Taking the Scenic Route

An often repeated scene.  *sigh*

Mom and Dad came to visit after church yesterday to see if the Olds could be saved.  It will take a new radiator, battery and fan.   The battery is around $40, but we don’t know what the other things are.  Dad is going to check at salvage yards for us and then we will decide if it is worth fixing it.  I hope the Pontiac hangs in there until we are financially stable enough to replace it.  Right now the car seats in the car are actually worth more than the car. lol.

They were both pretty tired from a hard week, so they didn’t stay terribly long, but took some time to snuggle with the kids a bit, watch Zane build some roller coasters on Roller Coaster Tycoon, and chat for a bit.  It was nice to talk to them because I haven’t been able to call them since my voice went away.  Although I am starting to squeak out some words today, yesterday I was still pretty limited to whispering. 

Today, as we were leaving the house for ST, we noticed the nest was knocked off the tree.  We put it back into the tree and looked for the birds, hoping they didn’t become a cat’s lunch.  We found them, shivering, on the ground.  Zach didn’t want to touch them with his hands because the mama might not accept them with “human” all over them, so we ran inside, put some socks on as gloves, and carefull lifted each of the birds back into the nest.  Zach took the kids to therapy, and I stood just inside the door, watching, waiting to see if the parents would come back or not.  In the half an hour I stood there, they returned three times, so I am pretty confident that all is well for now. 

The four babies, back in the nest.  (that 5th odd egg never hatched btw)

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?p=8353682#post8353682

President Bush, First Lady Laura and Dick Cheney were flying on Air Force One.

George looked at Laura, chuckled and said, “You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy.”

Laura shrugged her shoulders and replied, “I could throw ten $100 bills out of the window and make ten people very happy.”

Cheney added, “That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10 bills out of the window and make a hundred people very happy.”

Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his eyes and said to his co-pilot, “Such big-shots back there. Shit, I could throw all of your asses out the window and make 230 million people very happy.”

My brother’s wife, Joy, is going through a major crisis.  She went to her cardiologist for her yearly checkup a few weeks ago and he gave her 1-3years.  Her health is going downhill.  She is having swelling in her legs and her belly is becoming somewhat distended (yes, she is somewhat overweight, not as much as me, but this doesn’t look like normal fat).  Steve and Joy are going down to the Mayo clinic in Phoenix (the one that has the heart clinic) for a weeks worth of tests.  They can’t really afford it, but they are going anyway because there is nobody around here that has the level of expertise to be able to handle her set of symptoms. 

She has had health problems her whole life.  She was a micro-preemie in the early 80s (I think, I can’t ever remember her age, but I am pretty sure she is still in her late 20s).  She has had multiple open heart surgeries, aneurisms, pacemaker, and nearly died from staph infections several times.  (that is the short list…there is lots more) She is not in great shape, as you can imagine.  She doesn’t really have the mental stamina to deal with this either, probably due, in part, to many 8-10hour surgeries and what that does to your brain. 

So it isn’t looking very good right now.  Pray not only for her, but for my brother who is being tested on every level trying to support her through this even when she lashes out as the pain and fear overwhelm her.  She is in no way prepared to handle this, as few of us would when faced with such a diagnosis.

There just aren’t words to express how difficult this is for them.

You know you live in Kansas when there are 40-50 mph winds, tons of lightning, and sheets of rain AND there is no storm warning, just a “special weather statement”, because it isn’t *that* bad of a storm.  It does have the standard disclaimer that you should be prepared to take shelter in case it does become severe.

Ok, back to bed.  Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to blow away when I heard the racket on the windows.  lol.

My camera wasn’t handling the lighting very well, but I decided to share because the mischief in her face is so undeniable.  She and daddy were running around the living room playing a peek-a-boo type game.

She went and hid on the stairs and peeked her head out.

And now, a Public Service Announcement, for your conveinence.

If you have one of these ball things…

…and it gets wet, all the little hair things clump and stick together.  Plus, it becomes a sticky hair and weird goober magnet.  So, you clean it again and spend an inordinate amount of time picking hair out of it. 

Since your kids like the thing, you look for a way to make it usable again.  It crosses your mind that a little bit of cornstarch might help, so you put a little in your hand and rub it on the ball.  Well, this looks promising, the area with the cornstarch starts feeling more normal again, but you can’t get it to distribute evenly.  Next step, find a ziplock baggie and put cornstarch in it. 

Now here is where you should not make the mistake I did.  Let’s just say I used a little too much cornstarch in my enthusiasm.  I put in the cornstarch, put in the ball, closed the bag and played football with it a while.  Took it out, and it was like a giant cornstarch snowflake.  I had to knock cornstarch off of the thing, but simply putting it over the sink and hitting it has much the same effect as spraying a fire extinguisher in the room.   Dust everywhere.  Even when I thought I had all the cornstarch out and gave it to Zane (who was facinated with the whole process), I set about cleaning up the kitchen.  When I was done, I left the kitchen to find snowflake like trails on furniture and my son.  Dude, it is amazing how far a little bit of cornstarch can go.

He didn’t get a job yet, but he did meet with the recruiter today and felt like it went well.  She found out more about the job she was thinking of matching him with and found out that it required experience with a particular piece of software that Zach didn’t know well and they don’t want to train somebody since it is a temp. position.  (for somebody on maternity leave).  However, the face to face was a good thing and she seems like she will be looking at his resume a little more carefully and match him up with something.  So, although it wasn’t the news we wanted, it is likely to be better news in the long run.

Still without a voice, although I noticed that I am able to get out a squeak every once in a while, so maybe I am on the upside now.  I hope so.  One thing I have discovered, Zane has super sonic hearing.  He almost seems to hear me better when I am whispering than he does when I am talking.  That was a weird, but good, thing to discover.

Zach has a meeting tomorrow with a placement agency.  If they can come to terms, he might have a temporary position.   Obviously, we wish it was a perm position, but at least it is hopeful.  It will mean a far enough drive that we will have to try and fix the Oldsmobile so I can still take Zane to his social skills group on Tues and Thurs.  The hours would mean he would be home in time for the Monday-Wednesday therapy times though.  I wish it were the other way around because it would be conceivable to walk to the Mon-Wed appointments, but the Tues-Thurs place is really stretching the ability to walk. 

I am still without a voice and with a lovely cough.  Zora and Zane still have the sniffles, but aren’t any worse, so that is good.  Zach is just fine and dandy.  Zora is in an uber grumpy mood today, but I think it is gas. 

I am so incredibly tired of having to whisper everything.  I want my voice back.  I am stuck at home 24/7 because almost everybody I normally come into contact with relies on their voice to do their job, especially the speech therapists.  I am also really tired of coughing, although that seems to be ever so gradually improving.  At least is it past the dry hacking thing and on to a more productive cough.  I just want to feel better already.

I do have to say, it is sort of amusing to see Zane and I interacting together.  A mom who has no voice and a boy who struggles with language.  I can’t help him find the words when I don’t have a voice, so we are living in a largely non-verbal world right now.  To add the frustration, Zora’s favorite activity is being read to, something I can’t do at all right now.  I need my voice back, like yesterday.

Zach took Zane to his first day of the summer social skills group.  He was so excited to be back at his school and to see some familiar faces.  He was absolutely giddy with excitement.  (Zach said he couldn’t have been happier if he was pooping gold nuggets.  lol)  It was very good to see and the people there were commenting about how excited he was. 

No phone calls yet for Zach.  Frustrating.  In better news, Zora’s cold seems annoying, but *knock on wood* is a much milder version than mine.  Zane seems to have just gotten the cough with no other real symptoms at all.  Zach was worried yesterday, but so far, he has not gotten any worse.  So, thankfully, I seem to be the hardest hit by this viral round.