more to come

Okay, so I haven't posted in a few days and I'm feeling like I'm avoiding. Not really. I'm sewing. Yes, that's right, peeps, I'm sewing again. I have missed my buddy, my beautiful Singer machine beaut that I bought for myself at Costco last May, in the guise of "It's my Mother's Day gift!" when Ryan balked that I already had one machine and it worked still. Never mind that I dropped it in my driveway while rushing to teach how to make my favorite quilt, a kaleidescope quilt, at church to one of our mini-groups of quilting. When I dropped it, not only did I lose several bobbins that broke on impact, but also my spring that kept my little pocket-thingy that you keep your bobbins and tools in, broke off, causing me to have to duct tape it to my machine. It wasn't so bad sewing with it that way, until I needed to drop my feed dogs to use my walking foot to quilt the derned quilt.
so what prompted me to bring out my machine? ok, so you say, "But Heidi, you have about 500 unfinished projects that you haven't completed yet, why start a new one!?" well.....I got nothing.
I guess I really do have A.D.D., and I just bore really easily, so I jump from project to project. oh, and the fact that I found these 2 boxes out in the garage, totally unprotected, from Ryan's grandma from last year.
These weren't just any boxes, but 2 cardboard, lidless boxes, with her fine bone china, just sitting on the floor of the garage. The fact that I only lost 2 pieces amazes me. And they were those little saucer-type things that I guess you put a piece of bread in? I don't really understand the purpose. But anyhow, these are absolutely beautiful, gilded edges, magnolia flowers, on white bone china. I'll take a picture tomorrow when it's light out so you get a better pic. Then I'll share with you the beauty that is my china. I finally have china. We sort of registered for it when we were engaged, but never received any. so now we do. and i lurve it.
so to prove how much i lurve it i am making some protective cases for it. you know, the ones you can buy for a set of about 30 bucks or so. well i don't have 30 bucks or so, so i'm using my batting i have here at home, and my scraps of yardage. then i'm quilting them all to make the outside/inside and then i'll make them. so you'll have to be patient with me while i take a break from blogging. i don't pretend to be as popular a blogger as carrot, so i think you'll all live. :)
i'll post pics soon. i promise. maybe i'll even show you some of my "quilting" as i am practicing some free motion quilting. i'm tired of just stitching in the ditch. too predictable. and i'm tired of predictablility.
out with the old, on with the new!!!!!!
yeah for cleaning my garage! i found my china from last year!!!!

Happy Happy Birthday, Matthew dear! ;)

Well today is my brother's birthday. Why don't you go on over and visit his family blog, see their adorable children and wish him a happy day? :)
We all have funny memories of our childhood. One such memory I laughed over with my mom and sister about, and I just had to share with you. Oh, how I wish I had the capability to transfer tape to CD so we can have it forever. This tape was one of many that my mom would hide somewhere and just let tape whatever we were saying as kids. I think she just wanted to document her crazy days, because Dad probably didn't believe all the crazy things she was saying to him that we were saying!
So on this particular tape, it has Matt reporting to my mom about my babysitting the night before. You can hear this little boy, probably about 6 or so, in a "cry" voice (ok,whine!) complaining that, "Heidi said that after Adam and Kimberlee were in bed I could get back up and we'd have a popcorn party. Well I waited and waited and then I heard her start the popcorn machine. She never got me up! She had a popcorn party without me!" ok, so maybe I didn't quote verbatim, but that's the gist of his complaint.
So Matt, to you I extend a popcorn party invitation. Come on over to my house and we'll have that popcorn party, just you and me. I'll even watch Star Wars with you.

That's right, no title! I'm a rebel!!!!! ;)
I've been told that my last blog was too revealing, that I let too much info onto the web and cyberspace, and people could use it against me. What do you think? Will people really use what I say against me?
The reference was to my use of the word "shrink." As most of you know, Will has ADHD. This is just the doc that regulates his meds so we can co-exist and he can be a good student at school and a good boy at Cub Scouts.
So while maybe you don't all want to read about my life struggles, I say, "TOO BAD!" This is my blog and I'll type if I want to. (just think of that song, "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to....")
So if I offend or cause distress in any way, I'm truly sorry that you took it that way. :) I'm just trying to work out in my mind my thoughts and put them down into words. It helps me make sense of my life. Kind of like a mental exorcism of sorts.
On another note, Emma had her third seizure yesterday on Tegretol. And the quest to make that girl seizure-free continues!
So more later......

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER ......

...you fill in the blank. :)
Emma's better as far as a fever goes; just a cough now. In fact, all 3 kiddos have coughs. Yipes! :)
Just came from Childrens in Seattle from Will's shrink. What a long drive that is. Four freeways! Yes, that's right. You heard correctly. Four freeways. 93 miles. I'm tuckered out now. I want my nap and blankie. But now Comcast is on their way cuz last night our DVR that we've had since 2006 (I know this date because we have an old show we taped from a PBS special about John Denver still on there, the date was from July of 2006) decided to stop working. So we have a tech coming out to give us a new one. Yea that we'll have a new one, free of problems. Boo that we loose all the shows we have taped. Like our series we tape, etc.
Which brings me to a point that I didn't think I'd be discussing here in this format. Why do we rely so much on technology? What would we do without it? I've seen those Oprah specials where she challenges a family to live internet-, tv-, and cell phone-free for a week. I shudder when I think about that! I remember how awful it was when we didn't have power in our neighborhood for almost 2 weeks a few Decembers ago after we had that awful storm. I labeled it a hurricane, but obviously it wasn't technically a hurricane. But come on! When you see tree branches snap off right in front of you, it's a pretty strong wind!
So I'll be thankful when the cable guy comes and fixes the cable box. My "demi-God" of sorts. But isn't it most people's? Food for thought to chew on.

The Wind Beneath My Wings

I have a friend/cousin who has been recently inspiring me to improve my life. She's come over to my house and given me a tough love speech to get me back into my groove, and helped me regain my mojo.
Now it's our turn to inspire her. She's recently begun a journey of weight loss, and this is something that's been a struggle for her as it is for most women in this planet. Me included. Especially me. :)
So let's encourage her along the way; she's already begun with a tremendous first weigh-in. Way to go Carrot!!!!!!!

Here we go again, peeps!

So I'm sleeping away, peacefully. It's 7:15 in the morning and Tommy comes running into the room, complaining that Will's not dressed, on the wii, and that Tommy was watching a cartoon until Will changed it to the wii. I lay there, hoping he'll go away. Sometimes it actually works! :)
Then I hear Emma's "meowing" she does regularly (which drives me n.u.t.s.) and walking to my side of the bed. Then I hear her make vomiting sounds. I immediately sit up, rip off my CPAP mask, put my glasses on, and see her doubled over by the foot of my bed,just as it rounds the corner to come to the side. I think to myself, "she's puking! great! all over my mattress,too!" I'm envisioning all the extra laundry today. yipes!
Then I realize she's NOT vomiting, she's gagging on her sputum while she seizes. Yes, folks, another seizure.
I thought (hoped) that with the Tegretol she wouldn't seize anymore. Wishful thinking I s'pose.
Will immediately jumps into action, calling 911. I hear him say, "um, hello. my daughter is having a seizure." I can almost envision the operator rolling their eyes while disconnecting, thinking it's a prank call.
Will tells me they hung up on him. Der.
So he calls back. And says, "I think this time you maybe want to talk to my mom." The phone is then handed to me. So I told the operator she's having another grand mal, turning kind of purple-blue in color, and then move her to the living room floor once I realized that my bedroom is just too tiny (and messy) for the firemen to see!
So half an hour of them in my clean living room (thanks Carrot!) TriMed takes her to Auburn hospital. As we're figuring out driving, I am thinking to myself, "let's see, it's 7:45, the bus comes at 8:38...what to do? what to do?" I hear a knock on the door. Sister Black from my ward. I love her. She not only is gifted at cutting hair, but she's in tune. She was driving past my house this morning and saw the fire truck and TriMed at my house and pulled over. Then she saw them bringing the stretcher to my door and she knocked, asking if I needed help. YES!!!!! So she stayed with the boys until they had to go to the bus stop.
I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who is so mindful of what we need, just when we need it!
They took Emma cuz they thought she may have aspirated her sputum, she sounded really rattley (sp?). An IV, blood test, chest x-ray, listen-to later, she was released and home by 11:20 this morning.
Whew!
Now, if I had it to do over, I would've skipped the ER altogether. But Will got that ball rolling, and really didn't need to. BUT he's a very consciencous big brother who loves his little sister and wanted to help. I can't fault him that. At least he knows what to do in an emergency! What a Cub Scout!
So I guess I don't really know what comes next. Time will tell. Now she's napping. Little sweetie.

update on Miss Emma

Ok, for those out there who care and want to know (and even if you don't, too bad! That's my post today! :) ) here's an update on Emma Grace.
So last Thursday was so busy! (as you well remember from my last post) and so I didn't have the time/energy to talk about her appointment with Dr. Milstein in Bellevue. (or the fact I had to drive past the la-dee-dah Porsche and Mercedes dealerships) drool......
ok, so back to reality.
When Dr. Milstein walked in, he looked very grandfatherly. I immediately felt reassured, just by his "look" if that's fair.
So he's really thorough, yea, but it took almost an hour and a half, when all was said and done! What a visit! :) He gave Emma a pretty thorough neurological test, like the "touch my finger, touch your nose" with each hand separately, which she did okay on with her right hand, but failed miserably with her left hand.
He had her walk across the floor on her tip-toes, which she could not do. She flat-footed it across the room. There were a few other tests, but you get the drift. Needless to say, he said that the Mary Bridge docs were wrong in their dyspraxia diagnosis, he said it was more an apraxia.
Then he asked me bunches of questions about family history and seizures and then he told me he's diagnosing her with childhood seizure disorder, and put her on Tegretol and he plans on keeping her on that for 2 years, not adjusting it, and allowing her body to just outgrow the meds as she grows. His hope is that she'll outgrow the seizures and it won't turn into epilepsy and that she'll be fine.
When I went to the pharmacy to get the meds, the pharmacist pulled out her big PDR book and read to me all about the drug and possible side effects. S.C.A.R.E.Y. But necessary for Emma right now. The one thing she urged me to do was to get her involved in some kind of program to help her with the inevitable delays in education. There is where my frustration comes into play. She's been tested through Child Find twice already, once as an exit interview kind of thing when she left the birth to three program,and then again at the beginning of the school year. She was just shy of making it into the program for preschool, but she missed by .02% and the school only tests children every 6 months. So I'm a little frustrated. Should I call the school and tell them about her diagnosis and meds? Do you think that would nudge it better to allow her into the program?
So my dear friends, there we have it. The immediate side effect I notice? Emma is tired all the time, and not just sleepy, but downright groggy, red-eye and all.
So on the one hand I'm grateful she will be on preventative meds for seizures, and on the other hand, it makes me sad to see her so tired all the time. And C.R.A.N.K.Y!!! Whoo, baby, when she's tired like that, she sure is cranky! But then so is everyone, right?
Thanks for listening to my whine. Have a great day!