Updates

It has been one month since I got my gallbladder removed. I still have a couple very faint bruises. I think they will be gone within a couple of days. At my 2 week post check up the surgeon was shocked at my bruising. She said, "you bruised!" Um, yeah! remember me saying she had to make my incision bigger to get the stones out? I asked her about it. She pulls the gallbladder out through the belly button. That cut was about 3 times bigger than all the other cuts. The stones were so big they even measured them. One stone was 1 inch and the other was 1 1/4 inches. Apparently my body likes to do things differently! Remember my tonsil surgery took twice as long as normal because they were inverted and the ENT said "groody!"

Everyone said I would feel SO much better after my gallbladder was out. Well, since it didn't really give me any problems but every 2 or 3 years, I would like to say, I notice NO difference. I eat whatever I want, like before. I don't notice any pain if I eat something high in fat. Whatever.. It's out and I don't have to think about it anymore.

While on vacation Ike decided he wanted to use the potty some. He did... some. Every day we went to the beach I would find him within 5 minutes of returning to the condo in the bathroom, in front of the toilet with pee all around him in the floor. He would be wearing his swimsuit without a diaper. It was a start. Once we got home he still acted interested so he has barely worn a diaper since we returned home 3 days ago. He says when he has to go, and then runs to the potty. He has had a couple accidents but for the most part has done great. The first 2 days he did poop in his pants. Today he said he needed to go and did his business in the potty. YAY! I always see that step as a break-thru. He turned 2 1/2 at the end of February. So he is just barely over 2 1/2 years old. Much better than Joe at the ripe age of 4!! Or Max at the age of 6!! Sam was not yet 2 1/2 when she got trained but after the honeymoon phase she seemed to wet her pants every single day for around a year or so. I am hoping Ike likes the idea of undies and going in the potty. It would be awesome to have him trained. I'm encouraging him but not pushing it. This was his idea so maybe he is ready. I guess we'll see in a few days.

I asked the kids teachers for spelling words and the weekly homework before we left for Spring break. Max got nothing. YAY! I even thanked her!! Sam's teacher went overboard and gave her a ton of stuff. Seriously? We are going to beach and you give her this much stuff to do!!??? We did it when we had time in the morning or late evening. Then finished most of it up Wednesday when we returned and I kept the kids home. We did not do ALL of it b/c seriously, this was a break, not a time to load her up with SO much stuff to do on it. The weekly homework I wanted was not even in that huge stack of papers. Sam got that Thursday when she returned to school. It is due on Fridays of every week. I told Sam we would just do it over the weekend. aggravating to say the least.

Dell is really making me mad. That is for another post though.

My parents, who live 3 hours away, watched our dog for us while we were gone. We planned to get her this weekend but decided we would wait until next weekend when we will be there for Easter anyway. Big thanks to my mom for being OK with this!! I must say, it has been rather nice to be dog free for a month. However, the carpets are not nearly as clean!! HA! My dog is almost 17 years old. 17 years!! Trust me, her time is coming. Not that I won't be sad, I will, but at the same time it will be kinda nice. I know that sounds awful.

Now the 2 boys and I are off to hopefully pick up a switch that works for the van speakers. The kids will no longer have to 'suffer' without the sound of the DVD player!

Have a nice weekend everybody.

Oh MY gosh! I just finished this post. I got a call from the principal. Max at recess decided to stand up on the playground equipment, pull his pants down and pee all over! Oh MY Gosh. She told him he had to go home. I bet he is fine with that. But hopefully he will be heart broken enough to NOT ever do it again!!
BOYS!



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Spring break is over

We got home Tuesday late night (really Wednesday morning) at 1 Am. Another 19 hour drive. Well, 18 1/2 to be exact. South Padre Island was fun. LOTS of crazy Spring breakers.... and cops! The weather was nice for the most part. There were a few cool or rainy days. However, back at our house we got somewhere around 8 inches of snow. I'll take a cooler day at the beach over snow any Spring break day!

On our way there Pete realized he forgot his wallet at home... 4 hours into our drive. He actually thought about going back for it. NO! No way was I going to turn around and go back another 4 hours to get his wallet!! Luckily, our neighbor is awesome and was willing to go fetch it out of Pete's pant pocket at our house. She was watching our cat and collecting our mail so she had the key. We told her to overnight it to S Padre. Pete's parents are there for 3 months in the winter so we gave her that address.

She got to Fedex (Kinkos) late so it would not go out that day. That was Thursday evening. It would go out Friday. BUT since S Padre is a smaller island Fedex does not deliver there on Saturdays. Overnight means we would be getting it Monday. That was $48. OR we could send it 2 days and get it Tuesday for only $23. We chose to save the extra $25 and picked Tuesday. It was there before 9 am Tuesday morning.

We stayed in my in-laws condo. They stay in an RV at an RV park on the beach. The condo was just bought last Spring/Summer. They decked it out last Summer. It is very nice and we loved staying in it. It is 3 bedrooms and sleeps 8 people. The kitchen is probably nicer than ours. It is smaller but has about twice the cabinet space as ours. It has a dishwasher and a fully stocked kitchen (as in, any gadget you may think you need is there!).

The condo has a washer and dryer (that was used every day by me) and LCD TV's in every bedroom plus the living room. If you are thinking of going to S Padre Island and need a place to stay, let me know... I can recommend a great place! Plus... it is walking distance to the beach. extra nice!

While on the Island we did not let the kids watch TV in the car. I know, surely that is child abuse, right?! We told them they could watch out the windows for entertainment. There was plenty of it out there. We go to leave Tuesday morning and the sound on the DVD player is not working. Our van is a conversion van so it has a switch for the back speakers. They can play the radio or the DVD sound. (I never have figured out how to get the back radio to work... there is a front and a back radio. But the switch is for the front radio or the DVD player). Anyway, I played around with it, unscrewed it, cleaned it, anything I could while riding down the interstate. The switch seemed to be stuck on the front radio. Either way it was pushed the sound coming through the speakers never changed, it was the radio from up front. So the DVD worked but had no sound. Then I realized at least the headphone jacks worked with it. I had 3 pairs of headphones in the car. So if the kids wanted to LISTEN to the DVD being played they had to wear headphones. It was still a long drive home! I'm sure the switch being broken has nothing to do with the fact that it had super sandy crocs placed on top of it. Sand was ALL over it. HA!

Today I have gone to 3 places to find and get a replacement switch. I figured the entire unit would need to be replaced. But luckily, the switch can be removed and replaced just by itself. The bad news, so far, nobody has the switch. NAPA (not sure if that is the correct spelling) is ordering one that looks like mine but we'll see if it fits when they get it in tomorrow. Fingers crossed it works. If not, we may have to get the whole thing rewired and I'm sure that would cost a small fortune.

Overall, Spring break was great. We are debating about going again next year though. The traffic is so bad during the official Spring break week. The RV and condo is only 3 miles apart. It would take us roughly 20 minutes to drive ONE way because of the traffic and Spring breakers who, obviously, are invincible and walk right out in front of the cars. One night it took us roughly 1 hour to drive 3 miles. 1 hour!! crazy! And don't even thing about crossing over the causeway and coming back late afternoon time. That traffic looked even more crazy.

Happy World Down Syndrome Day!!

Hope everyone has a great day!

In honor of WDSD here are a few older pictures of my sweetie....

Riding the turtle

At the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, TX they have a bronze turtle. The zoo was busy and I didn't take many pictures. The kids thought this turtle was pretty neat though. Well, all but Sam... She was tired and getting rather cranky!

Some beach pictures on S Padre....

Burying Sam in the sand... Bury, get stuck, get rescued by grandma, break free!

South Padre

We are in South Padre Island. It took us 19 hours with only 5 stops to get here. We don't remember it taking that long last year. We did hit a rush hour in one of the bigger cities in Texas plus several slow downs due to construction and police cars stopped. we got here Friday morning... so almost a week ago now! We will be leaving to come home on Tuesday.

This is the official Texas Spring Break week here at South Padre. So as I'm sure you can guess, it is crazy here. We were here last year during this time as well. Then the following Monday it seemed dead. I'm guessing it will be the same this time as well.

So far we haven't gotten too burnt. we use lots of sun block! The weather has been nice but cooler this year than the average. The water really is too cold to get in. The kids don't seem to notice the water is only in the mid-upper 60's (I believe that is what it is).

I haven't taken tons of photos this year. I have taken some on one day at the beach and a few other times doing other things. Last year we never left the island. This year we have left several times. We got stuck on the Causeway around 5 PM- which means we had to wait for awhile. The Causeway is the only bridge from the mainland (Port Isabel) to the Island. It gets backed up. We ventured to the Brownsville zoo one day. It was pretty busy.

I will post a few photos now and some more in another post as to not overload you!

Sam's "pet" bee....






this was the back up on the causeway. The picture is too small to really see but it was backed all the way up....

Here is a map showing the causeway. I think it is 2 miles long.

Almost Spring break!

Man, I have not wrote much lately! Not because of lack of materiel, with 4 kids, that's impossible, but rather, lack of time.

I am recovering from my gallbladder removal nicely. I see the surgeon on Wednesday for my follow up. It has been roughly a week and a half since surgery. The incisions are tiny! All but the one in my belly button. It is pretty big. It is the one that has been sore. My belly is still pretty bruises up. I can tell I must still be hunching over somewhat to protect my stomach because my lower back still hurts some. The few days after surgery it hurt along with my shoulders. My shoulders hurt because of the gas they use in 'inflate' me. It can push up on the diaphragm causing everything else to push up and cause shoulder pain. I used a heating pad on my shoulders for several days (evenings) and an ice pack on my belly button.

Spring Break is coming up. We are going to South Padre Island again this year. This year we are going for longer; almost 2 weeks. We are pulling the kids out of school a couple days before and a couple days after the district Spring Break. It is a LOOOOOONG drive for us. Roughly 16-18 hours. We may leave at night but we may leave early AM instead. We are not sure yet. Driving at night seems like it goes faster. However, Pete is working this year and not used to staying up all night like last year. (if he is not working then his 'normal' schedule seems to be stay up all night then sleep in the morning.)

Have a packed yet? NO. I have packed the kids swimsuits and that is it! We are leaving within a couple of days too. Guess what I plan on doing Wednesday besides going to my surgeon??

I think the kids are all excited to be going to the beach. Last year we had perfect weather the whole time. I am hoping for the same this year. finger crossed.... Either way, it should be fun.

Better go get kids into beds.

End the word....

Today is 03.03.10 that means today is awareness day for .....
Stop using the word "retard" as slang. Spread the word to end the word. Click on over to take the pledge.

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21 Qoutes in 21 days from people with T21

This is from our local Down Syndrome Guild of Greater Kansas City. I thought I would share......

21 Quotes in 21 Days from 21 People with Trisomy 21

Our friends at the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles are preparing to celebrate World Down Syndrome Awareness Day on 3/21 by sharing messages each day from people who have an extra chromosome. You can sign up to receive the quotes here. Today's quote is below.

Quote 1 of 21, March 1, 2010

"She has Down syndrome just like me. You sure are lucky!"

By: Christine Young (age 37)

Said to a family that included a toddler with Down syndrome at Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth.