Ahhhh!!!

Pygmy Child reminded me this week that I have often likened being a mother to being pecked to death by 100 ducks. Yup, that would be me this week.
Let me see if I can break it down for ya.
Girlfriend was in an accident last week that totaled their one and only car. The guy was speeding and ran a red light. The baby was in the car. Praise the Lord, (I mean it!) for seatbelts and carseats. Junebug, while covered in glass didn't have a scratch on her and Girlfriend suffered only abrasions and bruises. Very, very minor. Guess who is picking up the pieces of transportation? Uh, yeah, that would be me.
Guess what Mon and Tues was in Utah? UEA weekend. Meaning NO SCHOOL. So I had Little Man for two days. This is not conducive to getting just about anything done, unless you include laying in bed cuddling with a cute boy while he watches movies as getting something done. Guess who is leaving to go to San Francisco in the morning? Right again, that would be me. Guess who isn't ready to go? You are so very smart. Me, once more. The ONLY reason I am doing this post is my car is currently getting detailed so I won't be embarrassed to drive a van load of kids to the airport in the morning. The place I LURVE to take my car for a wash and a good clean out charges less than 20$ and they vacuum, shine, wash the windows in and out, shine the wheels, and clean all the vinyl and wash and dry the outside, also has internet access! Can you believe it??? So here is your post.
I am going to give NaBloPoMo a good try this year. I am facing a large obstacle my first three days by being in San Francisco, but I found out the hotel we are staying at has wireless, so we shall we. My other big commitment I am not sure I will be able to get through is the placement and maintenance of Little Man's PICC line this month. But I did NaBloPoMo last year and am glad I did, so I am going to sign up again this year and we shall see how it goes.
There ya go! Keep checking on me the next week and see how I do with the daily posts!
Oh and anyone who wants a postcard from SF, please email me your addy and I will gladly oblige ya! Gotta keep my bloggy darlings happy, or else who would read and comment? And I have such a teeny tiny posse from the comments, I think I can manage a few postcards. And if there are more, like 50? Geez, do you know how happy I would be to mail out 50 postcards for my blog fans? I would do a happy dance while I mailed them! (I leave fairly early on Sunday morning, so get in your requests by sat please!)
So name, addy, and if you want separate cards for the kids etc, please include the info. Lakotajo2 at msn dot com.

Medical Update

I will give you the full updates since the others have been in bits and pieces.
Orthopedics: According to the Ortho doc, there are good kinds of flat feet and bad kinds. Little Man has the good kind and has no need to return unless his feet start hurting him. Yay!
Hematology Labs are currently normal and he does not have a very mild type of bleeding disorder called Von Willedbrands. Yay!
Psychology I am not entirely thrilled with the psychologist that is coming to our house. She got a vote of no confidence by declaring that she did not "believe" in ODD. I was thinking, gosh is that like Santa Claus? If you don't believe than it isn't for real? She did have a couple of good ideas, but sadly, there are no quick fixes. We are working on some new stuff and it is helping. Yay and boo.
Neurology LOVE the new neurologist and the PA. Good news, his seizures are doing well, bad news, according to the manufacturer his VNS is due to fail by the end of December. A definite boo indeed here.
And more boo to come. I heard from the Neurosurgeon's office and the nurse said Dr.Tall and Thin would prefer to see his VNS fail, rather than replace it too soon. My best guess was Dr. Tall and Thin did NOT remember the life threatening infection and complications following the last implant. I had an appointment with him on Monday. I was right, Dr. Tall and Thin did not remember the whole fiasco. When he asked me why I hadn't brought Little Man with me, I responded with, "because I am not crazy, that is why! You don't need to see him, he is fine, you and I NEED to talk". I told him that I had been told by the neurologist that allowing the VNS to fail would most likely result in us not ever getting the kind of seizure coverage we had gotten before, and because of Little Man's long history of horrible infections, we could not risk doing this surgery emergent and would need to schedule it ahead of time so we could do a course of antibotics first. Dr. Tall and Thin nodded his head and said he could certainly see my point. How about Dec 4? Good for the quick surgery date. But, then came the part that made my heart sink, yikes. In my head I was thinking we would go in a day or two early and stay a day or two after for IV antibotics. Nope. I was told it is going to be a longer time with Little Man getting the antibotics. It will be up to Infectious Disease to decide, but we will be going in a few days earlier and getting another PICC line. I even provided you with a nice linky doo explaining that thing. The words seem very cold and exacting as they explain it. But the reality is insanity. (They need to have a nice asterisk there, with a note) Be prepared to lose your mind and your nerve. Pumps, medications, hooking, unhooking, alcohol wipes, W.A.S.H. technique, (because, you see, if you fail in that, your child will get an infection in their line, which leads straight to their hearts! Do you comprehend the level of guilt here??)home health care, nurses, teachers and schools need to be taught and the stupid lines need to get changed and the line will get air in it at 3 in the morning and the pump will beep and beep and I am supposed to wake up and flush the line even though I am too tired to breathe and oh my gosh, my stomach is just rolling with anxiety just thinking about it. And HEY this is the GOOD news! Because a couple of weeks even a month of antibotics is much better than allowing our boy to get an infection that could very well kill him and end up on a PICC line for 3 months like last time. I was just learning to breathe. I better stop that. Time to hold my breath again.

And to end this on an upbeat: I did the Hill of Pain yesterday without stopping, not even once! I was dead when I got to the top, but hey! I did it! Whoot for me!

Another Mountain Monday

It still seems amazing to me that so many readers enjoy the mountain pics every monday, but I am here to serve you, so I will continue to post them.
This week's pictures are so very pretty, autumn meets winter on the mountain sides. It hasn't quite made up its' mind in the valley, sometimes it is winter, some days it is fall. Weird. Here ya go!







And what would my photo day be without the crazy cat? She climbed through the sleeve in my jacket.



Now the cat is like half born...



The Pea unscrewed the top off the sticky bow stick stuff that Girlfriend uses to stick bows to Junebug's head. Let me tell you, that stuff is soooo sticky. We are still finding sticky places on the carpet and floor. The Pea was very sticky indeed and needed a bath. Post bath:


Last, but certainly never least, my darling June Bug:


And she is amazing! Rolling over both ways, and just four months old!
Voila:


P.S. I have developed such a blog crush on Navel Gazing at Its' Finest. She is an incredible writer, funny, heartstring tugging, honest, Mormon mommy. The best part? She lives in UTAH! I am going to stalk her relentlessly be so charming she can't resist agreeing to meet me. Really, she is amazing.

It's A Zoo Here!

No, really, it is a zoo here. You don't need to pay money to see an animal show and wonder if the animals are well treated. No, you can come to my house, for FREE and know that the animals are in charge and spoiled to death. ::::::shaking head::::::
I had so many great animal stories and pictures this week, I couldn't include them all on Monday, so they have their own post today. I have also included a couple that I have been meaning to post.
Where to start? How about with the gross? We are conscientious doggy owners and when we walk Jackie-Boy the dog, we always pick up his poo in doggy poo bags.


See? Even our Pea knows you must have a poo bag while walking the dog!
A tip for you. Always check and make sure the bottom of the poo bag is sealed. Otherwise, you will end up as I did this week, with a handful of warm, soft... well you get my drift. Gag, that was soooo gross.

In no particular order, some pictures of the Kitten Formerly Known as Justin:


Yum Yum Kitty

You have heard of a cat nap, how about a cat lunch?



Fluffy wanted to know what was so great about Peter's digs.



The Kitten Formerly Known as Justin has been known to become so bored, she literally climbs the walls...(or doors, as the case may be)



We are continuing to allow Meeko to be fully flighted and she has discovered the joys of flying. Trying to catch her doing it has been somewhat difficult. Here are some of my attempts.





If you have ever wondered what the underside of a cockatoo looks like, wonder no longer! She landed on my camera.



Finally!



And now! The pièce de résistance! I have been working with Meeko for about an hour, 5-10 minutes here and there for the last few days to accomplish this!



(That is Oldest Son's hairy hand and arm, not mine!) Who needs Cute Overload when you have my house? Enjoy all the cuteness that is the Tangled Zoo!

Countdown to Frisco

There are about two weeks left before I am off to San Francisco. A two day walking tour. If you recall, in September, I realized that I would be walking up and down hills with kids 20 years my junior. I found my mojo to exercise. Public Humiliation Princess said, oh you didn't want people to wait at the top of the hills for you? And I said no, I didn't want them to call an ambulance for me! And I wanted to let you know, I walk at least 3 times a week, more often 4 or 5. I am incredibly proud of myself, really.
I really don't enjoy it. I told Supermommy, (remember the one who runs 6 miles a day?) that my exercise counted more than her exercise. She wanted to know why. I told her she enjoyed running, she LIKED it for heaven's sake, I, on the other hand, hated it, despised it, and had to force myself to do it every day. There fore, when God was counting up virtue points, I got more than her. She thought it didn't work like that. But, what does she know? Can anyone be sure how God counts things? NO! So let me feel virteous and self righteous. I gotta get my good feelings somewhere, since they sure as heck don't come from exercise!
But I have made so much progress and I really am terribly proud of it, so I will share it with you.
I was doing a track at a park near our home. I have no idea how long the track was, I just knew that two times around took me 20-25 minutes at first. By the second week I had to bump it up to three times around the track to make that 25 minute time frame. Third week? Four times! Nothing like progress to make you feel good about what you are doing.
Supermommy likes to keep track of how far she is running, so we did a better job keeping track of it. Do you realize I am walking almost 4 miles a day now? I feel like so pumped about that. And there is the Hill of Pain that I must climb. It is kicking my butt, but I am stopping fewer times each time I climb it. My goal of course is to be able to do that stupid hill without stopping at all.
Today I hit the gym at our apartment. It was my first time on a treadmill.

It was also my first time to fall off a treadmill. Ouch. My MP3 player fell off the treadmill first. I turned around to grab it, well, yeah, I stopped but the treadmill keeps going. Next thing I know, both my MP3 player and I are on the floor. I was just really glad no one else was in the exercise room to witness my humiliation.
I just wanted to let my posse know that I haven't given up on the whole exercise thing. And whether or not I can keep up with the kids in S.F. I will know that I am doing a much better job than I would have if I had never started exercising at all.

It is Still Monday!

The Pea, Jackie-Boy the dog, and I went in search of the perfect Mountain Monday post.


We looked here


But all we saw was a sea of cat tails. Have you ever seen so many? Me either...

How about under here?


Nope...

The Pea and Jack went off roading to look...



But the perfect picture wasn't hiding the grass either.

Ahhh, now this is more like it!







I think the three of us did a good job, what do you think?

These last three pics are included just because they are cute and this is my blog!

I am really proud of the following pic because I was able to get the Pea in mid-hop.



And this one because I think it is beautiful, all back lit and she is letting the pussy willow fluff blow in the wind.



And this one? Well, I bet you can figure it out for yourself.

I am a BAD Blogger

Yes I am. But I have a good excuse, I do! My good, good girlfriend from another state, to be known as Supermommy, came to my place this week for some serious Jo loving. I just want to tell you that if you choose me as your friend, I am the BEST friend ever.
Evidence. Supermommy has had 9 kids. NINE!
She shows up at my door this week and I am all like, "Wow, you are sooo skinny, you have really lost some weight!"
I am then informed, with Supermommy pulling out the sides of her pants and complaining, THESE pants are TOO big! I have got to shopping while I am here. These fours, (you heard right!) are too big. I need some twos. Size 2!
The proof that I am the best friend ever? I didn't hit her, strangle her, nor did I shove a tube down her throat in the middle of the night and pour melted lard into her stomach. I went to the Kohls, where we forced by lack of 2's in the grown up section to move to the juniors. Sigh, come on I want to hear a collective groan of empathy from all of you! And I did. I ran around Kohls looking for the right color and pocket size. She has no butt now, because she is so dang thin. Do we feel sorry for her? Nope, we do not, but we did sigh and tsk and look for smaller pockets. Because we are nothing if we are not the BEST FRIEND EVER!
She will be leaving in a few days and I expect Mountain Monday to resume as usual on Monday.
P.S. Another reason not to hate Supermommy. She is really watching what she is eating and she is running 5 or 6 miles a day. So at least she earned her svelte new shape.

To the World At Large

NO! We do not drink beer.
NO! We do not let our much delayed 10 year old drink beer.
There is a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why my son's mittens smell like beer today.
It is, of course, my husband's fault. He was very wrapped up in getting Little Man to the bus, and failed to notice the child had picked up a can. A beer can. With beer in it. That he then proceded to shake and of course spill all over. Now he smells like beer.
We don't live in a double wide trailer and none of our children are named Bubba Joe thank you.

Good News

When someone asks you, "I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?" How do you answer?
I am a big fan of doing/saying the bad first, and then follow it up with the good. If I have something fun to do in a day, I save it for after I have forced myself to something distasteful, (like housework!) as motivation to get it DONE, so I can enjoy something better.
So, in typical Jo fashion, I will give you the bad news, and then follow it up with the much better news.
First off though, let me whine, please! I am soooo, sooooo very tired. Exhausted both physically and emotionally from dragging my sweet boy to two days of dr. appointments at the Large City Near Me Children's Hospital. I got home last night at almost 6 and just dropped. I couldn't even eat dinner until after the boy went to sleep, I was that tired. And still am. On Tues he was really pretty decent, but the day is so long when you have to drive so far, wait, and wait, in waiting rooms, and in the drs office, wait and wait, interspersed with bits of excitement in the form of outbursts from the boy, or people trying to ask questions, or heaven forbid! touch the kid, which usually earned them a scratch and a growl, seriously! So, yes, I am tired. Haven't even eaten breakfast, I am that tired. I had to drink a Mt. Dew to even get up the energy to post. Then I am going back to bed.
So, Tues was the neurology appt. I am too tired to do links, peeps, sorry, but if you don't remember what I am talking about, you are going to have to go ask Dr. Google.
Little Man has a Vagal Nerve Stimulator for his seizure disorder. We really, really love the contraption, it has given him and us a quality of life we didn't have before. So the person we saw is the PA that oversees the VNS kids. (Part 1 of the story was us switching insurance and now having to switch to some new specialists for the boy, remember?) I really, really liked her. We also got to meet his new neurologist who is also a woman, and I really, really liked her too! Yay for all that. I liked them until they told me that because Little Man's VNS is set a bit higher than average, the battery in the thing is going to die sooner. They will need to contact the manufacturer to find out a better time frame, but it was probably about 3 years. OOOOPHHHFFF! It felt like someone socked me hard! in the midsection. Horror flooded me as I remembered how very awful the implantation had gone. Infections, bleeding, PICC lines, it was really, really awful. The dawning horror that this would probably take place in the next few months because the 3rd anniversary is coming up in Feb was the final cherry on my mountain of rising fear.
We will hear from them soon on a date. The small good news about this, we know WAY better than to let his VNS die on its' own and try to do the surgery as emergent. It will be scheduled ahead of time, Little Man will be on IV antibotics first so we should be able to avoid all the post surgical complications we had last time. (They have to replace the entire thing, the battery is sealed inside, surgery is unavoidable)
And that my friends, is the bad news. Not the worst news in the world, but you have to understand that my reaction was just so very visceral and deep. The thought, "I just can't do that again, I can't!" went through my mind more than once. Ha, ha, like anyone ever asked me!
And now, for the sweeter and less awful part of this post. Little Man does not have Von Willedbrands. His labs were all good, yay! Why he does this cyclical bruising and why his labs are sometimes off is beyond anyone's ken, but hey, we have no need to enter the doors of Hematology again, at least for now. She said if his labs got funky again, we should come back. But I am pretending his labs will never be weird again, so we are not going back.
(Shaking fist at universe, do you hear that? We are NOT going back again!)
Little Man was less than pleasant for yesterday's appt, which is a large part of why I am so very tired today. Wrassling with the uncooperative, sometimes violent and ugly is just very tiring. He SPIT all over the scale when they tried to weigh him. Large amount of spittle, running down the nice electronics. I was embarrassed and horrified. He hit, pulled the doctor's stethoscope off her neck and wouldn't give it back, scratched, growled, yelled and was generally not very nice. The doctor did tell me he is not the easiest patient she has tried to examine. I told her she was NOT the first doctor to tell me that. Sigh. Then awful, ugly rush hour traffic home, and I just collapsed. Still feeling the effects. But hey, I have the day off today, we have the psychologist tomorrow and the orthopedist on Monday. Can not wait. Will have to try to rein in my thrill.
Now, I am going to try to eat some breakfast and GO BACK TO BED. yes. bed...
****updated at 10:55am****
while lounging in my bed, I received a phone call from the neurologist's office. Little Man's VNS has less than 3 months left on it. Neurosurgery consult ASAP and surgery. Gut punch. I am sick with the memory and the worry. Crap. If I swore, I would be swearing right now. Dagnabbit all.

First Mountain Monday in Oct

***Warning! Picture heavy, as it seems most Mountain Mondays have come to be.***

Pretty, pretty mountains!



Pretty, pretty sky!



And now! The cuteness that permates Casa de Tangled. You have been warned!

My darling, darling June Bug. No one except her mommy can make her laugh the way I do. I did ask Girlfriend if she would so kindly mention that to the "other" grandmother the next time they saw her... bwwwaaahaaaahaaa!
BEHOLD! The cuteness!





And more cuteness, this time from the beasts.
Meeko's clip has grown out and guess who is flying now?



Suprisingly enough, The Kitten Formerly Known as Justin, (Fluffy) even though she doesn't have feathers, did some flying too!



And finally, the cat is insane when it comes to laser lights. "I can haz lazzer lights?"



Mondays are a great day, aren't they?