Nathan's 30 Feet

Please click here to see Nathan's 30 feet!!!

http://tinypic.com/m/65rcs3/1

He did it! FINALLY!!!!

Today was a pretty big day. We were at my very dear friend Angie's house, and Nathan was in her daughter's room playing. Rhianna is 3, so she has this great kitchen set and little table and chairs in her bedroom. Well Nathan loves playing in there because the play pots and pans are made of metal and make a ton of racket when you bang them together as hard as you can. So anyway, he's standing there, banging the pots and pans when he sees the table. He gets that look in his eye like "I'm going to go over there" and he did. He took his first step all by himself!!! I'm so happy!! We were all stressed out because he's a late bloomer I guess. So now we're going to keep pushing him to build up that confidence that he can, indeed, walk!

I wish I had my camera, I'd take pictures, but he hasnt duplicated the stunt yet. But when he does.... I'll try to be ready, although its difficult when you're pushing him to walk and have a camera in hand.. you know the drill. Hopefully soon I can get something on film to show everyone.

85 days to go...

Well, not a lot has been going on since we got back from our wonderful trip to the E.R. After that experience, I was still taking about 9 vicodin a day just to keep moving (it was excruciatingly painful, let me tell you) I decided that I did not want to take any more.. and I turned to what some may call "Alternative" medicine. I started researching chiropractors.

My friend Aaron Stump (his wife did his residency with Dustin back at Offutt) pointed me in the right direction to find a good chiropractor, I picked one whose name I regocnized in the community. I got my x-rays from the E.R. and brought them in and I finally discovered what in the heck was wrong with me.

My lower 5 vertebrae were jammed, you know, like when you jam your fingers playing basketball. So I've been seeing this Chiropractor now for a week and I cannot tell you the progress we've made. This week I have -maybe- taken ibuprofen 3 times. This is a big difference from 9 vicodin a day.

Nathan's doing really well too, he's on the verge of walking, which is exciting. He just really lacks the confidence. He totally has the ability. So we're working with him hardcore to get him to get the courage to take a step or two.

I'm posting pictures of him playing in the leaves this afternoon. They're pretty cute. :)

Hope all is well with everyone. God Bless.

Gotta love the ER

So in case you didn't hear, I spent the better half of Wednesday in the E.R. And I sat in the waiting room with a mask on while 3 kids puked all over the waiting room floor. Glorious times, I'm telling you!

At about 5am, my lovely son had a nightmare (or what I presume to be a nightmare of sorts) so I went downstairs to get him a bottle because that seems to calm him the best.. well, on my way downstairs, I slipped and fell straight onto my tail bone/back for 4 steps.

Now you have to realize that I always fall down the stairs. ALWAYS. This is usually no big deal... except that I really hurt myself this time.

So I give Nathan the bottle and go back to sleep.

When I wake up, I can hardly move. I can barely walk, and sitting down is not an option and its the worst pain I have felt since.... well....... I'd say I didnt hurt this bad when I had Nathan, but I had a really bizarre delivery.

So I call the appointment line, they had no appointments for a couple days so I call the nurse line thinking I"d go to the Urgent Care.. nope, they send me to the ER. So after 3 hours, several xrays that surprise the doctor (he was certain I broke my tail bone, which I hadn't) I get a large dose of Vicodin and orders to sit on my boppy pillow, take it easy, and "no heavy lifting." Mind you, Nathan is sitting in his stroller right beside me. He adds, "well, as best as you can."

So I hobble back to the car, drive to base which was excruciating because in order to drive you have to sit on your bum. I went to base to get my prescription (I had other scripts that I needed to get on base anyway) and drove all the way home, call my parents to let them know whats going on, and my Mom declares that she's going to come up and help me. So Mom came up Wed, helped me clean and stuff, took Nathan for a while... then my Dad came up Friday and fixed a whole bunch of stuff around the house. I am soooooo grateful that they could help me. I honestly didn't think I needed it, but I did. There's not much you can do with a back injury that leaves you almost immobile... especially with a 1 year old.

Its Sunday now and I'm actually feeling a lot better, but the Vicodin is still needed badly for me to get through the day. I really hate it too. It makes me so loopy and I hate that its narcotics, but its the only thing that is helping me at the moment. Dustin suggested trying 1 Vicodin and 4 Motrin to see if that helps.. tried that on Friday and I was about ready to cry, so we're going to try in a few more days to get off the Vicodin. The Doc said this is a slow recovery, could take several weeks so not to push it...... ha ha. I'm a Lathrop- that's what we do. I'm honestly wanting to get back to working out, but that may not happen for a while.

So that's what happened. I feel like an old woman... shuffling along. :D

I hate Construction

My house has been worked on now for close to 6 weeks. Not to mention every other house on my end of the development. All I hear all day is hammers and fork lifts adn diesel engines. Not to mention stupid crude jokes by the workers walking up the street, and idiot foremen who constantly park in my driveway. Hello? Do you NOT see the flowers on my stoop???

So we've had a new roof and new siding put in. Today, my dear friends, they are going to destroy my front and back porches to install new ones that will take 3 days at least. They were supposed to start over 2 hours ago. I was prepared for them to start 2 hours ago. No show. That's fine.. so it'll take 4 days for them to do this. All the meanwhile, I have playdates here this week and I'm babysitting. Oh joy, huh? But at least after this, the construction of my house will be finished. If they think they can do the inside while we're still living here, they have another thing coming to them. We'll be out in June. They'll have plenty of time after then to fix the inside.

So, I've decided that when Dustin and I move in 9 months, we're going to get a brand new construction house that does not need any work besides paint because chances are I'll want to change the wall colors in the new house. But NO CONSTRUCTION!!!!!!!!

I don't want to insult any construction people out there, or people who know/or are related to construction people, but I'm just tired of the constant noise. I have never prayed for winter so hard in my life! At least with the snow it will be quiet. Gosh, when did I become such a fuddy-duddy?

Anyway..... other than that life is pretty good. Dustin's doing really well. He sent us a DVD of him reading Nathan some books and he looks awesome. Maybe its just because I havent seen him in 2 months. But he looks healthy, happy and just.... wonderful. God I miss him so much.

He said the flu is really going around out there and so that makes me worry that he'll catch it. If one gets the flu, then you have to go into a quarantine tent for 7-10 days where you rely on other people to bring you food, water, entertainment, and you're only allowed out to shower and to go use the restroom. How awful would that be? Its like bedrest in hell!

Anyway, I'll write more later. I have playdates coming over soon and I still have to vacuum, shower, and get my little guy to take a nap hopefully.

God bless!

Yoopers!!

Well, Nathan, my parents and I just got back from a wonderful trip in the U.P. Michigan. We had such a fabulous time! We got to see family we haven't seen in Y-E-A-R-S and ate, and drank, went to a wedding and got in a train wreck.

The train wreck was when my Great Uncle Earl took us on his train (it was purchased from a carnival of sorts, and took us all around his property, about a 30 minute ride round trip). Anyway, there was some extra track with some extra cars on it just off of the main track, and apparently they settled and rolled about 6" or so, because as we came around the bend, we crashed. It was hilarious. One of the extra cars was derailed. It was a bunch of fun. We also saw a bald eagle's nest and picked wild raspberries.

There is so much about the UP that I just adore- namely the people, the trees and landscaping are just gorgeous, and the weather in the summer is nearly perfect. Plus, you can eat all of the pasties (pass-tees) you want which is like a mini-meat pie, but not like a pot pie. If you want a taste of Yoopers, rent the movie "Escanaba in Da Moonlight" with Jeff Daniel's and you'll see. Its a really low-budget bad movie, but it's hilarious all the same.

Anyway, things here are going fine, Dustin's doing well too, although he said the weather is getting unbarable this time of year. I guess it was 115 degrees today with 80% humidity. I reminded him to stay hydrated, but thankfully he won't be outside much.

I hope everyone is doing well. God Bless.

So Sorry

I know I haven't blogged in a long time. My apologies. I've been really busy.

Dustin got over to Kuwait just fine and he sounds like he's in good spirits. We're very fortunate that we can talk on the phone a couple times a week and we can email nearly daily, which is fantastic. We want to Skype, but there are still some connection issues on Kuwait's end, so if/when we do Skype, its not very long and the picture is poor.

When I talk to him he sounds wonderful. He's upbeat, excited about what he's doing, and he's saved some lives (at least one that I know of) which just makes me so incredibaly proud of him. He said the temperatures there right now are about 115-118 degrees, and he has only been through one minor dust storm, but more are coming in Aug-Sept. I reminded him he needs to keep his gas mask with him at all times because he has to walk from the clinic to his trailer, and they can spurr up without any notice at all.

As for Nathan and me, we're doing great. Nathan has 6 teeth now. He's cruising and scooting on his bum. We're -almost- off of baby food which I find exciting. I HATE buying baby food!! I'm waiting for more teeth to come in so he can eat beef, but he does really well on poultry and fish and cooked veggies and fruit. Apparently he does not like Strawberries--- just like his mama. He's also saying more words, which is exciting. He can say mama, dada, daddy, baby, bee, uh-oh, ni-ni (night night) and I think "ditty" is kitty. I'm not sure though, but normally when he sees the cats, he'll start growling which is hillarious!

In about 10 days my mom is coming up and we're going to go up to U.P. Michigan for a week or so. My 3rd cousin is getting married up there and I really want to see my family. I haven't seen them in years. I'm so excited to go too, its beautiful up there.

I'm also keeping busy with friends. Yesterday, my good friend Angie took Nathan for a few hours so I could go get my hair done (I actually dyed it!!!). It was fantastic, I had 2 hours to myself getting pampered, then that evening we went back to her house for a Tastefully Simple party. I wasn't going to buy anything.... but I did. The food is fantastic!

Anyway, not much else to post right now. I hope everyone is doing well!!

God Bless!