I Don't Wanna!

I'm waiting around for my husband to get home so that he can take me to the Doc.

I was out of commission for most of the day yesterday. My back is extremely unhappy with me. There wasn't some particular event that caused it. I have struggled with back pain pretty much since High School. Add to that a car accident, 4 pregnancies and the huge resulting babies... Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that my back has reason to complain.

***I am going to take this moment to share with you that our youngest son, who turned 3 just weeks ago, weighed in at 44 lbs at the Doc. Hmm...

I hate the Doctor. Not the specific Doc that I'm going to go see - I've never even met him/her. I just hate them all in general. I have spent way too much time around Doctors, hospitals, all the garbage that goes with them. I really, really don't want to go.

Jon doesn't believe me that they will just tell me the same old "here is a list of stretches and exercises" bit.

Got pushed down a set of bleachers?
- stretches.

Involved in a car accident?
-stretches.

Regular pain?
- stretches.

Worsening pain?
- stretches.

AAAAAAAAAA
- stretches?

What good are stretches when I can hardly stand?

So I sit and whine to the internets.

Compare this to Liam last week after he was informed that there was a trip to the Doctor in his future.

Liam: I see Dr. Cruz!!!
Us: No.
Liam: I see the Doctor?
Us: Yes.
Liam: Yaaaaaaaay!

(It is a sad day that my kids do better going to the Doctor than I do)

Update...

I have strained my back (whatever). The Doc totally started to do the whole "Let me get some pamphlets" thing. I smirked at Jon and gave him the "told you so" eyes as she left the room. Then my husband stepped up to bat for me and I got myself a script for a muscle relaxer when she returned. So yay for that!

My back is still killing me, but I am getting more and more freedom of movement. So yay for that too!

Spider Park

So we have been driving by this park on a fairly regular basis since we got here. My children have dubbed it "the spider park". I believe these pictures will clear up any confusion about what it's been named.

Not a single kid is tired.

So unfair.

The Joy of Christmas

By all normal perception this really should have been The. Worst. Christmas. Ever. Things are tight. When I say tight - I mean tighten your belt, hoard your diapers and be thankful for family and friends who have helped you get by. While we have been living in limbo Jon has been serving at Old Chicago. It has been a blessing in that it has put food on the table but not really a whole lot more than that. *A post is in the works fully explaining what is going on with us on that front.*

What money we had put aside for Christmas found it's way into being the means to the end of Lucas' pain. Last Thursday Luc came to me and told me his tooth hurt. Can you see where this is going? I checked it out and sure enough there was a puss pocket below the tooth. At this point I was panicking - we have absolutely no insurance right now. We do qualify for state care for the kids but that has been one giant mess trying to get all the paperwork done. Somehow paperwork can't get done if it keeps getting lost - strange, huh? I got in touch with Jon at work and he started working the phone trying to find a dentist that was both open the weekend before Christmas and taking new patients.

Let me just take a moment to share with you that God is amazing. Jon made a call to a family that we had gone to church with in hopes that the husband (an oral surgeon on post here) could at least write a script for some kind of antibiotic and pain med. so that we could make it through Christmas. Andy told Jon he would see what he could do and call him back. Next thing we knew Luc had an appointment for the next day with the best peds dentist in town. So one x-ray, a tooth extraction, and a spacer later our boy is back to normal.

So back to my original point. From the outside looking in we should all be pretty miserable. Believe it or not I think this is the best Christmas we have ever had. We actually enjoyed each other. *Our 4 kids are awesome - but I'm sorry - they can also be annoying and loud and messy and... well you get the idea.* There weren't a ton of "things" but there was a lot of togetherness and love and joy.

I hope this post finds you feeling joyous and blessed.

Fine Holiday Fun

Elf yourself.


You know you want to.