around ND's campus this afternoon so she could have a good selection of leaves.  I must say the campus is one of the more beautiful spots in the city.  We picked a great day to go.  It was in the 70's and sunny.  The leaves are starting to change.  The air smelled fresh.  Mat got her leaves along with a few pinecones and buckeyes.



I took the camera and got a few pictures that show off the beginning of fall, and a few icons of ND.

I got this picture of the kids.  Kade's a little fuzzy but he looked the best in it.  I've got to teach him to freeze.

Busy Saturday

Our Saturday was really busy.  We had two soccer games, almost at the same time.  Mat's started first.  She played aggressively but didn't score.  One day I hope she gets a goal.  It would make her so happy.  Meg's game started about 20 minutes later.  I missed most of hers because I was watching Mat's.  Meg got injured (fell on her knee) so she was on the sidelines for a while.  She went back in in the third quarter.  From Mat's game I could see her running and kicking a lot but she didn't score either.  She did play goalie the fourth quarter and again stopped everything coming her way.  I think that's her best position.  She did say she needs to work on having a powerful kick but she throws it out of the goalie box so well we told her she didn't need to worry about it too much.



We came home and most of us ate lunch.  I grabbed a snack and finally started painting the shutters I had Mickey take down about two weeks ago.  The weather has been too cold to paint so I waited for a nice day.  I got it yesterday.  It was almost 80 and the sun was HOT after enduring some days in the 50's.  While I painted Mickey weatherized some wood on the deck off the kitchen.

He hung them up while I made dinner later.  (I wish I would have taken a before and after.  They were so faded they were almost pink.)

Since Mickey knew I had a lot to do yesterday he took the kids to see Wall-E.  That was a nice break for me.  Thanks, Babe.  I finished working on my lesson and gave the shutters a second coat.  Then I cleaned up and went to JoAnn for their Columbus Day sale.  Now this is a holiday that's not really celebrated except by stores.  You've got to love it when they give out 50% off coupons.  I used 3 yesterday!



We then had dinner.  Not exactly the way I had wanted since our grill ran out of gas.  I had to bake the chicken instead.  It didn't taste as good.  Then we, mostly Mickey, got the kids to bed and I worked out.  Then he came down and did what he had been waiting to do all day.  Play the Batman Lego game.  He's finished the Star Wars Lego game so this is his new obsession.

Kade Goes to the Dentist

It kind of sounds like a title for a Curious George book, doesn't it?  Kade was much better behaved than George ever would have been.  Which is good because I'm not as patient as the man with the yellow hat, at least the one in the books.  The one in the movie is a little more tense, like me.  In April I had a cleaning and took Kade along with me.  I thought it's about time for him to have a turn so he probably better see what happens so he doesn't freak out.  He was really good.  He watched some of the cleaning but otherwise kept busy with the things I brought for him to do.  He did brush the big teeth with the big toothbrush.  He seemed calm about the whole thing so I made him an appointment.



Six months later...I had a cleaning on Tuesday.  Kade tagged along like last time, getting another look at what was going to happen to him.  Let me break in the story and give a little history.  The girls both had dental work done when they were little, before turning 3.  They both had molars that came in rotting.  Some had to be filled, others were pulled.  Now that's not fun when you're an adult, I can't imagine what it was like when they were 2.  That's why I didn't take them.  Mickey was my hero and their support.  When it was time for them to get their teeth cleaned they totally freaked out.  Do you blame them?  Not at all.  So with this being our experience I kind of expected Kade to be a little afraid and then "Um Duh" (Kade's new favorite saying, usually ending with Mom) I realized he didn't have to have any work done so there was no reason for him to be afraid.  Okay, back to the story.  Kade greeted Jackie, our wonderful hygienist, and went down the hall to the room.  I walked in a few steps behind him and he's already in the chair.  He thought it was funny.  I shooed him out and told him his appointment was the next day.  He was fine with that and he let me get in.  He really watched everything Jackie did to me.  He came up to my side to see how the suction tool worked and later he held my hand.  I didn't need it but it was sweet.  Jackie let him get a toy because he was so good.  He was happy.



The next day was his turn.  (I'll be using a lot of pictures in this part of the story, just like a book.)  We got to the office and had to wait a little bit.  This is what Kade did while he waited.

He peeked through the slot to see if Jackie was coming.

He roamed around the waiting room and found a chair to sit in.

He decided he wanted to take a few pictures so I let him have a turn.  These are his.

Then I showed him where the kid books and magazine were.  He pulled out a Ranger Rick to look at.

Then Jackie made her entrance and Kade had the camera again.  I figured no one would want to see the floor so I didn't include that picture.  He wanted to take Jackie's picture.  He told her to say cheese and she did, not thinking he'd actually take her picture.

Then it was back to the room.  He climbed up into the chair again, happy it was his turn.

He got a "bib" on and settled back in the chair for a little ride.  Jackie started by counting his teeth.  On the way there I told Kade that Jackie would count his teeth and I asked him how many he thought he had.  He said five.  I stifled a giggle and told him I guessed 20.  Guess who was right?

Kade was shown all the tools and Jackie was so good to explain things to him before she did anything.  He got to feel the spinning toothbrush with his finger.  He liked using the suction tool, although he really does like to spit now.

Right before the cleaning was over someone popped in the room.  Dad came by to see how things were going.

Jackie finished up the polishing and painted on the flouride.  Kade was starting to get wiggly.  It must be hard to sit still for 20 minutes when you're 3.  He was done and waiting for the dentist to come in to take a look.  He got to wiggle a little then.  I was really surprised that Kade wasn't frightened by Dr. B. when he wanted to take a look in his mouth.  He was wearing a mask and funky glasses.  I think it's a little scary but maybe that's just me.

Here's Kade with his clean, shiny teeth.

When that was done Kade got some goodies.  He had been waiting to pick out a new toothbrush.  He picked Mater, from Cars.  He told Mickey he would get him a Batman one.  How cute.  Jackie gave him toothpaste and floss too.  He was so happy to have his own bag of loot.

And we can't forget the favorite part about going to the dentist, picking a toy.

Kade was terrific.  He was a great little patient.  I don't think we'll have a problem taking him anywhere.  I better knock on wood, just in case.

P.S.  Please don't think I'm one of those weird mothers that photographs everything her children do.  This was his first dental visit and I actually remembered the camera.  And since I'm really behind with everyone's scrapbooks I just did it digitally, in a way.  Now when I get around to scrapping this event I won't have to remember any of the details, I can just look them up.  Nice.