Isaiah and soccer

This morning Isaiah was talking to the kids I take to school and the topic of soccer came up. Isaiah said "I only played soccer one year but I was good. I just couldn't kick the ball in the goal". My sweet boy! He thinks he was good even though he couldn't do the whole object of the game! I'll tell you what he could do. He could run along the side lines waving at his family while the rest of the team chased the ball on the other side of the field!
He had a coach that made the kids run laps over and over. I'm sorry, it was there first time ever playing soccer, they know how to run! How about showing them the rules and whole idea of the game! They were 5 and 6 at the time.
I hate organized sports. If it's a good atmosphere that's one thing, but it generally isn't. There's always the coach who thinks he's preparing them for the big league and the parents who just want to WIN! Even when it's t-ball and no one's keeping score.
When I was young the boys started playing football in 7th grade. Now it starts in about 2nd grade. It just seems like their little bodies are not ready for all that yet. I have a friend who's son is very athletic and plays just about every sport he can. He had to have water removed from behind his knee before he was even 10 years old!
At least Isaiah was good in his memory. Anyone who witnessed his debut into soccer knows otherwise!

A Cluster

This is what Naomi having a small, light intensity cluster looks like. It actually started upstairs after a nap.

We have finally seemed to figure something out about her clusters. When she starts having them, encourage her to walk. We've always thought that when we could distract her during a cluster they lessened and eventually went away.

A few weeks ago during a long cluster I was holding her, I've always held her because she looses her balance and falls. She wanted down and wanted to walk around the house. So I held her hand and we walked circles around the house and they seemed to get further apart and get lighter. So the other day I was bringing her down from a late nap and she had one when we were on the steps. I handed her to her dad and she started having a cluster one after the other. Just boom, boom, boom so he tried rubbing ice on her foot to distract her and I said "put her down and make her walk". He did and instantly they slowed and got further apart. She wanted picked up so he picked her up and again boom, boom, boom, here they came. He set her down and again instantly lighter and further apart! So now when we wake in the morning I instantly make her get up and move. She still has seizures but the cluster is lighter and they're spaced out further.

I'm sorry to say, I'm so used to this it's just routine. Your kid sleeps, your kid wakes up and has a cluster. These aren't scary, it's when they are harder and go on and on that just scare the crap out of you!

HGTV

What's up with HGTV and all the match.com commercials???
One said "It doesn't hurt to look".
Uh, yeah it does! If I caught my husband on match.com, trust me it would hurt! A LOT!
Do a lot of single, lonely people watch HGTV? I thought it was old married people like myself. Looking for ideas we could do on the cheap. Or dreaming Candice Olson would show up and give a Divine Design to my entire house. Can I just say, I have a real fondness for Chico on that show! and if Edward ever showed up with his sewing machine, I'd make him my slave until every window was dressed, every bed and pillow covered!
I still love This Old House though and refer to Tommy Silva as my 2nd husband. My husband understands! Mariah Carey is his 2nd wife. I'm pretty sure she's not as useful as Tommy though. I guess that all depends on what my husband wants from her I guess .... HHHHHMMMMM. At this age, I'm pretty sure my husband would walk out on her when he figured out she couldn't cook. He turns 40 this year and his priorities have changed.

Aggravation & Thankfullness

The hospital Naomi goes to has been in the news a lot lately.
First they did the nations first face transplant.
Then they treated the woman who was nearly killed by her friends chimpanzee. I think she's still a patient.
Today Robert Williams was admitted for heart surgery.
So why am I having so much trouble getting someone to answer some dietary questions!?

One thing I'm very thankful for. A friend from high school and I recently reconnected. Ends up her daughter had meningitis at birth and was taken to the children's hospital that we first went to. She's had some neurological problems but they've never received any answers. The girl turns 7 this year and the other hospital seems to never have even done an MRI. Every time they go for a visit it's the same old thing and no answers. Her teacher's make it sound like she'll be lucky if she'll ever even be able to work at McDonald's. Since we started talking I told her our experience with the same hospital and same neurologist. Then related what a wonderful experience we've had with all the neurologist Naomi's seen at the new hospital. She emailed me today and said she called today to make an appointment and she's waiting for them to call her back. She relayed to the nurse how the child's teachers made her feel about the girls future and the nurse said "but we don't want to UNDER estimate her!" and she said EXACTLY! So she's already happy with the way things are going. The appointment will be for a full developmental assessment. So on her first visit she'll get more answers than she's received in nearly 7 years. I'm hoping all the best for her!

Don't be a Smart Alec

I was in the shower when my husband called on his lunch break. I called him as soon as I got out. I THOUGHT I called him that is. I dialed from memory. My phones redial shows I called his number although it's dialed twice. Like xxx-xxx-xxxx-xxx-xxx-xxxx.
When "he" answered the phone it sounded like I'd woke him so I thought he was just whispering. I couldn't hear machine's running in the background so I thought maybe I'd caught him in the bathroom. He hates that, but he's afraid I'll call and the one time he doesn't answer it'll be a medical emergency with Naomi. So being a complete smart Alec I say "Are you Poopin'?"
The line went silent and my thumb instinctively hit end!
I don t' know who I called but it wasn't my husband. I just hope they don't have caller I.D.
I'm wondering if the cell phone signals didn't get switched. I once dialed my parent's number and got the Applebee's in a whole different city.
I'll just throw this out to the universe: If you were woken today by the ringing of your phone and some strange woman said "are you poopin'? "and hung up...... I AM SO SORRY!

Naomi and the diet

When Naomi first started the diet she was gaining weight like crazy! Ended up she also gained 3/4 in. So it all balanced out. I had her weighed every week for the first 4 months. After our last meeting with the Keto team the dietitian said she didn't need to be weighed so often anymore and we also didn't' have to check ketones daily. Well the ketone thing is hard to give up! You just kind of want to know what's going on! When I asked how often should I get her weight checked, the dietitian just kind of wobbled her head side to side like "well......" and never gave me a firm answer. I said "every other week? Once a month?" she wouldn't commit. So I had decided every other week would be good, then Naomi got sick and I thought to heck with it and haven't been to get her weighed in over a month. I'm the kind of person that would like a firm answer. If the dietitian had said every 3 weeks, I'd have been at the Dr's office firmly every 3 weeks!
Anyway, I took her to get her weight checked on Monday and she was 14.3 KG which is down from 14.8 KG last month. So she's lost a little more than 1/2 a pound,
Here's an email I sent the dietitian (this was before I'd had her weighed):

"I thought I'd give you a little update and ask some questions.
Naomi's seizures are still lighter and fewer. Her ketones have been staying high, mostly 80-160 even though she's had 2 colds in the last month.
Do we just ride it out and wait and see how she is in April? (haven't got that appt set up yet)
or at what point do we see if a raise in ratio or something helps or do we even do that.
Last appt with Tuxhorn she let me take Naomi's meds from 600mg 2X day to 500mg 2X and it's made no difference, maybe some improvement, but she never got worse or had a bad day.
We've had some days where she never had a cluster and maybe we only saw 15-20 myoclonic jerks all day so that's a great improvement!
She does seems to still have a day or every so often where it seems like her teeth are bothering her and she'll have a 20 minutes cluster. They are few and far between though. They are usually followed by a few days of more seizure activity.
I've only had her weight checked once since we were last there and it was about the same and I don't think she's gained any weight. With her being sick there were a few days she didn't eat all her meals but I tried to make sure she got all her cream and at least some carbs so she wouldn't get way to much ketosis. Everything stayed pretty steady though. She's getting where she's pretty satisfied with her meals and doesn't always want to finish all of them."

this is her reply

" I am looking into your appointment in April and will try to let you know tomorrow."
Does that answer any of my questions? Besides someone else makes the appts. I was just letting her know I didn't know when we'd be coming. I have already contacted the person who sets up the appts! The appt. books are closed because the Neuro is out until late April.
THIS is the most frustrating part of the diet! To see your daughter get sick, have higher ketone readings while sick and see a huge improvement in seizures during that time, then when she's better and extremely active, the seizures come back like before! To feel like she's having unnecessary seizures because things aren't being tweaked is so hard.
I've emailed the dietitian to let her know about the weight loss and the fact that if Naomi's very active her seizures are worse. If I could get her to sit around all day she'd be fine. Anyone know how to get a toddler to do that???? Without duct tape that is!
To be fair to the dietitian, she's the only one that does the diet. She is off on Wednesdays. On Thursdays she's at a different location but still working for the clinic. So that leaves Monday and Tuesday for her to get back to me and that's also the days they admit new patients to start the diet. So Fridays are the only day I see her having open. But at some point during the week she must also meet with other families who have come back to the clinic for follow up. There are 12 pediatric neurologist at the clinic and if even 1/2 of them put kids on the diet can you imagine what that patient load must be like for one woman?

Social Studies

Isaiah's 4th grade Social Studies is all about Ohio.
Helping him with his homework I realize what a great Indian history Ohio had and remember looking for indian arrow heads in fields as a child. I don't think I ever found one.
My grandparents had friends in Vermillion Ohio that had indian arrow heads they'd found displayed together in a wall hanging. The arrow heads were displayed in a pattern that looked like one big arrow head. It was probably in a frame that was 10 x 13 or so.
It's kind of hard to miss the fact that this was all Indian territory once upon a time. We live near the Mohican forest where people come to canoe the river during the summer.
We're surrounded by counties with such names as Erie, Huron, Tuscarawas, Seneca, Delaware, Cuyahoga and others.
I find myself helping Isaiah with his homework and wondering if he went to a school of Native Americans how the history would be written. I've sort of seen this before. When we lived in North Carolina I noticed my friends daughter was taught a different tilt on the Civil War era than I was here in Ohio.
Isaiah studied the Battle of Fallen Timbers and the Treaty of Greenville. I find myself wanting to tell Isaiah that the indians didn't just move away, they were run off and sure there was murder and violence on both sides. Not to mention torture that is hard to believe any human could commit on another. That yes, the Indians took scalps, but there was a white British officer, Henry Hamilton, in Detroit that paid them money for the scalps. Which is more inhumane?
Also we paint them as savages but many tribes lived in villages with homes just like us. They were farmers and hunters who took just what was needed. Many whites who were taken captive by indians were treated so well that when they were found refused to go back to their old lives. Of course there was the running of the gauntlet that was a violent start to the "adoption" process, but how would whites have treated their captives? One run through the gauntlet is probably pie compared to the techniques we used, if we let them live.
I guess I want Isaiah to get a balanced sense of history. To know that things are done in the interest of "national security" or out of fear and we need to at times put ourselves in the shoes of those we're oppressing and at times be tolerant. That just because we don't understand another's way of life or agree, that doesn't make it wrong. That just because we're in a war with one group of people doesn't mean all are bad. Whether it's Indians, Japanese or Muslims. Because God knows, just because I'm white and Christian doesn' t mean I agree with everything or anything people like Jimmy Swagger, Benny Hinn, Jim Baker or many of our politians say or do!
Besides my kids are German, French, Scotch-Irish, English, possibly Native American. They have Pentacostal, Jehovah Witness, Methodist and Catholic Grandparents. Ancesters who moved across the plains on covered wagons with the Mormons. Loved ones who are in inter racial relationships, products of inter racial realationships or homosexual. So when someone starts flinging mud, it's gonna land somewhere very near us! So they remember that what we do today and how we treat others today, is tomorrows history and Social Studies lesson.

Facebook

I know David just did a post about social networking sites but something happened today that I had to talk about!
What is so odd about Facebook is the term "friends" especially when talking about people you once went to high school with. There's "people I may know" that pop up that I went to high school with and I see them out at the grocery store and they can't even say hello. So I'll be darned if I send them a friend request!
Then there's other that I'm acquainted with. I went to a very small country school where everyone knew everyone else name, their parents, siblings, grandparents etc... So when someones name pops up that's a name I recognize but really never talked to in school, not because either of us were snobs but because we weren't in the same classes, I'm torn. Do I send a friend request because maybe it's someone who was considered a "nerd" (aka person completely likely to over achieve in life) and you'd like them to know, nerds only exist in High School and you remember them as a very nice person. But Facebook is not that deep! Or do you just sit back and let what ever happens happen? I've sent out very few requests, it just seems so odd! Mostly family, old friends or fellow bloggers like Lisa or Fawn.
I have reconnected with my best friend from school since joining the site and as she said It's like being back in high school! Putting yourself out there and then realizing how much no one cares. Only now, I really don't care. I don't care how many "friends" I have listed. I'm not in high school anymore and if those people even know I'm still alive it doesn't make a difference in my daily life, or theirs.
I must add this because I find it amusing! I have a distant cousin who is listed as one of my friends and he is a wonderful man! I can not tell you how many people pop up as people I may know that have in their profile pic a pose of themselves with him! I think he has well over 200 friends and I'd just about bet he knows each and every one of them well and they all adore him!
*After I posted this my husband said "What is Facebook? Is it like My Space but less vain?" :)

Rawhide

Naomi woke me up at 4:40 a.m. only to fall asleep in my arms at 6! So I'm sitting in the recliner and AMC is showing Rawhide. love old westerns. Especially if their old enough to be in black and white. There are a few disturbing things with this movie! I find myself wanting to report them to children's services!
First the woman brings the baby in. Sets the baby on a bed and comes and goes from the room. That's a good baby that will just sit on a bed and not crawl off ! You'd think they'd be worried about the lit lantern that was within the babies reach. I've been watching this movie almost 2 hours now and I've yet to see them feed or diaper that baby! I've not even seen a bottle. They did let the baby sit precariously on the side of a hot spring while it's mother took a bath on the other side of the hot spring. They also let the baby handle a knife that must have had a 12 inch blade.The baby has been locked in a room with it's mother and even in a small bedroom the mother has very little supervising skills. The baby crawled through a hole in the wall they've been making to escape! Mind you they're in the desert. About 10 minutes have passed since the baby got out through the wall and the mother is just noticing it's found it's way out and is playing around the tied up horses (who mysteriously have a winter coat in the desert!). Oh thank goodness the baby has left the horses and is just wandering aimlessly around the sagebrush and off into the desert hills it goes.
A couple non baby things I noticed...
It was so dark they needed lanterns to see anything down by the stage stop yet up in the hills where they'd taken the woman it was daylight!
An outlaw shot over 7 bullets out of a 6 shooter.
They carried a lantern out and laid it on the ground next to a pile of hay! I don't think you have to be a farmer to know dry hay is extremely likely to catch fire!
This is why I love old movies!
Now I need to turn my attention back to the movie. I'm fairly sure the baby will toddle back to the hot spring and find the loaded pistol right where his mother left it when she bathed.

This week with Isaiah

It's been something every day with Isaiah this week.

Something was said at my parents house about the retirement home and my dad said
"Isaiah, I won't have to go to the retirement house will I? I can stay with you right?"
Isaiah said "There's just one problem with that Papaw, sometimes my Dad sleeps in bed with me."
My Dad laughed and told him "I won't be going anytime soon. You'll probably be married by the time I'm ready for the retirement home." My dad is only 59.

Then this week was my mother in law's birthday and Isaiah called to sing her happy birthday. She said "Do you know how old I am?" and Isaiah asked "Are you old enough for the retirement home?"

Every week in 4th grade they have fluency page they have to bring home and read every day. This week it was all about sayings that have come from the circus. Like "under the big top" and "grandstanding", "jumbo" and Isaiah's personal favorite "come rain or come shine". He has tried to slip this into conversation all week. Finally on Tuesday night my mom called and told him she'd be there to pick him up Wednesday after school. He replied "Will that be come rain or come shine Grammy?". Previously he'd been saying "fight the power"any time he could. Never in the proper context. For Example: He say "Mom, what are we having for dinner"
I'd answer "Pizza"
Then he says "Yeah! Fight the power!"

A few weeks ago Isaiah asked me about a girl at school who's teeth stuck out on the side. Having never seen her I just told him it was probably something she couldn't do anything about, just don't treat her any different and don't let that keep you from talking to her. Then he brought home his year book he pointed her out to me. It was worse than I imagined. It's obviously some sort of birth defect. The poor little girl was actually photographed side ways but you can see something is really wrong. Isaiah also said you can hear when she breathes and I told him it's probably just because she can't close her mouth completely. All his questions about her were out of concern. He wasn't ever being mean spirited. He's a very kind boy. I told him I'm sure there's a very sweet little girl inside there and you can't judge a person from the outside. The outside doesn't always show what a beautiful person is inside. Then I said "What do you think Jane looks like on the inside?" Jane is the name I'm giving a little girl in his grade that is extremely mean and seems set on hurting others feelings. Isaiah said he thinks on the inside she "Looks like a troll!"
I also then took pity on Jane and told him that little kids don't usually talk as mean as her.
Someone had to talk to her that way for her to learn it.
It's so hard to know what to tell kids!

Being Forced to be Recycled

We're sort of being forced to recycle. I have nothing against recycling but our city has always picked trash up twice a week and they're reducing that to once a week. They also pick up recycling once a week.
We take our recycling to a nearby container because the one time I decided to go ahead and let the city pick it up, they never came. I ended up chasing the dag-gum bag down the road. (Cursing them all the way)
I started recycling mostly our plastic stuff after trying it one week months ago and realizing just how much plastic we use! It's ridiculous.
Now that trash runs one less day though I've been trying to recycle everything I can. There's a few issues. One is I have NO room to keep the stuff! Houses built in the early 1900's are not built with a lot of extra room for such stuff. (Ladies, I have 1, count it, 1 drawer in my kitchen can you imagine! Actually come to think of it... it's one of 2 drawers in my entire house not counting furniture!)
My other issue is this, to keep down the smell and threat of bugs and such I have to wash out the items to be recycled. My water is not free so my water bill is going up. Going up QUITE a bit! So I'm using perfectly good, chemically treated, fresh water to wash trash.
My other issue is with the place I take the recycle items. It's convenient and all but lots of people take stuff there. Who ever picks up the containers seems to underestimate how quickly they get filled up. So people end up sitting stuff outside the containers. This means that the small grassy are that is behind the containers is littered with trash... I mean "recyclables". They used to have the containers at Walmart but Walmart won't let them keep them there because of all the trash that was blowing around.
So, I'm happy to do my part. But there are down sides also.
School teaches reduce, recycle, re-use. So maybe I should set all the items in front of Isaiah and tell him to come up with a re-use for he items. He already wants to turn every single water bottle we have into a bird feeder (thank you 1st grade teacher!)

Barbie Fashion

Here's my loot! This is all the clothes that were in my Fashion Doll trunk

Does anything say 1970's more than this outfit! The gold over sized lapel doesn't show up as good as I wish it would. But you get the general idea.

Here's what is so crazy. I remember where I got this outfit. My best friend when I was very young was Susie. She talked me into trading this cute little number for an outfit of straight leg jeans and a peasant shirt. BOTH of which have come back in style! Anyone seen a person out and about wearing an orange jump suit with a gold belt and an over sized gold collar? ( if you live near L.A or Austin, Texas I realize you may very well have seen someone in exactly this outfit recently! ummm hopefully it was a woman, but if not, I'm not judging)
Since I had Isaiah bring this home he has asked me numerous times when I'm going to go play with my dolls!

It's My Barbie World!

I had Isaiah bring this little beauty home with him from my parents house. Can you guess how old I am by the contents? I'm 34 (35 in July)


I just realized that it's NOT a TRUE Barbie wardrobe. It's a generic "Fashion Doll" wardrobe. It says right on the front that it holds "Barbie, Twistee, Bionic Woman, Tuesday Taylor and other 11 1/2" and 12 1/2" Dolls". Anyone remember Twistee or Tuesday Taylor? The beauty above is none other than Western Barbie. I cut all her hair off and one of her eye lids used to blink but I apparently broke it off. She's still rockin' the ice blue eye shadow though! She was my least favorite of the Barbies. I guess that's apparent! I was rougher on her than the others.
Notice anything... disturbing about the following dolls?

Malibu Barbie

Pretty in Pink Barbie someone stole the

diamond "ring" she once wore

Melanoma Ken?

I mean seriously! Now you know why kids of he 70's ran around outside with out sun screen! Barbie and Ken glamorized a tan!
I'll address the fashion of my dolls in a later post!

Naomi's 3rd Birthday!

Here she is enjoying her birthday breakfast! She woke at 4 a.m. and doesn't eat until

6 so we had some time to kill this morning! But she ate happily then looked at books.

This next photo was actually taken the day before her birthday. Her Gr. Gr. Aunt Sigh sent her a balloon bouquet and an adorable teddy bear. We got her a balloon bouquet and she was so excited over all the balloons!

Here her brother is "helping" her open her presents. She was actually just happy to have a wrapped package! Her Grammy and Papaw got her a little tykes piano and xylophone. Generally they're for younger kids, but she LOVES them! I knew she would. I don't know why we never got her one before! She has the drum and she loves beating that thing! She sat down right away and was plinking on the piano like Schroeder from Peanuts! (notice my front door is open! It was almost 70 here today! SOOOO NICE!)

And here she is, in all her 3 year old splendor! Doesn't she look the picture of Spring!

This was her first, but probably not her last birthday while on the ketogenic diet. That's why there's no cake. I thought I'd miss the cake, but it was really nice! We don't go over board having parties for the kids anyway. Just family. Usually some close friends come but they had the flu this week so I didn't even bother asking them. She just got over the worst cold EVER so I'd like to put her in isolation for a while!

Thankfully the epilepsy gave her a bit of a break for her birthday as well! No seizure free day, but only 2 light, small clusters of 15 or less then a few here and there, still very light. A very good seizure day over all! What more could we ask for!

Update on Naomi

Naomi turns 3 tomorrow! Yeah!
She's had daily seizures over 1/2 of her life! BOO
It's all good though! She's a joy!
I took her down to 400 mg for her morning dose of Keppra. She once took as much as 600 mg/ 2X day. The neuro at our last appt. said we could go to 500 mg/ 2x day. That's still a high dose. The neuro also asked me if I wanted the full wean schedule and I said no, then almost immediately wished I'd said yes! Well ,after over a month of 500 mg I figured I'd try going down just on her morning dose to 400 mg. There's been no bad effects. She's had a few more seizures this week but I'm putting them down to teething (possibly, no visible signs yet). Gnawing at hands and anything that will fit in her mouth along with the peanut butter-ish diapers (GAG) all things point to teething! Isaiah had a dentist appt. today and the denstist looked in Naomi's mouth too because I told him her 2 year molars haven't all came up yet. He noticed her biting her hands and thought it looked like teething too. So there, a professional opinion!
THE DAY I took her down to 400 mg she was SOOOOO much more vocal all day long! Today the speech therapist really got to hear a lot more sounds and knew something had changed. In the therapy waiting room Naomi got a book out and was OOOOHing and AAAHing over it and another mom asked "is she looking at a Tarzan book?" HAHAHAHA it did sound like a Tarzan call that she was making! But she was just happy!
The physical therapist and the occupational therapist both heard her try to say "more".
Since she'll be 3, starting next week she'll recieve more services. Here's how our weeks look now
Monday 1/2 hour Physical therapy in the morning at home
Tues starting at 9 a.m. Physical, Occupational then Speech, all 1/2 hour sessions at the Pediatric
Therapy Center then at our house the itinerate teacher from 2:20-3:20 p.m. then
occupational therapy for another 1/2 hour starting at 3:20
Wed.. Speech therapy at her old school from 2:45-3:15 pm
Thursday starting at 8:30 a.m. back to Pediatric Therapy for PT, OT and Speech ( each 1/2
hour sessions again)
Friday WHAT WILL WE DO WITH OURSELVES!?? Nothing scheduled!
What a full schedule we'll have! Hopefully we'll see good results from all the effort she'll be putting forth!

On the lighter side!

Today in the car, Isaiah "tooted" and when he fessed up to it he said "I get that from Dad's side"!BOYS!

GULP!!!!

Naomi's state insurance (BCMH) which acts like a 2nd insurance for us ran out as of Jan 31. I sent in all the paperwork in early November. I got it back to them as soon as I could! There may have been a 2 week period between me receiving their package and me sending in all necessary paperwork.
I called to see what the hold up was in mid January. I talked to our local county health nurse who's over the program in our area. She doesn't do any of the paper work she can just inform me what is going on in Columbus where everything is done. When I told her Jan. 31 was when coverage ran out she joked that if they had until the 31st they'd surely not hurry to get to it, but since I got my stuff in so early they usually try to help those who don't wait until the last minute and they'd probably get to it soon.
Well it's March now and I still don't have any paper or coverage from them. I did call directly to Columbus about a week ago to see what was happening and they gave me all the dates everything was received and said everything was put on the nurses desk for review on February 2nd. Nothing has changed since the last time we went through this so I don't know what the hold up is! It is so frustrating!
Today I went to pick up her Keppra prescription. Usually I don't pay a dime for it because BCMH pays for it. Well I paid a pretty penny for it today! $80!(that's the price AFTER insurance has paid it's part!) As the prescription is written that is a 20 day supply! See why I titled this GULP? Thankfully we have decreased the Keppra and now that's a 30 day supply!
I'm so thankful for BCMH! It's need based not income based which is great that there's finally something out there for working families. I just wish they'd push the needed paperwork on through so Naomi can have coverage again!

Vacations

Since I wrote about our trip to Monticello I have been thinking about other vacations I've taken both with my parents and with my husband and kids.

I think my favorite vacation spot ever is Jekyll Island Georgia. It's a small island just about an hour north of Jacksonville FL and was originally a private hunting club for the extremely wealthy of our country (Rockefeller's, JP Morgan etc..) they built "cottages" and a Jekyll Island club on the island and today the club has been renovated and is run as a hotel. I've never stayed at the hotel we usually stay at one of the cheaper chain hotels on the other side of the island. The whole island is owned by the Jekyll Island something or other and so if you have a house on the island you own the house, the land it sits on is on a 99 year lease. There's no fast food restaurants, there is a Denny's and a pizza place in 2 of the hotels. There's a small water park on the island and one or two golf courses. It's the perfect place to go if you just want peace and quiet and and ocean view.

My second favorite place is Charleston South Carolina. I can not say enough about this city, it's history or the places of interested around Charleston that are so neat. One place we went to was Boone Hall which was Mount Royal in the old mini series North and South. Loved, Loved Loved that vacation! Especially walking at night with my mom and looking in the windows of some of the houses along the battery. When you're in Charleston you can also swing down to Savannah Georgia.

Washington D.C. is very interesting and there can't be a whole lot of other cities with so much to do. Of course I went in a VERY different time! There was high security then, I can only imagine what it is like now. We visited the FBI, Ford Theater, US Treasury or mint (same thing?) any way we saw money being made. The capitol building where we saw Barry Goldwater (that's how long ago it was). The Smithsonian air and space museum and the natural history museum along with at least one more but I can't think what that one was! I just know I saw Dorothy's shoes from the wizard of Oz and Archie Bunker's chair. I don't think those would be in the natural history museum but I may be wrong. We visited the national zoo and saw the pandas which were a new thing then.

On our way to Washington we stopped at Gettysburg, snore..... I know it's changed a lot since we went and is way more touristy but it was seriously like visiting a cemetery and an open field. I mean that's exactly what it was. An open field with a marker stating what that battlefield was called. Not too thrilling for a child. We did go to the Cabbage Patch museum (again showing how long ago that was!) and saw an Abe Lincoln impersonator that was great.

Outside of Gettysburg we toured Eisenhower's home, that's one of a couple president's homes I've visited. I've also been to Washington's Mount Vernon, Jefferson and Monroe's of course in Charlottesville. McKinley's (duh he's from Ohio) and Jimmy Carter's home town of Plains Georgia where I met his brother Billy and saw the house that Jimmy and Rosalin still live in which is very practical, nothing fancy, just an average ranch style home anyone might have.

I'm pulling for a weekend trip to Kentucky or Illinois to visit Lincoln sites. It's all so close I don't know why we haven't gone already!

My mom and I visited Edison's home in Ft. Myers Florida once and that was neat because Thomas Edison was actually born in Milan Ohio and I've visited his birthplace. When you hear all the things he invented it really blows your mind. He invented wax paper !

One thing that was kind of neat about our trip to Charlottesville is there's so much about Lewis and Clark there also and while visiting my father in law in Washington state we drove out to the coast and followed their route some what and visited a museum about them.

I must say, if you're used to the Atlantic beaches of Virginia, the Carolina's, Georgia on down to Florida, a trip to the coast of Washington state is a bit of a shock. The water was so cold and even though 50 miles away at my in laws it was in the 80's it was not over 50 at the beach! I didn't enjoy it! At least not in the same way I enjoy the south east coast.

A favorite place of Bill's is Pigeon Forge Tennessee. I love it too. We get a cabin, I don't know if I'd like it if I had to stay down on the main road. When I first went to Pigeon Forge it was in the 80's I think and there was a tiny little two lane road and maybe a couple tourist stores. Now there is a 6 or 8 lane road that runs past all the mess it's become. Outlet malls, arcades, go cart tracks, water parks, Dixie Stampede and on and on. We sometimes start out in North Carolina and go through Asheville (a beyond lovely city) and into Cherokee, the Indian reservation, across the Smoky mountains into Gatlinburg (very touristy also) then into Pigeon Forge. If you've never been there, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville almost run right together. I was actually married in Sevierville. Right across the street from the court house and the Dolly Parton statue! I love the mountains! We visited Cade's Cove one year and that was neat. If you like to hike the Smokey Mountains have lots of trails. I can't get Bill out of the car, but I'm sure they're all nice. (He was raised in the mountains and could care less about hiking).

Well, I better leave this now. I may think of other places I'd like to talk about but that's it for now.

Vacation in Ohio

I live too close to really enjoy any of these places (know how that is?). For instance... Amish Country. People flock to Ohio's Amish country every year. The first thing I notice is they still list Millersburg as the "heart" of Amish country. There's nothing in Millersburg anymore. Everything is east of there in towns like Berlin, Sugarcreek, Charm, Walnut Creek. If you really want to experience Amish country you have to get out of all of that mess though and just get a county map and drive around to the tiny little communities passed by all that commercialism. They'll try to sell you "Amish" everything Amish salsa even! An amish friend of my family was riding in the car with my mom and saw a sign and said "Amish water? We have our own water now?". I see Amish everytime I go to the grocery. They drive by my house every day so it's normal life to me. Nothing to get excited about. I do like Lehman's hardware in Kidron. Last time I was there I saw not one Amish though! They sell a lot to the movie industry. They specialize in non electric items. I took my friends 15 year old when she visited from out of state. I told her the place would either bore her to tears or she'd love it. She LOVED it.
Cincinatti, Ohio has a lot of interesting things. One of the most interesting I think are the old paddle wheelers that move up and down the Ohio River. Cincinatti also has a great Zoo, aquarium and loads of history. Especially history having to do the the underground railroad. They also had Jerry Springer as a mayor, you can't beat that! Just kidding!
Columbus is famous for Jack Hannah and the Columbus Zoo. The gorilla's are wonderful, The whole zoo is just a really nice place to take kids. The Olentangy Caverns are nearby also. We went there once and it's so odd to enter this little building, go down a bunch of steps and end up in an underground world where indians held council. When I go to Columbus it's usually for one reason, Easton. Yes, it's shopping, but it's soooo cool! I think Columbus is my favorite large city.
Of course there's the Ohio State University campus also.
Cleveland is probably most famous for the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. I've never been there. My cousin is a year older than me and she went and said it's more for older people. I have been to the Great Lakes Science Center right beside the Rock Hall and Isaiah loved it. We've went a couple times. Most of our trips to Cleveland are for Naomi's trip to the Cleveland Clinic, I can't say I reccomend an extended stay there if you're perfectly healthy! I can't think of a place I'd rather be if I were sick though. Cleveland is also the home of Case Western University which has an amazingly beautiful campus. The whole University Circle area is nice,( museums and such).
You can take a dinner cruise out onto Lake Erie from Cleveland and in the summer the Tall Ships come in and that is so cool! They dock for a while and there's a whole festival. Think old wood pirate ships.
The Lake Erie Islands are another nice place I've never been. Probably because my mom grew up so close to them and actually went to 4-H camp on Kelly's Island. My grandma's family actually came over to the U.S.A as German-Russians and an uncle started a winery on Kelly's Island that is still there. There's also Put-in-Bay Island. I hear the water off the islands is crystal clear.
If you like rollercoasters Ohio is the state for you! King's Island near Cincinatti or Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio are both great parks. My grandparents lived within 10 miles of Cedar Point so I've been there more times than I can count! They've got plenty of coaster's I'll tell you that!!!! Also in Sandusky (litterally bordering land my mother's family members farm) is the country's largest indoor water park. We go there every year for Isaiah's birthday. It's named Kalahari and there are other Kalahari's in Wisconsin Dells and some where in Virginia, but this one is the largest. There's also several other indoor water parks in Sandusky. I don't know how any of them make any money there's so much of them anymore!
Well that's a small sampling of things to do in Ohio!

Special Olympics Campaign

Today I watched a snippet of the Bonnie Hunt Show . I never get to watch a show in it's entirety! The part I saw was her interviewing John C. McGinley from Scrubs. He has 11 or 12 year old son with Downs syndrome and he was wearing a shirt that read "Spread the Word End The Word" and the date 3/31/2009 was at the bottom. Here's a quote from the Special Olympics website.

"Our choice of language frames how we think about others. It is time to respect and value people with intellectual disabilities.It is time to accept and welcome us as your friends and neighbors."

Apparently during the Special Olympics a guest on Bill O'Reilly used the "r" word and these kids heard about it! They have some sort of summit for the kids at the games and asked them what they'd like to achieve or something like that and what they want is to put an end to the "r" word. John McGinley helped them draft a letter which they sent to O'Reilly and he did apologize. Although I watched the video where O'Reilly "apologized" and he says something like Dick Morris who used the word was talking off the cuff but we do recognize the sensitivity to the word. I'll be honest I am not an O'Reilly fan, and this is one blaring example why. It just felt to insensitive. Like he thought it was frivolous but he knew he better apologize.

Sad story- Lesson learned

A very sad story happened in our area last week. The son of a local college basketball coach was killed. He was riding in a vehicle that lost control and overturned. Everyone made it out of the crash just fine. They crawled out of the vehicle and were at the side of the road when another car came along and lost control. That car hit and killed the little 3 year old. His obit lists him as being survived by his parents and older brother, also his best friend. How sad is that!
The lesson to be learned is the Highway patrol says if you crash to STAY INSIDE THE VEHICLE with your restraints on unless the car is on fire. They say you're much safer inside than outside. This case proves that to be true.