To Ukraine and Back

Birthday Party

2010-04-19T10:45:00.010-04:00

Another Birthday party success! 9 Years old, I can't believe it. For some reason my parties don't stay to the normal 1-2 hours. Oh no, they just keep going and going.....I hate to stop the kids when they are having fun though.

This year "Pretty Pony Parties" came to entertain. Yep, I'm not a good entertainer at all. Normally these people bring ponies, but since the kids were a little older, they brought a horse. Then she called to tell me they were going to bring 2 horses. And they still stayed the hour and a half. She even brought them a little gift and card.

Afterwards we had lots of cake and ice cream.

Sydnee's turn...... After her friend Shannon rode, she wanted to be in charge. So they let her lead Sydnee around for a bit.

When Simon first went to get on the horse, he realized he had to climb "way up there" and decided that horses are "stupid" and he didn't need a dumb ole party anyway. That is his way of dealing with something he is either scared of or just doesn't want to do. But Olivia didn't hesitate to get up there.

But I turned my back and 5 min later he was up on that horse. I was thrilled. Heights aren't Simon's strong point. He will just avoid things if he thinks he may fail. But I praised him up and down. So he rode several rides and then even let Ethan ride with him. Ethan got a lot of rides because he was so small and just went along with who ever would take him.
Sydnee decided it was her turn. Shannon was chomping at the bit waiting until they would let her lead someone around by herself.

And she is getting her chance.

Aubrey and Haleigh were having a ball. I knew Aubrey loved horses, but had no idea Haleigh would enjoy it like she did.

And Simon up for one more ride.

Nothing like a nice group photo.

A story that many of us international adopting parents live

2010-04-12T22:25:00.004-04:00

Here is a story regarding a tragic situation with a 7 yr old Russian boy. The sad thing is that the parent didn't go for help anywhere. There are resources out there, but you definitely have to hunt and find. But for parents of biological children have a hard time understanding why we go to the lengths we do to help our adopted children. I have actually had someone tell me "if you would just take your kids out of therapy and let them just be kids they would be better off. They don't stand a chance with a parent like you". This came from someone with a biological child/ren who didn't have a horrible time raising their child/ren. I really felt it unfair for them to say this comment when they had no idea what we were going through with our children. Especially since they had only seen my kids a couple of times. So here is the story below. The drastic measure isn't that common, but sadly the story is. As a parent to one or more of these hildren, it is exhausting and makes you constantly question yourself as to if what you are doing is the right thing. But then you have to snap into reality; is your child better here or back in their home country. These kids don't stand a chance over there.

(April 12) -- When Torry Hansen sent her 7-year-old adoptive son back to his Russian homeland alone on a one-way flight last week, part of her note to authorities said the boy had "severe psychopathic issues" and she no longer wished to parent him. Hansen's mother, Nancy, later told The Associated Press her adoptive grandson threatened to burn down their house and kill their family members. Adoption experts and psychologists now say Hansen had several options in coping with Artyom "Justin" Savelyev's alleged behavioral problems, including consulting her adoption agency, family pediatrician, social worker or even Tennessee's child protective services."If you're in crisis, you need to reach out," Sue Gainor, national chairperson of Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption, told AOL News. "Nobody should be alone in crisis, because it results in rash decisions."

Rossia 1 Television Channel / AP
Artyom "Justin" Savelyev, the 7-year-old boy sent back to Russia by his adoptive American mother last week, gets into a minivan outside the police department office in Moscow on Thursday.As Russia weighs a freeze on adoptions in the U.S., the Hansen case is shining new light on "disrupted" adoptions, which occur when a family decides to relinquish custody of an adopted son or daughter. Though experts said statistical data are spotty in recording the number of disrupted international adoptions in the U.S., Nashville adoption attorney Bob Tuke, a longtime member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, said broken adoptions like that of Hansen and Savelyev are generally uncommon."It's so rare to hear about anything as extreme as the Hansen case, but sometimes disrupted adoptions do happen," Tuke told AOL News. "In the very few times I've seen it in my experience, it's been because the parent simply could not parent the child. There was an inability to deal with the child physically or emotionally."Children adopted from Russia can come with severe emotional and psychological problems stemming from their time in the country's orphanage system, where children may suffer neglect and abuse. Fetal alcohol syndrome is also a prevalent problem among Russian orphans. These circumstances could lead to attachment and behavioral disorders among Russian adoptees that may make it difficult for them to bond with the American parents who adopt them."Some of these children have never been loved, since birth. They haven't been held, and they aren't allowed experiences that help them develop their senses. ... They don't even know what a parent is," Chuck Johnson, vice president and chief operating officer at the National Council for Adoption, told AOL News. "We bring them to the U.S. and put them in a brightly colored room with lots of noisy toys, and we think that's supposed to make them happy when, really, it can hurt their integration process."Hansen described her adopted son as "mentally unstable" and "violent." Such behavioral problems are consistent with special-needs children transitioning out of international orphanage institutions. Development delays, attachment disorders and problems with self-control and aggression are among the difficulties international adoptees confront, according to Joseph LaBarbera, a clinical psychologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who works with international adoptees.Parents are often unprepared for the challenges of raising a son or daughter recovering from severe trauma. Hansen's mother said her daughter was lied to about Savelyev's well-being because the Russian orphanage wanted to get rid of him."A subset of these kids are very difficult to deal with. ... The usual interventions like counseling or medication or brief hospitalization are sometimes not sufficient," LaBarbera told AOL News. "Certain kids are born in this world that are damaged by their early treatment, and years later those problems come home to roost."Nancy Hansen also told the AP that her daughter did not seek professional psychological help for Savelyev before sending him back to Russia. Adoption advocates like Johnson say that was a grave mistake."We know that they had options. They did not have to resort to these drastic measures," Johnson told AOL News. "Here she is, a nurse. ... She could have talked to a pediatrician, received a referral for a child psychologist, reached out to her placing adoption agency. There are programs for families who want to disrupt their adoptions."All of the experts interviewed by AOL News pointed to educational resources at their Web sites for parents of international adoptees. They also pointed to state protective services as last-ditch efforts."What you don't do is put your 7-year-old adoptive son back on a plane to Russia," Tuke said. "It often takes work and help. ... We think love conquers all, but sometimes love needs a little help."Despite the outcry over Hansen's actions, LaBarbera cautions against rash judgment against her."The woman was vilified, demonized for what was obviously not an ideal solution to the problem, but the problems are often very difficult to deal with," he said. "Some of the parents, their lives have been dramatically changed as a result of these very impaired children who were damaged in orphanages. They deal with some pretty difficult to control kids, and I feel sorry for them."Gainor stressed that the majority of international adoptions are success stories."Individual crises occur and they're tragic, but the larger outcome is that thousands of children have been adopted into loving, happy homes," she said. "Most parents work really, really hard to help their children that they love. We don't want one crisis to paint a very broad picture of adoption."The Russian government hopes Savelyev will be welcomed into a loving home back in his native country. Three families have come forward voicing their desire to adopt him.That wish was echoed by Johnson. "My hope is that the child can find a home that will meet his needs," he said.

2010-03-11T21:15:00.002-05:00

I can't believe2 months have gone by already. There has been a lot going on. To begin the year I went to go see a house that was offered to me for a retreat house. Actually it was brought up around the first of December, but I just wasn't thinking it would work. After the holidays were over I gave it more thought and figured that it couldn't hurt to at least go look at it. Oh my goodness. When I walked in, I knew it was meant to be. After looking at all 3 floors, I was sold. In February I closed on the house and will take possession around April 1. I am so excited. This is the answer to a dream come true. I have prayed daily for guidance on this massive project. So far everything has fallen into place one piece at a time. I am in awe of everything that has worked out. There is a little construction that needs to be done in the walk out basement to open it up, but other than that it is just paint. You can see details by going to www.thecapecodretreat.com. I still can't believe it's going to happen. We're taking names of volunteers who are interested in coming April 16-18, air mattresses and all to paint and clean. And of course I will take help any other time too.

The kids have been doing pretty well for the most part. We have had trouble with Sydnee acting out in class which we met with the principal this morning. Simon has done well up until they started practicing for the spring program. This is a very intense practice. The program is tomorrow, so it will be over soon. He just doesn't do well in large crowds. Especially if he walks into the crowd instead of the crowd coming slowly to him. But he is doing way better than he was doing several years ago. He is also learning to recognize when things don't feel right to him. Back in the days he would just blow up. But now he is figuring out what it is, what's causing it and how to deal with it without automatically blowing up. That is a huge thing for him. He is starting to feel pretty proud of that accomplishment.

We are still looking for a home for a now 8 mo old kitten. He is beautiful and loving. But he needs a home. We have had him for 6 months now and it was always a plan to get him healthy and find him a home. And we also have a 4 mo old cockatiel who needs a family. We will probably be getting more eggs this spring and the cage isn't large enough for 3 cockatiels and a nesting box. And then with the hatchlings.

Mike has been working on his train room in the garage. He's gotten pretty far with it.

We have had 2 deaths in the family. These were cousins in their early 20's. I just feel for their mother and grandmothers. I can't imagine losing one of my children. So please lift them up in prayer for peace and comfort.

I have a quilt event this weekend where I will have a booth to show quilts and of course the retreat center. I am looking forward to it. I have given out just under 500 business cards already and I haven't even gotten out there formally. We will have our open house July 2-3. I hope you join us.

Happy New Year

2010-01-02T21:36:00.004-05:00

New Years Eve started well. Everyone was being very lazy. Later in the day we had another episode with Simon. After calling his doctor, I was told to bring him up to Cinci Hospital. So I gathered our things and headed on up. It was very late when we got there. And after they decided to admit him into the other hospital it was 2:15am when I got to my hotel. I was exhausted. I headed home on Friday aroud 1pm.

When I went to Mom's to get Sydnee, they were planning a surprise for me. I had no idea what they were doing. But she told me that Deanna and Pat were meeting us at the pizza place. Well, we got to the restaurant and they showed me a quilt Sydnee had worked on all day. There was an online quilt challenge. They would send instructions every hour for you to go onto the next step. Well, Sydnee did a wonderful job. I was amazed at how perfect her seams were. She was so excited to show me. Mom said she never wanted to take a break. She just wanted to keep on sewing. Yeah Sydnee.

Another bit of good news is that I found two new possibilities for a retreat house. I will find more information this upcoming week. I am hoping that this will be a step in the right direction.

2009-12-23T23:59:00.023-05:00

This starts as a love story. We have had Tovarysch for over a year. In July we got the male cockatiel. After a couple of months we realized they really liked each other. The funny thing is that we bought Tovarysch as a "male". Well, not so....he's a she. Well, sure enough in November they proved to us that they really are a couple. Here is the series of photos which leads up to "Little Guy". What an adventure it has been. We have enjoyed it thoroughly.

The happy couple.

One day I found an egg in one of the food bowls. It was ice cold so I disposed of it. Mike quickly made a laying box. Within 48 hours we had another egg. 48 hours, another and then another. We had a total of 4 eggs (not including the first one that we disposed of). While I was gone to retreat Nov 13-15, Mike called to let me know that an egg hatched. He was so excited.

Two days old

Momma sitting on the other eggs right next to Little Guy

He's so ugly he's cute.

I can't believe how fast he/she has grown.

AIE Auction

2009-11-08T02:11:00.003-05:00

Mom and I went to the AIE Foundation auction. This was for the school to raise money for the scholarships that parents may need if they fall on hard times. We did great! It was a lot of fun just watching people bidding back and forth. I have no idea how much they raised. They also set a goal to collect $25,000 by Dec 31. If that goal is reached, Mr Savage will let the kids shave his head. Too funny.

2009-11-04T23:04:00.002-05:00

The kids have both done well over the last month or so. They have a new psychiatrist in Cinci. So now their appointments will be in the same place at the same time. That really makes a difference. Less travel time for sure. They have a new counselor here in Louisville that will communicate with the doctors up there. But that will help with the travel as well. That was Cinci's goal. They wanted to try to make things easier on us during the school year. Speaking of school, they have both done well this year. Even the principal has stopped me in carpool multiple times to let me know he is very proud of Simon this year. That was great to hear.

Sydnee got her casts on but was able to get them removed within 3 weeks. It was supposed to be a 4-8 week process. She was getting new casts every week. She thoroughly enjoyed Tuesday nights when she could have the casts removed for 24 hours and soak in a nice hot bath. Now she is only wearing night casts. She did very well and can actually now stand on one foot for 16+ seconds. Before it was less than 5 seconds. So this is a great change.

We still have our little black kitten. Well he isn't tiny anymore. This little guy needs a loving home. If Mike has told me that once, I have heard it 1,000 times. He is very handsome. Solid black with big green eyes. He loves to play, but will cuddle up with you as well. Gets along with other cats and does great with kids. We just have too many little critters running around. So I would love to find him a wonderful home.

Our cockatiels have decided to become parents. We now have 5 eggs in a nest. I have read that if the birds are under 1 year old, there is a chance their eggs won't be viable. So we'll have to wait and see. But in the meantime, they are taking turns on the nest. If they hatch, they should start around Nov 13. So if you are intersted in a cockatiel, let me know. I have already had 4 people ask if they can have one.

I had been looking at a house to buy to use as a retreat center. But someone bought it before me. So we are looking at building. Now I am looking for a piece of property. We'll be holding our fundraiser in January. More on that later. I would love to be up and running by October 2010.

American Family Association - Action Alert

2009-10-06T11:10:00.000-04:00

American Family Association - Action Alert

2009-10-02T12:07:00.004-04:00

School started in August and we have done very well so far. The first couple of weeks were great and then we ran into some issues. But the kids are doing way better now. We think it was just an adjustment thing. Simon has a hard time with transition and change, so this was a lot at one time. He likes his friends and has the same teacher, so adjusting well now.

Sydnee did well at adjusting. She doesn't have as hard a time with change.

The school fall festival is coming up soon and the kids really can't wait. They love the cake walk and being able to just run around with their friends without mom and dad hovering over them.

We got Simon's sleep study results and they were negative. So now it's on to figure out what is going on with him. He is still falling asleep at school for hours at a time. So this just isn't right. Now we are keeping a sleep chart to see if we can pin point when and where the problems are.

Sydnee got her leg casts on. At first she was excited. We had tried to keep her from being scared about it. Because she had to get the injections the week before. That was going to be more scary than anything else I think. They even put her flu shot in her calf too. Yikes! But it was already numb, so she didn't feel it. But she won't have them on that long, so it won't be too bad. They sure haven't slowed her down at all.

Oh my heavens, it is October already

2009-10-02T11:45:00.002-04:00

I have been slacking in my blog entries. So I am going to try and catch up a bit.

Meeps spent much of August and September trying to recover from Toxoplasmosis. After her surgery for the polyp, she was doing so well. Her little head tilt was much better, she was playing and all. But all of a sudden her back legs were getting stiff. As days rolled on she started having something like seizures. Very scary so such a small kitten. She never reached 2 pounds. But two weeks ago after another hospital stay and several specialists, she lost her battle. This disease is horrible to watch. But the whole time you would just keep thinking she just needed a little therapy to help her legs move, etc. Everyone loved her. She went on 3 retreats and had a lot of loving friends. It's been very hard without her. I was handfeeding her 5 times a day, watering more often than that. She couldn't walk, so I had to carry her everywhere. She went to the office, appointments, etc with me. I couldn't leave her in the car because of he heat and I had to keep a very close eye on her the whole time. She was so lovable. But in the end the stiffness moved up to her neck and it wasn't going to be good. So I had to make the decision whether she was living for me or her. No one can put a finger on why she seemed so special.
You can go to my facebook page and see all kinds of photos of her. Thanks to Dr. Wolf for helping her so much of the way.

Mother in Law

2009-08-23T22:23:00.005-04:00

Well a lot has gone on for the last week. First my mother in law fell on Monday when she tried to look out her window. The new nurse she was getting ready to have coming to the house recommended she go to the ER because she wasn't very coherant and seemed to be having a lot of trouble standing. They ran labs and found her white blood count was very high. They decided to then to do a spinal tap. Nothing showed up. They called in a neurologist and infectious disease doc and with a scan they determined she had cancer of the brain, bones, kidneys, liver and pancreas. How can someone have this much cancer and have no symptoms. Later determined that she was on so much medication for other ailments that is was just masking the pain and symptoms. They didn't feel very hopeful that there would be much time. Today is Sunday and she passed away around 8PM. I had visited her after a retreat and then headed to my Mom's to pick up my kids. Bless her heart she was helping watch the kids since Angela and Mike needed to spend a lot of time at the hospital. She had to be tired.

Meeps had a neurologist appointment on Monday morning to try to figure out what is going on with her. She got out of the vet on Friday with no fever or fluid on the lungs, but she still couldn't walk and just didn't look good to me. After an appointment for over an hour with Dr. Wolfe, she told me she thinks she could know what is wrong with her. But they would need to do a more thorough oral exam. She asked if she could do that. A couple of hours later she called to tell me that Meeps had a polyp over her soft palette that was the size of a nickle. She thought she would be much better now. Well, sure enough, she is eating much more, although it is still kitten formula and canned A/D. She isn't doing well on dry food at all. Right now she is cuddled up on my shoulder and snoring.

Well it's time for me to hit the hay. I am tired and the morning will be here before we know it.

Update on Meeps

2009-08-13T23:33:00.006-04:00

Meeps has been in the hospital since Monday morning. She kept spiking a fever over the weekend. Mike had taken the kids to the lake, so I was catering to her all weekend with icing her down, giving cool baths, etc. On Monday morning I took her back to the vet and she has been there ever since. She is so pitiful. When I come to the vets office, they bring her to me all wrapped up in a babies receiving blanket. The staff has fallen in love with her as everyone else has.

She has been on IV fluids, antibiotics, steroids, nebulizer treatments and being hand fed. The pneumonia had gotten pretty bad. But today when I saw her, she could actually breathe without gergling. She could even breathe through her mouth. That is improvement. She is still very tiny and has a lot of growing to do. So I don't know how it will all play out in the end. But she has been fighting her way through.

So just say some prayers for this little one and hope she comes home soon all healthy and bright eyed.

Update on Meeps

2009-08-07T13:09:00.003-04:00

Mike took the kids to the lake this past weekend and I had a sit and sew with my quilting friends. Then I was determined to work on the room downstairs. I want to be able to get the kids toys moved out of their rooms and down there. So in the end I did manage to get it started and about 1/2 done. When they got back, Sydnee was smiling from ear to ear. She was loving the idea.

During all of this I am still taking care of Meeps. We had been told last week that she has pneumonia. She has been running a high fever (103.5-104.9). She is wanting to sleep all the time. No interest in eating unless you hand feed. Even then she isn't overly thrilled to eat or drink. I have been giving her ice water, lay her on a gel pad to help cool down, gave her a cool bath, give her the meds and keep taking her temp. I feel so bad for her. So on Monday morning she went back to the vet after no success in getting the temp down. So she is now in the hospital on IV's with antibiotics. They were able to get the temp to 102.7 so far. They will call me tomorrow.

We're in Cinci tonight and this is our last overnight stay for a while. I am looking forward to the break. We don't come back until Oct 1 for Sydnee's castings.

Yes, school is almost here!

2009-08-06T12:38:00.010-04:00

Time is ticking. Starting to gather the supplies needed for school which begins on August 17. The kids are looking forward to it as well. We have gotten some new clothes and working on the shoe issue. Simon is in the inbetween range of shoe sizes from boys to mens. Yes, he wears a size 6-61/2. He is always putting on my garden boots, flip flops and all. He just thinks it's halarious. He is growing way too fast for me.

Sydnee just has narrow feet and they are flat. You can't find many choices with arches in them. They are making most kids shoes with flat inserts. I guess we may have to get arch supports to put in them.

As we have been taking care of the little gray kitten (Meeps), we keep finding more and more things she has wrong with her. I am beginning to think that we have a special needs kitty on our hands right now. I haven't even tried to adopt her out yet. I took her to our regular vet when she was still having alot of head tilting and gurgling sounds. Come to find out her upper respiratory in the lungs was much better. No crackles. That was good news. And she no longer has an ear infection is wonderful news. BUT she has a ruptured eardrum on the left side, explaining the left head tilt. And has a respiratory virus which has to just ride out on it's own. It's all in the nasal passages and sinuses. So it will be another 6-8 weeks for healing. Hopefully that will take care of it. Simon's didn't grow back and had surgery if you remember. So she's still on antibiotic for a few more days and she just has to be watched for any other signs. In the meantime she is just a tiny adorable kitten that is one of the most loving kittens I have ever seen. Smokey and Maggie have been so good with her. They even let her eat their food first and leave their bowls during the day so she can nibble. That is completely unheard of from those two. They usually eat every drop at once like their afraid someone will take it. I have noticed that Meeps isn't growing very much either. She isn't near the size of other kittens we have had at this age. She is almost 4 months old and still looks like8-10 weeks.

Last Thursday our family headed to Chicago. Yep! All of us. I had a conference from Fri-Sun, so Mike was able to take the kids to sightsee. They had a ball and were very tired at the end. They got to go to the Lego Discovery Center, Build a Bear, The Navy Pier and ride several rides, eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp, ride a boat on Lake Michigan for a tour. By Sunday they were exhausted. We got back home about 11:30 at night. Then I had two early morning appointments on Monday so I had to get up early. Then a 4:00, 5:00 and 7-9:00 appt with the kids. Then had to head to Cinci for 3 appts at 8:00am, 9am, and 10:30 am. We were all so tired. As soon as we finished we headed right back to the hotel and were able to take a 1 hour nap with a late checkout. But we could have all used more than that.

At 6 pm we had to be back to the hospital downtown for Simons sleep study. That also meant after getting special approval that Sydnee was able to stay with us that her and I slept in a fold out chair together. Oh my, another sleepless night. On Tues at 7am, we were out of the hospital and on our way home. The kids slept all the way home. Simon even fell asleep in the booth eating breakfast at Bob Evans. I couldn't wait to get home. Simon fell back to sleep and slept until 2:30pm. Poor thing, he doesn't do well with any kind of schedule changes that take any sleep away. But that's ok as long as he gets sleep later. We'll get the results about his sleep study in a couple of weeks.

Simon all hooked up to the monitors. Doesn't he look cute. LOL....

==============================================

The next morning Sydnee wanted to help the nurse, so she was trying to get the glue off of Simon's face. See they really do love each other.
Well it seems that our mystery vegetable turns out to definitely be a pumpkin. They are all nearly the same size and shape. I can't wait to taste what they are like.

Miscellaneous Pictures

2009-07-25T12:09:00.012-04:00

It started off looking like a plant for cucumbers, squash, etc. But now it seems like they may be pumpkins. I was hoping for watermelon, but pumpkins will work too. They are getting quite large. So I do hope it is something l can put up in the freezer for pies. We love pumpkin pies. I noticed today they are actually starting to turn orange.

Sydnee was able to make a seam in a quilt during the Sewing Expo in Sharonville, OH. She loved it! Although it's hard to tell by the intense look on her face.

During the retreat in July, this momma and her fawn were just prancing through the field behind us. We then saw them run across the highway as we held our breath.

Also during the retreat I had the little kitten with me. So here are some shots of being completely spoiled.

Granny Kathy

Her famous little head tilt.

Granma Pat

Now we're catching up

2009-07-25T10:38:00.002-04:00

This past weekend was great. Kids did well again and I got more done around the house. While we've been gone in and out of town, my friend Jill has been taking are of the little grey kitten. She has done very well with her. Now keep in mind that she isn't really a cat person. She prefers dogs.

On Tuesday it was back to Cincinnati for more appointments. Simon saw Dr. Bukuvalas for the vomiting issue we have. Of course though he hasn't done it for about 2 months. But he was doing it several times a week while watching tv or playing. He wasn't eating or anything. He would tell me he couldn't figure out what happened because he didn't feel sick. For now we're going to watch it and keep a journal of the hows and whys when it happens again.

Simon also had another speech evaluation. His pronunciations are good, but his pragmatic speech is where the problems are. He runs all of his words together because he speaks so fast. His vocabulary is quite extensive too. But they attribute that to the Aspbergers. We're on the list for the Kelly O'Leary Center and U of L Autism Center. It will be months before we can get in. But hopefully they will pinpoint what we can do to help.

And then it was back home again. I was so tired.

Friday was a little simpler, but long. Sydnee had an appointment to get her hair cut, and I had an open house that evening in Jtown. And then we had to fit in another vet appointment. "Meeps" (the grey kitten) has a head tilt to the left. She can nearly look back to the sky with the direction she turns it. It's been like that, but it was getting worse again. She is up to 2.1# now and eats well. Come to find out she has a perforated ear drum from the infection. And her poor nose is all clogged up. That explains the breathing noise she has. And why she tilts her head. She'll get a fever off and on too. Usually 103.5-104. She acts just like a child would with a high fever. She'll lay around, sleep, light eating, little drinking, etc. So we are continuing the antibiotics, and he gave her a worm booster. I didn't realize there are several stages of de-worming when they do it as a small kitten. Even though she doesn't have worms. We're now up to $256 in vet bils for a $15 kitten that I didn't plan on keeping. The vet said she was a keeper. She is so calm, loves to be held, will sleep in your arms, snores in a cute way right now, and loves to play. Very different than some kittens I have had in the past.

July 13-17

2009-07-25T10:25:00.002-04:00

This has been a very strange week around here. Sydnee is home but Simon isn't. It has also been very quiet. Mike is working 12 hour days (7-7). I got some things done around the house. I cancelled my open house for Tuesday. I'm just not up to it with all that is going on.

Tuesday was a meeting with the doctor and nurse. It went well. And Simon is doing well also. They are hoping he can go home by Friday. We visited with Simon after he finished lunch. He turned off the lights in his room and said "I have to have quiet time now. I don't have to sleep, but I have to be quiet". He layed down and asked me to lay with him. He fell asleep within 2 minutes after he asked me to rub his back. They told me he seemed to be very tired. We had noticed that a lot too. It was nice to visit with him and for him to want me to rub his back.

On Thursday he was discharged. He was anxious to leave with Sydnee and I. He had earned a lot of bucks to use at the little store they had. He bought all kinds of things there. And some of them were from Sydnee, which I thought was very nice. We headed to the hotel because we had an appointment at 8am on Friday morning up there. And then it was home we went. It was nice to have us all back together under one roof. Simon and Sydnee were playing so well together. He was being so polite and saying please, thank you, I'm sorry, etc. And all without being told.

July 10-12

2009-07-25T07:16:00.003-04:00

Until this morning. I had packed the car last night so that all I would have to do was get dressed to leave for my quilt retreat. I needed to leave at 9:15am to be there on time. Everything was very smooth and there wasn't rushing around or anything. I was able to spend more time with the kids before I left and straighten up a little. And then.....

2 Minutes before I left out the door, Simon started being irritable. I couldn't figure out why. There didn't seem to be any reasoning behind it. He just kept saying he didn't know why. Well, within minutes he was at a full blown rage. For over an hour he was violent, screaming, calling everyone names, etc. He kept threatening me and himself. After one hour and 15 minutes, I had to realize that it isn't physically possible for me to hold him like I need to. He is so big now and when he's like that he is even stronger than ever. I had spoken to the doctor last night about it and she told me that she wanted me to bring him in if he got like that again. So I told Mike to get his clothes, and pack a backpack to head to Cincinnati. I was an emotional wreck by then and wasn't sure how I would handle 2 hours in the car with him. So Mike drove him up there and spent 13 hours in the ER. They had taken them straight back as soon as they got there because they knew he was coming, so that was good. But it took a while to process and decide what the plan was. Later Mike called to tell me that they were transferring him to the College Hill Campus. He got settled in and Mike was heading home.

I took Sydnee with me to the retreat, which wasn't as nice as most because I cried the entire weekend. But I had a lot of people to give me hugs. I had also taken the grey kitten with me since she was on medicine multiple times of the day after seeing the second vet because she wasn't getting any better. Her eyes were better, but they had to change her antibiotic because she now has and upper respiratory infection and ear infection on top of everything else. She now weighs 1.6#. The antibiotic she was on wouldn't help the upper respiratory. So she gave her a penicillin injection and meds. Everyone at the retreat fell in love with her. She got more lovins that I ever thought she would have. But she needed them.

I did get a little done at the retreat, but I just couldn't help but to think of Simon. We visited him on Sunday evening. He wasn't thrilled to see us at all. But I had a feeling that would be the case. They are going to start medication adjustments on Monday. He hasn't had any changes in a year and he has grown a lot. So I would think it would certainly be time. They had him on a strict routine and schedule which he seemed to like a lot. We were thinking back to when this all seemed to be starting up and we think it was about a week after school was out. So it made sense that he would like it.

July 7, 2009

2009-07-25T07:02:00.002-04:00

Today was another day of appointments. The kids had reading lab at school, then to the chiropractor and then I had an appointment with my rheumatologist. After he saw me this time, he decided to go ahead and start treatments. I was worried about that, because I know the medicines can be pretty wicked. I have more swollen joints and he measures them and puts them on a diagram on my chart. Several had moved to a 4 from a 1 or 2 and then there were some added ones. My left pinky finger has been hurting so bad I can't even wrap the steering wheel with it. It literally burns from the hand to the last knuckle. So tomorrow I will start on Methotrexate and Folic Acid. I take 7 tablets of the Methotrexate one day a week and the Folic Acid daily to prevent getting the mouth sores that the Methotrexate causes. Wow, doesn't that sound like fun. So now that means going to the lab monthly to monitor its effects.

After finishing our appointments, it was off to Cincinnati again. The kids had their weekly appointment with Dr. Parkins at 8am the next morning. Then it was back home again.

Thursday was reading lab and OT for Simon again. So not too much going on this week until......

Fourth of July Weekend

2009-07-25T06:53:00.002-04:00

Here it is the holiday already. On Friday, Sydnee spent the day at Jenna's house and Simon went with Mike to the lake. So I was able to do chores a lot easier.

On Saturday, we planned to go to Mom's along with a couple of her friends. There is a neighbor behind Mom that does a large fireworks show every year. And since this year was on a Saturday we thought we would go. The kids were able to swim for a while and we all pitched in a dish. So it worked out well. After swimming all day and then staying up late, the kids were pooped! But they had fun. Mike and Simon came home early on Saturday because there were so many people at Gary's and space was getting thin. So they gave it up.

July 2, 2009

2009-07-25T06:49:00.003-04:00

Today I wanted to get the kittens to a vet. Instead of driving all the way out to my regular vet, I decided t take them to the Mt Washington Animal Clinic. She was willing to do the exam free and then only charge me for medicines and fecal check. So that sounded good. In the end she gave them some Revolution to prevent ear mites, fleas, ticks, etc. Then she did a fecal check and it was clear. They weighed 1.6# (black one) and 1.4# (grey one). How tiny! She decided to give them an antibiotic and an antibiotic gel for the eyes. They both had eye infections, although the black one was mild.

July 1, 2009

2009-07-01T22:34:00.011-04:00

I spent last weekend working on Mom's pool. She has a literal swamp and is so aggravated with it, she is ready to call in a bulldozer. So this is serious at this point. She had presumably purchased enough chemicals to get her through the entire summer. But not as it is now. After many trips to the store this week, many phone calls, etc we now have a bright blue pool, but it's still cloudy. So tomorrow is another day.

Monday was a pretty good day. I was able to get some laundry done. Wahoo!

Tuesday Sydnee had to have nasal surgery to hopefully keep her from having so many nosebleeds. I highly recommend the "Surgcenter of Louisville" on Dupont Circle. They are great with kids. Dr. Libson the anesthesiolost was super. He did the same thing Cinci does with sedation. He was the most kid friendly man I have ever seen. He stayed with her until we left the building. The surgery took a whole 15 minutes. I couldn't believe it. So if you have a child needing any kind of surgery that is outpatient. Then try them out. This place was great. Way better than Kosair.

Sydnee was waiting for them to come get her. Everything went like clockwork.

Now for the popcicle that Dr. Libson promised. He just kept telling me that he just loved her.

After leaving there we headed to Cinci for out 8am appointment the next morning. I was so tired this time for some reason. We got there and the kids got ready for bed. We ate and lounged.

We had out appointment on Wednesday morning. It went well, even though Simon had a tough start. He decided that he really didn't want to be there and the doctor was "stupid". So he proceeded to kick her, poke her, pitch things at her, etc. But he got over it finally and stopped.

On our way home, we stopped at a rest stop in Florence to take a nap. We were all tired and slept over an hour. But we all felt much better. After that we headed to Dry Ridge to visit the quilt shop.
Well on our way there just off the exit, we saw a small pet store. So of course we had to go in. It turns out that they are closing and once you're in there, you realize why. They didn't take care of what they had there. I got bird foods for half price. They had a cockatiel which of course we got and then there were 2 kittens for $15 each. They looked pitiful. Their eyes were all gunked up with infection. The owner told me she had wiped them out some, but it just kept coming back. Well duh! They are both 9 weeks old. The grey one is a female and the solid black one is male. They are adorable of course.
How can you resist these little faces?

Too much TV?

2009-06-27T14:13:00.003-04:00

We left on Tuesday to go to Cincinnati. It was a beautiful day which made for a nice ride. We needed to be there at 1:00.

Simon saw the nurse who decides which type of sleep study he needs. He has labored breathing at night, will fall asleep at school quite a bit. They think he may have sleep apnea. He will go in and spend the night at Cinci Childrens to have this done. We'll probably be able to combine it with one of our other appointments. I will know on Monday when he goes in. The worse part is that they don't treat sleep apnea in children like they do adults with a Cpap machine. They do surgery. I have had the surgery, so I have been there. But I will wait for the results to be in and find out what the plan is.

After our appointment we had dinner, we went to the Lego Store again. We love that place. We were in there well over an hour. But it's always worth it. The store was packed this time. Then it was back to the hotel to get in the pool.

On Wednesday we had to be out of there for an 8:00 appointment. Wow was that early since I sat up until Midnight playing on thecomputer. The kids saw Dr. Parkins for their therapy. She has put them on a sticker reward chart for the week. For each portion of the day they are able to control their anger, they get a sticker. Getting the reward is determined by how many stickers they get. Next Wednesday we'll find out the results. Right now Sydnee is winning.

After leaving our appointment, we went back to the hotel. I told the kids we were going to take a nap and the go check out something that is fun (it was about 11am at the time). Simon finally went to sleep. Sydnee and I slept until 1:30. I couldn't beleive it. But boy did I feel better. After getting up and out, we picked up some lunch and went to Winton Woods Harbor. We ate our lunch and then went out of the paddle boats. They had a lot of fun with that. We were only out there about 1 hour (which was plenty for me). It was sooooo hot! I just can't handle the heat like I used to.

Afterwards it was getting later in the day and we went to the dinner and the hotel. The next morning we went to the Sewing Expo. We were only there a couple of hours. It wasn't anything to brag about. I've seen better. But it was nice to go.

Finally we were back home. Then it was time to try and clean Mom's pool. It's a mess. We've been trying to get it opened, but apparently we aren't using enough chemicals even though we are using what Watsons told her to do. So again later tonight I will be over there to add chemicals and scrubbing the sides again. Then tomorrow I get to vacuum it.

The problem of the week has been TV. Simon is literally obcessed with TV. I don't let him watch it constantly and never have. But he has now discovered that the hotel and Grandma has the Disney Channel. Many of those shows are way too old for him. But I still don't want him to sit and watch it constantly. He would sit in front of it for hours on in if I let him. So I have had to go to only letting him watch it for 30 minutes and then more can be determined later in the day. Then he goes on during the day of constant asking to watch more. It gets to where he asks every 20 minutes or so. That can make for a long day. When he is tired of hearing the word "no" he goes into a rage like you wouldn't believe. It goes on forever as if you just pulled his world out from under him. The drama that goes with it is unreal. And it gets him nowhere.

Well gotta go. We have to get ready for the 25th anniversary party at school. Mr Savage is having a big celebration. Then Grandmothers for her 89th birthday party.

Allergy Appt

2009-06-23T01:01:00.003-04:00

Sydnee and I had our allergy testing today. What fun! Well at least Sydnee didn't think it was much fun. You know she's upset, when Simon was giving her hugs and trying to calm her down. Actually it wasn't that bad, but I think she is still dragging and a little moody. She made it through and the doctor told her she is allergic to cats, molds and dust mites. I am not allergic to anything in particular. He told me that the 14 years of allergy shots I had taken have finally worked. What great news. He told me once again for the third time to get Hepa filters for our bedrooms. So instead of waiting for Mike once again on making a decision, I went to Lowes and got them. So we'll see what kind of a difference it makes. Since we have cats at home, they said there isn't any reason to take shots for cats. Good news for me.

Sydnee is scheduled to have her nose cauterized. She has nose bleed on a nearly daily basis. It sure gets old because she ruines her clothes, blankets, etc. She has had it done once about 3 years ago, but it's time to try it again. She is having it done on June 30.

I just got information for the kids to go to VBS at Hyland Park Baptist Church. I think I will go ahead and let them go, because of the timing. They would only miss one class due to appointments in Cinci. I'll find out tomorrow.

Simon has a sleep study appointment tomorrow in Cinci and they have their behavior appointments on Wednesday. There is a sewing show on Thursday, so I plan on going there. The kids will get to visit their new Lego store.

Summer Camp for Sydnee

2009-06-23T00:21:00.008-04:00

What an interesting time it has been. Sydnee got to go to camp at Country Lake for Camp Freedom (disabilities camp with our church camp). She was on a waiting list, but ended up getting in at the last minute. Then at the last minute her best friend Olivia got to go. So Sydnee was doubly excited.

We got her all packed and ready to go. She was so ready and couldn't wait to meet up with Olivia. We met at our church and drove on up. We got to see where the girls would be bunking, eating, swimming, etc. They more they saw, the more they got excited. They started running around a little and Sydnee hit her knee on a picnic table bench seat. Sure enough, she ended up with a bleeding boo boo. The counselors had to go to the office to get a bandaid. Who would have thought someone would already get hurt just registering in.... Only Sydnee would.

It was time for Mom's to go. And the girls had no problem. They didn't seem to mind. So off we went.

Saturday morning Simon came into the kitchen to ask me why Sydnee was home. I told him she wasn't home, she was up at camp. Then he said "Mom, she's in her room". So I told him to go in and double check, because that would have been a very long walk for her. He came back in with a silly grin on his face. "Nope, she isn't in there". I asked if he missed her and at first he said no, but then changed to a shy "yes".

Mike ended up taking Simon to the lake with him later on Saturday. So I was home to do laundry. Whaoooo!

On Sunday I drove up to get her and she was so tired. She said the teenage girls wouldn't stop talking at night. But she had a ball. She fell asleep within 5 minutes. After she woke up she told me a little more about her trip. Both girls decided to participate in the talent show. They got up on stage and danced to one of the songs in the movie "Curious George". The counselor told us it was like they had previously coreographed the whole thing. I couldn't believe they did it.

After we got home her and I cleaned her room. She wanted to take the books from her dollhouse with shelves to put her Polly Pockets in there. Not a problem. Now I have to figure out what we're going to do with her books. We ended up throwing away a full trash bag of garbage she has collected. And 2 large bags of stuff to give away.

Miscellaneous Photos

2009-06-15T21:38:00.009-04:00

Here's my boy Tovarysch practicing his "la la's". He makes the motions, but not one sound comes out. I don't know if he will ever get it. In the morning he'll do them to get a cheerio.

Here is my little grunge girl. This child will find mud no matter when or where. She just likes to be in it one way or another.
This is a picture of the sky when we were getting a lot of lightening. I stood outside forever to get just this amount. But nothing spectacular.

This little couple of barn swallows have worked hard on building their nest this year. And I guess it was worth it to them. They are on our front porch very close to the upper edge of the overhang. But they always let me take pictures. There are four in the nest, but you can only see three from here.

And this little guy. Always doing things to make me laugh. He is in Sydnee's doll stroller looking out the back where you push from. Here he is from where the doll would sit. Silly boy!

Wonderful Week!

2009-06-14T23:00:00.003-04:00

This has been one of the calmest weeks ever! Sydnee has done wonderful. She has been so pleasant to be with. Much different than over the last 6-10 months. She told me one day "Mom, I love doing things with you. I think my medicine is making me happier." I said "isn't it nice to not be mad at the world?" She just laughed and said yes. She had played for hours with or without me. She has been laughing, being silly, decisive, active, etc. It's been absolutely a joy to be around her. This is way different than the past few months.

Yesterday I went through toys in the garage. I think I had about 5 large black garbage bags to donate, 2 bags of garbage and maybe one bag to keep. So that was progress. I am done with keeping things. If it hasn't been used over the last couple of months, it's out of here! Mike kept asking me "save or keep?" on things and I would say "throw out". He kept trying to store things in the garage attic or rafters. But he finally got my point when I said "GET RID OF IT!" What a weight lifted off. Then it poured rain and in I went.

Today I had a dentist appointment getting two crowns on. Wahooo! How exciting. Simon had an orthodontist appointment getting another bracket. We met Mike for lunch and then went to the "safety city" to do the smoke in the house thing. They also did a DNA teeth imprint for us to store in the freezer. So now we have DNA from the saliva and the teeth imprints. Kind of neat. Hopefully we'll never need them. After that we headed to the pediatrician because both kids have poison ivy. How wonderful! And then it was back across town again for Simon's ear checkup. He has a very tiny hole left in his new eardrum, but he is hoping it will heal on it's own. The only problem there is Simon isn't known to heal anything on his own. His hearing test was perfect though, so that was good news. He wants to see us again in 6 months for a recheck. If the hole isn't better, then it's back to surgery. So please pray that it does heal on it's own.

We are now home and I am tired of running. Tomorrow we leave for Cinci in the later afternoon.

Next appts in Cincinnati

2009-06-09T23:23:00.010-04:00

To start I was gone this weekend at retreat. The kids went with me on Friday while Mike worked and his niece came out to keep an eye on the kids after she got off work until about bedtime. Then I bathed them and gave them a movie to watch. They were out in minutes. Mike picked them up on his way home from work.

I had talked to Dr. Nelson who was on call for Dr. Matias who is on maturnity leave. He decided to add Sydnee's Respirdal back due to the behavior problems we are having with Sydnee. He didn't just add it back, but increased her dosage. He said if you don't get enough it will cause the behavior issues. Well after Sunday evening, she has been great. No arguing, lots of yes or no ma'ms. She doesn't stomp off or yell at me for asking her something, etc.

I didn't get much done since I went off and had forgotten my pictures. I was so aggravated with myself. But I just had fun anyway.

On Sunday evening, Mike called me just about 4 pm. I was getting ready to start packing up because I had to take the kids to Cincinnati that evening. We had 8 am appointments on Monday morning. Anyway, he called to tell me that Sydnee had fell out of a hammock in the new shed he is building and landed the back of her head on the concrete floor. WHAT??!!! Sure enough she has a huge goose egg on the back of her head. There was no blood except for a little dried on her bump. He told me he needed me to come home "now". I told him if it was bleeding that he needed to take her somewhere to have it checked. When I asked if there was blood, he said "I don't know". So I asked if it was split open. Response was "I don't know". So I said "can you check to see if there is a split?" Response was "no". So I packed up and headed home.

He hadn't taken her anywhere, but he had bathed and fed the kids so I could take them. I knew it would be late to get to Cinci. She wasn't acting wierd or anything, so we went to the doctor as soon as we got up there. We got back to the hotel at midnight. And had to be up at 6:30am. Yikes....

So up at 6:30 we were. Grabbed a little breakfast at the hotel and headed to the doctors office. They both did great with Dr. Parkins and we were out in 2 hours. More instructions in hand.

We went back to the hotel to get a nap. Sure enough we got about 2 hours in. Or at least Sydnee and I did. Simon decided to stay awake and watch cartoons even though he knew the deal was that if we all got a nap in and behaved for Sydnee's next appt at 2:00, we would go to the brand new Lego store in Kenwood. I woke up about 1 hr 15 min later and he was still awake. He looked over and asked when we would be going to the store. My response was "you won't be able to go if you don't lay down for a bit". He went ballistic. But I told him he still had time. He fell asleep within 30 seconds.

We say Dr. Maugans (neurosurgeon). He was a very patient man and took his time listening and reading the reports given to him. He said Sydnee has Congenital Stenosis of the cervical spine. This is a lack of fluid around the spinal cord in the cervical area. What this means is that she could get severe damage to the spinal cord if she falls on her head or neck. He said you can't protect your children from everything, but he would recommend that she not play ice hockey, football, gymnastics or playing on a trampoline. These particular things have much higher risk for her to get this injury.
As you can see there is a lot of white around the spinal cord in the lower spine area. This is the cerebral fluid protecting the spinal cord within the bony area. Showing here she has a very thin line of white showing the lack of fluid in the cervical area. So a big bend of the neck in a jolt or snap is where she could get an injury.

So in the end, Sydnee isn't going to be able to do some of the things she loves to do. She understands why now though. He talked to her quite a while about it.

My plan is to take her to Anne Steele for Cranial Sacral Therapy. This is what she specializes in. It a non-invasive procedure and it can't hurt. She has worked with both kids before with success. It's kind of different, but it has worked for the kids before. Sydnee returns to see Dr. Maugans again in December. We'll be able to see what the progress is when they do a repeat MRI.

Ok, now for the Lego store in the Kenwood Center. Dr. Parkins told us about it last week. They were opening at the end of that week. The kids and I went there and what a place! I loved it as much as the kids did. They of course have a ton of Lego sets. But they also have a wall full of bins where you can fill a bucket for a set price. This wall is full of tiny odd pieces like ladders, flowers, stems, grass, tires, tiny blocks, blocks with eyes on them, etc. There were many different things. It was fun to just pick a handful from each bin of what you wanted. We must have been in ther 2 hours. Not only that, but they played with them in the hotel that evening for at least 23 hours. You could have heard a pin drop.

Yesterday, we got home around 5:30 or so. It was a long day. But I had promised them they could swim. Then of course they wanted to play legos again. We went to a few stores and they were so pleasant all day. No arguing or yelling.

Again today, they had reading lab at school and then we came home. Sydnee and I layed down for a nap after lunch (about 1:30). I woke up at 4:30 and she at 6:30. Simon was in the livingroom watching PBS the entire time. Mike had left at 2:30 for work. I can't believe we slept so long. It felt so good.

The rest of the day was LEGO's. Can you imagine that? And again no arguments or fighting. It was a great day!

Update on kiddo's

2009-06-03T18:02:00.003-04:00

We got the results of the Chromosome tests today. Both are normal. YEAH!!!! The Fragile X is still pending and will probably be another week.

We saw Dr. Parkins today for the Parent Child Interaction Therapy. We were there for 2 hours. I went with Sydnee and we did a "special playtime" where she basically directs the play. I'm not supposed to ask question, but to praise her and tell her what you are observing. Something like "Oh, Sydnee I see you are building the tower with white blocks" Instead of asking her what color would you like to use. I say something like "I wonder what color you would like to use next. OR I wonder if I could help separate the legos for you. It's very hard to not ask questions. But she loved the time of one on one. I am supposed to do this 2-3 times a week and Mike the same with Simon.

Then on our way home, they did well. It was after dropping Mike off to work. I needed to stop at the craft store and camera store. They couldn't have acted up any more than the did. So they weren't happy when they realized they weren't getting Chic Fil A ice cream when we were done. As a matter of fact they were horrified that I would do such a thing. But instead of fussing at them over and over in the car, I waited until we got back in the car after the errands were done. When they asked why. I just told them like it was. Calling Mom names, hitting each other, screaming, etc wasn't appropriate and they knew it was wrong when they did it, but they made that choice. When you act like that, you don't get rewards. Simple as that. But I wasn't worn out from hollering at them to stop.

Tomorrow they have reading lab at school in the morning and Simon has OT in the afternoon.

Genetics appointment

2009-06-01T09:09:00.002-04:00

I forgot to write about our last trip to Cincinnati. We were there last Tuesday and Wednesday. First the kids saw Dr. Hopkins in Genetics. He confirmed the FAS. Simon has the low set ears, flat face, and double fold ears (also known as RR Track ears). Sydnee was identified with short eye openings (palpebral fissures), sunken nasal bridge, short nose, smoothing and elongation of the ridged area (the philtrum) between the nose and lips, and smooth, thin upper lip. microcephaly. He is running labs on both kids for chromosome tests (due to their extreme developmental delays) and on Simon for Fragile X Syndrome. We hope to hear something this week. Fragile X is the scary one to me. So far their IQ testing along with a mirid of other testing showed borderline mental retarded. I hate that. Sydnee's was across the board, but Simon had a high score in receptive learning, but extremly low in the other areas. But his average was still low. In other words I am very anxious to hear the results to see if they confirm or show something different. I'll write more about that later.

Schools out

2009-05-30T19:26:00.018-04:00

Well school is out for the summer. I don't know if that s good or bad. Our plan is to work on our phonograms & handwriting, attend the reading lab at school 2-3 days a week, attend our dozens of appointments in Cincinnati, try to do some mini trips to see some neat things.

I had a 4 day retreat last weekend and it was WONDERFUL! I managed to finish 2 quilt tops, 1/2 of another one (king size), 5 blocks that will go in a quilt that we get a new block each month.

After getting home on Monday night, I had to pack for 2 days in Cinci. The kids saw their new psychologist and Dr. Hopkins the geneticist. He confirmed the Fetal Alcohol on both kids, although Simon's is mild compared to Sydnee. She has the physical features of the eye folds, flat bridge on her nose, low set ears, thin lip, 1/2 formed philtram. Simon only had the double fold ears & low set ears. Their hands and fingers were fine.He said Simon definitely has something in the autism spectrum. There are many things in his movements and behaviors alone that showed that.

When we got home on Wednesday, it was time to pack to spend the night at the lake so we could see Mammoth Cave on Thursday. As we were heading down Waterford Road, we saw a huge snapping turtle in the middle of the road. This thing measured over 12" across and had a huge head. I kept trying to get it over to the other side of the road, but it would whip around to bite me. Took me forever, but finally got him over there. And of course what kind of person would I be if I didn't take its picture. fWhen we left the lake to go to Mammoth, we took the ferry that takes you across Green River. I thought it would 10 or so minutes. But it looked like we were going across a creek and it look a whole 5 minutes. When we got to Mammoth, we took a walk on a trail while we waited for our cave tour time. We went on the historic tour which was 2 hours. Just as the guides were telling us the rules of the walk, Simon turned around and said "Mom, snake!" Sure enough there was a snake about 4-5 ft long right behind us. And he just kept slithering toward the crowd. Of course I went running to the other side and some man there had the same idea. No sooner than I did that, Sydnee goes running up to the snake. I thought the ranger was going to have a heart attack. He hollered "no, don't go near it". She wasn't happy, but we didn't know what kind it was, so the last thing we wanted, was for her to get bit.

This little guy was posing for me.

After we went through the tour, we saw a little fawn. It was so cute.

We came home on Friday around 3. I had a quilt store auction to go to later that evening. And this weekend I will be catching up on laundry, kids rooms, etc. I'm pooped!

Starting tonight the kids and I will start camping out in the back yard. They love it and so do I. Mike is a big Weeny when it comes to camping in a tent. I just laugh at him. But the kids and I love it and we will do it unless there is a storm. Otherwise we are out nearly every night.

Iris'

2009-05-18T23:05:00.005-04:00

Here is an iris from my garden. I have tons of them behind my entire house. I was just taking pictures and noticed this one particular thing. This flower was just like all others....

And then I noticed this one being open, but it looks like a face that is asleep.Then it looks like it is starting to open it's eyes. You can see the nose, furrowed eyebrows, etc.

Then it's wide open. It looks like an angry face. In all the years I have had iris' in my yard, I have never noticed this feature on any of them.

Scout night

2009-05-18T22:48:00.007-04:00

Tonight was Simon's Tiger Cub awards night. And just as we walked in I realized that no one had told me about it being "promotion night". They failed to tell me that I was supposed to pick up the bear hat and kerchief. So here we stood with nothing to give t him. 3 out of 4 of us weren't told. Hmmm. But I will have to say that I was very proud of Simon in how he handled it. When he realized he was going to lose it, he asked me if we could leave the room. We were able to leave for a bit and talk it out. That was a huge thing for him to do. I just kept praising him. When we left the restroom after talking, he said "Mom, I know we can't get the hat and kerchief tonight because the scout shop is closed". I just gave him a big hug.

Mom was at church with Sydnee to get her paperwork turned in to transfer her to the SECC group. I couldn't be in two places at the same time. What a huge help that was. Of course they have a waiting list, so I am just praying that we can get the transfer. We have been driving back and forth to Simpsonville for 2 years for her current squad.

I love spring!

2009-05-17T23:49:00.018-04:00

This is my favorite time of the year. Not the allergy part of it, but the birds and blooms. I love finding bird nests in our trees each year and watching them develope. Below is the first robins nest of the season. Look how perfectly the eggs sit in the nest. This year it was in the fir tree at the corner of the house. It's usually in the weeping cherry tree. Their nest is always a little bowl in the middle. This time the outside wasn't constructed with the amount of mud as before.

Now just two days later this is what has appeared. Two tiny babies. Yesterday, Simon told me in the morning that Sydnee had picked up one of the babies. Hmmm. Sure enough later in the day I went to get more pictures and all were gone. No eggs, no shells, no baby birds and no mother bird chirping in the background. I found Sydnee to find out what she may have known. At first she told me she didn't have a clue where they were. Then she took me to her bedroom closet and started searching, and then just looked at me and laughed "nope, not here!" Then she went to her drawer. Same thing. She kept acting like she was really looking for something,but then would tell me she didn't know anything. In the end, no birds. I guess in a few days I will either smell something in her room, or she will fess up.

This is the clematis in my front bay window. This thing has gotten huge and blooms like crazy.

This is the barn swallow nest on the front porch. They come every year and we get two broods through the season. They are so photogenic too. Mike had even built a little shelf for them to make their nest a little easier. It's hard to get the egg pictures because there is only about 3" of space to get my camera in. So I can't see the eggs until I see the picture of them. Can't get my head turned up there. After their born you'll be able to see how they line up in the nest. I can stand about 4-5 feet away and take their pictures afte they open their eyes. But for now here are the eggs.

Here is papa bird watching over things. Here are the roses at the end of my house. This one is the one the kids got me for Mothers Day a couple of years ago.

This one is Aunt Lena's bush. She was 1 mo short of her 102nd birthday when she passed away. This bush came from her yard. So I would say it's at least 50 years old. I can't believe it made it. When I planted it, it was in rock hard dirt and the stems were all dried up. But it has turned out beautiful.

This one is called Hot Cocoa. It's has a chocolate red look. I got it about 5 years or so ago.

And this has to be Mike's favorite picture. He loves his Purple Martins. He works hard to get them here and then here to stay. I can't believe I got such a clear picture of this one. We were going to peep in the bird house to see what they had been doing. Sure enough there were 6 eggs in the nest. They have 8 nest boxes, but only one is being working in right now. They are very pretty birds.

2009-05-09T23:24:00.003-04:00

Today I had a luncheon that was very enjoyable. We ate at Tiffany's in Middletown. I was really pleased with the food. If you get a chance to go their for lunch, get their taco soup and chicken salad. Both were yummy.

Afterwards I was supposed to teach a class at the Bullitt Co Extension Office for scrapbookers. That didn't really take too long, so I drove out to my Grandmothers to get more photos to finish her heritage album. This is going to be a super book. Her birthday is June 27 and I am determined to get it done and ordered to have it for her for her birthday. I had all of her 7 children write a letter to her and then had the grandchildren write something to put in it. The letters will make you cry. This is going to be a wonderful book. I can't wait until it's done.

While I was gone today, Mike took the kids to the Waterfront downtown. They took their bikes and rode for miles. They were so excited when they got home, they couldn't stop talking about it. He said they probably rode 7-8 miles. Wow! That is a lot.

2009-05-04T23:44:00.008-04:00

The kids had their appointments for med checks today. Simon has lost 3 pounds. I'm not quite sure what that is about. Other than the issues we have with him throwing up on a whim. Over the last few months (with the exception of last month), Simon would be playing, eating or whatever and just vomit. For no particular reason. No one seemed to be concerned about it, so he will be seeing Sydnee's gastro doctor in Cinci. Over the last week or so, he has started it again. There isn't any warning or anything. He just does it while he's eating his meal or anything. After the 3# loss, the doctor told me to make sure to keep the appointment coming with with the Gastro.

Sydnee is being taken off the Respirdal completely. It just doesn't do anything positive for her. She is nasty, sassy, etc when she's on it. Don't need that! Simon's meds are the same for now. But he wants to start decreasing the Respirdal in August. That's moving in a good direction. Although this med has helped him the most. But we have seen big changes to the good lately. I think it's maturity to a certain extent. He is recognizing when he's getting out of line and is able to reel himself back in before he gets out of control.

I have had several people over the last week to ten days tell me that they couldn't believe what I do for my kids. And how lucky my kids are to have a parent find the resources that we need. That reminded me of sometihng that was said to me in an email over a year ago by a family member. That was "if you would stop taking your kids to doctors all the time, and stop taking them to all of this therapy , that maybe my kids would be normal. They told me that they didn't stand a chance in this life with a parent like me. Today alone I had 3 people tell me how lucky my kids are. Now don't get me wrong, I am no where near blowing my own horn. I don't want to be the bragging parent or to be recognized for anything I have been doing for them. I just feel blessed enough to have the knowledge to do what is needed for them. I was in the medical field for quite a while and I learned things then that have helped me now with them. So I feel like I was placed in the jobs I had for a reason. Now I am able to help my children and to help other fellow parents who are in the same situation we are in.

We used to think ahead to say we wonder which college our kids would go to. But now we have to look at whether we can teach our children enough to get through school and to be successful adults in one way or another. Not by getting a sports scholarship or something of the sort. But to get along with people, etc. This is a huge goal we have set.

Below is a picture that Simon drew one morning over the weekend. He explained this to me. "Mom, this is what my brain looks like. It's me in a chair watching the TV with my refrigerator behind me. (not the stickers on the fridge). Braces on the teeth, etc. Too funny.

Now this picture was a little more drawn out. "This is me being a math person and a scientist. Mom? See my test tubes where I mix chemicals and make things? I have my math board with the problems. I am sitting at my computer, getting my signals out. See my high back chair?" Where does he come up with these things?

Tomorrow I got on a field trip with Simon. We're going to Squire Boon Caverns. I will be caved out when this trip is done. Twice in a week is enough for me.

Birthday party here and gone

2009-04-30T11:11:00.013-04:00

For starters, here is an update on Smokey. He is so funny. He seems to like to balance himself on backs of furniture. He will even wrap his arms around the wings on my wing back chair. Silly, tat.

Sydnee seems to have her skate board down now. She loves riding on it up and down the driveway.

Mike decided to let the kids see if they can drive the riding mower. Sure enough they did well. Simon was able to manipulate it between the fence and swing set. He grinned from ear to ear. Sydnee ran it straight through my iris beds. Mike was scared she was going to hit the house. But she made it through ok.

We had the birthday party and cookout. The day turned out to be beautiful! We couldn't have asked for anything better. We had several side dishes, burgers and hot dogs. Then of course after the cookout we had cake and ice cream. The kids loved their gifts and can't wait to spend their birthday money.

Sydnee and two of her friends were having so much fun in her room singing and dancing. I just wish the picture came out better.

Today, when I got up this morning at 6:45, Simon came up to me in the hallway completely dressed, from glasses to shoes. I think his motive was going to be able to play with his Nintendo DS sooner if he was up, dressed, fed and ready to go out the door. Hey, at this point, we'll do whatever works. Today they were supposed to wear a shirt that is the teachers favorite color.

We got a call from the rehab department to schedule Sydnee's casting. She will start this process on August 11. They mentioned July 7, but this would put her right in the middle of swimming season which she loves. So I decided that since it isn't an emergency, it wouldn 't hurt to wait until closer to school. This project will be a ways off now and we don't have to think about it for the summer. One down, one thousand to go.

I did find out some tax information today that we are looking at. We had heard that there are some benefits for school tuition for special needs children. I have to look closer into that and our accountant is as well. That would be a blessing.

Best Day in a long time!

2009-04-25T21:00:00.017-04:00

This has been an absolutely wonderful day. Simon woke up around 6am, but he went to his room and played. Around 9 we all got up. Mike fixed breakfast and we all ate, got ready for our picnic in Jtown to celebrate Galya being here from Ukraine. She is in town for 3 weeks. It was great to see her, because it has been a very long time. We had nearly 200 people there with all of their ukrainian children. And of course the food was wonderful!

On our way home, we stopped by a farm next to us where they have 3 horses. We pass it all the time. I have been wanting to get some little nuggets to use for my gardens. The owner gave us permission to pick all we wanted. So the kids and I went to work filling 5 - 5 gallon buckets of wonderful "manure". Yep you heard it right. We picked up horse poop. They didn't complain one bit. We got all buckets filled and then played a little with the horses. The kids got real comfortable with them. They were a bit timid in the beginning.

Sydnee and Simon carrying their loads of collected "poop".

This is what the kids learned to look for in the field. A gloved hand can collect quite a few.

After we were done, Sydnee sat down under the shade trees where the horses feed.

Simon decided to join Sydnee for a rest.

Sydnee made friends with the horse.

Now it's Simon's turn
This horse decided to nudge Sydnee while he was eating. It didn't take much to knock her off her feet.

This one was just cute. None of them minded me getting right up in their face for a photo.

Now it's time to get ready for tomorrow. We are going to have the kids birthday party and a cookout for family and friends. They are getting excited. We worked in the yard all afternoon. I pulled weeds, burned limbs, etc. Now we all stink and it's time to clean up and get to bed.

Angela and Megan (kids cousins) want to take the kids to the zoo in the morning. That will be a big help to me too. I will be able to get ready tomorrow without things being reversed everytime I get something done. The lady making the cakes this time is delivering at 2:00 PM. Otherwise all I need to do is get the house straightened up.

I think we have around 50 people coming tomorrow. Some of their classmates are coming.

Kids update

2009-04-22T22:57:00.002-04:00

First off this morning, it started with Simon having a follow up for this ear surgery. Well thank God, his ear is healing well. He will start his ear drops in 4 weeks and follow up with Dr. Creely 2 weeks later. He said it looked very well.

I returned Simon to school and picked up Sydnee to head to Cincinnati. She had a 1:00 appointment to see Dr. Michaud. She is a Pediatric Rehabilitation Physician. The Neuropsychologist sent her there for two things. One being the rigidity in her legs. She has always had a rigid gait. When she runs, she tries to do so fast, so she won't lose her balance. Her right foot has always turned out to the right so she could keep her balance. But in the end they found or confirmed what her physical therapist has been saying. Normally she would be able to bend her ankle 20 degrees. But she has a 0 degree bend. They spent nearly three hours with her today determining what was going on and what needed to be done about it.

She is going to have "Serial Casting" done. This entails giving her Botox injections in her calves. Then 5-7 days later, she will have casts put on both legs, setting her ankle to a certain position. A week later, the cast will be removed and another one at a higher angle will be placed again. A week later, she'll have it again, and then again for a third time. A week following the third casting, she will have it removed and then evaluated to see what has been accomplished. If they have gotten the results they are looking for, she will have splints made to wear at night to hold this position. She will have intensive physical therapy to help the stretching and we hope to see more movement in her muscles.

Now for the second part of Sydnee's evaluation. When she had her MRI's done earlier this year, they found she has a narrowing in the cervical area of the spine. It's much smaller than normal. They asked when she potty trained, walked, etc. She was very late on both. Dr. Michaud is referring her to a Neurosurgeon for further evaluation. She said unless there is a surprise, they expect the neurosurgeon to say it's ok and everything will be fine. But since it wasn't her area, she felt more comfortable having someone seeing her that has this specialty. Hopefully that will all be fine and we will only have one trip there for that.

After our appoinments we went to the GI surgery area. I had been blogging back and forth with a woman who has a little 2 yr old from Dayton who came home from Ukraine with esophagus issues. He was in for a major surgery and they just happened to be there today. So we stopped to see them. We didn't get to see her son because she had finally gotten him to sleep. So there was no way we would take the chance on him waking up. She was exhausted. It was good to meet her and I hope we can visit again sometime. Her blog is on my link list.

So much for our uneventful day. I'm tired and heading to bed. These Cinci trips up and back in one day is hard sometimes. But tomorrow I have a massage and Friday I get my hair cut again. So that will give me some relaxation.

Long night and morning

2009-04-20T13:26:00.003-04:00

The kids went with Mike to the lake over the weekend while I worked a crop on Saturday. I'm sure their bedtime routine wasn't the best, just because it's so hard to stick to it when you're having fun and in a different environment. But at 1am this morning Simon was up and wide awake. He couldn't sleep at all. There was no soothing him back to sleep. After 45 minutes I told him to get his blanket and curl up in the recliner and I would go on the loveseat. I of course fell asleep in 2 minutes flat, but I have no clue how long he laid there. At 4am, he woke me up saying he still couldn't sleep and he wanted to watch cartoons. When I told him there weren't any one and we weren't going to be watching tv at 4am, he went ballisic. He was furious with me and there was nothing I could do to calm him down. He screamed and yelled at me at the top of his lungs for over 30 minutes straight with no break. I made him go in his room and again he was furious. He laid in there hysterically screaming "I want to watch cartoons". He was a mess. I can't believe Mike and Sydnee didn't wake up.

Then to top it all off, Sydnee finished her breakfast and then ran to the trashcan to throw up. About that time Simon was up again bouncing and he started it all over again. 45 more minutes of dramatic crying because he couldn't watch cartoons. So I called school to let them know they wouldn't be in. There was no way I was going to send him to school like that. He would have been nothing by chaos. I had to reschedule his orthodontist appointment too. Not a good time at all. Sydnee woke back up around 11 and said she was feeling much better and she wanted to go to school. So she got ready and out we went. She told me she was throwing up the devil this morning because last night she was so nasty to me. She had prayed quite a bit about it. Mike just called at 1:30 to tell me that Simon was still asleep and he was going to get him up and dressed so we could hook up for the trade off.

And my dentist wondered why I was grinding my teeth so hard at night. Hmmm, I wonder.....

Simon's ear

2009-04-19T18:01:00.004-04:00

Simon had a great week with his ear. It's healing well and the glue is starting to come off a little. He said it itches quite a bit now too. So I guess it's healing like it should. He has a follow up this coming week.

I had a crop at the Bullitt Co Extension Office yesterday and it went well. We are scheduled monthly until the end of the year.

Today while it decided to rain all day I started to dream. Every once in a while I do this. I will sit for hours and just draw house plans. Well, we really like where we live, and I like the house, just wish it was larger. So I sat and drew an addition to the house to see what it would like. Well I really like it. The deck would be moderate, a large screen porch, add a bedroom, 1/2 bath, laundry room, and a mud room. I will try to get a picture so I can post it. I haven't figured out how to do it yet.

2009-04-14T23:21:00.002-04:00

We had a nice Easter on Sunday. The kids hunted eggs at Grandma K's and we had a brunch there with the nieces and nephew. So the day was pretty simple and didn't last too long. We came back home and relaxed.

Simon went to school for a few hours on Monday. He was starting to show signs of being pretty tired, so I think things are finally catching up with him. I let him stay home today to get more rest, but he wants to go tomorrow. So we'll see how it goes. I'm close to school, so I can always go get him if he gets tired out again. His incision looks great and he's only had about one drop of drainage each day for the last couple of days. So things seem to be healing well.

Day one after surgery

2009-04-11T14:03:00.003-04:00

Simon is doing extremely well. He has not complained of pain one time at all. Not one drop of pain meds either. He did wake up at 3:15 am and was up for 3 hours. So I am pooped from no sleep. But Mike is home, so I can take a nap if needed.

He has eaten like he hasn't eaten in a month. Yesterday he ended up going through 2 sleeves of saltines, 2 applesauce tubs, chicken noodle soup, 3 cans of gingerale, 3 large cups of water and a few pieces of his Easter party candy.

When Mike got up this morning, Simon was sitting in the living room floor watching a movie (if I see more Veggie Tales, I think I will throw up) with his mouth full of chocolate easter candy. He has now devoured every piece of candy he had. So now it's gone (until tomorrow) and that's it. Today he is still eating like crazy. But he of course doesn't want a meal. He wants something to snack on. So we'll keep working on that.

Still no pain and he wants to go to school on Monday. So this will be interesting. He isn't supposed to be active at all for 7 days. And it will be 6 weeks before he gets his hearing back.

So far so good.

Ear Surgery done

2009-04-10T18:46:00.004-04:00

We went to Kosair at 10am this mornig to get Simon checked in. He was pretty anxious about it all which is very understandable. His surgery was supposed to start at 11am. Nurses, doctor and anesthesiologist all came in to talk about the procedure. My only concern was that he was so anxious and I knew there would be a problem putting IV's in if they didn't calm him beforehand. I asked what their plan and procedure was and it wasn't like I thought it would be. They wanted to give him Versaid and Dexa something nasally first and then take him back. They promised him it would be just like his Nasonex. Wrong! It was 1cc of liquid that they shot into his nose holding his head against their chest to hold it tight. He wasn't happy at all. It burned and went way up. He refused to let them finish the dose. And I can't say I blame him at all. Well of course it didn't work. He didn't relax and was more anxious than before. After finally realizing he wasn't going to change for them, they asked me what I preferred. In the end they dressed me from head to toe like an Easter Bunny and we went to the OR. They moved him to the operating table. As soon as they told him about the belt they were going to hold him. He didn't plan on having anything to do with that. I told them if they would give him a little gas first he would be good to go and then start the IV. Finally they heard me and we had no problems after that.

Pastor Jeff from Hyland Park Baptist Church came in and prayed with him. That was so nice. He was Simon's basketball coach during the Upward Basketball program. Very nice guy.

This is his right ear marked by the doctor with his initials. Simon thought that was funny. His surgery was only 40 minutes and then recovery was about 3 hours. They had given him quite a bit of drugs and we knew he would sleep a lot.

I got Simon's "Tom and Jerry" quilt done about 10 minutes before recovery. Nothing like cutting it close. But he was thrilled to get it finally. Grandma brought Sydnee up after school so she could see him. She just kept telling him she loved him and that he would be ok.

This is a picture of the incision site. It starts at the upper end of the ear and goes down to where you see the yellow/brown spot. That's quite a line. There are stitches under the skin and then the glue on the outer portion. There was also one inside the ear canal, and it just has a little drainage. He's supposed to be out of school 7 days and no big activity for 6 wks. Yeah right! We are home now and he is already wanting to eat like crazy and is walking around like nothing happened. Not one ounce of pain. He hasn't had a bit of pain meds since he's been home. He said nothing hurts and he doesn't want any. He is already asking if he can go to school tomorrow. At least it's Saturday, so that isn't an option.

Cinci Appts

2009-04-09T12:10:00.003-04:00

This is why I love Cincinnati. They do all of the work for you when it comes to scheduling with the other team specialists. I have already gotten the calls to schedule Simon's sleep study and Sydnee's Rehab appt. No searching on my part needs to be done. I just look at my calendar. We're still waiting on a few more.

IEP - Jeff Co schools

2009-04-09T11:51:00.003-04:00

I talked to someone very nice at the JCPS today regarding the IEP services. I wasn't sure that since we lived in Bullitt Co and the kids went to private school in Jeff Co and Mike worked in Jeff Co where we would qualify. But since the kids go to school in Jeff Co, they will get services in Jeff Co. That was a huge relief. I will be happy if we can get things lined up for fall since school is nearly out. I hear it takes a very long time to it all rolling. They are sending out the packets to school tomorrow. I now have one brain cell returning to my head. But I have a feeling there are many more out there that I need to try and get back.

This morning I was desperately looking for my car keys. I always have them in one of 3-4 places. I know it should be one place, but that didn't happen. I backtracked, etc with no luck. At that point I proceded to empty 3 of my tote bags out into the driveway to find them. I literally heard someone talking to me. "Slow down, slow down". I immediately knew it was my whisper from God. At that point said "I'm listening". Sydnee thought I was crazy. So I returned into the house and stopped. I scanned and nothing. So I slowed down and scanned again. I looked up and there was a plastic container with large binder clips in it. I picked it up to find my keys right in the middle. I would have never looked in that container if I hadn't slowed down. I had burned a box of papers last night and had my keys in my pocket. Then I had picked up the binder clips to take in. So when I emptied my pocket, sure enough I took the keys out as well. You have to listen to the whispers! It really does work.

The Results are In!

2009-04-07T01:44:00.004-04:00

Drumroll please..... I got up a little earlier than usual. I needed to get the kids to school early enough to get gas, and head to Cinci again. Mike and I went up to meet with Dr. Ryan for the results of both kids testing they had in March. Some of the things were things we kind of already knew, but there was many new things too. Some of them surprised me. I think it's because I have focused on the obvious things we had been dealing with. Now I am in information overload. I am extremely tired and I think it's just from driving for 2 1/2 hours, listening to a major amount of detailed information for 2 1/2 hours and driving for another 2 1/2 hours back home, picking up the kids from school, going to Mom's for about an hour, taking Simon to scouts and getting home and rushed to bed at 8:43pm. Then started over today. I think I am trying to catch up on sleep from last week too.

End results.....Simon was confirmed to have FASD. He has the physical characteristics that I never saw. I guess you don't see the forest for the trees. But his upper lip, shape of the philtrum, his ears and his hands. His palms are small compared to his fingers. He will also have the depth of the Aspergers defined by the geneticists as well. His IQ is all over the chart because of high areas and very low areas. So that part wasn't surprising. The main thing is they want him back in speech therapy, in behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, and we'll have to see if the school is willing to offer a little different method of learning to read. He is struggling pretty hard in that area. But she asked if he memorizes quotes, etc. I looked at her and said "how about whole movies". She said his ROTE memory is huge. That is going to be a big advantage for him. That area for IQ was 122. That is extremely high. But when you look at the whole picture you would never know he could do that. They don't recommend any kind of team or contact sports. Competeing with others doesn't work. He'll need to compete against himself. They did recommend karate. I have heard this several times and I guess it's time to give in. At least football is out. It just so happens that this doctor is the brain injury specialist for the Cinci Bengals. So I guess she knows what she's talking about. LOL. She got through to Mike that these sports are not good for a child who is already lacking in corpus callosum. We are trying to help it along, not damage what he has. She is really wanting to remove some meds after getting all of the doctors lined up. Sounds good to me.

We have noticed just this year that Simon seems to have a huge pain tolerance. It takes a hard hit for him to really complain. And then it's just that, a complaint, not tears and all. well come to find out that kids with these issues seem to have this in common. They told us it also is why he doesn't understand why if he hits someone or throws something at someone that it will hurt them. Because he doesn't know what pain feels like himself. Makes sense when they described it all in detail.

He doesn't recognize others space. He is an in your face kind of kid and now we know why. When he wants to speak, he does it regardless of when is a good time.

Sydnee was confirmed having the OCD. She has bilateral hand tremors (which she has started seeing a neurologist for). Her IQ is all over the place too, but in the lower range. So we have a lot of work to do there. She is also having reading difficulties. She has FASD. This was a huge surprise to me. But I should have seen it. When I look back at pictures, there is no doubt. There were many signs, but we always just thought she was small and would grow out of it. Again, you can't see the forest for the trees. She struggles in many areas. They would like to see her come off her meds too. Again, that sounds good to me. They also told us she will be considered PDD like Simon. That made sense, but just hadn't been far enough in testing yet until now.

End result is Sydnee will be evaluated by Dr. Michaud for the tremors.

Both kids will also see more doctors for many things. They plan to start the evals now and then start intensive therapy as soon as school is out. They want to get as much done this summer as possible. They will combine as much as they can also to help with the trips back and forth. And it will help keep things in one facility. Right now we see the providers in many locations. I think most will be downtown Cinci. That'll be great because it's the closest.

They want me to go ahead and look into the Jeff Co IEP program to see if that's an option. From what I hear from others I know, that can take until fall to get lined up. But with us living in Bullitt, and going to private school in Jeff, we don't know what we'll get. Mike does pay Jeff Co taxes, so I hope that helps.

I have been given some good information to check into about the U of L Autism Center and Feat of Louisville. Their websites have tons of information. Now I just have to absorb it all and make some lifestyle changes to be able to incorporate all we learn this summer.

It's funny because I was looking for a notebook today to keep my notes in from all of this. I had gone to Staples and the first one I walked up to said "Trust in the Lord with all your heart". Wow! How fitting. I will need to do this to make it all work and come together. This will all require somewhat of a life change for us. There are so many things you take for granted that just don't exist with our kids.

Allergies

2009-04-01T18:22:00.006-04:00

Today was a long day. Of course we didn't get home from Cinci until about 10:30 last night. So I was pooped when we got home. I caught up with emails and then had to be up and at the tire dealer by 8:00 AM. And it is located on Southside Drive. So during morning traffic I knew it would take longer.

Speaking of tires....if you ever need tires, oil changes, brakes, etc. We have a friend at Ken Towery on Southside Drive name Chad. He is the store manager and will give you a great deal! It would definitely be worth your while. I got a wonerful deal on brakes and rotors today. Just tell him the Koenigs sent you.

After getting the car things done, we went to the ENT again for Simon's allergy testing. We had to give him so melatonin so he would relax. They don't do the back scratches anymore. They do the injections in his arms. So 20 injection tests, 20 prick tests and 16 pricks on the other arm later, we found dust mites and cats were the main things. The doctor said if we have cats and he's allergic he wouldn't waste our time and money on doing allergy shots because they wouldn't work at all. That was nice of him to let us know so we wouldn't waste our efforts.

In this all, he explained Simon's upcoming surgery. He is having the Tympanoplasty surgery on April 10. You can click on the word above and see what it entails. It's quite interesting. All of a sudden Simon has started to worry about it. He told me he really didn't want to any surgery because he thought the gowns were for gifls. .

Then it was off to the eye doctor to see what they could do with my new glasses. They decided the frame just doesn't fit my big ole' head and they will make another pair with different ear pieces. I will get them tomorrow.

Cincinnati Appointments

2009-03-30T23:08:00.018-04:00

We got to Cincinnati on Sunday evening. We have a total of 3 appointments. Since it was Spring Break I was trying to combine some to save school time missed later.

The Childrens Hospital always sets us up in the hotels. They have contracts with them and we get a much lower rate than normal. Not to mention that I don't have to sit on the internet trying to figure out which hotel is closer to which facility we are going to. Depending on the doctor we are seeing as to where their office will be. There are many campuses.

So Sunday night we are set up for "Six Acres" Bed and Breakfast. The pictures on the internet looked nice. But we stayed in the "annex". Mainly because we had the kids with us probably. Well, we got there and the kids went nuts. They were running all over the place checking every nook and cranny there was. And believe me there were tons of them. This house was 3 stories tall plus a basement (or cellar). It was very old and had all of the neat things that make these old houses look so wonderful. There was a large bedroom off the foyer that was probably the old dining room. Then there was an old sunroom where they had one twin bed in and we added a rollaway. The kids slept there. The other two upper floors were full of bedrooms too. But we stayed downstairs. The funny thing was the bathroom. When you sat down you could feel the floor was leaning to the right. Sure enough the floor had sunk. It felt very solid, but you had to hold on to keep from sliding to the right.

The Annex

The kids thought they were in a mansion. They absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to tell everyone where they stayed.

My bedroom

Below is the dining area looking into the "sunroom" that was where the kids slept. I think they liked it best because they felt like they were on their own. The livingroom was quite large so it seemed like they were in another house.

They had a nice breakfast for us this morning. The kids did a wondeful using their etiquette. Napkins properly in their lap, manners while eating, not reaching, saying please and thank you, etc. They were so cute.

Tonight we are at Fairfield Inn, Marriot. Heated pool for the kids. So that was fun. They were tired by nighttime, but Sydnee absolutely was determined she wasn't going to sleep. I know it was nearly 11:00 before she even attempted to close her eyes. But she finally did.

We hit a few local quilt shops too. But you'll have to see my other blog for that one. We rated each store on content and personality. You can go to my other blog to see that information.

On the way home, we stopped at IKEA. Oh my gosh! This place is too cool. I had no idea. I've seen commercials, ads, etc. We got there about 4:00 and didn't leave until 8:30. The kids loved the idea that they had a sitting service for kids. They would let you drop them there with toys, games, crafts, etc for one hour. They loved it. My only disappointment was that it's a German store, but many things were made in China. We have been trying very hard not to buy things not made in USA. And yes, that is extremely hard to do. But I also find that I don't buy as much junk that I really don't need. If you ever get the chance to go to IKEA, you need to go. The prices were good too!

On the way back home on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to find and take a picture of the two places I lived while in Northern KY after I was born. I was born in Covington at St. Elizabeths, but lived in Erlanger. We lived on the top floor of this building.

This is the apartment building we moved to for more space. I guess after I was born, we needed the space. We lived there until we moved to Fairdale. It was close to a year I think. This was on St Joseph's Avenue. The funny thing is that one day I was talking to a friend of mine. You know how you get on the conversation of "when were you born"? I just happen to ask her where she was born and she told me it was a small town that no one had ever heard of. I asked her to tell me anyway, because you never know. So she went on to tell me it was Covington. The next thing you know we find she was born in the same hospital, same town and we all had lived in the same apartment building at one point. She was born a few years ahead of me. But her Mom described it to Mom and I several years ago and sure enough it was right across the hall from where we lived. There goes that small world thing.

After getting back home this week, there was the one night with storms. For some reason Sydnee was getting the idea of what bad weather was like. Usually when we get these storms, Mike is at work. So it's just the kids and I. Sometimes we'll go to Mom's if they are going to be in the middle of the night because we don't have a basement and that way I can put the kids to sleep in the basement and we don't have to wake them up to get them in a car, etc. Well this time she decided that she wanted to save her animals and dolls. So she loaded them up in her playpen so they would be close to her if we went downstairs. We have a garage that sits 3 feet lower than the rest of the house. So it's there if we are stuck. But at this point, we won't be able to get in there because she has stuffed it with her toy.

That night we went on over to Mom's house (and the storm wound up being a bust). But the kids had been wanting me to make their birthday invitations. So Sydnee wore the dress that her cousin Kim and Aunt Beverly gave her. She looked to cute. Simon kept pretending that he was her prince charming.

Questions to kids

2009-03-27T19:54:00.002-04:00

Shanna sent out a list of questions that someone sent her to ask her kids. The answers are quite funny on hers. But here are the questions and answers my kids gave me. Mine weren't so clever, but here they are anyway.

1. What is something Mom always says to you?
SIK - Clean up my room
SAK - Clean up my room
2. What makes Mom Happy?
SIK - Obeying
SAK - When I clean my room
3. What makes Mom sad?
SIK - Disobeying
SAK - When I disobey
4. How does your Mom make you laugh
SIK - Carrying my baby doll around
SAK - Me and my silly good looks (huh?)
5. What was your Mom like as a child
SIK - "I don't know"
SAK - She played with dolls a lot
6. How old is your Mom
SIK - 77
SAK - 101
7. How tall is your Mom
SIK - 50"
SAK - 12"
8. What is her favorite thing on TV
SIK - Quilting
SAK - Dr. Phil
9. What does your Mom do when you're not around
SIK - Chores
SAK - Scrapbooking
10. If your Mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
SIK - Quilting
SAK - Quilting
11. What is your Mom really good at?
SIK - Football (really?)
SAK - Sewing
12. What is your Mom not very good at?
SIK - Wii baseball
SAK - Cleaning rooms
13. What does your Mom do for her job?
SIK - "Do you have a job?"
SAK - Cleans the house
14. What is your Moms favorite food?
SIK - Spagetti
SAK - Mooshu (what is that?)
15. What makes you proud of your Mom?
SIK - Going to Chuckee Cheese (I have no idea where that came from)
SAK - She's nice and pretty
16. If your Mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
SIK - Hannah Montana
SAK - The Mom in Monsters vs. Aliens
17. What do you and your Mom do together?
SIK - "I don't know"
SAK - Takes me to a gift shop together
18. How are you and your Mom the same?
SIK - "I don't know"
SAK - Both wear socks everyday
19. How are you and your Mom different?
SIK - "You have brown eyes and I don't"
SAK - "Mom likes to wear collars and I don't"
20. How do you know your Mom loves you?
SIK - She just does
SAK - When I smile cutely
21. What does your Mom like most about your Dad?
SIK - He has gray hair"
SAK - He goes on dates with her (giggle...) (not sre about this one. We go on one date a year).
22. Where is your Mom's favorite place to go?
SIK - Famous Daves (never been there)
SAK - Home

Well I sound quite boring. Some of the answers I couldn't quite figure out. But that's what they said....

2009-03-27T17:09:00.006-04:00

Today I went to the Rheumatologist to get more labs drawn. He did an exam and xrays of my hands. They have scheduled me for a bone density since I was due for one anyway. I was there a little over 2 hours. The doctor was extremely nice and very good at answering questions and making sure I understood what he was telling me. I go back in 6 weeks to get lab results and discuss our options.

The kids and I are going to Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon. There are several appointments lined up for Monday and Tuesday. I thought it was a good time to schedule them while they are out of school for Spring break. Then we have nearly one appointment a week until Mid May. So I think we will be a little tired of driving up there for a while. Both will go for some intensive therapy during the summer. I don't have the dates yet. Their Neuropsychologist is coming to Louisville to talk to parents, educators, etc. So if you know anyone with Autism, RAD, FAS, FAE, etc., let me know and I will get the information to you. She will be here on May 15 at 1:00PM. We're working on gettng the meeting space at Southeast. It's a great opportunity to get some great information about these disorders. We are excited to have her come speak.

Simon is scheduled for Friday Apri 10 to have ear surgery. He got a busted eardrum a month ago and it has gotten worse instead of better. They are going to go behind the ear and get a piece of tissue to place as a replacement eardrum. Sometimes this has to be done twice. So I pray the first one works. They place a sponge type thing behind the drum to keep the germs cleared out. So he won't have any hearing in his right ear for one month.

Can anyone tell what this is?

2009-03-27T17:04:00.002-04:00

There is a prize for the first person who can tell me what this is.

Sydnee's eval done

2009-03-20T01:33:00.003-04:00

Sydnee had her appointment with Dr. Ryan and it all went well. It took her about 5 1/2 hours. We had a break for lunch which she loved doing. She told me it was like doing a lot of school work. Mike and I go to Cinci on April 6 for results on both kids. This was Sydnee's first time doing any testing like this. So she wasn't sure what to expect. Dr. Ryan is going to refer her to a "rehab doctor" for an evaluation on the tremors she has in her hands and legs. This doctor specializes in neurological type things with adopted kids. So hopefully we'll find out it's just something she'll grow out of. I don't know yet when that appointment is.

Yesterday the kids and I were out in the garden area burning paper. I told them they could tear apart the box it was in and we would burn it too. Well, the discovered if one stood on it and the ohter pulled it, they could ride. It wasn't 10 seconds later when Simon pulled while Sydnee was on it. She fell backwards and hit her head on a concrete block. I can't believe that she didn't bust her head open. But she did get one heck of a goose egg on the back of her head. Poor kid! I felt so bad for her. Simon did too once he realized what really happened.

Tomorrow I leave for retreat. This time it's quilting. So I don't have to take as much stuff with me. I have several quilts I really want to finish this time. Of course it's 2AM right now and I am still doing laundry to get it done before leaving. So I may take a nap as soon as I get there this time.

I'm proud to be an American

2009-03-15T13:26:00.009-04:00

That was the theme for this years music program at AIE. Mr Savage had the mascot dog there to help celebrate. The kids did a wonderful job while singing. I can't believe they learned so much in such a short time. They even recited the presidents from the first to the last. I don't know that I have ever done that. Here are some pictures of the kids while singing.

Friday morning was finally the appointment to get my hair cut. I am so glad to get it cut off again. I had seen a girl in Indy while at a conference that had a cut I really liked. So she allowed me to take her picture and take it with me when I got mine done. Rebecca did a wonderful job in following just what I told her.

I love the back the best. And to think for once in my life I don't have a perm at all. She did do hi-lites, but that was it. My hair just seems to get darker and darker every year. Although I am starting to have more grays.

Aging Sucks!

2009-03-11T22:13:00.002-04:00

Last week I was complaining about pain in my joints, but it was in both big toes, both hips, and both pinkie fingers. I have actually had it for a very long time, but it was really flared up. I know it sounds strange, but it was just odd that it's on both sides. My Chiropractor asked if I had ever been checked for gout. When I called my doctor, she didn't think it sounded like that, but it did sound like Rheumatoid. I had been tested for that nearly 7 years ago, and it was negative, so I figured that was probably not it either. But today, she called to tell me that my tests all came back positive for Rheumatoid Arthritis. Well, why not!! Mom has this as well, but it's in remission. Mike's Mom has it too. This isn't what I wanted to hear. I know it could be worse, but everyone I know who has it, are miserable in pain. I really don't have time to be in pain all of the time. I am waiting on the specialist to call me with the appointment. Hopefully it will be soon.

Sydnee and Simon have a school musical program this Friday. I can't wait to go. They have been practicing like crazy every single day for over 6 weeks now. There are many songs they are singing. I hope to video it and then figure out how to put a clip online here. I really think they are going to have so much fun. I have been very anxiously waiting for it to come. They'll all wear jeans and a special t-shirt that they ordered just for this.

News on our friend

2009-03-09T23:08:00.001-04:00

I got word that my friends husband has a bad gallbladder. Thank goodness it's not his heart. He plans to have his surgery this week to have it removed and hopefully that will take are of it. I know he was miserable. Keep him in your prayers please. I'm sure he isn't jumping for joy.

Trip to Cinci today

2009-03-09T21:44:00.003-04:00

Last night Simon and I headed up to Cinci during the storms. Well, actually the only part we hit was right at Union KY. We heard sirens and then pulled over. They didn't last long and then we heard some again as we got into Mt Eden in Cinci. As we checked into the hotel, they put us on the 7th floor. I asked her if she put me there so I could get the best angle at a tornado. She just laughed.

The appointment today went well. We went to the Drake Center to meet with Dr. Ryan. She was very nice and pleasant to work with. I met with her while Simon started some testing at 9:00 AM. At 12:15 we took lunch and then he restarted at 1:00 until 2:30. Then we headed home. I worked on paperwork for 3 hours and 20 minutes of that time. My hand was cramping. But I was also completing it for both kids to save time later. Sydnee goes on Monday the 16th for her portion. Simon did very well for most of it. She said he would do well with high fives to keep going until they were done. This will be Sydnee's first time in doing any kind of testing. So I am curious as to what they will report to us. It will be different with the age being older now.

I peeked into Simon's ears tonight to see how they are doing and found that the left ear is now ruptured. He said he can hear just fine and there is no pain. How in the world? I just really thought this would hurt. Good thing I guess, because right now he would be miserable.

2009-03-07T19:35:00.013-05:00

Simon is doing much better with his ears, but now he has a cough that almost sounds asthmatic at times. Hopefully the antibiotics he's on will help with anything that could be lurking around. Tomorrow we leave for an appointment he has on Monday morning in Cincinnati. We are supposed to be there all day for testing. I think they said something like 7 hours of being there. So it will be a long day.

Last night Sydnee walked out into the living room to show me her dress. She looked so cute. Cousin Kim gave this to her one weekend when she stayed with her. I was shocked to hear her say she really liked the dress. Sydnee is not a dress up kid. But she really liked this one.

These are pictures of the kids while at a birthday party at the Paint Spot. They enjoyed making the ceramic pieces. They painted them and will get them in a week or two after they are fired.

I love this little outfit she has on. I think she looks like a little hippie girl. I can't wait until her hair grows out enough to get it trimmed up again. Her bangs are getting there, but have a way to go.

Simon worked very intensly in covering his piece to make sure it was a good solid coat. He really enjoyed this and told me he would like to do it again.

Here Sydnee is asleep at bedtime and I noticed when checking on her that she was sleeping with her newest doll. This is one that Natosha gave her.

The other day Sydnee came around the corner in the kitchen with her stroller and carrier with her dolls in them. I heard her say "oh man, these kids are so heavy". I wanted to laugh so hard, but took a picture instead. I am seeing her play with her dolls, talking to them, carrying them, etc. I love it!

Mike took this picture while I was snoozing in a chair in the living room. I think the one he was really trying to take the picture of was Smokey. He climbed up with me and got under the cover and layed on his back. For some reason he has been getting up next to me more and more in the last week. Even at night he wants to sleep right there with me. I had just gotten out of the shower here and dosed off from being up so long in the middle of the night. My hair looks so gross here. But it was soaking wet when I sat there.

Smokey has a toe fettish. This started quite some time ago. But today when I was sitting in my chair on the computer I felt something tickeling my feet. Sure enough it was Smokey. He chews on the toes.

Silly tat!

A very sick friend

2009-03-07T18:22:00.002-05:00

Again, there is never a dull moment around here. Last night I fell asleep around 9:30 which is so unlike me at all. But I couldn't hold my eyes open and decided to just give in. About 1 or so Mike came to bed after getting home from work. We layed there and talked for quite a while. For some reason I was wide awake. Around 2am or so, my phone rang. We couldn't imagine who it was. But it turns out to be my best friend Jill. I could tell by her voice that something wasn't right. She asked me to come over because Paul was having chest pains and would get hot and cold. I got there and he didn't look good at all. I asked her if he had taken an aspirin yet and they didn't have any. So I ran home to get some and of course couldn't find them. I ran back and shortly after we heard the ambulance coming. I went out on the porch and realized up on this hill (mountain as Simon calls it) we can hear them coming from miles away. They finally got there and we asked them to turn the lights off so it wouldn't wake up her kids. We didn't want to scare them.

They checked him out and basically said everything was normal. He said the pain was now a 3 from a 7. His color was better, but he was still shaking from head to toe. I was really surprised at how lax the ambulance crew was. It was obvious that he wasn't just imagining the pain and the way he felt. In the end the crew left and Jill took him to the hospital. I stayed with the kids. They have admitted him for observation. So far they say it isn't his heart or gallbladder, but are going to keep looking. Jill came home to get some sleep and I am waiting for another call. He was so pale when I got there and then he got a little color back before he went to the hospital. Jill did say he was on a monitor and everytime he would have the pain, it would show his heart rate going up. So they can see there is something going on. I just pray it isn't anything complicated.

It's March already?

2009-03-04T11:22:00.005-05:00

The days are flying by. I'm not sure there even was a February. But at any rate it is March already. Mom's birthday is the 16th, I have a friend who has a baby due on the 16th, the kids school program is the 13th, spring break starts the 31st, we have a birthday party this weekend, we had one last weekend at the Paint Spot for Aubrey, and I have a quilt retreat the weekend of the 20th for 3 days. So I don't think the calendar is completely full just yet, but give me a day or two.

Our month started off with a birthday party at the Paint Spot. They kids had a ball. They asked if they can have their party there as well. But the only thing is that it's so tight on space. That is a lot of kids in small space with ceramics. Hmmm, I will have to think a bit on this one because invites have to go out soon. Their birthdays are April 3rd and 13th. Up until yesterday they wanted their own separate birthdays, but yesterday they decided again that they want one together.

Monday the kids had school as usual. Basketball practice at 6:00. Well 45 minutes into practice, Simon got wopped on the right side of his head with the ball. And unfortunately Sydnee was the one passing the ball. He stopped and held his ear and came to see me. Then he started saying he could hear drums in his head on the left side. As most moms I said "you're almost done, we'll check it when we get home". When it was time to go home, he said he didn't hurt or hear the drums. So I figured it wasn't anything big. We got home and I looked in his right ear with the otoscope (coolest tool that every mom should have). And it looked to me like the eardrum was gone.

So I called the pediatrician and she wanted him to go to the ER. I just wanted to know if it was something that would be an emergency or if seeing her the next morning would work. She said no, he had to go. So off we went and I dropped Sydnee at my friend Jill's since it was nearly bedtime anyway and Mom is in Florida. We waited for over 2 hours in the packed waiting room at Jewish Medical Center. Now in the meantime Simon fell completely asleep into his coma state he does at night. They had to get a wheel chair to get him back and then to the car. He slept through the entire event. They verified his eardrum was busted and that he had a severe ear infection on the left and they expect it to burst as well. No fever, no pain, etc. How in the world can someone have the infection that bad with no symptoms? I don't get it.

Two minutes later he told me the plan and was out the door. I'm not lieing when I say we weren't in the exam room over 5 minutes. We got back home at 11:30. They told us to follow up with our ENT. Back to school in the morning, prescripton for Tylenol 3 if needed and an antibiotic. Oh and don't forget the $100 co pay for ER visits.

Tuesday, Sydnee got her first ever massage by a professional just before her physical therapy. Her muscles in her legs and back are so hard that she is unable to do a lot of things like most kids. Everyone thinks that because she will jump off a roof if you let her that she is just silly and brave. But the truth is that she over compensates by doing things like that and does it very fast. They told us that she gets the momentum with speed so she won't just fall over. If she tries to do things slowly, she will fall over. And you don't have to push her. So she is now on an exercise program, therapy and massages. For the first time ever she told her therapist that what she was trying to get her to do was very hard. She really struggles. I think that is why she enjoys the water so much.

Today, Simon had his ENT appointment. Dr. Creely told us that he definitely has the ear drum issue, but it will heal on its own. Because the ear drum is one of the fastest healing things we have. Hmm, didn't know that. The ear infection isn't as bad as the hospital conveyed to me. His nose is "severe allergy nose". Great, he's probably allergic to the pets. He wants allergy testing, put him on a nasal spray, and said to hold on the antibiotic. He thinks he can get rid of the infection on his own. His temp on the left ear was 100.4 and the right was normal. His left cheek was flushed and warm and the right was fine. Very odd to me. I have never seen one cheek over the other be different. So he is scheduled for allergy tesing on April 1 (spring break). This should be interesting. Lots of needles and a child who is very strong physically. I may need to bring someone else with me to help. She told me to bring a DVD and headphones.

I was supposed to pick up Grandmother and bring her to quilt club. I was supposed to teach a class there too. So I was scurring around trying to get someone to sub for me and then had to call Grandmother to let her know I wasn't going to be able to get her. She was actually relieved. She said it's awfully cold anyway and she had plenty of things she could work on at home without leaving the warm house.

Is this enough?

Strep rears it's ugly head again

2009-02-24T21:43:00.002-05:00

I picked up the kids from school yesterday as usual. I had to pick up the Market Day order, so I went inside to get them instead of waiting in car pool. After that we went directly to the office instead of going home because Simon was to have his Blue and Gold Banquet with Cub Scouts at 6:00. Sydnee didn't seem like she felt well and when we got to the office she asked to lay down on the air mattress. She wasn't there 5 minutes and she was asleep. About 5:00 she came into the room I was in and had a funny look on her face. Well it wasn't really a funny look, but definitely a different look. About that time she started gagging and here it came. I felt her forehead and sure enough she was hot. So I made a phone call to see if I could get someone to take Simon to his banquet. Within an hour her temp was 102.8 and vomiting. Then I noticed there was blood in it. That can be very scarey. After going to the doctor today she was diagnosed with Strep. So all day she has battled fevers and vomiting. And each time it had blood in it. The doctor told me it was because she had heaved so much. Her fever goes down and then she is very active, but then it heads back up and she lays on the couch and sleeps. I remember when one of my nephews was very small he would do that. Up and down, awake and asleep. I am tired from checking her every two hours. So I see an early night tonight.

When I was checking on Sydnee last night, Simon wanted to be held. When I did I found that he had a rash on his legs, trunk, back and arms. At first I was concerned, but I think it may just be dry skin. I lathered him in lotion and will see how it does. I really don't think it's anything else.

I had a retreat this past weekend which was great as usual. I finished our 2005 family album. So yes, I still have a long way to go to get caught up. So I doubt that will ever happen. I took Simon to his Pinewood Derby race with scouts on Friday night while Mike took Sydnee to her Daddy Date Night with her scouts. She built a time capsule which turned out very nice. Simon got 6th place, and got very upset. He doesn't understand that only one person can get first. When he realized he wasn't first, he was very upset. Then he blames it on everyone he can. That is so hard for me to see him get like that. But he has to also learn that he won't always be first. He had a great time until he realized he wasn't the winner.

Hopeful Hearts Fundraiser

2009-02-15T17:32:00.010-05:00

Last night was not only mine and Mike's 11th anniversary, but also the annual fundraising gala for Hopeful Hearts. We go every year to catch up with people we haven't seen all year and to see what the foundation has done in Ukraine over the previous year. Melissa Swan is always the MC of the event. We have someone playing music, singing, and of course a wonderful dinner. They always have something for us to take home as well. Previously it has been hand painted eggs, matrushka dolls, wooden boxes, etc. from Ukraine. This year it was tea. They had a bunch of different kinds you could choose from. Melissa Swan said if you aren't a tea drinker, you will be after tasting these teas. She has been on two of the mission trips.

Trish, Jeannie and Kathy above

The room always looks so nice after it's been decorated.

Tea bags and boxes for us to take home. There are also some eggs for those who had never gotten one.

We had a very nice time this year. I would have to say it has been the best yet. It always seems there is something that would catch a nerve for me before we even left the house, but this year, things went smoothly and we had a great time. One of the couples at our table was Simon's scout leaders the Drains and the others were the Turners. All of our children are from the same region. Although the Turner kids are from the same orphanage as Sydnee and Simon.

The Drains above

The Turners above

This is the quilt I made and donated this year. They have a silent auction to raise money.

2009-02-15T17:29:00.002-05:00

I got this picture from someone in an email. It reminds me so much of my old cat Dutchess. When I was 10, I got Dutchess from an Aunt and Uncle who lived on a farm in Switzerland Co IN. She had kittens twice a year with no hesitations. She was known for her large litters too. I remember one of them was 13. So this picture reminded me a lot of that litter. Aren't they adorable?

Tovarysch

2009-02-15T17:21:00.005-05:00

One day I heard a lot of noise in the bird cage. When I checked all of the birds were taking a bath in their water bowl. Since Tovarysch is so big, he tended to hover on the bowl, not letting the others in. Here he is soaking wet. Isn't he cute?

Now here are two adorable cats who have become good friends. I guess Maggies wide bottom is good for something.

Now this is going too far

2009-02-12T21:03:00.003-05:00

The kids and I were watching a movie and Sydnee turns around to see Smokey sitting in her doll stroller. I can't believe he stayed there long enough for me to go to the car, get my camera and get back in to take a picture. He was so cute.

Sydnee has been playing with her dolls daily for the past week. I am so excited. She is playing with both of them and acts like they are sisters. And we are finally seeing use of the stroller, car seat/carrier and playpen she has. I will have to give thanks to her teacher. I know that Ms Tiffany has her 9 mo son in the classroom with them. That is where Sydnee is getting the information, mannerisms, etc. When she started first grade, she told me that Cason (the teachers 4 mo old) was a distraction to her. But as time went on, she has gotten very used to him being there. Now she questions why he isn't there if he is sick or something. In all of this, she has learned how to feed a baby, talk with a baby, play with a baby, how to tell them no, no, etc. And I am seeing all of this when she is playing with her dolls. This is a great thing to see from a child that had no interest in playing with dolls, or anything remotely close to it. These things just didn't come naturally for her. It's something we take for granted. But it you aren't nurtured as a baby, how would you know what should be done. Of my two children, she is the one who didn't want to cuddle or anything. Even now she doesn't like to do that much at all.

The kids made out their valentines for tomorrows party at school. They are very excited. This was the first time they have been able to sign their cards quickly. I think they were done in about 20 minutes or so. It used to take us at least an hour and a half. And that was with questions like "Mom, how do I get all of my name on here?" Or the letters to their name were all over the place instead of lining up to spell their name. So there is more progress. We have the parent/teacher conference on Monday. I am looking forward to it. Simon has been doing well conduct wise over the last few weeks. So again that is progress.

This week I have been working on freezer foods again. I made up 10 meatloafs to freeze and bake later, 10# of mash potatoes to freeze in serving sizes, baked 2 chickens, and baked 7 chicken breasts. I kind of like doing this. Probably because then I know I will have an easier time when it comes to cooking dinner. Next I want to make up some casseroles. I used to pre-cook things and then freeze in serving sizes. But now I will make up the dish and then bake when we want it. It won't seem so much like left overs.

Today I worked on my new office all day. I put in some shelves in the closet, put some stuff on the built in book cases, shampooed carpet, cleaned walls and baseboards and the doors. The landloard took a look at the carpet and told me she is going to see about getting new carpet put in because she would be embarrassed to have anyone there with the way the last tenants left it. Cleaning it has helped, but there are tears in it too. I am looking forward to getting moved in.

Good night

Simon Gets Braces

2009-02-09T21:59:00.004-05:00

It just so happened when Simon was told he would be getting braces that he told me he thought his teeth looked like "donkey teeth". I have no idea where he got that from, but he has told everyone he knows that he thinks this way. So onward with the appointment to get his donkey teeth worked on.

I picked Simon up from school today to go get his braces put on. He now has 4 upper brackets on the front. Once another tooth comes in, they'll add one on there too. But it's barely in and not enough to add it yet. It didn't really take them long to x-ray, take a bunch of photos and put the brackets on his teeth. I was very proud of him while this was being done. Simon doesn't do well with things in his mouth if it isn't food. He gags very easily. And I don't mean just gag....it will come on out! So you have to be careful. But all was well and I was very proud of him doing so well. We have made a big deal out of this great thing called braces so he wouldn't feel awkward. His teacher even kept telling him how cool it was to have them. So he is grinning from ear to ear. And he can't wait to take a toothbrush to school for after lunch.

Wow is it nice and warm!

2009-02-08T17:57:00.002-05:00

Weather is great so far. But I hear we are getting rain, so it won't be dry, but it will be warm. That's enough for me.

I want to thank my friend Ellen for all of the clothes she is sharing with Sydnee. It's like Christmas when she gets hand me downs. I remember getting them when I was small and I loved it. In the boxes I found a doll. It was fairly heavy (like life size). The hair was a little wacky, but it had a cute one piece fleece sailor outfit on. Very cute. I cleaned all of the ink off of it's face, hands and feet and set it up in front of the entertainment center. When Sydnee got up the next morning she saw it sitting there and said "what is this...?" So I told her I thought she might like it, so I got it all ready for her. She looked at me and said "no thank you". Well, about an hour or so later, she came up to me and said she has changed her mind. I am proud to say she has been playing with it for almost 2 days now. Her name has changed several times, but she has taken it on piggy back rides, swinging, teaching her how to walk, and now she pulled her car seat and stroller out of the garage and got it all cleaned up to use. She seems to be enjoying it. She told me it was Helena's sister (that is her cabbage patch doll she started playing with). So there is more progress and in a good way.

A couple of days ago, Sydnee pointed out to me that her right arm and hand are trembling. Sure enough it has done it for several days now. I will be calling Cinci to see if it could possibly be her new med. I seems to be more in the morning than later in the day though. So that is a bit confusing for me. Her demeanor has been much calmer. She isn't running around the house screaming and yelling about everything. She is playing nicely and in a more pleasant manner.

2009-02-05T23:49:00.002-05:00

I dropped the kids to school this morning and then headed downtown for my doctors appointment. I got there, signed in and waited for them to call my name. 5 minutes go by and sure enough I wasn't on the schedule. They couldn't find an appointment down at all. So now I have been rescheduled. I would like to be able to get upset about it, but this seems to be a habit of mine now. I have done this at least 4 times that I can think of with me and the kids. I then beat myself up about it because I have wasted so much time and gas. I think my brain is going.

Later I went to the office and worked a while, picked up the kids, Simon went to therapy and then we headed home.

After getting home, I told Simon he needed to practice his piano for 15 minutes. He started good, then all of a sudden got very frustrated. The next thing you know he is crying telling me "Mom, I just want to be a normal kid and only practice the piano at the teachers house". I sat and tried to explain how lessons work. But I think his main focus was going to Mason's house. He finally got calmed down. So I will see how this works tomorrow.

I tucked Sydnee in to bed later and closed her door. About 10 minutes later I thought I heard her crying. Sure enough she was. We sat and talked for a little bit. She told me she was sad because she missed Grandpa K and Nakina. I hated to see her so upset.

I'm looking forward to a couple of warm days. Goodnight.........

2009-02-04T22:33:00.004-05:00

I didn't accomplish much today since I went to quilt club. That lasts most of the day. Then while I was eating a late lunch it dawned on me that Simon had piano at 3:15. So I told 'em to box it up and I headed out. This was his first lesson and Mrs. Barnes really covered a lot. Since I am so not "musically inclined" I listened hard. It was very interesting. He has two small songs to learn by Wed next week. I think he will do well. Especially since the lessons are only 30 minutes. He got his big keyboard to practice on at Christmas. So I hope all goes well.

Sydnee's physical therapist has now finished her report on Sydnee's new testing. She is aging out as 7 years 9 months for certain skills, but when it comes to balance, standing on one leg, moving certain ways, she is very rigid and stiff, which makes her unable to do many things. So she is aging out as 4 years 3 months. That is nearly half of where she should be. So now she is going to be on a daily stretching plan. Her doctor in Cinci has also decided to put her on Respirdal for a short term to see if it helps her anger issues. She will be doing behavior modification in the mean time. The hopes are that with the therapy, she won't need the medication for a long time. But it may help her to receive the modification without fighting it. She is very hyper, and she screams and yells at all of us in the family. She gets so angry for no reasons. Then comes the sarcasm. Unfortunately I am afraid that she gets that from me. But I am praying we can both change that. I'm working on it, but it's been that way for so many years, it will be tough. But I won't give up.

We are going to our Hopeful Hearts Foundation fundraiser dinner on Feb 14. It also just happens to be our 11th anniversary. Hard to believe it's been that long already. The dinner has a silent auction too. I have donated a quilt that Mom and I worked on. I delivered it yesterday and Nancy loved it. I'm looking forward to the dinner. It's my one and only big night out every year. So we are going. They always show us video updates on what is going on in Ukraine, and an update on how many children have come home for the year.

2009-02-03T23:24:00.002-05:00

We headed off to school on time today, but it took me 1 hour 25 minutes to drive 4.5 miles. It was bumper to bumper that entire time. It was snowing pretty hard, but I don't think that was a problem on Bardstown Road. They did mention several accidents on the freeway though. When I finally got far enough I decided to take Brentlinger over to Billtown which worked out well. Except for the fact that there was someone blocked on the big curve where there is construction going on now. I stopped to see if there was something a group effort could help. A guy had stopped to help this girl who just slid very gently into the guardrail. He said he really needed a shovel and he thought he could get her out. Well guess what? I have a shovel in my car. He moved what he thought was the problem and out she went. So 5 minutes, all was well. We finally got to school at 9:30.

I met my new neighbor in the building where my office is. She is very nice and we both were kind of wanting the same thing. Time and space. I really liked her space. It was much like mine, but about 2 feet larger each direction. She left her full time job to start her own business in accounting and taxes.

Our dishwasher is on the fritz. But apparently it's something that isn't worth working on, so we are now shopping for a new one. Any ideas anyone? It was around 11 years old. It's hard to believe that we have been in our house nearly 10 years. I have never lived anywhere this long in my life.

Simon has another good lab day

2009-02-02T23:01:00.006-05:00

I was glad there was no school today, because we had to go to Cinci for Simon's appointment. He also had to stop to get labs on the way up. With no school this day won't be counted as a sick day. I am always struggling with appointments. I don't want either child missing school, but then again we have to go. So I just try to work things in a way that they miss as little as possible.
This time Simon was determined to sit by himself to get the labs done. His last appointment he did very well. But prior to that it usually took several people to hold him down. He is determined he isn't going to cry anymore. We got a loud "ouch!", but he did great.
But it all ended with a grin. Everyone there told him how proud they were of him.

While we were heading up to his appointment, I called Sydnee's doctor to see if by some chance there was a cancellation we could get. We had an appt there last week, but we rescheduled to next week due to the ice. And sure enough, we managed to get a 3:00 appt for her. So now there isn't one next week. That also meant we could run around a bit to hit a quilt shop or two.

We got back in town at 7:02pm which was just in time to attend cub scouts. Now I am tired and ready to hit the hay.

What a nice day

2009-02-01T18:46:00.003-05:00

Today, the temps reached into the 50's. Kentucky is such a crazy state when it comes to weather. One day it's in the teens and then in the 50's. But the trees were starting to bounce back to life without cracking apart. The sun really didn't do much for the ice on the driveway, deck or sidewalk. But the trees looked better. The ice is still as hard as a rock.

Yesterday the kids and I went to the hotel to get the rest of our things we had left there. We still have it until Wednesday morning. When we finished getting everything in the car, I grabbed a hold of the car door and the front seat to start to get in. Yep, you guessed it! Just as I started to lift my right foot to place it in the car and the left foot went flying. I kept hanging on and it managed to slow me down a little, but I am still bruised on my back side, right hip and left side. Just beautiful colors of blues and purples.

School is cancelled again tomorrow which is fine for me. Simon has an appointment in Cinci for a med check. This way he won't be taking an absent day. I'l take Sydnee with me too. I am going to call in the morning to see if there is an opening with Sydnee's doctor too and that would save me a trip next week. You just never know. But anything to save me a 4-5 hour round trip works for me.

2009-01-30T22:18:00.015-05:00

Yes! Finally some snow. We could barely see the house across the street. In the beginning it was mainly freezing rain. It froze on contact, but looked like it was raining. After getting about 2" of that, we started getting the fluffy stuff. It was so pretty. There is something about snow that I just love. I like the quiet and crunchy sound you hear when you go outside and nothing is moving around. There is such a silence with the exception of your booted feet on the ground.

Of course like many, many others, we lost our power. Temperatures didn't hestitate to drop in the house. Then it dawned on me that we have 4 tropical birds that need 70 degrees. Mike wanted us to go to his moms. He and his brother were going to set up a generator there because she had also lost her electric. But I just couldn't picture 2 extremely active kids staying there with no light, no toys, no tv, no nothing. So I started calling at 7:30 am trying to locate a hotel. We wound up going to a weekly efficiency hotel. All they had was a full size bed in a single room. Fine! We'll take it. I told them I needed a non-smoking room, but when we stepped off the elevator, the smoke cloud hit me in the face. The room was ok though, thank goodness. But it sure didn't make me anxious to go into the hall way.

So we got all set up. The kids were fine, it was me that felt cramped. Mike stayed at his Mom's. He had to be at work at 6am the next morning. He wanted to stay at her house to make sure that her generator was going to work properly. They had to do something to her furnace to get it to hook into the generator. As of today, she is still without power.

And of course no sooner than we got all set up, that evening our power was back on. But we spent the night anyway just in case. So if anyone is still out of power and needs a place to stay, let me know. I have a room available. We had to pay for the week regardless of how many days we stayed. I still have the keys and we have the room until Wednesday 11am.

The kids were so excited to go out. Since there was a deep layer of ice under the snow they realized they were able to run and then do a belly slide like a big seal. They were having a ball.

I thought the ice was so pretty. Especially on the red berries. So crystal clear. The kids and I had to run out to Ford to give Mike his keys. So I took some pictures there because I was so close to the bushes and trees there near where I parked.

These berries are around our back deck. The blue birds love 'em, but the mockingbirds seem to enjoy chasing off any bird. So we see a lot of bird fights out there.

When we got home from running our errands, the moon was so pretty in such a clear blue sky. I just had to take a picture.

One of our errands consisted of taking Smokey and Maggie to the vet for their annual checkups and shots. They weren't thrilled at all, but did very well. They're ear infections have gone away too.

Here Dr. Watson is checking Smokey's heart.

Now it's Maggies turn.

Another errand was stopping at the quilt shop in Jtown to get another piece of fabric I needed more of. Well, of course with it being a quilt shop, I got very sidetracked. Simon was being great and watching cartoons and Sydnee had gone back to the classroom and found the owner. The owner had brought her dog in due to lack of power at home. Well with the dog being there Sydnee was in heaven. She loves dogs. Later the owner's husband came in. Later I heard someone saying "Sydnee's Mom?? Looking for Sydnee's Mom". He was going to take Sydnee out with him to walk the dog outside. He was so funny. She was in heaven.

Best part of today????? The kids were wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, all of these errands and wonderful behavior. I had them take their token jars. I took my jar with tokens and the cards we made with my expectations and ways to earn extras. They are loving this system. Before we went into the first location, we went through the cards to remind them of what is expected. They repeated them back to me. Then when we left a location, they would say "Mom, aren't you glad we behaved while we were in there"? Simon would jump to the door to hold it open for Sydnee and I.

In the end they earn more tokens and we had a great day with no arguing or disobeying. YES!!!

Snow?

2009-01-26T23:20:00.008-05:00

Tonight was a pack meeting with cub scouts. Simon got a few awards for things he has accomplished. You sure can't tell by the look on his face that he was happy to get them. He's supposed to get more, but for some reason the order didn't come in or something. So next time he will get recognized again for his accomplishments.

Ms. Marie handing out the awards.
Who knows if we will really get the snow they say we'll get. Everytime I get my hopes up, I get disappointed. I would love to see us get some pretty white snow that lasts longer than 24 hours. I know the kids are already excited about it. So I hope they wake up to white.

Go Junior Warriers!

2009-01-24T20:55:00.006-05:00

Today was the first basketball game for the kids. This is an Upward team at Highlands Baptist Church on Billtown Road. They put Simon in to start which was great. Simon jumped right in there and took off. He scored 6 points! I don't know that I have ever seen him so excited. When he made the first two points the coach ran to him giving him high fives. Simon was beaming ear to ear. He kept looking over at me and giving me a thumbs up. I was thrilled for him.

Sydnee went in soon after Simon. She hesitated in the beginning, but once she caught the ball as a rebound. I think she had surprised herself and that thrilled her to death. She stood up nice and tall after that and started taking off to get the ball. She was surprising people like crazy. I heard other parents mention how she just dived in to get the ball. She's small, but mighty. She shot a few, but didn't make any baskets.

I have to figure out how to get better photos. They just aren't what I would like. Next time I will take my tripod and see if that works any better. I am hoping to make each of them a little book about their first basketball team.

I was watching Cheapcycle and Freecycle off and on today to see if I could find a desk, cabinet and file cabinets. I did manage to find a large desk. And she had a huge white board for $15. So Mike stopped by there to get the drawers and white board. He's getting the rest of it tomorrow. I need more storage at my office in Jtown. If I get the space across the hall in Feb (a possibility), then I will have more space to work things. But nothing is written in stone yet. So I don't want to plan for that yet.

I spent today working on bagging up donations, sale items, or garbage. I just want this house cleared out. Many hours left to go to get it done. Maybe by the fourth of July?

The New Bed

2009-01-22T10:26:00.008-05:00

A friend of mine has given Sydnee a bed that she absolutely loves. Thanks so much Deanna. This bed is in wonderful condition too. Well Sydnee couldn't wait to go to bed last night. Not to mention she was still exhausted from Tuesdays testing in Cincinnati. I will go more on that part later. But she loves the bed and immediately asked Simon to spend the night with her. He was happy to do so. When he walked in the room, you could tell he was so ready to go to sleep. He rarely makes it past 8pm. The bottom part of the bed is a futon. I barely got a sheet on it before Simon was ready to put himself down. I put his quilt over the back part of the futon and formed a tent. He slept like that all night. He just thought that was funny.

It's funny how light this room looks. Actually it was pitch dark and I had a flash. Kids never knew it.

Yep, believe it or not Simon really is under that little tent.

Sydnee was out like a light. She was so excited.

Now about Cinci. Sydnee and I headed up for her appointment. We stopped on the way and got her hair cut. It's very short, but it matches up some from her homemade haircut. I know though that if I didn't get it cut, she would do it herself again because she wants short hair. The good part is that she loves it right now. And it is short, but it does look better. It will make it easier to match up over the next couple of months.

After we got to the hospital they took her right away which put us a little ahead of schedule. So they were able to take their time. She was starting to get nervous because she already knew she was getting an IV. But we were told that there is a difference between sedation and anesthesia. Hmmm, didn't know that. Sedation is getting an IV and going to sleep. Anesthesia is getting some bubblegum smelling gas while I hold her. When she drifts off, they take her back to put her IV in put her heart leads, O2 monitor and O2 on her and finish her testing, then when testing is done, they take her to recovery for a longer time. They take their time while a nurse sits by her side the entire time talking to me about whatever we want to talk about. This is wonderful! When she does wake up enough to drink, they give her some water. If she holds water and graham crackers down ok, then they remove her IV and let her sit up for a bit. And if all is well, she gets to get in the wheelchair while I warm the car up and I meet them at another door. They even gave her the little gas mask. Which she was thrilled to have.

Now do we know why my kids love Cinci??? Because they are always giving them toys. I don't mean little treasure box things. I mean dolls, books, stuffed animals, etc. There is a whole room of stuff in boxes that they have to give to kids. So her first nurse who did her initial vitals gave her a little princess doll. Then when she got in the car, she had another doll in her hand. So she got two. Not to mention the excitement of the nurse having a race with her right and left arm. He put on the blood pressure cuff on the right and the O2 monitor on the left. Sydnee got to say GO! And he pushed the button on the machine to see which reading came up first. He made it such a party.

This process was so much better. And one of her nurses from last time was there this time too. They said they had felt bad for Simon (who didn't go this time) because he was so worried about Sydnee last time because she cried when they put her IV in. But this time she was asleep and was so surprised when she got up and found they had already taken her pictures and done her IV.

Now we are just waiting on her test results. Probably later today.

What a wonderful Saturday!

2009-01-18T15:48:00.007-05:00

Yesterday I was pretty tired, but had gotten to bed way too late to do much in the morning. Then it dawned on me that I needed to go to the quilt store for a monthly kit I signed up for. Of course the kids had to go too since Mike is working. I got there and ended up being there for 4 hours looking and talking to everyone I know who came. My praise for the day is....the kids were angels. Yes I mean a true sense of the word. Simon watched their TV where he found a bible channel. Sydnee passed out chocolate chip muffins to customers with Scott. When we were getting ready to leave Scott told both of them that they are welcome in that store anytime. Wow! So in the end I took the kids to lunch and they felt so good about how they were. Even the customers kept commenting on how well mannered they were. What an accomplishment! Now today they are making up for it. Lots of running and yelling. UUUggghhhhh!

I got up this morning thinking I was going to work on the house. I have a ton of Christmas boxes to go through. I had decided it was time to eliminate many of the things I don't use or need. I also decided I would get rid of all of the holiday serving dishes that were made in China. Too many issues with China for me. Well, there were a lot of things gotten rid of. It's just a personal choice of mine. I decided that when the time comes that I need something like that I will go to Bybee or somwhere local and get something else. Then there are the clothes of mine and the kids.....can't wear it! Our of here! So now you can actually walk downstairs. The path is much wider. I also now have empty containers to actually store stuff in again.

The lady who came by to pick up all of this stuff taught me something. I thought it was very clever. A patient of hers gave her a small gift. It was a frog. He asked her if she knew what FROG meant. It means....Forever Rely On God. How neat is that! Just something to think about.

I finished downstairs and made lunch, ate, and then Sydnee walked into her room. Simon was watching a movie. I went in the bathroom to find a nice surprise on the floor. Yes, very disgusting in my eyes. I called Sydnee's name (can you tell I already knew where it came from)? She came in and cleaned up the mess. Then she just leaned her head on the counter. She said "mom, can we get my hair cut?" I of course said "we'll see". Wasn't quite sure what was up. But the whole time she had managed to keep her head down. Well to my wondering eyes did appear? A little girl with a hair cut to her ear. Oh yes, she cut one side just below her ear, and her bangs are nearly gone. Less than 1" long. She just started crying. She told me she was tired of messing with her hair and wanted it cut. She finally showed me where the hair was. She had gotten cuticle scissors out of my bathroom cabinet (yes they were put away high and in a closed cabinet in a little box). She said she went in there looking for them with the idea of cutting her hair. So it was pre-meditated. This one I am afraid isn't one that will be able to be corrected easily.

Below is a picture of a child who loves her moon shoes. She will walk and jump around the house for hours in these. And the outfits she wears at times cracks me up. This gown is one she has had since age 4. It was a long gown, but because she is so thin, it still fits with the exception of getting shorter and shorter. She can get over 1 1/2 feet high with these things. They do get a bit noisy, but she loves them.

2009-01-16T15:04:00.003-05:00

Simon had a great week last week, but then late this week it changed. Yesterday I had to go get him at school because when they started to work on the spring program, he kicked a teacher in the hip, slapped at children with his sleeves, bit a child, locked himself in the office restroom, etc. They called me to let me know this so I wouldn't think they locked him in there.

I got to school to see what was going on and realized that he was upset over the school program. I reminded him how proud I was of him last year when he participated in the program at Summit. He finally calmed down and was told me he was very sorry for getting so upset. You could tell this time he was remorseful. But I still had to think of a consequence. We were all supposed to go to Paoli Peaks tonight for snowboarding and tubing. So he was very excited and anxious to go. But now he can't go. Actually, the temperatures aren't real good for this anyway, but it made my point. The sad part is that Sydnee couldn't go either. So I had to tell her. She accepted this well and just asked if I would take her to Chuck E Cheese instead.

Last night Sydnee showed me the things that she got from Aunt Bev and Kim when she spent Saturday with them. She got a princess dress, but it is satiny instead of ruffles and lace. It's really pretty. Sydnee told me "Mom, it's very deglicate". It's so funny to hear her try to pronounce "delicate". I asked her how she liked the dress and she told me she loved it! I was happy for her. Because remember she isn't my girly girl. She is also playing more with her cabbage patch doll too. I love it! Don't get me wrong, she would still bring home a frog and lizard in a minute. So she isn't converting to full time girl yet. But I see progress.

She also got to go to a birthday party at "Justice" for her best friend. Our niece took her since I wasn't home. This was a place in Oxmoor where they put on makeup, fix their hair, etc. Sydnee came home with lots of "Hanna Montana" type things. She was so happy and couldn't wait to show me the things she got. Little arm glove things, a headset with microphone, colored chapstick, light up mirror, etc. She loved it. She kept telling me how cool it was.

Weekend is nearly here!

2009-01-07T21:51:00.004-05:00

I have been back at my office this week which I really enjoy. I feel like I am getting so many things done. Today I worked on some reports I wanted to get done. Afterwards I had to run Mike's computer to the computer repair place then pick up the kids form school.

I have a lot of packing to do before Friday morning. And I finally got child care lined up. My usual sitter wasn't going to be able to watch them. So I called Angela our niece to see if she could pick up the kids from school. She will watch them on Fri/Sun. But I was still was hurting. I needed someone for Saturday only. I broke down and asked Mom if she could take one of them and Mike's cousin was taking another. So it worked out. Although I think Simon ended up wearing out Grandma in the end. 24 hours is a long time for him to be there.

I got to retreat on Friday and stayed until last night. We had a great time and people were asking to sign up for future retreats, so it looks like they all had fun. The food at this facility is wonderful!

Apparently while I was gone, Simon ended up having a hard time after Dad came to pick him up on Saturday evening. Mom said Simon had woke up at 3am Sat morning (which is extremely different for him). So that meant she didn't get good sleep and that made her completely off trying to make it through the day. Simon also told me it bothered him that there was a painter at Grandma's. That painter was my brother. But he really doesn't know my brother well. So he had no clue.

Today school called me to let me know that Simon told the teacher he was tired. She offered to let him lay down on the mat and he fell asleep. Then he moved to the sponge room later and fell asleep in there too. When they called me it was 11am and he had basically slept all morning. Then I picked him up and took him to my office with me and fell asleep for a little over 2 hours there. I took him to the doctor just to make sure nothing was wrong. They ran blood for strep and Mono. Both tests were negative. So I have no clue what is going on with him right now. I will take him back tomorrow and see how his day goes.

Both kids started basketball tonight. They absolutely loved it. Now the next big thing is going to Paoli Peaks on Friday. Simons scout troop is going and Sydnee and I will also go. They will get a 1 hour snowboard lesson and then we will all go tubing. That sounds like a lot of fun. So, we'll see how it goes.

Great Day at school!

2009-01-06T22:11:00.002-05:00

Yes!!! The kids are back in school. The first thing Simon said when he got in the car was "Mom, I didn't have to go to the office to calm down or anything!" I know I didn't get a phone call all day. That was huge.

What a quiet day it was. I went to my office to see what I could get into. The first thing I did was plug in my "Sun Box". This is a box with a very intensity light that you sit in front of. It helps give you the energy to get through the day when the days are so dreary. It really works. One time years ago my Mom and I used one that a friend had loaned her. Then we both went to work later. Mom called me and asked me if I felt any different. I told her no, but I was doing things I never liked doing or things I would put off doing because I didn't like to do them. Then a few days later we realized it was the light. If you sit in front of it too late in the day, you would be awake all night. So you have to do it early in the day. So anyway I decided that I would start trying to sit in front of it again.

I managed to bind a quilt and some tax paperwork. So I felt pretty good in getting things done.

Sydnee had a chiropractor appt. Her back has 3 curves in it. So we are going to try to see if it will move at all in a month.

On our way home we checked out Upward basketball for the kids. They did the soccer program once when they were younger, so I thought we may try it again. I won't know until tomorrow which night the practices are on. It mainly depends on that since they are both in scouts. They would really like to play. And both are pretty good at it too. So I think they would do well.

Are we going to get any snow yet or not? I am tired of rain and want some white stuff. Woke up this morning disappointed when I didn't see anything.

I have a retreat this weekend and can't wait. Except for the fact that I don't have a sitter on Saturday yet. So that is going to cause me a problem.

Last night Simon had cub scouts. They are planning a ski trip for them on the 16th. Simon is so excited he can't wait. They will get a one hour lesson, snacks and then they can go skiing or tubing. I am sure I will be sore after that.

When do the kids go back to school!!!!???

2009-01-04T21:56:00.003-05:00

I can't wait for Tuesday. School will back in session and it will be quiet during the day once again. I haven't done much of anything this week, although there was plenty to do. The kids and I have played some of their new games and of course we are learning their Wii. We have bowled, played baseball, golf, mine cart and they have played even more. Simon has been kicking my butt in bowling.

Now it is time to get the Christmas decorations down and laundry caught up. With Mike working 6am to 6pm right now I have actually been cooking more. Although he has surprised me and we have been out twice. Trust me that is a lot for him. He isn't a big fan of eating out. And truthfully the kids and I eat out way too much. So it really has been nice eating at home. I was starting to forget how to use the stove I think.

I went to Mom's today to pick up a box. My brother is painting her house right now and it really looks great. She kept debating what color and she finally decided on a green. It really looks nice. The trim was always a natural wood and now it's white. It feels so different when you walk in. I can't wait to see it when he's done. And I am sure she can't wait to get it done too. I know she was getting excited about him getting it started.

We got the results of Sydnee's MRI of the brain. It came out fine and she is now scheduled for a MRI of the spine on Jan 20. When I told her when we were going back, she just laughed and said "just get the IV". At least this time they won't go through her trying to go in without sedation.

Spinach praises!

2009-01-01T10:43:00.009-05:00

One thing Simon got for Christmas was a series of DVD's that have classic cartoons on them. They include, Woody Woodpecker, Popeye, Mighty Mouse, Caspar, Betty Boop, etc. But so far Popeye is his favorite. The funny thing is that he now wants to try spinach! Yep, the slimy green vegetable out of a can. I love spinach in recipes, but it's not my favorite to just eat plain. I remember one time when we were kids at the dining room table. I remember Cara yelling and Kenny kept saying "I didn't do anything!" Well come to find out there was this huge worm in her spinach on her plate. So I'm curious whether she eats spinach anymore. But I haven't been to keen on eating it out of a can myself. Anyway, back to the story. We were at the grocery yesterday and Simon saw a can of spinach in the veggie aisle and it had Popeye on the label. So I got him a can after being begged.

Well this morning he wants spinach for breakfast. See the picture? Whenever Simon even spots something on his plate that has a green cast to it, he will return to you anything he has eaten for the entire day right back into his plate. It's not just a "I don't like it thing". He will flat out start gagging in a major way just at the sight. If you don't make the green disappear very quickly, you will have a mess on your hands.

Well I am proud to say that Simon has tried and succeeded to eating his spinach. Take a look.

Open wide..........................In it goes..................................................

Close........................ Hold it......................

Swallowed...............................Success!!

This one was a true test. I nearly thought he was going to toss it. But as you can see, he succeeded and had his Popeye muscle.

Never a dull moment

2009-01-01T00:26:00.004-05:00

We got our Wii all hooked up and it looks like it is going to be a huge hit with the kids and us old people. We bowled and played golf. Unfortunately the kids didn't get to play on it. They both asked if they could ride the Whirly Wheel. It was cold out, but dry. About 15 minutes later I looked out and Sydnee came out running. They were caught standing on our neighbors shed. And this particular shed is one that is being held together with broken boards, nails and possibly duct tape. I was livid that they even considered climbing a privacy fence, jumping over it and getting on the shed. Of course then they both had every excuse imaginable. But at least for the most part they were telling the same story.

Finally back home

2008-12-30T22:44:00.004-05:00

This seemed like a very long day. I was hoping the kids would sleep in a little so Sydnee wouldn't feel like she didn't get to eat for so long. She was able to have clear liquids from 5:30am to 11:30 am, but nothing solid. Simon and I ate breakfast at 11:15 so she drank a bottle of gatorade during that time. At least she didn't feel as hungry. We got to the hospital early (12:30). Her appointment was at 1:30. They took us back within 10 minutes and started talking to her about what she was getting done. They were hoping that she would do the MRI without sedation, but I questioned whether that would work.

Nurse Katie

Katie (nurse) came in and went through a storybook about MRI's and then had her listen to a CD of the noise the machine makes. The anesthesiologist told her they would go to a toy room for her to pick out any toy she wanted if she could do it without going to sleep. Sydnee's response was "no thank you". Polite, but not the answer they were looking for. They took her in there and went through box after box. But she didn't want anything. They bribed her every way they could, but nothing enticed her. Finally she said she was ready to get started. As soon as they asked her to walk into the room, it was over. Her whole body started shaking and she had no intentions of walking over that threshold. She grabbed my leg and it was over. Ten more minutes of enticing, and nothing. So out came the IV. She was fine with it. They put in two lines and she cried. That's when it hit Simon that this wasn't what he wanted to hear. So he started gently kicking each person in the room.

He has a hard time showing his feelings in any way other than a direct hit. When he gets uncomfortable with a situation, he locks up into defense mode. For a child who wants to argue with his sister 70% of the time, he hates to hear her cry from pain or fear. The worse part is that it's only me. I then have to comfort her in her ordeal going on at the time and then keep an eye on him to not hurt someone, turn over a table or tray, not turn over a trash can, etc. The little tazmanian devil can wake up and be there before you know it.

In the end a nurse took him to a room where we could see him, put in a movie, gave him juice and graham crackers and a chair that spins. He is now in heaven. Sydnee started to fall to sleep. Nearly an hour later, she is back in the room and his movie is nearly done. All is well. She chugged a cup of water (very unusual for her) and they put her in my lap to rock and covered her with a blanket. I take advantage of those moments. Sydnee hasn't ever been much of a cuddler, so that was good for me. 20-30 minutes later, she was in a wheel chair and on her way out.

They say I will know results in 24-48 hours from the neurologist. Pray for negative. They aren't looking for anything in particular. Just a reason for her right sided weakness.

I guess tomorrow will be a catch up day. I have a retreat coming up on Jan 9 that needs payments posted from customers. So I have to get that worked on so I know who needs to send balances in. This is one of our larger ones. There are a lot of details to tend too.

2008-12-29T22:57:00.002-05:00

Today was busy trying to get Sydnee's appointments done. We did find out that the "horse charm" is definitely gone. Thank goodness, because Sydnee has been going through her own "poop" to try and find it. So now hopefully that will stop.

We went to go see "Marley and Me" to kill time tonight. We loved the movie, but Sydnee cried her little heart out. Marley died in the end after getting sick. It just reminded me a lot of Nakina a year ago. It was very sad. But it was funny to hear Simon tell her to remember it's a movie, not real.

We ate dinner at Spagetti Factory (which I haven't done in years).

Well I am dead tire, goodnight.

Cincinnati trip

2008-12-29T12:14:00.002-05:00

The kids and I left for Cincinnati. Sydnee had an appointment at the psychiatrist and they have increased her meds. The OCD portion has changed, but she is still hoarding garbage and hiding food under furniture to eat it later. We're not sure why. She is allowed to eat just about anything when she wants something, so there isn't a reason to hide it. She also eats strange things. Examples: I found her hiding behind the couch with a package of cream cheese. She was digging it out with her hands and eating it. When she heard me come into the room, she slid it under the couch. I find chip bags under her bed, cracker packs, goldfish containers in her drawers or under the bed. If she gets up before us, she will eat a tub of butter or sourcream and then maybe eat a piece of toast later. I have found her in the pantry eating raw oats or grits (dry ones never made). Any ideas anyone?

Tomorrow she is supposed to have an MRI for the neurologist at 1:30. But we hit a snag, because she can't have anything metal in or on her. Remember the metal horse she swallowed? Well we still don't know if he has come out yet. So they have to confirm that. And I hope they do, because maybe then she will stop trying to look for it (if you know what I mean). It's been 3 weeks I think. So anyway they want the xray today so we'll know sooner. I am currently in a hotel room waiting for an answer. We have tried to get orders from her neurologist and from her PCP. Hopefully one of them will call soon. I am waiting to hear from the girl in radiology to let me know someone has sent it in.

Both kids will their neuropsych evaluations in March. There is a very long waiting list. This will be the part that confirms physical findings, genetics, etc. We know with Simon there is something else going on, just don't know exactly what.

My mother called me yesterday very upset. She had gotten a call to come to the hospital for a good friend of hers. She got very sick and wasn't expected to make it through the night. In less than 24 hours she was gone. It was a shock for everyone. Come to find out it was Leukemia. No one even knew she had it. She was thought to have pneumonia when she first came in, but within hours she was in ICU on a ventilator. So please keep my mom and her friends family in your prayers. This is a big shock for them all. Mom had a lot of respect for for. So she is really questioning "why her".

As I am sitting here typing, Sydnee is holding a hairbrush like a telephone and looking through the yellow pages (and the Cinci YP's are heavier than she is). Now she is asking for the appointment book and writing down numbers and pretending to dial them. One of her main assets is being able to pretend with nearly anything.

Well, that's it for now. I hope to hear soon on what time to be at the radiology department. I had told the kids we could go see "Marley and Me" after it's done.

Very Lazy Day

2008-12-27T23:17:00.005-05:00

I think I have set in my chair all day with the exception of eating and necessities. Sydnee played on her new Whirley Wheel since it was warm outside and Simon was able to visit with his friend Mason for a while.

While I was in here watching Hallmark (again) Sydnee came running in from outside announcing she has two new friends and that she needed something to put them into. Yep, she has found two slugs outside somewhere and wants them as pets. Check them out! This child will bring anything in the house and want to keep it. She was facinated with their little antennas (or batenna's as she pronounces it). Either way, they are just slimy.....

Tomorrow is a long day. The kids and I have to leave for Cinci. Sydnee has an appointment with a doctor at 9am Monday morning and then she has a MRI on Tuesday. I was so wishing they could do them on the same day. Simon has labs to do as well, so I think we will try to get them done on Monday morning too. May as well two birds with one stone.

I have held back

2008-12-26T21:39:00.011-05:00

The kids and I played with new toys today. I really wanted a nap, but that never happened. I usually go shopping, so I really held back. The kids had gotten several games and of course they all needed batteries. So that was one of my jobs. There are a couple of things I have to show you. They are a few of the coolest toys I have seen. Anyone who knows Simon knows he would be perfectly content sitting on the floor or couch with a blanket watching a movie or cartoon. So it is challenging to see what I can come up with to get him up and moving. Right now he's eating us out of house and home, so sitting around isn't much of an option. And then there is Sydnee who is always full of energy and doesn't like to sit down much at all.

This toy is a "Whirly Wheel". You sit on the seat and turn the handles on the wheels from the inside. Kind of like a wheel chair. You have to use your upper body to control most of it. I figured Sydnee would have the easiest time with it because her arms are very strong for her size. Simon doesn't have the upper arm strength that she does which is surprising, because he is so much larger than her. But maybe this will help him. So tonight we got it out and put it all together to see what they can do with it. Well, they both loved it! And it wore them out too.

This game is called Hyper Jump. It looks simple enough. The center is where the commands come from. You can choose different levels and it will also increase the levels as you move up in speed and accuracy. The other pods 2-4 are where you step when it gives out commands. At first it just tells you a color or number to step on. Then it advances to addition and subtraction and number series. It will also tell you to reverse which means to go back to a previously called command. So you have to remember what you just did. So if you want a challenging game for everyone, give this one a try. It sure gets you off the couch!

I have no idea why I am putting these in here, except for the fact that was cropping scanned photos to maybe actually finish the heritage albums in 2009. Here are two of my favorite childhood photos. This one is the first picture in the hospital. I was born at St Elizabeth Hospital in Covington, KY. Needless to say I had plenty of hair. I ended up getting a hair cut because of the heat rash on my neck. Mom said they asked if there was indian in our family because my skin was so red at the time. But, nope! Just plain ole hairy baby.

This is my first grade picture. I remember that jumper I had on. Remember those yarn hair ties? I wonder how many rollers it took to make my hair that wavy? I have never had a natural curl on my head. I look back and see that I had apparently gotten perms from a very early age.

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-25T23:16:00.010-05:00

It seems that time goes very quickly when getting things together for Christmas, but then in a swift moment it is all over with.

I woke up for my morning ritual at 6:45 and peeked into the livingroom. When I did so, Mike was cocked back in his recliner. So I went back to bed and then heard the kids get up giggling "she's awake". I told them that it wasn't time to get up just yet and they went back to their rooms just for a little bit. About that time I heard Mike say he was waiting for us to get up. So our morning started pretty early. I was looking for at least 8am. But as I recall when we were kids, we got up earlier every year until it was backed up nearly to Christmas Eve night. So I guess this is payback.

The first things the kids opened were the things Santa brought to them. They were both thrilled. Simon asked for a Star Wars Bobble Head. Sydnee wanted a light up yo- yo. So they were both happy with that. I got us all a Wii this year. And the kids got several games, an outfit, hats, gloves, socks, craft things, stiltz (which I always wanted when I was a kid), Whirly Gig bike, Simon got a electric keyboard to start piano lessons. There was a ton more too.

I got a brown coat from LL Bean. Mike wanted the standard things, so he got some new jeans.

Later we all went to the firehouse to have Christmas with my Grandmother. We started going there years ago because the family had gotten so large that her house just wasn't going to work any more. My uncle worked for the fire department, so were able to get a large room and a kitchen for the food. It worked for us, so we have stuck with it. Not a year has gone by that one of the kids hasn't played on a fire truck. That is always the big thing to do.

I got to see one of my nephews that I hadn't seen in several years. That was a great moment for me. And to see how much he had grown and turned into such a nice looking young man. He looks like such a combination of my brother and my SIL. We talked about his college plans and it seems he definitely has himself together with goals and plans. It was wonderful to see him.

After leaving the firehouse, we went to Mike's Mom's house. His brothers family was there as well. We have donea $5 gift exchanged game over the past few years. This year I told the kids they could play. They enjoyed it, even thought they thought they might get something that only an adult would choose. But it all ended well. Simon got a dart board, Sydnee a book light, Mike an alarm clock and I got a box of turtle candy.

After leaving the firehouse, we went to Mike's family. We had dinner and then we had the opportunity to hear Omenesa sing. She is the daughter of my sister in law's friend. Both of them are very sweet gals. But Omnesa sings like a bird. She did a wonderful job. Sydnee was itching to sing with her (which surprised us all). In the end Sydnee ended up standing up in front of everyone and sang her little heart out. If you would have asked me 2 years ago whether she would have done that, I would have said "absolutely not". But she has come a long way. Omenesa told her she had CD's that she could use to help with her voice. Sydnee was jumping up and down wanting to do something like that. So that was interesting. Omenesa was heading to England this coming week to sing.

Well I am exhausted and ready to head down to a flannel sheet calling my name.

So Goodnight and Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve is here

2008-12-25T00:04:00.007-05:00

On Tuesday we went to my mothers. The kids were very excited this year. Mike worked 6-6 today, so we didn't get there until around 7:30. I couldn't believe that the kids didn't ask to open presents and eat later. They both did very well.

Grandma March

Mike fell asleep just about the time he hit the couch. I wish he wouldn't work this long on holidays.

Simon got a hotwheels track thingy. Sydnee got a Polly Pocket Race to the Mall. They both loved them. They also got some games that they will share.

Simon had made each of us a gift when he had stayed at Grandma's earlier in the month. Sydnee got a tin with a stamped cover on it. Mike got a ceramic coaster that he stamped. I got a bag of candy with a stamped header on the bag. They were all very cute gifts.

Tomorrow Santa would have been here and we will also go to the firehouse later to see Grandmother.

Merry Christmas!

It's almost here!

2008-12-23T23:52:00.004-05:00

I went on a retreat this past weekend and had a ball (as always). I managed to get the borders on a quilt done, made 4 Christmas stockings and made 6 sets of pj's for the kids.

Well, like all families this time of year, our days are just a whirl wind. I picked up the remaining few items I needed today. The worse part was the black ice that was apparently on the road. I had made a few stops and then dropped by my office to grab some gifts I had wrapped. When I headed down Watterson Trail toward Blankenbaker, I stepped on my brakes and just kept on going. I was literally standing on them. Very strange feeling indeed. But thank goodness I managed to stop before a truck headed through the intersection. I guess that explained why there was a police car and 3 other cars pulled over straight ahead. In the end we saw 3 more accidents before getting to I-64 and Blankenbaker. One of those had 9 cars in it. They were all on over passes. In the end my errands took longer just due to only driving 10 mph.

Simon had an orthodontist appointment to see what the upcoming plan will be. He is going to get his braces put on in February. They will only put 4 brackets on the front and bands on the back as anchors. Done is less than a year! They said it should set him up just fine without anything later. Wahoo!

We finally got back home and then headed to my mothers for dinner. This time the kids sat and ate their dinner with no whining about wanting to open presents. That is so hard for kids. I know that is how we were when we were little. I remember us begging to open just one present before Christmas. When we got older, we finally won that battle. We could open just one on Christmas Eve.

Both kids loved their new presents. Simon got a hot wheels race track thing and cars. Sydnee got a Polly Pocket race track which she loved as well. They also got a couple of games and a book. Sydnee kept telling Grandma that this was the best Christmas ever. Both of them were very excited.

Mike worked today and is going to again tomorrow, but gets off at 2pm. Just once I would like to have a complete family for a few days at Christmas. He was so tired and just wasn't much fun.

We usually go to my inlaws on Christmas Eve, but apparently they want to change it this year. I talked to my SIL and she first mentioned us coming at 2pm on Christmas Eve, but then later asked if we could come at 5 on Christmas. But that won't work. We always go to my Grandmothers Christmas on Christmas day. I don't want to change that. It's been that way for as long as I can remember. As long as she is living we will go with her plans. So at this point, I have no idea when we will go to the Koenig house.

So far so good

2008-12-18T11:16:00.002-05:00

Simon has had a good week so far with the exception of Monday. So that is great to see. Both kids have been pretty tired at bedtime and it doesn't take much to get them there. Their normal time is 7:30pm for bed. The easy part now is that it's dark early. It's a real challenge during the summer. But while they're out of school I generally let them stay up longer. Especially if they are playing outside.

I have a new blog called CJ's Escape. This is one for the things I make and sell. I will have quilting, scrapbooking and possibly some jewelry later. It's a little sparce now, but I hope to have more on there later. Probably after the first of the year. Right now I am busy making things and trying to get ready for Christmas since the kids are almost out of school for Christmas break. But go check it out.

2008-12-16T22:58:00.003-05:00

I worked on a quilt that someone ordered from me for Christmas. So now it's off to Mom to do the quilting. So I managed to do pretty much what I wanted to work on.

I was trying to think of a business name so I can put on my door. Mom came up with "CJ's Excape". I liked the sound of that. So I will need to get busy on making my sign. Maybe after Christmas because I still have a lot of things to get done. But my shopping is done!

Friday I will be heading to Crestwood for a littl e R & R. I plan on sewing while there.

Breakfast with Santa

2008-12-15T22:11:00.002-05:00

Today was "Breakfast with Santa" at school. The kids couldn't wait. I was supposed to help serve the breakfast for the kids. There are around 450 children this year. They had Santa and someone took a picture of each child sitting on his lap. Then the kids were taken to the "store" where they had a high school student help them to shop for their family members.

When they got in the car today after school both couldn't wait for each other to open their presents. They have been trying to talk me into letting them into opening just one gift. Sorry, gotta wait. Now I know why our parents went through when we used to do the same to them. Simon had gotten Sydnee a video "Ice Age" and me a pot holder. Sydnee got Simon a game "Mancala" and me some lotion. The funny thing is that Sydnee isn't a big movie watcher, so we know who Simon was thinking of when he got a movie.

I left after all of that was over so I could take Maggie and Smokey to the vet. We noticed both of them trying to scratch their ears and shaking their heads a lot. So it just didn't look right to me. Sure enough, both of them have a double ear infection. So there is medicine to help. The vet poured lots of a sudsy type cleaner in their ears to help break the crud loose. Both are sleeping well tonight and seem a little more comfortable.

Mike was home for dinner again tonight. I'm just not used to this "having dinner on the table" every night (and it's only been night 2). About the time I get used to it, he'll be back on nights. Both kids insisted Mike open their presents too. He got a screwdriver and a small fan to hold in your hand.

Simon was driving us nuts during dinner about watching Ice Age. Finally we were cleaned up and could watch it. I had set it next to the TV and he looked everywhere. After about 10 min of looking, Sydnee pops up and says "cat cage". Sure enough she sat and watched him go bonkers over this movie and she knew where it was the whole time. Sneaky girl!

It started sleeting today about 5 or so. I am curious to what we'll have in the morning. They are predicting 1-4" of slush, sleet, snow mix. So who knows. We just can't believe how early it seems to be. I like snow, but could do without the ice.

Hmmm school tomorrow? Or not?

Soldiers

2008-12-14T20:25:00.003-05:00

Last night Mike and I were sitting watching TV. Simon will ocassionally play by himself, but for the most part he will want to have someone entertain him. But last night he got out the very tiny tanks and soldiers that Mike used to play with when he was little. He had them all arranged on the rug and was just pretending like crazy. It was fun to watch him. I enjoyed it because he was using his imagination and working with them so closely.

Today I found the kids weren't just playing outside in the backyard, but in the garage attic. That scared me. Anything could have happened. It's nearly 10 ft up there. They could have fallen off the ladder or out of the floored area. They were calling it their fort. Yikes!

Mike started working his 6am to 6pm days. He'll be doing that 7 days a week. So if I thought he wasn't around before, he sure won't be now.

Today I got most of the laundry done and worked on the kids bedrooms. They were a mess, but are much better now. I was trying to figure out a way for them to want to get rid of some things. Actually they did pretty good. Sydnee actually told me there were just too many toys in her room. So she might be too tough after all.

The kids have their Breakfast with Santa tomorrow during school. I will be helping with the breakfast part. The kids will do their shopping there and have breakfast and pictures with Santa . They are going to have so much fun doing that.

2008-12-13T20:49:00.005-05:00

My friend Suanne had asked me a couple of days ago to see if we were interested in ringing the bell for the salvation army at Sams. I jumped at it because this particular year the kids have gotten into the "red kettle" for some reason. They love it. So this would be a great opportunity. Not to mention they will get service hours for scouts. I thought this was great. It was only for an hour. We dressed warm and it worked out well. I think Simon liked handing out the candy canes,

Well I am extremely sleepy tonight, so I am heading to bed. Yes, it's before 9pm, but I can't hold my eyes open.

2008-12-12T21:15:00.003-05:00

We had our monthly Ukrainian support group this morning. There is always good information shared at these meetings. That is the one thing we all have in common and that is our kids who are wired differently. We had a good turnout. Kathy and I have decided to start going to church to work out in the activities center. I absolutely hate to exercise, but maybe with someone going with me will help. I guess I need someone to make me go. I know it's good for me, but can just never make myself do it. So please pray that I will actually do it and continue to do it. I could definitely use some shedding of 10-15#.

I worked on pillow cases I have been making today. They have turned out so nice. Leon from across the hall was impressed with them too. He's a tailor, so it would take a lot to impress him. His work is great. I have seen some suits that he started from scratch.

Mom and I sat down to think of a name I could call my office. Finally Mom mentioned "CJ's Escape". I liked that name. It truly fit the situation. It is where I can go when I need a break and to get things done while the kids are in school. But then I am always close to school when they call. Like today. They called, but it was something simple to take care of. So no major thing today.

Mr Savage wrote Simon a note telling Simon how proud he was that he had two great days in a row. Believe me this is huge. Simon showed me the note and was grinning from ear to ear.

Tomorrow the kids and I are going to be bell ringers for the Salvation Army at Sams Club. Suanne B had emailed to ask if we were intersted. The kids are so excited. They have really gotten into putting money in the kettle this year. So to be the actual ringer is very exciting to them.

My jaw is still bothering me where I had the tooth pulled. I have had to be careful in taking the ibuprofen. I think I took enough on Mon/Tues to mess up my stomach. So I filled the prescription that Dave gave to me. I only take a 1/2 tablet or I would be falling asleep everywhere. I called him today to see if this was normal to hurt this long or if it could be something else. After talking to him, it sounds like I may have a dry socket. So I guess I will just tolerate it for a while longer. As long as I know it isn't anything horrible, I can just deal with it. So I will wait for Monday and see what it is doing then. At least it's the weekend now and I can relax a little more.

Mike is starting first shift during the Ford shut down. He'll be working 6am to 6pm 7 days a week right now. Yikes! This will take some getting used to. Especially since he isn't much of a morning person.

I plan to clean house this weekend and set up the new business blog. And work on making the new sign. I even plan to get my Christmas cards out too. I have most of the already addressed. Next weekend is the retreat, so I want to make sure I have everything all ready, so I don't feel guilty for leaving with a lot to do.

Kuddo's from the teacher

2008-12-11T15:33:00.002-05:00

I went to school to get the kids to take them to therapy this afternoon. I usually go in, but parking was hectic, so I just pulled up and called to see if the office would send them out instead. As I was waiting, I saw Simon's teacher motioning for me to come in. When I reached the door and Simon opened it, she said "I just had to tell you how well Simon has done for the past two days. He hasn't had to go calm down or run off when he knows knowone is watching, etc". She was amazed at how well he has been. So that was nice to hear. Yeah!!

I stopped by Target to get things for the Santa's Breakfast at school on Monday. While I was there I found hats and mittens for $1. I bought 246 hats and mittens combined. I gave a bunch to school and the others will go to Ukraine. Anytime I find a deal on hats, gloves, mittens, slippers, shoes, boots, etc I get all I can and send them to Ukraine. So if you ever see a huge deal, let me know. I consider these special deals being under $2 each.

Sydnee's OT is going to let her have a break for a while until the neurologist has some decisions about what he will be doing. She is at a stand still when it comes to the balance issues. All of her testing tends to show the same thing each time. She has progressed so much, but still needs help with balance. The therapist is also going to see if our old PT will come back to help a few kids out. Sydnee can always do PT instead of OT for a while. I hope she does come back because we really liked her.

I have been making pillow cases and got quite a few done today. They have turned out so pretty. So if you know anyone who is interested in handmade pillowcases, give them my name or let me know.

Back from Cincinnati (again...)

2008-12-09T21:42:00.007-05:00

Last night the kids and I went to Cinci for more appointments again. The first appointment was for Simon with Chandra his therapist for RAD. She never sugar coats or cuts him any slack at all. He hates having to talk about things that have gone on with him, but this time he did much better. She is suggesting that he and I talk to his class about what is going on with him. Reason is so that the children won't think he is a bully and that he knows he is different and is trying to learn how to play with other kids.

Another suggestion is to get him a large box (dishwasher, fridge, etc) to put in his classroom. Put a bean bag chair in there with some sqishy balls and a trash can. When he gets angry and wants to start hitting, yelling, etc, he needs to go in there and beat up the bean bag, sit in it and let it hug around him, and to scream his "throw up" words in the trash can. She compared the mean words (shut up, idiot, etc) to throw up. Reason is because it hurts the people he is saying them too as if he just threw up on them. He actually understood what she was telling him.

So tomorrow I will talk to the teacher and principal to see what we can work out. He also likes the body sock in therapy, so we will see if it is something he can use at school too. This is a piece of lycra fabric that is similar to a sock. Simon gets in it and then it is velcro closed in the back. So he looks like a big royal blue martian running around. He is completely enclosed in it, but he can see through it a little. I think there is a picture on the blog somewhere.

Later in the day we had our next appointment with Sydnee seeing Dr. Wesselkamper in Neurology. He was very nice. This was her first trip to see him. Her OT has been concerned about her balance issues. They have been going on since she started OT, but we haven't seen it get much better in nearly 6 years.

He tested her strength and felt good about that. But when he got her to follow a line, she can't do it without falling over or touching something to hold her balance. Then he tested her reflexes. Cracked the knees a few times in different areas. The left knee bounced up and nearly hit him. The right knee was only about a 1/4" movement. Very little response, so he hit it again. Still nothing. He is scheduling her for an MRI of the brain. If that shows negative, then he will be doing some tests with the spine. I am going to try to get her MRI scheduled for Dec 29 because she has another appt that day in Cinci anyway. So we may as well try to combine them.

I didn't sleep well last night due to my tooth (or lack thereof). It was pounding along with the teeth surrounding the new hole. So I was up and down several times. I have sucked down more ibuprofen than I ever thought possible. I did break down and fill the Vicoden prescription. But I have only taken one and that was 30 or so minutes ago. Not much progress yet.

Gotta get to bed! I am tired and feel like I am still driving. The drive home was in pouring rain, so it just made it seem longer.

2008-12-08T20:52:00.002-05:00

Today was much smoother for everyone. Well for the kids it was. I have been having trouble with a tooth lately that has had 3 crowns and 2 root canals. The last attempt to save it was to put a small filling in. But that was about a month ago. All weekend I kept feeling something lose, but couldn't figure it out. Then it would hurt my cheek and then stop. So today I called Dave (my long time dentist friend) and told him I was done with it. He had me come in to see what he could do. Well, after careful though he said "well, I am afraid that we have done all we can do". And I said "is it time to put it down?" Yep. This was the first tooth to be pulled for over 22 years. I was 25 when I had the last ones done and that was for my braces. I went to sleep that time. But today I was wide awake and shaking like a leaf. I swore I wouldn't ever stay awake, but he did good. Yes, it hurts like crazy now, but it's over with. He told me he could see my sinus through the hole. I told him to put a tube in there and that would help my sinus troubles.

We are in Cinci now for appointments tomorrow. On the way up, Sydnee managed to pull all of the blue yarn out of her toboggan. She totally ruined it. Then she proceded to chew on a wad of hair. I can't wait until we truly find out how to stop this behavior.

I can't believe it's only 9pm and I am ready for bed. Pray for the kids appointments tomorrow. One is at 8:45 am and the other isn't until 3pm.