grandma

My grandma is not doing well. I went to see her on Saturday and she didn't know who I was. I rubbed her arm and tried to make the connection with my name, my dad, my daughter, but nothing worked. The brightness is missing from her eyes, she has severe dementia, double pneumonia and has been taken off a majority of her medications. She is now taking less than 1/3 of what she used to take.

I talked to my dad tonight and he said it's even worse than it was. Her lungs are rattling. The nurses say she isn't eating good and that she is preparing for her exit.

We pray at this point that GOD takes her soon and ends this life so she can begin her eternal life in heaven and be reunited with grandpa.

Many tears have been shed for her, but that is the selfish side of us, the part that wants her Earthly body to be here. We know it will be a sad time when she passes, but at the same time, we know her quality of life is not well anymore.

pronounciation

Some days I have troubles reading words the way they are supposed to be pronounced. And it's been going on for years. It's to the point now where I find it funny to think of how I pronounced words.

Many, many years ago, when I was a young child, I remember traveling to MN (I believe) with my mom and my grandma when we came upon a sign. I remember asking, "what are 'ant-e-cues'?" And I got a rumble of laughter when they actually figured out what it was I was reading. It was an "antique" sign!

Lately, whenever I see the word "photographer" in my head I pronounce it "photo-grapher", like it's two separate words. Then I just shake my head in disbelief.

When Jayden was younger, I used to pronounce every letter in the word, which made for some funny sounding words. My "knee" was my "k-a-nee". My "ear" was my "err". Then I started realizing that I should pronounce the words correctly for him to learn the correct sounds. (The fact that he receives speech therapy has nothing to do with this.)

Anyhow, I think this must be one of my quirks or something, or one of the many.

itch

Do you ever get an itch to do something? I sure do. And lately, my itch has been to trade off my car. If you follow me on Twitter, you would see my comments on that the other day. We even gave the car a bath and a good cleaning on the inside. Now today, I was more appreciative of the car, enough to where I'm not actively searching for a new one.

Growing up, my parents traded their vehicles every year or two at the longest. I think that's where this itch of mine comes into place every anniversery of a vehicle I own. The problem I have with this vehicle is the fact that we bought the extended warranty on it. So it would be down right silly of me to actually trade it, since I don't get that money out of it.

In the meantime, I'll keep driving it, in hopes that I fall back in love with it. And I could take a good bet that I will never own a car like this one again.

if the shoe fits

What a beautiful Sunday! We all had a great day, for the most part. We were outside and cleaned the car inside and out, along with the truck, too. Now the goal is to keep them clean!

Yesterday, Jayden came walking up the stairs with Shawndra's boots on. I say, if the shoe fits, then wear it!

And wear it he did. He sported them around the house, up the stairs, down the stairs, and around the living room, posing for a few pictures. And once he'd had enough, he simply crawled right out of them.

I guess he decided those shoes were a bit too big for his style right now. Maybe some other day.

not so beautiful artwork

I was not having the greatest day today. My grandma is in the hospital with pneumonia and is not doing well. She does not remember me, even when I tell her my name. She has had dementia for several years now, but it has progressed to a point where most of us are not recognized. I did spend a couple of hours with her, helped/watched her eat, and sat with her while she slept, all the while, tears rolled down my face. It's so hard to watch her and think of the memories and not see her face light up when she sees me, just like it used to. The hugs and kisses before leaving aren't there anymore. I touched her and rubbed her arm and kept trying to talk to her, but nothing made sense.

Anyhow, I came home with a huge headache from crying for hours. A short time later, Mike found this not so beautiful artwork on a little girls wall. And yes, it was done in black permanent marker.

I told her that her room wasn't pretty any more now that she scribbled black on her beautiful pink walls and that it wasn't a "princess" room anymore. Sigh. I guess it's time to buy some more primer and paint. I don't even know why I bother...it's just in addition to white out on her headboard and dresser and other scribbles on the back of her door. We really do try to keep the markers out of reach of her and Jayden. But she's almost 5 years old, shouldn't she know better by now? Sigh.

eyes that hurt and a bomb threat, what more

Today began at 2am for me when Mike was in excruciating pain from his eyes. I continued to lay in bed for awhile, not exactly sure what I could do to help, while he went from the bathroom to the bedroom. It proceeded to get worse in a very short time where he actually couldn't open his eyes.

Mike had gone in for an eye exam on Wednesday and was given some drops to try at home to help with his itching eyes. We first thought maybe he was having an adverse reaction to the drops. I searched the internet and found the side effects to be very similar to the pain he was experiencing. Oddly, the pain didn't start when he started using the drops, so we were hesitant to assume that was the problem.

The pain worsened to the point where he wanted to pull his eyeballs out of the sockets. At that point, I started calling the hospital, except, the hospital didn't answer the phone. I hung up and tried again, no answer. We didn't know what to do next, so we looked up Dr. Jahn's home number. No answer. We tried again, but no answer. I called the hospital again, no answer.

At this point, Mike and I are speechless, and we're not sure what to do. He tells me to call Dr. Jahn's office to see if there is a number on the machine. I do and the number for him is the same one we've been calling. We decide to call Dr. Jones. 3am. We get a hold of her and Mike explains what is going on. Then I hear it.

Welding.

He had been around the guys at work who were welding and he glanced at it for less than a second. She said over the phone she was pretty sure he had burned his eyes and to put some Refresh PM Lubricant on his eyes and to come see her at 6:30am.

3:15am, I head to Wal-Mart. I try calling my mom because I don't know what to do about my job and about Mike's eyes. No answer. What is it with nobody answering the phone tonight is racing through my head. I get to Wal-Mart and there are about 10 really creepy looking kids/teens hanging outside the door. I was nervous to go in. By the time I get out of my car, the kids are gone. I found them inside. I get the ointment and head home.

Along the way, I see a racoon and 5 very chunky toddler racoons that were very cute. I also did not see any cars. What a change that is for HWY 14!

3:45am, I'm home and getting the ointment in Mike's eyes. I continue to research the welding burns to find out how long he will be in pain and what else could be done. I'm also curious as to the permant effects of this.

4:15am, I finally try to lay down, but I'm so nervous, scared, worried, and wound up that I can't sleep. Mike is snoring, so I feel better knowing he's at least able to sleep. I finally fall asleep for 30 minutes, then the alarm goes off at 5:15am and it's time to get up and get ready for the eye doctor and work.

I'm in the shower and realize to myself, if Mike cannot open his eyes, then he is not able to take care of the two kids. But I'm supposed to have a required training today in Madison. I figure I'll wait and see what the doctor says. I get out of the shower and wake him up. His eyes are red, swollen, very teary, scratchy, burning, but feeling a tiny bit better.

We drive to Brookings and get to see the eye doctor. She examines his eyes and determines he did burn his eyes. She prescribes some drops for him and tells him he should hopefully feel a bit better by evening and if he's not feeling better by tomorrow that she wants to see him back.

I go to work, knowing it's going to be a long day of training, especially with little sleep. Once I get to work and get to the training, I see the school has called and left a message. I assumed it was the lunch lady again wanting money, which I had sent today, so I didn't check voicemail immediately. At a brief break, I check it, and learn that there is a bomb threat in my little town at the post office, but the kids are at school and are ok.

Are you serious? A bomb threat in a town of 1200 people? Wow. By now I am thinking what else can possibly go wrong today? So now I'm worried about my husband and wondering what is going on at home.

Later in the day, we learn the bomb threat was a hoax, which we figured, but still. Crazy crazy.

Trainings are long. I'm tired. It's hard to stay awake, but I manage. I finally finish the day at 4pm and start driving home. Of course it would only be fitting to run into really slow traffic. After following them for 10 miles I finally decide I'm going to pass 3 cars. I get to the third car and they flip on their left blinker. Crap. So I slam on the breaks and slip in front of the other two cars.

The rest of my trip is the same way, I keep running into slow drivers. And I mean people going below the speed limit by at least 10 mph. It was very frustrating.

I know as I'm driving that I will be going straight through to Wal-Mart to buy a few groceries because I want nothing to do with that store this weekend. It's college move-in weekend for SDSU and that means Wal-Mart will be a madhouse!

Wouldn't you know, Wal-Mart is a madhouse today too! There were people everywhere. My few groceries turned into a cart full. I finally get out of the store and of course it's fitting that I get stuck behind slower drivers again.

But I manage, I get home at 6pm. I make supper. I know when I finally sit down and relax, I'll probably crash. It's been a long day for me and a long day for Mike, but he is doing much much better tonight.

I hope tonight is uneventful and that everyone can get a good nights sleep. Assuming I will after being up since 2am.

beginning flutist

She's beginning. And she's doing great, considering she hasn't had any formal lessons. I've showed her how to hold it and played a couple of simple songs for her. I've always been a natural at musical instruments, plus I did play it in 5th grade for half the year. Like that really helps, huh? Nope, it's just playing by tune. Here she is getting her fingers where they should go.

And playing Mary Had A Little Lamb for me. Yep, that's one of the songs I taught her. Hey, don't laugh! That's a beginner song and something easy for her to work on. She is doing great. We're both having issues with the lower notes, so I'm not sure if it's the flute or if it's just hard to play those notes. It will be interesting to see what the band instructor thinks of it.
I'm just glad that she's finding this fun and isn't upset anymore. I think playing in band could really help her with her voice, which we all know is her definite strength. Her voice is absolutely beautiful. But choir doesn't start until 7th grade, so for now we'll pursue a different avenue.

do you ever

You ever feel like you're having one of these days...where everything around you spins and you want to scream?

Me too.

flute

And we have take-off a flute! And to make it better, she's actually been trying to play it several times tonight. She even told me she's kind of excited. By the reaction on her face when I told her we have it, she was thrilled. So let's keep encouraging her because I think she has great potential!

from the mouths of babes, part two

Devin, 4 1/2, was at daycare today. She has a cut on her thumb and it started to bleed again. Her daycare provider went to get a band-aid for it. When she came back, Devin says, "I'm starting to die now." When Sherry told me this, I about died. Isn't that funny!

Not My Child! Monday

A bit of a twist today. Instead of doing my typical Not Me Monday, it will be a Not My Child Monday. Mckmama is the creator of this wonderful blog carnival. Hop on over to her site to see what is going on with many other people.
My 2 year old son did not get out of bed at 11:30pm, open his door, and go downstairs and play with the cats, all the while everyone was sleeping.
Two of my boys did not continuously depants each other, giggle hysterically, while my other daughter recorded it on her camera. Said daughter, did not show me the video in hopes of getting two boys in trouble, even though she was the one recording it for over 6 minutes. Not her! (Video was erased immediately upon viewing.)
My child would never beg to eat the brownies that were in the oven, already cooked, but recooking with the plastic lid on top. After peeling the melted plastic off the brownies, my child did not ask again if he could eat the brownies because there was no plastic on them.
A middle son never, ever stuffs his drawers with his shirts just to avoid hanging them up. No way!
A child, not sure which one of the six, certainly did not dump baby powder all over in the bathroom when no one was around.
My youngest daughter did not tell me she "was going potty" to explain why her shorts were wet and then continue to tell me she had gone "in the potty chair", except we were outside. Said daughter, did not have yet, another accident and try to use a similar excuse again.
And finally, my 2 year old son, has most definitely not resorted to calling me by my first name, instead of "mom". Nope, not him!

joo joo

Yes, I just published a post less than an hour ago, but the cutest thing just happened as I we were getting Jayden ready for bed.

He needed a diaper change and his butt was a bit sore because of the antibiotics he is on. It gives him looser stools. Anyhow, we were putting the butt cream on him and he kept saying "joo joo". That is usually the sound he says when he wants a fruit snack, so I thought maybe daddy had brought a snack into the room. No fruit snacks. We gave him his paci. Nope that wasn't what "joo joo" was. Tried his blanket. Nope that wasn't it. Daddy went to put the lid on the butt cream and started getting really mad. So he opened it back up and showed it to Jayden. Jayden then stuck his finger into the cream and proceeded to try to put it on his genitals.

He was happy as a clam. That is what he wanted. He wanted to help by putting on his own cream. Now isn't that just cute?!

my dead pan

Remember the other day when I was talking about havin a bad day and Mike didn't check the oven and burnt my favorite brownie pan. I guess he didn't burn it, but actually melted it and destroyed it. Well, here it is, my poor dead pan.

It really is a good thing we were home to catch this! It could have been much worse.

We were able to get the lid off, but didn't dare eat the brownies.

a lil' luck

Shawndra must have known that our house needs a lil luck because she brought in seven 4 leaf clovers. The clovers alone are good luck, but then the lucky number seven is good, too! Then she tells me that she did have eight, but she gave one to Shaylee. Awww, how nice to share.

Our yard is full of clovers. In fact, I think there are more clovers than individual grass pieces. Well, maybe not, but very close!

havin a bad day

'Cuz I'm Havin a bad day. Havin' a bad day. Get out of my way. Cuz' I'm havin a bad day.

By: Blue Flannel

Those are the words I'm living by today. I'm havin a bad day. I can't even remember where it all started, but sometime at work, things went drastically wrong. I couldn't find my purchase order book, then I almost forgot a meeting which started the very minute I remembered about it.

On my way home, there was a big rain cloud and I swear it decided to dump on me, and only me, because I could see bright colored skies above me. And when I say poured, I mean poured. My windshield wipers were on the fastest setting and were considering going on strike were barely keeping up.

I get home to see ripped up UNO cards on the floor because that is how Dalton deals with anger, just rips things up, destroys things or breaks them. So that made my day worse. Seems he has to wreck something or not listen every single day, which is getting really old.

Got home in time to bust butt to the school for back to school night and to meet the kids' teachers. Of course we had to take Jayden with us and he is known to throw tantrums. Because I couldn't find us a babysitter, my husband got to spend the entire night in the hallway to deal with Jayden who would otherwise scream in fits.

Getting ready to leave the school and three of the almost youngest children decide to run kitty corner across the street to the truck. But of course, they didn't listen to us because they were so far ahead. When asked why, they said they didn't see a car. My reply, "that's right you didn't see a car because you didn't even look".

Once we're in the truck, Shaylee starts in with a bigger attitude than she had at the school, all because I think she needs to be in band, and she doesn't want to. This has been an ongoing battle, but it has progressed to a higher level this evening after we talked to the band instructor.

Finally get home and it's 7:30 and we need to figure out supper, so Mike preheats the oven. I was currently searching on CraigsList for an instrument and I swear I smell brownies, which is when I remember that I stuck the brownies in the oven to keep the kids out of them while I was at work. Just as I tell Mike about it, he jumps to the oven, saying a few select words, to open the oven and see the blue plastic lid melted on top of the brownies, which are now sitting outside in the rain because the burnt plastic smell was so bad.

And as I sit here, Shaylee is starting in with Mike about the band thing again. I'm havin a bad day, and I give up.

wordless wednesday

point A, point B, point C

I began the day today at point A heading towards point B. I was working at point B for about 3 1/2 hours when I received a phone call that Jayden possibly has pink eye and wasn't feeling well in general, so I drove to point C.

I picked Jayden up and went back to point A for a quick lunch, a nap for him, and gathered the diaper bag to head back to point C. I took him to the doctor and it was confirmed that he has pink eye in both eyes and sinus infection.

Went to Wal-Mart to get the prescriptions filled and get the oil changed in my car. Wal-Mart TLE (Tire, Lube, Express) will never have mine or my families business again. I start by dropping the prescriptions off at the drive through, then go to TLE to drop off my car. Go through the typical questions and stuff and off to the store I go to shop. Jayden and I wandered around and talked to people I used to work with, threw a few things in the cart, and got his medicines. I went back to TLE to see my car was not there. And the fun begins.

They tell me my car is still in the shop. One guy goes back to see how long it will be, then another guy comes out and says "there's good news and bad news" and proceeds to tell me they didn't "cross-thread, but they don't have a filter". I tell them that's normal because in the past they have had to go to Advance to get the filter. Finally, he calls Advance and find out they are out of one, but have a different one that would work, except they are going to charge me $13.77 on top of the oil change.

I try to tell him I've never been charged extra. Him and I go back and forth quite some time, until I'm getting annoyed and call hubby. In the meantime, he goes back to talk to a manager. I'm now dealing with a little boy who needs his medicine and is crabby and sick of the scenery in TLE. I ask if they have dumped the oil. Come to find out they hadn't. I asked one guy why I was not paged over the intercom and he told me they aren't allowed to page anymore. A bit later, I ask another guy why they aren't allowed to page and he told me "they should have paged you since there was a problem with your vehicle". Other guy says no. This guy says yes.

I gave up and said pull the car out, I'll get this done somewhere else. I was so sick of dealing with the crap.

Back down the road to point A we go. I drop one child off and pick the other up and we drive back to point C. Haircut is in order for her. We get that done and decide to go to a different place in town to get my oil changed. I briefly explain what happened and they take no more than 5 minutes to change my oil.

He comes back inside and I hear him ask for TLE, then for a certain oil filter, then he repeats that number, says ok thanks and hangs up. This very nice gentleman told me he looked up the type of Fram filter for my car and then checked Wal-Mart. Ready for this? They had 13 of those oil filters on hand at Wal-Mart!!! The nice guy tells me they probably just didn't want to change the oil because of the internal filter or the slide plate (or something like that) and told me they didn't have the filter.

Well, I can assure you, I will never even think of having Wal-Mart change the oil in my vehicle.
So we drive back to point A and call it quits for the day.

get the cats in

I had no intentions on posting tonight, but after Shawndra asking if the cats were inside, plans changed.

Shawndra: "Val, should I make sure the cats are in?"
Me: "sure"
Shawndra goes outside on the deck and hollers for them. A few seconds later, all I hear is a blood curdling scream.
Me: "What's wrong?"
Shawndra: "Macie has a snake in her mouth!!"
I go and loook and I HATE snakes. "Ewwwwwww, MIKE!!!"

Ugh. Yuck. Ew. Disgusting. WHY???? Why? I really hate snakes. It was gross. And there it was, laying on my step inches from my kitchen floor. Dead.

happy birthday Dalton

Two birthdays in one week. Whew! Happy birthday Dalton! The young lad has turned 7 and is mighty proud. He made sure to remind everyone this morning by saying, "are you forgetting to say something to me?". Too cute. I'm not a professional cake decorator by any means, however, I think my message got through loud and clear.He was ecstatic to get a Transformer for his birthday. At supper tonight, he kindly reminded his older brother that he broke his last transformer. When asked which present he liked the best, he screamed, "all of them, I like all of them". Yay!

Grandpa made sure to get in the friendly birthday spankings. I'm not sure what he thought was funnier, hanging upside down, or hanging upside down while getting the love spankings!
He had a great birthday with visits from his aunties, grandparents, siblings, and of course, all of us who live here, minus Shaylee.

tunaie

Started off the day saying good bye to the best OB/GYN doctor I've ever met, well, the only OB/GYN doctor I have met, or had personal experience with. She is headed to a different state to be closer to her children. Even though it seems life won't go on without her, at least in the OB/GYN area, she reassured me by telling me a story that her sister said.

"There are graveyards all over the place with tons of dead people who all thought they were indispensable at some point, but you can see they died, and life went on. Your patients think life is ending because you are leaving, but really, life will go on, for them, and for you."

The story was much funnier the way she said it and it made us laugh. She said thinking of it that way is much easier to help with the separation anxiety.

Then my parents came over to give my oldest her birthday present. After that we went in to town because my hubby had an eye doctor appointment. I went with him because I wanted to pick out the glasses, considering he still has the same pair from High. School. I think maybe a Danny Gokey look? But then, I'm a bit obsessed with him.

Anyhow, back to the actual appointment. We get there at 1:30 and I go plop down in a chair to read a book. It's taking him forever at the window. He turns to me and says, "my appointment was at 9:30." Well, crap. OK, let's go. I guess I'll get out of the Danny Gokey dream for awhile yet.

We roam around to a few rummage sales and found my youngest a great pair of like new sandals for 50 cents! I was so exciting considering our wonderful Wal-Mart can't carry a single pair of sandals in his size through the summer. That's a whole 'nother story.

And the highlight of the evening is making Tuna Helper (gag me) out of a box. Couldn't really find anything else to make. I'm dumping the ingredients in and to my despair, no tuna. Good thing for a little grocery store in my town. Did I mention little? However, they did have tuna. Yay! 2 cans per box. Wow, that seems like a lot of tuna. I decided 6 cans (for 3 boxes) was too much and only put in 4 cans. I go read the box, ya know, because I have to follow basic directions and it says, "for a milder tuna taste, use one can of tuna". Good.

Me: "The box says for a milder tuna taste to use one can of tuna. So that's why the stuff last week tasted so tunaie."

Hubby: "Is tunaie a word?"

Me: "Yep, it is now!" Ha, I told him!!