Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

I couldn't let the night slip away without posting to all! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! What a great day! I'm exhausted though. I hosted at our home with about 16 adults and 4 kids. Thankfully everyone pitched in on the meal and it couldn't have been nicer. Yummy food & family, two of my favorite things ; ) Many times throughout the day my mind wandered to how thankful I am that Rylan was finally home this year to be a part of it! His 1st Thanksgiving!!! We all have so much to be thankful for!
Although I'm sad to say I won't be posting pics tonight : ( My dialup takes SO long and I've got to get to bed. I'm a Black Friday shopper so I'm hitting the sales very early!
I also wanted to offer my apologies that I've been lagging in postings. I spent every lunch hour last week uploading and developing pictures to send to Guatemala! There is a group of mom's going back in 10 days for a mission trip. Part of the fundraising their doing is taking envelopes on behalf of adoptive families. I was able to send to one of the moms a flat manilla envelope stuffed full of pics! For a small donation our envelopes will be delivered the 1st week of December to our foster families! So I've been putting together one for Rylan's foster mom, Corelli! I finally got it in the mail yesterday. The deadline to get it to them is December 1st so I had no time to waste. I'm happy to say that I'll have a posting this week full of pictures!!!
So Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful day!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Cameron's Photo Studio

Cameron loves to get his hands on a camera! I never know exactly what I'll find when I download them. Thought you might get a kick out of seeing a fee shots of the ones I found on my camera after Rylan's birthday party!
Here is my dad! Quite unsuspecting as you can see and not too terribly impressed at the little photographer!
And yes, my son photographs beer cans! I am assuming this is my dad's (I can tell by the bigger 16oz size)!Someone's feet. Very nice. Maybe he thought I would like the flip flops?
My mother! Again, not to impressed to see her grandson snapping away pictures when she least expects it!
My best friend, Patty! She is quite the comedian! She has a specific pose you'll see in most pictures and this isn't it ; )

Things that Happen to Us!

Last Friday afternoon I had off work. John and I took the boys to LaCrosse. John had a doctor appt, and I had schedule flu vaccines for the boys. Rylan was due for his 2nd shot (required) and Cameron was going to try the Flu Mist this year. John was to pick Cameron up and meet me and Rylan in Winona. Well, as luck would have it, he got busy and was running late. Cameron began to not feel well and I'm sure his "hurried" driving didn't help. We ran about 10 min late but thankfully the clinic was understanding. I dropped John at his appt and I stayed in the car with the kids who were sleeping! Ahhhh... well, that is until I parked the car. Cameron woke up. About 20 min later, Rylan was up. We ventured in the clinic and waited for John at his appt. After that, he had to go to the lab to give blood. We waited again. Kids, not so good at that. When we were done we went all the way across town to Pediatrics where the flu vaccinations were to happen, and we had an appt since it was the "flu clinic". Low and behold, the line is a mile long! Appts, don't matter that day. They are short staffed, go figure! So we wait some more. Finally, our turn. The nurse comes in tells me they are out of flu mist... would Cameron consider a shot? By the look on his face, I didn't even have to reply. She went out the door in hunt to find one last dose somewhere! And that was before consulting with us... So we waited. About 20 min later she returned only to refuse to give it to Cameron because he sounded like he had a head cold! I understood, it is a live virus, but we could have skipped the waiting for nothing part. So, Rylan gets his shot (not a happy boy) and out we go. Just to be on the safe side I had them do a throat culture on Cameron for strep throat. It was negative, but I thought why risk going all the way back home (50 min) just to have to come back.
This brings us to the next night, Saturday. We went with my parents to Prairie du Chien and got there around 2pm or so. Cameron was seeming ok, but didn't look 100%. We decided to eat supper around 4pm. Sure enough in the middle of dinner Cameron starts complaining about his ear hurting. We hurried to finish eating and enroute back to home I called the Clinic in La Crosse to see what time Urgent Care was open until. We had to go through that city to get home, figured we might as well nip this in the bud (kind of like I tried to do the night before). Well, Urgent Care closed at 5pm. We got to La Crosse at 5:20pm. It was a choice between once again go all the way home or take him in the ER to have him looked at. At this point he was wanting to go to the dr. So, off we go. I parked the car (with John, Rylan, and my parents in it). I went in and told them the story. By this time Cameron's eyes were looking pink and icky. The girl in admitting told me they weren't busy, so it shouldn't be long. Thank goodness, my family was waiting! We had a seat in the waiting room. We were called shortly to meet with a nurse. She observed Cameron and said "oh, he looks like he's got pink eye too". After she asked Cameron his pain level on a chart. It had a row of faces ranging from happy to very unhappy. He of course pointed to happy.... unhappy might mean a shot. I laughed and said if he was a happy we wouldn't be here! So, after that we go back to the waiting room to be called. We waited 30 min, then we were at 1 hr, then about 1hr 15 min later John called me on me cell to find out what was going on. At this point I was asking that very question. Every single person who came in after us was getting called! So then it's 2hrs later and my blood is boiling! A nurse came out to give Cameron a cracker and apple juice. John called to say Rylan was having an absolute meltdown in the car. I would have walked out of there except you know you keep thinking 10 more min and we have to get called! Finally 2hrs and 20min later were called in... only to be stuck in another room! After waiting nearly a total of 3hrs, I lost it! I pushed the buzzer for a nurse and went off. I told them in a dr wasn't in there in 5 min, we were leaving and filing a report! Well, the dr came. What did he do? NOTHING! He was in the room for about 2 min. He gave a prescription to get filled and told me his eyes were just part of a viral cold. That was it. I could have screamed! Well, I did actually.
Let me tell you what's happened since then. I did call the clinic 4 days later on Wednesday to report the incident. I figured if they don't know, they can't do anything.
The prescription the dr gave us was what they would give an adult! The dose and the size of pills. Cameron couldn't swallow them.
And to top it all off, he did have pink eye! How do I know? My mom woke up the next day with her eyes stuck shut! Rylan had it in one eye this past Friday, then Saturday in both eyes. And the cycle is yet to stop!
Sorry, normally I don't use the blog to vent. But I tell you, I was so disappointed in this clinic. I had better NOT get a whopper bill for that visit or I will go balistic!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

New Member of the Family!

What is harder to get to sit still than two kids when you try to take a picture... how about a FISH! That's right. The newest member of the family is a fish that Cameron somehow talked me into. See the blur in the lower left corner? Oh yes, the guilt trip of "mom, but he's in such a small house now" got me. He was right, those little tiny bowls that they sell betta fish in are enough to make you want to buy them all! After he checked them all out, he selected this one. He's very pretty! We picked out a bowl and of course had to have a sunken pirate ship. Funny story behind that. The sunken pirate ship doesn't fit so well in the bowl. It left room for the fish to get underneath so I had to put enough marble in so that it couldn't wedge itself and get stuck. Well, we let the bowl sit with water for a couple days like your supposed too after getting everything in it just right. We then started slowly mixing the "new" water with the water in the dish the betta was in... so as not to shock him too bad. As the day came to let him free in his new home, I had 3 guys standing behind me and I heard Cameron say to John "I hope mom doesn't kill him". Hmmm, no faith in me! So the next day the fish is great. Third day we come home and I went to the bowl and couldn't find him! I started twirling the bowl, shaking the ship inside, looking under the rock, then I worried maybe he jumped out to his death! I checked the counter, the floor, and heaven forbid the stove! Nothing. Just as Cameron came around the corner to feed him, he slowly swam out of the pirate ship where he must have been taking a leisurely nap! Little does the fish know he cost me a few more gray hairs!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Halloween!


What did I say, are they not the cutest Harry Potter and Skunk you've every seen? Well, that is of course unless one of your kids dressed as one of these too I guess : )

With weather at 70 degrees in Wisconsin, we loved every minute of trick or treating outside! I'm a traditional person and the only way we'd be indoors is if it were bad weather. I've never actually done that. We've frozen our rears off some years... and oh yes, some years it's snowed! But that is what it is all about. Walking in the crisp, cool night. Hearing all the laughter from the kids as they run door to door! LOVE IT!!!

Here is my unsuspecting little skunk checking out the spooky yard! It was only our 2nd stop and he was still trying to figure everything out. He'd been noticing this house across the street from my mom and dad's... but he needed a closer look. Notice the man walking towards him in the back? This yard had live "gooblins" throughout. It was by far the coolest house in town!Well, it appeared after the goblin tapped Rylan on the back it took him 1.2 seconds to run and scream! See the pumpkin in Rylans left hand. He was in mid toss pitching it right into the guys stomach! The pumpkin and all Rylan's candy was rolling across the yard, he was so outta there!After Rylan made his abrupt exit and daddy calmed him down, he became friends with the only "woman" dressed up in that yard! She was a spooky witch, but he liked her. The minute any of the others would come towards him, he took off down the sidewalk!
We started trick or treating about 5pm down by my mom and dad's. My dad always stays home to hand out candy. So me, John, the boys, my sister and neice, and my mom trucked off with the kids. We walked the entire time and got back to their house around 8:30pm! We had a blast! The kids did fantastic and had such a good time.
And here I am with the boys just before we got started! I cherish these days... I really do. It's so much fun to see them excited and to get to be a part of their lives! They are growing so quickly in so many ways.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Carving Pumpkins

Thought I'd start out with our Halloween posts by sharing some pictures leading up to trick or treating! We can't forget the pumpkin carving, especially since it was another 1st for Rylan!
So the week of Halloween night we carved our pumpkins we picked with Sonja and Kayla! Oh yes, did I ever mention our trip to the pumpkin patch with them? It was 38 degrees with 35-40 mph winds, and we got our first snow too which caused a white out on our way home! It was FREEZING out. We were shocked that the kids didn't seem to bothered by it! Didn't stop us from doing the fastest pumpkin picking you'd ever seen! After we got that done, we got some carmeled apples and headed to Mc Donalds for lunch! The kids loved seeing each other and had a nice time playing. Rylan absolutely loves Kayla. He gets all excited when he sees her picture or hears her name! And when he knows were going to see her, it's all I can do to keep him settled down. He calls her "Nina, Nina". In Spanish, it means little girl. That's been his name for her since our visits when they both were in Guatemala. Can you see an arranged marriage here? I can! I'm saving a post just for Kayla coming up too. Lots of pictures to share!
Well, the pumpkin carving was going great, that is for about 5 minutes! Just long enough for the kids to make a mess, then run their trucks through it when I wasn't looking, and then thought it wasn't fun anymore once I caught them! So mom got to sit by herself on the kitchen floor for about an hour and finishing. Hmmm, I seem to remember this happening last year with Cameron!?
So, once I was finished this is where I found the boys. They bailed on me and went into the living room to watch cartoons. Don't they look completely enthused to you!? HA! Men in the making I tell ya! By the way, the face Rylan is making is me asking them both to come back and help me clean up. You can just see the "awwww, noooo mom"! Cameron, we'll he was just tuning me out. Go figure!
And here we are all proud to say, is our finished products! Cameron colored the one in the middle. He actually helped me outline the ones that were carved too. My next post will be with Halloween pictures! They boys looked so cute!!!