I just want to go home

Today Madelyn had a MRI on her brain. This was to show the doctors how her brain structure and function are and to check her pituitary gland and her optic nerve. She was diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia this summer that is why she needed to get glasses. It can affect a child's endocrine system so we saw an endocrinologist on Monday and they did a bunch of blood tests. We just found out that she needed to have the MRI this week so we did not have a long time to prepare her for it. This has been her year for medical issues. To get ready for the test we had to keep her up an hour late last night then wake her up 2 hours before she normally wakes which is 5am. She could not eat or drink. We had to be at the hospital at 9am to get the sedation started. For some reason I just thought that meant they would give her something to drink that would make her sleepy, I had no idea this would actually entail an IV, oxygen, heart monitors etc. No problem, no big deal, except that I had told her that they would NOT be poking on her. She was traumatized after Monday's appt. So now mom is a big fat liar. After they got the IV in (which was for fluid to show the contrast in the brain) the doctor told us they would try to do the MRI without sedation because there are less complications. We thought that was a great idea in theory but knowing our daughters temperament we knew this would not go over well.

Well, she surprised us. After she calmed down from the IV torture the nurse talked her into laying down and watching Scooby Doo on the video goggles and she let them strap her in and she went right into the machine. Twenty minutes into the MRI she panicked. She started shrieking and screaming "I want to go home!" Over and over and over again. They stopped the scan and over the next 30 minutes the doctor and 3 nurses plus the two of us tried to calm her down and convince her to go back in because she was almost done. The doctor then suggested that we just stop and come back next week and just start off with the sedation. He said at that point the sedation may not work because she was so agitated and her adrenalin was pumping, he gave it a 50/50 chance of working. We told him we would do what he wanted but we did not think it would go over well with her to bring her back next week. We decided it was worth it to go ahead and try.

They gave her some meds in her IV and it did not make her tired it just made her a really mean drunk. She was like a bucking bronco, her body was flying every where and she was slurring her words, she wasn't going to go down easily. She even tore out her IV! But once the second dose hit her she was out for the count. The nurses got her strapped back in, a new IV in place and she was on her way. After the test was over we were told we would have to stay another 3-4 hours while she slept her cocktail off. Well, once she was unstrapped from the table and Jarrett picked her up she started waking up. And I will just say this, she woke up the same way she fell asleep, she was a crazy woman, yelling, "I want to go home NOW!" We were worn out just trying to hold her and convince her that we would be going home soon. After another hour we finally got to take our sweet sleepy drunk girl home. She slept the whole way home and woke up as we pulling into the neighborhood and declared that she was ready for a Happy Meal. Are we surprised? Of course not.

Nathan just told me that he is in love with me and wants to marry me. He told me that this means that he has his brain on me and that he is watching out for me. I told him that mommy was already married and after he thought about that for a moment, he said oh so seriously," That's a big problem! I will just marry Maddie then." Oh to be six again!!!!

Our Second Week of Homeschool:Good Intentions Gone Bad

You know how when you start something you have good intentions to go at it 100% but then life just gets in the way and wrecks havoc on your well laid out plans, well that is how our week started. We never got to school today and that is ok, well handwriting got done and that is it. I really like structure and sticking to a schedule and a plan. However, one thing I am learning through homeschooling is that it is ok to be flexible and it is ok to let go. God is stretching me, that I know!

This being only our second week of school I think we should be sticking to a strict schedule so we can get into a good routine. On the other hand one of the many beauties of homeschooling is that we can be flexible and go with the flow.

Nathan spent the night with Grammy and Grampy last night so that I could take Maddie to an appointment with the pediatric endocinologist at 7:45 this morning. He had a great time working in their garden and working out in the basement with Grampy. He came home around 4pm and we did handwriting then he said he was tired. So I went with the flow and decided to just let it go today. I went to a homeschooling coop meeting tonight and got him signed up for a PE class that is every Friday (while Maddie is at preschool) and is taught by a YMCA guy. I think he will have fun and of course it will help the socialization thing. People, in general, always question homeschoolers about the lack of socialization yet I have discovered that there are tons of opportunities to socialize. We are going to a coop class every Friday afternoon for 2 hours, going on field trips every month (the first one is to the fire station in a couple of weeks), PE, Gymnastics, church on Sunday and Wednesday, etc. I think scheduling is going to be more of a problem than finding ways for Nathan and Madelyn to socialize with other kids.

Maddie's appointment went well. We still don't know anything but we should in 6 weeks. They took 5 tubes of her blood which was not fun. The nurse now has permanent hearing loss because of Madelyn's screaming. What made it worse is that she missed the vein and went digging to try to find it. Then she had to try the other arm. Madelyn was worn slick afterwards. Then we got to go to the bathroom and collect a UA from a 4 year old. Can we say FUN!! Next we tackled some shopping at Sams. After we got home we mowed the yard for Jarrett, painted pictures on the driveway, baked a coffee cake, did laundry, played doll house and fixed dinner. Jarrett and the kids power washed the back porch and the painted driveway while I was at the coop mtg. When I got home Maddie was sound asleep and Nathan was still up complaining that his ear hurt. I looked at it and it is draining puss and blood. Aren't you glad you are reading this? Poor baby. Guess we will be going to the doctor tomorrow. I guess school can wait until another day.

Short Christian Academy

Today was Nathan's first day of first grade at "Short Christian Academy" His teacher said he was a model student and got along well with the other students in his class, Gracie and Madelyn. He worked hard and got an entire weeks worth of reading lessons done in one day and four days of science done. He started listening to "Charlotte's Web" and even requested another chapter to be read before bed. His teacher is worn out but excited that the first day went well. Nathan's teacher was even surprised by her sweet husband with a bouquet of pink roses. By the way he wore a really cute outfit to this milestone event, his mickey mouse pajamas!!!

What we ate this weekend.

Friday night: I made chicken marsalla for dinner then we went to bed

Saturday: We ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast, went shopping for tennis shoes for Jarrett and Nathan since it was tax free shopping, next we went to reasors to buy groceries at the 12 hour sale, then we headed to the lake. We ate ham sandwiches and chocolate chip coffee cake for lunch.
We swam and tubed and then I tried Salmon for the first time and yes I liked it. Can you believe it, something healthy?? Thank you Grammy and Grampy. Then we mowed the yard and went to bed again.

Sunday: We ate donuts for breakfast, can you tell we are on the sugar diet??? Then we taught our one year old Sunday School class. When we came home Jarrett declared war on all the bugs, wasps and other creepy crawlers at our house. The kids are too scared to play outside with the current situation. Two cans of wasp spray and a gallon of ortho bug be gone later Jarrett won and bugs lost. We then preceded to my parent's house where we enjoyed pizza, brick oven pizza I must add, then we swam the day away. After we were water logged we went back to church for a dinner of sub sandwiches and chips and attended a 3 hour meeting about Sunday school for the fall semester. Then they forced us to eat cake for a going away party for one of the children's ministers. How dare they! When we got home we cased the outside of the house for wasps and other bugs to see if Jarrett really won the battle. It seems he has.

So now that we ate our way through this weekend we are ready to declare war on ourselves and try to control our eating. At last for the next few hours as we sleep.

Ode to the Washing Machine

Well, we finally got all of our bags yesterday! Praise God! So now I am in laundry heaven. Can I get a shout out for front loading washing machines and dryers. They are great, so efficient and fast. It is the small things in life people, the small things that can bring me such joy. I really am thankful that both of our machines went Kaput in June so we could get these glorious modern creations. I got 2 weeks worth of laundry done in one day. However, I have clothes hanging all over my house drying, I didn't realize how many hang dry clothes we have until now. This afternoon I will conquer the ironing. I also have a huge bag to take to the cleaners. Isn't this blog so interesting now that I am back to the nitty gritty of life.