Summer!

Summer is finally here! It's wonderful. The kids enjoy playing outside and I've been digging flowerbeds and painting walls inside and redecorating.

There are lots and lots of loose ends that are still getting tied up around here from lots of different angles, but for the most part, everything is starting to fall into place a little at a time.

Most of you follow me on facebook now, which is great and way more fun and interactive and private anyway...but I just wanted to shout out to anyone who didn't catch it before to look me up or e-mail me and if I know you (very selective about who i accept as a friend for obvious reasons) then you can be way more involved in what's going on daily with the kids and me and other exciting and not so exciting happenings in our lives.

The Big 4-0!

Johnny has hit a new weight. 40 lbs! So glad to see him growing and getting bigger.

Zachary is talking in huge sentences. He's been riding the scooter in the driveway lately. He gets on it, puts both feet on and coasts on it until he wants to stop, then puts his foot down to break. Adorable!!

Myla has lost two teeth now. She is officially a second-grader and is really growing up. Her last days of school were so fun for her and she is making new friends in our neighborhood. We've met a few of the neighbors and are really feeling officially welcomed around here.

I've begun painting here and there in the living room and hallway. It all has to be timed carefully around kids being gone because of Johnny's breathing issues. The yard is also a work in progress. Rome wasn't built in a day. So the whole thing inside and out will take a while to make into ours completely. It keeps me busy though and is cheaper than therapy! Ha ha.

Hoping everyone is enjoying their summers so far!

Thank Goodness for Hard Work

My grades pulled through fine. Regardless of certain people's attempts to sabotage my efforts, I have only A's and B for the semester...bumping my GPA up that much higher and enough to get on the Dean's List.

Johnny is finished with pre-school for this year and Myla's last week of school is at the end of this coming week. Johnny will be in pre-school another year and Myla will be in 2nd grade in the fall. Zachary is enjoying his days with me and my neice Madeline who is at our house. I'm spending this summer enjoying the kids and doing a lot of yard re-construcation and indoor painting and organizing. Things have been great around here. Summer activities for the kids will start up soon and we'll all be staying very busy. It's great having so much peace and people giggling, happy, getting along, and all the things a parent hopes for for healthy kids. They are adjusting ok to back and forth for visitations though there is some mind-washing and psychological games being played as expected. I just keep reminding myself to be the better person and that the kids will see it for themselves one day.

In the meantime, I am enjoying our new life and am happily in love which is a breathe of fresh air compared to....well never feeling this way in the past! Ahhh, so THIS is what it's like to be shown respect, love, compassion, appreciation, and equality by a real man. Our lives continue to blossom and move forward in so many positive ways and it's so great to see everything happy and blissful. The kids are excited about the positive changes as well. Hopefully the bitterness of the other household doesn't do them more damage than has already been done to them and myself. On the bright side, I see many lighthouses on my horizon.

~Let Summer Begin~

Well, the kids are still in school...but the weather is nice, my classes are over and clinicals are done. I'm looking forward to finding out my class grades, though I don't think that I've met my goals of all A's with everything that has been going on with a big move and transition and overall stress. Oh well. It could be more stress and honestly it's less stressful than I've had in a while, so I'll take it.

The kids are enjoying this weather and it's just at that perfect not-too-humid-not-too-cold temperature that Johnny's breathing is doing ok to play outside for a period of time. This is great and I like to see him outdoors with the other kids.

My entire family support network is going to Africa for a few weeks so it will be just me, the kids, their dad, friends and Johnny's nurses holding down the fort. That's a pretty big circle of people so I have do doubt things will be fine. I'm excited to see others go so I can clean and organize. I'm also going to paint the living room and hallway. It will be hard getting everything just the way I like it (more efficient!) and then have chaos return. Since I won't be in school all summer, I may need to crack down on the clutter-makers and make them put their junk away when it starts to accumulate. hee hee hee It's not bad, just hard with teens and kids and busy people who are tired and plunk half-finished projects down and never seem to get back to them before they collect dust.

Myla, Johnny, and Zachary have finally gotten enough child-support money for me to get them some summer play clothes and other basics from Walmart. I also treated all of us out to eat at Bob Evan's. It's amazing how you take going out for lunch for granted with the kids when you don't really get to do it frequently. The time around the table is good...even if we have to remember rules and manors over and over. Don't get me wrong, we find lots to do for free, but sometimes it's nice to just pack up the family and go to lunch! Now the plan is to get groceries, gas, kids shoes, and pay for some summer activities! That'll wipe the rest of it out in a hurry.

They just keep growing and growing and it's especially startling how big Johnny has gotten! I had to get him size 5 and 6 clothes. He's really growing up to be a little man. Today was his Happy Heart Day. Four years ago to this day he had his open heart surgery. He spent half of it with John on his Daddy Bonding Day (john takes one kid at a time on occasion to have one-on-one time) and then the other half with me and his siblings. That was very special for all of us I think. Many of you have followed our story from back when we had the Caringbridge site and my first posting was his birth story that soon turned into his first life-saving surgery and NICU stay.....then the story hasn't really stopped as his health struggles continue.

Zachary is in 2T's already and he's a real sweetie pie. He and Johnny have both been introduced to the time-out chair and are responding well to it. That is requiring a lot of consistency to help them learn right from wrong, but they stay in their chair until their seconds are up. I need to find a good old fashioned count-down timer that has a click-click sound though. Especially for Johnny since he has no comprehension of time and would respond good to a tick-tick, DING signal to know when to get up from time-out. They are both really good boys, so thankfully they spend more time looking for trouble than they do in trouble. ;-)

Myla is doing good in school and slowly catching up to the higher standards of the better school district. She is responding well to the staff and students there and I still haven't heard any complaints from her. She is cheerful and happy and goes out to her bus nicely and feels great accomplishment for completed homework and hard work in her classrooms. I'm very proud of her and the way she is handling our changes. She only seems to have attitude issues or being upset when she comes from one house to the other. It's going to take a lot of love and encouragement from both houses for her to feel secure in this...we'll see how that works out. She's doing quite well though.

Until next time, look for me on facebook. If you haven't joined up yet, there's no better time than now....I'm on there updating all the time. Please just comment on who you are and how I know you when you try to "friend" me. I ignore people I don't recognize.



Flower For Mommy


Ice Cream Date


What's uuuuupppppp?!?!?!

Life.

We're just pluggin' along here. Nice days the kids play outside. Yucky, rainy, snowy days they play all over the house...upstairs and down stairs. Getting into lots of fun trouble and causing messes as they go. It's great.

Johnny loves his new pre-school and is joining in well there. He's busy and happy and, knock on wood, healthy. Myla's fevers, pain, stress, and anxiety are pretty much non-existant compared to her previous episodes and never-ending issues. *things that make you go "hmmmmmmm"* Zachary is doing great and just celebrated his 2nd Birthday on April 10th. He's such a sweetie pie! Now I am the lucky mom of 2, 4, and 6 yr old kids!! My even-numbered crowd of lovies.

My school is nearing the end of the semester and deadlines for things are approaching or upon me right now. Clinicals are in full swing on top of my classes and deadlines, so that's taking up a lot of my time too. It's all good though. My goal is all A's in every class this semester. We'll see.

It's The Weekend!

I have the kids this weekend and am really looking forward to doing something with them. I don't have any money, literally...because there is none for me or the kids at this point, and as a full time student ALSO taking clinicals (which is working without getting paid) and needing to be available for the kids and Johnny's care when his nurse isn't around paid work at this point is not an option. So, because of being penniless, I can't go do anything exciting with them. And it has been rainy the last couple of days so we can't even just go do something outside. That too has proven to be tricky with Johnny's breathing already this season. His pulse-ox has been dropping to the 80's in outside weather. I am doing my best to stay on top of that and keep his nurses and school informed on the importance of preventative breathing treatments before going outside and staying on top of the pulse-ox checks and oxygen out there. He only gets 40 hours of nursing care at this time, so when he's not with his home care nurse (who is scheduled when I'm at school or clinicals) then it's just me or my parents who I've got fairly well trained. (thanks mom and dad! ;-) )

As we are stuck in the house with three different aged kids on this rainy day, I'm needing some ideas of things to do! Anyone care to comment with good ideas. My brain is pretty much burnt out and please give ideas of things to let them get energy, not me...I have very little extra to exurt today. ha. ha.

How Clinicals Are Going

I sent this comment to a friend today when asked how my day was at clinicals today. They said I should save it and put it in a future book...since that is unlikely to happen in the near future, the blog is as close as it will get to publication. Enjoy!

....it doesn't take much for me to have fun.... Just a few comments from patients today: "Do you have any fetishes?" "This arm doesn't have any veins, just use the left arm". "My daughter does better with this, can she go instead of me? " "I have bi-polar disorder and always wanted to take someones blood." "enjoy this nice day if you can get out there." "You should be a model, not drawing blood." "I don't like the alcohol swab. Don't use it on me. No, I'm not allergic, it will make me have a panic attack and then seizure." (this was for a mental health patient....ahem...) "the last time they tried to get my blood it took four people and 13 pinches" (greeeaaaatttt to know before I try....)

Like I said, it's a fun job. And the blood-letting part too. ha ha