For The Love Of Monkeys!

How much longer until this horrible month is OVER?  I try to be pretty laid back.  I try to take it as it comes.  I try to be the strong one for the family.  I try to do what is right.  Why the heck has this month be SO screwed up?  A month of blessings (Princess, Pumpkin & hubby's birthdays), has been picked apart by a month of constant interruptions and chaos.  

Dad just went into the hospital for his third hospitalization for the month of February.  Of course, they still do not know what is really wrong- they just have theories.  During the last visit he had the luxury of staying ICU for three days.  That first ICU visit created much anxiety for me.  Riding that elevator up to the 2nd floor, wondering if once again I would hear those terrible words that was spoken of my mom during her stint in ICU, "only two weeks to live."  Thankfully I did not hear those words, but oh that anxiety sure was there.  I love my dad and I sure as heck do not want to lose another parent.  They may move his bone marrow transplant up, so hopefully, just hopefully that will help.  I really don't know, it is all is God's hands.

I haven't posted in a bit because our internet router died last week.  The new one, just came in today's mail and it got it installed right before I received a text that dad was going to the hospital.  

My baby sister has been planning to move in with us for about three weeks now with her cat and dog.  Everyday seems like a waiting game.  Will it be today?  Will it be tomorrow?  There are never any answers.  We were hoping to use the box truck to move some of her larger things this evening, but it didn't happen.  I guess it gave me the evening to spend at the hospital anyway.

Pumpkin starts kindergarten in the fall and in the last week we received two rejection letters from the magnet school lottery, so we have decided to send Pumpkin to private school instead.  Boy is it going to hurt the pocket book, but a good education in a safe environment is worth it.  

I typically do not mention work, but a co-worker is retiring tomorrow.  I will be temporarily getting a large chunk of those duties for the time being, so lots of extra stress all around!

I don't think a chocolate cherry coke is going to help this time.  To be honest, I just want to cry instead of my typically laugh response.  Can I just hole up in my house for a few days and pretend that the world does not exist outside these walls? 

Here is to hoping the March will be much better! 

A Little of This & A Little of That

 
For lunch the last two days, I made a variation of the Summer Salad from one of my favorite blogs.  One of these days (when I think ahead), I'll write out my shopping list and make the recipe the way that it is listed.  The ingredients I used in my quick throw together were: romaine lettuce, strawberries, goat cheese, and sweet & sour salad dressing.  The goat cheese is what had really inspired me and it is amazing on salad.  Yummy!!!

Pumpkin & Princess are playing castle this evening with the couch cushions.  Pumpkin is delighting in knocking the castle down around Princess, which of course elicits a high pitched scream from Princess.

Getting ready to pan-fry some catfish, have fresh green beans cooking, and loaf of sourdough bread awaiting on the counter.  If I feel energetic enough, I'll make a loaf or two of chocolate chip banana bread this evening.

Dad is in a regular hospital room now and is doing great today.  We had a great conversation earlier this afternoon about a little of this and a little of that.  

Well, I guess supper won't cook itself.  Have a lovely week!

Well . . . .

What a week!  Valentine's Day seems like it was years ago.  It was a good day though.  

The kids unwrapped the game Candy Land and it has been played almost every day since.  It is very good at teaching counting, colors, and taking turns.  Although, Pumpkin really does not want to draw the card on top, but we are working on that.  I think Pumpkin is addicted to the game.  Princess also enjoys it, thankfully she is not as competitive as Pumpkin when it comes to winning.  So, I only have one child to try to soothe during the game. 

Hubby got me a box of six fresh, chocolate dipped strawberries.  Yummy!  I sort of lacked this year in my gift giving.  He got a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper and a bag of Poppycock, but in my defense his birthday is in a little over a week and I got something GREAT for it.

Wednesday afternoon is when everything went downhill.  Dad was taken to the hospital and spent many hours in the emergency room before he was transferred to the intensive care unit.  The doctors have run many tests and think that he has viral encephalitis.  So he remains in intensive care for the time being.  He has been taken off of his chemotherapy regimen.  As usual cancer sucks, but we have to keep moving along even if it is slowly but surely.  My grandma, aunt and I have been visiting him off and on each day.  After hubby gets home from work, I'll head over for a visit with dad.  We are very thankfully for all of the prayers and words of encouragement.

We are also still working on getting ready for my sister's impending move.  Sounds like tomorrow evening or Monday now.  Hello, live-in cleaning fairy!!!!!! (wink, wink) 

Busy Day

Today has been busy!  Daddy went out and got donuts for breakfast.  Yummy!  Pumpkin, Princess, and I went to church.  While daddy headed out to the farm to help his dad check on some sick cattle.  

Pastor had a great sermon today.  He is not one of those ministers that just stands behind the pulpit reading his notes.  He steps down into the aisle and preaches with variation of volume and uses his hands and facial expressions to bring life to his sermons as he moves about the church.  What an amazing man!  After church we go to Sunday school.  The kids to their class and me to the younger adult class.  It is a wonderful time to spend together and explore scripture as it applies to our daily lives.  I like to sit back and listen more than use my voice, but everyone is different.

We had an interesting lunch.  Princess ate half of a banana, then decided she was tired so off to bed she went.  Pumpkin had half a cheese toastie with a slice of American cheese and a bowl of cheese crackers.  Daddy had a cheese toastie with two slices of provolone cheese and vegetable barley soup. And I had a cheese toastie with a slice of provolone and a slice of American cheese with tomato soup.  Cheese toasties are so good on a cold winter's day.

After Pumpkin headed to his room for quiet time.  I went down to the basement and got the Christmas decorations finally put away.  I had whisked them downstairs on New Year's Day, but wanted to wait until we found most of the Christmas stuff before I took the time to put it away properly.  I got the twin bed in the great room made and placed a new light weight comforter on it that I found on clearance yesterday.  It is is beautiful shade of light green and Princess will be able to use it later time.  Right now the northern half of the great room is the cleanest place in the house.  I'm sure my sister will be quite surprised.  

I still need to work on cleaning the southern half of the great room and clean the sun room today.  Plus we have a mound of laundry waiting for its turn in the washer.  I guess Rome wasn't built in a day and our house will not be clean in a day either.

My messenger bag sewing project maybe delayed again.  I had to move the sewing machine table to make room for the twin bed.  The new location does not allow the top to open.  So my options are I will either need to move the sewing machine to sew, borrow my grandma's sewing machine that is not attached to a table, or delay the project.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to supper tonight.  I am making creamy lemon chicken pasta, fresh asparagus and have some crusty bread.  We also have some leftover cupcakes and pudding in the refrigerator for dessert.  Oh heaven!!!!!!

Changes Are A Coming!

I do not know why I have this way of jinxing myself, but I do.  Sunday, I was so looking forward to Monday- to have a day to relax and chill out from the ups and downs from the week before.  Alas, it was not meant to be.  Within the span of two hours the world seemed to be caving in.  I figure you have two choices in life, either laugh or cry.  A majority of the time I am laughing.  And I've laughed A LOT this week!

Monday was a pretty typical day, up until about 6:00 p.m. then the chaos started.  I stopped by my maternal grandma's to drop a piece of paper off before heading to the grocery store and my aunt called.  Dad was not feeling well and she was planning to stay the night with him.  So she asked me to check in on my paternal grandma and make sure she got her evening medications which included an insulin shot. 

So I continued on and went to the grocery store.  I had six items on the list in my hand and managed to forget the first two items on the list- butter and eggs.  I got back home and was getting ready to go to grandma's when my sister showed up.  I love my sister, she is such a sweetheart.  Well, she stopped to ask if she could move in with us for a while with her cat and dog.  Like I said I love my sister, so it really was not a question of yes or no, but when.  

Then I headed off to my grandma's house.  The evening pills were placed in a dish, the garbage was taken out for the next morning, dinner was put away, and "Muttly" (my dad's nickname for my aunt's dog) was taken out for a potty break.  I did manage to give my grandma her insulin shot.  I had no idea what I was doing, so I carefully read the directions step by step.  Then apologized as I gave her the shot, which thankfully she said did not hurt.  So grandma and I both survived the en devour.

My aunt called around 12:30 a.m on Tuesday and dad was on his way to the hospital.  The chemotherapy meds and some other meds were not agreeing with each other, but they got it straightened out and dad went home on Thursday afternoon.  Looks like his bone marrow transplant will be sometime in April.

Now we are preparing for three more into our household.  Hubby and I talked and my sister had three options for sleeping- the couch, move a bed into Pumpkin's room, or move a bed into the great room.  We decided to moved a spare mattress from the basement into the great room.  So this afternoon, I moved furniture around the house, cleaned off the mantle above the gas fireplace, and cleaned the top of the buffet.  Pumpkin is sup-possibly allergic to cats so we will see how it goes.  There is still much more to do, but I think I'm taking a break.

Well I know better than to say I want to kick back and relax again.  So instead I think I will say: I plan to laugh and laugh and laugh and one of these days it will get easier.

Time To Kick Back . . .

. . . with a chocolate cherry coke and celebrate surviving this last week!

Surgery, allergies, 2nd child's birthday, cleaning/baking, children's joint birthday party, and 1st child's birthday!  I am so excited to think, I do not have to clean a single thing in my house tomorrow!  Although, I wish I had a few extra days to kick back and relax!

Things that I'm proud of this week:  
1) Making homemade birthday party hats!  That is an amazing feeling!

2) Not losing my sanity!

3) Saying what the heck and living with a not too tidy house for a house full of company.  Besides they are not going to remember how messy it is, just the laughter and memories that they had while visiting.

Pumpkin's birthday has been full of LOTS and LOTS of sugar!  We had donuts for breakfast, he got a donut after children's time at church (that was totally by a miracle of God), Pumpkin & Princess's Sunday school teacher made cupcakes to celebrate their birthdays.  Then he conned daddy into giving him a cupcake for lunch.  And guess what he wanted for supper . . . a cupcake.  I told him that he had to eat something healthy today, so he decided on cheese toasties and celery with peanut butter.  Hahahaha!  Well I guess he knows what he wants!

He finally was able to open presents by himself.  He did not have to share the limelight with his sister and he did not have to watch his sister open presents this time.  That has been the hardest concept for him to grasp this week and it had made him quite cranky at times.  But we successful made it through!

One highlight of the day . . . my dad stopped by for a visit this afternoon!  It was so nice outside (about 50 degrees) that hubby, dad, and I sat outside.  We had an hour long visit while gazing over the wintry pond and landscape.  You have to treasure these small little memories!  

Next up is Valentine's Day, then daddy's birthday before the month is over.  I think that we will start a new tradition this year, with Valentine's Day being family game night.  I bought Candyland for the kids to unwrap.  Shhhhhhh . . . it's a surprise!  That way the kids get to celebrate loving their family together, since they will learn soon enough in school that it is a holiday to celebrate but may not understand quite why.

Well Downton Abby will be on PBS soon, so I want to be ready to watch this addicting show!  Have a wonderful evening!
 

Party Time

Whew!  It is finally over!!  We had a great time this afternoon & evening, but I sure am glad that it is over.  Hello nap time tomorrow afternoon!

Cleaned up pretty nice!

Pre-party time was busy with cleaning, "hiding" possible contraband (such as: music recorder, easel with dry erase markers), making party hats, and icing cupcakes.

The party hats were fun to make.  Materials include textured card stock scrapbook paper, letter stickers, character stickers, elastic strings and of course cutting tools.  I found a template on-line, which I modified a touch for our purposes.

We had 24 vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting and sprinkles and then 24 hot cocoa-marshmallow cupcakes.  Oh, don't forget vanilla ice cream!  Yummy!!!!

Three families = Seven kids

The party started at 3:00 p.m. and when the guests arrived we had a group photo with our lovely hats.  We played for awhile, then the kids got to open their presents.

Wow! Transformer shoes!

Opening gifts from great-grandma

Princess with a jewelry box from Auntie

Princess with her new tutu and new slippers!

Singing Happy Birthday

Yay for cupcakes!

Afterwards, we had cupcakes and ice cream.  Unfortunately Pumpkin decided to pull his blown-out candle out of his cupcake and got hot wax on his hands.  So we had tears for a good 10 minutes before he calmed down enough to eat his cupcake (His hand looked fine at bedtime).

Princess hanging with the triplets

Pepperoni pizza & mushroom pizza

Mmmmmm. . . . . pizza for supper!!!!  Most of our guests left by 4:30 p.m., and our last guests left at 8:45 p.m.

Well until next time . . . . . . . .

Busy, Busy, Busy

This past week has been full of busyness.

Sunday, my maternal grandma and I went to a basket making class.  

Isn't it cute?

Monday, Pumpkin had surgery.  He had his first set of ear tubes removed.  The fluid drained from his ears, then a second set of ear tubes put in.  The surgery finished with the removal of his adenoids.  He was a real trooper and did a great job!

Tuesday, Pumpkin had to stay home from school and it was family dinner night at my maternal grandma's house.

Wednesday, I had my fifth allergic reaction in a week so we did not do much.  My breakfast was toast, my lunch was graham crackers, then I was brave enough to bake chicken breast and simmer fresh green beans for supper.  The kids were excited though to have iced sugar cookies for an early birthday treat.

Thursday, was Princess's birthday.  It was just the four of us for the evening.  Princess got to open half of her presents and a special present (a Tinkerbell doll) picked out by Pumpkin. 

Friday - this evening - has been spent doing some much needed cleaning.  I also baked 24 vanilla cupcakes and 24 devil's food cupcakes.  Tomorrow the icing will go on just a few hours before Pumpkin & Princess's birthday party with friends and family.