The Good News...The Bad News...and the Plan...

First, we'll start with the good news. I've won another blog award! My dear cyber-friend, Denise, from There's Always Room for One More has informed me that we (along with a few other bloggers) won an award at Sunday's Bloggy Awards. (Between you and me...I'm pretty sure the Bloggy Awards are just an imaginary event that poor Denise made up, but she has six kids and is probably pretty sleep-deprived, so just cut her some slack. OK?) The award I got -- which was presented, by the way, by this hot guy...
...Josh Holloway (aka Sawyer from Lost) who was probably shirtless at the awards -- is called the Life is Grand Award. Not exactly sure how I qualified (what, with all my whining and such on this blog), but as you all know I'm always willing to accept an award! Here is a picture of my major award. Don't get too close and touch it...I don't want it all smudgy...
HAHAHA!! I crack myself up!! That was just a joke...and a reference that my husband and I always find hysterical ("It's an award...a MAJOR award!") If you've never seen "The Christmas Story," you're probably lost about now...

Anyway, here is the REAL award for my blog:
Pretty snazzy, huh?! I'll be adding it to my Awards Corner as soon as I post this.

OK, that was the good.

Now for the bad. My MRI showed that I have two protruding discs in my cervical spine (C5 and C6) which are causing "a mild spinal cord flattening deformity." That finding explains my symptoms down my right arm. In addition -- as if that weren't enough -- I have a "right paracentral active annular tear"! I don't even know what that MEANS!

My new chiropractor (who is no Dr. Smackdown, but I REALLY like him) described it this way: the annular tissue surrounds the disc and, when it is torn, then the disc and other contents within that area can leak out into the spinal cord area. He said it is not the best finding and it typically requires surgical repair. He also said that it doesn't happen easily and because it is described as an "active annular tear," that means it is recent and must have been the result of a whiplash injury in a car accident. That makes great sense...except I haven't been in a car accident in four years! While how it got there makes no sense, it is torn and I am in pain because of it.

So, the plan...

I'm going to physical therapy and getting horrifically painful therapeutic massages twice a week for the next three weeks, then if I'm not getting any better I'll be referred to a pain management specialist for possible epidural injections. (Doesn't that sound FUN?!?!) The last resort will be a referral to a surgeon.

I say we skip the epidural injections and don't even meet a surgeon and we attack this with the four P's:

1. Physical therapy
2. Painful therapeutic massages
3. Positive thinking
4. Prayer

I'll handle the first two on my own. Wanna help me out with the last two??

Have You Missed Us??

Life is crazy and stressful and I'm struggling to find time to blog since I seem to be constantly grading papers! Ugghhh!!

I had dinner with my friend, Gina, last week (Hi, Gina Meana!) and was told it has been entirely too long since I posted a decent picture of Carson on the blog. Whoops!

All right, Gina (and all of Carson's loyal fans), here are a few pictures of Carson at his cutest...in the bathtub!

First we have Uncooperative Carson...
...Cheeseball Carson...
...Smiling Carson...
...Splashing Carson...
...Sneaky Carson...
...Singing Carson...
...two shots of Laughing Carson...
...Distracted Carson...
...and the shot I was trying for...Cutie Carson!
I am heading to my follow-up appointment with my chiropractor in a few minutes...had to have an MRI this morning and I'm scared to hear the results! So after you enjoy the pictures of my son, say a little prayer that whatever is wrong with my neck can be fixed non-surgically!

Stay tuned for cute pictures of Meggie in the bathtub...NOT!! LOL!

Yes, Megster, it IS my job to embarrass you at every opportunity. You know I would NEVER post pictures of you in the bathtub!!

(But watch your back when you head into the shower just in case...)

LOL!!

What Time Is It?? Why, It's Time to...

...mail our I-797C to the Consulate in New York! We got it back from the State on Saturday and, of course, Monday was a Federal holiday so no mail delivery. That's OK...on my way to work this afternoon, I will be overnighting that document on it's last excursion. When it returns from the Consulate, we will be sending our dossier to CCAI for translation and mailing to CHINA!!! We'll travel 3-5 months after China gets our dossier logged-in. (Say a prayer for the 3 month timeframe...)

...enjoy the sunshine! We have had so much snow and ice in the past few weeks that the kids have been off school more than they've been going!
In fact, they were supposed to be off last Thursday and Friday and lost those days to pay back two snow days. Meggie was sick a couple of weeks ago and missed two days of school and I started to panic about how much school she has missed lately...then I remembered that her other days home were snow days, not sick days. Where is the spring weather, already?!?

...end my suffering! My neck and shoulder have been KILLING me for the past two weeks. I actually ended up in the Emergency Department on Friday night because the pain was making me nauseous. After a CT scan and some heavy painkillers...complete with an allergic reaction to Dilaudid...I was sent home with a diagnosis of neck pain. Oh, really?!?! 'Cause I didn't know that I was having neck pain until I paid a 10% co-pay!! Since the CT scan showed I had not herniated a disc in my neck (which was my self-diagnosis), I started trying to self-treat a pinched nerve in my neck. (Hey, nurses ALWAYS self-diagnose and self-treat. Doctors are for wimps...) My mother-in-law, who has had a cervical disc herniation, let me borrow some of her treatment supplies. My husband was positively giddy preparing to put me into his mom's neck traction device.
Don't you love how the Little Man put the pager from his doctor kit on my chest and posed for the picture? What a hoot! I was able to tolerate 10 pounds of traction for about 15 minutes, but then I couldn't get out of that thing fast enough. Sadly, I didn't think to ice my neck and right arm after the traction and suffered through a painful and sleepless night. Hopefully this will fix me up quickly.

...go to Disney! Well, actually, Meggie will be going. Her dance team performed at Nationals this weekend and earned a bid to go to Worlds in Florida in late April!
Meggie is super excited, both for the trip and for the fact that we won't be going with her on the trip! (I'm gonna try to chaperone...shhhhh, don't tell her.) After all of the stress Meggie has been under the past few months, I'm so excited for her that she can be part of this awesome experience!!

...finish our basement remodel! Daddy has been working busily to finish our basement and I can't wait to post the before and after pictures.

Stay tuned...

Uh...Never Mind...

So, after a stress-filled and tearful weekend -- with Meggie CLEARLY approaching the end of her rope -- we made a decision on Monday. It was a tough decision that we felt needed to be made.

And then we changed our minds.

Meggie felt the source of her stress was the demands of the dance team. She felt like the coaches didn't care about her and she just wanted to be free. So I e-mailed her coach on Monday afternoon to let her know that Meggie would be quitting. The coach called me Monday evening (I was not home and missed her call), then she e-mailed me back late that night. She called again Tuesday, as I was walking out the door to take Carson to school. We had a very long talk and I learned an important thing from the coach -- she was worried about Meggie and didn't want her to quit!

The coach spoke to Meggie on the phone on Tuesday afternoon and told Meggie the same things she told me. Meggie's dance friends started texting her as the rumors spread that she wasn't coming back to the studio. After her conversation with the coach, Meggie and I talked about the situation...and she began to see that maybe quitting dance (and effectively isolating herself from her best friends and a true support network) may not be the best thing right now. We talked a LOT the next few days -- between multiple visits to the bathroom, since we both caught a nasty stomach bug, complete with matching fevers! -- and an interesting thing happened: Meggie was less stressed and decided that she wasn't ready to give up dancing. She had committed to dance the entire season when she made the team last May and has decided she is going to stick it out for the rest of the dance season, as she originally promised.

While I still agree that competitive dance has stolen too much time and money from our family, there is still joy to be had. So back to dance she goes.

Check back in for more pictures. After all, there's a competition next weekend...

You Couldn't Pay Me a MILLION Dollars to be a Teenager Again...

This has been a rough few days for the Megster. She's feeling such enormous pressure from all sides and last night she hit the proverbial brick wall. And a decision had to be made.

It was tough...but it had to be made.

Meggie has quit being on the dance team.

While I have thoroughly enjoyed watching my beautiful daughter shine on stage since she was three years old, it has broken my heart to watch her struggle to keep up the schedule of 4 and 5 nights a week of dance rehearsals...and her efforts were NEVER enough for her coaches. Maybe I'm biased, but I've watched this team dance and Meggie keeps up with -- or overshadows -- all but the top one or two dancers on this team. (And those one or two dancers are truly phenomenal and should be professionals some day.) She never missed a rehearsal while wearing that God-awful boot...sitting through 2- and 3-hour rehearsals so she wouldn't be lost if they changed any of the choreography. And now that she's back? She is being scrutinized and told she has no confidence.

I've come to discover that the world of competitive dance has stolen enough time, money, and joy from our family. Enough is enough. Meggie has her life back.

Anyone who has had to go through something this tough with their teen knows what I'm saying here...it's going to be a rough week or so as this sinks in and word spreads through the rest of the dance studio.

Please pray for Meggie.

Doing My Happy Dance...

...but, unfortunately, doing it very slowly and carefully, since I seem to have pinched a nerve in my neck last night!! I can't turn my head in either direction and can't lift my right arm above shoulder level. Are you KIDDING me?!?!?! Uggghhhh...

Why am I Happy Dancing, you ask? Why, thanks for asking. Let me tell you.

First off, the Steelers won the Super Bowl. While I don't rightly give a rip who wins the Super Bowl (or even who plays in the Super Bowl for that matter), my dear husband was REALLY rooting for the Steelers. We were at a HUGE Super Bowl party last night full of Arizona fans... and while some of the events of the evening do NOT make me look particularly intelligent (and those who read Meggie's blog already know why), it was a fun evening full of great food, wild and crazy children, and a lot of laughs. (And a couple of nasty nosebleeds, but I digress...) The Steelers pulling it off in the last few minutes was the icing on the cake, as they say!

Is that enough motivation for this old gal to be Happy Dancing?? No, of course not. I'm also Happy Dancing because my dear friend, Sarah, gave me a very special gift yesterday...
...a framed, handmade birth/adoption announcement to put in Molly's room. A photo does NOT do this work of art justice and I was SO excited to get it yesterday! Now Molly has a wonderful keepsake to match the one Sarah made for Carson...
...almost two years ago! (Can you believe we got his referral in May of 2007?!) Thanks for the wonderful treasures, Sarah -- that's why you're my BFFM!! Well, that plus your devastating beauty and wicked sense of humor!! (Inside joke, folks...)

But wait...there's more!

Yesterday, I received ANOTHER blog award...from two different blog friends! Both Kristin and Peggy gave me the Friendship Award:
Here are the rules to win this award:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find friends and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships will be propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

Honest to goodness, I don't feel I deserve this award (and certainly not TWICE)...my blog really has no aim! (I'm the Seinfeld of bloggers...) But I certainly love to find friends and be a friend...plus I'm exceedingly greedy when it comes to awards...so I'll take it!!

I need to select eight bloggers to receive this award...but I truly need to go lie down on the heating pad right now to help with the searing pain in my neck, shoulder, and upper back. Let me work on it and I'll get back to you.

Oh, before I forget...one more thing...

OUR I-797C ARRIVED IN THE MAIL TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To the uninformed observer, this means nothing. But to those of us in the adoption world, we know that this elusive document is the last step to finishing our dossier and getting our paperwork sent off to China!! Paperwork arriving in China starts the clock to travel. FINALLY!!

Since I'm in so much stinkin' pain, if you all would do a little Happy Dance in my honor today and allow me to rest, I would be ever so grateful...