maybe back.  I’ve reallly missed journalling.   We just got back from a two week vacation, well 12 days.  But close enough.  We hit Yellowstone, in-laws, saw two of my sisters in two different states.  And yet it was for the most part extremely relaxing.

There were hitches.  Their always are.  One of them was Zeria’s attitude.  When we hit pocatello she got nasty, and it never really went away.  I know part of it was dealing with Grandpa S’ colon cancer.  Which is officially in remission.  And the other was wanting to see our mutual sister in Portland.  We will not be doing that again.  I love her, its fun, but my kids are soooooo nasty in the days up to it.  I will wait until Zeria hits 18 and I can do it without her.  LOL  Since she’ll be 15 in several weeks its not that far away.

The other hitch was my very very rude brother-in-law.  Just when I was ready to strangle him he went super low blood sugar (29) and we realized some of the reasons he was being a jerk.  But as my friend with bi-polar says it doesn’t excuse the rude, he still needs to apologize.  He must of told me I had too many kids 8x that day.  And most of those were HOURS before he was low.  *sigh*  I’m so glad we only see them 3 to 6 days a year. 

Jamari has developed his own endearing quality.  No matter what I ask him to do, he calmly quietly informs me why he won’t.  Like its just really no big deal.  He doesn’t get belligerent, he’s always respectful, but I’m wrong.   Its going to stop.

Those are the irrritating things.

The good things.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  The kids were superb travellers.  God enabled us to see many amazing things. 

My husband and I are already eagerly planning our next vacation next summer.  What can I say we like exploring.  Next year we are going to Lake Cascade, which we really wanted to fit in this time, but couldn’t quite pull off. 

Zeria is headed to a week of camp tomorrow at 5:40 a.m.  I’m very greatful we are NOT the ones driving her.  She will be going with a friends daughters.  I’m going to enjoy one more week of not dealing with the stuff we developed on vacation.   If this makes me a wuss so be it.  

I saw 37 new birds this vacation.  I’ve started birdwatching in a big way.  I keep a daily list of what I saw, and record it on ebird.  Its been fun. 

We were on our way to baton on New Years Eve when my mom called to ask if we wanted to come over and see Christina and Marcus and there boys, and on the spur of the moment we said yes…though we had no clothes, etc.

We went to all day baton in Olympia, drove back to Sequim, and then to moms house it was very fun.

Malachi  I know I spelled that wrong.

More beauty parlor, and darn if I don’t have a finished picture.  But Zeria chose to relax her hair on a more permanent basis, and Brit, and Tina did it for her.  It turned out soooo awesome. 

more cute Kiah and Rainee

Rob and his mini me.

Marcus & Jeremiah…the first time they deined to play together since they met each other at 2.  LOL

Jamari so loves being an uncle.

There she be Twilight fans.  Lapush in all its glory…and FREEZING NASTY COLD!!

Its tradition for our family to go to Lapush on Boxing Day…and quite often its beautiful.  It was soo NOT.  So we headed home early, and were told AFTER we left it warmed up.  haha it figures.

Yeah I have a ton of pictures from 3 different events.  LOL  So here’s Christmas day which we spent at Grandma B’s with Uncle Vic and Sandy and there two foster boys.

Beauty parlor…the girls spent over an hour flat ironing Zeria’s hair.  About 7 we added some visitors.

Kelly and her girls…Ericka was trying to convince Samuel he needed to shrink.

Kiah was a popular topic to photograph, especially when she started playing with Rainee.

But eventually we were told off…

And eventually she even cuddled briefly with Uncle Rob.

Zeria’s done doo.

The girls spent HOURS playing games with Uncle Vic.

The next day was Boxing Day.  Which we spent a part of at La Push FREEZING our butts off.

Jeremiah opening his birthday pressys.

Jeremiah showing off his train hat grandma & grandpa S got him.

Samuel had his first Middle School basketball game.  I have to admit I was a wee bit disgusted with the condition of the Clallam Bay middle school boys basketball shirts.  We were discussing its time to do something about them…big time.  Two of the boys drew the unlucky batch of unnumbered jerseys.  One of them was Samuel.  So they used masking tape to put numbers on.  And the masking tape peeled as the game went on.  OOPS.

Oh and two boys had the same number…so they masking taped the number to fix it.

You might be a redneck if. 

See the stylin’ maskin’ tape.    It started out as a 5…and went south from there.

In other much more stylin’ notes.  Samuel totally has a thing for trench coats.  Big old fashioned ones.  I had bought him one last year, that got left at a baton meet when he got sick.  We tried to go back and find it, and couldn’t, and I’ve been looking for something similar ever since.   Today I scored this.

He absolutely did NOT want to pose for me…course it was right after his game and he was exhausted.  LOL.  But in spite of the face he LOOOVES it.  Not bad for twenty-five cents at the Junque store huh?  

I suspect it will be well worn.  I love that he has a strong enough opinion of himself that he wears what he loves, not what’s “in” or popular.

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And Rainee has not had a major asthma attack still.  We have done nothing differently except the puppies are weaned and sleeping outside in our sunroom, along with the other dogs (which always sleep out there.)   I thought maybe it was the cold crisp weather, but its been pouring for the last two days.  No different foods, no nada.  I’m greatful…but I’d sure like to know what her triggers are, so we could continue this trend.

Good morning.

Its been a good Thanksgiving weekend.  The Philly Cheeze Chicken Sandwiches from Walmart are SUPERB.  MMMMMM.  We had those on Thursday.  And Thanksgiving dinner on Friday was good too.  Although we did have mild entertainment.

About half of the people were through the line when somebody says “Hey, where’s the mashed potatoes.”

I looked and realized they were in the oven still.  OOPS.  So dinner continued we ate like little piggys, and were sitting around cherishing our aching bellys when mom shrills out…”Oh, I had a ham we never put out…”  She went to rescue it from the oven and low and behold there was the ham, and the yams.  Nobody missed them trust me.

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We have done NOTHING differently in regards to Rainee.  NOTHING.  And she has had no night time/afternoon asthma since Wednesday.  I’m happy, and irritated at the same time.  LOL

The only different thing has been the extremely cold dry weather.   So maybe its not food, but mold.  NO clue.  She has asthma while on the steroids, but not the last four days.  I’d like to bottle those four days up.  LOL.

Rob finished the girls bunkbed about 5 o’clock last night.  It turned out wonderful.  So all of the girls have their own bed now.  And Rainee gets the top one, so the dogs can’t get up there.  There not supposed to be allowed in the bedroom period…but well their sneaky.    I meant to buy a child proof gate for their room so that if they forget to close the bedroom door there’s backup to keep the dogs out, but forgot, so I’ll get that on payday…or maybe God will let me pick up one used somewhere that would be nice.

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Kaylin’s dog was killed on Thursday.   It was a less then happy Thanksgiving.  So I guess rather then keeping one of the puppies, we’re keeping two.  Oh well their cute…and a LOT less hairy then KK’s dog was.   I still need to sale the last one, anyone want a puppy.

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Did my bi-monthly trip to town today.  Was a wee bit icey on the way in, and all scraped off on the way home.  That made me VERY happy, as the snow started just as I was heading in, and I was afraid we were going to have a redo of our Blizzard on Monday. 

Jeremiah went with me as he wanted special mom time for his birthday.  We had quiet fun.  I didn’t feel like I could dawdle in town, as I did NOT want to get stranded, but he seemed to enjoy himself.  Although we’re all scratching our head over this observation from him.  “Car’s can’t hurt you, they just kill you.”

Yeah, that makes sense. 

Rainee has had a couple better days asthma wise.  And her zantac came in today, she’s been out since Saturday, so that will help her red-itchy skin.  I think all the fresh air and snow has helped, plus she *just* came off the oral steroids, so that didn’t hurt. 

Rob and I decided to *not* call Dr. W this week due to it being Thanksgiving, and going to Childrens being a WASTE of time this week.  So, I guess I’ll start playing telephone tag with him on Monday to see what happens next.  I think his idea of a couple day observation at Childrens might be a good one…but I’d sure like the allergy testing first.  *growl*

In the past 6 months I’ve taken to always asking what Rainee just ate…and forgot to focus on environmental triggers.  So now, I’ve been asking.  “What did you just eat, where were you when the pain started, what were you doing.”  Its painting a more complete picture. 

We are biting the bullet and building her bunkbeds this weekend.  We don’t really have the money for it, but we’re going to do it anyhow.  We want her to get the top bunk, so the dogs can’t sneak in and get on her bed.  We’ve been trying to make it a pet free-zone, but the dogs aren’t completely cooperating.  I *meant* to buy a baby gate for there room today and forgot.  I will buy one on Friday as well.  This way they can NOT come in.   The girls are all tall enough to just jump over it, and if they forget to close the doors, the dogs don’t go sneak in.  It won’t stop the cat…but its a start.

Tomorrow is just a day for us, as we always celebrate Friday.  Although I did buy some “treats” for us to eat for dinner tomorrow night.  Bought premade macaroni salad, and premade potatoe salad (Rob favorites).  And experimenting with some mostly made Philly Chicken Cheeze sandwiches I splurged on at Walmart.  Also have apple cider and cake.  

Friday we will go to my moms and have “real” Thanksgiving there.  If the roads are safe, Isaiah and Christina and there families are going to join us.  I hope they get to.    I have early Christmas gifts stock-piled for all my nephews and nieces I’d like to get to them–nothing much, just a wee hand made sumfin’.

I have fabric ripped into balls for another rug, that I fully intend to make on Friday as well.

Rainee hasn’t complained of asthma ONCE today…I can’t remember the last time that happened.  Its been very nice.

Its 28 degrees Farenheit, and snowing again.  We have about 3.5 accumulated inches, and now whatever is coming down.  Its BRR cold.  The moon was full last night and the sky clear until early in the morning.  Rob treked down to the river, and came back up and said it was so magical he wanted to take the kids.  But they’d been in bed for an hour.  I knew several of them weren’t asleep as they were still murmuring in the bedroom.  So he went into the bedrooms took the ones that were awake and they went on a moonlight spree.  How cool is that?

I’d already been outside for a good 20 minutes, and was BRR.  So I chose to stay in.  Its good to do crazy things with dad’s sometimes.

We remembered a piece of Rainee’s health puzzle Saturday night.  She came home from her friends house happy but TIRED.  Played, Crafted and Headed to bed with color crayons and paper.  We let her craft quietly in her bed cause she has such a hatred of sleep.

She came out about an hour later complaining of pain.  Rob listened to her with the scope–something we’re making ourself  do more.  And said one lung definitely had diminished sounds, and slight crackles.  I asked Rainee what she’d been doing–and she said laying on her tummy to color.  I thought she’d grown out of tummy pain while being on her tummy, and now I suspect its one of the reasons she comes out at night in pain. 

When she was a baby I would give her tummy time, and she would start making this horrible nasty loud wheezing sound.  We would get her off her stomache thinking she was allergic to the floor, blanket, whatever she was laying on.  Rescue her with albuterol, and after about an hour it would calm down mostly.  Eventually with much investigating at her six month check-up or so I told the pulmo she wheezed every time she was on her tummy.  The pulmo said what?  I said well I can show you. 

Its never good when doctors at Children rush out to get another specialist.  Just saying.  Any how they described it as acute respitory distress, and ordered a bronchostopy and a bunch of other tests.  These were the ones that enabled us to know she had birth defects in her lungs and trachea, and the pulmo to come up with the suggestion to try atrovent instead of albuterol.  For whatever reason children who have trachea or bronchial malacia respond better to atrovent.  It was MIRACULOUS, and took much of the stress out of our lives.

The doctor would question us about it from time to time, but we would just say “she never lays on her tummy cause we stopped it, or I assume she gets off it when she’s miserable.

She didn’t, she wasn’t.  LOL 

Saturday night she’d been in laying on her tummy coloring for about an hour.  And it hurt.  And it took us about an hour after she was on her tummy to get her comfy again.  So I discussed with her tummy laying probably not a good idea for long periods of time.  And told her the above story.  She is active in trying to stop the pain these days, so I suspect one of the reasons she’s miserable may have come to an end.  It can’t hurt to hope right?

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In other news Samuel and Kaylin were discussing something and Sam observed.  “Its just one of those weird things that happened.”

Rob and I can’t stop snickering.  Because so much of Samuel’s life can be described by that sentence.  *nods*  It explains the holes in the walls, the broken hairbrushes, the brothers and sisters that get hurt cause Samuel wasn’t aware of his body and who it hits.

Yup.

“It’s just one of those weird things that happens.”

There’s no snow out there, but the puddles are frozen.  And the birds are scramblin for breakfast. 
And only Rob Zeria and I are awake…oh and a  few critters.

We determined last night that we are going to get Rainee a new mattress, and build the girls bunk bed.  This will stop the occasional dog from sneaking into the bedroom and laying on the her bedding.   As Rob says, we’re just going to do it and screw the where the money is coming from issue. 

Baton season money is so so so tight.  And we ask ourselves over and over if we should keep doing it, and the answer keeps being yes.  So, I guess we’ll find other ways to tighten the belt.  LOL

I’m so greatful I babysat last weekend and sold stuff at the Bazaar.  If I hadn’t it would have been a long miserable haul ’til payday.

Rainee had a blast with Gracie…and was soooooooooooooooo tired when she came home.  But not tired enough to announce she was “bored” about five minutes into her return home.  At which point Rob and I laughed at her.  She shortly thereafter started crocheting a sock, and that cured the boredom–with the exception of the occasional whinge that it wasn’t growing as fast as the fabric purses.  I agree with her on that.  Purses get big so nice and fast.  LOL

Yesterday we observed that our car is much much quieter when Rainee is not in it.  She is definitely the noisy one in the car.

We also declared that Jeremiah Cole was a Bouncy Blonde Haired Blue Eyed Boy with a bruised bandaided boo-boo.   He though we were incredibly weird as we kept finding more b words to add to the sentence.  But it entertained us off and on for hours yesterday.  We might need a life.

Zeria and I made a Dew run yesterday morning, and the ocean was just cool.  The light on Vancouver Island was creepy and cool.  And the white caps were fun to watch.  It also gave us a few minutes to communicate without interuption.  We might have to do that again soon.  Its so hard to get individual time with everybody, especially in the current climate of sick-Rainbug.

When we got home we made everybody get in the car and go see it.  We drove all the way out past Rays Grocery, just cause it was so pretty.  KK wanted to go to Neah Bay, but we hadn’t brought lunch, and knew we would need it if we kept going, so we reluctantly turned home.  I’m sure the waves there would have been outstanding. 

I think I’ve remembered how to blog.  I’ve missed it, and decided I need it to keep my sanity especially with this crazy life, so maybe I’ll keep it up a bit more faithfully. 

Its a relaxing Saturday.  Rainee went to spend the night with a friend last night.  The friend’s mom is a R.N.  so she’s in very capable hands.    They went into Port Angeles to play at the ceramic shop.  And I have to say I’m enjoying the break.  I love Rainee…but caring for her has been a full time gig, so not having her wheezing on me, or whinging is quite nice.

The sun is out today too, which is just bizaare for late November.  But very very nice.  COOOLD.  But nice.

I finally got my camera in from the car and loaded up pictures.  *blushes*  It had been a month since I’d loaded them, and not very many on there as it was…guess I’ve been busy.

My USB ports on my desktop are dying.  Two of them have shorts in them, so I have to unplug stuff in the back to load stuff into the puter and its a pain, so that’s my excuse for not loading.

I’ve been researching, and finding very little on alternatives for Rainee.  And contemplating my doctor’ choices and wether I’m still happy with them for Rainee.  I feel like I’m banging my head against the wall when communicating with them.  I guess I need to write a list down of exactly what I want to say, and demand someone listen to it.  I hate doing that cause I can’t usually do it without getting emotional, and ugh.

Rob and I are going out to sit at the beach and eat pizza about 5:00.  It will be dark but we can still see the water and the waves, and get a wee break from reality.

This is my kitten Chewie.  He loves me.  We weren’t going to keep him, but he attatched himself to me…and I have sucker written across me.  The puppies are being sold this week or so, and they were all cuddling so nicely.  LOL