Where has Daiva been?

Well, since school got out, we've been running nonstop it seems.

I got Adam in to see a urologist and it seems as if we can treat his problem. It seems that the problem isn't with his bladder or kidneys - it's further on the outside. I'm trying to keep this G-rated, so be patient with me, lol! It seems that some urine is getting caught in the skin and causing the infection. What I thought were symptoms of the infection (slight fever, vomiting, etc three days after finishing a round of antibiotics) is just a side effect of using the antibiotics so frequently. I'm a bit irked with my pediatrician - why didn't he know this?? Anyway, it looks as if Adam's problem is treatable and we've been treating it. There's been some improvement, but I'm going to go back to the urologist to see if it's enough.

In June I took a trip to Chicago with the boys. I needed to talk to my Dad about a few things that he didn't really want to discuss, but were necessary. My brothers had been unsuccessful at bringing up the subject, so I took the trip. While I was there, he had his surgery to get his insides all connected up again. The surgery went well.

I had planned to stay for a week and a half, but cut the trip short. Chicago was going through a heat wave while we were there and my parent don't have central air... The boys, especially Adam, were having problems dealing with the heat and change of scene. We were planning on visiting my brother in Gurnee, but they had some problems with their floor installation and we couldn't stay there (which is usually where we stay). We did have fun while there, though. We went to the Field Museum, Brookfield Zoo, saw Kung Fu Panda and took a few train rides. Adam loved the Metra!!

My nephew DJ was with us at the zoo, the movie and train rides. He also came home with us for a week and a half. We did all sorts of stuff here as well: the Arch, the city museum, Tae Kwon Do camp, Monkey Joe's, swimming at the pool, etc...

My brother came down and got DJ on Sunday and Wednesday, my other brother and his family came down. Their sons Alex and Joe are almost the same ages as my boys, so they all had a great time. It was the only time they had that would work for a visit this summer, since they're pretty booked through July.

I'll post pics as soon as I download them and talk more about our trip in the next few days. I'm looking forward to life slowing down for a little while.

Catching up

Adam's test was done today at the hospital. It went well, according to the techs, but Adam wasn't at all happy about it. I can't blame him, though. It was by no means comfortable or pleasant, but it is done. We should hear about results in a day or two. My friend Tara, who works at the hospital was able to be there to help with Adam. I think that it really helped to have someone he knew and trusted there. I was able to be there while they ran the tests as well.

Our friends Adam and Kim from Arkansas and Matt from Illinois came to visit last weekend. It was great to see them. The big boys took the little boys on Saturday and Kim and I got an entire day to do girl stuff. We had lunch, shopped, talked... In other words, it was absolutely wonderful!! I thought about getting manicures or pedicures, but we ran out of time (and it was cold out, so pedicures would have been problematical for getting home, lol).

Sunday the big boys went to Gateway International Raceway to watch the NHRA finals (national hot rod association). They're all big car fans and like drag racing. They all came home with pretty bad sunburns, although they put on sunscreen. Lee said that he got tire pieces stuck to his face and the sunscreen came off when he scratched the little pieces off... Oh, well. They all had a great time and we did too. Kim and I took the boys to the Missouri botanical gardens and had a great time. The current art exhibit there allows kids to climb on many of the sculptures, so the boys loved that. We also walked to the Japanese gardens and fed the koi - another highlight for the boys.

Thanks to everyone for their good thoughts and prayers for Adam. They're much appreciated.

What is this, the energizer bunny?

I just got back from the doctor's again with Adam. He seems to still have the urinary tract infection that we've been treating for almost two months now. He started his fourth round of antibiotics today. :-( He finished his last round of meds on Sunday and woke up with a low fever this morning and then threw up at lunch. Almost exactly the same thing that happened two weeks ago.

The renal ultrasound came back normal. We now have to go in for a renal reflux test and see if that shows anything. I'm frustrated and worried. The poor kid has been having problems for the last two months!

I'm having the test done at Cardinal Glennon Children's hospital. As soon as we have the results from the test, we're going to see a urologist to see what's going on. I'm beginning to worry that the UTI is a symptom of something else, although the pediatrician doesn't seem to think so. She said that if it were something bigger or more serious, it would have shown up in the renal ultrasound.

In a daze...

I think I must be in a daze. We're getting ready for Matt's birthday weekend - the family party on Saturday and buddies party Sunday. Unfortunately, the weather doesn't want to cooperate for Sunday. The boys will have fun, but riding go karts sounds like more fun to me than playing arcade games...

Adam is scheduled for a renal ultrasound next week. He's had a urinary tract infection that we can't seem to get rid of. He's on his third round of antibiotics. Hopefully, we'll know more soon.

My dad seems to be recovering from his surgery pretty well, but he called me today to tell me that he's got cancer. From what he explained to me, he seems to think that it started in his colon, but when they removed part of his colon during surgery, that should have been cleaned out. Now, the doctors seem to think that there's some cancer in his bladder. He hasn't decided yet on a course of treatment. He doesn't want another surgery to have his bladder removed, which was one of the options. He's now considering chemo and radiation. He was a bit evasive when I asked him how aggressive the doctors think that his cancer is. He just said that the doctors told him that it's not one of the better cancers to get. I know that he doesn't want me to worry, but there's not much to be done about that.

I'm still not sure it's all sinking in yet. It's hard to imagine my dad being so sick, although I've seen him pretty ill a few times (heart attack, bypass surgery...). I just always see my dad as healthy and strong and always there.

Exhausted...

I am just beat. I spent the day redoing my front two flower beds. I planted one tree, took out another (it was mostly dead from last year's late freeze), planted 4 new shrubs, moved two, took out two shrubs that were dying and moved a whole bunch of various perennials around the garden. Unfortunately for me, I'm still not done. I've gotten a good start, but the beds still need more.

Then, Lee tells me that he wants to edge all the beds with brick. He's going to be doing a whole bunch of digging, cause I'm not doing it. He thinks it would be easier to mow, but I'm not so sure. Of course, if he had mentioned this before I spent the day digging in the garden, I might have been more receptive to his suggestion, lol.

I want to get most of the digging and planting done soon, though. My next big thing will be to get leaf compost/mulch and mulch all the beds. This usually takes me a full day to do as well. I guess I won't have to go to the gym as much this week.

I'm so glad that spring is finally here! It's really late for us and I've been itching to get out in the gardens. In another few weeks, I'll be able to plant the vegetable garden, too!! I love home grown tomatoes.

Matt's party

We had originally scheduled Matt's birthday party for this Saturday... We've had to reschedule it because half the kids he invited can't come because it's their first communion. It's rescheduled for next weekend. Thankfully, most of the boys will be able to make it on the new date. Matt's pretty excited about it. Hard to believe that he'll be turning 8 on Monday. He's grown up so much, though.

It's been a really tough year for him at school. He just got stuck with a teacher who is not able to challenge him accordingly. Whenever I've talked to her, she's taken it as a personal attack. I talked to the principal last week to make sure that he gets a good teacher next year. I'm not sure what to think about the meeting. He listened and assured me that what I wanted in a teacher next year was attainable, but that's all he really said. It almost seemed like he said what he thought I wanted to hear and not much else. I'm not sure what else he could have said, though. I guess time will tell next year when I meet his teacher. I don't know the teachers well enough to request one, so I guess I'll have to leave it up to the teachers and the principal and pray for the best.

Adam's sick

Adam's been sick the last couple of days. Yesterday was kind of scary because he was really lethargic and barely even talked to the doctor when we went in. His color was really bad, too. He was running a mild temp and had thrown up once. He refused to eat anything and had barely had anything to drink. The doctor was concerned enough to run some blood tests as well as give him a shot of antibiotics. The shots really hurt and he got one in each leg. He's extremely sore today and refuses to walk because it hurts so much.

He was complaining of his neck hurting and didn't want to move his head around yesterday, too. Today, the glands in his neck are visibly swollen and tender. His mood is much better - he's alert and talkative. I'm just worried that this is the result of the antibiotics and he'll get worse again...

The bloodwork showed that he has some sort of infection, but not bad like meningitis or appendicitis. He's been fighting a bladder infection that doesn't seem to want to go away as well, which is pretty rare in boys... I wonder if this is related to what he's got now or not.

Incredibly sad day

I'm sitting here with tears running down my face and I can't seem to stop them. A little boy named Aven died yesterday and I just got the news. He's the son of one of Lee's old coworkers and has been battling brain cancer for almost 2 years. Aven died 13 days shy of his 9th birthday.

I remember the day that I heard of Aven's diagnosis. He was having trouble with his vision and in the space of a few days, his parents went from having a healthy son to one who had a very aggressive form of brain cancer and the prognosis was not good. The doctors had originally given him only 6 months to live.

I can only try to imagine all the pain that Aven and his family have gone through since the original diagnosis. No one should ever have to bury their own children, especially when they are still so young.

It definitely puts perspective on the issues I've been having with Matt's teacher. Although they are not unimportant, they pale in comparison with what this family has gone through and I thank God that my problems are so minor in comparison. Give your kids extra hugs today.

What a week!!

What a crazy week it's been. On Monday, my youngest nephew, Nathan, was born. He weighs in at 7 lbs 15 ounces and is healthy. They're already home and I haven't had a chance to meet him yet. I've had a cold and really don't want to expose the little guy to it. Nathan and my sil, Carol are both doing well.

On Tuesday, my dad was admitted to the hospital. He's been having problems since around Christmas. I'm not sure if they're all related or not, though. This time, he's got a perforation in his large interesting that melded itself to his bladder wall and made a hole in his bladder wall at the site. You can imagine how painful it's been for him lately. He's home now, but will have to undergo surgery in April to repair the problem. They're waiting that long in order to try and clear up some infections.

Wednesday morning, our cat, Miss Cuddles had a seizure. I spent the day taking her to the vet and trying to figure out what's going on. She seems just fine now, but it sure did put a scare into me. The vet is doing a full blood workup, but says that most likely there will be nothing there. If that's the case, we just wait to see if she has another one. If they become a somewhat regular thing, we can start her on anti-seizure meds.

The boys have been home all week for spring break. We had 3 days of constant heavy rain and now we're really paying the price. The area around us is flooding like crazy. The meramec river was at 36 feet a little before 7 pm, it's flood stage is 16 feet. They're talking that it might hit 40 to 45 feet before it crests. This is an amazing flood. I'm putting in some pics - these are all within a mile of my house. If you click on any of the pics, you'll see a larger version. If you look at the larger roadway, they're predicting that the water will probably reach the top of that bridge to the left in the picture.

The pics of the smaller roadway are of the street that leads to our subdivision. They're saying that the intersection of that and our subdivision entrance will flood tonight and there will be no way to drive out at that point. The road out goes past that barn you see in the one picture. I'd say that the water at the barn is about 5 or 6 feet deep by the barn. This was taken at around 6 this evening.

However, don't worry about our safety - we're high up on a ridge and we'd be needing Noah's ark if our house flooded. We'll be dry, but might be stuck in the subdivision for a few days.

The last two pictures are to give you an idea of how fast everything is rising. I took the picture of the boys on the storm sewer lid around noon. The picture showing the same lid sticking out of the water was taken at around 6. It's an amazing sight and sure makes you realize that we have very little control over mother nature.

Insurance companies...

...SUCK!! I've been going round and round with our new insurance company trying to get insurance cards and nothing seems to be working.

First, we found out last week that although our coverage was effective March 1, our information was still sitting in their fax machine on March 6. Now, they're telling me that it will take 7 to 10 business days to get my insurance cards. The problem is that I had to take Adam to the doctor last week and they need his insurance card in order to do the billing. If they don't have it by then, they're going to bill me directly as if I had no insurance coverage. Then, it will take me months to get the bill straightened out because they amount billed will be different because of negotiated contracts and all that wonderful stuff.

I tried to get a temporary card online, but for whatever reason, it's not available. I tried to e-mail them from their site and apparently, my member ID doesn't have enough digits, so it won't even go through. Then I tried to call them, and their offices are closed. I'm ready to scream!!! I swear that they're doing this to postpone benefits to new members. Statistically, a certain percentage of people would just drop the claim and pay it out of pocket, so they benefit from it. I'm so mad, I'm tempted to have an attorney contact them.

Here's what I've noticed this winter...

I've noticed that the birds flock to my bird feeders en masse right before a big storm, or at the beginning of one. We had a beautiful weekend - upper 50s or lower 60's on Saturday and then mid 70s yesterday. We went hiking on Saturday at a state park. It's a really neat park, but the trails were really muddy and treacherous. I'll post a pic tonight if I get back on the computer.

Today, the temps have been falling all day. We started with rain, changed to sleet and about half an hour ago it was snowing. They're forecasting a big snowstorm to come through tomorrow. Last night, they said that it could be 6 to 10 inches of snow! I'm hoping that they at least hold classes in the morning - I've got some things that I'd like to get done without having to referee the boys.

The birds have been at my bird feeders all day. At one point in time, I counted 5 pairs, yes pairs, of cardinals. I thing it's really neat that the cardinals tend to come to the feeder in pairs. They're one of the birds I know of that mate for life, so I guess one keeps watch while the other feeds and then they switch. In addition to the cardinals, I've had lots of other types of birds at the feeder at the same time. It was just unusual to see that many cardinals at once - I usually see 2 pairs at most.

Anyway, off to make dinner and then to tae kwon do. Matt got his orange first belt last friday night. Some of the moves he does are quite complicated - I wonder if I'd be able to do them, lol! He's grown so much this year that he's going to need a new uniform before next fall - it's getting too short for him. It was too long when we got it last september...

Also, I know I've been tagged - twice for that matter, lol! I'm going to post something soon, but I'd like to have a bit of uninterrupted time to post. :-)

Head hurts...

My head hurts today. I can't figure out what I can do to make it better. I've tried ibuprofen, water, a workout, quiet time, caffeine... Nothing seems to be helping. :-( Matt came home today and complained of a headache as well. Well, at least I'm not blaming this on Adam, lol!! He's been pretty good all day, no major confrontations, so it's been good. I'm sure it'll go away eventually. I think I'll try some sudafed - maybe it's my sinuses...

More layouts to share

Here are a few more layouts. The first two were pics taken on the same day. We went to Boo at the Zoo and carved pumpkins on the same day. Our October was really busy this year and we were running out of time before Halloween. Both layouts used paper from Heidi Grace.

The first layout shows everyone busy carving. The second is of Adam being very tired at the end of the day. The top pic really touches my heart. He was tired of carving and wanted to move onto something else, but everyone else was still working on their pumpkins. Oh, and I got to use a flower on it, lol! I so seldom feel that I can use flowers on layouts without making them too girlie for the boys, but I think this one worked perfectly for the layout.

Pumpkin patch is our trip to the pumpkin patch this year. It was a gorgeous day out, although a bit windy. I actually managed to get two pictures of the entire family together!! Matt wasn't too cooperative in one and Adam kept wanting his hat to hide his face. You take what you can get when you've got two boys, though. :-)

I'm not sure if I've shared this layout with everyone before. It's

about Matt learning to ride a bike without training wheels. The journaling discusses that things usually come very easily to him, so he doesn't really have to try hard. Learning to ride was a different story. It tried his patience and it took him a long time to get the hang of it. It was a very good lesson for him, since he really doesn't have to try to do well in school. I think this will serve him well in the future - to know that there are things that he will struggle with, but if he perseveres, he can succeed.

Another day off

Matt's got the day off today, again. He went outside for a while, but it's all iced over and you really can't do much with sleet. No snowballs or snowmen and there's not enough to sled on. Poor kid came in after about an hour. Adam went out for a whopping 5 minutes.

Adam is feeling much better. He's eating anything I'll give him, but I'm afraid to overtax his tummy yet. I've been disinfecting everything I see. This is not something we want to share.

We're having a small birthday party for Adam tomorrow, so I need to get the house clean. Sunday, I'm going for some much needed crafty/me time. I'm heading to a Stampin' Up! party that a friend is hosting. Right now, I've got enough on my want list to hold my own party - have to trim that down quite a bit... I'm looking for some good sentiment stamps.

Anyway, life is better today. I'll try to post some more layouts tonight, if I can get on. The evening should be a little more open since Matt's tae kwon do class was cancelled.

Blech...

The stomach flu has come to our house. Adam's got it. Thank goodness Lee came home to work from home. I had him stop at the store and get a little green machine for cleanup and some popsicles...

Bad weather in StL

Imagine my surprise this morning when, after getting Matt up and out of bed, I find out that school is cancelled. Apparently, between 6 and 6:30 this morning, we got hit with sleet and freezing rain. When I looked out the window in back, it just looked like a light dusting of snow. Unfortunately, that's not the case. We've been really cold the last week or so and all the rain that is falling is freezing pretty much instantly. The trees don't seem to be getting coated, at least not at this point, but the roads are really bad.

We're supposed to get another wave later today, so it's not finished with us. This storm system is moving across the state and into Illinois. I wish the roads weren't so bad - the boys aren't getting along well today. Matt's getting over a combination of strep and a cold and Adam's just started antibiotics for the strep and he's got the cold as well. Adam is really short tempered today. I wish I could take them out of the house to work off some of this energy. I might venture out to get some movies.

I wish this were snow - at least then we could go outside and sled. I've thought about sending the boys outside anyway - they could slide around on the driveway, but I'm afraid that they'll fall and break something...

I'll have to dig out the scavenger hunt game. http://www.amazon.com/University-Games-01427-Scavenger-Hunt/dp/B00065AQ12 It's a great game - gets the kids running through the house collecting items, so it burns off some energy. The best part of the game, though, is that one of the rounds requires all players to return all the things collected to where they got them from, so it's all cleaned up as well. Must have been designed by a mom, lol.

Enough whining. I'm going to go make the best of today. Maybe the boys will want to do something crafty...

sharing some layouts

I've finally taken some pics of the layouts I've recently done (with my new camera!!). The "adam" layout is one of my very few one picture layouts. I had to do this page, though. That picture is just so precious that it screamed to be enlarged and scrapped by itself.

"Overcoming Adversity" is another layout that is one page and one pic. The journaling is about how things in nature can overcome adversity (as this tree obviously did) and flourish. It's a reminder to myself that no matter what happens, life goes on, life is good and I should live it and not worry about how things "should" be or "could" be.

Artiste is about Adam's food sculpture that he brought home from school one day. It's a fun layout and I really like the colors. I think that I might need to add some brads or color on the photo mat that has the close-up of the sculpture.

The last layout, Christmas Kitty, talks about what a wonderful gift

our cat, Miss Cuddles, is to our family. She showed up in our neighborhood as a stray and has been an incredible gift - she loves us all and we love her. She was a gift we didn't know we needed or wanted.

I'll post more layouts soon. I've got more pics ready,but I don't want to overwhelm, lol.

Happy belated Valentine's day

Yesterday was a crazy day! Both Lee and I tried to keep our spending down over Christmas on each other, so yesterday we gave big gifts. The funny thing is that we both decided to do this without talking to each other about it... We've never done big things for Valentine's Day before - let's face it, it's mostly a marketing ploy by card and candy companies and flower growers. Now, don't get me wrong, I have a romantic streak, but Valentine's has always seemed somewhat forced.

So, Lee bought me a Nikon D40 camera!! I'm so excited about it. :-) I looked at them before Christmas, after Christmas, as well as many times last year, but never did buy one. I have trouble spending large amounts of money on myself when I don't need to. Anyway, he bought it at a camera shop, so I get photography classes to go with the camera, too!! I'm really looking forward to this.

I got Lee a BluRay disk player. He's been wanting one since we got the big HD tv last year. I kept wanting to wait to see which format would win out - HD DVD or BluRay. It's looking like BluRay is going to win out the format wars, so I got him the player and Pirates of the Carribean to watch. Let me tell you - that movie looked fantastic on that big tv with the high resolution!! It was really cool - all the detail showed so well.

I also got the boys small gifts - Matt wanted a wallet with one of those photo holders (it was harder finding that than I thought it would be). I also got him a book - Diary of a Wimpy Kid. One of his friends really liked that book, so I thought I would get it for him. Adam got a set of Morphs. They're interchangeable animal parts - heads, bodies, legs, arms, wings, tails, etc... He really liked it and it'll help with fine motor skills, since they need to be snapped together. Yesterday, we made real animals. I think today, I'm going to start combining different things and come up with my own animals. Should be fun!!

New vehicle...

... for Lee. He's been itching for something new for about a year now. He finally decided that he'll forgo the good mileage in place of being able to tow and haul stuff. He traded the Mustang in for Honda Ridgeline last weekend. Personally, I think it's an ugly vehicle, but it has lots of redeeming qualities if you don't look at it, lol! I like the big "trunk" under the truck bed, the back seat is roomy and pretty comfy, all the bells and whistles that come with Hondas (dual heating/cooling zones, heated seats, etc)... It's going to be a really useful vehicle for us (he gets to haul my compost for all my garden beds this spring!!).

A friend of ours said that I don't like it because of the "El Camino" effect and he really nailed it. To me, the transition from the cab to the bed of the truck is the ugly part - very similar to the El Camino... Guys tend to like those cars, but I have met very few women who do. Go figure. Well, I don't have to drive it, so if Lee's happy, so am I. :-)

Toasty Feet

Who knew the right pair of socks could make such a big difference? It seems like I have cold feet all winter long no matter what I do. So, shortly after Christmas, I went to LL Bean and ordered a bunch of wool socks for myself. I hadn't done so in the past because I just hated spending the money on socks, kwim? No one really sees them and they're not exactly glamorous. Anyway, I have had toasty warm feet ever since I got those socks. It's amazing! I mean, I used to get cold feet even while wearing shoes inside at home. Now, my feet are toasty warm as long as I'm wearing those socks. They're a bit on the bulky side, though. I'm going to have to look for some that are a bit lighter. I'm really liking the wool socks theses days. :-)