Home From Vacation!!

So, we had a great time on vacation. Tho it was a crazy crazy ride I tell you!

Thursday(22July) Mom called and said that because of Tropical Storm Bonnie, that she thought that we should leave on Friday (23July) instead of Saturday like we had originally planned. While this was a fantastic idea, it was sort of last minute for me. I was going to do a bunch of laundry on Friday and leave on Saturday. This left me in quite the predicament! That meant that I needed to go home (we were out having dinner) and pack for our entire family!

We get on the road after I couldn't sleep all night and finally went to bed at 3AM. We drive all day, and get to Montgomery Alabama about 9 that night in th pouring rain. needless to say I crashed and burned that night in my discounted (plus free upgrade!) LaQuinta room! I don't remember much of the room, other than the kids jumping all over the beds while watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars until my eyelids closed and then there was peaceful darkness!

The next day we get back on the road for another 10-12 hours of driving. I must say, the drivers in Texas are CRAZY! The road conditions are FANTASTIC! I just couldn't get over how their lane markers were the little reflectors! Then it started raining when I was pulling into my moms town. I was not exactly happy! I WAS happy to finally be off the road for a while.

We got to visit with family which was totally awesome. We went to the Houston Space Center which was also awesome. We got to go swimming every day in Moms pool. We all got tans. Some of us more than others. Sam and Bug are darker complected than Monkey and I, so, they totally got darker than us! Monkey and Sam both got Swimmers Ear, tho Sams' was MUCH worse! I think one of my favorite days of the trip was when we all went to IKEA! Sam has decided that he likes it, which makes me about the happiest person in the entire universe! Why, might you ask? Because IKEA is just about my favorite place to be. I could spend an entire years salary there and not blink an eye! (Which isn't exactly a good thing...) I've found all kinds of things that I want to do with the house now! (More on that another day!) Bug lost 2 teeth, and the Tooth Fairy brought her $9 in total. (Inflation is CRAZY these days!!)

We then drove from Houston to the Memphis area to visit my sister. There Kris and I chatted, and picked up some steaks for dinner that night. Kris told me that my steak was too rare and I thought that it was just perfect! The kids got to go to the skating rink. Monkey and Bug weren't exactly graceful, but, Bug had fun but her "tooshie" hurt afterwards!

From there we left to drive home. We finally got home around 2AM. We walked in and had a small reunion with the doggies and fell asleep snuggled in our own beds. I'm sure that I'm missing HUGE chunks of what happened, but there will be more another time!

Day 5: Your favorite quote

Hmm.. I think that my favorite quote for life would have to be:

"Well behaved women seldom make history." Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

I don't know why it's my favorite, other than I used to cause a lot of trouble when I was younger. I know that's not exactly what it means, but, that's still my take on it.

I can honestly say that when I was younger, I was quite the trouble maker. I just never actually got *caught*! My Mom always knew though. She always knew that I had done something I shouldn't have done, and somehow she would make me feel bad about doing it, without every saying a word. Maybe it was just my subconscious doing it for her. How about that? Never even knowing that your kid has done something that might be illegal in several states, and they punish themselves for it?! LOL

Also, today is my 30th birthday. Shocking, I know! I want to thank my Momma for always being there for me, no matter how old I was, no matter how much you wanted to smack me in the head with a frying pan, and no matter how many HORRIBLE choices I made. If it wasn't for my wonderfully sweet Momma, I wouldn't be here, nor be the person I am today. I also want to thank my Step-dad Kevin. He's been a very positive influence in my life since I was about 17 years old. I know he's had a few times when he just wanted to pop me, but, he always tried to give me the benefit of the doubt. My sisters Angie and Kris, what would I do without you guys? And Jamey, well, I wouldn't have been as well looked after as I was in high school if it wasn't for Jamey! My wonderful hubby, Sam, for always loving me, no matter how grumpy, cross, or bitchy I get. And my fantastic children, who never cease to amaze me at how much of a kid I can still be at my "old age" and how much things have changed since I was their age.

Bugs tooth!!

So, Bug had a couple of her adult teeth come in behind her teeth on the bottom because she absolutely refuses to wiggle, or try to pull her teeth at all. When we were at the Dentist a few weeks ago, they told her that she needed to pull them out and that if she hadn't pulled them by the next time she came in that they were going to have to pull them out for her. This sort of scared her a bit. It just so happened that she had Poison Ivy at that time and they weren't able to do her cleaning. So, we went back on Wednesday for her cleaning and she was SO worried that they were going to pull her teeth! I told her that they weren't going to pull them and that they would give her a little more time. She was still a bit worried though. Well yesterday Sam picked the kids up from school because I had a little more running around to do, and when I got home she runs up to me with a little baggy and says "Mom! I pulled my tooth at school today!" We then had dinner while we watched The Tooth Fairy with Dwayne Johnson in it. It was a really cute movie! Then the Tooth Fairy gave her $2 for her tooth and she was very happy that he didn't just leave $1 like in the movie!

Yesterday was an okay day. I went to Sams therapist with him. He gave us some good ideas for communicating better and whatnot. We, of course, started talking while we were in bed, and I told him that I didn't completely trust him yet. I KNOW that he's not going to do anything, but, to have been treated the same way that I was in just about every previous relationship really has me flummoxed. I never thought that my wonderful husband would be capable of anything like that. He has such strong ethics and values, which is one of the things that I love so much about him, and to just blatantly disregard them is just mind boggling! He ended up pretty upset because I can't completely trust him right now. I told him that it would take some time and effort on his part to regain that trust. He completely disagreed. He thinks trust is something that I have to work towards on my own, like forgiveness. I told him that wasn't the case. He was the one that did the damage, and he needed to make efforts to repair it. I guess maybe I should have asked him if I set a wooden bridge on fire, but put it out voluntarily, if I should expect it to repair itself. Sam ended up sleeping on the couch last night because he was upset. We didn't fight, or argue, he was just upset that I told him that I couldn't trust him completely yet.

Today, I'm watching my friend Keonas' lil boy! He's such a little cutie!! Every time he sees me he gets all excited and squishes up his little face. Keona is going to her little girls class tea party. Who was I to come in between a mother-daughter tea party?! Besides, I really like watching lil man. It gives me enough "baby time" to not want another one, which is something I'm sure my mother is thankful for!  I've started to think that I'm just getting to "old" to have more kids. Monkey is 11, and Bug is almost 7. They're both in school all day, can feed themselves, no bottles or dirty diapers to deal with. I don't think I want to start all over again! I'll be 30 in just over a month. I really didn't want kids in the first place, but I'm glad that I do have them and I'm glad that I had them young. I don't know how my Dad stayed sane when he found out Mom was having me. He was getting ready to turn 50 when I was born! Sheesh!

Today is also Military Spouse Appreciation Day! I can still claim this title for that time being. If you are a Military Spouse I want to thank you for "standing by your man (or woman)", and if you know one, make sure they know that you appreciate them today.

The Final Countdown!

So, tomorrow my Momma and Step-dad will be here. We're all really excited for the arrival of my parents (and Grammy and Pampa-Punkin Head). I have got practically nothing done! I did get the carpet cleaned, but, that feels like the only thing that got done!! With Bug being sick, it's taken most of my time to get her to this doctor or that doctor, running her, running there. I admit, I did go on a snail excursion to New Bern to try and find a pink or purple snail, but that didn't take too long! I guess just the fact that my parents are coming is making me a little bit nervous. I've got to try and "out-cook" my soon-to-be brother-in-law sister, which I know it's not a competition, but I still like to try and impress Momma a little bit! The kids rooms are a mess!! Of course, when aren't they?! I've got laundry to do. I've got to clean our bathroom, I did the kids bathroom yesterday. I've got to sweep and mop the kitchen and both bathrooms. I've got to vacuum. I've got laundry to put away. UGH!!! TOO MUCH!!

On a lighter note! Bug looks SO much better this morning than she did a couple days ago! The redness is s-l-o-w-l-y going away. She's not as itchy. She's REALLY bored!LOL I told her this morning that if she didn't let me get my work done, that I was going to send her back to school. She said she didn't want that so she went back to watching Hannah Montana. God love her!

Okay, it's back to cleaning! I imagine that I should probably shove some food down my throat before  I start cleaning everything!! *sigh*

My Poor Little Bug!

So, a couple of weeks ago, Bug came down with a case of poison ivy, right before her Father-Daughter dance. We decided that the best course of action would be to go to our Doctors office and get her a Cortisone shot, just like she had right before her fall school pictures. (Yes, it seems like any time something "fancy" is going to happen she gets some sort of skin condition!)Well, it seemed a little better the next day, and we could easily cover it up with some make-up and off to the dance she went! By that Monday, her rash was worse, so we took her back to the Doctors. Well, he decided that she had some sort of mild skin infection, and gave her some antibiotics, telling me that if it hadn't gotten any better by Wednesday, that she would need to go to a Pediatrician. (They're a General Practitioner.) All seemed well, and she took her last dose of the antibiotics Monday morning. Yesterday morning she gets up, goes to school, everything is normal. I get a call from the Boys & Girls Club saying that she's itching like crazy. I just so happened to have a conference with Bugs teacher yesterday afternoon and I told her that I would drop some cream off before I went to her teachers room and I would be back soon after that to pick them both up and take them home. Not a terrible thing, and I knew she could wait just a little bit with the cream. Well, we get home and Bug has a HORRIBLE rash all over her body. I call the Doctors office to see if they had any appointments and they told me to bring her as a walk-in at 6. No big deal.

Now this is the part of the story where it starts to get a little bit hairy. We walk into the Doctors office just after 6pm yesterday afternoon and they take all of her vitals. Blood pressure is just *slightly* up, but she was in a bit of pain, so not terrible. Her temp was right under 99 degrees, so still normal. Everything is looking normal so far, except for the horrible looking rash covering a little over half of her body. The Doctor comes in and looks at her, and determines that it is, in fact, a skin infection because her skin was warm to the touch, and that because the antibiotics cleared it up the first time, that she would refill the prescription and hopefully we could get her into the Dermatologist before the antibiotic was done. (I knew that this would probably NOT happen!) Of course, I ask her 4 or 5 times if it could be an allergic reaction to the medications, and she assures me it's not, but it could be to the Poison Ivy. Well, we fill her prescription, get her some oatmeal bath, and a bar of Aveeno soap with oatmeal in it and go home for a nice warm bath and bed.

This morning Bug wakes up and her skin looks like someone dumped really hot water all over her and she's saying that it doesn't itch, it hurts! Of course, this was right after I give her the morning dose of antibiotics. I'm not a Doctor, they're supposed to know what's wrong with her, so I give her the prescription that she was given. I decide that not only am I going to keep her home from school, that I'm also going to take her to the Emergency Room. If it is in fact a skin infection, and it looks WORSE than it did 10 hours ago, there is something seriously wrong, and I don't want to take a chance! I get Sam up and dressed and Monkey off to school (Who wants to go along so he can play his DSi!), we head in to the ER. They take her right from the door to triage, to a bed. We skipped the admission paperwork and everything. Bug was happy because the triage nurse showed her how to work the bed, and she got to watch cartoons!

We finally get to see a Doctor and she says that she wants to get a CBC on her and check to make sure she doesn't have an infection going on and SHE thinks it's an allergic reaction to something. She gets he blood drawn, after some convincing, and they send that off to be tested. Of course, she didn't want to eat any breakfast this morning because she didn't want to move off the couch, so they bring her some Sierra Mist and her new rounds of medication (Steroids and Benadryl). The CBC comes back clean. She does not, in fact, have any sort of infection, and it shows that she is having some sort of allergic reaction. The ER Doc takes her off of the antibiotic that she was on and asks us if anything new had come into the home. The only things were the antibiotic and new fabric softner. She advised us to switch back to our old fabric softner and discontinue the antibiotic. *sigh*

So, the whole time I was giving her the 2nd course of antibiotic, I was pumping her body full of something that it was trying to fight off. I'm a bit upset by this. I'm not sure if I should request TriCare to change her Doctor, or, give them another chance. This was her life we are talking about!! Who knows how bad this could have gotten if I would have just kept giving her those antibiotics! Who's to say that her poor little body wouldn't have just stopped trying to fight it off and gave in?! What would have happened then?! What would have happened if she would have had a seizure last night in her sleep or gone into anaphylactic shock?! UGH! I'm so upset!!

The worst is over for now, I think. I will just have to add the new antibiotic to the list of medications that she can no longer have. Last year she had a bad reaction to Amoxicillin and she's had that since she was a teeny baby!! Lord... this cuts down on the antibiotics that she CAN have by a lot!! She does look a lot better than she did this morning. The redness and swelling has decreased considerably, and she almost looks back to normal.

I didn't get ANYTHING done today on the house. It's not Bugs fault. I'm just going to work harder tomorrow. I know everything will be okay. It's my mom. It's not like she's coming to do a white glove inspection of my house. It's not like the house is a disaster area, I would just like it to be spotless for my parents visit!! Is that so much to ask?! LOL

New friends!

So, as some of you know (mom), I have blogged for a very very long time. THIS blog only started recently, but I've been keeping blogs since Bug was just a wee little thing. My Mommy got me started back in 2004. That blog is long gone now, tho I still have it archived for my personal entertainment. Recently, I decided that I needed to reach out, and get to know, more military spouses blogs. Some of them I've been following for a while, some I just found. I've added a lot of people to my blog roll. I think the best thing about my blog roll is that all I need to do is look at it and I can see who's posted a new blog! Of course, that means that I have to come to my own blog to see who's posted a new one, but that's fine! :-)

Some of these women are braver and stronger than I could ever imagine being. My hats off to you, and I commend you for your strength. I cannot imagine what these women are going through, but my heart aches for you none the less.

I've found more things to do in my quest to make the house look mom-ready! All 3 dogs need baths, and Lilly needs her nails trimmed!! *She's got Velociraptor talons, I swear it!* That will get done later in the week (dogs seem to get dirty quickly,especially the white one!), except for Lilly's talons nails, they need done ASAP. She HATES to have her nails trimmed. Of course, I think that sort of stems from the fact that ONE time, I accidentally quicked her. (Sorry puppy!) Sam wants to get a picture of the 3 dogs all together, just them, to put on our mantle. His thinking is "They're part of the family too!" which is true. I just have NO idea how we are going to get 2 Greyhounds and an American Eskimo to all sit still and stay in the same place long enough to get a good picture of them for the mantle! I do have one picture of them that is really cute tho. Our dogs, just like us, are very strange characters. They LOVE fruits and veggies! They will all sit in front of Sam and patiently wait for him to drop some apple or banana their way. While I'm making dinner, they're always waiting for me to throw an errant potato or slice of celery at them. Well, one day, Sam was eating and apple with PB. They were all standing right in front of him just staring. You know the kind of staring that makes you feel like you've got a pork chop tied around your neck, that was it. Well, I stood on a chair and took a picture of them, and it's actually a very cute shot.

Okay. I've got laundry in, waiting for it to dry so I can fold it and put MORE laundry in. Sam's still sleeping (I wanna sleep like him! *pout*) so I have to wait until he gets up to run the vacuum and carpet cleaner. I guess that means that I can make a complete bit of a mess of my kitchen and throw some Amish bread in the bread machine and clean the fish tank as well. Man oh MAN! Today is going to be busy busy busy!

Chilly morning

So, today started off not so good. I couldn't fall asleep last night, so I ended up reading The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson until almost midnight. I was then riddled with a recurring dream that I just cannot seem to remember. I woke up dazed and a bit confused, and 5 minutes after I should have already been up. I get out of bed to find BOTH of my children in Monkeys bed. For anyone that knows me, my kids, or knows a 11 year old brother and 6 year old sister, knows that these two get along about as well as gas and fire. I was sort of shocked that they were both in there giggling and playing at 7:05am. I hurried them both out of there and on with medications. Bug has Poison Ivy (again) and this time we had to give her antibiotics to calm the rash. It seems that there was a touch of infection and the Cortisone shot that they had given her, which worked last time she had it, made the infection explode all over her upper torso. Monkey takes his usual morning medications, tho he is slowly being weened from the Risperidone. It's a good thing.

I went with Sam to his cognitive therapy this morning. It went well. I have realized from the few times that I am a cornucopia of knowledge that I never thought I knew. Sam and his therapist were talking about proverbs. Everyone  knows at least one proverb. One of the most common ones is: Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Well, Sam had to break them down and tell his therapist what they meant. Of course, I knew what this meant, and where it actually came from. I explained it came from the actual horses mouth, that if you look in a horses mouth you can find out all kinds of information on it. It's approximate age, and some heath issues also stem from the mouth, and how well the horse had been treated. So, looking at a horse's mouth, that was a gift, would be just like telling someone that has just given you a baby grand piano that it has a scratch on the top. Going to these things with Sam is always good for me, because I learn about what he's learning, where he is struggling, and how I can help, or at least try. Sam got a headache while he was in therapy, so she stopped and told him that he did a good job. I'm really proud of Sam for everything that he has been doing, to try and regain some memory, some shred of his former life.

Today on the agenda is, again, cleaning the living room, and the kitchen. I'm HOPING that I can get the dinning room carpet cleaned today, but by the latest Monday. It's not that it's overly dirty, but, I'm sure it could use some TLC. I've already got the kitchen clean, but will be doing it again next Friday right before Mom and Kevin come for their visit. Also, I'm going to start the laundry today. Most of the time it takes me a couple of days to actually get all of the laundry done, and I would like for it all to be completed by Saturday. Next Friday, not only will I have to do ALL of the normal laundry, but I want to wash the sheets and comforter that my parents will be using on the blow up mattress that we will set up for them. They've been in storage since the last time they came for a visit! All in all, not a horribly busy day, but enough to keep me busy for the day, and part of the weekend.

I think next Saturday, I will put some beef burgundy in the crock pot for the family. It's one of our new favorite meals, and we normally serve it with mashed potatoes and corn. Kevin normally isn't the real potato type of guy. Sam and I have been trying to make most everything we can from scratch to try and cut down on the processed food that our family eats. (Thanks Jamie Oliver!) So I'm hoping that he doesn't much mind that for one night, he has to eat potatoes that were in the ground. We also normally eat corn from a can, but I think next Saturday, we'll have corn on the cob. I will probably make a fresh loaf of bread as well. Maybe I'll even make an apple pie for dessert and have some vanilla ice cream! *Don't I just sound like the little domestic Goddess!* I think that would beat my sister and her grilled tenderloin steaks any day of the week! ;-)

On that note, I think I should go have some lunch. All the food talk really made me hungry, and I forgot to eat breakfast with all of the hustle and bustle of getting the kids around to go to school and going to therapy with Sam!