Tayton

I haven't blogged much lately so it goes without saying that I haven't clued anyone in on how Tayton's been doing. When we left Missouri we had a diagnosis of Sensory Integration Disorder and Anxiety Disorder.

Since moving here we've been screwed out of him receiving his occupational therapy which was a life saver while we were in Missouri. But he's been seeing a child psychologist and child psychiatrist which we struggled and never succeeded in getting into in there.

They are now officially willing to say he has "asperger traits", severe anxiety, OCD and of course the Sensory Integration Disorder. All of which are the asperger traits. He also has some signs of ADHD but not a true diagnosis. I actually agree with all of this.

He's an amazing kid! He just needs things done a little differently. He needs constant reassurance and refuses to let himself make mistakes which hinders his school work. Teachers don't love to have to tell Tayton three times that he has permission do something. And he's a rules kid. There's never a gray area with him. He got sent to the office last year because he knows we don't talk to strangers and no one introduced him to the gym teacher so therefore he was a stranger. The gym teacher tried to talk to him and he ran and hid behind behind the mats! Ha ha!

We went to a local pool yesterday and the rule was that the lifeguard had to tell you when it was clear before you get on the diving board. (yes that's right, he was jumping off the diving board into 12.5 ft deep water!! He's amazing!). So every time before he got on the diving board even though he could see it was clear he would yell "excuse me ma'am, all clear?" with his hand in the air thumbs up. They laughed every time because even if she said go ahead before he asked he still had to ask and they still had to say it again. That's my boy!

So now that we're moving to MI for the deployment I'm hoping we have great resources available for him. If not I will seek them out and we'll have a year of fabulous progress!

In a short time we went from him being scared but really wanting to jump off ..........

To throwing caution to the wind and running and jumping like a champ!!

~Till They All Come Home~

Still Around

Well I haven't blogged in a while because facebook life has taken over. Mackinley will be 5 months old this week and I'm ashamed to say I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures in the past month. She got her first tooth yesterday. She's rolling all over the place and shows signs of sitting up in the near future as well. She laughs a little but isn't cooing too much. Last week she weighed in at 13lb 6oz and is 25 1/8 in long.

Mackinley at 4 months old!

Mackinley in her new BB Bib made by my beautiful sister in law and her fabulous sister! You can get your own here.

Korbin is doing great. We haven't been giving him his ADHD meds cause we like a lively little boy running around the house all day!! He's much more fun off the meds. His kidney check up was scary because it's swollen and retaining urine but when they compared it to last years scans there weren't any significant changes so we're gonna wait it out.

Korbin on our zipline out back.

Korbin at work on family day with Kirke.

Tayton is doing okay. They are now calling his issues "Asperger's traits" as a combination of severe anxiety disorder, OCD and Sensory Integration Disorders are kicking his butt these days! He's going to be 9 soon. He's gone back and forth with some things lately. For one he's getting himself so worked up he cries and within minutes gets a killer headache. But they're going away within a reasonable time frame with Motrin. He's also gone back to biting himself a few times recently. He's seeing a pediatric psychologist and psychiatrist right now and testing out some medication.

Tayton on the zipline out back!

Mackinley with a silly nose. I came out of the bathroom and found her this way...thanks Tate!!

Lots of funny, crazy, insane things go on inside these walls everyday unfortunately facebook gets all the funny stuff and blogspot is just getting the updates. I'll work on that!

~Till They All Come Home~

Two Quick Things

On Thursday last week we were called by Korbin's doctors and told that we needed to take him to the Watertown Hospital to have an IVP done on his kidneys and urinary tract. Apparently the specialist he's going to in Rochester didn't like what he saw on the kidney ultrasound and needs more tests so that our first visit will him will be more productive or something. I don't know but I do know that I don't like urgent serious tests. Poor Korbin will have an IV with contrast while they do a serious of imaging for about an hour. No food or drink means no ADHD meds which means off the wall frustrated, impulsive little boy. Fun.

On the upside Tuesday is the day that our family will be complete! I'm certain when I say that this time although we thought it once before, after my hysterectomy and all, this time seems much more permanent as we won't be looking to adopt again. I have enough friends who need kids so I'll point the next family emergency in that direction!

My next post will be full of pictures from the adoption!!

~Till They All Come Home~

ER Visit #2

At about 5:30 tonight we took Taytons temperature and he was up to 103.6 again (I think). He had Tylenol around 3 and I gave him Motrin right then and I called the ER since we were there last night. They told me to bring him right in. So I did and they took his temperature and it was 102.8 they told him that he was dehydrated and if he didn't drink the giant cup of Gatorade they gave him then he'd be getting another IV. The went ahead and gave him more Tylenol. Then we waited for about 4 hours to be called back. They took us back and of course by then he had plenty to drink and the meds were working well and he was feeling fine. Little snot! The doctor sent us for more chest x-rays to rule out pneumonia and said he didn't have to get an IV unless he stopped drinking plenty and we brought him back in. They believe it's the flu which type we don't know. It doesn't matter much since they treat it the same with Tamiflu, which he's on.

Let's hope that we can finally get some sleep and that this is the end of the ER trips for the flu.

~Till They All Come Home~

Wow What A Night We Had

Korbin was feeling a lot better yesterday. But Tayton came into our bedroom around 6am crying, well screaming that his head hurt and he was running a fever and cried himself into an asthma attack. Good morning! We went back to bed after the medicine kicked in. We got up a while later and after lunch we did two hours of school. Sometime in that time period Tayton needed his inhaler again when he started with another asthma attack.

Around 3:30 I took Taytons temperature and it was 101. No biggie, he always runs fevers with any sort of sickness. A little Tylenol and sent him on his way. Korbin's fever was hanging around 99-100 without meds.

Well Kirke came home from work and I sent him up to check Taytons temperature. He said the reading shot straight up to 104 and he stopped and came to get me. I took it again and his temperature was 104.6!! We snapped into fight mode. I changed into pants and Kirke got Tayton dressed. Gave him Motrin and headed off to the ER.

Once we got there we waited a few minutes they took his vitals and sent us off to xray for chest xrays. With his asthma and frequent bronchitis we come to expect that. After his xray a nurse was waiting for us to take us not back to he ER but to an empty waiting room of one of the clinics. Weird. Then they took us back to a room and explained that they would be testing him for seasonal flu as well as H1N1. No worries here. I knew he'd be alright. They did those two tests, started an IV, took blood, did a urinalysis. His heart rate was 170 and stayed high even after his fever came down to 100. The IV seemed to help and his heart rate was 136 when we were released.

All the test were negative but the doctor seemed convinced that this is indeed the flu and the test isn't as reliable as we could hope. So with the decision that the flu test (regular flu, we don't have the N1H1 results yet) was a false negative. She sent us home and he's doing pretty well.

Tayton stole the hearts of his personal nursing staff in what turned out to be the fast track clinic not some kind of isolation chamber. He wasn't supposed to be on that side because he had to have blood drawn and an IV but they took him because they didn't have any patients and the ER was full. He had 3 nurses who were so attentive to him and answered all of his crazy questions and did everything they could to make him feel safe and comfortable.

I'm pretty sure this was our best visit to the ER in the 3 years we've been here. And we make plenty.

During discharge the nurse gave us his note to excuse him from school for the next 5 days......Tayton was very excited! Then I had to clarify that she meant public school not home school. I also told him if he'd like to follow the rules on the note then he should read the rest that says he can return (to public school) on the 12th! He didn't agree.

~Till They All Come Home~

Korbins Kidney Saga Continues

You know how when you're at the doctors they are all chatty as can be until they find something that's just not quite right? Today we got that again.

Korbin had his annual ultrasound on his kindey to see how he's doing. She was all peachy and talkative as she scanned his right (healthy) kidney and then when she got to the left she was like a clam. She didn't even hear Korbin asking her questions as she clicked away capturing the images. Some with color to show the blood flow and one that made it look like a freakin volcano!

I looked as she scanned each kidney and the differences were obvious. You could see the dark area that showed the level of urine retention in his left kidney. I'm afraid we'll be heading back to Columbia for him soon.

Prayers and happy thoughts of good results and me just being an over reacting-stressed out-spazzy-assed mom.

Here are the links to stories to fill ya in if you have no clue what I'm talking about with Korbin.

First this happened.

Second he had surgery.

Third and then

Fourth

~Till They All Come Home~

The monkey tail has left the building! Thank God!!

I called the doctors office crying, complaining and begging to ask if there was any chance they could remove the monkey tail and see if things were working okay. I knew the risks and was willing to chance it. They agreed to let me see the Doctor here on post to do it for me instead of driving 2 hours to the doctor who did my surgery.

I showed up and my male doctor informed me that there was no female chaperon available at the time and if it was going to be removed it would have to be with him and his male SPC that was working.

I didn't care if they did it in the middle of the waiting room as long as they took the damn thing out! Only I really did care, a little, cause I have a shred of modesty. Men have no concept of modesty. When the female nurse is helping my doctor she keeps me all covered up and comfortable. With the guys I was lucky they shut the door! No really, they didn't shut the door until they said to hop up on the torture chambers table and I looked at them like they were nuts.

Everything went well. It's amazing how great it is to be able to pee all by myself like a big girl! That is going on my list of things to never take for granted!

~Till They All Come Home~

They Took It But They Gave It Back

I had to ride two hours to Columbia to get my monkey tail out yesterday. They took it out and everything seemed to be working fine. They sent me on my merry way. As the day progressed I felt things weren't quite right but I was hoping for the best.

At 2am I woke up horrible pain and some other not so pretty details. I texted my warden good friend Amber and she rushed over and whisked me away to the ER. Amazingly enough they saw how shitty I looked much pain I was in and they took me straight back. A few hours later after they installed a new monkey tail they sent me home.

Things aren't healing right and now I'm stuck with my monkey tail until Monday at the earliest. I made a very rash decision during this time. My husbands family has an annual family reunion and it's this weekend. They go away to a place in Oklahoma and stay in cabins for 4 days. Kirke's mom is one of the organizers each year so she had to be there.

For the first time in 7 1/2 years I am alone. No children, no husband, just me. To be honest I don't like it one bit. But considering the circumstances the kids need to go and have fun and I need to rest and get better. So my first time not in the hospital spending the night away from my kids and they will be hours and hours away! I'm a little lot freaked out!

Now I'm off to rest and be sad and lonely but damn it I'm gonna get better!!!

Vonage Eff Ups AND Korbin Thinks I'm a Saint!

Here's the latest in Vonage Visual Eff Up's!


"Hi Michelle. (??) We do find a tough tractor and we have to splint that thing. So all you had to do is. I'm gonna have a tracker girl. I'm trying to get hold of you. Let's see if I could make an appointment and see if we can catch up there, and (guess? up that properly. Ok? So, I'll try to get hold of you, for tomorrow or the next day. Ok. Meantime, your buddy tape, Tathan. (??) Ok. Bye bye."


--- Brought to you by Vonage ---
This email was sent from a mailbox that does not accept replies.


What it really said was that my little boy has his first broken bone. The tip of his finger is crushed. It had to be splinted and they said it will cause pain for probably 3 months. Life in our house will be full of tears.

I took him to the doctor this morning because he's been on breathing treatments every four hours with a fever off and on since Friday. They said he had a throat infection (since he can't have tonsilitis without tonsils) and put him on meds.


Thursday he had been playing on the playground in the rocks. Well he and his pals had found a ginormous rock and one little boy tossed it and Taytons finger caught it.....or cushioned it's landing at least. So since were being seen today I asked them to do an xray to make sure it's not broken.


Then I got that visual voicemail around 2 today and called them back. I wanted it handled today because I don't want him to miss school tomorrow. So I did what any stupid responsible mom would do and I took Korbin out of school and then rush to the hospital to have Tayton see his doctor, this was around 2:30 and we had to be at the other end of the hospital at 2:45 for Korbins ears. At 2:45 the doctor hadn't come down to splint his finger yet so I started pacing. You see at these military doctors they require us to be 15 minutes early for our appointments. That's to allow them plenty of time to sit and laugh us idiots wasting 15 minutes of our time sitting in germ infested waiting rooms. So I was worried they wouldn't see Korbin at ENT if we got there at his actual appt. time of 3:00. I mean he hadn't sat in their waiting room inhaling enough germs so he might not have qualified to be seen.

But they did see him and it went fine. His ears are still infected because he was only put on an oral antibiotic and not the ear drop one. His other tube has come out but is stuck in his ear canal so we have drops for that side now too. That's what we do for fun in our house!

Anyone wanna come play at our house?

Here's the damage five days after the accident. See the bruising halfway down that finger? It's ugly in person....Kinda like some people I (nevermind I'll keep it to myself)!
Here's his fakey fake sad face!
And here's what he thinks about me making him let me take pictures of his painful injury!!!

This just in:

Korbin came downstairs well after I put him to bed.

Korbin: Mom my belly grumbled

Me: Go to the bathroom

Korbin: No my belly grumbled for you.

Me: what?

Korbin: It said it needed you! And then I said it too.

Me: GO TO BED!!!

Korbin: I was ner-biss upstairs up without you.

Me: Why aren't you asleep?

Korbin: Well I was alseep and then your tv woked me up.

Me: go back to bed

Korbin: I will when you go to bed.

Me: When I was five years old I went to bed way earlier than this.

Korbin: Ohhhhh. Were you in trouble?

Me: No! I never got in trouble I was a good kid!

Korbin: Awesome!

I have him fooled! He still thinks I'm 21 too!

The Good News Is....

The good news is that Tayton and I went to Columbia today and he had his Cystic Fibrosis test and it came back negative and he weighed in at his highest weight ever of 40 pounds today! The bad news is that he's still having asthma problems and we're struggling to get it controlled. He missed school yesterday because he got a cold and it's kicking his butt! I'm sending him to school tomorrow but I know he's going to have a rough day. The worse news is that I am sick now too. My head might explode and my temper already has more than once today.

What's next? We don't know. We still have a little boy who is not even measurable on the Body Mass Index chart because he is so thin. Thin wouldn't be a problem except that he lacks the ability to fight off illnesses. He gets sick and gets so much sicker than the rest of us. That on top of his Sensory Integration Disorder means that missing school is rough on him because of his routine being upset as well as missing out on the learning. Next we make an appointment his developmental pediatrician and discuss our next path. Everything seems so bittersweet but thank God that cystic fibrosis is not his culprit.

Thanks to everyone who thought about us today and sent good vibes our way, it worked!

Korbin's Problem Is Spreading

Korbin went to school today and he did well up until the last few minutes of the day. It seems that his leg that was having problems following the classroom rules, is no longer the sole limb affected by this ailment!

Mrs. Korbins Teacher approached me at the end of the day to let me know she read the note on his behavior chart in which I wrote that I have scheduled Korbin for surgery to replace the faulty leg that got him in trouble on Friday in case his training techniques didn't work. She told me that the procedure is going to take much longer because now his arm is also going to need replaced because it was causing trouble today.

Poor little Korbin! He's gonna have all mismatched limbs by the end of kindergarten the week!

Tayton missed school today. I knew that hoping to make it a full month without him getting sick was an unobtainable goal. Saturday morning he woke up coughing which caused him to have a bad asthma attack and was so worked up he had a fever of 104. That went down to around 103 by the time he finished his breathing treatment and within an hour of having motrin it was down to 101 I think. We've had to continue his breathing treatments in addition to his regular asthma controller meds. Poor kiddo!

Now in addition to his horrible cough, his ear and throat hurt! Tomorrow we go to Columbia to see his doctor and have the Cystic Fibrosis test done so send some extra prayers this way that we'll get some answers to our quesstions and why he's so sick all the time and unable to get up to a decent weight or at least register on the Body Mass Index charts.

Today My Baby is Sick

I knew it couldn't happen. Not in my family. There was no way on Earth we could pull it off. Unfortunately I was right. We only made it three days of school before the inevitable. One of the boys got sick.

It all started last night around 6:30 when Korbin started crying that his legs hurt and he couldn't walk. I carried him from the bathroom to my bed and laid with him for a few minutes. He fell asleep. I thought at first that maybe, just maybe kindergarten was very tiring for a little boy who has never been in school all day long before.

I was wrong. He woke up crying at 8 so I borrowed a thermometer and it told me his temperature was 104.9! Wait just a minute that can't be right! I stripped him down, took away my heavy blanket in exchange for a sheet. I checked it again a few minutes later... 104.2! UGH! Motrin to the rescue! We got it down to around 100.5 I believe before he and I went to bed for the night around 11. He slept all night long without any problems.

We took Tayton to school and then came home and he slept till around 11.

When he woke up and I took his temperature again it was 104 under his arm. I called the appointment line but of course there were no appointments. I called the urgent care clinic in town but get this...they were all in a meeting! Yep there was no one except the answering service lady who couldn't do anything but take messages! They would not be back until 2pm. I was mad!

I decided he needed to go to the ER. OH and I almost forgot. I had called the school to ask the nurse to check Tate to make sure he was feeling okay at 11:30. She called said he was fine. Then about ten minutes later she called back. I guess Tayton fell, well tipped out of his chair and hit his little head really hard. She assured me he was fine. I told her about Korbin and she confirmed that he needed to go to ER.


Blah blah blah anyhow after lots of talk about tick bites, meningitis, and bronchitis they determined that he should have a chest xray, and IV line put in to draw blood and in case he needed meds or IV fluid and a urinalysis. After all this they decided they don't know whats wrong. They sent us home with Motrin and an appointment tomorrow to follow with hopes of some other clue surfacing.

Aside from the doctor stinking like cigarette smoke and speaking kinda weird I felt that they were thorough and took good care of him. They loved the "mohog" and he didn't even cry during the IV but he sure wanted it out! He kept saying take it out take it out! Oh and when the dr used the tongue depressor to hold down his tongue Korbin grabbed his hand to pull it back out! Silly kid! He ate dinner and now he's playing. I'm sure it wont last long but it's nice that he's kinda feeling okay.

It Showed Up on My Porch

It showed up on my porch.


What else was I supposed to do?


Send it away in the rain to be run over by all the stupid work trucks and tractors zipping through our yards and up and down our streets today at 90mph for no apparent reason?

Should I have called animal control?


Maybe I should have grabbed an umbrella and a picnic basket and carried the so-called dog up and down the street looking for the owner?


This isn't him but it looks just like him.



So I did what any logical person who's been considering getting a cute little puppy would do.

I found the dog when I was on webcam with Kirke.


I got up to open the window and let in some fresh air and there he was looking at me!


I let him in.



I picked him up and held him in front of the web cam. Kirke knows I've been talking about getting another dog. His response was "what is that"? I'm pretty sure this is not the dog he pictured me getting. So of course I told him it was mine. But quickly said it's not ours before he began to plan a way to kill me for getting another "kickme" dog.


He came in and played with my two dogs Scrappy and Allie while I called Home Again to find out who he belonged to.


I could have called the post vet clinic but they would come get him and then charge the family to get him back and the man who runs animal control is on my hit list! He used to steal my cat off my front porch! Who does that?


So after having this lost dog in my house all afternoon I finally got ahold of the owner and we took the dog to her. This meant I held it for more than a minute and then I stunk like wet dog!

So at four in the afternoon I had to shower. Way to throw off the routine!

Now I have a sick Cool Dude. He was crying that his legs hurt at 6:45 so I laid with him in my bed. Then he fell right asleep. He woke up around 8 and I took his temperature. The thermometer told me his temp was 104.9!! WHAT? No way, I stripped his little but down to his shorts, took away my very hot blanket and threw a sheet over him. Gave him a dose of Motrin and laid with him for a few minutes. I took his temp again, this time 104.2, ok getting better. Within a half hour it was down to the "not going to cook my brain" range so I let him sleep. He just came down (its 9:45) and it's now 101. Much better.


Ugh the whining begins. Love love love having a sick kiddo! Off to bed with my computer I go. It's gonna be a long long night!

Hey Mom!

I walked into the house and Korbin shouted "Mom guess what? Mine and my brothers balls can hit the ceiling!" There are just some things you don't ever want to hear. They were referring to their new bouncy balls they got from the doctors office of course.

They had their school physicals yesterday. When the stupid nurse took Taytons oxygen saturation levels it peaked at 93%. The doctor pointed out his very notable heart murmur as well. They would not order a chest xray for him even though we've been agressively fighing his asthma since the first of August and he had been on an increased dose of all four meds since Sunday. Nope they said it was a school physical not a doctors appointment.

Who knew there was a difference?

Silly me for thinking she was a doctor since her name was Dr. HellIcan'tRemember! Same doctor who didn't listen when I told her that Taytons eye is red and bloody from being hit by Korbin the day before. She turned to me and said "well he has conjunctivitis". I said "what?" and she said "pink eye". well no freaking kidding conjunctivitis is pink eye but are you completely stupid?? I wanted to kick her! Instead I said "well obviously its not pink eye since he has a cut above and below the red area from the injury that caused the red/bloody eyeball in my kid!" She said "oh I didn't realize he was injured!" Of course she didn't realize it because this was just a school physical not a doctors appointment where she had to actually listen to the patient!

Home we went after poor Korbin got 5 shots. Yep these people didn't order enough of the 3 in 1 shot of something or other so they had to do each seperate. He was mad as can be! Like they didn't know how many kids were enrolled in kindergarten in this county and how many would be needing kindy shots. Seriously this place needs to learn how to plan it's ridiculous!

So anyhow they send us home, Tayton with his 93 pulse ox and prominent heart murmur that wasn't there a month ago. I called his pediactric pulmonary doctor in Columbia and they went through the roof. They wanted him to be seen today but not in the ER if we can avoid it because Tayton gets sick so easily we try to avoid sending him into petrie dishes such as the GLWACH ER. I called the clinic they said "well he has an appointment on Monday". Well that's just super duper lets let him wait, I mean seriously it's not like he needs to be able to breathe on Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday! Finally I just said "can't we just come in and you can stick the stupid thing on his finger to see where he's at?" Then he says well you can but if it's low then we're gonna send you to the ER! Well no freakin duh you idiot! I just don't want to take him there unnecessarily! And how all of the sudden does he get to pretend to be concerned that something might be wrong? MEN! It was at 96 so we came home and I'll call tricare in the morning to try to get him another appointment that isn't just a physical so they can order a chest xray cause you know that takes like three minutes of typing!

Ugh he's coughing his little head off! Time to go to bed it could/will be a long night!

This is Kirke's mom and three of the four Best Boys at Relay this year. Dylan is the oldest and must have snuck off somewhere! Who can blame him since these three are all so close in age. Dylan is 2 1/2 yrs older than Tayton, then I had Tate and Steph got pregnant for Preston right away and no sooner than she had Preston and I was pregnant for Korbin!

Tayton's Appointment

We headed off to Columbia this morning and had a seemingly uneventful day. Tayton handled the allergy testing well. They did more tests on his lungs, just normal breathing tests and raised his preventative meds, well actually put him on advair instead of flovent. Good enough.

Oh yeah I forgot! Korbin forgot to wear shoes AGAIN today. How can you forget shoes? Seriously when I'm screaming saying get your shoes on and get in the car you'd think he'd be able to handle a two step set of directions! Grrr darn kid!

The really cool student doctor knew all about Pokemon so he was aloud to actually touch Tayton without too much freaking out, it was really really great! The second person that came in was named Candy. Tayton blurted out "why would your mom name you Candy?" She said "I don't know, I've wondered that myself sometimes!" I jumped in and explained it was because she is so sweet! Darn kids don't realize when they might be being rude. She understood.

They told me that because he has respiratory problems and is so underweight that they still need to test him for cystic fibrosis. They said not to be too worried about it because it's not highly likely but it is a possibility. Then they told me that they can just do it at his next appointment or we can schedule one sooner if we feel the need. I figured we can wait until September when he's due back since its over a two hour drive and they didn't seem overly concerned about this possibility.

On the drive home Tayton asked me "Mom does the water from your stomach go up into your eyeballs?" Now I have no idea why or where that came about but I had no answer so of course I told him that I had no clue. Now this is not an answer that he take lightly. His response is always "but you're the mom and you said mom's know everything! Why won't you tell me?" He's so smart, too bad his daddy hasn't learned that bit of useful info on the mom's yet! So then I have to make up some answer because "I don't know" doesn't work on this little guy and I don't want him to think that maybe, just maybe Mom doesn't know everything!

We had to eat at Burger King today because they have a drive thru and there was no chance of me going inside with these two naughty little boys one of whom was barefoot it's the only logical place to eat since they have Pokemon toys and no one else does. My little Tayton had been through enough at the doctors to earn the right to another Pokemon toy today. He is a die hard poke'fool! And yes I'm "that mom" that lets her kids eat fast food sometimes. Especially when they have Pokemon toys. I'll be glad when that's over! They had homemade pizza for dinner if that helps any? No? I didn't figure it would but it was worth a shot! Besides it beats eating at that M place that's for sure and we had to get home before the storms rolled in.

Oh by the way the car rules haven't actually been enforced yet because we had to be on a long trip today and well, I'm weak. But tomorrow, yeah tomorrow, we'll vacuum it out and the rules will be posted somewhere that they can read them regularly. Maybe I should print them and make them sign a copy too!

I've done this before!

Today the girls and I went to donate blood again. We were actually a month late. We did platelets last week. I was the first one in the chair and I'm super fast at donating. We had 7 kids with us this time. Two of them were under the age of one. They cried and cried! The staff was terrible with it and was down right mean. The two ladies we do know that we see everytime we dontate were awesome though!



Here are the pictures:




And I don't know what happened or why it happened but I finished donating and she removed the needle and wrapped me right up and I was going to grab my snack and head outside with the kiddos. Well I got to the door, sat down for a drink and a snack and next thing I knew I thought I was gonna be sick and pass out all at the same time!


They dragged me kicking and screaming back into the room and made me lay down on the "I'm lame and can't handle giving blood" lounger. And ever since then I've felt horrible. I slept this afternoon and then got up and still feel bad. I have a Tupperware Party to go do at 6 so it'll be interesting. I already warned the hostess that I'm not feeling well so it will be a short demo.


Hopefully this never happens again. Grrr karma! I laughed at Roxy and called her "Fainty Faintasaurus" last time (I have issues with name calling turned into new dinosaurs) and this is what I get! Shame on me! Sorry Roxy!

***UPDATE***

Well I survived my Tupperware Party barely! But I did and it was so worth it! I made some good cash! Anyone need some Tupperware? LOL! I still feel crappy and now I'm gonna have to wait till tomorrow to finish my paper but that will just have to be okay because right now my head is too loopy feeling!

In my opinion it's totally worth feeling so crappy for one day if it means I can save three lives of people who feel this crappy everyday. My one day of yuck is no comparison! Go donate!!

Happy Fourth Of July

We had a fantastic day yesterday! We started out the day driving to Springfield over an hour away to have our blood syphoned out of us, cycled through an apheresis machine and separated so that they could keep our platelets and plasma and we got our red and white blood cells returned to us in an anticoagulant solution. It was super fun!

Actually it was really nice. We sat in these super comfy heated chairs and laughed a lot and raced to the finish. Brandy got up first but dang it all I only took 51 minutes and she took 56! So there! She got the fancy fast machine. Hers mixed the platelets and plasma into one bag so she actually got to donate 5.3 and Amber and I only got to do 4.0 on our old antique machines that bagged the platelets and plasma separately. Not that I know what those numbers represent but I know that 5.3 is way bigger than 4.0.

Platelets are used for many different types of patients. When you donate whole blood it takes the blood of six donors to accumulate enough platelets for the recipients tranfusion. When you donate platelets that donation can be delivered immediately to the recipient. This means they recieve the transfusion from one donor instead of six different donors. Platelets can only be stored for five days. Click here to learn more about how you can help!


I think the workers found it strange that I wanted to see my platelets and have my picture taken with them but they went with it. The most amazing woman entertained our children, 6 of them came with us! She gave them little stuffed "platelet buddies" and played hide the platelet buddy and even built a hotel a house and something else out of old cardboard boxes for the kids to use. It was great. They were having fun so it made it easier to relax and enjoy knowing that we could save so many lives in just an hour of our time. We'll be donating whole blood this week sometime and plan to donate platelets whenever we head to Springfield since it's the closest place.

Here's the pictures!



We got our own parking spots!!









Here we are with our platelets!



That's me, I'm quite proud of my pastey looking bag of platelets!



Here's Amber.



And of course Brandy!



This is the greatest lady ever and our 6 kids! Woohoo for her making our morning enjoyable!

And that was only the first few hours before noon! The afternoon and evening blog is next!

Cool Dude and a Little Disappointment

Korbin had his ultrasound for his kidneys today to check everything out from the surgery he had back in January. We went up to the desk to check in and they asked the usual: patients last name, last four of the sponsors social. Then the lady said "first name?" and I said "Korbin" to which he loudly followed up by saying, "you mean Cool Dude, Mom". Silly kid!

We have had a crazy busy weekend. We drove to St Louis on Saturday and stayed in a hotel with a pool because my MIL had to fly out at 6am on Sunday and I was not getting up to drive her two hours to the airport. In fact we didn't get up at the hotel either we just let her take the airport shuttle at 4:30am! The boys had a blast swimming in the pool.

***Update***

So the phone rang in the middle of me typing this this morning so it got left open and it was Korbins doctor. It's only been about an hour since his ultrasound this morning so I knew it couldn't be good.

We just got a call from Korbins doctor here at the Fort. His ultrasound wasn't so good. We have to go back to Columbia for more tests again. His kidney is still swollen and probably isn't draining properly despite the surgery in January. This sucks I was hoping to be done with the kidney stuff other than bi-annual ultrasounds until he was an adult. I hadn't even thought of the possibility of the surgery not fixing the problem so I'm caught a little off guard. :(

Here is a video I just took of Korbin and our friend Cadie, Amber's oldest girl!

Is it Friday yet?

Today has been interesting. Tayton woke up at 3am screaming cause his eyes were stuck shut by goop. I had to get him to let me use a washcloth to dampen it and losen it. Tayton having Sensory Integration Disorder and an Anxiety Disorder makes times like this tough. He can't stand to be touched much and I'm usually a big exception to that rule, he loves to sit with me and play but god forbid I try touching his face to much so it wasn't good. He got in to the doctor and surprise surprise who'd have thought? Pink Eye! Thanks alot little brother, just what Tate needed. He has now missed 21 days of school this year!

I was helping him get ready to go to the doctors and I told him he needs to learn to tie his shoes because I know he can do it he just won't try. His response was simply this:

"Mom some people are capable of certain things and some just aren't".

That from my six year old. I guess that means he's not going to try. He's very resistant to things that might be difficult because he is fine motor delayed and some gross motor skills just might not come at all, like the ability to ride a two wheel bike because his sense of self awareness and where his body is in space is different than ours.

Last summer when Korbin was 4 he said "Mom I want a motorcycle". I replied "you can't have a motorcycle you still have training wheels on your bike." He said "fine I'll just take them off then!" And he did! He started riding a two wheeler that day!

I asked Tayton if he would like to try riding with no training wheels. He had another simple response:

"Mom, my bike doesn't have training wheels, it's a tricycle!"

Well duh why didn't I think of that!

The Army SUCKS!

So I waited and waited for the end of last week to come. Why? Because Friday was when my hubby was supposed to sign out on leave for two whole weeks of uninterupted family time. The kids have school Monday through Wednesday so we would have 3 hours alone each day....lunch dates and private time(wink, wink). It was going to be great!

Well this is the Army life and so as I was at my Tupperware party on Thursday morning (which was going great by the way, I made over $100 in less than two hours!) my phone rang. I wouldn't normally answer during a party but since Kirke knew I was "working" I answered figuring it was important. He told me that instead of having our two weeks leave followed by four weeks of short days before they leave for the sandbox, he's leaving next weekend to go to SSG school (BNCOC) in Maryland enroute to Iraq. Which means he leaves next weekend for 9 weeks of school comes home for a week or two of leave......he better get two grrrr....then he goes on to Iraq for a very very long time.

I'm so mad! Nothing ever works out right! We were supposed to go to the ball on the 3rd and I was so excited cause in the last ball pictures I wore a red dress and looked like a big fat tomato and now I've lost about 25 pounds and want to look more like a little grape tomato! And it means that I have to make another two hour trip to Columbia with both boys alone to have Korbins kindey tested for the first time since his surgeries!

I'm so not ready for this deployment I might lose my mind. At least we're in the lower 48 so I can travel and visit people while he's gone. AND Korbin starts kindergarten next year so I will have no kids home all day long woohoo!