Lindsay's right nostril gives birth to a bean!

Jared was home for lunch and watched the girls for me as I ran to get Jack from school. Upon my return home Lindsay was holding a tissue and telling me she had something white up her nose. I thought maybe she thought boogers only were green and told her sometimes they are white. Blow your nose, you'll be fine. No, she insisted... it hurts. I tip her head up and indeed see something white. I conclude that possibly she wadded up tissue and pushed it up too far. Duncan loves to do this to try and stop the sniffles. We got a Q-tip and I tried to gently coax it out. That is when she tells me it is not a tissue and she did place it there herself. I then found the "music" container/ school project from one of the kids. She had pried open the top and retrieved a white bean. She decided for some reason that it belonged up her nose. This is the same girl who flushed a pair of panties down the toilet when she was potty training. Causing a great and horrible flood in the basement; a lot of work and cost. She is also the daughter that fell down the stairs needing stitches, and before had decided it was the thing to do to swallow a metal gold star sequin. Now the bean. I worked on getting it out for about an hour. I didn't want to cause more issues and we were resolved to have to take her in to instacare. It really made me mad that a single dried bean would end up costing us at least $100.00 Not to diminish the fact that I wanted my daughter safe... I was driving towards the instacare, thinking about the long wait and knowing it wasn't an emergency, figuring they'd most likely pop it out within seconds. I thought about my Dad and my childhood. How he was able to accomplish a great many things, being innovative and creative out of necessity. So, I asked Lindsay if she trusted me and if she wanted to go to Macy's or the instacare. She picked Macy's. I went thinking I'd find a better pair of tweezers. $10. later with many pedicure items in hand (plus the begged shiny lip gloss) We were back in the van and I was trying to pluck out the bean from her nose. Tiny tweeze only yanked a nose hair out and didn't open big enough to grasp the bean. But those wooden cuticle sticks, the one side with a beveled edge was able to push it to the right position and get it out! After the removal I mentioned how we don't stick things in our noses. And asked Lindsay why she thought she should. She plainly said, "Mom, I'm a kid."

Jack

My boys do have a tendency to appreciate art; I do not push this on them. Duncan had come home excited about the reflections contest at school and voiced his interest in entering. I helped fill out the papers and get him the supplies. He painted a great picture depicting how he thinks summer is beautiful. He was happy and received a blue ribbon for participating. That's what I have received in the past way back in elementary school. Then there's Jack. He never said a word. He drew a picture and his teacher filled the paper work out. I had no idea. He won first place in his school and has moved on to the district level for depicting himself about to eat macaroni. I have yet to see the picture, but I am very curious. We are very proud of both our boys! Great talent, I'll have to post each picture once we get Jack's back (hopefully we do).

Yesterday was Jared's birthday and we took him (thanks to Make-A-Wish) to the Capitol Theater to see the Nutcracker. Our whole family went. It got rather warm and Jared couldn't help but doze off a few times. Ruby missed both naps, but did rather well considering. Right when I thought I'd have to stand up and take her out, she passed out in my arms. Santa made an appearance and handed out candy canes. Lindsay wanted to get closer to talk to him, but got nervous. Santa told her she'd gotten much bigger since last year. She shook his hand and surprised me.

Today Duncan got himself to school... well, on the bus at least. I had to take the girls to my sisters (thank you!) and take Jack for his six month check up and echo. What a long day. Jared had to work. I've been overly stressed for ... oh EVER. But that's beside the point. I felt like this wouldn't be the typical all clear, see you in six visit. I tried to pass it off as me being more pessimistic and tried to be more positive. Turns out it wasn't doom and gloom, but it's not all clear either. Jack's EEG had intervals they weren't too thrilled with where an ending beat trailed off. The Cardiologist said that in a normal healthy heart it wouldn't be a problem, but in Jack's heart he wants a better idea of how often this is occurring. So, he will be wearing a halter monitor. They would have put it on in the office, but they were all checked out, so they are mailing it too me and I have to put it on, somehow have him keep it on, turn it back in yada yada... Then there was the echo. Jack's third and last repair surgery is called the Fontan. With that they place a gortex tube in the heart that allows the left ventricle of the heart to take over all the hearts responsibilities sending blood throughout the entire body as well as the lungs. they place a small hole in it called a fenestration to keep the pressure from building too great. Right next to that hole in the gortex they can't get a good enough look at with the echo and believe they may be seeing a shadow, which could be a clot. If it is a clot and that clot dislodges it would travel quickly through his heart and straight up to his brain, causing a stroke. These are just IF's and could be's so we are treating them as such. No need to worry. The next plan of action is next Thursday he will be getting another echo called a TEE or transesophageal echocardiogram he will be sedated and they will take the echo down inside is throat to get the better pictures of the fenestration (hole). I'll keep eveyone posted here, for I have explained it many times already and have a few more to go. It's times like these that I get tricked into thinking I could give some sort of educated lecture on quite a few medical things without having gone to medical school. But I know that there are far FAR more complications and medical terms and such out there than I ever care to even know about.

Sorry to have given the near novel version of events, probably more for my benefit really... but thanks for caring and being there in a way for me if you did bother to read.

And the Plant Lives On...

I have many relatives whom have mighty GREEN thumbs. I had always hoped that I could nurture and flourish those same talents. I admire and respect those that do. I was excited being a first time home owner (three years ago!) to begin growing my own garden. I hadn’t anticipated the high cost to begin from scratch on land that has been left to the WEEDS for years. I figured that being patient enough to get into the home was enough and I could begin and have a garden in a year. That proved for me to be naïve.

Also a goal for a young family of ours, I had found it necessary to find a creature to fill the place of family pet (Miko has been with us for nearly two years.) She took over the back yard eating everything; EVERYTHING… She has consumed a wood chair, many plastic toys, bike handle bars, and a grill cover, not to forget all my potted plants (goodbye garden).

But I must take you back to the beginning… at least to where the point leys with this tale. Years back, approximately 8 years; my Eldest sister Kristi (one with a green thumb) gave me a 3” potted plant much like, or in the same family of a aloe vera. She must have known that I would most probably kill this poor little plant. I don’t remember to water things of that sort. At the time we were living in the basement of my parents home. The plant resided in the bathroom near the window. Probably its only saving grace. The plant got abused. Sometimes it got watered.

The plant somehow made it through one straight year of no water, other than maybe steam from a shower. It did shrivel up, it grew bare stocks and dropped shriveled up leaves easily. I figured I would throw it out when we moved. But it came to our home. The plant somehow lived on.

I felt bad for the plant and began to regularly water it. That’s when it surprised me with how resilient it really was. I transplanted it into a bigger pot. The kids pulled leaves off. One dropped and started to take root. That’s when I found that I could cut the plant and shove it into the dirt and it would take root and grow. Taking care of the bare stalks and filling in leaves. I was excited to see how nice this indoor plant would look, when some care was given. It somehow gave me some hope that I didn’t have a black thumb of death (at least not completely).

Most recently I thought the plant that is half way to a great recovery, had taken a swift kick to deaths door, when my daughter Lindsay decided that she’d try and “help” watering it with at least a ¼ cup of straight up vinegar. One of the stalks leaves drooped the past two days, but I’ve continued to water it to see what will happen. This plant just keeps living on!

Funny...

I did come across a funny blog site. A few years back the Heinhold twins introduced me to Cake Central, I highly recommend that site for cake lovers. I think this is a great counter balance to that site. They show great cakes as well as funny disasters.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

A Wrinkle in Time...

Despite the fact that I was awake for the day this morning at 5:45AM; I was running behind and became late for nearly everything! How is that even possible? I suppose at the moment I'm wasting time by writing this now. I had to leave and come back to it a few times though.

May be I was abducted by aliens?

Anyway time has escaped me and I haven't had the time to even blog lately. I have a fog that has lingered since my Mom passed. I have a returned Christmas tree still sitting at my front door. I have Easter remnants throughout the house that were never put away. We decorated for summer and July sort of. I'm getting a modge podge of holiday decorations strewn about and I'm tired of the clutter. I have Halloween houses and cute decorations, but haven't been able to bring myself to get them out. My Mom was huge into holidays and decorating. I just need to at least get focused and CLEAN!

and more...

more pictures...