Things that bring blogging to a halt.

Lets start with our four legged family member, shall we?

This is Willis:

It was Friday, October 7th.  I remember the date clearly as it was the first day of our kitchen renovation (which is another excuse I have for my lack of blogging).  Bree was the flower girl in a wedding the next day so Jim stayed home to get Bree dressed while I ran out to get pizza for dinner.  I walked out the back door, got into my car, closed the car door, started the car, put the car in reverse and... thumpity, thump...  I ran over Willis.  Now you would think that a mid-sized car versus a mid-sized cat the obvious winner would be the car.  But we've got ourselves one tough cat.  Of all the internal things that could have been hurt and needed repair, it was only his pelvis that was broken. 

He spent the night at an animal hospital to watch for shock and then went to our regular vet the next day.  The vet fully believes the break will heal just fine on its own AS LONG AS we keep him contained for the next. Six. Weeks. ( Now mind you this happened three weeks ago so we're halfway through it and until today things have been going very smoothly but thats a story for another day.  How else do you keep a cat contained in a small area and keep him from jumping?  Pack and plays are wonderful things.  And its even more wonderful that we only paid $10 for this pack and play over 4 years ago.  We've definately gotten our moneys worth.)  Now mind you, his pelvis is broken.  He can't stand.  If he can't stand, he can't use the litter box.  He has to just lay there and do his business.  And we have to clean him up.  Thank goodness cats are semi quick healers.

So the past three weeks my attention has been focused a lot on Willis. Giving medicines, changing out the bedding on a daily basis which then requires laundry on a daily basis, emptying two liter boxes, filling two cat food bowls, changing two cat bowls of water and attempting to get a very attention needy cat the personal time he deserves without letting him out of his cage.  I'll be so happy when he's completely healed.

Then comes the second smallest family member and his sister:

Yeah they may look cute together but these guys are getting bigger which means the troubles they cause are getting bigger. 

One Saturday afternoon Bree and Jacob were having one of their hugging wars as usual when things got a little crazy and they took a tumble.  It was very clear to see that Jacob was in pain and wouldn't use his left arm.  I even took them to a park to try to trick Jacob to see if he was just faking an injury.  But after about 5 minutes of just standing there, left arm limp beside him, I broke down and took him to urgent care.  The doctor there couldn't see a break in the xrays and thought maybe it was just a sprain or maybe some cartalidge damage that would heal on its own.  "Just go home and wait it out."  

Yeah, that didn't sit well with me either.

Two days later, still in pain, arm just uselessly dangling there, we took him in to see our doctor.  More xrays were taken, no break was evident, its off to see the orthopedic doctor the next day.  But to try to help with some of the pain by keeping his arm still, he was given a sling: 

The next day we had an orthopedic appointment at 10am but I was rudely awakened by a hacking, barking, seal like sounding cough coming from Jacob.  Knowing exactly what that cough meant and what it can lead to when not taken care of I called the doctors office back to schedule another appointment for Jacob for that afternoon.  Then it was off to the ortho where, thankfully, he did not have to take anymore xrays but gave me some potentially devistating news.  "Yes its possible that its a sprain.  Only time will tell.  Take him home, try to get him to use his arm but if things don't change in a week, bring him back.  We'll take more xrays to see if anything has changed but the problem is that internal fractures don't show up on xrays.  He'll possibly need surgery."

Are you kidding me???  Sprains?  Xrays?  Internal fracture?  Surgery?  All from a hug?!?!  Ugh.

Later that afternoon we travled back to our doctors office where Jacob's cough was addressed and my self diagnoses was confirmed.  He has 'croup'

You can kind of see the little mini cast on his left arm.  They made a molding of his elbow and used an ace bandadge to hold it on.  It was there to apply pressure and give a little protection.  We could take it off whenever we wanted to and put it back on if he started acting in pain again.

Three days of steriods. Three days of keeping him home away from other little children. Three days of constant stress and panic of needing to quickly throw him in a hot steamy bath or blast him with cold air to stop coughing attacks. Three days of worrying about choking on food. Three days of little sleep for me as I would constantly check on him throughout the night.  Longest three days of my life.

But we lived through it and came out even better than before.  He started using his arm a few days after that and all was well in the world again for Jacob.

Then comes Bree. 

Nothing huge to report like Jacob.  Just enjoying preschool and developing a small case of bronchitis from all this weather going from hot to freezing and back within a week.  We also got caught up on immunizations for school and visited the dentist for the first time.  And that did not go well.  Of course I forgot to take my camera but all I would have caught was a crying Bree.  She did sit there long enough to open her mouth to let the dentist use his mirror to look at her teeth but that was it.  We were outta there.  But she repeatedly told me,

"When I'm this many (holding up four fingers), I'll let them brush my teeth."

We have an appointment for April.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Next comes Jim.  Not a whole lot to report other than working five days a week at ServPro and working four nights a week building a house with his family for his grandparents.  Busy, busy selfless guy he is.

And finally there's me.  Not a whole lot of time for me these days.  I'm still working part time at the library.  I say 'still' only because the library has a levy on the ballot this fall and voting is less than a week away.  Should the levy fail, we're not really sure the future of the library, its hours, and staff.  Its really sad at the thought of a library having to close its doors even more to the public when these days we are busier than we ever have been in the history of the library.  Where else can you get DVDs, bluerays, books, ebooks, use of a laptop with wifi, faxing, photocopying, programming for all ages, holiday cookbooks, magazines, cds, one on one computer classes, internet computers, genealogy information, and so much more all FOR FREE??  Only the library.  Really, you should go visit your local library to see all that they have to offer.  You'll be blown away.

Okay, enough plugging for the library.  I've also been quite busy with two other part time side jobs.  Its nice that they are work at my leisure type jobs because I generally don't get things accomplished until the children are tucked in bed for the night which doesn't leave much time for blogging.  Heck, I've taken to scheduling any of my own doctor and dentist appointments during my work time just to have little focus on me torturing time alone.  And by "torturing time alone" I mean that I've learned that I have to have two root canals done. 

Yay. 

Can't wait.

So with everything above, a wedding, a mini vacation to Gettysburg (I still have seven more blogs about that to write yet), a mostly absentee husband, endless leaves to rake up, holidays, a special soon to be 4 year old birthday party to organize and shop for plus a special birthday getaway with just mommy and daddy (I don't want to spoil the surprise for you, you'll just have to wait and read about it later) and attempting to keep everyone in this household as healthy as can be, that just doesn't leave much time to sit down at the computer to upload pictures and blog about them.  I'm going to do my best from here until the end of the year to keep you guys up to date with our little family happenings.  But for now, I have to go wake two children, load them in the car, shove Willis in a box and get to the vets. 

Halloween in Review

Tomorrow I'll explain why my blogging as been a bit absent lately but today we review what a wonderful Halloween we had.

The Pumpkins

This little guy crawled out of Jacob's pumpkin.

I ain't afraid of no slime!

The Parade

The lumberjack and the witch.

Her costume won her first place in her age group.  She recieved a nice medal and $5!!

All the children in a row waiting for the parade to start.

Still waiting...

And finally we received a sucker which was taken away from him for trying to eat it through the plastic.

But once he got it back all was well again.

However Bree was devistated to not get a fly swatter what was being handed out.

Quite devistated.

Trick or Treating

epiphany

This is a blog posting I started writing back in February.  I never got a chance to go back and finish rewording paragraphs I didn't like, finish complete thoughts in other areas, or add in pictures in the correct places.  I'm posting it today as right now we are in the fall of the year, a time that at one point seemed so distant, a time that was hard for me to imagine what life would be like.  And somehow, as it always does, life flew by in a blink of an eye and here we are. The kids are 8 months older, 8 months more independent, 8 months of precious "baby" time I'll never get back, and, most sadly, 8 months of missed opportunities gone.  I didn't change a thing so please bare with the mispellings or run on sentence. 

E-piph-a-ny

     *a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrende or experience.  

      Have you ever had one of those rare, fleeting moments when you realize that your life is almost to that exact moment in time that you've always dreamt of?  The kind of moment that stops your heart for a beat and takes your breath away as you see it all playing out right before your eyes?  And then in the very next second your heart starts to ache because you know that there is no stopping time, no slowing it down.  Everything you've always wanted is here, right now.  Even though you knew it was coming, could count down the days til it arrived, it all happened so unexpectedly fast.  Never before have the words 'carpe diem'  Seize the Day, take the bull by the horns, Don't put off til tomorrow what you can do today, had more meaning then they do now. 

Ever had that happen?

I have.   Twice.  And in the past week and a half to boot.

The first time it happened was almost two weeks ago when I was sick. So sick in fact that not only did I call off work but I also took the kids to the sitters as well, a luxery that I'm ever so grateful for.  After dropping the kids off I came home, put a movie in and plopped on the couch expecting to doze off quickly.  Instead I was caught up in the preview for a movie that looked like  film Jim and I would enjoy and I found myself thinking

"What I wouldn't give for a movie/date night at home without kids, ordering a pizza, watching a movies and playings cards just like we used to.  Hhhmmmm....maybe I'll see if a certain set of grandparents would like to watch the kids for us some Friday evening....Maybe I can surprise Jim...."

Flash forward a short while, I'm still not asleep and the movie had begun lose my attention.  My eyes scanned the living room littered with toys, dirty socks, empty snack bowls and everything else that had accumulated over the past few days while I was sick.  Oh how I long for an organized, clean house.  Then it caught my eye.  Bree's pink computer, sitting next to my laptop on the coffee table.  I glance across the room to Bree's puzzle, half finished, waiting for her to come home and put in the last few pieces.  I see Bree's portable DVD player carelessly placed by the fireplace after being told she wasn't allowed to watch a movie before going to the sitters.  And thats when the first tidal wave hit.

Bree is three.  Every day, many times a day, I hear "I"m this many Momma." (holding up three fingers) "I can do it.  I'm bigger, see?" she says as she stands up tall to so me how big she's gotton. Thats the reminder I need some days.  I had 7 years and one month of pre-children bliss to enjoy all the adult movie nights I could handle.  And soon enough Bree will be going to sleepovers... sporting events... girl scout camps... bonfires... dances... dates... and more that we will be able to enjoy all the "our kids are out of the house for the night" movies nights we can stand.  Right now we need to embrace the homemade pizza - disney movie - family pajama nights - in the cluttered living room that we have at our finger tips.  Soon enough she'll be grown-up and independent.  Soon enough she'll be spending more time in her room playing barbies and house and babies alone, not needing me to pretend with her.  Soon enough her thousands of 32 paged books scattered across the floor creating an ice skating rink in my own living room will be replaced with chapter books and college prep reading materials.  Too soon...

Then came this past Friday.  Nothing particular about it, just a Friday like all the others.  It was roughly 4pm, Bree was down for a nap and I was feeding Jacob a bottle.  I was trying to do some calculating in my head of how many bottles in a day he still takes and when to begin the transfer over to sippy cups and milk at meals when it happened again. (And hopefully I can describe this just right.)  The sunlight was coming through the window at such an angle that it created the sense that it fall, not winter.  I realized that by this autumn Jacob won't be using bottles any more.  Unless he's sick, there probably won't be any reason to hold him until he falls asleep.  By fall, he'll be walking and running and feeding himself.  He'll be independently playing, maybe even picking up a crayon or marker to coloring with.  He'll be torturing his sister.  And while, yes, this is everything I've been waiting for, two kids happily playing on the floor with their toys while I'm sitting in the corner crocheting, its all here, right now, happening so fast and I can't do a thing to slow it down, to stop them from growing up, or more so, out growing me. 

When I think back to my childhood do you know what I remember?  I remember the noise the ceiling made when the house would settle.   I remember the way the light shown through the sheers in the living room window while watching Nascar with Dad.  I remember the cold smell of our house when coming home from a summers day at the pool. I remember the sound the curtains made when blowing in the breeze from the open window and the smell coming in, oh the smell... I remember cleaning corn and waiting for the charcoal to get hot enough.  I remember the sense of security, although thats not what I would have recognized it as then, as Dad would come home from work while we were watching an episode of 'Saved by the bell" and he would begin making dinner as the Cosby show would come on, watching Mash as we ate dinner and watching the evening news.  Those are all things that made up my child hood and made it great.  They are all things that I want for my kids.

But what I lose touch with more often than not, is that every day I'm creating that for Bree and Jacob.  Everything we do, everything I say, cook, watch, will all be those memories I treasure so much.