The results are in!

And it's shocking!!

I have stress fractures in BOTH of my legs! Yep, both!! Amazing!! And so crazy!

They are level 3 stress fractures, 4 is as high as you can go.

I am on complete leg rest for 2 weeks, this includes climbing stairs! No elliptical, no bike, definitely no running, jumping, kicking, squatting with weights, etc. Basically I can literally only walk flat surfaces, LOL.

In two weeks I follow up and might get elliptical and bike lifted.

This is a direct result of running 10 miles on concrete and 3 miles outside my pace the first 3 miles AND running on shin splints to begin with and THEN never really giving my body a break to heal itself. Please if can pass on any words of wisdom, don't run on concrete and don't run through the pain! EVER! 

The doc was surprised that I had them both in my legs because I never really complained of pain, just aggravations. I told him with 4 kids, you just do it, right? And he said that's the patient he has to take a closer look at because it's usually more serious than whats presenting. 

Yeah, my legs ache and throb, especially after working out, when I lie down, when I get up, when I press on the brake sometimes. But what can you do? Well, rest darn it! I don't want to be in boots or on crutches! ;-)

So rest it is for 2 weeks and trying to stay away from all cookies and brownies to curb my depression of not getting to workout!

Ay!!

Who all is tired of this injury of my leg that is preventing me to getting back to pounding the pavement?

AY!!!

Let me first say that cortizone injections rock!! Ever since I did that almost 2 weeks ago for my hip, I have had complete relief from the bursitis, minus the first two days that followed and I was so sore at the injection site and actually limping around.

So, after experiencing the pain in my leg still, again, whatever, from a week ago Sunday, Dr. Davis saw me on Thursday and ordered an MRI. 

I had it done this morning bright and early at 7 am. For those who have never done this, it is quite a long production of getting images of just my leg. 40 mins in the machine to be exact. My technician was wonderful though! It is so hard to convince your body to be absolutely still that long!! My body would twitch in the oddest places! And the noise, to me at first while very loud, became quite soothing. So much in fact that the music I was listening to was getting on my nerves. So I recommend, earplugs vs music. It's so distorted and I was on a morning show and all the talking and commericals were so irritating. Maybe would have been a lot different with just classical music too I'm thinking.

So Dr. Davis should have those results in a couple of days and I'm going back in Friday morning before I leave for, oh wait do you know? ATLANTA!! to visit my new nephew!! I am so excited! I got an incredible deal. But wait, before I go onto another subject. We are looking at a possible stress fracture, yet again. My leg  just throbs and aches all the time now. The technician also noticed my leg is very swollen when I was on the table. Something I hadn't noticed before, but did today and of course right were the pain is. So whatever is going on, hopefully it's not going to be a hard thing to heal. I know a lot of what is going to happen is a lot of leg rest, which is sooo hard for me, because I depend on my exercise for kicking off my day. I have already taken a break from being a client in Bootcamp, and just teaching since that doesn't require me to have to run and do our plyometrics. I'm dying and it's only been since Friday that I haven't taken class!

So back to Atlanta! I leave Friday and get back Sunday. The quickest trip in history for me really, I think I'm there a total of 30 some hours? Friday night I get in about 6:30 and will stay down in Atlanta with my older sister, and then Saturday drive her to work, and then drive up to stay with my baby sister and see her family! Drive back down Saturday evening to pick up Susan, and then Sunday morning I fly out... Worth every moment. I really can't wait.

Mike also booked a trip for him and the boys to Boston Memorial Day weekend. That is going to be so special for them! Plus gives me a whole girl weekend with my girls to do some fun girly things! 

I can feel live getting easier to manage the past few days. I really was struggling with juggling it all. Caden is done with Running Club. Soon we should be doing swim class again, and both boys are going to be on the same Football team on Saturdays, and I can't wait to see how Riordan does.

Riordan has graduated to every other week for Speech Therapy. He has really made such an improvement in his enuanciation and pronounciation in his L's and really working hard on his pirate R's !!! What is most impressive is he corrects himself immediately everytime he falls back in to old patterns. So cute too, he will shake his head and say " I mean..." 

Teagan even corrects her L's and enuanciates as well, think I've mentioned that before, but so incredible! Two for the price of one ;-)

Aislinn is ruling the roost and don't know how that's going to work out when Teagan realizes Aisie is not a baby anymore but a little full talking, demanding little girl soon!

Caden's top left tooth is loose! But I'm sure it will be 6 months before it comes out ;-) We have dentist appointments in March and he can't wait to show Dr. Welch his new adult teeth, they are coming in so fast! Need to get a pic of the progress.

Off to study now, and get off this computer! I'm at my office and the cookies are quite distracting. Do you know were I am?! :-) Love free Wi-Fi!

It's a sad day, well was

Yesterday was a bad day for me that started out good...

We all went to church together and everyone went to their classes, but Caden. He's stomach hurt, at times he could barely stand up from what seemed to be cramping. Our sermon was on the recipe of love with some sex talk and being that Caden is into asking questions all the time, I felt that this would not be the right time to take him into Worship with us. So Mike went, and Caden and I went to run a couple of errands off campus. 

We got a lot done, Target for umpteen birthday presents and 1/2 off Valentine's crap ;-), Sprouts for my weekly store up of their amazing Chicken Salad and a few other things, and then the Bank for a deposit, and even gas! I can't believe we got it all done!

We came home and I studied for a good 1 1/2 hours and went to Tumbleweed to do my rehab running. I was supposed to get up to 3 miles and only could get up to 2.5 when I started to have pain in my tendon and in my shin. I wanted to cry. I'm doing interval rehab training, which is what my PT has me on. Couple of days ago I did 2 miles with no problem, just some tenderness the day after. Oh but the pain I was in yesterday was so scary, not back to where I started, but made me nervous to go through all that again. So I had to let Angela know I was out and I am so disappointed, embarrassed and really just down right angry with my body. It has been 2 1/2 months! I have never dealt with an injury this long ever!! Thankfully Angela was very understanding and looks like our team was going to fall apart before I had to deal another blow. We were down 6 of our 12 runners as it was.

So feeling so upset and mad, and I was supposed to go and study more, I decided to go and hit Kona instead. Ate up at the bar where my favorite chef James, made me the most tasty Houston Roll and Shrimp Tempura Roll. Then I still had time to catch a movie 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' and got my popcorn, milkduds, and water and escaped. I have read the book and liked it much better. They completely rewrote the movie and wasn't that impressed with it. But still nice to get away. Hit Rubio's for Mike and I afterwards and then came home. Even went to bed early!!

Today Mike is off and the children have no school. Mike is sending me to the Spa at Wild Horse Pass! I am so thrilled and looking forward to my massage and facial! I also get use of the workout, sauna, and hot tubs too, and let me tell you I can not wait!

Saturday was nothing special for Valentine's Day. Mike was at an all day class and Caden had football and then I went and worked with my girls at a Health Fair for Bootcamp Babes AZ. It was a lot of networking and we made a lot of great contacts!! Caden at his game pulled two flags and they beat the undefeated team in our league!! It was a great game! Thankfully Julie was able to come and help me out all day long. From 9-3 pm! She is such a Godsend!! Mike didn't get home until 6:30 and then we were both asleep by 8:30. Two nights in a row going to bed early! Yeah baby, we are party animals!!

I'm trying to figure out a date to go and see my sister and her new baby. Now that I'm not running the Ragnar, I'm thinking that might be the weekend! Just checking into flights and need to check with her schedule as well. It would be a quick trip, but worth it ;-)

Latest on the zoo:

Aislinn is on her 17 day of Rotavirus, let me tell you she has had some really bad days with diaper rashes. She also cut her bottom molars sometime last week too! Her hair is filling in ;-) She can identify her nose, teeth, head, ears, and toes. So cute to make her perform!! She calls all her siblings by name and we are still working on Julie. She follows all commands, pick up, clean up, throw this, go to your room, and such. In fact she's insistent on throwing her own diapers away!!

Teagan is still quite the boss around here and has her daddy still wrapped around his little finger. She looks forward to dance class every week again and wants to know when we are going to swim class too. We should be starting that back up in March. She can write the first letter in her name. Her enunciation, now that Riordan is in speech, is amazing!! When she's on the phone with me sometimes I think she's Caden she is speaking so clearly!

Riordan is flourishing in Speech and OT. Where he doesn't perform in OT when I'm there, he had no issues when Mike took him last week. He is constantly self correcting himself when it comes to 'l's and he is breaking words down into their syllables! It is astounding how fast he has come! He is now working on his 'r's and even for his age group this is pretty hard. I am so glad that I finally got him in for help, I'm so thankful for great insurance too. He is now signed up for football with his best buddy John and will play when Caden plays this Spring!! I am praying for a better outcome than what we had with soccer!! 

Caden is doing great at school. He's so into reading chapter books and the words he can read blow me away! He is such a football fanatic and he loves hanging with his boys after school to play more football on the playground. He flies through his homework and is done the first day he has received it, which helps when we are busy during the week. We are on our last week of running club I believe and then we have a celebration next week. We will then be able to go back to swim classes. He is the typical 6 year old, but is mistaken a lot for 7 or 8 because he is so darn wise. 

Mike is working hard and stays really busy with calling on reps and he's got a lot of travel coming up. 

Grammy and Papa are coming in March to help us out while Mike is in NYC so that I can cram for my exam and not worry about the children being with a sitter all week and then all day on exam day. I am so grateful!!

Teagan's birthday party will be that Sunday here in the backyard with a bouncy! Just trying to nail down the details so I have it all worked out. Not unlike me to be ready to go 8 weeks early, but this is 6 weeks and I'm falling behind  LOL.

Flagstaff

These are some of my favorite pictures from our getaway to Flag

The first time they ever saw snow in person! And they were thrilled with this, love their hearts!

Just like I was raised, cowboy boots and a gun in hand ;-) Right!

Malloy's at the bar, suprising right? Riordan didn't want to pose....

So I bribed him with a quarter and it worked!

Beautiful Maddy, little sweety was completely adored by all her cousins!

I think it's safe to say that Aislinn is not shy...

Teagie loves her Aunt Amy, who can blame her?!

Trying on the snowsuits, and thanks to the Jones' family for letting us borrow them!

The snow ball fight!

The girls!

Making snow balls

Snow bunny!

Another one!

Picture time!

So sweet!

It was snowing so hard!

Not sure what to make of all of it

Snow Angels!

Totally having a blast!

All bundled up!

We had such a great time on our mini vacation to Flagstaff this past weekend! We left on Friday where we patiently wait for snow, which finally came at about 3 am Sunday morning.

In the meantime, we got a lot of QT with John, Amy, and Maddy and saw a little bit of Flagstaff. It was sooooo cold though, that we were indoors a lot it seemed. Nights entailed some wine tasting for Amy and I and just a lot of great conversations for us!

We did have an adventurous Saturday night. Started off with Teagan throwing up on me, she stayed up with us, because she had a horrible cough for a few days. So that cleared out our party for a bit as we took a bath and both got cleaned up. When Uncle John and Aunt Amy came back through our adjoining door, which we prop open because it's on a spring hinge, we had forgotten to prop it and it latched closed. We all kind of looked at each other and were like uh oh.

We had no key, the key door had the flip bolt on, and the adjoining door had no handle on our side to reopen! I immediately think that this is going to be a 911 call. I realize that oh yes we have a key, because we have had three all day and in fact one was theirs... So that allowed us to get in and see just a peek into the room, but no such luck in moving that flip bolt no matter what was done. John went downstairs to inform the front desk, who was totally stumped on what to do, but he received A for effort by coming up to the room and assessing the situation.

It was janitor that saved the day. He came in and took a look about popping off the 'handle area' and then came up with a clever idea. He got the pool pole, John opened the door to the crack and he slide the pole in and pushed the lido handle down and then Mike pushed the door open from our side! Three pair of hands to get into the room, but it was done!! And Maddy slept through the whole ordeal. Amy was never one bit upset, just cracking up the whole time, as was Mike. I was in awe watching the whole thing, as was Teagan and poor John was upset with himself because he was the one ;-) We were trying to let him know the whole time that she would be fine and we would get in there somehow!!

The next morning, we woke up to a winter wonderland! We went down to have breakfast and then got ready for a fun morning out! After playing up front with Maddy for a bit, we headed to Wing Mountain, which is right past Sno Bowl for skiing. It wasn't crowed at all and we got a front row parking space! Things were really looking up! We walked along the path to go buy sleds and it began to snow and hard. The children we all pretty miserable at this point. I had brought the wrong gloves, knit not waterproof, and they were already cold hands because of playing in the snow along the way and making snow angels. 

We got our sleds and went for the hills! Caden was so excited and so brave! Mike walked them up the first hill and I hung back with Aislinn, who was not happy. Caden got on his sled and went down head first, his first time ever! Then Riordan, who's screaming and crying, wanted Mike to pull he and Teagan down the hill, and not let go. Mike tried, but the sled was to fast and he kept falling. It was quite funny. Teagan was loving it and Riordan was screaming and then they flipped off. Yeah, it was hilarious and painful to watch at the same time ;-)

Meanwhile, Caden was hiking up the big hill! Once Mike made it to me, I went up after him, because I was certain he'd get to the top and not go, it was so steep! When I got to him, he was like where do I go. I asked him a couple of times if he was sure he wanted to do it. Without hesitation he says YES! Then I ask, do you want me to go with you? He say yes again! What was I thinking?!! Well, I was thinking I was a wimp for being so nervous when he wasn't! LOL

We both got on the sled and away we went! It was so much fun! I had my feet down because we didn't fit quite so well together on it, so we got snow sprayed a bit on the way. But wow it was so much fun, we both wanted to do it again but the 'twins' and A were miserable!

 

So we headed over to the hot chocolate and fire pit, tried to warm up, but the on going snow showers were just too much. We went back to the hotel, with a few tears from Caden and packed up. Of course fate would have it that we got all done in record time and were in the car, getting nice and toasty. Mike pulled up behind a truck that had been plowing the parking lot. He was at the exit, like he was going to leave. Well he didn't have that in mind. He threw his truck in reverse and slammed into the front of our truck. I was the only one affected because I was twisted to the back getting my sunglasses and no seat belt on. I felt it all day yesterday, but today thank God my muscles have stopped spasming. Like I need another flipping injury!

The damage seems to be only cosmetic and the cops came and issued a report so we can now call his insurance company and get the car fixed. I pray it doesn't take forever, that poor front end has been so beat up time and time again!

More tears from Caden as we finally could hit the road, it broke my heart. We really hope to go again, but it's not likely being the next couple of months every weekend we both have something going on.

Here are all the pictures, 131 of them so if you can't sleep, you know what to do ;-)

I am an Aunt!!

Congrats to my baby sister and my brother in law and nephew!!!

On Friday at around noon eastern time, my sister Jennifer gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby boy, Carson James!! He was 9lbs 14 oz and 20 inches long. Those who know me know my saying, "We grow 'em big in the South!" 

They are both doing great and went home on Saturday! I so can't wait to meet him! I'm shooting for April I hope!! Love you guys!