Happy New Year - This 'n That

Happy New Year!  --  A little late...

Well, through all of us being sick at one time or another over the holidays, we made it through Christmas and New Year's.  Tony got sick around his birthday, then I started getting a sinus infection, Meighan and Dawson had colds/coughs/fevers at various points.  Tony is done with his but I coughed (pretty bad at times) for a while, Meighan coughed sometimes and Dawson coughs when he gets running around and has a runny nose and fever we have to watch.  Finally got him some cough medicine and a dosage amount from the doctor.  Geesh!

We spent Christmas Day at my parents' house.  We had our traditional lefse (my mom's side of the family is Norwegian).  We got home quite late.  We went over to Tony's parents' house the next evening for the kids to open their many gifts.  I think it was a little overwhelming for Dawson (besides his being sick) to have all those toys to play with.  He just didn't know where to start.  At home we TRY to play with one thing, get it put away (or mostly) and then get out something else to play with.

New Year's Eve was spent watching the tribute to Dick Clark and then Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest.  I couldn't do much else (see next paragraph) so I had to watch TV.  We let Meighan stay up to watch the ball drop on TV in NYC and then we all three kissed.  So neat!  Dawson wouldn't have made it to 11 pm yet so he was sleeping by that time!

On Sunday, December 30, I woke up in the night and had to get up but I couldn't put any weight on my right hip.  I got a hold of my chiropractor and he met us at his office that afternoon to adjust me.  SUNDAY!  I ended up going for adjustments every day for the next week (INCLUDING NEW YEAR'S DAY!) and I'm so tired of the pain that I still have and not being able to get around to do things around the house.  Tony went back to his route on Wednesday, January 2, so I had to be up more to deal with the kids.  On Thursday, one of the other doctors adjusted me because my doctor was out of the office on his day off.  This doctor, who's NEVER seen me before could tell that I have been putting ice on my hip.  Wow!  Finally, on Friday, x-rays were taken of my hip.....

I got to see the main x-ray on Saturday.  Wow!  My right hip is WAY lower than my left hip.  My whole pelvis is tilted!  No wonder I'm in pain!  Monday, January 7, with the adjustment that I had, I finally felt that I was walking better.  Not perfect, but better.  I still have pain down my leg but I think it is less sometimes.  I still lay on ice every day.  I know I'll get to walking right again.  I'm just quite frustrated that it's taking so long!

During all of these adjustments, I have to say that I HAVE THE BEST CHIROPRACTOR IN THE WORLD!  He REALLY CARES about all of his patients (and I feel, especially me, with this issue!) and he and the other two doctors in the office go above and beyond the call of duty to get us feeling better and staying well.  On Wednesday, (Jan. 2), while I was waiting for my appointment, a lady sat down next to me.  There were several kids in the waiting room and she said "This looks like a pre-school in here!  These kids aren't all here for adjustments, are they?  What would they need adjustments for?"  I told her that kids need adjusting, too, sometimes.  She kind of shrugged and sort of agreed with me.  Then the conversation got around to my hip.  She said "Do you think this will help?"  I said, "Oh, yes."  She then asked, "What does a 'regular' doctor say?"  I said, "I haven't asked a 'regular' doctor.  This is not a 'regular' doctor's problem."  She then jumped right to "Maybe the hip needs to be replaced."  WHAT?!??  I told her, "No, this just started Sunday.  It doesn't need to be replaced."  Well, I could tell she was very new to chiropractic.  I hope she finds that chiropractic helps her, too.

Anyway, Meighan will start a tumbling class tonight for seven weeks.  I hope it will help her use up some of her energy!

Here's a few pictures of Christmas and beyond:

"The Night Before Christmas" book to read every year.

Snacks for Santa and the reindeer

His first "smartphone"!

She got what she wanted from Santa -- a Triceratops Dream Lite!

A pop-up Matco Tools "cool truck"!

 

 

 

Merry Christmas Eve!

We're finally "ready" for Christmas!

The presents are finally under the tree, Jellybean (our elf) is in his final spot before heading back to the North Pole with Santa tonight, chili is cooking in the crockpot for after the Christmas Eve service tonight and the stockings are also finally out!

Meighan can't wait for Christmas!  Dawson doesn't yet know what it is but I'm sure he will enjoy it!

 

Meighan is 5!

Today, our beauty of a daughter turned 5 years old!  She made sure everyone she met today knew it, too!  She wore her Happy Birthday crown to church!  She got to open her gift from us before we got Dawson up so he wasn't in the way and bothering her!  She got a game, some books and a dress.

We then got Dawson up and ate breakfast.  Then she got her new dress on and we all got dressed and went to church.  We left right after church instead of staying for Nativity Parade run-through, made a grocery stop and came home and ate burgers for lunch.  As soon as we were done eating, she and I left to go downtown.

We met my parents at the Orpheum Theater.  They had bought tickets for themselves and Meighan and me to see "Disney's Beauty & the Beast" for our birthdays!  Meighan was SOOOOO excited!  She couldn't wait till the show started and kept asking when it was going to start.  Once it started, she thought it was a pretty "cool" show.  I don't know how many times I heard "This is FUN!", "I like this show!", "This is AWESOME!", "This is cool!" and "I very, very like this show!"  As much as she liked it, the first part got kinda long for a 5-year-old!  She was getting thirsty and very restless.  We got water at the water fountain during intermission.  The second part she thought was kind of boring (I think until the very end, of course).  She actually did VERY WELL for this being her first Broadway show!

MY favorite part of this show is the dance the company does to "Gaston" where they clink their metal mugs together.  That's great choreography!

So, anyway, here's the pictures of the day.

Of course, Misty has to supervise!

 

 

 

 

"This is a pretty dress!"

 

 

With her birthday crown

 

 

In front of the marquee at the Orpheum!  It's COLD!

 

This is a pretty good picture of Meighan but the background didn't show up.

 

So I changed the settings and the background showed up better.  We had really good seats!

 

 

She fell asleep on the way home.  Our tuckered out 5-year-old!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEIGHAN!  WE LOVE YOU!

Tree's Up!

And so far it has survived 2 days of a 2-year-old and 2 cats!  Just 16 more days to go!

Tonight I got out a little Christmas Tree that is for little kids and they can touch and play with.  At first he thought it was pretty cool and he put the ornaments on it (velcro)

 

 

and then he took it all apart and carried the ornaments around in one of the tree pieces.  Eventually he took the star tree-topper apart (aaarrrrggghhh!) and all the pieces were all over the house!  So, now I have to fix the tree topper and the rest of it is on my desk (except for 1 part of the tree that I don't know where it is!).

Maybe just keeping him away from the big tree is enough for this year!

Finalization

We FINALLY got to FINALIZE Dawson's adoption yesterday!  Our appointment was at 11 a.m.  My parents met us downtown.  We got through security, then they went through and then our attorney also came through right after!  So we walked up to the courtroom area together.

We had an actual courtroom this time.  (For Meighan's finalization we had a hearing room.)

The judge was a bit late because of another trial but she finally came in and got things started.  It was quick and to the point and we were done.  We took some pictures and then waited for our attorney to get the Decree of Adoption papers for us.  Then we went home!  Some people have friends and family come and then go out to a meal but it was a regular work day so Tony ate a quick lunch and left for work!

 

 

 

SANTA!

Today was the Adoptive Families Christmas Potluck at the Nebraska Children's Home.  It was moved up an hour due to when Santa could come and also because of the Big 10 Championship (which, during this writing, isn't a very good game to watch!).

We went and there really weren't very many people there.  Kind of disappointing.  And because it was earlier, food was really not on people's minds yet.  Santa got there at 4:00.  It was neat because he greeted and held several kids.  Dawson, of course, went right to him and even had a good smile for some pictures!  Meighan even got a hug before he sat down to talk to the kids.

Once he sat down, he started off by saying that it's important to remember that Christmas isn't about him.  It's really about family and Jesus.  He proceeded to tell the kids the story of "The Night Before Christmas" and brought kids up to sit on his lap as he told the story.  When he was done, then it was time to have kids tell him their wishes.

After the first couple kids, Dawson came right in and sat on his lap.  Then Santa asked if there were others that needed to be in the picture.  We told Meighan to get up there, too.  We got pictures and video of her and Dawson and then it was her turn to tell Santa what she wanted.

Then we went back and ate a little bit but she had to keep leaving to go watch the kids with Santa.  Our case worker told me later that she was just very interested in what was going on.  She also got him to go outside when Santa was leaving and had told them to watch out the windows for the sleigh in the sky as he went back to the North Pole.

Before very many people got there, we had our picture taken in front of the neat Christmas trees in the rotunda of the lobby.  Here's those and other pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operation Christmas Child

Our church organized an opportunity again this year to participate in Operation Christmas Child.  All the kids got a box one Sunday at Sunday School.  Meighan said she wanted to participate and send a gift to someone.  She didn't really quite get it at first.  She wanted to give some things she wasn't using anymore.  No, we have to buy new things.  Then she wanted to give the gift to someone at church.  No, this gift will be for some little girl in another part of the world.

So we went shopping one day at Target to get some hygiene items (toothbrush, toothpaste--and right there by the toothpaste was a coupon for a toothpaste!), a wash cloth (we already had some soap at home), a stuffed lamb, a ball, a pencil/eraser/sharpener set and also at home I had another little toy that we stuck in.

We had to do some rearranging to get everything to fit in the box so the lid would close!  We included the $7 for shipping and dropped it off at church in mid-November.  Before we took the box to church, I had her sit down and took a picture of her giving the lamb a hug to send a hug to the little girl.  She also had colored a page showing where we live and what she likes to do, etc.  We also included our address so hopefully the little girl that gets this gift will write back to us someday.  I hope she does so that Meighan can see that she really helped a little girl in need.