I am devastated...

I just don't even know what to do or think or anything. We found out that the munchkin needs a feeding tube and will be getting it next Thursday. I am so definitely opposed to it that I can't even take it. He has been progressing so much lately with eating and movement that I feel like this would be such a setback. We also have to patch his eye for 2 hours per day because he refuses to wear his glasses. So we have therapy 2x per week 30 minutes away, 2 hours per week someone comes to the house to work with them, The munchkin has to be in his stander for however long he can handle it, we still have to have him wear his glasses (try), he has his hand brace that he wears all day. He needs to eat more pureed food than other stuff and I have to do exercises with him. The feeding tube will be added time. Plus there are 3 other children that need attention and a house that needs cleaning and so on and so on. And the hospital stay is 2-3 days which will be his 3rd hospital stay, first was for his double henia surgery, 2nd was when he swallowed the battery and this will be the third. I am completely overwhelmed and just devasted that we are veering no careening off the road that leads to normalcy. I am venting, thanks for listening.

He sure is cute though, little stinker!

All about Ironing

Ironing has never been my thing unless we have somewhere extremely special to go. Our form of ironing is to spray the clothes with a water filled spray bottle while you are wearing them and if you were really thinking ahead they might get sprayed before putting them on but that is highly unlikely. For Easter I purchased a pair of pants and I was doing my usual spray-to-iron technique and it wasn't working. I couldn't figure out why the water was beading off the pants. I was trying to smooth the water onto the pants to make the wrinkles get out still not working. I looked at the label, Plain as day it said "Stain Resistant" . I was so very frustrated. I had to bring out the iron-what torture! Why would a company cause you to iron pants, don't they know how many children I have??? Anyway, Brad's new job is at the pro-shop at the Bob Hope Classic Golf Club so he has to wear nice, unwrinkled clothes. Darn! He is perfectly capable and willing to iron his own clothes (He has been for the dropping off of applications, interviews and so on) but I want to attempt to keep his clothes ironed for him so that when they hit his closet, he knows they are ready to wear. We do have to get a new ironing board though. Ours is broken, it is bent and won't stay up high. It wobbles and is frustrating. If there is any hope of me keeping up with the ironing for him we will have to purchase a hanging ironing board-one that lives in the laundry room-then I can iron when the kids are awake.

Maybe we will try to teach the kids to "iron" like this helpful little boy I found through google. How much can I hire him for?

Just to let you know...

*I do know how to iron, I just choose not to

*Brad ironed before he met me, I converted him :) The first time I came at him with the spray bottle, he looked at me like I was crazy. He was like why are you getting me wet? You will dry, I said.

*My Mother taught me to spray iron- her philosophy is: "It is too hot where we live, and by the time you get where you are going you are sweaty and wrinkled again, so you have wasted your time ironing. Or if you have spray ironed-your are dry and look fabulous!!" Love you Mom

*My Best Friend Jody in Boston is also a fan of the spray iron technique she has three kids, (with twins) it is a busy mom ironing technique

* After rereading this post I have realized that I must live in a dream world, Do I really think that I can keep up with the ironing?? I will try though...

Team Chaotic

Brad has found a job, it is not as much money as he was making but it has some really awesome benefits to working for that company. He is also looking for something else to fill in the gaps.

Brad was home because they called and said they didn't need him at work anymore, so last night I had all the kids pitch in with dinner which is much harder than just doing it myself but it was nice to give them that sense of accomplishment. The munchkin and the bulldozer were in charge of sitting in there seats and not screaming, I must say they did a nice job. The older two were in charge of making meatballs, setting the table, making the noodles, sauce and so on. After dinner I had the brilliant idea that we could go to the store and get some popsicles. We also had to pick up creamer so I could have my coffee in the morning. What a nightmare. There was so much excitement about the popsicles that there was yelling, and screaming, I couldn't even hear which ice cream they were so excited about. After calming down the hoodlooms, we decided upon our ice cream and left. The Prince referred to us in the car as "Team Chaotic" What a perfect label!

New Tricks!

This first video the munchkin has been doing this for a while now I just keep forgetting to let the world know. He easily transitions from crawling position to sitting.




This second video is breaking news. (Daddy hasn't even seen this trick yet)He has been reaching up to things to try to get up but he couldn't quit do it on his own. I took the cushions off the couch so it was lower and he did it! He climbed up all by himself. Yeah Munchkin! He has been doing so well, he has been eating 6 oz at a time and about 15-18oz per day. This morning he ate 7 oz. he also eats table food at every meal with us. We have our weigh-in on Wednesday, the doctor was on vacation when we called about the feeding tube before so the nurse said we should wait until our next scheduled appointment. What a blessing! He is eating 3x the amount he was eating at the time of his last weigh-in. Hopefully the doctor will agree that a feeding tube is not necessary! Thank you all so much for your prayers!



Some other news about the bulldozer. Do you remember when they all had to go to the emergency room for the battery incident? Well they had found that the bulldozers heart was skipping beats. We took him for an EKG and they found an Incomplete Right Bundle Branch Block (Incomplete RBBB). Brad looked it up on the internet because our cardiologist appt. isn't until Aug 5, and it said that f it is on the rught side it should be fine (which our is) It's the left side that brings MAJOR concern. So hopefully we are all good there, we shall see.

Blessings!

This is the sign that has been outside in front of our house since we moved in 1 year ago. It couldn't be more true. Blessings came today in the form of an envelope delivered by a good friend. I feel like we are undeserving, it has humbled me and just last night I was going over the notes from church this last weekend about how being humble is not a fruit of the spirit, it is a choice.

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 1 Peter 5:6

We have been so unbelievably blessed and I am so grateful for my friends from church and their giving hearts. 15 friends pooled money together to help with this time of transition in Brad's job.
What an amazing gift, I cried when I opened the card. Brad was speechless. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

The Reunion

So we went to the reunion last Saturday night. It was awesome! I am so glad we went and I got to see one person that I was very good friends with in high school. I did not expect to see her because she lives in Atlanta. It was so strange to see everyone that I haven't seen in 10 years. I thought for sure we would get some sort of prize for having four kids, we were the only ones that had 4 one other family had 3 a few had two but most had either one or no kids. They did give out a prize for youngest child- we did not qualify. There was a couple that had dated in high school and they are still together, how awesome is that? There were a few people that still live out here and I didn't know they did. All in all it was an amazing time. I also got to see the maid of honor from my wedding. She graduated in 2001 but her sister graduated in 1997. The reunion was for 97/98 graduates. My camera completely flaked out on me that night and made all the pics gray. But I have taken these pics from Jenn's myspace page.
These were from my camera, I really don't know why it did this. I tried all different settings and light-oh well.Two sweet friends.

A day trip

At the dentist

We had to drive out to Riverside to pick up the munchkins new frames for his glasses that he broke. Since we were going to be in slightly cooler weather we decided to pack a picnic lunch and find a place to eat it after we got there. The princess had her first dentist appointment early in the morning and then we would leave after that. By the way, she has two cavities, I know, I know what terrible parents. We have already adjusted the juice consumption and the teeth brushing has been upped. Just for the record, the Prince has never had a cavity. Okay so back to the story. On the way driving the kids were starving. I was handing our small amounts of snacks and we told them that when the temp dropped from 107 (Where we live), we would stop for our picnic. When we got into riverside it was 90 WooHoo what a treat. after driving around in the gorgeous historic district, we all want to move now, we found Fairmount Park. We found a tree and had our picnic, then we went walking around near the water. It was beautiful! The we left to the eye glass place, and then went shopping for my dress for the reunion, which is tonight. We decided to go. We paid for it and if we get into financial trouble later we will have a few options from our Moms. I am excited and nervous and I am worried that people will think I have abused because of two hug bruises on my legs-from when I put the kids in the car, I hit the cup holder every time! I tried to tan my legs outside today hoping it would maybe camouflage the bruises. We shall see. I will post pics from the reunion.