Training wheels

2 months and 1 week since I last posted. Let's make this first post a test post... let's see if I still have words and stories and ideas to share with you.

• Alex finished 5th grade and his time in public school. We have him in tutoring for the summer to bring his knowledge up to 6th grade private school levels, so it is like school never ended for us. But it is exciting for everyone. Alex is gaining a sense of pride ( in his work and knowledge), we are gaining a sense of confidence that we can all handle the new curriculum ( Abeka, notoriously Challenging), and we have made a great friend and mentor in Alex's tutor, Mrs. Gail.
• I have been working A LOT, spending 3+ days of the week out of the house, and have wrangled through a couple 5 day weeks in the last two months. It's long and tiring, but the paychecks are satisfying.
• The house has therefore fallen into a general state of mess, not that it was perfect with me at home most of the time, but it sure wasn't mass chaos. We are working on systems, but they are slow and lazy due to summer temptations and the call of the pool most evenings.
• Dogs are fabulous. Buddy was recently groomed where we discovered that he has an allergic reaction to the chlorine in the pool. Poor dude doesn't get to swim with us, which has become a favorite treat for him and Bella.
• Steve the Hedgie has been ACTIVE, more active then I can remember him ever being. I think the heat drives him out of his house for long cool water breaks through out the day. I find him most mornings sleeping on his wheel soaking up the AC that blows right there into his cage.
• Crafting: I have been stitching a lot lately, making a large panel of little birds. Love it, it's like magic. Sarah, has feed my desire by sending me a stash of patterns that I have planned for smaller, quicker projects. Enabler! :)
• We had a string of three guests over three weeks, each coming and going independently, fabulous to see them all, but whew, it is tiring playing guest all the time.
• I have been trying to do one thing each week that I have put off for months/years. So I finally hung the mantel mirror and put on the knobs to the bathroom cabinets upstairs. Neither one was hard, but I just never "got around" to it. This week, I want to finish up the touch up paint around the fireplace.

Okay, time to go work on Fourth of July treats. More to come... something special tomorrow!

Ebb & Flow

January 2011 has been a doozy for this family sickness wise. I started off the month sick and it lasted for 3 weeks.  Alex started getting sick-ish this weekend, we couldn't get a Doctor's appointment till today. Turns out he has Bronchitis and will be on 4 meds for the next month and then 2 for a month after that. He has allergies and during Mountain Cedar season here in Texas it is very easy to relapse into bronchitis with allergy attacks, hence the two months of meds.

I can't wait for us to flow into a healthier season, one without major allergy attacks and colds and coughs and hopefully higher temps.

The Christmas Elves



Alex's Winter Wonderland

 This is the first Christmas that Alex has displayed a bit of "I know who Santa really is" wisdom, which really meant that his Christmas Magic level was a little low. So I cooked up this idea to make a ton of snowflakes and hang them in his room on Christmas Eve so he would wake up to a Winter Wonderland.

We had our good friends Kim and Robert over on Christmas Eve night, so we put them to work with paper and scissors and crafted a bunch of Snowflakes. Elf Kim up'ed the anty by bringing a bag of glitter snow which was scattered all over his room to make it look like Narnia.

The hilarity was barely contained while we tried to be quiet hanging these up in his room, but we were successful because Alex didn't wake up at all!

These are the memories I hope he will never forget. These are the things that we love to do as Parents, make things just a bit more special.

His snowflake room makes us all smile, which is exactly what we aimed for.

Seed Tape and PJ gardening



We made seed tape today, which is a great way to get Alex involved in the gardening. We cut strips of newspaper about an inch wide, made a paste of flour and water, and dotted the paste across the newspaper at the correct intervals for the different seed types. Handling itty bitty seeds out in the garden can be difficult, especially if it is windy and they are hard to see in the dirt. So Alex made up four strips of tape, three salad mix and one spinach.

 We laid them out in their rows and loosely covered them with dirt. Just in time for Thanksgiving we will have garden fresh spinach and salad mix as early as Halloween. Gardening in your PJ's always makes digging in the dirt that much more fun. You can just spy the few strawberries that made it through our hot summer. Hopefully those beauties will give us a nice clutch of berries in the spring.

Give them a great big soak, you don't have to worry about them floating out of their rows because they are stuck to the tape! Genius!  Alex also gave our very late season watermelon bed a good soak as well as the bed we are prepping for Fall snap peas. Love the split growing seasons we have here in Texas.

Nature

Casey and Alex discovered a Walking Stick in the yard.

Of course I had to see the creepy crawly.

Someone was very proud of his find. And that missing tooth, do you see the gap? :)

To you, our Alex man...

Dear Alex:

Tomorrow brings your 5th grade school year. The last year you will have in elementary, one year left of recess and afternoon snack time. A single year left before all the true pre-teen emotions and attitudes come storming out of you. We are all looking forward to this year because you have a fabulous teacher and fabulous classmates (none of the jerks from last year), so we are all excited and hopefully and READY for a great year.

You picked out a week of clothes today and hung them all in a row in your closet. You picked out a week of lunches and bagged them in the pantry. You reviewed your chores and the family calendar for the week. You are prepared.

Above all you have calmed my nervous Mother's heart. Not once have you shown any worry that this year would be a repeat of the last. Not once have you complained about losing summer days and gaining an early alarm. You have been excited since the first day of August, counting down the 23 days till you finally got to drive down the street to your school. You have been the reason why I haven't worried, simply because you are not worried. Thank you for being the best Mommy Prosac ever. :)

Alex, as we always tell you, you are our heart in two separate bodies. We are so proud of you and who you are, more so as you grow into a fabulous young man who is responsible, caring, funny, and has a passion for life.

We love you Alex man, you make us proud every day, I can't tell you that enough!

Love,

Mom & Dad

Summer schooling at Home

Alex's forth grade year was less than ideal. His grades were good, but what he actually learned sucked! The more years we have in public school the more I realize that these students are only being taught to the test, not to knowledge. One thing that became shockingly apparent right after school let out, is that Alex had no idea what was a state or what was a country. He mentioned one day that the country of Arizona must be really mad about all the illegal aliens in their country to make laws about it. Now I am all for discussing current events with our kid (which we do all most everyday since we are a news junkie household), but I was floored that he thought Arizona was a separate country. After a quick verbal quiz we discovered that he was completely confused on the topic. 

Enter a mom made Summer School packet.

Nearly every day Alex does some sort of school work. We are using Handwriting Without Tears to improve his printing and cursive, and have all ready seen an improvement. We do Math drills every day both 4 digit addition, multiplication and division. We are reviewing Money skills, especially since he now earns an allowance. Reading comprehension, grammar, and writing skills are reviewed in a rotating basis throughout the week. States and their capitals are done every day with a new state each day. I found some awesome coloring and flashcard sheets for each state online and we slowly build up our flashcard deck each day.

Admittedly Alex isn't too happy about this impromptu summer home school, but I will be damned if my kid won't know the difference between Delaware and Bolivia.

Something to make Daily Living Easier...

At the beginning of Summer, all of three weeks ago, Alex and I sat down and made a Chore Chart. We listed EVERYTHING that he is expected to do each day and broke those tasks down into Morning, Afternoon, and Evening categories. I added in a Daily Chore Focus and some encouragement on the Allowance Reminder. We got it Color Copied LARGE and laminated and it has been a GOD Send.

Seriously, how great is it to ask your kiddo to go check their chart for their morning chores, OR have them check it on their own, and see that things are just getting "magically" done on their own. Love it!

I do think the guy at Office Depot thinks we are slave drivers though. :)

We have set up some rules for his allowance, that at least half of it needs to be put into savings each month, but the other half is his to spend as he wishes. So far he has decided to save up for either a new Lego set (surprise!) or a Nerf dart gun. He also gets Bonus cash for extra projects that he can choose to take on. Like $5 for helping with my moms dog for the week when he stays over. Or tackling organization of his clothing.

Regardless, this chart thing is working great!

Frogs and a list

A teeny tiny frog in Alex's hand, they are all over the place right now.

• This last week has had a boatload of drama dealing with Alex's school. We all hate it.
• The drama that is.
• I have been sick for a couple days, sleeping like the dead. 16 hours throughout yesterday, slept till 10am today.
• I can't even get into a horizontal position or else I will sleep.
• Ugh
• Alex has three days of school left.
• I have 10 days till Summer Session starts for me.
• Work: slowly increasing.
• The pool is fluctuating between blue and green, the heat has such a huge impact.
• The garden is flourishing! Have a week or two before I can harvest our first tomatoes! They are huge!
• I downloaded a ton of Podcasts, business and history and grammar and This American Life, it is all good.
• Casey is home, working local right now, glad to have him here every day!
• If I am feeling better tomorrow I might actually PAINT the ceiling. Snort, we will see. :)
  

Non-Toxic for us!

Back in February we made a choice for our family that was hard and long needed. We decided that the best thing for our family would be to drop out of Cub scouts. We had been part of the same pack for four years, I was a leader for four years, I was a committee member for four years, we only had 9 months to go before Alex would have earned the highest honor in Cub scouts, the Arrow of Light.

BUT...

In our den there were three boys who bullied Alex every single day. I had talked to their parents multiple times about it, but they ignored the problem. These boys would bully my own kid right in front of me while I was trying to led a den meeting. Screw that! I was wasting my time trying to help and teach kids who treated my kid like crap, I don't think so! I also was running the entire den solo since none of my parents would step up to the plate to help me. Which means that I was planning and tracking achievements for 12 boys every single week. And paying for them many times too.

The pack leaders were also problems, one of the bullying kids was theirs, I still think they were doing something shifty with the pack funds. Things never added up.

So in February, we quit. No notice. No pleasantries. Just quit. I literally boxed up all the Cub Scout crap I had, which was a car load, and dumped it off at the den leaders house. It felt GREAT!!

It was so freeing to finally have our Thursday nights back. We were able to put Alex back into Tae Kwon Do full time. Most important, the bullying completely stopped because we weren't around those ass hats. We haven't missed Cub Scouts at all.

Fast forward to today, I went into Alex's school to drop off his forgotten hat and water for field day. The wife of the pack leader and mother to one of the bullies works in the front office. She was abrupt and rude. I just walked away thinking that I am so glad my family isn't around that TOXIC bull crap anymore.

I went home happy, she got to stay there being a bitch. Sounds like a fair exchange to me. :)

Alex's School Saga

I don't think I have written about what has been going on with Alex's fourth grade year here very much, or at all. To start at the beginning puts us back to August of last year. His new teacher, Mrs. G, was nice and friendly but within a month she started being inconsistent with assignments, homework, grades, and class discipline.

I had a teacher conference with her in October where she went over what we all ready know about Alex, that is he is friendly smart and loves to help in class. But through the entire conversation she wouldn't look me in the eyes. That should have been a red flag for me.

Then later that month a boy who we are on friendly terms with his family, transferred out of the class because the parents thought Mrs. G was a horrible teacher. I was slightly surprised but wrote it off to those parents being control freaks. Before we knew it Christmas break had arrived and at the class holiday party she was happy and upbeat and didn't say a single thing to the kids about the New Year.

Fast forward to the first week back to school in January and Alex's class has a substitute, a Mr. K. We found out later that week that Alex's previous teacher Mrs. G was taking an extended leave of absence that she had been planning since school started. We wouldn't know if she was coming back for a couple months, but in the mean time we had Mr. K. This new teacher seemed to be great and a HUGE improvement over Mrs. G right from the beginning.

In January we had to dealing with bullying and this teacher was very supportive of Alex during this time. The principle, who Casey can't stand but we both agree that he can be effective, thought Mr. K was a fabulous teacher. We were so focused on helping Alex with bullying and his self esteem that the teaching issues were pushed to the back burner.

The bullying issue stopped and Alex seemed happier, but I started noticing things when I would stop by the class randomly. In the morning the kids wouldn't be doing their workouts like they were supposed too and would be goofing off or sleeping at their desks. We never got any of Alex's work sent home, literally have not had work since before Thanksgiving sent home. Alex started talking about how Mr. K would freak out in the class and how many of the kids were doing outrageous things in class like coating their faces with pudding?!?!

I witnessed one of these freak outs one morning where he was throwing his hands in the air and yelling at the kids to sit down. Completely unprofessional, he looked shocked when he saw me standing in the door and realized that I had witnessed his behavior.

Early in April I had to deal with Mr K for taking away Alex's recess for helping a friend who was getting beat up. Alex helped the kid off up off the ground and told the other kids to leave him alone. For that Alex and the victim lost their recess, but the bullies had NOTHING done to them. All this happened inside the classroom and the teacher claimed he didn't know anything about the situation. When I talked to Mr. K he said he didn't write Alex's name on the board to lose recess and that Alex was making it up. Alex wouldn't make up bullying of a friend, especially since he went through it only a couple months ago. So Alex's recess wasn't taking away, and I started being hyper aware of Alex's class and teacher. Guess what was written on the board when I showed up in class the next morning? Alex's name on the board from the day before. Asshat teacher lied to me.

Then last month while the kids were going through state testing, Mr. K cursed at Alex for spilling a little bit of milk. He also made nasty comments to Alex about Alex's personality, eating habits, and friends. As soon as I found all this out I called up the Vice Principle and got Alex transferred out of his class. Luckily another teacher, Mrs. N, knew Alex and offered to overcap her class to take him. Thank God!

Alex's new teacher is AWESOME, we all wish Alex had her from the start. She has communicated with me multiple times through email and follows through on her promises of extra work packets and information. She contacted us earlier this week that a major math skill that Alex should have had down pat all ready, was lacking. She went through multiple testings and teachings and he got the skill down, but his promotion tests had the bad grade. Luckily all of his other grades at high 90's, so she knew it wasn't his ability but the teaching from Mr. K.

She brought up this issue to the principle because if Alex, who is really smart, didn't get this math skill, then many of the other students of Mr. K do not have it as well. HUGE No-No since this was the main skill on the state tests they JUST TOOK!! Regardless, Alex is back on track and is looking at straight A's for his end of year grades AND we get his work sent home!!! Yay!

I have all ready been pulling some strings to be able to request his teacher for 5th grade. I refuse for Alex to have to go through another year with another shitty teacher.

4th grade has sucked up until Mrs. N's class. God bless good teachers!!!

Finally! Some Pampering

Today is THE day, I go for my mega massage in 2.5 hours followed up by my mega relaxing facial! My parents gave me a spa gift certificate for my birthday and my FIL followed up with birthday cash, so I combined it all into one mega treatment just to relax. I have been waiting till after finals and on a relaxing week to have my pampering. I can hardly wait!

These pictures have nothing to do with my massage except they do a great job documenting the mayhem and Archie suffering that we deal with each week. That dog has such a "tough" life. Balancing dog toys on his head really wears him out. Of course I had to include the picture below so you could see Alex in all his directorial spaziness. And Archie revolting of course. :)

These are the days...

Alex with a popsicle and Mr. Harry at the worst BBQ in Texas.

These are the days where the end is in sight, and the future is on the horizon and the last term paper has been submitted and every ounce of will power is needed to stay focus for three more days of school.

These are the days when my friend has had her baby and I can stop carrying around my camera and set my phone ringer back on vibrate instead of loud and I don't have to make a late night trip to the hospital where I get zero sleep.

These are the days where the weather is turbulent and the pool is starting to tempt us when it is hot and sticky, except the pool is a swamp of winter algae and debris and the upper deck is tempting all on it's own because of the flowers I planted weeks ago.

These are the days when hot meals and casseroles are being pushed aside in favor of fruit and cheese and crackers or sandwiches and yogurt or smoothies made with ripe bananas and clementines.

These are the days when my ten year old asks me with the disclaimer that he is not trying to be rude, If I have lost weight, and he is right because I have and with very little effort besides a tiny bit of kibashing on late night snacking.

These are the days when life is good and getting better and habits are becoming not just habits but ways of life.

These are good days.

What to do with old Birthday Balloons?

What to do with old Birthday Balloons?

Target Practice!

Tonsil Recovery: Guess who is feeling better!

It has been a week since Alex's surgery and he is finally on the mend! These last seven days have been hard, tiring, frustrating, and a little scary. Alex really struggled all through the weekend and early week with eating. He ate a single can of chicken noodle soup over the course of 3 days. :( It is a bit un-nerving to have a conversation with your ten year old about not starving himself. But we finally cleared a food hurdle and now he is back to 3 meals a day of soft food. yay!

Casey is taking Alex to his post op appointment in about an hour. My week has been packed with school and work (which I have today as well) so Casey has been on full Daddy Duty and has done great! Looks like I handle surgery and the immediate days following really well and he handles the recovery days like a champ. We make a good team.

Alex has gotten a bunch of cards from friends and family and let me tell you, he LOVES them. Those cards and gifts have done more to make him feel better then most meds. Thank you everyone, you gave Alex a dose of the best medicine ever! Love * I know super cheesy, but it is true*

We should get the go from the doctor today to have Alex return to school next week, but he will most likely still be out of PE for another week. He also has a completely different voice because he is talking through his nose right now. The upper palate muscles are tight from the scabs which makes him talk in a nasal tone, he has to repeat a bunch of words for us everyday, but it gets in talking practice.

Thoughts on Surgery and Recovery:

• Have help, don't try to do it all alone.
• Happily go to the grocery or pharmacy while help stays with the sicko, you need a break too!
• Sleep as much as possible! Naps will be your friend for both the sicko and caretaker.
• Movies in bed at 3am are a blessing.
• Invest in soup and Popsicles.
• Be prepared for throw up, Alex just stopped throwing up on Tuesday.
• Have a small stockpile of gifts for the kiddo to distract them and get them out of bed. Lego sets worked for us. Alex got 7 between us and gifts. LOL
• Set a pain management routine. Alex would take his meds, get in a warm bath and lay there while sucking on a Popsicle, then out of the bath into bed with a movie or just to nap. This routine got us through the first 72 hours of recovery. We also fell back on it in later days when the pain came back.
• Be prepared for the pain to get worse before it gets better. Seriously Alex's worse day for pain was 2 days after surgery.
• Most importantly, just be there to comfort, that did more than anything for Alex.

The Tonsil Surgery, lots of pictures and long

This is a picture heavy post and probably gory detail post, but I want to write it down so I don't forget and for any other parents who might stumble across this post while looking for tonsil info like I spent all of last week doing. *whew how about that run-on sentence!*

We were up way before dawn on Alex's surgery day and arrived at the surgery center with Alex in Pj's and full bedhead. He was okay, a little nervous which was to be expected. But the staff was amazing!
The IV was probably the hardest part for him before surgery, but our prep nurse Sheila did a great job explaining how it all worked for him and even took apart an IV stick to show him the insides. That alone made Alex relax a little bit, he loves to know how things work.

The surgery staff took time to come and introduce themselves to me and Alex. The anesthesiologist Dr. C was great, making small talk with Alex about his DS games (which I was REALLY glad i had brought for him, well, he talked me into allowing it to come). But we both knew the time was coming up for him to head to surgery when they all started gathering around his bed.

I took that time to tell Alex about a Lego set he had waiting for him back at home for his recovery, it immediately distracted him which gave the nurse a chance to put his "sleepy meds" in his IV without him freaking out about it. He was pretty funny telling everyone about his Legos when he suddenly stopped and asked "Why is everything blurry? I think I should take off my glasses." After that it was really quick, I had a small chance to give him a kiss and tell him that I would see him soon, and off he went. I wandered back to the waiting room, knowing it would be at least 45 to an hour before I would see him again.

I did everything I could to distract myself from thinking about what was happening to him at the exact moment. I deleted everything off my phone, read part of a book, and before I knew it Dr. B was there to tell me how it went. I had some time to ask some questions and felt really relieved. I still had time to wait before I would be allowed in recovery so I called Casey and my MIL and then had a crazy lady telling me about how she had to be there for her nephew because his Dad was arrested that morning. Seriously.

Once back in the recovery section Alex was really out of it and making horrible sounding coughs. His first words out of his mouth were, "Surgery sucks!" Once he was stable and able to breathe clearly without coughing we were moved to a private recovery bay where we put Alex in a big recliner.

Our nurse Dee Dee was amazing, seriously that woman was such a comfort to us both. While in recovery we discovered that Alex is unfortunately one of those people where anesthesia is really hard on them. He immediately started throwing up old blood, blood that he had swallowed during surgery. I felt so bad for him each time he was throwing up, it sounded so painful. We got him a dose of pain meds on top of the morphine that he was on and a big dose of anti nausea meds. Alex was given a Popsicle, but could barely handle it since he was in so much pain, he ended up just passing out each time he tried to take a bite, or barfing. And red Popsicles are not allowed because they can't tell if there is fresh bleeding, just a heads up!

We stayed in recovery for all most 3 hours because he was not able to stop throwing up. We ended up with another dose of meds that stopped the nausea a little bit and made him even more sleepy.

These barf pans came in handy! I counted and on the day of his surgery he barfed more than 20 times in a 24 hour period. Super scary.

This pic was taken at Alex's request, it was pretty funny to have him wake up briefly and only ask for a picture to be taken. Poor kiddo was passed out on the car ride home, he had zero muscle control and only woke up once to barf. I swear I grew arms to handle driving, holding his head, and barf pan all at the same time.

My mom was waiting here at home when we arrived, she was so great to come and hang out with Alex while I dashed off to the grocery and pharmacy. he slept the whole time which was a blessing.

The pic below was how we spent the majority of the surgery day at home, Alex sleeping, me next to him with my laptop and a every phone I have within arm's reach.

One problem we did have was that Alex had to pee but couldn't. We tried three times in an hour period, but no dice. I had a call into the surgery nurse who finally got back to us and said to put him in the tub with warm water and let him pee in there. It did the trick 20 minutes into the bath. thank goodness! otherwise we would have had to pack up and go to Children's Hospital for a catheter and over night stay. Yay for warm baths!

Alex's only request on Thursday was to see his Lego set, so I set it up right in front of him so he could see it when he could open his eyes.

Archie was a constant companion on Thursday, he was glued to Alex's side always a little worry ball. But a comfort for Alex who would reach out and lay a hand on him every once and a while.

We ended the day with a little bit of food in Alex, some Gerber peaches and chicken broth. He ended up barfing both up later. Keeping liquids in him has been a huge struggle. It hurts to swallow, it hurts to open his mouth wider then a little bit, it just hurts. It is heart breaking from a parent's point of view to be laying next to your kiddo and hear their stomachs growl, but they won't eat/can't eat.

Thursday night was ROUGH. We both passed out around 9:30pm and Alex woke up around midnight in pain, dosed him up and he fell back asleep. At 3:30 am he was up again in major pain and hungry. I dosed him with meds and put him in the tub, where we found out he was seeing scary things on these pain meds. Poor guy couldn't look at the tiles and towels without seeing "bad face and scary movies playing". :(

We ended up establishing a wake up routine of pain meds, bath, Popsicle, movie and then sleep.

Thursday was a long day and night.

More to come later on Day 1 and Day 2 after surgery. Casey is home from his business trip and Alex is 100% better after a scary rough morning. Here is hoping that he sleeps well tonight, me too!

Tonsil Post #4: The Night Before

Alex is chillin' in the tub right now, enjoying warm water, bubbles and forced relaxation. Once he has a good soak I am going to rub down his body with an awesome Lavender Lotion bar to hopefully help him fall asleep faster tonight. We are up early tomorrow morning, 5am for me, 5:30 am for him. We need to be out the door by 6am to get to the surgery center on time.

Last night's adventures should help us both fall asleep quickly tonight. Sharon started having contracts last night, so my mom came and took Alex to her place and Sharon and I spent an evening in the observation clinic at her hospital. She is having contracts, but no dilation or active labor. I just know she is going to have her baby when I can't be there for her. I think I finally got in bed and fell asleep around 1am.

I was up super early to get Archie groomed and pick up Alex for a dentist appointment. We got all the way to the dentist's office when we found out through the receptionist that all of Alex's dental benefits have been used up for this year, so how would I like to pay?? Ummmm, I wouldn't?! Once Alex's surgery is out of the way I will do mortal combat with the insurance company to get his checkup and teeth cleaning covered, *sigh*

I have been nervous all day so I have been cleaning, everything! I even swiffered the walls in our bedroom. LOL. Alex has been nervous too so I distracted him with one of the Lego sets Casey bought for him after his recovery. I figure that he is going to be super out of it for a couple days so Lego building won't be a high priority, why not enjoy a small set now?

Plans for the rest of the night before prep are to pack a small bag for him with a change of clothes, Star Blankie (an old woobie), and Mrs. Fish who he got at Children's Hospital last week when they drew his blood for labs. Yeah, he is ten, but I am not going to take away comfort items when he is nervous and a little scared. We will give Casey a call soon, say night nights, maybe read over the book his ENT gave us to explain the surgery again, and hopefully get some decent sleep.

**********

Okay, I am TOTALLY nervous about the 30 minutes he is going to be in surgery. I am afraid that I will break down during that time since I will have nothing to distract me. I did the same thing when he was a baby and was circumcised at the hospital, I SWEAR I could hear him crying down the hall. I am nervous and trying so hard to not show Alex how I am feeling. I talked briefly with Casey a little bit ago, but he was driving back to the hotel after his class, and I was on the verge of tears, I couldn't even talk about being nervous without choking up. Did the same thing when my MIL called to wish Alex luck. Bless her heart she asked me how I was doing and I could barely squeak out that I am okay and it will all be okay. Damn hormonal Mommy nerves.

Please pray for Alex's surgery to go smoothly and his recovery to be swift. And pray for me to have plugs for my tear ducts, I have to stay strong, no water works. Well, maybe tonight while I am in the shower I will let them out.

It will all be okay. :)

Tonsil Post #3: 48 hours till surgery

Everyone has been spoiling Alex, I guess it is hard not too. We are all nervous about Thursday. We are all a little worried. We all know it will be okay, but it is still hard to go through any surgery as a family.

Casey, unfortunately is on a business trip this week. We have had it booked since Christmas and it is for a very old client of ours, which means that we didn't want to cancel it. So Thursday, I will be sending him text messages and emails all day long. Yes, Casey would be here if this surgery was a major surgery, but everyone (doctors, nurses, friends and family) have all said that this is a minor surgery even though there is general anesthesia involved. Even the horrors stories from the Internet say that surgery was a piece of cake, its the recovery that is a bitch. Casey comes home on Saturday and will be here to help us through the bulk of the recovery. So all is well.

Alex has been battling a minor cold or infection all week. His fever is gone, but he complains of a headache, sore throat and stomach ache. His doctor says no worries, we will go through with the surgery on Thursday unless his fever is over 102. I can't wait for all these minor colds and infections to go away once his tonsil are out. We are all hoping it is the magic fix for Alex.

My Mom came and dropped off a new DS game for Alex, to spoil him of course. We have multiple Lego sets stashed in the closet for easy play during recovery. I love on him whenever I can.

I try not to let myself think about it too much, I had to make myself stop thinking about the time I will be alone at the surgical center, during surgery, and the small panic I started to feel about that half hour. *sigh*

Tonight Alex and I are cleaning machines! We are super cleaning the house so we can enjoy our Wednesday, and not have to worry about small messes or vacuuming on Thursday or the days after. Cleaning is also what I do when I have something worrying on my mind, it helps to distract my nerves and focus my thoughts.

Damn... I am totally just rambling. More to come tomorrow.

Hard Day & Tonsil Post #2 & New Diet Recipe

Tonight we had our first official new "diet" dinner, which is honestly not all that new to us, but it's one of our standards. Alex has been really upset about how much of his favorite foods he can not have, well it is pretty much everything. Doing a bit more digging online I have found that he can have cheeses and some cream sauces but infrequently (no more then once a week for both the sauce and cheese). This new diet is very heavy in fresh veggies and fruits (that are not citrus) which is a good thing, but Alex has his Dad's anti-veggie outlook. :)

On to the recipe!

Applesauce Porkchops, wild rice with quinona and steamed green beans.

Applesauce Porkchops
3/4 C Applesauce unsweetened
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 finely diced garlic clove

Combine all the above ingredients together for the sauce. I just mixed mine in a 1 cup measuring cup and set aside.

Brown pork chops in a heavy bottomed skillet, with pepper on both sides. I added olive oil to the pan and a small bit of butter ( sorry I can't help it, butter in moderation is not a problem and it can add so much flavor). Brown both sides, lower heat and top with sauce. Cover and cook on medium low heat for 20 minutes.

I served with wildrice/quinona mix and steamed green beans. The chops have sauce on them, but don't miss out on the sauce that has browned in the bottom of the pan, it was yummy.

Alex didn't mind this dinner, but unfortunately his tummy is a bit upset so he didn't eat much more than the chop.

In the summer I can't wait to try a variation of this on the grill with grilled veggie kabobs!

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On to the Tonsil part of the post. I just checked on Alex and he has a bit of a fever, which we have to get rid of ASAP since he can't go into surgery with a fever, they will rescheduled it. I dosed him with Tylenol and have popped him into the shower to steam it out. Ibuprofen and aspirin are a huge No-no right now since they are both blood thinners and Alex can't be on them before his surgery. Here's hoping the Tylenol will do the trick, it isn't as effective as Ibuprofen for Alex.

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Today was even more of a hard day for Alex. We went over to my parents house for a little bit today so Alex could see his Poppa before his surgery and to play with the neighborhood kids. When I went across the street to get Alex to head home, I discovered that he had accidentally stepped on a baby bunny hiding in the yard. Alex was holding the bunny in a yugioh tin and the poor thing was barely able to breathe. All the kids were upset and Jenny the Mom was just trying to keep her 4 from hysterics. Alex and I told the kids we would bring the bunny home and take care of her.

Poor Alex was so upset that she was hurt, he felt it was his fault and was having a hard time looking at it as an accident. The bunny died on the way home which I figured was going to happen because of the way she was breathing. Casey met us at the door, his Daddy sense was on high alert and we immediately loved on Alex and hugged him up trying to cheer him up. Out behind our fence line Casey dug a hole and we have a small funeral for the bunny, said our prayers, and painted a rock with RIP and a cross.

Needless to say it has been a very hard day for Alex. I know he feels at fault for the bunnies death, but we just try to remind him if all the bunnies that the dogs catch in the yard each year and that accidents happen. He has become very attached to the idea of wild animal pets in the last couple months, I think it has been stemming from the books he has been reading.

Anyways, lots of bunny prayers were sent to heaven today. And more prayers for Alex too.

A new Grocery List

This family loves pizza and spaghetti and oranges and chocolate.

This family is cutting out the pizza and spaghetti and oranges and chocolate.

This family has a kiddo who has been diagnosed with acid reflux (a different kind then what we see on TV). So most of our food choices have to change.

The easiest way to find a "diet" that will work for Alex is to look up GERD diets for children. Alex has all ready declared that he is going to miss salami and marinara sauce the most. I don't think he realizes that Root Beer is on the No-No list as well.

I am pretty excited because it is warming up, which means we can try out a bunch of new things on the new grill. We are going to get so much better! Casey and I just have to adjust our default cooking though. We need a new basics list.

Today, we are making our grocery list for the next two weeks. Weeks that include a new family "diet" and weeks that include Alex's recovery.

Lots of green foods!

Lots of soft foods!

Lots of new foods.

I am going to start posting some new "diet" menus and recipes to help me keep track of it all.

This morning, I prepped the crock pot for a big batch of beef stew! Not exactly the lean meat that the diet plans refer too, but it is a type of comfort food for Alex, and it is not tomato based. :)