Camera dump . . .

What has been going on at the Rouse House lately? Let's take a look what was on Mommy's camera when I dumped it tonight . . .

McCartney has become quite the artist. She went from not normally choosing to color, to constantly doing something creative with paper, crayons, markers and scissors. This butterfly was something she made for her teacher. She worked on it for close to an hour. She was so proud!

Robert made a chocolate pie with meringue. It was fabulous! He rocks!

I have fallen in love with my sewing machine. I made this crayon roll just to see if I could figure it out. I did (I even made it for double rows of crayons!), and McCartney, the resident artist, loves it. I also made her a coloring book bag from the same fabric. (60% off upholstery fabric, woohoo!)


The new beloved refrigerator! She's a beauty! I love the french doors, and boy-o-boy does it have more space than my old side by side. I don't even miss the water in the door! Don't look at the TV on top, and yes it has cable . . . .don't judge me! I love me some TV and when I am in the kitchen I can have quality TV time with little to no interuptions! Win Win.

Meet Jose, the reason I don't miss the water in the fridge door. It was Robert's fathers day present. (we have this weird thing about naming appliances) We have yet to name the fridge. . . Robert is lobbying for Frosty. (if you recall by Dyson vacuum is named George)

Our first harvest from the garden. Kohlrabi! Mmmmmm! Brings back tons of memories from my childhood and my grandpa's garden. I did not peel it with my old trusty pocket knife and eat it right there like Grandpa used to though. McCartney is not a fan, but Harrison and Dustin sure liked them.


More evidence of the love affair with my sewing machine. I whipped up a few buttercup bags with some random fabric this weekend for gifts and such. I also taught myself how to sew in a zipper so I am making matching change purses. It totally relaxes me and I like to alter things so each is a little different. I think my winter hobby is crocheting and my summer one is sewing. . .

McCartney went to sleep with toys and such in her bed one night. I went in to check on her at my bedtime and I found her with this leather heart stuck to her face. Like any bloggin' mommy I got my camera and took a picture before I took it off her and cleaned out her bed.

I hate Pyrex. I hate the years of crud and hard water stains that build up (don't judge). I don't have a dishwasher so glass dishes are super hard to keep clean. This particular one is only used to heat hard taco shells. This morning I decided to try to use a Magic Eraser on it and see how easy it was to clean, Check this out! It really wasn't that difficult and only took about 5 minutes! Yeehaw!


Question: How do you know you have been blogging too long?
Answer: When you take before and after pictures of your Pyrex.

Busy times . . .

Busy week. My kid's last day at school was Wednesday last week. Work was crazy with doing CPR training for 20 staff and getting everything set for the summer.

We had a big weekend with yard work and grocery shopping. My crazy schedule at work started this week. I have 76 school aged children in four different groups. I take them on 9 field trips weekly. I am out of the daycare every afternoon and all mornings but Wednesday. Wednesday is my morning to catch up on all the garbage at my desk and do any projects my boss may have for me. This morning was NUTS.

I enjoy my summer and I love taking the kids on field trips, but it is a lot of stress. Not only am I on the go constantly (which makes my days go quickly) but I am responsible for other people's children . . . in public and 4 days a week at a pool. It may sound fun, but I am on constant alert because they could be seriously injured at the pool, so it is by no means relaxing.

Monday morning I came home and found my refrigerator limping along. The old fridge has been on her last leg for at least 9 months. I knew the end was very near so we went appliance shopping. Ghastly. It sucked beyond belief. I was not able to make a decision to save my life and we were at Lowes so long I thought that they were going to ask us to leave and make sure we take our wild monkeys children with us and they would give us a fridge for free! Yes! They were that bad! We finally settled on one and got a killer deal because it was special order that was never picked up.

Today it rained and we weren't able to go to the park on a field trip, so I got a bunch done. I did staff orientation for 2 new staff, a First Aid review class, finished an entire project I was given and cleaned out my in-box. Whew. I worked my tookie off!

I needed something else to concentrate on tonight so I decided to make a new purse with Rae's fabulous pattern. The other one I made was increased 130% from the pattern and while I loved the fabric, it was a little too thin and the strap needed a little length. This time I made it with Rae's original measurements, but added 2 inches to the top of both the exterior and the lining so it was taller. I also made the handle much longer. I really need something to sling over my shoulder with my busy summer. It is perfect and I love it. I decided it need an embellishment so I made a flower and attached it with a button. Cute huh? (By the way, the fabric is a canvas that I got at WalMart for $1.50 a yard! Score! . . . and the hot pink was $1.77 a yard)

Diagnosing kids . . .

Okay, this post is not going to be anything eloquent or well thought out like Snarky Mom or anything well informed and planned like Lisa would write, but here goes. . .

I have always struggled with diagnosing kids with psychiatric disorders. It has nothing to do with labeling. I know some people freak out about slapping a label on their kids, but who the heck cares. Who has to know? It's not like they are required to wear a Tshirt that says, "I have been diagnosed BiPolar" to the local community pool. The only reason it should be brought up is in school and then only if their are issues or if services are needed. Then, it's obvious there's a need for that label. You don't have to place an ad in the newspaper to make the town aware of a diagnosis.

The reason I struggle is "how do we really know"? I mean, okay, when Dustin came to us in foster care he had every label imaginable. A few I can name off the top of my head are: Sensory Integration Disorder, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Shaken Baby Syndrome, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Early On-set Bi-Polar Disorder, Aspergers Syndrome, blah blah blah. Basically the only label we never had was Reactive Attachment Disorder, even though this was mentioned more than once. Now we simply have a Fetal Alcohol Disorder and Schizophrenic Disorder label ONLY, with a Moderately Mentally Handicapped status thrown in for good measure. That's what's "driving the bus" in Dustin's brain and everything else is "sitting in the back seats along for the ride". Basically my child is psychotic due to prenatal alcohol exposure. Period.

Do those labels help me deal with him better. Nope. What they do is help others see his weaknesses and celebrate his differences. They don't give excuses for his behaviors but they do give reasons. Our psychiatrist once said to me, I don't really care what you call it, we still have to learn to deal with it whatever it is. Amen brother! Sometimes it helps to tell people he has traits of Aspergers Syndrome because that is what they are familiar with and it gives them something to work with. Does he have Aspergers? Who knows, he definitely exhibits some form of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and it is definitely sitting in one of those back seats on Dustin's Brain Bus.

Okay, here's where it gets tricky for me. . . hold on to your panties. How dare people who don't know me or haven't seen my kid or spent time with them say he couldn't possibly have that. It does seem that there is a trend toward a specific diagnosis in the child's psychiatric community from time to time. A few years ago, everyone was ADD, then it seemed to be Autism, and now it seems to the leaning toward RAD. Now it may be one thing to say that a particular diagnosis is overused, it is quite another thing to say it doesn't exist. Excuse me? Are you a doctor? Just because you have adopted successfully and haven't had to deal with it doesn't mean other's don't. I am pleased that you are so wonderful that your child seems to love you at first sight, but seriously you don't know every child. And perhaps you don't know everything. *gasp* For me, it is similar to the troll that attacked Torina. I would love for that person to live her life for one day.

My whole problem with RAD is that these children are damaged. Just as my child's brain is "broken" due to prenatal alcohol exposure these children are "broken" due to abuse, neglect, multiple placements etc. Who am I to say that doesn't happen? Who am I to say that can't happen? I guess my take on it is that we as a country and as a people are moving toward a mentality that says "me me me" all the time. "Screw my kids, screw their needs I need a drink, a fix, a night out. Who cares how it affects them!" It's obvious that these kids who have been taken from their homes are damaged by this trauma and "broken". How can they trust another adult just because you say you are safe? Especially when some of the trauma came from supposed "safe" foster families. Maybe as the trend continues children are becoming more and more traumatized and now we are seeing more and more and more RAD. Whether a child gets FAS depends on the strength of the baby, how much the mother drinks and how often as well as the time frame in which she drank during pregnancy. Couldn't this be a similar situation for RAD, some kids are simply tougher than others. You, missy, got lucky, and so did your kids! Saying that because you haven't dealt with it so it doesn't exist is like saying I've never had a broken arm so I don't believe bones can break. Ignorant.

I guess my entire frustration with this is that we are all in this together. Does your child mad pee? Let's talk about options and what you've tried. Does your child bang their head on walls? Hey, what works for you to get them to stop? That's why I blog. I don't blog to bash someone else's child's diagnosis. I certainly wouldn't say that you wish for a diagnosis just to bring attention to yourself and say, "Hey look how broken my child is! I am a saint for taking this on!" That makes me ill. Funny, I find you judgemental and abrasive. I have however prayed for a diagnosis to get help and services my child needed. I rejoiced when Dustin got a low IQ score so that he qualified for special education services 100% of the time, and mourned when Anna did not. I wrote a whole post about wishing people would see my child as "broken" and understand his behavior similar to seeing a child in a wheelchair and understanding he cannot walk.

There, rant over.

The plans they are a-changin' . . .

Well, I have officially decided that being an adult sucks.

Memorial Day weekend our air conditioning in our van stopped working. We have had a van before that had some sort of a leak and we used those refill cans you get at the auto parts store. They work fabulously if that is the problem. This time, not so much.

I am a sweaty mess in the summer. I cannot live without AC in my house or in my van. Call me spoiled, but that's how it is. I literally melt . . .

I took the van into the local tire joint because I was also having issues with the back brakes making noise and they were under warranty from a fix almost a year ago. They called me in an hour or so and told me that the back brakes were not actually the problem (go figurea), but my rear wheel cylinders were leaking and needed replaced and that the entire AC unit needed replaced to the tune of $1950 for both repairs and a brake light replacement.

Seriously. $1950.

Ummm, no thanks.

I had them fix the brake light and the cylinders for $375. After I stopping throwing up (jk), I called around for a quote for the AC and got one from my dealer for $800. I CANNOT live without AC (I know I said that already) so we talked about it and how we could afford it. We considered trading the van in on a mid size car, but the thought of Dustin next to the kids in the back seat and the thought of a car payment made me gag a little. I had to choose AC over this summer's vacation. I scheduled it for the following week.

So Friday I dropped it off and about one hour later I get a call from the service department. Guess what? They found another hose that was bad and all in all it cost me almost $1200. Crapola.

So, first we were going to Cali and then we couldn't because Robert's sister isn't going to be there. Then we were ammending our trip and doing a shorter route out west and then swooping down and including Georgia. Then we discussed New York and Washington DC. Now . . .

nothing

nada

zilch

zip

Suck! I hope I can eeeek out a short weekend trip at least once this summer and maybe some camping.

I hate being an adult.

Harrison's vocal debut . . .

NINJA tour 2009 . . .

Okay, fabulous show last night at Verizon Wireless Music Center! First off, Tom Morello and Boots Riley rocked with their new band Street Sweeper Social Club. They opened the show and the crowd definitely responded. It was early and still pretty warm out. They were pretty no nonsense, the stage was filled with equipment from the other bands and since it was still light out I don't think they even used lighting. Their album will be out June 16 and I will definitely be purchasing it. Tom Morello of course lit it up. This video was from earlier in the tour.





Of course Trent Reznor put on a great show. If you have ever seen Nine Inch Nails live before you know the light show is spectacular unless of course you have a seizure disorder! The strobes were mesmerizing and I was thrilled I had continuous shooting on my camera or I would've never gotten the shots I did, I uploaded 460 pictures this morning and I have no idea how many I deleted at the show. I personally like this Trent Reznor better. He is now a hardcore buff musician taking control of the stage as opposed to the scrawny, goth guy crawling around the stage. (no offense to scrawny goth guys)

My brother turned to me at this point and said, "He is the only guy that I know that can make a tambourine look bad-ass". Yes Josh, yes he is.

Even though I would've loved to see him smash his keyboard like old times, he didn't. But he threw lots of stuff into the pit, including a couple tambourines. (how many did he have on stage anyway?) And no stage diving, I think he is a little too old for that one too. It amazes me that I first saw him 18 years ago. . . I am not that old.

"Rawk on"

During the Nine Inch Nails portion of the show, it started to get ugly in the weather department. I was a little freaked because our seats were under the amphitheatre shed, but just barely and I knew that if it began blowing we were going to get wet. My brother went to the bathroom and get a drink before it began to truly rain and when he came back he informed me that the tornado sirens were going off. Nice. The heavens opened and it absolutely poured but as luck would have it, it was blowing perfectly and we stayed dry.



This cloud definitely looked like it had some slow rotation to me. My brother thought it was just an optical illusion from the strobes. I am not sure if he was trying to make me feel better or not!


By the time Janes Addiction came out the weather had cleared up and it was quite cool. The crowd thinned a little (which was fine with me since we had some punk rock/hillbillies next to us who early on was smoking something that was not regular tobacco if you know what I mean! Srsly!) I had prepared myself for Perry Farrell prancing around the stage looking a little girly since I had seen a bunch of YouTube clips of previous tour shows. I was thrilled that he did not have on the pink alligator leather pants and the boa! I love me some Janes Addiction but I must say Perry still makes me giggle a little with his prancing around. During and early song, he was shaking maracas and I lost it in a giggling fit!

Great stage show, great backdrop (could've done without the bare boobies though), nice lighting.

Notice the maracas . . .

Or course, with a bare chested Dave Navarro, is there any other kind? I think the leather vest lasted 2 songs.

Prance much?

Navarro, facing his Marshall stack, rips it up on guitar.

Singing my favorite of all time, "Jane Says", the encore of course.

Thank you!

I saw Janes Addiction for the first time 19 years ago this month. I am officially old. I was pleased however with the diversity of the crowd. There were people older than me, kids as young as 8 or 9 with their parents, people dressed in leather, fishnets, combat boots, and flip flops. There were more tattoos than I could possibly count. I even saw a pair of my daycare parents that I would've NEVER expected to be there. Fun times. I leave you with my favorite fashion disaster couple. . .

Trying things out . . .

I've heard tell about camera strap covers. I thought I would make one. It's 2 sided and I used left over fabric from the buttercup bag. I also made a little pouch to stick my stuff in for the concert. Cute eh?

Am I stupid . . .

I had to do grocery shopping last night. I decided to go right after work since I pass by the grocery I could hardly justify going home and then returning without children, and since dragging 2 kids kicking and screaming into the grocery sounded like so much fun! (it does go faster with 2 kids because I try to get finished and leave before someone from management asks us to leave, LOL)

Anyway, I needed another pitcher for the 'fridge so I headed down that isle. I saw a jar similar to the one picture, but it is plastic because I am not that delusional, with a spigot that I could use for the kid's lemonade addiction.

I bring it home, wash it out, and fill it with their crack lemonade and I gather all three kids around for an instructional talk on how to properly use the spigot. About 20 minutes later both the Littles come into the living room without shirts on. I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick what had happened. . .

They had attempted to fill their mouths with lemonade while holding their heads under the spigot. . . and they had sorely missed.

Nice.

I can't hardly stand it . . .

Saturday I am going to a concert with my brother. We are going to the NIN/JA tour. Street Sweeper Social Club which is Tom Morello's (Rage Against the Machine) new band is opening, followed by Nine Inch Nails and then Jane's Addiction closing. Holy crap, I cannot wait! Trent Reznor (NIN) has dubbed this the Wave Goodbye Tour.

I actually have a history with all three of these bands. Jane's Addiction is quite possibly my favorite band of all time. I think I have owned the Nothing Shocking album on vinyl, cassette and 2 CD's. The second was bought after my first roommate moved out and took it with her. For me it is one of the CD's I always return to. I chose it more often than not. It reminds me of summer, driving with my windows down and dancing around my first apartment. The remainder of their disks are good as well and definitely a stock in my CD collection, but I LOVE Nothing Shocking more than anything else!

I first saw Jane's Addiction at Deer Creek (Verizon Wireless Music Center) with Henry Rollins Band (of Black Flag fame - I have another story where I slept in the same room with Henry during a stop on the Spoken Word tour. . . a story for another day) in probably 1990. I was on crutches and spent almost the whole show in my chair. It was fabulous, but they didn't play "Pigs in Zen" much to my dismay (and the dismay of the boys next to me who traveled 6 hours to see them play Pigs in Zen). Later, I saw Janes in the first Lollapalooza tour in Cleveland at Blossom Music Center. That day rocked with Siouxsie and Banshees, Fishbone, the Violent Femmes and NIN among others. That was the first time I saw Trent Reznor and NIN. He came out on stage screamed "Hello Cleveland!", kicked down the fences to the pit and tore it up on stage. He was fabulous! I recall they had to stop the set 3 or 4 times to reset the fences and drag people off the stage who were stage diving. (I was also at the second Lollapalooza at Blossom where it rained through the entire Pearl Jam set and the Soundgarden set and the entire hill became on giant slip n' slide, but that's a post for another day.)

My brush with Tom Morello came with the third Lollapalooza back at Deer Creek in Indianapolis. We abandoned Cleveland after the wicked day we had at Lollapalooza 2 the previous year and decided to stay closer to home. We had great seats on the front row of the second section. I was thrilled with the lineup because it included Alice in Chains, Primus and Front 242. In the middle of the show was Rage Against the Machine. I remember it well because my friend Peggy and I were so into skater boys at the time (I know, I know I was 22! Mind your business!) and Rage fit that bill perfectly! We had walked the venue to head over to the second stage to see Tool and Luscious Jackson play. When we returned to our seats there were cute little skater boys sitting in our row next to us. (Most of the venue had cleared out to see Tool on the second stage) Peggy and I were thrilled to find these boys next to us and our friend Kate was not inhibited in any way to run right up and talk to them. Turns out it was Zack de la Rocha and Tom Morello sitting there waiting for Primus perform. And now my son tries to beat Tom Morello in Guitar Hero and thinks I am cool when I told him Mommy met him long, long ago, am I getting old or what?

I suppose I will see how old I am Saturday when all these kids are at the concert that I cannot wait for! They have a very relaxed camera policy this tour so I will take my SLR and try to get some good pictures unless I an too busy dancing, and singing, and reliving my youth to remember to take pictures!

Squished . . .

My ta-tas were squished today.

I had my first mammogram today. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

I also had a vaginal ultrasound. Not so nice.

I have no idea why I felt compelled to share that here.

A rude awakening . . .

Robert woke me up this morning asking if someone had pooped their pants. I replied that I didn't think so. He kept smelling something REALLY bad. I have a poor sense of smell, especially with allergies this time of year, so I didn't smell much of anything. I went down the hall and did smell something faintly burning. The Littles were up and Robert and I walked downstairs to investigate.

As I was alking downstairs, McCartney says, "Harrison did try to make a donut." Odd, we don't have donuts. . .

Robert found the microwave still on with 41 minutes and 51 seconds left on the timer. Inside he found this . . .

I asked McCartney to show me what it started out as and she opened the freezer and showed me a bag of small hamburger patties. Hard telling how long it took to reduce the patty to this.


No wonder it smelled like decomposing flesh. My house still stinks, but the microwave still works!

Dustin-a-rooni . . .

Forgot to tell you all that Dustin came home from the hospital last night. He is on medication for his pneumonia, and he is pretty much back to normal. Thanks for all your prayers and good thoughts!

Hey, hey lookie . . .

I am so proud of myself! I have been thinking about sewing Rae's pattern for the Buttercup Bag, which is FREE, for some time. I have a sewing machine that I use to fix things and make drapes and such, but I have never sewn with a pattern. Little Birdie Secrets also mentioned Rae's pattern today so I decided to give it a whirl.

I love this fabric that Miss Becky picked out. She is McCartney's teacher who moonlights at JoAnn fabric. She saw us browsing and I was frustrated with the fabric selection when she asked me if I had been back in the quilting section . . . HOLY MERCY, I was a kid in a candy store! I adored the polka dot liner also.

Anyhoo, the pattern is super easy and I will definitely be making more of these. I increased the pattern by 30% because I carry too much crap in my purse. . . go on over and give Rae some love, and make yourself a cute Buttercup Bag!

Updates all around . . .

The Littles: My mom has been watching the Littles and now she knows what he deal with at bedtime. Na Na Na Na Na Na! They are doing well, I haven't seen them since Monday and I miss them horribly. Harrison threw a whopper of a fit last night according to mom. I guess he raged for like 20 minutes at bedtime. I don't know what to do about him and his anger at bed . . . . The jury is still out as to whether he passed the marble yet or not, he insists on looking in the toilet each and everytime thinking it will be "free" in there. I keep telling him it will be "wrapped up". LOL


Robert: is home with a fever and sore throat. Agh! I was planning on heading back to work today since we had a "sitter" last night we were bothe able to go home and sleep well. I hope it is just exhaustion and he feels better with a little more rest.

Dustin: is on a liquid diet. Nothing has moved through the system yet, so they said they may need to "help him expell" today. Nice. Hopefully Robert will be back up here for that one! They did an upper GI study last night and the blockage is clearing. They believe it was all a precursor to pneumonia. Crazy huh? I am praying for a "sitter" again tonight so the Littles can come home.

Me: Crabbby. Tired. I got a great haircut yesterday and "normal people" haircolor. It is kinda dark but I like it alot. I am really glad the IEP is done and ready for next year. I had an early "visitor" and I NEVER get cramps . . . today I am DYING! Of course, I have the best luck . . .

Updates . . .

It is 6:30 pm our time. I was nearly in tears 30 minutes ago. I had been sitting in a hard chair in the fluroscopy room for 3 hours with Dustin while they do an upper GI study. I was soooooooooooo tired I could hardly hold my head up. In the 20-30 minutes between films I am certain I looked like a little old man in church with my head nodding while I fell asleep.

We come back up to his room to finish with a portable unit and the nurse informs me that they have a sitter for tonight. I GET TO GO HOME and sleep. I wouldn't consider this, but they have really been good with him, my favorite nurse is here, and we live VERY close by. He is sick enough and on enough morphine that combined with his chlozapine, he will sleep through the night. We don't have to be back here until 7 am.

I can back from an IEP meeting and getting my haircut and colored to a fabulous blanket covering Dustin. The Linus Project brought in a blanket for him to take home. What a cool thing! AND it is his favorite color and they didn't even know! Robert took pictures, but the camera is at home with him so I will have to post later.

Oh and by the way, the morning Xray showed that he now has pneumonia. Nice. He is close to blowing out a vein, so we have to have another IV put in, finish the GI study, meet with the surgeon to discuss finding then I am headed to MY OWN BED!

Tuesday . . .

I spent the night at the hospital with Dustin since I have to do his IEP today and I am supposed to get my hair cut and colored (which may not happen). It was freakin' miserable. He could not decide whether he wanted to pee, chat, watch TV, or complain loudly of his chest and belly. . .

My poor boy is miserable and I am wickedly tired!

Nothing is moving down there and just in the last few hours they have pulled 300cc out of his belly so nothing is heading that way either. I have a feeling that we may be headed to surgery today, but then again, I thought that yesterday. . .

He did get his chlozapine and even his morning meds. Yay! I am particularly tired of telling every new nurse that Dustin is moderately mentally handicapped and that he will not "chat" with you like a typical 14 year old! read the freakin' chart already. (when my dog goes to the vet there is a huge red tag on the front of his chart that says she may bite if you try to give a shot. They really should put a big red tag on Dustin's chart that says, "He cannot tell you his pain on a scale of 1-10, he cannot tell you what school he goes to, and he will not chat about friends, his favorite subject, or sports. He may however tell you about Dora and Barney if you ask" Boy, a red sticker to identify MoMH status, that would piss off some of the militant special needs moms out there! hehehehe) I may sound like I am complaining here, but all in all our experience with the hospital and the nurses has been very positive. I suppose I can always find something to complain about . . .

By the way . . .

They have not allowed Dustin to have his Chlozapine like they promised in the ER. It seems that only a handful of docs can actually write orders for that and they are having hard time finding someone willing to do it since he is having bowel issues. I just spoke to the pediatric pharmacist and she assured me that she is trying to make it happen by tonight at bedtime.

I am scared beyond belief that he will begin to hallucinate. Please please please no!

He is finally resting, he slept very littel last night. Robert said it was a rough night.

I was in the room when they did the X-rays and holy mercy you could see the obstruction and it did not look happy today. It looked like a very angry intestine to me. . .

Heading to bed . . .

I am home and heading to bed. Dustin has a small bowel obstruction and fluid in his stomach. They are pretty sure it is not his appendix, but the fluid suggests it may have ruptures. They think they see it on CTscan and it looks okay. They are are not sure what could be causing either problem, but he is miserable.

I finally convinced them to let him have his Chlozapine. I kept telling them that he would NOT sleep and would begin hallucinating if we didn't try to get some in him. They agreed. They have been very kind and super understanding of his disabilities. They said he must be in severe pain! I feel so badly for him. He has an NG tube in right now and they are starting morphine. The Zofram sems to really help the nausea.

Robert is staying the night and I am going to attempt to get some sleep. If things don't change much by mid morning we are probably looking at surgery. He will see a couple of intensivists in the morning and the pediatric surgeon will be back up.

Keep up in your prayers, this could be ugly. Spread the word, we can use all the good mojo we can muster! He is being soooo brave!

Take two . . .

Where am I? ER you say? BINGO. Twice in one weekend. Dustin is still vomiting and not keeping ANYTHING down. He began complaining today of severe side pain. Remember this is the child who doesn't typically feel pain. He cannot walk upright yet he cannot bend completely over. The fever has returned. I called the pediatrician this afternoon and he was very concerned that he may be having appendicitis.

So here we are again. We were concerned that he may have to go into "sugar-ry" (as he calls it) so I dropped the littles off at my mom's and Robert and I are both here at the hospital. Right now they are running tests. The poor boy is miserable. The Zofran has kicked in and at least he is not vomiting anymore.

By the way, the ER doc came in and said, "Hey! I know you!" and I said, "Yes, I belong to marble boy". What are the odds in a large hospital that I would get the same ER doc? Apparently pretty good.

How I spent my Friday evening . . .

My mom and I went shopping today after work planning on hitting 2 of the Goodwill's here on 50% day. We were at the first one and we get and emergency call from work. One of our special needs kids was throwing a fit and we needed to get back there right away. So we rushed back across town, dealt with it and then headed to another Goodwill. After shopping we hit Zesto's Ice Cream for a cone.

I headed home with tired and hyper kids. I was trying to get Harrison to pick up his shoes and he jumped off the couch and inhaled a marble that was apparently in his mouth. It was actually a metal ball from a Magnetix set. He began choking and gasping. He was panicking and I ran him to the bathroom. As I was bending him over and giving him backblows he says, "Quit hitting me, I swallowed it". I called the pediatrician and he said we needed to go to the ER for an X-ray to determine where it "landed".

A hyper child at 10:00 a night on a Friday night is not fun for mommy! We went to X-ray and determined it was not in his lung or his esophagus. It was found in his stomach. We were ushered back to the ER room and I asked him how he thought it would come out. He said, "my mouth?" I said no, and asked what other places could something come out? I asked, "Ears?" "No!" (giggling) "Nose?" "No!" (more giggling) "So Harrison, where else do you think?" He began to think about it and a small smile came over his face, " . . .. my . . . butt?" (Lots of giggling!) "Yes darling" and then he said, "I'm gonna poop it out?"

Yes son, hopefully.

Dustin has been sick all day. He has only been sick a handful of times since we have had him and he has only yakked once in 8 years. Last night he was doubled over with stomach pain. This is odd since he rarely feels pain. I thought it was gas and gave him some alka-seltzer. At about 2:00 am he threw up a couple times. He had a field trip today and he really wanted to go. He woke up and said he felt fine. We sent him to school . . . 45 minutes later I was heading to the school to get him after throwing up in the bus before the field trip and causing 3 other students to hurl. That's my boy! He has been laying on the couch not moving all day. A little bit of 7up did not stay down this afternoon either.

It should be a fun day tomorrow. . .

Runaway bride . . .

I got this adorable dress at the Goodwill on the last 50% off day. It was only $10 and I thought it would make a fabulous Halloween costume this next year. Today I took her over to the Rose Gardens and took her picture in the dress. This was my favorite . . .

There are of course many, many, many more over at my photo blog. Click on the first image to go to the previous one, or browse to see them all.

Crazy Idea in Honor of Mothers Day . . .

Essie had a great post today about her expectations of motherhood before she actually had kids. In her usual fashion she cracked me up! I thought I'd take her challenge and give it a go. . .

I have worked in the childcare field for over 19 years. Believe me, I had expectations of how I would run my home and how my kids would act! I definitely had expectations that applied to daycare. There were several things I imagined as a mother . . .

1. My child would come to daycare each day dressed nicely. This would include underwear on the right way (not the waist in the leg hole, or not backwards) and shoes on the right feet (the left and right shoe would also be from the same pair). Their clothes would be straightened (the buttoning would not be mixed up and the shirts would be on frontward, socks would actually be their socks and not their older brother's who has feet the size of skis).

2. My children would come to daycare each day with face clean and hair clean and combed. (I would not be doing a spit polish on their face at the door to get off the chocolate cupcake I gave them for breakfast so they would stop howling and would not be ripping their hair out at the roots with a comb I found under the seat of the car while we scurried down the hall so I would not be late)

3. My children would not clinge to me at the door. They would LOVE to come to school and would be the most popular kid in the classroom with the students as well as the teachers! The teachers would love them because of their brilliant disposition and their well-behaved attitude. The kids would adore having them in the classroom because they were kind and thoughtful. (They would not be kids who the teachers grimaced at, they would not take til they were almost 4 to potty train and they would not hit and kick and scream. They would not have to be peeled off my body in the morning while dropping them off hollering and having to be held down for several minutes so they would not run out the door)

4. My children would not come to daycare when I had the day off. I would use these days to take them to the park, the art museum and make wonderful projects with them. We would make forts and have tea parties on these special days. (I would not use this day to sleep in and have a peaceful home. I would not enjoy the day away from the little demons while they tortured their teachers and I slept blissfully in the middle of the day)

5. My kids would not have to be the ones being dragged out of the daycare as I threatened them with bodily harm. My children would be thrilled to see me and run and jump into my arms thanking me for picking them up and telling me about their wonderful day at daycare. They would smother me with kisses and thank their lucky stars they had a mother like me. (They would not holler that it was almost time to go outside and now they are missing it or ask if their friend could stay the night because I am boring. They would not grumble about dinner choices or have a flaming fit that it will be bed time in 3 hours or scream that I suck and they hate me because I will not get ice cream on the way home)

6. I would never forget to bring a movie for movie day, treats for party day or show-n-tell. I know how hard that is on the kids and I would be a wonderful parent who had the kids, who had the latest movie, the best treats, and the most fabulous show-n-tell ever! I would give the best teacher gifts ever! (I wouldn't forget the calendar under the car seat, covered in yogurt, that told me all about the special days. I wouldn't tell them that if it didn't take 20 minutes to choose a pair of shoes they would have time to pick a movie and I really would never tell them that they could name the Transformer in the car "Quintin" and take him in for "Q" show-n-tell if they can pry him out of the sticky barbeque sauce holding him in the cup holder. And I would NEVER regift something for their teacher presents)

All those parenthetical examples are not actual occurrences. (yeah right)

While I am getting this all of my chest, let's also say that I would NEVER tell a checkout person that "I used to organized before I had three kids" while I am frantically searching for my debit card in a mess of papers in my purse. And Lord knows, I would NEVER tell the clerk at the gas station that the 3 sticks of Grape Tangy Taffy (my biggest addiction) I bought are actually for them so I wouldn't feel foolish eating Tangy Taffy for lunch just to get energy for the daycare pick-up later that day.

Rock on . . .

On the way home from daycare, Harrison informed me of a couple things. He said, "Mom, I want to grow my hair out so I can dye it green and have liberty spikes. Then I need to learn how to play the guitar, because when you are bad the crowd throws food at your band."

Good to know.

This was about an hour before he found out he got a mini flying V electric guitar and amp for his birthday. The boy has an uncanny ability, much like his father, to guess what he is getting for a gift.

The hair comment did my old punk rock heart good.

Happy Birthday dear boy . . .

Dear Harrison,

I am proud to be your momma.

I love you with all my heart. Happy 7th Birthday!

Mommy

What is it? . . .

Guesses? Anyone?

Love it . . .

"If you were actually going insane, you'd likely have no idea it was happening." Walter on Fringe

A new endeavor . . .

Due to my recent addiction, I now have a new blog. Come on over and give me some love at Sherifically Candid.

A present for momma . . .

I have really wanted an SLR camera for quite awhile. Last night I got one! I am thrilled. I have contacted a doctor about having it permanently attached to my right hand. . .


Here is one of my little lovelies at daycare. His momma gave me permission to post this one. I love it!

Do you see . . .

Do you see why I cannot take my eyes off my kids for a single moment? If you look closely, while Robert was inside getting food, and I was stretching my arm out to take this sweet picture of McCartney and I, you can see my boys fighting precariously close to the road behind us. (In all truth, they aren't that close, there is a ditch separating them from the road, but seriously, I could turn my head for one minute . . . )

Grass Angels . . .

Lush, green grass must make you a little kooky. Dustin was flailing around in the grass and said, "Look, I'm making grass angels!" He then got up and said, "Oh, that didn't work" Derr!

A quick pitstop . . .

On the way home from Indy, we stopped for some "slliders" at White Castle. The littles get car sick, so we played in the grass while Robert went inside for food. I snapped a quick picture and love the bright green grass and the sun was at a nice angle so the colors were great. We had a little photo shoot right there in the strip between White Castle and a gas station. People must've thought we were nuts!