Family Photo

My cousin asked if I had a photo of the 4 of us together. No. He couldn't believe it.
I'll work on it. I told him. So on Thanksgiving I took my camera with me to my friends house and had her try to take a photo of us. Am I happy with it? No, but getting a picture of the 4 of us is like getting your drivers license photo taken. It's never gonna be great, just go with what you get! After 4 or 5 tries this was the best. It's only the best because I cropped it also! My camera has an extremely slow shutter speed and I don't know how to correct it!
Don't ask what Isaiah was doing. He should be the easy kid! Then Naomi was distracted by the items on the mantel and would not turn around with out screaming because we were trying to take her away from something that looked like it would make a good missile. We tried to stand her beside ups but she was not having that. Oh well. At least I have proof we were all at one place at one time, at least once in my kids childhood!

Something for everyone

I got a new washer

Naomi got a reading nook.

Happy Thanksgiving

Cooking

I don't mind cooking at all. With Naomi it's a little more difficult. I can't leave her alone and I can't have her in the kitchen with me. So I have to put her in the high chair to play with a puzzle or book. I don't like leaving her there too long though. So I can't get much done.
Thankfully I have a friend who has invited us to Thanksgiving. My parents will be there also. I don't have to take anything but I am going to make one thing. Here it is. It's a Paula Deen recipe

Pineapple Casserole

1 cup sugar
6 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese
Two 20- ounce cans pineapple chunks, drained (reserve 6 Tablespoons juice)
1 cup Ritz cracker crumbs
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine sugar and flour. Gradually stir in cheese. Add Pineapple and stir well. Pour mixture into a greased casserole dish. Combine cracker crumbs, butter and pineapple juice and spread it on top of pineapple mixture. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.


Now, the first time I read this recipe I thought "cheese and pineapple? yuk!". Let me tell you there is no yuk! It is soooo good! Doesn't a topping of crackers and butter make everything good!?!

Social Studies

What kind of kid brings home his Social Studies book, even when there's no homework, just so he can read it?
What kind of kid takes their Social Studies book along in the car so they can read on the way to the restaurant?
My kid!
It's the heaviest book he has! It weighs down his back pack. It is at least 2 inches thick. The boy just loves Social Studies!

What's Bigger than Turkey Day in Ohio?

The Ohio State VS. Michigan game of course.
If you don't know, we don't give a damn 'bout the whole state of Michigan (it's actually a song!)
I really don't give a damn 'bout football. But I love the marching band!

Back to the Clinic

Today we had our 1 year check up since starting the diet.
The dietitian is happy that Naomi has thrived. Her weight and height are going steady. She had no ideas of changing anything in her diet. So she's still on 3.5:1 ratio 1200 calories. What ever.
We told the neurologist she's still having about 30 seizures a day. The neurologist suggests that we try Zonegran. It's not approved for monotherapy, but we'll try it as just that. If she has any side effects or it doesn't work we'll stop it. Also we won't push the dosage. If it works we'll use it. If not we won't push we'll just wean her off it. That makes me feel a little better. The Dr. is not asking for a commitment to try this drug for long term.
So we'll see how that goes. I don't even have the prescription yet. The Dr. was going to check with her nusing staff and see how best to give the meds. What form I mean. It's not easy to give her a tablet, she'll either bite it or spit it out. Plus with the diet it's not like I can just stick in in a spoon of jelly like I used to.
This drug doesn't affect their kidneys and such like some of the drugs. We'll see. The side effects of any of these drugs are scarey.

The Brass Band

I took a small video of the band at church. In case you can't tell, I wore a green sweater :)

Weekend of Nov 14-15

Saturday night was our church's annual Turkey dinner fundraiser and they fed over 545 people. That includes our party of 12.
Today Bill stayed home with Naomi so I could go to church. The pastor is on vacation and a 7 piece brass band came and played for us! It was great! They ended with some Christmas music which made us all ready for the holiday to get here!
Today Bill turns 40. I got him a card. Isaiah got him the movie Transformers. (guess who will share that gift!)
I need to think about what to fix for dinner. Like most men Bill loves meat! So I may run out and buy him a big T-bone or Porterhouse steak. He also loves coconut cake, but the one I make tastes best if it set for a day or two, and it's a lot of work! So he may get another favorite, banana pudding.

Naomi's first ever school picture

She screamed and cried the whole way to the school and it's not far away. About a 20 walk! So I'm glad her nose dried up before we got her picture taken!

See how the skin is around her eye? In our last trip to the neurologist a Fellow who observed noted mild facial dysmorphisms and I think that's what she meant. I think that's like down syndrome kids etc.. But Bill's toddler pictures look the same way! So what ever. Just another Dr's note to worry over!

The Substitute Car

Isaiah calls it our substitute car. I'm thankful we got a nice new vehicle. It's a 2010 Dodge Avenger with only 4000 miles on it. Still has that new car smell. It'll be ours until Tuesday. That's how long they predict it to take to fix our car. We've had it since October 21.Right now it's in the body shop. Over $6000 in damage was done. The tow truck guy said if the air bags would have went off they would have totaled it. I guess those are like $2000 each and our car has 4 of them. The collision repair company that has it gave me an i.d. number and I can go on their website and there will be updates and photos showing the progress.
Isaiah likes the substitute car. I like it, but I wouldn't buy one. The thought occurred to me that if I were to buy a new car I should rent that model first. I like the looks of this car but learned quickly the trunk isn't what I need. I hate those black things on the back seat windows. They make for a terrible blind spot. The lights don't automatically come on at night. I leaned that the hard way! I can't remember the last car I had that didn't have lights that came on when the sun set.

Naomi had to have a new car seat. Once a car seat is in a wreck you aren't supposed to use it again. I went to Toys R Us and bought the new seat and couldn't get the box in the trunk! I had to take the seat out of the box and put it in the back seat. Then I had to break down the box and lay it in the trunk.
I miss my sunroof. I miss the display that tells me what temperature it is outside and the heated seats not to mention remote start on a cold morning. All of that was standard on our car. This one is, well not bare bones. It has power windows but it's basic and I'm someone who generally likes that in a car. Less options, less things to go wrong.
I also miss the Thomas Trackside Tunes and Mickey Mouse Playhouse CD's that are in the CD player. They keep Naomi quiet. I also miss my CD that I won from Susan. Isaiah misses it too. He asked "where's your music?". That's what he meant, he plays the Grace Kelly song over and over. This car only takes 1 cd at a time. Mine holds 6.
Over the sun visor I found a card from a funeral. Someone must have rented the car to go to a funeral in Pittsburgh. Isaiah actually found it. The rental agreement was up there too. Isaiah said "what's this junk?". Then he said "This car is just like Papaws truck. He's always got stuff over in the visor." Not so much! Papaws is so much worse!

When I look at the photos of it in the body shop the doors are off and it's covered in a tarp. I wonder what they did with all the crap in the back seat. Bill was going to clean the car out. There's a ton of books and loose (clean) diapers. Not to mention my empty Starbucks cup from that morning! I hope they throw that stuff away. I can't imagine what's growing in that cup if they don't!!!

Happy Veterans Day

My dad's Marine photo about 1968

My Grandfather on my father's side was in WWII as was his brother. Both in the Navy.
My Dad was a Marine for 2 tours of duty in Vietnam.
My Father in law was in the Army during the Korean War.
My cousin, and two different cousin's husbands were in the current war.
But saddest of all is Bill's uncle James Ray Sargent who's mother reluctantly signed papers for him to join the military at 17. He went to Vietnam when he turned 18. He only lived a short time. His remains were just identified in 2005. Fragments of him were found and they took DNA samples from his brother and identified him that way. His remains were buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Here's another website in honor of him with pictures.

Last Treatment

Today is my Dad's last chemo treatment. Sometime this month they'll do another bone scan and CAT scan to see how it's worked. Got to be good news right? It's about to be the holiday season!
He's doing great! He never lost his appetite but isn't as active so he's put some weight on, but that's much better than wasting away. They check his finger and toe nails because they can fall out, but none of that has happened.
He was here last night and as he sat on the couch Isaiah sat stuck to his side, Naomi on his lap, playing with his chest hair. The dog sat on his shoulder, yes his shoulder, she has to make sure she can stick her head between him and any grandkid that wants more attention than she is getting.
When he got up to leave Naomi took off running and cut him off at the pass. She stood firm in front of him and threw up her arms so he'd pick her up.

Too funny not to share...

I've had a treadmill for years. I haven't used it for a LONG time! Naomi kind of makes it impossible. I had it in the living room at one time and did well. I could walk and watch TV. When it got shoved to the back room it just seemed like 15 minutes on that thing was 5 hours! I'd much rather go walk outside.
Since my dad has been on chemo it hasn't hurt his appetite one bit! It has made him less active and the last couple times he's had blood drawn his sugar has been up. He asked if I wanted to sell the treadmill. That's my dad! He would have given me exactly what I paid for it all those years ago! He's very generous. I told him no, but we'd move it to their house and he could use it indefinitely.
So one weekend Bill loaded it up. He set it up for Dad and it was actually getting used every day.
My Mom has type 2 diabetes and she even started walking regularly. When Isaiah is down there on the weekend even he would use it! Last weekend he was putting toy cars on it. So Tuesday evening my mom decides to use it. She turned it on and then turned out the lights in the room because she was in her nightie and didn't want people driving up the alley beside the house to see her in there walking.
So, she's walking and thinks "boy, this is really set at a steep incline". So she decides in the dark to start pushing buttons to lower the incline and pushes something that makes it speed up. Faster and faster. She's running trying to keep up but at some point realized that she couldn't and she was going to fall off. Well, get thrown off is more like it. She got thrown into the wall behind the treadmill. Crumpled into a ball. Hit her chin on the "tread" part and her chin is all skinned up. Hurt her ribs She said she lay there thinking "how do I get up and how do I stop this". She worked her way up, turned on the light and turned off the treadmill.
Meanwhile dad's in the living room sitting in his recliner completely oblivious to her distress. There's an old dry sink in the room and she said the treadmill was going so fast you could hear the china clinking into each other.
Now, here is why this is so pathetic! So very pathetic! The treadmill uses a magnet as a key. You are supposed to clip one end on your clothing and the other end holds the magnet. So if something like this happens it automatically would disengage the key and stop almost immediately. I asked her about it and she said she had the clip end wound around the bar on the treadmill. So why didn't you just reach out and pull the magnet off yourself when you realized it was speeding up, I asked. She didn't think of that! She said she thought she was Jesse Owens there for a minute.

If you think Pumpkins aren't safe in your neighborhood.....

An annual event by high school kids in Chagrin Falls Ohio. The "pumpkin roll". Yes, those are squashed pumpkins lining the street. Is it pitiful that I'm 35 and would LOVE to go?