Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Bikes, beer, and sickies

Good evening campers. Been a few days I guess. I had all intentions of posting some pics of us at the Bay City Rail Trail. The boys did great, Tommy biked the whole 9.2 miles. So much fun. This was Sunday. My IL's brought over some homemade beer that night too. We've had enough of that for a while I think.

Yesterday I progressively got to feeling crummy. Today I feel like I got run over by a truck with a full blown summer cold. Aren't those the worst?

We leave for Disney the day after tomorrow! It's been raining like crazy down. I hope that it trades places as MI is in a bit of a drought and I don't feel like having my vacation washed up. Each day has rain in the forecast, hopefully just a quickie storm though. That is normal for FL.

Well I'm hoping for better sleeps tonight! Don't want to be feeling bad for Florida.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Ack....Nasty!

Ugh, so not cool. So by mistake I hit the "next blog" button. I thought it would take me to a blog I have a link to. Imagine my shock when I hit a disgusting porn scene and then Internet Explorer opens (I run Mozilla) and my computer starts freaking out.

Such disturbing images! I hate being caught off guard like that. Thank goodness for Digital TV and I don't have that happen on TV. There was nothing worse when channel surfing years ago and hitting a channel that was in the middle of a gory horror scene or something. Now I can read what's on before I click. It's the safe way to surf. They need that on the internet.

So a word of warning. Don't click on the next blog button!

B E E R ! !

The title says it all. Friends of ours had a party tonight. The gentleman has been brewing his own beer and had 7 for us to try plus some cherry wine! Joe was the iron man and drank a glass of all 7. I've joked forever that he will need a new liver someday. He loves his beer and is always the life of the party. I had a glass of wine, then had shot glass fulls of all the beers. I decided that beer #1 was the best and had a full glass of #6 boy that was hoppy.

Good fun and fellowship with dear friends. What more could I ask for?

Oh and I made a great and fancy chip dip tonight. So don't think that I can't create any tasty viddles, I just choose not to most times. :)

Friday, July 27, 2007

3:00AM Eternal

It's now just about 3:00AM. How come so many songs mention 3:00 am? When you're talking about the middle of the night, why does 3:00 am come to mind? Right now, I've got MatchBox 20 and KLF ringing in my head. "It's 3:00 am I must be lonely." So odd as I'm usually a good sleeper, but a 1:30 train and Austin waking up at that time have set me back. I know part of it is I'm hungry, the ice cream social after VBS wasn't quite enough sustenance for me.

Speaking of VBS, the kids all went up front and sang their songs tonight. I was so proud of both of them. Tommy is a natural up there singing, he does great. And I had a few worries about his rhythm recently but those have been erased. He was up there clapping perfectly to the beat. Yay, I was worried since both Joe and I are music moguls. Austin made me especially proud. They did a lot of motions and he did his best with lefty and sang his little heart out. "Dive deep, deep, into God's word" has been playing over and over in my head all night too. He loves that song. It's nights like tonight that I think Austin will be ok.

Since it's the middle of the night I can be forgiven for interesting posts. Oh Austin, my dear Austin. Today we got news that he has cavities and needs to see a pediatric dentist. Poor dude can never catch a break. Once in a while I'll get into an Austin funk. I'll think, that poor boy will never make it in school. He'll never play sports or on playscapes. He'll always live in his brother's shadow. He'll never live a normal life. But then I have those "aha" moments and I know it won't be so bad. Tuesday was of course botox at U of M. Visiting this hospital always brings a myriad of emotions for me. I can't help but go back to days like Oct. 28 2003. I had been discharged from the hospital less than 48 hours after a c-section to get down there with my baby. He looked so sick, I remember saying to Joe right away "he's gonna die." Joe's always the strong one, he never let me think that would happen. But later his Mom would tell me that the night before when they were down there that Mr. Rational Joe was going all over the ECMO machine, figuring how it worked and in an elevator very matter of fact says "and we might lose him." Know this, whenever doctors pull you into a room alone know that it's not good news. Austin's heart just wasn't coming around, they wanted to go in and look around and maybe drain some blood they thought was pooling in the left ventricle. Of course we gave our consent and then went off to cry in a lonely hallway for hours. Then we got back there and it was one of those places where you always had to call ahead before entering the "pods" where he was. The nurse said you have to go downstairs somewhere else the doctors need to talk to you. Then we had Austin's turnaround. Dr. MacDonald Dick exclaims that while looking at his heart they found an extra nerve causing his SVT. They wanted to do a heart ablasion, this wasn't new to me as my Mom had this same thing in her 40's. They usually don't ablate babies but Austin was an extremely severe case, worst they'd seen in 25 years supposedly. So they did his ablasion and within minutes his heart was finally beating normally. Amazing! We went home with peace that night knowing that he would survive while only earlier in the day I was certain he wouldn't make it.

Gosh the above was long, I'm getting to a point here though. Austin came home after only a little more than 2 weeks in the hospital. Our ped. wanted to do a head ultrasound because of the risk of brain bleeds from ECMO and later we'd find out he arrested 3 times in Saginaw when he was born. Hence why he was airlifted to U of M. U/S came back bad so it was now CT scan time. This also came back worrisome so off to U of M neurology we go. January 19, 2004 another bad U of M experience. I can tell you another certainty of bad news. When two doctors come in after an initial evaluation by one you know they are going to give you bad news. It was crushing, Austin had pretty significant brain damage which would lead to possibly severe CP and severe retardation. I don't think I understood, I do remember thinking at one point; "I prayed in that hallways months ago just wanting him to survive and I now I'm angry that I'll have a vegetable" I had already known something wasn't right with him. At a Christmas school gathering I cried to coworkers that I knew something was terribly wrong. I just didn't know what. So then we were on the "wait and see" game. What a horrible game to play. Pretty quickly after the news he started smiling thanks for waiting 3 months dear. I knew he would have emotion.

Well I didn't think I'd get going so much. I'm still not tired but I feel like I'm rambling. I guess I will end it after I fast forward to Wednesday's "aha" moment.

Austin has therapy at Highland Pines School in Caro from 2:30 - 3:30. Tommy and I sat out on a bench out front and read. At 3:00 school let out and probably about 30 kids from ages 3 - 26 came out to get on buses to go home. What I saw truly horrified me. Wheelchair after wheelchair, some kids completely out of touch with their surroundings, drooling adults. I had one of those moments of "Dawn, you are the most selfish person on earth, who cares that Aus won't be valedictorian chances are Tommy won't be either, who cares that he won't play in the NHL what's the likelihood of that for anyone, who cares that he still has to go to therapy, botox injections, castings, AFO's, maybe special ed in the future, you are DARN LUCKY things turned out so well for you." Google the writing "Welcome to Holland" I need to embrace Holland because our Holland really isn't so bad.

3:35AM I'm still not sleepy.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Botox Shell Shock


Yesterday Austin had to have his right arm botoxed. No problem, we've done this before but anesthesia is always a little scary for little ones. Well there was something about yesterday's drugs that just didn't sit well with him. He screamed and thrashed around for almost an hour afterward and just wasn't happy at all yesterday. Last year he slept peacefully most of the day afterward. Today though he is right as rain. Hopefully it will help with the function of his right hand/arm. Here is a pic of him before his procedure, the anesthesiologist brought him a mask to play with.

Oh and for all of you worried that we're over here starving, fear not. My IL's invited us over tonight for a fabulous dinner. Thanks bunches!

Monday, July 23, 2007

The next Tiger Woods lives here.

So Austin had a first today. I took him and Tommy putt putt golfing. On the 3rd hole Austin got a hole in 1! It was quite comical. The front 9 went much smoother than the back 9. I decided that after fishing balls out of the water for the gabillionth time I'd never take them putty golfing again. Then at the end you have the hole that is way high and I thought impossible to sink one in. Well I did it and won a free game. So I guess I will have to take them golfing again.

In other news we had our 2nd evening of VBS. The boys are having a great time. I'm helping in the recreation department. Fun Fun!!

The 3 of us should definitely be losing weight without our personal chef here to cook for us. We've lived on the Genji leftovers from Friday, pb&j, and hot dogs. Austin and I did plow through a block of cheese so we at least got our dairy. Oh yeah, and cucumbers from my neighbors garden. They are out of town and we're in charge of the plants and feeding the fish. They've let me lose on their cucumbers. ahhh, delicious. Can you tell that I am not a gourmet here? Either way we are surviving without Joe but definitely miss him.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Softball Happenings

So today was our coed softball tournament. We did well and took 2nd place. The team that won was very good but we lost due to one bad inning. That was usually the case with all our losses. Oh well it was fun. Our record for the season was 5 wins, 4 losses. This was our best season so far and we've been playing together since 2002. I guess we are going to play fall ball so at least this wasn't the end. It's quite the family and coworker affair. My Dad, brother, and husband play along with 2 cousins. Then the rest of team for the most part is my St. Elizabeth School coworkers. It's full of good camaraderie that is for sure. Man, so close yet so far away. I was hoping to post some championship trophy pics tonight. Maybe one of these days our team will actually win it all. As I say, stranger things have happened.

Joe is loving CA, Disneyland anyways. I think tomorrow he actually has to go to his conference. I think he'd much rather play at Disney. But he'll be back; only 10 more days until we leave for "the World."

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Leaving on a jet plane!

Not me, but Joe of course. My traveling man. The boys and I just dropped him off at the airport where he'll head to Anaheim, CA for a Networkers Convention. Last year's event was in Las Vegas and tales of $100 margaritas and other fun abound. This year he has a 3 day hopper to Disneyland. Lucky dog. As most who know us already know, Joe is the biggest Disney fan there is. He's never had the pleasure of going to Disneyland. Hopefully he can get a new Main ST Electrical Parade t-shirt that he has worn out from the 99' trip. Have fun hubby!

Tommy was pretty upset when we dropped him off. Crying all the way to Clio, then calming down only to get home and get upset again when he saw Joe's car in the garage. :( This week will go by so fast though, we have something planned everyday! So I'm not too sad, and plus once he gets back Friday night then we are only 6 days removed from our trip to Disney World!!!!!! YeeHaw!!! Gosh I love summer!

Friday, July 20, 2007

Trying this out!

So my dear friend Debbie started a blog to chronicle the lives of her two boys. I thought it a good idea and have decided to jump in the blogging pool. Not sure if anyone will ever read this besides a few good friends but I'm looking at it as journaling. My Dad has kept a diary since the 60's, it's interesting to pick them up and see what he was doing at a certain time in his life. I personally love to type about myself but to actually handwrite something is pure misery. Hence why I never got into a diary. I'm hoping this will be my online diary and years from now when I get that feeling like Dad gets wondering what I did on this date 5 years ago I can look back. Who knows though, I could be done with this in 2 weeks. Oh well stranger things have happened.

So here it is, my first post!