Busy Weekend

Do you ever feel like you've had a really busy weekend and then can't remember what you did that kept you busy? That's what I feel like this weekend. We did a lot, but I feel like we didn't DO anything. On Saturday while I was returning books to the library, I realized that the city was having a Fire/Safety Awareness day. So I came back home and got the kids and Super-Hero to come down so we could take a close-up look at some fire trucks. They got to ride a fire truck that Oregon City had used in 1947 and we also got a ride in the back of a police car. Those seats are not comfortable and I can't imagine anyone over 5'10" fitting in there! We bumped into some people from Romania's school and got some free ice cream.

On Sunday after church, Super-Hero took the boys to a birthday party and I packed up my serger that wasn't threading properly to have it looked at. After getting it fixed, I drove to a fabric store just to buy some good thread and $65 worth of fabric later, realized I hadn't even purchased the thread. I cannot just walk into a fabric store without buying something for a project.

Then around 5.30 I got a call from the gal who fixed our computer. She did an awesome job - getting rid of a virus, saving all my files to DVD's and CD's, installing new anti-spyware software and a virus protection program and even gave me a hard drive when I got scammed from someone on Craigslist. When she was leaving from working on it the first time, Holland showed her his setup in the garage with our old computer. I have no idea what was wrong with it, but he had somehow hooked it up and got the screen to come up. No working mouse, so he just clicked until he got what he wanted. He asked if she had any spare parts (luckily got a laugh from her on that one!) and she offered to take it home and tinker with it. Tonight she called and wanted to bring it by at 7. She said she couldn't fix it, so she was giving us an old Gateway she had! We also didn't have a working mouse, speakers and the DVD player was broken. She must have some fabulous stockpile of stuff! Holland was in complete heaven and I told her she would be his favorite person in the world now. You should have seen his eyes pop when she hooked up everything. She didn't even know if her speakers worked, but Holland even knew where some extra cords were in the garage. We got it to work and installed a couple games. I can't believe we have another working TV in the house. Now the kids will not bug me while I'm on the computer. She even told him if he ever wanted to take apart a computer that he needed to call her and she would help him. She didn't want him to do it by himself.

Right before she left, she said Holland asked if she wanted to trade something for the metal detector she had in her car. Never the shy one.

I'm In a Quotable Kind of Mood

So I've been pouring over websites all afternoon. I should be cleaning the schoolroom or doing laundry or reading to the kids. But I just can't get past this speech that Obama will be giving (and most schools viewing) on Tuesday when students return to school. I'm dumbfounded as to why the parents aren't even being given the choice to participate. Even more curious is why show it during the school day? Since when did Obama become School Superintendant? I emailed our school principal and asked if they were participating. If so, we'd like to opt out and if that was a problem, we'd be coming to school late. Not surprisingly, they are feeding this to the kids, complete with lesson plans from the government. Wow. Just wow. So here are some things to ponder as you send your kids back to school:

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." Thomas Jefferson

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” George Washington

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill

“When governments fear the people there is liberty.

When the people fear the government there is tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson

A government powerful enough to do anything FOR you, is a government powerful enough to do anything TO you

"Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." - Ronald Reagan

We Were Bound For Some Excitement

I guess things had been slowing down so we needed something to jump start our boredom. That boredom was interrupted by my sister calling to tell my our dad had had a stroke. On Tuesday afternoon, my mom had to call 911 when she realized my dad was experiencing a stroke right in front of her. She gave him aspirin while on the phone with 911. Paramedics came out and transported him to a hospital. I emailed super-hero and he came home as quickly as possible. I wanted to just drive over there, but I had all three kids and he told me to wait for him. So I sat in the car with all three kids strapped in and waited. Then when he got home, I didn't think I would be able to drive slower than 80 mph, so I asked him to drive. He can't win of course, because I complained the whole way there that he was driving too slow. Whenever I feel he's poking along at an unacceptable speed, I say "pretend we're on our way to an OSU football game". I always think that's going to work, but he doesn't find it funny.

They did an MRI and determined it was a stroke and the neurologist said there was a three hour window of opportunity for administering a certain medicine. There were risks involved (how can there not be?) and dad agreed to have the drug. They said his speech should improve, but we still haven't seen that. My cousin in CA is a speech therapist for stroke patients, so I called her up and got some great advice and heads-up on things we should be expecting from the SLP. By Tuesday night he was moved to the ICU and removed the oxygen tubes. He seemed very coherent, just unable to speak. He understood when you talked to him (of course, he's lost a lot of hearing from his years in a paper mill) just was unable to answer. We even tried letting him write something, but being without his glasses and his right hand so weak, it was illegible. When I saw him on Wednesday, he was sitting up and eating a bit of dinner.

He'll probably be there one more night and then we're off on another adventure and seeing how his speech comes back and physically what he's able to do. We're so thankful for God's protection that he wasn't driving at the time and that mom caught it so quick.

Mmmmmm Peaches!

I am so excited about my peaches. It's because last year I missed out and I couldn't make myself buy canned peaches from Costco. It's like eating rubber food. I got 21 quarts out of the 72 pounds we picked. Of course the kids and I ate at least a dozen before I canned. They were so good that I didn't mind. I really wanted to make it back to the orchard but just didn't get it done this week. But come winter we'll be enjoying fresh peaches while the rest of the non-canning population eats rubber peaches from Costco. Good luck with that.

Alpenrose Dairy and some Peach Pickin' Time

For a couple days Super-Hero has been bugging me about what to do this weekend. Frankly, I didn't want to do anything! He offered the beach. And you say to yourself "Are you crazy? He's willing to take you to the beach and you don't want to go?" And my answer, this time, is no. Because it's all about the packing. You see, we wouldn't go to the beach and stay the night. We would leave early morning (after I've fixed breakfast for everyone) and head off to the beach. The kids would play, we might fly a kite, dig some holes to China and then eat the lunch I had to bring for all five of us. And not forget that 90% of what I would bring would not be gluten free for Holland. Then we'd get wet, have no place dry to go change and then we would leave and maybe get taken to McDonald's on our way out of town.

Normally, I wouldn't mind doing that, but Friday when the idea was put on the table, I just couldn't wrap my tired little brain around more planning and fidgeting with food that would have to be properly stored while traveling. It just did not appeal to me. My kind of trip to the beach would be one small night spent somewhere, getting up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise. Sitting on the beach late at night knowing you have a warm room to go back to and could tuck the kids into bed and read a book and be refreshed for the drive home. When we get to the beach for the day, I end up driving most of the way because super hero here can't stay awake for more than 45 minutes while he's driving. I pack those No-Doze pills in our glove compartment, but he'd rather slap himself on the cheeks to keep awake. Or roll down the window for some fresh air. Or let me drive. Which wouldn't be bad, except 5 minutes after I've taken the wheel, two things have happened: 1 - he's fallen asleep. 2- someone is arguing with someone else in the back seat. Or touched someone or looked at someone sideways. So now I'm trying to drive and tell everyone they need to shush because I'm distracted and don't want to crash.

So, that's why I'm not in the mood for the beach. But I was in the mood to go check out a fundraiser at Alpenrose Dairy in Portland. I had never been up there, but Super-Hero had played Little League baseball up there a couple times. There were cute kid's activities (face painting, a real live camel, tossing games for prizes, catching rubber ducks, pitching contest, a bouncy house and of course food.) All the food was free. And after you filled your tummy with a delicious burger and ice cold coke, you could wait in line for free ice cream! It doesn't get much better than that.

What gets better now is that I'm talking to my mom asking if she made it to the rummage sale (she's the one who told me about it). We had a good laugh. She, my dad and sister's family all came up and we were all there about the same time, just never ran into each other. I found out they were heading towards Hillsboro to pick peaches. I missed peaches last year due to husband interference :-) He just doesn't understand that it's something I've done for years; something that makes me feel good and productive; saves us money by canning; and gives the kids a wonderful memory of picking peaches in an orchard. I convince him to go. In his mind "it's sooooo far!" Well, we're more than half way there right now! Let's do it. The peaches weren't completely ripe which is good and bad. They shouldn't bruise as easily as ripened peaches and we wouldn't have to come straight home to can peaches that could spoil in a day or two.

Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to can with a missing part of my canning paraphanalia. It seems Holland has absconded with the metal insert for lifting the cans out and keeping them directly off the heat while bathing. He seems to be doing a lot of this lately (gosh, big surprise there!) I was talking with my sister on the phone tonight and my cordless went dead. I ran over to the only phone with a cord in the house and picked it up. No dial tone. I looked to make sure the curly cord was pushed in all the way and waited for it to click. Nothing. Then I noticed that the phone jack is completely empty and there is no phone jack cord anywhere around. Another experiment somewhere in the house is enjoying the use of that phone cord.

A Good Laugh

I found the funniest blog. It must have been because I can get so annoyed at my super-hero husband and needed a good laugh. What amazed me is this blogger has only been blogging since July 30th of this year and already has 14,000 hits! What?!? I've been blogging over a year and really, nobody is interested in my boring life? She and her husband are newlyweds. Maybe that's why it's so funny. She's already annoyed and they've only been married since March. But go check out her blog. It's called "My Husband is Annoying." Pretty fitting, huh? I thought blogging about all the crazy things my kids do would keep people coming back for more, but apparently I need a husband that speaks in an Irish brogue and wears the same sweater over and over. Just 5 minutes ago I realized the mouse I was using on my computer was not the mouse that was there yesterday. Holland has been in the garage reorganizing boxes and he actually set up our old computer, booted it up (where is there an outlet in that place?) and had done a switch-a-roo with my mouse. He gave me the old decrepid mouse with the roller ball that doesn't work. I made him switch it back because I didn't know how.

Oh, I wanted to add, while I was writing this, the blog hits on "my husband is annoying" went up by a thousand. My hero.

Here's To Your Health

My favorite speaker at the Camp JAM was the Naturopath doctor from Portland. He had a really cool name, too. Tyler Keliiheleua. He talked about how diet can affect a child with an autoimmune disease and since I have two kids that fit that bill, I perked right up.

Here are some common inflammatory foods to avoid: refind sugar; refined wheat; pasteurized dairy; grain fed animal meat; vegetable oil. Some of these are obvious to avoid for just being unhealthy, but I never thought of foods being a cause of inflammation. He also said chew your food 32 times! Yes, that's right. It should basically be liquid by the time you swallow it. I've tried this and it's weird to chew that long. But it also aids in digestion because your stomach acids don't have to work as hard to break down foods. You're also supposed to drink less (or not at all) during dinner. This also hampers the acids from breaking down food and keeps it in your system too long. He suggested drinking a glass of water with 1/4 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (which I ran and bought at Trader Joe's today) 5-10 minutes before your biggest meal. People with autoimmune diseases have trouble breaking down proteins especially and the cider vinegar is supposed to get those juices flowing.

Some common foods that reduce inflammation are: wild cold water fish; organic spices like ginger and turmeric; leafy greens; Extra Virgin Olive Oil; lemon; cilantro and parsley; garlic; water; dark berries; herbal tea; flax seed/oil; and walnut (and walnut oil). He said he would email out some smoothie recipes that used some of these things. I'm curious how he's gonna make a leafy green smoothie that my kid will drink.

The healthy oils are: walnut oil; flaxseed; coconut; grape seed; extra virgin olive oil. He listed the bad oils and I asked about Canola. He said he didn't include it because it falls somewhere in the middle. You don't have to cut it out entirely, but the good oils should be used more often anyway.

The last thing he mentioned that I found interesting were Probiotics. I've been giving Holland that in a pill form, but he was talking about something that was a live culture and had to be kept in the fridge, so that's something I'm going to have to investigate more.

So there are my tips on how to have a healthy gastrointestinal system. Don't forget your fiber!

Camp JAM

We got back from Camp JAM (Juvenile Arthritis Matters) yesterday and I'm still downloading pictures to share from our amazing time there. The time and effort (and volunteer hours!) that went into planning this is mind-boggling. When we arrived, they had our main meeting room decked out in a Hawaiian theme. We got our cabin keys, a map and "treasure hunt" and had our picture taken and each child got to pick out a brand new backpack. After having a little snack, we used our treasure hunt clues to find different areas of the camp. At several stops the kids got to pick out a treat. At one stop we got new water bottles; at another they got Leis. It was a great way to find our way around. After unloading everything (we had to use a wheelbarrow to get our things to the cabin) we met back in the dining room for dinner. Hamburgers, potato salad, fresh veggies. Our first meeting was at 7 and all the counselors, staff and volunteers were introduced.

Then the most amazing thing happened. They introduced an older couple who had donated money to make this camp possible. They had all the kids affected with JRA come up to the stage and as each one walked across, they handed the woman a flower. After all the kids were on the stage, each child was presented with a gift bag filled with a handmade quilt that ONE WOMAN made! I think half the moms were crying or ready to cry! Each quilt was different. Each quilt suited the child's age and gender. I was so amazed. I'll have to get a good picture of the quilt and post it. All the pictures I took were indoors and it was dark, so not very good focus.

On Saturday the kids were grouped by age/grade and went with counselors while the parents were in meetings. Our morning session was "okay" because I spent most of it interpreting for super-hero. I didn't think that our sessions would be that involved. This one was on stress and the one on Sunday was so much better. They brought in a naturopath doctor and he talked about anti-inflammatory foods and what foods are best for people with autoimmune disease (which actually benefits 2 of my children!) Saturday afternoon we got family free time and the boys got to go fishing; did archery; rockclimbing; had sno cones; watched part of a movie and Romania played shuffleboard! While super-hero did that with the boys, I went with Egypt to a bouncy house then took her swimming and we met up for the sno cones. The day was jam packed with fun. After dinner on Saturday, we had a talent show that all three kids participated in. Romania sand (or rather recited) "The Alphabet of Nations" song; Egypt sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and Holland balanced a pen on his nose and then the audience started singing "Take me out to the ball game". After singing songs around a campfire and eating s'mores (see how much we did??), they brought in a woman who was a fire dancer. She had these small bowls that she lit from the firepit and swung them around. It was totally dark and was the coolest thing. She said she practiced over a year with beanbags before trying it with fire.

Sunday's session with the Naturopath was so informational. That was almost my favorite part of the camp (sno cones might be a close second). After packing up our cabin, we met one last time for goodbyes and each camper got a special "JRA" pin. The kids are already looking forward to next year.

World's Weirdest Cat

Actually both of my cats are weird. LuLu will walk right up to a new person in my house and get right in her face. She even walked on someone's shoulders that was sitting on my couch. LuLu also likes to bite my ankles when she wants to be fed. Fancy has been kinda quiet. She'll wait for LuLu to finish choosing which bowl she's gonna eat from before chowing down. They both like to chase each other which is still evidenced at night when we forget to shut them in the bathroom. The other night at probably 3 in the morning, I heard them running up the stairs and all of a sudden, they were racing over our sleeping bodies. That's the only time they do it - when we're lying in bed asleep. Fancy also likes to chase little Beanie Babies. Egypt has this small rabbit and we throw it and that dumb cat chases it like she's a dog. We started throwing it over my bed to watch her race over it.

But the weirdest thing that Fancy did was find a mitten and tear it up. That wouldn't be weird, except when she started chewing on this very nice mitten last winter, I put it in Egypt's drawer so she wouldn't destroy it anymore. The other day I noticed that the mitten had found its way out of her drawer and was on my floor. Not wanting it to be mangled further, I put it in a wooden box with little wooden drawers in my room. There's 6 drawers about the size to hold CD's. Yesterday I found it on my floor again. I thought one of the kids was probably going through my things again and just shoved it back in the drawer. Well, this afternoon, there it is AGAIN on the floor! I looked at the wooden drawers and there was the mitten drawer pulled open! That crazy cat could smell that mitten and opened the drawer. Makes me want to put a hidden camera to the drawers and see if she does it again. You'd think catnip was rubbed all over this thing.

The kids really want a dog. Now I can say we have our dog.

Our Week at the Lake

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Fish

Click on the screen to feed my fish

We Live For Danger

I believe my family will single-handedly support all the ER and urgent care doctors in our area until our kids have grown and moved out of the house. They can send me a nice fat thank-you with a check for helping them out. If you haven't guessed it yet, we had another incident here. This time with Holland. I guess it was about his turn in the rotation.

I let the boys have a neighbor friend over to play in the back. They were all about the Bionicles and having a war. Boys. Whatever. I really hate to let Egypt go out with them because it just means that I have to ignore all my inside jobs. The bothersome ones like cooking, cleaning, reading blogs. She usually just bothers them and then they get mad at her. Today seemed fine. That should have been my first clue, huh? She and Romania were jumping on the trampoline and Holland and his friend were swining on the zip line. All of a sudden, blood-curdling scream. I ran to the kitchen window to see Holland racing up the steps with blood on his head and hand where he was holding it. What now???

Egypt has an affinity for rocks. She's collecting, sorting, moving them. And she for some reason threw one at Holland and hit him in the head. It was a huge rock, too! He had a nice size gash with lots of blood. I got my sister and neighbor involved and after lots of debate, decided to take him to Urgent Care rather than the ER or do something myself that would cause an infection. I am unhappy to report that the old geezer did NOTHING! I'm not kidding. He looked at it and I'm sure was thinking what is this woman doing bringing him in? What is the big DEAL? He said the only reason to do stitches was if it was gaping or wouldn't stop bleeding. I really didn't think they would do stitches, but I thought they'd super glue it. He said "no, super glue is never necessary." What? I told him my nephew had his head super-glued and he poo-poohed that. Then being the uncomfortable, overprotective mom trying not to look dumb, I told him about how Egypt had her hair tied over her gash from falling off Holland's bed. He called that, ready? "parlor tricks". I just didn't even know what to say. He said head wounds always heal beautifully. Well, that may be, but he didn't even clean it. He just sent us on our way. It's still bleeding just a little so I'm just going to clean it with a bit of water and put some Neosporin on it.

Printables

I've been scouring the internet for help with meal planning, grocery lists and cleaning schedules trying to get my house and life in order. I used to print lists from organizedhome.com or get cleaning tips from flylady.net (shine your sink!) but just wasn't finding what I wanted. The pages weren't the full size of the page and it bothered me that it wasted so much ink to print that. Then I found this great website called WorkingMom.com. Finally a site that was helpful. I was able to print off a customized grocery list just by checking boxes and the things that weren't on the list were easily added and grouped. What I liked was it had a master list of things. You check a box or add to a box at the end of that category and magically it prints out just the items you wanted. Other lists I've found just had a huge master list that you couldn't edit and my eyes went all blurry looking at all the items that I didn't need but were still listed. I still like OrganizedHome.com, they have a great idea for a household notebook that I might implement, but for a printable grocery list, try the workingmom site.

She's Square!

How does a child measure 43" and weigh 43 pounds at the same time? I took Egypt for her follow-up to the cortisone injection and when she was weighed and measured, I just had to laugh. She's like a square. I think she's above 75th percentile for height, but not sure about weight.

I was able to leave the boys with my sister for the appointment. It just makes it sooooo much easier not to have to take everyone. The room is small, and there's just too much temptation to be flittin' around the room. He said her knee looks fine and also checked her jaw again. I'm real nervous about that one. I feel like it could sneak up so fast because it's such a subtle difference he's looking for. All's well and so we have another appointment in three months.

A 4th to Remember

Wish I could say it was going to be a good memory! Every year we go to my in-law's cabin for the 4th of July weekend. When we didn't have kids, we'd spend the night. There was more room when it was just 8 adults and 6 kids. When our three came along, it just got too crowded. We just planned on going up Saturday so the kids could swim and Holland could fish. It was supposed to be in the 90's, so it was perfect for a lake swim.

I, however, get cranky when it's hot. And there's no air conditioning in the cabin. And I get cranky when it's hot. Did I already say that? Yep. It was hot. I was down on the dock for awhile, pulling Egypt in and out of the water in her "hoop" (inner tube) and watching Holland desperately trying to catch a sturgeon off the dock and seeing Romania fly off the boathouse roof into the water. Things seemed to be going along fine until the crawdad races. Yup - they have crawdad races every 4th of July. The kids catch the crawdads, name them and then put them inside a circle underneath a plastic cake lid. The first to reach the edge of the circle is the winner and moves on to the next round. There was a bit of a problem with our craws. Holland caught about 8 of them and chose the three that our kids would use. He put them in his tackle box and brought them up to the cabin. Unfortunately, he didn't close the lid and they all got out. So about 15 minutes before the races, we were all scouring the deck looking for these guys. Only one was found - Holland's. The other two didn't seem that upset. Usually people have extras that they bring up. Sure enough, through some wheeling and dealing, both Egypt and Romania got their own crawdads. They named them "Sticky" (Egypt's), "Fire" (Romania's) and "Hunter" (Holland's). Then through some awful twist of fate, Sticky and Fire raced each other. Fire won and went on to race again. In another cruel twist of fate, Fire and Hunter raced each other, which had the potential of having a nasty outcome. I was standing on the edge cheering them both on and Holland kept moving inside the circle. He was all tense and moody and every time I touched him he jerked away and yelled at me (real fun when you're in a crowd of people). Finally, I pulled back on his shoulders to move him out of the circle and he kicked me in the shin.

This was not going to be a good day.

Without going in to all the awful details of slingshots, exploding children and missed dinners, we left at 6 and didn't even get to enjoy the potluck for the adults or the pizza for the kids. One thing they need to plan better is they always have the adult potluck at the same time as the kid's dinner. There's no way we can leave the kids by themselves so we have to trade off going to eat. But we didn't even get to do that. We came home, had sandwiches and cereal and I put all three kids to bed, not even caring that they didn't see fireworks.

I'm going on strike next year and we are staying home. No more stressful days spent with people who don't understand us.

EEG

Last night I had to keep Holland awake two hours later than normal and then wake him up two hours earlier than normal. He had a "sleep-deprived" EEG at Emanuel this morning. I got less sleep than he did and I was ready to fall asleep during the test. We got there at 8.20 and checked in and then were told that we weren't expected until 10, but they would do their best to get to us as soon as possible. Well, I couldn't keep him awake. He fell asleep on my shoulder, drooled and snored for 45 minutes. The tech came and got us about 9.45 and it took about 15 minutes to mark his head, clean it and attach the probes.

He was hoping for Holland to stay awake for part and sleep for part. He asked him to blink about 10 times in a row and then he had to breathe like he was blowing out candles for 3 minutes straight! I could tell he got dizzy and since he was so tired, he sometimes forgot to blow. We had to remind him to breathe! Then he put this strobe light over his head and explained that he would be flashing the light and to just keep his eyes closed and relax. At first the strobes were slow. It would blink about 10 times and then stop and then start again a bit faster. That happened about 8 times and by the end, he was laying there just smiling. It made me sick to see it blink that fast and it looked like he enjoyed it. Crazy. Maybe I should put a strobe light in his bedroom and that would calm him down!

For the next part of the test, he was just supposed to lay there and hopefully fall back asleep. He struggled for a bit because after seeing the strobe and breathing hard, he was more awake. He did fall back asleep and it was interesting to watch all 22 probes on the computer screen. If he snored, a few of them kind of perked up and the tech would bring up a box and type in "yawn". He also moved a bit and a few fell off and had to be reattched, but he didn't wake up until the end. After his head was cleaned he tried to sell the technician some rocks he had in his pockets. He looked like he belonged on a dude ranch. His pockets were stuffed with rocks organized into little plastic baggies and loose rocks in the other pocket. He told the guy "50 cents a bag. Want one?"

Happy Adoption Day!

Ten years ago today, we signed papers that completed our adoption of Hunter. I was looking for a picture of us at the courthouse with the judge, but can't find it. That was before digital pictures, so who knows where the hard copy is. But he's three months here, the same age when we finalized.

Every year we celebrate his Adoption Day with a special treat. He can choose something fun to do or a special gift. One year we went to Bullwinkle's to play and this year he saw a skateboard marked 60% off (gotta love Fred Meyer's clearance sales!) I think the first couple years when he was really young, we just went to parks and I got him books. I think I was going to do that every year - a book. But as is typical with me, I start a good plan and never finish it. (See yesterday's post for evidence of that).

Workboxes

Here I go with another attempt at being organized. Don't you do that? You start something thinking it will help you simplify things and then it's either too complicated or you forget to do it. That's me - I forget to do it. I have notebooks with behavior charts; cards for chores or a calendar for schoolwork. Hopefully this time, this method will stick.

My sister found something on a Yahoo homeschooling group about something called "Workboxes" based on Sue Patrick's book. The idea is neat - you organize all your child's work into plastic bins and when they're done, they just proceed to the next task. Great. But my house is not that big and I don't have a separate area that I feel I could dedicate to that many boxes. I'd start to feel like we were a warehouse. So this mom came up with a brilliant idea of putting all the work into one plastic box and she put hanging file folders inside. The blogger on Ruby Slippers School posted her idea and had great pictures to show how she did it. Each time the child finishes a task, s/he puts up the velcro picture and moves on to the next file. This has helped greatly in answering that tired old question, "how much more school are we doing?" and I can point to their box and they can see what's left. Since I am doing more light school during the summer, I wanted to add some chores that they could do as well. I haven't made a separate system for that yet, but they so need some consistency in that department. That might be in the works. But I laminated pictures of certain chores they needed to do once they finished so many files of work. (this link shows you what it looks like, but I found it at walmart for $25 and on amazon it's $40!) And I stuck trampoline breaks, or playing outside or reading with me in there, too! We used it for the first time last week and it worked so well. They got done with their work quicker, Egypt has her own art projects to do and then we were able to plan out other things like going to the park or a cooking project in the afternoon. We took the week off this week for Vacation Bible School, but plan to start it up again next week. Gotta keep those brains fresh!

A Memorable 40th

Who would think that I would be in the ER - again - on my 40th birthday? Or that I would have a migraine to go along with that? Super-Hero took the kids to church so they wouldn't miss out on their new classes. But during Sunday School, Holland told his teacher he wasn't feeling well and he was shaking all over. They came home and then my mom called and told me to have super-hero bring the kids over so I could rest. She called later to see how I was doing (still had the migraine. Hadn't heard from the on-call dr. for medicine). She told me that Holland was shaking really bad and complaining of things crawling on him. This wasn't the first time I'd seen that. He has woken in the middle of the night screaming that bugs and spiders are in his room or are crawling all over him. I reassure him that there's nothing there, but he doesn't believe me.

So we went to the ER to have him checked out. They did blood work and all his levels were within normal range. The ER doctor called our physician to ask what to do. We ended up reducing the dose on one medicine and omitting another medicine altogether. He thought maybe the two were interacting and causing the trembling and hallucinations he was experiencing. Last week I had made an appointment with this doctor to discuss his current doses and see if we needed to change anything. He is, afterall, 10 and hitting the age when hormones are going to kick in. After speaking with him and examining Hunter, he believed he was having seizures. The word didn't even stick when he said it. I didn't understand. I thought the medicines he is taking were reacting, but he said after talking and looking back on his history of meds that the medicines were not the cause. They actually could have been preventing the seizures. It turns out that two of the medicines he's been on to treat Bipolar were actually anti-seizure medications. So if he in fact is having seizures, the medicines were actually helping to prevent them.

He faxed in a request for an EEG up at Emanuel (it's like a second home now) and I made an appointment as soon as we got home. July 2nd. 10:15. It will be what is called a "sleep-deprived" EEG. They want to monitor brain activity and the best way is on less sleep. I'm thankful that we got an appointment so quickly and Holland will be happy that there's no poking involved.

Speaking of poking, I almost forgot one of the best things that happened last night in the ER. If you follow my blog at all, you know that my mom pays Holland $5 every time he has blood work done. In the beginning it was me and about 4 nurses trying to hold him down to draw blood. It was awful. My mom had the brilliant idea of paying him each time to see if he would calm down. Since money is his "love language", it worked like a charm! So we're sitting in the ER room and the doctor said they were going to do some blood work and he got this look of terror in his eyes. He was already upset and jumpy and hearing the words "blood work" did not go over well. He asked gramma if she would pay him for having the blood work and she said yes. She gave him the $5 and he asked since he was in the hospital if he could have another $5 afterwards. She didn't have it on her, but assured him that he would get the money. When our phlebotomist came in (not a nurse, a phlebotomist!) and she heard the story of the payment plan, she took $5 out of her pocket and gave it to Holland! He had the biggest grin on his face. He'll never forget getting 5 dollars from the "grandma" at the hospital!

Hard Work Finally Pays Off

It's been about 9 months since starting the gluten-free lifestyle for Holland. So many recipe experiments gone bad and some successes. He had a blood recheck for his gluten levels to determine if they're still low. We want to be able to introduce gluten-free oats (he lived on oatmeal before being diagnosed). I got a call from the doctor's office yesterday and it finally feels like all my hard work has paid off. When we started, his levels were in the 120's; the first blood level check he was at 31, so a huge drop. Now he's at 19! We're going to try oats again and hopefully his levels will stay low enough for him to tolerate it. He's worked so hard - put up with all the bad tasting gluten-free food. Now he can eat a big bowl of oatmeal that will be doctored up with brown sugar and cinnamon!

I'm turning the big 4-0 this year. On Sunday, my mom surprised me with a concert to see Andre' Rieu. She made a little crossword puzzle that was supposed to give me clues to figure it out. After finding parking and making our way up to the nosebleed section, we got to enjoy the wonderful orchestra and tenors. All the gals wore these amazing dresses, but it was so hard to see anything, even with the big screens. You just didn't feel connected to the performers. Then during intermission, an usher came up and asked if we were together (we were sitting in two rows). I asked if he was going to let us move down closer. There were so many seats even in the two sections below us. He then gave us tickets to the floor! We got to sit in row 9 for the rest of the concert. It was amazing to be up that close and see the costumes. We even had balloons fall on us towards to end. It was a great early birthday gift.

Let Summer Begin!

Yesterday was Romania's last day of school. I took him to the bus stop as usual, but then about 10.15, I packed up a picnic blanket and Holland and Egypt and headed out to the school for an afternoon of games, food and fun. The weather was kind of chilly when we first got there, but by the time the day was over, it was a little too warm. Plus there's no shade, so you're stuck being hot.

The kids did different games that the older kids put together and rotated from station to station. Then they had a BBQ that the local phone company hosted. They brought out big grills and guys to cook hamburgers and hot dogs. After lunch the kids got ice cream and we did a little cleaning in Romania's classroom. The kids got their yearbooks and signed them for each other. By the end of our 4 hours there, Holland was so wiped out. He wore totally the wrong clothes and was hot the entire time. When I said, "Can you believe it? You're not in 2nd grade anymore!" he answered, "that was a long time to be in 2nd grade."

But I already have stuff planned for this summer. We have two church camps we're attending; a week at the cabin and three days at a family camp for children with JRA. The kids are so excited about this. It's completely free and they have tons of activities lined up for the kids. I also get to work in doctor appointments and a little school. I know. Give them a break, right? Wrong! There's a couple reasons why I continue to do "light" school through the summer. First, Holland especially, needs to continue or he would lose too much by the start of 5th grade. Second, they would all kill each other and just sit and watch tv all day. In my next couple posts, I'm going to show you what I've done to make our school time easier, more organized and more fun for the kids.

Busy Day

Today was spent mostly at the hospital for two doctor appointments. I somehow managed to make an appointment with Holland's gastroenterologist and Egypt's rheumatologist on the same day. Even at different times! I never could have planned that so carefully if I had tried. After dropping Romania at the bus stop and then quickly gathering some distractions and snacks for the hospital, we drove up and had a valet park our van. I tell you. Whoever invented that was a genius. How easy is that? You drive up to a curb. A nice guy gives you a little ticket and goes and parks your car.

Holland's doctor was even on time. Just gotta give him more Miralax and some rice bran. He's not having stomach aches, but doc said he's still backed up. Ugh. He asked if Holland had any questions and he actually remembered that he might get to start eating oatmeal now. We have to get blood work done to see where his gluten levels are at. If they're still low, we can introduce real oatmeal - the catch is it has to be gluten free. Betch'a didn't know there was such a thing as gluten free oatmeal? Well, Bob's Red Mill has it. No fake oatmeal (none of those tasty Quaker packets). I don't even think those are real oats. Gluten free oatmeal actually looks like what real oatmeal should look like. The taste is a little different and it takes longer to cook, but we doctor it up with brown sugar and cinnamon.

So after seeing this doctor, we go back to the valet, get our van and drive over to the next office building (the main hospital) and I went one time around the parking garage, found no spots and then drove up to the next set of valets and handed over my car again. What's great about this is it's complimentary. We got another parking stub and walked into Diagnostics to wait until our check-in time. My parents met us there and my dad took Holland so he wouldn't be stuck at the hospital all afternoon. They ran some errands and got lunch. We got Egypt checked in and then the nurse got us to do all the vitals and talk about the procedure. I was sure she'd be more scared than last year because she was 3 1/2. The nurse let her pick the flavor for the mask (bubblegum) and then the doctor came in and I signed a bunch of forms and he talked about the risks. He was fairly certain it would just be the one joint, but she had been complaining of her left knee hurting, so he said he'd check that while she was out. The whole thing lasted less than 10 minutes. I was in the gift shop buying her some books when the doctor came in and said it was over. We got to go back to the room and be there when she woke up. She almost sat straight up and we had to lay her back down. She got a popsicle and a wagon ride to the car.

We have a follow up in four weeks to check the joint, but so far, it looks good. The doctor said "just a quiet afternoon" before she went in. Then he kinda laughed when he said this while watching her bounce around the room. It didn't take her long to want to run and play. She makes a horrible sick person. It's very deceiving :-)

Rheumatologist Today

I took Egypt to see her Rheumatologist today up at Emanuel. Our last appointment was three months ago and we are supposed to come in more often to check her mouth/jaw, finger joints and just to see how her knee is holding up. She was so goofy today. I'm glad that the doctor enjoys that. She wore this Horton Hears a Who elephant mask from a game she has. She kept making elephant sounds. Holland was not amused at all until she said something like "elephants make poop!" Then he started cracking up. It has been one year since her first injection and she will finally be needing her second injection next week. The doctor said he could only fit two fingers under her knee while trying to press it down and today he could fit his whole hand. She also continues to have a longer femur on her right leg and was actually bothered when he tried to bend her leg while she was laying on her tummy. She complains so little that it's surprising that her knee is so bent. I think she just keeps getting used to not being able to move it and doesn't complain about the pain. So we are scheduled for next Monday. Glad it's sooner than later.

Then on the way home, to top off the morning, I got a ticket for changing lanes in a construction zone. If you know Portland, it's one big construction zone. Super-Hero has a little sign at his office that says "There are two seasons in Oregon: Winter and construction". I didn't even know that there way anything going on. I only drive this road when I'm going up to the hospital. Totally felt like a trap (I saw two other people getting tickets at the exact same spot as me). There are no workers, no trucks, no signs of anything happening. Yup. Looks like construction to me. I emailed Super-Hero to drive over there tonight and look for those mysterious signs that I missed.

Busy Two Weeks

I haven't had time to post about anything the past week and a half. Super Hero had shoulder surgery on May 21st and I've barely had time to do anything except take care of him (drive him around), cook, clean and do school with Holland. The last post was about our jet boat ride on the Willamette and that was the day after (I post about the important things) his surgery. We totally needed a break and he just slept all day anyway. I realized how much I depended on him when he couldn't help out. Getting the kids dinner; getting them to bed; cleaning up at night. I'm totally exhausted and he's still pretty much out of commission. He has to have physical therapy every day for three weeks to make sure his shoulder doesn't freeze up again. And a few days I had to drive him (and bring everyone else in the process) because he was taking Percocet. You know what they say "do not operate heavy machinery". Crud. That means cars. So we'd pile in the car and drive dad to his appointment.

He went back to work on Thursday (which I thought was too early). He's still very sore, but he's itching to get going on some projects at work and felt he needed to get back. The day he had his post-op appointment, Holland had an appointment with a neurologist; Egypt had an eye doctor appointment and he also had a physical therapy appointment. That was one crazy day. We found out that Holland is getting migraines. We're supposed to try getting him more aerobic type exercise. I told the dr. he's really 'busy' but she said he needs more "sweat" activity. We did walk around a park only one day this week. But at least it was once. It's just too hard with Egypt in a jogger stroller. She wants to walk/run/play and Holland is complaining he's bored. He also might be getting the migraines from stress. Did you even know kids could get migraines from stress? I'll be sure to eliminate all that stress for him. Right after I do that for me. I had a migraine that lasted 16 hours one day. I literally felt I couldn't drive to pick up Romania from the bus stop. But who's gonna do it? So, you just suck it up and do what you gotta do.

So if you noticed that Egypt had an eye appointment the same day as Super Hero and Holland, you probably figured out I was a driver short for that. I had to get my mom to take her for her 3 month check up. This appointment takes a little longer because they dilate her eyes and look more closely for the infection that can result from the JRA. She's fine - just nearsighted which he said not to worry about until she's school-age.

So I am really tired from all this activity. All I want to do is sew. I have people that have asked me to sew them ruffle pants or make a head scarf - and I haven't had time to do it. I'm assuming people with jobs outside the home totally ignore their kids. How else would they do everything? As a tribute to trying to do it all (or just the laundry at least), I turned one of my good white T-shirts pink today. I save a whole load of red laundry to do together and forgot to pull out a white shirt that I wore under a red sweatshirt. See? One person just cannot do it all. But now I have a nice pink T-shirt to wear. I really didn't want a pink T-shirt.

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The ER Queen

There is no shortage of fun and excitement around here and last night proved that.  Five minutes after arriving home from getting Romania at the bus stop, I was on the phone with my pediatrician wondering if I should take Egypt to the ER.  Holland and Egypt were playing outside and within minutes she was in the house screaming and blood dripping out of her mouth.  That's one thing you never want to see when your child is injured.  Holland helped piece together what happened:  the kids were playing with squirt guns and Egypt thought she was being chased.  She was pretending to be an elephant and was running with a plastic sword in her mouth.  She tripped and the sword jammed in her throat.  

So I told the boys to stay with the neighbor and then off we went to the ER.  I was just there a month ago with Romania for the dog bite incident.  The first doctor to see her said "I don't see anything" while looking in her mouth without a light.  Okay, even I know I wouldn't see anything like that.  Then a male nurse came in and said "looks okay to me".  Luckily, there was an ENT right next door at his office that they called over.  He looked her over very carefully and explained that although she hadn't punctured anything, the blunt trauma could be damaging.

She has pretty good bruising on both sides going down her throat.  He said she scraped it pretty good (hence the blood).  But there was something called Horner's Syndrome that could take up to three days to show up.  It is a nerve injury and I was given a whole list of things to watch for (drooping or sagging on one side of her face; one pupil constricted; clumsiness....)  I even had to wake her up last night to check her out.   She couldn't even eat last night.  She barely drank milk and even this morning was complaining that it hurt.  

Life is never dull.....

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The Cat in the Hat

Or should I say backpack. I always debate about whether to go out. I really need a break but it's a gamble for what I'm going to come home to. There was a women's retreat this last Friday and Saturday at my church. They decided they would attract more women if we didn't have to pack up and go somewhere. On Friday night I had made everyone dinner and was trying to get dressed and put my face on. All of a sudden I hear screaming. I come running downstairs and here's Romania crying with a bright red mark on his face. I don't have the whole story, but apparently he and Egypt we outside on the patio and he was playing basketball. Egypt was picking up and tossing these chunks of Christmas tree trunk (that's another story: my big plan was to turn them into rustic-looking candle holders). She hit him pretty hard, but I can't see how she could have that good an aim. She clobbered him in the cheek - nice red mark and a scratch that was bleeding.

So I have to put getting ready on hold and attend to the victim. Egypt was so upset she even went upstairs and got him a bandaid for his cheek. I told Super-Hero there was no way he could take the three of them for a walk in the woods (right behind our house) because there was no way to tell if they would ambush each other. That statement caused a chain-reaction: now Holland is crying hysterically because he had big plans for taking backpacks and having this hiking expedition. Romania is crying from being hurt and disliking his sister and Egypt is crying because her brother's hurt. And I'm supposed to leave like 10 minutes ago.

They were all asleep when I got home so I didn't even care what happened while I was gone. But I was planning on staying only half the day on Saturday. Holland was still planning on his explorer hike. I got a message on my pager from Super-Hero a couple hours after I left. Apparently Holland decided to pack LuLu, one of the cats, in his backpack to trek along with them. And if you know that Super-Hero is deaf, this becomes so much more comical. Now any normal hearing person would have nixxed this right away. But because he can't hear anything, he had no clue that a cat was being transported in a backpack. I just can imagine all the meowing and cries coming from that backpack. It wasn't until he started walking behind the kids, that he saw the cat poke her head out of the pack. They immediately turned around and came home.

Super-Hero had all these plans for the rest of the day: he was hoping to get gravel from someone giving it away off of Craigslist; he wanted to install these landscaping light fixtures; he wanted to go to the zoo. He didn't get the gravel (what a surprise with three kids), he didn't install the light fixtures (big surprise with three kids) but he did go to the zoo (big surprise with three kids). I really thought he was nuts to do this. Especially after the cat-in-a-backpack incident. What if one of them decided to stow-away a cat to the zoo? I'm not sure about all the happened, but I did get a report that Holland retrieved some money from one of those wishing ponds. I am now picturing what that looked like and wondering what Super-Hero saw (or chose to ignore, more likely).

I left just before the last meeting and came home to a quiet house. Which I immediately felt the need to clean. I should have taken a before and after picture. It's quite amazing how fast a place gets messed up. The other day I commented that it looked like a tornado came through. Egypt looked at me and said "a tornado is a big wind!". That's exactly right - a big wind blew through the family room.

We've Got Software!

I can hardly believe we finally have the writing support software. I think it was about three months ago that I approached the school about getting some kind of software for Holland. We've had lost order forms, canceled meetings, second software introduced, canceled meetings, avoiding giving me the software because someone else might need it (they really just wanted Holland's charter school to pay for it, not the school district). Then finally after 3 months of this, I get an email about two weeks ago from the OT who said she just might have the software that would work. Ok. I don't understand that. You had it all along? Yup. And she even had had training on it last year.

I think it was actually worth the wait. Hopefully I get to actually keep it on my computer and this isn't just a tease and I'll have to uninstall it. I wouldn't be surprised by that based on all that's happened. But anyway - it's a great program and there's free support materials online. Many teachers that have used it, have submitted their own forms that you can use right online. The software allows the student to use pictures, sound, words, video and animation to write. The program will read the words or sentences just like the other software. But this one is different because you can create your own writings from documents on your own computer, or from any website. Here's their website: it's called Clicker 5.

First Haircut

Well, not really. I cut some baby hair for Egypt's scrapbook. But this was a real haircut. I gave her bangs. She was growing them out but I was so sick of seeing them fall in her face. Even when we pulled them back, they always fell out of the rubber band. And I also trimmed about an inch and a half off the back.

Super-Hero Joins the Ranks

No, not those ranks. The ranks of "patient of surgery". Two weeks ago he had an MRI on his shoulder. It's been bothering him for some time now. He's done physical therapy like it was a religion and still no improvement. Yesterday I called the dr.'s office to find out more about his treatment options. The interpreter that showed up I don't think did a very thorough job and left him wondering about things. I called expecting to find some answers, but found out instead that he had an appointment today. She told me they didn't have an interpreter scheduled - the agency never called back with someone for the job. So instead of cancelling the appointment, I asked my mom to watch the kids so I could go in. I haven't interpreted in a long time and medical interpreting can be tricky with all the jargon and words that I don't know the signs for. But I'm so glad I did.

Turns out the doctor he had before this (at the same office) told him he didn't have any tears on his shoulder and that it could be corrected by a manipulation (while he was under anesthesia). I didn't understand this type of treatment and felt the interpreter did a poor job with her translation. Turns out he DOES have a tear and also a bone spur. The doctor explained there was no way to correct this other than surgery and intense physical therapy everyday for three weeks following the surgery. Super-Hero was pretty stunned. He'll have to take a week off from work and we don't have enough phsyical therapy visits left on our insurance to cover all the therapy.

We scheduled the surgery for May 21st.

You Haven't Sold Anything Yet??

This is what I hear every night from Super-Hero. I bought this amazing serger and he's fidgeting because I haven't made a bazillion dollars from my sewing. I check my etsy store everyday and lots of people are a-lookin' but no one is a-buyin'. Go check out my etsy store and tell your friends! Someone must need to buy something cute!

A Kid's Perspective

This is the funniest compilation of pictures. The kids borrowed my camera and took all these pictures. I love all the blurry pictures, the duplicate pictures of a Beaver poster and the numerous pictures of a GameBoy the boys want me to sell on eBay. Apparently they needed several shots of the items and they even wrote what the price would be.

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It's Not AVM!

I finally got a call from the Physician's Assistant about Holland's MRI. It is not AVM, but has to do with enlarged blood vessels. To be 100% sure that it is benign, they have to do another MRI-type imaging test. Which means we get to go back to Emanuel and have more anesthesia. It's kind of weird because I'm glad it's not something that has to be surgically corrected. But many problems related to this condition are issues Holland is dealing with. This would have been a tidy way to label everything that was wrong.

So for now we just wait to schedule an MRI and see a specialist about his headaches.

MRI Results

We got tentative results back from the MRI last Friday. The radiologist determined there could be something called AVM (arteriovenous malformations) on the left side of his head. I am still waiting to hear from the surgeon who did his tethered cord surgery for a definite diagnosis. But from what I've been researching, this is when arteries and veins are tangled up and interfere with circulation. They can form on the brain or spinal cord so it's not really surprising that he has spina bifida and tethered cord if he does in fact have AVM. There is more information about it here. But many of the symptoms he has and the problems he's been diagnosed with seemed to be explained by this condition. His headaches are not getting any better and Tylenol with Codeine only puts him to sleep. We barely get any school done and I basically just want to quit the rest of the year and read all day. Who cares about studying history or doing math when faced with a problem like this?

Now Pay Attention

Have you ever wondered what happens when a mom doesn't feel good and decides to lay down for a short rest? Here's what happens: bowls of cat food get moved around - there's a trail down the hallway to Egypt's room; the family room becomes a tornado touchdown point and I end up purchasing something on ebay. How does that work? Well, you have a curious and ambitious 8 year-old who's been eyeing Lego Star Wars parts on ebay and decides to bid and buy something.

When I checked email this afternoon I saw an email that read "Congratulations on your ebay purchase". I couldn't believe that he actually did this. I told him he'd be purchasing those items and then when they arrived, I would post and sell them on ebay and he would not get any of his money back.

Just a head's up for all you parents not paying attention (didn't think that was possible, did ya?). They're sneaky and quick and it'll cost ya!

My Big Purchase

I actually did it. I bought the serger I've been drooling over. It's the biggest purchase I've made in awhile. Hospital bills don't count as purchases. I've been struggling with the Huskylock and the threads that keep coming off the looper. It is so frustrating to be serging something and getting to the end of a seam only to find that somewhere along the way the thread came out and you've cut the entire length of your seam off. I was getting really into sewing all these outfits after I donated that dress and ruffle pants to Romania's school auction. I put a few things back up on my etsy site here. This serger will make everything look professional and take half the time. I had the dealer demo several of the stitches just so I could make sure I was making the right decision. Anyone who sews, knows how much work it is to make a ruffle or gather something. This machine actually does it! Two to one gathering is done just like a regular seam. This is going to be so fast - now I just have to see if anyone's going to buy all my creations!

Included with the price of the machine was a 3-year warranty (which is good in my house since things seem to break a week after they get here) and $300 worth of extra feet attachments. When I pulled it out of the box tonight, there was a sample piece of fabric attached to the footplate and 4 pieces of thread that had been cut off. I could see that the stitch was perfect and all I had to do was tie my four spools of thread on and away I went! Now off to cut a pair of pants and a dress to sew!

Update on MRI

Today Holland had his MRI. Egypt spent the night at my parent's house and I dropped Romania at the bus stop this morning so it was just the two of us. He couldn't have anything to eat, only clear liquids, so he was pretty cranky all morning. We just took it easy and didn't do school. He played the Wii, played with the cats and Legos until it was time to leave. I'm always amazed at how well he handles being in the hospital. The intake nurse was very nice and the anesthesiologist Dr. Wong came in beforehand to answer any questions. The whole procedure took about 45 minutes and he came out of it beautifully. He was still a bit cranky he couldn't eat right away, but I took him out for Sprite and some McDonald's french fries later. The hardest thing for him is to be "still" and he was told not to do any activity tonight other than sitting on the couch and doing quiet activities. We find out next week what all the headaches mean, but the nurse said that headaches are common to spinal cord issues.

Two For One MRI's

Stranger things have happened, but we seem to have had our share of trips to the hospital and emergency room (see yesterday's post!) Both Super-Hero dad and Holland are having MRI's this week. Super-Hero goes in today to have them look at his shoulder. He's been having pain for quite some time and like any normal man, he waits until he can't move it at all and THEN he goes to the doctor. At first, the orthopedic doctor sent him to do Physical Therapy. He went probably 15 times total and did his exercises religiously twice a day. Things were not improving and he thought were even getting worse. So they scheduled an MRI today to figure out what's going on. He probably got hurt landscaping our backyard and then scar tissue formed over whatever didn't heal properly.

Which brings us to MRI #2. With all of Holland's medical issues, little things like headaches were getting pushed to the side. But after his "holy moley" ear infection cleared up and they didn't go away, the pediatrician said it's time to check out his brain. Is there some Guiness Book record that we have broken for the most ailments to one person? I'm kinda thinking we're close if we haven't already beaten it. I'm not even trying to predict the outcome of this one. Because we have to go back and see the surgeon that did his tethered cord surgery. He's been having bowel problems and tingling in his feet and legs. Both are symptoms of scar tissue forming over the cord that was cut.

Another Trip to the ER

I think we are on a first-name basis with doctors at two different hospitals. Romania finally ended up in the ER on Monday night from a dog bite. I guess it was his turn to be in the hospital. Holland and Egypt have had their fair share of injuries, illnesses and mishaps. He was playing next door with the neighbor's son, doing boy things - running around with nerf guns. He tried to pet their Pomeranian and she didn't see him and freaked and bit him on the face. So at 5.45 I left for the emergency room. I was just putting dinner on the table. Super-Hero had just walked in the door when I was walking out. Pure chaos - which is completely normal at our house.

He did amazingly well. They put a topical numbing liquid on his lip, he had several x-rays of his face done to make sure no teeth fragments were left in and then he got three stitches. He was treated to dinner at McDonald's and then we picked up an antibiotic. And unlike all those television programs on emergency rooms, this was snail-slow. We were there almost three hours. Nothing is fast about the ER (except maybe the bill). I let us all sleep in this morning and then drove him to school. He was so proud of his stitches and showed all his classmates. He doesn't know that come Saturday when he has them taken out it's gonna hurt worse because it won't be numb. Looking forward to Saturday.

He Is Risen!

He Is Risen, Indeed!

I always loved saying that in church on Easter Sunday. For some reason we didn't do that today and every time someone on stage said it, I answered with that phrase. We had our service over at the high school auditorium. Egypt stayed in her Sunday School class across the street at the church and the boys came in with me. I have to say, they did pretty well with sitting through the service. Romania really likes the singing. Here's a quick picture of the three of them right after church (before they had a chance to get dirty or rip off their clothes and change!) I made Egypt's dress and hat over the past three days. I only found the fabric on Wednesdsay morning and didn't even start sewing until Thursday evening. I was also able to throw together a hat with some leftover fabric. Now, if I can just convince Super-Hero that I neeeeed that expensive serger. I could totally sell this on etsy in my store!

Back At The Hospital

So it's been pretty stressful around here lately. Holland has been having trouble behaviorally, emotionally and phsyically. On Friday, I took him back to the gastroenterologist up at Emanuel. He started having accidents again which is what first put us up there with the diagnosis of spina bifida with tethered cord. We are completely gluten-free and he's taking Miralax twice a day. There should be no problems with this, but there is. On Thursday I called the doctor's office at 5 p.m. not even expecting them to answer the phone. Not only did they answer, they had a cancellation on Friday at 2.30. We answered a bunch of questions, he felt his tummy, checked his reflexes and sent us up to the main hospital for an x-ray. He suspected that he was backed up and would need a good "cleaning". He also suspects (although this is not his area of expertise, he does have an understanding of what complications come with tethered cord) that scar tissue has formed over the area on his cord that was cut to release the pressure. He has been having tingling in his legs and feet, which to him indicates pressure building up on the spine again. I will be calling our surgeon next week to go back and see her. I don't know how else besides surgery that they would even be able to say for sure that scar tissue has formed. They couldn't even 100% diagnose the tethered cord until she did the surgery.

Last night we did a "cleaning". Although the taste of this was better than the magnesium citrate drink (fizzy, salty, cherry drink), the results were about the same. He had two major episodes that required a shower and a complete change of clothes. He kept apologizing and I kept telling him it wasn't his fault. I totally expected this since I had given him 6X the normal dose of Miralax. On a positive note, I did notice that his mood had improved. He was laughing and cracking some jokes. We are going to our pediatrician on Monday to discuss the daily headaches he's been getting.

Never A Dull Moment

We've had our round of ups and downs this week - emotionally and behaviorally. Some days Holland has coped better than I had expected and other days, I just wanted to turn and run. Yesterday after our homeschool co-op, I had offered for my nephew to come over while my sister went to one of her jobs. Holland was so excited - he had all these plans. They ended up playing well together - if you discount all the yelling by Egypt because she was left out. After about an hour we had to leave to pick up Romania from the bus stop. Holland even had a plan for that. He wanted his cousin to duck down in the back seat and jump up and scare Romania. I didn't really like that plan. Usually when he gets home from school, Romania is so tired that he just wants to sit on the couch and watch TV. I didn't think he'd react well to being scared from behind.

Turned out that when the bus arrived, the two boys were by a tree behind the bus and my nephew just walked up to Romania and said "hi". I was relieved there were no scare tactics involved. The boys played well together but then when my sister called to say she would pick him up in a few minutes, Holland fell apart. It was like he hadn't been playing for the last two hours. It's all that emotional up and down that is drowning me.

This morning we had another little snafu. A few days ago I went to Target to get a few things for the kid's easter baskets. I found two little Lego sets for the boys that Holland ending up finding. It's probably that I need to get better at hiding. But because he's 10, I don't work that hard at burying stuff, just covered up out of the way. He kept asking what they were for and finally after failing at being vague and him accepting it, I just said they were for Easter and to drop it. Well, this morning I am sitting at the sewing machine trying to work on Egypt's dress and he's at the top of the stairs and says, "Mom, I need to tell you something." I knew right away that he had done something that would need forgiveness. He told me he couldn't help himself and that he and Romania opened the Lego sets. I was so angry. Not only had he been defiant about the Legos, he had coerced his brother into his tangled web. He kept saying at least he told me. And yes, I'm thankful that he's remorseful. But come Sunday, the only person opening an Easter basket will be Egypt.

Spring Has Sprung!

Today was such a beautiful day! Even though the sun was out this morning and it was chilly, it warmed up so nicely. Made me want to garden! We just didn't have time today, but hopefully this next week, we'll be able to get some plants in the garden. Holland has been given several starter plants and my kitchen area has become a regular greenhouse. I'm trying not to get annoyed at the mess - the cats have knocked over some of the plants and we come home to dirt all over the floor. But last weekend we were able to get some flower seeds and some carrots in the ground. He has a way of distracting me when I'm trying to get something done. He bugs me until I find myself somehow involved in his plans. Not sure how that happens. Maybe it's just easier than putting him off.

We also had an amazing number of birds visit our feeders today. We have suet, black oil sunflower seeds and thistle on our deck and finally today, we had 4 woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees, Scrub Jays, Juncos and my personal favorite, the Purple House Finch. They are the most amazing birds with this firey red crown and nape (why it's called a "purple" finch is beyond me). But the kids are learning all the names of the birds and I love it when one of them yells "there's a chickadee at the feeder!" What's even more fun is that they are finally coming to the feeder we have attached to the window. It's a clear plastic feeder with suction cups and they perch on the edge of the little house and we can watch them close up. They aren't disturbed by the big mean Scrub Jays. I got a couple pictures of the woodpeckers that ate the suet, but they didn't turn out very well since I had to take them through the window.

The other fun thing about spring is that Holland is learning how to mow the lawn. I was getting the biggest laugh out of watching him. Super-hero was getting frustrated because Holland couldn't steer in a straight line. My neighbor was over chatting and we were watching him push this big lawn mower that probably weighs more than he does. Super-hero is yelling over the noise of the mower to "go this way!" and Holland just keeps pushing it and swaying back over what he just mowed. I don't even care that the lines weren't straight, but when you're married to an engineer, you can just imagine how much it bugs him not to see these perfectly straight lines in the grass. But who cares? My 10 year-old wants to mow the lawn. Happy momma.

The Birdie Knot Dress

When I'm productive, I'm productive! Here's what I made in three hours on Saturday night. I've been in such a sewing mood. The dress I made for Romania's school auction got my juices flowing. I've found great fabric on etsy.com.

This is a layered knot dress (instead of buttons, the straps are knotted through buttonholes) and ruffled capri pants. The hardest part is choosing the fabrics and what goes where.

Vacation's Over

Although it was a nice few restful days, the turmoil is back. They had lots to share of what they did at the beach (and more importantly the things they got at the Dollar Store). But it's back to being stressed-out. On top of all the stress, I got sick. Really sick. I was really thinking it had completely missed me. Super-hero got really sick; and both boys had it in one form or another. Egypt kinda got stuffy but nothing too big.

Sunday afternoon I had a headache, but that's so normal. The only other thing was I was so completely tired. Not just tired I'm gonna take a nap. Tired I can't even walk. I rested and when I got up I felt no better. The pile of dirty clothes covers the entire upstairs hallway and I couldn't even get up to do it. Super-hero made dinner for the kids and I actually ate. But when I went to bed early (I was told to go to bed!) at 9.15, I lay in bed until 12.30 and hadn't slept at all. I just lay awake singing hymns in my head. Now hymns aren't normally bad, but I could not stop my mind from going and I think I may have slept an hour after moving downstairs to the couch after listening to my bed-mate snore.

By Monday I was throwing up whatever I ate and I only ate toast and ginger ale. The kids watched movies and the boys spent some time next door with the neighbor boys. I haven't felt this bad in a long time. Super-hero bought some Unisom for me and I actually slept last night, but woke up with a dry mouth and a little loopy from the sleep aid. Today was a little better. The boys went back to play next door, Egypt watched movies and played with play-doh and painted. I just lay on the bed and wondered how I was going to fix dinner.

The worst part is, when the boys were called home (and I warned Holland about this), they were told they would be eating dinner here and not going back. Then I was told that they had been invited to spend the night. Not only is this not a good idea for behavior reasons, I would never let the boys spend the night there because I just don't trust the situation between the two adults (who aren't married). This sent Holland into a tailspin. It was so not pretty to look at. We had upped one of his meds this past Sunday because he was getting so out of control. There was no other way, except hospitalization, to curb it. So on Sunday, he falls asleep on the way to church and I just let him sleep on the pew next to me during the whole service. He just could not handle the situation. We ate dinner, he took a bath and went to bed at 7.30.

And now I have to figure out how I'm gonna go grocery shopping with these three for my Bunco game on Friday. I so want to do something fun and normal again.

A Mini-Vacation

So things have been pretty hectic here, but I actually got a mini-vacation (or should I say "stay-cation). My parents took the boys to the beach for two days. They spent Wednesday night at their house so they could leave first thing in the morning. Egypt and I have had nice mom/daughter time together.

Yesterday I had a meeting to discuss getting technology assistance for Holland. Everything's about the meeting when you're on an IEP. "Let's have a meeting to plan a meeting." Basically I was told that even though the district already owns the software I want, there might be someone else that needs it more (????) Ok. I don't understand that at ALL. WEEEEEE need it! They're going to let us try it out, but my take is that they want the charter school to buy it. I'm ready to put it on a credit card and buy it because I'm tired of everyone dragging their feet. One of the members of the IEP team wanted to know my goals for using this software. "I want him to learn how to read and write" I said. I've been trying to teach him for 4 years and she's worried I'm expecting this software to solve all my problems. Well, I'm not that stupid. Give me some credit. I would think after 4 years and countless methods that she knew I wouldn't be expecting this software to solve everything. She kept bringing up other software that I knew wouldn't work (there's one she wants us to try that uses hand signals for the different sounds of speech). I've already told these people that he isn't a phonetic kid - he needs pictures to help him connect meaning to the jumble of letters he sees. The software I want has little pictures above each word and you can go from pictures to words or words to pictures.

My stay-cation included running some errands yesterday and having a quiet day with Egypt reading on my bed, playing and doing an art project. Today I borrowed the cultural pass from the library to go to the Children's Museum in Portland. We haven't been there in about two years. The last time I took her, I had the boys with me and they complained the entire time (it really is too young a place for them, but what was I supposed to do?) So today it was just us and we had a great time. She shopped in the grocery store, brushed an aligator's teeth, floated ducks in a water bath and drew with a light on a tree trunk. We did a few errands on the way home and checked out some movies at the library.

Now I'm getting ready for the loudness to return. It's been so nice to have quiet here. Hopefully they had a good time at the beach even if it was cold.

Someone Dropped the Ball

Today I met with my ES for an IEP review. We meet three times a month, but four times a year we have to review Holland's goals and mark his progress. He has not been in a good mood lately which is making everything difficult. While we were waiting for the ES, I asked about the Co:Writer software that we're waiting for. The secretary said that she couldn't find the paperwork. When I asked my ES about it, she said we both signed it and she gave it to me to turn in. I do NOT remember it this way. I never turn in any of the paperwork for things I want ordered. I fill out the form, sign it and give it to my ES to order. So this whole time I've been waiting for what I thought was approval for the software and no one actually had the order form. I don't get this at all. I spoke with these two people several times about the process and was told we were waiting to get approval because if the school couldn't use the software on someone else, they may not want to order it for a single student.

People all around me are dropping the ball. I'm ready to cancel all the speech sessions we've been having. Well, I don't really need to do that because our speech person has been doing that for me. I had to move my entire schedule around because she couldn't meet on the two days per week we originally agreed upon. We finally worked out where she would come to our house for Holland's speech. On Thursday, the day of the speech session last week, she called saying she needed to reschedule for some reason. So we bumped it to Friday, which I didn't want to do because that left one day to shop for birthday presents for the boys. I agreed to it and Friday morning she calls and says she misjudged the time it would take her to drive to my house from her last appointment. She wanted to bump it an hour. I said no that I could do it 30 minutes later than she originally said. Luckily I had my mom coming over to watch the kids while I went out. But it just happened again today. It was Romania's first full day of Spring Break and I had a dr. appointment, a meeting with the ES and then Speech. I just listened to the machine as she left a message saying she needed to reschedule yet again. I haven't even called her back. I'm so tired of being bumped around and it really messes up Holland.

I need a vacation.

JRA for TMJ

I went to my first JRA informational meeting on Saturday. Two of the kids stayed and did crafts and pet an aligator in another room (I would love to have seen that!) while I listened to a doctor talk about the effects of arthritis and TMJ. He had amazing before and after pictures of patients with jaw problems. Basically if you have TMJ resulting from arthritis, there is mandibular hypomobility and loss of posterior face height. Several of the patients were from Guatamala and Ecuador, so obviously the chance of early detection and treatment is not as high as in the States. But it was scary to see what could happen - when the condyle erodes away, the chin disappears, the cheeks puff up and you cannot close your mouth without straining.

But I learned some new vocabulary in the process: ginglymodiarthrodial; condyle reconstruction surgery; and arthrocentesis. Don't ask me to explain them. We just hope we never have to deal with this!