Rambo's Rampages...

Currently the kids are making me breakfast on the couch (a variation of breakfast in bed) which consists of oatmeal, granola, coffee, and KoolAid Jammers. They slept in a bit and that is birthday present enough for me. Especially when it is immediately followed by their rendition of 'Happy Birthday'. They have already told me that I will get their special spa treatment today and if it's anything like last time it will involve everything from a foot massage in a Morton salt foot bath to getting my teeth flossed. This is the real deal, people.  I love my kids. Any second I will be ordered to go sit on the couch, turn on the tv, and put my feet up so I better scoot.  Happy birthday to me! 

I'm not sure if lately I've come across as frustrated or not. I don't mean to be. And although my facebook posts may be entertaining, they are, unfortunately, true. And 99.95% of my frustration has to do with the nursing company. We have been up and down so many times with them I can't even tell you. Being promised a nurse and then not getting one. Changing our schedule around because we were told it would, without a doubt, make it possible for us to get a nurse. Orienting a nurse who says she'll be back and then changing her mind. Nurses showing up late - like half an hour to an hour and a half late... and not being apologetic at all. Someone calling and asking me where the nurse was but the only information they give me is that she missed her exit. As though there is only one exit between here and Baltimore.  It is never ending. It is so ridiculous, in fact, that I feel like God has got to be showing me something, but all I can come up with is that people are st

We did it. We made it to the hospital by 5:30am. Even the hospital was running on time this morning so Rambo had his procedures done with little ado. It's over and we are home. There was a point during recovery where I didn't think we would make it. Rambo was coughing up huge blood clots and his trach was thick with mucous and blood. I thought for sure we would be admitted. But thankfully, they let us stay a few more hours to see if he could push through and he did! Instead of recovery being two hours it took more like four. Rambo had his ears and throat checked out from..... head to toe?    ...They were completely evaluated. Aaaaannnnnd, drum roll please------------ his ears and hearing are perfect. No fluid. No tubes. No hearing loss. Can I get a revolution?!?!?! That is the good news. Here is the bad news: ( I warned you with the title that this might be gross.) That is his throat. The little white piece you see is the top curve of his trach. Yes, you should be seein

...is on a mission to go without oxygen. Which WOULD be great if he actually could. Alas, his body just isn't ready for that yet. But I will tell you that if I thought I was busy before..... I WAS WRONG. There is no stopping this child. He is fast as lightning. He's practically kung fu fighting. His tubes don't go across the room but his body does. It's constantly moving his stuff from one outlet to the other. There and back again. (Lord of the Rings, anyone???)  See those marks at the top of the entertainment stand? Yeah, those are teeth marks. He is chewing on EVERYTHING. As long as it's wooden or paper and clearly not a toy or something appropriate for his mouth. He chews on the side of his crib and ends up with paint chips in his mouth. We even gave him a potato today to gnaw on and he wouldn't touch it. You are silly if you think he's going after that brightly colored box. It's wires. Wires! All the time! All.The.Time. I'm not sur

I bet you'll never guess that she's excited. It's because we SHOULD be doing school work but the oldest is still asleep. And how can I say no to THAT? It's pretty ridiculous, but she makes me laugh so she wins.  I can't even tell you how much these girls are like their dad. But here is the proof so I probably don't have to say anything. Pray for me. :) Now onto Rambo, who I don't have any decent pictures of because he never stops moving. NEVER. STOPS. MOVING. He is doing great! Woot! He fought through last weeks fevers and sickness like a champ. (So did all the kids, actually. I seriously couldn't ask for better kids.) He is doing far better this week and my hopes are that he'll stay that way. We went to a cardiology appointment yesterday. (Thanks to my friend Ashley we were actually able to make this one! And we tore the place down! Or up.. or whatever the saying is.....) Rambo had an EKG and an echo and we were given the good new

*Something technologically incorrect is happening with blogger so I'm hoping this will still post.* I am an idiot. I really really am.  I am a creat-or. I have a creative mind and not so much a technological mind. I am artsy and whimsical. I paint and craft and crochet and take pictures. I don't build machines or know how a vacuum works. And maybe just MAYBE I have problems following directions. I CAN DO THINGS MY OWN SIZE! I can usually figure out my own way to get the end result that I am seeking.  That may be why baking has never been my forte. Do you know that when you bake you have to do things EXACTLY they way they say or you could mess the whole thing up? That's crazy! Baking is way too technical for me. But I still keep trying like a fool!  Case and point: Let me set the scene for you. It's evening. My dishwasher is broken so the counter is cluttered with clean and dirty dishes. I want to make bread. And I'm also trying to make dinner that t

A dandelion.  A single weed in the middle of the yard. So who really cares, right? It's a weed. Basically a dead weed. It will be tromped under foot and fall apart and be ugly. And who cares that a weed's seeds are being spread all over the yard only to leave more weeds for next year that bees will inhabit? And those bees will sting my children's feet. And make the yard look like an utter mess because they inevitably grow faster than the grass.   The bloom is gone.  And I realized that's why I stopped and ran back to the house and grabbed the camera and a towel to kneel on to take a picture of this. A weed. Because it's not until the flower is dead that it becomes something worth taking a picture of. When the dandelion dies, only then does it become beautiful. And it's a picture of me. Only when I die to myself am I fully alive in Christ. And don't I want that?  I don't want to be an

Sleep is a wonderful thing. I love sleep. I LOVE sleep. It never fails to be the one thing that I look forward to at the end of the day. And, usually, the one thing that gets interrupted. (Okay, not true. As a mom, most things that are not completely kid centered tend to get interrupted.) It is the one thing I don't get enough of. And it is the number one thing that I have been choosing over everything else lately.  NAPS ARE WONDERFUL. Said my husband never. But he's obviously a communist, so what does he know? I, however, say it all the time. And I mean it. Won-der-ful.  Sleep > housework. Sleep > homework. This is my mantra lately. And I think it's because I haven't been getting much of it. I'm not really sure why but I've had trouble getting to sleep, staying asleep, falling back asleep when I wake up at 3am.    Theodore has not had the same problem. No. Whereas I would give anything to lay my head down and sleep peacefully for 8 ho

Some things I like about fall. The skies. Always intricate. Always pretty. Harses. Harses. Harses. Harses. Wait, no.... farms. Butterflies!! Ruthie's birthday!!! She's 7, people. 7. Dog. He has nothing to do with fall, but Ben got a good picture of him. Chiminea. Things I do not like about fall. (None of which deserve pictures.) Wet feet after walking the dog at 6:30 in the morning. Cold sheets when you get back in bed after having to get out of bed for only 1.07 minutes. Sick babies. Sick kids. Darkness at 7pm. Sick children. Did I already say that? Wet dirty floors from the wet cold feet (or shoes if you're not Ben). Thus concludes my likes and dislikes. For the evening at least.    

Grrr.  Today is a minority. I have bad moments. Sometimes even bad minutes but rarely do I have an entire bad day. Today is a bad day. Theodore has on and off been running a low grade fever. No big deal. But that fever decided at some point last night to become constant. Bigger deal. Because I believe, if I think really really far back, I can remember a time when having fevers was annoying but did not cause too much trouble. However, for the past 5 or so months that hasn't been the case. So when he hit 99.9 once I wasn't concerned but now that he's been sitting at 100.4 I'm really freaking frustrated. A one time 99.9 can pass. But I'm not sure what's going to happen with this persistent stinking slowly creeping up fever.  Today has been bad. Because SOME school has very brokenly gotten done, but no housework. Because the dog has almost eaten two of the cats. Seriously, almost eaten them. I've hardly been able to leave Theodore's side. And now he ha

A short admission is not just a thing of dreams. Not that an admission is generally dream material, but I have found that they don't necessarily have to be a nightmare. We are home from a four day admission. 4 days!!  Theodore was having trouble kicking this certain type of tracheitis and needed some beefed up antibiotics. We got them in his system and got the heck out of Dodge. I still have no idea what the xray showed. The discharge papers said 'bacterial pnemonia' was his diagnosis, so I guess that's the official word... you know how these things go.  In any case, we are home and he appears to be doing well. Luckily for you I remembered my camera for this short little hospital visit so I shall now endow you with completely unnecessary and way too excessive (double positive???) photos. I call them 'The Going Ons'.  The Looks.   The Love.   The View. Play Time. Down Time. Love