Arts and Crafts

LJ loves to do arts and crafts and he will often ask me to get stuff out for a project.  I hopped online and found a couple of cute ideas using things we already had around the house.

Bubble Snake

This was easy to make just by cutting off the bottom of a water bottle and attaching a piece of terry cloth with a rubberband over the bottom.  Then just dip the cloth in a water/soap mixture and blow a bubble snake!  LJ loved it.

Handprint American Flag

Leaf and Feather Man

Frog

Spider

July 4th at Edisto

I haven't updated in a while so I wanted to add some pictures.  We celebrated July 4th at Edisto like we do every year.  This year Hope, Savannah and Sarah joined us.  It was nice to have the whole family there for some river fun. 

Hope, Dad, me and Mom 

Chrissy and Colt

A little fun in the water!  This boy is a river rat!

Blake wearing "the bald headed man's" hat.

Christy and Krystin

Daddy and LJ

Colt's first taste of watermelon.  Fourth of July and watermelon at the river just go together.

You want to study my sleep?

Yep, a sleep study.  And soon.  I've been battling fatigue for a while now and I want some answers.  I saw my PCP a couple months ago and he did some blood word.  I've had my thyroid checked twice already and it was normal both times.  Dr. Livingston said my B12 levels were low according to my blood work, so he started me on B12 injections.  I did those for a month and went back for a follow up.  I didn't notice any change at all so he referred me to Dr. Bashir Chaudhary at the Sleep Institute of Augusta.  I saw Dr. Chaudhary yesterday.  The nurse first had me do a breathing test.  I had to clamp my nose shut and put my mouth around a moutpiece.  At first I breathed normally and then she had be breath in very deep quickly and then breath out hard and long.  According to my age there was a certain point that I should have been able to get to on the graph and I didn't make it either of the times she did the test.  I came fairly close, but not up to the mark.

Then Dr. C did a physical exam to check my nose and mouth.  He noted a 3mm overbite, a low soft palate, a high hard palate, a slight deviated septum, and a narrowed nasal opening.  He said all of these things are minor issues, but put together may be causing a narrowed airway and possibly be causing me to not be sleeping well.  He's wanting to do a night time and day time sleep study.  I will arrive at the sleep lab next Tuesday night (7/26) by 8pm and they will hook all the electrodes and sensors up to me.  Then I will be required to lay on my back with only one pillow and go to sleep.  Yeah, that'll be fun.  My normal way to sleep is on the couch with at least 3 pillows on my side.  Then at 5:30am they will wake me up.  That is the end of the night time study.  Then a new crew will take over to administer the day time study.  I will be told at 4 different times to lay down for a 30 minute nap.  At 4:00pm the test will be complete.  It's going to be a long day, but I hope I get some answers.  I'm sick of feeling so sleepy everyday.

Released!

Please can we go home?  Please can we go home?  That's what I woke up saying.  We wouldn't know until the doctor came in to see us.  When the nurse came in to take LJ's vitals, he decided to help her out a little.  This was Dianne.  She was such a sweet nurse.  LJ hooked his blood pressure cuff up to the machine and got it ready for her.  He had unhooked it the time before this so she let him hook it up this time.

And we ventured to the playroom and ended up getting some Play-Doh and sidewalk chalk to play with.  We took him outside and me and him drew all over the patio floors and then went back to the room to play with Play-Doh.  LJ made pizzas for us and then planted us a garden.  I love that boy's imagination!

Well, the doctor came in to talk to us around 10:30 Thursday morning.  He told us that we would be able to go home after the x-ray was taken.  I was sure excited to hear that news!  It took them about 45 minutes to come get him for the x-ray so we waiting in the room and LJ played the XBox more.  When the nurse came in to get him, she had a wheelchair with her.  (I'd actually had a dream the night before that the nurse came in with a huge wheelchair to get him and I remember thinking that surely they had smaller wheelchairs for kids.  haha)  They put a hospital gown on him (which was ten times too big) and wheeled him down to x-ray.

Isn't he so cute sitting in the little wheelchair?

He was a pro at the x-ray since he's had so many done and he sat perfectly still.  Then they wheeled him back up to his room.  Ms. Mandy had come by earlier that morning while we were in the playroom and told us that the Therapy Dogs group would be in the hospital at 1:15.  I figured we would be released before then but LJ wanted to see them.  The resident doctor (Dr. Clements) had come in and explained the findings of the x-ray and showed us the before and after pictures around 12:45.  We started waiting on the nurse to come and remove the tube but no one showed up.  At 1:15, I walked him down the hall and found one of the nurses and told her that I was going to take LJ upstairs to see the dogs.  So, up we went to the 5th floor playroom to see the dogs.  We had to wait a couple minutes for the dogs, but then they showed up.  And there was a lot of them.  I only got pics with a few, but LJ enjoyed being able to see them and pet them.  His favorite was "Toby"

This is Toby, LJ's favorite.

I forgot his name, but I've never seen a dog like this before.  His hair looked so wirey, but it was actually fairly soft.

The lady with this dog said it was a good thing he turned his head when I took the pic, because he doesn't like pics.  Oops

This adorable little dog had on a flag shirt for Flag Day.  She was a sweet little dog.

And one cute pic of LJ eating a popsicle.  They brought his lunch out but didn't change the broth to chicken and brought vegetable broth instead and brought him yellow jell-o.  He didn't like anything on his tray except the apple juice so I went and got him a popsicle.  He had gotten one the night before and was happy to finally have something new.  Wish I had known he could have purple and I would've requested a popsicle earlier!  (He was on a clear liquid diet-no red)  

The preacher came to visit us about 15 minutes before they released us.  It was nice of him to visit.  He had been told LJ was in the hospital but didn't ask what for because he wasn't sure the girl who had told him knew and didn't want to pry.  We explained the situation and told him we were happy he had come by.  While he was visiting, the nurse came by and remove the tube.  We were sure happy to see her.  But the tape holding the tube onto LJ's face was really strong tape.  He wasn't a happy camper when she started pulling it off.  She got the tape off and pulled the tube out.  He was worried the tube would hurt coming out, but he said it didn't hurt a bit.  Just the tape hurt.  We got our release papers and we were on our way.

LJ was ready for some "chewing food" so we stopped in at McDonalds on the 1st floor of the CMC and got him a happy meal.  He gobbled down all of it on the way home.

A huge thanks to all the wonderful nurses that took care of us during our stay.  Everyone was extremely nice and so sweet to LJ.

Another night

Well, we got the news about 2 hours ago that we would be here another night.  They had told us this morning that there was a chance we could leave tonight.  I guess things are progressing as planned.  He's waiting again to be unhooked so he can go to the playroom and play some.

Joe asked him today if he wanted to go home and he said no.  He was having fun playing with all the toys everyone brought him and the xbox the hospital loaned us.  Although his mind changed after they told us we had to stay another night.  The poor kid has been hooked up to the tube since 6:30 this morning and he can't roam far when hooked to it so he's ready to be out of here.

We had some sweet nurses during the day today (though I forgot their names already--oops).  A new crew is here for the night.  

I finally got the card reader so I'm adding the pics I took in this post.

LJ being his goofy ol' self.  This was before he knew what was going on.

His board from his room. 

Silly man

Talking on the phone

Playing the XBox

I love this little guy.

Such a brave guy.

"Cookie" and LJ

"Sisters" and LJ

Talking to Aunt Sam in the playroom

Goofy mirror

Chillin' in bed watching Netflix and ready for bed

Playing after a good night's sleep

Day One Over

Well, we made it through the first day. The nurses changed over at 7:00 pm and then we had Ms. Lori and Ms. Sherri. Again, two very sweet nurses. They unhooked the med tube at 8:00 as promised and LJ was free to roam. We went down to the playground to play a little. We stayed about 30 minutes but LJ was so sleepy that he was ready to come back to the room to lay down.

Mimi and Pop and the girls came to visit and brought him a small whiteboard and some markers.  He loved them!  He drew a picture of himself and one of the girls told him he needed to add the tube in his nose to his picture of himself so he did.  I had to take a picture to always remember it.  

It's 6:30 am now and we're both awake already.  I didn't sleep well at all but then again I didn't expect to.  I started out in the hospital bed with LJ and then got woke up at midnight when the nurse came in to take his vitals so I moved to the couch (if you consider a very thin mat laying over a very hard tabletop like surface a couch).  My back is killing me but I have to be thankful that we're here for just a short amount of time because I know it could be worse.

Brave Little Man

Look at that handsome brave little guy. I'm so proud of him. He's been dealing with some constipation issues for who knows how long. We were finally referred to a pediatric GI doctor who did an x-ray and started a daily dose of meds along with a couple tries at an in-home clean out but nothing worked. So, now we're at MCG Children's Medical Center where they are helping him. We got to the hospital at 11:00 for an x-ray. That's all he thought he was coming for. He was very anxious the last time we were coming down for this procedure (which they decided to hold off on) so I didn't want him to worry about it any more than he had to. After x-ray they admitted him and got us into our room. #4829 is our room number. The Child Life Specialist (Ms. Mandy) came in and explained to LJ how they would insert the NG tube using a doll to demonstrate it on and then his nurse (Ms. Anita) came in to give him a little nasal mist sedation. He didn't like it too much because it tasted really bad. About 10 minutes later Ms. Anita came back in and began the process of inserting the NG tube. Ms. Mandy helped her out. There was a little tiny bit of trouble getting it started through his nose, but it finally went through easily. There was one point that LJ cried a little when it was about halfway down, but he calmed down enough to swallow some more water (which helps make it go down easier) and then she was finished. The process took less than 2 minutes. And my brave little man was still the whole time. Once the tube was inserted, they attached the meds to him and started that going. He also had to get an enema and drink a full 10oz. bottle of magnesium citrate. He's been such a big boy! They are slowly increasing the speed in which he gets the meds through the NG tube each hour. At 8:00pm, they'll unhook the meds so he can sleep. He's ready for them to unhook him, but not so he can sleep. He spotted the play area when we got off the elevator onto this floor and he's ready to go play. I can't say I blame him. I'm ready to get out of this room too!

Life is good

Well, I've been busy lately with life. The school year is coming to an end and the kids are gearing up for summer vacation. I'm looking forward to not having to rush 3 kids out the door for school every morning! I will get an extra 30 minutes of sleep every morning. Those credit cards in my last post. They're still cut up. One has been paid off and the other will be paid off in a couple weeks. As will almost all of our debt! It's an awesome feeling and a huge weight off our shoulders. Our bathroom re-model is finally happening. The tub has been cracked for a while so we had to replace it. We found the tub and the tub walls a couple weeks ago and I picked out new linoleum. And this weekend it finally came together where Joe and Fred were both off and able to work on it. They pulled the old tub out and we were excited to find that the floor underneath had not rotted even with the cracks in the tub. So we thought everything was smooth sailing from there. They got the floor cut and glued down and when they went to fit the tub they realized that the drain wasn't going to match up. So they hit a snag but were able to fix it fairly easily. They got the tub in and the walls up. Right now they're working on the walls around the tub. We decided to put up a waterproof walling around the tub after the wallpaper ripped a lot during the removal of the tub. We were going to just do it on the bottom portion of the dividing wall put then decided on going all around the tub. I can't wait until they're finished and I can get in there with my paint and finish things up. It's going to look great. I'll post some pictures when everything is finished.

I did it!

Cut up my credit cards that is! A friend/coworker invited me to join her for week 4 of the Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University last week. That week discussed his method for "snowballing debt". I've heard great things about Dave Ramsey in the past and was excited about attending the class. Ever since then, I've been on get out of debt mode! I've learned how to make a budget and to make each month end with $0 by putting anything extra towards debt reduction.

I'm starting my emergency fund (which for my income will be $500). If nothing crazy comes up then I can have that done within 3 months. I'm planning to offer to some sewing things and crafts for sale to declutter my stash and all of that money will go towards the emergency fund so hopefully I can build it up in less time. Then after the EF is up to $500 I will start chunking money towards the debts. DR's method has you paying off the smallest debt first and then adding the min. payment of that debt to the min. payment of the second highest debt balance to pay it off quicker and so on down the line. I'm totally revved up about it and took the scissors to the plastic tonight!

I'll have to change some habits for sure. No more eating lunches out during work and no more emotional spending. I will have to learn how to cook more from scratch to stretch the grocery budget (which I am going to set a high goal for $300/month for the 5 of us including paper goods) And I'm going to sell anything that isn't being used that I can to pay down the debts.

I am hoping to be able to attend the rest of the FPU classes. I'm just waiting to hear from the coordinator. My friend Andrea is going to try to get in touch with him. I'm really excited about it.

Been neglecting

I haven't been posting much. I don't think I have anyone that really reads here, but I like to be able to go back and look at things I've posted over time. I've just been busy since Christmas. (Still need to add the last few Elf pics so we'll have them all together to look at next year)

Christmas was great. We woke up early Sunday morning to see what Santa had brought and then hit the road to SC to see the family. The kids enjoyed spending time there and then Monday morning we drove back home. I had the week off of work so it was nice to relax and enjoy some time off.

My latest projects have involved power tools and lumber. I've been building. I got the itch to build a side table for the kitchen when I couldn't find one in my (cheap) price range and it turned out great for what I had. A miter box and a hand saw and a drill. I cut all the wood with my hand saw with the exception of the top board. I did use my jig saw for that one. I had to buy treated 2x2s so I've been waiting on the wood to dry out and I'm hoping for clear weather tomorrow so I can paint. I'm staining the top board and painting everything else black to coordinate with my kitchen table. Then this week I build a skinnier and taller version of my side table to go behind my couch. It literally took about 30 minutes thanks to the nice guys at Ace cutting the 2x2s to length for me. Unfortunately it ended up being shorter than I wanted (they cut it where I asked them too but when I got it made, I decided I wanted it taller). I'm going to get some more wood cut and replace the legs with the taller ones.

I've also been upcycling stuff for the house. I used a scrap piece of wood to make a sign with our last name on it. And found a cute plate and candle holder that I painted black and glued together to make a cute stand for the kitchen.

I'll have to get off my butt and post some pics of all the things I've done when they're finished and all set up. I can't wait to show them off.