My new haircut

Ok. so on Saturday I called Jennifer, my hairstylist and told her I was ready for a change, and I wanted to go short. She was excited! :) So last night I brought a picture in of the kind of cut I wanted. It was short and straight. I liked the cut, but wasn't sure about going straight. My hair has so much body and is so thick, that going straight isn't an easy thing for me to do. I almost always end up tossling my hair after its dried and spray it. Thats it. I've gotten more wave since I've had the boys, and its definitely gotten darker too over the years. No more blonde for me. A dirty brown is now my natural color. But Jennifer is such a great stylist that I know she can do wonders with my hair. And she's so great - she's the kind of stylist that you want - she loves doing new "dos" and doesn't tell me what I want to hear, but what she thinks. I totally trust her when it comes to my hair. And besides all that, she's also a great friend!

So I went short. Martin told me last night that this was one of the best cuts I've had, and of course he likes it straight. He just doesn't understand how that works. If I blow dry it straight using a brush, it'll be completely limp by noon. My hair is so thick and heavy, that it won't do anything else then. I have to blow dry it from underneath to give it the volume it needs. So right away this morning he says "oh, its bushy". I knew what that meant - it was ok, but he kept emphasizing how he liked it last night. Jennifer and I have laughed at the thought of having her be at my house every morning so I could get my hair "just so", but that will never happen. The way she styles my hair always looks so easy, and she'll even explain it to me, and I think I can do it, but by the time I do it the next morning - all those thoughts of how she did it have completly escaped my mind.

So I go back to what I know - the "fluffy" look. I told Martin to give me a few days to get used to the new cut and hopefully by then I'll have a better idea how to style it.

Expenses

Ok, so I've only gotten part of the expenses from Josiah's "ear surgery", but so far, its not too bad. However, I don't have the bill from the Hospital yet. That will be a lot I'm sure. So far total expenses are $1,011.00 and we have to pay $671.12. The clinic charged $171.00 for the pre-op physical which I think is just ridiculous. He had been in there a week or two before and that was only $113.00. And they wonder why we can't afford Health insurance?! Its because they charge an arm and a leg!! Its ridiculous!

Anyways, just had to voice my opinion there - I'm glad that so far it isn't much more, but the Hospitals charge way too much too., so I'll be anxious to see just how much that bill will end up being?!

Have a good Monday! :)
Michelle

Dad turned 72!!

WOW - Can you believe that my Dad turned 72 this past Saturday? It just doesn't seem possible that he could be that old! I see Dad as the same Dad that I had when I was a teenager - no aging, no ailments, still working, but enjoying life. To me the only changes that have taken place is that I've gotten older, gotten married and have added 2 beautiful boys to the picture. They both love my Dad and after the heart problems my Dad has experienced, the times my Dad spends with our boys mean even more to me than ever. My heart goes soft when I hear the joy in the boys' voices as they hear that they will be going to Grandma and Grandpa's house, or that Grandpa will be picking them up after school today.

We met at the Happy Chef in Mankato on Sat. for supper. That was fun. Apparently it was all my Dad's idea, so Mom says. It was fun. But the one thing I didn't do, was bring the cards we had bought for Dad. They were left on our dining room table all ready to go, but forgotten. I felt horrible, but I know Dad understood, but that wasn't the point. I felt crabby going there because we took a short nap, and that seemed to make me even more sleep deprived. Even Kevin, my brother noticed that I wasnt' up to par when we got there. Leave it to him to notice that?! He did and that was that. It was fun. I had a great time! I always enjoy our family times together. We've always made a point of getting together for the holidays, or birthdays and I will never forget those times. Hopefully the boys won't either.

I hope Dad had as good of a time as we did.

Love you Dad!~

your daughter,
Michelle Denise

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Well, we made it through Josiah's "surgery" yesterday. We were there by 6:50am and got to his room. We sat around til 8am when they finally took him to the OR to get those nasty things out of his ears. They gave him gas so when he was done with surgery, he was out and talking like crazy. It caught up to him later though. Dr. Jannings is a VERY nice Doctor and I

would recommend him to anyone (but hopefully you wouldn't need him). You can see by the picture above how tiny those crazy little things were. The yellow piece was in Josiah's right ear and the grey sequin was in his left ear. All went well, and Dr. Jannings didn't think he would've had any hearing loss becuase of those things in his ear - he said they were too small and wouldn't have done anything.

We were very relieved to have him out of surgery and doing well. The only thing is that he got an upset tummy because of the anesthesia, so he threw up a few times, but otherwise he was good. We finally went home around 10:30am and Josiah and I both took almost a 3 hour nap yesterday. We were shot.

As for me, I didn't even want to go yesterday because my throat felt so bad, but Martin said I needed to go for moral support so I went. But my throat still hurts today and I think I'll be seeing the Doctor today, hoping I don't have strept throat. Atleast Josiah made it through without getting sick.

Thank you for all your love and prayers during this time. Crazy isn't it how these little things can be a person all worked up? I wasn't nervous about things at all yesterday - Martin was. Which is a first.

Must get going though. Today is "donuts for Dads" in school so they need to be there between 7:15 - 7:45am to get the good ones, so I better wake the lazy boys up! Have a great day everyone and Happy Valentines' Day!!!

love,

Michelle

Getting the boys ready

Well, Martin got these great photos of the boys tonight as Isaac is getting ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house for night and Josiah didn't want to get out of his pj's to go with to G&G's house. Mind you, its only 3 above zero outside and yes, if there is any time that Josiah is to get sick, now will be the time.

As for staying well, I end up being the one with a cold/sore throat junk. And I know exactly where I got it from - a co-worker yesterday who came in the office and was hacking all over the place. I never gave it a thought when he was in there working, but Monday night I felt a sore throat coming on already and then I was upset. Now today I was ok, but tonight I am fiercely cold and my throat hurts something fierce. I have vicks on, but much to my dismay, we have no night time medicine in the house so I'm hoping I won't suffer too much tonight. I already told Martin and Josiah that they can sleep together and I will sleep in the boys' room so Josiah doesn't get what I have. Martin even went as far as wondering if it will be just him bringing Josiah to the Hospital tomorrow morning. Man, I hope not. I want to be there too, so let's keep our fingers crossed that I'll be well enough to go and that Josiah will be healthy as well.

Gotta run. Its 7:51pm and I'm ready for bed. Send lots of prayers our way in the morning. We have to be there by 7am, so we're guessing that it'll be done right away as he can't eat or drink anything now until after the surgery.

Have a great night everyone. I'll post tomorrow once we're back from the Hospital.

Michelle

Josiah's pre-op physical

Yesterday Martin brought Josiah into the Doctor for his pre-op physical. We were both thinking that this was a joke - thinking what can they possibly check on him that they hadn't checked a couple weeks ago when he was in there for his bad cough. Well, we were both enlightened by his checkup. Martin questioned Josiah needing a physical knowing that he had just been there a couple weeks ago. Karen re-assured him (us) that even though he was in there, he was sick, and his temperature, blood pressure and heart rate could all be affected when he is sick, therefore they need those readings when he is well. So Josiah checked out just fine yesterday. We are all ready to go for his appointment on Wed. the 13th.

We've made arrangements for Isaac to stay at my parent's house on Tuesday night and they will bring him to school the next morning. We have to be to the Hospital by 7am on Wed. for his surgery to be done at 8am.

I'm not nervous about this - thank goodness. I have been re-assured by several friends that having them go into his ears (even though these wonderful things are way down by his ear drums), that it isn't a bad thing to have happen. That their boys have had tubes taken out several times and the procedure isn't that bad at all. So thank goodness for being able to talk to others about this - they have made me feel so much better about this whole crazy thing!

Martin and I are VERY curious how Josiah will be after the surgery. His hearing we mean. I emailed his teachers this week and told them what is going on with everything and I'm hoping for a big change with Josiah in the classroom. Even though he says he can hear fine, he wouldn't know if he couldn't hear fine. So we'll see what happens this week. He's excited about having to miss school, (which child wouldn't be?!), and he'll be in school for Valentines day, so he won't miss his party at school! That is always a plus!!

Anyways - we're just chillin' today. We're suppose to have blizzard like conditions, so some people say. The temperatures are suppose to drop all day today with wind chills in the double negatives. So yesterday we got a roast, potatoes and carrots so we could atleast have some good "comfort food" for this weekend. Hopefully there will be some great movies on tv so we can all relax in our house in the warmth.

I will keep you posted how the surgery goes on Wed. Any prayers you want to send our way will be greatly appreciated. Right now Josiah isn't nervous about anything, but he certainly was nervous when we were in to Dr. Janning's office last week. He wanted to show his tough side, but I could see it in his eyes that he was nervous. Pray for him to be calm about this as we try to re-assure him as well.

Love to you all! ~
Michelle