Papa is doing GREAT

Just got a call from my Dad. The results from the MRI looked fantastic. Most of the small cancer was gone and the larger cancer had been shrunk. His chest looked fine too. It all looked good enough that the doctors (yep, he talked to more than one) said he was to wait 3 months and then have another MRI. At that point they would see what would be best to do next.

Way to go Papa!

What a Day

Get up, eat something. Feed #2 Son. Get food ready for #1 Son. Magnificent Husband feeds #1 Son. Clean dishes. Dress myself, #1 Son, and #2 Son. Walk #1 DogSon with the other two children. Give #1 DogSon medicine and breakfast while guarding it from the other two children. Run to Grocery Store for a couple of items at 8am. My Superb Husband does the grocery shopping, but forgot 1 item. Mind you, I gave him a list of 50 items, so missing 1 is no big deal. But it was bugspray… so off I am to go get it with children in tow. Get to store and drive around in circle twice looking for parking spot. Oh yaaa… Hurricane Frances on the way. Pack kids into tandem stroller. Why not a shopping cart? #2 Son is sleeping and I don’t want to carry him the whole time. Get in store. Find more items I decided I wanted… like peroxide, cortisone as well as bugspray. So take #1 Son out of stroller and put items in his seat and let him walk. Oh boy. Sticky Fingers should be his new name. Finished shopping and I started to go into one of the regular lines when I realized they were all packed. Luckily I had under 10 items. So headed for the 10 and under line. Talked to the lady in line next to me. She had gotten there at 7am to go to the UPS Store next store and had drive around the parking lot then. Neither of us tried to get more water.

Went to get gas. It was packed too. More likely because gas goes up 8 cents tomorrow than because of the storm. I am going to wait to fill up our gas cans. The 40 cents difference just isn’t worth the insanity at the gas pumps today.

Get home. Feed children snack. #2 Son has a BM (bowel movement for those without children) of gigantic proportion. Forgot he had not had one for 2 days and yesterday he got prunes with breakfast, apricots with lunch and prunes with dinner. Cleaned him up, the carpet, myself (I picked him up to keep him from doing more damage) and hunted around to make sure I got it all. Somewhere in this mess, I played with #1 Son, read them a book and ate pretzels with him. Then realized garbage man hasn’t come yet. Go through and pick up a bunch of stuff to throw away. Get #2 Son in stroller, get #1 Son in shoes and head out. It starts to sprinkle. No Biggie. See neighbor’s dog out of his yard. Head over to let him back in his yard. Get all the way to opening the gate and see the rain coming my way. R.A.I.N. Downpour. Run to neighbors back porch with kids. Ugh. Luckily back porch door open. No one at home, but I don’t care. We are not getting wet. Wait it out, then head home. So much for being nice. #1 Son and I got soaked. It is now 10:30am.

I am not going into the rest of the day with doing laundry, bills, and regen’ing our water filter, feeding everyone lunch… but needless to say it finally slowed down a bit and I decided to add stuff to my blog and check out Hurricane Frances. Got to stop now and get back to work. I’m sure one day I’ll look back at this and laugh. I just have to!

Ants Ants and more Ants

Ok, I live in South Florida and I should expect to have ants around. But this has gotten WAY out of hand. Sunday afternoon I went around the yard looking for ant hills to see how much Ant Killer I needed to get. Yes, I am the one to kill the ants, wasps, and other stinging animals in my household. My husband will spray a wasp’s nest with water to get them off the eaves. He will catch cockroaches and let them go outside. I am the one that attacks these creatures. And for good reason, just look at #1 Son’s legs or arms. Ugh. So back to the ants - as I went around the yard I spotted a good 8 or 9 ant hills, all about 8 inches in diameter. No problem. I went and got Ant Killer Monday morning, along with batteries, flashlights and other assortment of things (in prep for the storm).

After shopping, I am now back home and armed to go on the hunt. I was amazed at how quickly some of the nests grew. Some nests were now 12 inches in diameter. Busy ants. Then I saw it. My jaw dropped. One of those ant nests was now over 3 feet in diameter. No Joke. I have no clue how it got that big that fast. But I had enough Amdro (ant killer) to put on the nest. I am waiting until Wednesday to see how many ant nests are actually gone. Still I am wondering if any of them will be gone. I seem to be getting ants resistant to this stuff. We’ll see.

Interesting links

How about a jet powered wheelchair?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lincolnshire/3611660.stm

Need to look up a definition?
http://www.englishforum.com/00/students/dict.html

Need your sinuses cleaned?
http://www.sinus-solution.com/how_it_works.html

Ok, ok, so I mix in the weird with the worthy. But it fits my personality. ;-)

Mom is “Wigging” out

So Hurricane Frances may go north. TS Hermine might possible suck it north. Yaa… and how long is TS Hermine going to hang around to suck it north? I have kids now and if my friends thought I went crazy before kids when it came to a storm. I am way over the top at this point. I want enough food to last a week. I wanted enough water to last 2 weeks. I want, I want, I want.

I am checking how much cash I have on hand. Which mattress is easiest to move and where the best spot in this house to move it in case of tornado. I am trying to catch up on all my laundry. I am checking on if we can get a generator or not or if it is even worth it. I went this morning and bought a TON of batteries and some extra flashlights. I even bought some 90cent flashlights for the boys to play with if it comes.

I am looking to see how much space I have in my freezer to fill up with containers of water. I am planning my day tomorrow to get all the gas I need (in Florida gas will go up 9 cents on Wednesday).

I went out side and put Amdro on every ant hill I could find. You do not want ants sharing your house with you. They like dry places too. On top of this, I have #2 Son with an upset stomach and I just can’t figure what is the problem. I am hoping he just ate some dog food and it will be over with shortly. BIG GRIN.

Well, back to folding laundry, feeding #2 Son and getting ready for #1 Son’s swimming lesson. And in-between, I’ll be trying to get everything ready inside and out for the storm. As my WONDERFUL PATIENT Husband says "She is Wig Wig Wig Wigging OUT."

Musings of a Mother

It amazes me what I find humorous about my children. This makes me wonder on occasion if I am a good mother. Then I figure that my children are growing just fine and quit worrying about it. For example, I had just finished putting all the dishes away from the bottom rack of the dishwasher, when #2 Son came over. He grabbed the rack and pulled it out to himself and proceeded to hit himself in the face with it. I laughed. No, he did not hurt himself badly, but he wasn’t happy either. I proceeded to tell him not to do things like that if they hurt you and then continued putting up the dishes in the top rack. I just kept snickering the whole time because he stood there glaring at that rack.

Or when Son #1 came over with one of those suction cup hangers and try to stick in on his breast. Oh yaa… I’m breastfeeding #2 Son and also pumping. Hence the reason for this odd behavior from #1 Son. I really laughed when he did that. But this morning he topped it. I had just gotten the pump put together when he took the suction end and lifted his shirt and stuck it to his breast. Trying not to ROTFL, I explained only Mom could do that.

We got a box from our neighbor. Nice big box that once held a very large TV. Well, #1 Son now uses the clothes hamper (which is in the living room for the last 2 days while I try to do laundry) to climb up on top of the box. Yep, it is that big. In case you forgot, #1 Son is 3 feet tall. It is laying on its side so they can crawl in and lift the flaps to hide behind. Well he gets on top, lays on his stomach, reaches under the opening and pulls the flap out, slides to the back, sits up and slides his butt down to the flap causing the box to tip. It looks hilarious. When rereading this, it just doesn’t do it justice. Most of the time he lands on his feet.

Well, off to play with playdoh. More later on the ants and Mom ‘wigging’ out over the storm.

Hurricane Frances Picture

Wow! I found a great picture from the NASA sight on Hurricane Frances and wanted to share it with you.



It amazes me how something so dangerous can be so beautiful. If you want to see it even in a larger size, go to

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_209.html

Nephew in Iraq

Wow. It seems to be the year for things to happen in my family. Both good and bad. I have two nephews in the military; one in the Marines and one in the Navy. Being a military brat, I understand what it means to be a part of the military and how important it is to our country. It is still hard to think that my nephew, who has a wife and an infant, is now in Iraq. He has been in the Marines for 5 years, so has heaps of training behind him to help him out. He is also very intelligent. He is my nephew.

I can’t express how my stomach feels or how sad, yet happy I am. I know he will be great, but I fear for his life. He seems so young all of the sudden. I love you Nephew. You are in my prayers and my heart. God’s speed to bring you back home.

Side Note:
An email from my sister (my nephew's mother) and his wife, gave me this Marine Corp News article on his unit going to Iraq:

31st MEU departs for Middle East

Yard Sale?

Oh my… I agree with Governor Schwarzenegger’s idea of having a yard sale. What a great way to get rid of stuff, like the 30 pounds of scissors, and make money in the meantime. Despite the fact that my last experience at a yard sale was a failure, I like the idea of the government cleaning house. When I had my yard sale, I made a measly $30 but I did get rid of oodles of stuff. It was amazing. It’s just that I am a push over for giving the items away for free as long as they were being removed from my property. I hope whoever they have running the yard sale is a better salesman than I was!

The Highchair

It’s mine! If #1 Son could say those words, that is what would be coming out of his mouth every time I put #2 Son in the highchair. But since he learned to say NO a couple of weeks ago, that is what he says. No No No No and he grabs the highchair or tries to climb in it as I try to put #2 Son in it. When they both need to eat at the same time I feel absolutely ridiculous having to put my 10 month old in the booster chair to eat. I also find that my feet hurt after having to stand by the booster chair for the ½ hour to feed #2 Son. Luckily #1 Son will feed himself while this is happening. Now if I could just convince #1 Son that the booster chair is for the Big Boy in the house. Sigh.

Fortunately their eating schedule is slightly off from one another. Therefore I only need the highchair for one at a time. I just have to keep winning the battle of keeping #1 Son out of and off of the highchair when putting #2 Son in the chair. And that is a battle! Thoughts of how to keep him away make me realize how creative a mother has to be. You have to do things that are ‘legal’ and ‘safe’, so it requires a certain amount of creativity. Big Grin! Ahh the life of having two boys so close together.

Vacuuming

Of all the chores I do, vacuuming is the one I can handle best. #1 DogSon and #1 Son run quickly to higher ground when I come out with the vacuum. Smart children. Now if they would just teach that to #2 Son, my life would be so much easier. I am wondering if #2 Son will survive. Every time I turn around I have to stop and go get the power cord out of his hands. I have moved him, I have moved the power cord, I have tried to scare him with the vacuum, I have given him food, I have given him toys and nothing works. He can move at lightening speed when it comes to getting to that cord.

Try vacuuming when you have to turn around every minute to verify this little cord monster is not hanging around. He can travel the length of the living room, hoof it around the couch, over the doggie bed, and navigate by the stroller to get to that cord in a matter of seconds. If there was a baby crawling contest, I would just put him at the start and a vacuum power cord at the end. We'd win.

So vacuuming is not as easy as it once was -- this certainly makes it more entertaining. Who will win the power cord contest? Mom? #2 Son? I can guarantee that I will win the contest but it will take all my creative skills to keep ahead of #2 Son.

A side note: two years ago I went through 4 vacuums. One of those vacuums belonged to a friend, 2 were rated number one by Consumer Reports. It seems if you live on a dirt road and have 2 kids, a dog, a husband and yourself running in and out all the time - you are going to destroy vacuums. Yes I changed filters, yes I changed bags. Though I do it more frequently now, 4 times what they recommend for the filters, and it seems this one has lasted longer. Now the question is: who will last longer? #2 Son or the vacuum cleaner?

I have a GRANDFATHER!

It’s ok family, no one has raised up out of the grave – it’s a Blog Grandfather. I’m so excited because he has animals, writes really remarkable stuff and is a living breathing Granddad. Yep, my Blog GrandPappy is one Bad Example. Thanks for adopting me and I look forward to reading more of your blog entries. Yippppeeeee!!!!

Day for Looking Back

Hmmm. Maybe I should have titled this – Don’t eat the mealworms. I just read a cartoon from Baby Blues that brought back memories.

http://www.babyblues.com/Testing/index.php?formname=getstrip&GoToDay=08/24/04

Though it said you have to wait two weeks to see it on-line. It is the one were Zoe shouts “Tadpoles in the Toilet!! Nobody Flush!!”. I should have one that says “Mealworms in the Fridge, nobody eat them.” Though Zoe is a toddler and I was in my 20s when this happened. Image a grown woman, attending college but still living at home. (side note: cheap cheap). I decided to raise Finches. Then I decided to make a business of it. Do I have simple finches? No, I had to have exotic finches that required live food if they are to breed and raise babies.

My Mom, Mamaw, didn’t care and my Dad, Papa, didn’t notice. Which means I went ahead with my plans and purchased some 1 inch mealworms to start feeding them to my exotic finches. For the fishermen out there – these are TINY compared to the ones you buy for fishing. When you get the 5000 mealworms, they are in a container in size and shape similar to tub butter. Similar to the ones Mamaw used to put leftovers inside. Inside the mealworm container is oatmeal or similar substance to give them food and some pinholes in the top of the container for air. But to slow down their growth, you are to put them in the refrigerator. Mind you, they don’t stop moving and eating… they just don’t eat or move as much. Finches don’t like BIG mealworms, they want them when they are still small in size. So into the fridge went the tub of mealworms.

Did I mention Papa didn’t notice what was going on? One morning around 7am, I hear a yell that could have caused the dead to sit up. I walk into the kitchen to see 5000 mealworms all over the kitchen floor. Papa was looking for something to eat, opened the tub and saw that whatever was in it was moving. You can guess the rest. I had a huge clean up job and Papa started asking me about stuff in the fridge. I still feel like ROTFL every time I remember his face.

Another time, he wasn’t there the day one of my finches died and I put in the freezer. I wasn’t going to be able to get to the Vet’s till the next day for the necropsy (fancy word for autopsy for a bird) and the Vet said to freeze it. So I wrapped it in a paper towel, put it in a freezer bag and put it in the freezer. Poor Papa. He got home from work before I did that night. Mamaw said next time I had to label it “Dead Finch” so he wouldn’t open it looking for something to eat. To think I did this stuff as an adult. What do I have to look forward to happening with my own kids??? It certainly keeps life fun.

Do I like staying home?

My Husband asked me the other day if I liked being a stay at home mom. It really took me back a moment that he had to ask. The answer is Yes! But then I realized what he usually got to see with me and the kids. He gets home in the evenings and all I want to do is get away from my children. I have played with them, fed them, changed them, put them to bed for naps, disciplined them, cleaned house (well sorta), done laundry (well maybe), got stuff together for dinner, walked our #1 DogSon with the other two in tow, taken care of the Pony and the list goes on.

By the time he gets home, I’m a wreck. And my day isn’t finished and I know it. I still have dinner to finish up, sometimes 3 separate dinners. #2 Son is still eating baby food, #1 Son may be hungry before Dad gets home and need to be fed the ‘microwavable dinner’ and then Dad and Mom need to be fed. Three separate meals. Ugh. Did I mention cleaning up after the meal, bath time, snack time and so on? One of the things I really enjoy is we usually go for a walk as a family. Yep, everyone but the Pony. And though it may seem like all I want is to get away from it all, I really do enjoy time with my Husband, my children (all of them). I just don’t want to have to do the rest of the stuff.

I would not trade this time for the world. I love my Husband in working it out so I am able to stay home. I’m a coupon cutting, crockpot cooking, kid caring wife and I don’t just Like it… I LOVE it. Well... most of the time. And you’ll hear about the times I don’t like it out here… trust me. BIG GRIN.

49 Years

Nope, not me. My folks. They are celebrating 49 years of married life today. Though going to the doctor is not exactly celebrating. Ever since my Dad, Papa to the kids, was diagnosed with brain cancer (for the techies – non-small cell carcinoma metastasis), they have been hopping. And this week was just another one of those weeks and it is only Wednesday.

Monday, Papa went in for eye surgery. He had to have a cataract removed. They wanted to get it done before he might have to have chemo. I found that it was a blessing they went to have it done. The assistance was able to help Papa out with his dry eye issue since the radiation treatments. So now his good eye is doing much better. And the one they just did the surgery on? They took the eye patch off and he had 20/60 vision. BETTER vision than MINE! Though, I would love to have had a picture of him yesterday with the eye patch on – Papa Pirate. The balding head, the eye patch, the extra weight… just add a sword and a ship!!!! Or maybe a kiddie pool?

Let me regress about kiddie pools… My parents had to get their only full bathroom repaired a couple of weeks ago. And thank goodness they are done and they are not taking a shower on the back porch! Ha ha ha ha. Too funny to hear how they rigged up a shower. Imagine the kiddie pool they bought for #1 Son being brought up to the back porch. Then a drape hooked to the roof of the back porch. Now add a stool in the kiddie pool. Nope, not done yet. We have to add the 3 buckets of water. One for soap, one for getting wet and one for rinsing. And people wonder where I get my crazy ideas from???

You’ll be hearing more next week after they get the results from the MRI tomorrow. Yaa… their week still isn’t over with doctor appointments. And next week – more of the same. I thought being pregnant I had a ton of doctor appointments. I think getting old in general means a ton of time at the doctors. Even more blog entries on this later. :-)

Bathroom Time

Things they don’t tell you about motherhood would fill 20 books. But one thing other mothers should warn you about is ‘bathroom time’. You no longer get to go the bathroom by yourself. It’s amazing when you do get go by yourself… you don’t want to get out! With #1 Son, I always kept him near the bathroom so I could ‘keep an eye on him’. Strange things you will do with your first child when you become a stay at home mom. With the #2 Son, I had no interest in having him any where near the bathroom. As long as I could hear him if he screamed, I was happy. Now… I have #1 Son, #2 Son AND #1DogSon all joining into the ‘let’s follow mom into the bathroom’. Keep in mind, this is a tiny bathroom that one person can just fit into with a 2 year old, a 10 month year old, a 140 pound dog and Mom. Trying to get out is a feat because no one wants out but Mom and the rest just stay in the way.

Though, maybe all of this has helped #1 Son want to learn to go Potty. That’s right, about twice a day he wants to go to the bathroom and POTTY (insert PEEEEEE in place of Potty and you got the idea. We are trying to teach him the word Potty over Peee.). Usually right after Mom. BIG GRIN. Try maneuvering around all these children and put a training potty on the toilet, get #1 Son undressed and up on it without stepping on the other two. My dexterity level has increased 10 fold. Now the fun begins. If he does pee, then it means convincing him to get off the toilet. The only way this works is if you give him a piece of toilet paper to wipe his pe-nis and tell him he can then flush the toilet. Mind you, you have to give him the toilet paper AFTER he gets down. Otherwise we start the ‘More’ war. I’m sure the men reading this are going –huh? Toilet paper? Men don’t wipe, they shake. Ok, the only person he sees day after day pee’ing is Mom. Mom wipes. So #1 Son wants to wipe too.

My Husband asks the other day about this wipe business. He mentioned that I should teach him to shake it. I told him “no way, I don’t have a pe-nis and he learns from example. If he wanted #1 Son to shake it, then let #1 Son watch him pee.” Which I have to admit, he does let #1 Son watch him on the weekends since then. So watch out dads, you give up privacy too.

With all of this going on, I just keep waiting for the day that I can go the bathroom anytime I want and not have a huge crew following in!

From Karma to Cuteness

Ever have a bad feeling about something and wonder when the karma is going to come around? I called a friend, who is a mother of 2 young kids, at 9am the other day. She was still asleep. I thought immediately – bad karma. You should NEVER EVER wake a mother up who has a chance to get some sleep. Even if the mother’s kids are adults – do not wake a woman who has children of ANY age.

Sure enough, last night was a rough night. #2 Son woke up at 1am and pretty much kept waking up off and on every hour. #1 Son woke up at 4am, and my Sweetheart went in to get him back to sleep. I noticed my Sweetheart did not make it back to the bedroom, but figured he fell asleep on the floor in #1 Son’s room. Hmmm. At 6am when I decided to finally give up and go into the living room, my Sweetheart and #1 Son were watching TV together. Oops.

Did I mention that above friend gave #1 Son a drum set? And that I moved this drum set into the living room because #2 Son kept going into #1 Son’s room and trying to play with it? Well, at 6:30am, we had a concert. Talk about cuteness! #2 Son is playing the drums and ‘dancing’ while #1 Son decided to help out and he danced as well. Seeing those two bounce up and down to dance made me understand why God made my kids so cute to me. Otherwise, with the lack of sleep and the early morning with drums going and the tv going and trying to get everyone fed / dressed / etcetera, Mom would walk out and never be back. But seeing those two dancing and smiling just made me smile too.

Radio waves? Power grids?

I always wonder what I am subjected myself and my children to in this world. Just recently I started thinking about all the wireless equipment we have now a days. Most people have cell phones and cordless phones… so we start getting the radio waves here. More and more people are getting wireless networks at home for the computers. So more radio waves. Then there is the monitors for babies that are ‘wireless’. And the list continues.

Recently I did a search on the web for danger and wireless equipment. Amazing what came up… but nothing that I was interested in seeing. Then the other night on the discovery channel, I stopped to see what was on and discovered that a man had put out hundreds of fluorescent lights under a huge power line setup. He hooked them all together with wires but supplied no power. He didn’t have to! They all lit up. I am not sure what time of night it was they did the shooting of this information but you could see them all. Ok, ok, you say what does this power grid have to do with radio waves? It is the fact that both are something you can’t see, but are all around you. How do you know how it is effecting you? Does it matter? Somehow it does matter to me. Not a lot… but enough that every month or so I go on a hunt for information. I hope that one day they show it has no effect on you at all… until that time – I’ll keep looking with different search criteria, some brainiac has got to put something out one day, and when I find something, I’ll let you know.

Climbing Skills and my very first Blog Entry!

My first blog entry and I’m worried how it is going to turn out. I am putting these out for the grandparents, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, etcetera who ask about what is going on with our two sons. I will also put out other things on which I wish to express my opinion. And since my in-laws and my family are on-line (with the exception of my own parents), I thought I would give this a try. Since others will be able to read this, I will label my family as such: dog = #1 DogSon, oldest son = #1 Son, youngest son = #2 Son and the pony will just be Pony. I am sure my husband will be called many different names throughout the postings – like Sweetheart, Husband, Man Of Money… Be aware that I will probably only post once a week until I get the hang of this!

Ok, so what happened this week? While #1 Son was climbing our 4 ½ foot fence, a feat that baffles the mind since he is only 2 years old and the fence is a 3 tier wood fence with hog wire, #2 Son was crawling up the slide. Mom is so proud of her 10 month old! Are they close together? Nope. Does it worry me much? Not really… until #2 Son is at the top of the slide and trying to stand and my neighbor yells about #1 Son. Yep, #1 Son has made it to the top of the fence and is trying to get his leg over. I grab #2 Son and start to run the 30 feet over to #1 Son… I reach him about the same time my neighbor does. Luckily #1 Son just stayed straddled on the top tier which is about ¾ inches wide. Reminds me of one of my favorite sayings “That’ll teach you to encourage your children to climb and try new things!”

Why do I want my children to climb and be agile, though not necessarily at the same time? Because my Husband affectionally calls me ‘Danger Prone Daphne’ and for a good reason. A very recent example of this is when I tried to video tape my two sons sleeping a couple of days ago. I snuck very quietly over to the room with the camcorder, started through the door and WHACK. Hit the baby gate with my right leg and it smacked into the door/wall. That gate has been there over a year… I walk through that door 3 to 6 times a day… you get the idea. So do I yell at my #1 Son when I see him climbing stuff? Nope. Do I try to stay near in case he falls? Yep. Though he has been trying to climb that fence for 4 months and this is the first time he really made it up the fence. He must have had a growth spurt.

There is always more to tell. But enough for now. Let me give this a try and see what everyone thinks about using this as a means of keeping in touch. It would just be easier if we all lived in the same state… hmmm same town… naaa…