The Final Frontier

Cole has been bring home lots of books about space lately.  Unfortunately, most of the books he brings home are horribly outdated.  I don't mean just 9 planets outdated.  These books talk about what the future of space travel might be like in the 1980s.  Yeah, that outdated.  It's kind of funny.  At least they are so old they don't talk about the Challenger.  I don't think I have the heart to tell him some people died trying to go into space.  This week's book was actually fairly recent.  It was all about Mars and mentioned only 8 planets.  This morning he was up before 7 building a Mars Rover with his Legos.

Time Wasters

We bought an iPad this week.  Apparently, I didn't have enough things to waste my time with.  It has been great motivation for the boys.  "If you are late for the bus, no iPad" or "no iPad until your chores and homework are done."  I wonder how long that will last.  We don't have a lot on it, so if you know of any must have apps, let me know!

My other time waster has been Downton Abbey.  Thanks K!  I'm still on season 1.  I don't watch a lot of TV, so it's hard to find the time to watch it, but it is good.  I watched 2 episodes yesterday before the boys came home from school.

I've also started volunteering in Tate's classroom.  I've been going in for about an hour during center time.  It's fun.  Tate loves having me come and I'm sure that won't last forever.

We've also been spending lots of time at the doctor, but thankfully none of the kids are sick.  Shelby had her 9 month check.  She's a little thing.  I think she weighed in at about 15 pounds.  That doesn't stop her.  She's crawling, pulling herself up, and cruising.

Cole has also been busy at the doctor.  He had his pre-op this week, his post-op next week, followed by surgery next Friday.

Pat and I are taking off next week for a few days.  He'll attend exciting meetings about grain elevators and marketing, and I'll go shopping.

Oh, and I applied for a job.  I interview on Thursday.  It's a long term sub job.  I'm not sure that I want it, but I'm not sure that I don't want it either.  Guess we'll see what happens.

Merry Christmas to Me

I got a steam juicer for Christmas.  What I really wanted is this:



but they are really expensive.  You can buy a kit for the wood part pretty easily and cheaply, but it's the grinder and the press that are going to cost you, a lot.

So the steam juicer will work just fine :)

I bought some apples the other day to try apple juice first.  I bought red delicious, but the juice had about as much flavor as the apples, very little. Next time I'd try a better apple, or a combination.  I also tried orange juice.  One word: Gross!  It was like drinking orange peel.  Yesterday I made beef broth.  We get beef short ribs with our beef, but they are always tough and not terribly meaty.  I've tried tons of different ways of cooking them, but always with the same results.  I ended up with 3 cups of beef broth and very tender, juicy, shredded beef.  That was definitely a win.  Up next: pears!

Christmas Recap

Huh, it's January already.

We had a good Christmas.  My parents came out on the 23rd and stayed until Christmas Day.  The boys had their Sunday School Program on Christmas Eve.  Yes, we still do that.  We are a small country church that doesn't like change :).  I'm glad they haven't changed that.  We had 38 kids participate this year.  Four years ago we barely had 20.

Christmas Eve

The kids claimed to have gotten everything they wanted.  I try not to go overboard with the kids.  They have grandparents and aunts, so they get tons of gifts.  This year Cole got a Lego remote control train, extra tracks, books, and pjs.  Tate got a Playmobil knights castle and a couple of smaller sets to go with it, a book, and pjs.  Then, of course, little things in their stockings, wind up toys, splat balls, hexbugs, and candy. Cole also got his very own notebook, stapler, and tape dispenser!  

Pat and I decided to buy a new TV for Christmas/anniversary and not buy anything else.  Then we found this right before Christmas:

We have one snowmobile, but with the boys old enough to ride along, 2 would be nice.  I've wanted a ski-doo since high school, but they aren't easy to find.  I'm not sure if that is because no one is selling them or they don't run anymore, but we finally found one close by.  So I got a new snowmobile for Christmas!  We took the boys for a ride last week.  We met Pat's parents for lunch and by that time, Tate was done.  So on the way home, I got to ride, sans kid.  I flew over a drift, then another and managed to crack and take a chunk out of my windshield.  I'm fine, but mad.  I can't believe I broke my pretty new sled!

On a side note, Cole's next surgery is scheduled for the 25th.  The CT scan showed that his ear bones are in tact, which is wonderful news.

Ears, Take 1

Cole had his surgery today.  It did not go well.  Well, I take that back, it did not go as hoped.  I should have guessed today was not going to be a great day.  Shelby was up 7 or 8 times between 10:30 and 4 this morning.  I finally managed to get 2 1/2 hours of sleep in a row, at the expense of my alarm clock which apparently shut itself off this morning.  Pat called wanting to know if I was up 15 minutes before we needed to be on the road.  We were not off to a great start.  We managed to get there on time, miraculously.

The surgery process itself was fine.  Cole was a trooper.  They said he hopped up on the bed and chatted away until he was out.  They came to get us 20 minutes later.  I knew that wasn't a good sign.  Turns out the drainage in his ear isn't drainage.  He has a cyst which may be harder to remove.  They took his adenoids out, then went to suction the drainage, but kept getting chunks, instead of liquid.  So what does that mean?  He has to have a CT scan to get a look at the ear bones.  The cyst can erode the bones of the ear, so they need to check that they are ok or if they need to rebuild them.  It will also give them an idea of the placement of the cyst.  The reason they don't do the CT scan first is that drainage and cysts look the same, so they don't know what they are dealing with until they go in.  Removing it can be as simple as lifting the ear drum and scraping it out or as complicated as having to drill in the bone behind the ear to get at it.  The CT scan should give them a better idea of what they are looking at.  I'm obviously hopeful for the first option, but not terribly optimistic.  He has his scan on Friday.  I'm not sure what we are looking at for surgery #2 yet.

Coming out of surgery was no picnic.  He did well, but he was hurting and didn't know what to make of it all.  As I write this he is back to his normal self, so he bounced back quickly.  I gently broke it to him tonight that he would have to go back again, but this time they wouldn't be messing with his throat, just his ear.  He takes it all in stride like he usually does.

As far as his hearing goes, if the bones are not eroded, he should regain perfect hearing.  If they have to rebuild bones, he can come away with good hearing, but it will never be perfect.  I guess I'm just glad it's not life threatening and he still has perfect hearing in his right ear in which to ignore me with. :)

8 months!

 My baby girl turned 8 months last week.  I cannot believe how fast she is going.  Facebook lost my album of her and so I went back and added her pics since she was born.  I can't believe how much she has changed!

Without further ado... her 8 month pics:

So big!

 Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a picture of an 8 month old?!?

Yummm!  Camera!

We did manage to get a fairly decent shot.

She is semi-mobile and gets a little more ambitious every day.  The trick she learned this morning...

She did that all on her own.  She's started pulling her knees up underneath her too.  I was hoping our tree would be safe this year, but I have a feeling she won't wait until after Christmas to start moving.  She finally started rolling all the way over this weekend.  She'd go over but wouldn't pull her arm out.  Now she just rolls and rolls and rolls.  She's never in the place I leave her.  Guess we need to start using baby gates again!

Hearing Part II

Cole met with another audiologist and the Otolaryngologist (aka, ENT, but that word makes me look smart right? Especially when google doesn't even recognize the word) today.  His hearing was not as bad as last time he was tested, but still not where it should be.  This points to the blockage in his ear being caused by lack of drainage.  The ENT also pulled out a dime sized portion of what looked like crusted boogers out of his ear.  This also points to excessive drainage.  So what does this mean?  Cole will have surgery in a couple of weeks to put a tube in his ear.  Since he is 6 and does not have a history of ear infections it also means that something is causing the blockage and the ENT seems to think that his adenoids are the culprit.  I don't disagree.  He snores and his tonsils are enlarged which typically means the adenoids are as well.  The fantastic news is that his nerves are not damaged so once we get the drainage out of the way, his hearing should fully return!  The only complication is that if the blockage is caused by skin, it's a much more invasive surgery, but all the signs point to drainage and not a skin blockage.  I am praying that is true.

In other news, Shelby is semi-mobile.  She's not crawling, but she is finally rolling.  I don't think crawling will be far behind.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  Both boys were late with everything, and while she certainly isn't early, it's nice knowing where she is.