Happy Birthday Boys!!

I totally suck at remembering that I have a camera. Sorry no action shots of candles being blown out or presents being opened.

Bradley turned 10 this year and he started talking about his party six months ago. Out of the blue one day he says to me, "I'm going to invite Kaulin to my birthday party." I tell him his birthday is not for another six months and he says, "I know." Funny. So about two weeks before his party I ask if there's anyone else he'd like to invite to his party and he says he wants to invite Kaulin's whole family. That's it. No other kids. Bradley got Rock Band and books for his birthday. I think truth be told he likes the books better. Rock Band has turned out to be a great family activity for all of us though. So much fun!!

Derrick turned three this year and it's so much easier to shop for the little ones than the big ones. He's been really into his GeoTrax train lately so I started looking to get him some of those. Walmart has stopped carrying them so I looked online. HOLY COW are they pricey!! I then looked on Craigslist and found a bunch for a fraction of the cost. The hard part was keeping them hidden until his birthday. We did pretty good for about two weeks but he found them the day Chris and I left to go to Florida for my cousin's wedding. I told him they were for someone else but he didn't believe me. Every so often he would tell me they were there and that they were for him. When we did finally have his birthday party I wrapped them up as best I could with a shortage of wrapping paper (I got creative with four different types of wrapping paper) and we headed off to Grandma's house. He took one look at the box and said "My trains." Stinker!!

Everglades

Here we are on the beach - so fun!!

Yes, two alligators.

One of the things we did in Florida that I forgot about in the last post about it was an airboat tour of the Everglades. Way cool!! We saw alligators. :-)

Labor Day

Last year we went camping during the summer up on Mt. Graham. We had my sister's camper and it was quite comfortable!! We had a great time - except for Derrick constantly trying to take a running leap from the side of the mountain. Every two minutes it was was "Where is Derrick? There he is, go grab him!" If we'd had a leash for him we would have happily used it. I was ready to make that our last camping trip ever. It was just too stressful having to keep such a close eye on Derrick. This year we decided to give it another try. Derrick is a little older and so much better at staying with us. We went up to Luna, NM. It's about a five hour drive for us but worth every minute of it. (By the way, it's about five hours from the valley as well.) It's beautiful and we had a great time. We took our ATV which really makes for a fun trip! We have no pictures of the trip at all. Chris gave Dana the camera to put in the van. I put the video camera in the van. When we got up there, the video camera was dead and Dana couldn't remember where she put the camera and we didn't find it until we got home. It was in the van the whole time. Very frustrating. We had a great time though and are definitely going camping there again.

Ft Lauderdale

Chris and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Ft Lauderdale last month. Work was paying for Chris and I tagged along and we had the most amazing vacation since New York seven years ago. We spent time on the beach, ate out at really nice places and got to go sport fishing. It was sea turtle nesting season so there were all these nest sites marked out on the beach. We went out to the beach one night hoping to see either a momma sea turtle coming to shore or a nest of babies hatching. We saw neither. But we enjoyed our late night beach stroll. When we went sport fishing, the dock was really slow so we got a great deal - or at least that's what the guy told us - on our fishing trip. There was no one else wanting to go so Chris and I had the boat and two man crew to ourselves. It was an awesome fishing trip. I didn't have to bait any hooks or touch any fish. It was quite exciting to reel in the fish. Of course our camera had a dead battery that day so we bought a disposable camera at the dock lest we be accused of telling fish stories about our catches. Here's a few pictures from our trip. Most of the other pictures are on the home network which I'm not sure how to access yet. I wasn't paying that close of attention when Chris explained it to me. Oops - my bad.

I don't think we could support our family with our skills as fishermen, but it was a lot of fun!

This was taken in Key Largo.

Someone told Chris that Ft Lauderdale was only an hour away from the Keys. Boy did we get lied to on that one. It's two hours from Ft Lauderdale to Key Largo and then another two hours from there to Key West. It's a beautiful drive but we were expecting sandy beaches and it's not sandy beaches at all. It's jungle islands with the jungle practically growing right out of the ocean. It was really late and with less than 20 miles to Key West we had to turn back. It was our last night there and we still needed to pack to catch our morning flight home. It was a lovely drive but had we known what it was, we wouldnt've done it.

Oh and about the humidity - holy cow. It felt like someone threw a hot wet blanket over you every time you stepped out the door. My sunglasses would immediately fog up - even if I didn't have them on.

This was the perfect vacation for us. Chris had his convention thing that he had to go to and so I had loads of time to sleep in and read to my hearts content. It was lovely!! My only goal every day was to be out of bed and decently dressed before housekeeping showed up. I got to meet some of the people Chris works with and one of them brought his wife too. We had lots of fun hanging out and I hope to see them again soon.

A couple of political videos for your viewing pleasure...

Not sure which one of these videos I like better. So sad that these are true.

So forlorn

It starts raining about 10 minutes before Dana and Bradley's bus brings them home. It's raining pretty hard and I'm thinking maybe I should go walk down there with an umbrella to get the kids. But I'm also thinking it's just water, they're big kids, they'll be fine. So I see the bus go by and I know they're walking home now. Right then, the rain starts really come down hard. For a brief moment I can't see the house right across the street. Ok, I need to walk down and meet the kids with the umbrella. I tell the two little ones to stay in the house and I'll be right back. They look rather worried but say ok. Then I head out. I don't see Dana and Bradley on the sidewalk and I have a clear view all the way to the bus stop now. I'm a little worried, where are they? They're under a tree. They're soaked to the bone. And, they're crying. Poor little things. I get to them and reassure them it's only water. Bradley says "it stings like electricity."

Can you see the water pooled up under the eaves of the house? How about the river flowing under my van? What you cannot see are the rapids flowing in the street just around the corner of the house. Tons of water.

Time flies

Is it just me or is time going faster the older that I get? Quick catch up since last post - Chris came home - happy day!! A few days left of summer - not much happened. Dad got the ok from his doctor to only wear his neck brace as needed for comfort - neck is healing well. Amazing what doctors can do. My sister's baby, Marshall, was blessed - another baby blessing that we were late for. We do not have a very good track record for making it on time, but it was really nice to see everyone who made it. The kids started school. Calvin is in junior high now. He was late to all of his classes the first day because he couldn't get his locker open. But he figured it out on the second day of school. Bradley is in the same class as his best friend, Kaulin - happy day! Dana is so happy to see all her friends again. She was socially starved all summer. Emma and Derrick are settling into a routine again with naps - hallelujah!!

Oh and by the way, Chris and I are part of the "angry mob."

Too scary to sleep

So have you ever stayed up late watching a scary movie and then decided that you can't possibly go to sleep after watching it? You have to then watch something else to calm your mind so that peaceful sleep is possible. Well, last night I was going to go to bed early - at least earlier than 3:00 AM. I sent the kids to bed around 8:30 and then started reading my book. Around 10:00 the book starts to get scary. I had no choice but to finish the book or have troubled sleep. I finished the book around 3:00 AM.

So tired...

I'm really quite tired. Chris has been out of town since Sunday. I don't sleep well without him. I just can't hardly bring myself to go to bed alone. I look at it this way. I go to bed on time and I lay there for about 30 minutes feeling lonely waiting for myself to fall asleep, or I stay up really late being entertained by a movie or a good book and then when I'm exhausted I fall asleep quickly. Hmm, lonely -vs- entertainment. Not really a tough choice. The only problem with that is the little ones missed the memo about me sleeping in. I figure with me going to bed late and Derrick getting up early, I'm averaging about 5 hours of sleep a night. When I was in college that would have been a lot of sleep. Not so much anymore. My eyes are dry and scratchy and I find myself unable to focus. I'm so glad Chris will be home tomorrow night. Clearly I don't function well without him.

Dana's beau

So the other day Dana tells me rather out of the blue that Brian doesn't like her anymore. (Brian is the boy who gave her a teddy bear for Valentine's Day. Refer back to February posts for whole story.) I asked her why and she replied that she didn't know, but that it seemed to be after she told Brian that she loved William that Brian stopped liking her. She didn't seem upset about it, but also didn't seem to understand why Brian would be bothered by that. Imagine that, being bothered because the one you love, loves another. Dana has yet to experience that. She quite confident in William's undying love towards her.

Cookie dough

I have a real weakness for cookie dough. I didn't always have this weakness. I used to think it was disgusting to eat raw cookie dough. I can't remember which pregnancy enlightened me to the joys of raw cookie dough, but it was during one them that I began enjoying eating it raw. A lot of tastes change during pregnancy. They usually go back to normal a few months after having the baby. Cookie dough however has stayed with me. I knew when I planned on making bake sale item for my brother-in-law's fundraiser that I would be going off diet that day. One day here and there is not a big deal. What I did not plan on was that four batches of cookie dough would fail because I was not used to high altitude baking. You see, I know that I have a weakness and I avoid it. My poor children almost never get to have cookies because I'm not very good at sharing them when I make them. So I don't make them - ever. Since I never make them, even though it's been months since we've moved to Sierra Vista, I didn't realize that I needed to adjust my recipes for high altitude. Maybe you're wondering why I'm such an idiot that it took four batches to figure that out? Well, I made a double batch first. The first pan didn't look right coming out of the oven so I thought I'd chill that batch of dough before baking any more of them. And then since I had all the ingredients out I made another double batch to chill as well and planned on baking them all later on. It didn't occur to me that I would need to adjust for elevation. I've never made cookies anywhere but in Queen Creek/Gilbert/Mesa area. So after many pans of cookies continued to fail to produce something that was sturdy enough to handle transport and sale, I turned to the internet. Sure enough, altitude is my problem. The rest of the cookie dough went into the fridge to sit while I mixed up more (adjusted recipe of course). These new cookies turned out great. However, I'm left with quite a bit of unbake-able cookie dough in my fridge. I even took it with me just now when I dropped Chris off at the airport in Tucson hoping to give it to my sister who lives in Tucson (the dough should be fine for Tucson's elevation). She wasn't home. She's in Pima at my parents' house. So I had to bring my cookie dough back home with me. I fear diet is in jeopardy.

Are you kidding me - another phone?

Ok so Chris and I move and we decide that just our cell phones are all we need. He has one, I have one. We're quite happy.

And then, we go to Disneyland and have a couple teenagers with us and we decide that it's only $10 a month to add another cell phone to our family plan and then the teenagers have one and he has one and I have one and we can split up in Disneyland. As an added bonus, we no longer need to leave either mine or Chris' cell phone with the babysitter. We can leave the cheap extra phone. We're happy.

And then, Chris starts his new job, and guess what they give him. A cell phone. And he's allowed to use it for personal use. Now if it was the same carrier as our family plan we could have just put the new number on his phone and he'd have two lines on it. But no, different carrier. And they gave him like the cheapest Blackberry there is. Hahahaha. He didn't want to carry two phones, so I am now the proud owner of his jailbroke iPhone. I love it. We have my old Blackberry with his old sim card forwarding all his phone calls to his new phone. I'm happy, he's tolerating his Blackberry.

And then, we realize a problem. With his new job, Chris gets to work from home sometimes. He needs to make phone calls to do this, lots of phone calls. Our cell phone reception at the house is just not good enough for his work phone calls. So we add a land line. With unlimited long distance. Have you done the math? We now have five phone numbers. And we don't even have teenagers yet. Crazy!! But guess what, how happiness does not hinge upon our phone situation. :-) We're happy!!

Cultural enrichment - whether they want it or not

So the kids really have no choice in this. Some of them are excited about it, some not so much. Calvin, Bradley and Dana will all be starting piano lessons when school starts in August. The boys will be starting Karate this week. Dana will be starting ballet or some type of dance class when they start back up. Apparently the dance studio has some competition that they're at and all classes are cancelled for another week. Calvin and Dana are both excited about it. Bradley is giving me a little attitude. It doesn't matter though. They need it so they're going to do it. I'd like to find something that Bradley enjoys doing but for now, he'll have to learn to enjoy his options. Maybe I can bribe him with new books or something. We'll see.

Calvin will also be starting physical therapy again once I get a hold of someone in the office. I've left a message today so I should hear from them tomorrow at the latest. With his new medicine he can actually get stronger now. I'm so excited for him.

It's been so nice to be home after our trip. My nieces who helped watch the kids while I was gone have stayed for another week. It's been so nice having a couple of teenagers to help me. I took all the kids to my parents' house on Monday. Dad got his halo off a couple weeks ago and just has a neck brace now. He's able to do lots more than he could before. He still does more than he is supposed to do, but he seems to know his own limits. We hope. Then after that I took the kids to the Cove. The Cove is the indoor wave pool here in town. I never go without Chris because Emma and Derrick need one on one watching. But with the teenagers, I was able to go while Chris was at work. Everyone had a great time. Then Tuesday night, Dana and I drove to my mom's house. The rest of the kids stayed home with Allison and Shannon, the teenagers. Dana and I spent the night there and helped weed the garden in the morning. Then we took a recliner to my sister in Queen Creek and then drove home. Made for a very long day of driving. But it was nice to be able to help my parents in the garden and not have to worry about Derrick running out the front door. It was also nice to spend a couple hours with one of my sisters who I don't see very often. Then as if the day wasn't long enough already we decided to go see the new Harry Potter movie. Loved it. So tired this morning though since we didn't get home until about 1:30 A.M. The little ones missed the memo about sleeping in too.

Minnesota - day five

So you know the primary song about the pioneer children who walked and walked and walked and walked and walked. Well, today we were the people who waited and waited and waited and waited and waited. All that waiting - although completely torturous for Calvin - really paid off. We were able to get the EEG test done and get the Rx filled. Calvin took his first dose about an hour ago and is quite a bit stronger. As soon as he finishes drawing his latest car creation we're headed out for a walk and dinner. By the way, I didn't mind the waiting so much because I was reading. I've really enjoyed how much reading I've been able to do this trip. :-)

Calvin quote of the day - we left the wheelchair in the hallway while we were waiting in the pharmacy. It got picked up and taken to the lobby by someone and Calvin says, "Mom, we were wheelchair-jacked."

Minnesota - day four

Yesterday we met with a neuro-psychologist. Calvin has had several developmental psychology evaluations over the years, but this one was a little bit different. It was very interesting and the doctor had several very helpful ideas for us. He said that Calvin was very intelligent (no surprise there) and would really benefit from some social skills training. Calvin is at the point now that he would really be able to understand and learn social skills if taught.

We also met with the neurologist. She went over the EMG test results with us. The test showed that the new medicine completely took care of Calvin's muscle weakness in the test. It's so very nice to have test results telling us the medicine will work instead of us trying to see a difference. We're off to the hospital bright and early today. Hopefully they can squeeze us in for the EEG today and we can start the medicine today. If not, we have the order to get the EEG done in AZ and the results faxed back to the doctor here. Either way we come home tomorrow. I'm so looking forward to seeing Chris and the other kids again!!

Calvin was loopey today

The test they did on Calvin this morning was done under sedation. He was so loopey coming out of it. He said some very funny things. He asked about 20 times if it was all done. At one point he said "Wait a minute" and then nothing. The nurse and I look at each other and we decided he wanted us to just literally wait a minute. He said "assssk, assssk, assssk, (pause) oh no, I've lost my K!" Calvin always says the funniest things when he comes out of anesthesia.

Still feeling the effects of the medication

Calvin has not been able to hold him arms straight out like this at all. He held them up for 11 seconds - AMAZING!!! (Usually he holds them at about 20 degrees for no more than 2 seconds.)

Minnesota - day three

Ok so today Calvin had the EMG test done. They do it under sedation here so Calvin was pretty loopy for most of the day. They gave him medicines during the EMG to test his response to them. Finally we have evidence that the medicine is doing something - or not. They gave him the medication that is similar to the one he takes now and big surprise - no response. Then they tried a medicine he's never taken before and he had a response to it. In fact he's been stronger all day. In order to start this new medication he has to have an EEG done. Of course since that wasn't already scheduled he isn't scheduled until the 17th. But they told me to keep stopping by the office and see if they have any openings/cancellations and maybe they can squeeze me in. The doctor also said that I can have the EEG done in AZ and have the results sent to him and then he'll write the Rx for the new med.

Now about the new med, he said that I can pretty much only get it from the Mayo Clinic pharmacy. They will do it through a mail order system. I don't know how much it costs or if insurance will be covering it. I'm just so excited at the prospect of a medication working for Calvin.

More appointments tomorrow, hopefully the EEG on Friday and then coming home Saturday.

One more

Calvin's rendition of the Mystery Machine. He doesn't have a template for a van, SUV will have to do.