Football ramblings

Ok, so, Don and I have begun 'following' HS football the past few weeks. Ariel insisted we attend one of the very first games for her HS, but not to see the football team...to see the band members that she knows! Don and I enjoyed ourselves so much that we continued to attend with Ariel and the friend(s) she invited along with us. Does Ariel love football and scream her lungs out in support of her school? Nooo...she spends the time either texting with the friend she brought (yes, the one sitting right next to her!), or talking with said friend. To be fair, if Don and I react loudly, she'll clap and yell with us (not that she knows what's going on, but we DO tell her about the exciting parts and explain it to her...and YES, I CAN explain most of the game now!). Concord is currently undefeated, and homecoming is tomorrow!!

So, regardless of the fact that rain is predicted, we'll be out at the football field tomorrow! Ariel will be helping out with face painting and other activities for homecoming, and Tori is stuck babysitting. 

However, Tori has her own interest now...she is working the concession stand for the Jr HS football games. She's very excited (they get free popcorn, candy and drinks...so she's in Heaven! LOL). I plan to attend at least the last half of each home game she is working at (I still have responsiblity to have dinner on the table for the family, and these games start around 4pm). It's not as exciting as HS football, but it doesn't lack for excitement. For instance, today 2 players were taken off the field injured...one before I got there (with his arm wrapped up with ice on it, and Tori said they were headed for the ER), and the other while I was there. The referee called time out and shouted for help on the field because there was a broken arm! The score was tied, with 40 seconds left, and Concord was on approximately the 2 yard line!! I didn't stay thru' the end 'cuz dinner was already cooked at home and waiting, and we had already waited 10 minutes for the last 40 seconds to play out!! I'll have to get the score tomorrow.

Am I willing to sit in the pouring rain, in 50 degree weather to cheer on the Minutemen? Not on your ever-livin' life! But, we are really enjoying the time out and together with others in the community!

I'll let you know how homecoming goes! Wish us luck!!

Our bedroom...so far

Ok, the redo of our bedroom is about 90% done now. But, I have some good pictures to share with those of you who are anxious to see what we're doing. If you know my house at all, the room is the basement room that is 'L' shaped (the kids have usually occupied this room). I'm really pretty happy with how things have turned out.

Yes, we have exercise equipment in our bedroom...it's our way of reminding ourselves that we need to do something good for ourselves. If you can't tell, the other machine is a treadmill. There is more to the room, you can sort of see it past the treadmill, but there isn't anything in there to show off yet. Don wants an electric drum set, and that's his planned spot for it.

Wilsons thru' the camera lense of a 7-year old

Ok, this blog is a series of pictures that were, apparently, taken by DJ recently.
So...here we are, unprepared and unaware (for the most part).

I had no idea he had used the camera, but when I was getting pictures of our bedroom off of the camera, these were there and the other kids told me it was DJ who took them.

Ok, so the girls enjoyed their moment with the camera as well...here are their offerings:

Cute kids, huh? :)

A Typical Day for the Wilsons

Hi there. I haven't learned anything 'earth shattering', but I do want to do better at keeping up with my blogging now that I have the time to.

So, a typical day for us. We'll start at midnight, seeing as that is the 'official' beginning of a new day, right?

We seem to have about a 50-50 chance that one child or another will wake up between 3am and 5:30am (not ONE of my children needs to be out of bed before 5:50am). IF I'm lucky, it will be closer to 3am so that I can actually get back to sleep again; rather than at 5:30am, when I have no hope of even completely relaxing before my alarm goes off at 5:50am (like this morning *rolling my eyes while I yawn*). While I'm awake for said child, I will invariably end up using the potty and rechecking all of the doors to make sure that they are locked (OCD thing, I KNOW that I lock them before bed, and double checked them before getting into bed...but, none-the-less, I WILL check them again). So, at 5:50am, my alarm goes off, I hit snooze and wait for 6am (OK, truthfully, my clock is set almost 10 minutes fast, so I'm getting out of bed before 6am). I get up and make sure that Ariel's up and going...sometimes I have to make sure she remembers to eat something (she's a teenage girl, with asthma issues that suppress her appetite sometimes, this IS a challenge!). We leave here before 6:25am for early morning Seminary at the church building (I've NEVER been so grateful to live only 3 minutes from church in my life!). I get home at about 6:30, and this is when I stomp on the kitchen floor. No...I'm not doing this out of frustration, or to keep myself from falling asleep again...Tori's bedroom is right below the kitchen, and it's time for her to get up now. I clean up some kitchen things, or the table, or, maybe just sit down for a few minutes. I make sure she's up here by 6:45 to get breakfast, etc. I sometimes get breakfast during this time, but sometimes I'm actually finishing getting dressed (yes, I've driven to Seminary in my PJ's with a jacket over them and barefoot). I remind Don when it's 7:00am, he rarely acknowledges me with much other than a grunt. Get Tori out the door by 7:15. It is my habit, now, to stand outside with the kids while they wait for the bus, this gives me some quiet, more personal time with them (I get that 3 minutes with Ariel each morning too LOL). Back inside at about 7:20 or so, set a timer for 10 minutes and turn on the lights for DJ & Jr to start waking up. When the timer goes off, at 7:30, I have to convince two sleepy children that they really DO have to get up now. I also remind Don that it is now 7:30, and he thinks about waking up. Then it's upstairs for breakfast (I have a 75% chance that they're going to ask me to make oatmeal, so this is not a time to sit down and relax), brushing teeth and hair, and getting dressed. I make lunches as need during this time. Usually, Don's up here by 8:00 to shower, etc., but not always. At 8:15am, it's outside to wait for the bus. We have a bench that's by the garage that we sit on right now (I'm not sure what will happen when the snow flies, but I like having the bench there). Sometimes I'm actually brushing Jr's hair at this point, or getting things into backpacks that were almost forgotten. I get back in the house at about 8:25am, then I get my breakfast (if I haven't eaten it already), and clear what's left on the table. If Don's not already up and going, I go remind him that it is now 8:00am, and he really ought to get to work before 9. My day often gets into full swing right away as I'm afraid to lose the momentum! Laundry gets rebooted, dishes get rebooted, floors get picked up & vacuumed or swept, stray items get put where they belong, e-mails get read, and I chat online with those I can. Phone calls and lunch and other cleaning up projects (lately it's been getting our bedroom moved downstairs, look for pictures soon!). By 3pm, I brush my hair again, check to make sure I remembered make up (more often then not, I haven't), and have a quick snack so that I'm ready for the kids. 3:20pm: Ariel and Tori come bursting in the door (yes, literally...they generally race up the driveway to see who gets into the house first...unless it's raining, then they take their time; teenagers are weird!). This is when I get Ariel's 'play-by-play' of her day, and Tori tells me what she can when Ariel takes a breath or answers a text (I make sure to take full advantage of pauses in Ariel's stories so that I hear from Tori too, sometimes, I make Ariel wait for Tori to talk first...this doesn't set well with her, but they deserve equal sharing time). Ariel MIGHT be done telling me about her day by the time DJ & Jr get home at 3:50pm. Then it's all homework, checking on homework and rebooting the laundry one more time. Texting and computer have to wait 'til homework is done, so Ariel his HIGHLY motivated to get it done; Tori, not as much, but she gets the computer first if she gets homework done first! More likely than not, I've forgotten to plan toward dinner, so at 4:30, I start scrambling around to figure out what to do. I'm going to get back to my menu planning again so that I at least have ideas in front of me so that we can sit down to dinner more often than not. Don generally gets home at 5:30-ish (depending upon the day, sometimes it's before 4, sometimes it's after 6), and we try to eat by 6:00. At 7:15pm, it's time to start getting DJ & Jr ready for bed, brushing teeth, etc. 7:30: family prayer and hugs/kisses all around. Don and I take turns putting DJ & Jr to bed (so that they can say their personal prayers with us), and this is often when I take the time to finish clearing the table and doing dishes while the girls finish up any homework (or use the computer). At 7:45, I start getting the girls through their showers; this SHOULD take about an hour or so total...but it never works out that way. Generally, Tori showers first and is out by about 8:30-ish. Then I have to somehow get Ariel to shower (this means stopping her online chats, e-mail and her texting, so it's not an easy task!). I can usually have both girls to their rooms by 9:45pm. That's when I collapse and try to watch some TV (if anything's on), OR when I finish cleaning up and straightening up so I can start it all over again the next day. I'd like to be able to say that Don and I get to bed by 10:00, but we're often up past 11:30pm with watching TV, taking care of my chores, or being on the computer. And that, my friends, is a day-in-the-life. I'd try to tell you how Wednesdays go, with the girls having their Church activity and me having a presidency meeting 3 Wednesdays out of the month (did I mention that I'm now the 2nd counselor in Relief Society?), but I'm too tired from looking at my day laid out in front of me! As you can see, there is plenty of learning time in there...so I try to make the most of it!

Staying at Home Lessons #3 & 4

I haven't run out of lessons to learn yet, so y'all get to see what life 'without' kids is all about just a bit more! And, it's a 'two-fer' today even!

OK, lesson #3:
Just because the kids have a day off does NOT mean that mom does.

I had the house under great control (the laundry was even all done, for the first time that I can remember), dishes were clean, vacuuming done, house looked great. Then...they had to go and give the kids a 3-day weekend! Saturday was just fine. House was still at about 90% of what it had been Friday. Sunday things started to go down hill, and I was foolish enough to believe that I didn't really need to do anything about it as it was Sunday (a day of rest, right?), and I could easily catch on Monday. Oops...we woke up Monday, and the kids were STILL home with me! Don and I worked on projects toward getting our bedroom redecorated and put together (it was Labor Day, what should you do other than 'labor'!?). I left the kids to play some games on the Wii and computer upstairs. We got SO much done on our bedroom, and had to leave a couple of times to get things from Lowe's. I know you'll be surprised by this, but children left to their own devises aren't necessarily going to pick up after themselves (a lesson within a lesson? Nah, I knew this, I just had sort of forgotten in my excitement about my new bedroom area). In 2 days, without mom making meals, they went through 2 loaves of bread and about 1 1/2 gallons of milk just to start with!

Lesson #4

Never schedule grocery shopping for the day after a long weekend or vacation!

On top of learning that I need to keep up with the house and kids on the weekends, I also learned that I should never schedule grocery shopping for the day that the kids finally go back to school! Oh my goodness! We were out of some of my typical packed lunch items, luckily I only had to make one lunch this morning. I had made my lists last night (using the internet to find sales), and I took my list to go to the 5 different stores I planned to get to. Just as I was finishing up with the 1st store (OK, I was looking for items for our 'new and improved' bedroom at Wal Mart, but it was on my list!), I got a phone call from the High School nurse. Apparently the school had the drug sniffing dogs in the school today (this is me rolling my eyes, just in case you didn't rolls yours when you read that). Ariel's had some issues with her sinuses (yeah, I'm just as NOT surprised as you are), so this was sort of the 'straw that broke the camel's back' for her. I went to pick her up, and the nurse gave her Benadryl while I was on my way. Ariel's fine, don't worry (we see the doctor at 3:00). I managed 2 other stores after getting Ariel before realizing that we needed to go home for lunch (on top of which, it was already about 86 degrees at 11:30am, and the A/C in my wonderful van doesn't work again).

I guess, the lesson I'm learning is: keep on top of things, or they're going to fall apart on you. It's going to take me 2 days to get back to where I was Friday afternoon, and then it's nearly time for another weekend! Anyone else out there good with year-round school!? I love my children, I just enjoy doing things with them and for them rather than picking up after them, so I end up letting things slide so that we can enjoy our time together.

Now that school's back in session, we'll be establishing new job lists and activities for the weekends...and I will NOT take it for granted that Mom gets a day off when the kids do!

Tori's Story

Tori before surgery.

OK, on to the next 'big thing'. It was summer of 2006 when everything started. My mother will argue (without too much argument from myself) that she is the one who made the first realizations (the year before) that something was up with Tori's back as she complained about it frequently. Well, as a mom, I know that kids often complain about things just because they ache a little, or to draw attention to themselves (and who wouldn't have that right, being in Tori's position, having followed behind a sister with CF to keep her parents hopping at times!). I didn't pay a lot of attention at that time. Back to summer 2006: Don hugged Tori, and while they were sort of wrestling about, his watch band scratched her back. This hurt, so I had a look to see if it was bleeding and would need a band aid. As soon as Tori lifted the back of her shirt, I realized that there was more than a minor scratch to pay attention to. Without her bending over at all, I could see a lump on the right side of her lower back that was not supposed to be there. I had her bend forward (at least I knew what scoliosis screening is about!), and the curves in her back were very obvious! I called the doctor's office the next day to get an appointment (feeling a bit chagrined that I hadn't listened to my mother...another 'life lesson' perhaps?). The doctor confirmed what I knew (but, with insurance, you can't see a specialist without a referral, so I jumped through the necessary hoops for them). We were referred to a local orthopedic doctor, only to find out that our insurance did not cover that doctor, and the closest one they did cover was at least an hour's drive away. My mother (apparently parents DO know a little bit of something) suggested contacting Shriner's Hospital. So, we did...and thus began our 'real' experience with scoliosis.

Shriner's Children's Hospital in Chicago (in case anyone has charity money they are wondering what to do with, this is a GREAT one...as is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, FYI), got us out there for the evaluation very quickly, even provided us with transportation (I have serious anxiety issues with city driving, so this was a HUGE blessing for us!). Dr. Hammerburg was awesome. They took x-rays, checked out the MRI Tori had had done here in town by the other doctor, and asked us to come back in 4 months to check on things.

Four moths later: another trip to Chicago (again, being transported; Shriner's makes sure that these procedures cost the family NOTHING!). More x-rays, and a very frank conversation with Dr. Hammerburg. Tori's curves were increasing more quickly than is typical (can my children do ANYTHING in a typical manner!?). Tori was not done growing, he could tell this by a certain amount of hip bone growth, but he did not feel it was wise to wait for her to finish growing (with a dad who's 6'4", who knows how tall my kids are going to be anyway!). Even though the surgery would prevent Tori's torso from growing further, it would also prevent further curving of her spine and damage to her internal organs (her right lung was already being squished somewhat). The bottom of Tori's left-side rib cage was within a couple of inches of her hip bone, the x-rays showed us just how unbelievable the curves were!

So...we scheduled the surgery for about 6 weeks later (Dr. Hammerburg didn't even want to wait for summer break, that's how concerned he was). February 5, 2007, we were taken to Chicago via Shriner's transport. Don came back from AL to be with me the day of surgery as support for both of us. February 6th, we were prepped for surgery at 8am. Luckily, Tori was older, and the nurses VERY used to helping children feel comfortable, and Tori didn't resent me leaving here there as her medication took affect. We were told that the surgery would likely take about 7-8 hours (could my heart take that kind of stress!?). We sat in the waiting room, walked around the hospital, went to the cafeteria, watched TV, and were scared stiff when the fire alarm went off in the middle of her surgery! You can only imagine what it was like to be parents, knowing that your daughter is in surgery, on one of the most sensitive and dangerous places on the body, and the fire alarm starts blaring! Thankfully, it wasn't anything serious, and it stopped fairly quickly. Don and I were pretty shaken up, worried that one slip could create paralysis in our 13 year old, and this sudden, and LOUD, alarm starts blaring!

After surgery, a smile is a good sign!

The surgery ended up taking only 5 1/2 hours as the doctor felt she was going to be fine with just the posterior surgery, and didn't need the anterior surgery that he had thought she would (posterior surgery means exactly what you are picturing with back surgery; anterior would be going in on her sides, through her ribs, for other corrections). Tori came out of surgery with a very puffy face (being on her face for the entire time, and the drugs they had to give her created this issue). It was SO hard to walk in and see her hooked up to so many tubes, wires, etc! She was in so much pain as she woke up, it was heartbreaking once again. She had a button to push for her morphine, and it was so hard for Don and I to see her pushing the button to get pain relief and hearing the machine not allow it yet as it wasn't 'time' yet. Don allowed me to stay in his hotel room that night and he stayed with Tori. I'm SO very glad that he did that for me as the following 5 days were pretty rough for me alone with Tori at the hospital.

Tori's back, incision covered.

Tori now has 2 rods, 15 screws on her spine, and a C-shaped hook at the top of her spine. The 'after' x-rays are pretty scary the first time you look at them. Tori's taken them to school, and the kids are pretty impressed (especially the boys!). Tori's scar goes from the top of her spine to the bottom of it, pretty much. The used super glue to close the skin, so the scar is VERY minimal! Amazing what medical advances can do!!

Tori did REALLY well in getting up and going when she needed to. I'll admit that she was NOT happy to have to sit up in a wheelchair (with padding and a high back added) within the 1st 24 hours. She was waking to the bathroom 2 days later (with my help, of course). She did SO well, she was SO tough through the whole thing. Very few tears were shed, more by me than Tori, perhaps. She was given the option of going home on Saturday (Don could come pick us up that day, but not Sunday as he had to go back to work in AL), and chose to do that. It was a very rough ride home for her, and it was SO hard for us to see her in that pain.

Sitting up for her required time, but sleeping through it at least!

So...my 2 funnies that came out of this: Don and I are happy to say that we found surgery to straighten out our teenage daughter! And, we now call Tori our 'bi-poler' child!

I hope to have Tori write up her thoughts and feelings about that week of surgery, but it may take time as she IS a busy Jr High student after all!

Ariel's Story

Ariel, shortly before diagnosis.

Ok, I thought it was time to share some of what my 2 oldest children are all about. I'm not sure how much I've put on here, or told people in person, but there are a couple of medical situations in our house that have stories with them. Our oldest, Ariel, has Cystic Fibrosis (don't panic already, she has the most mild case of CF ever seen by the local CF clinic and is pretty healthy for a person with CF). Tori, #2 daughter has scoleosis that she had surgery for 18 months ago (again, avoid panic, she's doing great!). This blog is dedicated to an essay that Ariel wrote for her Theater Arts class. She read this to the class, and made quite an impression. This story is slightly different from actual facts (though all of the facts are correct, they aren't necessarily in the correct order, or in an accurate timeline).

Ariel about 2 months after her diagnosis.

Sixty-Five Roses
Ariel Wilson

Around Easter in 1998, I woke my sister up, gasping for breath. I kept trying to repeat the same phrase over and over. My youngest sister walked to my mom’s room and said something to the effect of, ‘Ariel’s talking in her sleep, mommy. She says she wants you.’ In walks my mother, and she said something to the effect of, ‘what do you need, Ariel?’ I gasp something else, which is followed by a cough and a wheeze. A feeling of panic seeps through the crack in the walls, overcomes my mother just as I utter the one sentence she did understand, “Mommy, I can’t breathe’.
Awakening my father with probably some shrill babble about ‘hospital’ and ‘right now’, my mother bustles around attempting to get her violently coughing daughter at least semi-dressed, and letting her youngest little girl stand there in wonderment, trying to understand the whole situation. I was rushed to the hospital in about 25 minutes flat, and admitted after taking a few X-rays of my lungs.
‘Ariel has a partially collapsed lung,’ the doctor explains to my parents. ‘It can be taken care of, but she will need to stay in the hospital until her oxygen saturation goes up to a certain level.’
My mother cries, and sits with me. My mother can’t watch as they put an IV in her frail 4 ½ year old girl’s wrist, and has to leave to ‘fill out paperwork’. I watch in amazement as they slip the thin needle into my right wrist, then again as they explain that ‘it’ll be OK, we just missed and we have to poke you one more time’. Finally, I’m set up with some medications in my wrist and the crook of my elbow, along with a couple of balloons and an adorable giant stuffed penguin (I was 4, almost 5, give me a break!). For the week and a half, I laid in bed, incapable of leaving the room without a nurse and my mother, almost crying over the pounding they had to do on my back every day with little rubber cups (to loosen up the mucus, and get it running to get out, they had to lay my bed with my head facing toward the floor, which was very uncomfortable and scary for me). My doctor told me I could take the aggravating oxygen tube out of my nose, but only to blow my nose. It was uncomfortable, so, of course, I spent every believable moment blowing my nose.
One day, I was ‘blowing my nose’ yet again, when I fell asleep, with the oxygen flowing into my mouth. In about 15 minutes, my mother notices that my oxygen saturation raised enough to urge her to call a nurse. They thought that maybe there was something wrong with my nasal cavity. About a day or 2 later, after getting me some x-rays (and an oxygen mask that allowed me to breathe through my mouth), it was confirmed. My nasal cavity was completely blocked—no air could get through. After a few days of continuing the treatments, and letting me take in oxygen through my mouth, I was all set to go home. However, I was coming back in a few weeks to have sinus surgery.
The trauma continues, too. As scared as I was about the surgery, no matter how many times it had been explained to me, it was nothing compared to the terror that took over when I was told that I would have to leave my mom behind. As they wheeled me through the doors, I yelled through my tears, ‘I hate you, Mommy!’
A week or so later, I was diagnosed with a disease called Cystic Fibrosis. After looking up some information on line, my mom learned a few things—including that the life expectancy was around 16 years or so (this information proved to be false and outdated. The average life span is now around 35 years, and rising as more treatments become available). For a good 3 years of my life, I was only told that I would have to do a few maintenance treatments, and that I had ‘sixty-five roses’ (the way to learn to say Cystic Fibrosis) and Asthma. Little did I know, until I was almost 8, that I may have already lived half of my life.
Today, I do my own research, because I know where to look. I’m not scared any more. I’m not worried. Yes, I could die tomorrow, or I could die in 50 years. Nobody can predict my future. Nobody can fully understand; especially since I am currently the mildest case of Cystic Fibrosis that my doctor has ever seen, or even heard of. I have a life that I was given, and I’m not scared any more. I’m not worried. I only fear for the day that my future family, and my current family, discovers that I’m in the hospital for something other than blood work or a broken arm. But, today, I am well, I am alive, and I have 65 roses going for me. What more could I want?

Ariel, around the age when she wrote this.