Merry Christmas

Our little giraffe

W T F

I almost killed her. Does she not know how bad I wanted these RED chairs? Does she know how long I waited for them?

Obviously not.

Megan got crayons at her Halloween party today at preschool. Morgan got a hold of them.
*I was making dinner during all of her coloring.

Matt saved the day, or the child, though. We had some Woolite Oxy Deep up in the cabinet. This stuff is AMAZING! Spray it on, rub with the scrubby side of a sponge, wipe clean with a damp cloth. It worked so well we tried it on all the other places Morgan has managed to color on: the walls, the tables, the stone fireplace. The Woolite took it all off. No more crayon in places it shouldn't be.

I am so impressed by this product I had to write in to the company and thank them. Now I won't have to buy some ugly slip cover for my awesome red chairs.

Thank you Woolite Oxy Deep!

**No, I was not paid to endorse this product. I have actually never used it before, just happened to have it in the cabinet.

Pumpkin patch 2011

The kiddos at our local pumpkin patch. Morgan became very attached to her little pumpkin. I'm pretty sure she thinks it's a pet. She ate dinner with it and gave it kisses. She will probably sleep with it tonight.

2 weeks post surgery

I went to the doctor today thinking he was going to take out my stitches. But my swelling is just a little too much still. I did get the bandages off so here are a couple of pictures. It looks like the bruising has gotten worse, but I think that's normal.

Cristy's Foot Suregery

I had bunions. On both feet. They hurt. Bunions? What are they? Here, read this Wikipedia article about bunions. I have had bunions on my feet for as long as I can remember. I have always had the inside of my tennis shoes wear out right at this spot. I never really paid any attention to the bunions, and actually really liked my feet. I thought they were cute. I even had my tattoo of Mason's name put on my right foot, drawing attention to my feet.

In September 2009, I started having problems with my feet. I started a marathon training program to prepare myself to run the Austin 1/2 Marathon in February of 2010. I thought that maybe a running group would help me be accountable to others and myself to get me in shape and help me loose weight. I did the program for only about 6 weeks. I never actually ran. I did a lot of walking and jogging. After about a month in, my feet would be sore during the training hour. Sore feet after starting a new running program? Sure, that's normal I assumed. But the pain started lasting longer than just the hour I was walking, and the pain started moving beyond just my feet.

I asked the group's podiatrist if there were some special exercises I could do for my feet. He told me I had pretty bad bunions and that they may impact how much I would be able to do as far as running goes. Bunions are there. They don't "go away" on their own. You either manage the pain or you have surgery to get rid of them. By the time I dropped the running program, my feet were hurting for up to a day or two after I would train. Not good when I have four kids to care for.

By 2011, my foot pain was to the point of my needing to ice my feet and take over the counter pain medicine several times a week. I made an appointment for a podiatrist to look at my feet. Result: I had bunions. There was nothing I could about them other than manage the pain, unless I wanted to consider surgery. She gave my some recommendations about better shoes to wear and gave me custom orthodics to insert into said shoes and sent me on my way.

When I first changed my footwear, the pain decreased and on some days I had no foot pain at all. But after only 5 short months, the pain was back and in full force. I was icing my feet and taking Tylenol and Motrin daily. Matt and I researched the bunion surgery. The hardest thing about the surgery is the recovery. I was going to need to be off my feet completely for about 6 weeks. No driving, no walking, no taking care of the children. Luckily, Matt's mom, being retired now, said she'd be able to come help out for a couple of weeks and my mom said she could come too.

I asked the podiatrist if I could have both feet done at the same time, to just get it all done at once and be done with it. Well, that's not possible. He said it would be like amputating both feet at the same time. How was I going to go to the bathroom? take a shower? If we do one at a time, at least I'd still have use of the other foot to get around on.

So, last week I had my right foot operated on. This was the more severe bunion and the harder, more complicated surgery. It doesn't hurt too bad. Granted I am saying this after the hardest part, those first few days. I am pretty much bed/couch ridden. I can get around with a wheelchair, crutches, or the easiest way, a knee-scooter.


This is the x-ray for my feet. The picture on the left and then center are the before pictures for my left and right feet. The far right x-ray is my right foot post surgery. You can see the first metatarsal (toe) bone is much straighter now and it is being held in place with a plate and several screws. Those are permanent and will not come out.







The left picture is the before photo. The right is 3-days post surgery. My foot is still very swollen, but you can already see how much straighter it is. The bunion is almost completely gone. I think I counted about 20 stitches there. Yikes! I get those taken out in another week and hopefully most of the swelling will be gone. I'll post another picture then.

Oh, and the doctor was very excited that he was able to make his incisions around my tattoo. :)

Get your dancin' shoes on

We took Megan and Morgan to Payless to get new shoes for dance class which starts this week. We had to buy ballet and tap shoes for the girls and they had to try them out in the store. Too cute.

(It was also very cute watching Matt sit on the floor and put the tiny shoes on the girls. Probably more of a Mommy-thing to do. But Daddy has no trouble jumping in while Mom's foot is still wrapped up.)

First day of school for the big kids

My latest projects

I took another sewing class at Joann's. This time it was for a "hipster bag". There wasn't a pattern so much as a set of instructions that we followed. I was working with a different kind of fabric than I have in the past. I've mostly worked with basic cotton blends, and this time I worked with a thicker home decor fabric. (It's probably still cotton, but it's a lot thicker than what you'd make a dress out of.)

After I got home from making the first bag, I made 3 more using the rest of my fabric.

Then Mason wanted one too. So back to Joann's we went in search of a more masculine fabric. Here's what he picked out. (I like that my kids want me to make them things. Let's hope that when I get to making actual clothing items that they'll want to wear my creations.)

New 'do

Since dying my hair, I thought I'd cut a couple of inches off to clean
it up a little. Well, "a couple" turned into 11" with a donation to
Locks of Love. I am loving my new hairdo and have been getting all kinds of compliments.

Splash pad adventures

Since this summer has been so hot, we've visited the new splash
pad/sprinkler park a couple of times. Here's a couple of pictures of
the girls.

Some for you, some for me

Megan wanted ice cream and said she could do it herself. :)

Sink bath

This child has challenged Matt and I like no other. Morgan is crazy,
funny, happy, and spirited. She gets into trouble ALL THE TIME. But
she's so dang cute I have a hard time punishing her. Plus, I'm not
sure she always understands that what she does is wrong.

She's 3 years old. I shouldn't have to watch her like I would a 2 year
old, but I do. Or else she does this...

...she climbs up into the bathroom sink and, "I wash my butt?" (yes,
she asks it.) But with those big blue eyes, how can I not resist
taking a picture and snuggling her.

Morgan, you're lucky you're cute.

Red

I dies my hair red. I've always wanted red hair, but having naturally
dark brown hair, getting a red that actually looks red is hard. Thanks
to Garnier hair dye, I have achieved the red.

New Trees

Matt and I have been talking about planting trees in our backyard pretty much since we moved in. Here in Texas, it is HOT! Our house was built on old farmland and therefore there were no existing trees to provide much needed shade. We planted the Sycamore (far left) the summer of 2007 and we planted 5 more this summer. Two Monterrey Oaks (2nd from left and far right) on the ends and three Crape Myrtles in the middle. Hopefully all the trees will get-to-growing and provide us some relief from the heat.

Twin thing

I was recently looking at some older pictures of the babies and I came across these two pictures. These were taken back in February of 2010. The babies are sleeping in almost the same position.

Ice cream cone cupcakes

For the girls' third birthday I made these cute cupcakes in ice cream cones. It was a lot of work. I made some full size cones and some mini cones. They were a big hit.

Kids sitting on a Hutto Hippo

The Quicksilver Dress

Maggie's first teacher, Ms. Paula, made this one-of-a-kind dress for her out of Matt's favorite work shirt. Here is where we first blogged about it. Since Maggie has outgrown it, it's Megan's turn to wear it. Here is a side by side of the two of them. So cute!

My CVS haul

I got all this ( plus one more package of CVS baby wipes - already in the diaper bag) for only $33.70 out of pocket. I saved $52.66 - that's a savings of 64%! Thank you Coupon Diva!

Right or left

Megan has gone back and forth using her right and left hands for things for a while now. At last check, probably at about 18 months, she was exclusively using her left hand for everything - eating, coloring, picking things up. Until this week. I asked her at dinner to write with her left hand and she couldn't even hold onto the crayon. She colored and ate with her right hand the whole night.

Read to me

Mason loves to read. It's nice when he reads to the littles.

Pillow cases

I picked up some pillow case kits at Walmart last week. The kit included the three pieces of fabric and the instructions. I had to sew them together. I had a lit of fun putting these together for all the kids (Maggie is already using hers.)

Jungle Book Bag

I made a book bag. I made it for Mason's class basket for the Extravaganza (a fundraiser for the school.) Mason's class basket theme is Peaceful Reading. We have books and I thought a bag or tote of some sort would be nice. Instead of buying one to donate, I thought I'd attempt to make one. I did an internet search for a "Simple Book Bag" and after a couple of clicks, I ended up here. This short and simple tutorial of a messenger bag was just my style. I NEED pictures to make sure I'm doing it right and the directions were simple. Perfect for the beginner sewer. So, what do you think?

"I fixed it"

Mason fixed the construction hat by making a strap. It kept falling off his head and he asked me for some tape. My response, "Honey, scotch tape isn't going to work."

"Can I at least try?"

"Sure."

My boy has a way of proving me wrong. :)

Cristy's new tattoo

(outline all done)

(all wrapped up)

(the next day)

I have been waiting to get this tattoo for a while now. I was waiting
to find a tattoo artist here in Austin that someone was willing to
recommend based on them actually getting work done by said artist, but
I was not very successful. Most people have had work done but wouldn't
necessarily recommend the artist, or had only heard of someone. And
the person I had my last tattoo here in Austin isn't here anymore. So
I had to just go out on a limb. I went to Atomic Tattoo on 183. Ronny
did my work this time and I think he did a great job. I wanted a pink
ribbon fleur-de-lis. I had seen this artwork on a plaque on a breast
cancer support website. I like the fleur-de-lis and the pink ribbon
symbolizes breast cancer. Breast cancer has hit my family a couple of
times now and this is just a constant reminder to me of the people
that have been affected by this disease.

So what do you think?