HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

The things I am thankful for-
I am thankful for my family & friends. I am thankful for the food we have on our table and for the roof over our heads. I am thankful to have such a wonderful husband who works hard to support the kids and I. I am thankful for our good health. I am thankful for many other things as well, but you get the point!
Today we are going to my parents house to spend Thanksgiving with my husband & kids, my Mom, my sister & her 2 kids and my brother and his fiance. My Dad is in new Jersey working and won't be here with us but he will be thought of. My Dad will be coming in town for Christmas. Usually my Mom isn't here either, but she is in town early this year to help my sister with her new baby.
I can't wait to eat some yummy Turkey and all the fixings! I hope that this Thanksgiving is a great one for all and that you all have many things to be thankful for as well =)
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Started Decorating!

Well, I finished painting the trim on the house, and got my new bushes and mulch in so its time for the Christmas lights to go up! I did get the bushes wrapped, the snowmen in that line the walkway and my front door and porch area are almost done. Eddie and/or my brother will put the lights up around the house eve's sometime this weekend I hope and then I will put out my blow up's, Rudolf and my snowman and snowoman.
It was really hard to start decorating because again it was 81 with another heat index of 91*. Crazy!
My neighbor across the street was out there in the dark trying to finish up his lights. He's made this huge Christmas tree in his front yard. It's gonna look pretty neat when it's done and turned on. We were all trying to finish by tomorrow night so we could have a little light turn on ceremony!
And right now as I write this the wind and rain are coming through, a cold front. So at least tomorrow on Thanksgiving it will actually feel like Thanksgiving should. For the next few days the temps will be in the upper 50's, lower 60's and at night in the upper 30's, lower 40's. Then back up to 70 next Wednesday. Finally, we can stop wearing our Summer clothes for a bit!
Tonight I am baking. I made 2 batches of my Grandma's special recipe, Honey Cakes. Although I don't know why they are called Honey Cakes because there is NO honey in them, LOL!
I think they came out pretty good but they need to cool and set overnight. Then I made up my Potato Casserole. (If anyone wants the recipe let me know and I'll post it!) I let it set overnight then add the topping in the morning before I bake it. It is my favorite holiday dish to cook. Everyone loves it and begs me to bring more each year. This year I only have to make 2. I made one for Eddie's Thanksgiving feast at work today and then one for my parents house tomorrow. Eddie's parents went to Texas to visit with his Mother's parents. Her father is in the hospital since late October after being in a car wreck. He has 2 ruptured disks, I think they said that are pinching some nerves and he cannot feel his left side to write or walk, which sucks because like my Chase he is left handed! He is 90 yrs. old and they are afraid to put him under anesthesia to operate b/c the last time he almost didn't make it. So I think for right now they are doing physical therapy which is really hard on him, poor thing.
Okay, off to go bathe the little one and get ready for bed so we won't be too tired tomorrow.
Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Swimming in November?

Yep, that's what my kids did today! It was 81 degrees with a heat index of 91*, ridiculous, huh? Logan & Kaiden didn't want to put their suits on so they sat and read books =)
Here's some pics...

And the decorating has begun!

When we got back from the movies yesterday 2 of the houses on our street were already done being decorated and the 3rd was in the process! That's the house that does it big and he is halfway done. I feel like I'm last now since I have not even begun! I have started cleaning, That's a start. I still need to paint the outside trim around the kitchen window and the front door trim and put my new Camellia's and some kind of green bush in my flower beds so I can wrap lights around them. I will try to get that done this week so I can start decorating on Sunday. I can't wait!

Eddie's Birthday!

Today is Eddie's 37th Birthday! I made him breakfast (or maybe it was brunch since it was already 10:30!). It was his day so we did what he wanted to do...we went to Circuit City to go find some games that were on sale (didn't find them) and then he decided he wanted to go see a movie. We saw Dan, in Real Life. It was just okay, nothing to rave about. I thought it would be a little funnier with Steve Carell and all but it was more like a love story. After that we went to O'Henry's...home of the FREE birthday steak, LOL! I must say, his steak was awesome! Then we went home and had cake and ice cream and gave him his gifts. I got him a wallet, Bren got him a really cool LSU mug, Chase got him some dress socks and Logan got him a pack of mini M&M's =)

My Hair, Going Out and a REAL Babysitter!

(in the picture from Left to right: Eddie, me, Eddie's brother Frankie and my brother Rush...for some reason the pic is distorted and our eyes look funny!)

Well, today (Saturday) I finally got my hair done! It's only been 8 months since my last hi-lite! I was seriously in need, my roots were horrible and my hair was dark, flat and lifeless and that was really making me feel like shit. So now, my hi-lite's are back better than ever and I feel so much better =) My girl even trimmed up the back, waxed my eyebrows and even did my eye shadow for me since we were going out later for Eddie's B-day. I go to my friend Karen, we've been friends for about 9 years and she is a fellow hairstylist. I do not trust anyone else with my hair!

So I head home with my awesome hair only to have my husband be a complete dick. Not sure why, he said something about hating it streaky, which it isn't. After a few washes it kinda calms down and falls into place. All I wanted was a " hey, you look nice" or something. But whatever, I love it and I feel better and that's all that matters.

So after that I had to make a quick trip to the mall to get Eddie's birthday present. I had wanted to get him some Nike Shox tennis shoes but instead got him a wallet and some dress socks and will get the shoes for him for Christmas. Then I made a little detour before leaving and found the cutest shirt to wear out that night!

Then I had to get home to clean up and feed the kids because Eddie and I were going out to celebrate his 37th B-day (which is really Sunday). We actually had a REAL babysitter coming! Her name is Alicia and she will be 15 on the 18th. We met her through her mom who is Chase's nurse at the ENT where he goes for Allergy shots each Friday.

When I say REAL babysitter, I mean that it was someone that was not a family member or close friend. It's not often that I get to go out but when I do it was usually our good friend/neighbor Marlen that would babysit. He's a 49 yr. old (doesn't act or look it!) man with a daughter the same age as Logan, he's really cool and super with my kids and most of all Logan loves him. He listens to him and doesn't even cry when we leave him there. He's truly the best sitter ever! But, he didn't have his daughter this weekend and his roommate is super sick so he couldn't watch the kids. I didn't want to ask my mom or Eddie's parents because they always say no so we just stopped asking! So I was stuck wondering what the hell to do and that's when we thought of Alicia. Her mom had told me that she loved to babysit and would love to do it so I figured why not give it a try?

Her parents brought her over at 7:15 and we started to leave when Logan decides he is coming with us. Well, me! He told everyone that he and I were going to Walmart! So he goes up to Alicia and gives her a hug and tells her bye then goes around the room with hugs and byes for his brothers and Eddie. It was kinda funny but sad at the same time. So I had to explain to him that Daddy and me were going out and that he and brothers would stay with Alicia. He fought me and wasn't letting up so I had to think of another way to get out! And as much as I hate doing this, I had to do the sneak out =( I got him interested in showing Alicia our movie cabinet so when he sat down with her to show her his movies I snuck out the back. Damn, I hate doing that! But he was fine, so she said. Until right when we got to the restaurant she calls to tell me that he took a poop and would not let her change him! He wanted me! AHHH! I ended up telling her to just do what she had to do to get it changed. By the next time I text her he was on the couch on sleeping! Which he never does so that shocked me! A little bit later she text to tell me he was awake but was being good thinking he was playing X-box! LOL! He holds an extra control while the boys play and thinks he's really playing too! Hey, but whatever works!
Okay, so Eddie and I met up with a bunch of friends at a local restaurant/bar and watched the LSU game, ate, had some drinks and just sat around talking. After that we went to our little daiquiri/bar hangout. When we pulled up I noticed my sister's car in the parking lot and was surprised to see her when we walked in. I felt kinda bad because I forgot to invite her to come out with us! Being she just had a baby 2 months ago, I just figured she wasn't ready to go out yet, oops! Anyway, she was just as surprised to see me and we all sat together and talked, it was all good. We left around midnight because I didn't want to be to late with the new sitter. When we got home they were all sleeping except Brenden, Chase woke up when we walked in and he rode with me to bring her home. On the way home I asked her how everything went and told her to be honest! She said that my kids were probably the best kids she'd ever babysat! Whoo hoo! That was good to hear! Only bad thing was that Logan called her a bad word after she made him let her change his diaper, whoops :/ After dropping her off I drilled Chase about the night and what he thought and he said everything went well and he would definitely want her to watch them again in the future so that was good to hear too =)

Another thing, I'm not used to is having to pay for a sitter! I had NO idea what the going rate was these days and she told me to just pay her whatever I thought was good. So I paid her $30, I figured $10 per child would work. She said what I paid was good so I guess I did okay!

Road work & Speeders

Okay, we live on a very small, narrow, dead end street and right now it is under construction. There were really only 2 spots that needed fixing but they decided to fix some cracks in the road as well, which was stupid in my opinion! So, right now the whole right side of the street is blocked off. Next week my side will be jackhammered (at 6:30 in the freaking morning) and then they will lay the new concrete on Wednesday. It's been a real pain in the ass and I cannot wait for them to be done. With our street being so small it's really hard to drive down the street let alone pull into my driveway. But what is worse is that we have 2 new houses at the end of the street and the new people that have moved in have a BIG speeding problem! Like it's not bad enough that they speed when the street is normal, they are now speeding even more with half the road blocked off! Speeding on our street to begin with is just ridiculous and now it's just absurd. The speed limit is 15 and when I say that these people are going every bit of 50+ I'm not kidding. Even with the road blocked off they are doing this! So I called the owner of the 2 rent houses and nicely asked if she could remind them that the speed limit is only 15 and there are a lot of kids on our street, etc. and she was a complete BITCH! I wanted to curse her out so bad! Instead I just got stern and bitchy like she did. And the next time I see her I am going to tell her that when something bad happens I will hold her totally responsible, maybe that will set in some reality for her. Anyway, she tells me to call the sheriff so I did and they told me to call the traffic division in the morning. So I called them and the deputy tells me honestly that I'll never reach anyone in that department but that I could leave a message and they'd call me. Well, that still hasn't happened and I doubt it will. So I have no idea what to do now. And it's not just me, it's all the neighbors that are pissed about this. But being I am the neighborhood watch captain it's my job to get this taken care of. I did have a little meeting with the president and one of the board members and we are going to see what can be done. So far, we have stopped 2 of the drivers that were speeding. One was a dick, probably b/c I'm a girl and the other was cool but I think that's b/c my neighbor who is a guy did it. Anyway, we'll see how things go and then decide what actions need to be taken. I just hope it doesn't take something bad to happen before something is done.

Daylight Saving Time

I really do not like Daylight Saving Time. I wish they'd end it all together! I love it when it stays light in the evenings. The kids have fun playing and wear themselves out more it seems and we see the neighbors more often and stand around outside talking. But here we were tonight at 5:45 already dark and the kids mad that they had to come inside =(

Here is some interesting info on DST. The main one being...Remember to change your batteries in your smoke detector!



Just as sunflowers turn their heads to catch every sunbeam, so too have we discovered a simple way to get more from our sun.

Daylight Saving Time gives us the opportunity to enjoy sunny summer evenings by moving our clocks an hour forward in the spring.

Yet, the implementation of Daylight Saving Time has been fraught with controversy since Benjamin Franklin first conceived of the idea. Even today, regions and countries routinely change their approaches to Daylight Saving Time.

Here, you can learn about the history of daylight saving (or as some may say, daylight shifting), the standardization of time, and when regions around the globe spring ahead and fall back. Enjoy!


Date change in 2007

On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. The Secretary of Energy will report the impact of this change to Congress. Congress retains the right to resume the 2005 Daylight Saving Time schedule once the Department of Energy study is complete.

Spelling and grammar

The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight SavingS Time.

Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Because of this, it would be more accurate to refer to DST as daylight-saving time. Similar examples would be a mind-expanding book or a man-eating tiger. Saving is used in the same way as saving a ball game, rather than as a savings account.

Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings (with an 's') flows more mellifluously off the tongue. Daylight Savings Time is also in common usage, and can be found in dictionaries.

Adding to the confusion is that the phrase Daylight Saving Time is inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting Time would be better, but it is not as politically desirable.

When in the morning?

In the U.S., clocks change at 2:00 a.m. local time. In spring, clocks spring forward from 1:59 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.; in fall, clocks fall back from 1:59 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. In the EU, clocks change at 1:00 a.m. Universal Time. In spring, clocks spring forward from 12:59 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.; in fall, clocks fall back from 1:59 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.

In the U.S., restaurants and bars have various closing policies. In many states, liquor cannot be served after 2:00 a.m. But at 2:00 a.m. in the fall, the time switches back one hour. So, can they serve alcohol for that additional hour in October? The official answer is that the bars do not stop serving liquor at 2:00 a.m., but actually at 1:59 a.m. So, they have already stopped serving when the time changes from Daylight Saving Time into Standard Time. In practice, however, many establishments stay open an extra hour in the fall.

In the U.S., 2:00 a.m. was originally chosen as the changeover time because it was practical and minimized disruption. Most people were at home and this was the time when the fewest trains were running. It is late enough to minimally affect bars and restaurants, and it prevents the day from switching to yesterday, which would be confusing. It is early enough that the entire continental U.S. switches by daybreak, and the changeover occurs before most early shift workers and early churchgoers are affected.
Some U.S. areas

For the U.S. and its territories, Daylight Saving Time is NOT observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, and Arizona . The Navajo Nation participates in the Daylight Saving Time policy, even in Arizona, due to its large size and location in three states.

A safety reminder

Many fire departments encourage people to change the batteries in their smoke detectors when they change their clocks because Daylight Saving Time provides a convenient reminder. "A working smoke detector more than doubles a person's chances of surviving a home fire," says William McNabb of the Troy Fire Department in Michigan. More than 90 percent of homes in the United States have smoke detectors, but one-third are estimated to have dead or missing batteries.

** This info was copied from: http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html **

Thanksgiving and Christmas!

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is only 18 days away! I have no idea what our plans are this year. Most years we go to Eddie's parents house but I think they will be out of town this year. Then my parents will actually be in town this year but I really don't care to go there either! I had originally wanted to go back to the beach but the condo we wanted has been reserved and Eddie's Grandpa is in the hospital in Texas so we might need to make a trip out there. I guess we could always do our own Thanksgiving here at the house.

And then of course 32 days after Thanksgiving comes Christmas! My favorite time of the year! Not because of the presents but because I love all of the lights and decorations. Especially on our street! We have the most decorated street in the neighborhood. Almost everyone decorates and it's just so bright and pretty. Our neighbor across the street does it big with tons of lights and yard decorations, he has always won first place. Last year was his first year that he had the lights in sync to music that was broadcast on a radio station. So when you pulled onto our street you would tune your radio to said station and you could hear the music he was playing and watch the lights blink to the music. It was so cool. Once people found out about this we had tons of traffic on our tiny street enjoying the lights and music. There is also another neighbor up the street that tries to compete, it's too funny. He puts a huge 12 ft. tall blow up snowman on his roof along with 12 ft candy canes made from PVC pipe along his walkway. Seriously, turning onto our street is like turning into Candy Land! I will post some pictures (hopefully I'll have a new camera soon!) when the street is fully decorated so that you all can see. I know the neighbor across the street will be starting his decorating this coming weekend. I will have mine done by Thanksgiving weekend. I can't wait!

My poor camera =(

Well, after 2 yrs. my camera has had it! When we went to the beach in September it must have gotten sand in the lens area. So for a while it would just sound rough but still opened but I guess the more times it opened the sand worked it's way up into the gears that open and extend the lens. It started getting worse to where I'd have to kinda pull on the lens and then Halloween night it just gave up and won't open at all now. Which really sucks because I love to take pics! It's not worth getting fixed because so many more advanced digital cameras have come out since then and I'd really like a better one. So I guess I'll be asking Eddie for a new digital camera for Christmas and hopefully he'll give it to me early!

The "adopted" Grandparents

Continued from the Halloween entry about their "adopted" Grandparents...
These are old neighbors/friend's of mine, they live across the street from my parents house and I have known them for 17 years. Sonny is 70 and Kathy is 63. Sonny has 4 daughters from his first marriage and he might have grand kids, I'm not really sure. He hasn't heard from his children since 1990! He said that once he put them all through college he never really heard anything from them unless they needed money. So he stopped dishing out the money to them and hasn't heard from them since! He and Kathy married about 29 years ago. She was 34 then but they never had any kids together. We've never really talked about why, but I know she wanted kids and would have been a great mom.
So, she has "adopted" my kids as her grand kids, which is really cool because as most of you know my parents and Eddie's parents are not very good grandparents. Sad, but true. We have battled with this since Brenden was born and it's just gotten much worse over the years. Eddie's parents live literally 2 minutes away, yet we never see them. The only time we see them is on Birthday's or Holiday's, so I'm gonna estimate once a month. When we do see them we do not feel comfortable or welcome around them, and the kids feel this as well. Now, my parents have a house about 4 minutes away from us. Right now they live in New Jersey. My Dad only comes into town for Christmas and my Mom comes in with him and she stays until March. BUT, even when they did live here we did not see them that often and they never came by to see the kids unless I said something about it. And my Mom has been in town since late August because my sister was pregnant and then she stayed to help. Well, the only reason we've seen her is because she came to Kathy's across the street while we were there swimming. She finally came to the house just last week BUT again only because she wanted me to cut her hair! Not really to come by and visit with the kids! And my kids even tried to give her a hug when she came in and she just went straight to the couch, no hugs =( And when she left, again the kids tried to hug her and she just got in her car so they ran over and gave her half a hug as much as they could with her sitting in her car! It's just sad. Every time they go to Kathy and Sonny's they get hugs and they talk to them and make them feel loved and welcome, the way it should be. And Bren & Chase have even said how they feel about when they are with them compared to how they feel with their own grandparents.
Would you believe that their own grandparents not only do not offer to come visit but they don't babysit them either. I can count on one hand how many times they've babysat!I know so many of my friends who's parents can't wait to watch their grand kids or have them sleep over. My kids have NEVER slept at their grandparents homes! So whenever we have somewhere to go together most of the time I just wouldn't go or just recently our favorite neighbor Marlen watches them!
But what's weird is my Mom is really close with my sister and her kids. She does everything for her kids. Maybe that's because my sister still lives in my parents house and has never really grown up! Who knows.
Anyway, my kids also have another set of "adopted" Grandparents. Our neighbors across the street from where we live now. Mr. Dewey and Ms. Margie, they are in their mid to late 70's and have 3 kids and many grand kids. But being we are across the street, they see my kids very often. Probably too often, LOL, since Margie started giving Logan cookies, he now goes over there every afternoon for his afternoon snack of cookies, water and a banana! Even more, they have the kind of refrigerator that has the water/ice feature on the door! Logan LOVES this! And has learned to use it well. She thinks it cute that he likes to do everything himself so she has put the baggies and cups within his reach so now when he goes over there he gets everything all by himself. It is really cute and they think he's hoot. They also give Bren and Chase treats and love to watch the kids play outside from their kitchen window. Brenden is the their lawn boy and they pay him good and even give Chase & Logan little chores like watering the lawn and plants for $1.
So even though their "real" Grandparents SUCK, it's good that we have such nice, goodhearted friends/neighbors to show them how a Grandparent should be. I really could go into waaaaay more details about the things we've had to deal with with our parents because it's a lot worse than what I've written here, but it just makes me mad so I'll leave it at this.

More Halloween Pics

A few more pics...Chase with Ms. Debbie. Logan as Pablo, Kaiden (the little girl I watch) as an elegant witch, Logan & Kaiden together and Brenden went and changed into his Daddy's Halloween costume! It's pretty scary and he did actually scare a little boy off the street, LOL!

Happy Halloween!

I can't believe Halloween has come and gone! It's just scary how time goes by so fast because we all know that once Halloween passes Thanksgiving is just 3 weeks away then Christmas comes before we know it! But more about that next.

Halloween was good, we had a busy evening planned which we usually never do. First we went to the kids "adopted" Grandparents house. (I'm gonna give an explanation about this in my next entry.) We ate some yummy spaghetti and they got some good treats! Then we went back home for our Halloween street party. We get together with all of our neighbor friends and have some finger foods and cupcakes and the kids trick or treat up and down our tiny street. We didn't even bother to go off our street into the neighborhood this year because when I was driving in there was only like 4 porch lights on. We usually all walk together, but it just wasn't even worth it this year. After that, I took Chase & Logan with me to another neighborhood where Chase's Kindergarten teacher from last year lives. We had told her we'd come by to show her the kids costumes and she wanted us to see her and her dog's matching costumes. This neighborhood was BOOMING! Every porch light was on, all the house's were decorated and kid's were everywhere! They even had a Halloween parade that we missed. So we get there and she and her dog were dressed up as Tinkerbell, they were so cute! She had lots of candy and she gave both of them a stuffed Halloween bear, she's such a sweet lady.

So that was our night. Pretty busy for us since we usually just stay on our street. But the kids had fun and got lots of candy that they didn't need, LOL!

I have posted some pics...but I still need to learn how to put them down here instead of up there! Anyway, as you can see...Logan is Pablo from the Backyardigans. Chase is the black Spider Man and Brenden is a Camo monster dude! I also included a pic of Chase, Logan and Ms. Debbie with her dog Suzie Q and a pic of Logan with Nana Kathy. I can only fit so many here so I'll post more in the next entry.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween and I would love to see pics of your little monsters and princess's. These will probably be my last digital pics for a while, I'll explain that in another entry as well!

Face Painting Anyone?

We were doing school today and the kids were all content doing what they were supposed to for once so I stepped out for a quick smoke. I was gone for maybe 4 minutes. When I walk back into the house I see that Logan has decided to paint his face with a pink marker! Now mind you, Brenden & Chase were right there watching him, probably encouraging him, and not once did anyone call out to me to tell me what he was doing. Boys! So I told him he would have to stay that way for the rest of the day. I don't think he really cared though. Of course when Eddie came home for lunch he did ask why our child's face was pink and suggested I wash it off before we went to the health food store. The markers said "Washable" but the wet wipes did as much as they could and he ended up with very rosy cheeks. It was funny how everyone commented on his rosy cheeks at the store, LOL!

So the above pics are of Logan showing off his face painting skills! See that mischievous little smirk on his face in that last pic??

Cold! Brrrrr...

So the cold front came through last night and now it's cold. Our high today was only 61. And right now at 9:30 it's already 49! It really sucks because we usually swim on Tuesday's. I did call my friend and joke that we were coming swimming today. She was like "uh, ok, it's a little cold. If you would have called earlier we could have turned the water heater on." I laughed and told her I was just kidding, even if the pool had been preheated I still wouldn't have swam today! It was chilly, windy and very overcast. This cold snap is gonna last for another week or so the weather bug says. So I guess we won't be swimming on Friday either. If it's a nice day we'll still go visit with our friends and the kids can just play a game of putt putt golf in their backyard!
As you can tell, I do not like the cold but my kids are loving it. I actually turned the AC off today for the first time in many months. Brenden, my oldest, kept complaining that it was hot. He was actually outside playing in shorts and a short sleeve shirt like it was nothing. Chase also liked it because he didn't sweat so bad and it didn't aggravate his eczema. Instead, it started to aggravate his asthma, just great. Logan thought it was neat too. He was excited to be able to wear his Pablo (Backyardigans) jacket finally!
I'm sure another warm front will come back through since that's the way it works here in Louisiana but at least it won't be deathly hot on Halloween like usual. They make all these Halloween costumes for the Northern states! They are so darn thick that I always have to search for a costume that is thin so my kids won't melt! Of course, this year I found Chase a thin one and what do ya know, it's actually going to be pretty chilly! Figures!

Rainy & Cleaning & Cold

It is supposed to rain all day today so I guess I should clean or something? Honestly, this house has not had a good cleaning since I can't remember when! Maybe February, before Logan's Birthday party! Well, probably May around the time the kids got out of school. This Summer was just too darn hot and busy and with the kids home all the time all they do is mess up what I clean up and I end up working a million times harder. But now with homeschooling it's just as bad because they are here 24/7 so again it's the same thing! AHHHH!
Okay, I am going to clean and will finish this later.
Alrighty! So it did rain all day and I did clean. Of course they messed it right back up again! It's not so much Bren & Chase, it's wild man Logan. I had all of his toys that he likes to play with neatly placed on the coffee table. But he found a way to mess them all up and knock most of them on the floor! I am tired of picking up toys off of the floor so I left them there. I did get one thing accomplished...I cleaned out Logan's toy box in the den. Since summer everything has just kind of accumulated in this one corner of the den and had become a mound! So I went through everything and either put it in it's place or threw it away. It does look much better over there now. It was time to do it anyway because with Christmas on it's way (and we all know it will be here sooner than we think!) I needed to get that cleared out to make way for the tree and decorations and presents, all the fun stuff!
Now that the rain is ending I feel the cold front coming through and I don't think I like it. I guess I really do like Summer better. Well, not the 106 temps we had there for a while but 90 really isn't that bad. The weather we were having right before this wasn't bad either, mid 80's, nice to be out in and wasn't too hot for Chase. And we could still go swimming. I miss swimming =(

This is definitely worth watching!

This 3 minute song sums it up! What mom's say sung to the William Tell Overature...

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1202370

Contest! Last minute!

Check out this fellow blogger for her Halloween T-shirt contest. Contest ends tonight, so hurry!
http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com/2007/09/28/halloween-t-shirt-giveaway/#comment-6526

Also, check out her store for some super cute T's and onesie's...the link is on her blog. The name is Cute as a Bug.

Allergy Shots

Well, after Chase throwing fits and saying he hates me for the past 2 weeks it turns out the allergy shots weren't so bad afterall! When we got there this morning they called back his favorite nurse. She promised that she would get her allergy shots first so he could see that they did not hurt. So she got hers and he watched cautiously. Then it was his turn...he sat on my lap and was fussing a little bit but not screaming thank goodness. I warned them about the alcohol wipe this time, so we tried it on one arm and he said it hurt really bad so on the second arm they used iodine instead and that was much better. So he got the first shot in the back of the right arm and didn't even really feel it because the alcohol was still burning! And then the left arm he did much better with the iodine. We were so proud of him for doing so good. I'm thinking next week he'll probably be a pro already.
After that we had to sit for 20 minutes with a timer to make sure there was no immediate reaction. We had his epi-pen ready to go just in case! But he did really good. As a matter of fact he didn't even have any swelling at the injections site.
So, so far so good. I just really hope these shots help!

Behind again! And Chase's allergy test results.

Gosh! Time just won't slow down for me to catch up! So let's see...I was gonna write about Chase, Brenden's 12th b-day and our Labor Day beach trip.
So I will start with Chase. As most of you know Chase has battled with eczema, asthma and severe allergy since he was pretty much born. We've been to almost every kind of doctor including a naturopath/homeopathic doc. Including one out of state. They've all said the same thing...he has eczema and he'll grow out of it. (Still waiting for that day!) And then they push the prescription meds that I'm sure they get kickbacks on...antibiotics, oral steroids, steroid creams, antihistamines, cancer causing creams like protopic and elidel and so on. All of these seemed to make him worse, not better unfortunately.
So these past 2 yrs. he has been med free except for an occasional asthma treatment of Xopenex. Besides his eczema, asthma and allergy he's very healthy. The only thing he's ever had is the fly-by 24 hour tummy virus and mycoplasma pnuemonia (walking pnuemonia). They say it is not bacterial or viral but fungal. He has gotten that each year since he was 2 except last year. But it got him again this year in August which is usaully when he gets it. When he was little they used to put him in the hospital for 3 days. That always sucked. But now that he's older it doesn't get him as bad and we are able to treat him at home. They put him on Zithromax, Oripred (oral steroid) and a codeine cough med. I knew he needed the antibiotic, but the oral steroid I should have not given because while it does work very well and clears up his eczema it also causes him to rebound when he finishes the course. So when he's done he gets worse again before he gets better. And the codeine cough med I was hesitant to give because codeine is pretty strong and it had phenergan in it as well and I didn't want to zonk him out.
Okay so we went for allergy testing on Sept. 14. He'd been before when he was about 9 months. They did the prick test on his back and nothing showed up which I thought was very strange. At that time they did not do the RAST since he was so young. Then again about 2 years ago we went for bloodwork but the stupid lady could not find a vein and was literally jamming it in and around while Chase was screaming bloody murder. I finally had to tell her to stop and just forget it so we walked out with nothing but a screaming child in pain who is now deathly afraid of having blood taken. So this time we are seeing an ENT. We'd never been to that one before. And honestly I never would have if it had not been for us meeting a lady at Walmart who was an ENT nurse. She saw Chase and asked me about him and then told me that she would really like to help him. We exchanged phone numbers and the next week she called me with an appt. set up and everything. So we went to the ENT and she was shocked to see how bad off he was. She said they had a little boy with bad eczema before and allergy shots helped him and she's hoping they can help Chase too. So then she sends us for the blood work. Well, we explained to the lady in the office how scared Chase was and that it is very hard to get a vein. I told her that if she didn't feel comfortable to please just let me know and to send us to the hospital's lab where they are used to taking blood all day long. So she did take a look and decided that we should go to the hospital. So we get there and there is like 25 people in the waiting room! It was lunch time, I had all 3 kids with me and Chase was already crying just thinking about getting blood taken! It was so sweet, while waiting an older lady noticed Chase crying and asked him what was wrong. He told her he was scared to get blood taken. She told him not to worry that he would be fine. She left for a second and then came back up to him and handed him a $5 bill and told him to go pick out a treat at the toy store when he was done. That was just SO sweet =) So after waiting about 45 minutes with 3 hungry kids they took us back. We go into the room and it's a very young pregnant girl! Not that I have a problem with that, if it was me no problem...but I needed someone with lots of experience that could get the vein with one poke as fast as possible! So after looking for a while she decided to go get another tech, I was so happy. An older black woman came in and I can tell right then she's the one. But while holding Chase who was still crying I forgot to tell them one important thing...no alcohol wipe! EEK! I had my head turned looking at Logan who was trying to run around like a maniac and didn't realize she was about to wipe him. See, being he scratches so much the eczema is open like a sore and we all know how alcohol feels on a bo bo! So he screams and I'm like they didn't even poke you! Then I see the wipe and let them know what they just did! They said they were very sorry, they weren't even thinking! So then the lady sticks him and it's not so bad afterall. She got it perfect on the first poke, thank goodness! They used a butterfly, so it was small and had a small tube that ran to where they change the tube to make it easier. It went quickly and we were outta there.
A week later we got the results back. I also had them run a CBC (Complete Blood Count, just in case someone's not sure what that means) with a differential. I'm gonna post the results here just in case someone knows what I'm talking about or if a doctor or nurse read this and thinks they can help!!
CBC- the # and the H & L stand for High & Low
WBC- 16.1 H
RBC- 4.31
Hgb- 12.9 L
Hct- 38.8
MCV- 90
MCHC- 33.2
RDW- 12.3
Plts- 681 H
MPV 5.5 L

Manual Differential-
Segs- 35 L
Bands- 1
Lymphs- 25 L
Monos- 11 H
Eos- 27 H
Basos- 1

Platelet Evaluation- Normal
RBC Morph- Normal

IgE- Immunoglobulin E Level-
> 26000.0 Ref. Range [0.0-90.0]
(as you can see here this number is almost unbelievable! More about this at the end)

He tested very high for every inhalant, most at >100 (i.e grass, trees)
Cow's milk- 95.60
Beef- 14.00
Chicken- 9.88
Egg (yolk & white)- 25.70
Wheat- >100
Rice- >100
Soy- >100

Anything above 17.50 is considered Very High.


So as you can see he tested very high for everything! His doctor was astonished! As was everyone else in the office! So now she wants him to start allergy shots. Which we are supposed to start this Friday. I'm still a little unsure though. I am wondering if it will even work, if he will get worse or even have a bad allergic reaction? Which is why I have to go pick up his Epi pen prescription tomorrow. They say he will do 2 shots per week for 20 or more weeks! Then after that he will do maintenance shots for another few years. That's a lot of shots and a lot of money and a lot of going back and forth to the hospital which is not really that close and a real bitch to get to! I guess we are going to go Friday and I just hope all goes well. I will keep everyone posted.

And one more thing! I know this is very long already but there is more. After getting his results back and seeing how allergic he is and how high his IgE levels are I did some research on the net. I came across an extremely rare disease called Hyper IgE Syndrome or Job's Syndrome. He presents with many of the symptoms. They think they have identified the cause but there is no cure or treatment at this time. It was very interesting so I printed out some info for his doc. She was very open to reading it which is a good thing because we all know that most docs these days think they know it all and usually just blow me off! So she read it and did admit that she had never heard of it (most docs haven't) and thought I might be on to something. So now we have been referred to a Genetic Counselor. I need to make that appt. as soon as I find out what insurance covers because as you can imagine all these doctor trips, blood workups and such are gonna kill me financially, LOL!

Okay, I think that's it. I will post about how the allergy shots went this weekend.
Wish us luck!
Kristi