What can we do?

I don't have time right now to put together a Q&A, and I have a lot of e-mails to compile for the Church post, but I continue to receive input and will post later on with all the suggestions, explanations of programs, etc. that I've received through e-mail (THANKS to all who sent me info!). But, across the board the top question to me has been "what can I do?" So... here's what you can do...

If you're not local to us (ok, even if you are!), then the absolute best thing you can do is continue to pray for Emma, for Mike, and I, for our other kids and extended family/friends that will be helping us through this time.

Here are some of the specific things we need prayer for other than the obvious health/rest, etc.
- childcare for the kids and fun things for them to go do while I'm away and Mike is working. (specifically some Thurs/Fri's during work hours for each of the 3 kids which is still unsettled- grandparents are doing the other days) This is a much greater task when there's more than 2 kids and most people aren't comfortable with all 3 on their own.
- safety in traveling- Mike and I will drive over separately so that I have a car there and he'll return probably Tuesday. After that he may bring the kids over on the weekend to visit. Each trip is about 3 hours one way.
- that Mike will be able to accomplish all he needs to before we go. He is the network administrator and in charge of all the computers, network, e-mail system, and phone system for both the church and school... and teachers come back on Wednesday the 6th. Though he plans to be at work on the 6th to tackle any major issues that come up, he needs to be all set for the first day before we leave... and then he has a conference in Orlando on the 7th and 8th so he really needs to be on top of things and didn't get a whole lot of notice to get it all done.
-that Kristopher will enjoy the VBS and be comfortable even though he's never been to that church (but at least 3 friends will be in his class I understand, so I think he will but I'm nervous because that's what Mom's do when they're not here!)
- and of course, finances to work out for all of the expenses from eating lunches at the hospital, to paying for our room at the RMH, gas for the multiple round trips, and then the actual medical expenses that we need to cover.

Thank you all for praying!

If you are someone the kids know personally- and us too of course- (though I'm sure others have great intentions, now's not a good time for 'new sitters') and are interested in helping with a kid or two for a day or part of a day, please send me an e-mail at mkp1982@hotmail.com THANKS!

The next 10 days...

Are going to be PACKED!

Today my aunt flies in from Colorado to stay with my parents but I know we'll spend some time with her this next week that she's here. My sister flew in from Minnesota last night as well. Both of those trips and a lot of this week's meet-ups were planned before the surgery was moved up!

Sat (today) church tonight, Mike's got hospital visitation for church (he and K are there now).

Sun Elizabeth comes to T'ville and in the afternoon we have a playdate with our friend and daughter (remember AB that I used to do homecare for while her mom taught? Her mom was my sister's friend before we met.. this is them LOL) and then at 5 we have a big family picnic with about 15 people at my parents' house.

Mon my sister will still be here with us and in the evening I'm planning to join in on a birthday celebration for my sister and S (above) and some of their "crew" for dinner and Mike's parents are together keeping the 4 muskateers for the evening. One last little get-away for Mom before I spend who-knows-how-long at the hospital.

Tuesday morning we have PT for Brianna and Micah at the house, during the day my sister will be here still until 3 or so when she flies home, and my aunt is also planning to come spend the day with my crew (so long as we don't wear her out too bad on Sunday!) In the evening Mike's grandmother (the kids' great-gram) and his aunt are coming over to visit and see the kids before we leave. They both live in the Orlando area.

Wednesday is my sister's actual birthday but she will be home. We have ST in the evening for Brianna and Micah but I THINK that's all we have going on. That will be a packing/cleaning/sheets/catch up day and probably a big grocery trip to stock up the house for Mike while I'm gone.

Thursday we don't have any plans either but around 5 I'll head over to St. Pete with Emma so that we don't have to do 6 hours of driving AND pre-op all in one day. That would be a bit rough I think (though we did the 4.5 hr round trip drive for the ENT appt. not too long ago...)

Friday we'll get up and go to pre-op at the hospital in St. Pete- just Emma and I. The kids will be here split between grandparents and Mike will be at work. I'll drive home after pre-op.

Saturday a friend of mine and her family are driving up from Ft. Lauderdale to spend the day with us and together the 10 of us plan to invade on another family that is at their "Make-a-Wish" trip and staying in Orlando at Give Kids The World. It's a WONDERFUL place where Kristopher, Brianna, and I visited with another family last year. Christina and Heather both have daughters with Down syndrome and we all chat on an online parent support group together. It's always neat meeting people "in real life!" Though Christina and I have met up 3 times before this :)

Sunday morning we'll go to church and I believe that Emma will be prayed over during the church service. Then it's lunch, hugs, naps, and Mike and I and Emma will leave for St. Pete. Brianna will be staying with my parents until Mike comes back home and Mike's parents will stay with the boys at our house. I understand that for any length of time more than 2 of my kids can be a bit MUCH for any one person... and the grandpas will both be working during the days.

Monday morning (no time yet) is Emma's surgery. Kristopher will be going to VBS with a friend at their church during the mornings this week. Tuesday night Mike plans to come back to T'ville, and then Thursday and Friday the kids will go to 'playdates' (still working on this) while Mike's at work and then be at the house in the evenings/overnight. The next week the kids will be at a mixture of grandparents' houses and friends' houses (still working on all this too). After that we'll plan it out once we know a better guess as to how long I'll be gone with Emma.

So... you'll either hear from me a lot because there's lots to tell or not much at all because we're BUSY! Thank you all for the continued prayers for our family!

Blessed :)

Last night Mike and I took the kids and headed over to Merritt Island to the nearest mall to get some shoes. His tennis shoes were beyond worn out and mine need replacing really soon too. Rack Room does sales pretty often where it's buy one get one 1/2 off, so we generally try to hit that and were glad to find that was the case last night :) Both of us found shoes that we like and we saved $40 both by the better prices there and because of the sales. We both have issues with our feet/ankle and need supportive shoes that we just don't generally find for $10 at Wal-Mart, unfortunately. His shoes were so bad that he actually wore two DIFFERENT shoes all day yesterday and then to the mall last night. Glad we found a good sale :)

I also needed some books to take to St. Pete so I have something to do for the many hours of sitting bed-side. I read a few while I was there last time and this trip I won't be able to spend the night with her (CVICU rules) so I'll have even more time I need to preoccupy myself during the evening. Mike and Kristopher walked down the mall to move the car up to bookstore parking since it was 9pm (and the kids were AMAZINGLY well behaved!) and the interior mall was closing. Have I ever mentioned that a bookstore is the PERFECT 'rest stop' on a long trip? Ok, well, if I haven't there ya go. The three little ones and I parked in the coffeeshop of the bookshop and I made up bottles and gave Brianna her cup of milk. I had a small bottle of gatorade for K when he came back, and I bought a hot chocolate and we sat there for a few while everyone had their drinks. Not exactly a great place for a whole meal, but a snack is no problem either.

While I was sitting there some friends from church (Hi Val and Gary!) stopped in and told me that they'd seen sales on Christian Fiction and told me where to find it (in the clearance area UNDER the counter- on 'display' but virtually invisible!). They headed back out as the mall gate closed and when Mike got there I went to explore. Well, not only did I find the ones that they'd pointed me to, there were two other areas that also had 75% off sales and had some Christian Fiction included :) I love Lori Wick, Beverly Lewis, Jeannette Oke, and a few others that I can't name off the top of my head but I recognize their name/work. I found 2 or three in one area, another two in another area, and a few more somewher else. Each book was $4! Normally they're $14! I picked up a nice stack and spent $36 on not three books, but NINE :) I will have plenty to read in St. Pete and will have no problem finishing the rest in the future. Several of them are continuations on series I'd started and a few are new to me. One is a new author I hadn't heard of before as well. What a neat surprise-- I expected to find 2-3 books and spend the same amount!

NEW SURGERY DATE!

Just got the call... we have pre-op testing on Aug 1st 10am and her surgery will be the following MONDAY, AUGUST 4th!

This is a result of my cardiologist getting on there and they did end up bumping another surgery- but they agree that it was really necessary and I'm sure the other person got our spot- 10 days later. I hate that it works that way, but I'm so glad that Emma can be in there sooner. Happy and scary at the same time. I'm off to a movie at the THEATER with the kids (and some friends;) ) but wanted to share the news. THANK YOU SO MUCH for praying!

Please pray that the family of whomever got bumped will be glad to have a little more time with their kiddo before surgery. It's a catch-22 of feelings there..

Does your church?

Does your church have any type of special needs ministry? If so, what does it look like? If it doesn't, how do they handle children with special needs?

I'd love for you to spread the word about this poll and this post to any friends with children with any special needs so I can get a broad range of answers. I'm really curious after reading at 5 minutes for special needs yesterday in the "who are we really and what do we do?" list it says "We often don’t attend church because we can’t find one that welcomes our child."

Thanks for your input and please leave me a note describing your SN ministry or anything else you think might be helpful to this subject. If you'd rather e-mail me I'll post those without names attached in a later post mkp1982@hotmail.com.

Please take a minute to reply to the poll on my side bar and leave any comments on THIS POST about your experience with your church. THANKS!

6:30?

This morning there was no convincing Kristopher to go back and lay down for a little bit! A very excited little boy hopped into our bedroom and announced to the world that TODAY is his friend F's birthday and it's TIME TO GET UP! A little attempt to get him to watch cartoons (PBS) for a few didn't work out because the VCR had been left on and messes up the signal- welcome to the stone age, yes we use an antennae to watch TV :) We have 4 channels. He came back in and then proceeded to the playroom to check on the TV out there, only to find that I'd unplugged it a day or two before. Good kid doesn't mess with plugs (and good babyproofing makes it pretty much impossible most places too!). So, I was up. Turned on some cartoons, checked on the other kids and plopped down in the girls' room for a few minutes before Brianna announced to the world that she heard Kristopher saying "it's not loud enough... I can't hear it... I want to turn it up... I'm going to... I need it louder..." LOL. So she and I joined him in the family room.

Now I've not had a shower, the kids are all up and need baths this morning, it's 8:30 and though the kids have all had breakfast, noone is really "going" yet. In fact, Kristopher just asked if he could turn on Oliver & Company so Brianna could watch it with him. Yep, the old VHS from when I was a kid. Disney is timeless!

This afternoon Mike is getting a little visitor at work for a little while... Micah! He's going to hang out with Dad for the last bit of the day so that Brianna, Emma, Kristopher, and I can join F's family to see Chimps In Space and celebrate F's 5th birthday. (And my mom is coming too to help with the girls ;) ). Kristopher has been talking about it all week!

Now, if I can just get myself in gear to go for the day. I do 7:00 ok. I do 1:30am all right too. But something about the hours between 5 and 7 makes me SOO sleepy when I have to witness them! (and I was up at 1:30 3:30 and 5:30 with Emma... maybe that's part of it?).

Another update

The cardiologist's office did call at about 4:15. They asked for a few more details- had I already spoken with the surgeon's office and what was the deal with her oxygen levels. I explained the oxygen- she isn't keeping her sats above 90 even with the prescribed amount of O2 and with double that amount she's still hovering around 91 overnight. We are going to try to monitor during the day a few days to see what her daytime sats are like since her night time sats have changed so much over the past few weeks.

Our cardiologist was going to call the surgeon tonight and I was told I'd hear back- I'm guessing that since it was so close to 5pm already that I'll hear back from them tomorrow. I did ask to receive a call to let me know if they'd talked and what the decision was. Hoping for the best... knowing that God's hand is on her... praying for the peace 'til then.

Update

I got a call back from the surgeon's office and he can't move it up. I also put in a call to the cardiologist to see if she can convince him otherwise. Still working on whether we can have the other doctor do the surgery since he has an opening both tomorrow and next Thursday. We shall see... Waiting on a call back from the cardiologist now. Two birds with one stone, I needed to talk to her about Emma's oxygen levels anyway since I've had to move her up to a full liter to keep her in the 90's at night the past few nights. Thank you all for praying, please continue to do so!

Ok my PRAYER friends!

I just talked with the surgeon's office and they said that they reviewed the brain MRI films and that there IS brain damage, but looks like it's old so nothing he's going to worry about. (they were worried about active lesions because of her extensive heart and lung issues.) They WILL progress with surgery!

AND... I told the lady that Emma's sweating profusely, in further failure, her sats are dropping badly at night, and she's already on O2 may be upping the amount. Also, she's on the max meds that the cardiologist is comfortable giving her at her size and that I wanted him to be aware that she's not just "staying the same" but is slipping further into failure. The person I spoke with actually sounded concerned (a good thing) and is calling Dr. Q to find out if he's going to move it up. She asked me if I had a preference of hospitals and I told her if he could do it at the other (he operates at 2) I don't care, we just want her to have her chance. She also said that another surgeon has an opening TOMORROW. I said, well, if Dr. Q wants the other guy to do it I don't care, I just want her to have it fixed, so let me know what he says. She's got my cell # and is going to try to get him today. He leaves in 10 days for 2 weeks. So it's either SOON or our set date on August 14th.

I'd PREFER our doctor- if it means waitng too long, well... that won't help. PLEASE pray for God's guidance on the surgeons today as they decide whether they'll do her surgery in the next 10 days or whether she'll continue to wait for August 14th. God's Will... That's all I ask that you pray for. Oh, and a little comfort for Mom and Dad would be great too :)

I'll update when I hear anything more. Hopefully I'll hear something today but knowing this office... it may be a day or two before I hear back.

How's this for a Divine Word?

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up with the time comes." Matthew 6:34 (The Message Translation)

Ever heard of Xander? (Win a Blackberry!!)

Yes, I published this a few days ago. For newer posts see below. This is what I call "bumping up a good cause" and here it is again... :) So donate if you can- there's a button on the side bar to add your $5 and join the raffle!

Xander is one ADORABLE little boy that came home to his new family from an orphanage nearby where my kids first lived. He also has Down syndrome, but in addition he also HAD clubbed feet. Xander underwent surgery and casting and is now learning to walk! I couldn't believe it when Andrea told me that their tiniest kid coming home was 17lbs at 4 years old. Before that I thought that Brianna was tiny. (Boy did Emma surprise us too!)

Xander's family is a military family and were recently relocated. They have adopted another child, also from Eastern Europe and also with Down syndrome, who came home just a few months ago. And now... they want to help out another little one with Ds. A little girl in Bulgaria that has Ds and clubbed feet. No, they're not adopting again... but they are helping to raise funds for this little one that hopefully will help her to get a forever family soon!

HERE's what Xander's Mommy, Shelley, says and how that ties in to winning a Blackberry... (italics added ;) )

I am giving away my Blackberry Curve. It is in excellent condition....I've
had it less than 6 months and always carried it in it's case. It works with a
T-Mobile SIM card(and I'm sure it can be unlocked for other carriers). When we
changed cell phone providers, I decided to downgrade to something cheaper. I
sold my husband's identical phone on ebay in less than 5 minutes for $170. I
decided to give mine away instead. So, here's the deal:

On July 27th, I will pick my Xander up out of his bed, kiss his chubby little cheek.....and thank the Lord for putting him in my arms one year ago. To honor that moment one year ago, I am auctioning off my Blackberry Curve with every penny of the money raised to go into the grant fund for Raina, who is waiting in Bulgaria. Raina, like Xander, has Down Syndrome and clubbed feet. She is destined to live her life confined to a crib unless a family takes a leap of faith and adopts her into their family. So, here's how this is going to work.

There is a Chip In widget over on the side of my blog (I also added it to the CornishAdoptionJourney sidebar). A $5 donation made through that account will enter your name in the drawing. You can enter as many times as you want....each entry requires $5. The auction will end on July 27th and Xander will draw the winner himself. Every penny of the money in the chip-in account will go to Raina.....and someone will get my Blackberry Curve. You can keep it, resell it yourself....whatever you want to do with it. My intention is to get some money in this little girl's grant fund. If you are reading this and you blog, PLEASE mention this on your blog. You can even put the widget on your blog too. You can get the code here (please do!!!).

Some of you that read this get hundreds of readers a day on your blog. My prayer
is to raise at least $500 for Raina's grant. That's going to take 100 entries.
My husband thinks I'm crazy and I'm going to give my Blackberry away for like
$20. Help me prove him wrong and raise some money for this little angel who's
waiting on a mommy and daddy to call her own!!!!

Hammock Swing Fun and Micah's Acrobatics :)

 

Pics to go with my update :)

Brianna and I made cookies, and Kristopher made his own PBJ sandwich on Friday!

The leftovers... and tall the FOOD I made :)

 

Science Project- it might LOOK like 2-layer Jello still from the OUTSIDE, but on the INSIDE it's just a layer of *ICK* inside the bowl.  It covered the sides and bottom but the inside was gone!  Ok, it wasn't a science project, it's leftover Jello from FOREVER ago that I didn't know was in the fridge.  Hey- Jello doesn't mold (pun unintended!)!

Could it be?? and other meandering thoughts

Wow, 2 full days with no posts! Well, here's catching up the weekend. First, though- today I think we got something "new" from Emma! We were at Target and she was fussing, only consoleable when held and then she was laughing, happy, giggly, until I went to put her down. We got home, I unpacked everyone and my Aunt stopped in so we visited a minute. She was fussy. Didn't want to be held, that's for sure, but also wasn't happy on the floor. I went to get her bottle ready and finally just put her in her highchair because she was just playing on the floor and crying. Well... she got in her highchair and got HAPPY! She drank a full 10 oz bottle, and I'm thinking... could it be? SHE CRIED BECAUSE SHE'S HUNGRY! If that's really it, then that is a MAJOR breakthrough for Emma! YAY! She might have learned now what it feels like to have a full tummy all the time and wasn't happy that her lunch was a little late!

Micah, on the other hand, saw her bottle and wanted one too. He still thinks that everytime he SEES food he should eat it. Luckily he drank about 1/2 oz and decided he couldn't cram any more. He'd eaten breakfast with me at 8:15 then went to grandma's house for an hour and somehow talked her into ANOTHER bottle at 9 something! So he'd definitely had his fill :) Now he's sleeping, Emma's playing, and Brianna's trying to talk herself into going to sleep.

This morning the girls and I went to Brianna's transition meeting. It ended up being a very informal assessment- what is she doing, how does she play, what skills does she use on a regular basis, how does she communicate, what health things should a teacher know about her. Pretty basic. We talked about where her "home school" is, where her "alternative school" is- since our homeschool doesn't offer any preschool services. And we also discussed the possibility of doing out-of-area further in order to keep her and Emma together if Emma needs to go to another school to have the most appropriate placement.

Oh how I wish that some of the closer schools offered services for kids with significant delays! The school that is "being discussed" for Emma is a good 20 minutes from our house with no traffic. Inevitably 30-40 min on a school morning with 20 mph school zones a few places between here and there. It is the ONLY school in the entire city that has a nurse on hand and offers services for kids with significant delays. I've never been there- yet- but will be visiting it before we place the girls anywhere.

I got the phone call today to set up the eval for Emma. It will be Wednesday morning and they'll come to the house to do it. That itself is great because it means she'll be in our HOME environment and not freaked out from being in an unusual place before even having the eval. So.. Wednesday at 9:30am we will do the more formal eval for Emma. The previous one we did just to find out whether she likely qualified for services or not put her at about a 10 month level. I have a feeling that was a "generous" estimate at that time. We'd just come home and she really wasn't doing much of anything on her own. Now I'm hoping to get a better estimate of her ability level pre-surgery.

The person that set up the eval suggested that maybe we should wait until after her surgery to do the eval. I have thought about that, but decided that if we do that then we'll be waiting for her to be back up to 100% to evaulate, and then we have to get the services in place and actually start them. Whereas if we evaluate now and have services in place for a few weeks after surgery, then the homebound services (which I've already disccused getting and likely won't be a problem) will be able to start within a few weeks of coming home. We won't have to THEN do the eval and wait.. etc etc... So, Wednesday it will be and we'll start from there to get an IEP and a placement going for Emma to begin after her surgery!

This morning at Target- while Emma was screaming- I picked up my few quick things including some hanging clothes shelves. Each hanging piece has 8 shelves. I'm going to TRY to keep these shelves with clothes in them that are matched and ready for the week. This will help with laundry- less to put away in the drawers since some will go back in the shelves (and I'm keeping the shelves in the guest room where I sort laundry!) and also will help in the mornings because I'll just need to go grab an outfit for each kiddo and not go in search of them. For now I didn't do it by day of the week, etc. I just put them in there and if there's always 7 outfits available, hopefully there will always be something that's appropriate for the day's weather and activities :) This will also help K to be able to get himself dressed in the morning when he gets up without disturbing Micah, and for days we're running out the door in the morning I won't have to be up late the night before when I remember we have an early morning and need to get things ready :)

Yesterday we visited with Dan and Debbie and saw their new house. It's beautiful! We enjoyed the visit with them and the others that came to the open house. Hopefully we'll get to have them over soon to swim and for the kids to play. Kristopher's already asked this morning if he can see them again when Connor's there.

After leaving their house we all needed things at Wal-Mart so the 6 of us ventured in. I have to say, I remember the days now when I shopped without any kids or when Mike used to grocery shop with me and how much easier it was! LOL! All the kids were very well behaved, but Micah threw up at one point (not unusual) and I had MIKE to clean it up :) And as we turned corners in the store I wasn't pushing the double and pulling the cart which really does speed things up! Also, we got out of there in just over an HOUR! I got all my groceries, didn't have any breakdowns from the kids, and even picked up a few things I hadn't had the time/energy for in the past like some sneakers that fit Micah (his fat little feet don't fit in the other ones!) and toiletries which are kept on the other side of the store. I think Mike might have just a little more appreciation for my shopping trips since he's seen how it goes with BOTH of us and 4 kids. We also got gas for the van and the kids still were behaving :)

While at Wal-Mart I picked up a bunch of fresh fruits and a few veggies too. I've wanted for a while to make some babyfood and see whether E and M would eat it. They both seem to be doing better with bigger textures (in the bottle still, but hey, it's progress!) so I picked up some plums, peaches, bananas, apples, blueberries, grapes, and a canteloupe! I made up 6 different fruit mixes for the babies- 12 oz of each- which will do 3 bottles today and 3 tomorrow. I'll supplement the other 2 bottles with jarred babyfood, but I'd also bought broccoli and carrots which I want to steam first and haven't had the time/energy to make yet. I'll also start taking whatever dinners we have which are appropriate and making up some food from them. I'm hoping that they will start eating a little more 'table-type food' and a little less Gerber :) Now if I can only get them to take it from a SPOON!

At the same time I was making things for the babies I made up 2 purees for the older kids to have in a smoothie today or tomorrow. I also made up some applesauce and added sugar and cinnamon to the batch I made for the older kids. No sugar for the babies, they don't need it yet!

That's all the 'catching up' for now!

Mesh crib guard?

Anyone know what I'm talking about?? I want one of those mesh 'bumpers' that goes inside a crib and attaches in the 4 corners and tops that will keep the kids' legs and arms from being able to poke out the rails of the crib. Not a crib bumper pad that they'll just pull down or put their legs on top of, but something that's tight to the side of the crib so they won't get their arms and legs out. Micah gets his STUCK and then cries. CHUBBY LITTLE BOY! And Emma sticks hers out and sets off her alarms because it messes with the wires. She likes to HANG out of the crib- all 4 limbs- and chew on the slats. Not so good. Also, she grabs the O2 wires and pulse ox cord and pretty much ties them in knots.

So... do you know what I'm talking about? Do you know where I can buy them? I find "bumpers" and not the one that goes all the way to the top of the sides. Does this make any sense?

THANK YOU Rachel and Sarah!!

These two sweet gals watched our kiddos from 5-9:30 tonight and Mike and I got to go out to Orlando, have dinner where we didn't have to throw out the wrappers when we were done (Smoky Bones), walked around Waterford a few minutes and picked up a Cranium "little" game for 75% off and a new book to read to K during rest time at Barnes & Noble. We found another "blankie" for Emma that we don't think Brianna will think is hers- Emma likes to chew them and the one she likes right now needs to be WASHED! Then we went to Target and wandered around for a few just to find somewhere out of the rain and talk. We found a lunch box on sale for Kristopher to start school with. Spider Man, he'll be in heaven :). Then we got a frappaccino at Starbucks since we were both tired (well, it was after 9pm!) and headed home.

Rachel and Sarah not only did awesome with the kids, but they had them ALL ASLEEP when we got home! Emma gave them a bit of a run for it when she got mad and cried for 30 min straight but we'd warned them that might happen with the bottle so I think they were prepared... I think :) Hence the reason we asked two of them to come! Micah wanted to snuggle and kiss their chins and reached for them and fussed when he got put down so they enjoyed snuggling him up good. Brianna and Kristopher were both good. K played with his toys and was NICE to the other kids, which is always good to hear, and everyone went down to bed pretty well. It was SO GOOD to get out just the two of us for a few hours and be able to talk, relax, and to walk around the bookstore and actually LOOK at books other than in the children's section :).

THANK YOU SARAH AND RACHEL! You two have hearts of gold and I'm so glad we had you tonight to take care of the kids. I actually had to think about it to remember to call and make sure things were ok. It was nice to not have my mind on how they were doing. Most of all, thank you for your giving hearts. These two girls spent 4 1/2 hours with 4 kids and wouldn't allow us to pay them anything for tonight. You have blessed us. THANK YOU!

Micah's Ear Tubes Rescheduled

September 12th with pre-op the 9th and post-op the 24th. All the dates and times are ON MY CALENDAR this time, and they decided to call to tell me about them :) That's always nice!

I hope we'll be home from Emma's Jaunt in St. Pete by then!

So... in other news...

What do you suppose is more frustrating than taking over an hour to complete what ended up being a 2-minute conversation? How about writing out a big long venting blog about it and then hitting PUBLISH POST and realizing I lost my wireless connection. Oops. Oh well, it's gone, and it's probably better that way anyhow.

In other news... That hour I just spent on the phone was SUPPOSED to be spent writing up what the kids do at dinner/bedtime and getting the house ready for BABYSITTERS. YEP, we're going OUT! Doesn't happen very often, but we have two very trusted college gals coming over to keep up with our 4 little monkeys tonight and Mike and I are going to go have dinner ALONE at Smoky Bones in Orlando. And the kids... yes, they behaved during my phone time! Mostly because 3 were asleep (Micah woke up near the end but only fell over and hit his head and screamed once during my 2 minute conversation, so that's not too bad) and Kristopher was kindly rearranging my baskets on the changing table. He thought that the nice white lined wicker baskets would go better in the playroom with the little kids' toys in them and the pastel pink and yellow plastic bins would be better with diapers and baby accessories on the changing table. Not too bad as far as K's rearranging goes, and yes, I already made him put the stuff back :) Today's been a MUCH better day for K because after yesterday, he KNOWS I'm serious, and that can be a very good thing :) :) I just hope he behaves for the sitters tonight! (And I hope they haven't read my blog to know what they're getting themselves in to or they might not show up! LOL)

I got through the answering service again

And I've now been on hold for 19 minutes. This is crazy! They better not lose the connection this time if they ever answer my call!

Irritating??

I have made 2 phone calls in the past 25 minutes. That's ALL I've done. I called the first # which told me to call the second. I called the second and waited on hold for 23 minutes. Then a lady picked up, I explained what I needed (to reinstate an application that "was denied due to time-period lapse" but still is good for another 20 days...) and she offers to MAIL ME another one. No no no... I want you to reinstate the 20 page application I ALREADY filled out and is ALREADY halfway done, yet is waiting for SS#'s for my kids, which I NOW applied for and want to get rolling. Then she says "let me review your case, hold on just a moment." I hold. Again, for 20 seconds, then she comes back, says "ok" and HANGS UP ON ME. YEP. I waited to see if she'd put me back on the lovely dead-silent hold, but no, it rings and says "if you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again."



So I try again. Sure, I've got another 25 min to wait on hold... What else would I be doing today? The machine answers "Due to a high call volume all representatives are now busy. Please try again later. CLICK." That's it. Now the MACHINE hung up on me. Hmm... I'm NOT liking this system so much right about now.