Happenings Around Our House

Oh, where to begin! This was a fish that Patrick & Chuck caught. Patrick had great fun showing his brother the dead fish with it's mouth open. Then they had the fish for dinner. I have a hard time eating what has been freshly killed. I prefer to think of all meat coming from the grocery store. Even when we go to the ranch, I feel sad for the cows and I want to tell them I am sorry that 1/4 of one of them will be in my freezer very soon.

How do you like my new head??? Nicholas went from 15 points of asymmetry to 9. We could have done another band to get a little better (1 or 2 os normal, by their standards), but that would have been another $3000.00 that we do not have. I ran into a mom at the park the other day who had an older boy in a band and she said it was their third one (luckily their insurance covered 100%). He started out with 32 points of asymmetry and would end up with 8, so that made me feel a little better. He got started late in his band, as well, and can you guess who his doctor was? Hmmm...seems to be a problem with that doctor (our old doctor). Poor kid...8 months of treatment is a long time.We got our band off two weeks ago and I am just now blogging about it because of all of the family trauma as of late. Besides Brandi, my grandmother fell twice and ended up fracturing some vertebrae. She had a procedure in the hospital Friday. More on that later...

We were at the ranch this past weekend to check on Brandi and Baby MacRae. Brandi still looked weak and pale, but her mom was there taking good care of her. I took all of the kids up to my grandmother's old house and we had a sleep over. They had matching pjs and all was fun except for when the kids put Nicholas on the bed and he fell off. Thankfully he was ok.

Patrick has been begging to ride the bus since last year so I finally gave in today as Nicholas was taking a nap. Look how he is racing off of that bus! I think this was our first & last day on the bus. He didn't like the bus driver and he wondered why there weren't seat belts. He is my cautious one.

Some other stories from the past week that are interesting to me.....

* Tuesday* In the morning, I found a puddle of pee in front of the toilet. I guessed it was a cat. It didn't smell like a cat and our two current cats have never done anything like that, but oh well, I thought, and cleaned it up. That night, I was getting Nicholas bath ready, when I heard Patrick say, "Mom, Nicholas is trying to go potty!" I turned around and there he was holding up the lid of the potty and peeing in front of the toilet. I know it was probably a fluke, but I was impressed.

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*Thursday* I was having a marathon cooking day preparing meals to take to Richard & Brandi, so I gave Nicholas some empty sour cream and large yogurt containers to play with. The next thing I knew, her had opened the lid drawer and picked out a Daisy sour cream lid and put it on a Daisy sour cream container. Again, probably a fluke, but I was proud of him!

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*Friday* Chuck made it home by 7, so we waited for him to have dinner with us. I proceeded to tell him about my grandmother's procedure that day and I said "They basically made some little incisions in her back and put cement in there" But I didn't say "cement", I said "see-ment" which our ever questioning six your old cut in to ask "What is semen?" We tried to keep straight faces as I repeated the word correctly. I can just imagine him telling his friends at school. "The doctors put semen in my great grandmother's back."

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*Today* Chuck left this morning for a quick business trip and will be back tomorrow. As he was leaving this morning, Nicholas wouldn't hug him goodbye, so Chuck started to walk toward the garage. Nicholas cried and ran after him, so Chuck came back and they hugged and then he tried to leave again. This time Nicholas went and got a ball and followed Chuck to the door trying to engage him to stay for a quick game. So cute! Then later today, after a long walk at the mall, we drove by my parents house to see if my brother was home, but I decided not to go in because it was close to nap time and there was not any room in the driveway. Nicholas cried when we drove off. I am surprised he recognized my parents house and I think he was sad not to go in and see them. He cries when ever anyone BUT ME leaves him.

My parents have gone to New England for 3 weeks. I am so jealous! I want to be in Vermont camping in the summer, going to New Hampshire in the fall to see the leaves, seeing Boston covered in a blanket of white in the winter and the beautiful budding trees in the spring. I have such an itch to go to NYC, too. It has been 4 years since I have been to the Northeast. I miss living up there! And, I miss my pal, Alisa, too.