No More Cast

Sunny now has 2 handy hands, the perk she most looked forward to when removing her cast.

Yesterdays' was not a pretty appointment, hence Jason refusing to go and wanting her practically knocked out for the procedure. Oh, it wasnt just removing her cast, thats easy. It was the pliers part: pulling pins out of her arm that stuck out of her skin (like that image?). They were tucked away into her cast, but with it gone, the pins just poked out in a gruesome fashion. It was actually unnerving and I wished I'd stayed home.
So Jason & I argued about the consciousness of Sunny. I'd heard from 2 Drs that Benedryl and codeine would be fine. She's used up all her codeine so I did Benedryl and ibuprofen to at least dull any muscle aches she may have afterwards. No amount of drugs I had available to me couldve calmed her. She was a basket case, starting with the xrays.
I held her back against my chest, with her arm on her pilly (her pillow), and we watched as the Dr pulled the pins out. The entire staff was with us at this point, not being able to deal with their youngest patients screams without seeing her, and they all stared in a semi circle.
The pins reminded me of a plug- once they were pulled out, blood followed. Not sure why no one in the room was prepared for that! Sunnys very aware of "blooding" and its included in her story when she wants to talk about it.
I cant spare my daughter from any pain in her life (like her father wanted to do!) but I can be there for her to help her through it. With a bag of M&Ms.

This is the Worst Parade Ever

A few topics I'd like to discuss tonight:

The aftermath's of breaking Sunny('s arm)
My half marathon attempt

If you arent interested in any of the above, X out of this window now.

Sunny fell off our bed backwards. The small elbow ball bone (I just had Anatomy I & II and I dont remember this elbow ball bone's smart name) shot out of orbit, hit the humerus, which fractured it, and remained lodged out in Sunny's arm somewhere before surgery corrected it all. Her and I were a mess for 2 days while we battled Drs together, whom she loathes. You can't even take this kids temperature. I dont even know. Now she's back with a vengeance, arguing with me about how she's "in pain" (pain in my you know what) so she can get yummy cherry meds (thanks Tylenol). My newest scheme, since I am using my instincts and assuming no, she's not actually in pain: "I talked to the Dr today. Every time he said you are in pain, you have to go lay down in your bed." She's been surprisingly pain-free all day. She has a hard cast that covers fun wires that are sticking out of her arm. Those get pulled out with pliers in 2 weeks. Whoever comments on this post gets put into a drawing- if you win you take her to his appointment! Good Luck!

I decided early in the year I'd try to keep up with my dad- who is at least 60 years old- and run a half marathon with him. November seemed like the perfect time to run: nice weather, enough time to train, and it was before nursing school began so I'd be laying on the couch a lot doing nothing. November came so fast I barely had time to tie my shoes on. Not only was I busier than any stay at home mom should be, I... was just super busy. I was running around 4 miles, tops, a couple months before the race. Then I quit running. I dont know why, except that I hate being told what to do, even when its myself telling me to do it. I was also curious as to what my body would do when faced with this challenge, without training properly. I dreaded the race. Stayed up at nights thinking about it. Especially when my dad said he'd stay with me the whole way. I knew what that meant: me keeping a pace I was not comfortable with, having to answer to him each time I wanted to stop and walk, and hearing him give me "you're running like a girl!" jabs every few hundred meters. My dad's not that cruel, I'm joking... But I do play baseball and basketball like a boy now, just sayin'....
I knew I should look forward to this trip to Savannah, GA with my parents even if it was just to get away from TheGligLife for 3 days. I concentrated on that- spending time with mom and dad, eating oysters, drinking beer, alone time.
Race day- I actually did pretty good! I ran almost 9 miles before my body began shutting down, with obvious injuries. I had lots of muscle aches in my legs, which I ran through- that seemed normal. My heart and lungs were phenomenal, in fact, I'd like to dedicate my medal to them, for being fit and keeping up with the race. I was NOT breathing hard. My knee, though, decided to put a stop to the madness and do this thing where I thought it might just snap if I didnt stop. So we stopped and walked/jogged the remainder of the race, miles 10-13. I was disappointed with that, but I totally understood that had I trained for this race, I would've made it. I was concentrating on how prepared my upper body was and proud of that, and tried not to think about the excruciating pain that I was feeling in my legs. It helped that dad was good company and I think he was a little impressed that I ran more than 2 miles. The distractions in that city were amazing- I cant wait to run it next year. I had so much fun! Fans for 13 miles, so many funny signs to laugh at and so many people wanting to give high 5's. My fav signs (the title of this post was one sign) and  "If running were easy it would be called Your Mom".

Early Christmas Presents

$8 Melissa and Doug puzzle from Homegoods/Marshalls.
It wasat Michaels for $12.

I found a few pictures that I liked but werent super sentimental.
Just needed certain people in the puzzle holes.
I traced with a pencil around the photo then cut them out.

All my shapes are cut. Got all my 'people' in the puzzle.

Mod Podge directly into the holes. Place photos in. Mod Podge over them as well.
 

This project is a present from Santa for the mini Gligs. Santa came
early this year and is secretly hiding gifts in a box so when
Christmas comes he's not overwhelmed with thoughtless gifts.

The glue dried clear over these pics and is now super fun.
Semi homemade and original to our family.

Lined Paper Project

 Saw this originally here and had a great project in mind for it. I wrote an inspring paragraph on our white board. Jason told me Monday that he actually reads it often and is encouraged to go about his stressful day more optimistically. "Today is tough, but tomorrow the kids are grown and we are going to have the rest of our lives to enjoy each other, and mainly, travel...." is basically the message.



I printed a favorite photo of my family onto lined notebook paper
(it is my complete family, as I am pregnant with Lockie here).
I made the photo super faded on picmonkey[dot]com with a method
I cant easily explain on here but it was easy.



It took 3 tries for my printer to accept thin lined paper, and I am happy with the results!
I wrote out my message from this white board onto paper
where it is now forever transcribed for our family to read when we need it  :)
 

Paint for 1 Year Olds'

This is how Lachy paints. Paint, that mixes and makes new colors!, thats put into a ziploc and sealed then taped to a surface.

He swirls it around and makes no messes!

His sister cant stand it, she joins in on the fun.

This lasted oh, 5minutes. Then I had to really get creative.

He's outta here whether I want him to be or not.

Move the project to the window!

Which is super bright but whatev.

Its also fun on the window. And he can come back to it again and again.

E is for Elevator

Extra large googly eyes. Spray painted on my garbage cans with very nice black paint that I had laying around.

I love letting a project dry for a loooong time. Then I know its super dry. No rushing a paint job.

Finally using my scrapbook numbers and letters. This is Sunny and Lachlan's elevator button project.
The googly eyes indent a little bit.

Oil Pan Magnetic Board

Kiley Jo needed a 1st birthday present and I didnt want to get it at the store. I was also too late for anything original from Etsy so here I am, the weekend of, and feeling very creative.

 

I went to Michael's and bought these pre-painted wooden characters. They were $.59! I also bought magnets and when I got home glued them together.

 

There are a few Christmas decorations thrown in there. Have to use my glue and magnets on other projects while the glue and magnets are out. Notice that super glue. It was super glue.

Super glue tragedy. I screamed when I quickly tried to pull this off, the MOMENT I got glued to it. Wow. Rubbed some canola oil over it for 5minutes over the sink until it fell off. I was frightened.

My garbage bins are my sawhorses where I paint. I seriously need an area for this. I just dont want to drag out my painters cloth from the garage. Im worried its full of black widow spiders.

Dont use your PBR to spraypaint your oil pan. Only used for hydration. Oh, I used paint made for metal as well. An 'heirloom white'. Love it. I was worried since the oil pan is greasy (why!?) and slick. It worked fine. No sanding or anything.

Another paint area: the ac unit. Good for paint drying.

Finished.

Kiley: dont choke on my gift. Make sure someone is watching you while you play with the magnets. Call me if you swallow them. They arent something you 'let pass'- they will make your insides migrate together. Ok. Have fun!

Acronyms.

Besides garbage, there are other things happening in the Glig Life. Like... Oh! I remember. I applied to 2 nursing schools (RN) which start in January. I am proud of myself for taking two different entrance exams, each 3 hours of my time (not including studying, which I didnt do for the NLN exam since I took that one after the TEAS and I assumed them to be similar. Which they... kinda were), and each $50 and $75! Again, ETSY money, which is sweet. I am paying my way through school. Ha. For now.

Ok, so I took these big exams, paid even more money to apply to the programs, got letters of reference and in general had the requirements (GPA, the courses!---> about a million courses). My scores? Hopefully good enough. Out of everyone who is applying to these programs, I was in the 90%-ile. I like that. Sounds like I could get in with scores like that.

Now we're waiting. If October comes and goes and there's no mention of nursing school, then I havent gotten in. I'll say things like "I have plenty of lactation education and clinical-type mentoring hours to complete", which I DO, to prepare for my IBCLC exam and certification... But I was going to do those simultaneously whilst in the nursing program. It would still be a setback, better luck applying next year! But I would have plenty to do.

Its Garbage

I'm officially a success. We just signed up for Indian River County garbage collection (every Monday and Thursday, whoop whoop!! And we can recycle! Yay!) and I'm paying for it with my ETSY money. I pay other bills, sure. I buy gas and things that Jason calls krinskram which I assume to mean knickknacks in German. But our revolving garbage bill can be paid with a credit card and I have my Paypal account set up with a debit Mastercard. Are we following all this? Anyways, I can pay for the garbage pickup quarterly with this card and so I'm officially taking over family utility finances, one [garbage] bill at a time.

In other news... there is no other news. Just garbage news.

Sweet Sweet Life

Remember this photo? 

It seemed useless for the longest time, those 2 beds. Actually, Sunny slept in one and the other bed was great for potty training in the night- if she peed the bed we'd change her and throw her into the other, to deal with the pee-bed in the morning. And if she peed that one then... no, she never peed again in the night. (ps- this was my trick to train through the night- let her pee! She eventually quit and it didnt really put me out because I had the 2 beds)

I didnt want this to be a potty training post. Its a Congrats Lockie! post. He is on his 3rd week in that bed and Jason and I are besides ourselves (beside each other?) with excitement. It took a week of structured bedtimes in that room for him to 'get' it and he enjoys the freedom. Him and Sunny still give me the run-around for up to 45 minutes some nights, asking for milk, for me to sing, for me to put the music on, for me to get Lachlan out of Sunnys bed, and to break up a fight... But most nights they talk and sing back and forth and she comforts him. She tells him to get into his bed. She encourages him. She does what we as parents normally do. She's doing part of our job! And she's doing it willingly, and for free! And they both like it!

We are firm believers in sibling cosleeping. Not that we need Sunny to take over our responsibilities, but when all Lachlan wants in the night is to not be alone in a crib in a cold quiet room, his sister does the trick.

My favorite reaction lately is to this arrangement (everyone is over the shock of toddler breastfeeding). Most people have been to my house, but they're still concerned its a 'space' issue, as in, "Dont you have an extra room he can have?" And we do. Plenty of rooms. But none for him. Those rooms are freed up for other things and the babies sleep in the nursery, together. Its a sweet life when you've got your sibling by your side.

The Dingo

Our dog has more of a social life than we do: the neighbors rang our doorbell at 8p and asked for Jam. They wanted to take her for a walk with their dogs. Sunny cried and cried that they were taking Jam away; I couldnt explain enought that Smoky and Brody were dog friends of Jam's.
Then the next day a neighbor girl rang the bell and asked for Jam. Wanted to know if Jam could come out and play... Sent her to the backyard to entertain the 4 legged Glig... Popular dog.

Boys & Their Toys

Father and son face

This is how to turn the vacuum on

Add caption

 Lachy's fav pastime. Jason also LOVES to vacuum. In fact, he has 3 vacuums and he's not afraid to use them. I dont even know how to use one of them, but it doesnt matter- its his thing.

His carpet wet vac thing

Uh, The Rainbow- awesomest just like your mother's

Sailing the Ocean Blue

Beers and boats and brothers

Sailing made us want to sell all of our possessions and live on a boat for a few weeks until we go broke.

Sailing with Steve, me and Jase, and my parents was actually a birthday gift I received this year from Jason and my parents. I decided to cash it in in July. Jason's brother was only here for a month so we crammed the activities in.

My Brother Husband

Get it??

I am mourning the loss of the 3rd parent that resided in our home for all of July. Thats why we had so much fun in July, because Steve flew in from Australia and we entertained the crap out of him.

Glig backyardigans

 Suzy's Tiki. The best of Sebastian-town

Naples Pier

Airboat tour of the Rim Canal: the lesser known little brother of Lake Okeechobee

Aussies

Funny kids.... corn and shark lovers

The only reason he wanted to visit Florida-- to see Chobes!

We Deserved a Vacation.

So we took one. 

Really? Places like this exist. And I hope to go here often to experience again. The Marriott at Marco Island, FL

Papa and Lachlan lay in the grass

ice cream he wouldnt share with me

BFFs. water babies. Sibling love. Love it

She loved running through the waterfalls with what looked like cigarettes in her mouth

I love Marco Island. Or at least I love this resort. Highly recommended.