For Crystal

I went to a 31 party at my friend Crystal's house the other night, and she made the comment that I really should have a blog and just write down my day to day stuff that happens.

So... anyway - this one is for you Crystal, the story of my day yesterday.

Got up at 6 to put Tina on the bus. Didn't go to bed the night before until about midnight or later because I was working on medical foster care stuff.

Got Tina on the bus, and woke the other kids up. Got myself ready, then got the baby ready and woke the older kids up and told them to get ready. There was the normal chaos of finding shoes, jackets, and as always - the hairbrush. I keep saying that I am going to secure the hairbrushes to the wall in the bathrooms like they do hairdryers in hotel rooms; and I seriously mean that. Veggie Tales "Oh Where Is My Hairbrush" is like our theme song around here.

Matt took the day off to go with me to doctors appointments because the baby had an appt, and both of the twins had a cardiology appt. We pull into the gas station with 10 miles to go till empty - but we made it :) I had a meeting to go to first, and I expected it to be about 2 hours, so Matt took the kids to Target. The meeting ended up lasting only about 40 minutes, so he had to check out quickly and come back to get me. He later told me, that if it were him at the meeting, he would have kept asking stupid questions to make it last longer, vs going back with all the kids - lol.

It was too early to go to the doctor's appts, so we went to lunch at a Spanish restaraunt that Matt LOVES. The twins ordered grilled cheese, Madi got plain yellow rice, and I got grossed out by the sight of some of the meat or rather "Meat parts" they had there - so just not right!! and the baby refused to eat anything. Matt asks me if I am officially a vegetarian now. I tell him that as much as I can - yes. I will eat chicken nuggets from Chick-Fi-La, and I will eat skinless, boneless chicken sometimes, but if given a choice I would rather just have veggies and bread. Oh, and chocolate and coffee ;)

On the way to the appt, we had a conversation that went like this:

Tyler - "is God my father"

Matt - "well, he is your Heavenly father, but I am your earthly father"

Tyler - "is God my step-father?"

Matt - "no" (I can see the smile and the frustration coming to his face at the same time)

Lauren - "was Joseph Jesus' father"

I intervene at this point - lol

Shauna - "Joseph loved Jesus and raised Him as his son, but he wasn't his genetic father. Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married, but they didn't have sex until after Jesus was born"

Lauren - "so Mary didn't want to have sex?"

Matt has his hand on his head at this point in total shock and disbelief ;)

Tyler laughs at Lauren, Lauren gets mad because Tyler laughed at her question.

Shauna - "Tyler, don't laugh at Lauren. Lauren that is a good question. Mary wanted to please God, So she chose not to have sex until she was married"

Tyler gets back to his question - "so what is a step-father?"

I decide I'll take this one too, as I see the smirk growing on Matt's face

Shauna - "Tyler, I know you are asking because of your friend "_____". His parents got a divorce, and his dad has a girlfriend now, who has a daughter, and that is why "_____" calls her his step-sister."

Tyler - "so "_____'s" dad is cheating on his mom??"

Shauna - "No. Please don't go saying that to "_____".
I go on to TRY to explain that although God intends for people to stay married forever, sometimes people get a divorce, and that is what happened to his friend's parents. And that God loves everyone, etc, etc. Very hard to explain to a 7 year old who thinks concretely about different situations, etc.

Both Tyler and Lauren are somewhat satisfied with their answers for the time being. whew... thank goodness!

We get to the twins cardiology appointment... I am filling out paperwork, the baby is crying - constantly, nothing is making him happy. Madi is trying to get him interested in the toys there in the waiting room. Matt is going to sleep in the chair. I swear, he can go to sleep anywhere, anytime! So frustrating to me, who has SUCH a hard time going to sleep at night. Anyway, he doesn't really succeed at sleeping, and he ends up holding the baby; which does help calm him down some - the baby, not Matt ;)

We get called back to the room, I was surprised at how fast and how well the nurse did at getting the vitals and EKG's done and out of the way. Then... we wait. And we wait. And we wait. I am about to fall asleep at this point, and I have a hard time falling asleep in my comfy bed at 1 AM. The baby is either crying or happy playing with things he can't play with, then gets moved to the toys where he cries again. Tyler and Lauren have their usual competition of conversations - Lauren saying that they are going to do an Echo, and it hurt her last time. Tyler saying - well I have had surgery TWO times!!

It was about that time that Matt is half way laying down on the exam table, and makes the comment about his restaraunt that he is going to open one day and how he is going to make all the doctors wait for hours for a table. It is also at this point that I am wondering if I really made a wise choice in asking him to take off work to go with me. Although I have to say - it REALLY did make my day TONS easier!! He also made the point that he loves the twins cardiologist, says he trusts him completely, he is a REALLY smart guy; if he could just learn how to tell time, he would be doing really good ;)

Doctor finally comes in and we go over all that has been going on. I really do like their doctor too. He is one of those that really cares about his patients. That is probably why he runs late - he will stay and talk until all questions are answered.

He orders an echo on both of the twins. Tyler pulls his shirt off and says "me first". lol

We all go into the Echo room, and they have "Bee Movie" playing, which entertains all of us ;) The baby gets a Safe-T lollipop and he is the happiest he has been all day. Turns out that Tyler's PFO has not closed, but the tech says that it is small.

Next is Lauren's turn. Her's is taking a little bit longer, and the doctor walks in. The doctor asks to see some of the pics and he and the tech talk for a minute, then he goes to get another doctor. At this point I am getting a little bit scared. I understand a LITTLE bit of what they are saying (with my medical background) and poor Matt doesn't know what they are saying at all; and that really frustrated him. The other doctor, a Chinese lady, came over to talk to me and explained that they can't really tell from the Echo whether she has a PFO or a large ASD. That in most of the images in looks large, and it is in a strange place at the top of the heart. The tech is still trying to get a better image. The doctor goes on to mention doing an esophogeal scope so they can see the heart better (which they mentioned doing last year as well). About that time the tech says "look here" and I guess she got an image that all 3 of them were certain that it is just a pfo, and the plan then becomes to just monitor her and follow up for another echo in a year or 2. Whew... big relief. Then later after we left the appt and Matt and I had a chance to talk, we decided that we both would have felt better if they would have just done the scope to make sure - so I may mention that at our next appointment next month.

We go back to the room, to wait on 2 loop monitors to be brought in - to be worn for a month. Matt and I are getting anxious about the time, as we will be pushing it to get home in time to get Tina off the bus.

We get out to the elevators and are waiting. We are on the 3rd floor, and there is a water fountain on the ground level. Matt starts throwing pennies from the 3rd floor into the fountain on the ground level!!! Really???? We get into the elevator and the kids are all wound up, he starts to get onto them, and I say "I don't know why they are wound up, or who they would be looking up to - like someone who throws pennies off the 3rd floor to the water on the bottom floor!

We get outside and are waiting on the valet to get our car, when Lauren starts hitting me in the boob with her lollipop (not opened yet) saying "mom, mom, mom" - I look over at Matt and say "normally at this point, I would be beyond my patience limit, and would be very frustrated, but I am totally ok ;) He says that he thinks he actually misses his 7th graders, and he is going to tell the school that the next time he asks off to go to a doctors appt with me that they are to tell him NO!! He then says that he is very tired and can't wait to get home to take a nap. Lauren, after getting my attention, says out loud with people around, also waiting on their cars - "so, Mary didn't want to have sex?" I shush her quickly and tell her that she can ask me any question privately, but we don't talk about sex in public. Matt is still distraught by the entire conversation, but is somewhat relieved, because he had just said that he wanted to take a nap; and he thought Lauren asked me if Matt and I were going to have sex - ROFL!!!

On the ride home Matt was talking about the doctors again. And he mentioned the Chinese doctor - he said "those Chinese people are smart. They have to be smart to speak Chinese" - lol I told him - I know one chinese word ;) See link below for that bit of information lol ;)

We get home in time to get Tina. I had gotten the three kids bedrooms painted, and flooring put down in the baby's room; but I just didn't have the time or energy to finish it, so we called some friends of ours who do construction work, and they came and finished painting the house for me. I LOVE it!!! They did such a good job, and it looks great. Still a little bit more to be done, but i am so happy with it :)

We go to Target, and then the mall. Tina ran off from us twice while we were at the mall. I really thought we were over that. She hasn't done that in a few months. But she DID come right back when I called her. The baby is crying again. Tina isn't happy with me, so she is pushing my buttons. We are all exhausted.

We get home and get the little ones in bed first. We just got new beds for the older 3 - to satisfy the requirements for foster care (long story); and they have all been saying all day that they are going to sleep in their own beds - yeah, right. They change beds at least 10 times, trying to decide where they are all going to sleep. I finally get the twins on the bottom full size bed; and Madi starts crying. I ask her what's wrong and she says she wants to sleep with Ty and La. So... we bought new beds, painted their rooms, trying to give them more space, and more individual space; and they end up all 3 sleeping on a full size bed. Arghh. Madison did end up moving to the top bunk at some point. We go through our nightly routine of threatening, and spanking, and having them get up and do chores, etc... nothing works; they, like me - just can't go to sleep easily.

Matt and I put the furniture back where it goes. And fall down in exhaustion on the couch.

I am sure I left out some things, but you get the idea.

THEN... today, I have had 2 kids on a heart monitor, and I have to go over to the church to call in the results b/c it has to be a land line. The baby has some alarms from his medical equipment during nap. Madison (who was left out of seeing a doctor yesterday) says to me, my chest feels funny, it feels like I can't breathe. I check her O2 sats and pulse rate. Her oxygen level is at 95, which is OK, but kinda low for a person with no respiratory problems. AND... her heart rate is 170!! You have GOT to be kidding me!! I don't think the doctor would believe me if I told him. So, I watch her for a while, and have her sit still. Heart rate goes down, and oxygen levels go up. Guess I will have to watch her closely too.

So, all morning, I am going around to each kid, checking hearts, and breathing, etc. Madi says "It's like you have your own pediatric hospital" lol In addition to being nurse this morning, I am also being teacher, trying to catch up on all the homeschool work we missed last week. And I am having to be mom - kissing knees and heads that got bumped or bruised, fixing lunch, trying to keep peace and teach them to love vs fight.

Stayed home with Tina tonight, I haven't felt good yesterday or today, and she was having a bad afternoon. Towards the end of the week, she gets crabby - she needs sleep. She has to get up so early. SO I got her in bed, and typed this post. And as soon as Matt finishes writing his sermon for a funeral tomorrow, I am hoping to talk to him about possibilities of me going back to see my granddad.

Not as exciting as some of our days, but definately NOT boring :)

video for chinese word I know. warning, this may be offensive to some, although personally, I think it is funny.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4uBsq21s9g