Catch Up Time

Hey there everybody! My name is Grace and I am pleased to accept the "Worst Blogger of the Year" award! Thank you very much!!

I have been asked to update my blog! Of course that was about 4 days ago now! Bad blogger girl, bad! I've had the time, just not the will! Pain pills will do that to a person, ya know!

So, who out there has had some part of this horrible weather half the country has been getting the last few days? Fortunately most of our little town sits slightly elevated, so it's not too flooded... bogged down, but not flooded. But today when I drove Bee out to preschool and went down the hill that leaves town to head for the church in the country where the school is, the site before me was scarey. Roads closed, water almost 2 feet deep up to the roads on both sides and a bridge over a creek that has concrete walls on both sides where the water was as high as the walls on each side. The area looks like a lake that happens to have a road down the center of it! There are many schools that have been canceled and delayed in the counties surrounding us! My family down in TN saw many horrible storms in their area as did Lauren and her family! Please keep them all in your prayers and the people around them clean up from the horrible devastation! I can't even imagine...

Speakin' of pain pills, I have finally gotten off of them as of about 3 days ago. The pain isn't totally gone, but my patience with being high is gone, so I've switched to Tylenol with the occasional Tylenol with codeine! Last night I took my last antibiotic pill (cipro), so the horrible taste in my throat should continue to lessen in the next 24 hours! I HATE antibiotics! They are so bad for us! Yes, they kill the bad stuff, but they also kill the good stuff in us! They don't care what they're killing! The only time I've had them since'97 when I had my first bout with Crohn's has been the four times I've had to take them since last March! They are wearing me down and I'm afraid that eventually my body won't respond to them the way it should! I am very proud to say that my kiddos have had very few antibiotics in their systems ever. Prophet, maybe 3 times (after leaving the nicu)... D.K., twice... and Bee, never! There are so many other ways to get your kiddos over what they have! Many things that our kids get that the docs say they NEED antibiotics for, they don't! Did you know that they are now saying that ear infections don't usually need antibiotics... same with most sinus infections! Besides that, some docs don't actually do the tests to be sure that our kids have what they say they have, therefore they should not be on those drugs! Don't think that because my kids haven't had antibiotics that they haven't been sick... they have! Really sick a few times! But I have found more natural ways to deal with it than pump them full of the crap that quite often makes us sicker than we already were! Yes, it takes a lot more time and persistence, but for us it's definitely worth it! Before I get hate mail, yes there are times when they are needed, I'm proof of that! But guys, my situation has been severe many times with my Crohn's! With all the issues that myself and two of my children have, we have enough medical things that we HAVE to do to ensure our health and safety in the future. It's important to me that we take care of the stuff that can be fixed with time, patience, effort, and natural stuff at home, so that we don't have a constant flow of crap thru our bodies!! Just because the doctors say something is right or safe, doesn't make it so! Okay, off my high horse! Just something I feel VERY strongly about!

Tomorrow is D.K.'s 9th birthday! I can't believe it! We will be taking Jello jigglers into his class for the fourth time in his school career! That's what he has asked for every single year since kindegarten! They have to be blue raspberry flavored every year too! Smart Guy is starting a new tradition with this new year. He's going to take each child out for breakfast on their birthday starting with this first birthday of the new year! They are gonna get up and leave at 7 am to head for Panera's to have some really "bad for you" pastries before he heads to school!
Tomorrow starts the half of the year when I get much pity from people when they ask the ages of my children... 10, 9, and 5 (next week)! Nobody thinks much about children spaced two years apart, but when they are stair steps, everyone admires you for your patience, stamina, ability to show-up in public fully clothed, smelling descent, hair done, and somehow finding a way to keep all children alive and fed! Yes, it was crazy up until age 4 or so, but it got easier after that! They are awesome kids! (notice I did not say perfect, because that would be considered shameless bragging, and it's also not true)

Mom's in town right now visiting! Basically she had to come out and see for herself that I was indeed alive and not going to die from this last bout with Crohn's a couple weeks ago! Apparently my word over the phone was not enough! Actually, if you wanna know the truth, I think she just wanted an excuse to come out and visit for awhile! By the time she leaves, she will have been here for 9 days and it will go by way too fast for both of us! I admit, I get a little spoiled while she's here! Last night, we went out to dinner, just the two of us while Smart Guy had all three kids at the Shrove Tuesday dinner at church! We went to a little cafe downtown that as of a year ago was an abandoned building. Now it's a really cool little restaurant with the best organic, free-range, chicken salad on foccia (sp) bread on the planet! And of course, there's the pecan pie with creme anglise! Wow, I'm drooling just thinking about! Then tonight, we had our girls night out with Bee at Red Lobster! We've been doing that since she was still being toted around in her car seat and the only way she got any shrimp was while nursing while I was dining on them! Now she gets her popcorn shrimp and clam chowder and is one happy little girl to be with us! She repeats many times "I love girls night out!" It's cool to see her loving,treasuring, and expecting our traditions!

Sunday is D.K. and Bee's birthday party! Yes, we are having a dual party! I said when Bee was born a week after D.K.'s 4th birthday that I would never have a dual party, but alas it is happening! We are renting a section of the pool at the YMCA! We are paying one price for both parties! Each kid invited their friends, about 4 each, and they will have separate tables for the desserts they each picked and the decorations they chose.... dinosaurs for D.K. (of course) and Strawberry Shortcake for Bee! Neither one of them seems to care about sharing. They are just excited about the party! I can't wait!

Bragtime.... both of my boys were chosen for Student of the Month in their classes last month! Cool, huh! They both have certificates and t-shirts announcing their official status!

Oh yeah, while I was away for the past almost two weeks, Bee had some major work done on her poor little mouth! I'm talkin' bad enough that they actually took her into the OR and put her under kind of work! Apparently the poor kid just has bad teeth, and there really wasn't much we could have done to prevent it! The nurses we had were all absolutely wonderful! I couldn't have asked for a better day in the hospital (ya know, if you have to go) than we had! They were all amazed at how Bee handled the entire situation! Of course, she's had procedures done that have involved hospitals since she was a baby! She's old hat at them by now! She walked in there and practically started telling them what to do! When the nurse was explaining to her how they would put her to sleep by giving her gas thru the mask that she was allowed to coat with her choice of lip smackers lip gloss to make it smell good, she said "I know"! When the nurse told her that the mask would be attatched to a balloon-like thing with Sponge Bob on it, she said "Oh no, Sponge Bob is bad, we are not allowed to watch Sponge Bob at our house!" (I give Sponge Bob much of the credit for many of the rude and obnoxious children in our world today. He is horrible and absolutely not allowed in our house at all!) To which the nurse replied, "Well, maybe we can find a Cars balloon." When the nurse told her that they would put a needle in her hand after she was asleep from the gas, so they could give her the medication to sedate her for the procedure, and that it would still be there when she woke-up, she said "I know"! The nurse kept asking her if she was sure she was just 4 years old and not in 4th grade! It was hilarious! Of course while she was waking up from the anestesia, she told the nurse that we have four children in our family! After a short discussion, we realized that she was counting Bowzer as one of her siblings! Too funny!

It's been a busy few weeks in our house! Pre-op visits, surgeries, sedation, antibiotics, pain pills, Benadryl, a REALLY bad respiratory thingy with Prophet, small colds here and there for the rest of us! Hopefully we're all on the upswing!

So, goodnight friends, family, and lurkers! Maybe I'll make it back before two more weeks is up this time.... don't hold your breath though!!