Like you needed it, right? Yep. I know, I'm waiting for the jokes, but before you start making the funnies, take a load of this...
I went to the chiropractors again today for my results from the X-rays. Well, four years ago, when I was pregnant with Caiden I went to the Chiropractor and had X-rays and they told me that my neck was curved the wrong way. Since then I have had a number of adjustments and I started feeling great...that is...until I got pregnant with Kiya.
Well, this time, the X-rays were A LOT WORSE! Geez...maybe girls ARE more challenging than boys? Well, the good news is my neck is kind of better. Half of my neck is normal, and then the normal curvature goes awry and it goes the wrong direction. That was the good news. The bad news: the whole left side of my body is a half inch lower than the right side. You can actually see it! My shoulders and hips are the most noticeable. My spine veers to the left, my hips are rotated 10 degrees the wrong direction and I have about 2-3 compressed discs in my back.
Yep that's right folks...NO WONDER I am in constant pain. I am hoping to get adjusted so that I can remember what it is like to have a day without pain. So, for this I need your help. The chiropractor told me a few things I can do. I have to work on my core (abs, and stuff - now while I would LOVE you to do that for me while I sit on the couch and eat bon bons, I do not expect this).
He also told me to wear my purse on my left side (which I agreed to and then at the conclusion of the appointment picked up my purse and put it on my right side - habit...trust me...he did not let me get away with it), put my weight on both legs, (I tend to put 90% of my weight on my left side and stand with my hip out to the left), and stand and sit up straight with my chest out. Now of course the latter comment I grimaced at, and he said, "I know, women tend to hate it when I say that". I said "Yes, because of course where does people's attention then go". He stopped me and said "Melissa, it goes there anyway, whether or not you stand up straight...that's just where men's attention goes". Point taken. I will try and stand up straight. So, if you see me slouching, standing on my left leg, jutting my left hip out, or putting my purse, or any other heavier objects on my right side tell me to:
A. stand up straight
B. Put your weight on both legs
C. Stop pushing your hip out, you are not holding your kids right now
D. Move your purse or *insert applicable heavy object* to your right side
Hopefully that will help. And the reason for this post? So people know that I really am NOT lying when I say that my back hurts. It really does. :( and the proof is in the X-rays!
About Me
- Mel
- California, United States
- I'm the wife of a firefighter, a mother of two wonderful kids and a full time employee with a crazy busy life. But hey, at least I'm not bored :)
Last weekend was HOT! And since we live out in the boondocks we were even hotter. It reached 113 degrees..yuck! We were trying to figure out ways to beat the heat, until Dave came up with a great one! We have season passes to Raging Waters, so we moseyed on down there and spent our weekend immersed in water - who knows...maybe we were inspired by Sea World.
Dave, Kiya and Caiden resting
The volcano - this was in the kid's section and it had two water slides coming off it.
Kiya and I would sit in the water...this was her sitting in the baby Bjorn with me.
Dave and Caiden pausing long enough for me to snap a picture
We were unsure how Caiden would react to the water slides...I mean, he IS a lot like me (apprehensive and scared until he tries it and then he loves it). He did GREAT! He ran around going on every water slide he could, and even pointed to the biggest one and said he wanted to go on that one. Thank God for height restrictions! :P He had so much fun we went back the next day, but this time Josh came along.
Caiden coming down the water slide for the first time
He loved it!
Josh and Dave race...looks like Josh won
We had a lot of fun, we got a little burnt (even after lathering 50spf sunscreen). Of course, I couldn't have an adventure without a little mishap...there were some kids that were waiting for me to pass under them and then they unloaded a HUGE amount of water onto me. This was the last time I saw my sunglasses as they were on my face prior to be bombarded and then gone the next minute. sigh. I had to buy new glasses, but hey at least I didn't break anything or fall multiple times while holding Kiya. When I figured out what happened, I just looked at the kids (I had Kiya on me too) and one boy just pointed to the other and said "He did it". Whatever. Again, it could be worse. Two mothers (who were not related) lost their kids. (meaning they couldn't find them).
This was the scene of the crime...(where my glasses disappeared).
It was a great way to break the heat...I highly suggest it.
My Godmother was coming to town and my mom was retiring, so what better excuse to take a day off and celebrate than those two events! So where do you think we went? No, not Disneyland, we went to SEA WORLD!!!!
I love going to Sea World, and since Gigi was nice enough to take us Caiden, Kiya and I (no adult boys allowed!) joined Stephanie, Kyle, Lindsay and Karen and my mom to have a girl's day out with the kids.
Clockwise: Caiden, Kiya, Lindsay and Kyle
Catching a teachable moment with Auntie Karen and Caiden
Auntie Karen and Kyle
Gigi and Kiya
We had a great time. Of course we had to eat some Cotton Candy...I mean that is a MUST! We had to take some goofy pictures, and see some really cool animals.
Caiden and I sharing our favorite amusement park treat
Caiden and I couldn't help but be a little goofy
Beluga whales...so peaceful looking
This was inside the polar bear cave. Caiden was a bit apprehensive and this was the only picture I could get as he refused to stay in the cave (they had roaring bear sound effects)
I JUST missed the kodak moment...the walrus was starring at Caiden (but he put his head down) :(
This was us inside the Shark Encounter (see how calm we are)
It was cool that Caiden and I got a chance to feed some bat rays...well I should say I did, Caiden was not interested until all the fish was gone - THEN he wanted to feed them. He is so like me. :P
We had to take a moment out to eat, right?
Where we bought our overpriced meals...
Everything I couldn't eat.
All Caiden talked about was wanting to go see the Shamu show. Now this last Friday so it was HOT, HOT, HOT!! We lathered the kids with sunscreen and forced them to wear hats, and sat out in the hot sun without relief, that is until Shamu came and gave us relief in a tail full of water! Caiden wanted to sit in the splash zone and who am I to say no? Thankfully there was a nice lady sitting in front of us that had an extra poncho that we used to stay somewhat dry. I don't think that Caiden anticipated how wet he would get. He had a blast though. I put together a little video of the show.
Shamu jumps!
Caiden's reaction
The final pose
We had a great time, just look at these happy faces!
Just a little video to make you happy. Don't you wish YOU danced at work? Look how fun it is! :)
Caiden has such a nice teacher. She made him a scrapbook (a rather large one at that) for his end of the year with her. It is filled with work that we didn't see, a special note for Caiden, handprints, pictures of Caiden with his classmates and a class picture, and little notes.
She also gave us 2 computer games that Caiden loved, and a David and Goliath book on CD.
How thoughtful is that?
Well, I didn't exactly take a before picture, so I had to find a shot that you might be able to see the difference. Since I knew he was self conscious, this was hard to do as I would not take unflattering pictures of Dave before.
Here is Dave RIGHT before P90X
Here is Dave Day 30 of this 90 day program. Dave has lost 21 lbs to date, and is doing a great job!
Ok, so I'm a little behind in my postings. I have been super busy and quite honestly pretty tired too. Since some time has passed I am not sure how thrilling or interesting my hiking story will be, but here goes anyway.
For Father's Day, after the breakfast that Caiden and I made for Dave, we decided to take him on a hike to the Santa Margarita river trail. It was a hot day (as all of them have been lately) reaching temperatures well over 100 degrees, so we lathered the sun screen on the kids and ourselves and off we went.
Not sure if you can see, but Caiden's shirt says "little guy" and Dave's says "Big Guy"
Kiya in the pack ready to go :)
I should mention that earlier that morning, Dave had presented Caiden with two very essential things for hiking. "Magic" hiking shoes (Dave told Caiden that these were very special magic shoes that would allow him to walk further distances than the previous hikes - funny thing is he believed it and was able to go much further than our previous adventures...tells you the strength of mind over matter). The other gift was a walking stick. Now Caiden had picked a stick out on the last hike, but promptly threw it back as he stated he wanted a very straight stick...no bends or curves. Dave took him to Lowe's where he picked out his perfect straight stick. Dave then wrapped it with some grip tape and some kind of medical tube that they use on patients and Caiden now has his perfect walking stick to go with his magic hiking shoes.
Caidn in his magic hiking shoes and walking stick
Now I will preface this story by adding that there is a very specific point in this story that pictures will be unavailable. When I get to that point, you will know why. Anyway, we loaded the kids (furry and human) up in the truck and off we went.
The view along our trail...
It was a REALLY hot day, and our deal with Caiden is that when he wants a break we will sit down and take a break. He did very well, I think we only took 3 breaks. We walked by a little stream that became a river crossing. I prefer to walk by water, and the dogs REALLY enjoyed it. Frankly, it was so hot I think that they would not have been able to carry on unless we had the water to go into. We stopped for a spell at the water, and Hunter wasted no time jumping in and swimming. Flash did a little swimming, but mostly held to the shore. Hunter swam his little heart out. It was hard to get him to stop. They were having so much fun we hiked a little further on up the river and then then stopped for lunch.
This was on our first break
Me with the dogs and Caiden
Hunter walking out to the deep end so he can swim
Hunter and Flash (we met other dogs too)
The stop by the river was actually quite serene. There were lots of dragonflies, the sound of the water was really soothing, and the feel of it on our feet was refreshing. If it weren't so hot I would have stayed longer.
Me and Kiya (if you look into my sunglasses you can see me taking the picture) :p
Kiya in her pretty hat...well, you still need to look adorable while hiking
My adorable little man, Caiden :)
The best picture of a dragonfly we could get.
After lunch we were feeling pretty good, and the dogs were bounding down the the trail as they had been refreshed from the water, so we felt good enough to plug on. At this point we had already been hiking for a few hours, so we weren't sure how much further to go because we had to hike it back out with Caiden. We saw a sign that said river crossing further up and then their was a viewpoint. We hiked to the viewpoint and then thought we would try to cross the river. This is where the pictures will end. Sadly, you will see (well rather read) why. First off, let me say that for some reason or another my balance has been a bit off. Secondly, I am inherently klutzy to begin with. Third, as we were hiking, I was thinking to myself about what I would say in this blog posting, and was filled with joy that I could tell Wendy that I am not ALWAYS bad luck and that I had successfully made it through an adventure without drama. Of course, I was hiking in a forest so there was actually a lot of wood that I could have knocked on, but I didn't actually SAY my thoughts out loud so I thought I would be safe. NOPE!!!
Dave, Kiya, Caiden and Hunter (they are looking for fish - there are huge ones in the river)
So here we are. Let me paint the picture for you. Dave is carrying Kiya in the backpack, he crosses the river holding Caiden, while I cross with all of our shoes, the dog's leashes (which are the retractable ones so I could put them around my neck or anything - they are awkward), the pack I had around my waste that had water and food, and my phone and camera. Mind you I DID say that I was carrying our shoes. Now this was Dave's bright idea. In all my years hiking, I have NEVER and I do stress NEVER crossed water without my shoes, but Dave did not want to be squishy the rest of the hike, so he insisted that we take off our shoes.
This is the part that I wish I had pictures, so I don't sound like such a reject. The water was high - hence Dave carrying Caiden across it. The rocks were few and far between, and they were a bit pointy. The rocks in the water were covered with algae which is extremely slippery. Dave crosses fine. I am halfway across and I am fine, until I notice I had dropped a dog leash. I am at the point where there are two rocks that are reasonably close together. I am straddling the pointy rocks, and trying to bend down to pick up the fallen dog leash when...that's right. I lose my balance and plunge into the water...WITH my camera (but I managed to save my phone!!!!). I am so PISSED at this point, and Dave is yelling orders. He comes across to grab the camera (which has been completely submerged in water and is dripping wet). I then make it across the rest of the river. I am so angry at this point because my camera is now dead, and Dave is telling me why I fell (even though he did not see it). I am now grumpy and frustrated which added to the heat and some choice words that Dave had said, I had HAD it!
At this point, we turn to go home. But wait! We have to cross that darned river again. Now I am afraid. I pack the camera and phone with Dave in the baby carrier. He carries Kiya and Caiden across, and I try to manage with the other crap. I nearly made it, until I hit those two rocks again (the SAME two rocks - I think they have it out for me. I swear I heard them laughing). This time though I managed to slip on the underwater rock with all the algae and plunge into the water hitting my right angle (where the bone is) and pushing the underwater rock into the right side of my back. (Darn you Wendy! I ALMOST had an uneventful blog entry). I am now completely drenched and in a lot of pain, which just ticked me off even more. To make matters worse, I had dropped the front of Dave's shoe in the water - remember he didn't want to be squishy.
I finished making it across, but my clothes are sopping wet, and I am in a very foul mood. Did I mention that my toes and feet were cut to crap because of the rocks in the water? Remember, DAVE wanted us to take our shoes off to cross. Hindsight I should have listened to my gut. Anyway, to make a long story longer, we made it out. A little worse for wear, but out. Funny enough, Dave looks at me as we are hiking out and says. "Give me the camera I want to take a picture of where you feel and then you can write on the blog RIP Camera". I just looked at him - remember I'm not in the mood. He then remembered that we cannot take pictures because I killed the camera.
Because I am so obsessive about pictures we went straight to Best Buy where thankfully I had purchased the accidentally insurance on my camera, so they swapped it out for free. I strongly encourage klutzy people everywhere to buy that insurance. It was only $30 and it was hassle free.
The rest of the day didn't go much better as we stopped off to grab some food for us and water for the dogs, where Dave nearly got into an altercation with some very trashy people which resulted in my running outside with both kids in tow to calm down the situation.
Sigh...all and all though, the hike was good. Lessons were learned, and I would be game to go again and redeem myself. Of course, I will make Dave carry the camera next time. :)
That's exactly what I was saying when I walked into this new chiropractic office with Heather.
Ok, ok. So I guess I should preface it by saying that Danny, Heather's boyfriend is the one who found this chiropractor - through a friend of theirs who is no longer a practicing chiropractor. So that being said, Danny went for his first visit. Of course since Danny has the connections (and because he is outgoing) the chiropractor feels comfortable enough to reveal that he walked into the massage room where one of his employees was...well how shall I say it...providing a service that is typically not provided by this particular type of establishment...she was...providing "oral satisfaction" on one of her male clients rather than a massage. (Well, I guess it is a massage of sorts). And in case I am still unclear, or you are not GETTING the message...this particular massuse was, as Michael Chapman put it "pulling a Monica" (aka. P.A.M.) *Monica as in Lewinski and not the Monica from friends.* Now I fear that I may get some male blog readers asking for the address of this particular chiropractor...remember, this massuse is NO LONGER WITH THE COMPANY.
Of course, being armed with this kind of information, it just set the tone for the whole adventure. Of course, it did help that I was going with Heather, who mind you, fell out of bed in the morning. That's right...you heard me...she FELL OUT OF BED, and bruised her back. hehe. WHO does that? Yes, Heather was a bit out of sorts today.
When we got to the chiropractor, we had to fill out the necessary paperwork. Heather, being who she is put her birthday down as 2008, and of course was called out on it by the office staff. We had a good laugh over that one. I think the funniest part was when she cheated or copied off of my paper when it came to putting your pain threshold. I felt like I was back in elementary school and someone was cheating off my paper. She whispers to me..."what did you put for your pain level right now". I whispered back "7...what did you put". She said. "I just copied off your paper". :)
So as we are filling out the paperwork, I hear the chiropractor come over to this lady, put his hand on her lower back to help guide her and say "Come with me to the water bed". I, of course start laughing (remember the pre-story from Danny), and say to Heather "I thought I just heard him ask her to go to a water bed with him". She said, "I think he did".
Then it was OUR turn. They take both of us together into the back room. I told Heather it was because they were embarassed of us, and thought we were trouble. After some chatting with the chiropractor, where Heather assures him that SHE is Danny's one and only girlfriend, we take our X-rays. He has us do these crazy poses, like the I-DREAM-OF-JEANNIE pose, and of course the full body X-ray in which he asks us to open our mouth wide (again, please think of the pre-story here for why I found this quite amusing). Of course, I HAD to ask why we needed to open our mouths wide for an X-ray. He told me it engaged the top two vertebrae. (uh huh - this is the part I look over at Heather and we start laughing).
After the X-rays they take us into what I thought were two separate rooms, but really are two doors into the same room, where there is a half wall separating water beds. They hand Heather some ear muffs that look like she's going to go to the shooting range. She then lays down on the bed, and the water bed starts. I was surprised at how loud it was...hence the ear protection. I get the same ear muff things, and lay down for my water bed massage. Heather and I keep peeking over the half wall, or putting our hands over to say hi. I feel like a TOTAL dweeb as I am extremely ticklish, and anything lower than my thighs would set me into a fit of laughter. The water bed room is RIGHT by the front desk. Remember, I am wearing these ear protectors, so I don't know how loud I am being, but I went from giggling and laughing like a school girl when the water went from my ankles to my thighs, to LOVING it when it hit my lower back and upper shoulders and neck. You know the office staff thought I was a total reject. The water bed thing was an interesting experience. Of course, Heather was wincing when the water hit her back - remember she bruised it FALLING OUT OF BED! :P
Anyway, I just kept thinking what kind of establishment IS this because of the comments made by the chiropractor, the pre-story story and the crazy X-ray moves. It was a unique experience, and I really enjoyed the water massage when I finally got used to it (and could contain the giggles). We made another appointment next week. I can't wait! We get to see the massuse...get your mind out of the gutter :P
Today is Father's Day, and Dave wasn't working! Caiden, Kiya and I had breakfast waiting for Dave when he came home. Then Caiden presented him with a card he made, and some gifts! After some hugs, kisses and some songs, courtesy of Caiden, we decided to go hiking!
The card Caiden made Dave
Dave opening a gift that Caiden and Kiya gave him...look at Caiden's expression (not the messy house)
The hiking post is to follow, but it's close to midnight and I'm tired. Of course as Wendy mentioned in a previous comment to one of my posts...I am bad luck and hiking did not go off without a few hitches :( Because of this I knew it would take me too long to post the hiking adventure because I would feel impelled to write about it...and you know me...I tend not to be short on words. :)
Like Father (Dave's breakfast)....
Like Son (Caiden's breakfast)
Anyway, after hiking, Dave and I bathed the kids (both the furry and non furry variety) and then they all went to bed while I went to the store and got some movies too. By the time I got home Caiden was awake so he worked out in the yard with me until Dave woke up. Dave then played outside with Caiden while I made dinner for Dave for Father's day.
Caiden also had some gifts to give his Grandpas, but I couldn't figure out how to mail them so I will have to wait until we see them :) Happy Father's Day!