Surgery tomorrow

Terry is having surgery tomorrow on his cyst. We saw the surgeon today and he agreed that it has to come out...but it isn't gonna be as simple as we thought. We had originally figured it would just involve numbing the area and draining the cyst or lancing it. WELL! They are going to knock him completely out! General anesthesia. So since they are going to just 'fit him in' to the schedule, they are going to call us in the morning and let us know what time to be at the hospital.

The dr said that for most people they take a couple days off work for this simply for the discomfort. Terry's trying to figure out how he will sleep....he's a back sleeper. We shall see what the next few days bring.

Now, I've got it!

Ugh! I started getting a headache in church yesterday morning and felt bad all afternoon. Didn't go back last night...

Then woke up this morning with a scratchy throat and just don't feel well. I'm trying to boost my vitamins and see if that helps. I really don't want to get this crud that's been passed around my house!

:((

WE are doing school right now in the floor of the living room....then we'll watch a movie together while I fold laundry. Then there is TKD later this evening. The boys both say they want to go....I will make it, I"m sure! LOL

At least I have gotten the dishes done, laundry going, the living room cleaned up and school going. Not bad, I think! I still have to change the sheets on everyone's beds, but that won't take alot of time, just alot of effort!

Another day in Sick-dom

Terry stayed home again today...he simply cannot move with the cyst on his backside! (I know he'll appreciate me telling the whole world this!) It's got us concerned, cuz he saw the doctor for it yesterday and saw a quack basically. The guy just said it was staph and that he should use a warm washcloth to 'bring it to the surface', then gave him 14 days of antibiotics. Well, there are two things wrong with this: One, you can't diagnose staph without a culture and even then you would prescribe a month's worth of meds for it, not 14 days. We've been there, done that. And Two, if it is staph, AGAIN, why has he gotten staph 4 times in the last 15 months? Why can they NOT seem to get rid of it for him? It's really wearing his body down.

Then there's Brent. He was doing so good today, playing and eating. No biggie... The doc didn't do anything for him either yesterday, just gave him a cough syrup to take at night. Big whoop. I was really aggravated by this because I knew Brent had a sinus infection and most likely an ear infection and I wanted meds for it before it got too far. I know my child and this has happened before and I wanted to nip it in the bud. Anyway, tonight as we were sitting down to supper, Brent says his ear hurts really bad....his left ear. He complains about it all through supper and then some more after supper. We'll most likely end up at the quick-care place with him in the morning....so aggravating. Terry wants to figure out a way to bill this other doctor the quick-care bill since he should have caught this in the first place. Argh!

But on a positive note, I made Antibiotic Soup today. I used a whole chicken (from last weekend's leftover food! :)) and boiled it and got my own chicken broth. Then I smashed through 2 whole heads of garlic and got them cooking while I chopped 2 leeks and several carrot sticks (also leftover from last weekend!) and just let the whole thing simmer for a few hours. I did add a broth and flour mix to thicken it all up a bit...but it was DELICIOUS!!! Even the boys ate it and enjoyed it. I hope it does us all some good.

Well see what the morrow brings!

A day off

Well, Terry is sick and Brent is home sick as well. So needless to say we will NOT be doing any school today or States Study with our homeschool group. :( Brent was sad about this as he's been looking forward to it all week.

Clayton keeps trying to tell me he's sick too, but then he runs around like a crazy boy! LOL He just wanted an excuse to stay home with Daddy. :)

We are supposed to be going to a Tae Kwon Do tournament this weekend, but with everyone getting sick, I"m not sure what will happen. ?? There will be another one in January and it may be best for us to just stay home and get well.

This weather is killing me!! It has been rainy all week so far (up to 3 inches in some spots!) and the winds has been crazy. It's blown 2 of my plants over and even blew the hose-house off the porch!! I mean it's not REALLY heavy but good grief! I didn't think it would blow it off completely.

Oh, and on the diet front. (What diet? you may be asking...) Well. I went to the dr last week to see if he could give me some idea of why I can eat healthy, exercise some and still not lost weight. It's been so frustrating. Well, he asked me to start journaling all the food that goes in my mouth. So I started on Monday and the first day I ate really well. I ate when I was hungry and didn't try to eat low-calorie. I still ended up with a 2200-calorie intake for the day. Which, isn't great, but I didn't htink it was bad for me. Well, on Tuesday, I ate cereal for breakfast and then PB&J with the boys for lunch. I about had a stroke when I realized how many calories I had consumed with those two meals!! Cereal is a diet killer! So I started paying attention to calorie count when I would pick my foods for each meal and I am amazed!

For example, this morning, I ate oatmeal for breakfast and knew I would want something sweet in it (my favorite is Maple and Brown sugar!) so I looked at the syrup bottle forcalorie count. There are 210 calories in 1/4 cup! That's a lot of syrup! So, a 1/2 is 4 ounces of liquid, making 1/4 cup 2 ounces. Well, I only needed 1 ounce of syrup (yes I measured it to see), only giving me 105 calories for the syrup and 73 calories for the oatmeal itself. Less that 200 calories for the entire meal. :) I was so excited when I realized this! Anyway, I just wanted to share...hopefully it will make a difference in both my choices AND in my weight!

Out of the mouths...

The other day, when all the girls were here, all the little kids were playing in the basement. My nephew came up and asked if he could play with the darts that we have downstairs. I told him he could. I said, "Oh, and be careful of the little ones and where they are..." Before I could get all of that out, he said, "I know, I have a B.B. gun." I just laughed and said, "I know..." And he laughed and said, "Yes, I understand. A mother's love demands it."

:-)

What a conversation!

We had a very interesting conversation with Brent the other night. He asked about being baptized and why he couldn't take communion yet. We went through the discussion of what it means to be baptized and the commitment behind it. We talked about why a person would be baptized and what ages we were (Terry and I) when we were baptized.

He was asking such big questions and didn't seem to understand what we were saying or why he couldn't. I finally asked him, "If something bad were to happen to you and you died, where do you think you would go?" He answered, "Heaven." I told him that because of that answer, we were positive and sure that he would go to heaven and that it wasn't time for him to be baptized.

We encouraged him to talk with us ANYTIME he had questions concerning baptism or when he was just thinking about it. It just amazed me what he was thinking!

A glorious weekend!

Well, we had a wonderful weekend with the ladies...just the ladies. No hubbies, no kids! We all needed a break and it was awesome!

It started really on Thursday for me and my sis. We did the shopping and got the house ready. In the middle of the night, the girls got here (3 of the remaining 4) and we all slept in the next morning! When we finally got ready, we left for Kimmswick, MO and did some shopping with the 4th member to come (for a total of 6 of us). After doing some shopping, we left for St Louis and sort of saw the arch...I got us lost (sort of) and we ended up in Illinois! LOL Anyway, we saw the arch and then went to dinner at a Brazilian restaurant...Yemanja Brasil.....A truly wonderful and delectable experience! It wasn't in the best place of St Louis, but it was worth it! HA!

After getting home that night we played games till the wee hours and then slept in again!

On Saturday, we went to Crown Valley Winery and toured the facility and tasted some wines. WOW! I found some I really like! :)

After we got home, we ate supper and played more games. On Sunday morning we had a small service here at the house and then everyone started leaving.

Poor K ended up with her rental car breaking down on her about 20 minutes away from my house, so G and J and Dad went to take her to the airport. She made it fine and all is well.

We are so blessed to have friendships that will last time and distance....AND blessed to have husbands who allow us the joy of getting together to renew old friendships! We're planning this again for 2 years from now...I can hardly wait!

EDITED 10-25-07
I saw a sign this morning on the way to preschool with Clayton that said:

Blessed is he who finds the beauty when on a detour.

LOL I just thought this was too coincidental NOT to put it in here! :)

Innocent Prayers

I forgot to post this last week. But when Janice was on her way to St Louis in the ambulance and her BP bottomed out, they took her to Washington, MO to get her stabalized in the ER before going on. Well, we were on our way to Tae Kwon Do when we got the call and before we went in, I had the boys come to the front of the van with me to say a special prayer for Grandma Niecey.

Clayton said his quick prayer and then Brent prayed this:

"Dear God, we know that it might be the end for Grandma Niecey right now and we know that it will make everyone sad if she goes. But we ask that you please be with her and the doctors right now and help them do good for her. And also please be with Daddy and Aunt Darlene and Aunt Donna and help them know that if this is the end that they will be okay and that Grandma will be in a better place...and just help them not be sad."

I had tears in my eyes and chills on my arms.....his prayers are so innocent, so sweet, and so intuitive.

When Madeline Was Young

When Madeline Was Young

by Jane Hamilton

Published by Anchor Books

Reviewed by Amanda Schafer

You grow up, you get married to the woman of your dreams. But then all of a sudden she has a bicycle wreck that leaves her living life with a 6-year-old mentality. What do you do? Do you stay married? What happens to your wife? We find in this touching story that the decision of one man was to take care of his wife as she was his own child. He raised her with his children (from a second marriage) and loved her nonstop.

Mac is this man’s son who grew up thinking that Madeline was his sister. Mac took Madeline to the park, to the ice cream parlor, and defended her against bullies who called her dumb or tried to take advantage of her. Somewhere along the way, Mac learned the truth about Madeline, but still continued to love her like a sister. Mac takes us through his journey as he remembers it when he gets the call that his cousin’s son has been killed in action. Mac tries to decide whether or not to go to the funeral and in doing so, relives his years growing up with Madeline.

Somewhere along the way, I lost the point of the story being Madeline–and it became more about Mac and who he was. Madeline was mentioned occasionally, but mainly as a background character. With the title being about her, I thought the book would have centered more around her rehab, therapies and life after the accident.

Jane Hamilton has a gift in writing that makes it easy to read. While this story is a beautiful one, it was a bit confusing from chapter to chapter. I never knew what decade was being discussed. The story seemed to bounce all over the place with flashbacks that came without warning. It also seems very odd to me when a female writer writes from the male perspective and vice versa.

I think this book could have been better as a finished product if it would have had a little more organization to the story line. The story was there, it just needed some redirection.

Armchair Interview says: A story of extreme caretaking that most would or could never do.

A new week...

Well, we're at the start of a new week. We're already busy...the weekend was just one busy time. We haven't stopped since....well, since August 1, really. :) HA!

We have so much going on this week...my sister will be arriving on Tuesday sometime to help me get ready for our 'Ladies Weekend' this coming weekend. 4 other girls (besides us) will be arriving at my house on Friday to spend a no-kids-no-hubbies-girls-have-fun weekend. I can't wait...not exactly sure what we'll do, but we'll have fun just doing nothing! :)

The boys and I are going to Beggs Family Farm on Tuesday to have a hayride and look at pumpkins. We'll hit the maze, see the animals, and who knows what else! I can't wait.

Clayton is still getting things for his birthday....he got more presents this weekend. He finally got a monkey! (A stuffed one of course!) He decided this morning that he needed to name it Peyton. I asked why and he said that it did something bad and he said, Peyton, Stop it! So he just decided it should be Peyton! LOL

Janice is still in MoBap...but she's finally out of ICU. That makes visiting a bit easier. The kids are still trying to cover every day, but I don't know how much longer they can keep that up. Hopefully, she will start doing some therapy and start eating and doing what she's supposed to do and get out of there soon. We hope and pray! :)

Well, it's late and the boys are still up playing Ninja Turtles in their room. Better get them to bed...we have alot of school to do tomorrow...we didn't finish Friday's stuff, so we have to do that and THEN do Monday. LOL

Have a great week!

Weaver Believer

I just have to share about a wonderful group I was just informed of! :) It is a family who have been playing instruments together for a few years and have started singing and doing shows....check out their site and listen to the music! If you like bluegrassy/banjo/southern gospel type of music you will LOVE this!

Weaver Believer

One of the members of the family is Anna, a fellow PBS'er and GREAT gal! :)

The "Fort"

Well, last week we were going through some new words in our vocabulary, and we came across the word 'fort'. I asked B if he knew what a fort was, as I do with all words I think he doesn't know.

He said, "Mom, you know..."

I just looked at him and said, "Well, I do, but I want you to tell me what you think it is...."

He said (with a grin on his face), "Well, it's a not-nice-word some people use for when you toot."

Well, of course I just about lost it, but composed myself quickly and explained the true meaning of it to him.

So when I told T later that night about it, he just started laughing and said, "So that's why he looked at me like I was crazy when I asked him last winter if he wanted to go play in the fort."

LOL