What's going on?

Well I went for my MRI on Thursday July 17th at 6:45. I got in there and was able to get in a little before I should have. Once in he room I noticed how small the machine was. Oh my goodness! MRI machines are so small. I wouldn't consider myself claustrophobic at all but this machine was smaller than I thought it would be. I had an MRI at Whitham but the machine was bigger plus I wasn't head first in the machine. This time I had to go head first and stay in it for up to 30 mins. It was so loud and even though I had headphones on I could hear the machine over the music. I counted the time by the songs that played. I knew that I would have to listen to 10-15 songs before I would be done. I counted each song and left my eyes closed. It was crazy. When I would open my eyes the machine was just so close to me and I couldn't move at all. The technician said that the results take a couple days so I am hoping that they call me no later than Tuesday July 22nd. 

I didn't get a call from them and had to wait until Monday July 29th for my appointment. I went in and had to get more X-rays. After getting X-rays I went in to see the doctor. Dr. Berrios said that the MRI showed a fracture on the rotator cuff and possibly a small tear on one of the ligaments. He said that since the tear isn't very big he expects it to heal on its own. The fracture is a 4-6 week healing process where I basically just have to wear a sling whenever I leave the house. After the six weeks I have to go to therapy to get the movement back in my shoulder area. 

I was given some exercises to do between now and the time it fully heals, but I can't raise it out, only forward. I go back on August 18th for my 5 week checkup.

Skating

So on July 12th I went skating for a Girl Scout skating party. I've been skating a lot in my life so I figured it be just another day at the rink. I forgot my skates and had to wear my sisters, which are two sizes too big, but everything was going great. My feet were hurting so I took them off but then it was time to race. The owner mentioned me racing and so I put them back on to race. I started on the back line because the other two weren't great skaters. Well I caught up but turned the corner too hard trying to make sure I didn't run over them. I ended up hitting the edge of the carpet, which is a step of sorts, and flew to the ground. Normally I would of just jumped on the carpet but I was going so fast that I couldn't slow enough not to hit the children up there so instead I tried to just raise a skate and miss it. I ended up getting one foot up in time ur my other foot hit and I bounced off the ground. I was able to get up but my left arm was killing me so I went to ER. Good news was that it's not broken nor was it dislocated however it still hurt to move. The doctor said that it could be a torn ligament so I will be making an orthopedic appointment to see what is wrong. Today my body is hurting more than yesterday. I hurt in far more places then I felt yesterday. Let's just hope that nothing else is wrong. 

Lesson for me: don't forget my skates EVER AGAIN!

Time to go HOME

July 4, 2014

Today it is time to go home. We cut one day off the trip  by eating at both chicken places so we will be able to get home on July 4th now. 

We got up and left the hotel at 10am to start our journey home. It is a 4 1/2 hour drive from St. Louis and that is without stopping along the way. Of course we had to stop twice for the restroom before driving either an hour and then also had to stop to eat lunch. We got back to Lebanon around 5pm. Around 7pm we took my dad home and stayed the weekend in Anderson. 

We had a lot of fun, but man was driving that much crazy! Now the rest of the summer we will be at home most of the time.

End of Vacation 2014

St. Louis Day 6

July 3, 2014

Well we got to St. Louis a day early and checked into our hotel. We then went to the Gateway Arch to go up inside it. The Arch is 630feet high. It was neat to go inside. We first had to get inside this thing that looked like a spaceship. There were a total of five seats inside it. Once inside the doors closed, if you are claustrophbic then you wouldn't want to go in it, to start our journey up 630 feet high. Once at the top you could get out and look through the windows they have on the observation deck. I had Devin and Landon with me. Devin was so scared, but Landon loved it. We stayed up there for about 10 minutes and then we got in line to go back down. 

Once we got down we went back to our hotel and ate dinner before going to bed. The drive to St. Louis was really long so all of us were tired.

Last day of the vacation is next!

Kansas Day 5

July 2, 2014

We are now reaching the last leg of our vacation. Today was the day we left Iowa and drove another 5 hours so that I could see the Wizard of Oz Museum and so the kids could see it also. I was there about 4 years ago when Jarred and I went to California with my parents, but I love the movie and wanted to see it again. The kids have seen the movie and I knew they would like it so we added it to our trip. 

On our drive to the museum we had the kids watch the movie so that they could remember what it was about and what happened. They talked about it on the way and at rest stops. Then once we reached the museum and went inside they seemed to be just as excited as I was. We went through the museum and they wanted pictures with every character from the movie that they saw had a certain area in the museum. It started with Devin asking me to take his picture in front of Dorothy and Toto and from there they got a picture with every scence from the movie. They talked about as much as I do about it and really enjoyed seeing some of the artifacts behind the glass. I think their favorite character seemed to be the Lion. He looks so real! We also went through the forest and the kids thought it was a little scary, especially when you see the Wicked Witch! Towards the end of the museum they now have a balloon that you can stand in and get a picture inside the basket part. It was pretty neat and all of the kids got their picture taken inside together. I think the museum was a HUGE success!

We then left Wamego, Kansas and headed for Pittsburg, Kansas so that we could eat at Chicken Annie's and Chicken Mary's. These two chicken places were showcased on the show Food Wars (i think that's what it was called). We got family meals from each and decided to take it to the hotel and eat it for dinner. They have some GREAT chicken and side dishes. I think we are divided on who's taste better, but honestly it doesn't matter because both were really good!

Iowa Day 4

July 1, 2014

First I want to start this post by saying Happy Anniversary to my husband and Happy 15th Birthday to my son, Skyler. We got to ride in a car for quite a while today, but once we made it to our spot it was neat. We drove from Bloomington, Minnesota to Dyersville, Iowa in order to see the Field of Dreams. The Field of Dreams is a movie that Jarred has always really liked. He has been wanting to see this Field of Dreams for while and since we were only about 5 hours away once we decided to travel to MOA we decided we might as well do it all. 

Driving 5 hours with three little kids can be crazy but luckily they have a tv to watch which helps to keep them entertained. One thing that we did was bring the movies along that would go with a couple of the areas we were going to so that the kids could watch them before we got there. The Field of Dreams movie is one they have seen before, but we brought and played it again anyways. The kids had just finished it about an hour before we got to the actualy site of the movie. Man was it fun to be at the site of a movie! The house was the same one they used in the movie and the field looks the same also. We stayed for about an hour to hour in a half and played on the field, took pictures, and even hit the ball and ran some bases. It was a good time for the kids to run off some energy also and it worked out well for us. Jarred and my dad really loved seeing the field. I think Jim and Jayne enjoyed it also.

After seeing the Field of Dreams we headed to Kansas so that we could go to Wamego, Kansas to see the Wizard of Oz Museum. We ended up stayin in a hotel in West Des Moines, Iowa.

About half way through our vacation now. 

Minnesota Day 3

June 30, 2014

Today is our last day in Minnesota to explore and use our Big Ticket. We saved what we though of as the best day or fullest day for the last day. Today we got up and rode the shuttle to the Mall of America at 10am. Once we arrived at the mall we entered by the Sea Life Aquarium so we decided to go ahead and use the Big Ticket to go through the aquarium. 

The aquarium was so neat! When you first enter you see this little stage like thing that adults and kids can climb up and look over into a tank of water. It is filled with little sharks, stingrays, and plenty of fish. Then we got to pet/touch other sea life animals in the water not to far from the tank. They had starfish and some other animal. We did get to see a worker feed the animals in the tank squid and fish pieces. They smelled really bad. We started our journey into the aquarium and saw many things along the way. The wall was filled with tons of facts as you walked through the aquarium which made you want to stop and read it every step of the way. We got to see what is known as garden eels. They were neat looking! We also got to see octopus, HUGE crabs, HUGE lobsters, and many other seafood type animals. They were awesome! We then walked into the sea horse area. The sea horse were so small it was weird to see them. There were also many other star fish around that couldn't be touched. One of my favorite areas was the Moon Jellyfish area. This area had mirrors with jellyfish tanks in front and it just looked so neat. The kids loved the aquarium. They really loved when we got out of the jellyfish area and got to go to the little fish tank area because they found Nemo and his dad in the tanks. They thought that was cool. They also saw Dori. After that area we went into the area that surrounds you and has sharks. I am not to keen on this area because I hate sharks, but the boys loved it. We saw many sharks, fish, turtles, and other weird looking sea fish in the water. Later on the walk through we got to see many more fish and even some baby turtles. They were very cute! At the end of the aquarium we went through a rainforest where they had turtles, frogs, crocodiles, and a few other different types of fish. The aquarium was really neat and especially to be inside the mall. 

The last thing our Big Ticket was used for was for the Nickelodeon Attraction Park in the mall. This is the area where you get to ride the rides that are inside the actual Mall of America and the main reason why many people want to see the mall. We got our bracelets and rode a little bit before lunch. The kids really had fun and even got to ride a roller coaster or two. One of their favorite rides was the water log ride. They thought that was a blast and we rode it a couple times. Other rides included the swings, bumper cars, balloon ride, carousel, etc. 

We ended up being at the mall from 10:20am-8:20pm. It was a long day but I think everyone enjoyed it!

Now we are moving on to Iowa!

Minnesota Day 2

June 29, 2014

Today was Day 2 of being in Minnesota. Since we have the Big Tickets we are using part of them each day. We started out by going back to the Minnesota Zoo so that we could watch and IMAX movie since that was part of our ticket. We got to see Lemurs-Madagascar 3D. It was an education film about Lemurs and it was actually really neat. 

Next we traveled to the Science Museum of Minnesota to explore. It was pretty neat inside the museum. There were a lot of things to do and just about everything was hands on. My dad and all the kids had a TON of fun. Devin really LOVED the dinosaurs, as did I. There were three floors of things to explore. The first floor was about water, air, and fog. The second floor we visited was about math and body parts. In this area I saw what a thyroid would actually look like. It was strange to really see that. The last floor was the dinosaur floor mainly. It also had hands on science experiments. 

After the museum we went to Water Park of America and stayed for about 5 hours. One of the water slides they had was 10 stories high and went all the way down. It was considered a family slide because it used a raft and the kids could go in it. There were 136 steps to get to the top, but we all had a blast on that slide. Our favorite part was probably the wave pool or the lazy river though.

Once we left the water park Skyler got to pick where we went for dinner for his birthday. We ended up going to Subway for dinner on the way back to the hotel. 

We had so much fun today on Day #2 in Minnesota!