Sidra Gets 4 Teeth Pulled!

We are so proud of our little Sidra Monster…she has such spirit! Monday she had to have 4 baby teeth pulled and to be sedated for it she had to have an IV. While she did panic just a pinch, she never shed a tear as they poked her at least 5 times to find a vein. What a trooper!

She wrote to the tooth fairy asking for $6 and a Webkinz. The fairy left her $20 and a dino Webkinz, plus wrote her a letter answering some questions Sidra had and telling her how happy she was that she got assigned to such a brave and nice little girl like Sidra.

Last week Sidra got a retainer…so I guess we’ll be in debt to the orthodontist for much of the next many years. Wait until they get a hold of Zalen!

More Baron

Sky Wrote:
Oh Baron…since last we wrote, Baron has swallowed two plastic covered gloves (on two different occassions) and a red sock and then of course thrown them up. Here’s the topper though…the day after I got home from my appendectomy, the dogs are outside, and all of a sudden there is a high pitched howling cry right outside the window…Baron’s paw is stuck between the siding of the house and the deck boards. Tony runs out to help and Baron struggles and finally rips his paw free…and limps and howls and limps some more. Poor Bear-Bear!

Somewhere outside Diva made herself scarce and laughed, “I can’t believe he actually did that…what a great dare by me!”

A Real Pain in my Side

Okay, first of all, not all appendicitis attacks double you over at the side.  The pain did come on rather suddenly Monday night  and swept through my abdomen all night making it impossible to sleep. By the time it was time to get the kids on the bus, I told Tony to just take me to the ER because something just wasn’t right. I was fully prepared to be told I just had a bad case of gas or something equally embarrassing, but I knew I had to go see someone.

The ER at Alexian Brothers was not bustling, but of course I had to wait in an uncomfortable chair for at least half an hour.  Finally I got checked in and settled in ER room 18, where I’d stay for at least 7 hours.  I did get to leave occasionally for a wheeled ride to the CT scan and then to the internal ultrasound room.  Oh, and I got a nice regular dose of fun meds in my IV for the pain.  The PA and her staff didn’t know if I had appendicitis or a burst ovarian cyst.  The final test – the internal ultrasound (oh yeah, lots of fun) showed my enlarged appendix and suddenly after so many hours of waiting, the OR was ready for me and my appendix!  I called Tony and he and the kids rushed to the hospital to say good luck. 

I have to say I was very proud of myself for not ever losing it – no tears, no hyperventilating, no thoughts of not making it out of surgery (well, maybe a couple).  My biggest worry was throwing up after surgery from the anesthesia – I HATE throwing up, not to mention throwing up when you’re struggling to just wake up.  I’m happy to say I didn’t!  All went well.  It turns out my appendix was located lower and more central than most.  The surgeon commented on how unusual it was that the internal ultrasound was the test that actually confirmed the appendix issue – usually it’s the CT scan that notices the swelling.  I told him I like to be challenging – it’s what I do.  He laughed…I liked him.

So, all went well except my bladder never wanted to wake up again.  I ended up being released the day after my surgery (Wednesday) but back in the ER on Friday with bladder issues…another 5 hours later and I got sent home for the weekend with a lovely strap-it-to-your leg catheter!  And that’s where I sit now…in bed with urine dripping down a tube into a clear uterine shaped bag.  What fun.  The only bright side I can think of is that at least my bowels are working now…I definitely have the better of the two “bags” at my side.

I do want to add that I had the most amazing nurses and their staff taking care of me – thanks!!  And thanks to our friends and family for their concern and help over the last week.

Zalen Photography Advances to State!!!

Zalen and his state level photo

“WOW,” says Zalen! “I made it to State!”

Tony Wrote:

This past fall, Zalen entered a photography contest at his school.  The theme was “Wow” and there were a number of different categories for entry, including Literature, Photography, Video and others.  For this entry, Zalen chose a picture he took in Albuquerque of a hot air balloon shaped as a cow.

A couple of months ago, Zalen’s photograph was chosen to advance to the district level, a district that includes 47 schools across the area.  There were only four other students from Zalen’s grade school that advances to that level so we were pretty proud of our budding photographer (the pictures above were taken at the district level display).  Then yesterday we got even bigger news:  Zalen’s photo advanced to STATE!  Not only that, but he was the ONLY photographer from the school (a school which includes kids all the way up to 5th grade) to make it!

His work will be on exhibit at the annual Illinois PTA Convention this coming March and he’s been invited to the Reflections/Scholarship Reception to receive his state award.  His entry will then become part of a one-year exhibit tour that travels through libraries and museums throughout Illinois!

Congratulations Zalen!!!!

My Tummy Hurts

Baron... before he got sick

Baron Wrote:

Oh, I did it again

Today while my mommy and daddy weren’t looking I ate a 2 oz cannister of sunscreen with zinc oxide. It was delicious but apparently I wasn’t supposed to eat it. I threw up again. Then I stepped in it. Fortunately it was outside and already frozen. But then my paw hurt. Cuz it was frozen.

Oh Baron

Baron has become very comfortable in our home to the point of redecorating a bit.  Have I written before that he decided we no longer needed any form of window treatments on the front door?  To drive the point home he not only ripped them all down, but also crunched up all the rods so as to really discourage us from putting them back up.

When Diva was a puppy we made calls to the local vet on a regular basis.  The calls would go something like this:

“What did Diva do this time?”

“Diva ate a bag of chocolate chip cookies…or Diva ate a ball of tinfoil…or Diva has swallowed a chicken wing whole…or Diva ate a leather strap off a hat and has 6 inches of it hanging out of her behind.”

Well, now it’s Baron’s turn.  Yes, he is 4, so not a puppy like Diva was when we made all those calls, but in many ways Baron is as much a puppy since this is the first time he’s ever lived in a house in his whole life.  So, he gets into trouble quite a bit.  The kids now know to keep their doors closed or risk losing a treasured stuffed animal or batman action figure.  And after the front door window treatments fiasco Baron was relegated to a crate when we all left the house.  Until…

My goal was to get him out of the crate after the Holidays were over.  So Monday of this week I had an errand to run that would only take less than an hour….it was to take Diva to the vet to finally get her on some arthritis meds.   I let Baron have the run of the house and when we got home nothing was broken, chewed, or destroyed in any way.  Good Boy Baron!

That evening Sidra and I had karate.  We leave just before 6 and Tony usually gets home just after 7.  I decided to give Baron another run of the house trial.  Well,  because of the snow falling that evening the kids and I made it home just before Tony…not that those few minutes probably made any difference.  We walked in the door and Baron was proudly prancing around with something in his mouth – it’s the box of one of Diva’s new meds for arthritis!  I yelp!  OMG – did he get to her chewable pills????

Sure enough in the living room is the chewed open, heavy plastic, tumbler filled with 120 glucosamine and chondroitin pills.  I make the count of how many are left…75 pills remain.  Baron has eaten 45 pills – a doggy OD for sure.  I call the emergency vet who tells me I have to call animal poison control and it will cost $60 (have I mentioned that each pill he ate cost more than .50 a piece!).  So I call and pay and wait and wait and wait.  Lots of doggy ODs that day I guess.  Finally it comes down to the obvious…make Baron throw up and count the pills in his digestive bile so we know he ate them all and Diva didn’t get a few herself.  Because Diva had bloat several years ago no one wanted to make her vomit unnecessarily.

So, Tony goes out to get the hydrogen peroxide while I smear a thin layer of peanut butter in a bowl.  When Tony got home we poured the three tablespoons over the peanut butter and sure enough Baron started lapping it up to get to the yummy stuff underneath.  Not even 5 minutes went by before the yakking began.  I don’t know about you, but hearing that noise sends me to dry heavin’ immediately.  Tony watched and deftly decided Baron had eaten all 45 pills. 

The lesson here?  I guess if I let Baron have run of the house I better make doubly sure there isn’t a shred of anything out he might be able to get into!  Better yet, he’ll probably end up back in the crate again and we’ll start the process all over again later.

Pole Dancing – It’s Not Just for the Young and Sexy

Sky and Kris ready for class

“… and then I do what?”

“… And I’m finished… let’s drink!”

Sky wrote:

So, last summer, my friend Kris told me about a pole dancing exercise class held nearby.  We laughed about it and said we should try it out.   The summer came and went and then so did the fall and finally in December we decided it was time to try out the pole.  Here was the problem:  the class we wanted to go to is held on Tuesday nights and every Tuesday for the last umpteen weeks it snowed ferociously (check it out on a weather almanac or something!).    Finally last Tuesday, despite yet another snowy evening, Kris and I made it to our first pole dancing exercise class.

Let’s just say feeling sexy and dressing in sweats does not always go hand in hand.  Add to that having to learn all this new choreography (I felt like a back-up dancer in a Britney Spears video) and I felt downright goofy most of the time.  But, it was a lot of fun!  Especially once we got to attack the pole – my favorite spin is the pixie so far.  My friend Kris did the point brilliantly.  We learned moves called the “peek-a-boo” and the “fireman” spin.   Our instructor (who btw is sexy in her sweats) tried to teach us to walk sexily around the pole (you let your hips lead the way), but again I would have to say sexy is not the word I’d use to describe our workout. 

We do plan to go again.  It only took me a week for my left arm to fully recover.  For 5 days I could barely lift either arm over my waist.  Kris said her abs hurt for days and she had several bruises (hey, the pole is unforgiving).  So, we obviously got a work-out!  I’ll have Tony post some pics later.

The McDonald’s Playland Time Machine

With Sky and her friend Kris scrapbooking, Eric (Kris’s husband) and I took the kids to one of those McDonald’s with a playland in it.

It struck me while there that McDonald’s Playland has really been a kind of a benchmark for our kids growing up. Sky and I have been taking them there since they could walk and wow how quickly they’ve grown.

I can remember like yesterday watching Sidra stumble around, just hoping she wouldn’t get run over by the bigger kids. Then watching Sidra help push her big brother up the steps one by one so he could go down the slide. I used to hover at the bottom, walking back and forth, making sure they were okay, making sure they weren’t crying.

Now the only concern I have is that in their haste they won’t mow down some poor unsuspecting toddler. They’ve gone from being the smallest kids there to often the biggest (or at least the oldest.)

Where has the time gone?

Shoveling, Shoveling, Shoveling…

Oh please make it stop.

Not-so-funny story, about a year-and-a-half ago, Sky and I talked about finally getting a snow blower. Actually went to the store and priced them out. In the end, I figured it wasn’t a big deal, it’s not like we get a ton of snow each winter, I’d just keep shoveling.

So of course, last year we got the most snow we’d seen in years and years and years and I practically broke my back. And here we go again. I shoveled four times in a 24 hour period the other day (including 1:00 a.m.) and this is getting old really quick.

Anyone know of any cool jobs in, oh say, the Southwest?

80’s Flashback on Skates!

Zalen falls down… again.

Sidra and Gabriel bring back the old “Couples Skate!”

Sky shows off her mad moves on skates!

Sidra gets a helping hand around the rink

Zalen had this skating thing down… when he was on carpet

“Just stay up… stay up…”

“Slow down, Sky!!!”

For the most part, we stayed on our feet…

… for the most part.

One of Sidra’s best friends, Kelsey, had her birthday party at a roller rink the other day.  I cannot tell you how long it’s been since I’ve been on actual four-wheel rollerskates.  Sky and I were very proud of the kids… rather than getting frustrated they really attacked it with gusto.  Zalen fell somewhere around 100 times!