Our Week at the Lake

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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.