Sunday, April 22, 2007

Couldn't have asked for a nicer ending

to spring break here. This weekend was BEAUTIFUL! On Friday we went to the zoo. Everyone but Pat and Carrie went with us. Pat was working and Carrie went to a birthday luncheon with a group of girls. As a substitute we brought J...Val's boyfriend of the last 2+ months. I had a little bit of a hard time getting around but did ok.

At one time we "lost" Danielle. She was walking while I pushed the stroller. We made sure someone was always holding her hand or carrying her. At the penguin display we stopped while the kids took pictures and I stood in the shade. After they were done taking pics of Danielle, they put her down and continued the photo session. When everyone was ready to leave the area I realized Danielle wasn't with ANYONE. I yelled WHERE'S DANIELLE! Spun around and there she was all by herself walking in a crowd about 25ft or so away from us. Talk about a heart attack!

Saturday we went to my parents' house for a cookout. It was a very nice and relaxing day. My Dad bought clams because he knew I was craving them after Tom and I went away for the weekend. It was SO hard to resist eating them raw. I finally brokedown and threw back 2 of them. THEY WERE SO GOOD! Steamed ones were good too, no denying it but the raw ones...YUM! (probably because they are taboo lol) After an evening around the firepit we headed home around 12:30am.

Sunday the temperature was in the 80s!!! It's insane! And to think that exactly a week ago I was out grocery shopping in a crazy mob, getting ready for a snowstorm. Yep, we got hit by the snowstorm last Sunday. Lots of schools had a snowday that Monday. My kids were looking at the fact that they didn't get a snowday 2 ways...What a waste of a vacation day. Then again, we still have a snowday so will get out of school a day earlier in June. :o) Anyways back to today. I was feeling a bit exhausted and weak so didn't do much. Tom BBQ'ed for dinner and we sat around outside. Danielle LOVES it outside and stands screaming at the door if she's not allowed out with everyone else. Luckily Tom loves it outside too and is usually willing to have her out there with him.

I had a dr appt last Wednesday. I gained 4 more lbs. :o( My blood pressure was LOW (for me) and my sugar was ok. We decided to up my insulin anyways since there was some room for perfection. I complained that my hands, feet and eyes were swollen 3 out of 7 days last week. (now it's there all the time to some degree) My urine must've been fine since he didn't seem too concerned. It's more irritating right now then worrisome. Especially since the hot weather isn't even here yet. Not to mention I have about 13more weeks to go. My next dr appt is a week from this Wed.

After doing the huge grocery shopping trip last Sunday my sciatica was KILLING me! I hadn't hurt that much in a loooong time. Mostly the pain goes across my butt cheeks and a bit into the back of my thighs. The hard thing to deal with though is that I can't physically lift my feet up much. And my legs feel really weak, like they are about to give out any second. Holding Danielle or carrying something is out of the question when I'm like that. I'm lucky if I can carry myself. This means that I didn't do too much work this past week. So much for plans of men. My house is still pretty much the same as before vacation....although the kids did hit it on and off all week. I'm looking forward to when Michelle is out of school and I'll have almost everyday at home to do things. (as long as I'm not on bedrest) She only has 3 or 4 wks left! Wooohooo!

Back to the old routine in the morning. Although I'm not dreading it as much as usual. It's still a bit hard to think of having to get back into a routine and force the kids out the door. The fact that the temperature is suppose to be in the upper 70's tomorrow doesn't help. I need some rain days lol.

Oh yeah, a DS update....he's been discharged from the hospital! He's not at home right now but he's recouping well last I heard. :o) He still has a loooong way to go and lots of hurdles to conquer though.

Zoo pictures

Danielle getting up close and personal in the aviary



Danielle from the front side being really cute way down there



My kids minus Carolyn and Pat

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

A week off, a week on

I'm enjoying not having to take Michelle to classes this week. I even canceled my OB appt for Wed so I wouldn't have to go out. :o) It stinks though that I have to get up and get the kids onto the bus. Just like next week will stink not to have to get the kids on the bus. Yet Michelle will still need me to drive her to classes.

Yesterday Drew and I ended up going into my parents' house. (so much for staying home lol) Drew housesat for them last week and it seems he didn't leave their computer desktop EXACTLY how they left it. With the computer being slightly intimidating to them...they don't like that. So we went in to visit and see if we could get it to an ok place.

Things have moved along fast for DS (church friend) right now. He ended up in emergency surgery on Thursday and is still in critical condition. I've heard a few reports of not so great things but I don't want to give out misinformation so won't mention them. (need to heard it from the family themselves) A few church families are helping out with the kids. They didn't want them to miss out on the egghunt at church so brought them. Another family was watching the baby, I'm not positive how often they have him. DS's parents came in, along with A's (his wife) sister to help out. I know it's a bit different but I can't help but be thrown back to Carrie's diagnosis and transplant. Which adds to my emotions (not to mention pg hormones helping out too)

PG wise this is a slow time. I weighed myself on my mom's scale and it seems my weight is that same. Although I'm not sure how their scale compares to the OB's. My sugar hasn't been so hot...especially the fasting ones. I'll probably be upping my nighttime dosage tonight. Of course if I ate more along the lines of how I did with Danielle's pg...the numbers might be a bit better. I'm not sleeping too well. Tom keeps bugging me to go to bed, rest, get some sleep. He says I'm going to get sick. I keep telling him...tell my body that! It won't listen to me.

Weatherwise we're like most of the country...CRAZY! We've been getting hit with Lake effect snow since late last week with 2 more storms expected this week. Saturday night 6+ inches fell on us. Freaky thing is that the village only got a dusting if that...it's 3 miles south of us! It's a bit chilly here today, I think we ran out of fuel. I was hoping the last delivery would last the rest of the season. Oh well we'll get one more delivery. At least we'll have fuel for the beginning of next season. I can't complain too much. We've only gone through 350 or 400 gals of oil all season. Good thing I didn't run out of oil last week since we were out of propane too. At least now I can bake something to help take the chill off of things.

Drew is in the mood to take care of some things around here. That means he's bugging me to help him. So guess that's my clue to end this. Can't turn down willing help when it's offered.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Life

It's so strong and just keeps on going. Whether we're ready for it to or not. This week we've been from one extreme to the other.

On Monday we found out one of our friends in the church was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He's a dad to 8 kids. The oldest is almost 13, the youngest was born last fall. They all seem to be handling the news well. Although knowing from experience I'm sure they are functioning on survival mode. Luke, Carrie and Jake are good friends with their kids and spend a decent amount of time at their house. I'm especially watching Carrie in all this. She's been a little nervous of the "C" word since before this all happened.

She complained to me last week that a bump in the back of her head hurts. When she showed me where it was, my heart dropped. It's a lymph node she's had since her cancer diagnosis. It never went away like the others although was tiny in size. One time the nurse practioner mentioned it's probably where her relapse (if she did) would show up first. I'm thinking that it was enlarged due to the fact that she was just recouping from a stomach bug. Unfortunately Liz, not thinking, blurts out...It's CANCER! Trying to be funny. Carrie's eyes get huge and she looked at me. It was all I could do to put on a poker face and tell Liz she's not funny and it is NOT! Needless to say, we'll be getting that canceled appt to the hem/onc clinic made...really quick! I hate having those thoughts running through the back of MY mind...I certainly don't want them running through Carrie's!

On the other end of life's spectrum...My nephew and his wife had their baby yesterday!!! Woohooooo! Welcome to the world Sophia Rose! I haven't heard too many details yet, except she's beautiful! I LOVE the name...so does Tom. LOL Now that I don't have to think of a girl's name....I keep hearing all these beautiful names that I like. Big difference from Olivia's pg. WHY does that happen? As far as a boy's name goes...Tom has mentioned on particular name quite a bit in the last few days. He hasn't admitted that's what he wants. Maybe he's just trying it out. I'm not over the moon about it now but could see it growing on me. (One of the names is a name we had picked out for one of the older girls...before Luke and Jake were born)

On the daily aspect of life...we're plugging along. Today starts Michelle's spring break! YEAH! So I'm off taxi duty for the next 10 days or so. It's messed me up though. Yesterday I was thinking it was Thursday on and off. Then in a nap induced half awake haze I thought it was FRIDAY! LOL I hate when that happens. For some reason our school district officials were numbskulls this year. They scheduled our spring break the week AFTER everyone around us has it off. Yep, almost all the districts around us have next week (after Easter) off. We, we have to go to school all next week and THEN have the week off. I'm sure my sister's girls weren't happy to hear that since they usually spend a few days here on breaks.

Pg wise on the spectrum...things are kicking...and I mean that literally. This little guy is making his presence known. He's still a secret to everyone else though. No one has had the opportunity to feel him. Tom thought he MIGHT've felt some flutters one night but wasn't sure. My last appt went well. I had a sono to check everything out. Since we already knew what his sex was from the amnio we didn't waste too much time down there. Mostly it was checking all the vital organs and getting measurements for a baseline comparision later in my pg. He's measuring a few days ahead although we've kept my due date the same...fine by me. The more days he gets to cook the better. My next appt is next Wednesday.

I'm hoping to get some major work around here done. While it wouldn't take all of us too long to get this place picked up. It's all that's happened around here in a while. This place needs more, it needs the deep down nitty gritty stuff done that no one normally notices. The stuff that you feel like you wasted the whole day doing (like organizing closets, emptying drawers, going through clothes, etc). On the days I do have home (which aren't many) I tend to play catch-up instead of the deep down stuff. Unfortunately right now I'm finding it hard to do too much without feeling winded already. So I need some COOPERATION!!! Wish it came in pill form.

At least I can cross off one thing on my list...update my blog. :o) I'll try to not be such a stranger here during break. I keep telling myself...only 6 more weeks and then Michelle will be in summer break! I'm counting the days. :o)