Preventative medicine

There is nothing like taking a child who appears healthy and happy and doing some preventative surgery so that she is miserable for a few days....
However I think in the long run taking out Josie's tonsils (and adenoids...and getting the last of the ear wax out) was the right thing to do.
The doctor walked in after the surgery and said that her tonsils were very scarred and that it was like tonsils you might see in an adult. So that tells me that we did the right thing.
She is recovering....slowly she is talking more and eating a bit more and being a little less Velcroed to me. Our post-op appointment went well. She is starting to act more like normal.

We did get a picture of the tonsils from the doctor but I will spare you the details because I do not want to gross anyone out too much. So I guess it is something for her scrapbook?

Yeah, this about sums up my afternoon

I won't go in to detail here....
But sometimes you have to wonder what a 5 year old was thinking. I can't decide whether I am glad that Doug admitted it to me or not....

...And how come you listen to a song one time (or in this case Jim put it on) and your 5 year old picks up on the ONE line in the chorus that is catchy but inappropriate for a 5 year old to be singing. Nothing like Andy sitting there doing his homework singing "You throw back a bottle of beer..." over and over and over again.

On Overload

Things are just incredibly busy and lots of stuff going on....however, I am getting lots of messages in my life right now about keeping things in perspective. How can I complain about not having my truck back when at least I am not in the hospital with cancer? How can I worry about trying to get everything done when at least I have work to do?

One of my very dear professors is currently battling cancer. I do not really know how she is doing because I try not to be too nosy so I get filtered messages here and there. She is out of the hospital now, but just over a week ago I went to visit her while she was in the hospital. She gave me the information I needed to keep her class going while she could not keep up with it....and then, she ministered to me. She read me a devotional and said a prayer for me. I don't know if I was able to do anything to comfort her...but she comforted me.

Andy's Family Picture

Andy's family picture is quite different from Doug's.
On the left you see a tall ladder with Andy and Josie at the top. They are holding tools. The thing in the middle is a camera....I guess we are on TV? I am next holding a tool. I could not quite get out of him if we are building anything specific. Then Doug is smaller in the corner with no tool (Andy was very specific about that). Daddy is not pictured because he was 2 hours away where he works and spends most of the week.

Am I jinxed?

So here is my list lately....

• Lost my phone only to have it stolen by someone....have a new phone that is workable but noticeably not what I had before.
• Transmission went out on the car...it is still under warranty but the place that did the work last time never registered the transmission and is now undergoing bankruptcy. The district manager did get involved and get it straightened out but they may only cover the transmission and not the rental car.
  
• My computer on my desk on campus is acting wonky. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't and there is no obvious reason for what it is doing.
• Josie is going to have her tonsils out. It is not completely unexpected but it is the most complicated kid's surgery we have encountered so far. Doug's ear tubes were recovery in a matter of hours. Andy's tongue surgery was back to normal action by the next day and just watch it for a few days. This looks like recovery is generally 7-10 with the worst pain not occurring until days 5-7. The good news is that they will clean out her ear wax while she is asleep....

Just pray that things are a little less exciting around here for awhile.

She has logic...in her own 3 year old way

This morning Josie went dressed as Super Girl to preschool. This Halloween costume has gotten lots of use.
When we walked in and her teachers commented on it she said, "I was cold in my other clothes so I had to put on my Super Girl costume."

This was news to me.

Then, later in the day, she and I were downstairs and there were toys left out. She maintained that they were out because of Doug and Andy and that I was to clean them up.
When I asked her why I should clean them up and not her, she said, "Because Doug and Andy made the mess and you are the boss of us so you should clean them up."

I think I'm in trouble if she is arguing this well at age three. I am SO not looking forward to the teenage years with this girl.

I wonder what it means....

I learned long ago as a teacher to say to children "Tell me about your picture."
What comes out on the page is not necessarily all the details that are present in their heads. So this weekend Doug came home with these two pictures and I had to ask...

Apparently the green line is him racing all over. I wonder if that is how he felt about our school supply shopping trips.



I know that how a child draws their family says a lot about the family....When I heard Doug tell me about this picture I was not sure what to think.
He started by telling me that he was the first figure at the top of the page...and he has a gun to shot zombies (Oh my!...um, thanks cousins...). The next two figures (going clockwise) are mommy and daddy hugging (that's pretty good...that I'll take).
Then the next figure is a zombie attacking Josie, who is the smaller figure who comes next. Notice that the zombie has no eyes and is frowning.
The next pair of lines are zombie feet...Doug shot off the rest of him.
Andy is the final figure...and I think he is just standing there.

I'm sort of wondering if the teacher actually found out from Doug any details about the picture. He did get a "Good Job" stamp.....
We are not really a violent family. We do, however, have active imaginations.

The woe of the week

Monday as I retrieved the boys from the bus stop my cell phone fell off my waistband. I didn't realize right away that I had dropped it and someone apparently picked it up. They were not an honest someone and they kept the phone. We have turned it off. I have filled a police report. There is not much more we can do at the moment. I'm not sure if I will be able to keep my number if I get a new phone or how it all works. It also means that if I am not at home it is much harder to reach me.
It has made me realize how much I used my phone. I can't send Jim a text message while he is teaching. I can't quickly check my email while I am waiting for a child or if I do not want to take time to get on the computer. My phone was my contact list so there are numbers I will have to get from people once I get a new phone.

Part of my dilemma with all of this is when I do get a new phone how I will carry it.

• When I first had a small phone (I'm not counting the huge bag phone I had when they first came out) I kept it on a lanyard. Every time I would lean over to talk to a child the phone would swing out and whack them unless I grabbed it. I also did not really want to wear a lanyard at home.
• Then I would keep the phone in my purse. I couldn't always hear the phone and because I had no special pocket for it I was constantly having to dig for it.
• For a while I would keep it in my pocket. A few times the phone would hit the pavement when I was trying to get it out and this newer phone was pretty big for a pocket. Women's clothing does not always have pockets and there were several times I did not hear the phone ring or feel it vibrate if my clothes were looser.
• I had started wearing it on my waist but it was just a clip on holder and this was the second time it had fallen off.

I'm not quite sure what to try next. I want to be able to hear it and to know that it is safe. I may look in to getting a purse with an outside cell phone pocket, but I don't carry my purse with me every where and certainly not while I am in the house. So I am thinking about what to do.

Little Miss Josie

I have had a lot of posts about the boys lately so here is how Josie is doing.

1. Over the summer we re-potty trained (I think that the schedule switch just through her off completely...but it was almost like starting from scratch).
2. She got her haircut in a cute little bob....she sort of looks like a pixie now but we have had lots of compliments
3. I think she grew a bunch. She seems much taller and can reach all sorts of things
4. She is as sassy as ever. Nothing like a 3 year old with a huge vocabulary. Sometimes she seems like she is 3 going on 15. I remember the boys as being sort of goofy at this age but she is much more poised
5. She wants to do everything the boys do. I have about decided that I should not worry about her being 3 and assigning her 3 year old type chores. I should just give her the same things as are on the boys' list because she wants to do them all anyway
6. She started preschool yesterday. She was excited to go. She happily played. When I peeked in to catch a friend who was dropping off her children Josie was chilling in a bean bag chair reading a book.

She is good and for the most part wants to be good. So I'll take it!

Cremelled (or kremeled...no clue how to spell it)

Perhaps Doug will be the next Shakespeare. Shakespeare added thousands of words (I can't remember the exact figure) to our English language. If he couldn't find exactly the right word he just made it up....

Douglas has always had some made up words that he uses. Many of them have developed in to names for the pretend Star Wars Clone Troopers (some of the names have even been adopted as pretend friends for Josie and Andy).

However, for more then a year he has consistently used "cremelled" to mean wrinkled. For instance this dialogue happened yesterday:
Me: Doug make your bed.
Doug: Ok mom, I made it but you take care of the cremells....

Or how about this one from awhile back:
(We saw a car with a crumpled fender)
Doug: Mom, why is that car all cremelled?

Perhaps the term will catch on....then I can honestly say "That boy is giving me cremells."