Monday .... again!?!?!

My favorite Monday saying right now is this:

IF EVERYDAY IS A GIFT, WHERE CAN I RETURN MONDAY!?!

Tee-hee-hee-snort..... love it ...

Have to say, today was really no different!

I have basically been in bed for 4-5 days now, I can't really do much.  I am in to much pain, I just can't do anything other then lay in bed.  The babies can't jump on me, it hurts.  Kaedyn and his ever loving kneading his feet into my side, I have wanted to throttle the poor baby...  Poor Nathan just doesn't know what is going on, he just knows his whole world is completely off kilter because 1: he doesn't have school this week which is bugging him so much!  And 2: I'm not getting out of bed.   And let me tell you, the other day he decided it was time to get ready for school, and when I told him he didn't have school that day, I kid you not, that little boy's lip pop'd out and he got tears.  HE LOVES SCHOOL, it amazes me, I love it.  I do NOT want him to go anywhere else next year or have another teacher.  He loves just where he is at. 

Anyway - back to me.......  this is a WARNING .... there is TMI in this post.  Complete, and utter T.M.I. ....

So I haven't been able to get out of bed ... pain pain pain .... 

I still hurt from the accident, my ribs on my right side are bruised, my hip is bruised, so I have periodic periods of a good dose of pain from that now and then.... but those episodes become further apart.   Which is great ... and right when things are getting better there and I'm getting out of that revolving pain merry-go-round ... I get knocked down to the point where it takes a lot of effort to get out of bed to go to the bathroom.  I can't get comfortable.  I sit, it hurts and I get nauseated, I stand I hurt a lot plus if it's long enough I'll start throwing up, I lay down, I can't get comfortable........ doesn't matter if I lay this way, that way or on my head - it all hurts! 

Dennis got tired of me complaining and having to deal with all the parenting stuff on his own, ha ha ... so he told me tonight - WE ARE GOING IN ... he actually yelled at me. 

I was like, where is my husband and what did you do with him???

I have been putting up a good fight .... not to go in.   Well, I realized tonight, after really thinking about my symptoms...  that I might have a kidney stone.  I also worry about my hernia.  Because I've been taking some pain meds, it's been harder to move things along... and if I get completely backed up, then there is a good chance that my hernia is having issues, which will involve surgery,  So I'm worried about my hernia too because it's popped out a lot more lately. 

So......... I didn't fight.  I let him drag me in ....... and the doctors opinion was I'm VERY backed up and he thinks based on my symptoms, it's likely to be a kidney stone.  So I have to take some stuff tomorrow to help ...move things along, and stay on the pain pills, push the fluids, and rest..... oh yeah, and strain my pee - YIPPY!!!

Kidney Stones...... ugh .........

But in other news, I had been thinking I had gained back all my weight (because I'm bloated) ... and that I've literally gained back the 30+ lbs I've lost... and I finally got the guts to look up the conversion (from kg to lbs) ... and I have only gained back 5lbs.  Who knows, maybe after I let loose, I'll be down a few pounds (HA HA HA)

Is that EGG on your face?

So ....... Mr. Kaedyn, my baby ... my little Monkey ... he has so many things we claim he's going to grow up and do............ he is built like a football player.  We say he's gonna be a Line Backer....  He loves to watch us cook and has to get in the kitchen and help us sometimes ... he's gonna be a Chef!  He already is a little bully, LOL.. that's already come true.  He loves to play drums and guitar and dance and listen to music... he's going to be our little Rock Star............. but this morning, this morning .... well... this morning he decided before Mommy and Daddy got up for the day, he was going to make Eggs by himself.......

It didn't work out so well.... but the cat seemed to enjoy it!

LOLOL!!!  You really can't help but laugh!!  Even if it was slimy and gross cleaning up!

Amazing Room Change...

So .......... when we moved in here and put the three youngest boys in one room, we knew it would be tight.  Once we got all their "beds" in the room .... we realized we needed a bunk bed or a loft bed to really make it work.  So... I checked freecycle and craigslist and the local used places (like Goodwill) .. no luck, until last week I found a "loft" bed w/ desk and shelves for $50 ... after a few emails back and forth and not being able to come up with the money, she emailed me and offered it to me for free.  Totally unexpected but ... WOW ... THANK YOU!!  Ya know?  We really appreciate the kindness. 

So here was the boys room before.........  Noah was sleeping on a boxspring and mattress on the floor and Nathan sleeps on his couch (cuz he won't sleep on a bed) ... we've tried and he would always end up on the couch, so we put a couch in his room and no problem ever since, so for the last - almost year - he's slept on a couch in his room.  And Kaedyn sleeps in his crib recently turned into toddler day bed ...  on with the before pics...

These first four were taken on March 4th after we just moved in...  Looking in from the door, you can see the crib, Nate's couch, and some of Noah's bed...

 Noah playing on the floor

 Nathan's couch .. (the door) ... and some of the crib

 and Kaedyn's crib....

These next three were taken on the 16th, the day we converted Kaedyn's crib into a toddler bed, here is Noah playing on the little patch of floor they had...

 Here you can see Noah's bed, Nathan's couch, and the railing of the crib...

 Looking in from the door

 AFTER pictures...........
So after we got the loft together we got these taken!  It's AMAZING how much it opened up the room.  Noah of course has to be on the bed....  (the little girl who had the bed, painted the "bed" part of it yellow, the rest of it was left alone) ... we ended up putting Nathan's couch under it and Nathan LOVES it ... I'm planning on hanging some fabric down that I can tie back for him to have his own little area ...

 Another angle ...

 From the doorway, you can see that we put Kaedyn's crib where Nathan's couch was.  Well, sorta, we put a toy box under the window and Kaedyn's crib... 

Of course they immediately had a ton of room and dumped out one of the toy boxes... messing up the whole room! LOL...

So as promised, we had gotten Wall Stickers for their room when we moved in and had been waiting to put them up.  So we put them up too...

Noah got Transformers ... he put them up himself, with a little help from Kaedyn

 Kaedyn likes to be on the top bunk with Noah...

 LOL ....

And Nathan has Toy Story ones (Kaedyn didn't get any, figured he could share the Toy Story ones, but now.... I think Kaedyn needs his own) ...  Nathan LOVESSSSSSSSSS the stickers and got really excited when I was putting them up ...

 He kept going "BUZZ BUZZ"

 He really loves Buzz and Rex ...  so Buzz, Rex, and Woody all went by his couch... 

 And then we put some of the others on the wall where Kaedyn's crib use to be .... by the closet...  where there are now some chairs and a toy basket....

 Nathan had to stand on one of the chairs to get his picture taken! LOL

Emotions .....

Today, a friend of mine asked me if I had gotten a message she posted on my facebook wall awhile back.  I was lost for a moment, but once she reminded me what it was, I had told her that I do remember seeing it, I just hadn't gotten around to checking out the links she had sent.  Course, I was a little embarrassed to tell her that I wanted to make sure that she did post those links before looking at them, and it wasn't some bot trying to get me a virus.  So I immediately checked out the sites.  Here they were two wonderful sites, and I regret having that hesitation and wish I had looked at them right away.

One is for writers to share their work, get feedback, comments, to share their work.  The other is to publish complete books, and be able to sell them as e-books.

So I signed up for the first one, and plan on signing up for the second. 

After signing up, I hesitate.

Do I really want to do this??

Do I really want to put myself out there like this for criticism and critiquing ....  can I take it?

My writing is my soul, my baby, and I know I write well.  I know I'm good... but in my head, I constantly hear that it's no good, that it has to be better.  I have friends who read my work, and they constantly tell me it's good, and I thrive on the compliments, accept their suggestions, pointing out some correction errors, and really absorb their feedback on the plots and characters and thrive on what they tell me they really enjoyed or really found funny.

But I am my own worst critic ....

I'm nervous.  I put up the prologue and chapter one of the book I am currently working on.  I'm on chapter thirteen right now, and I am hoping for some sort of feedback.  There have been 39 views of my story so far, and it has been up for about 10 hours.  Doesn't mean those people read it, but it sparked their interest enough for them to look.  In all those views, not one comment.  Not one.  Well, I got a "read your story, it's fantastic" on my profile page, but I hate to say it ...  I think it might have been posted before I even posted the prologue.  Don't quote me on it though.

I thrive on comments, and I'm not going to beg for them.  I thrive on feedback, but it's really rude to "author hop" and beg for people to read your stuff.  It's rude and completely unprofessional... even if I'm not professional.

Then there are the people who have completely different writing styles and think their way is the only way to write.  These people really annoy me.  One person posted a comment on my friends book that says "your paragraphs should be shorter" ...  seriously!?!?!?   They weren't that long.  They were normal in my eyes.  Why should they be smaller?  They weren't a half of a page long!?  Some of them are only three sentences.   Eh....  I really want to comment on this comment, but I won't.  Because every author has a writing style, and I think it's rude not to respect that.

Anyway ... then in my complete insomnia ...  I ended up watching a movie tonight called THE NOTE.  It's funny, because awhile back when I was going around doing some contests, I won a DVD.  It was a contest for the DVD of THE NOTE II ... and it was "did you ever take a chance on love?" essay.  So I had posted a blog about it: OUR LOVE STORY and this is what I had posted for her:


Did I ever take a chance at love, yes. I was in a 10 year marriage, a bad one in the end, and got out (whew!) (course aren't they all bad in the end?) ... but I wanted to move on with my life. I got married as a teenager and never dated. I didn't honestly think anyoen would want me since I was the mother of 2 boys, one of which living with a rare genetic disorder who had a lot of medical issues. And here in lay the major issue, where was I going to meet anyone!?! So I turned to the internet, free dating sites, mostly for laughs, and a little attention then thinking anything serious would happen. But it did... twice. The first time, I knew it wasn't going to last, but he was a great guy and he helped me in a lot of ways. After that ended, I figured - oh well - it'll be just me and the boys. And then I met Dennis. He lived in NC and me in WI. We started talking as friends, thinking that would be it, and it ended up being so much more. Just talking on the internet, webcam, phone - there was so much more bringing us together then just a lot of common interests. My mom had decided to take my boys to WA State to stay with her for 2 months during the summer, it was suppose to be a chance for me to be me and not "mom" ... but all I could think of was "what if he's the one" ... so we set it up, a few days after my boys left, so did I. They went to one side of the country, I went to the other. I was scared, terrified he would take one look at me and reject me. Instead, he came up to me, and he swooped me back, crushing my mouth with his - the way you see in movies. That was it... I was hooked, and apparently so was he. It's so cliche to say that you met on the internet, and rarely works, but in our case, both being completely honest about who we were - we clicked. We've been together for 3 years and married for 2 1/2 ... we ended up adding two more boys to our crew ... and it's still happily ever after... 


And I won!  I got the DVD in the mail shortly after, and it still sits in my DVD collection with the plastic wrap still on it.  Sad I know!  But, I really wanted to watch the first movie before watching the sequel.  It's a stupid thing - it bugs me if I don't start at the beginning.  It's just the way I'm made I suppose.  Well, I just happened to notice it playing on the Hallmark Movie channel during the Christmas movies marathon.  Given our living situation at the time, and the fact that I was never upstairs long enough to watch a movie, it has sat on my DVR until now.  I ended up catching it just as it was starting so I didn't get the first few minutes, but I got most the movie.

So tonight, in my insomnia stupor ... I was scrolling through my DVR and thought, why not!!  There was a time recently where I was looking at my movies and thought about watching it regardless of not seeing the first one, but let me say - I loved the first movie and I'm really glad I held out 2 years! LOL... okay almost 2 years.  If you have never seen it, it is a movie about a journalist who finds a note that has washed up on the beach after a plane crash, it's a note from a father to his child that is only called "T" ... it's a journey of trying to find the person the note was meant for, and her series of articles, and how it really touches everyone she comes to with it.  How it helps them take a step they were struggling with, including herself.  So I'm looking forward to watching the second movie!

Okay ....... now I must go to bed... or at least try!

Funny Kaedyn ...

The other day, Kaedyn put on Noah's shoes, Noah's jacket, and Noah's backpack ... and was walking around.  He took Daddy his jacket and shoes to try to convince him to take him to... what I can only assume ....  school... 

Wordless Wednesday .... New Chair!

Who Knew!?!

Accident Prone?

Are we accident prone?

I wonder cuz, first there is a car accident with most the family, and then Cal - who wasn't in the car accident - has a pretty good accident on his bike!

Tuesday (the 15th) he decided to ride his bike in the rain - after being told several times NOT to by both Dennis and I .... and he kept saying "I'll be fine" ... "don't worry" ... etc and so on.  He's 15...

HE KNOWS IT ALL!!!

So he leaves for school and off he goes.... soon after he leaves, I hear it POURING RAIN ... nice...  and right before he left, I said "Take some extra clothes with you incase you get wet on the way to school"

To which I got the reply.....

(let's say it together)

"Don't worry Mom! I'll be fine!"

Yeah.... whatever, you are the one who gets to walk around in wet clothes then.

So ..... we go through the day, comes time for him to come home and ... he comes in soaking wet (cuz it's still raining) .... and he doesn't look so good, and right away he goes ...

"I had an accident"

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT?!!?!?

Yep, on the way to school - probably the same time I heard it start down pouring, his bike hydroplaned and went out from under him!  He got a gash out of his hand, road rash on his elbow... and this HUGE sore road rash on his hip/thigh ...

I actually had to take him into Urgent Care because his hip looked really bad, looked infected, but I was told that I was doing everything right and it looked really good by the DR.  So ...  guess I'm just paranoid.  LOL...

"It's the Po-Po!"

 I heard that screamed yesterday........

Let me back up a little bit.  When you move into a new place, you imagine that you'll become friends with your neighbors.  At least I do.

But then reality sets in and you realize ..... you have moved into a complex of crazy people.  I mean, I am crazy, I fully admit it, but I am the fun crazy :D  Some of these people are scary crazy!!  Well ...  maybe not ... but still...

I quickly learned that there are these group of girls, and a few boys who are outside any chance they got, ALL the time, being loud and obnoxious ... they seem to lack respect for anyone and everyone, and other peoples stuff.  Now, we live in an apartment.  They are 8 plex apartments, so there are 4 units on each side of the building, two upstairs, two downstairs.  So our building faces another building ....

We are the building behind the tree...  upstairs apartment, the side you cannot see in the corner furthest from the point of view.  The front side of the other apartments furthest to the right, is the building that ours faces.

Now, I have seen this adorable little girl, probably about 7 years old, with brown curly hair outside... first time I saw Curly Sue, I thought "Oh adorable!!" and then "Oh Noah will have friends around here."  She either stays with, or lives with her Grandma ... I think.  However, I call this lady (the Grandma) "The Madam" because there is always a slue of women in and out of her place in all matters of fashion of dress and undress...  ha ha....  no I don't *really* think she's a "Madam" ...

And then I realized, I really didn't want him to be friends with these kids for the reasons I already stated.  Each of the lower places, has a little patio area....  yesterday they were all over everyone's patios.  I heard stuff, like ...

"They don't own the place, they can't tell us what to do"

and

"We only have to listen to adults" quickly followed up by "We don't have to listen to you, you aren't our parents!"

Seriously!?  Ugh...

Something happened yesterday ... these kids were being loud and obnoxious ...   and then all of a sudden, I heard yelling ... from an adult.  Of course, being the nosy person I am, I look out the window.... There was a lady who was outside, talking to all the kids, she was directing questions at an older boy - teenager - asking him where he lives, and this and that.  Then this skanky dressed female teen bounds herself down the stairs from the upstairs apartment and gets into the lady's face calling her a bitch.  I mean, her jeans were to low, her top didn't have much material to it, and well I realize a lot of kids dress this way these days, but ...  Regardless, I heard the lady yell "I speak English" and "Don't call me a Bitch" and various other things.

Then from all the talking and yelling from the kids .... I learned a little bit.  For example, the boy is 13 and the lady has no right calling the cops on a 13 year old for jumping her fence that isn't even her fence because she doesn't own the place.  And it was one really mouthy little girl, and it wasn't Curly Sue ... it was young Susie Carmichael ...  and she was all full of piss and vinegar about the situation ...she obviously knew it all.  I kept hearing "She has no right to call the cops" and later I hear "this is a free country" and various other things.

I mean, I haven't seen any parents coming around checking on these kids, they are outside screaming at the top of their lungs at 8am ... and no one is saying a thing.  I'm sorry , if it were my child and I heard him out there doing some of the stuff that these kids are doing/have been doing... they would be grounding and maybe some other consequences.... but apparently, that's just me.  I like for my kids to have respect for other people.  ::: shrugs :::

Anyway - when the cops showed up, I hear all the kids yell "The Po-Po's here!!  It's the Po-Po!!"  They were then later arresting each other.   I have no clue what was going on ... but it made for some drama.

Then really super late last night, cops showed up again - this time for another unit I think.  We just heard a little yelling and then some calm talking and something about something being arrested.

WOW....... yep... wow.......

Thank Goodness we don't live next to Psycho Neighbor anymore ... though...  I do miss her lovely heartfelt notes a little......... I mean, they were so kind....   (rolling eyes)

Yep, I was in an Accident...

So we have been in our new place for 19 days!  Pretty much the first two weeks of it, was spent sick.  Between Noah ending up in the hospital a couple days before we moved in, and he was sick all week, and then we all got REALLY sick that first weekend, with some horrible I feel like I'm gonna die stomach virus ... thinking it was the Influenzia A virus Noah had, but apparently it wasn't, because Noah got it right after we did.  It was a good Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of vomiting and cleaning it up and various people feeling like they got hit by a car.  Oh, let's not forget that I was also in a car accident.  Well, the babies, Noah and I were along with my Mom.  No one was hurt but met because I was sitting sideways in the seat, dishing out food to the kids in the backseat for lunch because they were starving...  I looked up just in time to comprehend that we were going to crash, I was in the process of trying to put the cover back on the chocolate milk I was pouring into cups but I didn't get it on tight enough because I got a chocolate milk shower on impact. 

When the sirens were audible, I told the kids here come the firetrucks and the police, and Noah goes "how come?" and I said, "well, because we were in a car accident and they need to come to check to make sure everything is fine." and he announces "Oh we are all fine!" ha ha... they were just so hungry that they didn't care they were about to get a first hand look at firetrucks.  When they came up to my Mom's car, they asked if everyone was okay, after asking if everyone had been in their car seats and seat belts, and Noah goes "We are all okay! We're not hurt!" and just kept on eating his french fries.  He didn't care....  didn't care at all.  I did tell them my shoulder was hurting quite a bit and he was like "do you want to go in" hummmm - I think I'll pass. 

When we got home, I showed Dennis my shoulder and he pointed out that I had a dent in my shoulder.  I had soft tissue damage to my shoulder, some bruising, and then some bruising on my hip and that one still hurts, and my back issues have come back but I would take this any day over the kids getting hurt.

The first pic you can see the dent in my shoulder and the second the bruising...  

This happened on the 10th, I'm doing better...  I'm still sore on my hip, and like I said ... my back issues have returned but I hope they eventually heal up too. 

Home Sweet Home....

YAY for not having to stay at my Mom's anymore.  (Love being around my Mom, but my Step-Dad was getting a little crabby about everything, can't blame him.  He really wants his house back.... )

YAY for not being in the same house and freaking insane man!!!  Let me tell ya ....  he made moving out of there next to impossible AND we didn't get all our stuff, so some stuff, we had to and have to replace ....   He sat in the middle of the stairs and refused to move ... the cops had to be called for the tenth time... they put him in his place, and made moving for everyone (I wasn't there) .. miserable.  My Mom's friends that were helping had to leave because he was swearing so much and their kids were helping too.  Nice right?

YAY ..... we moved into an apartment on the 1st.  It feels AMAZING to be on our own again after 4 months of drama...

So ...  we tried to help the kids out, got the video game systems that their mom got them, and he called the cops on us - even though I had proof of request from the mom saying she wanted us to get it - he called the cops, said Dennis "stole" it...  and had to take it back, which he did.  When doing so, infront of the cops, he told them that we could have as much time as we needed to move out on Saturday.  Then called Dennis to be the second person for his uhaul ... which he did, stating he knew him - etc ...  and THEN he proceeded to call Dennis later and tell him "you only have from 9 to 10 on Saturday to move cuz that's the only time I'll be there"

WTF!?!?!!?!

We only have an hour to move three beds, and a couch, several dressers, a couple desks, an entertainment center... clothes, toys, shelves, etc and so on .... yeah... that isn't going to work.

So Saturday morning, the plan was to call the cops if he didn't let us get all our stuff.  Well, they went and picked up the uhaul at 8 ...  got to the house... and then 9 rolls around, he's not there.  Dennis calls.  No answer.  He calls several times, no answer........ SERIOUSLY???   9:35 rolls around and he says, screw it... he has a key, we paid rent... we're getting our stuff.

So, he goes in and he calls him finally.  Says "I was sleeping" and "I'm not coming until noon" and when Dennis told him that he was going in and getting our stuff....  he hung up on him.  When he got there around 11:30 I got a text from my cousin saying "he's sitting on the steps and he's not letting us move ANYTHING ... he won't even let me past him to go outside."

Cops were called, and the Cops put him in his place.  They got everything they could that would fit in the truck, and left.

Where was I?  In the emergency room with Noah.   He was really really sick.  I was in the ER with Noah on Friday (the 25th) ... for 5 hours because he was running a 103-104 temp.. he was complaining his belly hurt, and as soon as he peed for a urine sample, I knew there were HUGE issues because his pee was the color of dark tea.  I knew then he had a lot of blood in his urine.  He had just been on antibiotics so I automatically freak thinking maybe he has C-diff again.  Well, after 5 hours Friday, we find out that his white blood cell count was up, there is a large amount of blood in his urine and some protein in his urine, and his BP was a little high.... the ER doctor sent us home, said he' would be at the other hospital in the other ER the following morning .... his shift started at 11 and he wanted him there right at the start of his shift .... and to go there, and tell the registration ladies that he wanted him back and blah blah blah.   He also wanted Noah to be on a liquid diet.  He was worried about appendicitis so he wanted him to come in hungry...

So we got to the ER about 10:50 ...  checked in...  and after sitting for a little bit got taken back ... we get there, his BP is high still, his pulse rate/heart rate is high now... but after him complaining that he's hungry ... they order him up a lunch tray.... and it comes up with a big ol' cookie on it... so he starts eating that, and not even half way through the big ol' cookie, he says "Mom....I think I'm gonna throw up" and after frantically searching the room for something for him to throw up in, I found something just in time.... but anyway the level of blood in his urine was still large, it had gone down slightly, the protein had gone down a little, and his white blood cell count was on the way down too...  still, they wanted to know why.... so after 9 hours of not being able to bring down his BP and pulse, and whenever they take his temp, it's normal ... (orally or under the arm) ..... I suggested that they do it rectal because he felt like he was burning up to me.  So they do ... and what is his temp?  104.8!!!  Yeah, FREAKING OUT HERE....

Noah in the ambulance

So it was determined that they wanted him in the hospital over night to keep an eye on him, and we were taken by ambulance after 9+ hours in the ER (Saturday .. the day they were dealing with Mr. Insane moving stuff out) ....  I was told he definitely had a UTI, and then just before we left for the hospital, they did a bunch of tests, including influenza testing... and on the way there, got news that he tested positive for influenza A. We got to Seattle Children's around 11 ... didn't get his room until 2am....... I didn't get to sleep until after close to 5am ... and I was up at 8:30 or so....  by then the blood in his urine had cleared up for the most part, his other tests were looking better ....  so it was just a matter of getting him to hold anything down...  which he did - YAY - so we went home on Sunday. 

Then the Tuesday, the 1st rolled around a few days later.... and it is move in day!!  Nothing like moving twice in a week .... 

But we are in our new home....  and happy :)   And now......... my life looks like this ...

Unpacking fun has begun and continues!!  So I hope that I'm up into the swing of things soon, and posting again everyday .... with no sick kids!!  Everyone has had their turn being sick in the last couple weeks.  Nathan had pink eye, Noah with his high high temp, etc....  Cal was running a fever, and Kaedyn spent the last 24 hours throwing up ....... yep, it's been a good germy week!