Well, Christmas is over.  Boy, am I glad!!   I spent two days prior to baking.  I am not a baker!  I can bake, I just don't really enjoy it.  However, I was hosting Christmas so I baked.  I made 3 part cookies, Mexican wedding cookies (oh, yum), walnut fudge, rocky road fudge, two pumpkin pies and a caramel apple pie.  I told you I was doing a lot of baking!! 

 

I got a little smarter this year and had the wrapping done ahead of time.  No more staying up all night to wrap gifts on Christmas Eve!!  Of course, the kids are also getting older and nosier so I had to get things wrapped before they found them.  I did stay up late Christmas Eve, though, waiting for that caramel apple pie to finish baking.

 

My house is a disaster.  It is so messy!  I have nowhere - and I mean NOWHERE - to put these gifts.  The sofa is piled up.  There are piles in the corner of the living room.  Stuff all over the dining room floor.  The bedrooms are stacked. I should have said one gift a person since there are eight of us living here.  Oh well.  There are boxes stacked on more boxes, which are on yet more boxes.  I usually save them.  I actually threw a bunch out.  I'm considering getting rid of all of them.  I have no room in my garbage cans.  The recyclable bin is overflowing and the garbage won't be picked up until Tuesday morning.  It's only Friday!!

 

The kids loved their gifts.  I was most worried about Anayla because she is so hard to buy for!  Luckily, she loved everything I got her but one sweater.  She did say that the one sweater isn't too bad and it will probably grow on her.  She is in love with the wool winter coat I gave her.  The girl never wears a decent coat.  She claims that she isn't cold, but her crossed arms and quick walk say otherwise on cold, windy days.  Of course, she is really in love with her mp3 player.

 

Reece loves all the toys that he got.  The clothes, for him, are merely a necessity that must be replaced as they get holey.  Not if he grows out of them, but if they are worn to threads.  He'll keep wearing them, too small or not.  He seems to be especially fond of his metal detector and has already found all sorts of treasures in the front yard - old tin cans, bottle caps, metal yard stakes...such wonderful finds!!

 

Alicia loved her clothes and all the girly stuff.  Girly stuff meaning Littlest Pet Shop and Polly Pocket things.  If it is nearly microscopic then she wants it!  She even got little electronic journals that require a password to open, not that we can get it set.  It still rocks, apparently. 

 

Her biggest gift was a kids' digital camera.  I could not find it for the life of me!  I dug around the closet I had the presents in and couldn't find it.  I even took a flashlight and looked in the deep recesses of it!  I looked in the garage, where I had originally stashed the bags, again using the flashlight.  No luck.  Finally, today, the day after Christmas, I went back into the garage and prayed, "God, please help me find that camera.  It wasn't cheap and I'd hate to think that we wasted money on it.  Oh, and that other Wii game would be appreciated, too, if I could only find it."  I looked down and there was the game. 

 

"Thank you, God!!  Now, can you show me where the camera is?"

 

I dug around a little more and lo, and behold - there is was! Precisely where I had looked before!!  It fell out of the bag, apparently, and hid under some boxes that were stacked strewn about the garage.  I think that sometimes God laughs at me and puts blinders on my eyes so that I can appreciate His help so much more once I ask for it.  I said another quick thank you prayer and took them into the house.  Alicia was very, very happy and has already been taking pictures of things around the house.

 

Of course, the biggest gift of all this year was the Wii.  The kids asked for it, they assumed they were going to get, and they did get it.  I am hoping that if they are going to be playing video games they will at least get some physical activity!  I am also hoping to find the Wii Fit game that was sold out everywhere prior to Christmas so that I can get some physical activity, too.

 

Mike's big gift this year was the GPS navigational system I got for him.  It was worth the hour-long wait at Kohl's on Black Friday to be able to get him a $250 system for $79.99.  For me, I got him wireless headphones so that he can watch TV late at night and not wake any of us up.  He thinks he is losing some of his hearing and I think he may be right.  Silly, deaf man. 

 

My big gift from him was a new camera!!  My old camera was on the fritz; I think that the light for the screen was burning out.  Taking pictures with it was an adventure - I never knew what I was going to get or if it was in focus!  I would put the memory card into the reader and select very few pictures for actual saving.  He got me a loverly camera.  Unfortunately, my memory card from the old camera doesn't fit in the new one so I was unable to take any Christmas pictures.  I bought a new card today.

 

I still can't really take any pictures!

 

This camera is so confusing!  I am a mature, college-educated woman!  Why can I not figure out how to at least use the point-and-shoot features on this thing?  I can write HTML (okay, so it's only the basic stuff, but I taught myself!) but I can't figure out how to shoot without a flash while on macro. 

 

Anyhow...here is my loverly camera:

 

First off, the good news!  Reece came through his surgery with flying colors and he didn't even give me a full day of rest!  I saw the doctor at church Sabbath and he asked how Reece was and I was almost to the point of accusations over Reece bouncing back so quickly.  Of course, Dr. Hunt just laughed and walked away.  But really, Reece did a great job with it all.  We went in dark and early to the surgery center.  He was put in a comfy bed and put on a comfy robe and played with plush toys given to him in admitting. 

 

After about an hour he was wheeled back to the pre-op room.  The anesthesiologist came out and talked to us.  Dr. Hunt came out and talked to Reece.  The techs and nurses came out and talked to Mike and me - and hugged Mike.   Oh yeah, Mike used to work in that OR so they were all old friends!  How wonderful it is to have friends working on your child.  I put on an ill-fitting white, papery, jumpsuit and a very unflattering white puffy hair-net, but solid-so-it-isn't-really-a-net thingy and walked to the actual operating room with Reece.  By this time he was starting to get a little scared and panicked.  Of course, the room is very white and sterile and cold.  They were knocking him out with gas instead of an IV, but he did not like that mask at all!  He fought it a bit and Lisa (the nurse) and I held him down until he finally succumbed and was out.

 

I walked back out to pre-op, stripped out of my oh-so-stylish biodegradable pseudo-scrubs and walked out with Mike and Alicia.  Ali was very upset and crying because she was worried about her brother.  We went to the cafeteria for something to eat since none of us ate breakfast so that we wouldn't make Reece feel badly as he couldn't eat or drink anything.  We had finished eating and were chatting a little bit when our pager went off.  We headed back to the OR.

 

There in the hall was a nurse waiting for us.  Only she didn't know she was waiting for us.  She asked if we were Michael's parents.  I said no, we're Reece's parents, but dad is named Michael.  No,  she insisted she was waiting for Michael's parents.  She checked our pager and it was the one she had paged. She still wasn't able to put two and two together and determine that, quite possibly, she could be wrong!!  She finally went back in.  Finally another person came out and said that they were looking for me!  Well, duh!!  I went back to the recovery room and there was my little boy, crying that he wanted nothing but his mommy.

 

Of course, dingbat was there and the other staff said, "This is Reece's mom.  His dad is named Michael.  I think you got confused."  Gee, do you think?  Just maybe?

 

I cuddled with my "baby" and soothed him.  I removed the monitor pads (not an easy job, they are really sticky) and smoothed his hair.  Then we both went for a ride to the surgery center where he got a popsicle and his sister gave him some fruit to eat.  By the time we finally left he was bouncing off the walls and his sister was wild and I was ready to ask for anesthesia myself.

 

We came home and Mike and I both crashed while Reece and Ali played video games.  He's doing just fine.

 

Now, for some sadder news.  My grandma, who is 86 and shares a birthday with Reece, was hospitalized last week for severe anemia.  We decided to go up and see her yesterday (Sunday).  She had been in a facility that really did her wrong.  They didn't want to do anything but babysit and she was lucky to get out of there alive.  She had to have a transfusion of 4 pints of blood (about half of a person's total blood).  She had slight pneumonia.  She had quit walking.  The staff at the home hadn't been doing any therapy with her and her movement was limited.   She was moved to a new facility and they recognized immediately that she needed to be hospitalized and called 911 on her second day there.  They saved her.

 

She has been released and is staying at the new facility.  It is a private residence with 4 residents.  They are very conscientious, it is very clean and it is a beautiful place.  The care is better and it is cheaper.

 

I went to see her with Aunt Betty, Karnette and Mike.  The last time I saw gandma, she was walking, albeit with a walker.  Yesterday she was in a hospital bed in the fetal position.  She didn't recognize us, but she doesn't want anyone to know that so she is really friendly and says she loves us.  I sat next to her and stroked her hand and ran my fingers through her hair.  She said she was feeling okay, but was tired.  I told her it was fine to take a nap.  I cuddled with my little grandma for about 15 minutes and then gave Karnette her turn.  We talked to Aunt Betty about her treatment and care and meds and my uncles who can't get their acts together and just spent time with grandma. 

 

When we left I told her I love her and she said she loved me too.  I kissed her and then we left.  I realize that she has not been in good health since her stroke 20 years ago and apparently the doctors were shocked that she has lived with as much damage as that stroke did.  It's just hard to see this intelligent, funny woman who was always perfectly attired and coifed reduced to being treated like a baby.   I know that she isn't hurting and that it's part of aging, but I honestly think that sometimes God takes the mind first so that the person doesn't know what has happened to them and they don't get depressed over it.  I'm glad that He's done that for my grandma.

First off, I have to complain a little bit.  I DO NOT like the changes MSN has made to this whole set-up!!  I don't, I don't, I don't!!  Okay, now on to other things.

 

This morning I was rudely awakened by Mike who was getting ready to leave for a double shift at the prison.   He couldn't find his car keys.  He's been off since early Sunday morning and only driven the van.  Turns out Reece had been playing with Mike's keys Sunday while Karnette and I were Christmas shopping.  I had no clue where those keys would be.  Mike finally took the van to work.  This means I was up at 5:30 looking for keys.  Finally, after 3 previous tries, I woke Reece up enough for him to tell me that they were behind Lindsay's bed, next to the wall.  I went in, pulled her bed out, picked up a bunch of clothes from under the bed and lo and behold - there were the keys!

 

As a punishment for playing with daddy's keys, we did not go to the Christmas party this morning we had been invited to attend. I'm really okay with that because the kids have been so hard to deal with lately.  I am about ready to hit Mike with a large, solid candy cane, right upside the head.  He keeps bringing in all of this JUNK and letting the kids eat whatever they want!  Their behavior is off the charts right now. I can't seem to get it through his thick head that buying junk for your kids does not equal showing them love.

 

To make matters worse, Alicia is off her medications.  I finally gave up when she kept throwing them up every morning.  I'm trying behavior modification, but I am getting no backing from Mike on it so I'm not sure how well it is working.  I wish someone would sit that man down and explain that she needs structure and discipline.  I'm afraid that Reece is also exhibiting signs of ADD/ADHD and all this sugaring up of him isn't helping.  Not to mention what it does to their teeth!

 

Tomorrow is bound to be a stressful day for us.  Reece is getting tubes in his ears at 8 a.m.  I finally called the doctor's office to get some information on when it would be done and the girl who schedules and gets authorizations hadn't been told that the doctor ordered the surgery!  It's a good thing I called!  I took him for his pre-op last Friday and that was, of course, not exactly fun.  He did fine during the examination, probably because he just loves Dr. Hunt, but the second we went into the lab he knew something was up.  He said, "I don't want them to take my blood pressure!!!"  I told him it is a blood draw and he said he didn't want that either.  I literally had to lay my leg over him and hold his arms rigid so the tech could take his blood.  He was so angry at me.  Then we headed to the hospital where he declared it and everyone in it to be "stupid".  By the time we were done with the pre-registration he was in a better mood.  I just know that tomorrow he'll be ticked, though, and I fully expect him to be clingy.  I better get to cleaning the house today!

Fall has finally hit the Central California valley.  We went from temperatures in the 80s one week to fall weather the next.  Currently it is 55 degrees at 1:21 pm and the sun is just barely starting to shine through the fog.  Ah yes, the fog.  Some call it toule (too-ly) fog.  I call it pea soup.  I'm not having to drive in it much, thankfully, but poor Mike has to drive from work in it.  It's pretty bad out there in the middle of nowhere, which is where he drives through to and from work.  We didn't have much fog the last couple of years and I think perhaps it's making up for it now. 

 

The kids are doing okay.  We had some illnesses but seem to be over them now.  I took Alicia this morning to our appointment with our coordinator at the charter school.  I was really nervous because we have fallen behind - waaaay behind in my eyes.  Mrs. Parker said we're doing fine and can always make it up on scheduled days off, which I've already been doing, I just didn't have the heart to tell her that we were THAT far behind.  There are a couple of very good reasons, though.  1.  We were sick!  Neither one of us really got out of bed for a week!  and 2.  We've taken Alicia off of her meds.  She said that the lower dose hurt her stomach and then when it was upped she threw it back up almost every time.  I figured all the puking had weaned her off so we just stopped it.  I should probably tell her doctor.  Hmmm....Anyhow, we are trying behavior modification.  We take a lot of breaks so that she can do some sort of exercising and be able to concentrate when she sits back down.  It's definitely a learning process for both of us and I'd really like for her to learn how to work with it instead of being medicated all the time.  I worry about what may happen to her down the road after being on meds for years.  Maybe the throwing up was God's wake-up call to me.  We'll see!!

 

Reece has his pre-op tomorrow for his surgery on his ears.  I called and asked the office if they had received the authorization yet and apparently there was some sort of break-down in communication between the doctor and his staff because she had no clue that Reece was supposed to get the tubes!  She immediately sent it to the insurance company and he is scheduled for the 11th of this month.  My poor boy.  Hopefully this will clear it all up and we can get him into speech therapy and next year I'll be able to do Kindergarten work with him.  Keep him in your prayers!