Time to catch up on things

Well, I guess I should update this thing since its been almost 3 months since I added anything. Terrance is now 9 months old and is up to 22 lbs and is 30 in tall. He is crawling now and pulling up on EVERYTHING. Won't be long before he takes off walking on me. Dakota is growing fast but his social skills have regressed since the baby. He tries to act like a baby. He is doing better now though including a bit better with the potty training. Hopefully we can have him completely potty trained before he turns 5 in December. CJ is off spending the summer with his grandma and Aunt in New York. They left on Monday, the 26th. We got Mom all moved out of our house and into her apartment. I have to unpack some more of her stuff so I can have the boxes to pack up my stuff. I am starting to go through all of our stuff at the house and in storage figuring out what we need to get rid of before we move to Oregon in August. It looks like we may have to live in Newport instead of Siletz like we wanted but the housing situation is very tight down there right now. The good news is that CJ has been accepted to the Siletz charter school for this fall. I hope it will be a good fit for him.

April 10th, 2006

Dakota has an appointment for his hernia surgery on the 18th. I will be glad when it is taken care of.

All of the kids are sick right now including Terrance, the baby. The older 2 are getting over it but Terrance is now using a nebulizer for breathing treatments. We will know in the next day or so whether it is influenza or rsv or what.

We just learned recently that my younger sister has been diagnosed as anorexic. We always knew that she had an unhealthy body image but it has gotten worse. And now that she has a baby (she just turned 1 last month) she can't afford to weaken herself by starving herself. Luckily she is in treatment now. Hopefully she will be able to rebound for her daughter's sake.

March 20, 2006

What a week! Friday I had laproscopic surgery. I had my tubes tied so there will be no child #4. It was only day surgery but I am still in quite a bit of pain 3 days later. I also wear out quicker these last couple of days. Hopefully I will be back up to snuff soon.

Thursday, Terrance had his 6 month checkup. He is now 18 lbs 10.5 oz and 28.75 in tall. 90th percentile across the board. What a big boy!

I took Dakota to the doctor this afternoon due to a swelling in the nether regions. Turns out he has a hernia. He gets to go see the urologist on the 28th.

Thankfully my van is now fully repaired and in good working order. It was hard not to put myself through the windshield the first couple of days after the brakes were fixed.

My friend Liz and I took our babies to the Baby Fair in Spokane last weekend at the Convention Center. What a great event that is! So many booths with free samples and ideas. The baby crawl races are always the highlight of the day. There is always at least one kid who gets up and walks for the first time!

I am almost done with this round of physical therapy and while I am getting stronger, I haven't noticed any reduction in the pain or grinding in my knees.

March 3, 2006

Still waiting for the Tribe to send the check to Les Schwab for my brakes. They told me on Monday that it was going out on Tuesday from Wellpinit to Colville but so far it hasn't arrived. I am actually scared to drive my van because of the brakes but unfortunately it is my only transportation. I can't afford to pay the $475 myself. It's times like this that I am glad we are moving back to the Oregon coast this summer. With decent paying jobs, we won't have to rely on others to make ends meet.

Mom came home from the hospital after 10 days. She seems to be doing better but I still worry about her. I guess that's to be expected.

My brother-in-law has called my sister a few times and is well. He got to hear his little girl tell him "Bye-bye Daddy" over the phone and it made both him and my sister teary. Their daughter will be 1 on the 25th of this month.

CJ and I had our birthday last month. He turned 8 and I am now 30 (don't feel 30 though).

My 5th anniversary is coming up on the 25th. Hubby and I were wanting to go out to dinner in Spokane but it's not looking likely due to finances. We are probably just going to go to the Shanghai and sing that evening.

I am finally getting treatment for my arthritic knees. I am now in physical therapy (I call it physical torture!) and if that does not help I may be looking at surgery. I am getting to the point that I don't care if I end up having surgery. I am so tired of being in pain all the time.

lotsa stuff

My brother-in-law who is in the Army was deployed to Afghanistan on Friday morning from Ft. Drum. My sister is missing him already as is their daughter. My niece will be spending her first birthday without her Daddy. Many prayers are being said for his safe return.

That same day, my mother checked into a hospital for severe depression caused by her medications. With the new Medicare rules, she was unable to get some of her needed medication which caused an exacerbation of some of her conditions (arthritis, fibromyalgia, degenerative disk disease). She was unable to sleep due to severe pain for at least a couple of weeks which led to a mental breakdown. She seems to be doing better in the hospital but we'll have to see once she comes home.

I took Dakota to an ear specialist Tuesday. His hearing was impaired due to excessive wax in his ears. When they tested his hearing before getting it all out, he had significant hearing problems. Once they got it out his hearing tested normal. Thank God! Hopefully now he will begin to make strides in his language comprehension. He is in speech therapy to help him catch up.

I just found out that my van now needs new brakes all the way around. I put new tires on it yesterday and Les Schwab told me that the front brakes were not good. A friend here in town looked at the back end said that they all need repair. OUCH!!! Hopefully we can get some help with that from the Tribe. They said that I need to get at least 3 quotes and they will help with it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

New Year

Well we got some good news. Mom's cancer did not spread to her lymph nodes and it appears that they got it all. That has made for a better new year!

The rest of the family is doing well now. Terrance was in the hospital overnight New Years Day (night). He had a raging ear infection that mimicked meningitis. Luckily, he was just fine and continues to do well. At his last checkup on the 15th, he was 15 lbs 7 oz and 26.5 inches long. Dakota had his 4 year checkup the same day and was 3ft 3in tall and 39 lbs.

Hubby had his first checkup in probably 5 years also. Everything came back completely normal other than him being overweight. This surprised everyone even the doctor! Thank God for small favors.

We have started getting together with another family who have kids nearly the same age as mine. Our babies are only a month apart (Terrance is older). It has been nice having someone other than family to talk to in person. Our husbands are also alot alike (SCARY THOUGHT!!) and they both needed a "guy friend". So each wednesday, the guys go out and shoot pool and then on Fridays the moms go out. Saturday nights we get the families together for dinner.

Merry Christmas...here's cancer

We just found out the other day that a spot on my mother's arm is actually melanoma or skin cancer. The doctor removed it and we are hoping that they got it all. Unfortunately, we won't know for sure until she sees the dermatologist and the oncologist after the first of the year.

My sister will be visiting us next week from NY with her husband and 9 month old daughter. We are looking forward to spending time with them before he is deployed to Afghanistan in late January.

The Double Eagle Casino is still closed and some of the employees are having a rough time this Christmas. One of them that I know is a single mom of 2 kids. She is surviving on less than $300 a month cash from child support and maybe that much in food stamps. She is still hoping that the casino will reopen so she can go back to work. She worked there for 7 years I think.