Ten for Tuesday

There's a lot going on around here! This is my attempt to get this blog back up to speed.

1. I have a pain in my neck ... and it isn't one of my kids. Two weeks ago, I woke up at 4 a.m. with unbearable neck pain. I knew I'd herniated a disc again. I hate when this happens. The first time I herniated this disc was in 2002 and it has caused me a lot of problems since. The pain was so bad this time that I decided to go to the doctor to get better pain medications. The doctor felt that I really needed an MRI as well. I almost didn't go because I knew that it would say that I had a herniated disc, but I am sure glad that I went. Apparently this disc is putting pressure directly on my spinal cord. Ack! I'm totally freaked out to do anything since one wrong move can send me straight to surgery. So now I will be going to physical therapy and will be dealing with a spine specialist from now on.

2. Because of item 1., my house has been sadly neglected by me. The kids are trying to do a little more around the house, which has been very nice. I even have two signed contracts from Arick and Brianna stating that I may use them as my slaves on Friday for one WHOLE hour. They made a huge deal of presenting it to me and everything. Oh to be a kid again. Remember when one hour felt like an incredibly long time?

3. My "Menu Plan Monday" idea is being modified. Why? I didn't follow the plan. So now I'm going to write down five meals I plan on making that week. And that's it. Hopefully Andrew didn't read the post and come home expecting those delicious dinners only to be disappointed. If he did, he didn't show it.

4. Ella is officially potty trained! Woohoo! She actually acheived this quite a few weeks ago. Except for pullups for night time (just in case,) we are officially diaper free!

5. I am currently addicted to Trader Joe's Gorgonzola Baked Crackers. They are amazing! I don't love blue cheese but these crackers are incredible.

6. Ty is doing very well in Kindergarten. He is learning so much and only came home with a sad-face stamp once.

7. I totally thought that I would get to take naps when I only had Ella home with me. That has yet to happen. I will admit that I am having such a great time hanging out with Ella. More than I thought. I do love that girl!

8. I'm grateful for Tamiflu. The day we were scheduled to leave for Dallas, TX to go see the BYU football game against Oklahoma, Ella came down with the flu. I got Ella to a doctor thinking her sinus infection was back, but the flu test showed positive immediately. Ella was able to start taking Tamiflu within 10 hours of showing symptoms and it worked very well. She was better less than 48 hours later.

I made the super-hard decision to stay home with Ella and make Andrew and the kids to go to Dallas without me. I'm glad we stayed home because Ella was pretty miserable for a little while. Andrew and the kids had a fantastic time. They hunted for diamonds in Arkansas, spent a lot of time swimming, and enjoyed a fantastic game in the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium. I'm sure they will remember that trip for a very long time.

Andrew strongly recommends visiting this website to get your BYU v. OU fix. Good stuff: http://photo.byu.edu/video.php?cat1=Slide%20Shows&cat2=Sports&cat3=2009&cat4=09FTB%20vs%20Oklahoma

9. Andrew finally gave in and got an iPhone, so Brianna got his old phone. I now have two very happy people. Andrew was pretty unhappy with his old phone (Samsung Blackjack II). He is so much happier with the iPhone, it isn't funny. To get the iPhone discount we opted for the third line, which meant Brianna got Andrew's old phone. To say she is thrilled is a gross understatement. I have to admit, now that she is in middle school, I love the added security. Plus if I need to talk to her when she is upstairs, I don't have to yell, I can just call her on her cell. It's the modern day intercom! She has quite a few restrictions and can only call me and Andrew. We'll see how she does before we open up any additional phone benefits.

10. This past month has been the month of concerts. Andrew surprised me with tickets to two different concerts, Keith Urban and Indigo Girls. The Keith Urban concert was a work activity paid for by his boss. We probably wouldn't have gone to it otherwise. We had a great time. The Indigo Girls concert wasn't quite as cool as I thought it would be. He got the tickets for me since I love a lot of their older music. Well, they played very little of their older music and the crowd was very drunk and rowdy ... and if you're familiar with this group, you know that the crowd was also quite "alternative." I still had fun being out on a date with Andrew, so it wasn't a total failure.

Andrew also surprised Brianna and I with tickets to see Taylor Swift. It was the sweetest thing. He was going to go to New Orleans to see BYU play Tulane, but he decided to give up his weekend to do something nice for Brianna. Brianna and I had a wonderful time and we have nothing but good things to say about the concert and about Taylor. She is a great performer and the show was perfectly acceptable for an 11 year old girl to see.

Well, I hope that gets us caught up. We are busy with homework, music lessons, soccer, scouts, callings, family dinners, and the occasional cough and cold. We're looking forward to General Conference this next weekend! Life is pretty good right now.