On The Road

We are getting ready for our annual trip to Lake Norden, South Dakota to see my gramma & uncle. The kid are pretty excited. Partly because they get to see great-gramma but mainly because the place we are staying at has a pool. I am excited because there is a hot tub.

I have known for sometime that this trip was coming. I have my list of things that need to be packed, (your own pillow is a must) snacks to take and things to entertain the kids. This will be an interesting trip on the way up. There will be me, Noelle, Michael, my mom, (Gee) my sister, (Aunt Amy) and my 7 month old twin nephews Jack & Riley. Yes, that's seven people including two infant car seats and a booster seat. The van holds seven people. In addition to the seven people, there will be two pack and plays, three small suitcases, at least two small bags for snacks, books and magazines, more than likely a diaper bag, a 25" TV and a window air conditioner. How long will this traveling circus be on the road you may ask? A little more than eight hours! On the way back, there will be no TV or window unit. We may be a kid or two short, who knows.

Now, my kids are part of the "we must be entertained in the car" generation. They have all kinds of electronic crap to keep them busy. The DVD player that the kids use is not working, so this should be an interesting ride up and back. I won't notice much since I will be getting off work at 7:30 Friday morning before we leave. This will be good practice for Amy. Besides, I'm sure that Jack & Riley will keep them occupied.

When my family would make these long trips up North, (our dad's family is in Minnesota) my sister and I would play different "car ride" games. We would play the "guess the next mile marker" game, (the state has now changed that with having a sign every 1/4 mile or so), the alphabet game, find strange license plates and always wanted to eat "at the sign with the Happy Chef". We also never road in a car seat. We always took turns sleeping "over the hump" on the floor board in the back. A hot and loud ride, but you got to stretch out.

An added bonus would be if the dog went with us. The dog, which was my mom's, didn't sleep up front at her feet. Nope Butterscotch rode in the back with her bad breath often trying to pace back and forth. I can remember one time when we headed, I think, to Lake Norden. "Butts" as we called her, was with us. I don't remember if she was on some kind of medicine or what. All I remember is we had a four door Olds and her tummy was bothering her and she was a little gassy. Well, her tummy rumbled, dad found the nearest exit and we pulled off. All at once, all four of the doors opened and mom, dad, Amy and I jumped out of the car followed by Butts walking around wagging her tail happily. A guy came out of the gas station, (how ironic) and said "what a cute dog". We all thought "you can have her".

Aahh, memories.

Butterscotch in her later years.

A Day At The Lake

It has been so HOT here that is unreal! Finally, it has cooled off some. I took Noelle & one of her friends to the pool the other day and the water felt like bath water! Hardly relaxing. We got some rain and it has helped to cool off.

Today, the kids and I went out to Smithville Lake with dad, whom the kids call Papa. (They call mom Gee. Mom wasn't sure what she wanted to be called and one day Noelle looked at a picture of mom and dad with some of their friends, pointed to mom and said Gee. It stuck)

It was a beautiful day!! We went tubing and swam at one of the coves. Dad has been helping the kids with their swimming. Michael is just like me, he is part fish. Mom & dad have said that when I was little, I would kick so hard when I was swimming that my butt would float up in the air. Michael just dives in and goes. He is always holding his breath underwater in the tub. I see him on the swim team someday. Noelle is a little more cautious. She has always been with pretty much anything. She made progress today by swimming without holding her nose. She said it was easier in the lake because there was no chlorine to "burn her nose" and make her feel like she "wants to throw up". I didn't have the heart to tell her that the burn is better.

Michael is a very funny little guy. He will say something and it just makes me laugh. He won't realize that it's funny and look at you and say "what" like you must be crazy. Well, dad had been showing him how to float face down while kicking just slightly. After they had done this for a while, Michael asked dad "what other challenges do you have?". I thought he said "what other talents do you have?". I busted out laughing.

The cove we had stopped in to swim had some seaweed like crap. The next thing I knew, Michael had covered himself with the stuff and looked like some sort of monster. Noelle did it also. I've included a picture of "the two things in the lake". (sorry for the blurry images)


<----Michael













Noelle---->

Bug's Brain To Be Tested

Michael, whom I call "Bug", finally has his tests scheduled at Children's Mercy. The soonest they could get him in was August 9th. However, that is part of my mandatory two weeks at Park. I called and spoke with one of the teachers who said she would do what ever I needed to help me. Unfortunately, missing that one day would be like missing a week of school and it is the one day we are doing pharmacology. That was not my best subject in LPN school. Since we would have a test two days later over the material, I opted to move his tests to August 14th. Less stress for me since I can't be in two places at once.

His first test, EEG, will be at 9:30. He has to go to bed at midnight and get up at 4 am in hopes that he will sleep through the test and get a good reading. He will then have the MRI at noon that same day. When I had first talked to the lady regarding the MRI, she asked if I thought he would need to be sedated. Well, lets see... It takes about an hour, he would have to lay very, very still and he is eight, I'm thinking a big yes here. It was hard for me to lay still for an hour when I had mine and I'm just a little over eight. The first thing she said to me when I said yes was, "that will cost more, we do have movies". She may have been trying to help, who knows, but she was pretty snotty. I said I didn't care how much it was, he needs this done and it needs to be as clear as possible.

He has had a couple of headaches since the big scare. I have asked him how his head felt before all of this happened and he said "it felt sort of wiggly inside". I'm not really sure what that means, but I will be passing that information on to the doctor. I'm just thankful that everything has been back to normal so far and hope it continues.

Who's That Girl

Noelle just keeps getting more and more beautiful and is looking more and more grown up all the time. When ever I say anything like "I can't believe she is 10", dad says "imagine how I feel, knowing your 36". Regardless, she should not be 10.

She got new glasses the other day. She picked them out by herself, (rather quickly) and made two great choices. One pair, her favorite ones, are black kind of "all in one" with no nose pieces. She likes those because "I look like a mini Aunt Amy". I think it is only a matter of time before she is a "mini Aunt Amy". Noelle is built just like her. Long legs and I don't think it will be long before we are sharing shoes!

"Mini Aunt Amy"













The "other pair"

Too Damn Much For One Day

Since I will be starting school in a few weeks (WHAT??), I have decided to work on the floor to get some good experience while in school and then go back to the ER once I graduate. My hours have changed from 7p-7a. This works well because I am a night person. It will also work well with school. I will work every Friday, Saturday once school starts, (that kind of stinks) and then one other day during the week.

This past week, Michael had bible school everyday from 9-12. I took him and brought him home except for the days I got home from work. Friday was one of the mornings I got home about 7:30, so one of the other moms was going to bring him home. (Since Noelle is older, her bible school was on Friday night and Saturday.) I had taken Michael to bible school, came home, washed my face, put on my pajamas and got ready to settle into bed. Noelle was going to snuggle with me while I fell asleep. I had just dosed off when the phone rang.

The person on the other end asked if I was Michael's mom, (never a good sign). I said yes. She then told me that "Michael has just had a seizure". I was now wide awake and yelled "WHAT?!?!". She asked if he had a history of them and I said no, I would be right there. I called Sean and told him to meet me and called my mom to get Noelle. I got to the church and Michael was sitting against a wall kind of a pale, grey/green color. Under his eyes were shadowed and his lips had no color. I'm looking at him, listening to what I am hearing and trying to process it all at once. Suddenly, I'm not a nurse, I'm a mom and I can't think of what a seizure is or anything. I was told that Michael's group had been working at the art table. Suddenly, his eyes rolled back in his head, his arms came bent up at the elbows tightly and he started shaking. He fell back flat on his back (hitting his head so hard they heard it across the room) and continued to convulse for 20-30 seconds. He then "woke up", jumped up and asked if he passed out. They said yes. They sat him down, he took a small drink of water and then threw up. I asked Michael what happened and he said everything went black and he thought he was going blind. Then "I woke up on the floor". (I found out today that one of the women who saw what happened was a nurse and she said, yes it was a seizure he had.) Michael had a bad headache Thursday night, but it was gone Friday morning.

We took him to the ER where they did blood work and a CT scan of his brain, (yes, he has one) and everything looked fine. The ER doctor said he may never have another one and we may never know what caused it. He will be having an MRI this next week at the hospital where they will compare the CT and the MRI. He will also be having an EEG which is where they will put some wires on his head, and if it's like what I had, have him watch a very irritating video that is nothing but black & white patterns that change quickly. When we left the hospital, he told us that he was afraid he was going to die. He also said he knew I was worried because I was "talking real fast". Just by chance, I had a doctors appointment Friday afternoon. I spoke with him about what had happened to Michael. The doctor from the ER had called him while we were at the hospital and he is having one of his nurses set up the appointments.

You would think that would be enough for one day, but you would be wrong.

Noelle, like I said, had her bible school Friday night from 6-9. It was at a park and they called it "Off Road" because it was not at church like the one during the day for the younger kids was. After my doctors appointment, I came home and went to bed because I had been up since Thursday morning, so Sean had taken her. When he went to pick her up, they told him that she had gotten overheated and was now doing fine. They asked "what's going on at your house" and Sean asked them "what are you doing to our kids". We made sure she drank plenty of water today and she was ok all day.

Michael is doing fine. We were told to be sure to keep and eye on him the next couple of days. The nurse in me knows that it may never happen again and even if it does, there is nothing I can do but keep him safe. The mom in me is on alert and constantly checking on him when he is not looking. I didn't hardly sleep last night and what little I did sleep was nothing but nightmares that Sean had to keep waking me up from.

Today, life was back to normal, uneventful. I like it that way.

Kids & Their Dogs

Noelle & Molly













Michael & Sadie













Michael & Hydie














Noelle, Molly, Michael, Sadie & Hydie

Steam Heat

Aahh, yes, steam works!!! My friend Stephanie has a steamer and we gave it a try. At first, there was not much difference between the steam and the Tiger Paw/DIF stuff. When we let it heat up a little more, it worked!! It is kind of wet and messy, but it works and that is the main thing. Now this does excuse the stupid people. I would still like to find them!

I really think it was the people who lived here before us. They were the original owners and since every room in the house was peach when we moved it, they obviously had no ambition. Either that or they loved peach so much, (which is the outside color-we hope to paint this fall) that for the 10 or so years they lived here they just didn't change anything.

Since we have the steamer, that Stephanie may or may not get back, I am going to be steaming a lot of stuff. Bathrooms, kitchen sink, tiles in the kitchen who knows what else. The oven is more than likely the first thing I will work on.

The purging of crap-ola in the house continues. The laundry is almost completely done!!! I am now starting on my fourth bag of clothes to give away~yes, in addition to the 22 given away previously. It feels good to get rid of so much stuff. The garage will be next. I don't know if I'm up for that or not. It will be nice to get that all organized as well and be able to have the doors open without people driving by with a "I'm glad that's not my garage" look on their face as they slow down to comprehend what they have just seen.

When you have a three car garage and you can only use one stall, (that is currently the housing the ongoing '76 Trans Am project) it's pretty sad. In all fairness, the treasured TA is parked in the middle of the two car area and the third is full of garage sale/"why the hell did I keep this" stuff. Once order is set in place, the van will be in there. The poor thing is only in a garage when I'm at work. It will be so confused.

It will be nice to finally have a garage sale. We had one when we first moved in. Since I have been going through things like a mad woman, there has been more and more added to the already overflowing garage. Everything that is up for sale will have one chance to find a home. There will be no "let's see if this will sell next time". If it doesn't sell, it goes to Goodwill. Funny how people are willing to pay more for stuff at Goodwill than they would at a garage sale.

Bigger short cuts

I made a cake yesterday because we are having some friends over for the fourth. I have a beautiful glass cake display I got from Sean's gramma. I have it above the cupboards along with several other items. I hopped up on the counter to retrieve the item, (normally I use a chair) and could not believe the amount of dust that had collected. I only ever use the cake display so I never really gave what it looked like much thought.

When we moved it, I just put some things up there with the "I'll arrange it later" thought. I guess this is later. I took everything down. Most everything up there is glass. I have several pieces of refrigerator dishes from the 50's as well as vintage milk bottles. I'm hoping to get some more of both.

As I'm up on the counter, being sickened by the sight of what I have found, I decided, "hey while I'm up here, I might as well peal wallpaper". A third installment of "stupid people take short cuts". It is becoming more and more obvious that those behind the wallpapering maybe did not attend a wallpapering class. At one point, there were three layers of wallpaper. I'm not sure why because at most there should be two where you overlap a pattern, but you cut off the excess to match the pattern, you don't just leave it! I took a deep breath, (not too deep because since I was pulling down the paper and would make a bigger mess, I lightly dusted) and proceeded over the door way and on to the next set of cupboards. Wallpapering is easy, if I can do it, anyone can. This was not even a real pattern. I have done those, this wallpaper required no thought, (obviously). As I am working, I was pulling the paper off, yes off, easily in large pieces.

As I get to the end, I notice that there are several wads of paper coming up from behind the cupboard area. Keeping in mind that there is not that big of a gap behind the cupboards, large wadded pieces of paper came up! The main thing is the area's above the cupboards is done and ready to go, with the exception of two small areas that we need to work on. We still have the large wall to do. The other areas are broken up by door ways and windows so that, said with fingers crossed, hopefully will not be to bad.

Have a fun and safe day today!!