Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday, and I am giving up Soda for Lent.
his is def. a sacrifice for me, because I LOVE my Coke, and Dr. Pepper. But this is a good challenge for me as I am trying to loose weight. I need to drink tons more water, and this is a great start. Oh, wish me luck !!

I am happy to write that Ashlyn is healing very very well. I took her back into the doctor today because she keeps telling me she cant hear me, so I had him check her ears and her right ear is full of fluid. It's not infected, but thats why she is having trouble hearing on that side. I also had him check on her face because one part is not healing as nice as the rest, but he says it all looks good. He gave me a steroid nasal spray to help clear up the fluid in her ears, and wants to see her back in a month. If she is still having trouble hearing then they will set up a hearing test for her. This one keeps me on my toes I swear.

Brandon is having some issues at school. He has trouble with reading and spelling and is very slow with his math. He understands his math, but he's very slow at it. Now, he is starting to act like a class clown along with 3 other boys and is becomeing a behavior problem. All 4 boys were being disruptive and throwing paper wads when they had a sub. yesterday and we got a call from his teacher this afternoon. Lets just say boy is in deep trouble. He's grounded from the Wii and his friends for 1 week. For the first 3 days, he's only allowed to read and write. The next 4 days he is allowed to watch tv, and listen to the radio, and still has to read and write. He's not happy about this at all, and has been reading for almost 3 hrs now. He's not going to be happy when we all sit down to watch tv tonight and he cant. Oh well, he's gonna learn real quick that you dont mess around at school.

Kathryn is healing well, and has a ton of homework to catch up on.
She enjoyed being home with me yesterday but isnt looking forward to all this work. She's a good student though and will have no problems getting it done. She's enjoying being back in the choir, and in drama club, and is excited to have a team vs. teachers basketball game this friday.
Lucky for me its a half day Friday !!! Whooo Hoooo !

Lots of Love,
Shel

Monday, February 23, 2009

almost a week later

So much has happened since my last post.
I took Ashlyn to the plastic surgeon the day after and I questioned the "rug burn" on her face, and he said it was NOT from teeth. He said she must have fallen and rubbed against the wall, or carpet or something. It just seemed odd to us. Then on Friday, a friend of ours was over and was looking at Ashlyn and she questioned if Capone even bit her. I told her I didnt see it happen, but its just what Brandon told me. She said, to her, it looks like he pawed her face, which would make the "rug burn" make more sence. I told Chris about this and he really looked closely at her face. He said the "bite" marks, and the "rug burn" all go in the same exact direction. So its impossible that he bit her, AND she happened to rub against something to make marks that ran exactly in the same direction. But still this sounds strange to us. Well today when I went into the ped to get her stitches out, I was going to ask him if it was possible the dog scratched her, but I forgot. But he looked up at me puzzled and asked "what kind of dog did this?" I said a Great Dane. Then he looked at it some more and asked if I was sure the dog BIT her because it doesnt line up for a dog bite. So I told him I forgot to ask him about that and told him what the plastic surgeon and our neighbor said. The doctor is convinced that this is NOT a bite at all, but that he pawed her face. WHEW !

However, this doesnt leave us in the clear. He still has dominant issues when we are not there, and he still did this in a dominante manner. He growled and barked at her. I asked Brandon about this and he at first said Capone Bite her, but when i asked if it could be from his paw, and he thought about it for a min. and said he wasnt sure. I asked if he saw Capones teeth in Ashlyn's face, and he said NO. He said he heard him growl, so he yelled no and was going down the stairs when he heard Capone bark, Brandon then looked up to see Capone jump back and blood all over Ashlyn's face. So either way, Capone has some issues that need some major fixing. Luckily we have a few options. Our friend Dawn, who works for a animal welfare place back home called, and her work is willing to take him and try to place him with someone who does not have small children. So relief that Chris doesnt have to kill my dog. The other option is seeing if this place that rehabilitates aggressive animals can work with him and get him some intense training. So I am just relieved that this doesnt appear to be a dog bite, I am relieved that our friend Dawn read my blog and came to the rescue, and I am relieved that their might be a way to keep Capone and keep everyone safe. WHEW !

Ok, now on to another topic.
Today Kathryn had 3 teeth pulled. They had to put her out for this because one took was stuck in her jaw. When sh woke up and was completly "high" I was cracking up laughing at her. She was totally off the rocker hysterical, and we even video taped her first hour of being home. I cried because I was laughing so hard. She is resting now, and more comfortable. However the pain meds are now making her dizzy and slightly nautious.

Well the kids are all in bed, and I am exhausted.
I'll write more soon.
Shel

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Not a good day

Last night our Great Dane Capone bit Ashlyn in the face.
Dont worry she is ok.
Im mortified.
If it were about his food, we would understand because he gets nervous when the kids come around his food. But he had her doll and when she went to take it, he snapped one snap and it got her in the face. We took her to the ER and she had 5 puntures that didnt require any stitches, but he also got the corner of her mouth and that required 3 stitches. Im beside myself with sadness. Sadness that my poor little girl got bit, sadness that it hurt and she had to get stitches, sadness that she flintches when he is anywhere near her.. Dont worry he's locked in the laundry room and is only let out to go potty and eat.... But its not like he's an aggressive bully dog. He's a big lover, he's still a puppy, he's just trying to restablish were he ranks in the family. This is normal, and if he were a small dog he wouldnt have even broken the skin. But he's too big to take chances, and Chris is putting him down after the 10 day quarantine. There is no choice here, I understand and realize that we cant keep a dog who bits, but Im also really sad... he's MY dog. He was my mother's day gift, and I love him so much. He never is like this with me or Chris, and he loves all people who come to the house, he's even great with the kids when we are around. He just thinks he is the boss when we are not around, and thats not acceptable. Im so sad.

Shel

Sunday, February 15, 2009

What a weekend.

WOW, what a weekend.
It's a long weekend because Chris and the kids dont have school on Monday due to Presidents day. YIPPIE !!! I love long weekends. It also happened to be Valentines Day AND my sister/cousin Ellie's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLIE !!! ( I know, I know, sister/cousin?!?, she's my cousin, but I love her like my sister) We dont do much for Valentines Day, actually we dont do anything out of the ordinary for Valentines Day. Chris decided after we got married, and we were very broke all the time, that he loved me every single day, and he didnt need 1 day to tell me how much he loves me... he loves me so much every day. Also, he hates doing things because everyone else does, so we just dont do Valentines Day. However, if he brags about me or the kids at work, or to a friend, he will come home that day with flowers or surprises. It's really great. So we spent the whole day cleaning and rearranging. We dont use the basement for anything, so we moved Katey down there. It's totally finished, and you can see down to the basement from the living room, but we dont use it. Plus she thinks its cool because she has a bathroom right off of it so she says she has her own bathroom. Now Brandon and Ashlyn have their own rooms too. Nobody to get into anyone else's stuff, and everyone responsible for cleaning their own rooms. So, we have been busy hanging curtains, and hanging curtains to block you from being able to see into Katey's room from the living room. It's looking soooo cute and everyone is happy.

Well, today since everyone did such a great job yesterday, I decided to make Lobster and Shrimps for dinner. Im also making twice baked potato's, grilled asparagus, breadsticks, and my fav... sweet potato cassarole !! All's going good until we are ready to put everything on the grill and its out of propane. So off to the store Chris goes. He's back now, so Im gonna go and help grill our super yummy dinner.

Lots of Love,
Shel

Sunday, February 8, 2009

We are horribly cruel parents

So we went home this weekend to celebrate Grandma Dorothy's 95th birthday. We had a wonderful dinner with us, Dorothy, Carol and Jim, Jen and Chad and all the kids. Chad has a little girl Emma and Ashlyn just loves hanging out with her. We had a sweatshirt made with all the great grandkids pic on it. We had a decent pic taken last year on the fishing trip with all of them and I thought it would be great on a sweatshirt. Gma Dorothy just LOVED it.

Then we went to Nathan and Jeni's house and just hung out chatting. Its so nice to be able to hang out with friends and not have to worry about doing anything. Just chillin, watching some SNL and talking about everything and nothing. The Tacketts are great! (What up Jeni YO!)
I was even surprised when all of a sudden Chris got drunk dialed by George. (Love me some George!)

Then this morning we had a really nice breakfast with my parents, then we went and got the kids shoes. We were supose to get pics taken today but since it was so gloomy out, we decided to pass. So we washed the van at our fav. carwash with the 3 colored soap, and we got some Whitey's ice cream, then we went to see if there were any Eagles out by the Hampton dam. Then we decided to head on home.

Ok, now here is where we are so horribly cruel......
So we get on I-80 and head towards Chicago, well we have to go past Carol and Jims exit and we looked over to see if we could see their house and they were actually going down Hubbard road. So we start flashing our breaks and waving trying to get their attention. Then Chris notices in front of us is a semi being towed backwards by another semi. So he distracts them by telling them to watch for Gma Carol and Jim and he speeds up to get right behind the semi. He then yells OMG and I scream. The kids turn around to see a semi "heading right towards us". But its actually being towed. Brandon freaks out and braces himself, and Katey yells "WHAT THE !"
We then quickly start laughing and tell them its being towed and they were not very happy with us at all. But we thought it was great,,,,, until Brandon said it freaked him out so bad because of the car accident we were in 2 yrs ago.

So anyway, we are horribly cruel parents, but it was really funny.
Lots of Love,
Shel

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Kathryn the vegetarian

My Katey bug is 12 and is really starting to have concerns about different things. One thing she really doesnt like is that animals have to die so she can eat her dinner. She's been bothered by this for a while and finally decided to try vegetarian for a week. So far she is going great, and even has 3 of her friends trying it too. This Sat. we are having a Prime Rib dinner for Gma Dorothy's 95th birthday and she said she's going to have a small piece of that because she does like the taste of it, but she still doesnt want it to be a huge part of her every day diet. She thinks after this week she will continue to have vegetarian food, but occationally have meat. Im really proud of her for experimenting with new things, and standing up for something she really believes in. So tonight I am making corn dogs for us, and vegy corn dogs for Katey and Chris. Oh, Chris is doing the vegy for a week diet too because he wants her to feel supported.

I'll keep you updated on her progress.
Shel

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Ashlyn is a preschooler

Well, our baby is now a preschooler.
She loved it so much, but I'll let the pics do all the talking.
Enjoy,
Shel



Ashlyn and her new friend Bruno
Ashlyn and her new friend Zoey
Ashlyn and Mrs. Paige
Ashlyn exploring her new class
Circle time (going on a bear hunt)

Monday, February 2, 2009

What a weekend.

We had a very good busy weekend.
Sat. we invited Brandon's entire class to a bowling party for him. We had 22 kids, and it was crazy. It was dark because it was cosmic bowling, so dark with flashing lights, and we didnt know hardly any of the kids. Then the kids couldnt play until we added them all, one by one onto the computer. After that it was pretty smooth. Then we let the kids invite a few friends over to watch the super bowl. It was a really good time. Now Im sitting here in a clean house and all I have to do is laundry and clean my bedroom . WHOO HOOO.

I got a call from the church, and the preschool has an opening for Ashlyn on Tues, and Thurs. afternoons, so Im hoping to get her started. She is so excited to go to school like Katey and Brandon.

Ok, off to the laundry and bedroom.
Shel