Just a passing moment...

I am better now. ;0)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there. James was stuck in Georgia this Father's day. It was getting hard to be at home and not have him here. So Mom and I packed up the kids (Dad left to go to work today too so she was alone for the day) We asked Victoria what she wanted to do because we were trying to decide between going to see UP or the zoo. Victoria decided the zoo while jumping up and down in the living room singing, "The zoo, the zoo". Next time when it is in the 90's I believe we will veto Victoria's vote and go to the movies. It was too hot even after getting drenched in the water chasing Anthony. We had a good time though.






I do have to add that I was starving when we were done chasing children. I went the the African Outpost by the gorillas and got a chicken sandwich. Addison was playing with my pickles. 5 minutes into my sandwich Mom and I look at Addison and she has her pickle slices laid on top of her feet in her new umbrella stroller that Grandma got for her. She then bit a hole through the middle of the pickle and put it on her big toe. She got really mad when her big toe ripped all the way through the pickle. There I sat trying to eat my late lunch and Addison is sitting there with a pickle slice on her foot just relaxing. And let me tell you don't you dare touch it! She screamed! Mom had to replace the pickle when her big toe ripped through it. Mom got another stack of pickles and Addison wanted NOTHING to do with any pickle that already had a hole in the middle of it. It had to be a perfect sliced pickle or apparently it didn't look right on her little bare foot. We won't even get into the tomato slices that were also available. It was quite precious. I wish we had taken a picture of that. Pickles the new accessory for Summer 09.

If you only get to hear one sermon in your life......

Getting It! - May 03 2009 from Northside Christian on Vimeo.

For those in my life that are in need of a word of encouragement, for those that need to hear that you are not going through this alone, for those that need a sense of renewed hope, I trust that this will give you the answers that you are looking for.

All of the follow ups...

-My sister's pathology report was not clear. There is still a spot in question. She is in a very tough spot after the news that my brother in law is going to be laid off in two weeks and the Insurance is no longer going to be in affect. I have no clue how she is holding it together with the new of Darwin's lay off, her current medical news, my niece still in need of another surgery and an Insurance hourglass pouring sand as we speak. She is now seriously considering a mastectomy to make sure that there is not more questionable tissue to deal with and not wanting to go through radiation with an upcoming surgery in Cincinnati to be scheduled for Ariel. They are looking into Cobra from what I understand to see what other options they have.

-My father in law is still in the hospital. He did really well during surgery. He has been complaining of his arm and shoulder hurting and is in a lot of pain. I am not sure how much of his liver they removed but have been giving him morphine steadily. He is building up fluid in his lungs and is starting pneumonia. I am not sure how much longer they are going to keep him in the hospital, I will keep everyone posted.

The answers that I have needed

Today was a day of relaxing my shoulders and taking a deep breath. I had an appointment with a friend of mine that is a therapist. Lots has been going on in our house with little Victoria. I love her to death and try so hard to be patient with her energy and let's just say "quirks" but I have been losing my mind with some behavioral issues. I was needing some advice on coping methods and asking some questions about the therapist that Victoria saw. Just needing some sound advice from a third party that wasn't closely related to the problem. I left feeling all of the weight off of my shoulders and ready to face this storm. I really heard what I needed to hear today and have some great ideas on some things to implement in our house. One that I found particularly exciting is the interruption cards. I can hand them out at my discretion and Victoria can use them at hers. I couldn't just use an index card, you know me, I had to get on my scrapbook program and get creative with it. We have interruption cards for when Mommy is on the phone, has company, is playing with Anthony and Addison and also for snacks, and so on. I also made some reward cards on my own for an activity for only her to do when she is having a good day. I am hoping that this may limit some of the attention seeking interruptions and help reinforce some manners.

On another good note.... My sister has her pathology report reading tomorrow and has an appointment with another surgeon in Cincinnati tomorrow too. Dr. Holt (the surgeon that has been working on Ariel) found her someone else the is willing to take a look at her. My sister has done an amazing job of research on the computer and is really getting some footwork done. I am proud of her! She has two other appointments with other surgeons too lined up. She is needing all of the professional opinions that she can get. Options are good at this point, we all thought we had hit a brick wall as far as options are concerned, it is nice to have a few now.

My Father-in-law is going in for surgery tomorrow for his liver Cancer. They found a spot on his liver a while back (I can't remember if I had mentioned it) and they have made a decision to operate. He is a high risk patient for going under anesthesia because of having such a weak heart. He has two chambers of his heart that are completely dead. We are all a little nervous about it.

Anthony is scheduled for another hearing test tomorrow too. I will keep my fingers crossed that they have no surprise toys hidden in a black box over the speaker. I believe that I am going to take a sweatband to this test and some duct tape.

Speaking of duct tape I have begun using duct tape on the babies diapers to help keep them from taking them off during the night, or anytime for that matter. I had used a piece about two inches long to help secure the diaper. Apparently that size it too easy for little fingers to pull off, so I have gradually moved up to about an 8 inch piece. Addison now gets made if she doesn't have a piece of duct tape on her diaper and feels that it is the best accessory to her outfit that she has ever seen. Anthony just looks at me while I am taping him down like I am wrapping him up to be shipped somewhere. I have to admit I feel like I am. I have a feeling it might come to just standing them up after their diaper is on and wrapping the duct tape completely around their waist a couple of times. If it comes to that I promise to take pictures.

They're coming to take me away, Ha Ha Hee Hee Ho Ho

I have had some great times getting out of the house in the past week. Two weeks are too long for James to be away. Way too long! It is so nice to have a break from the everyday routine.

Last Monday my mom invited us up for the evening to hang out she knew I was desperately needing to get out of the house after a very very long week. We packed up and ended up spending the night two nights in a row because mom was nervous about weather that never happened. We had a blast laughing and playing with the babies. I have some great pics of the babies on their first visit to the library. So precious! I will have to post later. It was great to get out of the house have someone else cook a couple of meals and have new walls to stare at.

James finally made it home this weekend on Friday. So nice to see him, plus I was needing some help with the finishing touches in the yard sale stuff that needed to be set out ;). Man, did we pick a hot day for a yard sale! I was lobster red by the end of the day.

James surprised me by getting sitters together for the night so that we could have a date night Saturday night. So sweet of him. I love when he does stuff like that. I have such a good hubby. After church I came back to the house to pick up my date. I even knocked on the door and waited for him to answer and all. We were like teenagers. We headed off to Olive Garden to use the gift certificates that our friends Jill and Dave gave to us eons ago. We ate so much and so unhealthy all I could do was grunt all through my meal. It was SO good! Stuffed mushroom, calamari, scallops, shrimp, delish! We rolled out of our booth and headed to the movies.

I have been wanting to see the movie Hangover for quite some time. I love The Office and wanted to see "Andy" in another roll. I have to be honest, I laughed from the very beginning to the very end. It is by no means PG rated and at times I looked at James and said "They really did that?" or "showed that?" but I have to admit that I said is while I was trying to keep Coke from coming out of my nose from laughing so hard.

Such a nice break, but now it is back to the day to day life of feed, wipe, repeat. One funny note on Monday, I was in the middle of one of my famous Mommy lectures with Victoria. We were standing in the hallway where her time out area is and I looked past her for a second to catch a glimpse of what totally broke my concentration. Anthony jumping up and down in his bed without a stitch of clothing on. Bare butt naked jumping up and down and laughing hysterically. He was fully dressed when I put him down for his nap, now I had a naked kid and wet sheets. He was so incredibly proud! Victoria appreciated the distraction too. My attention has been focused on her quite a bit these days, she was happy to have Mommy take a break from trying to teach her right from wrong. Apparently Anthony was happy to be free from the cumbersome clothes that Mommy puts on him.

It just comes with life

I am still alive! I have missed you all in Blog land. Life has been hectic and hard.

I did finally get to hang out with my friend Jill and visit some. Kade her son is just precious and BEAUTIFUL! Addison was in love. She sat on the couch next to Jill while she was feeding him and decided that she had to go and get one of her babies and feed it a bottle too. It was so cute to watch Addison checking out Jill making sure that she was feeding her baby right. After they left I put the kids down for a nap and Addison woke up saying "Where baby??" She was really smitten.

My sister has had her second lumpectomy. She is needing to wait a week on the pathology report to see how much radiation that she is needing.

My niece has had her 3rd surgery. She got out of the hospital about a week ago. They had a follow up visit today because they were needing some x-rays to find out what had happened. Her back had curved yet again. Indeed another screw has come out and it didn't hold like it was suppose to. This is now the 3rd surgery and the problem isn't fixed. We are all at our wits end!

Victoria has been slightly out of control and is back in counseling. Who would have thought, Tina is out of jail and Victoria is back in counseling. Didn't see that one coming. That is sarcasm folks.

James is now with his 3 company since the beginning of the year and buying a truck. Lots of empty promises from companies. It is very frustrating! He didn't make it home this past weekend, and that makes for a long long two weeks on his end and mine.

On a funny note, another child threw up on Anthony at church this past weekend. I know that this is gross but it was also quite funny! I picked up Anthony and Addison from class after church and Anthony looked at me with his shoes off and a different shirt on like he really had a story to share with me but just couldn't find the words. The girls were cracking up at him. They said that the other child didn't have a fever and they think it was just a freak accident that it happened but they said that Anthony's face was priceless! I would have loved to have seen that.

One day at a time is all you can do. Gotta keep going.