Category: CRAP

Hey! How YOU Doing?

Alright, so it’s been an amazing week of barf, diarrhea, diarrhea, and more diarrhea.

And you, How’ve things been for you?

I bet my week trumps your week, no?

On top of all that “fun-ness”, I reluctantly kept both Xandra and Jeremy home from school as school policy states that “your child should be 24 hours diarrhea-free” before you send their germ-y goodness back to class.

Let me just say that I so appreciate the teachers. Jeremy’s teacher in particular, but Xandra is a whole fun ball of emotional energy in her own special way, as well.

Now, it’s not entirely fair in that I get Jeremy “med-free” and we dope him heavily before we send him off to lay siege on his classroom, to war, to school.

I must explain…..well, actually – I really don’t have to, but I want to….because if me and my situation can in any way help you to understand some child and their parent better or to help you to give just a little extra grace to “that child” in church or at the mall or heck, even in your own family, or even if you just walk away and say “THANK GOD THAT’S NOT ME HAVING TO DEAL WITH ALL THAT” I think I might understand how or why that poor mom looks like hell so frazzled, nope I won’t ask her to bake 4 dozen cookies to bring to the “troop” meeting tomorrow night…..then my work here is done.

At this point, I’m actually just giong to go ahead and see if I can use a world record amount of punctuation marks, quotation marks and such in this post……

I choose to joke and laugh about the situation that we are in, mostly because I like to. I like to find the humor in things and well, in our family, there is a lot of humor to be found.

I can either choose to be angry about what’s going on and get all controlled and then get even more angry when “it” (life) doesn’t fit into my perfect little controlled scheme OOOOOOOOOORRRRR, I can laugh, and just kinda “Flow with it”.

I will honestly admit that I’ve been WAY more of a angry controlled type person for a lot of my life….not that I’ve had tons to be angry about, but the whole cycle of FEAR leading into CONTROL, leading into CHAOS, which makes us ANGRY mostly because we are full of FEAR, which cycles us right back into CONTROL and well….you can see how the cycle keeps on going, eh?

I’ve changed (some) over the past 3-4 years and it’s not been without counselling, but it has definately been for the better and not for the worse.

Okay, Back to my most wonderful son…..

Life with Jeremy is SO MUCH STINKING WORK!

It’s so true. Yesterday, after 2 days of being at home “med-free” I dosed him up. He was absolutely “pinging” off of everything. I had yelled at him lovingly helped him to understand the error of his ways, many, many MANY times, and this was all before 9am. Can you see how the day was shaping up to be a really awesome day?

So I did. I gave him some Ritalin, and even though it took a bit to kick it – yesterday was a pretty pleasant day….sort of. See, there is a HUGE sliding scale of what “pleasant” means. In my world, if nothing gets majorly burnt, irrepairably destroyed, no one gets seriously hurt, and there are no major screaming tear filled melt downs – then I consider it pleasant.

Did you notice all those adjectives in front of those words….yah…that there is the kicker. On a normal day….at that stuff still happens, but if we can “fix” the situation then I consider it to all be succesful.

Man, I’m tired!

I’m sure this post must be winning some award for the longest, worst punctuated, most run on sentances and poor grammer, but really…this is just how it is. Life is messy. My life might be messier than some, and less messier than others. But….this is my life, and I’m okay with it. Tired, but okay.

Okay, so I gave Jeremy some Ritalin….that’s where we were, right, and like I said, the day was okay.

The thing is…..I wonder sometimes…..I wonder what J would be like if he didn’t have ADD/ADHD. Would he be like he was yesterday? He was more subdued than normal. He worked his butt off helping around the house. He cleaned the TV room, he set the table, he wante to do the after supper dishes, he vaccumed, he cleaned his own room (and it looked like a nuclear bomb went off in there before), he got his pyjamas on without being asked, he packed his bag for the next day, he brushed his teeth and he got into his bed to “try” to go to sleep…..and then at 10:30pm he came out crying because he had been trying so hard to go to sleep and he just couldn’t….and that broke my heart.

This kid doesn’t sleep. It’s awful. I wonder if half his problem isn’t that he’s just sleep deprived. I don’t know what to do about that…but that’s a tangent….

He did all that stuff……NORMALLY….he would have ignored that mess and those responsibilites and created the worlds largest human-made spider web in the front room with my most favorite and most expensive ball of wool, and then would have been reduced to a sobbing mess when I didn’t leave it there as a work of art for the rest of eternity.

What do I mean by a spider web….well, take a ball of wool or string or something and attach it to and around every surface in a room, weaving under and in and out a couple of hundred times……yah…it’s awesome….and hell, to clean up….it usually involves scissors, lots of bad words mumble under your breath, maybe a yell or two, and almost always sobbing…..OH MY GOODNESS THE SOBBING!

Really, honestly, i have no idea where I’m going with all of this….I’ve just had 3 days at home with my darlings (I haven’t even talked about the “special-ness” of Xandra) and today is the first day that they are back at school and I have a moment to breathe.

I love my kids. I love their creativity. I hate that Jeremy needs some extra help to be able to function well in the world. I hate being tired. I hate worrying about Siah….that one’s weighing on me right now, but it must be a post for another day. I……..

Well…I have a lot of other “I’s” that I could say, but……couldd I hear from you?

What do you find is the most troubling, stressful or difficult thing that you deal with in your life? Heck, it doesn’t even have to be the most difficult….just something difficult or stressful?

Help a girl out, eh? Let me know that I’m not alone stressing about things?

More Barfing….and possibly more yet to come

So, as much as I want to chalk Siah’s Barfest up to an allergic reaction, the fact that he continued to barf off and on in completely random intervals leads me to believe that he had some weird bug.

One that left him still happy, with no fever, and aside from the occasional barfing, diarrhea, and being slighty “off” with his sleeping habits you’d not be able to tell that he was sick.

He barfed last night when we had friends over, and for whatever reason I started to feel sick. I wasn’t sure if it was just sympathetic barfing or the smell or what, but I barfed….and it was NASTY.

And then it started from the other end, and let’s just leave it at “last night was a really, really NASTY night”.

I woke up this morning still flowing and spent most of the day sleeping. Now it’s 9:30pm….I’m watching a hockey game and drinking some tea….I’ve meneged to keep some toast down, and I’m hoping that tomorrow is a better day.

The worst part…..Xandra jsut came up to tell me that she’s not feeling well and that she’s had diarrhea twice now…..Great! Go and get a bucket and a cup of water, darling and call me when you start barfing. I have no idea what she ate or how awesome tonight will be.

I’m hoping that it just skips Jon and the other two kids. BLECH!

Don’t you wish you could come and visit me right now?

AAAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH

I’m not sure what’s up, but Siah had a allergic reaction last night and I was up with him barfing from 3:30am until 7am when Jon took him and let me “try” to get some sleep. I slept off and off for the last two hours, and now……I’m tired.

I had even gone to bed at 10pm to get extra sleep so I wouldn’t be tired. So Frustrating!

And on top of that, I’m not sure what happened.

I did make Shortbread Cookies (with Butter) yesterday for a cookie swap that I’m going to tonight, but I was very careful – or so I thought – that Siah didn’t get any of the butter or the cookie and so I’m not sure if the kids dropped a crumb or what the deal is.

I did eat a few, but typically butter has not been too much of an issue when I eat it (I’m still nursing) and so I’m really baffled on this one.

It was awful. I heard him at 3:30am gagging, and when I went into check on him, he was still sleeping, but when I felt around in the bed there was last night’s dinner….beans and salmon….nice mix to barf up, eh?

So he barfed and then just slept through it…..I tried to clean him up the best I could without waking him, and removed the barfed on blankets, and then I layed in bed waiting……waiting…..waiting….and at 4:30am iswhen he started into it for good.

It’s so awful. Not knowing what to do, or even what triggered it. Did he get some cookie or what?

There is no fever, and the barf has this “not regular barf” smell. I can’t explain it but it sucks….and now I’m tired and he is sleeping, so I might try to catch a half an hour if I can….UGH!

Do any of you deal with allergies for yourselves or for your kids?

I’m so thankful that he’s not having throat closing, breathing issues, because the barfing is enough for me…mind you, we’ve never given him straight dairy and so I don’t know how he’d react to that….I hope I never find out.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I’d love to sit around and chat with ya all day today, BUT…….duty calls.

I’ve got to do something about my house. My bedroom looks like my dressers threw up – there are clothes EVERYWHERE. Does your room ever get like that? Plus I’ve got laundry to do – like OOOOOOODLES of laundry to do, and my kitchen…..OH MY GOODNESS! Don’t even get me started on my kitchen. I’ve been avoiding it hoping that the kitchen fairies would do something.

It doesn’t seem to be working. My kitchen fairies are WAY smarter then my mom’s kitchen fairies. (I’ll have to tell that story sometime soon – remind me, okay?)

We helped my grandparents move into a gorgeous townhome on Saturday, and then on Sunday we were off to Vancouver for the day. It’s been fun, but busy and now I’m paying for all that fun – with the disaster that’s left behind in it’s wake.

And the drama with the downstairs people……I’m a little too upset to laugh about it all right now, and even talking about it is getting me upset, but I’m sure I’ll be able to talk about it – heck, maybe evn laugh about it all soon. BUT NOT RIGHT NOW!

Let’s just leave it with mentioning that the neighbor’s fence was smashed in, their front door has been kicked in so badly that you can’t close or latch it or anything, we have a connecting door through to our house, they are talking drugs, having parties until 4am, with all sorts of creepy looking guys,we’ve called the cops and they say that they can do nothing……alright – I’m getting workedup again. I’ll come back when I’m not so upset….and not so busy.

BUT…..we are almost ready to choose a winner in the GIVEWAY.

Enter to win, and if you name is chosen, you get to pick one item from my store….ANY ONE ITEM, and I’ll send it to you for free! Just because!

How fun is that?

Click here for all the details, and leave me a comment. You have until Tuesday at midnight my time (PST).

Don’t be shy! I’d love to be able to give something to YOU!

Ammendment to Day 4 and some WICKED FUN!

So yesterday, we did end up needing to pick some food up and that birthday present that I mentioned.

Jon and the kids went and picked out the B-day present while I put Siah to sleep for his afternoon nap. They spent a bit more than I would have, but it’s still okay. The Model Airplane and Cement Glue cost a total of $17.78 which brought our total to $51.95.

Then we needed to pick up some stuff that I hadn’t thought of in my bleary eyed stupor when I posted yesterday. I had made a list and stuck to it except for 2 things…..rice cakes & cereal….both things that the baby can eat.

I needed to pick up some non-dairy butter because Siah has a Dairy Allergy and while some of the family can use butter, it makes it difficult to always be on top of everyone to not share their popcorn or toast and I have to be extra dilligent about what goes into Siah’s mouth and what has dropped on the floor so, it’s just easier in our family to get the non-dairy spread. We use Earth Balance. It is DELICIOUS and it is actually cheaper than organic butter by $2 for the same amount of “spread”. Another bonus is that I can use it in my baking just like butter and the baking comes out just as good as if I’d used butter….no weird spreading or greasy texture.

So, we went to Pricesmart and I decided that if the prices weren’t GROSSELY inflated compared to Superstore that I’d just pick up what I needed there and save the gas money.

So, we got Almond Milk (for myself and Siah – he can’t handle large amounts of soy either…more on that in a moment), bananas, 5lb bag of apples, Earth Balance Spread, Puffed Kamut Cereal, Rice Cakes, 10lbs Potaotes, Espresso Coffee Beans…..all for $42.00.

So that brings our total up to $93.95.

While I was at the store I realized that there were a few more things that we need. I need some more veggies – celery, peppers, lettuce, zucchini…..that kinda thing, but I’ll get those next week at a local Farmer’s Market, and Brown Rice. On the list they go!

Saturday’s Meals:
Breakfast – Grand Slam Breakfast (eggs, hashbrowns, mini pancakes, farmer sausage)
Dinner – Coconut Curry with Tofu over Brown Rice

Sunday’s Meals:
Breakfast – Oatmeal with Soy Milk
Dinner – Veggie Chicken Soup with Brown Rice

So, I’m pretty certain that we are staying away from the stores today, and for more than one reason.

Onto the the “WICKED FUN” aspect of this post….

Siah had an allergic reaction to something last night and I spent the whole night cradling and cuddling him and then holding him over the top of a bucket while he retched his little guts out.

Yah, he spent the whole night either puking or dry heaving.

It was EXACTLY the same as the two times when he had some dairy tinged probiotic when he was 2 and 3 months old minus the watery diarrhea – so last night was only half the fun it could have been.

It was awful and finally around 5am his stomach was finally settled enough that he wanted to nurse and then he fell asleep until 6am and then nursed again, and so far everything has stayed down. Jon let me sleep until 11am, and then I nursed him again and he is sleeping right now.

I think that it was the tofu…..

– POST BREAK –

I had to stop posting to take a “potty break” (either this is a SUPER LONG post or I’m just a really REALLY slow typer) and when I went into my ensuite to take care of business I realized that my bedroom door had been shut, the blinds drawn, and there was a lump under the covers. Xandra is dressed in a beautiful princess dress, and is under my covers..all the way under the covers watching a movie on her iPod. When I asked her what she was doing, her response was that it was warm and dark in my room, and especially under my covers and that she was just relaxin’….what a little sweetheart!

– RESUME POST –

I think that it was the tofu and I knew that he couldn’t handle big amounts of soy, and in my excitment to “try” a meatless meal – I never put the two together…stupid me. Do you know the guilt that racks you knowing that you most likely caused your son to have a brutal night? It’s not fun! NOT! AT! ALL!

So, I’m tired, and hoping that I can snag one more nap today sometime. We skipped church today because I wasn’t getting up and I definately wasn’t taking Siah anywhere. So, the other two kids are bored and Jon has just settled down to have a “video game tournament” with them.

I’m going to go and have another coffee and try to wake up….fun times, people, FUN TIMES – I tell you!

Only the Second Time

Man, We’ve been doing this parenting gig for over 12 years now and for only the second time in that 12 years we’ve had to call poison control.

I think that’s a pretty good track record. I mean, I’d love it if we hadn’t had to call them ever, but for how……….energetic, and inventive my children are….I think that’s a decent number. In fact, I’m surprised that we aren’t on a first name basis with the fine folks over at the Poison Control Call Center.

The last time we called was when Jeremy swallowed a penny….that was SO MUCH FUN…you know…..waiting for the penny to drop…..literally!

Fun time, people, FUN TIMES!

Well, last night was not nearly as exciting. Siah had tried to do the Houdini Maneuver out of his highchair….have I mentioned that he’s climbing or crawling up onto anything and everything – again with the FUN TIMES!….and so we put him down on the kitchen floor. He waddled over to the empty dishwasher and then 2 seconds later started gagging. A barfing baby is not fun, but when you realze that the soap from the dishwasher – which is a mixture of Borax and Washing Soda – didn’t disolve completely away and that there was a little bit left in the soap dispenser and then you realize that your kid ate some of it……

It’s one of those “eye rolling, go and call the poison control people and find out if we need to go and spend the entire night sitting in the disease filled ER and possibly picking up goodness knows what and how that in and of itself has to be WAY worse than the tiny bit of borax that the baby just injested” moments.

Fortunately, the nice Poison Control guy said that we were morons for feeding our child Borax and then asked if we would not bother them so that the really impotant calls could get through.

No, they didn’t say that, but they weren’t concerned and said that there was nothing that we needed to do – Siah would be all okay!

So, in my concern and because these people weren’t nearly concerned enough for my child’s heath and safety, I utlized my Google medical degree and found out that…..

NOTHING! It really was okay! I mean, i shouldn’t be feeding him Borax for a snack, but apparently the Poison Control Dude did know what he was talking about and I really don’t need to worry…..which I still did…..totally, right?

He’s up and happy this morning and I’m assuming all is well.

Moral of the story……well….I don’t know what the moral of the story is, but….we won’t be feeding the baby any Borax any time soon, eh?

Will This Year Ever End?

I’m feeling a little tired and discouraged with my life today.

This has been a BRUTALLY LONG YEAR, and on top of last year when I was so stressed out from being pregnant with Josiah and really just hoping that he’d live, but not really sure if that was going to happen or not, to having him born – living, and then suriviving the first few months – dairy allregies and all….well, last year was rough, and this year has been rough, but in a whole different way.

I was commenting to someone that last year felt like a year of terror. I just lived in fear on a daily basis – I know that’s not very good, but you get pregnant 4 times in a row and have those 4 babies die and tell me that you wouldn’t be nervous or scared when the 5th time rolled around.

As I was saying, this year has been just as rough, but surrounding a different matter.

I kinda feel like this year is or has been my year of “Learning how to be content with whatever state I am in“.

Sometimes, I do better than other times. Sometimes I can be content knowing that everything will work out, and other times I get so frustrated when things aren’t going smoothly.

I’m so sick of miscommunication, and misunderstandings, and of words being used wrongly and of assumptions being made, and well……imagine living in months and months of this. It could get to you to, I would hazard a guess.

It seems like once again things are unstable, and I know that “incorrectly” – I want to just crawl into a hole, isolate myself, and then maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with situations like this anymore.

I know that’s not the “right” thing to do, but I wonder sometimes if I have the energy to just. keep. going.

I will keep going. I will keep working towards building relationships. I will keep choosing to make good decisions, but somtimes……sometimes it all overwhelems me, and I just want to hide….to hide away from it all and not have to deal with any of it…..even just for a time. Kinda like if you’ve hurt yourself some how, and if you just sit still for long enough, you can gather just enough energy to get up and get some help.

I’m just feeling very tired about this whole year…..can I sit still for the next 4 months?

It’s All A Bit Messy

Yesterday seemed to be a messy day.

Siah was into EVERYTHING.

I had given the kids a green smoothie with Breakfast, and Jeremy downed his and gave me the cup Xani finished hers and put her cup in the sink. Geli is my fussy eater, and usually needs a little encouragement to finish her green smoothie.

Apparently I never paid that much attention, and she left her cup on the coffee table in the TV room.

I came around the corner to this……

Found a Green Smoothie

Awesome, isn’t it?

Siah is not a fussy eater at all. He LOVES green smoothies.

But, seeing the slimey, slippey mess that is on his fingers…is it any wonder that this happened….

Dropped it

Love the face, though!

Then in the afternoon, Geli had made some peanut butter and honey sandwiches for herself and Xandra and I’m not sure, but maybe the cupboard was left open a crack or something because when I came into the kitchen….this was what i stumbled across.

Found the Bucket 'O Honey

Look at the look on his face. Cute, eh?

Well, I was even less impressed by than the smoothie. I mean, I did have to get out the steam cleaner to clean up the carpet, but HONEY…..YUCK! At leas it was on the linoleum and not the carpet, eh?

He was not too impressed that I was taking him away from his fun.

Not Happy

This picture was taken just before he had a full on back arching, screaming, melt down…because seriously. How DARE we take him away from his bucket of honey? He found it, so that makes it his, right?

Needless to say, it was a long day and I was thrilled when they were all asleep and I could just sit in the peace and quiet.

And now we’re doing it all over again…hopefully not!

And I Had Such High Hopes…..

Man,  It’s been a few days, and I had totally hoped to post every day this month.  Looks like that ain’t happening, but I’m still planning on posting a whole lot more than I have in recent months…..okay, since ‘Siah was born….:hangsheadandsighs:

I looked back, and I’ve averaged about 10 posts per month….WOW, that’s not many, is it?  And some months it was even less….:shockedlook:

I wish I had some great emoticons on here, but I guess that would be the lazy way out because I’d end up using them and not trying to explain my emotions and feelings with words, and that’s a part of what “this” is all about.

I’m sitting here wihle waiting for the rice to boil.  Yup, it’s dinner time and I’m late.

I’ve been tired since Friday..well, I guess more accurately Saturday when we had SO MUCH FUN with our friends and then equally but a totally different SO MUCH FUN with ‘Siah.

So, today I slept.

Lemme back up a little.  Jon’s is working with a guy who is TOTALLY interested in the graphics side of web design, and seeing as Jon “figures” that it’s not his(Jon’s) forte(which is totally not true, but he stresses and so the stress of it ain’t worth it), he totally wants to work with this guy to help him along so that they oculd work together.

So, that screws up my Mondays…see, this guy is Amercian, from just across the border and he drives up to work with and learn from Jon,  on Mondays, and while that’s AWESOME….it would be even AWESOMER if I didn’t have someone in my house that I needed to feed and be all pleasant for (read get up and get dressed and put make up on and all that “stuff”).  I like to just keep it all low-key on Monday’s, but for now…..NO SUCH LUCK!

So, today I did get up and……….side conversation here…..

I took a shower today ’cause you all needed to know that and I washed my hair…haven’t done so since last Friday….and well. it really needed it, but so more so than it usually does for my regularly scheduled Tuesday washing….so I’ve used the baking soda again and once again, my hair feels fabulous…..so I think I’ll give this a shot for a while and once we run out of the high priced natural stuff, I’ll get the kids to try the baking soda as well….only thing is….if it gets in your mouth, it tastes gross……blech.

Okay, I just re-read that last paragraph, and I wash or bathe DAILY, but only take a shower twice a week…..just so you don’t think that I’m sitting over here stewing in my own filth.  I can’t go to bed dirty……and now that I’ve shared WAY MORE information than you really wanted to know about me….we’ll move right back into whatever it was that we were talking about before I veered off topic….

So, today I did get up and took a shower and then put on clean clothes, because that’s just the right thing to do, BUT……I did dig out a pair of comfy clothes (sweats) and today has been my lazy day.  I did NOTHING, and when ‘Siah went down for his morning nap I laid down with him and he slept for an hour and I did had hideous asleep/not asleep thing where you get up feeling WAY worse than you did beofre you laid down, because you were just teased with sleeping but didn’t actually really get to fall asleep….that was NOT FUN!

So then we wasted away a few more hours and about 1:30, he started showing signs that he might be ready to sleep again…..and so we went and laid down and slept.

AND IT WAS GLORIOUS.

We woke up at 4:15, and I actually feel like I’m able to function.  So, I’ve got dinner on and I’m posting while I’m waiting for the rice – it’s brown and wild rice and so takes 45 minutes to steam, and so I got a few minutes….

So, i think that post was about a WHOLE. LOTTA. NOTHING, but I’ll look through my pics that I’ve taken recently and see if I can come up with something WAY MORE EXCITING for tomorrow.

I also need to get back to “my list of important things”  I’v got a few things to comment on about that, and well……I’ve always got lots to blather on about….it’s just time and energy, eh?