I am flying kites today with my boys! Thank you Miss Sheri. I love you tons!!!!

I may hate ERs and all that comes with them, but once in awhile they can be kinda amusing in a sick, twisted sort of way.

I went in yesterday to have my feeding tube stitched back in - Note to self and anyone else - NEVER go to the ER on a rainy Monday morning. First it took us 3 hours to get there (apparently people in LA panic when they see rain). Then we waited 5 hours in the waiting room to be seen. I wasn't concerned about that, I was far from critical and understood I was on the bottom of the totem pole.

But on to the fun part. I had read every magazine in the place (all 4 of them), read the paper, and was just basically bored out of my skull when a guy about three seats down said ~ out of the blue, "My son was shot down in Vietnam". I immediately went into "oh poor guy mode" and glanced up at him. He looked about 30 or 35. Hmmm. I was trying to ponder on this and do the math in my head, just cause I was bored,  when he said,  "Yeah he won the Medal of Honor". In a very crowded ER, NO one spoke.

I will now give a few choice quotes from this obviously VERY intoxicated young man, and in the order they were given. Keep in mind a couple of things:

1. he was never confrontational, just a nice guy who smelled bad and had had a few too many.
and
2.  ~ no one was speaking to him. 

" I wanna talk to Jesus. Wasn't he Jewish?"

" I got a lot of daughters, they are all Republican thank God."

"I NEVER SAID I was God!  I already met him, he sent me back to save all your souls".

"I'm still going steady with John Bonham"

" hmmm, Bill Gates... never mind I'm not allowed to talk outside of school".

"Whatever happened to Led Zepplin? He's my uncle".

" Here's my vote... Here's my vision...King Arthur... BOOORING."

"I'm jewish you know"

"Everybody's accusing me of being white. I'm not you know, I'm olive."

" I'm only here on business ya know"

To everyone who came in he said loudly, " I saved a seat for ya!"

"They treat me like gold here " (this was right after he got in trouble for picking the flowers in the planters)

When the volunteer, nurse or registration people would call out any name, He would stand up and yell, "THAT'S ME!". The security guard escorted him to the triage area after that, where his vitals were taken and he was escorted, very kindly, out.

He then ran back in , threw the flowers he had picked down on the floor and ran back out.

He snuck back in later and actually told the triage nurse he was having heart pains so he got his little bracelet and was told to wait. He still said some pretty wild and funny things, but by that time, he had found someone real to talk to ~ so Cary and I , we played hangman.

Thank you drunk guy for making a five hour wait much more enjoyable and yes I know I am a sick sick twisted person for enjoying that so much...

 Boring.....

  Not so boring....

Ok,
1. Still working on the kids school thing, but it is looking like we gotta move.

2. Almost finished straightening out the checking account mess.

3. Tore my last stitch holding my feeding tube in. Gotta run to the ER as soon as we drop of kids.

4. Today is picture day at school.

This has been, Update In a Flash...brought to you by crazy moms everywhere....

I was talking to Ben, about when he was born and how I named him and he said SO seriously.
"thanks mom".
Me: "for what?"
Ben: "for naming me Ben an not som'fin stupid".


Ok I am all better now.

This is entitled Hell

Detail of mosaic in the vault of the baptistery of

Florence Cathedral.  - no really. I promise. That is REALLY in the baptistery. I could. not. make that part up.

Ok so my week hasn't been QUITE that bad... but close.  Some wonderful person has stolen our checking account number and apparently Western Union doesn't care if the account is stolen, as  long as they get a routing number... good to know if I ever want to turn to a life of crime.

Sigh ... and to make matters even better, the bank keeps messing up and allowing charges to be posted to the account even though we placed a restriction on it last week. Then they won't let us close the account because there are still items pending. 

Wait  I'm not done...

The bank is also holding on to Cary's paycheck until the negative balance (caused by all the stolen funds) is resolved....Can it GET any better? Oh yes it sure can! 

Remember last spring when we had to move because our dear landlord lost his primary residence and needed the rental we were living in? Well Cary did the absolute best he could to find a new house on such short notice, and with me in LA doing the Chemo and radiation thing, but it fell 1/2 mile outside the district. He applied for transfers and that was that.

Well, we just got a registered letter saying that this year, my 3 special needs kids were denied and the week they chose to dis-enroll my kids was - yup you guessed it - this one!  Looks like we have another immediate move ahead of us, or I get to home school the 3 younger kids until we can move back. Daniel was approved because he is not in a special needs program. I won't send them to the other school district because #1 it is too far , #2 my  kids would loose many of their current services, and #3 the change would be terrible for them mid stream like this. They have JUST settled down from the roller coaster ride that was last year.

Well, I am done belly aching now, I am just praying no kid breaks an arm or my feeding tube doesn't pop its last stitch ~ cause baby we aint got no money take our broke a$$ home!

I need to take time to go fly a kite or two....if we had the money to buy a kite...

I found some stuff I wrote LONG before I had cancer.
I wrote this one soon after Sept 11th 2001.

In moments of crisis,

we don’t call up

our nice furniture

to make sure it's OK

Or rush to hug our cars

a little tighter,

Or wish to spend

just one more

last
precious moment

with our pretty clothes.

May history remember me

not by the clothes I wore

the houses I lived in

or the money I had

but by

the hugs I gave,

the hurts I mended

and the kites I flew.
By Stacey Clark 

long time no blog...
I really have just been living my life, enjoying my boys and getting out and about as much as I can! My birthday itself kinda sucked because I had to go see my primary care doctor. He checked out my feeding tube and ordered an ultrasound to just take a peek inside to see what might be going on. No needles though, so it wasn't too bad. Just a lot of travel time.

The Friday after my birthday was the fun part. I posted the whole video on face book, but here are a few image grabs from it...

looking SO innocent and sweet....

can you tell what they are doing?...

that's right~ they are covering their momma in silly string!!!

It was really fun...

I got my wedding ring fixed for my main present,
and I couldn't be happier...

...and the boys sprayed on...

I really did have a great birthday.

42 years old and proud of it! I earned EARNED every wrinkle!!!

OK, I think we have this not getting enough calories thing licked. Since the flu, I have been having a really hard time going back up to the full amount I was supposed to be receiving via feeding tube. Bloating, distention, all that nice stuff.The answer was simple! 2 cans at night and 2 cans during the day! TADA!!! fixed. Jo Marie is brilliant. I should have all my energy levels back to full capacity in no time.

I am having a bit more of a problem because I think my feeding tube site is infected. I have a doctor appointment to check it out next Wednesday. I get blood tests done tomorrow. oh joy.... more needles... hope I'm better hydrated this time...*sigh...

OK, I was doing SO well.... Then I got the flu. Just a quick note to all those who have redone plumbing inside. NOT a good idea to get the flu. I am not feeling sick anymore, but I am pretty wiped out.

I went to Back to School Night for the boys, only saw 2 of the 6 teachers I needed to see and was just too pooped to do more ( for those wondering - yes I still only have 4 boys but 3 of those boys have special ed teachers or resource teachers as well as general ed teachers). I sent Daniel to see 2 more teachers to take notes, and did a phone visit with one more. I missed Jonahs general education teacher completely. (sigh)

This morning I went to see Daniel deliver his campaign speech (he is running for school treasurer) and now, if you will excuse me, I think I will go take a nap now....

hmmm, remember way back when I said about half of the patients with EC develop lactose intolerance? Well Hooray!  I am in that half. ( oh joy...) I switched to lactose free milk in moderation and it makes the world of difference to my tummy.

I am actually doing really great right now. Two days in a row I have done morning routine, gotten the kids off to school, picked them up, and did all their homework and therapy with them all by myself! 

But then comes the fun part. Nathan is LOVING the book The BFG  I am reading to him for books and stories. Jonah and Ben are just loving having the  mom bedtime routine back in place. Daniel is reading Holes and I get so tickled because he begs to read "just one more chapter Mom PLEEEEEASE....". I love to see that excitement for reading.

Wish me luck to keep up this good streak. By the end of the day I am pretty exhausted, but hey, even when I was 100% well, I was pretty tired by the time I crawled into bed each night.

Its all good. I just love finally seeing marked improvement  ~ well other than the not eating thing, but hey, that will come in time and I have the feeding tube to make sure I get nutrition, so how can I complain :).