Aunt Ruby

My Great Aunt Ruby slipped gently into heaven yesterday

She was a beautiful lady with a heart of gold

Photo taken: October 31st, 2012

I'm so glad my boys got the chance to meet her

He's WIRED!

I think my title should read more like this

He's W$RED

$5,000 worth of metal will be in this boys mouth over the next 16-18 months

Ouch! 

Thank goodness for insurance and some MESSED UP teeth that qualified for some coverage

He was excited to pick out the colored bands

{green blue and yellow}

He's already decided he will get pink next October for breast cancer awareness

{We'll see once we get there}

He was pretty sore this morning when he got up 

I told him: With beauty comes pain

Winter's here and it brought it's usual

I started this post last Tuesday and I've been adding to it since

Winter came with a vengeance

It was 50 degrees over the weekend and now we have freezing temperatures and snow

Winter brought it's usual ick

and it didn't waste any time getting here this year

Our little guy has been handed his fair share of issues 

His ears have been a problem for most of his life

{2 sets of tubes and wax cleanings every 6 months- which is considered in-office surgery}

Our ENT has even commented on how odd {deep and narrow} his ear canals are

deep, narrow, waxy and fluid aren't a good combination

When the boy gets stuffy, we have issues

BIG ISSUES

It starts in the nose, then the ears and ends in the lungs

I struggle with where to take him when the cold sets in

ENT or regular physician?

His ENT can clean his ears out which helps the fluid flow
but he never wants to treat kids for ear infection

and when it ends up in the lungs, he can't do much for him anyway

That's when we need to see his asthma doc or his physician

The ENT is only in town 1 day a week and his asthma doc is in Iowa City

What do we do?

It just so happened that Parker had ear pain last night {last Tuesday}and couldn't hear out of his ear

I called his ENT and made an appointment

I was sure we would end up making an appointment for him to be seen by his physician too

but I thought we should start at the core problem which is all the wax this boys ears produce

Thursday:
His ears have been cleaned and are still popping
 The doc had no answers

FRUSTRATING

I'm tired of paying an arm and a leg for insurance
Then we pay a co-pay and now co-insurance thanks to the change in our insurance
We got no where
So now we'll be paying another co-pay and co-insurance
so we can hopefully get this poor boy some relief

Friday:
Parker was seen this morning by his regular physician {who we LOVE}
I explained what we were dealing with
She took a look as did her nursing student
The diagnosis-
Flaming red, beefy ears and bronchitis
{His Dr. even let me look at his ears}

She prescribed Z-pack, Prednisone, Albuterol treatments, Cortisporine drops
added to his regular prescriptions of Zyrtec and Singular

The poor boy is a mess!

Now we have to decide if we want to keep the ENT or get a referral to a new one
that will hopefully do something for us


We go back to the physician tomorrow for an ear check
Hopefully he's on the mend


UPDATE:

We went back for his recheck and he STILL has ear infection

10 more days of antibiotics

The Wedding and a dance party

We've been waiting 8 long months for this day
 Saturday it was finally here

My cousin and her man got married
{They met online and they couldn't be a more perfect match}

They're a beautiful couple

Congratulations Gretchen and Mike!

They're wedding was adorable

Here are just a few of the decorations

The bride was so organized

{She should be a wedding coordinator}

She showed up at my house one night to work on decorations and pulled out her binder

Everything neatly organized and labeled

There wasn't a detail she missed

Look closely at the cake topper
While the idea is cuter than cute
Cardinals?!?!
Yes, Mike is a HUGE Cardinal fan and even received Cardinal cuff links from his bride
{We still LOVE Mike and will allow him to be part of the family}

While everyone was behind the scenes waiting for the wedding to start,
Mike said to his soon to be mother in-law - I don't think I can do this!
She gave him a look and he said - the vows
Watching him cry while saying his vows showed how truly in love he is with Gretchen
Mike quoted Dr. Seuss
 You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep
because reality is finally better than your dreams
{We've already made bets on how long it will be before your reading Dr. Seuss books to a little one}

The maid of honor and the best man gave the BEST toasts I've ever heard
Erica, Gretchen's twin sister knows Gretchen better than anyone and gave Mike 5 tips
Unfortunately, I can't remember all of them and the stories that went with them
but my cheeks hurt so bad from smiling because she  was right on

John, the best man expressed how happy he was that Mike found his true love
He and Mike used to email back and forth about sports and work
and Mike had dated but was losing faith that he would ever find that perfect girl
and one December night, John got a text and it said - She's amazing

The first dance was magical and their dance lessons were well worth it


And here are a few pictures from the reception
{Other wise known as the best dance party ever}

Congratulations again Gretchen and Mike!
Thank you for letting us be part of your special day!

November

Happy November

It truly don't seem possible that the holidays are right around the corner

As excited as I am for all the activities, I dread them at the same time

So I'm going to slow down, take it all in and be thankful

I worked my craftiness last weekend and I'm excited to see it come together
It's kind of hard to see with the maple tree and burning bushes in the back ground

I cut out leaves using my Cricut and bought some tiny clothes pins at Joann's

{Each night one of us will add something we're thankful for on a leaf}

When I explained what we were doing Spencer basically told me he thought it was dumb
{but using other words because we don't say that word at our house}
I think his response was: I'm not doing that
Parker's response to Spencer: Well that was rude!
I didn't give examples, I wanted them to really think about what they were thankful for
Parker started us off - He is thankful for soccer
Spencer's even coming around
look at this

 

It's hard to see it but it says:
I'm thankful for my nice brother
-Spencer


I'm looking forward to a few things this month:

My beautiful cousin is marrying her best friend this Saturday
Girls day out shopping trip with my friend Jill {We only see each other once a year}
Thanksgiving spent with family
and
Of course black Friday shopping with my mom

October {Photo Challenge}

In October, I challenged myself to take a photo a day

I'm just going to say: It was harder than I thought it would be

Life is busy!
Something else I learned: I should have a little camera that I carry in my purse all the time
I saw so many "picture perfect moments" and had no camera

I'm going to try harder next time
{Maybe December}

Halloween

 I can't say Halloween is one of my favorite holidays

I don't even remember liking it as a child

I hated those plastic masks
The nose holes either weren't in the right spot or they weren't big enough

and the elastic that went across the back of your head never stayed in place

The only other things I remember about Halloween as a child:
Those awful plastic costumes

We used to dress up and go see my Uncle Herb and Aunt Ruby out on the farm

and

when we trick or treated around the neighborhood, my dad would take us with his lantern

{This was a BIG deal - My dad didn't do much with us when we were growing up}

Now that I'm an adult, I like Halloween even less

I dislike the controversy over costumes {My kids always want the goriest mask}
I dislike rude people out on Halloween night {We're all out doing the same thing, why must they be rude}
I dislike my kids hyped up on sugar {Why can't people hand out pencils, glow sticks, books....}

But the kids love it
On Wednesday night as we were getting ready for bed, Parker kept saying I can't wait until tomorrow


This year we did things a little bit different

Every Halloween, we take the boys to see my Aunt Ruby at the nursing home
This year, her health is deteriorating and she doesn't know who we are
I want my boys to remember her as Aunt Ruby
I don't want her to feel anxious and upset because she doesn't know who we are
so I decided that we wouldn't visit her on Halloween this year
It breaks my heart but I think and hope we made the right decision


We trick or treated around my parents neighborhood
and made a few other pit stops at family and friends houses
The boys were spoiled as usual

I have to say..... I was very pleased with their choice of costumes this year

{Ed and Ethel}

Now we're coming down off the sugar crash