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!)

The good with the bad.

There are many good things to be thankful for. Spring is here and warmer weather is pretty much here to stay. All of the signs of spring are budding to life. The kids are healthy for the most part, aside from Sonja having a bout of gastroenteritis this past weekend. Unfortunately, sometimes we all have bad things happen in our lives. I have recently received some bad news but first with the good.

Last year, we had a fairly frequent visitor to our back yard. At first, I would only hear the characteristic "pecking" of our woodpecker, who I named "Big Red", after a certain someone I know.

One day, I was standing at our kitchen sink when I saw him. This woodpecker was HUGE! I tried to hurry and get my camera to take his picture as no one would believe the size of this guy if I told them, so I wanted proof. Needless to say, by the time I retrieved the camera, he was gone. I told Dan and he just said "Hmmm....that's nice".

One day, Dan was home, when he suddenly says "Tina, look at the size of this woodpecker!" I quickly went to where he was standing and saw our woodpecker Big Red. This time Dan was able to take a picture of him.

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The other day, we were all in our backyard and as we played a large bird flew overhead coming very close to us. He perched in the trees nearby and that's when we saw him. I don't think this is the same one because he is smaller than "Big Red" but he's still a large bird nonetheless.

For the past couple of weekends (minus last weekend), we've been sleeping in the camper. The kids just love it! We gather our snacks, p.j.'s, drinks, movies etc and head on out the camper. We brought out Sonja's little "Winnie the Pooh" couch and chair so the kids can watch their videos on the floor. To them it's an adventure, even though we are just steps from the front door of our house.

They also love having their own bunk beds but also being in the same room together. They giggle and squirm with excitement as they slip between the sheets of their bunks. Max gets out of bed several times and goes into the living/dining area to peek at us, just because he can. Dan quickly shoo's him back into bed.

Max finally fell asleep after much squirming and giggling.
Sonja's sleepy little head barely visible from under her covers.

The puppy is almost fully house trained and rarely messes in the house, even when he's left alone. I think that's pretty good for such a young pup. His 4 month birthday is coming on May 14th.

Now for the bad news.....

As some of you may have read here, I was having some medical problems, E.R. visits and medical testing done. My echo cardiogram was virtually unchanged from my last one a few years back so that too is good news. My pain specialist decided she would order some MRI's for my cervical and thoracic spine as she thought my symptoms could be related to more spinal problems, which I agreed

This Monday I had an appointment with her (my pain specialist) and she gave me the results of my MRI's.

The MRI's showed I have a few new things going on with me, three that I remember, some I expected, some I'm still kind of reeling from. I think I missed part of the explanation she gave as I was processing the news and kind of tuned out and went into my own little world for a moment.

She told me I have 3 more herniated discs in my thoracic spine, which to me is no surprise. The herniations are at the T10/T11 and T 12 area of my spine. I was expecting that.

The second thing is I have a large tumor on my spine that is located at the T3 area of my thoracic spine. She said it's a large spinal hemangioma that is non cancerous but can invade the tissues and bone much like a cancerous tumor. She said that many times they are small and don't really cause much, if any problems. Other times they are painful and problematic as they can rupture and cause spinal collapse, internal bleeding and paralysis.

The third thing is I have a problem with my brainstem. It's called Arnold-Chiari malformation, or cerebellar ectopia. What is that? It's when the cerebellar portion of your brain drops down into the spinal canal. Some refer to it as herniation of the brainstem. The cerebellar portion of the brain is responsible for the automatic things our body does such as breathing, heart rate, temperature control etc.

The last two things (hemangioma and Arnold-Chiari) are probably what is causing my chest pain and shortness of breath, along with the pain increase I've been experiencing.

I'm scheduled to see a neurosurgeon on June 3rd to find out more details. My pain Dr. explained some of it to me but since she is not a neurologist, she doesn't want to speculate and give me any info she's not absolutely positive about. It's going to be a loooonnnggggg wait until that appointment.

As you may imagine, we've been pretty upset here at home and Dan and I have been discussing things in the event I have to undergo surgery and other possible scenarios. Dan is such a rock. We have been through many tough times. Many marriages don't survive some of the problems we've faced, but going through them has made us much stronger. We'll get through this one too.

The treatment options for the hemangioma are nothing if it's non problematic, to radiation and lastly surgery. Surgery for a large hemangioma is very risky because the risk of hemorrhaging is high. They recommend you donate your own blood prior to surgery (at least 4 pints) due to the expected blood loss, transfusion is common during this type of surgery, especially for large tumors.

For the Arnold-Chiari, the options again are nothing if no symptoms and "tonsils" or herniation of the cerebellum is small, to surgery. My "tonsils" are 5mm in size which is, from my research, considered a size they operate on due to the tendency to obstruct spinal fluid and also cause significant problems and pain. I'm not sure what I may face but I do know the pain and discomfort is very bad.

Unfortunate for my mother in law, but kind of fortunate in a way for me, is that my mother in law has Arnold-Chiari and had the surgery a few years ago. She has briefly discussed with me her experience with surgery and recovery(she's a very private person) which she said is very difficult. She has returned to work but she didn't have any other spinal problems whatsoever. I would never disclose her age but lets just say she, like I, is "mature" and she is pretty active...... more active than people half her age!

Right now my main concern is for the kids and Dan. Dan is a wonderful father and they love him very much. The children depend mostly on me for much of their care, not that Dan won't, it's because they come to me. As you mother's out there know, your children depend mostly on you as most mother's are the primary caregivers. Sonja being a precocious child, knows about my back and is very in tune with what is going on around her. She can tell that I'm in pain even though I think I'm hiding it from her. Her fix? "I'll make you some hot chocolate. That'll do it!" How sweet is that! I'm trying to figure out what would be the best time to have the surgery if I need it and I have the choice. Dan thinks if I need it I should get it done right away. I think that if surgery is a must and I can wait, I would rather wait until Sonja starts Pre-K and I can also enroll Max in Nursery school. That way they can focus on better things and it would be more manageable for Dan and me at home during the post op recovery. My mother in law did say though that if I had it during the summer, she's off and she can help out (which I know Sonja wouldn't have a bit of problem with that!) I guess, I'll cross that brige when I get to it.

Well, I guess I'll sign off for now.

If you would, please say a couple of prayers for the kids and keep them in your thoughts. I wouldn't mind a couple of prayers myself.

Take care

Until next time......

The Mountaineer and the "Mud Twin's"

As mentioned in my last post, we went to get our fifth wheel camper. Dan, Max, Dan's brother Dean and I traveled to the dealership to pick it up. It's about a 2 hour drive one way, but it went by quickly and it was a nice day for a drive. We arrived at the dealership and told them that we are there and they pointed us in the direction of where our camper was parked. We had purchased some lights and were going to have the service department install them, but they didn't get to them before we came to pick it up. Due to that, we had a store credit that was quite sizable so I had some shopping to do! I bought some needed items and Dan also contributed to the cart and after about an hour or so, it was time to cash out and hit the road. Dan and Dean hitched the camper up to the truck and after filling the tires to the proper pressure, we were on our way..... but not for long.

We drove for about a half hour and all was well, when all of a sudden POOSH
the noise was so loud, I thought we hit something! Dan pulled over and stopped the truck. The guys got out and after a few minutes they saw that the hose to the radiator/turbo had come off. Remember the ice incident that cracked Dan's grill and damaged his radiator? Well, they repaired it but unfortunately, this was the unplanned outcome of that "repair".

Anyways, Dan and Dean reconnect the hose and we are on our way in no time.............until it blows off again!!!!! Dan pulls over again and they reconnect it but it again blows off. This time, I had the 1-800 number of Ford's roadside assistance in my hand. Dan called, and they said they would send someone to pick up the truck.
What about the camper, you say? Well, Dan called his father, who gets Dean's truck, and makes the 2 hour trek to retrieve us and the camper.
As we waited, we crawled to the next exit, which has an excellent eatery, and ate as we waited. Dan's father arrived and we packed ourselves(five of us!) into Deano's truck and headed home. The camper is over the weight limit (11,000 plus #'s) than what Deano's truck is rated for, but it did the job well and we all arrived safely home, albeit a little stiff and sore from the ride. Max kept pointing to the camper and saying "OH NO!" as I think he thought the camper was somehow chasing us, because it was so close to the back window and seemed to be looming overhead. He became so upset he cried himself to sleep poor little guy. All the reassurance in the world from me didn't calm him whatsoever.
On Thursday, we drove back to where the truck was repaired and picked it up. Hopefully, this won't happen again.

The camper safely parked in our driveway.

We decided we'd have a night in the camper of just watching movies and cozying up together. The camper is still winterized in the freak event that we have freezing weather again (which is highly likely here in the boonies), so every time the kiddies needed a bathroom break, a trip into the house was necessary. We didn't spend the night in it, but we'll have plenty of time for that. Sonja is very excited to sleep in it but wants to sleep in one of the top bunks in the bunk room. I don't feel comfortable with her sleeping there because it is a long drop to the floor! Maybe next year I may feel more comfortable. They do make removable rails that you can mount onto the bunk, but we haven't any, and I just don't see the need for buying such an item when they can both safely sleep in their own bottom bunks. Besides, cousin Drew has already put in her request for one of the top bunks in the event she spends the night on future camping adventures. Sonja is also excited that she and Max have their very own bathroom in the camper. Who would think kids would be excited about a bathroom?!?!!!

We may spend the night, or two, in the camper this weekend. We'll see!

Dan hasn't practiced driving with the camper attached to the truck except for the drive home in Deano's truck. He'd like to practice towing it because he really has never towed anything larger than a four wheeler, much less a 37 + foot, 11,000 plus lb. camper! I'm sure that is on the agenda for the weekend if he doesn't get to it during the week. I want to practice driving with it too, just so I can take over if needed during any long journey's, although, I'm not sure how many of those we'll be taking with the price of gas now and it's supposed to get worse.....YIKES!!!!

I'm getting super excited about camping though no matter where we go, (if you can't tell)! I'm even more excited about the kids getting to experience the wonderful camping life I loved as a kid, and all of it's wonders!

The weather here has been more like summer than spring. This past Friday, the weather was beautiful!!! Our thermometer read 82 degrees pretty much unheard of in April here. Sonja wanted to "swim" so out came the pool. I filled it up and Sonja, Max and Bear took a dip in it. Bear LOVES the water. Oh...something I discovered about Bear, which I was somewhat surprised to see, is that he has webbed feet. I know he's part Lab but I didn't expect him to have the amount of webbing he has being a cross breed. Speaking of Bear, he is a really good dog and I'm so happy we have him, even though it's like having triplets at times, he's such a big baby ("big" being the operative word here).

The kids have been using the pool and playing in the sandbox everyday and I have to practically drag them away to get them to do anything else. As a matter of fact, They are doing just that, right now as I type!!

After testing the water with her foot, Sonja decided she'd get wet.... well.....maybe only her bottom half.

After a little while in the pool, Sonja and Max decided they thought putting water into the sandbox was a novel idea. Usually they only put enough in, so they can use their molds but today they got just a little carried away!

Bear, not wanting to be left out, joined Max in the sandbox.
Bear digging for buried treasure? I think this picture puts in perspective how big our puppy is! He looks more like a full grown dog! When people ask his age, they are surprised to learn that he's only 3 months old! Everyone seems to know right away that he's a Labradoodle though!

Ahhhhhh..... so nice to see them playing nicely in the pool......

"SPLAT" Max slaps a little mud on Sonja

And as you can see.... Sonja returned the favor!

"Man.... That sure is cold mud!"

I wonder if wet sand is as good for the hair as it is for the complexion?

Sonja with her cheesey smile and surprisingly happy to have sand all over.

Hope all of you reading this (few as you may be :-)) are enjoying the wonderful weather too and if not, I hope all is good and well!

Until next time!!!!

Our newest addition (as if having a two year old AND a three year old wasn't enough!)!

I haven't posted in a while and it's been for a good reason. We've been pretty busy here with a lot of things going on.

Meet Bear, our newest addition. Bear is a Labradoodle, part Labrador retriever and part standard poodle. We adopted Bear a couple of weeks ago and he just turned 3 months old on April 14th. He's going to be a big boy. He is currently 23 # and is already 1 1/2 feet high at the withers (shoulders) and again is only 3 months old! The kids just adore him and Max especially likes having someone to boss around. He is a good dog and is doing pretty good as far as potty training goes but he still has accidents at times. As I was taking pictures of him to post, the kids decided they wanted to do a "photo shoot". Here's the kids hamming it up along with some shots of Bear.

Max trying to put on is p.j.'s.

Sonja doing her best supermodel pose.

Sonja doing her "camera smile"

I think this picture gives you an idea of just how big Bear is. Bear, when standing on his back legs, is taller (42 inches!) than Sonja.

Yesterday, (April 17th) was the first anniversary of Max's "Gothcha" day. We had a quiet family celebration with pizza, wings (for Dan and I) and ice cream cake.

We received our fifth wheel camper but getting it home is a WHOLE other story (I'll post about that another time)! We are getting excited about the upcoming camping season and are getting everything ready.

Until next time......

Check out the Fancy footwork on these girls! I have to say I've laughed pretty hard watching this video. Max and Sonja love to watch it, especially Max.

You may have noticed Sonja was one of the smallest ones there. The group consists of 3, 4, and some 5 year olds. I think they all did a good job. Sonja started off a little slow but seemed to finish strong at the very end. I can't help but laugh at Sonja's funny little wiggle. I think they just need a little time to warm up. I think it would be scary to some children seeing all of those people looking at you and the REALLY loud music, along with other distractors. I felt so bad for that one little girl who was petrified being on stage, cried and ran off. I'm just surprized that there wasn't more like her. I think ALL of them did well, even the little one that ran off. It takes guts just to walk onto the stage and they ALL did that beautifully!

Chicken Dance

Sonja, her cousin Luci, and their friends perform the chicken dance during our local community winter festival!

Happy Easter and happy dancing!

Happy Easter to all!

I know, I know it's a little late but we still hope it was happy!

Our Easter was a good one. The Easter bunny must have thought Sonja and Max were pretty good kids because he brought them some treats.

We had a family dinner here with Dan's Mom and Dad, Dan's brother Dean and sister in law Becky and their two cutie pies. My Mother, sister Vicky and my sweetie pie niece Ana, along with Vicky's boyfriend Billy and his son Chase , joined Dan, Sonja, Max and myself for some traditional Easter fare. The kids played in the toy room while the adults enjoyed some conversation. It was a nice day!

This past Thursday, Dan and I went to do a walk-through of our new fifth wheel camper. The guy who did the walk-through (Ernie) did an excellent job explaining all of the working systems, features and highlights, although we don't know everything about it, we have a good base knowledge. He must have spent a few hours with us.

We noticed a few minor things that needed to be repaired, which isn't uncommon due to tranport, installation etc. I also wanted to change the light between the couch and table which was black powder-coated stationary fixture to a brass swivel-arm light. Also being replaced are the duel ceiling fixtures and undercabinet lights, with brass fixtures.
They also installed the hitch on Dan's truck.
Dan thinks we should be able to bring it home in a week or two if the weather cooperates. Below is Dan inside our new camper. We had perma-grin for the day.

Dan took this picture of me with my big cheesey smile.

Goofing around before bedtime is daddy time. Piggy-back, shoulder rides, and wrestling are Dan's specialties! Thank God Daddy has a good back! If he keeps this up much longer that might not be the case! Both Sonja and Max weigh the same (30#'s!) according to our home scale. Max seems like he weighs five pounds more than Sonja though.

Max and Sonja's Easter baskets. The Easter bunny also hid a ton of Easter eggs all over. He even hid them on some wall fixtures!!! He's a crazy bunny!!!

Max playing while waiting for Easter dinner.

Sonja posing for the camera Easter Sunday. I think cheesey smiles run in the family!

Sonja built this tower the day after Easter. She was soooo proud of herself. To place the blocks and other items higher up, she would get into the highchair and ever so delicately place the item on the stack. I think she did a pretty good job seeing she's only 3 years old. Good job Sonja!!

Max recently has become quite fond of doing "raspberries". I'm not a fan of having kids do raspberries. Raspberries, in my book, are right up there with sticking out tongues, not polite or pleasant. Sonja said G ma does it! Hmmm.... I wonder if that's true? I wonder if that's where Sonja got the "Maxie did it" phrase when she does something wrong or naughty?.....hmmmm.......

Until next time.....