Thursday, May 28, 2009

Can't win

This post is from last week. I started it on Thursday and was finishing up on Friday when we lost internet service. The dog got tangled in the modem cords and pulled it to the ground, breaking it. Luckily the phone company replaced the modem for free! :o) I have a newer and improved one now. Unfortunately we're down to one computer with internet service. So online time is at a premium until I get the adapters and whatnot I need to fix the other computer and my laptop (need a power cord AGAIN!).

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No matter what we get, we always seem to want something more or else. We've had beautiful weather all last week. That meant lots of outside time. I'm working on getting the pool clear, training the dog from piddling on the floor, helping Tom in the garden, taking care of the chickens again (Tom was when it was bad out), and just hanging outside. All the time I'm thinking...I should be inside doing something. I need a nice rainy day so I'm stuck in the house and can concentrate in there. Well guess what....it's raining...a lot. Perfect for the garden. Perfect for staying in the house. So why am I wishing it was nice out so I don't have to stand in the rain for the puppy? Or not have to walk through mud and puddles to get to the chicken coop or test the pool. Or fighting the urge to go back to bed instead of doing what I actually need to do...get some work done in here!

I do have to say though that driving home from the city in the grey drizzle brought some pretty comforting memories. I felt like I was in my happy place. lol Where I was in my mind was at Tom's parents' camp, playing cards and walking on the beach. AHHHHHHHH!

I didn't manage to get too much done around here although I did spend some time in the little bedroom (where the treadmill is). I've been crocheting up a storm though. I'm more then half way through the body of a baby blanket. It's easy to work on things when you like how they're coming out. A few days previously I'd started with a different yarn and didn't like how it was looking. It then became something that was a chore, so I put it away.

Here's the blanket I'm working on now....the couple are planning on waiting until the birth to find out the gender. I haven't figured out the border or what colors to use...I'll take suggestions though!
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On Friday I fell asleep mid stitch on a baby blanket I was trying to finish. We had a baby shower for a couple in our church that will be moving away (he's military). She's going to have a girl. So I found a border for the shell blanket I made when I first started crocheting.

Photobucket

Border detail


Today I was bound and determined to finish the 3rd poncho I'm making for the little girls. I finished the last panel, I have to sew it together, then fringe for all 3 and I can get that off my mind!

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers and well wishes for Danielle. She's healing up well. It amazes me how quickly she's improving the last few days.

This picture was taken a few days after the accident


This was taken this morning


It looks even better tonight! She's been such a trooper through this whole thing.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Danielle's ordeal

(warning...upsetting story ahead.....it ends ok though)




I'd gotten the kids on the bus and was talking to Della on the phone. Sean and Danielle and I were outside with Oreo. The kids ran around while I puttered and chatted for a while. The chickens were taken care of, Oreo was napping under the table and I figured the kids had to be getting hungry since they hadn't had breakfast yet....so into the house we went. I threw a cup of water in the microwave and plopped onto the couch.

I heard Danielle and Sean doing something in the kitchen and got off the couch. One step and I heard the microwave door, two steps and I heard OW! third step came crying and then SCREAMING! I ran around the corner to see Sean standing on the chair crying and Danielle standing on the floor trying to pull her t-shirt away from her chest. My coffee cup was empty on chair (it has a cloth covered cushion). I yelled OH MY GOD! Dropped the phone, ripped Danielle's shirt off her, scooped up the phone and her in one hand, grabbed Sean by the front of his shirt with the other and ran for the bathroom. I realized I wouldn't be able to talk while dealing with this so yelled to Della...I'll have to call you back! Hung it up and dropped it in the hall. I threw Danielle into the shower and turned the hand held sprayer on her. She was blistering already.

I wasn't sure how bad Sean was and couldn't take the time to find out so screamed for Val and Michelle to get in here NOW! Val jumped out of bed, came in and examined Sean. She didn't seem to find anything but ran his hands and feet under the cold water in the sink just for good measure. (I'm not sure how he managed it but he wasn't harmed at all) We wet some towels and took them out onto the couch.

There was too much redness and too many immediate blisters for my comfort level. Not to mention that Danielle was screaming in pain. She kept telling me she wanted to go to the doctor's NOW! I felt bad for leaving Della hanging like I did so I called her back quick to tell her what was going on. Then I called the dr and told them we were heading in. I wet a kitchen towel, threw it over Danielle's shoulder and wrapped it around her arm. Then I threw a pair of undies and leggings on her, brushed my hair and my teeth, grabbed Danielle's sandals and a t-shirt for later and ran out the door. Getting her in her carseat was tricky but we managed.

I drove a bit faster then I should've (slowed down when coming to an intersection or areas where it's hard to see what's ahead very far). I had to pull over once because the kitchen towel had fallen off and Danielle insisted I fix it. It fell off a second time but we were already into the city and she was ok with letting it stay off until we got to the doctor's which was down the street. I felt so helpless. I HATE that feeling! I'm the mom! I'm suppose to fix things and make them better!

She has 2nd degree burns with a baseball size patch on her chest and all of her inner elbow being the worst hit. Her upper arm has 2 smallish blisters and between the elbow patch and her wrist is a patch of 1st degree burn. They put silvadene cream on and bandaged up her whole arm. Her chest is another bandage which is harder to keep on. It hasn't bothered her too much during the day but last night she had a hard time falling asleep. We're keeping her doped up with tylenol and motrin. She seems to have slept ok.

Danielle has been up now and I've redone her bandages. She pretty much has the main 2 spots that need attention. The little blisters are healing up already and the sunburn area is fading. Now if I could just get her chest bandage to stay put.

Where does the time go?

Has it really been a week since I updated here last? YIKES! Mr Puppy's name is offically Oreo. I know, not very original nor accurate since he'll be grey and white when he's an adult. But it's easy to say and and everyone's calling him that...so it's stuck. Now if we could get HIM to recognize it...we'd be all set. lol

Things that have happened here...

Pat's car broke down last Friday. He thought he ran out of gas but adding some gas to the tank didn't help. He also found out his Saturn that broke down a month or so ago has a frozen engine. So he's looking at replacing the motor. Why is it that this kid has such horrible "luck" with cars? When will he learn he has to treat them well and baby them? He's borrowing our car for the time being. (I thought it would be a day or two...you know how those things go though)

Tom's working his fanny off out back. Him and Pat started putting the roof over the shed patio. We have two sheds with a cement block patio between them. For years we had a tarp roof over it for shade. This year Tom decided he wanted to have something permanent, so wood and rolled roofing it is. I think he's almost done.

Val's trying to figure out financing for Esthetic school (skin care/make-up). She either has to finance the whole thing herself ($8100) or come up with half up front then the school will finance the other half. It's frustrating for her because she could have her certificate and take the licensing test in 4 mos if she could get the money. Wish you could get financial aid for those types of schools.

The kids had their semi annual soccer tournament last weekend at church. The fellowships from all over the Northeast come to NY and play against each other. We didn't win any games but they had tons of fun....especially after it stormed. Nothing like wet fields and puddles to make the game better. Sean and Danielle loved spending as much time as the weather would allow on the playground. Me, I was beat by the end of the night!

I'm trying to get a baby blanket done by Saturday for a shower I need to go to. I'm giving her the first blanket I made but it still needs a border on it. I've never done a border so it's slow going. It doesn't help that I've had hardly a second to sit down with it either.

My great uncle passed away very early Tuesday morning. The wake was this evening. It was at the same funeral home that my FIL and MIL were at. It was really hard to step in there at first. He's on my mom's side which is a smallish family, most only have 2 or 3 kids although my mom is one of 4...they may be the biggest family. I only knew a handful of people there. It was weird to be a "spectator" for once.

Friday is Tom's mom's birthday. I've been thinking about her a lot. Especially since the lilacs are in bloom. (my bushes in the front yard blossomed for the first time this year! YAY!) She loved them. I always tried to get her a bunch for her birthday. I think about how big of a kick she'd get out of the little ones. What she'd have to say to the older ones. And when days like today happen, I have a running commentary in my head in her voice. What happened today...Let's just say that I was ready for it to be bedtime by noon. I'll save the details for the next post.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

I am SOOO tired!

Between Sean sleeping lousy last night and the puppy whining and needing to go outside, I did NOT sleep much at all. All I want to do is go to sleep and forget about getting the kids up for school (although I'd get them up to baby/puppy sit! lol) And the thing is...there's no time to sleep today...Michelle has to be at work at 1:30, I'm taking Val to a local Esthetics school at 3 to take a tour and probably enroll. Then Danielle is due at her cousin's house for a birthday party/dinner.

So what's the story behind our newest addition? I have Della to thank for it. Everyone's been asking for a puppy since we had to put Shadow to sleep in Oct of '04. First we were mourning, then I was pregnant with Danielle and then pregnant with Sean and him being a baby. Now there isn't really an excuse anymore when the kids asked. But Tom wouldn't take just any dog. He wanted to get one because HE wanted it, not because it would help someone out. Thing was, he wasn't actively looking, but his sister Della was. She had found a listing on Craigslist for 2 9wk old Old English Sheepdog puppies, a brother and a sister.

OMGoodness! It's the perfect dog! Tom and Della had one when growing up (although it may not have been a purebred but it looked exactly like it) and it was an awesome dog. She could play the piano, play dead and lots of other things, I'd looked at an Old English Sheepdog puppy in the pet store in the spring of '05. Pat tried to convince me to get it for Tom for Father's Day....after all he was on sale! Yeah, only $800 down from $1000!

So I decided you can't have a chance if you don't try. I emailed the woman and said I was VERY interested in both of the puppies and told her a bit about us. And she called me! I had to drive to Rochester to pick them up. Michelle had the day off so there was no problems there. Her and Cory went with me since I had no idea what kind of a situation I was getting myself into. It sounded too good to be true and I was reserved about it until I had possession of them. By 1:30 we had possession of 2 adorable black and white teddy bears! During the ride to the lady's house, we'd decided we'd pick the male is there was no immediate preference. I picked up the girl as soon as we got into the yard. She growled at me to let her down and tried to get my fingers. She also later caught my thumb pretty good with her teeth. She did calm down after we had her for a little while. The boy was a bit more subdued and liked to be held. We decided to stick with the original plan and take the boy. I stopped by Della's on the way off and everyone fell in love with them immediately. I left without the girl.

Danielle keeps saying she's happy she has a puppy. I think she's trying to convince herself almost as much as she's trying to convince us. Now if she could just relax and show it a bit. lol She's afraid of dogs, to the point of hysterics at times. You can see she's really trying. I'm sure once he's past his nippy teething puppy stage she'll be fine. Sean he just keeps pushing the puppies head down and saying...NO! Go! Over all it's gone a lot better then I'd expected. Although the little guy is a piddler. I can find tiny puddles almost everytime we walks somewhere. He did go to the door this morning after his nap (although he made a tiny puddle on the kitchen floor first).

Pat and Alex came running over as soon as Val sent him a text with the puppy's picture. They brought their dog Iorek (pronounced "your ick", named after the polar bear in the golden compass movie). He's a great dog and treated the puppy well. At first he was afraid of the puppy.



When the puppy wouldn't leave him alone he started playing with him with restraint. He never mouthed the puppy but they ran, make attack stances and wrestled.





And after a long hard day what's better then being able to snuggle up with a sweet little girl.



A last one just because he's so cute!


The kids kind of settled on the name of Oreo. But a few of them are bristling at it especially since his black areas will turn to grey as he gets older. I still think it's a good name, so we're still discussing.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

New Member of the family

I'll post more later but wanted to share a picture of the newest member of our family. He's a 9wk old Old English Sheepdog puppy, tentatively named Buffalo. (we're still discussing it)

Friday, May 08, 2009

Tom went shoppiing

He doesn't do it very often but when he does...yowsa! It was all things we'd planned for and needed but still...to have that chunk of money gone is hard.

He bought the fencing for the chickens so we can gain control of the backyard again. The kids don't like to go outside right now. When they do go out, they're on edge thinking a rooster is going to come after them.

Rotors and break pads for the van. It shouldn't be too long before they are put on.

His tractor has TIRES! They were hard to find and cost a pretty penny but they are pretty!!! I can't wait to see Tom turning over the garden with it. Hopefully he'll be mowing with it soon too.

We now have a pile of wood in the driveway. It's going to magically turn into a roof over the shed patio. It's where we hang out when it's hot out. Usually it's covered by a huge tarp that has to be replaced. This year Tom decided to make it permanent.

Tom told me there was a present for me at the bottom of the cellar stairs. It was a HUGE box...a 50 gallon hot water tank! Woohooo! Our current tank is old, leaking and very inefficient. I know it'll save us a good chunk of money each month and will pay for itself quickly. I let Tom know we wouldn't be here next weekend (have a church soccer tournament) so it would be a good time to install it. He said we'll see. I don't think it's high on his list right now...he's concentrating more on the outside. At least it's paid for and almost to where it needs to be. Still I wonder how long we'll be walking around it.

Now I have the dilemma of all these projects to do...which one do you do first? I'm also in the tearing things apart and organizing them mood. Oh and a painting mood. And a get outside and mow the yard mood. And a.... ARRGH!

Carrie's appointment went well. She didn't become out of it due to the glucose tolerance test. Her numbers were high although not extremely for a diabetic given 75grams of glucose. Her thyroid nodule is the same as when she had the biopsy so that's good. We're running some extra tests to check for hormone levels. Seems her aunt flo has been missing in action for over 4mos. With the diabetes there's the concern of her having PCOS. With her having had radiation when she was 2.5yo there's concern of premature menopause. I should hear the results of it during the week. She's due back in 3mos. In the mean time I really should get her up to the hem/onc clinic and to the dermatologist.

Well it's almost 7pm now. I chose to go outside and enjoy the day. I mowed a lot of the yard. Tom is working on the chicken yard. It's even more important after today. The big white rooster waited until my back was turned and tried to jump ontop of Sean. Luckily I was right there and stopped him. Sean came out with a few light scratches on his back and shoulders. Needless to say that rooster will be the first to go...probably tonight.

Now it's time to take the kids to activity club.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

2 months

It's hard to believe that Billy has been gone for 2 months now. Some days it feels like forever ago. Other times it's like it happened yesterday. I still find myself acting as though he's here. Expecting him to come in the back door when I hear it. Waiting for him to come in and make his morning coffee. Today we had one of his favorite meals I make... homemade pizza. I had to remind myself a few times that I didn't need to put some aside for him. I think today's extra hard because of a news story from yesterday hitting too close to home. A 17yo committed suicide in his school's gym bathroom. Generally though everyone here seems to be doing as well as expected. Although I worry about Tom...he tends to keep things to himself and that's not good.

I ended up taking Carrie to the dr's on Monday. Xrays showed her elbow is only bruised. My check up was yesterday. He apologized for putting me through the wringer, it wasn't anything I didn't expect. He said I must've studied because I passed the test (EKG) *huge sigh of relief* I had a few episodes of shortness of breath and chest pain that had scared me. I'm on my meds again although they aren't at the dose I was on before. His reasoning is he'd feel better upping it gradually. Fine with me. My diuretic started working immediately and I've been visiting the bathroom quite a bit. I also weigh less then I have in a while...lost 4lbs since yesterday morning. lol I updated my tetanus booster and got the pneumococcal vaccine. Now I take my meds, get fasting blood work in 2wks, and go back to see him in a month. If step in taking better care of myself done. Now to start the other 2...eating well and exercise. I'm hoping to start helping Tom outside more...cutting the grass, putting in the garden, taking care of the chickens.

Tomorrow morning Carrie and I are due at the TODAY study by 10am. She has to be fasting so she can do a 3hr GTT. One of the worse parts of being in this study. It seems cruel to have a known diabetic take the stupid test. I'll bring my meter so I can see what her numbers are doing. I'm leaving Danielle and Sean home since it's an all day appt and it was really hard on them last time. Not to mention mom. It's hard to keep them content in one room for 6hrs.

Sean is loving being able to go outside now. Tom and I were walking the property line with Danielle and Sean yesterday. It was slow going since Sean had to stop to checkout everything. He was digging in the dirt with a stick, having a conversation with himeself. I said to Tom....Billy would've gotten such a kick out of him right now.

Sean's learned how to use door knobs so using the bathroom alone is totally out of the question for me now. It's also tricky keeping him in the house. We have to lock the storm door. I'm going to curse the day he figures out the screen is only velcro'ed to the door and can be pulled off (it's how he got out last year). He's also loving taking his diaper off and being nature boy. I'd love it if he decided to start using the toilet. I haven't potty trained anyone yet and I'm not about to start now. Although I may change my tune by the end of the summer. lol

Tom's taking tomorrow and Friday off. I'm kind of sad I won't be here with him tomorrow. But the important thing is he's getting tires for his tractor!!! Woohooo! It'll reduce his yard work load a LOT! Right now he's tilling and mowing with push machines. . With the tractor he can definitely till with a more powerful tiller and with a little work on the mower deck he'll be mowing with it too. We also have a riding mower but that one isn't working at the moment either. Hopefully he'll get that fixed this weekend, we could really use both.

On my way to the dr's yesterday I almost got a ticket. The police had a seatbelt check and they noticed my inspection sticker ran out at the end of April. The younger officer was about to say that I was going to get a ticket when the older one interrupted and asked me...You're going to get that fixed tomorrow...RIGHT!?! I said yes and then changed it to...My husband has Thursday and Friday off, he'll take care of it one of those days. He then told me I could leave. PHEW!!! It's a one year old car! I think it's stupid to need an inspection but oh well, that's the law. I need to drive it into the city tomorrow for Carrie's appt, hopefully I won't get pulled over before it's taken care of!

Well since I started this I've picked up the kids from church, Michelle from work and gotten all the kids into their rooms/beds. Tom is still busy outside I think. And I'm falling asleep in my computer chair. So I'll end it here, throw the wet clothes into the dryer, more clothes into the washer and get ready for bed.

Sunday, May 03, 2009

I think she's a bit disappointed

Val hasn't really said too much about what went on at the mall. I know they were home a lot sooner then I expected. I think it was more of a show promo then a true casting call. At the big auditions you had to fill out and bring this huge application packet with very personal questions. Which I think is one of the things that turned off Val from trying out in the first place, she doesn't want personal things put out there. At the mall all you had to bring was one piece of paper with your vital stats....age, height, weight, email and home address type of thing. They videotaped her answering questions for a few minutes. Oh well, if she really wanted to do the show, she'd have gone to one of the main auditions. I guess there's a chance that someone will see the video and think they should investigate her more. But I don't think she's holding her breath on that one. As she said in March when we were talking about her trying out...if I want to model, I can go to an agency and try to get work.

Saturday and today was/is a conference at church. The kids had tons of fun hanging out with friends from distance churches and playing on the playground. Danielle camped out on her regular spot of laying across a swing and swinging all day. Sean learned lots of things observing all the kids on the playground and really loved the slides.

The kids have been begging me all morning to go back but I've decided not to for a few reasons. I couldn't get Carrie up early enough to assess her elbow injury well enough. Apparently it was hit by an errant chair last night. We decided to immobilize it today and have her be seen tomorrow. If we go today we'll probably end up at ER. Even if the dr can see her, she'll have to go to the hospital for xrays and I want to avoid both scenarios. While trying to make the decision on her, my back decided it wanted attention and went into spasms. Sitting in a chair, bending over or trying to look at the ground causes my lower back to protest LOUDLY and it's not letting up. We're suppose to go to my sister's for a cookout this afternoon. I'm not sure how I'll manage that either.

This week is looking to be a bit busy although Michelle has off until Wednesday. On Tuesday I have a doctor appointment for myself. It's a long time coming. I've been off my meds for way too long. Thank you to a certain person who bugged me about switching doctors and making the appointment. I kept saying I had to take better care of myself but never followed through. Now I'm finally doing it and it feels good. Thursday is Carrie's big day at the TODAY study. She has to fast which means we're due in there first thing in the morning. She'll be there all day long. Last time we did this it was hard for Danielle and Sean so I'm hoping that Val can babysit for the day. Otherwise we'll just have to make due. Maybe I can get Tom to take the day off since today is his anniversary at work (27yrs) and he gets his vacation time for the year.

Well even if I could remember what else I was going to talk about, I couldn't...my back is having fits. I decided to make waffles mid post which it didn't like and now I'm sitting here which it's also protesting about. I'm going to lay down a bit before I try to get ready for my sister's.