I hate to paint......

It's not that I really hate painting, it's just so time consuming, but I will get to that in a minute.....We went to see Dr. C on Friday, he had never had a kid with LDD before, so I told him to Google it LOL, just like the surgeons nurse told me to. He was glad to see Hayden was doing well and his head was healing up nice. He wants us to try the carnitine in pill form this time, the last time was hell. He had to take 4 tablespoons each am and pm and he had diarrhea from hell. So I said we would try it for 2 weeks and if the diarrhea comes back, it's a no go. Hayden has a severe carnitine deficiency, this could be due to a mitochondrial disorder. This is why we are going to the metobolic clinic on July 31st.

Now back to the painting issue....we are remodeling our downstairs family room and this means new carpet and paint, new couch, tables, chair, tv stand etc. I'm putting a light brown/dark brown on the walls, there is a chair rail to seperate the two colors, I think it will look nice when done. I have had to strip off wallpaper, so it's taking some time. I have to do some repair to the walls as I go, what a pain in the ass, I wish I was rich enough to pay someone to do it LOL, but alas were not, so the work goes on. We have lived here now almost 13 years and have just about remodeled every room from roof to basement floor.
Well gotta run, 1:15 am comes early.......

I have this love/hate thing about summer........

I have been soooo busy with some outdoor type projects this week. I have re-painted our shed, re-painted the cement foundation on the house, washed the metal fascia under the gutters (got new gutters in March, and the white metal that was showing below the gutters was very dirty), cleaned out under the car-port It's been very warm all week, so the kids are swimming every day, so that makes for more work each night. They all have to have baths, I have to vaccum the pool, cover the pool, wash towels and suits, so needless to say, I don't get much "me" time LOL. Daddy is a saint, he makes their supper and runs the vaccum in the house and trys to straighten up some. Trevor went and spent the night at Aunt Wanda's yesterday. It was his first over-nighter and he had fun watching movies, her favorite "job". Her slumlord still doesn't have her bathroom done, can you believe it.
Tomorrow we go for a visit with Dr. Castellanos, he is Hayden's neurologist. Be interesting what he will have to say about the whole brain tumor thing. Well I need to once again do some wash, tata for now....

Busy, busy, busy week..........

Well I've been trying to find time for the past 4 days to post LOL. The boys went to the Dr. on Tuesday. Dr. Anna is a very kind and warm Dr., I just love how she is with my kids. The boys are all fine, growing like weeds. She filled out the paperwork for Indiana Childrens Wish Fund for Hayden's wish. I dropped it in the mail on Tuesday too, so maybe we will hear something in a couple weeks? My sister-Linda left for Afica on Monday. This is her second trip with her church to do charity work in the orphanges oversea. She called me Tuesday night and was tired, she did have an 11 hour layover in Paris, so she was able to see some great places. She was crying about all the infant death in the area she is at. She is a pre-school teacher and has 2 kids, a son 15 and a daughter 18, she was widowed 9 years ago. She is a very sweet gal, loves kids. I know these trips help her stay balanced. She went to Brazil last year. Did some grocery shopping on Wednesday. Also picked up Wanda so she could take a shower at our house, her slum-lord still hasn't finished her bathroom. The kids and I went to Menards and picked up about 3500lbs of stuff today LOL. We got 35 retaining blocks and 20 16X16 patio blocks, 10 bags of sand, 1 piece of soffit, 2 gallons of paint. The guy who loaded me was so nice, he said he had a teaching degree and was just working there for the summer. Man we were loaded down, but the old red van did just fine LOL. The kids have been swimming every day in the pool, we haven't seen rain in over a week and it's been HOT here. Poor Trevor has swimmer ear in his right ear, he is in lots of pain and will not take pills, so out comes the suppositories, we also went and got ear plugs for him. Mark put down the rest of the retaining blocks around the play-center it looks great, we also got a nice size american flag for the play-center. I will try and post some pictures tomorrow. I bought a new bathing suit today at K-Mart, it was on sale, and it's my first 2-piece in 20+ years, doesn't look to bad LOL. And I won't be posting a picture of me in it, just so you know. Well it's getting late, need to get to bed.......

The rock is down, and why oh why didn't we do that years ago....

no mud, muck, mess. We have for about 5 years now had a "intex" type pool in the back corner of the yard behind the playcenter. Well they grass around it died several years back and we have had to fight the mud, muck ever since. This year I told Mark no more, I'm tried of the mess. So we put down almost 4 tons of river rock and some nice 16 square blocks to form a type of patio around the pool. I will post pictures later. I just wish our backyard was about 20 feet longer. But it turned out nice. The kids swam yesterday from about 3:00 till 5:00 and had a ton of fun.
Our grandson Spencer is coming today to swim and the next door neighbors 3 boys, so it should be lots of fun for the kids, they love having company. Hayden didn't want to swim yesterday, he wanted to stay in the house and "watch" videos. So we let him, but today he will go outside, sometimes his disorder affects him so much, he can't play like the rest of the kids. It breaks my heart to see the other kids being normal kids in the summer. But I remind myself, this is what makes him happy...
Well I need to go an vacumn the pool, will post pictures later....



This is Hayden with his beloved Thomas Train and James Train, he swam today and had lots of fun....




This is Miss Madison, she is nothing more then a water bug.....





This is Robert Wayne, he is a big ham.......




This is Trevor Reese, this was not a "staged" photo, he really said "what mom"...



This is our grandson Spencer, who, like Miss Maddy is a water bug.....




This is the new rock and patio blocks around the pool....pretty cool

Mom, the water is cold, but we don't care......

Good thing it was about 94 degrees today, they just had to swim. Hayden had a ball playing in the pool. Wasn't to bad out, even though it was hot, the wind was blowing like crazy, I have tree limbs all over the front yard. And the gravel to go around the pool doesn't come till noon Friday, so it was a mud bath around the pool.
Posted my new picture of my adorable grandson's Spencer and Clayton. Here are a couple more......





I feel so blessed to have these boys in my life.

Took the kids to the dentist today. Robert has to have braces, no new news there, the poor kid needs a spacer on his top teeth, his "fangs" are actually behind his front teeth. It will cost us out of pocket about $1800.00, but I think they will let me spread the payments out 24 months. You have to put down $700.00 the day they put them on, so what is left over won't be to bad in 24 payments. I had to do the same thing with their big brother Carl.

Karen from the Indiana Children's Wish fund called today, to make sure we were still going ahead with Hayden's request. I told her he didn't have brain cancer, but she said he still has a life threatning disease, to apply anyway. So we will see, I will not say anything to the kids, till we know for sure.

Well I need to go do some more laundry, I swear that is all I think I do anymore LOL. see ya!!

Took the cover off the pool, YUCK.........

talk about some nasty water LOL. So added some more chemicals. I just wish we had enough room for an inground pool, but we don't so enough venting about that. Of course the kids think they can swim in this crap.
Got my new rings today, I 've never had white gold, but I like them....


Robert, Trevor and Maddy have a dentist appointment tomorrow (Hayden goes to Riley), so that should be fun. Think I might take them to McDonald's or the park after lunch.
In the summer, I try to visit a new park each week. We have lots of schools here, so there are a lot to choose from.
I got some new pictures of the grandkids, I need to scan them, so I can post them, they are soooo cute. Well I need to drag my scummy butt into the shower, later....

Added a picture slide of some of my favorites layouts....

Part of the problem with this, is I have switched over to 12X12 scrapbooking for the most part, and I hate to scan and stitch, lazy I know. So most are some really old ones. I free-cycled some fabric today, expect to do some more tomorrow, feels good to get rid of some things, I will never use to someone who will. Spread some more grass seed in the backyard, I tell ya we have had the worst luck with our backyard grass growing decent. We have Chemlawn come 4-5 times a year and put down the stuff it needs, but the back is always "bald" in spots. Well I gotta run, see ya

The Pool is Up...........

Well we finally got the pool up and running yesterday. Of course the kids think they can swim in it now LOL. Had to take Madison to the Dr. yesterday. I thought she had a UTI, but that was negative. Poor thing was really hurting when she tried to go potty.

My niece Jennifer graduated today. She was the salutatorian of her class. She will be attending Purdue in the fall. She wants to be a pharmacist, she is very bright, and I am so proud of her. I know it was very hard for Linda, because mom wasn't with us today. My brother Bill, god love him, is such a geek. He locked his keys in his truck, but was able to get them out pretty quick. Her Aunt Debbie was visiting from Texas, which was nice. Well I have about 10 loads of laundry to do, does it ever end??????????

He was sooo brave today......

Took Hayden back to Riley Hospital to Dr. Boaz to have his stiches out from his brain surgery on May 17th. He was very brave, and didn't even really cry till the last 2 on the very bottom. Mark and I held him down, and another nurse held his head, while the other one took them out, he didn't even try to kick me LOL. Dr. Boaz said the tumor was about the size of a 50 cent piece and was buried very deep in his brain. He also said in all his years (maybe 20+) he has never had a kid with Lhermitte-Duclos Disease. Hayden's tumor was a Dysplastic gangliocytoma of the cerebellum, which is extremely rare. They are sending Hayden's medical records over to the genetisist office. They will contact us next week for an appointment for the whole family, as we all have to be tested. He also said after our follow-up MRI in July, Hayden will need an MRI every 6 months for a couple years and then 1 each year etc.
Went to Wal-mart for patio blocks & river pebbles to go around the pool. We had such a mud mess last year, I'm hoping this will help.
Wanda is still a guest, her slum-lord is slowly, making progress on her bathroom. I'm sure she will be glad when her and Gizmo the wonder dog can go home. Well I'm toast, off to bed......