Close Call

Brett just can't seem to catch a break lately. If it's not an MRI, then it's falling off a teeter-totter at the park, or getting a fat lip from him and Owen bonking faces, Owen cutting Brett's finger with the scissors (I'm partly to blame for this one)...the list could go on.

Today though, was a little bit scary for a second. We were at the lake to close/winterize everything up for the winter. Ryan had started a fire in the fire pit this morning to burn all of the leaves. By this afternoon the fire pit was basically smoldering. Definitely still hot though, and unfortunately we found out the hard way.

Brett and my nephew, David were playing with a jump rope, and the next thing you know, I hear Brett screaming and he is standing up next to the fire pit. He tells me he fell in the fire, and I immediately start to scream - thinking "this is gonna be bad!" I quickly took him over to Ryan and we put the hose on his hand. He was screaming so bad, and really didn't want us to try to clean all of the ashes off his hand. He had ashes all over his shirt and pants, and I later found out that his whole body fell in the pit, but only his hand was slightly burnt. He's got one big blister, and maybe 6 or 7 little blisters on his hand.

When I think about how bad this accident could've been, I get really upset. Once again, my God was there to protect my Brettie and I'm so thankful for that!

Just as I suspected...

The doctor just called and the results are NORMAL!! :0) Praise God!!!



***This picture was taken of him early yesterday morning when we were playing games to waste a little bit of time. Yes, his eyes are crossed! :)***

Brett, you are MY Super Hero

First off, thanks so much for all of your prayers today. I really felt them, and I just felt a peace about the whole situation, and I'm sure that is in part because of your prayers, so thanks!!

I'll start with last night. Because we had to sleep deprive the little guy, it meant that he wasn't going to bed until at least 11:00 p.m., which is a huge difference from the 7 - 7:30 bedtime that he is used to. He was, needless to say, thrilled that he could stay up late with Mommy and Grandma (my mom spent the night to watch Owen for us in the morning). We watched T.V., played endless amounts of Hi-Ho Cherry-O and Candy Land, gave piggy back rides, we talked in the fan to make our voices funny and had a lot of snacks! :) We pretty much did anything to keep him awake, including holding him upside down - which he loved! Every now and then he would say, "can we just go in our bed now." And after I told him I wasn't going to bed, he said he would stay up. He did awesome! He was so happy too - not crabby at all (and there were times I'm sure I was a bit annoying to try to keep him awake). Finally, at 11:30, I said we could go to bed. I set my alarm clock for 4:44 a.m., and called it a day!






I woke up this morning, glanced over at the clock, and it read 5:46 a.m.!!!!! WHAT!?!?!? I totally set that alarm clock and double and triple checked it! O well, I hurry up and wake up Brett, and again he was so happy! I thought for sure that when I took him out of his nice warm bed he would be a crank - especially after going to bed so late, but he wasn't. He asked one time for a "snack," and I told him that the doctor said he couldn't have anything to eat until after we got the "pictures" of his head, and he said "o.k.", and never asked again. That in and of itself was an answer to pray. That was the thing that I fretted about the most, and it wasn't even an issue!

It wasn't long, and we were at the hospital. He didn't even try to fall asleep on the way there. Just talking away, happy as could be. We got there, and you could sense that he was a bit nervous. The nurse explained everything to me, and thankfully, they weren't going to put the IV in until after he had fallen asleep, and they had already numbed his hands so he shouldn't feel a thing. We tried to give him the liquid sedative, and he was having nothing of it. He spit it all over the place - including all over Ryan's glasses! :P I had to bribe him with a new Hot Wheels car in order for him to take the dose. It worked! He drank it right down. It wasn't long before he was asleep in my arms (I loved that, by the way) and we tried to transfer him to the MRI machine. I stood up, and he immediately woke up and said, "I'm falling, I'm falling!" We continued to go to the MRI room, and tried to get him to fall back to sleep. He did, and then we tried to put him back on the table only for him to wake up again. Repeat this cycle about 3 times. Finally the nurse came back in with the o.k. from the doctor to go ahead and give him another half dose of the sedation. He would not fall asleep, but man was he loopy! It was hard not to laugh at him, because we felt so bad for him and what his little body was going through. I have no pictures, because....well...that's just wrong. The nurse was just about ready to call it quits, when he finally gave in and fell asleep. I could hear him snoring, so I knew he was in a pretty good sleep. She wanted to put him on the table, and I asked if we could just wait a few more minutes for him to fall into a deep sleep, so we did. I put him up on the table, and he was out like a light! Thank you Jesus!! I then walked out of the room. I walked out of the room. I'm having a little bit of a hard time with that one. As I said before, MRI's just make me sick. I couldn't stand to see him get his head strapped down and the little cage put over his whole head, so I had Ryan stay in there with him. I feel a little bit like I wasn't there for him when he needed me, but I have to just come to grips with the fact that he was SOUND ASLEEP, and his daddy was there for him. They had to do a dye contrast also, so half-way through they had to put an IV in. He didn't even wake up with that! :) He did just awesome!

Waking him up was the hard part! He was so out of it. Again, it was pretty funny to hear the things he was saying. He would sit straight up in the bed and say, "I can cross my eyes!" All the while his head is bobbing all over the place. :)

The nurse said if we felt comfortable taking him home like this, then we were free to go home. She said it is completely normal for a child to act this way after oral sedation, so we agreed to just take him home. The nurse said that we should expect results tomorrow, so I'll keep you posted. He fell asleep in the car, almost immediately, and slept the whole way home. As soon as we got home, he said he wanted to lay on the couch and he stayed asleep until about 2:00p.m.!

I am so proud of my guy! He did so incredibly awesome throughout the entire situation, and couldn't be more proud of him!


****The pictures in the super hero costume were not staged for this post. The boys found their halloween costumes that I bought for them last year, and Brett's pretty much hasn't come off of his body since! :)****

Semi-Wordless Wednesday - They love their new beds!!

I caught Owen singing when I went upstairs, and got the tail end of it, before he got too embarrassed.



For more Wordless Wednesdays, visit 5 minutes for mom!

Brett is having an MRI on Thursday

Brett has been complaining about headaches on and off for quite some time. There are days that he will just lay on the couch all day and complain of a headache.

A few weeks ago, I had Brett at the doctor for his 4-year check-up. The doctor asked me if I had any concerns, and I had mentioned the headaches to her. She almost immediately said that we needed to do an MRI. We talked about him falling out of the shopping cart, and how we had 2 clear CT scans, but she still said that a lot could change in a year and a half. She also said that mom's sometimes don't take headaches seriously, and then it ends up being a tumor. She in no way said that this is what she thought it was, so I'm not too concerned. She's also doing an MRI of his sinuses just to rule everything out, because "kids don't get headaches." If everything looks good, then it could just be migraines.

So Thursday morning, we go in for an MRI. I feel more nervous about the test itself than the results. I do want to rule everything out, but I really feel like he's just fine. Some of the reasons I'm so nervous about the test is that I am VERY claustrophobic. I myself cannot have an MRI unless I am sedated. The thought of it makes me panic. (Side note: I have a tumor on my pituitary gland, so I've had to endure several MRI's - so I know what I'm talking about.) Brett will need to be sedated, because he is so young, and most likely will not be able to sit still for the hour test. Because he is being sedated, he can not have anything to eat 8 hours before the test, and only clear liquids 3 hours before the test. This is going to be a problem. We all know that Brett loves to eat - first thing in the morning he'll ask for a snack. Next problem - because of the sedation, they say that sleep deprivation is VERY important. "Do not allow your child to sleep more than 5 hours the night before, and do not allow naps the day prior to procedure. Awaken your child in the morning no later than 5am, preferably 4am." YIKES - he normally sleep 10-12 hours a night, and he likes to eat FIRST thing when he wakes up!

I'm writing all of this to ask for your prayers. Not only for the test results themselves, but also the day of the test. Please pray that Brett will not be hungry (I know, strange request) and that he won't have a problem with the sleep deprivation and that the sedation does it's trick and he sits still for the test. Please also pray for my anxiety of the MRI machine. Thankfully Ryan will be coming with me, but I'm sure my boy will want mommy in there with him. :) (Hopefully we both will be able to go in there with him.)

Thanks so much!

Random Facts about me...

Gayle is having a contest. Here are the rules and my entry.

The "rules" of the game are as follows:

1. Post the rules on your blog

2. Write 6 random things about yourself

3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post

4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag

O.k - here goes:

1. I sleep with socks on - have too or I'll freeze.

2. I love chocolate. In fact, I just ate a Chocolate Sundae Cone, and now the 3 Musketeers in my cabinet is so calling my name.

3. I vacuum my family room almost every single day. Hey -with three little ones always asking for snacks, I gotta.

4. I'm not a huge fan of cooking - baking is o.k., but cooking is done, only because I have to.

5. I get a thrill out of saving money - especially if I buy something when it's super cheap!! Crazy, I know.

6. I don't exercise as much as I should - unless you want to call running after my boys all day exercise! :)


O.K, now I have to tag 6 people:

Kristin

Melanie

Shawnie

Megan

And anyone else who wants to do it !:)

Weekend Warrior

Clair over at Mummy Deals had a post about procrastinating, and challenged us to do something that we have been putting off.

I have been wanting my boys room painted for quite some time. So long, that I actually bought the paint in November of '06 - yep, you read that right - '06!!!!!

I decided that this weekend, while Ryan was away camping, I was going to paint the boys room.

Thursday night, Katie mentioned that her kids were going to sleep at their Grandma's house, and that she would be willing to come help me on Saturday night! That sealed the deal - who's going to turn down help?!?!?

Friday, bright and early, I headed to the paint store (with the paint that I bought in '06) and asked them if they thought it was still good, and if it was, would they be able to mix it up again in that shaker thing. Sure enough, they thought it was still good, and they went ahead and mixed it up for me! :)

I started to clean out the room, and move furniture and get holes patched and everything on Friday afternoon. By Friday late afternoon I was taping everything off, and then by the evening, I was starting to do the trim work and cutting-in of the painting. I got all of that done, and then called it a night.

I, of course forgot to take a before picture, but here is an in-between picture...:)



Saturday morning, I felt like I could conquer the world, o.k., not really, but I really wanted to get the paint finished before Kate got here so that we could just decorate the room, and not have to worry about wet paint. So I finished painting - 2 coats of it!!! Man was it a lot of work, but it was definitely worth it!!

Here's the finished paint product (minus the furniture)


Then came the fun part!! Decorating the room! We got the beds from Ryan's Grandma, and we haven't put the kids in them yet - Brett was still in a toddler bed, and Owen was still in his crib - yeah, I'll save that explanation for another time. Anyway, Ryan's sister gave me all of the decorations for the room!! Her son outgrew the stuff, so she handed them my way, and I am so thankful, because I didn't have to buy a thing!!! And its cute too! :) Thanks Grandma and Heather!!!

Here's my favorite decoration in the room....


And here's Katie's.....
Brett's bed...(notice the little cowboy boot rug!:))
Owen's bed....(see the cute hook for his robe?!?:))

And the little valances I made...

DONE!!!! I can call their room done!! I feel so awesome that I did it myself (well, with some help from Kate) and I can't wait for Ryan to see it!!!

A blog track mind....

You know the saying 'one-track mind?....

Well, I've got a blog track mind. By that I mean that throughout my day, if I see something worthy of taking a picture or writing a story about, I'm obsessed with creating into a blog post. I even find myself writing notes to remind myself of what I wanted to write about. Or I'll try to get the perfect picture to include it into my post. I'm a bit OCD about it.

Please tell me I'm not the only one, and if I'm not, maybe we'll have to start a blogger's anonymous group...

At the park...

So we're at the park today - me, Melanie and Kristin. All was fine. We grabbed some Subway sandwiches, ate a little lunch, and then let the kids play. My sister brought Capri-Sun pouches for the kids to drink.

My kids learned a new trick with the pouches. Once they are done with the juice in them, they blow them up with air, and then jump on the pouch to watch the straw fly out - but not before they yell "Fire in the hole!!!" :D

Brett was playing on the playground with his empty pouch in his hand and pretending like he was squirting people with it. Probably not the best thing to do, but hey - he's a 4 year-old boy who loves to watch people squirm. Well, he pretended to squirt his juice at another mom, and she turned around and pointed her finger at him and yelled at him not to do that to her.

I watched the entire thing transpire, and it wasn't but a second later that I got off the picnic bench and started marching over to the scene. I called Brett's name, and told him to come to me. The mom turned around and smiled and in a sing-song voice said, "he said it was empty he he he." To which I replied, in a very calm voice, "I can take care of my own son, thank you." I wanted her to know that what she did wasn't appropriate.

What gives this lady the right to point at my son and yell at him. No one, and I think that's why I reacted the way I did. I cooled off, and then enjoyed the rest of my time.

My question is this - did I overreact?!? What would you have done in this situation?

O, to be a kid again...

The other night, I came home and found this on my counter...


How fun is this that Chloe gets to do stuff like this with the neighbor girls. The girls are twins and a couple of years older than her, but they get along so GREAT!! Needless to say, she's excited to get home from school to have "Cheerleading Practice!":)

I remember, when I was young, we were outside all the time playing with all the kids in the neighborhood. I can't say we were always the best acting kids (I won't mention jumping off anyone's garage) but you get the idea. It really is a joy for me to see all the kids in the neighborhood playing together (boys and girls) and they just have so much fun!

"Flood Day!"

So, it's official...

Just got an e-mail from Chloe's school. No school tomorrow due to flooding!

Unbelievable....

"Flood Day!"

So, it's official...

Just got an e-mail from Chloe's school. No school tomorrow due to flooding!

Unbelievable....

Never

Never in my whole life have I gotten to church to find the parking lot submerged in water and a sign that said that church was canceled!

While driving home, we saw SO much flooding! We actually had to take a couple of detours because a couple of roads were closed! Lots of water and rain around here!

Crazy to think that I'm hoping for a "Flood Day" for school tomorrow!?!?!?!?;)

Simplicity in a puddle!

It has been raining for I think 399 days - o.k., maybe just two, but with three little ones it seems like FOREVER!!

I was quite surprised today when Ryan pulled me aside and told me we should let the kids go outside and play in the rain - it was still pouring outside! I said sure and we told the kids about it. They weren't too sure about it at first but when they finally got wet, they LOVED it!

My mom, Ryan and I all sat on the front porch (out of the rain) and watched them have fun! Some of the neighbor kids were out playing and they just had a great time.

Brett had a ball, and before you knew it, he found a frog! I was pretty excited for him, because as we all know - Brett loves anything slimey!!:)

Brett put the frog in a bucket and continued to play. When I walked inside I noticed that the frog was gone. I felt a little sad for Brett, but didn't say anything to him, because I didn't want to ruin his fun. I figured we could just tell him later.

We got the kids inside, and put them in the tub to get ready to go out for dinner. Once they were out of the tub, Ryan asked me why I put the frog in the fish tank? What?!?! Let me back peddle just a little bit - the fish is from my MOPS meeting last week, the kids named it Cheeto. He hasn't been doing very good. Just hovering at the bottom of the tank, no eating - well this morning he was moving all over - seemed very happy - until the frog got put in his tank. We asked around to see who put it in there, and of course, Brett said that the frog needed to go in there, so he put him in there.

I get the net out, and fish the frog out (does that make sense?!?:)) and the frog immediately hops out of the net and onto my counter. I screamed - pretty loud - and ran away. I'm not good with slimey things. My husband carried it out to the front yard and let him go - all the while, Brett is crying his little heart out.

The sweetest part though, was when Ryan had to explain to Brett how it would feel if he was taken away from his mommy and daddy, and that the frog had to go back home to his mommy and daddy, but he had a fun time visiting us! :)

I threw together a little montage of our afternoon. Enjoy!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One Mile

We live somewhat behind a school. By that I mean that beyond our backyard is a field that belongs to the school. This field rarely gets used. On occasion for a football practice, and they use it maybe once a season for a cross-country track meet.

Well, today just happens to be one of the days that it is being used - for a cross-country track meet. I really had no idea that they were going to use it today, until I went outside to push the boys on the swing and noticed a big orange sign that said "1 mile" on it.

Brett asked me if I saw the sign, and I said, "yeah, but I'm wondering why it's in our yard?" Brett replied with, "Oh, I put it there!" I then say, "Oh buddy! Why did you move it - where was it?" I then start walking into the field with the sign to put it in it's proper place, whatever that place might be. "No mom, I was further in the field," he tells me. So I walk a bit more and settle on a spot that I thought was pretty reasonable.


I turn around and go to push Owen on the swing when I see a little flag on the ground. (It was the type of flag that they would use to mark off gas spots or cable lines, etc.) "What's this?" To which Brett replies, "Oh, that was under the sign!" Oh Man!! I got a little nervous, and thought - they must've really marked out 1 mile, and now my son has just screwed it up!!

I casually walked to my garage and threw away the flag...

Can't help but feel a little guilty because I feel so happy?!?

Remember this post? Take a minute to read it...I'll wait for you! :)








Yeah, ummmm.........well..........they're putting their house up for sale next week...

She's tarnished?!?!?

So, the other day, I was in the kitchen (aren't I always in the kitchen?!?) getting ready to put dinner on the table. Chloe walks in, and the following is what was said:

Chloe: (in a sing song voice) Daddy sang bass, momma sang tenor...
(Click on the link to hear the song)


Me: What?!?!

Chloe: (in a sing song voice) Daddy sang bass, momma sang tenor...

Me: Where'd you hear that?

Chloe: Me and daddy listen to it when we go to school in the morning! (Big grin on her face)

I go into the family room and tell Ryan what just happened in the kitchen, and he too gets a big grin on his face.

A little background for you, Ryan LOVES Johnny Cash! I, on the other hand - HATE IT!! Really, I don't like his music at all!!! Well, I had the great idea last year for Christmas to get him the Greatest Hits CD, and he listens to it - ALOT and apparently even when he brings Chloe to school each morning.

While I can't say that Johnny Cash is the best thing to fill her mind with before school, I can say that those are awesome times that she shares with her daddy each and every morning, and those are going to be the times she remembers!

So when she's singing, "we got married in a fever - hotter than a pepper sprout" through the house, I just have to come to grips with the fact that she will be a Johnny Cash fan, if she isn't one already...and I'm o.k. with that.

The blob!

At the lake, there is a trampoline, and a yellow pillow type thing that the kids call the blob. Chloe absolutely HATES getting bounced off of the blob, while Owen and Brett won't come near it...until my niece Leah came! Brett allowed Leah to "blob" him off and absolutely loved it! Now you can't get the kid off of it! As I've said before, this kid is a fish, AND a daredevil! :) Thanks Leah - now you have to work on getting Owen out there! :) (Again, don't mind my voice...I can't stand my voice on video!!!)

Too many cooks in the kitchen didn't spoil this corn!!

(l to r: Aimee, Amy, Susan, Michelle, Katie, Melanie and Christina (32 weeks pregnant with TWINS!!!))

As most of you know, I go to Katie's house each week to play cards. Well, last night we decided we would make freezer corn. I got the idea from the Mummy Deals website, so if you're interested in getting the recipe - go here.

We decided we were just going to do 15 dozen to start out with, and if we wanted to do it again, we would. We had a so much fun! To start out, only 5 of us were there, so we got all of the corn shucked, and then moved into the kitchen to start cleaning, cutting, cooking, cooling and then bagging! :)

It's amazing when you get us girls together in the kitchen. Everyone just starts a job, and it all gets done so quickly. We've canned tomatoes before, made freezer meals (which we're going to do next week), and now corn. We just have so much fun together!

Anyway, Katie got a new camera, and we thought we'd try to figure out how the timer works, ahem...yeah, that's why we took so many "corny" pictures of us!!


I just love this next one - Katie is hilarious! :)




Not sure what our thought was with this one!?!?



And last, but certainly not least, a picture that Katie forbid me to put on this blog. It is just too stinkin' funny not to post up here! Katie's expression is just priceless!!! Love you Kate!

All joking aside though - I love you girls! You are my bestest friends and I am so blessed to have each and every one of you in my life! I don't know what I would do without you guys, and I certainly don't know what I would do without "cards" each week! Love you!!!

Froggy

We have a big field in our backyard. It's fun to watch the weather move in, like last night - we had a pretty good storm.

Anyway, this morning is was pretty foggy outside, and Brett says to Ryan, "Hey Dad! It's really froggy out there!" :) We kept trying to correct him, and he would say, "yeah, froggy." Too cute!

He jumps AND swims!!!!!

All summer long, Owen has not wanted to swim...at all. He would pretty much stay on the boat when we would go out and swim in the lake.

This weekend, Ryan was trying to get him to jump in, and he just wouldn't do it. Well, I had to be the bad mother, and I just kind of threw him in, and he LOVED it!! Yippeee! We couldn't get him to stop jumping in. And then finally, he figured out that he could swim with the life jacket! It was awesome! Here's a little video of him with his new tricks! :)

A future Olympic Diver?!?

This weekend Brett figured out how to dive. Not just a forward dive, but a BACKWARD dive! It scares me every time he does it, but he's just so good at it! :)

And yes, my laugh is ridiculous!! Sorry you have to listen to it.