Flu Week

That's what I've decided to call this week. Actually, its turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I've had to clear my entire calendar, so I've been hanging around the house in my jammies and getting a lot of stuff from my never ending list taken care of. The house should be in somewhat better order by the time the kids recover.

In other news:

Big K is on her way to Connecticut in a couple of days. She has sufficiently recovered from the flu to be able to go. I'm hoping that she will be a big help to her aunt and not a huge tweenie pain in the backside.

It turns out that I made enough money from the consignment sale to pay for a weekend scrapbooking conference. I'm in the process of getting reservations for that. It will be nice to get away and relax for a couple of days!

I've decided to take a break from being "sick" for a couple of months. The neurologist wants to treat me for MS. I'm a little skeptical about the diagnosis, and I'd like to talk to a couple of other doctors before I become a walking IV port. We'll change over our insurance in January to make that possible. So until then, I'm on vacation.

We're kicking around a brief trip to Frankenmuth sometime in the next month. Since we didn't take a family vacation this year because of everything going on, it would be a chance for a low key, low energy expenditure outing. The kids want to go to Splash Village, of course. I'd rather get a good look at the outlet mall, myself. I'm sure a compromise can be worked out. :-)

Little K at the Orchard

These pictures are from the past weekend. This was her preferred method for picking apples. Don't miss the one she has crammed in her mouth!


Check out the jack-o-lantern grin!

Picture of the Day

Here she is...




Big K with braces. She spent two hours in the chair this morning getting all the gear put on. There's a lot more than you can see in the picture. I have a good one of her sitting in the chair, but I've been forbidden to post it. It will make good blackmail material later in her life!

The Week in Review

So it turns out that a spinal tap is not as bad as you might think. Sure, it hurt a little, but the anticipation was the worst part. The best part was that I had to lay on the couch yesterday afternoon and this morning to avoid the post-spinal tap headache. So I couldn't cook dinner, do the dishes or pick up anything I dropped. It was rough. Plus that, I was supposed to drink a lot of caffeine (which I've decided to extend until today) so the husband provided beverage service to the couch. Overall, it was a pretty good deal.

Unfortunately, the test didn't show what the neurologist thought it would, so we're still on a hunt for a diagnosis. A few more tests will be run on the spinal fluid, and I'll go back in a couple of weeks for a follow up. In the meantime, I still can't see.

In other news, the husband survived this round of layoffs, and I'm relieved that we don't have that hanging over our heads anymore. Christmas shopping should be more fun this year!

J-Man will start another medication tomorrow. The therapist thinks that we'll get some good results out of this one. I hope so. She also said that one of the side effects is weight gain. Which certainly couldn't hurt...except that I just bought the kid some slim jeans, which I still had to cinch up!

Glad the week is over!

Waiting...Nothing more than Waiting....

That seems to be the theme of my life these days.

I went to the neurologist yesterday. Now I have to wait for the spinal tap and then wait for the follow up appointment.
"Come back in two months", said the receptionist.
"Two months! You've got to be joking!" Said I. (Really, I said this out loud.)
"Well, when do you want to come back?" she said, a little bit snottily.
"Well, how about as soon as he has the results from the spinal tap." Said I.
"You'll have to call us, then. NEXT!"
Umph.

So then I had to wait part of the day to make the appointment for the spinal tap, because the husband had a meeting informing him not to take any days off next week. They want to make sure that everyone is present for the layoff party, apparently. Kind of like a family reunion, but with a greater chance that someone will go postal. It turns out, however, that they're willing to make an exception if your wife needs a spinal tap.

But of course, we're also waiting to make several decisions regarding J-Man's treatment until after next week. Because most of those expenses would be out-of-pocket, and if the husband doesn't have a job... Food..Psychiatric Care...House Payment...Psychiatric Care... You get the picture.

And I'm waiting to see if my vision will come back after the spinal tap, because right now I can't see to drive after dark. That changes what the kids and I can participate in at church during the evening hours. As the days get shorter, I'm going to have to be home earlier and earlier. Yuck.

That, along with all those dumb little things that pop up every day, and I've just about had it. Patience may be virtuous, but I've had about my fill.

Household Project Update

So here's what I've been up to in my spare time:

The girl's bedroom. Kind of hard to capture in pictures, but just imagine a very small space with two very large lofts. Both girls seem to be very happy with the arrangement, though. And I'm getting a lot less whining about whose stuff is cluttering up the place.



The green side is Little K's, of course. I have a little more work to do on the curtains when I find time, but they're functional for now.





This is underneath Big K's bed. Both girls have a chair, a dresser, hooks for bags and purses, a lamp, special quilts on the wall, and all their miscellaneous junk. Essentially, all the stuff that they can claim as theirs. Community stuff is on community property. Books, for example. I find it interesting that Big K likes her curtains open, while Little K keeps hers closed.



Here's the front porch project I mentioned awhile ago. Most of the stuff came from Pier One and IKEA. I'm waiting for some red cushions to go on sale, but other than that, I'm about done.



And in my ongoing battle to declutter this house, I'm working on getting all the outgrown kids clothes ready for a consignment sale in October. I figured I'd better start early if I wanted to have a fighting chance. I've used at least 250 hangers so far. This picture isn't all the clothes. I've taken over J-Man's entire closet for the coats and pajamas.



And here's the pile of other junk besides hang-up clothes. Yes, that is an overflowing bin of shoes you see there. I can't wait until October and these piles leave the house. Then I can start in on the bookshelves.












We started a light school schedule last week. I told the girls that we were going to use the "boil the frog" approach to starting the school year. Maybe that way it won't be so painful!

The husband's garden is coming on strong. We've had plenty of squash, beets, carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, beans, and finally, tomatoes. We spent a couple of Saturdays doing some canning, and it looks like I'm going to need to start freezing soon. In an unusual spurt of energy, I also managed to bake a batch of bread today. Crazy!

Waaaaay too many doctors!

This week, I've visited the offices of (drum roll please) the Orthodontist, the Neurologist, the Therapist, the Psychiatrist and our Primary Care Physician. Thankfully, we have tomorrow off. But next week we start up again with: the Orthodontist (again), the Vet (because the cat needs to get in on the action, too), the Primary Care Physician (again, but for me this time), and the therapist (again, but not for me this time). I've decided to reschedule the appointment with the Neuro-ophthalmologist on Tuesday, since he's not going to tell me anything that I don't already know. "Yes doctor, that's right. I still can't read that eye chart."

On Tuesday evening, just to add a little spice to the mix, the social worker is coming for our two year post-placement report, which needs to be in Russia in September. Can I tell you how much I'm looking forward to chatting with her about how things are going around here? I told the husband that I'm not going to go to a lot of trouble to clean up the house for this visit. I figure I can just tell her that the bulk of the mess is a result of not being able to put that addition on like we'd planned, since we're pouring all our money into therapy.

On a positive note, we came away from the psychiatrist with some medication for J-Man. We'll start it tomorrow evening at dinnertime. I'm praying that we'll hit on the right medication, or medication combo, very quickly.

And before I sign out for this evening, I must take the opportunity to wish my sister a happy 30th birthday. Yes, that's right, she's 30. THIRTY! I'll call you tomorrow to see how your day of pampering went.