Gardening

My very small garden. Right now I am only growing cucumbers, zucchini, squash, peppers, onions, carrots, radish, and tomatoes. I plan to add a salad and herb garden in a week or two. I am trying to restrain myself and keep it a small garden (less than a quarter of what I usually grow) but it's hard because I like vegetables and I swear they taste even better if you grow them yourself.

Tramping aka Camping on the Trampoline

Camping on the trampoline was something we started when the kids were little and we wanted to go camping but Oscar couldn't take time off work. This week they wanted to go camping but I was too sick to take then and Bobo was to sick for me to leave home so they were stuck at home with nothing to do. They were spending their days playing games but I finally had to kick the kids off the computer, I couldn't take it anymore, so we decided to go tramping. We had to get a new tent that fit on the trampoline because our last small tent got attacked by moths.

We roasted marshmallows.

And then crammed in for the night. I tried to arrange then into a more comfortable pattern but they all moved back. the girls got kicked and stepped on all night and a few time I had to unbury Kerrington from underneath the boys.

They spent the evening reading books and acting goofy :)

Zander was the first to fall asleep, poor baby was so tired, but eventually they all crashed.

And I read through the night because people with whiplash and motion sickness should not try to sleep on trampolines.

Oh, this is my new nebulizer that runs on rechargeable camera batteries so I didn't have to keep going in during the night to take a breathing treatment. This thing was the best $70 I've spent. now I can walk around with the nebulizer instead of being stuck in the chair all the time and I can take it anywhere I go YAY!

Spring Break

Spring break is half way over. We have been blessed with beautiful weather. The kind of weather that makes you want to spend all day outside. The kids have not even been fazed by the nice weather, they have had no interest in going outside. Instead this is how they have chosen to spend their break:

If your kids haven't discovered the kids version of a social network Animal Jam from Nat Geo Wild then you have lucked out. It's like face book for kids but educational. They have to be animal characters and they absolutely cannot share any personal information. (Tanner asked a kid what school they went to and was suspended for inappropriate behaviour while they investigated the matter) My kids and nieces are obsessed with it. Mary Kay and I have started referring to it as crack for tweens. They are constantly checking peoples status, sending messages and hooking up for games.

Oh, the kids declared Monday junk food day so this was dinner :)

A self portrait of Sarah. When she was little she used to dance around like the little cartoon girl on the banana commercial so my sister started calling her Chakita Banita. Now when ever some one gets the banana with the sticker (I think we eat at least a dozen bananas a day) they always stick them to her while referring to her as Chakita Banita. At 13 she still doesn't mind them sticking stickers to her, however if you refer to her as baby girl she will totally freak out on you, strange girl.

In case you were wonder how Bobo and I spent spring break so far, well, we spent it here

Zanny BooBoo, AKA the awsome genius who will one day rule the world

I think Zander is an equal mix of Oscar and my self. If he needs lovey/snugly time or doesn't feel good he comes to mom but if he wants to celebrate an accomplishment he goes straight to dad. He loves to please his daddy and he does everything he can to make dad happy. When he comes home from school he wants to show all his work to dad and he only ever wants to do homework with dad. If mom has to help him instead he insists that I call Oscar as soon as we are done to tell him how he did. In the morning when it's time for Oscar to pick up the kids Zander is almost bouncing in his seat. Due to being developmentally delayed he struggled a long time with school but he has adjusted this year and now he loves it. He loves snuggle and hang out, he enjoys his sleep and hates mornings, he likes to be goofy and to joke around, he is brave and a little bit of a dare devil, he is very inquisitive (which get him in a lot of trouble), he likes to try new things and to push the boundaries, he is very demanding sometimes, he is attached to everything he owns and everything is special to him, and even when he is grouchy or raging I still think he is just so dang cute. His best brother is Tanner but he loves Sarah and Brendan just as much. His favorite words are awesome, genius, I rule, and oh yeah, you know that's wright. He has started using the word crap in almost every sentence thanks to Tanner.When he grows up he wants to rule the world. He thinks he suffers from a lack of attention due to being the youngest but he actually has it backwards. Up until 6 months ago I am pretty sure the whole house revolved around him. When we talk about him but don't want for him to know we are talking about him we refer to him as that one, that's his code name. One day when we were talking about an upcoming appointment that was going to require shots he came in from the other room and said "Stop calling me THAT ONE and I am not getting shots!" He was the only one to ever figure out his code name. On Tuesday he decided he wanted to learn how to ride a bike with no training wheels. He insisted it be Tuesday, he couldn't wait until the weekend. He struggled a lot because he is so small and the bike weighs almost as much as he does and his legs are too short to reach the ground. He was too stubborn to give up though. He practiced until dinner and then after he went back out with dad and rode some more until was too dark to see. He was so proud of himself and excited that he was able to hang out with dad past bedtime as well. He is our precious little snuggle bug and I truly enjoy all the challenges presents me with.

Sarita, formerly known as Baby Girl

Sarah is thirteen and officially a teenager now she says. She has been looking forward to becoming a teenager her whole life so she could babysit babies. She loves babies but hasn't had the chance to really babysit yet because she is so little no one ever takes her seriously. She has been hyper and happy pretty much every moment of her life and she flits and dances everywhere she goes. She had a small moment, a minor hormone imbalance, that wasn't so joyous for her but gratefully through prayer, a good doctor and the Internet we were able to identify the problem quickly, find the wright herbs to balance her out and we've moved past it. She absolutely loves everyone and everyone loves her and even when she is crabby or cranky she is still cute and lovable. She is such a girly girl and loves all things sparkly. When we was younger it was anything ruffly, then it was "poke-the-dots", anything with flowers or cute garden bugs, anything fancy(shiny) and now we have moved on to anything that sparkles, although lately she has started showing an interest in anything "old fashioned" and antique. We've been experiencing a lack of girl time lately with the boys being sick all the time and needing all my attention so to make it up to her Bobo and I took her to the movies for new years and then to get pedicures for valentines day. She was so thrilled to have grown up girl time that we decided to make it a monthly event. We figured we can sacrifice our feet for her happiness. To us she seams to be growing by the day but then when we see her with other kids her age we realize she is so much smaller than they are and we are always happy to find that she is not as mature as the other girls. We like that she is still pretty naive about most things, maturity is way over rated and we would be fine if she never grew up. She recently made a few friends that introduced her to boys and face books and talked her into lying to her parents and when I found out and confronted her she said she was so relieved. It was too stressful for her and she couldn't stand it. She practically begged me to ground her and was heart broken when I told her I had to tell her dad. I think her guilt was punishment enough and she was scolded severely and heavily threatened so hopefully we are done with the lying and sneaking for a while. Her passion of the moment is music. She is always looking for music to add to her phone or MP3Player. Even during unplugged time (quiet time) when the kids aren't allowed to use any electronics she is still dancing around the house singing her favorite songs. When she was younger her passion was art and she turned everything into an art project and colored on everything she came into contact with but now she is all about the music and tries to turn everything into a song. She wants to be a great and famous singer when she is older, she doesn't care what genre, she will sing anything. She brings joy to the lives of everyone she comes in contact with and she is the treasure of our home.

The Boy Wonder otherwise known as Brenny Bob

Brendan was our most high maintenance baby with all his illnesses and issues. As he got older he outgrew or recovered from most of his issues but now he is sick again. His platelets have been low and we think his ITP has come back. He has been very tired and weak and he wants to eat meat all the time and he has some bruises that just aren't healing. He has been a little rebellious lately like climbing trees and wrestling with friends, things that boys with an enlarged kidney or ITP are not supposed to do. It scares the crud out of me but honestly we are surprised he waited this long before doing the things we have been telling him his whole life he can't do. He had his first kidney injury about a week and a half ago when he and his friends had a wrestling match that landed him in the ER. He was thoroughly scolded and heavily threatened but said he will probably do it again. He loves holding the priesthood and would never knowingly do anything to loose it but he is still very strong willed and definitely has the attitude of a teenager. He likes to argue and talk back. Sometimes it drives me insane but other times I remember saying the same thing or giving the same look to my dad and then I crack up laughing. He is very helpful around the house and when there are chores to be done he usually offers to just do them himself. Even though he is dyslexic he has almost all honours classes this year. He like being in honours, he likes the challenge he said. He has played the trombone since he was 11 but this year the band director told him next year they were going to put him in marching band so he decided this year is the last year he will play. He said he knows he is not coordinated enough to walk and play at the same time. I am pretty sure he got his vertigo and lack of coordination from me, sorry kid. I sometimes call him the boy wonder because boy do I wonder after everything he has been through how he has made it this far without any major injuries or long term hospitalizations. He has reached the age where he wants to take the pictures rather than be in them so we don't have very many resent pictures of him but I managed to find a couple. You can't tell so much in the pictures but he has had a light mustache since he was twelve. Last month it was so thick we decided something had to be done, it couldn't be ignored any longer. After some debate between shaving and waxing Sarah convinced him waxing was better. She told him it only hurts for a second and he would only have to do it once a month. He wasn't thrilled when the hair had grown back in three days. He said it definitely wasn't worth the pain so I guess it's time for his daddy to teach him to shave. Even with all the grief he gives us he is still a good kid and for the most part he really does stay out of trouble.

The random happenings of Tanterd

Tanner has turned into such a little terd lately, so much so that the kids have changed his nickname to Tanterd. His new favorite word is crap. Cookies used to be the curse word in our house but now it's crap(mommies fault) and he finds a way to work it in to just about every sentence. I tried to threaten him but he just laughed and said "what, I got it from you". His favorite way to end an argument with me is to say "Yo Mama, no offence Bobo". It works every time because every one in the room cracks up. When he grows up he wants to be a tattoo artist. He said it's okay, he isn't going to tattoo his own temple, but other people can choose for themselves whether or not they ruin their temples. He likes to rationalize things like that. He is very a mischievous boy except he can't keep a secret and can't tell a lie, although he tries. Whenever he lies to me his face gives him away and I just have to say Tanner this is your one and only chance to tell the truth and he breaks down every time, sometimes before I can get the whole sentence out he is already crying. When he does something wrong or gets into trouble he comes to me to tell on himself. If I catch him doing something wrong I just have to ask what he did and he huffs and gruffs and then confesses all. For being the most high maintains child at the moment he is certainly the easiest discipline wise. When ever he has to see another Dr or specialist they always have a ton of questions but the one question they ask every time is how we discipline him and the answer is always the same, we don't. We don't have to. He tells on himself and then I ask what we need to do to take care of this behaviour and he usually punishes himself. The only time we have ever really had to punish him was impulse control related incidences due to medication side affects and we didn't even really have to do anything. We just let him know he was in trouble and he and Zander worked out the punishments themselves. Mercedes once told me that Oscar was the same way when he was younger. He told on himself and punished himself. The first time Tanner told on himself as a child I thought back to Mercedes' stories of how she used to handle Oscar and that's how I treated Tanner. He is 11 now and he still punishes and tells on himself. This never worked with any of the other kids, just him. Lately he has been trying to develop a rude, snarky attitude or tell off color joke to fit in with the other kids his age so I just told him that these bad habits will stick with him for the rest of his life and they would be ruining friendships and relationships for the rest of his life and that was it, he was so freaked out that he agreed never to do it again. Sometimes when friends are over tries the bad attitude but then when he sees me he freaks out and starts apologizing to everyone he may have offended. He hates to see others get into to trouble or have a punishment. Even if he is the one who told on someone he is always the first to try to get them out of trouble. Sometimes he will be more upset than they are and tries to help the do the extra chore or sentences they were given for their bad behavior. He loves everyone. He hates being sick and hates taking his meds but he can definitely tell a difference in his behaviour and mental status when he doesn't take them. because of his illness he had a fascination with breaking bones and tried several times to break his own. When he got a hernia and we tried to convince him that surgery was way more fascinating than a broken bone. We weren't sure if it was going to work because he kept mentioning that Zander broke his hand and got to have surgery to repair it. After the surgery he hasn't mentioned breaking a bone once so I guess we were successful after all. He loves getting blessings as well. he loves the comfort that he receives from them because in his life there are very few things that give him comfort and his meds sort of make him dull emotionally and mentally but blessings are still a very big comfort to him. Monday our home teachers came by and offered blessing because we have been having so many issues and visits to the hospital. All the kids lined up for their turn. After Tanner received his blessing he got back in line for a second blessing. he was so comforted by the first that he wanted another. He is very smart and loves to learn. He loves to draw and read as well. He is also writing a book wright now. We love him so much and we are very happy he is figuring out his new routine and is working his way back to functioning like a normal (a word we are never supposed to use in our house again) eleven year old and that he can have joy and comfort in his life again.

She's all grown up

A couple of time a year they measure and weigh the kids in PE. Friday Sarah was weighed and measured and she was very proud to announce that she is now officially tall enough to ride with out a booster seat. It took her 13 years to get here and she is thrilled to not be "Baby Girl" anymore and she says I really have to stop calling her that now that she can ride in the front seat and is too big to ride in a car seat.

Gardening

I love gardening and every year I plant a garden but this year with all the chaos going on around here I figured I didn't have time for the upkeep required for a garden. This morning I was in a funk, I have been for a while, so I decided maybe I could do a little garden just to have something to do in the mornings. I know it's a little late to get started but I need to feel productive and that 2 hours of down time really isn't good for me. I had started a winter garden last fall but then Bobo got sick and then Tanner got sick and then Oscar left and by that time there was never time to work on the garden. I quit watering and weeding and figured the plants would all die off and I would start over again next year. Today when I went out back to see how much work i needed to plan for this weekend I discovered that some of my vegetables had survived the winter and were still growing.

Onions

The onions were waist high and the tallest of them where over 3 feet.

Carrots

The carrots were huge and weighed at least a half a pound each.

I'm not sure what we are having for dinner tonight but it will definitely contain carrots and onions.

Updates

OK, so it's been over a year since I last posted anything but it was a tough 19 months so forgive me. Let have a quick catch up. The dog survived, I didn't kill her but boy do I want to some days. After the dog ate the computer cord my computer got a virus and I couldn't use it. Zander was put into special services at school for developmental delays. My blog got hacked twice(if you look at the comments from previous posts they are loaded with a bunch of virus infected ad links disguised as comments, don't click on them or your computer will get hacked too). My mother tried to die. We got a new pool. Rats took over the chicken barn. A pipe busted in the upstairs toilet and flooded the garage, which isn't even under the bathroom. Oscar quit denying he had ptsd. Brendan grew a mustache. Sarah discovered boys. I got a urinary tract/kidney infection that lasted almost a year. The Blog got hijacked again and my other two blogs linked to this account were taken as well. We figured out all kinds of things that trigger the ptsd, induce mania, increase the meltdowns and raging of the younger two. Oscars parents got divorced. My mom tried to die again. Mercedes moved to California. My mother went to stay with Jenn. Zander broke his finger and had to have it reattached through surgery. Tanner's Schizophrenia took over our lives. Sarah went hormonally crazy. Oscar couldn't take the stress of home life and started shutting down. Oscars mom moved to Florida. I went a little crazy. Oscar moved out. The kids moved into my room. Jenn brought mom home sick so we spent a week in the hospital. Tanner spent a week in the hospital. I got whiplash. Sarah went a little crazy but then we discovered St Johns Wart and Valerian Root and she is much better. Tanner went back into the hospital. We were finally approved for state health insurance. Zander snapped. Oscar started working double shifts. Tanner got to go to special school to relearn how to function in the real world. We discovered the miracle drug Melatonin and all the boys are now on it. Our house became the cool place for all the boys friends to hang out. Zander got his cast off and they told us he had to come back every three months until he stops growing, probably around the age of 16. I kicked the kids out of my room. The baby that used to get here at 5am started coming at 3am, causing massive sleep deprivation around here. Tanner got tested for other problems because one of his many doctors thought he might have a very high functioning form of autism, which he doesn't, and he started weekly therapy sessions to cope with the crazy in his head as well as his whole world falling apart. For a while our world revolved around Tanners appointments and filling out the same three hour packet of paper work for every different doctor he went to. I broke the washer, garbage disposal, vacuum cleaner, toilet, and oven. Oscar and I worked out a system for Dr appointments. Brendan got bronchitis. We went to the hospital so many times in one month that the registration clerk came into our room and took one look at us and simply asked if anything had changed since we were there a few days before and gave us our consistent to treat without even going through the whole registration process because we had been there so much in the past three months that she had memorized all out info. Zander went to his fallow up appointment and miraculously they couldn't even see any evidence that his finger was ever even broken let alone as bad as it was. They had to compare before and after x-rays to find the break so they said he was perfect and they didn't have to see him again, which is good because realistically there is no way we would have taken him in every 3 months for the next 7 years, they charge way too much and that is just insane. I got pneumonia and then bronchitis which did a lot of damage to my lungs and now I have to travel with an inhaler all the time and I am very sensitive to a whole list of things that trigger my asthma and I spend a lot of time attached to the nebulizer. My mother tried to die again so I threatened her to within an inch of her life so that she will start taking better care of herself and I think it actually sank in this time. Oscar and I came to a happy medium of coexistence, sort of. Tanner and Zander moved back into my room. Oscar bought the kids there own cute little fat screens to bribe them to stay out of my room(didn't work). Tanner got a hernia and had to have it surgically repaired. Mimi and Papa tried to die within a few days of each other. Papa came home and Mimi went to a nursing home for a while. Tanner regressed a little and also has pretty much lost all impulse control due to meds. I took back control of the blogs after about a year. I managed to break the dishwasher and garbage disposal, flood the kitchen and soak the new cabinets all in less than 10 minutes. Michael and Oscar hijacked two of my stress relieving projects so now I am planning a third but they will be banned from helping this time. Brendan, who isn't supposed to do sport or wrestle or do anything that could injure his good kidney decided at a friends house yesterday that it would be a good idea to participate in a wrestling brawl with some friends so we spent the day in the ER getting his good kidney checked out. He is fine and we found out that the right kidney is no longer there so that which is good news because we have been waiting his whole life for it to be gone, it just took 14 years for it to shrink to nothing. While at the hospital we realized not only has the bruise on his spine that he has had for over a month still not healed but there is a new one just under neath it. This is the drama of the moment. His ITP has been in remission since he was about 5 or 6 but it may be back. Now we do the wait and see game. I am not a very patient person. A lot of birthdays and holidays happened during all of that craziness as well.That's it for now. I will try to keep the blog updated as often as possible but I can't make any promises. Oh, and if anyone is wondering why I am up at 1:45 updating the blog when I have to get up at 3 it's Bobo's fault, she's in the other room trying not to go back to the hospital and honestly I just spent all day in the ER so I am holding off as long as I can before I have to go back. Night Night All :~)