blur of a week *lots of pics in this one

It felt like a long week but it went by in such a blur. My youngest had severe allergies the first full week of school. She gets sick when school starts I guess but this time she seemed to do really well after she got started on her flonase and all. So hopefully it won't be so bad this year. She is still loving it and comes up with the funniest stories when you ask her how her day went. Stories like an eagle came and picked up the whole class and flew them on a field trip and things like that. I look forward to asking her how her day went. She really does enjoy it. I am still going to PT 3 days a week so that takes up quite a bit of my time but it is still helping. I ordered an exercise pedaler thing to use at home as I know for sure now that one would work really well for me. I did have some trouble where it felt like the bones were trying to push through the top of my foot and they checked it out and said I was basically over doing it so they changed my routine up just a tad but I think it was something I was doing at home. I am using wraps mostly. We found that as the dr suggested the ones you get to wrap horse ankles in are a lot better than the ones for people you can get elsewhere and you can get 3 rolls vs. the cost of one. So works out. I am looking forward to using the bike thing. I also got a couple of yoga blocks as I wanted to start before but found out you need those and well...now I can. Something that will stretch the muscles but not be too hard on them. I miss my dancing but can't do it yet still. My son starts school next week online. Going to try a few things different this year. We took a day long trip to Norman for my RA dr. We took my son to see the Sam Noble museum because he missed out last time. (again I tend to keep pics of my kids to a certain page but I have tons of pics I think I took like 400 something and my son took around 600 LOL) I started doing photography as a theraputic thing for my anxiety /agoraphobia and it does help some for me. I get excited about adding to my collection. Longer trips like this take a day or two for me to get mentally ready for and I still don't go anywhere w/out my husband or sometimes I can stay somewhere for a short while with someone I trust but it is an improvement over being totally home bound from severe PTSD a few years back.

hot bird seeking shade under the tree

My youngest loved this there were a lot of fish in it. I have to agree with her. I want to build one. Our house gets paid off this spring so we'll see what we plan for our future then. 

 This was too cool

My youngest's favorite

My son had a blast playing with the effects on his phone and when he gets his uploaded ....which he apparently just suddenly got the urge to do...he has a T-rex with a white board effect on it that came out cool. 

We went to the museum first and ran out of time and so rushed over to my appt. There we spent forever and I was the last patient of the day so everyone in the office was in a great mood. It was catching :D They told me that there was a good possibility that the rounds of steroids I was on for multiple things could have affected the RA and may be why it was in remission. They said the antibiotics wouldn't have affected it but I'd just finished up several rounds one right after for Pneumonia, bronchitis, and then later Pleurisy which is lupus related. (the lining of your lungs becomes inflamed and sticks so that it makes it hard to breathe. It is excruciatingly painful and I used to get it as a teen all the time) anyway they had found that on X-ray and I had just finished them not long before my 1st appt with my RA dr. So they said that was a pretty good possibility but I appear to still be in remission which is good. I have to have paperwork sent from my foot dr about my stress fractures to him. Then when he was squeezing joints and pressure points somehow I guess he hit a nerve on my left shoulder and I haven't been able to use that arm much the last few days. It is getting better but it was so weird. Like if I try to lift anything with that arm it drops (the arm does) Guess just have to work it out. From the drs office on the way home we stopped at the Country boy store where my son was pushing my youngest around in a cart that the front part was made like a car with a steering wheel and she was having an absolute field day. She loved it. Then off to check out the nature center at lake Thunderbird but unfortunately it was closed so that is a trip we'll be planning for another time. They did however have a turtle pen out front that the boy scouts had made with their own special habitat and the kids found and pointed out all the turtles in it. Then we went down a little trail to the lake and checked that out. Wanting to go back it has been such a long time. As we had driven in the youngest was asleep and we couldn't get her awake to see that there were a lot of wild turkeys but she did get to see them on the way back out. 

pigeons catching bugs in a hay field

 the turkeys I say wild but pretty sure they really are used to people

purple thistle

Thunderbird lake

Lake

little bridge going out to a floating fishing dock

We plan on going back when we can spend a little time. Again we are tied down some by schedules which sucks but we do try to fit things in there. We got some life jackets for the kids for next time too.

Then we headed home and went by my MIL's house to meet up with her, my oldest, my grandbaby, and my friend and spent some time there visiting. We were pretty exhausted. Then the next day went out to the local lake for awhile (Tecumseh) and explored parts of that we hadn't been to before. They used to have a part of it gated off as a shooting range and you had to be a gun club member I think to go down there and it was open so we went exploring. 

I did not actually see the praying mantis when I first took this I was taking it of the water lilly 

 They have a lot of these growing in different places there now I love it

 water lilly

 inside of the other pavillion type building

 fireplace on the side

 an egret flying over water lillies

 I just loved how this looked

We spent some time out there enjoying just how peaceful it was. We did do some fishing but didn't catch anything just mostly enjoying the day. 

Youngest liked drawing with rocks

Sunflower season

dragonfly my son caught and then released

teeny little snails coming up out of the water (the little dots on the rock) 

little water frog

kids took to using nets to catch minnows

 sand plums

I actually thought they were wild grapes at first

feather (goose?)

tree that I am guessing had been lightening struck at one time 

Later that day after we got home went to a cook out with my MIL, friend, oldest and grandbaby. Definitely a full couple of days. So worn out today but it was a good time.