On The Rode Again

We left yesterday afternoon for a cross country journey to Utah. Kenny noticed the radio towers in the distance and said "Why are the towers moving?" Ken very scientifically explained that the towers were not actually moving, it was that they were far away and we were the ones moving. Kenny said, "Or they are walkin' towers." He spent the next 30 minutes talking about the walking towers following us because they wanted to go to Gran-mama's house too. When I started to laugh he siad, "Mom, it's not funny. It's weird."

Things were fairly uneventful until until we reached Amarillo at about 5:00 in the morning. A blizzard started raging. Conditions were pitch black with whiteout snow blowing at 30-40 miles per hour. It took us till about 7:00 in the morning to get out of the storm. Our favorite parts were almost getting in a head-on collision with a semi and playing I Spy with the road. We lost one game of I Spy and ended up in a snow bank. No too bad, but we had to be pulled out by someone. It was slow going and we have made it to Colorado Springs were we are staying overnight. We'll finish the trip tomorrow. We feel we are really lucky because just a few hours after we drove that dangerous stretch in Amarillo, they had an 80 car pileup on the smae stetch of rode with a fatality and several needing medical care.

Surgery

Nathan had his ear surgery today. It is actually a kind of a miricle it happened.

Backstory- Our kids are losing their health insurance coverage on Dec. 31. We have been trying to get this surgery taken care of for months, but the medical red tape was causing problems. I went to my district office to get the boys added to my insurance and they won't cover them for 90 days because open enrollment had ended. We have argued with them about the fairness of this policy, but I work for a government entity. So we had to get this surgery done NOW or pay of of pocket ($3000). On Monday, our pediatrician called the ENTs office repeatedly and Ken called, but all we got was voice mail. so Ken loaded up the kids and took them downtown to pay the ENT a visit in person. He pleaded and begged and got the surgery scheduled for today. We were ecstatic. This is the best Christmas present ever.

Then the nurse called yesterday. She asked about his current health (sick as usual). Then she said they probably won't do the surgery because he had severe wheezing which requires mmultiple breathing medications and has a double ear infection. It felt like we had been slapped in the face. Our pediatrician gave him an antibiotic shot to try to speed up his recovery, but she said it was not likely to work. We were devastated. He already has hearing loss and further damage due to his infection could make the loss permanent. Kenny gave Nathan a blessing last night. I instantly felt calm and reassured that things would go well.

Nathans lungs improved dramatically over night. I have never seen him recover like this. We went in this morning and the doctor said he had a little wheezing in his left lung, but she was confident things would be fine.

We got up at 4:30 this morning (Kenny slept over at Eppie's) and headed downtown to the children's hospital. The hospital is amazing and we had a great experience. When it was time for him to go, they wheeled him off in a Radio Flyer wagon instead of a gurney. When the ENT came out he said the his ears "had A LOT of liquid. It was thick. More like pus." We took him home and he has been so happy and talking up a storm all night. He has never had clear ears. Even when he doesn't have n infection , his ears are full of liquid. He's hearing the world like he has never heard it before!

We are so happy to have him doing well. All he needs is Tylenol to manage the pain. And the best part...we can still take our trip to Utah this Friday!!

One Year of Blogging!

I can't believe I have been blogging for a year. Here are a few of my favorites highlighting the year.

Delicate Art of Gingerbread Houses
Birthday Suits
Muffin Story
Swirly
Yard Work
Helicopter Flying
Belly Flop
Kitchen Makeover
Put The Boy To Work
Light Saber Duels
Nathan Gets In Trouble?!?

Sorry my writing has been sparse lately. We have a lot going on and I am having a hard time getting myself to write about it. I promise to write tomorrow. Nathan is having surgery on his ears, so I'll let you know how it goes.

The Good Old Days

Remember this game?

We have it on a Super Nintendo emulator for the XBox. My husband, the computer genius, figured it out. We actually have all the old Mario games. This particular game came out in 1991. Super Nintendo was the game console everyone wanted. I was raised playing this game. My mom and Jonny were by far the best players, but we all had fun with it. I still get made fun of because I get a little...shall we say...animated when playing this game. I move the controller around according to how I want the little guy to move. Ken says I would be an awesome Wii player. Ken and I have been playing together and trying to pass off all the levels. Kenny likes to play it, but he mostly just jumps off the edge.

The best part about playing this game is that I am equal to, if not better than, Ken in playing ability. It's about time we were equal in something. He is better than me at almost everything. Except time management. I've got him by a football field on that one (love ya honey!)

Check This Out!

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My son is SO talented. He can eat and sleep at the same time. Imagine how much time we could save if we could all eat and sleep? I could get in a 20 minute nap everyday at lunch instead of scarfing down my food before I have to pick up the little monkeys from the cafeteria.

On another note, Kenny was very concerned about Grandmama having a refrigerator for his Christmas countdown calender. He had to call her to make sure because how would I know if she has a fridge. He was also concerned about magnets, but Grandmama assured him she had magnets.

Bittersweet Birthday

Today I turn the big 28! That seems a lot closer to 30 than 27 -even though it is only by a year. I know I haven't written in a while, but we have had a lot going on. Ken has been taking finals and that consumes most computer time. We have also had several big happenings today to celebrate my big day.

The first, and the BEST, is that Ken took his written commercial pilot FAA exam and got a 96%. He has consistently scored amazingly high scores on every exam. Some pilots have to take these tests more than once to get the 70% pass rate and Kenny has gotten 100, 96, 94, and another 96. I am so proud of him!!!!!

The next bit of news is that there are some concerns with the baby. We don't know a lot or have any answers, but the good news is that the ultrasound today shows I am still pregnant and I plan to do everything I can to stay that way. Right now we are taking things one day at a time and praying for the best. You know me...I can't do anything by the textbook.

The last bit if news is that Nathan saw the audiologist today. He failed his initial hearing screening so they ran some other tests. His diagnosis is mild hearing loss, with moderate at certain frequencies. The good news is that the hearing loss is not permanent as it is being caused by persistent ear infections, pressure, and fluid in the middle ear (he always has fluid, his ears are never clear). The ENT has said they will be putting tubes in his ears after his next ear infection and he is being evaluated by ECI (early childhood intervention) for speech.

Busy day for us. It has been emotional and exhausting, but all our news has silver linings.

And just for a laugh...I had to tell Kenny to not stick his tongue in the fan, it might hurt.

Diary of a Pregnant Lady- 1

They say every pregnancy is different. Well, that has proved to be true in my case. I had about a third of all the possible pregnancy symptoms with Kenny. Nathan took care of another third. This little firecracker is taking care of the rest. One of the worst is that I cry all the time. This is absolutely not an exaggeration. My husband has taken videos of it for his own sick pleasure because he thinks it's funny when I lose it over something like not being able to open my prenatal vitamin package. No, I will not post a video. I have erased them due to cruelty to pregnant women.

Here is a very short list of a very few things that have made me cry over this last week:

• Pacabell's Canon on the radio

• putting a CD in the car player upside down

• the smell of my shampoo

• the mascara that smeared under my eye

• I was hungry

• my clothes are already getting tight (that's a whole other story)

• The fact that I was crying over nothing!

What Can I Say?!?

Who would have thought my stories would qualify me as a genius.

Trip To the Rainforest

Over Thanksgiving weekend we went to the rainforest pyramid. We had never been and wanted to see what it was all about. The pyramid is an actual indoor rainforest (on a really small scale)- complete with lots of humidity. We saw beautiful birds and lots of fish. I think the boys liked the fish best. Though, they also enjoyed the bat cave.


Ken wanted me to include this picture. It's beautiful! Ken spent most of the trip playing with the settings on the camera and trying to get the perfect shots. I guess we know where Kenny gets it!

Winter Arrived

Yes, you are seeing that correctly. I had to scrap ice of my car this morning before I could leave for work. I had the defrost running and I still had to scrap the car. We got a bit of a cold front, but the sun was shining and things warmed up to 65 this afternoon.

We went for a stroll at the mall last weekend, just to get out, and got some hot chocolate. I thought these pictures were really cute!

A Dedication To My Siblings

You're welcome!
PS- I love you Dad!

Guess What?

Some of you already know, but for those who don't...
we will be adding a fifth member of our family on or around July 25th.

Yes, I am pregnant with baby #3.

You know what this means don't you?
No break in diapering for me.

Guitar Man

Nathan really enjoyed playing guitar with Papa over Thanksgiving.

I Have A Computer Again!

What a great felling. I have missed not being able to blog this week. Not that much has happened, but I have found that I enjoy relating tales of my family.




Now, where did I leave off.





Last weekend was Thanksgiving. We had a great dinner. I had the three little boys (Kenny, Nathan, and Landan) use their handprints to make turkey place cards. They were so cute and the kids liked doing it.


Those in attendance were my family, Marissa, Kevin, Landan, Eppie, Papa, and Ken's friend Lindell. We had turkey, rolls, orange rolls, green bean casserole, squash casserole, corn casserole (I am detecting a theme), mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, blueberry pie, chocolate pecan pie, and a pumpkin roll. And yes, we ate all the food. There was not too much leftover. The boys had fun together and got along most of the time. Landan and Kenny played "Super Dog" where they had "killing powers" for bad guys and "super fast powers" which they used to run around saving babies.

On another note, I got a perm. I haven't really done one for about 5 years. It only processed for 3 minutes and I look like Shirley Temple. On the bright side, it is super easy to fix my hair in the morning and I can sleep an extra 15 minutes before work.