News from the Frontlines (homefront that is!)

Well, I haven't been able to upload the storm pictures to my computer (for some reason my bluetooth doesn't want to cooperate). They weren't the best quality due to being taken by my camera phone so it's not really a great loss, although they did depict the destruction of the storm.

As far as Max's team evaluation for his cleft repairs etc, all is going great. The doctor said he is pleased with the outcome of his lip and palate but said we may want to revise the lip repair before Max starts school. It really all depends on if the slight lift on his left side reduces on it's own or if we can bring it down manually by rubbing down on the incision line with our finger.

His right ear that had the tube placement is doing well too. The ear tube itself was coming out, which I had seen a couple of weeks before his appointment (and now has fallen out) and was also plugged, but the good news is that it is functioning like a normal ear should and had no fluid behind it. I'll keep doing what we've been doing though because I want to protect it seeing his other ear is compromised.

The speech pathologist said she thinks he has some speech issues (as if we didn't know) but I ordered a DVD that is put out by the Hospital for Sick Children of Toronto, Canada and she said is an excellent tool for learning techniques to identify and correct any maladaptive speech production and/or patterns. I expect to receive it soon in the mail and will review it with Max's speech pathologist he works with from our home. He is doing really well considering he had his lip/palate repair less than 5 months ago (besides his first palate repair attempt.

All in all a great evaluation.

I also have some news regarding my ongoing medical issues.

As you may have read, I was diagnosed as having Chiari Malformation, a tumor in my thoracic spine and some herniation's to some more discs.... well...I have some more good (sarcastic) news... I have a fracture to my T 12 vertebrae...AND a questionable syrinx.....yippeee

I'm sending my information, along with my MRI to The Chiari Institute (www.chiariinstitute.com), which is the premiere treatment center in the world for Chiari malformation, syringomyelia, tethered spinal cord and other related conditions, and it just happens to be in Great Neck, New York. After sending my info, I should hear from them in about 2-4 weeks. They are already booking for September so it will be a while before they can do further testing. One thing though, is that they can give me their PROFESSIONAL opinion as far as reading my MRI prior to seeing them in person. Very few doctors in the world are true Chiari specialists. Many say they are, but most have limited experience at best.

In the meantime, I'm scheduled for another series of epidural injections, my first of this series being Thursday. Hopefully, I will get some relief from these new symptoms like I have in the past for my others. Keep your fingers crossed for me will ya?!?

In other news.....

Today, Sonja and Max were supposed to go up and take their nap. I could hear Maxie up there playing and chattering along and also Sonja saying "Shhh Maxie! Mommy's going to hear you!" with that, I would say "Please go to sleep" in my best "mother" voice. The whispering and playing went on, and I decided I'd just let them play as long as no blood was drawn.

Dan came home right when they were sneaking down the stairs with the above get-ups on.
Sonja was playing the role of "Supermodel" as you can see. I'm not quite sure what was going on with Max though. He came down with the "Elton John" glasses that Sonja is wearing below, along with the fairy headpiece as a necklace, his shirt and diaper. I'm definitely saving these pictures to show to him someday (or his girlfriend :-)

Sonja strikes a couple of poses.

The Elton John glasses

Bear had his day at the spa. He did have a spa massage bath (he smells great!), nails done (no polish of course), blow dry and brush out along with his first real labradoodle hairdo. Now he looks like a labradoodle instead of a sheep dog. His groomer said he's starting to lose his puppy coat and is getting his adult coat so she didn't cut to much off so he'd have the "labradoodle fluff". You can actually see difference in the adult coat. It's like a small, tight "S" curl. She also said he had no mats!!! While she was clipping his around his eyes he flinched and she took too much in one area so she had to even it up on the other side. I think he still looks cute though. I can't wait to see what he looks like when he gets his full adult coat in.

I'm so happy we adopted him. He's a very good dog. He only barks when a stranger comes or when a stray entered the yard while the kids were playing. He is definitely protective over kids, which is exactly what I wanted.

he's already learned a couple of tricks too! He shakes paws, sits, and lies down when told (well the lying down is sometimes selective depending on other situations), oh... and he's fully house trained!!!!!

He's such a lover!!!

Until next time.....

The BEST Father in the WORLD!!!

You're lookin' at him right here!!! I couldn't have asked for a better father to my children or for that matter, a husband and, more importantly, a friend.

YOU'RE THE BEST!!!!!!

You're the example of what a real father is. The sun rises and sets on your command in your children's eyes and they love you tremendously!

and...

You're my ROCK!!!!

Love you BIG, BIG, BIG!!!!

Ahhhhh.....Relax........

This past weekend, we decided to take a trip to the Thousand Island area and go camping. We landed at Wellseley Island. It is a nice campground that has a nice playground, marina, store (that doesn't sell alcoholic beverages) and also has other attractions nearby. I liked it because they have full hook-up campsites complete with septic.....YIPPEEE!!! No dump station smell and wait.
Anyway, we had a nice relaxing time.

We didn't arrive until the evening and we set up camp, ate and had a campfire. It was really quiet with only a few campers here and there which was nice. I'm not a big fan of jam packed campgrounds for the most part, but I don't mind it once in a while.

Saturday morning, I was able to sleep-in while Dan tended to the kids. The last time we went camping I was able to sleep-in too! I could get accustomed to that!!

While I was sleeping, Dan fed the little monkeys the breakfast of champions......

Juicy juice and Pop-Tarts.....Not exactly my choice but I know the kids LOVED IT!!!!
During their little "adventures" (as Sonja calls them) the kids captured this large moth. Sonja grew attached to this moth and we told her that we must release him (or her) so it could rejoin his "moth family". After all, they were probably worried sick about him being gone so long!!!!

At home, Sonja has two spiders that she keeps in a jar in her bedroom. She definitely doesn't take after me as far as that goes.... I CANNOT STAND SPIDERS!!!
Bear giving Dan the "hairy eyeball"

Needless to say, he's getting groomed next week for the first time (besides me cutting his "bangs" and around his eyes once). It should be interesting how he does. Dan and I tried to groom him ourselves but as you can see it didn't quite work out as we planned. I can't wait to see how he'll look after. It'll be nice to see his sweet eyes.

Sonja wanted to have a campfire.....can you tell? I think her big thing for wanting a campfire is the whole smores thingy. The sooner the campfire, the sooner the "smores-athon" starts. Her second favorite part is cooking the marshmallows....but WATCH OUT!!!! She's deadly....waving those hot, melting marshmallows to and fro without regard for life or limb!!!

Well, after relaxing on the weekend, we returned home. Max had his team medical evaluation. We left the same day as a bad storm hit the area. We waited until we thought it was over but what we didn't think about was the aftermath. Trees down, along with power lines. We saw trees that had fell and crushed the roofs of houses and snapped in two! I took pictures with my cell phone and will try to download them. It took us 45 minutes to travel 5 miles! We finally arrived after hours and hours and hours of driving, or as I should say, crawling!

I'll post about it soon.

Until next time.....

Grappling, camping and more fun in the mud!

Sonja, whenever you mention cousin Ana, Drew or Luci, she says they're her sisters, and they are close like sisters are too!
Ana's daddy has been teaching her how to grapple. For those of you that don't know what grappling is, it's a form of wrestling with a martial arts twist. Ana's has a couple of the submission holds down pat and she's only 4! Thank God Sonja's wirey and can usually escape from Ana's moves..... for now.

Ana decides to give Sonja a kiss while she's got her down!!
Max jumps in to help big sis....or maybe take a nap.

On Memorial Day, we took the camper on it's maiden voyage.
All weekend long the kids were practically inseparable, particularly Sonja and Drew..... they even dresssed alike! Drew also celebrated her birthday.
Max loved being with all of the girls. He especially warmed up to Sarah.
One day, when Max was upset and started to cry about something, Sarah started singing to him (I do the same thing, only softly in his ear) and he settled right down and cozied right up to her! Later that same day, he again was upset and Sarah comforted his soul again with her singing (which BTW, she has a beautiful voice). Sarah's dad is keeping a close eye on Max, and even asked what Max's intentions are with his daughter! It seems there could be a budding romance in the future?!
Relaxing at Becky, Dean, Drew and Luci's site in the A.M. I know you dig my funky hat..... don't lie! Well.....it's better than my bed head anyway, or at least I thought so that day! Becky gives Dan the raspberries.

A boy and his dog.

Triple trouble.

Deano! There are kids present!!!!!

I hope you don't plan on cooking anything in that!

Dan took this picture.... No surprise.....they're brothers!

Max bellied right up to the watermellon.

At home, Dan and the kids get in a little lawn and garden work.

Oh.... well looky here....a lovely hole filled with mud and water!

I wonder what happens when I stick my foot in here......hmmm....

Max was monkeying around with the hose and didn't quite know how to work the nozzle....Well....after looking into the end if it he soon found out that water DOES come out of it!!!!
With that devilish look on Max's face....I'd watch out Sonja!!!!!

We're looking forward to going camping at the "island" this weekend.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and all is well and in good health!!

Until next time......

Spring chicken's

Check out the little spring chicken's and their funky leg work. Sonja, at times is hidden behind cousin Luci but you can still see her funky chicken leg wiggle.

Sonja's Dance recital

A couple of weeks ago, Sonja had her dance recital. She was very excited about dressing up and also that she would be on stage. I hadn't been going with her to dance class, Dan had been taking her so her performance was going to be a surprise for me. I will be posting a video as soon as Dan downloads it to my computer.
Max also went along to see the performance. Here he looks as if to say "What am I doing here with all of these girls!" He became excited when he would see Sonja or his cousins up on stage.
Sonja, along with her cousin Luci, performed "Itsy Bitsy spider" and the "Chicken Dance". During the "Chicken Dance" Sonja decided she didn't need an audience, she was going to do her own thing! They were suppose to start with their backs to the audience, then turn to the audience.....but not Sonja. She was gettin' down all by herself. She would have continued if her cousin Luci hadn't helped turn her toward the audience. After that, it took her a little while to get back into "her groove" but she did. She certainly has an original butt shake! I think it's more like a combination "butt wiggle/ noodle leg move" myself. It's not actually graceful but really more comedic in nature. There's always a "wiggle" delay which makes it even more funny to me. We had a lot of people come up after the show and tell us that her little shenanigans were the best part of the show! I'm not holding my breath to have her be a ballerina. I think Sonja's more the Kung fu martial arts kid myself. We'll see how that goes this fall.

In the video I'm going to post, you'll also see a little girl on the left hand side getting right into it. That little girl was the same girl that cried herself off stage during their other performance in March in the video I posted then. What a difference a couple of months make!

I'll post that video too Amy!!!! ( just so you won't be mad!) :-)
Until next time......

Is this the kind of world our children will inherit?!?

I'm in a ranting kind of mood. I guess I'm just sick of seeing all of the crap day after day after day.

In the past weeks, I have been astounded by what I have seen and heard on the news. The level of inhumanity is staggering!

Senseless killings, vicious beatings between children televised for all to see, apathy and character assassination (which, unfortunately, I've been a victim of in the past, thankfully by no one that reads my blog!) seems all too common now. The psychopathic side of society seems like it's becoming the norm.

It's pretty sad that we live in a culture that entertainment is watching children beating each other while those same viewers condemn any form of belief in God or other religious belief. The counter-culture now is believing in God or A God, respect for life, the elderly and each other, humility and empathy for others' losses.

An example, is the character assassination of Barack Obama. Now, I'm not a supporter of Mr. Obama ( I'm a McCain girl myself!) so I'll make that clear, but to say a person is in lockstep with his pasteur, teacher, boss, mechanic because they know, attend a class or church or patronize a business is just crazy talk!

Another example is with the devastating natural disasters in Myanmar (Burma) and China.
In the news, they report (sometimes with glee) the slow response of these countries to respond and of the mishandling of the incoming aid. With the catastrophic infrastructure damage and ten of thousands and hundreds of thousands presumed dead, how quickly is one to render aid?

If my memory serves me (which lately it doesn't so well) I remember our own disaster Katrina. Many people struggled for weeks and are still struggling, due to the delayed response and sometimes diversion of much needed medical supplies and food aid to political friends and others who didn't need any of it.

Granted Myanmar has a long history of corruption and maybe some of the criticism is warranted, but China has stepped up to the plate. They have gotten into, and are getting into the areas that basically had no inroads that weren't destroyed. They are flying in aid and have brought in heavy equipment to move the tons of rubble to uncover their buried countrymen, women and children. Many of the villages have lost generations of family members and it has been reported that some villages have lost almost all of the children to the quake. Many infants and children have been orphaned or have yet to find living relatives that can care for them. Instead of kicking them when their down, the world should be rallying to their aid. Why do some people seem to take pleasure in others pain?
I don't think those who criticize the rescue efforts in Asia are aware of "face" that is a real entity in both China and Myanmar. If one cannot help themselves it is often seen as a "loss of face" and inturn something they are ashamed of. Asking and sometimes receiving aid can be a "loss of face" issue that those not familiar with the culture know nothing about. In China, there is no Chinese word for "proud", but if you spend any time in China, you will see they have no need for the word, it is visible in almost every person I saw.

In yet another example I saw today, was with the diagnosis of Senator Kennedy having a malignant brain tumor. While some were offering words of kindness, support and thankful acknowledgement of his accomplishments, others would slide in aside comments about his drinking history and his other struggles both public and private. Pretty sick way of getting ratings and attention.



As my beautiful niece quietly celebrates her 6th birthday, my hope is, that in my "pollyanna" dreams, she along with my children will inherit a world that cherishes life, religious freedom, has respect and kindness for those less fortunate, is hopeful and is repulsed by hate, predjudice, disrespectful and destructive forces that seek to harm instead of help.
Our children deserve the best. The world I see today is far from that!
Until next time.....(hopefully, I'll be more optimistic!)