Christmas Party at my Sisters

We all had a wonderful time over at my sister, Kitty's, house. I LOVE Christmas over there. To me, I actually have more fun there then at home on Christmas morning! My boys loved it too because my cousin John Felix was there and he LOVES video games as do my boys so they hung out all day talking about gaming. Here they are:

Here is my sister, Kitty, opening up her gift. We all play a game with our gifts. We each bring a present and label it male or female and put it under the tree. Then we draw numbers and go in order. You can either pick a gift under the tree or steal a gift someone else has. A gift can be stolen 3 times before it's "dead" and no one else can take it. We all LOVE this game!

Here is Candy doing her gift.Here is Chuck with a gift he wanted but didn't end up taking home. He ended up taking the MP3 player Joe wanted and Joe grabbed the gift I wanted and I ended up with the desk lamp for Chuck. CJ took a borders gift card. We love to scheme and make sure all 4 of us go home with everything we wanted. The tools ended up being stolen 3 times before we could get them back. There were MANY gift cards this year

Here is Joe with my gift that he ended up with:

The boys gave a concert of Christmas music. They played one together with Joe on the piano and CJ on the violin and then they each did two pieces on the violin. Then I had Joe do a fiddle piece and everyone went crazy! He was doing it from memory so he kind of forgot the last part but everyone loved it anyway. I guess maybe next year we will do a different kind of concert with more lively music instead of the same old boring Christmas music! LOL!!

Chuck did pretty good. We got him there in one piece and the ride didn't bother him too much. But as soon as we got home he crashed on the couch. We all had a wonderful time and it's sad that it's over. It goes by so fast!

Christmas Day!

I told the boys not to even get out of bed till 8am. I finally made it to bed last night at midnight. I woke up with a headache and had it all morning. I am wondering if these are stress headaches as I've had one every day since Chuck got hurt. Anyway, I got up at 8am, but the boys didn't get up till 8:30. I got Chuck up and out to the couch and we unwrapped our gifts.

Joe's main gift was a Sony hand held PSP. I got him some games too. He also got a new pair of shoes, that he needed badly. A new belt, new t-shirt, Steelers calendar, violin case and bow, a gift card to "Game Stop" so he can buy more video games (from his Nana) and some other stuff I can't remember now!

CJ's main gift is a flip camcorder. It records up to an hour and you can put it right onto your computer. He's been wanting a camcorder for a long time. He loved it! It's so small too. He also got all 3 of the "Inkheart" books, which he loves. He got a couple of dragon t-shirts, a dragon calendar, a violin case, a PC game which he's been playing all day, camo pants, camo sleeping pants, muscle shirt for gymnastics, High School Musical movies 1 & 2, a gift card to "Game Stop" so he can buy more video games (from his Nana) and probably some other stuff I can't remember now.

Chuck got a heavy duty 50 ft. electrical cord from CJ, an electric knife sharpener from Joe, a heated massager, underwear, and a new wallet from me. He got a nice blue and red checkered flannel jacket too.

As for me, Joe got me a nice 3 scented candle and a large numbered timer. CJ got me 4 knives and a short heavy duty electrical cord so I can use other things in my kitchen that won't reach the outlet. Chuck got me this really nice clock with a pendulum and it chimes every hour from 6am to 9pm. Of course he didn't know he got me this till I opened it, LOL!! He isn't able to leave the house. I also bought my own Christmas card but he filled the inside himself. This is what he wrote:

You are my angel. I wish I could have helped you so much more this past week. But I couldn't have done a better job. You are the glue that holds this family together. I know that, and now I hope you realize it too. I really appreciate what you do for me, even when I'm not hurt. I could have never done better than you. You are my world. I love my angel, love 4 ever Chuck.

Isn't that just so sweet! Not sure he wanted me to tell the whole world that but I figure what the heck! Just keep it to yourselves, LOL!

Chuck fell asleep right after we opened gifts and got up for something to eat, I made a nice ham dinner, then went back to sleep. He basically still just sleeps all the time but I know his body needs it even though it can be frustrating at times.

The boys are taking showers and then I promised them we'll play cards. They want Chuck to play too but he's so tired all the time I think it will just be us three that play.

So, all and all it was a good Christmas but I must say that I'm glad it's over. I'm looking forward to school starting back up but not looking forward to all the activities after school starting back up. I am wondering how I am going to have Joe in Fairview and CJ in Ashtabula on Tuesday at the same time. SIGH!! CJ has gymnastics and Joe has Jr. Phil. Chuck used to take Joe and I took CJ. I will be gone every evening again and I know Chuck hates that and I do too but at least Joe finishes swimming at the end of January. That will help some, though I like seeing him active. I was hoping swimming went till spring but it doesn't. Jr. Phil ends in the spring. Gymnastics doesn't ever end. I will just have to take each day as it comes.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve

Today I made some doughnuts. I haven't in a long time and thought today was a good day for it. So, Joe helped cut them out and we made doughnuts!

Then I through them in the deep fryer. I know, very unhealthy, but it's Christmas!

Here are the finished doughnuts!

And doughnut holes!
Then I moved on to the cinnamons rolls. First you fight with the dough to get it all rolled out.

Then once you finally get it to this point you add butter and then cinnamon and sugar.

Then roll it up!

Then I use dental floss to cut them into 1 inch pieces. I'm thinking next year that I will do 2 inch pieces next time. They just don't rise like I want them too and then end up small and hard when I cook them.

We watch "The Bucket List" earlier in the day and then before bed we watched "A Christmas Story". We did put up the tree after the fist movie. So here is our tree this year.

Chuck's Appointment and Shopping

Man, it's been a week and I am wiped out. We got our pipes unfrozen around 8:15pm. We had no water since 10am. I was so happy to have the water back. It's amazing how much you use it when you no longer have it! I had to melt and boil snow to make dinner! LOL!!

I did all my running yesterday. Chuck had a doctor appointment at 10:45 and it took an hour and 20 minutes to get there. The lobby was FREEZING and I had to sit there for 3 hours!! I was frozen! The appointment went well, we got pictures of his x-rays and I could see all the brakes, screws and the rod. The staples are still in but he got a new soft cast put on. It's a bit smaller and lighter then the last one. The trip really wore him out. He slept most the rest of the day. We go back on the 6th.

I spent one hour at home and then took the boys and did the rest of our shopping. I bought a small tree since we don't even have one up yet. Mine is HUGE and really doesn't fit in our trailer. This one is much nicer and doesn't take HOURS to put up. Walmart was packed and I was so stressed cuz I really didn't know what to get Chuck and the boys wanted to know what to get me. SIGH!! Spent over an hour in the store. Joe got a walmart gift card for $10 from him swim team party and he had it in his hoody jacket pocket and someone stole it. You can see right into his pocket and anyone can reach in and take it. I felt bad but again he shouldn't have had it there. He said it's uncomfortable to have things in his back pocket of his jeans. Well, maybe he'll think twice about it next time. I almost took it from him when he showed it to me when we first got there but I was so stressed over what to get everyone that I just didn't. I know I should listen to that voice inside me!! I have kicked myself every time I ignore it!!!!

Well, I got everything I needed and got everyone home. I was beat so I just threw everything in the closet to deal with tomorrow. I didn't want to go anywhere on Christmas Eve.

Frozen Pipes

Well, got up this morning to find about 3 feet of snow outside and about 2 degrees out. I also flushed the toilet only to find that the water wasn't re-filling in the tank. I went out into our mudroom and found that the heat tape we have wrapped around the water pipe coming into the trailer from the well, was unplugged. I had forgotten all about it and never plugged in in this year! It's been in the single digits all night long. I plugged it back in and 30 minutes later I heard the toilet fill up.

The boys used the bathroom and around 9:30 I filled water up in the large bowl for Chuck's bath. He still has to be washed in bed. We tried to do it at the sink but he was in so much pain that only lasted 5 minutes and we didn't get to wash his hair. So, anyway, got him all cleaned up and then CJ informed me that there was no water! It's now 10am and the water is frozen again. This time it didn't come back on.

My BIL, Dave, came out and is trying to get our water back on. The turbo heater won't start so we can't heat up the pipes to get them going again. I'll have to leave some water running while it's really cold out.

Chuck has his doctor appointment tomorrow and it's over an hour away. Hopefully he'll do okay and everything will go well. I will keep you posted on him and our pipes!

Swim Team Party

Went to Joe's party tonight. CJ came too because he hasn't been swimming in a long time. We left early so we could stop off at the mall and pick up the gift we needed for the party. We got the boy a gift card for Game Stop.

The food was good. I mostly ate the junk food. CJ ate a ton of junk, at least 10 pieces of fudge! He did have some noodles and meatballs. Joe ran around with his friends and I sat with CJ.

Santa came in and all the kids swarmed all over him for an hour! He is the best looking Santa I have ever seen. His beard and mustache are real so he really does look like Santa!

CJ kept asking when swim time was. After 2 hours someone finally said that it's open swim from 6-9 and CJ could have been swimming the whole time!! I was so mad! Why didn't anyone mention this? They said that after the party there was going to be a fun swim, so I guess open swim was the fun swim. The coach didn't stay for any swimming and most of the kids all went home! I hate how I know nothing of what's going on!!

Update

Things are going well. Chuck is doing good. He is still in pain, as can be expected. What is weird is when he was hit by the train in 2000, he took 1 pain pill when he came home and nothing after that. This time he has been taking them round the clock. I guess this time it's worse. Last time it was just his ankle, this time it's all his lower leg and his ankle. He gets me up to take some and he NEVER takes med's for anything but a REALLY bad headache so I know he's hurting pretty bad. He's been sleeping on and off the whole time we've been home. He lays on the couch all day and in bed all night. I actually have a headache today from watching so much TV. I have it on but I don't sit and watch it all day, but today I sat with him and watched a couple movies. He's sleeping now and I have to run and get the boys from school in about an hour.

Tonight is Joe's Christmas Party for the swim team, I think CJ is going to stay home with Chuck tonight. Tomorrow I'll be gone again and I feel bad. I was gone for over 5 hours last night but he did okay.

They are still looking for a cutter to go into the woods. They have a couple of leads, just need to call around and find someone that is willing and won't cost too much.

Chuck's Accident Cont.

So, Charlie had to be picked up with a front end loader and be carried out of the woods. So there stories were so much alike, it was funny. He got hurt here in Conneaut, says he likes to hunt and fish up here and would love to live here but his wife's family is all down around youngstown.

The second night wasn't that great. We all fell asleep around 10pm and at 1am the awful nurse comes into the room, turns on the light screams "Hey Charlie, Hey Charles, time to get up for your pain medicine." Then she picks Chuck's bad leg up and shoves another pillow under his leg and does the same thing to Charlie. All she did was make them hurt even worse! Then she finds me there and comes over and smacks my legs and starts screaming at me "Hey get up and get out, you can't be here!" Said I would have to leave cuz this isn't a private room and since he has a roommate I would have to leave. That made Charlie mad and said he wanted me to stay that we are all friends and I wasn't going anywhere. That made the nurse mad and with all the commotion the LPN came in and the RN left. Thank God! The LPN said I could stay and she would talk to the RN. We never saw the RN again and I'm glad. They got their med's but the guys where in so much pain and were upset by the whole ordeal that they couldn't sleep so they stayed up talking for over 2 hours. The nurses told them in the morning that they almost came in to tell them to be quiet and go to sleep cuz they were so loud, LOL!! They both don't hear that well. We had the room right across from the nurses station.

Then at 4am this little old lady comes out to the nurses station and starts screaming at the nurses that she should have had her med's at 3am and it's now 4am and why aren't they there yet and why didn't the nurse order them when she told her too, etc. She went on and on and was no mean and nasty and LOUD!! SIGH!! There is NO resting in hospitals!

Then by 6am everyone was coming and going, nurses for med's, blood pressure and temp. people, those that give baths and clean the beds, physical therapy, doctors, just on and on all morning long.

The nice thing is that you can order your own food from a menu and get as much of it as you like so Chuck ordered double so that I could eat too so I didn't have to spend money on the expensive cafeteria food. The food was actually good too.

A little after lunch we found out that both Chuck and Charlie could go home, took over 4 hours to get a set of crutches for Chuck and Charlie had to wait over an hour for a wheel chair ride to his car. I had to walk over to another building to get Chuck's med's that he has to give himself twice a day. He is on shots that he gives himself in the stomach twice a day for blood clots, I guess so he doesn't get any. Just a 28 day prescription the guy told me it was over $1,000.00 for the stuff! I was lucky he had enough there someone didn't pick up theirs so he had enough. I'm glad. I didn't have to pay for that but I did have to pay for the pain med's and there were 2 and each was about $16 so that isn't too bad.

We finally made it home at 5:30 and of course coming into the house a piece of ice gave out and Chuck slipped and hit his bad leg on the stairs. Poor guy, CJ and I helped him up and into the house. We got him on the couch and I gave him 2 pain pills and he slept till 9pm.

He is fine, and basically sleeps on and off all day, I think the pain pills makes him tired. He gets around the house alright on his crutches but he is still in a lot of pain. Once the pain gets less he'll be able to move around more. I don't think he'll be leaving the house till the 28th when we have Christmas at my sisters house. We just have to be sure no one touches or bumps his bad leg.

I have to put up the tree, which is in town and I have to get yet. I guess the boys are going to have to help me with that. Chuck was going to help me with that this weekend. I'm glad that tomorrow is the last day of school, I will do a LOT LESS running around with the boys come Monday. Just CJ will have gymnastics but other than that, I don't have to run anywhere! That will be a very nice break.

Today, I took the boys to school and came right back home and went back to bed. Didn't get up till 9am. I'm still very tired and I feel like I could sleep all day. Tonight is my long night out with the boys. I leave at 3:30 and get home at 8:30. I hope he'll be okay while I'm gone. Then tomorrow night is Joe's Christmas Party at the Y for the swim team and that starts at 6pm. Then on Saturday Joe has a swim meet and they go all day and CJ has caroling from 3-8 and I have to make sure he gets a ride to that. Joe really wants to go too but can't cuz of the swim meet. So, come Sunday I don't think I have to run anywhere and live can slow down a bit.

I'm glad we got our Christmas shopping mostly all done on Friday night. There might be a few things I will pick up but mostly it's done and I have it all wrapped! When my husband was hit by a train in 2000 that was on Dec. 14th and I had all the Christmas stuff done then too but we had the tree up, this time we don't. He had surgery on his right leg with the same recovery time. This accident was on Dec. 15th. We told him he should just take December off and not do anything around that time of year, LOL!!

We are looking for someone to cut trees down while Chuck is healing so that we can keep working and making some kind of money. I hope we find someone by next week.

Come to find out, his wallet and cash are gone. When I went for his clothes, they were all over this room they keep them in and there was nothing in his jeans pockets. Chuck told them to give the wallet and cash to his brother but they didn't and they are now gone. So, had to get a hold of the bank for new bank cards, I checked and no money has been taken out of either accounts! He has to get a new drivers license once he is up and around, we'll do that. Just sucks to have this happen on top of everything else!

Chuck's Accident

Okay, it' s been a VERY LONG week, my brain is fried and I'm exhausted! But I'm home now and all is good.

On Monday just when I walked in the door from picking the boys up from school Chuck calls me from his cell phone to tell me he broke his leg, he thinks it's a compound break but isn't for sure cuz of all his clothes he has on. Said he called 911 and his brother and that he thinks he'll be going to Ashtabula hospital. I said okay and hung up. I got the boys and left the house. I then called him again to see how he was doing and he told me that he was cutting down trees (he's a logger) and one got hung up on another so he moved on and left it that way to get it later with the skidder. He didn't realize how badly the wind had picked up (said had he known it was that bad they would have called it a day) and apparently it picked that tree up, turned it around, and it came down by him. He caught the end of the tree on the back of his left leg below the knee. He said he could here people coming so he hung up. He was a mile back into the woods so it took a very long time for the EMT's to get to him.

When they did get to him, they strapped him on a back board, and put him on the hood of the skidder and his brother Dave drove the skidder backwards as best he could the mile out of the woods, then he was transferred to the bed of a pick-up truck to get back to the main road where the ambulance was waiting.

Now, I am at the hospital in Ashtabula waiting for him and NOTHING! I waited almost an hour, and I even called other hospitals! NOTHING!! Where was he???? Finally, Dave answered his phone and come to find out, no one in our area can treat him, his leg was that bad so they had to life flight him to Youngstown, an hour away.

Come to find out, it took them an hour to get to him and he had to lay in about 6 inches of cold water while waiting for them. So, because of his hypothermia and compound broken leg they had to fly him to Youngstown.

So, the boys and I followed my inlaws all the way there. I have no extra clothes, we haven't eatin since lunch, I was NOT ready to be gone for a few days! We get to Youngstown and we get to see him for a little bit but then he is rushed off to surgery around 8pm. The doctor comes out at 10:30 to let us know how he's doing. Said he broke his leg in 3 places and broke his ankle too. The shin bone did come out of the skin (NASTY) so we have to be VERY careful of infection but the surgery went really well. They put a rod in his leg and 2 screws in his ankle. We got to see him at midnight when they put him in his room.

My inlaws stayed a few minutes and talked with Chuck and then they left and took the boys with them. My sister in law stayed with them the first night. I didn't plan on leaving the hospital until Chuck did. The first night I ended up on the cold tile floor next to his bed and got about 3 hours sleep but not all together. My hips hurt really bad come morning. His roommate seemed nice enough. He gave me a blanket and some pillows, which was nice. He smoked in the bathroom and coughed a lot though, LOL!! He left the next day.

He did well after his surgery, ate well, got lots of rest and stayed on his pain med's so the pain didn't bother him too bad. He did get out of bed and with a walker walked out of the room and back in and sat down in this nice chair that reclined. I then used this chair to sit in and was very nice to sleep in!

Then Charlie came in the evening to fill the empty bed. He's really nice. It was funny because both of them were named Charles, both were hurt having to do with trees! LOL!! Charlie was building a tree stand by himself and fell and blew out his left heal. He did this the day after Thanksgiving and had to wait for the swelling to go down before he could have surgery.


I'm exhausted, I will finish this on the next post tomorrow.

Good King Wenceslas

This is my mom's favorite song so I thought I would have Joe play it on his violin so she could here him.

Karate Kitty

Okay, now that I know what I'm doing I might go a little video crazy, so bear with me! Here is Little Kitty and Sandy "playing" Sandy knows she isn't allowed to "play" with Little Kitty so I had to set the video camera up and leave the room and pretend I was busy in the kitchen. These "Playing" sessions can go on and on but here is 30 seconds worth!

Joe's Swim Meet

Okay, I feel like a total "Ninny Muggins". I searched for why I can't upload my videos and come to find out I have to "Publish" the movies. I didn't do the last step! LOL!! Okay, so I'm going to try this again. Here is Joe's last swim meet on Dec. 6th in Oberlin OH which was 2 hours from home!

Sandy's Case

Well, I went and signed the papers today, they are settling and I'll get my money back. I'm glad it's finally over! I think my lawyer is too.

I love the videos over on Becky's blog. I have been singing "Hamster on a Piano" for days!! LOVE that one! I also love her sense of humor on the Russian song, LOL!!! I can't seem to upload any videos. I've been trying for days. I use a program to take the videos off my camera and make them into avi's but they won't upload. I spent 2 hours yesterday trying to upload Joe's Concert but it never went. So, I guess until I figure out there will be no videos from me. What a bummer!

Cookie Exchange

Well, yesterday was the cookie exchange at the restaurant. It went well, one person didn't show up and another backed out so I ended up taking 2 dozen of my own home. I was fine with that as I really like these cookies. I brought them home and put them all out on the counter and after dinner we all dug into the cookies. I don't think they will even make it through the week! LOL! I was surprised that some of the cookies were barely a bite, they were so small!! 12 cookies fit into a sandwich bag! I'm not sure if I'll do it again next year though. We shall see.

CJ & Baby Peter

Here is CJ and Baby Peter today. The cat always likes to be on us and I thought this was cute that he wanted to sit on CJ while he practiced his piano. If you are wondering what's on TV that is just the Christmas Music Channel. Looks like "The First Noel" by Elvis! LOL!!

I got all my cookies done today with 2 cookies left over!! Man, that was close because I didn't feel like making yet another batch! So, now I get to eat two cookies! I think we have to put the recipe with these too, so I need to get that done but it's nice to have them all in the freezer for Sunday.

Cookies

I'm in a cookie exchange so I had to get busy making cookies. I have to make 12 dozen!! I'm so TIRED today!! Joe's concert went really well but we all didn't get to bed till after 11pm then I'm up at 5:45am. I'm just dragging today. I didn't even go to SNAP to workout this morning. I dropped the boys off at school and then came straight home. Took a shower, did a load of clothes, did up all the dishes that I hadn't got to yesterday and gave the dog a shower because I let her out and she came in covered in mud, oh joy! Then I baked up one batch of cookies. I still have many more to go! But at least I got something done today. The exchange is on Sunday and I'm busy tonight and Saturday so I have to get these done soon!