Monthly Archives: September 2012

My new nose

I realized that I hadn’t put any pictures of my new nose up on the blog. It has been twelve days since the surgery. Almost all of the bruising is gone, but there is still some swelling…I think. I don’t know exactly what the finishes product will look like. It feels swollen and is some what sensitive. Overall it feels great and I love it!

I have almost forgotten that I had a different nose. I will NOT miss the old one at all! I am glad that it is gone forever. I realized the other day that I hasn’t thought about my nose at all. That is quite a change from when I used to think about it all the time and be self conscience about it. The best money we have spent in a long time.

Here is a side view picture.  From the side it is obvious that the bump is gone. I will post pre-operation pictures later.

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I am loving apartment life

I have not lived in an apartment like this since I was twenty five years old. Back then it was just me and my cat and my little apartment. I don’t even know if the apartment complex had a playground in it. These apartments are great! I love that the kids can walk around the landing outside the front door without me being there. I love that there is a playground thirty feet away from our building. I also love that there are other families and kids around. Faith made a little friend the first night that we were here and so far there have been kids outside each time we have gone.

This morning we went to play right after breakfast. It was great. The weather was cool and it was quiet. The kids can ride their scooter on the side walk or in a few parking spaces. There isn’t much traffic.

We went out to dinner to night at Franks Italian Restaurant to have pizza and sit on the deck. The view was nice.

After dinner we pulled into the parking lot and there were three other families at the playground. Tom and the kids went over there to play while I put Miller to sleep. They came in after dark. I keep saying that I want to live out in the country on lots of land where it is quiet and peaceful. I am now reconsidering this – maybe I just need an apartment.

Here are some pictures from dinner…..

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This is actually the view from the Walmart parking lot near our apartment.  I was just excited to see something other than cars and flat land.

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Faith’s First CC Class

Today the kids and I went to the Church of the Holy Spirit in south Roanoke to Faith’s first official class for Classical Conversations home school. She did great. At first she was very nervous and had me sit right next to her but within thirty minutes she was raising her hand and volunteering to help with science experiments. She loved it.

There were about eight kids in her class of four and five year olds. She was able to make acquaintances with another girl in her class. It is sweet to see how much Faith wants to have friends. This is equally heart breaking when the other girls have someone to play with already. Faith is so sweet though. Whenever someone tells her their name she says, “that is a nice name”. I don’t know where she got that, but it is a great way to make friends.

As for the curriculum, I think I made a mistake choosing it. It is way above her head and she really isn’t interested. She just wants to play with toys and do the fun parts. Learning a time line and skip counting isn’t on her list of things to do. I don’t blame her. I think this curriculum would be great for a first grader but not a four year old. Tom said to give it a month. I will, but I don’t want to turn her off from learning already. I can sneak in fun learning without her even knowing it. Teaching her to read us my main priority right now and she loves it.

So far I love Roanoke. It is small, has mountains, a great park with running trails by the river, and we are together. Who knows what tomorrow will hold.

First night in Roanoke

We arrived in Roanoke this afternoon to spend our first week together at the apartment. The kids were so excited they could hardly stand it. They had also never been to an apartment before. It amazed them that there were three floors and other people living there.

The apartment itself is nice. Three bedrooms, two baths, and lots of closet space. The balcony overlooks the playground which is right across the small parking lot. Behind our building is a giant grassy field and there are mountains within view. It was very nice to be able to stand on the playground and see mountains. Something I miss very much.

I think our family will be happy here together. I have been working so hard to take care of everything while Tom is gone each week. Tonight he reminded me that I don’t have to do it all now. If one of the kids needs me then I can actually attend to his/her need without sacrificing the others. It will be nice to do less. Less cleaning, less laundry….just less.

Here are some pictures of our new home away from home….

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Fun Friday!

Today was fun. I was up by 4:45 am to feed Miller, got him back to sleep, and then couldn’t go back to sleep myself. Most of the time he wakes up around 5:00 am, but by the time I feed him and get him back down it isn’t worth going back to sleep because I know that Wilson will be up between 5:45 – 6:15. Wilson has always been an early bird. I used to go to the Super Walmart with him at 6:30 am when he was about a year old. We were up and everyone else was asleep. Why not?

Wilson and I still get up early together. We make a bowl of cereal, get him some juice and watch TV. He eats his cereal while sitting in my lap on the couch. In the morning he doesn’t want to leave my side. He helps me make my coffee and we even go to the bathroom together. It is very sweet. We get in at least two TV shows before one of the other kids wakes up. Then we all cuddle on the couch and watch TV until about 8:00. By then each kid has picked out a show and I am tired of the TV.

This morning we were out walking the neighborhood by 8:00 am. Faith rode her bike, Wilson ran and Miller sat in the stroller. It was fun. We took the long way around the neighborhood which is probably at least half a mile. We even saw a giant caterpillar that I was later informed may have been a grub. I have never seen a grub so I really don’t know what it was. All I know is that it was big and fat and had little caterpillar-like feet in the front. Grub? Maybe.

School came next, only I can’t call it “school” anymore because Faith is beginning not to like it. She tells me that “school is boring”. (Great! I have ruined her already.) Today I just made a bunch of cards with sight words on them and hid them around the living room. We played the hot/cold game to help her find some of them, which she loved. We had never played that before either. When she found the card she had to read the word. We played four or five times and she begged for more. Tip: you want to end the learning game while the child is still having fun so that she will want to play again tomorrow.

Then off to the playground. We took Faith’s friend, Emily, with us. Faith was going to spend the night at her house tonight. Faith tried, again, to have asleep over. I got a phone call around 8:45 saying that she wanted to come home. I was expecting the call. She loves the build up of the sleep over – playing, eating dinner, brushing teeth – but not the actual sleeping part. This is the third time that she has tried, but has come home. It is sweet to know that she misses us and wants to be near us. I will take that any day!

Here are a few pictures of Miller and Wilson at the playground. Since my surgery I have been able to spend some quality time with Miller and have really enjoyed it. He is so sweet! He smiles constantly and is so good natured. I can’t imagine our lives without him.

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Wilson was so tired he was asleep about a two miles from the playground.  Oh, did I mention that we painted our nails today too.  :)

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Handprint and Footprint Art

I am obsessed with my kids feet.  I think that they are so cute and that their feet are as individual as they are.  To me, feet are like finger prints – one of a kind (at least while they are children).  I have taken some really great pictures of their feet and have them hanging in the bathroom.

A few years ago I painted their feet and hands and made pictures.  Wilson has a foot train and Faith has a foot butterfly and hand flowers.  I love doing this but it is very messy. I have a thick, plastic table cloth that I keep for such occasions. It is covered in paint but it doesn’t matter. I can just pull it out again next time. Super handy!

Today I did this on a whim so the kids had their clothes on, but I would suggest putting on old clothes or going down to the underwear.

Here are Faith and Wilson painting their own hands making prints….

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Foot prints are easier when they sit on the table…..

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I tried to do this while Miller was napping but after twenty minutes of crying in his room I got him up. Miller has begun to realize that napping means that he misses out in all the fun. Hence the crying for twenty minutes. I wanted to get his feet prints anyway so it was actually easier getting him up and doing it while I had all the paints out.  Hand prints don’t work for babies his age – too messy and he will just make a fist.  After footprint art I put him in bed and he fought the nap again. Eventually he gave in.

I like to make plenty of prints just in case I mess up on while trying to draw around them…

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After the paint dries I will take a permanent marker and turn these prints into love bugs, tractors, airplanes and chickens.  Wish me luck!

 

The Jury is Still Out…

I went up to see Dr. Smith at Charlotte Plastic Surgery this morning to get my cast and stitches removed. It hurt. I really can’t tell what my nose is going to look like. It is still pretty swollen and bruised looking. I have decided that if anyone asks what happened to my face I am going to tell them that I got hit with a frisbee. It is totally believable. It looks like it got me right on the bridge of my nose.

When I look in the mirror I look very different. Right now I kind of think my nose looks like my sister-in-law, Jacqueline’s, nose. I can’t seem to find a picture of her to show you.  Sorry folks.  Looks like you will have to wait another week to see the real thing.

Funny story about my trip to the plastic surgeon’s office –  So, I walk in with my cast on and the receptionist says, “I just got my cast off today and it feels great!” I look at her and reply, “Wow. Your nose looks so small and cute!”. Of course she proudly says, “Thanks!”.

As I was leaving I asked for another copy of the rather humorous chart that shows how my emotions and thoughts will be erratic over the next few weeks. Turns out that the woman that handed it to me had her nose done in November. She looked great! The three of us had a very nice conversation about our nose jobs. Who would have thought!

It made me think of the saying, “Well, if you hang out in a barber shop long enough you are bound to get a haircut!”. Guess that rings true for a plastic surgery office as well.

Here is the chart that they gave me. I am definitely in the “ANTSY” stage. Looks like Tom, my support person, will be crashing next while I am in the “WEIRDO” stage.

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The two women that I talked to today were totally loving their new noses.  I am sure that I will feel the same.