I have seriously neglected the blogs

and I truly feel terrible about it.
I haven't really put much effort in to this one in particular for quite some time now and I have a lot to do in order to get caught up with all the information that I've just not done anything with.

I am going to try to rectify this, at least somewhat... I think I'll have to go about it in stages.
in order to catch the blog up, I have to back WAY up to the end of the school year in June!

Connor was in the local paper - along with several other class members of his. The school has, in years past, had a Mileage Club. they used to only allow 3rd grade and up to participate, which I've thought was really absurd. but last year they decided that younger kids could handle walking a mile or more so why not let them take part?! Connor joined the Mileage Club and he earned his mile token along with a few others in his class.

Connor is the one that I have highlighted... top row, second on the left. (and the first on the left is my nephew)

I've removed names and school information for safety reasons

Timothy! how awesome is this kid?!
at the end of the year they handed out certificates/awards for good behavior and perfect attendance and sports, etc....
Timothy received two awards. first he was awarded for his good behavior. he was very good.no referrals means that he never used a bad word, never was mean to anyone, the teachers never had to tell him to stop being disruptive, you get the idea...

they split up the days they handed out the certificates. the Senior High got their awards first and the next day the Junior High received their awards. the Senior High announced all their winners and gave out awards for Sports and Good behavior and Letters and all that kind of stuff and Timothy was a little annoyed because he thought they were supposed to be handing all the awards out at the same time (he's jr. high) and he'd been really determined to get a perfect attendance. he had one once in Kindergarten but each year since he'd been sick a day here or there and something kept him from reaching that goal. but last year he didn't miss a single day. he'd have a bit of a sniffle and he'd still go to school. he'd have a mild headache and he still went to school. so he was a bit off put when they handed out all the awards for the Senior High and there wasn't a single mention of perfect attendance.

this is why.

the next day they handed out the awards for the Junior High students. they handed out all the sports and good behavior and everything else... and they handed out the ONE AND ONLY award for perfect attendance. Timothy was the only - O.N.L.Y - student in the entire combined Jr. and Sr. High to have gone to school every single day.


he wasn't that zealous when it came to his grades, but he did pass everything. This year already he's been on the B honor roll and also hasn't missed a single day of school.

YAY Tim!

Connor, my little comedian

he got these at a Halloween activity with Grandma and Grandpa. he says they are his reading glasses. :)

I love him

it's that time, once again

first, today I think (although it may sully my blog) that it should be mentioned for Erica and Timothy. today marks 2 years since their last 'visit'.
then last night, when Tim got home from work, I was working on supper and the big kids were in the kitchen with me. Tim called us into the living room and said he had a present for us - Me, Erica, and Timothy. I thought "what did he buy?" he positioned us around his computer, my thoughts are frantically trying to figure out what he would have ordered online for the three of us...
it was Christmas come early! he pulled up the screen of the county jail roster. Erica and I screamed from shock or joy or I'm not sure what... but I guess I just hate being right all the time.
I really wish I could be wrong about the ex. but in the big picture, this is best. it shoots him in the foot for ever demanding Erica and Timothy to have to visit him. it gives them more motive to deny him and more purpose for the 'justice' system to take the kids at their word. in one stupid move on his part, he has given these kids more power.




on a sweeter note
I've been listening to Christmas music for a couple of weeks now. it's only the beginning of November, but I just couldn't wait any longer ~ I needed it. I almost always listen to lighter, calmer music all the time anyway, but there is something about Christmas music that is just nourishing.

I usually wait for a while to type up this post, and I might do it again next month, but it is time, once again for the List.
this is the list of my busiest time of year.

we are still trying to make a decision on Thanksgiving. we might stay home, we might go see gramma, (but after last year that's one place I can cross off my list for both Thanksgiving and Christmas)

then it begins and most of it is yet to be scheduled
however, we already have some of it on the calendar
Craft Sale on Dec. 2nd
Camper Cabin :D perhaps on the same night, but maybe not until the next weekend...

Erica's birthday and this year it will be shared with the
Gingerbread party.
Timothy's birthday

Grandma Lynn's house for Christmas eve

what is not on the calendar yet
grandma Doreen's for a Christmas get-together
Erica's school music concerts, there will be two of them I'm sure
music concert for Emma and Connor

I know that there will be more to come and it is going to drive me bonkers!
but on an up note... I have all the Christmas presents and Birthday presents bought and here already. I just have to wrap them up and that is much more time consuming than you would think. but at least I can get an early start on them.
but I feel like I should take that claim back... I don't have every present ready. I am still working on Erica's Christmas blanket. I am barely halfway done with it. I have been putting it off . I'm terrible. I guess that's where my next 6 weeks are going to be frantic. I have got to get that thing finished, especially since I started working on it in March! wait, maybe February

pumpkins!

a couple of days ago Grandma and Grand-pa brought pumpkins for carving.

Erica and Timothy get a little more into it than the little kids because they have a little more patience to follow through with a plan.

guess which ones they did...

and because Emma's pumpkin was so huge I took a few moments to do a little carving myself.

there will be No pictures

because it's against my law.

but I dyed my hair. it was supposed to be a bit more subtle and it would have been if I had rinsed it 10 minutes early, but I am now a red head. at least a darkish auburn...

when my kids got home from school that day, Timothy noticed and mentioned it right away. Erica was still trying to put her finger on what was different for a little while.
I told Timothy 'good job!' he'll do well in a relationship when he's older.
I also said that Daddy had better notice right away so we'll see how long it takes or he's in trouble...
Tim passes with flying colors! and we will stay married ;)

but now that I think about it, did he notice it good or did he notice it bad?
what ever, we're staying married anyway. because if he thought my hair was a bad choice, he didn't say. Good man.

age is starting to show it's self in my hair

I don't exactly feel devastated by this, but I feel like I want to do something about it.

when i was much younger I had blond hair. as I've gotten older and more exactly after pregnancy hormones messed with me 5 times my hair has turned more of a brown. it's still kind of blond, but it's more really dirty dish water blond. so I've noticed that I have some silver hairs. not gray. not white, but silver. if more of my hair was silver I would wear it with pride. but it just looks drab like the rest of me. I'm wondering what color I should dye my hair to look more not awful. I love red hair, but I think it would look terrible on my complexion. I don't want to try to go blond and end up with even worse hair. I already hate to be seen in public so I don't want to color my hair to something that is going to draw more attention. but I want it to be something natural enough that I won't have a shockingly obvious color line as my hair grows out.
ugh. I never thought this day would come

Happy Birthday, Emma girl!

her last year in single digits.

(neighbor's cat in the picture. our outside cat is black)

more to come - today or tomorrow

Emma is about to be 9!

in just a couple of days Emma is going to be turning 9 years old.

at the end of last year I noticed that Emma's finger nails were really brittle, grooved and there were purple streaks at the half lunar base of her fingernails. This totally freaked me out because all my college anatomy and med terms classes started flashing before my eyes. this kind of thing usually means liver disease or heart disease, but I made myself take a deep breath and think rationally. vitamin and iron deficiency can cause these symptoms. so we got back in the habit of a vitamin + iron every night with her and the rest of the kids. 9 months of this did not have enough of a result for me to be content with that being the cause so we went to her pediatrician and she wasn't sure what it could be so she consulted with a pediatric dermatologist. she came back with a probable answer and sent us to the dermatologist to confirm. the diagnosis is commonly known as 20 nail dystrophy.

why jabber on about this after mentioning her birthday coming up? well...

Emma wrote a list for Christmas for me a couple of months ago. one of the items on the list was a set of nail polish. I don't know about a set, but I can get you some nail polish. but I thought I would rather she have her nail polish before Christmas so she could have fun with it before she has to go back to the dermatologist in January.

She needs something to keep it in so I made a bag for her.
this is not my original design... if you want to read more about the bag itself, follow this link. :)

A beautiful Fall day

a few days ago I stepped out my door and looked at my wonderful trees. I love my trees! when we move from here those trees are going to be one of the most missed things about this place. I have three awesome oak trees and a very imposing basswood tree. Oaks are by far my favorite tree, but in my yard the basswood is our favorite. it's branches are wonderful! the lowest ones all bow down to the ground making a lovely 'room' that the kids love to play in.

I looked at those beloved trees and admired the leaves that are changing color. they all go brown and yellow. some day I'm going to have to have a maple or something that turns orange and red, but I still love my trees.

now this short story is becoming long...

I was thinking that I would have to find a good angle to take a picture of my trees and their leaves, but it's a bit tricky, and at this point it's kind of moot anyway since the very next day the wind blew through here so hard - I actually made Ronan stay as far away from the living room window as possible for fear that something might just blow through the window - most of the leaves are out of the basswood now. the oaks usually hang on really tight to their leaves for a while yet.

but while this is a ho-hum moment for me, the kids have a great time! and it's the only time I can get them to do any yard work without any complaining :D

since I've taken these pictures, this leaf pile has grown about twice it's size. pretty good considering our rake is broken.

I wish someone would make one for me

much earlier this year I posted about how I am making the most wonderful, unbeatable, Christmas present anyone could ever hope to get.

well there is some progress with that. but now that the weather is cooler and dryer I expect this to take off like gangbusters!


as you can see there is now a tree making it's way into the blanket. I'm not even at the complicated bit... the branches part is going to be really interesting. but for now I still have about 20 rows of just tree trunk to work on and while it's very easy, it's a little hard on my hands. this honey is getting heavy!

at least it will be warm. and loved for decades to come.

What did Timothy do this summer?

He contracted Lyme Disease.

getting prepared for the sale means I've sorely neglected posting here.
the last several weeks have been - I guess you could say interesting. and this gets to be a really long story and I guess that's why I've been putting off writing about it. (and so it begins)

about a month ago Timothy came to me and mentioned that he had a spot on the back of his thigh that looked like a bug bite but it was really big.
does it itch? does it hurt? no. I only really feel it if I push against it.
hmmm, weird. well we have spiders that will eat us all night long until we find them and kill them, but typically those bites will itch and hurt. but I still thought that it might be a spider. the spot was feverish like a bite. so we tried different medicines gobbed onto a gauze pad and taped on to keep it there all the time. we did this for several days and I didn't see any change. being that Timothy is 13, it feels weird pulling your pants down for your mom so I didn't bother him much about it, just asked how's your leg? for the next few days I'd ask and he would say 'it's fine' so I just let it go. then one night before bed I just asked quick while he was passing by me. so he rolled his eyes and showed me his leg. it had spread from being just under 3" across and 2" tall to being more like 5" tall and 10" wide. it wrapped half way around his leg and I was speechless.
the next morning we took him to the doctor and he said cellulitis and to take these antibiotics. okay. he took a permanent marker and drew around the outline of the area so when we went to his regular doctor to follow up in a few days she would know if the medicine was working or not.
we were just about to leave when the doctor stopped us and said 'I think we're going to test for Lyme Disease. it probably isn't but lets just make sure"
we waited for a few days and I hadn't heard anything back from the clinic about the results and thought if it was serious they would call right away. so I wasn't even going to make a follow up appointment. most of the time things are great and I just spent $150 to hear that everything is fine and I already knew that. Timothy has been very diligent about taking his prescription and three more days had gone by and I told him that I wanted to see how that spot was after 4 days worth of antibiotics. it had grown another half inch outside of the marker line! at this point I'm still thinking cellulitis and that's bad if it is allowed to get bad. but the truth was much scarier.
I instantly called and set an appointment for the next day with his regular pediatrician. she checked that spot and we chatted for a while about when we discovered it, what we had done for it, the visit to urgent care the weekend before. she checked for the test results and they had JUST gotten back from the lab.
she looked at the full screen for other tick related diseases (stuff I've never heard of) and they all came back negative and that was great. then she checked the Lyme test and she said "Oh!"
I guess they are seeing fewer cases of Lyme so it really did come as a surprise, plus the fact that Timothy hasn't had any other or shown any other symptoms of the disease. (apart from being tired, which he's 13. with a 13 year old, are they sick or are they just growing again? so I didn't think anything more of it)

so our kid has Lyme Disease. we literally caught it within 2 weeks and that is the best case scenario because he hasn't had it long enough for that bacteria to cause heart problems or any other long term issues. he has a new prescription of antibiotics that is more aggressive with Lyme Disease and so it should be all cleared out of his system when we retest for it in another week or two.
we will then need to wait about a week for the results again, but I feel confident that he will be fine then. we caught it so early and he hasn't been sick and that has been enough for me to not freak out about this.

on a side note... when they took his weight and height, he was 5'9.8" tall! this kid isn't even 14 yet. he's taller than everyone in this house. he passed me a long time ago and I told him now no one is going to believe that I'm his mother (5'4" and shrinking)

when we get the results back I'll come back and chat about that.

summer :D

I have done a really poor job of taking pictures and updating the blog this summer.

while I was looking around for pictures of Timothy (new post about him coming soon) I came across this gem.

Ronan and Emma were the only kids that actually ran through the sprinkler. Connor would always dress for the watery fun, but he never made it through the refreshing spray.

I think Ronan's face pretty much sums it up :)

click picture for larger view

what Ronan found

the other day Tim and I were talking about the poor little creatures that have entered our yard only to meet their untimely demise... however, not all of them die and not all of them were going to live long anyway.
but the conversation did bring us to the conclusion that we were both very happy that we live on the edge of wilderness and civilization because of the experiences with natural life that our children get to have. they certainly wouldn't have as many or wouldn't get to gain the knowledge by watching and gain experience by helping these animals if they lived in the middle of the city. (ugh, what a thought. I don't think I could survive that)

Two days ago Ronan discovered a rarity in our yard. She is so beautiful and at the same time a little bit scary. I'm sure the scary part is just me. I'm not afraid of her, but there's just something about her that stirs some thoughts in my mind.... perhaps a childhood trauma?

Ronan found her in the grass and Erica is always ready to catch any interesting bug. I don't know that they get much more interesting than her.
Every time Erica and I look at her we can't help ourselves but start making whispering sounds. Lord of the Rings just has that kind of impact on us :D



The Eagles are coming!

nearly a month has gone by

and I've been very quiet on the blog front. well, not 100% quiet. I have blogged on my crochet blog.

our every day has been pretty ho-hum. I guess you could say that. but this week has had some excitement, though I haven't got any pictures documenting most of it and I guess that's probably for the best.

1. getting ready for church on Sunday Ronan mentioned that his mouth hurt. upon inspection we found he had many sores in his mouth. I checked the other kids and Connor and Emma also had the same sores! so instead of church for one of the first Sundays we could make it in MONTHS, I took three little kids to the doctor while my poor husband was miserable at home with a migraine. :(


2. we discovered a poor little bunny in our yard that had been severely injured and there was no hope for the poor animal. I couldn't stand it's suffering and I was the only grown up around. I'm not about to give that awful task to my children and I didn't want them to see what I had to do so I took the poor thing away in the car, far enough so the kids wouldn't have to see.
my heart still breaks

3. my nephews were over goofing around with Timothy near the lake. soon they came in and I hear "Abby, come and see what Matthew caught". it was a young wood duck. she didn't have her adult wing feathers yet. but she was not doing well. she wasn't even trying to struggle away.
she had swallowed something that was too hard and too big and it was caught in her throat.
I didn't expect her to recover. but I think that maybe God knew that after that baby rabbit I needed something happy.
she did get better and I'm so happy she did. what ever it was that was ailing her passed enough for her to realize what was going on around her and she started flapping and struggling to get away from us giants. :D
now she is back at the lake living how she was intended to live.

4. Yesterday morning Erica came to get me because Artemis was sick. I went out and checked him. he didn't want to get up and he was kind of drooling. he had something caught in his throat. What in the world! the side of his face was also swollen. I went in and talked with my sister about possible treatments and after I was decided on a course of action I went to get him and he had vanished. I spent the rest of the day worried about him. (odd since I railed against keeping him in the first place - but not odd because I tend to be compassionate)
I worried and worried and wondered about him the rest of the day. I tried to figure what he might have eaten. I thought maybe he was stung by a bee or wasp. I thought maybe he was chasing fireflies the night before.
this morning I went to check on him and feed him. he was back to normal. but I had noticed that there was something quite gross on the sidewalk. upon further inspection I realized that my theory about the fireflies was correct.
his face is still a bit puffy, but he is behaving normally and that is a relief.


what a week!

the arboretum trip 2011 pictures

VERY long post about Roanie Macaroni and his day at the hospital

here we are, three weeks later and it somehow feels like so much longer ago. I think it's because this heat wave has just dragged on and it makes everything feel like an eternity.

but we're three weeks post op. and he's doing very well. but that day was LONG. our check in time was 8:00am but we sat there and waited for over 2 hours before he was rolled to the O.R
don't get me going about my feelings on that... I'll just say I guess they have very different ideas of what an acceptable wait for a hungry, thirsty and restricted 4 year old is...

it just got horribly boring. we got there, got checked in, the nurse went over all the questions, she showed us the blue bag for in case he was nauseous and another nurse gave him some pictures to color and the TV remote to watch cartoons... but Ronan is 4 and he has a hard time sitting for more than 2 minutes together. after 10 minutes the pictures were not fun anymore, after an hour the cartoons were not keeping his attention and we waited for still another hour trying to entertain as quietly as possible, since there was a little kid, recovering from getting his tonsils out, in the curtained off section of the room.
Tim had his ipod/camera with him and so that helped for a total of about 3 minutes... as did the surgical cap (which Ronan didn't need to wear)
my poor baby. he was bored out of his mind and wanted to go home so much.


Finally! after waiting for over two hours it was Ronan's turn. the anesthesiologist had come in and went over a few basics of general anesthesia and made sure to say that a small percent of people will get sick from the medicines used and then asked how we should handle administering his anesthesia.
there were 2 options.
1 have him drink a medicine to help sedate him and then hook him up to the gas to keep him under.
2 have him breath the gas and then place a tube from his nose down to his lungs. Ronan isn't the type to freak out about much so option 2 seemed the best and it was. they had a "balloon" attached to the mask for him to breath and they told him to breath really hard and try to pop the balloon. we'll remember this for later....
it was an hour before he was out of surgery and in the recovery area. they kept him there for a half hour before they brought him back to us.
he drifted in and out and we offered him some water during his slightly more alert moments. he had a sip of water and a minute later he had a panicked expression and asked "where is the bag?" at first the nurse thought because of the tube down his nose and throat there was a bit of blood in his stomach and he was most likely purging that. well, as it turned out, that wasn't totally the case. more on that in a moment.....


he slept again for about 30 minutes and then Tim thought he should go get some soft things for him to eat for the rest of the day. we figured we would be leaving relatively soon since he was waking often at that point. so he went and got pudding and jello for Ronan. it's a good thing he didn't buy anything frozen because then the General kicked in again and Ronan was out for another 2 hours. we needed to see how he was going to tolerate having something in his stomach and he wasn't about to drink or eat anything while sound asleep. I tried to gently wake him and I could tell that he could hear me but he just wasn't about to wake up so I took the blue bag and crinkled it and made some noise that was not normal for him to hear. interestingly enough that worked. he was up. we got him a popsicle and he nibbled it a little but was queasy so he grabbed the bag and then he needed another bag. and then he wanted to nap but was feeling so awful that he wasn't willing to part with that bag

so he dozed with it up to his face :(


he kept falling asleep and that would have been fine, but we were beginning to realize that Department was getting quieter and quieter and I thought we probably should hit the road. So we worked on getting him to stay awake.


Tim took him in to the bathroom and a moment later here comes Daddy without Ronan, "Mom, Ronan wants you." okay. but come to find out he wanted Mom because he was sick again. it's a natural Need when you're sick to have to have your mom. you crave that nurture and comfort that only a mother can provide, no matter how wonderful your daddy is. and Daddy is wonderful!

We got him cleaned up and packed all his release papers and grabbed two blue bags for the ride home. we got him in the car and I rode in the back with him. on the way home he hugged that blue bag so before we left town we got some food at burger king because Tim and I hadn't exactly had time to eat either... and I had a nice fizzy Sprite that I gave Ronan sips off of. sometimes that fizz can have a calming effect.

when we got home I put some blankets and pillow out on the living room floor. I didn't want to have to clean up an entire bed just in case...
he slept for hours more. nibbled on jello and pudding but never really ate anything. I slept with him on the floor that night. he was sick a few more times through the night. By morning I was beginning to worry - not eating and not keeping anything down. I checked the release papers and it said that it could take up to 24 hours for the anesthesia to completely leave they system. so I waited with him for a few more hours to make sure that it did wear off and then kept a close eye on him for the remainder of that day as well.
the hospital did a follow up call and they said that in the future if he needs to undergo any procedure where he has to be put to sleep that they should be made aware of his reaction. because even though the release papers say 24 hrs that really is a very long time to still be under those effects and sick too, because, you see, he was sick not because of the blood in his stomach, but more because of the drugs in his tiny body.
the day after that the dentist called to check on him. Ronan had said "that dentist didn't help me at all" "what did she do?" "she just made me puke all day". :(

and that balloon I mentioned.... ever since, Ronan has been very annoyed that he couldn't pop it