snowmagedden 2014

February 12, 2014 was a day in history in NC and we were here to be a part of that weather history.

Charlie was in the middle of it literally!

He left work at 1:45 pm got home at 6:30 pm. I wasn't worried about him since he has the hummer. I figured he would take the ditch if he had to. I was worried he would run out of gas in that traffic! People were just leaving their cars in the middle of the road and saying to heck with it. Who does that??? 

North Carolina can't deal with winter!!!! 

Mr. Mom

In recovering from my surgery, my husband had to take on the roll as Mr. Mom... He has not had to do this in a long time and remember when I had Jordan, it wasn't as difficult taking care of just Braedyn and Cooper who were 3 and 5.  I was able to at least get up and help with things. He now has a 10, 7, and 4 year old to take care of and a wife who can't get out of bed and is drugged up on pain meds for a couple days and has to remain in bed for the most part of a week. How he quickly had a new appreciation for the job title of MOM. For those of you who know my husband, you are picturing it in your head and chuckling to yourself! My parents cannot make it out here til April and Charlie's parents are not able to travel right now either. We are in this together...Team J!

Those of you who know me well, which are the people reading these blog posts since it's only you who read these, I don't sit still, I don't lay around and do nothing, I am always on the go, I am exercising, running, chasing boys, carpooling, playing with Jordan, homeschooling Jordan, transporting kids every which direction, doing homework, making meals, cleaning house, keeping schedules, and taking care of Jake our four legged child. You can imagine what it's going to be like for me. 

I have to say it was wonderful being waited on, food and drinks brought to me and my meds on schedule, and help to get to the bathroom. It was nice to have this break although it would be nice without the surfboard pad or ice pack between my legs!  Charlie has been a wonderful help and he has not only helped me but kept the house picked up, the boys went to school with homework done, matching clothes that were appropriate for winter, they had lunches ( I am assuming they were healthy, lets just say they were because it was successful if it made it to school), no one was seriously hurt, they didn't starve, and the toilets were even clean! He did great. 

The boys are very loud, they like to run and jump in the house, and are your typical boys. They fight, they argue they fight some more. They have a few punches, or I hear "get off of me" coming from the living room, or "don't touch me" or "don't sit by me", or "don't put boogers on me". Then I finally hear Charlie giving them wordly wisdom before starting to yell. I am pretty sure they are now not supposed to ever be able to go anywhere, be on any electronical device, never get anything from the store and not get to stay up late, and stay in their room for the rest of the day. They like to test us! I think they test Charlie more than me!

One night Charlie had come in the bedroom and told Braedyn to get ready for dinner he was heating it up. We are so lucky to have had great friends bring us food through this for us to heat and reheat which has been great for Charlie...He didn't have to "cook". He said what we were having and Braedyn was not happy about the menu. Then Charlie said, "do you know how hard this is for me", and Braedyn whispered to me "It's not hard for you". Then he also was asking me "when can you get up again, I like hanging out with dad but I like hanging out with dad watching sports or doing stuff outside." 

The boys have an appreciation for all mom does too since they have had to do pretty much everything by themselves if dad wasn't here. I spoil them I have decided...at the moment my 7 1/2 year old says, "mom, I'm going poop", and I say well then go...and he says "oh man you can't get up and wipe my butt". 

My oldest, Braedyn has been awesome! He is a little gentleman. He comes in and snuggles with me and tells me not to get up and asks me what I need. This morning I was so ill from the pain meds and Charlie left for work, he got out in the kitchen and made sure everyone had breakfast and their vitamins and he took his own allergy medicine.  We are on such a tight schedule normally and I run a tight ship around here so they know the rules, the schedules, where everything is and what we do so they had it down pretty well. Can you believe the house is even "clean" and beds are made as I type this right now. They all helped each other make their beds this morning. It is these glimpses of awesomeness that I can pat my back and say I think I have done good and I deserve this little break. I am going to sit back and kick my heels up for a bit. Let them take care of me for once. I am also taking a break from running for six weeks per Dr. which allow me some quality time and fun trips with Jordan to different parks, museums, and day adventures. I am looking forward to that with my baby. 

This break has come at a perfect time after a long tiring hockey season and before baseball gets into full swing. If someone notices a few new gray hairs on Charlie, I may have contributed to that these next couple weeks! 

A Chapter Closed

Rewind 10 years ago I thought I had a normal birthing experience with Braedyn, albeit painful and LONG I did not have anything to compare it to. He was a healthy 7 pounds 21 inches long little baby boy. Since it was my first, there was a lot of vaginal trauma (as my Dr. puts it) and the Dr. never stitiched my up correctly. I then had 10 pound Cooper and almost 9 pound Jordan...the weight of those two and add in the previous trauma, I'm surprised my insides weren't falling out! I realized the first one was not normal and as time went on and my problems worsened with that area of my body, I needed to fix it when I was done having children. It was becoming a self confidence thing even more so than my deflated and dissappearing boobs. It is emabarrasing to talk about it but I am sure any woman who has multiple births can attest to some of my feelings. Things are never the same!

I had numerous side effects from my Mirena IUD that I had put in after Jordan was born and decided it was time to take it out and look into other options now that we were done having children. It was time to speak to the Dr. about sterilization because I wanted to go in and have my other issues taken care of as well. 

I was having a hard time emotionally with knowing I was done having little babies around my house. It is over. I am moving on to another chapter in my  life.  When your grandparents and parents tell you make sure you enjoy every minute and savor the moments because they go fast~THEY ARE CORRECT! It does go too fast. My baby is starting kindergarten this July! I had to be ok with this decision as a vasectomy can be reversed this cannot! I think if we lived near family in MN or SD we might have had the discussion of another child but now it is not feasible. I run crazy right now and that wouldn't be fair to another child. It is hard enough to find time for all three right now and juggle their schedules. Try to throw in naps and feedings with a newborn I would be in the looney bin for sure. After I finally was ok with the finality of it I went in and had my pre op appointment. 

The decision was to have an Essure placed for sterilization which is an option now instead of a normal tubal ligation where they go through your uterus and place tiny things in your fallopian tubes that eventually tissue grows around them to close it off instead of having to cut into your tummy and have that recovery time. Then have a posterior repair to repair a rectal prolapse that created a rectocele in the wall of my vagina. A rectal prolapse happens when part of your rectum bulges into your vagina wall and creates a bulge at the opening. They cut open the wall of your vagina take the bulge out and suture it back up. That prolapse can happen during labor/childbirth. Then also had scar tissue removed from the first born when they didn't stitch me up correctly. My Dr. said it will be like brand new and will be like before you had children...I am sure you can imgaine what my husband said to that! 

It's an added bonus...

I was very nervous about the procedure and I don't do well with anesthesia. I don't know if I was more nervous about the actual procedure or the recovery! How was I going to be sendentary for a week with three active boys at home and no family around to help. I know what it was like to have Breadyn but he said it will be a little worse than your first childbirth experience. So I kind of knew what to anticipate. 

Charlie took the day off and planned on being home with me for the next five days. He and Jordan took me to the hospital and it was an outpatient surgery. We checked in at 11:00 am and went back at about 12:30 and all I know is I was home by 8:00. While recovering they found a couple things; I do not do anesthesia well at all, I was very very sick from that and kept turning all sorts of whites and greens. and I have a heart arrythmia that is a newly found condition that know one has ever found before. The Anesthesiologist called it Bigeminy (bi-gem-i-ne). It is an abnormal heart beat...It describes a state where your heart alternates one "normal" beat with one "premature" beat. It is describes as two beats close together with a pause following each pair of beats....kind of like boom, boom, pause... He said it was from my running. My resting heart rate is only 40 which is low but that of an endurance athelete and they see it alot in endurance atheletes. It is not to be of concern unless I have other issues. We do have a lot of heart conditions in my family so it was scary but is something to be aware of and keep an eye on and let my Dr. know about it. That was interesting to find out about it. It was a long evening and they asked if I wanted to stay because I was just not coming out of the nausea and pain but I wanted to come home in my own bed and I knew my husband would take care of me. 

I have many stitches up inside me in and around that whole area....an area that probably has the most nerve endings! It is very painful and I advise don't do it unless you absolutely have to! Peeing was like after labor with your peri bottle and you have to take laxatives or Miralax because there are stitiches running inside along your rectum wall...you don't want those to rip open. 

I have Oxy for pain and lots of ibuprofen which Charlie was great on keeping up with it because I wasn't even able to get out bed for two days! If I had to go to the bathroom he was holding me up while I hobbled into the bathroom. 

This is the 6th day in my bed. I am still nauseated from the pain meds still sore on the bottom but not as tender since I can pee without screaming! The swelling has gone down so I can feel the stitiches pulling my skin tight. I am able to get up without help but very slowly. I realized one day when I thought I had a second wind I cannot be up more than a few minutes at a time. Then it is back to bed. 

Saltines have been my diet. It will be a long six week recovery period but it will be worth it in the end. 

The things children do to us physically, emotionally, and spiritually Dr.s can not even tell you what to expect when they come out and what we go through but I wouldn't change it for the world! I love my munchkins!!!

Now back to a nap! 

Baseball Tryouts

Baseball tryout time again and Braedyn wanted to try out for the 10U Elite Hawks travel ball out of Hillsborough. We agreed to let him try out and he was excited for it. He knew there would be a lot of talented kids showing up. He has worked hard with his dad on his skills and it paid off. He made the team. I was so proud of him! 

He got back on the horse. He tried out two years ago for a travel team and didn't make it but that didn't discourage him. He knew what he needed to work on and he also knew what tryouts were going to be like this time. He was better prepared. The last time it broke my heart more than his to have to tell him and I was hoping I wasn't going to have to be the bearer of that news again.

He went to tryouts and I believe there were about 17 kids trying out and they took 12.

Charlie and I are very proud of him. We are also looking forward to a fun travel spring season. We know most of the families from playing rec ball all these years in the same organization. Each sporting season begins a start of a new family....

One is done the next one starts...

Hockey ended this weekend and we have a little bit of down time in between. 

Cooper starts his rec baseball season in a couple weeks too... so now we switch gears but it will be nice to be outside in the nice warm sun and have a break from the cold ice rink!

Basketball Boys of White Cross

They all get to play basketball this year. Braedyn and Cooper on the same team and Jordan in the 4-6 year old team. It's hysterical to watch Jordan play. The other two are intense it's fun to watch them and daddy's the coach! They look for each other to pass to. It's a fun Friday night! 

A Season Lived and Learned

Cooper is done with his travel hockey season and though it was a year met with growing pains with a newly formed team and organization, he seemed to have had a fun year and take away some good skating skills. He made some good friends and I made some good hockey mom friends! A first year squirt as a 7 year old was an eye opener for he and I.  He now has no fear of taking on kids twice his size and he is wide open like always. He works hard every shift. He got three goals and saw a few times in the penalty box. Cooper is intense. I also saw how stressful it can be to be a hockey mom with a son on a travel team. Also just like in any sport there's lots of political stuff. We learned a lot about travel hockey in NC. I don't think we will be doing that again for awhile. It took a toll on me and it took me to realize, at this age, what I think they need most is ice time whether it be ADM or full ice...travel or house...Just being on the ice is most important. I wish I could give that free ice to him by living in MN but we don't have that opportunity nor do I have a husband who has previous hockey experience. I hope people know how lucky they are who have young kids like mine that all they want to do is play hockey and you don't have the wonderful opportunity to send them outside to play and goof off on the ice. That is where they learn valuable lessons and techniques with their friends or just by themselves...mine would never come in!

a few challenges that I face In NC are:

1. A Drive to the rink usually at least 30 minutes

2. Find open hockey/stick and puck times and pay 10-12$ for hour and 15 minutes per kid

3. you might have to watch out for flying pucks because at stick and puck its all ages! Older guys usually watch out for the kids but the teenagers are slinging pucks without watching whose in the way.

3. there is limited ice time and few rinks

4. to rent ice whole sheet is 200$ an hour

5. most of your ice time is "coached" ice time not just for screwing around.

6. to get quality coaching you have to search it out since most people that are Charlie's age around here have never been on the ice let alone know the rules or skills.

7. the cost is actually ridiculous compared to back home in MN to even play at a house level and that is just to sign up. (Actually kind of embarrassed to say the amount we paid compared to what some of my MN friends pay for a squirt team.)

Well I guess it could be worse ~ we could live in a place with no rinks!

It is a competitive and small community in North Carolina with most of the travel programs being in Raleigh which is not close for us but I love hockey and love that the boys love to play, so we will continue make it happen as long as they want to. 

Next year, I gave Cooper an option which ended up working in my favor. He chose to just play house, have fun, play with his friends, and brothers in a closer rink in Hillsborough. So he will play house but also get some other training on the side to keep his skills up for tryouts the following year when he can and actually is the right age to be on a Squirt travel team!  I want him to have fun and enjoy the games.

Coming from MN you know the small percentages that actually make it into even college with a hockey scholarship! So here you are kind of throwing away a lot of money for fun at this age! I haven't heard of any D1 scholarships hailing from NC! When he is older and serious about it, I will listen, but right now I have come to the realization if your kid is good, he will be good, but its up to him and he is a kid so let him be a kid right now! There are lots of other things out there to try, unfortunately mine likes hockey and it can take a hit to the pocket book but maybe he will change his mind as he gets a little older. I don't want to have spent all this money and he wants to do something else in the end. I want to be able to offer them the opportunities they want to try and not be hockey broke!

It's easy to get caught up in this competitive world but I learned and sat back after this season to reflect on it and say it's not my decision, it's my son's. You want them to succeed at what they want to do so as a parent you search out the best teams, the best coaches, the best programs, the private lessons....but in the end is that really what he or she wants or do they just want to be on the ice....

chances are, if they are like my boys....they just want to be on the ice...

If I could swap out all the money we shelled out this year for hockey and the money I will probably spend for him just for them to get some ice time ~we could have put a rink in here at home...a synthetic one. maybe we outta look into that since I don't see us moving to the tundra in the near future :)

The Winter Olympics 2014 in Sochi or in Team J house

The Olympics are always an exciting time of year around our household. The boys enjoy it as much as we do. 

It started off with snowboarding and now Cooper is begging for a new snowboard and he wants to go to Minnesota and move there so he can become a snowboarder...he is so funny. We have not even taken the boys to the mountains in NC to go skiing. We now know something that they would love to do. Little do they know there is a huge difference than MN skiing/snowboarding than actual mountains. I would love to make a trip up there sometime too.  The last time I went skiing didn't go as well as planned so first things first....lessons!

Our morning routine included getting in minutes of watching the Olympics in the mornings while waiting for our rides.They even got in the spirit by acting out certain sports. 

We got a snowstorm here in NC while the Olympics were going on so they built a USA snowman, turned the slide into a luge and decided to turn the driveway into a speedskating track...

They watched the hockey game over and over again. Cooper said he is going to be in the Olympics someday...dream big my boy!

After the Olympics were kind of going thru withdrawal...Go Team USA!