Update on My Old Man!

Well some of you may not know this but Ken had knee surgery yesterday. Yes--in case you are asking yourself "Didn't he just have knee surgery?" He had it on his other knee now. As in his left knee, his maniscus was torn. Fortunately this one did not lock up, but it actually has been more painful for him the last few months. Simple things were becoming difficult to do. So, we decided he should go in and have it repaired before the snow begins to fly. (Which sounds it could happen tomorrow or Monday--UGH)

His surgery went very well and he was up and walking without his crutches this morning. He is able to apply any amount of pressure that is comfortable and needs to take it easy for a week. I hope this is successful and he is able to go back to doing some of the things he loves to do eventually. Advances in technology are amazing. Oh and by the way--he always gives everyone a hard time about being older than he is but I can say that our bodies aren't needing fixing and repairing quite yet. (Sorry honey)

Mean Yet Still Loved

So last night Jackson wanted to watch Maggie and it was time for bed. I told him "Not tonight--it is bedtime" So Ken calls him over to try to dry the tears and said in a funny voice, "You have a Mean Mean Mommy" which made him laugh. And what a wonderful surprise when he responded "Yes but I love her a whole bunch." And off to bed we went.

Dirt, Big Trucks, and More Dirt

On September 12th, the kids and I headed to an event that only comes along every other year--Dozer Days. This event is actually a huge fundraiser for my school disticts Education Foundation. A local quarry basically opens up their doors (or sand piles) brings in every possible piece of large equipment possible and lets families enjoy playing on their dirt, rocks and equipment. It was our first time going and I can tell you that the 2 hours we spent was not near enough time. It was great to see so many families having fun together. As you can see, the kids had an absolute blast. We came home covered in dirt and loving it.

Hopefully Not Too Late

We recently got tired of saying, "We need to do our landscaping." We also had a light in the tunnel which allowed us to actually have time to work on it. So, we put the kids to work with shovels, pails, tractor and trailers, and lots of dirt and mulch. I think we are pretty happy with how it turned out. We will just have to wait til spring to see if they make it through our winter. We will keep our fingers crossed.
So we went from this...
To This...

Like I said--hopefully these plants will make it through the bitter Wisconsin winter. Now we are continuing to water and water and water. Grow little flowers grow.

1st Day of School

Again--a little at a time.

I always hate the first day of school--not because I don't like my job, but because I do not get to see our own kids off on their first days. This year was even a little more painful because our baby started 4K. He was so excited to go on the bus, until he realized that Jake and Jordyn would not be getting on with him. Jackson takes the bus from the sitter's in the morning and then goes back to her house when school is over for lunch and a nap. He is loving school--I am still struggling with my baby moving into the next phase. It makes me sad!!! Jake is in 6th grade and Jordyn is in 4th. Both are also doing well. Jake and Jordyn get to school about the same time as Jackson so Jordyn goes and sees him before walking over to her school. Every morning Jackson whispers to Jordyn--"Come see me, OK."
Ken and I are very proud of all of them.

A little at a time I guess

I have continued my pattern--one day on, 30 off. Not a good pattern and it certainly does not keep anyone up to date on the Ellis gang. And as you know, the further behind you get, the harder it is to get started. So...I decided to catch up a little at a time. This may mean, just a few lines, or a few pictures or a combination of the two. The results remain to be seen. Here is the first attempt.
For any of you that know me really well, you know that I LOVE black olives. When I was young, I would put them on my fingers and act like a witch. Now, when I am in silly mood, I still may put them on my fingers (and yes sometimes I am a witch) I am happy to say that our children are carrying on the tradition. Well, Jackson created a new twist to this tradition by using raspberries.

A Jackson Funny

So this morning I am driving to work and needed to drop off Jackson. He starts telling me that they went on a hike yesterday and they saw bees. So it goes like this---Mom we saw a whole bunch of bees. Ms. Dawn said they were making honey. They were up in the tree. We saw um fly into the oven. ????? So I asked him, "What were they doing?" He responded as serious as could be, "You know mom, the oven up in the tree--that is were they have to go to cook the honey. Kids are too cute!! "

Balloons in the Hood

Surprise--here I am again and it is only a few days. So we were coming home from running some errands and are almost home. Jordyn busts out laughing and says "There is something you don't see all the time!" I had no idea what she was talking about. So I turn to the left and see this balloon in our neighbors back yard.
So we watch for a while to figure out what was happening. We find out that they basically skimmed the tops of the trees and for some reason couldn't get enough energy to get back up and had to land. So they walked it out to the road which is quite funny to watch. They then deflated it and took it home. Like Jordyn said--you don't see this all the time.

Cabo--So Much Fun

Well I finally am posting--This one will be fairly brief since the pictures will speak for themselves. Our trip to Cabo San Lucas was absolutely fabulous. We met up with Jeff and Vickie in Phoenix and then caught up with Dwight and Phyllis in Cabo. From the minute we got there until it was time to leave, I had a smile on my face--except when we did a shot of tequila. We all were basically together the entire trip and very few "moments" were needed. It was great to have my husband to myself and just have fun without the stresses of everyday life. Thank you Jeff and Vickie and Dwight and Phyllis for making this such a fabulous trip. Friends--priceless!!!!

That being said--it was great to get back home to our kids and family. They truly are our treasures.
A special thank you to Ken's mom, my parents and the Clementi family--without them Ken and I would not have been able to go on this trip and relax. We knew our treasures were in good hands on "their vacation."

Time Sure Flies

Well here I am again--with a month since my last post. I thought it was going to be easier to keep up once school was out-- Hell No !! So...I am again going to bring you up to speed on the Ellis's Exciting Events.
In early June--right before school was out my wonderful friend Christine Stigall came with her 2 boys to visit for the night. Her parents live in Chicago so she blessed us with a night of wonderful chatting and Jackson got to see two of his friends from Kansas City (they have been at daycare together since they were born) It was a great 24 hours--Thanks for coming up Christine !!!

***Then we added hardware to the house--Jake's baseball team took 3rd in a tournament. Keep in mind when you look at these pictures that they are from June--UGH !!!

***Then we got a very cool email--Jordyn has been asked to try out for the Performance Team at her dance studio. This what she loves to do and we are very excited for her. She will take special classes this summer and her audition will be in August. We are so proud of her!!!

***Schools gets out on Friday and we head to Kansas City on Tuesday the 16th until the following Monday. We spent Tuesday-Friday in our old neighborhood. The kids loved seeing their friends while we there--our kids and the Parker kids were pretty much inseperable--I am not sure how we didn't get pictures of Dwight and Phyllis but their absence in our pictures is not representative of how much we love them--we love them all dearly!!! We got to see Jake's old baseball team play, so we could see how the boys have grown and chat with many of the parents. Jordyn and I were blessed to have breakfast with her dance partner Sydney and her mom Shelly--my dance buddy. We miss them so much. Dance just isn't the same for me-I loved spending my Saturday mornings with Shelly. We spent lots of time at the pool and got to go to the The Big Red Barn farm in Weston. My wonderful friend Donna Grame came with us and then was so gracious to make us cookies and lemonade.

***Then off we went to the Lake of the Ozarks with Jeff and Vickie. The weather was hot so it was perfect for floating, laughing, relaxing and enjoying a few beverages. We are always so grateful to Vickie's mom Linda for having us to her wonderful and relaxing home on the lake--and of course to Jeff and Vickie for welcoming us. We love them dearly.

***We came home on Monday and tried to catch back up. We had baseball games on Wednesday and Thursday and then I left on Friday back to Kansas City for a great girls' weekend. The weather was still hot and once again perfect for floating, chatting and having a few beverages. What a great weekend it was with wonderful girlfriends!!! Ken was home with the kids and his mom running to a baseball tournament and covering for me--it was Jackson's birthday and I wasn't even there--I did feel bad--but if none of you tell him--he will never remember!!!

*** I got back late Sunday. Ken was traveling Monday to Wednesday. My mom came for a visit on Monday and hung out with us til Tuesday. Then my brother came down from Wednesday til Sunday--Craig, Ken and I went to Summerfest to see Huey Lewis and the News on Saturday night--What a blast we had!! Good music, good fun, great family fun. When we arrived back at home at 12:45 am--my parents were there to celebrate Jackson's birthday and go to a polo match. So my brother sang us a few songs on Jackson's new guitar and we all called it a night.

So there is our June in a nutshell!!!

Quick or Not-So Quick

Well considering the last post I did was when Jake broke his collar bone on April 30th and it is May 31st--I guess I can give you a brief synopsis of our May. I feel like it is a repeating theme in my life lately. I have such good intensions to do this more often--an all of a sudden weeks or a month have gone by.

***This month I distributed all of the baseball and softball equipment for the 38 teams in the Merton Rec program. I gave out pants to over 210 boys and girls--and of course they all didn't fit so about 20-25 switches needed to be made. Needless to say--lots of running. I also helped on the next project as much as I could--which wasn't nearly enough!!

***We decided to buy a duplex that needed a little TLC. Ken put hours and hours of work in. I helped when I could. Ken's mom and my parents were also a huge help.

Then Jordyn had her dance recital this month so extra dance practices for her were required. Ken and Jordyn also danced in the Father Daughter dance so that demanded some time. I am so proud of Jordyn--she did great. It is so fun to see her smile and do what she loves--sing and dance. I am also so proud of Ken--the dance they did was not easy--he actually had to learn the Charleston, the bell hop along with jumps, twist and turns and on top of that--had to have the timing down. He worked hard too!!

Then we have other May fun--

What a crazy month--Hopefully things will settle down a little--but most likely not. We are looking forward to our Summer Fun!!!

So Broken

This is a post I would rather not be writing, but it is big news in the Ellis house. On Wednesday, Jake went to practice as planned and arrived home as planned. Except when he arrived back home, he was not quite the chipper Jake that we all know and love. Jake had gotten hit with a baseball. He was going to catch a fly ball and lost it in the sun. The ball came down directly on his collar bone. We decided to head to urgent care just to make sure all was ok. X-rays were completed and they did not see anything, but said that if it did not improve in a day or so, that we should see our doctor or return to their clinic. They said sometimes you don't see the break right away. We iced and took some Motrin and went to bed. Jake went to school on Thursday and was in quite a bit of pain, but the doctors said to expect that since bone bruises are painful. Jake made it through the day and headed to bed for some rest. I knew he was in a lot of pain, but continued to ice and tell him to hang in there, a bruised bone hurts!!

Well around 3:00 I heard "Mom," and I got up and went in by Jackson. He was uncovered so I figured he was cold, so I covered him up and went back to bed. Around 3:30, he is calling again so I got back up, but he is still covered and sound asleep. Then I hear it again, but it is not Jackson. It is Jake. I turned on his light, and my big brave Jake has tears streaming down his face and is in extreme pain. I tried to get him as comfortable as possible, gave him some more pain medicine and called in to work to get a sub. Jake would not be going to school in the morning. Ken was in KC or I would have taken him to emergency then.

So, off to the doctor we go and Dr. Bradley knows Jake and his typical smile and spunk. He took one look at him and knew something was extremely wrong. He felt around a little and then all of a sudden he said "Oh yeah--I am pretty sure it it broken. I felt a little click. Let's get some X-rays and see what is going on in there." As you can see--there was no doubt that there was a break. He decided to put Jake in a figure 8 brace. It basically keeps his shoulders back.
Dr. Bradley had to pull Jake's shoulders back to get them in position to put the brace on. We then proceded to lay Jake down because he almost passed out. Jake has an extremely high pain tolerance so I knew how much he had to be hurting. So for the rest of the day and most of Saturday, smiles and the sparkle in is eyes were gone. Basic daily movements hurt--we helped him sit up, sit down and almost everything he had to do, Everything was extremely painful. We were careful just sitting down by him because the movement of the cushions hurt. The brace was something he was not thrilled about. He continued to wear it and we kept it as tight as Jake could tolerate.

On Sunday morning, we seemed to turn the corner. He had a little smile and joked a little with his Uncle Craig. He could get up a little easier and wasn't quite as ginger about his movements as Friday and Saturday. This by no means meant he was ready to go out and play--that still was really the furthest thing from his mind. And we all know Jake, so this is still an indicator of how much pain he was in. Mid-day Sunday, he decided he would brave taking a shower so we took the brace off. It was then that he realized how much better the brace made it feel. So by the time he was out of the shower he was saying "Mom hurry up and put the brace back on." We have continued to tighten it ever since.

He will be out of commission for 4 to 6 weeks--so he was pretty sad today when is new uniform arrived. He went to school today and seems to be doing quite well. Luckily there is no "rehab" that will need to be done, it will just be a matter of getting his arm back in shape and head back in the game. He will continue to go to practice and be part of the team as much as possible. What a bummer since he has been practicing since January.

This is what it looks like for real--as you can see, the right collar bone(on the left side in the picture) does not look much like the left--I will keep you posted as he recovers. As you can also see, a little spunk has returned. He was going a bit stir crazy so we had a family poker game. Jake, you have been incredibly brave.