New Look for the New Year

To celebrate the New Year, and renewed perspective...Sanity is Priceless has gone PURPLE. Purple for Epilepsy Awareness.





May this be the year of the CURE!!!! This year on Sanity is Priceless continue to look for ways to show your support for Epilepsy Awareness.

Celebrating the END of 2009

I will see the end of 2009 off with a celebration that we have made it through this tumultuous year and prayers that 2010 blesses us all. Instead of lamenting all that went wrong this year I will be thankful for all that has gone right.

1-Dan and I are both still employed. Neither of us are making what we used to , but at least we are still employed

2- and most importantly we have excellent health coverage.

3-Autumn (and Emma) are 6 1/2 months seizure free!!!!

4-Most of the time at least one of our vehicles is in running order.

5-Dylan is doing fantastic in school, and is at grade level!

6-Autumn made High Honor roll.

7-Owen has his moments of great success in school.

8- I survived my fist semester back in college.

9- I PASSED statistics and will never have to take math again in my life!

10- Dan and I celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary.

I'm ready to start a fresh new year and hope it fills with lots of things to be thankful for!

Lawnmower Queen

Yup just call me The Lawnmower Queen.

I DESPERATELY needed to cut my grass before I lost a daycare kid in it. So the last daycare kid leaves and I pull out the lawnmower and the pull cord won't pull. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! You got to friggin' be kidding me????!!!!! REALLY??!!

My options were to A-leave it alone and pray Dan might be able to help it tomorrow, it's not like I don't have other chores i need to do...feed kids dinner, fold two baskets of laundry, put a third coat of paint on Dyl's room..but it is not promising for Dan to fix things.Last time he took apart my dryer to fix it, it came apart in about 100 pieces, never to go back to gether again and had to be completely replaced.

OR B-take a crack at it myself. If it's already broken how much more damage can I do to it right?

So I start by clearing all the grass out of the bottom. Nope.

Take the twine and string off of the blade. Nope.

Then I removed the air filter cover, scraped the accumulated junk off the sponge. Put it back. Nope.

I attempted to take the cover off of the top so I could look at the "flywheel" (YUP I am one BAD ASS Internet surfer and found a lawnmower website)But I failed, it was a weird nut holding it on and no matter which way I turned it it wouldn't go more than a 1/4 of a turn.HMmmmmmmmmmmm. I KNOW the problem is in there, but I can't get to it : (

Then while I contemplating what else I can unscrew to get to it I found the oil fill/drain plug...and I said well let's check the oil, It' probably hasn't oil put in it since we bought it 3 years ago...sure enough it was almost empty. I went into the bat cave basement (yeah, I braved it..GO ME!!!) and returned with oil, added oil, put oil plug back...and tested the string...and VIOLA!! Big black puff of smoke and my mower ran SWEET BABY!!!!!!!!

I am so damn proud of myself!!!!!!!

What Good are Dwarves If They Don't Do Chores?

I never knew the reason behind why my parents had SIX xhildren...it was to keep a continuous chain of work eligible beings around!!!

I started to sand down Dylan's dresser to paint it for his new room...and Autumn comes and find me and says "I want to do that!" And so I put her to work and I won't suffer the effects of arthritic feeling hands and carpal tunnel syndrome...it's the LIFE being the supervisor!

The New ADD diet

We have decided not to medicate Owen for the school believes is ADD. We will be changing his diet in order to see if we can get his ADD symptoms under control.

This morning I tried out a smoothie (vanilla organic yogurt, milk, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries and a banana). First we tried out the berry smoothie alone..Autumn and Dylan and myself gave it a thumbs up, Owen didn't like it much. After we tried out the berry smoothie alone, I added in some flaxseed oil to see how it would work as a delivery system for Omega 3s...Autumn still liked it, Dyl still liked it, I liked it, OWen didn't care much for it.

Then I tried out Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread, as a delviery system for the contents of a fish oil capsules. It was OK but still had a faint fish oil taste...Dylan didn't care at all and licked the bowl and spoon clean, Autumn ate hers, I ate mine although I was the least enthusaistic about it and Owen ate his. Tomorrow we will do it with flaxseed oil and I will look for an orange flavor fish oil, lol.

We talked about our new traffic light eating.

Green Go -GROW Foods:

All fruits, all vegetables, eggs, flaxseed oil, lean meat, low fat milk and cheese,nuts and seeds, nut butters, olive oil, salmon, soy foods, whole grains, organic yogurt

Yellow Slow down Sometimes foods:

butter, homemade cookies, frozen yogurt, 100% fruit juice, honey, fatty meats, pasta, homemade pastries, white bread

Red Light, We don't eat that Stop and make a healthier choice foods:

beverages presweetened with sugar or corn syrup (yup I am going ot give up Sierra Mist), cottonseed oil, dyes, foods with artificial sweeteners, foods with hydrogenated oils, prepackaged bakery goods, gelatin desserts, marshmallows, foods containing nitritrates (hot dogs)

We discussed out Goals.

1-drink more water

2-eat fish twice a week

3-take an Omega 3 supplement every day

4-no fake sugars

5-go whole grain

6-no preservatives or artificial colors

We are going to Go Natural: D

I listed made a Brainy Breakfast Menu:

*apple slices with PB and yogurt

*smoothies

*egg in a hole with whole weheat toast, OJ fruit

*french toast with berries and yogurt

*yogurt fruit and granola parfaits

*oatmeal, yogurt, fruit

*PB on whole wheat toast with bananas or berries, milk

*veggie omelet with whole wheat toast, fruit

*granola with yogurt and fruit

*whole grain waffles or pancakes with fruit and yogurt and milk

*zucchini or pumpkin pancakes with fruit and milk

We discussed what we have to give up...Mom's soda, pop tarts sugary cereals, lunch box snacks will change, pizza will change...we'll make our own, cookies will no longer be bought, we'll make homemade...I was asked How will this change Thanksgiving Dinner? (not at all)

All in all there was no boo hooing...I won't be dragging them into it kicking and screaming. They were awesome about it. I stated this is what we will be doing, this is why (to build smarter brains, healthier hearts) and they went with it.

Autumn asked to include more family excercise. Dylan said his friends at school will miss his snack filled lunches, lol. Owen isn't resiting it but he has quiet apprehension, lol. They all wanted ot know if this includes Dad as well...I told them we will have to ease him ito it..let's just give him credit now for being 4 weeks smoke free: D

Dog Days of Summer

Poor Greta Girlie had a rough day. Mom took the girl on a walk of 3 miles, which normally she'd be able to handle just fine, and be ready for more, but today it was about 90 degrees out with 81% humidity. Poor girl was so overheated by the time we got home.

We walked all the way to the town hall because my parents took the kids to he ball field to play baseball. And Mom forgot to send along Autumn's Emergency Rescue meds, her Diastat. I tried to call my mom's cell phone but she had left her cell in her car and there was no answer. So I figured it wasn't more than a 20 minute walk down there, I'd take Greta with me. I left the Mastiffs home on the sheer basis of the length of the walk alone...they never would have made it in the heat.

Poor Greta was hyper salivating and panting hard, she had me nervous the last four blocks snapping at her rear at nothing that I could see...it was very pre-Ictal behavior although she isn't an epi dog. I got her in and she about collapsed inside the front door, didn't go for water. I got a towel and wet it and put it against her belly, I added ice cubes to her water dish and put it closer and had Autumn come aim the fan on her and doused her with water and put a small soda bottle full of frozen water near her. After a few minutes she was panting pretty heavily still so I gave her a small spoonful of vanilla yogurt heavily laced with honey. That seemed to give her the energy to recover fully.

I am so glad I didn't take the mastiffs, they never would have made it home and would have gone inot full heatstroke!

LOLA, L-O-L-A, LOLA

Autumn and Lola

Danny Joe has left to attend college in Hawaii and now Autumn has inherited his pet rat, Lola. Autumn loves this rat, and holds her and plays with her while she watches TV. Autumn lets Lola sit on top of her head and kiss her on the lips...can you say YUCK!!?? I love animals, I like pet rats...they are smart, friendly and entertaining. But really letting the rat kiss your lips is pushing it for me.

Lola however thinks she is living the high life now. Frequent handling. Extra treats. Being doted on.

Requests have been put in for cage upgrades...an excercise wheel, some cool tunnels to crawl through, a rope to climb.

Bat Protection Team

After the bat in her room, Autumn was afraid to sleep in there, in an alternative option to bunking in my bed which there is really no room for her, we set her up in the tent, then she invited in a couple of bodyguards.

Rabies treatment

My poor girl...because the bat was in her bedroom, she had to go and start Rabies treatment! The CDC sent us to the ER. They fast tracked us and she got two huge 10cc shots of thick liquid in her shoulder muscles (one on each side). And then a 5 cc shot on her thigh.She'll have another shot on days 3,7, 14 and 28: ( She was really awesome and didn't cry at the shots, teared up a bit afterwards because her shoulder muscles hurt ALOT.

And even though all of the animals were up to date on their shots, Piper and Mya, the two cats who had contact with the bat will have to go and have Rabies boosters tomorrow.

Ah, and the Season for Chiroptophobia begins....

I knew it was coming. For the last couple of weeks, when my mind was not plagued with bigger worries such as meeting my mortgage, keeping everything turned on, the car running, seizures...I would lay in bed and anxiously watch the ceiling for that unmistakeable shadow flitting around.I'd pull the covers up over my head, and lay there agonizing over whether I would know if one of my children got bit, if one of us would die of hydrophobia, I fear one being caught in my hair ( I don't car eif it is an old wives' tale..it FREAKS ME OUT!)I toss and turn and generally worry myself till I doze off in a fitful state and dream of...



Bats. Yup, I'll give myself nightmares over it. I'll fret so much I clench my jaw, inflame my TMJ and wake up with a headache...all over these insect eating,disease carrying, furry, freaky ass flying mammals.

2:45 am all the dogs get up and go to the bottom of the stairs...I thought it might just be Danny Joe getting a late night snack or something, but I sat up. Autumn comes in our room and she's stuttering and stammering and my first thought is she is confused...is she having a seizure?! It's a weird new kind of seizure then. I grab hold of her forearms because I feared she might drop down into a tonic clonic seizure and either fall through the stein cabinet or hurt herself on the door, and she finally gets it out, you can hear the fear in her voice..."Mom! I think there is a bat in my room! I woke up and I heard the fluttering of something flying and those chirping noises they make! I sat on my bed with the cover over my head and then when it crossed to the other side of my room I got down and ran out the door!" Poor kid is sleeping on a loft bed about 3 feet from the ceiling! I would have shit my pants! Anybody who knows me , knows that I have a major fear of bats.

Since we have moved into this house every summer in late July, early August for a week or two we end up with bats in our house.The first time I was sittign watchign TV with Dan and I see somethign flying aroudn th eliving room, and my first thougth was "Oh one of the birds got out." So I look over at the bird cage to see that all three cockatiels are still perched there and Sage is still in his cage and that is when it dawned on me "BAT!" and I dove under the couch cushions.Once when I was sitting in the recliner in the kitchen talking to Danny Joe, my lovebird Sage got out of his cage and flew over to my head. Except I saw him flying to me out of the corner of my eye, and jumped up and screamed "BAT!BAT!" and ran and locked myself in the bathroom, while Danny Joe is out there trying to get Sage to land on his arm before a dog eats or steps on him. It was classic. I once shut Autumn down in the big kid playroom when I discovered a bat and ran for my life. Last summer one must have come in during the night and somehow ended up in the turtle tank, that morning Owen comes running to me in tears (afraid of the bat) telling me there is a bat in the turtle tank,I didn't really believe him...mostly they come in at dusk, and I thought maybe he was talkign about a toy bat of some kind, so I get up to investigate. Yup, there is a bat, clinging to the rocks and the turtles are trying to drag him down into he water. GO TURTLES! GO TURTLES! GO TURTLES! ( no fear PETA members...Dan saved the out of luck bat in a towel and safely deposited him outside over the fence near the trees)And the time I was drying my hair in the bathroom and I see this shadow on the ceiling and think to myself "Damn! That's one big-ass moth!" only to then figure out in my glassless semi-blind state it was a bat...thankfully I was fully dressed because I ran screaming from the bathroom, LOL. And those are just the memorable times...it doesn't include the 18 or so other generic times I just ran for cover, lol.

So back to our present unwelcomed midnight visitor... Dan gets out of bed and goes up to investigate and can't find the bat anywhere upstairs...not in Autumn's room, the boys' room, the bathroom...so he comes downstairs to check and see if the bat came down stairs and he goes to turn on the kitchen light and HE sees Piper chaisng somethign aroudn our kitchen floor. Sure enough it was the bat. Piper our cat had it!It couldn't fly anymore, but it was alive. Dan scoope dit up and tossed it outside to see if it would recover. Ther eis no bat so either it recovered and flew away or died and something took it away.

Go Piper!!!Piper, although I am not her favorite person, she has now earned her spot in my house. No longer can Dan call my cats useless!

My new Favorite Kitty....Piper

Graceful, I am not

OK so I finally recovered from my dog walking fiasco. I am walking up the stairs of the playroom to the kitchen holding a 5 pound frozen roll of dog meat in my hand. I go to step up the last step in the kitchen completely miss the step, and alas I cannot save myself because the moment my foot went to hit that step I was fully committed. I kind of caught myself on the door jam with my elbow, which suffered a little minor de-skinning. Unfortunately the force of my entire body weight hitting that door frame with my elbow caused that arm to rebound and....


....wait for it....





...can you see it coming?...




...if you guessed "socked yourself in the face with a 5 pound tube of frozen dog meat and almost broke your cheekbone/gave yourself a black eye" You are a WINNER!!!!!!!!!!

And that my friends is the danger of the B.A.R.F. diet.

Dog Walking 101

65 pound Boxer Greta +

70 pound Mini Moose Emma +
100 pound Moose, Bailey =

Damaged Dog Walker

So two days ago I decided to take all three dogs for a walk...that's a good 235 pounds of dog being walked by 110 pound me. Normally it goes just fine, but the stupid guys across the street always allow their Jack Russel Terrier Jewels to run free (always after 4:30 and on weekends when Animal control is closed @@) So coming back from our walk Jewels is out on the corner with some people who are all concerned about this "stray" dog. Jewels comes running up to greet me and my trio and the next thing I know I'm skiing across the front of this guys lawn, thinking to myself "Please don't eat the little dog in front of all these little kids!", because Bailey, the 100 pound French Mastiff really needed to see Jewels, she dragged me and the other two dogs with her...she did the same closed mouth I'll be gentle but I want to play chomp that she uses on my cats to Jewels and I ended up on my ass. I was so pissed...partly at Bailey for misbehaving and partly at the college kids for letting Jewel run free. I was peeved. A guy who loading stuff in a mini van is frozen mid way trying to decide if he should help me, rescue the little dog or stay out of it, lol. I get up and holler at Bailey for pulling me over, she cowers. I walk to corner and holler "SIT!" everyone sits, I say "HEEL!" everyone heels we start walking down the street, a nice couple in a van are looking at me..and Autumn asks me "Mom what would you do if Bailey ate Jewels?!" "I'd applaud, it's what you get for letting your dog run free, he deserves to be eaten! Do you see our dogs ever run free?! NO. Our dogs are fenced or on a leash." I ranted the whole two blocks home. I had a beer, all was forgotten.

Two days later my ankles are so sore. Flexing my toes up is unbearable, down is bad. It's like my ankles are burning. And the pain is traveling up my lower leg and making my knee joint on the right hurt. The back of my thighs are starting to feel pain. Ibuprofen isn't doing squat. I suppose I need to ice it but I have to wait for my ice cube trays to freeze. But I don't blame my sweet Bailey...I blame this Stinker's SCHMOE Owners...

My Little Indians

Dylan


Dylan , Owen and Autumn

Owen

Autumn

Summer Fun

To Really get into the spirit of our Native American unit we decided to build a tipi.
Although the tribe we'll discover this week, The Maidu tribe of California, didn't use tipis, the Nez Perce of the Northwest that we did last week, and the Sioux that we will discover next week both use tipis.It took me about an hour and half total, that includes collecting my long branch poles and trimming off the tiny branches, to erecting the frame, and draping the "buckskins". The FamilyFun.com website suggested using 10 foot sections of PVC pipe and a 9 x 12 foot canvas tarp...but we improvised and were on a tighter budget and therefore got a less commercial and more rustic looking tipi; P The kids are having an absolute BLAST playing Indians!

Here is me constructing the frame.

The finished frame...

The finished tipi...

What happens when you leave 11 year old girls being minded by 22 year old's who are playing video games?

They steal your digital camera to take pictures of the cake they baked...

and of the dog they dressed up...........

This one looks like Emma had a hangover from carrying around the twelve pack of Heinekin...

Ileus Hospitalization

We took DH to the emergency room Wednesday morning. After being up all night with severe upper abdominal pain, he became nauseaus and was sweating bullets to boot. I thought he might be having a heart attack, or his hiatal hernia surgery he had done a few years ago came undone, or he had gallstones.

He spent 9 1/2 hours in the ER. They did an x-ray and blood work. He had a high white count. They sent him for a CT. He had a "slow small intestine". They call it an Ileus. They needed to watch him to see if it turned into a blockage. They admitted him...but it took forever to get a bed.

HE was allowed No food or water. They started an IV. They did regular blood work. Thursday he was still on no food, no water. But was feeling better. His potassium and calcium were low so they gave him those. They did another x-ray to see where things were and apparently they had started to slowly but surely move along. He was told they would start him on clear liquids in the morning and soft foods like soup and pudding in the afternoon.

So I get to the hospital at 10 am on Friday morning and he hadn't seen a Dr. since he coincidentally ran into his Primary Care Physician coming out of x-ray at 9 am the day before. No one could tell us who was covering for his doctor or when someone might be in to check on him or at the very least give him the OK for some clear liquids.

He was about ready to discharge himself. I went to the Nurse Station and asked, I informed them they were about to lose a patient. They said they'd look into it. an hour later his nurse comes in and we ask her about it, Dan tells her he was leaving in 65 minutes, whether they discharge him or not. she'd said she'd check. Another hour goes by and nothing. So i went and called his PCP, got the answering service since it was a holiday and they are closed for the holiday and explained to her that one if their patients was admitted Wednesday and hadn't seen the covering physician yet, has been on no food and water for 3 days, I had asked at the nurse's station and the his nurse who the covering doctor was, when we might see him, when he might be allowed at least some clear liquid and they couldn't' answer a thing. I go back to his room. And then I go back down to the nurse's station, who informs me they just received a call from his PCP, they were now looking for his covering doctor. Of course you are, because I JUST got off the phone. I CALLED his PCP! You are going to lose a patient in 5 minutes, he's packing as we speak. The covering Dr. doesn't do rounds till late afternoon. Well then I guess he'll have one less patient to see. As I am leaving she asks which nurse covers my husband, the covering Dr. is calling in, my husband's nurse happens to be there and picks up.

All over the hospital are signs posted for this CONDITION H. H for HELP. That if you feel you are not receiving quality care, you can dial this number and a team of people will arrive to assess the situation and assist in getting your patient help. Needless to say, this IS NOT confidence inspiring. Anyhow, the Unit Nurse Coordinator shows up...she says her name is Nurse COMFORT...makes me wonder if it's a code name like "Paging Dr. STRONG to room #2B19" just means they need some really strong people in that room ASAP to help restrain a patient??? Anyway she offers her apologies in the lack of communication, it's busy....They were trying to reach the covering DR all morning, they can't help it if he doesn't answer his pages. I said we understand he is low priority, it's not life or death, but some simple straight answers would have averted this entire situation. At first I was irritated but OK, I told her I have no interest in listening to excuses, she says in a snotty tone "these aren't excuses Ma'am...these are the facts...." OMG BULLSHIT...NOTHING was being done UNTIL I CALLED HIS PCP. He asked his nurse this morning she had no answers. I went to the Nurse's station two hours ago..they couldn't even tell me who his covering doctor was! THE ONLY REASON they were on the phone with him 10 minutes ago was because I CALLED HIS PCP! I was so irate, Dan got up stepped between the nurse and me, and was like I'm staying. I'm OK .Everything is OK. Your OK. He hugged me but I was so peeved I pushed him away and walked out. I was absolutely FUMING. I was totally ready to go toe to toe with Nurse Comfort.

When I got back he had coffee, a carton of milkshake crap, cream of broccoli soup, a tapioca pudding and a Jell-O. A while later they offered him toast and his nurse filled out all his paperwork so when the Dr. Late Bird got around to doing his rounds his discharge would be quicker. We sat in the room for another 4 1/2 hours waiting on the Dr. His nurse came in and was so apologetic...I don't have a problem with any of the nurses, except Nurse Comfort, she better keep her distance from me. I told her I've had two babies at that hospital, my glalbladder out, Dan's hiatal hernia surgery and we've never run into this kind of problem before, I understand he's a low priority case however, my daughter has epilepsy and if i ever get this kind of treatment in her care all Hell will break loose.

Almost 5 pm Dr. Late Bird meanders in, doesn't check Dan over at all, doesn't listen to his gut nothing...just asks how are you feeling? Nauseaus? Pain? No...I was told you wouldn't be released until tomorrow but if your feeling up to it I'll release you now. Any questions? Yeah how about his low potassium...is it the cause of the Ileus or a result of the Ileus. I doubt it's the cause, lots of people come in here with low potassium doesn't mean they'll get an Ileus (OK I know I am not a Dr., I know I shouldn't get my medical advice online but go to medline and look up Ileus and you'll see this....

Paralytic ileus, also called pseudo-obstruction, is one of the major causes of intestinal obstruction in infants and children. Causes of paralytic ileus may include:

Chemical, electrolyte, or mineral disturbances (such as decreased potassium levels)

So it was caused by the Ileus? It was probably caused by the Spirolactone (his high blood pressure medicine).

From Medline about Ileus:
Possible Complications
Complications may include or may lead to:
Electrolyte imbalances

From the FDA site on Spironolactone:

Indications and Usage for Spironolactone

Hypokalemia
For the treatment of patients with hypokalemia when other measures are considered inappropriate or inadequate. Spironolactone tablets are also indicated for the prophylaxis of hypokalemia in patients taking digitalis when other measures are considered inadequate or inappropriate.

(hypokalemia is low potassium in the blood)

Therefore when you go down to WARNINGS:

Warnings
Potassium supplementation: Potassium supplementation, either in the form of medication or as a diet rich in potassium, should not ordinarily be given in association with Spironolactone therapy.
Excessive potassium intake may cause hyperkalemia in patients receiving Spironolactone (see PRECAUTIONS: General). Spironolactone should not be administered concurrently with other potassium-sparing diuretics. Spironolactone, when used with ACE inhibitors or indomethacin, even in the presence of a diuretic, has been associated with severe hyperkalemia. Extreme caution should be exercised when Spironolactone is given concomitantly with these drugs.

Hyperkalemia is excessive levels of ptassium in teh blood, which can lead to cardiac arrest, like he isn't a cardiac arrest awaitign ot happen already?! @@I'm beginning to wonder if they just pulled a Janitor aside to pose as a Dr. to get us out of there?!

Piper REALLY wants to go on the BARF diet

...or she doesn't value her life at all....

Actually she is no danger. She ended up pushing the Big Mastiff Bailey right out of the Bailey's own food dish and taking it over! 100 lb. dog let's her food dish be taken over by a 8 lb. cat. That's just sad. (For those who want to know...It was ground pork, pork trimmings and a bit of canned pumpkin with honey and cinnamon)

Let's see what Greta has to offer....


Emma didn't leave me nothing!



Today she gets her her very own dish with her very own food.

A Face Only A Momma Could Love...

I just love the tooth stickign out of the floppy jowls!!!!

And So the Summer Starts...

as always with the boys bickering and fighting. DH gave them a talking to this morning warning them we had 2 full months of summer vacation and it was gonna be long and miserable if they proceeded to bicker and fight through it.



They made it through almost 12 hours without bickering and fighting. And then on their search for nighttime snack, they found the invisible Susan (from the Fantastic Four) figures chilling in our freezer. They wanted to know if they can have them...sure...except one Susan has a broken arm, Owen kept the whole Susan for himself and gave the broken Susan to Dylan who became teary and whiney about it, Owen became bossy and angry. I stepped in and put an end to it. I now own two Susans.

See my two newly acquired Susan's!

After snack and showers and partially picking up their destroyed bedroom (OMG those two possess absolutely NO organizational skills WHATSOEVER!@@ HOW could they have come from MY womb?!) I told them they are too old for sitting in time out, from now on whenever they choose to bicker and fight they'll be put to work...Hard Labor...they'll each get a pail to walk around the backyard and fill with rocks and they aren't' finished until they fill the pail. To which my 8 1/2 year old says, "I just have one question...where will we get the pails?" WHAT?! Are you SERIOUS?! IS that IMPORTANT AT ALL??!! I actually had to look at him and ask, "Is that hate important part of what I am telling you?" good news he was able to answer, "No. The important part is we need to stop bickering and fighting or we'll have to do Hard Labor and pick up rocks." THANK YOU. OMG, sometimes I think that kid has Asperger's.

R.I.P. Cheyanne, July 2006-Jun 2009

We lost Autumn's guinea pig Cheyanne today. I think she was morbidly obese and her heart just gave out in her sleep. She was great yesterday. Eating, drinking. It wasn't too hot here. She was just shy of 3 years old. It wasn't like our last guinea pig I could see it coming a good week or two before as she slowed down and slept more, and started sleeping in weird places, not with Cheyanne.

Cheyanne was a sweet pigger, smooth haired white and cinnamon colored.

Autumn was devastated. She went up to clean the cage and found her. She came down and she was crying so hard and holding her forehead...at first I thought she hit her head, then I was afraid she was confused and had had a seizure...because I could barely understand what she was trying to tell me. Finally she told me she thinks Cheyanne is dead.

I went up and sure enough she had died in her sleep. We got her a shoebox and wrapped her in a receiving blanket. Autumn sobbed the entire time I dug the hole under the fuchsia rose bush next to her last guinea pig Schvinka Morshka. I read the Rainbow Bridge Poem, and then said the Our Father (the only prayer I can remember). And then the kids all picked flowers from my garden and laid them on Cheyanne's Grave, and then they laid flowers on Newt's grave(Oregon Newt b.2000-d.2009), and Bunny Elbows (our cat b.b.1995-d.2008), and Schvinka Morshka (Autumn's first guinea pig, b.2003-d.2006). It turned into a Pet Memorial Day of sorts.

We talked about how Owen's guinea pig Cleo is going to miss Cheyanne as well, and Autumn said she was sleeping next to Cheyanne's body when she found her. Autumn went up and showed Owen how to take over feeding and watering his guinea pig and then sat in the wading pool holding Cleo, who oddly was more snuggly than she has ever been. And then she took care of the cats and rabbits.

And now we are down to 23 pets. June has been a rough month on us: *(

Big Brother is watching YOU!

Oh Lord, I forget how young Owen still is. He's 6 going on 7 the beginning of August. But every so often something like this happens that reminds me.

First of all earlier in the day, before dinner, he had attempted to climb on my desk to get him self some copy paper to draw on...and in the process spilled my full glass of Sprite all over the mouse pad, luckily it didn't spill on the keyboard, just under it and under the speakers and just missed ruining the book I borrowed from my SIL, and poured all out the back of the desk onto the wires and routers @@ Thank Goodness I have hardwood floors!

So this brings us to a couple of hours later when I decide to set the web cam up I bought last week so I can chat with my long distance sibs all at the same time (how cool is technology?!) So I'm setting it up and Owen comes in and looks and says, "Oh COOL! What is that?" I tell him it's a camera for the Internet, a video camera for the Internet. And his eyes get big and he says in a worried little voice "SO you can see people who accidentally spill soda on your computer and desk?" ABSOLUTELY! (Is that mean, putting the Fear of Mom in him?!) So he leaves the room, eyes as big as saucers to go tell his bro Dylan. And then he comes back in and asks with much curiosity," Can you see upstairs too?" ABSOLUTELY!!!! (OMG I could NOT let this opportunity to end the nighttime struggles pass unanswered...how friggin' perfect is this?! I didn't even PLAN IT...it just worked out I could play Evil Genius!

Now they couldn't wait to go tell their older sister of Mom's new wise mystical technological gadgetry. At first she asks me, she looks suspicious because I have been tinkering with the idea of putting a video baby monitor in her room to watch for night time seizures. I say Yes I Did, She checks out the new gadgetry. But Alas She Who Is All Too Wise for her young self argues with them, she's not falling for it. I have to woo her over to my side to join in the conspiracy. She's happy to oblige, feeling like she's in on a grown up secret.

I'm so giddy with excitement! Right now they are up in bed, SOUND ASLEEP. GO MOM! GO MOM! GO MOM!

<----Totally enjoying being an Evil Genius for the night!

No more pencils, No more books....

The kids have had their last day of school and so starts a 76 day countdown.

Our summer plan is to work on everyone's writing. We'll produce either a newspaper or a magazine. We'll work on our reading skills. We'll do some math drills. We'll explore some native american tribes, plymouth colony, the ocean, and biomes.

Our Fun list includes going fishing, swimming at teh grandparent's, going to the planetarium, using our telescope, and Owen wants to see some live horses...I'm not sure the last one will work out.

The Great Flood of 2009

I flooded my playroom. Actually I flooded it 3 times in a row because my washing machine is cranky and likes to do that every so often. The worst part is it flooded while I was washing all my towels so I didn't even have a bunch of dirty towels, or even clean dry towels with which to soak up some of the mess. The silver lining is it is actually a three season room with outdoor carpeting over concrete...the bad news was there was so much water it actually squished. The wabbits are beggin' for an arc!

Thankfully Danny Joe and DH fixed it (ok so Danny Joe fixed it, DH watched, er supervised I mean...) Something about unclogging and overflow sensor (guess I need to be more careful about washing the dogs stuffed toys after they have put a hole in them, lol) All I know is I was just happy to see it back in one piece, the last time DH took a dryer apart to fix it, it ended up in about 50 pieces never to be re-assembled or workable again!



"PWEEEEASE...Build us an arc so we don't float away Momma!We don't wanna grow webbed feet and be ducks anymore!"- Gypsy and D.B., house rabbits

Happy 5th Grade Graduation Autumn!!

Congratulations Autumn on your 5th Grade Graduation!!!

Autumn was awarded a Presidential Achievement award for Academic Excellence!

It was a very cute ceremony. Autumn played her flute in the Select Band. The class did a great rendition of the classic Grease song We Go Together.

Hard to believe my first born is going off to middle school!

The Passing of a Legend

No, not Ed McMahon , although he recently passed too..but our beloved Newt, our creatively named Oregon Newt, has passed on to the Great Amphibian World Beyond...it happened over three weeks ago on Jun 1, 2009.

I bought Newt and his long deceased pal (named Gingrich of course) waaaay back in late spring/early summer of 2000. Yes, Newt lived almost 9 long years, and he was adult when we got him so who knows how old he really was. Originally he was housed with Spike, our 17 year old Chinese Box Turtle. For the first 5 years we weren't even sure what he ate..remnants of Repto Min and fruit and shrimp that Spike ate? Turtle poop? Algae? Who knows but for 5 years we weren't even aware they made special food for Newts and Salamanders! Yet he thrived. He survived the time I accidentally refilled the tank with ice cold water and sent him into shock so bad he couldn't swim and I had to scoop him up and warm him under the heat lamp. He survived when we introduced Mr. and Mrs. Wiggles , the Eastern Painted Turtles into the tank and he decided they were too active as roommates and was afraid to come out and eat and became almost anorexic before we noticed and moved him to his own "pond". He survived the time Dan thought he was pouring plain water from a animal misting bottle into Newt's pond, only to find out once he poured it that it was diluted bleach mix I was using to clean up puppy pee accidents, which required Dan to once again scoop him out before his delicate skin burned and rinse him under fresh water. Newt had some close calls but he kept on going.

I know it's a little late to blog on poor Newt's passing but I bring it up because it took my boys' three weeks to take notice of his passing. I was pretty sure I told everyone that Newt died when they got home from school and that I buried him under a orange day lily (to match the coloring of his underbelly). Apparently they weren't paying attention.

It took DH and my stepson this long to move his 30 gallon tank down to the basement for me. It was the missing tank that set it off. Owen went to hang up his backpack and then comes to ask me "Where is Newt's tank?" I tell him it's in the basement. HE looks at me puzzled and asks "So Newt is living in the basement?!" So I tell him No. Newt's tank is in the basement. Newt died like three weeks ago, don't you remember. He said he didn't know that. A little while later I see him sitting on the couch with a strip of toilet paper..."What are you doing with toilet paper on my couch? Make sure you put it in the garbage, I don't want to find it laying around, or the see the dogs eating it!" He buried his face in the T.P. and starts to sob. Very dramatic. Especially since he was fine when I walked in. What's wrong? I'm just sad Newt died! OK.

So then I bring some laundry upstairs and on my way back down I run into my older son Dylan coming out of the bathroom, who has now been informed of this latest breaking news of Newt's death, again 3 weeks post mortem...who looks at me accusingly, with moist red eyes and says "You know Mom ..SOMEONE should have been feeding and watering Newt!" To which I tell him...I was feeding and watering Newt! He didn't die of dehydration or hunger...he died because he was over 9 YEARS OLD...I got him before YOU were even born!" To which he looks at me and accusingly states," I NEVER SAW YOU FEED AND WATER NEWT!" No, you did see me feed and water Newt you just didn't take notice. Like I told you Newt died three weeks ago but you didn't take notice until his tank was gone. He died because he was old. At the minimum he was 9...he was adult size when we got him so you can probably tack on a couple of years.

We don't' take pet deaths well here.

Dog Pile

Not exactly sure what Emma was trying to do... I guess just make it around Bailey who seems to be participating in her favorite past time, obstructing the pathway. Poor Emmers was pretty loaded up on phenobarbital and uncoordinated , she just couldn't get her back end over. I just thought it made an adorable picture.

Emma is doing well, and so the vet is going to decrease her loading dose down to 90mg twice a day. Hopefully she gets her coordination back but stays seizure free.

Day 3 on B.A.R.F.

B.A.R.F diet...Autumn thinks it's name is derived from what it looks like, or possibly what it will induce.

Emma however thinks it is absolutely fabulous. Course she also just tried to eat my pack and play, and has eaten poop from various sources (her own, rabbit's, cat truffles-it's all good).

So this is what her morning meal looks like..raw chopped beef, and a vegetable puree-a mix of thawed frozen and fresh veggies, eggs -shell and all, and olive oil.

Her evening meal is the chopped meat and either a frozen block of what my SIL calls Kennel Mix (which is apparently more chopped raw meat with more fat and organ meat-YUM!) or raw chicken, duck or pork necks. I brought out two of those necks last night and my stepson Danny Joe looks at me and says "What are those?!" to which I could only reply "I hope they are raw chicken necks or duck necks..." and then silently thought to myself, "because they look like bull penis." Not that I know what bull penis looks like..other than I've watched that crazy cooking show where that guy travels around the world and eats cultural delicacies we Americans normally feed to the garbage disposal .

Autumn was totally turned off watching Emma eat the necks. You can hear her crunch the bones a few times and then she swallowed the entire neck WHOLE! It had to be 6 inches long! Gruesome.

The Seizures Stop

It's been a quiet couple of days. We have broken Emma's seizure cluster. She's on a decent size loading dose of phenobarbital three times a day, plus Benadryl as needed to keep her calm. She's drunk and wobbly in the back end, has trouble getting up from laying down and with no warning all her feet will slide out from under her and she does her Bambi on ice imitation. Yet if she thinks there is even a chance she's gonna get some food she manages to get her back end to cooperate and be right there, so I am not too worried about neurological damage from the assault of seizures. I'm pretty sure when we titrated down a bit that side effect will go away. Each day she seems a little better.

For as sick as she was, she was intent on getting at my dry dog food bin. I had to take it out of the downstairs bath and put it up on my freezer where she sat in front of it and cried and howled for it. So I figure out of sight out of mind right? I put it down in the big kid playroom up on the counter near my washing machine. The next thing I hear is the sound of 60 pounds of puppy claws clawing for traction on my washing machine! The only thing I saw by the time I got there was Emma falling off the washer @@ I wasn't really sure if she just jumped up on the washer and tried to pull herself up unsuccessfully OR if she squeezed through the rail on the steps stepped on the dryer and walked over, which would be easier except in her drunken, unbalanced state, she fell off??

Turns out it was the latter. How did Sherlock here figure that one out? Easy. She tried to start my laundry for me: P(SUCH A THOUGHTFUL PUPPY!) and turned my dryer on with Danny Joe's combat gear for paintball in it -yeah...I insisted he wash it after he got back from the Lyme Capital of the U.S.A. Saugerties, NY-especially since he came back with a tick bite and is now on a preventative course of doxycycline. All that loud clunking gave away her route.

You would think with getting fed 4 times a day she would be full and satisfied but no...ever hear how the anti epileptic drug Keppra causes Kepprage (uncontrollable anger and agitation), phenobarbital apparently causes Elvis-in-the Late-Years Complex...uncontrollable driven hunger.

Update on Emmers

I left off yesterday afternoon...she seemed better so around 1:00 I gave her a couple of cups of dog food because she was hungry. I was only going to give her a cup but after she finished the first cup she was gnawing her way through my dog food bin! Dan had her out on the leash a few times and she seemed to be doing OK, I was hopeful, but then she had another grand mal at 2:45, and another at 4:45. When she came out of the latter she was very aggressive and went after Greta and Bailey snapping and barking. I called the vet and they upped her pheno from 60 mg twice a day to 90 mg three times a day to get her leveled off. I had to go to Dylan's Storytelling performance at school but Dan was home with her and she had another grand mal at 7:00 and another at 7:45. I was getting really concerned and was thinking we might need to use the Rescue meds. My SIL Stacy showed up at this time, she has 7 large dogs (Newfoundlands and Bernese Mountain dogs) and does rescue work, and two of her dogs have had seizures. She showed up with a weeks supply of food for the B.A.R.F. diet (Bones and Raw food). We'll get Miss Emma off the grains/ dry kibble in hopes that it has the effect the Ketogenic diet has for children with certain types of epilepsy. Emma also owes her peaceful night's rest to Stacy who suggested we give her some Benadryl to mildly sedate her. She rested so peacefully. Just one small 30 second to 1 minute seizure that didn't progress beyond the snapping at her own back end!

I have never been so thankful in my life, I was really becoming concerned that this was only going to get worse. I had never seen a dog have so many seizures in such a short period of time! Thank God for giving Emma break in these awful seizures!

LOL just another note to tell you how well she feels this morning..she's trying to break down my bathroom door to get to the food bin, and was pestering the cat; P Amazing. Absolutely amazing...yesterday I thought we might be coming to a sad end, today she is better than we could have even hoped for!

Poor Puppy

Poor Emma she had a seizure filled night. She had one in the kitchen at 2 am that lasted for 2 minutes. Then I gave her a dose of pheno at 5 am. 5:30 am she had a really big seizure that lasted 3-4 minutes. Then again at 7:30. I got her to the vet at 8:45, they doubled her pheno dose and gave me rescue meds (rectal valium). They could have kept her but they weren't going to do anything for her but observe her, she only suggested that if no one was going to be home to watch her. They skipped the blood panel since she had a full work up for that. We gave her 30 more mg of pheno at the vet office. She had another shorter one in the car on the way home about 10:15. Another at home at 11:03. So we are waiting for her med levels to kick in. And mostly we can just wait and watch and pray for the best. We'll put her on a grain free diet, my SIL did that and it helped her dog who had seizures.

Must be somethign in the air

First Autumn had a breakthrough seizure yesterday. Then the new puppy Emma had a seizure this afternoon. We were so hopeful that they just overmedicated her for demodectic mange (too many dips too close together on too young of a puppy) plus injectable ivermectin on top of that plus heartworm pills (more ivermectin). We slowly weaned her off her phenobarbitol, had 3 good weeks with nothing, and then she had a big seizure this afternoon.

Dan and Danny Joe were watching the Mets game and Dan heard all this banging, he thought she was gettign into something and was telling her to knock off the racket but when he looked he found her having a big grand mal seizure, thrashing and frothing. Poor baby. Back to phenobarbitol for the poor Emmers.

Damn

Autumn had another seizure. We were doing so well too. 56 1/2 days with no seizure. It's such a disappointment. At least it wasn't a big Tonic Clonic. I'm not really sure what you'd call it. She was fine, laughing and joking with me, felt fine all day. I left the room for a whole 7 minutes to go put my peas in the microwave for dinner and have the boys set the table. I send Owen in to go tell her dinner is on the table and I hear him holler at her like she's deaf "AUTUMN! GET UP. DINNER IS READY." She comes in sits down and she's in tears and tells me her stomach hurts...so I'm like then don't eat (I don't think she was just trying to get out of eating because we were having a dinner she liked...it was all Schwan's food...short ribs, roasted baby potatoes, peas, and french baguette bread and Autumn NEVER misses a meal). But as I'm looking at her she's not really there, she's confused and groggy. I bolt around the table and are like "Did you have a seizure?!" "I don't know..." she whimpered. Owen then volunteers he found her laying on the floor @@. I walked her to my bed and laid her down and asked Owen how he found her...laying face down. I look in at my husband who's on the computer in the room between the kitchen and the living room, he had a full view of her and he says "I don't know. I didn't hear a thing or see anything." @@ Danny Joe says when he came down for dinner she was on the couch, he went back up for his cell phone and she was still on the couch. At least I know it wasn't long, but she was totally postictal and groggy and fell asleep instantly on my bed and she has a huge cut on her chin, like she landed on the remote, and a mildly scraped elbow and ankle. What the hell?! I called her neurologist who upped her nighttime dosage of Keppra.

When she got up she had a little dessert, didn't feel much like dinner. Which is just as well because naughty Greta hopped up after everyone else left the table and ate her meal. Bad Dog. Guilty Dog. She had a massive headache. I just put her to bed so I'll be checking on her all night.

I think she had a absence seizure shortly before, when we were watching TV joking on the couch I asked her if she ever counter her freckles, she laughed and said yeah...but I only got to 50 and then lost count. Then she was showing me how she counted got to 24 stopped looked off to the side for a few seconds and I said 25 and she says and points 25...like she never even paused.

Brotherly Love, or Not

Best Friends, Worse Enemies. No words better describe brothers close in age. Exactly 21 months and 1 week apart...I'm pretty sure they alone are responsible for the rapidly spreading grey hair on my head. If I end up in a mental hospital, they alone will be responsible for it. I can't win.

If they are getting along, they are getting in trouble together (a la yesterday when they bickered with little girls on the bus, said girls hit boys, boys hit girls and Mom hit the roof), if they aren't best friends then they are worse enemies (a la waaaaaaay toooo friggin' early this morning about 6:30 am...WHY? WHY don't I have kids who take advantage of a weekend and sleep in for an hour or two? WHY?! they start right off with bickering and fighting which never ends well). They REALLY need to outgrow this phase or it is gonna be one loooooong hellish summer filled with endless chores and essays written about how to treat people with respect and kindness. They could have a really cool summer filled with cool projects like teepee building, crafts, field trips to the colleges planetarium and maybe even a big fun project like building a go-cart. Instead they'll have really good skills like essay writing, how to properly clean a bathroom, how to clean a playroom, how to organize toys, and ENDLESS, ENDLESS POOP PATROL DUTY.

For the Love of God, PLEASE help them figure out it is much easier to follow rules and be kind to others than to deal with the mountain of punishments Mom can heap on you when you ruin her Saturday morning.

Today's Blog is brought to you by the letter P

P for Puppy, Pooping and Pepto Bismo

I should have known it was coming. Two nights ago she pooped in the house..ok she's MOSTLY housebroken, one accident in a good week...not bad. We awoke in the morning to find 3 more seperate large, formed piles...OK that is NOT normal...by afternoon she had diarrhea...four hours later another bout...foolishly I fed her anyway, because really who can resist this squishy face??? And she was good until about 8, then she had an accident in the carpeted playroom on her way to the door. That was really fun and pleasant to clean up @@ : ( Poor girl thought I would be angry, and went and hid behind the recliner. Then again at 10. At least it was on hardwood and easy to clean...silver linings, kiddo, silver linings. I also found one lone Pepto tab and gave her half. YEAH for PEPTO!! I love Pepto..it affroded me a couple hours of sleep undisturbed by canine exlosive pooing. At midnight I heard her get up and let her out and averted another mishap. About 2 am I awoke because I heard her but I was too late, so there I am cleaning up puddles of poo in a sleepy haze wondering why exactly I was so excited to get a puppy. Again she hung her poor little sad head in shame while I told her it's OK you couldn't help it. I gave her the other half of the Pepto it held her till 6 when I heard her get up and follow Dan into the kitchen, but he was in the bathroom and I wasn't fast enough and she had another accident. Oh Good Lord may the Pepto Gods smile down on me and spare me the fecal flow!!!