Update on the Richards Craziness

Wow it has been a while. My last blog was about Shaylan and her ER experience. Alot has happened since then. I will try to remember so I can catch everyone up. Here goes. -Since Shaylans surgery she has been doing great. She is sleeping better though she still has her moments of getting up in the middle of the night. Jeff and I are tracking it because we think it is either hormones or the moon change. It seems to be the same time every month for about a week straight. We switch nights now as to who puts her back which helps. After a while it was beginning to wear on me. It was like having an infant all over again. We seem to be in a good stretch right now. The toughest part is getting her to go to bed. With summer around the corner both of my children have a tough time going to sleep. I have room darkening curtains on the windows but the light still creeps through. 2 more weeks and 4 more days and I wont have to worry about it. -Katie did her travel soccer tryouts and we are waiting for the results. Hopefully by the end of this week we should hear something. The team has just about finished the season and the girls improved so much. Katie had a great team and really got to know the girls. One in particular and I am also getting to know her mom really well. In the conversations we have had we have found out that we are a lot alike and our spouses are a lot alike. We were at their house for a swim party yesterday and had a great time. We are going to miss all the team members since for the past few months we have spent every Wed evening and Sat mornings with them. None of the girls on the team are in Katies school so she wont see them except at certain soccer events. Katie really enjoys soccer. She is going to a soccer camp this summer so hopefully it improves her skills. She really likes goal so I think she may work on that especially. -Speaking of summer, ours is so busy already. Every weekend from now until the middle of August there is something planned. We had one Saturday in June where there was nothing and then we received an invitation in the mail for a graduation party. It is for Jeffs cousin who we have not seen in a while so we are going to go. It is in Delaware and with the way gas prices are, we were actually debating on going but decided it is best. My birthday is in 2 weeks which does not seem possible. I am hitting the big 29 and that is where I will stay. For some reason 30 is scaring me. -This weekend is my high school reunion. I have been planning and contacting classmates since November. It is hard to believe it is here. Our turn out was not as great as we hoped but we did plan it during prime wedding and graduation season. Oh well. I have just about everyones email addresses so I am sure we can plan something small for those that are still local. - I have come to love a website called freecycle.org. My good friend told me about it and it is amazing. Instead of just throwing things away that someone else might be able to use, you list them on a website and people come and pick the stuff up. I had a yard sale a few weeks ago and things that did not sell, I put on the site and they have been picked up. It is helping me want to go through my things and put them in bags to give away. Today it was shoes. I went through mine and Shaylans, put them in bags and listed them. What is fun too is you can find things that you may want. Today someone listed a pool table. I asked for it but someone had already responded before me. That is the one thing. You have to be on top of it. But hey it was free and another one may come along. -Jeff and I are attempting a veggie garden. It is turning out to be great. We have quite a few things that have started to poke. For most of the veggies we started from seeds and just planted them straight into the ground. We figured whatever happens happens. We already have sprouts for radishes, carrotts, beets, cucumbers, pole beans, snap peas, and lettuce. We think we may have cauliflower and broccoli and onions but with the weeds that grow everyday it is hard to tell. We also had a watermelon sprout but it somehow was broken off. It may have been the moles. We have a hard time with them and birds. Next year we are going to follow all of my Great-Grandfathers books and start the seeds inside in his light boxes and then transplant them according to his journals and calendars. My Great-Grandfather was an amazing gardener so I am hoping to learn from his books since I am unable to learn from him. Well that is the update for now. Hopefully I will upload some pictures for the next blog and will not wait so long to update. That is if I can find time between my busy schedule. What happened to the lazy days of summer?

MOMS RETIREMENT PARTY

Kristen, Dad and I are throwing Mom a retirement party on June 28th at my house. It is a Open House from 4-7pm. If you are interested in attending to surprise my mom, please let me know. Also forward this along to anyone that you know may be interested. She does not know about the party yet but when we do tell her she will think it is just family attending. We would like to surprise her with any former students or teaching partners that she may have had. You can email me at m.richards4@verizon.net. I will need home addresses so I can mail invitations and directions! DO NOT SEND ME A COMMENT ON FACEBOOK OR MYSPACE! Please help me surprise mom with one of the biggest surprises she has ever had.(We will never top her surprise when she heard she was going to be a grandmom!) Thanks and hope to see a lot of you at the party! I will be deleting this message in a day or two because I know Mom goes exploring on my facebook site and if she sees my new blogger site she will want to read the blogs.

Our ER experience

Yesterday was a pretty decent day for Shaylan. She was up moving around and even ventured outside for a little bit. I was able to get a nap which is a rare occurance but was much needed and Shaylan fell asleep in the sofa around 7:30 last night. She was running a slight temp around 7 so I gave her tylenol and she went to sleep. I was in bed around 10:30 and fell right to sleep. At 2:15 Shaylan came in my room saying she was scared. I went to pick her up and she was burning up. I took her temp and it was 102.9. The doctor instructed us to call if her temp went over 101 but a low grade temp was to be expected. I called the ENT and the doc on call called me back. He said to just watch her and call the pediatrician in the morning. Jeff did not like that answer because why would the one doc say to call if it went over 101 and this one said to wait until morning. Well we decided since we are paying out the wazoo for the cobra that we were going to use it and take her to the ER to be on the safe side. I called my dad and he came back to sit with Katie who was sound asleep. This was around 2:45. When we got to the ER she was still running high 101. They put us in a room and gave her some motrin (I did not realize and wish now that I knew before that if a child is running a really high temp that you can give them motrin an hour after you give them tylenol and it should bring the temp down.) She was complaining her belly hurt and they heard her cough so they wanted a pee pee sample and a chest x-ray. As we were sitting there I smelt something. I asked Shaylan if she tooted and she said yes but her belly did not hurt as bad. Ah gas. So we got up to use the potty and she tooted a big one and did a little pee but it was enough. As we were coming out of the bathroom the x-ray doc was waiting for us so we went down there. She did really well getting the x-ray and when I picked her up to take her back to the room she tooted again. At this point her fever was mostly gone and she was actually talking our ears off. She was sitting on Jeffs lap just tooting away. No wonder her belly hurt. She really has not had anything that would get her bowels moving so I am sure she is a little constipated. Hopefully if she gets some fruits in her she will get moving along. The doc came in and said everything looked okay but to keep our eyes on her and if she runs another high temp to use the tylenol/motrin combo and take her to the pediatrician on Friday. She had a slight cold or allergies before the surgery so the doc thinks her body was just in overdrive fighting off the surgery and whatever else she may have. We got home around 5 am and Jeff went to bed because he had to go to work today. It is "take your child to work day" so he did not want to disappoint Katie who has been looking forward to this day for the last 2 weeks. I tried to sleep with Shaylan on our airbed in the livingroom. She was not tired so we put cartoons on. I dozed for about 30 mins until Jeff came in and asked me to get Katie up and dressed. I made their lunches and got Katie ready. They left at 6:30 and I layed down again. I am figuring I fell asleep around 7 and at this point Shaylan was sound asleep. I slept until 10:30 and she slept until 11. Yes I feel like half the day is gone but the way I was feeling and the lack of sleep I have had, I dont care. So far there is no fever but she is just laying around which I am fine with. She needs to rest up and fight the bug she has and let her little body heal. I am praying tonight is a better night and that we actually get a full nights sleep. We really need it.

Shaylans Surgery

This is the results of anesthesia. Poor kid was so sleepy and look at the blotchy face. It cleared up about an hour after I took this. (Sorry that the pics are poor. They are from my cell)

She was so excited that she was allowed to take home the PJs and the hat she wore. Once the meds started to wear off she perked up.

Is this what I have to look forward too in the future? Doctors or patients? With the grace of our family, I would say the later but I pray for the first. Shaylan was even allowed to bring home the "space" mask that she used. It smells like strawberries and the scent will last for about a year they say. I wrote this on my myspace blog yesterday but wanted to share it with anyone that reads this.

What an emotional rollercoaster of a day. Right now I am in the low because things are looking fairly good but I know once I put Miss Shaylan to bed I will be in the high because of concern. Shaylan had her adenoids removed and had tubes put in her ears. If you have read my past blogs you know we have been struggling with this for a while now. She had to be at the surgical center at 10:15 but we did not go back until almost 11. Then they gave her the "giggle juice" which is valium and it made her seem stoned. Jeff and I were in hysterics. She kept repeating herself but half of what she said we could not understand. She did not get wheeled to surgery until 11:45 and we had to go wait in the waiting room. The doctor came out at 12:30 and said all is well. Her adenoids were so enlarged that they were blocking her sinuses and the tube that drains fluid from her ears. Her ears were so full of fluid that it just poured out when he was done. An hour later we got to see her in recovery and that was tough. She had the IV still in her little hand but she was eating a popsicle which was the first thing she had to eat since 7:30 last night. Once she was able to eat it and keep it down they would pull the IV so we could go home. She kept saying that her mouth hurt and that she was sleepy. She was also a little weepy. Finally at 2:15 we were able to leave. Shaylan was allowed to ride in the wheelchair and was allowed to keep her surgical cap, the mask that they used to put her under, the special rocket/astronaut PJs she wore and the special socks. She fell right to sleep in the car. I got concerned because her face got bright red and blotchy but it was from the anesthesia. She was very swollen and congested and rested much of the afternoon after we got home. She finally got hungry and ate some Jello and then had some milkshake and then another bowl of Jello. I had to run out and get her meds and my meds(oh yeah on top of my day I got another sinus infection thanks to my allergies.) and when I came home she was up moving around. She is now down on the porch playing with Katie with her hullahoop. The doctor said she should be doing great by tomorrow and to just push the fluids and when she wants solid food to give it to her. She is still in her special PJs and I am sure will be in them tomorrow too inspite of the fact that she has new Hannah Montana PJs that we just got her. God was good today with everything and we are thrilled with how she is doing. Now we just have to watch for a fever because that could mean infection but she is on an antibiotic so I am sure she will be fine. Tonight and tomorrow I will give her the prescribed pain meds to help her rest but after that she can just have regular tylenol. She is a brave little one and we are so happy that we made the first step to helping her speech improve. Now that she can hear we can move on with the speech therapy. Thank you to all who said a prayer for Shaylan. Your prayers were answered. I will update over the next few days. Enjoy the great weather. I know we will be outside tomorrow!

My cat truly has nine lives.

This story may be a little disturbing but at the same time it is hilarious. Jeff had to go work on a few doors at the storage center where they keep all of their supplies (for those of you reading this that dont know what it is my husband does, he is a garage door tech. He does work on the side if you need a door or opener.). He decided to take Shaylan along because next week Katie gets to go to work with him for take your child to work day. The shop is up in Bordentown which is about half an hour away from my house and he has to take 295. Jeff has a big utility truck that he uses for work. Well after Jeff took the exit off of 295 onto 130 he heard a news that sounded like a cat. He asked Shaylan if she was making noises and she said no, it sounded like Emily but it sounded like it was coming from the back part of the truck. He went outside to open the door and here on the side of Rt 130 was my cat. Apparently she had taken a nap up underneath his truck on the frame but when he started to leave I guess was to scared to jump off. She rode all the way to Bordentown under Jeffs truck. What a cat. So of course he had no where to put her so he called me to tell me about it and to go get her. I was at Target at the time so I had to finish what I was doing and then run home to get the carrier and then back out to Bordentown to get my cat. Oh my goodness. That cat is too much. Hopefully she has learned her lesson about sleeping under vehicles. I have been wanting to repaint my room and get a new comforter set for it for a little while now. I found a gorgeous quilt set at Target today and called Jeff and he told me to go ahead and buy it. It is a set that includes that shams except that when I opened to take a sham to Lowes to buy paint they were not there so now I have to go back to Target to get the shams. I am a little upset but at the same time whatever. I cant put the quilt on yet anyway until I paint. So that is what I am doing now. I am going to get the first coat on. I am doing 2 colors. I found this great green color but I am afraid that all the walls would be too much. I also got a deep cream color too so I am going to do the green on the wall where our bed is and the cream on the rest. I am so excited so I am going to end this, get my painting clothes on and get to work. Oh one more thing. Thank goodness the rain held off because Katie had a great game. Go Blue Jays.

One day I will remember to upload the pictures backwards so they are in actual order.

I figured since I can not do much of anything because I overworked myself these last 2 gorgeous spring days and hurt my back, that I would update everyone on how things have been. My last blog ended with Katie getting ready for her Awana car race. She had one second place the week before for design and now we have 2 second place trophies sitting on her shelf because she won second place for the actual race. It was acutally such a close race that they had to rerace the cars and she came in second. Jeff was there to watch and we were cheering and so excited. I had to get to the church early to help set up and forgot my camera so I am waiting for my mom to download hers so I can post some pictures. We are so proud of her. I took Shaylan for her doctors appt to the ENT and she does have to have her adenoids removed. They are very enlarged. I am waiting to hear from the surgical center as to when the surgery will be. I am a little nervous because they actually have to put her under instead of just gasing her like they did when she had the tubes put in the first time. She needs to have the tubes put in again as well as the adenoids out. I know that in the end we are going to be so happy with the results but it is nerve racking to think of her going under. I worry the most about her because I had such a tough pregnancy with her. In the beginning I was carrying twins and lost one. Then at my next ultra sound they told me she had a cyst on her brain and an amniotic band that could cause birth defects. I had to go for another ultra sound and they found that she was fine and that the cyst was just a shadow and the band was the split between the two babies. Then at 31 weeks she decided she was ready to enter this world but they needed to stop the contractions. Finally on her delivery date everything was going okay until I had a reaction to the morphine and got really sick. So from conception on it has been one thing after another with poor Shaylan. I know God is in control but I am human and I worry. Jeff is still not sure what his plans are about work. He just got another dollar raise which is great because every dollar at this point helps. We are getting the cobra until after Shaylans surgery and it is really expensive. After her surgery we will cancel and go back on his old insurance. I am still looking for something that I can do at home as far as work is concerned or someplace that I can work part time and take Shaylan. I have even thought about babysitting but I would need to find a child or two and I am not sure I can. We have been doing all we can to save money but it is not easy. It is exciting to think of where we are now compared to last year though. This time last year we had to make the tough decision to sell our house. It was the right decision though but on occasion we talk about it and miss our little bugalow. It was our starter house and we did so much. So many memories we made there. I am actually headed to the house in a couple of weeks because our friends are still living there and their little one is having a birthday. I am excited but at the same time a little nostalgic. Especially at this time of year because I know all my flowers and plants are going to be poking out of the ground. I just keep reminding myself to be thankful for what I have and I am. It is just tough at the same time. We are more than likely going to stay here and make this the dream home we want. We are currently trying to get a portion of our yard cleaned out so we install new fence and move the dog pen. Right now it backs up to our neighbors yard and their dog barks and gets my dogs started and they stand at the fence and bark. So we are trying to avoid that because my poor dogs need to spend a lot of time outside. Especially our border collie. It will be nice though because there will be a tree for them to get shade and it will be a little bigger than what they have now. Then I can make a garden in the spot that their pen is now. At least I know it will be well fertilized. A few of my former classmates and I are working on our 10 year reunion. By the time we have it though we will be onto our 11th year but that is okay. We are currently trying to find a place. It has been fun getting together with the girls to plan it. I can not wait to see where everyone is and the changes in everyones lives. I know my life has taken so many different roads so I will be interested to see what everyone has been up too. Easter was nice this year. I had the egg dying at my house again this year. On Good Friday I was able to go to my sisters to meet my niece for the first time. She is so tiny and cute. She has a furrowed brow which makes her look mad but it is so adorable. We ended up bringing my older niece home with us so she could dye eggs and sleepover. Then on Saturday we were afraid that the weather was going to be awful for our egg hunt but it turned out gorgeous. The kids enjoyed getting out and playing. My mom got Katie a new soccer ball and we got her a net so she has been practicing. Her season starts this Wed. She has practices on Wednesdays and whenever the trainers are available and games are on Sats. So she has been practicing as often as she can. On Easter Sunday we went to church and then to Grandmoms for dinner. It of course was delicious. Then yesterday started Easter break for Katie and I actually slept in. Jeff did not ask me to get up and make his lunch. He actually told me that I did not have to get up at all this week. I almost fell over. Now I sit here because of my achy back. Jeff took Katie to the grocery store. I have to finish straightening up because my sister is coming down tomorrow for a visit but I think I may have to wait until the morning. We have a few busy weekends coming up. This weekend we have the Kixx game and then the weekend after that we have soccer in the morning, a party in the afternoon, a party on Sunday and then the Phantoms game in the evening. Then on the 11th I am having a Discovery Toys Party. I can not wait for that. It will be fun to get all my friends together. I know there is a big sale so it should be great. Well I hope everyone is able to get out and enjoy the weather as it changes to gorgeous spring temps. I know I am.

So Many Wonderful Things.

Great news in the Richards house... 1-Last night at 10:06 pm my second niece was born. I am so excited. I feel like my sister has been pregnant forever. She told me back in July that she was expecting but because this winter has felt so long, her pregnancy felt twice as long. But now Miss Hanna Gael is here. She is beautiful. She looks just like her big sister Ava. I have only seen pictures because well 1) I am sick again and 2) She is an hour away and not convient to get to since I have two kids of my own. My plan is to get up there next Friday since Katie has off from school. Mom is there now getting tons of pictures so I will be sharing them when I get them. 2-Shaylan will be entering Kindergarten in the fall. Because of her speech concerns I was not sure if she would be ready. I talked to the Child Study team in the district and the psychologist told me to register her and they would do the screening to see where she stood. Yesterday we went for the screening and the psychologist did the test. When we sat down to talk she told me that Shaylan is more than ready for Kindergarten. I was thrilled to hear that. She said that her articulation was a concern but she would discuss it with the director to see if we needed to have her evaluated. She thinks maybe once we get her hearing cleared that the articulation will clear itself. We are still going through with the speech therapy that our friend is doing and that may be all she needs. I was able to get Shaylan an appt for this Friday to see the ENT instead of next Friday. Hopefully we can get the tubes put back in soon and see how she does. I did find out that her adenoids are enlarged but I want to see what the ENT has to say about that. I only heard from my Aunt who is a nurse and was able to retrieve the radiology report on Shaylan. I am just thrilled to know that Shaylan will be going to Kindergarten. We just have a few more letters to learn and a few more other things to learn and she will be in perfect shape. 3-We had Katies conference last week and she is doing great. The teacher could not say enough good about her. She just loves having Katie in her class and all the kids have accepted her. She has a few close friends and gets along with everyone. Her academics are right on and the teacher is very impressed with her reading. Katie loves to read and she does it all the time. She loves to read to us and there are times when we actually have to tell her to put a book down because she is not allowing us to get things done. She is great. Math seems to be her favorite subject which I am happy to hear because it was my worst. 4-Last week was the car design judging for awana’s grand prix at my church. Katie won second prize for design. She got a trophy and a certificate. Her car is painted like a cheetah but of course being in Katies fashion it is pink and purple. She came up with the design herself because she knows that cheetahs are the fastest animal and she believes her car is going to be the fastest in the race. She did the painting of the body and the spots and I added the detail. Jeff has it all souped up with super smooth wheels and the right weight. So maybe this Sunday she will win another trophy for winning the race. We will see. I know she is excited just to win the design. I dont think she will care if she wins the actual race. 5-A few weeks ago, a couple of team players from the Philadelphia Phantoms visited Katies school. Because they saw such a positive attitude towards reading they awarded each student a ticket to a game. They also gave a discount to the families so we can attend as well. They are lower level seats and the students get a present from the team. We are all going and can not wait. We are also going to a Kixx soccer game at the end of this month with our church. Katie earned a free ticket for playing salao soccer. My family is going to be busy for the next couple of weekends. This weekend we have a birthday party for a girl in Katies class at this place called Pump It Up. The whole place is like a big bounce house. I cant wait to go and see it. I am also looking forward to meeting some of the other parents in Katies class. We have also had some bummer things happen. We have all been sick again. Both my kids had head colds that lead to ear infections. Jeff was sick with it and now I have another sinus infection. I called the doctors office and they are calling in a prescription for me. I am glad because as of now we have no insurance. We are waiting for the cobra information to come in so we can sign up for that. Hopefully it is soon and hopefully they will back cover the doctors visits we have had in the last few weeks. I sure hope so because there were a few and I would hate to have to pay them. So that is what has been happening in our world for the last week. More pictures to come of Hanna and of Katies car!