We've gone Two-Wheelin' !

So yesterday was the first day that my mom had both boys for the day this summer. And guess what they come back doing? Kieran has pretty much mastered riding his bike with no training wheels, and Cayden can tie his shoes. Maybe next week they will come back with the entire bible memorized!?

Thanks to my mom for her patience and persistence in teaching my boys such wonderful things. She is an amazing Nana..

Zoo trip with Cayden's class

The three monkeys: Cayden, Lane, and Mason. This picture was very appropriate. These guys ARE wild monkeys!
Skipping rocks at the pond by the zoo.

And how many kindergarteners can you fit on a giant tortoise? (Lane, Mason, Cayden and Gracie)

The wonderful Mrs. James and some of her class at lunchtime.

Kaitlyn, Nichole, Lane, Mason, Cayden, Mrs. James, Macy, and Zach.

She is an amazing teacher and I would love for Kieran to have her when it is his turn for kindergarten.

The zoo trip went well. The rain held off and stayed cloudy, so it didn't get hot and sticky. There were at least 20-25 other schools there, so it was literally a zoo with all the kids running around. But all the kids had a blast. I enjoyed getting to know Lane and Mason's moms since we walked around together trying to keep up with the boys.

It's hard to believe that the school year is almost over. Yikes, where did the time go?

Cook out with friends!

Here are all the kids. Isn't it crazy how time has flown and how big that they all are?

The top pictures shows the guys together. Darrin is holding up the recipe for the dessert I made. (He really liked the cake....)

Last Sunday we had Rileys and Crooks over for a cookout. It was the best time. All of our kids are old enough to play constructively (sometimes destructively) on their own. I had bought bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and jumpropes for them to play with outside. The weather was perfect for them to play. The men got to bond, as did we women. Here are some pictures of the fun that was had.

It would be nice to get together like this every weekend.

Let me know what you think...

I'm curious about how many people actually read this blog. So I challenge you to let me know. After this post-there is a button that says something about leaving a comment. click on that and post me your name and what you think of this blog. If you don't have a google account, you should be able to post anonymously, I think. I'm just curious if you think I should try to post more often, put more pictures on here, or what suggestions you may have. You could also email me ssilvers99@verizon.net .

Turkey day comes in April!

Jerod brought home his turkey and we had to have a photo session with the boys. Jerod actually brought Cayden home from school over his lunch period to see the bird. Then he took him back to school and came home and butchered the thing with Kieran's "help" It was quite a day.

We've been busy beavers!

What a streak of amazing weather we have been having! This whole last week has been sunny and perfect spring weather. A couple of days were even border-line hot!

So we just got over having a garage sale. Thanks to my mom for her help on Friday!! I got to sell an unbelievable amount of my boys' clothes. Jerod sold some tools and antlers. Thanks for my fellow Sassy Scrappers Sara, Tonya, Kimmie and Lyn for stopping by and contributing to the de-junking cause! Big thanks to Kimmie for letting me cuddle with Addi and feed her. She is just too cute! Jess and my mom contributed some more stuff, so we had quite a variety of things to offer to the public. It'd be nice if everything would've sold, but there is much less junk to pack up. And get this-next Saturday is JUNK DAYS in Dodgeville so we can put the leftovers at the curb for pick up!

Since I haven't updated this thing in a while, I need to tell you about our weekend last weekend. It was the perfect way to spend time together. Saturday we met for service,then helped clean the hall. I had bought Spiderman 3 tickets online a couple days prior, so we were going to go into Madison to the IMAX showing that afternoon. Kieran wasn't cooperating very well, so he went over to David's house and Uncle Shane was able to tag along and take Kieran's place. Cayden was so excited to see Spidey 3 that he was literally jittery and bee-bopping in his chair. It was almost more entertaining to watch him squirming in his seat than it was watching to movie. Almost... The movie was really awesome. It is the most expensive movie ever made-$250 million, but by the end of the opening weekend, it had already made enough money to put it into the black. Crazy, huh? We made our own contribution to the Spidey cause-$40 worth of it. One way to look at it is to say that we had a part (although miniscule) in making movie history.

Then Sunday, we had Palacios's over for lunch. John gave a great talk and it was so nice to finally have them over as a family. The kids did OK, and we grownups had a chance to visit. The weather wasn't really cooperating-it was cloudy, windy and cool-55* so we couldn't be outside to play as much as we wanted. But for the last hour we got to be out and then everyone enjoyed themselves.

That evening we just chilled out and ate leftover brats and hot dogs and played more outside. What a great weekend!

Last Thursday we took Cayden to an allergy specialist for allergy testing. We found out that he is quite allergic to trees, grass, pollen, ragweed, and fall tree mix. So for three seasons out of the year he suffers. That has been so evident this past 3 weeks with his scratchy, swollen eyes; stuffed up nose and swollen neck glands. In fact, the whole time we were in the Dr.'s office, he was digging at his eyes. Poor guy. Also discovered that he has a form of juvenile asthma. Not to where he needs an inhaler, but this past winter with his repeat bouts of bronchitis were signs of it. So we have him on remedies from Uncle Todd and some pharmaseutical (sp?) drugs for his symptoms. Singular at night time, some eye drops for his irritated eyes, and some nasal spray to help his congested nose. Also, each night he needs to take a bath since he plays outside so much, just to wash the pollen/irritants off of him. The doctor recommended shutting our windows and turning on the A/C sooner than later. That way the indoor air will be filtered. Well, it isn't quite warm enough for that yet, so we just have the fan on to circulate the air. Hopefully all of this will help him cope this summer.

Wow, this is really long-sorry. I really should post more regularly than every 3 weeks, huh?

Special Assembly day!

My handsome family!

The goof troop. (David, Cayden and Kieran)

Yep, that's Cayden in a tie again! It didn't last all day. In fact by lunch, the suitcoat and tie were off, but we are making great strides forward in his clothing aversion fetish. I'm so proud of him.

The day was beautiful-we had a picnic lunch outside. It was a little breezy, but nice and warm. That night we went out to each with the Palacios family and I had the best Ribeye steak I've had in forever! It was so yummy. I had waitressed the night before so we had a little cash to treat ourselves on. It was nice to visit with them. Hard to believe in a few short months there will be another Palacios pumpkin to get to know and love!

Jerod got the go ahead to go back to work on May 7th. He's a little gun-shy, but if he sticks to his restrictions, he should be OK. 30 pounds isn't much, but he's got to stick to it. I hope it won't be too much. Hard to believe that he's been off work 7 months, well, when I look at the checkbook, it's not so hard to believe. I will miss him home in the mornings and afternoons. I know the boys will need to adjust to it as well. Jerod hasn't been up before 5 am for a while(not counting turkey season this week) so that early hour will be hard for him to get used to I'm sure.

Time to get the muchkins off to bed. Then I can sit down and watch LOST in peace. I'm so addicted to that show. HEROES, too on Monday nights. It could be worse I suppose. They are two shows that you can't possibly watch just once and be OK with it. You need to watch every week to know what happens next. Yep, I'm hooked. Doesn't hurt that Nathan Petrelli on HEROES is pretty nice to look at. HUBBA!

OK, enuf of that-I really gotta go! I hear a small eruption upstairs! Catch ya later!

Ramblings of a winter weary woman...

So we are digging out from what I hope will be the last storm of the season. What's up with 6 inches of wet, slushy snow in mid-April? The boys loved it, to say the least. Good news-it'll be melted by the end of the weekend, so no shoveling for us. Ha, ha.

Well, we found a lawyer. Bill Olson in Madison. He came highly recommended by the Vocational Rehabilitation worker Jerod is working with. So last Tuesday, he drove into Madison and met with him. It went really well. Mr. Olson has handled thousands of worker's comp cases and knows his stuff. So now, we sit back and wait. He had some good insight into the reasoning behind the worker's comp industry and how they work their denial magic. One thing he mentioned was that Frankenmuth (worker's comp. company) ended up dropping Jerod like a bad habit because he is a high paid laborer. And they know that his chances of not being able to go back to his regular job is pretty high, so they didn't want to be liable of making up the difference in his wage for the next few years. Interesting, huh? Because worker's comp. is liable for up to 500 weeks after date of injury. That's like 9 years. So they send Jerod to a medical whore that is paid to state in an "official" letter that Jerod is fully healed. What a crock! I can feel my blood pressure jumping a few points as I write this since I get so frustrated at this stupid system of things. When will it all come to an end? We all hope very soon.

Cayden's two top teeth are growing in and boy do they look huge in his little mouth. He has changed so much since we moved here. I just measured both boys last night on the door frame. Both of them have grown about an inch since mid-January. Since we've moved here, they each have grown 7-8 inches. How crazy is that? That explains why I have so many clothes to get rid of in my garage sale. Hoping to get that all arranged by the beginning of May.

We are trying to sell our leather furniture set. So if anyone out there knows of someone who would like it, let us know. We are needing to get about $2000 for all four pieces.

Hope that this post once again finds everyone mostly healthy and happy! Take care...

More pictures....and stuff

Don't we have some dapper looking kids in our Hall? Every one was so dressed up for the Memorial and in good moods.

Jerod and Dr. Carter...

OK, so a little update on our life. Thursday March 16th Jerod met with a neurosurgeon in Madison to talk about back surgery options. "No doubt about it," says Dr. Carter, "you are in alot of pain. (no surprise, there) I don't tell anyone that they have to have surgery, but here are your options: Have the procedure done or continue living this way." Well, DUH! Whaddya think we are going to choose? So he shows us Jerod's MRI films and my goodness!-even an untrained eye like mine could see the huge rupture on his L-5 disc. It made MY back just looking at it. The rupture was 80% as big as the disc itself. Not good. So, Dr. Carter (BTW-Nothing like Dr. Noah Carter from ER fame-more like Uncle Pat Rock with hair) says he is not sure what his schedule looks like, but we are probably looking at surgery the 6th of April. UGH-3 more weeks in pain. I could see in Jerod's face that he wasn't thrilled with that prospect, but we had mentally prepared for it. What surgeon has openings in his schedule a day or two out? Well, as it turns out-He did! When his nurse came in to go over paperwork and such, she mentioned that the Dr. had a cancellation the next day. If he gave the go-ahead, then Jerod would be under the knife and done by this time tomorrow. WOW! There are miracles to be had! We were thrilled, and to make a long story short-Jerod had a microdiscectomy done Friday, March 16th and was home the next day. His leg feels a million times better, he can walk upright and he has actually smiled a bit in the last week! It will be several weeks before we know if the nerve will heal itself 100%, but in the meantime, he can feel his toes again.

The kicker is this: Will he be able to go back to construction? My gut says probably not. If not, then what? It makes my head hurt to think about it. We are just trying to take it one day at a time and do what we can to keep afloat.

One major good thing we learned from Dr. Carter: We have a good case to sue Worker's Comp. He said that he's been involved in hundreds of lawsuits and has never lost one yet. So, we have a profession endorsement to boost our case. It is exciting! However, like everything in the judicial system, it will take a long time. Perhaps a year or two. So, we have to exercise patience, but we will prevail! Now to find a good lawyer.....not something I am looking forward to doing.

There was a road under here somwhere!

Here's the family-less Gench's

Yep, not an ugly one in the bunch!

By the time we got this picture done a full force blizzard was raging outside. The gathering broke up rather quickly after that.

Some reception photos

My handsome trio of men!
Joyce, Andrea and Patty Kelley
I love this one of Andrea and Kieran-I'm going to have to frame it.
Not sure how to read the expressions, but, boy can you tell they are Dad and son, huh?
These girls really shone that night. Brit, Tiffany and Val. They definetly aren't the girls climbing up the trees in our front yard anymore.

The best dancing partner (& the cutest)

Kieran was such a gentleman! He insisted on dancing with his mom. It melted my heart. Every so often, he does something so sweet that it makes my heart ache.

What beautiful people!

Jerod was way under the weather, so he didn't dance at all. So no cute couple shots of us..Although Kieran was a great dance partner.

We wish Eric and Melyssa the very best!

What a cute couple!

The day of the Blizzard...I mean wedding!

I'm having problems posting pictures to my blog, but thought I'd put this out there to let you know that I am trying . I have some great shots of some of you slow dancing with your favorite snuggle partner! I promise I will get those on here ASAP. Also, for those of you who might be having problems remembering what a Wisconsin winter/blizzard is like (you know who you are, Panamanians!), I'll put some shots of the weather from that day. Yes, we did get 15 inches or so of snow. But-main thing is-no one got hurt, everyone had a good time and Eric and Melyssa are now officially hitched!

Yummy-It's Baking Day!!!!

Last Saturday we gathered at James' to whip out a bunch of desserts for my niece Melyssa's reception for this Saturday. It went pretty well. The boys played with Micah and we got alot of desserts made. Sorry for the twisted picture-just turn your head and you will see Melony hard at work on her first of four cheesecakes that she made that day.

Micah was hilarious! He is obsessed with vacuum machines. He actually refused his dad's offer of going to the model train show that day in favor of going to Aunt Misty's cuz "She has a Hoover and a Filter Kleen (queen) vacuum, and I am going to vacuum her whole house." He asked about vacuuming non-stop until Tiff finally pulled out the filter queen for him to use. I was amazed. What a funny fetish for a 3 1/2 year old.

Well anyways-I've put in a picture of some of the finished bars. Yummy-can't wait for Saturday! Although we are in for a major winter storm this weekend-6-10" snow and sleet and freezing ice. Lovely. We got a room at the hotel where the reception is being held so we don't have to fret about driving home Sat. night. Sunday doesn't sound any better, so it should be interesting....

The Phantom Blogger has returned!

This was my lame attempt at taking my own picture in a mirror with my cell phone. Well, after many attempts, this was the most acceptable pix. Kinda lets you know what the other failures were like, huh? Just thought I'd put a pix of me on here since there are none. So, hello to you all in cyberspace!!!

Update on the fam: Jerod is continuing his decompression treatments for his back. His back has been in such horrible shape for so many years, that the therapist told him that he's gonna be worse b/4 he gets any relief. And boy, have we seen that! I've had to help him out of bed, get dressed, dry off after showering, picking stuff off the floor. Those of you who haven't seen him in a while, would be shocked at his condition. Just watching him walk is painful to see as much as it pains him to walk. I can't even begin to describe how he looks, just imagine a crooked twig with two legs hobbling along, slowly. His right leg locks up on him and he just about falls to the floor. I guess we are to the point, that even if Shaw calls him back to work, I can't see how he would be able to do his job, he can't even put on his socks, for crying out loud! In addition to the decompression treatments, he is also trying massage therapy and acupunture to help with the pain.

So I met with a Social worker a couple weeks ago and got us some help through the state for medical bills. It is something, seeing how Cayden manages to get sick every 4-5 weeks and needs some sort of medication. She also suggested that Jerod look into vocational rehabilitation through SWTC in Fennimore-you know-training him in something less physical but productive.
We'll see what that entails.

Sorry, I know that is really depressing to read. We are actually hanging in there, staying busy helps me from worrying too much. I'm helping to organize a scrap night once a month here in Dodgeville, so I'm looking forward to that. I'm so behind on my scrapping, that I need to get motivated. Melyssa's wedding is a little more than a week away, and we're excited to go. I have to admit that I think I'm more excited to go to her personal shower this Sunday. An all girls' day. I really need that right now. Hope this stupid cold I have goes away by then.

I do have to conceed that this has been probably the longest winter sofar for us. I am hoping for an early spring-longer days-being outdoors. Hopefully Jerod will be up to snuff so we can go camping a couple of times. The boys have already been asking about that. If nothing else, a few afternoons spent at the Lake will be nice to do.

Hope this blog finds all of you in good health and with happy hearts! We think of you often!
-Shannon

Kieran's name

I know I've been talking about putting a picture of Kieran's signature on here, well, now I finally have gotten around to it. For some reason, he feels the "a" comes at the end of his name, but he'll learn, right?

I'm very proud of him....