Whew, what a day! Ben had an appointment with his orthotist in Grand Rapids so we were gone there for most of the day. We left the house at about 11:35 and didn't get home until after 4. It's an hour drive there, an hour drive back and we were there for at least 2 hours. It's tiring for all of us but it's a necessary evil. I feel bad for Ben though because he's gotten to the age where he realizes he's different. The poor kid sat in the office in tears because he didn't want another pair of afos. He doesn't want to need them. He got an encouraging word from Rex (the orthotist) and was told that there are a ton of kids who need to wear them.

Whew, what a day! I woke up feeling as if I hadn't slept at all. I really don't know what that's about. Then, after puttering around the house a bit, the boys and I loaded up for a trip into Grand Rapids. Ben had an appointment with his neurologist.

Woo! It's Tuesday and it started early for me. I had to go into Grand Rapids to meet up with Peter, Donna, Ben and Roger. Ben had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Reinhart, the orthopedic surgeon. Peter brought him in and had me meet them there. Everyone else came along because they're working on getting Donna's last name changed. I'm not sure what was going on, but it felt like I was getting the cold shoulder from Peter/Donna. I hope it isn't the sign that what has been fairly amicable is going to start getting troublesome.

So, now I'm back home and trying to figure out the best way to spend my time today. Sadly, I think it's going to be trying to knock out a couple of hours of kgb work. This month has been crazy and I still have to put in 8 hours before Friday. Ick! I'm seriously considering quitting. It just don't bring in enough money to make it worth it, plus they keep changing their policies. It's something to really give thought to.

Let's see...so what am I tackling today? Ok, here's my list. I want to get the towels put away that I washed and folded. I want to try to do 2 hours of kgb. I also have a custom order for a flip album. I may do that today or I may wait until tomorrow. I need to get it into the mail on Friday when I'm in Hastings.

Oooooh...that reminds me! I haven't told you all! I opened my Etsy shop! Up until now, I'd only used it to contact Etsy sellers, but recently I decided to actually make things and sell them! I would love it if I could sell enough each month to cover one of my household bills (one of the smaller ones...hehe). So, if you're looking for an Etsy shop to support, please consider checking out mine. You can find it at Katie's Craft Corner.

Now, I'm off to take care of some towels before getting down to kgb work.

Whew..It's technically Tuesday but today was a busy-ish kinda day. The boys and I had to be up and out the door by 7:30 this morning to head into Grand Rapids. Ben had a specialist appointment that we couldn't miss. We were all tired but we made it there on time. The results were good, as far as I'm concerned. He no longer needs to see this specialist unless something happens. He does need some new afos but that happens every couple of years anyway. The next step for that is to see another of his specialists to see when/if we're going to do hamstring lengthening surgery.

In other news, the van news was also fairly good. I need to have a transmission flush done because it's quite a few (ok, probably almost 20,000 miles) miles past when it should have been done. Seriously, I need some sort of checklist for this kind of thing. I now realize that instead of learning about these things, I relied on Peter to know them.

Let's see. I think that's about all the news. Oh, well except my female kitty went into heat this morning so she's now quarantined in the laundry room which makes doing laundry a little tricky..lol! I'm going to call our vet tomorrow to see how much it will cost to get Hemi fixed. I'm not sure where the money is going to come from, but it needs doing.

Ok, well we just got hit by an ugly storm and the thunder is making the house quiver so I'm going to do some fast typing, get this posted and get the laptop shut down. The kids are here this week so the menu is a bit more "fun":

Tuesday- Mac n Cheese w/ hamburger
Wednesday - Lasagna
Thursday- Mini pizzas
Friday- Turkey Roast
Saturday - Chicken Patty sandwiches

Okie...I'm gonna scoot. This lightning is making me nervous! I'll see everyone in the morning!

It's Tuesday and boy has it been a long one! I was up at 6am this morning to meet up with Peter to take Ben into the doctor. I did make it to their place by 7:15 and Peter rushed us right out the door. The roads were kinda slick this morning and so was their parking lot! I slipped about 4 feet out their door and Ben laughed all the way to the car. Little turkey.

The appointment went well. The doctor checked out Ben's legs and did some x-rays. She thinks that surgery might be a good idea for Ben's right leg. She also said that more physical therapy as well as wearing a leg immobilizer at night. Peter wants to rush into surgery but I'd rather explore alternative options instead of doing surgery. Peter used time and money as an excuse, but that's precisely why we carry extra insurance on him and I could take him to appointments plus let's face it, the surgery could cost more and be far more time intensive as far as therapy goes. Luckily for me, the doctor doesn't make surgery appointments the first meeting and she feels that extra therapy and such won't hurt to try at all.

After the appointment (which kept us at her office for just over 2 hours), we drove on back. Peter dropped Ben and I off at the apartment to get my van and I took Ben back to school. After signing him in, I hung out with him for about 15 minutes until his class got in from recess. I spent a few minutes talking to his teacher and then popped over to tell Roger that I'd see him at his party on Thursday. It's going to be a lot of trips to Hastings because they need to be in school on Friday because Ben has 2 tests that day. Poor kid.

Then, it was off to the dollar store and then the grocery store. As usual, the groceries took me almost 2 hours. It may go faster if I didn't stop to talk to so many random strangers. ;) Then, I used my grocery receipt to get 25c off a gallon of gas at their gas station and then drove on home. Did I mention in all of this that it was freezing cold today? Brrrrrrrrr!

Sadly, our house here has some serious air leaks and I haven't had the money to get plastic to cover up the windows. I've been trying other creative means though and they've been partially effective. After getting back, I decided to take a nap but our upstairs only has 1 heat vent and it seems pretty ineffective. I was so cold that I couldn't fall asleep! I'm going to have to get out our small space heaters and take them upstairs to take the chill off the bedrooms before we go to sleep at night.

I did eventually go outside and unloaded most of the groceries from the van. I'll snag the rest of them tomorrow. I was just too dang cold and honestly, exhausted to handle all of them today. I did get those inside and then I did something I'd been meaning to do for about the last month. I actually got about half of the fridge totally cleared out. Ugh..how do they get so full of stuff? By the time I was done, my trash bag was full and it was so heavy that I had to carry the whole trash can to the porch, open our outdoor trashcan and then (after tying the bag closed) tip the whole trashcan over the rail so the bag fell out into the outdoor can! But, my fridge looks much nicer and isn't full of spoiled food. Yay! Now, I only have to do the other half.

Tomorrow, I have to go into Lansing and then spend a big chunk of time baking cookies for teacher gifts. Plus, if all goes well, I'm hoping to be able to get the rest of the presents wrapped. I do wish I could find Grandma's bell and Alex's gift. I know they're here. I just don't remember where the heck I sat them down at!

Okie, time for me to try to get some extra sleep. It's going to be a crazy week and tomorrow is only the halfway point!