Nothing finished, or even started

I was going to go to a homeschooling convention all day today.  It was from 8-4 with an hour lunch break.  While I was really looking forward to it, I was having some doubt to whether or not I should go.  J. had been working a lot this week, and it's his first day off.  He has some really big projects going on around the house and yard. If I was gone it would not get done, because the little boys need constant supervision and our big helper L. is at Grandma and Grandpas house.  I set the alarm to get up and make a decision this morning.  I decided not to go.  Too much would be sacrificed.  I really want that room to be finished, the pool to get fixed, the grass to be mowed and the fence to be build!  

I was excited to stay home today and help work on some of those projects, or at least keep the kids busy while J. worked on them!  He was leaving to get some gas for the lawnmower when the phone rang.   He got called into an emergency at work.  So there he is, and here I am, holding a little boy who has cried for the last hour and refuses to sleep even though he's exhausted.  Listening to another little boy cry in his crib.  Not getting a thing done.  Wishing I had more energy, resources, and time in the day.  Hoping that Monday will be the day when at least ONE project gets finished.  

Update: One little boy is now asleep, which hopefully will influence the other!  I may get something done today after all, even if it's just the laundry.

Life without kids

As I was cleaning up E.'s car seat today after he bombed it with his vomit, I had a thought.  What would it be like to have no kids, just me and J?  

Quiet, relaxing, no messes, no stress.  Would I be happy and content? 

What would be missing from our lives?

No giggles

No little hugs and kisses

No questions to answer 

No prayers before bed

No math problems to help solve

No ballet recitals

No cute mispronounced words like "opeymeal" (oatmeal)

No dancing to Donut Man

No owies to kiss and bandage

No firsts

No breaking up fights and watching them makeup

No Mothers Day gifts

No pearly white teeth to brush

No bouquets of dandelions and buttercups

No bath toys

No sweet smelling baby lotion

No missing teeth

No watching them grow

No singing bible songs and E.'s fav. "Happy Birthday"

No homemade cards made with love

No cute booties

No nails to paint

No cuddles in the middle of the night

No cartoons

No little socks and shoes

No tea parties or sword fights

No bunk beds to tuck kids into

No fun family trips

No excuse to get McDonald's french fries

No cute dimples

No treehouses

No hair to fix

No story time

No dress up

No bicycle riding lessons

No birthday parties and balloons

No tangles to unknot after bath time

No field trips

No adventure

No "mom I need you"

No "mom I love you"

No sacrifices

The list can go on and on.  I am now thankful for the puke stained car seat that I need to finish cleaning.  Thanks kids, life would be so empty without you in it.

Ears

E. has a thing about ears.  Not sure why, but he loves to touch other people's ears and smoosh them with his fingers.  It's not just earlobes, but the cup part of the ear too.  I have seen him approach several people new to him, and reach right up to their ears to smoosh them.  It's a bit odd, and funny at the same time.  He is always touching my ears, especially while I am on the computer.  He will climb on the chair behind me and almost be on my back while I check email and love my ears.  

Misc.

We are enjoying another beautiful day today. The older kids had a great time sleeping in the tent in the backyard for the last two nights.  This morning I found K. snuggled in bed with us though, she must have gotten cold.  The little boys had a lot of fun playing in the tent yesterday too.

J. is working all weekend, so we are on own to find some fun.  We got invited to some new church friend's home today for a bbq.  I think we may be visiting my parents on Monday too.  I think the nice weather will stick around the whole weekend!

I had a meeting for our new orphan/adoption mission group at church yesterday.  We decided on a name, Micah Project. After this verse: 

Micah 6:8 (New International Version)

 ⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good. 
       And what does the LORD require of you? 
       To act justly and to love mercy 
       and to walk humbly with your God.

We also worked on putting some information on a bulletin board.  I included some information about MAT and an little announcement to welcome home Elijah.

E. and S. had appointments at the Children's hospital the other day.  We were able to leave the older kids at a friend's house (she took them to a play!) so J. and I were able to focus all our time and energy on the boys.  S. had his appointment first, an evaluation for his development. He is looking good, but they recommend he sees an OT for another evaluation.   The doctor concluded that what we are doing for him at the this point is the right thing for his needs, speech, which he gets twice a month.

E. was next, after lunch at Whole Foods. I love that store, they have a very nice, healthy deli.  Yum.  E. was seeing the dermatologist.  She was almost certain his rash (which has been spreading to his scalp now) is fungal.  She did a scraping to be sure, and it is.  Since it's on his head it needs to be treated with an oral medication.  This meant that a blood test should be done to be sure he is healthy enough to handle a long dose (six weeks or more!) of the medication.  As you may remember, E. is NO fan of the needle, and I am so glad J. was there to hold him down.  I was able to wait with S. in the waiting area but could hear every minute of E. screaming and whining.  He is on day three of the meds and we will see if things look better in about a month.  

Decisions Made

We finally made the final decisions about school next year. L. is enrolled in middle school. He went to a meeting to learn all about Jr. High life. I met with his counselor to discuss placement based on past testing scores. (he will be placed in normal 7th grade classes, but if it's really simple for him they will consider testing him for their Aiming High classes) C. and K. will be home schooled, and although at first I was considering doing it all on my own, I had a reality check and decided to re-enroll in the parent partnership program we used this year. I just can't turn away the funding we will receive for activities and field trips we may not normally be able to afford.
The funds also cover fun things like Legos and these Kapla building bricks.

Although at times the paperwork seems overwhelming, the rewards are great.  We will keep on plugging away and reaping the benefits from the school funded program.  

Summer Plans

What to do, that is the question. Why am I so worried about summer activities right now?  The home-school program we are in allows us to us our stipend money for summer!  The only thing is, we have to plan ahead and turn in a form with when, where and how we plan on spending our money over the summer.  So, I am left to ponder, plan and dream until June 10th, when the form is due.  

I know we would like to drive down to my sister's house to camp in her yard and visit some local sights.  I would like to do some hiking, swimming and field trips.  

L. is planning on taking a babysitting course that trains kids ages 12 and up to care for children with special needs.  He will be learning CPR and first aid too!  

I am in the planning stages of holding a garage sale to raise money for adoption expenses.  It sounds like our church is ok with having it at their parking lot!  

We have some family coming to visit in June (we are so excited about this!) and VBS is the last week of June.  

There's an American Girl summer day camp we may sign the girl's up for.  At the same time there's a preschool program that would be great to entertain E!

We are planning on attending the reunion for COTP as long as it is still a go, last we heard the attendance was slim.  

Grandma and Grandpa want the kids to stay a while at their house sometime in Aug.  

We also plan on a fun camping trip.  

We are still planning our trip to Mexico... dreaming away!

More plans

I am reconsidering our big road trip plans for August.  I think my kids may just be too young and not helpful enough to do this without my husband.  We may do part of the trip, or  some sights and camping closer to home. 

Another idea is for us to go on a couple's trip to Mexico for our Anniversary.  We are trying to come up with some ideas and lower price resorts that are nice.  We've never been.  Has anyone traveled to Mexico recently?  We are thinking of Puerto Vallarta or Cabo.   We're also trying to weigh out the pros/cons of all inclusive or not.

Thanks for your input!

Jean Alex (Samuel) is doing great. We just went to the Children's Hospital yesterday for a full day of visiting specialists. He is 23 lbs, but I did not remember his height. He is pretty average in length, but slim. He is going to come back in six months to see them again, but this is what we learned yesterday:

His MRI showed no change, which is good news.

It also showed his chiari. He has type 1, 22mm in size. It is quite significant and can probably cause pain and complications. The neurosurgeon asked if he is fussy or showing signs of pain. I said occasionally he grabs or bangs on his head, but is generally very happy and content. So we will just watch and see how he progresses. He may need surgery in the future to help with pain or other symptoms. Type 1 is also found to be genetic, so it's possible other family members can have it. Some people have it without symptoms and find out they have it when having a scan for something non related.

His EEG showed no signs of seizure activity. This doesn't rule out seizures, but he didn't have any at the time of the testing. I haven't noticed any seizure activity at home.

He will be seen at the neuro-develpmental clinic soon. They will be evaluating him and see if he needs extra help in any areas. He is delayed in several areas, particularly speech/communication.

The plastic surgeon plans on doing surgery when he is a little older, using bone from his ribcage to build his nose and remove the lump of stuff the other doctor used. This substance is not expected to last a long time, and can cause infection or loosen, so they will bump up surgery if something like that happens.

Pipe dream?

My friend Sarah and I are great at sharing each others' wild and crazy dreams.  We recently have been talking about a drive down the west coast thru Oregon and California.  We will be doing this on our own, no husbands (they will be home working and supporting our dreams!) and with 15 kids total!  Crazy?  Yes, but so much fun. 

We always have a great time together, whether it's sitting in the hospital for a week with two sick babies, going to Haiti to visit our boys, working out at the local gym, shopping at thrift stores, or going to the hot springs for a night or two.  Rarely can you find a friend that you can hang with doing ALL those activities and still have lots to talk about for two hours on the phone after we get home.

Anyway, we are planning on going on this trip in August sometime, driving our two vans, and tent camping.  We will make lots of stops at all the fun, educational places we can think of, and have a great end of summer trip.  We are even thinking of having our hard working husbands fly down and meet us in San Diego on their days off.  If you live on the west coast and would be up for a visit from two crazy moms and lots of fun, loud, hopefully happy kids; let me know. We would love to arrange some stops to meet some friends.  We would also be happy to know there are some backyards out there that can host two or three tents.  If you have a great must see idea for our trip, please share!  

We are also dreaming about writing a book about our adventure.  We will see how this pans out, but we have all sorts of ideas up our sleeves.

status updates

E. saw the pediatrician today.  He needs to update nearly all the immunizations he got while in Haiti.  This could be due to the fact that 10% of people's bodies reject immunizations, poor refrigeration storage of the immunizations in Haiti or the fact that it was Haiti and you just never can know...

So he got four shots in the legs.  He has not stopped whining.   He also is going to see a dermatologist about the mysterious rash.  And we will be back in a month for the next series of shots.

L. has an orientation tonight for Jr High.  He and I will be going together at 7.  Since J. is working I had to ask my dear friend to babysit.  She thankfully agreed and I will not have to bring 5 kids to orientation.  I really need to find a babysitter for these situations.  If anyone knows of one, please pass on the referral!

a visit to the doctor

I went to the doctor today. I made the appointment because of my female problem, which decided to resolve itself the day after I made the appointment.  I thought about canceling but I also had been sick for the last few days and getting worse.  I've had the most horrible cough and pain in my chest.  I decided to keep the appointment and discuss what could have been the cause of my female problem and my cough.  

I showed up at the doctor's office and noticed a large sign on the door warning clients to not enter if they are showing symptoms of the swine flu (or whatever they are calling it now).  I almost turned around, since my symptoms were similar, but read further.  It said if you have a cough to ask for a mask and gloves at the front desk.  I went to the desk to check in and discretely added "I also have a little cough".  It was not too discreet when I was the only person in the waiting room wearing the paper mask over my nose and mouth.  

Then, when the doctor came in and we had discussed the whole problem that resolved itself, he finally asked, "now why are you wearing a mask?"  I laughed and said that I have had a cough.  He listened to my chest and felt around my abdomen.  He said it sounds bad on my right lung and prescribed antibiotics.  Early stages of pneumonia.  I am glad to know I am not a wimp and that this cough is as bad as it feels.  I hope the pills kick it's butt!

I did find it interesting that despite the similar symptoms I was showing to the swine flu, or whatever it's called now, my doctor did not even mention it.  He never asked if I'd been possibly exposed to it, nor did he want to test me for it.  So much for a pandemic!

And the girly problem?  It may be related to my thyroid, stress, or just a weird thing that can happen.  I got my blood drawn at the lab (while still wearing my mask) and we'll see if my thyroid levels are ok.  The lab tech did more questioning about the swine flu than my doctor!