Kitties

Poor Skittles. Yesterday was her big surgery. Tummy Spayed and front claws removed. She was happy to come home....but is furious with me to lock her in 2 rooms of our house. Of course...she doesn't understand Dr's orders and protection from her own crazy kittenish actions. She kept poking her paws under the door for about an hour and then gave up to take a nap. Mean Mommy. Checkers was really worried and seems quite happy that Skittles has returned.

Checkers herself went to the vet on Monday due to stomach issues and a 1 pound weight loss in about 4 weeks. A little bubble gum Amoxicillin has made her start to eat again and gave her lots of spunk back. Thank you WONDERFUL VET!! Of course - she hates bubble gum flavored medication. The vet said it is the same that human kids get and they can comment as to how much they would dislike tuna flavored medication!

pickup line conference

So proud I could pop!! Picking up Shark Boy from school-- could turn into a little mini parent teacher conference, about the days events or advise. It can be very embarresssing - especially if there are a 100 minvans waiting behind me. But today - S.B. last year's teacher flagged me down to tell me. "S.B.'s group of boys have been bickering for the entire pickup time about what they are doing and who can be involved." I even said "oh no" and looked backed to SB with a disappointing look... when she said. "But SB defended the others and said. Come On Guys let them play too"!!! He beamed! It made our day! Thanks Mrs. H!!

updates

Updates.

I tend to post and then forget to update.


My allergies have been much better since the cooler weather has arrived and the leaves have dropped. Some new friends have let us borrow their air purifier to try. I do think it makes a difference. We have installed filters in all of the vents as well. I have cut back on my inhalers and noticed the asthma symptoms coming back...so I am going to be a good patient and take them as prescibed. Nurses make the worse patients! My sleep study showed sleep apnea that they want to keep monitoring. It should improve as the allergies do. The pulmologist says I have mild COPD, that could get worse as my allergies continue. So #1 is controlling the allergies and #2 is continuing the Advair. I have more allergy tests next week. We meet with our placement director on December 4th. We will be sharing what the doctors say about the southwest of the country. But also that we think the best for our children is to go back near family.

Weight watchers....not so good. The whole exercise bit makes a difference!! My sister gave me back my ecliptical trainer. I am excited to begin...but it sat in our van for 5 days due to work schedules and rain. It came in the house and has been warm for about 3 hours,now. Only the kids have been using it. I'm hoping the motivation to use it comes soon!

Skittles and Checkers survived our weekend home. In fact, Checkers seemed very settled! We have noticed Skittles is much calmer....I think Checkers really appreciates this.

No more snakes came home from school thank goodness!!! Right now Shark boy is reading his first book for a book report. 172 pages! And it was wrote 50 years ago. The major character did not have television! Shark Boy can not imagine the horror!

Mermaid girl was ready for Christmas yesterday. I was telling her all the work we needed to do and everyone that we needed to buy presents for... " But -- But, I just want Christmas for ME!!" Yep, need to work on Christmas Spirit and the real meaning of Christmas right away!

I have my Christmas letter wrote. I have not printed yet....as I put my blog address on it, to follow up with our changes next spring....but I am not brave enough to put it on yet. If you get a letter from us and the blog is not on it....feel free to call me a wimp!!

Well, back to cleaning the house. Mermaid girl has way too many barbies and accessories!!!

God bless!!

my first meme

10-20-30 years ago

10 years ago: I was working as a nurse for substance abuse treatment center. I loved the nursing part....not the group therapy sessions I was doing. I had started volunteering for hospice every week and loved it. I did not want to work for Hospice as I did not want that experience to change! I was waiting not so patiently for a baby. I also realized my husband was spending an awful lot of time working at church! Little did I know how different life would be for us!

20 years ago: I was in my senior year of high school. Senioritis had really sit in and I dropped band to allow me to work more at my job as a cook for a nursing home. Yes....I was the cook! HA HA! Ruined my desire to cook I tell you...76 meals every time! I lived on a farm 7 miles from town. I thought a farm was the very worse place to raise kids. Now I think it would be the best place to raise a family! But I deliberately did not marry a farmer!! I was going to the big city and become a nurse and live far from a farm.

30 years ago: I was 7. We lived in small town usa. We walked everywhere and only needed to report to Mom at supper time. The world was a much safer place. I learned to ride a bike when I was seven. My 6 year old sister learned an hour before I did. I was so mad!!! I no longer was scared of the thing. I wanted to be a social worker or a nurse.

Wow. This exercise -- has brought back lots of good memories. I wonder what 10 years from now will bring......

Blessings

When you don't know what to post...post pictures. Someone famous in the blog world said that recently. This is the best blessing in our going home for a weekend! And Skittles has the right idea --- I should go to bed!

Actually I do have updates, but I'll get busy on them this weekend. I work Thanksgiving...on call but I already know of 4 patients I need to see. Lets hope the phone doesn't ring off the hook with anymore! We will have Thanksgiving supper with 2 good friends, S and W and their son, D. Another deferred couple will be there as well. We are looking forward to it.

Many Thanksgiving wishes to you all!! May God continue to bless you!

busy weekend

I had big plans to complete for this weekend. Hoped for more....but that is the story of my married life! The house is in far better shape and the kids have clean undies...so thats good. I probably need to check into jeans though.....

And several update letters have been wrote to several wonderful families that sponser us. The latest request was for an update picture so .......groan, I made an appointment. Last year we had a fun time taking outdoor pictures like the one in my first post. I almost considered doing that again....but the allergies...and our friends who did it at the same time moved ...and I had a coupon. You can see they got me to a little more than a coupon - but I am behind on getting pictures of the kids ( you might even have evidence of Shark Boy's every 3 month pictures!!) Mermaid girl has been neglected in formal pictures but the digital camera makes up for it. She is so into pictures this year. She wanted Barbie hair so we did it. It takes forever to straighten and I kept misting it down ---bringing the curl back! Crazy Momma! She is beautiful and the pictures show it! They gave us a disk --- and you can see the pictures were pretty good. The disk has 102 pictures so lots of scrapbooking ahead!

Also Yeah Packers!!!! Would we ever have loved to see that game!!!!!!!!!

BEAUTIFUL!!

Check out Aunt M! at her blog.

We love Aunt M and Uncle J! MG thinks she is so pretty!! (And that uncle J and her other uncle J dance wierd!) We have lots of other Aunts and Uncles we love too. I don't think they'll start blogs...but we hope so.

Mermaid Princess

Aunt M and Uncle J went to China and sent home Mermaid girl a beautiful princess crown. Maleah loves it and it is beautiful! We have it on her wall above the 2 chinese butterflies we already had on the wall. It is perfect. Aunt M and Uncle J have been waiting a long time for their Thank you. I keeping meaning to do this, but wanted to send a picture with it. When I download pics to the computer -- I need to name them and print them right away....or it never happens. Sorry M and J -- MG's mom is hopeless! Thank you "Pretty Aunt M" and J

Shark boy recieved a really neat Tshirt with a dragon on it. He loves it -- but I don't have a picture yet. He doesn't like his picture taken. MG on the other hand is all drama and will pose forever! I'm trying not to post so many extra pics or stories about MG. But, SB doesn't always cooperate or would be furious if I posted some of his stories!!

The dress is how you'll often find MG! MG is playing dress up in one of a huge box of recital dresses that a friend back home gave her. Thanks T.G. -- She loves them!

I am an expert at sleep!

Well the sleep study was interesting. The nice tech said "I won't tell if you passed and I won't tell if you didn't pass". I think I passed though, because she had me test out all of these masks and I never had to use them. I am relieved because the masks are really claustrophobic and the only one that wasn't puts a lot of pressure on the eustachian tubes. I don't desire either one. Basicly EEG electrobes were Super glued to my head, EKG electrobes were placed and wires on my legs, then a vibration microphone place on my throat (tests snoring), and bands placed on my lower and upper chest. Oxygen prongs were placed in my nostrils and above my mouth. Then all of these plugged into a box next to me. It took forever to fall asleep. Mostly, because despite all my medical knowledge-- I was scared they could read my mind!! 2 electrobes came off initially, then I learned how to turn avoiding the leg wires -- but my wrists were all tied up in the morning. I guess that is pretty common. She used a chemical to take the glue off my scalp and it didn't hurt at all. I see the pulmonologist tomorrow, hopefully he will have the results.
Tomorrow I have a mandatory medical insurance body mass index and blood test. All of the employees need to do this -- well it's not mandatory - but it will cost about $50 more a month for my insurance if I don't -- Makes it mandatory in my book! The worst part is my appointment is 4:40 pm and I need to fast for 8 hours. Thank goodness, I can at least have breakfast! And all the water I want! (but- no Dr. Pepper ) :-(

Sleep

Wish me luck....I'm off to sleep at the hospital for a sleep study. I was really worried I would not fall asleep with all of the wires and people watching me, but a friend's husband works there and set me up with the "nicest" and "best tech" they have! I am feeling a little better. I am tired after a busy 4 days at work. So hopefully this will work. I need to sleep for at least 3 hours. Shark boy gave me his Jigglypuff Pokemon card. It's a cute little pink animal that can sing any opponent to sleep! What more could I need?

Braids

We love Cool Cuts. Mermaid Girl sits in the Princess Chair, while watching Barbie movies and has her hair cut and braided. Shark Boy loves it as well to play video games while his sister takes an hour and a half to become even more beautiful! It's a tad more expensive...but only about $4 per kid.....So worth it!! I am amazed how fast they can put in the braids and such clear parts. I'm learning more every 3 months!

Happy Halloween

Trick or Treat! B took the kids this year -- as he has not taken them here. How did I miss that? His 3rd year must be either easier...or he's better at time management. I think a little of both. So, Mommy did not have to go as an Asthmatic nurse....with her nose mask and goggles. That was my allergy Dr's suggestion. He is moving my testing really slow to avoid an allergy attack. Thus far molds and popolur trees are positive. Cats are OK --- Yeah!! But, I reacted REALLY bad to dogs! :-) And.....doing dishes, washing windows and cleaning toilets also. Big welts from all of those!

To do these tests, I need to be off 2 of my meds, especially Zyrtec. I know Zyrtec makes a difference now. My red eyes were a huge clue. What a sight I would have been at campus....grey face mask from Home Depot, Luke's swim goggles, firy red Right eye thus only a contact in my left eye. A asthmatic, cyclops nurse....best I stayed home!