Just a little rant...

about doctors and nurses and their files. First, most of you know that Ryan has some feeding issues. Okay, major if you ask me but it could be so much worse. All the boy will eat are baby 2nd foods bananas with applesauce and baby cereal mixed with it. I can get him to eat the bananas alone but the applesauce is a hard thing to get ingested without the bananas. He has been licking the salt from chips, crackers and french fries but if he gets any particle of this in his mouth he gags until he vomits. This is the major reason he's in the school system's PreK ESE program. He finally had his occupational therapy evaluation on Monday and then the therapist came on Tuesday to start her sessions. This has to be the fastest I've ever seen them schedule either boy for therapy. Usually the eval is done and then a week or two go by before a session is scheduled. Obviously, she found major problems and had to get right to work.

The original doctor knows this and it SHOULD be in Ryan's file at their office here but I don't think anyone bothers to read this. Ryan has been in school for four weeks now and he loves it but he's having some trouble adjusting to the eating/drinking schedule. I think he's having so much fun that he doesn't want to stop to eat or drink. Oh, another part of his issue is that he refuses or can't drink out of anything but a bottle and will only drink his formula with a little bit of rice milk added to it. We talked to the doctor about this over a year ago and all decided that he needed to go to the infant formula so that he still gets all his vitamins and minerals. Thanks to his occupational therapist we were able to get him started on some rice milk which we add to the formula.

This last week and weekend he's not been eating or drinking like he should even at home. I knew something was wrong but couldn't figure out if he's not feeling well or just not in a growth spurt right now. As with all kids, when they are in the "growth spurt" they eat like little piggies non-stop. Same for Ryan so I usually don't worry about him. Monday, we finally figured it out. The poor little baby was constipated. I had a call into the nurse at his Pediatrician's office but in the meantime I figured out what the problem was and "helped" him with it. No more graphic details forthcoming but use your imagination.

When the nurse finally called me back two hours later, I let her know that I figured out the problem but wanted to know some options to keep this from happening again. I explained the school situation and the eating but I swear she was either not listening or didn't understand. (Either of these are quite scary in my book!) She suggested prune juice. Okay but he's not really into drinking anything so what are my options with that. Put it with other liquid, okay I can attempt that. Each time she suggested something new I had to tell her again about his limited diet. At one point, she got very irritated with the fact that he's still on formula and procedeed to explain to me how he should have been off that at one year old. No really?!?! What parent in their right mind would continue paying these disgusting prices for a can of formula if they didn't have to?!?!?! Do you know how much a can of this crap costs????? If you're lucky and can find it on sale you can pay $18.99 but if no sale then you pay ove $21.00 for 24 ounces. Come on lady, really, do you think with this being my fourth child that I'd be that friggin' dumb?!?!?!?!

I REALLY don't think it's that hard to actually pull the file and scan it before making that phone call or during the phone call even. I'm not asking you to read the stupid thing from cover to cover but somewhere on that actual FOLDER is the shortened version of the issues each child has if it's going to be an ongoing problem. Please, just take a minute or two to scan it so you can be informed before you make yourself look extremely stupid and before you really piss the parent off. Okay, I'm getting off my soapbox now. Thanks for letting me vent.

Been awhile....

Since I've updated the family blog. Sorry about that everyone! All is well here for the moment. LOL Ryan has settled into school with no problems. He was a little skittish about me leaving him but once Katie and I were gone he was fine. This is the fourth week for him and he's now walking to class rather than having me carry him.

Katie is doing much better with dropping him off too. Today she couldn't wait to get to the classroom and took off running. (she likes to play with the toys while I get Ryan settled) Only to promptly fall on her face in the grass, thankfully it wasn't the concrete. She jumped right up and said, "Come on Mommy, let's go!!" It wasn't until after we dropped Ryan off and got back in the van that she noticed she had grass stains on her knees. "Mommy, you need to wash my pants, I don't like them dirty!" Sorry kiddo, you are going to have to wear them all day. Just in case you do it again later LOL.

Marie is doing good in school again. I just hope she keeps it up so she can get back on the A/B honor roll again. So far this year she's missed it each marking period. I think she really wants to go on stage to get her certificate this time so hopefully she'll stay on track. She likes her new haircut just like mine. It's easier for her to deal with although she still refuses to brush it unless I remind her a couple of times. Today she claimed she did brush it; I had to tell her using her fingers as a brush didn't count. Gotta love her for that one! LOL

Logan is doing great as well. He loves school and riding the bus. His behavior is getting a little better at home and he doesn't act up in school unless there is something wrong. He lost another tooth last night so he's really got a nice gapped smile. Still trying to use every piece of furniture as a trampoline but maybe we can break that habit soon. I'm not holding my breath but I can dream can't I???? The couch went outside on the patio (on it's way to the trash tomorrow) last night and he actually spent the ENTIRE night in his "big boy bed". Now, if he can just continue to do that life will be great! I was all ready for an all nighter last night and went to bed with one ear on alert and one eye open. Slept pretty good considering I was ready to spring out of bed at any time. Keep it up Logan!! Great job mommy's big man!! Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Ryan!

The boys favorite show; Thomas the Train and no Ryan didn't eat one bite. He sure loved playing with the Thomas train though. LOL
Logan's favorite toy; yes it was a gift to Ryan but Logan swooped in to grab it and never let it go. Ryan didn't care as the dancing and singing was freaking him out a little bit.

His favorite toy of the day. Thomas the Train phone that sings and teaches numbers and other fun stuff. Another noisy toy to add to their collection. I think I'm going to stop buying batteries. LOL

Wow! He really looks like Marie in this picture. Too cute!

Cheese Daddy! I believe this was Katie's favorite. Ryan liked it but only when Katie started playing with it. Isn't that just typical?!?!

This will go to school with him; it's full of fun stuff to color and paint. Yeah, it's going to school for sure. I'd rather he experiment with painting walls and desks there. LOL

Today was his 3rd birthday and his first day of school. He did great at school, whimpered once while we were trying to get out of the room. I did pretty good if I do say so myself; I waited for about an hour and a half before calling to check on him. He was fine, never shed one tear and was laughing up a storm in the background when I called. When it was time to pick him up, he walked out with such a jaunty little step that I was laughing (and yes I did shed a tear or two). He caught sight of me and yelled, "Mommy!" and ran right up and gave me the biggest hug. It just melted my hear right then and there. He had no nap and no bottle at all during the day but made up for the no bottles when he got home. He didn't nap once he got home and was out for the count around 9:15 which made for a nice restful night sleep for me. Way to go Ryan!!! Mommy loves you birthday boy!

Happy 4th Birthday Katie!

Her favorite shows on one cake. She loved the cars and liked the cake without the icing.

Ballerina outfit, bar and mat that came with it's own instructional DVD.

Kitchen stuff to play with now; it even makes noise too. Hmmmm not sure if that's a good thing or not. LOL

I think this was her favorite; her piano with microphone. They will fight over it I'm sure but as long as they have fun we can live with that.

Mommy's little princess a/k/a the birthday girl. The earrings came off as soon as the flash went on the camera. She's definetly my daughter LOL.

I can't believe my baby girl is four years old already. It seems like just yesterday when I was toting her to work with me. She was such a good quiet baby you didn't even know she was there. She's still a good girl and mommy's little angel. Happy birthday baby girl!

Update for the family

Okay, it took my Mom e-mailing me to remind me that I had started trying to change the background on my blog and got stopped in the middle of it. Oops! I had been trying to get a nice Valentine background but something in the code was not sitting well with blogger (go figure!) and then the kids got really crazy and that was the end of that. So today, I opened my e-mail to see a note from Mom and it took about 3/4 of my first cup of coffee to understand what she was trying to tell me. I've just spent about 30 minutes trying to just get back the old background and of course, that was a no go. I've settled for a generic blogger background just so I can bring everyone up-to-date with the happenings here.

So, without further ado here is what has been happening at our house for the past month. Let's see where to begin...... Well, DH is no longer working for the company he's worked with forever but he's still at the same resort. Another company bought out the managment company so now he's working for a nice big timeshare developer. Things are different but yet better so it wasn't a bad move (or at least we haven't seen anything that we can live with). Insurance is different which has caused me to start jumping through hoops to find out about therapy for both boys. Logan is covered for the moment but Ryan will be without as soon as he turns three which is less than three weeks away. I've had to get with the school board to see if he will fall into their PreK program that handles therapy during the school day. I've also had to contact the local CARD office to see about getting the Autism evaluation for him. I've got a ton of paperwork to fill out and still can't seem to find time without major distraction to do that. I'm hoping to do that today before it gets crazy.

Logan's disability is doing it's auditing this year so I'm having to find all DH paystubs for 2008. It's amazing how easily they get lost. I've got five more to find but I'm hoping they'll take what I have and wait for his old company to get me copies of the rest. If finding a night time job and being able to keep it weren't totally impossible it would be more beneficial for me to do so but not anytime soon. The boys are still having issues sleeping through the night and I can't ask DH to wake up with them four times a night and get up refreshed in the morning and head out to work. Maybe some day....

Logan had a meltdown on Tuesday and was inconsolable so he had to come home from school and ended up staying home the next day as we didn't know what was wrong. Turns out the poor little guy had another loose tooth and it was really bothering him. It came out last night but before I could nab it he'd swallowed it. I'm told this is more the norm with autistic kids but still it freaked me out a little. DH laughed and said just check his diaper tomorrow and you'll get it back. Yeah, okay, I'll be sure to dig right into that mess and save it for the tooth fairy dear. Ewwww! Marie wants to write a letter to the tooth fairy and explain the situation which really got me laughing. I can't wait to see that!

Ignore the mess and enjoy the laugh!

Halloween Pictures - a wee bit late!

Ryan loves Elmo! Well, at least he did before Halloween LOL!





Logan hates dressing up; can you tell?? He refused to wear the ninja's outfit correctly. No hood for this boy.



Smile!

The girls wanted to trick or treat again and since we don't allow them to have too much candy, I traded all the sweet stuff for some fun things.

Potty Trained!!!!!!!!!

She did it! She did it! Once Katie decided she wasn't afraid of the potty she took to doing her business in it like a duck to water. She's now been accident free for four days and that's including nothing in her diaper each morning. I believe that by the weekend we can stop putting her in diapers at night and declare her 100% potty trained! YEAH!

We've been working at getting the house organized again. Yes, we have to constantly work at it because of all the stuff and kids. I dream about the day when I can get rid of all the infant gates and baby toys and just have regular furniture. (This dream also includes sleeping through the night every single night so I don't see it happening anytime soon) Oh well, until that day I just constantly clean up and by the end of the week I'm going from room to room grabbing things and putting them back in their place. Some weeks are worse than others depending on what we have done that week. This week has been worse than normal because of the dresser situation but they are now in place and clothes are in them. I even took the time to go through my clothes and bag up what I haven't worn in a while and knew I wouldn't wear again. Now, I just have to get them to the needy clothing bins near the supermarket.

I'm still stumped on how to get the boys to sleep in their beds the entire night. Logan will start off in his big boy bed if I lay down with him until he falls asleep. A couple of hours later, he's coming to get Mommy to lay down on the couch with him. Ryan has to start in the big bed with Mommy and Daddy. When he falls asleep he goes into his crib because by this time, I'm not quite awake enough to stumble through the house and put him in his big boy bed. Within an hour (two at the very most) he's up and screaming to be put back in the big bed. This makes for very little sleep for Mommy and Daddy. If I could get Ryan to not take a nap and fall asleep early each night I might could get him to stay in his big boy bed but that's hard to accomplish right now. He's on that have to have my nap around 4:00 or 5:00 each night and you can't keep him awake. If you try, you will find him in the middle of the playroom floor just crashed out. Any suggestions?!?!?!?!?

Hello again!

Hello from sunny and somewhat cool (mornings at least!) Florida. The kids are all doing great and seem to be over their colds. Katie is almost completely potty trained on the big potty now. Ryan is talking more and more each day and exploring new ways to get in trouble. The other day he pushed our supply of boxes over and decided to jump off them. Now, jumping is part of his therapy so that was a good thing. It's the climbing the new potty stool and trying to jump off that could cause problems. It's a two step stool with a hidden storage area and the top is a little wiggly.

We found a GREAT deal on dressers at Target yesterday. Marie likes to rearrange her bedroom every other week and has moved Katie's cheap WM dresser one too many times. The one drawer was just laying on top of the other and we'd been searching for a cheap priced but not cheap material dresser for a couple of months. Target marked down these nice, REAL WOOD, dressers to 75% off. At that price, we paid less for a good dresser than we did for the cheap piece of crap that Katie was using.

Of course, by the time we got them home (yes, I said them as I need one too. Mine is a long dresser with very little space inside but a spacehog in of itself) it was time for the kids to get home. The ball game started a little before so Curtis was watching the ball game and putting together Katie's dresser. He took over my stove for his cordless drill and because he had some "issues" putting the dresser together I wasn't about to say anything about dinner until he was done. We ate sandwiches around 7:30 last night with no protest from him.

Speaking of Target, we found another great deal! A 7" dual digital picture frame for 75% off original price. We'd been wanting to get one for a while now so this was an unexpected but wonderful surprise. Of course, I always take my pictures off my memory card and put them on the computer so I can e-mail etc. It took me several hours to figure out how to get them back on the stupid thing. I can blame the constant interruption of running back and forth between the bathroom and the computer as that was loads of fun... NOT! I found that all you need to do is put your memory card in the slot on the computer tower (if you have one and thankfully we do) and just drag and drop the pictures from the computer onto the card. DUH! Usually, if it is too easy then it isn't going to work but not this time. Of course, if I had tried the easy way first, you know it wouldn't have worked right?!?!?! Now DH has a lovely picture show for his office that will not take up any more room. We've had to just keep replacing pictures in the frames rather than add to his collection because he was running out of room and now we don't have to do that.

It's been a great but very tiring week in the Cole house. I feel like I've accomplished a lot with getting the van fixed and the sink in the kitchen fixed. Not to mention that Katie is almost completely potty trained (don't want to jinx myself so not saying she is completely trained until weeks after she really is LOL) The boys have been starting off the nights in their big boy beds but always end up back on the couch and in Mommy's bed before the early hours of the morning. If I could just get some uninterrupted sleep in the next century my life would be almost perfect!

Family update

Sorry it's been so long between posts. A lot has been going on and before you know it almost a month has passed!

I have to make this quick as Ryan has therapy in less than an hour so I will get right to it. The boys are both doing great. They had a head/chest cold that didn't make them vomit which is a first time in a long time. (Something to celebrate!!!) Ryan had his evaluation for school transition and it looks like he won't qualify on his scores from the test alone. I'm having mixed feelings about the outcome. Yeah in one way, as that means he's come a VERY long way in under a year with all his therapy. Boo hoo in another because the psychologist said he really needs the extra help that the school would provide between three and five when he starts kindergarten. We have asked that he be tested for Autism (spectrum disorder) as we still see lots of "symptoms" that make us believe he's on it. If he gets a diagnosis then he should qualify for the school system at the age of three.

Logan is doing great and talking a little more each day. Not a lot that a stranger would understand but the family does so that's a plus for us. He really loves school now and enjoys getting up and getting ready with very minimal fussing. He and another student decided to follow the fifth graders rather than walk with their class the other day and almost gave his teacher and aide heart attacks. The good thing was they were walking nicely in line and were found pretty quickly. (Hmmmm, the boys are six and younger and fifth graders are 11 or older so I don't think it was too hard to find them LOL)

Katie is having progress with the potty training (minus yesterday as Marie told her to just go peepee in her diaper since Mommy was up yet!) That caused a set back of an entire day but at least we didn't have to go back four whole days. Today, as soon as she got up she said she had to go pee and sat on the potty. It did take her about an hour (of getting up and down, up and down.....) before she finally relaxed enough to actually go. I have resorted to bribing her now. She can have a much loved doll baby if she goes peepee in the potty all day today. If it works YEAH! If not, very BAD Mommy for resorting to bribery.

Marie had a great birthday. She actually had two days of celebrating as she had a friend stay over night on her birthday (not planned but they had an emergency and she ended up staying the night) They had tons of fun; playing, dancing, watching movies and pigging out all afternoon/evening long. The next morning I made them a nice breakfast and let her open a gift so they could play the newest version of Twister. Later on we had cake and let her open more gifts so she could go to bed early. I'd forgotten how it was with sleepovers; they stay up half the night or seems like it talking and playing. They probably fell asleep around midnight and for Marie that was late. It made it hard to get the others settled down enough to sleep and of course, everyone was up at the butt crack of dawn the next morning. Marie woke up at 5:00 and woke up her friend so they could play video games. Of course, you know how it went from there. Can you say sleep depravation for Mommy?!?!?!?!

Today I get to call the insurance company to have someone come out to replace the van's windshield. A nice big crack has spread out from that tiny rock crack that happened a couple of months back. I also have to call the realtors to get a plumber out because we have a nice big leak in the kitchen sink. I was trying to get the dishes soaking in hot water this morning and noticed that water was running down the door under the sink area. It wasn't running down the door but coming out from around the door. I opened up the cabinet and WOW! what a sight! Apparently the pipe has been leaking for a little while and it got bad enough to start coming out this morning so in between getting the kids ready for school; I was trying to get everything out and get it dry. What a way to start a Monday! Imagine what the rest of the week is going to be like. Can you say CALGON take me away with a few Margartias on the side?!?!

Labor Day Holiday Weekend

A quick update as the kids are all home on this holiday Monday.

Daddy chose to work today as he would have been bugged at least ten times today from work anyway. Just as he thought, he's extremely busy and probably won't have time to get a bite for lunch! He's supposed to take tomorrow off to make up for not having the holiday off and I'm hoping he gets to so we can spend some time together at the beach if possible!

The kids are all having a ball in the playroom playing Pooh Bear and the honey field. Marie and her imagination! Logan has decided he hates his diaper and has taken it off too many times to count this weekend so I've put him in some big boy underwear with plastic pants. The timer is set for 30 minutes and we will hit the potty every 30 minutes throughout the day. Here's hoping he'll actually hit the potty today rather than the pants! I'm going to have Ms. Katie sit on the musical potty when Logan sits on the big potty so maybe she can just get used to sitting on it without being terrified.

Ryan is being Ryan. Running around with the bigger kids and letting them know when he's mad by screaming like a banchee! Never a dull moment in this house. I'm over here to grab the camera so I can hopefully get some good candid shots of the four of them. I'm hoping to get the sun out for a longer period of time and take them out back to play on the slip-n-slide around 2:30 or there abouts. I will post pictures and another update later today after everyone is settled. (Don't be surprised if it doesn't actually get posted until tomorrow or the next day!)

Happy Labor Day everyone!

The summer storm

So we survived Tropical Storm Fay with no problems. (thank goodness!!) Today the kids are back in school and what kind of weather do we have? We are having a thunderstorm! The kids were off of school from Wednesday on through the week. We got rain off and on Thursday night and Friday during the day. No thunder storms and barely any wind which almost makes today's weather comical. What's happening right now is soooo much worse then what we dealt with last week and I'm really thankfull for that. So many people to the south of us were overwhelmed with rain that a lot of places had to evacuate. It flooded so much that it seemed like every time I turned around they were evacuating another housing development. Here's hoping we get a couple of weeks of nothing but sun so that all the flooding will go away and the home's and businesses can all dry out.

It was hard getting Logan up this morning and ready for school. I was sooooo brilliant that I set up his and Ryan's occupational therapy for first thing Monday mornings. Today he almost had to skip it but thankfully finally woke up and got a little nicer. After only two days of school then being cooped up in the house for the rest of the week, his schedule was all messed up. Marie, on the other hand, got right up and dressed herself and even helped get things picked up for me. She was still a little groggy and almost forgot to eat breakfast. Last Monday afternoon she informed me that she hadn't eaten enough breakfast and was "famished" in the afternoon. Hmmmm, could it have been the excitement of the first day of school that made her not want to eat much?!?!

Katie and Ryan were easier to get up as they both love to see Ms. Andrea come in to work with the boys. Ryan did really great today. We did some food therapy with him by having him eat some marshmellow fluff with his bananas. He only gagged when I gave the fluff by itself but when I hid it in the bananas he never even knew it was there. He never noticed that his hands got a little sticky and his face too. He's so picky about stuff being on his hands so that's another step up.

An end to the summer is near

Summer vacation is almost over and we've been having a lot of fun. We've gone to the beach twice a week and plan on continuing to do so after the kids go to school. Of course, on one of the two days, we'll only have two of the four but that will be a little easier to handle. Of course, I remembered to bring the camera but not to actually get it out and take pictures last Thursday. Sunday, I completely forgot to take it. It would have been a good day to get some pictures but I plan on putting it in my purse as soon as I sign off here so I will have it for Thursday. (Now to remember to actually take it out and use it!)

On Sunday, we stayed a little longer after getting an earlier start. Logan loved the water this time. It only took a little coaxing to get him to come with me and he just stood in almost to his knees and loved it. He kept smiling, laughing and waiving his hands up and down like Katie does. He didn't want to get out of it for very long so next time Daddy will have to take turns with me. Katie and Ryan wanted nothing to do with the water so I don't think it will be too hard to deal with them when it's just the four of us next week.

The kids start back to school on Monday! I'm almost ready for them to get going. I've got the clothes done, the backpacks are out but now I just need to get the school supplies together so I can take what I have when we go to meet their teachers on Friday. Of course, then we'll get those teacher's lists and have to get more supplies together but at least it won't be as much that first day. I need to bring some diapers and wipes for Logan but I'm really low and had ordered a delivery for last week. Of course, they didn't deliver and when I called to inquire about it I was told they were waiting for the items to come in. Hmmm, why not take a minute or two to inform someone that things are backordered rather than let them get irritated and call you back?!?! I guess I'm the only one who thinks about stuff like that. Perhaps I should write a book titled: How to Make Your Life Easier (for Dummies!). I guess it comes from dealing with the public so much during my working days. If it makes your life easier it also makes their life easier and they will be nicer to you the next time they have to call. Hmmm, it's also called using common sense but.......

A little something funny......

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm as graceful as they come....NOT! Well, I managed to do it again this past week. I was attempting to walk outside to the recycling bins and twisted my ankle. I landed on my bottom on the damp mat in front of the door in front of the neighbors and anyone driving by the house. Thankfully, no one said anything and I was able to get back up and slink back inside. I pulled a muscle in my left leg, bruised my right knee and pulled a muscle in my right wrist area. No big thing just a little painful for a few days.

It doesn't stop there though. On Sunday I was walking out the door for our date afternoon and almost did it again. This time, thankfully, I was able to catch myself before I twisted it too badly but not before Curtis saw that oh so graceful walk. He had to ask, "Did you just twist your ankle AGAIN?" What could I say, other than, "yes isn't your wife just so graceful?? but it only happens when I have shoes on so perhaps I should just not wear any when trying to walk outside the house!" No, it doesn't stop there either...

At the restaurant, on the way to the table, a waiter who had been kneeling next to another table jumped up and stomped on my other foot! By this time, I'm laughing and having to tell him it's okay, I'm fine. All through dinner I chuckled along with Curtis about how graceful I am. No, it doesn't stop there but this last one really is my fault. After we got home and got the kids ready for bed, I had to lay down on the couch with Logan. Normally he doesn't want me to lay down, just sit there while he falls asleep but I was tired so I lay down. He wasn't as tired so he decided to play with his little piano. Does anyone see where I'm going with this??? He jumped up on the couch and threw the piano down. My foot was there under the blanket so he really couldn't see it and yes it landed on the left foot. Talk about a bite your tongue and lips moment! It throbbed the rest of the night but is much better now and only a few bruises on both feet are now visible.

When I told my Mom, she was laughing and saying isn't this deja vu?? Remember the story about the chainsaw and the dining room chair from when I was a teenager?!?!?! Enough said!

More Summer Fun!

It's nice and calm first thing in the morning at the beach.

Daddy and the little ones playing in the sand.

More fun in the sand with Daddy.

Notice Logan hasn't budged from his chair?!?!

Logan went to the water and decided he didn't really want to play. Everytime I would try to get him to get up and come play in the water he'd just say "sit down!"

Another Monday...

Well, it's Monday again and last week was almost as fun as the week before. Well, maybe not as much fun but it sure was close. Let's see, we had a good start to the week but by Thursday it all just blew up. Logan has had this growth on his face called pyogenic granuloma and it suddenly started bleeding Thursday morning. I thought he had scratched it but later I found out that they just start bleeding on their own. I tried to stop it by applying pressure (oh yes that was fun with a 6 year old autistic child who hates being held down in any manner!) and then by putting on two bandades. Those bandades didn't last but five minutes before I had to grab some first aid pads and fold one in half. That lasted until we got to the doctor's office 15 minutes later.

Thankfully the doctor was still in town as he was leaving for vacation that day. He used some type of chemical on a swab to try to "cautorize" it but had to use another one and still wasn't getting the job done. It did slow it down to a nice slow leak so that we could get to the dermatologist 30 minutes away. How cool was that? The doctor took his cell phone out while we were in the room, called her office and had her agree to see Logan right away. He gets the good doctor vote in my book! She has him beat though. We walked into her full waiting room, I signed him in, got the new patient paperwork to fill out and went to sit down and here came her nurse pulling us back into the room already. The doctor immediately walked in the door and started talking and filling out the paperwork for me! It had finally stopped bleeding so she talked to me about what it was and what could be done, which unless you cut and scrape it out isn't much. We decided that day was as good as any to perform the procedure.

With the help from me and her nurse, she was able to get him still enough for the two minute procedure and the only thing he felt was a slight sting when she had to give him a shot to numb the area. I kept promising him if he behaved I'd take him to McDonald's for some french fries and he did great! I was soooooo proud of my little man. He was a trooper and fussed just a little bit. He did decide that he'd gone through quite a lot and wouldn't share a single fry with me at all. Too cute; I tried to get him to hand me one but all I got was "the look." You know, the look that says "over my dead body" or "when HELL freezes over." He figured he'd been the one to get somewhat traumatized so he deserved every last stinkin' fry. Too cute!!! I now have to wash the area twice a day with antibacterial soap and put some neosporin on with a bandade to keep it dry. Well the bandades we had irritated his skin so we had to switch and now he fights me on washing his face. Go figure right?! Poor little guy has been through enough and he's rebelling! I'm currently bribing his good behavor for wash time with every color balloon we currently have in the house. At this rate we will be out by tomorrow!!

I thought that was the end of the traumatic experiences for the day but NOOOOO I had something else in store for me. On the way home, we were on the interstate (in the middle of a torrential downpour, I might add!!) the windshield wipers just stopped! Now, of course, my luck being what it is, they stopped right in the middle of their sweep range which meant right in front of my face. I had to slow down and put on my hazards (or so I thought) and stay right beside a small truck so I could tell lines on the road. Once the rain let up, I jumped behind a nice big truck and slowly followed him the rest of the ride home. The rain started and stopped several times for the rest of the ride home. The diagnosis on the van: not sure as we can't get to the wiper cable because it's blocked by some type of bolt that we have no tool for which is how they build them now. They want you to have to go to the dealer and pay out the behind once your warranty is done so you will get fed up and buy a new car. Yeah, that will happen when I can find a job on the night shift!

Happy 6th Birthday Logan!

Happy Birthday Mommy's little man!

Looking out the window, waiting for Daddy to come home.

This is my little angel smile....

I'm a little tired, I think I'll chill out for a while.

Logan's first Astros game.

Take me home already Mommy!

His very first picture; 8 lbs. 6 oz. 7/16/02 at 5:56 p.m.

Tuesday morning update

Let's see, where were we before the week got in the way?? Oh yeah, now I remember. After we found the key last week, Ryan got sick and kept us up most of the night for several days. He was able to finally get some sleep Saturday night thank goodness. He also had to be held the entire time so I didn't get much cleaning done (Darn!) or laundry (Oops!) but as long as he was being snuggled he was almost content. It wasn't until he started feeling a little better that being snuggled wasn't cutting it; he wanted to be snuggled but he wanted to be well enough to play so he got down right CRANKY! He's now much better but still a little clingy.

Mom came up to play in the kiddie pool with us yesterday and we all had a great time. The kids loved seeing MeeMaw and playing cards with her. Marie and her played Go Fish and she let Katie hold all her finished matches. They then played War while Katie and Ryan watched them. Logan came in to watch and would climb up in the chair with MeeMaw to see what she was up to every now and then. We then jumped into the van and headed to McDonald's so we could get Logan some fries as a special treat for all his hard work in therapy. Of course, we couldn't just get him fries so all the kids ended up with fries, MeeMaw got some dinner and I had a lovely iced carmel coffee. That was soooooo good! It could have been almost too sweet but it was so hot and the a/c is tempermental and will work with no noise only when it feels like it so rather than go deaf I don't bother with it. Of course, the sun was out and it was HOT so we were all sweating our bums off. She will be making another visit up our way sometime soon but will head up in the morning before it gets too hot so we can go sight seeing with her.

So, today it's back to the cleaning and laundry as I didn't do any of it yesterday between the three therapy sessions and MeeMaw coming up. (Thanks Mom, I didn't want to do any cleaning and you gave me the perfect excuse and NO that isn't why I had you come up. We miss you!) I need to get some laundry started and then go tackle my closet. It has gotten to where I can't walk in there without stepping on something. How is it that adults let their closet get as bad as a kids? I never let Marie's closet get like that ('course, I don't let her in hers either!) I was looking for my sandles the other day and it took me ten minutes to find them in our mess and I was sweating when I finally did locate them. It's getting to the point that we can't hide stuff for the kids in there anymore anyways as Marie is too smart for that. Time to clean! Okay, maybe after one more coffee which is my total day limit but hey, did I ever tell you I'm alergic to cleaning?!?!

What a fun Monday......NOT!

Today started out with us waking up late and Logan having to be at school for therapy at 8:00. I had to jump up, get dressed, wake everyone else up (except for Curtis) and start changing diapers and getting them dressed. As I was rushing to get my shoes on, Curtis went to grab the keys for the mustang which blocked my van in the driveway. I had taken the mustang keys yesterday to put the car seats back in after Curtis did some major cleaning of the van. I remember locking the door with the push alarm button but don't remember anything with it after that point. Of course, it was time to start loading the kids up when we discovered the key was MIA.

He grabbed the alarm key that wasn't working; low or dead battery and headed out the door. He got it open and the alarm off in time to roll it back far enough where he could back the van out and around it. We set off to therapy only ten minutes late. After we got home I started the massive cleaning and search for the key. The living room has been ransacked and put back together very neatly. The desks have had the same done to them as well as the kitchen. I finally sat down and asked him to check the truck when he had a free second in the off chance that he took the key yesterday on his way to get gas for the lawn mower. Neither one of us had much hope that it was in there and I was starting to ransack/clean up the master bedroom when the phone rang. Almost six hours after I started the ransack/clean up of the house, the key was found in the truck. I'm just thankful that he found it before I had to rip apart the bedroom and bathroom areas. I'm all for the Spring/Summer cleaning but this isn't quite how I wanted to do it! Now I can relax a few minutes before Ryan's therapy starts this afternoon and get back to picking up the bedroom and start on some laundry. WHEW, what a MONDAY!

Happy Independence Day!

I was just going to put a little something about today being the 4th of July but then I read a friend and fellow bloggers post. Please visit her site www.crossedpurposes.blogspot.com to see a truly inspirational note for today. Thanks Beth for reminding us all that today isn't all about fireworks, food and fun!

Happy 4th of July and Happy Independence Day to all of you!