MRI and Things You Didn't Know About Me

Well, in the past week I've spent time at the doctor's office. I went last Wednesday to the orthopedic and we discussed the pain I was still having in my knee and he said the next step was to have an MRI. I quickly got an appt. set up on Friday b/c I wanted to figure out what was going on with my knee. I went back to the doctor today and found out that I need to have surgery. I expected him to say that. I've been preparing myself and Jarod for it. I don't want to have surgery, but I am tired of not really being able to "live" my life. With Allie getting older and being more active I have not been able to chase her and play with her the way that I want to without being in a lot of pain. So, I am having surgery March 13th. It is 2 days before my spring break starts and I will have about 12 days to get back on my feet and hopefully start feeling back to normal! It's an out patient surgery and I'm very thankful for that.

Well now on to the 2nd part of my post. I was tagged by my friend Kim:
Rules: Answer each question about yourself, then tag 5 people by posting their names and leaving them a comment on their blog.

10 Years Ago: I was Junior in high school, probably playing softball, going to baseball games and Jarod and I started dating that May.

Things On My To Do List Tomorrow: teach 7 year olds, put up books in the Guided Reading Library, play with Allie and give her a bath, grade papers(seriously I have a lot to do, but I'll stop there!)

Snacks I enjoy: fruit, 100 calorie snacks, and my favorite is chips! (Actually I just like to munch and crunch)

What would I do if I were suddenly made a billionaire? pay off student loans, quit my job and stay home with Allie, pay off my brother's student loans, pay off family debt, set up college scholarships for kids, travel, and build the house of my dreams.

3 Of My Bad Habits: I have a nervous habit of picking at my eye brows (weird I know), leaving clean clothes in the laundry basket, and leaving sonic straw wrappers in my car.

5 places I have lived: Omaha, NE; Quinlan, TX; Searcy, AR; Garland, TX, Lewisville, TX

Jobs that I have had: Camp counselor, baby sitter, tutor, referee, 1st and 2nd grade teacher.

Things people don’t know about me: Once I won a burping contest at a youth rally (my brother Scott taught me how to burp like a guy), I lettered in 3 sports in high school, I can't stand tapping noises (kids tapping on the desk), I wish that I would have been in musicals in high school.

I tag anyone who reads my blog and hasn't already done this.

The Quads

Many of you know the Steece's (Suzanne and the quads) either from Harding or through other people's blogs. Suzanne and Joe attend the church where my parents and my brother and his family attend. In February my parents will be going over the their house on Sunday mornings to help watch the quads so Suzanne and Joe can go to church. Anyway, since they are now volunteers, they are receiving emails on things that can be done to help. My mom sent me the following email:

The second way (to help) is to visit the blog daily:

http://thelifeofsuz.blogspot.com/

If you click on the ads that are displayed on the website, they get money!!! The site can track how many times one computer hits on the ads...so, if someone just clicks on the ads 20 times, it can tell what you are doing and they will not get as much money -

If everyone would check the site once or twice a day and tell your friends to do the same - this would be a GREAT way to help - the money they earn from the adds will help pay for the 4 helmets -the "cranial bands" - the babies will be getting today.
Suzanne told me they made $30.00 within a couple of hours the first day the add ran. If we all check the blog - which we do anyway - just check it now more often and click on the ads - what a great and easy way to help them earn money for their babies.

Maybe some of y'all already knew about this, but I didn't. So everytime I check her blog, I click on the ads by Google. What an easy and fast way to help!

Tee Tee in the Potty!!!

Well it was suggested to us in October that we should buy Allie a potty and start introducing it to her. Well, of course I waited until after Christmas to buy her one. I researched potty chairs on Babies R Us and Target and the potty in the picture got the best reviews. It's really basic, but everyone that wrote a review (about 30 on each site) loved this one. Allie's is hot pink and she loved it from the moment I brought it in. She likes to sit on it when I go to the bathroom and for the last week we've put her on it before she takes a bath. Well tonight I was getting her ready for her bath and I told her that she was going to sit on the potty before she got in the bath. She said, "tee tee in potty" and I said yes. She ran to the bathroom and I put her on the potty and next thing we knew she went tee tee. Jarod and I were both so excited and amazed at the same time. As soon as she was finished she got up and was ready to get in the bath. We kept telling her how proud we were of her and she smiled and looked at us like we were crazy!

This may have been a fluke thing, but we were very excited. It was just another example of how big our little girl is getting. Hopefully she will start to get the hang of it. I wasn't planning on potty training her officially until this summer when I'm out of school. Who knows, she may need it earlier.

The Biggest Loser

I think the title of this blog is perfect. I have been the biggest loser with this blog. I can't believe I haven't posted in a month. Shame on me! I promise I will do better.

Life in the Varner household has been pretty busy. During the whole month of December we were going non stop. Between work, physical therapy for my knees, and getting ready for Christmas (we had my family at my house), we had little time for play. Jarod took off a week around Christmas and it was nice having the 3 of us together. We just hung out and played with Allie. She and I had a few play dates with her friends Gabby and Cade (I'm friends with their mom's and the kids were all born within a month of each other). Jarod, Allie and I took a trip up to Memphis to see our good friend Keith graduate from college. We got to hang out with him and Courtney (his wife and my best friend) for a few days. It was a great trip. I miss them so much and I wished we lived closer together, but we are really good about taking turns seeing each other. Christmas at Varner house hold went very well. I was a little stressed, but I think everyone had a great time and it was good to be with my family.

Since school started back I've been as busy as ever. I think by far I have worked harder this year than I did my first year of teaching (4 years ago). Our district and the state have put so much pressure on us this year. It has gotten so bad that we had a teacher retire mid year (granted she was 70 years old; no I'm not kidding and she should have retired several years ago), but she just couldn't handle it anymore. No one blames her. She is two times my age and I'm having a hard time with all of the new expectations. I have honestly never been more ready for a school year to be over with.

I will find out later this month or early February if I will need knee surgery. For those of you who do not know, I have runners knee in both of my knees (which is pretty funny b/c I don't run). I was in therapy for a month and unfortunately, my right knee (which is the worst of the 2) does not feel any better. My knees flamed up when we went to New York last June and I have been battling them ever since. I go back to the doctor at the end of the month and we will discuss what we are going to do. I know that I will have an MRI done to determine how bad my knee is and then we will go from there.

Jarod is still keeping busy with work and running. I can't believe how much he runs these days and right now it is freezing outside. I'm so proud of him. He is looking into running another 1/2 marathon sometime soon.

Allie is now 21 months old. I can't believe that she will be 2 in a couple of months. She is getting big so fast. She has changed so much in the last couple of months. Her speech development is improving daily and she is getting very good at saying 2 and 3 word phrases and she has thrown in a sentence here and there. She still loves to sing and dance. Her favorite songs right now are Baa, Baa Black Sheep and Old MacDonald. She will pick up a block that looks like a cylinder and use it as her microphone. She is now attached to her Mimi and Poppy (my parents). She cries whenever she has to leave them. It's the saddest and sweetest thing to see. She is still very independent and very stubborn. She tests our parenting skills daily! Our church is about to start a parenting class one Sunday a month and Jarod and I are going to check it out. It can't hurt and we will take any advice people would love to give us. It's based on Love and Logic and I've heard very good things about it. Jarod and I enjoy spending as much time with her as we can. She makes us laugh all the time and is such a joy to be around.

Dallas White Rock Marathon

On Sunday, my parents, Allie and I braved the cold and rainy weather to watch Jarod cross the finish line of his first 1/2 marathon. I am so proud of him! I am at home every Saturday when he runs his "long run", but it never really hit me how big of an accomplishment this was until this race. Since the weather was so nasty, we weren't there very long but I did get to see him cross the finish line (I didn't see him in the Turkey Trot). I tried to yell out his name, but my voice is hoarse and it didn't come out very well. He usually runs the 1/2 (at home) in a little over 2 hrs and he finished this time in under 2 hrs. Wow! It's amazing to me how many people can run that long. I just wish the weather would have been nicer for the runners

Jarod after he finished the race.

Doesn't he look exhausted? Poor thing!
I was very happy to see him and to find him! It took us a while to find him at the Turkey Trot. This time we had a better game plan.

The day before this picture it was 80 degrees and Allie was in short sleeves and shorts! Gotta love Texas weather.

Christmas Pictures

Well, I don't really have much to post about, so I thought I would share our newest pictures of Miss Allie. We had pictures taken of her last week at the baby sitters. There is a photographer who will come to your house and let you have portrait parties. It was a great deal that I couldn't pass up and I think she did a great job. I feel like we always have the same pose for most of her pictures and this time we don't. The hardest part was that I didn't get to be there b/c I was teaching. I can't believe how big my little girl is getting. Time is flying by!

Turkey Trot

Thanksgiving Day started out very early for the Varner family. For those of you who do not know, Jarod has recently (May) taken up running and is training to run a marathon by next winter. To read more about Jarod's running he has his own blog and it's linked on my page.

Jarod decided to run in Dallas' YMCA 8 mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. My mom and Allie and I decided to brave the really cold weather to cheer him on. My mom and I got there about 45 min. before Jarod finished running. I was so surprised by how many people were out there. They said that 30,000 people registered. We waited on the sidelines looking for Jarod and I had the camera ready, but I never saw him. I saw two of his friends run by, but not him. I knew that would happen! We had plans to meet at the finish line, but with the massive crowds, it took us a while to find him. Next year we will have a better plan. If my knees are better (they better be by next Nov.) I plan to walk the 3 mile. I think we've started a new "Varner" tradition.

After the run we headed back to my parents house in Arlington to finish up fixing our food for Thanksgiving at my aunt's. Every Thanksgiving we head to my aunt and uncle's in Arlington. This year was a little different. My brother's and their families were with their in-laws and my dad was sleeping b/c he had worked the night shift at the hospital and he had to work Thanksgiving night too. So, it wasn't a huge crowd, but we had enough food to feed an army. It was great to be with my family, especially my Granny. We had good food, lots of laughs and watched the Cowboys win! We even had big snow flakes!

Jarod and Allie and I spent the rest of our weekend with my parents. Our plans were to go home on Saturday, but I'm such a home body that I had to stay one more night. My mom and I got out pretty early on Friday morning to shop. Crazy! We shop every year on "black Friday", but I had never seen so many crowds before. We were out for 1/2 the day and called it quits. We got out again on Saturday in the yucky rain, and it was a lot more enjoyable.

It's good to be home again (not that we went far away) but neither Jarod or I look forward to going back to work tomorrow. But, only 4 more weeks and I'm off again for Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!