Busy Day

We started out the morning by going on a tour of Juvenile Detention. There was an Open House and we thought it would be educational to take the kids through it. Not that we are worried about them getting trouble as they are all good kids but it was very informative.

They split the kids and parents up and have the kids walk just like they would if they were there for real. Shirts tucked in, pants up, mouths closed, and hands in armpits with thumbs showing.

After we left there we headed to a birthday party for a friends son. It was fun. The kids jumped in the bouncehouse, Rod took pictures and I hung out and talked with friends. We were there for a few hours, had pizza and cake, watched him open gifts and then it was time to move on to the next activity.

After the birthday party we went to Faith Community's Fun Fest. It's a fundraiser that was started a few years ago while we were still attending church there. We've continued to go each year and the Action team presents there each year. I spent most of the time sitting as I was running out of energy and not feeling to well.

On our way home from there Mom took us out to HomeTown Buffet for dinner. It was yummy but I didn't eat much as I wasn't feeling and was tired. It was a long busy day but I think everyone had lots of fun.

Master craftsmanship

Tonight I had a support group meeting that I had to run so I headed off to do that.
My Mom volunteered to take the elementary kids to the Open House at the school since it intereferred with my meeting time.
She took them to the art show and saw all of the art set out.
Then she took them through the pizza line.
They asked her how many people there were and she said 9 so they gave her two boxes of pizza :giggle
Then they headed off to the classrooms.
Since it's Open House all of the classes do "special projects"
And the first stop of the evening is Jaleel's class
His seat is three places from the door and proudly displayed on his desk are his Indian mask and his totem pole.
The teacher explain what meticulous craftsmanship went into Jaleel's work all the while my Mom is trying to keep a straight face.
She says I set her up but I'm totally innocent
So my Mom goes to Destini's class and sees hers
And then she goes to Brayana's class to see hers
Then a stop at Makkiah's class to see his
And she got to carry Jaleel's artwork through them all.

Happy Mothers Day

Mother's Day this year was really nice. It's the first time in a few years that my Mom has been here for Mother's Day.

We went to church and then headed home to cook and eat. Marsha and her kids came over since Will is on deployment.

Rod made chicken and carne asada on the grill, jamabalya, beans, and salad. It was all yummy.

All the Mommies opened their gifts after we stuffed ourselves and then the girls all had their hair done. It was a fun day.

31 weeks

Well my Mom and Poppa made it into town without any mishaps along the way.

They even arrived with all of their luggage in tow. Hey there's a first time for everything!

On Friday my Mom and I went to "Muffins for Mom". Makkiah's kinder class sang us songs and had muffins. We both forgot our cameras but it was really cute.

I'm a few days late taking pictures but here is 31 weeks 2 days. Baby feels really low.

I fought the fence

and the fence won!

Jaleel was pushing Makkiah down the neighbors driveway on the power wheels four wheeler.

Well the driveway is to steep and the four wheeler has no brakes and Makkiah's legs are not long enough to stop himself.

He hit the fence with his face.

The fence has screws coming from the other side where they screwed lattice to their side of the fence.

Makkiah now has "screw treads" on his face.

Pray that it doesn't get infected as it could put his surgery off.

UPDATE: He also seems to have gotten his eye somehow. We are watching it closely to see if we need to take him in for an appt.

Makkiah's ENT appointment

Makkiah had his ENT appt yesterday with Dr Brewster. I thought we would be there for 30 minutes or so but it took 4 hours!

Makkiah has dealt with chronic sinus issues for years. He's maxed out on allergy meds. He takes singular, zyrtec and nasonex everyday. We went and saw the allergist a while ago and his work up was unremarkable. He had the scratch test done on his back. I was told that he has an allergy to dog and dustmites but not severe.

When we put him on antibiotics it works until we stop them. We have done anywhere from 10-30 days of antibiotics. While he's on them the drainage stops but within days of stopping the meds it's right back.

In December he started with it again. When we saw Dr W in Feb I asked him about it again. Dr W put him on antibiotics for two weeks and it stopped - again. Within days of stopping it was back so he sent him for the sinus CT.

Mak was not having any drainage when he had the CT scan done. So for the CT scan he was at his best. The guy in CT told me that his right sinus was filled with something.

The pulm (Dr W) sent a consult to the peds ENT (Dr Brewster) who we have seen many times before. He knows Makkiah well and has pretty much followed him since he was 3 months old.

I had read up on impacted sinuses and asked some people. Everything said that he would probably get his sinuses flushed out. So I thought we would be going in and getting his sinus cleaned out and then we would be on our merry way. Boy was I wrong.

First off Makkiah never developed the sinuses above his eyes probably due to them being blocked. The dr said that usually they aren't big enough to cause serious problems in kids Mak's age but Mak has none.

The left sinus below his eye is totally normal but the sinus on the right side is not. It is completely impacted and the ENT said he thinks there is an anatomical anamoly that is keeping it from draining. He thinks there is no opening between the sinus and his nasal passage.

He is having a FESS (Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery) with anterior ethmoidectomy and maxillary antrotomy on May 24th. Basically they will go in and chip the bone away to create holes in his sinus so they can drain.

This carries serious risk since they are so close to his eye orbit and his brain. They have millimeters of space to work with. There is a very thin bone seperating the area they are working in with the brain and another very thin bone that seperates the sinus area from the eye. They will use the CT scan as a go by during the surgery to manuever in the space.

Without the surgery they are concerned that the infection will start to eat away the bone in his face. He thinks there is still an underlying allergy issue so he needs to openings to allow his sinus to drain.

Aside from the risk of the surgery itself he has other risks. Due to his history with airway issues he is at increased risk for airway problems during surgery.

I was told that usually they use a "cuff" with positive airflow for the airway during this procedure due to it's length. They will intubate him though as they are concerned with securing his airway.

Intubating him for such a long procedure (we are looking at 1 hour minimum)carries additional risk with swelling in his airway. Because his airway is smaller than most and he still has croup episodes the tube sitting in there could cause swelling.

Because of the bronchomalacia they can't use albuterol with him as a rescue med so there is increased concern there as well. They will give him steroids during the procedure to help decrease the swelling and hopefully make it easier for them to extubate him.

The only rescue med that he really has is nebulized racemic epinephrine. He's had to have it on several occassions due to swelling in his airway during a croup episode.

The bathroom sink

Before Poppa came on his last trip I decided to switch out the sink and cabinet in the kids bathroom.

The old one was NASTY and I was tired of looking at it. I went to HD and bought a pretty new cabinet and sink.

Brought it home. Had Rod turn off the water before he left on his trip.

A few days later I had Brayana and Destini demolish the old sink and cabinet.

Discovered that Rod had not completely turned off the water so the floor and wall were soaked.

Put a fan in the bathroom for two days hoping that wall would dry.

Realize that the wall is NOT going to dry and has to be removed and replaced.

Replace drywall and refinish.

Put project off for a week or so.

Sand and paint wall to match the rest of the wall.

Put in new cabinet.

Discover that the new sink/counter does not match up drain wise under the sink.

Make trip to HD to get new drain pieces and replacement supply hoses to replace the plastic ones.

Put project off for a few days.

Install new faucet on sink.

Realize that the new faucet that we bought does not have an overflow on it.

Uninstall new faucet and put it back in the box.

Install old faucet on sink and decide that I will just fix the faucet.

Use cool new drain piece that is flexible and will not require cutting and remaking the whole drain.

Hook up water supply lines.

Turn on cold water supply knob.

Turn on faucet.

Discover P-trap is dripping and so is cool new piece.

Decide that since all is connected we might as well make sure the hot water supply line is working.

Turn on hot water supply.

Discover that was a BIG mistake as water starts spraying everywhere!!

Turn off water quickly.

Go to disconnect water supply line and it breaks off in the hose.

Caulk the sink while it's clean so that it's finished.

Put project off for a few more days.

Go to HD and buy new supply spigot for hot water.

Put project off for a few more days.

Hang mirror so that it at least LOOKS like it works.

Put project off for a few mroe days.

Get motivated to finish the project.

Take hot water supply spigot off and discover that we didn't buy the new piece.

Make a trip to HD to get hot AND cold water supply spigots since the hot one is NASTY inside.

Install new hoses and water supply spigots.

Turn on water.

Discover that the hot and cold spigots are leaking AND yes the drain still leaks and the faucet still drips.

Leave the mess for Rod to deal with.

Rod heads in the same evening now 30+ days into the new sink being installed to work on the sink at midnight.

Removes hot and cold water spigots, cleans the pipes, adds the tape stuff and reinstalls the water supply spigots.

Takes drain apart and in the process takes apart the part that is attached to the sink which mind you did NOT leak!

puts drain back together and discovers that the drain still leaks and now the part connected to the sink does also.

Fixes the part that connects to the sink and leaves the drain for another day.

Put project off for a week.

Take faucet apart to get the pieces to replace in the knobs so that the faucet will stop dripping AND take the drain apart.

Go to HD to get new pieces.

Discover they are having a workshop on making a garden path which I want in the front yard.

Attend workshop and win a citronella candle.

Attempt to find help in the plumbing isle.

Give up and find all the pieces myself.

Head home and put bag on the couch as I'm tired and don't feel like doing it.

Put project off until tomorrow.

Install pieces into faucet and put faucet back together.

Put all the new drain pieces together including a washer in the cool new piece.

Hold breath and turn on water.

Wait.

No spraying.

No dripping.

No leaking.

Jump for joy that the sink is FINALLY in usable condition with no water coming out of anything EXCEPT the faucet when you turn it on!!

Wonder when we start the next sink.

More progress

This morning we got up and went to church which is our normal Sunday morning routine. I taught this morning and had ten kids so stayed pretty busy.

After church Rod and I headed to HD to get more joint compound and paint for the library. We also picked up a rug for the living room and one for the library.

The living room rug will tie the furniture all together and protect the carpet. The one in the library will give the kids something to lay on to read books in there and also cover the ugly yellow tile that eventually will come out.

We picked a light green color for the library (much to Rod's hesitation) and Tyreque painted the entire room. After we get it all put back together I will take pictures. We also hung king sized flat sheets on the two walls that REALLY need to be redrywalled. We haven't had the ability to redo them but the sheets look MUCH better than the blankets I had hanging on the wall before.

Ladaria, Raquel and I got the rest of the pickets put up on the fence and Rod set the bolts for the gate post brackets. Tomorrow we will be able to put the posts in. Then we will be able to measure to make new working gates.

Rod got the hole in the kids bathroom fixed. He had to cut out and replace the drywall but it looks much better than it did. Now the kids bathroom just needs to be painted. That didn't get done today since the joint compound has to dry first.

The water damage in the library (on the ceiling and near the sliding glass door) was fixed yesterday so it got primed today. The ceiling in the library got painted as well today. It's all starting to come together - one piece at a time.

Destini and Brayana folded a bunch of laundry and put it away. Jaleel helped wherever we needed him to go and help.

I was going to cut the molding for the bathroom in the kitchen but have to fix the saw as it wasn't adjusting right. That's ok. I'm tired and I think everyone else is as well.

Progress is being made

We started out with chainlink fence in the front yard. I've been wanting to change it over to wood for a while now. We've planted several things on the front fence. Most of them have died because the fence gets to hot. Two of them have survived and were really starting to intertwine in the fence so I decided that we need to pull the chainlink down. I didn't want to kill the plants by letting them grow another season so I took the fence down. I figured that would commit us to doing it.

It all got removed along with the gates that didn't work right. Amah and Poppa tried to fix the gates everytime they came out but they were not made correctly so there was only so much fixing that could be done. This morning we started out with just the posts. We left them since they are metal and in the concrete.

We went out to get started and realized that we didn't have the right screws to go through the wood and into the metal posts. We also needed more 16 foot 2x4's so we made a trip to HD.

Came home and got started. While Rod and I worked on the fence - Makkiah cleaned his room, Jaleel worked on the back porch, Destini cleaned the living room, Brayana worked on the library, Raquel and Ladaria scrubbed and scraped the ceiling in the bathroom and library so it can be repainted and they cleaned the hall closets, Tyreque worked on the upstairs porch which had been abandoned several months ago. Everyone got a lot accomplished.

After they were done with their jobs they all joined us outside to work on the fence, wrestle, and clean up. Brayana took apart the green swing that someone was going to come pick up but never showed up to get.

By the end of the day we got over halfway done and we ran out of pickets. Ladaria, Raquel and I made a trip to HD to get more pickets while Rod spackled the spots that needed it on the ceilings so that it can get painted. Tomorrow we will finish the fence and hopefully the gates.

New lense

I got a new lense in the mail today.

I went out and took some pictures of the roses out front.

The lense is a macro/wide angle combo lense.

These were taken with the macro lense.

I only took a few but I think they turned out pretty neat.

30 weeks

30 weeks

I don't feel like I'm any bigger than I was before.

Tomorrow I will have officially 9 weeks 6 days left till my due date.

It will be 68 days until my due date!!

My husband is out of the yards and starts his work up schedule.

Between now and June 20th I think he'll be home less than 2 weeks.

My Mom comes into town next week for 10 days.

Then she comes back the same day as Rod in June.

Marsha is on standby baby watch and is ready at a moments notice.

I had my three hour glucose done but haven't heard the results.

As far as I'm concerned - no news is good news.

My next appointment is in two weeks.

I'll get all my preadmission paperwork and I'll start carrying my chart.

Taniyah's Doppler

Taniyah goes with me to my midwife appointments. She gets to listen to the baby when the midwife does the doppler.

Well she is a fast learner and she made her own doppler.

Destini has a barbie cash register with a handheld scanner.

She's started using it to "listen" to bellies.

Here she is talking to her "patient"

Then she turns on the register

Then she makes sure that I can hear that "grumbly tummy"

29 weeks!

I've made it to 29 weeks. One more week and I'm in the single digits as far as weeks go. 77 days until my due date. I found out yesterday that I failed my one hour glucose test so now I have to go back tomorrow and do a three hour. That stuff is SO nasty. I had to do the three hour with Jaleel and I passed. It's the whole fasting for 10-12 hours and then drinking what tasted like 10 pounds of sugar in orange soda that's warm. It is probably one of my least favorite parts of pregnancy. Hopefully I will pass the three hour and be done with it. The cutoff is 134 and mine was 147.

I'm feeling really good. I've gained 14 pounds total with this pregnancy which the midwife says is great. My last appt baby was head down but I think at the moment baby has turned head up. Baby seems to be using my bladder for a trampoline. Good thing I've done lots of kegels!!

Rod's ship left out to sea yesterday after being in the yards for 4 months. So starts the work-up schedule. In and out, out and in. The ship will return in a few days but he has duty so won't be home until the next day. I'd rather have it that way then him having duty the day AFTER he gets in. I'd rather just get it done.

Side fence

We finally got the side fence finished. We got the gates done and installed. Now we can close the gate and Taniyah can't go into the front yard. She has her own play area in the back yard. Now we just need to do the back yard so that she can't go around the back of the house.

So it went from this:

To this:

The weather here is getting nice. The rose bush in front of the girls bedroom has exploded with blooms.

The flowerbeds are starting to fill in with plants from last year. I don't think I will have to add any plants as what is in there should fill in all the empty places.

Third trimester!!!

I'm two-thirds of the way done. Today is the first official day of my third trimester!!

Time is going by so quickly. It seems that I just made it to double digits and now I'm down to 90 days on the official counter to my due date.

I think that we may have finally found a car seat that we like. The colors that are out there tight now are just - YUCK!!

I also started my registries at Target and Babies R Us as I've had people ask me about them. I did them online but haven't yet made it to the store to add to them.

I'm 27 weeks and with Taniyah I was put on modified bedrest at 35 weeks. That's 8 weeks away! I need to get so much stuff accomplished before then in case that happens again! I need more time!!

HAPPY EASTER!!

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!

We got up this morning and headed to Easter Service. I was suprised that we didn't have the normal large crowd. Maybe they went to Sunrise Service. Rod turned off the alarm so we did't make it to that service. It started at 6am.

Then we came home and the kids got their baskets.

Taniyah got Disney's princess and Gabby got SoccerGirl

Makkiah got Scooby skateboard and Jaleel got Fear Factor

Destini got PollyPocket cheerleading stuff and Brayana got SpyGear

The older three kids got solid chocolate bunnies

Tyreque helped Tete dress up in her princess gear. Isn't she cute?!

The boys bedroom-progress

Before we started with their room it was a powder blue. I think the previous owners got a good deal on the paint cause over half the house was powder blue.

We pulled Tyreque's bed out of the closet area and moved it to another area of the room. Makes a lot more room over there.

Then we hung shower curtains up to make the closet look like a closet instead of just haven't closet rods hanging.

We are going to paint the short half wall dark blue to hide fingerprints and we are going to paint circles on the green wall.

This door goes out to the patio and the shower curtain works well for curtains.

26 weeks!

I'm 26 weeks today. I took some pictures but they kept coming out really fuzzy.

One more week and I'm in my third trimester! I'm almost 2/3's of the way done. Technically speaking I probably AM 2/3's of the way done.

I hit officially hit double digits yesterday and now have 98 days left until my due date. Mom will be here in 2 months - YEAH!! Can't wait to see her and Poppa again.

Things are going by so quickly!

Makkiah's CT scan

Makkiah had his CT scan today. His appt was at noon. We got there at 11am as there was no traffic and the tram came just as we parked the van so no waiting for it. We got there much quicker than expected.

I took Tyreque since I knew I wouldn't be able to stay in the room with Mak. They wanted to try to do it without sedation and I was afraid that he might freak out without a familiar face in there with him.

At 11:05 they called us back. Mak climbed up on the table, laid down and said he was scared. The tech was great in explaining everything to Mak and promised to show him his pictures after he was done.

I got to watch the scan from the booth and see the pictures first. It was pretty cool. Tyreque did a great job talking to Makkiah during the scan and Mak did an AWESOME job of laying still and not moving a muscle.

After the scan was done he showed Mak the pictures. He pointed out his teeth, nose and sinuses. Mak thought they were pretty cool.

I knew right away that one sinus did not look like the other and asked the tech about it. His right side is "filled with something" and his left sinus was clear. He said the final report would take 2-3 days. Dr W told me to contact him on Friday morning for the results and plan.

By 11:30 we were downstairs eating lunch at McD. and by noon we were headed back to the tram stop. By 12:10 we were in the van and headed home.