Summer 2011 happenings

We've been painting....

and painting.....

and a lot more painting......

and when we decide to babysit for a friend, we just make Emerald watch the 11 month old, and we keep on painting! :)

We are finally home long enough to really try to get some of our house painted. We are taking on the entire lower level all at once. I'm still not sold on our dining room color choice, while it is slowly growing on me, the kids have deemed it Mac & Cheese & tomato. Hmmmm....it's not exactly what I was going for, but we are going to finish everything else before we make the final decision.

It seems like every day we have something going on, guess that's what summer is all about. I hurt my back pretty bad in the first week of summer, and have been battling with it all summer. I'm down to just one chiro appt a week now, but have been there as much as 4 times in a week at the beginning. He told me he was fearful I'd be one of his few clients he was thinking he might have to refer on for surgery from my initial visit. It was a badly injured disk, and in his first few moments, I was unable to stand remotely straight, had no reflexes at all in my right leg, and was rating it a 9 out of 10 on the pain scale. This girl doesn't complain about pain....at all! Even during contractions they had to ask if it was hurting me, and I wouldn't say yes. This back pain hurt worse than the first 24 hours after my C-section. It was B.A.D!!!! I'm finally feeling somewhat better. For about 2 weeks all I could do was lay on the floor. It knocked out a lot of trips for us this summer, including visits to the pool, the movies, the grocery store, wanting to be on a boat, go camping, nothing. I didn't want to do anything. No pain meds I took even touched the pain at all! I feel so thankful to finally be nearing the end of a long road. My hip is now killing me, and the chiro says it is due to my compensation from injuring my back so badly. There are ligament & tendon issues that are trying to resolve themselves. He has done some deep tissue massages that make me want to scream and jump thru the roof. It hurts. I am thankful that I didn't have to have surgery. When I'd fit that & recovery into my schedule who knows. I'm grateful that I have been able to work it out thru chiropractic work and a little physical therapy.

We've also had a lot of play dates this summer. I'm making some great new friendships with my fellow moms and feeling wonderful about this! We've had an impromptu party at our house that made me downright giddy. On any given day in the Pankewich household you will find anywhere from our 3 up to 9 kids in the house, all usually within the 1-7 year old age range. Today it was 6 kids, the other day it was 4, Friday it was 7. Always something new and fun. The kids love it and have been having so much fun.

We have had to say goodbye to some neighbor friends, but thankful they aren't moving too far away.

I know I haven't been posting as many blogs this summer, but frankly, I've been too busy enjoying the journey to stop and document it all. It is fun to hang out with the kids. It's fun to get to know our friends better. It's not so fun, but necessary to recover from this major back pain. It's just been a super crazy busy summer. One that I love and wouldn't trade for anything.