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11/30/2007 Payton is 4I haven't woke him up yet, but Payton is 4. Officially at 5:12 this morning. He has a party planned at school. The teacher is bringing icecream and Payton mixed up some cookies the other day picture is below (I helped a little) and I baked them last night to bring for the class party. I guess it has been quite the talk of the class, since his birthday is the last day of this month there has been a lot of days to point it out when they do circle time and talk about the calendar - so every kid has it memorized that today is his birthday.
Then when he he is home later and after Tim is home we can open the REST of his presents (from us and from Kendra and his Grandma Ruth) and perhaps order a pizza or something which is one of his favorite things to eat. I have not really formulated a concrete plan yet. I was kind of thinking I would let him decided.
 11/29/2007 I know what is wrong with me.The good news is my hips are fine. The grinding noise is nothing to be alarmed about. The bad news is my right knee (the thing I was not as worried about) has arthritis. The early stages anyway. When he showed me the x-rays and pointed to what he said was 'arthritis' I honestly didn't see what he meant. But that is why I am not a doctor. So the plan is this, he gave me a perscription for an anti-inflamitory and told me to go get some glucosimine-condroiton (that stuff Paul Harvey talks about on the radio) I am to take them for a month, and also I am to alter my excercize from just running to cross training, so doing 1/2 running and 1/2 elliptical or something like that that takes the pressure off the knee, just so that I am not doing all running. then December 20th I'll be coming back to re-xray the knee to see if it has changed any. I don't know if artritis can "get better" or not... maybe we are just hoping for 'not progressing futher'.
 11/27/2007 XraysThe X-rays I had done Friday on my hips and my right knee came back normal.. Which is good. So now I will be getting an appointment later in the week with an Osteo somebody or other at the hospital. Maybe he can figure out what the grinding noise is in my hip is and what I can do about the pain in my knee... although he'll probably say stop running.
I also just started back up at the gym. Normally I get a gym membership in the cold months so I can excercize indoors. We have a small gym in town and they charge $25 per month, or $50 for 3 months. This time I also purchased a $10 key that gets me in before hours if I choose to. I get teh added perk of getting to keep the key year round even when I don't have the membership, and then getting to use it again next winter. You have to love a small town.
 11/25/2007 SundayWe got the tree up today, and we are done with Thanksgiving and my Birthday and Payton's first birthday celebration. It felt like a really long weekend. I took a lot of pictures at Thanksgiving but not so much of Thanksgiving, mostly of the 'Payton Birthday' part. There were I think 24 people at Mom's for Thanksgiving all together, and then Barb's family and we stayed until the evening, about 8. Once we put Payton down to bed we left... Payton stayed with Grandma and Grandpa until Saturday.
Friday Tim and I went shopping and to a movie... But mostly shopping... We went to the Ann Taylor store because I have developed a real love and appreication for her brand of clothing. It just happens to be VERY expensive, and so I really appreciate the few things I have. Most of the things in the store were $78 on the low end to $138, and those were on sale. I did try on a wrap dress and a skirt which were on the clearance rack, the dress was $49 and the skirt $39. And they were really nice, but I passed them up because Barb had told me about this other store, I think it was called 1/2 off 1/2 off of 1/2 off or something weird like that. And she claimed they had Ann Taylor stuff amongst others at ridiculous prices, you just have to be careful to look out for damage or irregularities, and that is why it is so cheap. So we went there next and she was right. I got 3 really nice sweaters and a skirt, all Ann Taylor for about $68. I will be back there for sure, because you can't get much better than that.
We also went to see Beowulf, which was supposed to be PG13 but it really should have been rated R. I don't know how in the world it could have got PG 13 other than the fact it was animated, but the animation was so real at times you forgot. It really should have been R. the movie was good overall, just the wrong rating.
After that we went to Best Buy to drool over electronics and figure out what kind of TV we are going to be buying. Then we came home.
Saturday we went to Oakland, I helped Barb learn how to do Ebay then we got Payton and came home.... and Kristine and Casey surprised us and were waiting for us when we got here to pick up our old couch for Casey to use.
Today we put up our tree. It seems like it has been a really busy weekend!
 just a little more radiation won't hurt, I hope.My legs are the same length it turns out. So more X-rays for me on Friday at the hospital. This time they will be looking for joint problems with my hips specifically. I think also with my knee... but even though my knee is what hurts, my hips are what concern me. Don't mess around with hips! I know that from my sister's hip problems, and I don't want to deal with hip problems when I hit my 70's or 80's because you just don't heal very fast at that age it seems like.
Don't ask what these x-rays will show with my hips that the last ones couldn't or didn't! Maybe xrays are different and can show different things. Or maybe this one is a CT scan... Who knows!
 11/19/2007 MondayI had my leg xray scanogram thing done at the hospital today to determine if my legs are different lengths, and if that may be the reason for my knee pain on my right knee and for my hip joints making a grinding noise. I don't have the results back yet. I don't know how long it takes to get them back. I would think not long, but what do I know? They took xrays of each section of my leg from my hip down to my ankle on each side then will measure the distance between the joints and the length of each bone and see if they add up equally, or not.
I have had more XRays and CT scans in this year alone than in my whole life combined. I am not exaggerating either I don't think. This year alone I've had 5 CT scans, I had 2 abdomial xrays, then today I had 8 seperate xrays of each section of both my legs as part of the scanogram. And if you count dental xrays, I had one of those this year too. So probably I shouldn't do any more x-rays for awhile! Let's hope I don't fracture anything!
I can't believe it is almost Thanksgiving! I also just realized that with my birthday coming on Thanksgiving, I no longer will be able to claim I am in my "early 30's" anymore. Not that 35 is a big deal, but I just can hardly believe I am that old. I still don't feel much over 27. Sometimes I'm not sure I am a real adult yet, then of course I get all frustrated with "these kids today" and I realize maybe I am an adult, and I'm a really crotchety old one.
 11/14/2007 Wednesday Feeling better than I was. No more fever today anyway. I even went for a jog this morning after dropping Payton at preschool, which was a mistake probably- because I ended up with a terrible hacking cough for an hour afterwards and then I had to take a nap because I was so exhausted. Not the most productive morning. Friday Payton doesn't have school so I scheduled family photos to be taken. I hope they go well. I made Payton try on his outfit and he said he didn't like the sweater that goes over his shirt. So that may be an issue. Then he said he wanted to wear his Thomas the Train tennis shoes for the picture, which are not the shoes I had envisioned... so that may be another issue. Everything with him is negotiable, but it's finding the right tone and the right words. I am sure I will get what I want in the end, but sometimes the process gets tiresome.  11/13/2007 My legs may not be the same length.After talking to my doctor and having her look a things she feels that perhaps the problem is that my right leg is longer (slightly) than my left leg. She said that many people actually have this problem, but they aren't regular joggers so they don't ever notice it until they get to be about 70 or 80 and develop hip problems. It took 2 years of regular jogging for the signs to materialize for me. (assuming that IS what the problem is, but she seemed pretty confident). So I am being scheduled for a scanogram, which is a fancy way of saying CT scan of my lower half, to determine how unsymetrical I am. I will probably be doing that tomorrow or early next week at Mercy in Council Bluffs. The GOOD news is that the fix for that is just a riser in my shoe. That's pretty simple. And, I am glad that I finally am having this checked out. Because I don't know that I would have, had my deductible not been met for the year, and although a pretty sad excuse... is the only reason why I went to check this out.
this is really gross and creepy.
 I'm sick now too.Well as luck would have it I have a mini flu. I did get a flu shot, but that was 6 days ago, and they say it takes 2 weeks for a full immunity to develop. But what I have isn't like a full-blown flu. My joints are achy, and my throat and head hurts, and I have a temperature... but I don't feel nauseated, and not really as bad as I have felt with other flus. So I don't know if it rises to the level of full flu, if there is such a thing.
I do have a doctor appointment today to see about something unrelated. Last time I was in with Payton we were discussing my insurance deductible being paid up for the year and I mentioned also that my hips make a grinding noise when I walk/run/move although there is no pain. My doctor said that since the deductible is paid there is no reason why we shouldn't check it out now, but that I need to come in for a visit with her first so the insurance company won't balk when she sends me on for xrays. I think I am also going to mention my right knee which IS painful, but is a more common ailment of runners so I didn't mention it at the time. See if we can lump that one in there to be checked too.
Ebay sales are going well. I have earned what I set out to initally - and then some. But I think I will keep on selling until the garage/closets are cleaned out. Which is my reward. Tim is going to have a really nice TV or whatever. I told him he could divvy up the money however he felt like, ether on TV/new TV stand or TV/new blue ray player or whatever, it will depend I guess on how much money we end up with at the end. It's kind of like getting free money, I did put in hours to do all the selling - but it just feels like free money to me.
Flamingos forming a flamingo:
11/10/2007 Quiet Weekend so far.Tim was supposed to be gone this weekend, but at the last minute decided not to be gone this weekend. So we have had a quiet day today. Ordered Pizza for supper even, which is a rare treat. And because he was home I even got to go running. The upside to him being home is that tomorrow he will not miss the choir performance as well.
My ebay sales have been going (I think) remarkably well. I have about 15 "auction items" that are ending tomorrow, and 12 then ending later next week - I need to start listing more Monday. So far all of them except 4 have bids. And I imagine that the four that don't have bids may well get bids by tomorrow. That is how it usually works. I am pretty careful about what I put up for bidding though. I research what I put up and don't put up stuff I don't think will generate interest, and I also start my prices low, $ .99 or less. I find the lower the starting price the higher the bidding goes for some weird reason. It's all psychology. But my goal is to get enough so we can get a really nice HDTV for Tim by Christmas without involving a credit card. So far the best sale was one of Tim's items. Tim consented to let me sell his He-Man Action figures, which were not in the greatest condition but he had 36 of them. Someone paid $81 plus shipping for the set. I think that was incredible. Tim felt they should have fetched $200, but he thinks everything should get $200 - so he isn't the most objective person to ask the value of things. The most incredible sale was my Mental Floss magazine back issues from last year, I sold for $38 plus shipping... but the original subscription price was $21.95. Most of the things I sell don't go for that much, usually my profit margin is only a couple bucks after shipping, but I figure it's more than I could get on a garage sale- so it is worth it.
  11/9/2007 Payton has triple illnessI have seemed busy lately without being really that busy. Probably because Payton has been home Thursday and today with me. He got sent home from school at 9 on Thursday with Pink Eye, I didn't even realize it was pink eye. I thought it was just he was tired and that is why his eyes were a little red. Anyway as we were sitting in the doctors office he tells me that I need to have her check his ears. And I ask "why?" and he said "because they hurt" and I asked suspiciously... on the inside part or this part touching his earlobes. He said no- the insides. So then I wondered if he had an ear infection too. He never tells me when he has them and rarely says he has pain so he's probably had some ear infections that never got treated. Sure enough he had a double ear infection too. Then on top of that he got diagnosed with allergies as well. So we were very loaded up on the perscriptions. The only thing he DIDN'T have was a fever. So he is at home with me with scratchy eyes, a sore throat from the allergy thing, and sore hurty ears. But at least he isn't throwing up. I suppose it's good to get these things all done in one doctor visit. I probably would not have taken him in had it not been for the pink eye. He hadn't complained about anything hurting until we got to the doctor's office. Sometimes having a non-complaining kid is good, but sometimes it is a little worrying... like what if something is wrong with him that should be getting checked out that isn't. Because I am not really observant.
 11/5/2007 Ran across mom's wedding dress...So I HAD to try it on. Saturday when Barb, Katie and I were watching Kristine perform we had just been talking about how small the dress was. When I came across it in one of the boxes I had been going through I thought well, I'll just see how small. Ok yea... It's small. So this first photo is me.. and I look good don't I? Well don't let this image fool you. No, I am not sucking in or anything. The dress is just not buttoned in the back. Tim had the thing kind of pulled together with some string. Scroll down to see just HOW MUCH gap there was......
 
I am generally speaking a dress size 6. So I can't even imagine what this thing is. A negative 3? I'd have to loose a foot of girth in my shoulders to get the top buttons buttoned. I think it is physically impossible for me to ever be small enough to get into this dress. Furthermore I think it is physically impossible for any human to ever get in this dress. I think they make people bigger now a days.
MondayToday I had planned a bunch of errands for the morning, but Tim called to cancel them for me when he told me he had accidentally taken my car keys to work with him and my spare set is on they key ring for his car... so I had no way to leave the house. So I called the school, said Payton wasn't coming, called and cancelled an 8:00 meeting I had with the choir director and decided to make it a quiet day at home with Payton. Tim did however make a special trip home at lunch to deliver the keys to me because I HAD to go to the post office today to ship packages for some Ebay sales and that could not wait until tomorrow.
I've been selling like mad for the last two weeks on Ebay. So far I am up over $300, not bad considering my list price is never over .99 cents, and usually I start all auctions at .01 cent.
oh no!!
 11/4/2007 Kristine's Dance CompetitionSaturday I got up at 3:45 am to be able to meet Barb and Casey by 5:15 in Avoca to go see Kristine in her dance competition. Let me say that again THREE FORTY FIVE A.M.! Anyway then we drove to Des Moines, Picked up Katie and then continued on to Pella. Kristine got a medal for getting a superior rating. The video below is her performance. Afterwards we drove back and made a pit stop at Katie's office so she could show us around. Hope this works, I have not had much experince with embedding videos. Kristine in the Dance Competition 11/2/2007 Beets, Cottage Cheese, & BoyscoutsPayton didn't have school today so I took him into Omaha with me and we had lunch with Tim among other things. We found out Payton does not like beets, and I found out that while I still don't really like cottage cheese, it isn't as nasty as I thought it was. It does ACTUALLY taste like cheese and not curdled rancid milk like I imagined it did. But I still didn't really like it, but if someone served it to me I think I could stomache it. (I got the salad bar so I thought it would be a good chance to test it out since I would never ever buy cottage cheese in a million years)
Last night I finally got all the records for the Boy Scouts, and it will be a long process to get them all entered in the computer. I think I am going to have to enter every transaction from 2000 til now manually, but despite it taking a long time I will actually prefer to do it this way- to have everything set up how I want it, and also I will be intimately familiar with all the transaction details if I see them all. My only barrier now is that records are a little spotty, or hard to read and it makes it difficult to then enter in my accounting software. But my advantage is that I have been told I can take "creative licence" with my accounting practices - and take my best guess where info is hazy. As long as I can just get it to match up to the bank statements, we should be good. I'm pretty excited to get this rolling actually, I have really developed quite an enjoyment for numbers and record keeping. Maybe it is me missing the working world a little bit too, but I certainly do like having these little side projects first with the Church's finances and now the Boy Scouts.
 11/1/2007 New shoes for me
I went shoe shopping today, as you can tell by my lack of treads on my old pair- it was really needed. I bought those in the middle of June, but I have put between 400-500 miles on them and that was all outdoor running which is a lot harsher than a treadmill. I bought the same exact style again but the "winterized" version with goretex. They are slightly heavier and are supposed to be good for cold weather running and in wet/snow conditions (I was told). I generally like my feet to be colder rather than warmer, but I admit, I think I was sold by the cool black/pink colors. I have mentioned to Tim that men's fitness shoes seem to be a lot "cooler" than womens'. They seem to have a lot more bold colors in general - oranges and yellows and bright blues. But maybe most women don't like that in a shoe, and they want just a plain one that matches anything. It just seems to defy traditional shoe logic. Women usually are the ones that have all the fancy colors for shoes, and men usually stick with one pair of plain color shoes that match everything. Just once I'd like a bright yellow shoe. Maybe some like Payton's thomas the train ones that light up in the heel with each step for night running. That would be kind of funny actually.
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