Chocolate Vacuum

I have people tell me all the time that I have my hands full.  Not really, but sometimes they're right.

Hayden is the best kid with a very active imagination.

BUT...
There are moments where he drives me C-R-A-Z-Y!!

This morning, I woke up to the sound of the vacuum.  I had taken a nap because I haven't slept very well lately, in addition to the normal new-mom sleep.   So, here I am, taking my nap and so I look over at the clock.  It's 9:10.   Olivia's asleep, Aaron and Alyssa have gone to school, and I dropped Curt off at the lightrail this morning.  HAYDEN!  So, I get my older-feeling bones and ever-sore back out of bed to find that it is, indeed, "Three".  He's laughing like a mad man and has the vacuum stick-sucker-thingy out and is vacuuming the powder out of the NesQuik tube.  The nice big tube, the one that costs quite a bit.

I turn it off and ask what he's doing.  Oh, he's making chocolate milk.  He told me that while I was asleep, I couldn't make it for him.  So, he's making his own.  He'd been asleep when I went down 1/2 hour before and he usually wakes me up.  He told me that I looked cranky, I needed to get better, and that he didn't want to deal with cranky.

He's smart in his own little way.  He had emptied the vacuum canister and rinsed it out with water, was sucking the chocolate powder up and was going to add milk and suck it with a straw.  That way he wouldn't make a mess.

This may sound disgusting, he's thinking things through.

Snails.

it's 10:15 at night and my two sons are outside, in the rain, lighting snails on fire.  Should I be worried?  They are having fun, and I'm not sure I want to interrupt it just for bedtime.

Super Saturday!

I'm so excited!

Before we leave this ward, I get to have a Super Saturday with my Ward Sisters!

I want to do everything that they are offering, but know that I can't spend the time.  Maybe I can just buy the kits and assemble them after we are moved and settled ?

I'll try to post pictures (as soon as I get some new batteries and an SD card for the camera. Oh, and a hubby to do it for me.)

Some news...

is good news, right?

Things are going well and we have adjusted to being home from the hospital.  

She's doing well and sleeping a lot. She's always tired because her body is always in a growth spurt.  She was at 7bs. 5 oz. at the Dr's on Tuesday, so she's gaining again.  Her weight dropped for a week and now she's on her way again.


Aaron, Alyssa and Hayden are excited to move.

Oh, did I forget to mention that?  Yeah, we are moving.  I'm having a hard time with all of this moving stuff.  But, I'm excited too.

Here's the hard part.  We are leaving a home and ward that we've been in for 12 years.  We are walking away from our home.  We have 6 people now living in less than a 1,000 square feet.  We don't have any room to breathe.  It's lead to constant contention in our home.  Our home isn't work 1/4 of what we owe, and we can't rent it out without losing money. Our HOA is horrible, they are possibly raising the monthly fee to $200.  They don't do anything and they are wasteful.

We are leaving our ward.  I have some wonderful friends that are here.  I'm not going far, but it's still going to be hard not seeing them every week.  Our current ward was hard for a while, because I was working.  Once I quit, it was different.  I had time to try harder to make friends.  The one thing that I think helped was joining a book group that had been established for a few years.  I loved it and learned to truly love the women in it. They are women that I will never NOT be friends with.  FYI, I totally miss my friend Myra. She moved away and whenever I see her house, I want to go knock on the door in hopes that she'll answer.  I'm conversationally wandering.  So...

Here's the wonderful exciting part.  The house we are moving into has 5 bedrooms and 2x the size of our little home.  It's also the same price as our little home.  There's  a pool, which makes me a little nervous.  Alyssa will finally have some privacy and so will Aaron.  They are both in that stage of life (pre-teen) where they need to be able to have a place to study peacefully.  Olivia is very sound sensitive and so we need to have a quiet place for her to sleep.
We are also going to have room to have people over without stressing where they will sit.    We we finally be able to get a dining table.  Curt and I have never had one of those.  We've always sat in front of the TV because there is no room.  (We have a bar window and it's always been in the way)   It's just up the street and closer to Aaron's school, so he'll be able to ride his bike and Alyssa's bus stop is just around the corner.  They can stay at their schools. 

So, we are excited, nervous anxious and sad. 

Home?

Not being able to place an IV or a PICC line in the little Jellybean has proven to be a blessing!!!

Because they had to get the Antibiotics into her, they had to give her shots.  That lasted for 3 whole shots every 6 hours.  A nurse had to call someone in to do it, because she didn't want to poke anymore holes into Olivia.   Her liver enzymes came back normal, so the Dr (we love her!) decided that we could switch to a 10 day treatment that would only have 1 shot perday.  We were on day 7, so that meant that there were 3 days left to go.  So, we had 3 days with 3 shots.  Today was the 2nd shot, which means that if her levels all come back normal, we can go home after her shot tomorrow afternoon.

I seriously CAN wait, I'm not looking forward to how my home looks since I've been gone since last Thursday.  I've lived at the hospital and have left only twice.  I've visited home on one of the trips and saw my new-to-me couches.  (They are wonderful, Thanks Sarah.)

So, does this mean that life can get back to our "new normal"?  I sure hope so.

Green Poop...

is good?  I guess it is.  
We found out this morning that we are going to be here until Sept 30th (I hope that's all.)

I will never again eat green jello.   It's the color we're looking at right now. 

Since this began, she lost the ability to urinate on her own, so I have to cathe her every 4 hours.  The Dr said that is normal for Spina Bifida babies when they have an infection.  So I put the catheter in, feed her while it drains her and she's putting out a lot of fluid. which is good.

Bad news, she's a hard stick.   She's on her second IV and they tried to put in a PICC line this morning and they couldn't do it.  I asked if maybe they could send someone over from NICU to do it and NICU refused to mix departments.  They couldn't get it in because she's so small.

Speaking of small, she now weighs in at a hefty 6lbs, 8  ozs.  She's almost 9 weeks old. I'm doing the best that I can, I feel like I'm feeding her every two hours.  I'm surprised that certain body parts haven't been sucked off by now.

I'm living at the hospital.  Tonight was the first time since last Thursday that I had left the building. It was kind of weird, but I'll live through this. It's kind of like living in a really expensive hotel with a super crappy bed.  At least I know that I can take a half-an-hour shower and not stress over the water bill. 

I'll keep updating.  Thanks for the prayers, I'm grateful that she's being remembered and helped.  Please pray for those who are caring for her, they are the ones with the answers.

Love You All!

Still here.

We're still here in Cardon's Childrens Hospital.

Jellybean has a severe UTI and they suspect that her Common Bile Duct has been clogged for sometime, but just started to show because of the UTI.

She's so cranky and the antibiotics that she's on is really doing a number on her digestive system on top of her bile pushing through. 

the reason that I took her in on Thursday was because she had white poop.   Now, it's bright green and they tell me that's good.   It just seems weird for someone to have bright green poop without having eaten Booberry Cereal or Oops All Berrys first.   So, we are here until she returns back to normal and is gaining weight.

Please keep her in your prayers.