Another Root Canal

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month

I had another root canal done this morning, my last one was about 7 months ago. The numbness started wearing off about a half hour ago, I'm feeling the pain! This one wasn't as bad as the last one because it wasn't a molar, but it still hurts. After the appointment I went to the school and helped put up decorations for the Fall Frolic this Friday. Fall Frolic is a Halloween party put on by the Home and School Association, I am on the committee. This weekend is also a bake sale benefiting the Cub Scouts, so I'm going to be a busy beaver for the rest of the week. I forgot to mention, I'm having my family over on Saturday for a fall get together. My mom loved this time of year, and almost every year she would have a little get together. She would serve doughnuts, apple cider, chili, garlic bread, and pumpkin pie. We would carve pumpkins and sit around catching up with everyone. Everyone is pitching in so I don't have to do much. Sherry is doing the most by making the chili, I don't have a good chili recipe.

Last week flew by for me, I don't know where it went. I'm sorry for not posting a blog, time just got away from me. My roof is being replaced by family and friends, the professionals wanted way too much money. They have run into some difficulties with the roof, they need to replace a lot more wood than expected. It's going to cost double what we originally thought, that's still much better than what the professionals wanted. If I would have had them do it, I would be in the poor house now. Not only would they have charged me a higher price for the wood, but I would have also had to pay the labor. They may have only replaced the pieces that were in the worse condition too, so the job wouldn't have been as good. I thought about it, I think it would have cost me around $15,000.00 if I would have had the professionals do it. That makes my stomach upset! Thank you to all of the people working on my roof, especially my brother-in-law.

The other day we went to the pumpkin farm with Grace and Noah's preschool class. It started to rain as soon as we got there. While we were on the hayride it started to down pour, nothing like a soggy hayride. Regardless of the weather, we had a good time. When we got home I made us hot chocolate, and the kids colored in the coloring books they got from the pumpkin farm. Later that day I was helping Noah use the bathroom. I was horrified when I saw all this red in his big boy underwear, and even more when it was on his bits and pieces. I really had to control my shock when I was talking to him, I thought we would be heading to the ER. As I was examining it, Noah was telling me about the markers...DING, DING, DING!!! Come to find out, he had broken off a piece of the red marker, and put it in his pants (I guess for safe keeping). He wasn't injured after all, he will still be able to give me grandchildren.

Until next time-
Take Care,
Sue







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Hot Lunch Lady

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month

Last Friday at the kid's school they had a service in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, along with a pet blessing. I picked Helen up from school early, otherwise we couldn't have gone, and went with Toby. It got very chaotic once the kids joined us, I had little hands coming at us from every direction. I had to hold Toby at one point so no one would step on him. During all of this, and not to my knowledge, Helen was holding a little boy captive under the slide. We were in the courtyard where the preschoolers usually play, so it was the plastic playground equipment. It was the 2 year old son of the seventh grade teacher, who happens to be 9 months pregnant. Ted's teacher from last year intervened and then tracked me down to tell me what had happened. I held Helen's hand for the rest of the time we were there, I think it just got a bit overwhelming for her and Toby.

Saturday would have been my 11 year anniversary, I had a Mass said for Peter, I completely forgot about it. I was working in the yard, getting it cleaned up for the winter. I cut the grass, pulled up the rest of my garden, straightened out the garage so I could fit the patio furniture in there, and I used the weed whacker to get by the fence. I was on a roll! Before I started I had talked to Sherry, she said she would be coming up in the morning, so if I wanted to go to church with the older kids, she would stay with the younger ones. We usually go to Saturday Mass, had it been a normal day, we would have been there. I took Ted, Robbie, Katie, and Grace to Mass Sunday morning. I went to say good morning to Father John, he informed me about the Mass for Peter, I was very embarrassed. I think from now on I will only have a Mass said on his birthday and on the anniversary of his death.

For the past couple of weeks I have been a "hot lunch lady", I love it! The kids really enjoy having me there for lunch, and I enjoy getting out and having adult conversation with other women. The kids have hot lunch every Wednesday, every other day they brown bag it. It is run by volunteer mom's so the kids get home cooked meals. On Wednesday's the kids have Mass, so after I drop them off I also go to church. Every week two grades participate in Mass. The younger kids take up the gifts and also read the petitions. The older kids do the readings and are the alter servers. I enjoy seeing my kids take part, last week Katie took up the book of intentions, she felt special. After Mass I go down to the cafeteria and start helping with preparation of the lunch. After the kids are done with lunch, we clean up and then eat ourselves. During this time, Grace and Noah are hanging out with the preschoolers until it is time for them to nap, then they join me. Noah most times hangs out in the cafeteria walking around waving to anyone he knows. It's mostly the friends of Ted, Robbie, and Katie. The other day someone said to me he was going to be a politician because of the way he was working the crowd. It wouldn't surprise me, Peter absolutely loved politics. Maybe he has a hand in that somehow!!

Until next time-
Take care,
Sue






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Health Scare

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month

I didn't write a blog last week because I had a health scare and wasn't in the right frame of mind. I went to the doctor last Wednesday for my yearly check up, I was doing fine, just a little tired(that's a given!). When I heard the word CANCER come from her mouth, I stopped listening, my brain couldn't process anything else. It was like the teacher on the Charlie Brown specials, "Wawawawa wawa wa..." I started thinking back to when Peter was diagnosed and all he went through. I was thinking of my kids and how this would devastate them. They have all come such a long way, especially Katie. Even though the doctor told me it was a very rare cancer and she wanted to run the test just to rule it out, I freaked out. My luck hasn't been that good lately, so I just knew I would have it, bone marrow cancer. I walked out of that office in a daze, how could this be happening? Didn't God know I had a free pass to life? He already took Peter, how could he take me too and leave our kids with no parents. Reality smacked me in the face, no, I don't have a free pass to life, no one does. We never know what's going to happen to each and every one of us day to day. Peter was a perfect example of that, he was the healthiest person I ever knew, and now he's gone...CANCER. I didn't tell anyone the news, I didn't want them to worry. I know a lot of people worry about me everyday and I didn't want to make it worse. They too would think of the kids, those wonderful kids who have been through so much already. It was exhausting to go through the day with this on my mind and not be able to react for fear of someone asking, "What's wrong?", especially the kids. I finally called Sherry after the kids were in bed and confided in her. I could feel some of the weight of this information fall from my shoulders and onto hers (sorry Sherry), I needed that. It was a very long week-end, since the results didn't come back on Friday, I would have to wait until Monday. We went to church, I didn't feel like it, I was a bit angry. I'm glad we did. We sit in the family room, otherwise known as the "cry room", the vestibule is right next door. Father John always has people in there with him, talking to him before Mass. On this day, he did not, I was a bit surprised. I went in and spoke to him briefly about what was going on and asked him to say an extra prayer for me. He told me to take good care of myself, to have faith that it would all work out, and that it was okay to be angry. I felt much better after talking with him, probably because in my mind, prayers from priests are heard above the average person's prayers. My faith got me through the toughest time in my life, it had to get me through this. I wasn't very motivated this past week-end, we had beautiful weather, that helped lift my spirits a bit.

On Monday I waited patiently for my phone to ring, the morning was very quiet. I couldn't wait any longer, I called the doctor's office. I was told the office was out to lunch so I left a message. I finally heard from them after the kids came home from school(it was a long day!). No sign of Cancer, everything was fine...WHEW, a huge sigh of relief, I cried. I shared my news with the two people I confided in, they too were very relieved. Once my head was cleared and it sunk in that I would be okay, I started thinking of all the people who aren't as lucky to hear the words, "No Cancer". My thoughts and prayers are with every person who is somehow touched by cancer. Whether you are a cancer survivor, or battling it now, taking care of someone who is going through treatment, or have lost a loved one to it, I am thinking of you. My heart goes out to you all, and I am hoping there is a good ending to your stories too. I learned a valuable lesson in all of this, I am not exempt from becoming ill, even though I am a single parent, it can still happen to me.

Until next time-
Take care,
Sue

PS- in case your wondering, my alternator is finally fixed and the car is running fine!(I just jinxed myself, quick...knock on wood!!)











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Now It's The Alternator

I apologize for getting this blog up so late, it was a very busy week for us. Sunday was Ted's birthday party, it was a very nice get together. Monday was Ted's first den meeting, he was so excited to go. On Tuesday I had a mandatory Home and School Board meeting at the kid's school. Wednesday was the first day of Greek School, you should have heard all the moaning coming from this house! Last night we had our support group, the kids enjoyed themselves. I don't feel like I fit in, the other women are having a very tough time. I did realize one thing last night, my faith has really carried me through, more than I thought. I can't really explain how I came to that conclusion without breaching the agreement of privacy for the others. I'm sure you have had moments when you were angry with the world because of something terrible happening in your life, that's pretty much the gist of it. Today I spent the day cleaning the house, Ted's having a sleep over tonight with a couple of his friends for his birthday.

On top of all of this, I have been dealing with car problems. I know I mentioned my fuel pump going out, did I mention my alternator? Just a few short weeks after the fuel pump needed replacing, the car decides it wants a new alternator too! Jerry, the friend who fixed the fuel pump, replaced the alternator, checked all the gages, and everything was fine...not!! The next day my battery light went on once again. I took the car back to Jerry, he checked everything over, it all looked fine. I called the garage I usually take it to and explained what was going on. I was told to bring it in when the battery light was on, otherwise everything would register fine. Every morning when I would take the kids to school, the light would be on, but when I would go to leave, the light would turn off, it was a crap shoot! Finally one day I was able to get it to the garage. While they were looking at it, the alternator kicked in, so they didn't get a chance to get a really good look. They suggested I have the alternator replaced to see if it was a bad one. If that wasn't the problem, it could be the wires leading from the alternator to somewhere in my dashboard. I told Jerry all of this and he agreed, the only problem was getting the alternator when the battery light was on. I have been driving around for at least three weeks, waiting for the perfect time. That time came yesterday, the light was on almost all day. I noticed it on the way to the grocery store, which is 30 minutes from my house. The mechanic told me, once the light comes on and stays on, I have about an hour to get home before the car dies out. I thought for sure we wouldn't make it back home. While we were driving towards home, the light clicked off and stayed off for a good 20 minutes, I knew we would be fine. I only drove the car to our support group and back. The needle on the battery gage kept getting closer and closer to the orange. I took the kids to school this morning, picked up the cupcakes for the sleep over and came home, I barely made it. Jerry came by and replaced the alternator, everything looks good so far. I have had the battery charging all afternoon, hopefully it's fixed. My heart will definitely sink if I see that battery light go on! We will then have to explore the possibility of the wiring...CHA-CHING!!!!!

Until next time-
Take Care,
Sue





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Buy Your Raffle Tickets

Helen's ButterflyGrace's Butterfly
Evan's day and night

Robbie and Evan in jail

I thought having all the kids in school at some point would give me the opportunity to "catch up" on cleaning the house, it hasn't. I can't believe how full the calendar has become since school started. Maybe it's just this week because Ted had an adjustment appointment at the orthodontist, and Helen had a check up with the pediatrician. I'm trying to get ready for Ted's birthday party on Sunday and since it's already Thursday, I'm starting to feel the pressure! This house is just so...not my kind of clean, does that make sense? My mom used to call it surface cleaning, when you clean so that the house looks presentable, but it's not truly clean, clean. I'll start by doing my "surface cleaning", and maybe next week I'll get to the real nitty gritty of things.

Our church festival went well, I enjoyed myself. I helped with the meat raffle, a local meat store sells us meat in bulk, and we raffle it off. I bet your thinking I walked around selling raffle tickets, I surely could do that job. When I arrived they needed someone to do the announcing, guess who got the job, me! Most of you don't know me, so let me give you an idea of my personality...shy, shy, shy, shy, shy, and even more shy!!! I bit the bullet, I channeled Peter,(he would have been in his element) and I got the job done. Most of the parents couldn't believe it was me behind that microphone announcing what we were raffling off, and talking them into buying the tickets. To be honest, I surprised myself, I felt somewhat comfortable behind that microphone. By the end of the night I was announcing the fact that we had parents sitting in the dunk tank waiting to take a dip, and all the food going for a dollar because we had so much and it was getting late. Peter was definitely with me that night!!! We went to the festival the next day to have fun, and the kids did. Grace, Helen, and Evan had their faces painted by the local clown, Cuddles. She does the most amazing work, as you can see. She has a partner clown called Billy Boy and he does balloons, he is also very good at what he does. The kids love it when they see the two of them at parties. Robbie's friend Adam put him jail for eating too much and having too much fun. Evan put himself in jail for not having enough fun! I agree, there wasn't too much for the older kids to do, Ted was even bored.

Helen's check up went well, she didn't have any blood work done, Yeah!! She is such a hard stick, I cringe every time I hear the word Lab. She is in the 75th-90th percentile for her height, and 75th-95th% for her weight, that's on the Down Syndrome for girls scale. She is growing at a nice even pace. When looking at her growth chart, you can see the point where she was diagnosed with Celiac's Disease. Her growth had come to a halt, I was amazed. Helen received two shots yesterday, chicken pox(because her white blood count had been low for awhile they wanted to monitor it) and the flu shot. Grace and Noah were lucky to have been there because they too received a flu shot! It made my day because now I don't have to make an appointment for the three of them for that shot. I was even happier when I realized Katie has an appointment on Saturday, so now she, Ted, and Robbie can get theirs. They aren't too happy about it, but at least they'll have it over with, and I won't have to deal with another appointment! I swear by those flu shots, before they got them, our winters were filled with somebody being sick with something and passing it on to the next person. We can now go a whole winter with hardly any sickness, yeah!!!

We have our first Cub Scout pack meeting tonight, the boy's in Robbie's den are going to tell knock-knock jokes. Here is Robbie's-

Knock, Knock

Who's there?

Beet's

Beet's who?

Beet's me!!

Ha!!:o)

Until next time-

Take Care,

Sue

Foot note: I wrote the blog with paragraphs, when I added the pictures it put all of the text together. I have tried to fix the problem with no luck, I apologize if it's hard to read. I knew you would appreciate the pictures so I wanted to leave them up. Again, Sorry.

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Popsicles, Popsicles, Popsicles

This morning was supposed to be my first morning alone, but Robbie came home from school yesterday with a headache and vomiting. He is doing better, he still has the headache, but at least he is able to keep things down. I just gave him some medicine, so he should be feeling much better soon.

Today was the first day of school for Grace and Noah, they were so excited. Grace is an old pro with preschool, she was happy to see her friends from last year. Noah, on the other hand, became a bit overwhelmed with all of it. He wouldn't leave my side when it was time to sit in a circle, I even made Grace change places so she would sit next to him. Working in a daycare center all those years ago, I knew it was time for me to just go, he would be fine. I just called, he is doing fine, he is working on puzzles with one of the other boys. The teacher told me he cried for about 5-10 minutes. She tried to comfort him, when she walked away from him, he stopped. It's an adjustment for him, he is used to being with me all the time, in fact, it's an adjustment for me too!

Helen started school this week also, it didn't start soon enough for her, she was getting so bored. If Helen could go to school everyday of the year, it would be a perfect world for her! She wouldn't get off of the playground at recess again, so she didn't get a Popsicle. The second day went better for her, she got the Popsicle. I'm hoping she won't give the teachers a hard time at recess. I think she just needs to get used to the routine, during the summer she can come and go as she wants from outside. I think she will be fine, especially if they keep using Popsicles. Helen is always the first one up on the week-ends, and during the summer. If I forget to check the refrigerator to make sure it's locked the night before, look out!! Helen will go into the freezer and help herself to Popsicles, fudge bars, and whatever else is in there. One day I found a gallon of ice cream sitting on the table with a fork in it. She doesn't eat just one, I have found her sitting in the living room in the middle of a circle of Popsicle sticks and wrappers. I would say, "Helen!!", and she would say, "What?", like she's not doing anything wrong! Last night I was in my room folding laundry, the kids had Popsicles. Helen came into my room and was watching me, she had a purple Popsicle, she left. When I went to put the clothes away she had come back into my room and was sitting on my bed, this time with a yellow Popsicle. To say she likes Popsicles is an understatement!!!

Our church is having a pig roast this week-end, I'm working at it on Saturday night. I told the committee people, they are mom's of Robbie's friends, "This is my night out, I hardly ever get one, I don't care where you put me, as long as it's somewhere by the band!" They have me as a "fill-in", wherever they need a hand, that's where I'll be. I think it will be a good time, even though I'll be working, I'll make the best of it.

To those of you who are being effected by these hurricanes...stay safe, I am praying for you.

Until next time-
Take Care,
Sue






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Car Trouble...Again

I kept putting off going to the grocery store, I just couldn't do another trip with all of the kids, it really drains all the energy from me. We were running out of a lot even though I had stocked up. I finally asked Sherry if she could come and stay with the kids so I could go alone (she has always helped me out, I just didn't want to keep asking). On Sunday she came over, it was getting close to dinner time. I decided to run to Shopko (they have a Payless in their store), to get the kid's gym shoes for school, and then go back home and feed the kids before going to the grocery store. It sounded like a great plan, until.......MY CAR BROKE DOWN!!!!!! Can you believe it? I tried to start my car, it sounded like it wanted to turn over but couldn't. I knew it wasn't the battery, I've had troubles with that in the past. I had troubles with the distributor cap, so I thought I would look under the hood and try and find it, I must have looked hilarious! There was a guy working on his tires in the parking lot so I went over and asked him if he knew anything about cars. He told me, "Sounds like your fuel pump to me, I had the same problem a few months ago." I said, "Really? Does that mean I'm stranded?" He said, "Yeah, pretty much." After a few words I can't repeat on this blog, I called Sherry to let her know I was stranded. I gave her names of people and she looked them up in my church directory. The first call was to my mechanic's house, he has a daughter Helen's age. They weren't home...the next few calls were to friends, also, not home. I called the shop where I usually take my car hoping they had an emergency number to call for a tow...no. I sat and thought about my situation, how easy it used to be to just call Peter, he would come and get me and then handle the rest. Robbie has a friend who lives right down the street from Shopko, I called him. He came within five minutes, listened to the car, looked underneath, and agreed it was the fuel pump. He said, "When the traffic dies down a bit, I'll come and tow your car to my house and replace the pump for you. Let's go to the auto store and see if they have a pump in stock, and then I'll drop you off at home." Can you believe it? Everything happens for a reason...if someone else would have answered their phone, I never would have made that last call, and my repair bill would have been double, if not triple! This all happened at 6:00pm, I had my car fixed, running, and back in my garage at 10:30pm. What a wonderful guy! When he dropped off the car I asked him what I could pay him. I knew he would say nothing, so while he was working on my car, I was baking him a peach cobbler and some brownies. They were still warm when he dropped the car off. His wife told him I would probably make him brownies, I'm glad I did. I never made it to the grocery store, Sherry ran to the store for me just to get the essentials, the all important brownies!

School started for Ted, Robbie, and Katie on Wednesday, right after I dropped them off the rest of us went to the grocery store...finally!! They all had a good day, and think they will have a good year. Katie had a fantastic day, no problems at all. She is talking to everyone, she picked up right where she left off last year. I am thrilled! The Principal stopped me this morning with a big smile on his face and told me what a change in Katie from last year at this time. He said it was wonderful, I agreed. She received a note from her teacher yesterday that said, "Katie was an angel today". I asked her why she received it, she told me because she helped the other kids do something. She had a big smile on her face when she talked about it. I am breathing a huge sigh of relief....

Until next time-
Take Care,
Sue





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