Andrew plays t-ball

Hogwarts comes to Thanksgiving Point

Seany rolled down the rolling hill...

Andrew played 'seeker' on the Quidditch field.

Alex climbed a tree.

Recent snaps

Seany modeling his tshirt that he made at summer preschool! Run by 2 15 year old blondies. Its the best time of his life!

The $279 futon mattress, we got for $10 still in the plastic brand new at ShopKo.

Andrew opening up his get well goodies from Auntie Carolyn, finger puppets!

Some doctor's visits are the pits

Seany had to see his very nice ENT and audiologist this morning. Yes, he is 3 years old and sees an audiologist every year.

Today we found out why Sean has been complaining about his ears and why his speech has been taking a dive (I thought it might be because preschool is out of session for the summer). Sean has one tube that came out of the ear drum and is stuck in another spot, with a giant calcium deposit on the ear drum and lots of pussy grossness behind that ear drum. In the other ear, the tube is completely compacted with yuck. Yuck being the technical term used by his doctor.

The audiologist ran 3 tests (about an hour we spent discovering how little Seany is hearing) and he plum failed them all -- significant hearing loss due to all the nastiness in his ears. Treatment: clean out everything behind his drums again and put in new tubes (aka surgery).

He goes back in 6 weeks to determine if there has been any change. Following that appointment, the doctor expects to schedule the surgery right away as he's concerned about Seany's continued speech decline at a developmentally crucial time.

Isn't it fabulous that all this happens at a time that Mark's unemployed!

At Father's Day Dessert

For Father's Day, I couldn't stand not having anything special at all for Mark. So, Seany and I made a chocolate cake and Ryan helped Mark at the store pick out some special yummies for dinner -- nachos.

At dessert, Alex said, "Thank you Dad, for being our father. If some one else was my father, I would wish it was you."

Mark answered, "You're welcome. It was a pleasure making you."

Ryan is

POTTY TRAINED! Great job Mark and Ryan. Last week, while I was cleaning houses, Ryan decided that he was ready to start wearing underwear and Mark didn't let him have the easy way out and wear diapers!

We are finally a diaper free house!

Happy Father's Day

To my dad, my father-in-law, and especially the father of my children. Things can only get better.

Andrew works the system

Andrew's stitches came out today. All 20+ of them. His doctor told him (because she knew it hurt a lot and he was tearing up), "Andrew you're being very brave."

Andrew responded with, "At another doctor's office, when we're extra brave we get 2 toys AND an ice cream."

For the record, he got one better toy, a hot wheel and despite our woes, he got his ice cream cone AND a chocolate milk.

Ryan is nearly there!

As parents, we forget that others don't want to hear about the movement of our chicklets' tummies.

Daddy at the dinner table: "Ryan had a big poopy IN the potty today!"

Andrew: "How big was it, Daddy?!"

Pirate Boy and his side kick CHEESE

Seany and Capt. Andrew (wearing his bandage) and Daisy sitting in the background.

Alex tracks the weather

To earn the Conservation Award in cub scouts, Alex has to do a lot of extra work. One of the requirements focuses on the weather.

He measures the rain fall in the rain gauge he built.

He charts the temperature on the thermometer he hung.

He checks the wind direction with the weather vane he built.

Crazies

One of my local friends has hooked me up with a temporary gig. Basically, I clean rental properties, then paint, change light bulbs, door knobs, and whatever else needs to happen. The guy I'm working for is very nice -- feeds me, provides all the products, pays me, lets me work when it fits our schedule...

The crazy part -- the guy who owns all these properties offered this gig to 2 of his UNEMPLOYED tenants first and they both became unavailable when it came time to do the actual work.

Seriously? No income, other than unemployment? Crazy.

Andrew's stitches

So what story do you think he's going to tell the girls?

Andrew has an operation

We got to Primary Children's bright and early and sitting in the waiting room, I saw Rachel Coleman of Signing Time! I walked by her and her husband and then decided to introduce ourselves and tell them how much we admire them. They do so much good with Signing Time and parenting their daughters -- one with spina bifida like Ryan. She was so nice and gave Andrew a signed picture and some temporary tattoos! I recently was thinking about people I'd like to meet and she was on the list! Very awesome woman. Truly an inspiration. Thanks Rachel and Aaron for letting us met you so graciously!

This is Andrew's buddy. He practiced all sorts of evil medical maneuvers on him. Gassed him, 'loved his arm (blood pressure cuff),' checked on his heartbeat, placed an IV in his hand, etc. He went through all the stuff Andrew had to go through and he did it first. He even smiled the whole time -- what a buddy!

Post-Op, Andrew had the equivalent to a 20-minute night terror. He was totally out of it and screaming for ages and ages. It was awful. After about an hour he asked to have his IV out (he was sort of stable) and then immediately threw up. He then refused to have an IV reinserted and is still sick and nauseated. The wound care is pretty easy except for the giant white bandage covering his head!

After dropping him at home, I had to go to a job interview. I was home for 30 minutes -- got him settled with Mark and off I went. Out of 70 applicants, they interviewed 12 and I'm in the final 4. Lets hope I get it. No health benefits but if Mark doesn't find a job soon, we'll need anything I can earn.

Recent happenings

Andrew got a haircut in preparation for Friday morning's procedure. And Daisy has grown by leaps and bounds!

The Bear

Alex earned his BEAR badge tonight at cub scouts. A little emotional, he was proud of all the hard work he's done to earn his BEAR badge!

Next month, he gets pins and arrow points -- we try to plan it out so each time he gets an award.

Pirate Night

Last night was Pirate Night at the Dino Museum. One of the cool things about having a membership -- they email you when the fun stuff is approaching. The camera was not operating at all -- turns out someone (Andrew and Seany) took 102 pictures and turned the battery around in there.

I do not have pictures of 4 little bandanna capped pirates making hats, creating pirate names (Ryan was "Mad Crazy-Eyed Jones or some such nonsense name), spyglass, spying all the loot in the scavenger hunt...

We had a lot of fun. My favorite was deep voiced Seany announcing, "I'm a PIRATE!!!!!!!"

So while I was filing for all that aid

Ryan ate the chocolate cake on the counter.

Sean was standing on the table trying to swing from the hanging lamp.

Andrew was 'fixing' the couch with a toy hammer.

And luckily for Alex, he was off at cub scout day camp today.

Utah's Work Force Services

The people that help the unemployed are very nice here in Utah. They're understaffed -- hm, wonder if they're hiring....

First I called because the website is confusing. How do you apply for all variety of services? Answer: Click "Apply for All" even if you know you shouldn't, apply for all and they will determine for you what you should get. Mark has to apply for unemployment separately from all the other aid that I can apply for.

While filling out the application, I had some questions. I clicked on "Online Chat" and the tech guy walked me through each page I was unsure about.

After that, you have to do a phone interview (I was on hold for 30 minutes, understaffed). She figures out what documents we need to provide and what services we already qualify for. We should be able to get all the supporting documents to her tomorrow. Which is 9 days early -- good for us as she can start processing the paperwork.

The case worker is trying to get the kids (at least) qualified for one of the state health care programs so we can avoid paying COBRA as our savings has never recovered from the Job Loss COBRA Disaster of 2005.

Please pray one of us gets a job quickly. I've already applied at the IRS and am working on my resume to get it out to 3 other appropriate and promising positions. Also, if anyone wants to write up a reference -- personal or professional (depending on how we met) that would be appreciated.

Job Ideas

Andrew and Alex were helping us brainstorm job ideas for us in light of Mark's job loss:

Alex: "Maybe Mommy can work too! She can watch people's kids or be a secretary again!"

Andrew: "How about the hand stamper at the dinosaur museum?"

Alex: "Or she could work at a store?"

Andrew: "Mommy can open a preschool. And I'll be her assistant teacher."

Alex: "Andrew. Our BASEMENT isn't finished."

Andrew: "Mommy can teach in the kitchen or maybe Santa will finish our basement."

Alex: "Yeah."

Andrew: "How about Daddy looks for a job in LAS VEGAS! Or in California so we can go to Disneyland."

Alex: "How about they work IN Disneyland!"

Mommy: "We're going to look for work near our house. Those sound like fun ideas but we would have a hard time selling this house to move to Las Vegas or California."

Andrew: "Maybe we can ask our friends to buy our house and then we can move to a new house. I don't want to live in a house. I want to live in (pause, pause, wait for it) Disneyland!"

Alex: "Andrew, Disneyland isn't a place you live. Its a place you go to on vacation."

Andrew: "Well, you said Mickey Mouse lives there."

The Wonder Mutt

Wonder Mutt (aka Daisy) has learned a new trick. She scales the playground rock wall with alarming speed and then sits herself down on the slide and smiles on her way down. This is only fun when the chicklets are on the playground egging her on.

Bad News

Mark was laid off yesterday in a restructuring of the company. His boss would like to bring him back if a position becomes available.

We are both looking for work. Please let us know of any positions that become available.

Mark: Customer Service Mgt, Support Mgt, Retail Mgt, Supervisors

Kathryn: Admin

And the doctor said....

I've got a massive pus pocket aka infection more than 1/2 the breast. Gross. Sorry. Very concerned about fever and it spreading. They don't even want me to get any out incase it spreads.

They may have to lance it at an ER this weekend or early next week at the doctor's office to drain it all out. Its very deep right now so they'd have to cut through a lot of tissue before they could get to it. The pus is very hard and thick so they're afraid to just use a syringe.

Basically its a mess and I'm out of commission until it heals. Can't do anything involving lifting or upper body. I can walk, but can't wear bras until it heals -- imagine how comfortable that feels. No more than walking though and short walks nothing exerting.

They're very concerned about the infection getting into the rest of me and fevers and such. I have a massive headache and slight fever. Both are related. The fever is a concern. If it gets very high or the pus pocket continues to grow after the 2 doses of antibiotics today, I may have to go the ER this weekend.

I'm hoping I'll be ok next week. Friday is Andrew's surgery and I want to very much be there for him.

Falling apart

What's a family to do when the mommy falls apart?

Last Friday, I woke to a giant bruise on my calf -- translates to a second ruptured blood vessel. After a week of the doctor researching and having my blood tested for all variety of diseases and checking into a hereditary condition. He decided I had a spontaneous rupture due to stress. How in the world am I supposed to reduce the stress. We have to get through the yard stuff. We have to get Ryan potty trained. We have to clean occasionally and put away our stuff....

Today, I woke to a horribly painful breasty. Felt like I missed a feeding back in the days when they fed people. As the day wore on it got worse. Finally, I got some discharge out and it is even more sore now. I called all variety of doctors' offices from Provo down to Payson and finally after the 6th call, a doctor agreed to have his nurse practitioner see me tomorrow. PAIN! SUFFERING! "Nearest appointment is 2 weeks out." "We can see you the last week of June." I realize lots of women here in Utah are popping babies out left and right so they're very busy. But I was ready to go across the street and beg my OB/GYN neighbor to diagnosis it. Which I really feel despite him being a great neighbor and his wife being my good friend here must cross some kind of neighbor boundary.

Honestly! Suffering! Pain! H E L P!

So, tomorrow, we find out if I have an infection or cyst or what. I had to beg and plead even though the girl was very compassionate and left me on hold for ages to convince the doctor to see me. I wouldn't be surprised if I get put through an extra painful mammogram tomorrow "just to be safe..."

2 weekends and 3 truckloads of dirt

We expanded flower beds and created berms.

Thank you Grandma & Poppa

In the mail, the chicklets received their Vegas M&M World soviners -- M&M plates and placemats. They love 'um! Next they need the bowls and cups and then they'll be set!

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

Ryan in a flower bed.

Sean, Alex, Andrew, and Ryan took a break.

And these lily pads make me want to create a pond.

Skippy Jon Jones the Puppet Show

Alex was one of many Skippys in the puppet show his class put on for us. V. cute!