Today was another busy day around here. I took 5 VERY hungry teenage boys to lunch, had one pool company open the pool and the second company is here right now converting it to salt (for Hank's birthday since he's allergic to chlorine). I packed for Ohio (leave the house a little before 6:00 a.m. - YUCK) filled out medical paperwork for Stella's visit to the hospital, just finished cooking dinner and I'm expecting 2 people to stop by this evening which means I had to have the house picked up. OH - and we can't forget the 8 loads of laundry I did! I will sleep good tonight...until the alarm goes off at 4:??? a.m. She made a mushroom and dandelion salad and played with a turtle. The flurry of activity doesn't seem to phase her....maybe because she is the youngest of three.

OH, but slipping the noose, I mean leash, did work. Clever little dog staying out on the pool cover so they can't catch him...

that didn't work....hmmmm?

I don't know if this is some type of chain gang? Mario is contemplating his escape....

So Sam and I get this THOUGHTFUL idea to finish the fence as a birthday present to Hank. Hank was really sick with some stomach thing and we have a LOT of fence so we went right to work. About 4 fence sections into it, we blew the side out of the hose - OOPS! We didn't read the instructions that said to release the pressure before starting up the 3000 psi water sprayer. We spent ALL day trying to fix it with no luck. I won't even bore you with everything we did.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANK!!!

Hank's arms got tired. That Hank - making a 62 year old woman wash his fence! JUST KIDDING:) She was happy to help.

Wanda hid in the shadows, hoping she wouldn't be noticed, when...

After lunch Hank and Wanda broke out the new power washer that Wanda bought and loaned to us. As you will see in these pictures we have lived here for 3 years and NEVER power washed our white vinyl fence. The mold was getting pretty funky!

On Saturday we celebrated Wanda's 62nd birthday at our house. (Her birthday is really Tuesday). I made a nasty desert that I had never tried. Paula Dean would be disappointed that I messed up her food like that. Hank said "I can't eat this and threw it in the trash!" My feelings were SOOO hurt- for a minute. I am a good cook so when someone says they don't like my food it's very insulting...even though he was right.

Sam and I are wanna be stormchasers...we saw this wall cloud Saturday evening by the school. We have seen some interesting clouds the past few days.

Is this really happening? Already?

No, this is not a post about Stella's 1st birthday or her obsession with Baby Einstein at that age. It's about me not being able to sleep because I was lying in bed thinking about her illness and what we (our entire family) are going through. I received a text from our Pediatrician earlier asking me what Stella likes because she wants to get her a gift to take with her to Ohio. She remarked that Stella has really been through it and has been such a trooper. She's right and I wonder if the magnitude of it just kind of hit me this evening. I will say there were about 4 days in the hospital that were very scary and I cried a lot. The day of her surgery I cried almost non stop all day. I was afraid of what they would find in there and she was looking so bad at that point. During her surgery I had her t-shirt in my hand and I bawled into that t-shirt for like an hour straight. In reading the doctors dictations from the hospital I'm glad I didn't know then what I know now....like that mass on the side of her head could have been a rhabdomyosarcoma. That sounds bad...People have asked me how I have been able to talk about all of her medical problems without breaking down. I don't know...you just have to. I think the fast pace of our lives and two other busy children prevents me from having too much time to dwell on it. I'm bad enough about researching everything on the internet in the little bit of free time I do have. This drives my mom NUTS. Absolutely, there is scary stuff out there to be found and it can overwhelm you, but I like to be armed with all possible information. If the doctors haven't thought of it maybe I have or maybe I accidentaly came across it on the internet and I can at least ask. Since she was released from the hospital we have averaged 3 doctors appointments per week or labs, etc. something that required a trip to Tulsa, a needle, eye dialation, or a co-pay! Stella keeps going along with it because her mom, who she is putting all faith and trust in, keeps telling her if she keeps it up the doctors will figure out what has made her so sick. It helps that she gets to go swimming while we are in Ohio:) I think the only other person, outside of our family, who really gets it is Dr. Sood because she knows about all of the doctors apts that STella has, and how she can't go to school to see her friends. Sam and Shelby have been scared for Stella, jealous of the attention she's been getting, confused about what she has and how it will affect her. I know they will not be emotionally scarred because of the horrible abuse and neglect they have had to endure like eating store bought frozen pizza instead of home made pizza that I lovingly hand rolled. Or because they had to spend Easter with their best friends while we were in the hospital. Or getting away with murder because I'm too tired to deal with discipline. I joke, but I really don't worry because I know that each one of them has had their turn to be sick and have everyone jump at their every command...they forget so quickly. I hope that the tests we are running and our trip to Ohio will finally answer a lot of questions we have about this incident and what it means for Stella long term. I was told that there was some loss of her periphiral vision from the field vision test they did, but the Opthamologist deemed it unreliable because of her age. He said it would give us a basis for comparison at in the future. Does she have a dissolving blood clot in her brain? Does she have a clotting disorder? Questions that still need to be answered. My mom is worried about her swimming in the lake water this summer with her new ear tube, but it can't be any worse than swimming in a horse trough full of algae???? Can it? I do know that a mother's instincts are so powerful. 1 week before school started I had this nagging feeling that I needed to resign as PTO President for this school year. I couldn't really figure out why. Hank's dad passed away over the summer, so I thought things would be settling down. In September I had surgery. In October Sam had surgery. In December I had MAJOR surgery (unexpectedly) and then Stella got sick the first week of March just as I was getting back to myself. Good thing I listened to that voice that said "RESIGN NOW." In March I had accepted a job teaching Kindergarten for the remainder of this school year for a teacher who had a sick mother. The weekend before Stella was admitted to the hospital something told me to call the principal and tell her I had to quit. I had a feeling this was going to be more than tick fever and it would be a prolonged illness. I had never heard of pseudotumor cerebri in my life! I get very strong feelings about stuff and I have learned to act on them. My grandfather passed away (also unexpectedly) in March, while Stella was sick. He was like a father to me -very close. I went to see him the night he went to the ER. After he was settled in his room, and everyone left I had a very honest conversation with him about dying and what it would be like. He told me some spiritual experiences he had that were personal and private. Neither one of us held back and I'm so glad we didn't because that is the last time I ever spoke to him. That night I had no reason to think he wouldn't be home in a few days. The next day the feeling really hit when Stella started to get out of the car for school and started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said "I don't even know I just got really sad." I knew. With maturity comes this ability to listen to those promptings and stand your ground without chickening out. Sometimes I have to help Hank with that. He has an inner voice - he just ignores it. He supresses it along with ALL of his feelings. He won't even listen when it tells him to eat the Mexican food instead of the Chinese. His answer is always the same "I don't care whatever you want." I'm getting off track here and turning into Dr. Phil. I guess I had to get some things off of my chest. I don't know if anyone even reads my blog, but I guess it's theraputic for me. I know there are typos. It's 12:40 a.m. and I'm not spell checking!

Sam's football coach AFTER Sam put a pie in his face....

2011 Bristow Tabouleh Fest. and we ate some delicious TABOULEH!!!

Above is Sam's football coach and Shelby's PE coach...

Update on Stella:
I am happy to report that on Monday her optic nerve looked much better!!! YEAH. I might have already posted that. She has been on Diamox to help with this and it seems to be working. The field vision test they did turned out to be unreliable because of her age. It showed some loss in her peripheral, but the Opthamologist said he is calling it no good. However, it does give us a basis for comparison if we need it in the future.
We have an appointment with the neurosurgeon in Ohio next Friday. We are flying out on Thursday. In the meantime she finished her clotting studies today and will be having a repeat MR angiogram and MR venogram on Monday so he can see if there has been any change in her sigmoid sinus (where it was narrowed). If there is change and it's opened up it was most likely a blood clot. That is why the clotting studies are important also. We will be celebrating Hank's birthday in Ohio while the older two kids stay here to finish their last two days of school. Hopefully this will be a 1 day doctor visit for Stella just so he can meet the patient he's been treating over the phone. IF he finds anything that needs studied further they said we would have to stay through the weekend into the next week. Hank would fly home if that happened.
I'm ready to get our summer kicked off!!!

Shelby's trip to Rose Hill - it's a 4th grade rite of passage! Luv the outfit Wanda made for her bonnet and all!!! Rose Hill is a mock school from 1910 where the kids go to pretend they are students from that era for a day. Includes school lessons in an old 1 room school (the teacher is in full character the whole time) they have to pack an authentic lunch wrapped in butcher paper. No ziplocks, water bottles (Shelby drank water out of a rotel can). I made a loaf of home made bread for her to share with her friends during lunch. I went with Sam and I had fun. Shelby never wants me to go on her field trips, but I don't get my feelings hurt because Sam and Stella are needy enough for 10 kids.

Another thing I love about living in Bristow...this was after the Tabouleh Festival on Saturday. A bunch of kids came out, we grilled, ran races, listened to music, jumped and ate popsicles. Little brothers and sisters are allowed to join in and we always having a fun time with a house full of kids! This is why we have to keep a freezer full of beef at all times. These kids can EAT!!! Yes, I know the grass needs mowed. The mower is in the shop:(

I am HAPPY to report that after x-rays Sam's toe was NOT broken....baby! Kidding...I would have whined too...

Ok - so as I'm helping Sam upstairs to bed last night I find this at the top of the stairs. Stella did NOT want to go to bed last night. So I guess she just laid at the top of the stairs listening to us until she feel asleep. Sam is scooting, backwards up the stairs on his bottom, Stella is laying at the top of the stairs asleep, Hank is sound asleep, and I'm laughing so hard I almost wake everyone up.

Since Sam was feeling left out of the medical drama he decided to go outside last night and throw a hatchet at a tree. Instead of sticking in the tree it bounced back off and landed on his big toe blade down! I'm pretty sure he broke his toe and it split his toenail. He instantly felt sick which tells me he got it good. Instead of saying something like "oh poor baby." My response was "I should break your other big toe for being so dumb." I got on the internet and it said to buddy tape two toes together. I thought about taking him to the doctor but decided he's missed too much school. I know they put you in a boot sometimes, but he wouldn't wear it. Hank had NO sympathy because about a year ago he dropped a VERY heavy server on his foot and he thought he amputated 4 toes. He basically had a bag of crushed bones in his sock and GET THIS he didn't tell me for about a week. They look and feel terrible to this day.

Yesterday Stella had a clotting study done at the hospital. She is so brave! They are using this to help determine if she has a thrombosis (blood clot) that is dissolving. We are repeating the MR angiogram and MR venogram in a week or two to see if the narrowing has changed. Headaches are improving i am happy to report.

This is a brown recluse in my bed. I almost couldn't go to bed that night. I would rather pull the sheets back to find a coiled up, deadly snake in striking position than a spider in my sheets! Can't stand em' because they are so sneaky!!!

This is Stella's homemade metal detector. She said she was going to the beach to find money. Since she has been home she has gotten very creative. I think she may be watching a little too much TV because yesterday while we were in Tulsa for tests I said "what should we have for dinner?" Reply "Frenches crunchy onion chicken - you smash the stuff in this bag and then dip the chicken in it." Then we drove by Lowes and she said "oh, are we going to Lowes because they sell the most perfect paint." I said did you hear all of this on TV and she said YEP!

Shelby had a talent show at church Wednesday night. Since she couldn't ride a horse in the church, she and a friend did a stand up comedy routine. The jokes were along the lines of "how do you get a lion to stop charging? Take away his credit cards!" They were cute.

Scar is healing nicely

Has anyone noticed the invasion of June bugs or "June Beetles" as the kids call them? This is by the door that leads out into the garage and this is the third time today I have swept them up. We leave the side door open during the day so the dog can come and go and he LOVES to eat them. I don't mean 1 or 2 - I'm talking 5 at a time! I'm going to stop buying dog food. I have washed them because they were stuck to towels and jackets in the garage. Trust me - I have washed waaaay worse.

Stella has learned how to use Shelby's cell phone. This is why 6 year olds don't need cell phones...Yesterday I left her here with Sam while I took Shelby to dance because she felt sick. These are the missed calls on my phone. When she called she said "i'm bored and I miss you when will you be home?" She called me the other morning ( Shelby doesn't take her phone to school) and was bawling because she couldn't find me and said "Where are you, I'm scared and I almost walked to Kelly's." I was standing outside the garage door! I asked her how she knew how to call me and she said "I just pushed the one that said mom." Yes, I blurred Shelby's #, it's not your eyes...lol

Our strawberry crop is in full swing - YEAH! We picked these on Mother's Day and ate them with cheesecake. I just picked and froze another quart. I might get really brave and try to make homemade, organic, strawberry jam.... OR I might just dip them in chocolate fondue and save myself the trouble of steaming up the kitchen:)

Yes, that is paint.
Yes, Stella did it.
Yes, Mario is once again asking "why?"

This is what I get for making fun of Hank every time he runs into my trailer hitch...I tried to act like this didn't hurt because I was at the garden shop:(

We found out that he was an Eastern River Cooter which is an aquatic turtle. After we put him in the pond we made a raft. It's a good thing we weren't on Gilligan's Island bc I don't think we would have gotten far! This is the best we could do with what we had. Stella wanted to make a sail, but she just ended up splashing the water to get it to go. It was a fun way to spend the morning.

Hank and Shelby caught this little guy this morning as they were leaving for school. Stella and I decided he would be a good subject for her "homeschool" this morning. We researched what kind of turtle he was, colored a picture of him and I gave her a little test to see if she remembered the info. we researched. Then we put on our boots and went to Flourine's frog pond to set him free!

My kids holding my mom:)

Wanda (Hank's mom)
We celebrated mother's day yesterday with our moms. This Mother's Day was very special to all of us because after so much loss (Hank's dad 1 year ago this month, my Papa Jack a few weeks ago and Stella's illness), we realize how lucky we are to have each other. So much can change in an instant!

Saturday Shelby and a friend caught this hummingbird in her bedroom!

CELEBRATING her big win!!!

Shelby running (and winning 1st place) in the 4th grade relay:)

Shelby had little olympics today and here she is winning 1st place in 100 yd dash with a time of 14.8!!! Way to go Shelby - very fast:) In her socks...

Notice her new sunglasses! She is very light sensitive right now so we got some new shades:)

Yesterday (Wednesday) Stella went to 2 more dr apts. She had to go have pictures of her optic nerve taken for doctors in Ohio. I will have to scan them in and put them out here. I was amazed at the difference in hers and a normal optic disc. It really made me realize how this affects vision. Doctors in Ohio insisted she start Diamox so we did last night. This should help save her vision. The eye drs explained that the optic disc is an extension of the brain so it's bulging because of her high pressure. The first thing to go is perephiral vision which is something she can't tell us. So Friday she has to have a field vision test which is something they never do on children her age becuase it's long and difficult. She is very cooperative for all of this so they are going to try. I was a little nervous when Dr. Sood said she had never put a child on Diamox (she has like 4500 patients). We didn't have a choice though. She is feeling pretty good right now. I am so proud of her for going through all of this without really complaining. I know she misses her friends. I took her for a pedicure in between apts. yesterday to reward her. In the picture above they were poking this thing right on her eyeball to measure pressure in her eyes and she tried to hard to sit perfectly still. Dr. Roach in Ohio is working very closely with Dr. Sood to manage Stella's care. If we go out to see him we will wait until week after next when he is back from vacation, but I don't know if we will even have to since he is ordering everything to be done here. He is still reviewing MRV to see what he thinks about narrowing.