rain on tulips

We went to Disneyland with Fuul’s whole family (reunion-y) in December as a part of a big road trip vacation we did. Lots of fun. Finally getting around to sharing a few photos!

We had a lot of fun on our trip: saw California, Disneyland, SeaWorld, Universal Studios, family in Utah, pulled a trailer full of stuff home while we had chains on the tires, and the highway patrol was closing roads for blizzard conditions behind us! Quite the adventure, including blowing a tire on the trailer only 2 miles from home!

(If I ever suggest a three-week roadtrip-style vacation over Christmas again, please feel free to remind me of this trip! LOL)

Took the kids to the pool. Weather: overcast and all of 65 degrees outside! (The pool is heated!) Not many other kids there because of the weather, so I got some pics while they were swimming.

A quick photo collage of our goings-on the last 10-ish months. Click for a larger version!

The school year leached away all my time, it seems! I may spend the next little while posting pictures and mini-updates, see if I can’t get back in the habit of posting something on here. I’ve been tweeting, sporadically. Nothing exciting.

This summer has started off busy, but I’m slowing making progress rather than just being dragged along on the rush of stuff happening to me. I’ve managed to sort through kids’ outgrown clothes and actually get the stuff to a donation drop-off spot. Cleaned out the truck and washed the inside windows. Organized the kids to pull weeds in the overgrown flowerbeds and trash all the old school papers they’d brought home and dumped in the centers of their rooms. I figure if I can take on mini-projects one after another, eventually they will add up and I won’t be overwhelmed. I even upped my antidepressants and got dr-ordered weekly massages to help with back nerve pain and tension. Maybe it will all make things a little better in the long run?

Anyhow. Welcome back to my life. Still just as chaotic, still the cute kids. Its just a year later!

my brother and sister-in-law had a new baby boy tonight! still awaiting all the details, but he’s a cutie, and we’re all happy he’s here!

EK and CC went back to school this morning, the third and finall group of all the kids this year! They were ready early, and waiting-waiting-waiting for the bus to show up.

EK is in her last year of preschool (*gasp!*), and started off well. She was invited to sit with a cute little girl when she got on the bus this morning, and seemed happy to leave and happy again to get home afterward. Her teacher called after school to let me know that the day went well and she played a lot with the other girls.

CC loves being at school again, even though his best friend from last year has moved on to Kindergarten this year. I’m hoping that he makes good friends with some new kids this year; but we’ll definately be planning some playdates soon!

And my morning? The first time in the car when I realized I was totally alone? That was a little weird. It’s going to take a little getting used to.

Happy happy birthday, AE! TEENAGER!!!

She got a new cell phone (last week), a cool Firefly tshirt, a handknit sweater (with dragon buttons), a dragon drawing kit with good pencils and stuff, a dragon notebook, a hand-carved wolf pen/magnifying glass/compass, a dragonology card game… cake and a couple more gifts to come when we finally get a party planned!

AE started back to school today, but because we were running rather late in the morning (had to print off her summer book report) we didn’t get her back to school photo until after school. I took over 30 shots, and only got one good one! (She’s got her Dad’s sense of humor and inability to have a simple smile on her face instead of a silly face when photos are taken…tho the entire photo shoot is rather entertaining as a whole!)

She got lots of fun classes (Modern Art, Creative writing, Geometry, Herpetology, Holocaust/Social Studies), and is really looking forward to her 8th grade year!

The first day of school was today, but only some of the kids went, and only some of them went at the beginning of the day…

DA started back first, heading out for his first day of high school. Only the 10th graders went today. He didn’t get any of the music classes he signed up for (the entire reason we sent him to this particular high school), and can’t change any classes until after Friday. High adventures trying to take the Metro buses home. Will take another shot at it on Thursday.

GC and DS left next, and were excited to be starting at the brand new school building that was finished up over the summer. They are still waiting for the last of the landscaping to go in, though.

DS started 6th grade, and is now the big man on campus. He’s got good friends at school, and was delighted to learn that he’d grown over the summer and now is bigger than most the kids in his class. He’s also spreading his wings and pushing the boundaries with the pink camo messenger bag; not one to conform, that boy!

GC started third grade this year, and was sad that a lot of the girls she made friends with last year aren’t in her class, but then came home telling us she befriended a new girl at the school on the first day, so apparently its all good. Only downside right now is that she’s started the school year with a cold and some laryngitis, so she’s afraid her new friend won’t recognize her voice when it comes back!

JS was the last to leave for school today, because the older grades at his school only attended in the afternoon. Silly boy didn’t sleep in, though. JS started his last year in the Junior High, although he is officially a Freshman (weird way they split up the schools here). He didn’t get all the classes he wanted either, but he’s been in contact with the music teacher and is trying to juggle things around. Also high adventures on the bus.

AE won’t start back to school until tomorrow (only 7th graders go on the first day), and EK and CC won’t start back until next Tuesday, so we are on a true slow trickle back to school this year! (Makes for a hard group shot of that first day of school!)

Got the teens cell phones. Good idea or bad, haven’t decided yet. Lots of texting and ringtone generating going on around here. (Who me? Play around with ringtones??? LOL)

We’re supposed to be on our way driving boys out to WashJam. But we aren’t. I got hit with some mean (though short-lived) food-poisoning something last night, and this morning I feel as though I’ve been run over, then they backed up and ran over me again, by a very large truck. Fuul stayed up with me (yes, I’m very thankful!), but then he stayed up the rest of the night playing XBox.

I need a shower. We really ought to be moving. I want to lay in bed and play with my new phone (I did figure out how to email/text myself the mp3 I wanted to use as a ringtone yesterday, but there’s so many more things to do with it!) and knit Fuul’s second sock (that’s been on hold forever) so I’ll be ready to knit my new hoodie when the yarn arrives today or Monday.

And I need to buy diapers today. That one is an absolute must. And I guess getting boys out to WashJam, too. Maybe I should see about hitting the shower and see where things go from there.

waiting for a little girl to wake up from sedation from her latest mri… this one is supposed to be just a followup, but i’ve learned not to hold my breath. followups never seem to be just followups. we ought to know more today, tho, as we are scheduled to see the referring dr later this afternoon.

Update: This was the worst wake-up EK has ever had from anesthesia; I think it was a combination of the anesthesia and just not wanting to be at the hospital, but she was grumpy for a good hour and a half, right up until we were walking out to the car, then she was all smiles!

As far as the follow-up goes: the syrinx on her spine is holding steady, which is good news (it’s not relocating or expanding). The cysts that were seen in her brain when she was younger are no longer visible, also good news. She does not have Agenesis of the Corpus Colossum (a common occurrance in 1p36 kids where a central piece of the brain fails to develop), which is fantastic news. She may have a slight Chiari Malformation (where part of the brain matter extends down into the spinal canal), which is definitely blocking some spinal fluid flow, but not totally impeding it, and needs to be watched/monitored, which is not so good news, but not horrible news. If it becomes worse in the future, it is surgically repairable, which is good news.

In the meantime, we take her home (with a detour to Burger King and a hamburger and a strawberry milkshake) and bring her back for a followup in a year!

I swear it ought to be midmorning now, but its after four.

I’ve gotten up and showered and cleaned the kitchen (mostly) and helped clean up the family room and run two loads of laundry (wet scouting 50-mile-hike ooginess — *shudder*).

I’ve sent one kid off to an all-day playdate with a friend and walked to the grocery store with the others for milk and tomato sauce and soda and corn chips.

I’ve put chicken chili in the crockpot and cajoled kids to do their jobs before they play xbox.

I’ve worked on cleaning my bedroom in 5-minute stints — so as not to get overwhelmed — and changed diapers and swept floors.

I’ve signed up to be a contributing writer to a newsletter for parents of kids with 1p36 Deletion Syndrome and thought some about what I should work on for my first article, then I signed up for a knit-a-long to work on a sweater that I’ve had the pattern and yarn for for more than a year.

Yet I feel like the day should be just starting. I feel like there should be hours and hours ahead of me.

I feel like I need a nap!

After driving across Washington, Idaho, a night in Montana, driving into Wyoming, a night in Idaho, a night in Wyoming, and driving back across Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, I’m home again. The kids seem happy to see me. Fuul seems relieved (and tired?).

Heading off to bed. Took lots of pictures from the funeral and the trip home (should have taken more from the trip out) that I will try to get posted in the next few days as time allows.

Meantime *yawn* goodnight!

The heat wave has broken.

And I ought to be up and packing to go to a funeral.

I’m a little scared. I’m going away for four days with my parents to my great-grandma’s funeral, and I’m leaving Fuul at home with all the kids. I know the kids will be ok, but the makeup work on my job when I get home may just do me in!

Hoping to use the knitting time to make up for the chaos that will await my return.