My Life as Mama Jodi

Yesterday John and I had the day off, we started our day with a breakfast date at IHOP. Of course the coupon we had, we couldn’t use on what we ordered.. go figure! Next up, a stop at Lowe’s. We needed to find a paper towel holder to mount on the wall, and so far no one had one. Score, we broke the bank with our purchase there… $2.09 LOL. He also wanted to check out some gas heaters, for the basement. Have a few in mind, now to figure out which one he will buy.

And of course, we had to check out the tools. He has some specific ones in mind too, so it was a tedious browse. He was drooling over all the different Linksys routers and planers. I told him it was time to go!

He then shocked me with, “Let’s go check out mattresses.” Huh? I didn’t know we were in the market for a new mattress. So we spent a good hour at that store, trying out different ones. We were the only ones in the store, so that was nice, got some undivided attention, and the sales lady wasn’t pushy at all! So nice!

We ended our day with, him and Trent heading off to church for a pizza/bowling party. I went and had dinner with a friend and some shopping.

Woke up tired. I haven’t been able to sleep all that well lately. I just want to sleep a solid 6 hours, is that asking to much? It probably didn’t help that I didn’t wear my splint to bed, and one of the times I woke, I went and put it back on. I have a slight heat rash where the splint is, so I was trying to clear it up. Guess that’s not going to happen right now, so I am going to have to learn to deal with the itchiness for the time being. Anywho… on with the day.

Miss K and I headed out for our lunch/playdate with some friends. Hung out with them for a while. The playland area was C.R.A.Z.Y! There were some girlie screams going on for the majority of the time we were there, I was never so thankful when they left!

Off to pick up Trent, then to get Noah, then off to the dentist. Trent has been complaining on and off about a toothache. He had been back in the room for awhile, I was beginning to wonder what they were doing, thinking maybe they were pulling the tooth. Yep, that’s what they did. He wasn’t all to happy. We were then told he needed to have an orthodontic consult, as the adult tooth that was coming in, was having some problems, due to space… so maybe needing spacers. Otherwise, it would become impacted. So I have to call our insurance company to see what our coverage is on this. After getting home, I was a little irritated with the dentist, as I think they should have come out to tell me that they were going to be pulling his tooth.

Dinner is done, (kitchen still needs to be cleaned up), assignments are completed, now its time to watch The Biggest Loser.

Tomorrow is the first day of my physical therapy for my elbow. I hope this helps, because just trying to do the day to day things is a struggle! I know that my arm is going to hurt some when we are done, just hoping that its not to bad. I forgot to call the Dr. back to see if he could call in some Motrin 800, need to leave myself a note so I can do it in the morning before I leave.

I have to figure out when my next day off will be, as I have this coupon for a free hair or spa experience at Douglas J salon. I did call them today to see what all the spa experience entailed. A scalp massage, facial, neck/shoulder massage. I think this is the route I am going to go, as I don’t think I could have them cut my hair, as I have finally found a great hair person! I am going to look into the prices of their manicure/pedicures. They look like they are a reputable business, so I think they clean out their spa filters.

Today we had a play date at the mall with a few friends and their kiddos. The kids had fun in the play area, while us moms had some great “mom talk time”! My hands were really cold, so I decided to put them on Co’s belly and back, his reaction… “Brrrr… you cold”, as his little body shudders. After lunch, we did some shopping, found some cute undies for $1. Picked up the older kids from school, and then counted down the minutes until quitting time. I was ready to put on my pj’s and veg.

Trent and I are now watching American Idol, and having some cracking up at some of the contestants. Some shock you with what actually comes out of their mouths, and others you just want to cringe. Half hour left of the show, then its off to bed for the both of us. I need to get a good nights sleep to be well rested for tomorrow’s PT appointment.

Friday turned out to be a great day, despite the weather! The kids had yet another snow day, daycare kids weren’t arriving until just before 11. I ventured out and got groceries before they arrived, roads weren’t that bad, put everything away, then was asked by the oldest to take him to work, as his wiper blades weren’t working. That drive was insane though.. the Beltline was stop and go, and lots of white out conditions! The 10 minute drive there and 10 minute drive back took me 1 hour and 20 minutes! Ugh! I had left the daycare kids with Trent (mom was ok with this, as he watches them on occasion on the weekends, and the grandparents were coming to get them early anyways), when I got back home they were already picked up! Yay!! I only worked for about an hour! Vegged for a while, then wrapped all the presents!

Later that night I met up with some friends for dinner and shopping. We had dinner at Steak n Shake. Mr. Nicholas was hamming it up for the camera (and the only one who let me take pics!).

Then off to shop at Target. I got all the stocking stuffers, and finally a blanket for my bed! It was on sale, and in the size I needed. Its one of the really soft blankets. So nice too!

Saturday ~ got up early to get Trent ready for his possible field trip with his German club from school. The school parking lot was pretty bare, we pulled up by one of the cars, to find it was his teacher, and was told the trip was off, due to the roads (weren’t all that bad, but they didn’t know what it was like over on the east side of the state.) They were going to Frankenmuth for the day. Trent was really bummed.

Back home, time to shower and get ready for my Christmas brunch for church for our kick off for the “Special Sister” celebration. Lots of good food and fun times with the gals. I have my “special sister” picked for the next 6 months.

Home again, then headed out with my hubby to Guitar Center, so he could try out some amps. Kinda boring, but it was time spent with him. We finally decided that it wasn’t an amp he needed, but possibly changing out the pick ups in the guitar. He is busy working on a new guitar body, and will try this setting out to see if that is what he needs for the “right sound” he is looking for. So much cheaper than buying a new guitar amp!

My final outing for the day/night was dinner with my best friend from school and her daughters. We went to Olive Garden, then stopped at Fruit Basket Flowerland to check out some of their Christmas displays. Neither of us had been there in a long time. It was ok, not like it used to be, and so very expensive!

Sunday ~ was church, then home to just veg! Had a nice nap after lunch, and now here I type up my weekend and then some of the blog work before the movie I want to watch on “Fa la la la Lifetime”!

We headed out on Tuesday to the pumpkin patch. I got some apples and Trent got a pumpkin. We talked them into letting us have a hayride. I guess they don’t them much during the week, so it was nice of them to do this for us.

Trent, Robyn, me, Cohen, Noah and Kennady

My Co and I

There were lots of these tin people at the patch

This is one huge turkey

Apple boys

I have made one batch of applesauce already, and plan on making some apple crisp, and maybe some apple bread with the remaining apples.

Friday night I had a date with my hubby. We got off to a late start, so we just grabbed dinner at Culver’s then grabbed a movie and headed home to watch it in our room. Trent was surprised to see us home so soon, told him to pretend we weren’t even here. LOL We rented Gran Torino, good movie, not what I expected, but liked it anyways. Clint Eastwood is one of my favorite actors.

Saturday started off not so great, tension was thick in our house, but I think I made my point (at least I hope I did, otherwise its going to be a very long, cold winter!). Made some banana bread (only to have none left today… the boys are pigs in my house!). Cleaned the dining room carpet, used some grease lightening on the spots, and that seemed to do the trick on most of them, have to hit a few more again. I guess I now have to do the living room carpet, but that will have to be some other weekend.

Then it was off to the pumpkin path with Robyn, Erica and the kiddos. We were hoping the rain would hold off, but it didn’t, it rained some, and it was sooooo cold! Robyn made fun of me for wanting to wear my winter coat and gloves. I am so glad I brought the gloves, and kicked myself for not wearing my winter coat! The kids got lots of candy, and we got some coupons for some things. We saw that Bigbby was there, but by the time we got around to them, they were out of candy and coupons! We were sooo hoping to get a coupon from them! We then went to Boston Market for dinner. Had a great time with friends!

Nicholas

Aden and Natalie – my favorite pic!

Cohen ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Scooby hugs

Here ya go!

Natalie

The kids with the scary dude

Today after church, we took out the window air conditioner. The other window went back in, that John had to repair after Trent broke it earlier this summer. Then we headed over to the inlaws (where I am right now). I’m computing, Trent is on Pops laptop, Gramps and John are watching golf, and Lousie is putting a puzzle together… just waiting for the sauce to get done so we can have dinner.

We had one good day this week, so a bunch of us moms and kiddos headed to the park for some fun. This is an awesome park. The kids had fun, and we have some great adult talk! We need to do this more often!

This is my favorite one!

My weekend didn’t go as planned. I was going to take Trent to a football game on Friday, craft show on Saturday morning and painting in the afternoon. What really happened? I got a call from my friend Robyn saying her brother in law was in the hospital in congestive heart failure, and that she was trying to find a way down there. She found a flight out of Chicago for cheap, but couldn’t get a hold of her hubby to see if it was ok. She knew her car wouldn’t make it down there, so I offered to drive her if he gave her any flack about flying.

She finally got a hold of him and he didn’t want her flying. So I said I could do it. I called my hubby to tell him what was going on, and to make sure he would be home in time to take Trent to the game. Packed a suitcase and headed to her house. Off we went for our 6 hour drive south. We got a phone call abut 2 hours into our trip saying he was getting ready to go into open heart surgery, and would be in surgery for the next 6 hours. We would arrive before he got out of surgery. He is a fireman/paramedic, so he had lots of his co-workers there on Friday night, and through out the weekend. The first night they got us a couple of hotel rooms so we could be by the hospital (so nice of them). The 2nd night we went to her sisters house so the girls could get a good night’s sleep in their own beds.

We were there for moral support, and kept her nieces preoccupied for the weekend. After everyone was situated with where and what they were doing on Saturday, we headed to her moms to pick up her brother and went to the Gap/Old Navy/and another store clearance outlet. I bought a zip up sweat jacket, sweater and 2 tops for $30! Yay! Then met up with her parents for dinner at Cici’s pizza, then back to the hospital for a little while.

We then got a phone call from Robyn’s sister in law saying she and her friend needed a ride home as they quit their jobs. They were in Columbus, so we told them we would be there sometime in the afternoon to pick them up on our way home. To only get a call in the morning saying they took a greyhound and then didn’t like it, so they got off in Dayton and wanted us to come get them. It irritated us as then it messed up the whole plans for the day. Told them we would be there as soon as we could, but then would go back to the hospital to say good bye and possibly have lunch with her sister. We had lunch at Olive Garden, took the girls back to the hospital said good-byes and then headed north.

My own bed never sounded better than it did last night! This morning came way to early! I am dragging butt today, but have my normal housework that needs to be done. So I had better get moving!

A few pics from this weekend

Robyn’s niece, Corrine. She was very entertaining!

Maddy and Corrine (Payton wasn’t there, so no pic of her)

Robyn with her nieces

**He came out of the surgery well. The valve was repaired, now he is on that long road to recovery.**

The circus is in town! They have a “parade” of the elephants and horses as they are making their way from the train station to the arena. I met up with my friend, Robyn and her boys to watch it. It was a very short parade, it took longer getting out of my parking spot than it did for the animals to walk by. Oh well, the kids had fun and that’s all that counts!

Trent saying “Its ok mom”

Cohen was trying to look at me through the camera lens

Waving to the policeman

He was saying “cheese”

Last night was the first porch party of the summer. Still can’t believe we waiting so long to have the first one this year! It was just Robyn, Cary and I, and the kids this time. We first had to make a stop at Meijer’s so Robyn could get some stuff for her tubing trip for today with family, and a cake for her hubby’s birthday (that was yesterday). I bought one as well… to get him to remove the curse from our phones (not really, but it sure seemed like he did for all the trouble we had the other day – he thinks we talk to much, but hey its all free!) Of course he didn’t want any, so we went ahead and cut into them and ate (no pics of the cakes). We were hanging out on the porch, when Robyn said, “He came up and finished off the white cake!” The pig! There were a few pieces left, but that was ok, as I was leaving it for them anyways! After being attacked by mosquitos we headed inside for some fun on the Wii. We played a round of bowling on the Wii Resorts Sports, then it was onto the sword fighting… Cohen cracks me up how he says it! Then frisbee next. Cohen beat me… a two year old beat me! It was a fun night and can’t wait till next week’s get together!

Cary and I

Cary and Robyn

Cary and her daughter Angel

Cohen and Angel

Cohen with the frisbee