Thanks for Thanksgiving

Well we went to Long Island to see the family for Thanksgiving. This year Jon's sister Michelle hosted and it worked out very well in their home and no one was on top of anyone and it was a nice day and good to see everyone. We stayed and visited Grandma for a few days and got home Sunday. Jon got some time to spend with his friends on Saturday night too by playing poker and taking their money!! :) Thanks guys!! hahahaha

Yesterday we ended up with a HUGE scrape down the side of our van from the front wheel well to the back bumper. I went today to have the estimate and it's $3200 in damage! So we're going to do all we can to get the $1000 we need for the deductible and then get the car fixed. So any money we get for Christmas or bonuses or anything is all going to that. Hopefully we can get it together soon or find a "loan shark."

We're hoping to get back down to the island to celebrate Christmas early... thinking of heading down on the 12th. Hopefully that will work out and we can see Grandma and Jon's sisters and the kids again. We're then possibly headed to the Island, yet again, in January for Ben's Baptism!

Might have a busy couple weeks here traveling but it'll all be worth it!

Two Weeks in Hell & Thankful for it all!

Well the last two weeks have been CRAZY! Kaitlyn got the flu which morphed into ear infections, bronchitis, asthma, dehydration (with ER visit) and a Urinary Tract infection. She has been on so many medications in the last two weeks her poor stomach has to be a mess! She is now on a nebulizer for the Asthma (which I will get into more on her site). As far as the family, we're lucky, I had the flu a few months back and Tyler and Jonathan both got a Flu shot! So we all stayed healthy while the poor girl battled these mean nasty non-stop illnesses. She is finally on the right drugs for the UTI and we're hoping it all ends here!

Thanksgiving is coming up and we will be heading down to Long Island, as always, to celebrate our Thankfulness with Jon's family. Kaitlyn has tomorrow left of school and then her and I are going to spend the day making fudge to take down with us. The kids did get some coupons and reward certificates so we were able to go to Build A Bear and Kaitlyn made Frosty the Snowman and Tyler chose his Turkey "Dobble Dobble." Though this year the world seems to be forgetting about Thanksgiving and being Thankful and skipping right to Christmas.

Not really a whole lot going on right now other than trying hard to get Kaitlyn (and me) healthy again. I'm doing terrible. My Iron is so low and I feel the infusions are making no difference. I'm getting depressed because I feel useless. I try hard to do things but within minutes I am so exhausted and out of breath I have to sit down because I feel nauseous. I'm not sure whether to hire someone to watch the kids so I can clean or hire someone to come clean for me just to get my house back together so I can TRY to keep it that way. I REALLY want my mom to come out for a week or so to visit and help me get this stuff together but I can't afford to fly her here.

The holidays, though I LOVE the thought of them... celebrations with family and the joy and happiness of the children. They depress me terribly because I'm so far from my family and havent celebrated with them in many years. I think a wonderful Christmas gift would be having my mom come... but I know thats impossible. Neither of us have the money.

Ok Jon will be home soon and it's time for him to get a haircut!

Tyler 18 Months Old

Tyler turned 18 months old last week actually but his Well Visit was today! :) Tyler is a big ol' healthy bag of bones! hahahaha He's 27 1/4 lbs and 34" tall and he's growing very well! Not too much else to talk about. He did get a regular Flu shot today and has been a crab butt ever since!

Today was Kaitlyn's Halloween party at school and we all went. It was black & orange day too so we all wore Halloween clothes! It's was an ok party... honestly, there were a lot of people in a not so big place and it made ME want to leave! lol Kaitlyn seems to be doing very well on her medicine though... it really does help to keep her calm, but only half the day. By late afternoon or evening (especially if we have to go somewhere) she has behavior issues. It's something that the Dr and I might look into, possibly adding a second dose in the evening. Kaitlyn can feel her medicine working too, she told me her little white pill makes her feel calm and good. She was having a "moment" the other night and she even said "Mama, can I just have another one of my little white pills, they make me feel good and calm." It's crazy that she is so in-tune with herself!!

Alright then... tomorrow is Halloween and Tyler and I will be dressing as Pumpkins, Kaitlyn as a Dinosaur and Jon is ................... [to be announced] lol Will be taking pictures tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!

The Verdict Duh Duh Duhhhhhhhhh

Ok so I went to the Hematologist yesterday because my iron is extremely low and I'm pretty anemic. Which would explain why I'm extremely tired all the time and have no energy. So it comes down to this... next week I will be starting 6 weeks of Iron infusions again to build back up my stores. If I do not keep my stores this time they are thinking of going on an exploration mission to see if I have a GI bleed somewhere because I should not be using up my stores unless I'm bleeding somewhere!

So right now the Dr says my heart is working overtime because it thinks I'm suffocating. It's pumping harder and making more blood cells than it needs to so that it can get the oxygen to the places in my body that need it. It's also making the extra blood because it's confused as to why things are right and thinks I have a bleed somewhere too and body says bleeding? MORE CELLS STAT!!!! :) She says it's not a huge deal right now but with my heart working so hard that it could possibly cause heart problems in the future!

On a wonderful note, Tyler is starting to talk a lot more these last few days! He now says "uh, uh" for No, when he doesnt want something lol hahahahaha It's cute! AND he has a strong interest in the potty! I think it's because he wants potty candy for going!!! lol He's a little smart guy.

So the things we have coming up are Tylers 18mo appt Friday morning, Kaitlyn has a Halloween party in school Friday and then Saturday we're all going to Crossgates Mall to trick or treat... then Jon works halloween night so we'll see what the kids and I have planned for that night!

My Bloods

Ok so I'm not going to list everything here but wanted to say that my iron dropped more and I have no idea what the Hematologist is going to suggest Tues when I go. I'm sure they are going to want to do infusions again... bleh! The Dr now has me on 4000000000000 pills a day! LOL I now have to take my regular "head meds", the Procardia for my Raynauds, Nexium, Vit D, B12, Calcium & Multivitamin. Seriously it's like 14 freakin pills/Vitamins!!! Good lord, can they all even fit in my pouch? LoL Ok so anyway, not sure about the rest of my blood levels right now but the main thing is the iron for now.

Anyway, Kaitlyn and I drove down to Woodstock, NY today for her follow-up with the Developmental Pediatrician and it went well. She said she is going to have Kaitlyn's report written by the end of next week so I have it to go to the School District meeting with.

A Little Drop of Ketchup

Ok so I got my results from the CT Scan and don't have any kinks or twists or anything major to report, so the reason for my stomach pain is unknown but assumed to be a possible ulcer or idiopathic (i just had to use a big word there! hahaha). Anyway, the Dr out me on Nexium and we're going to see how that goes for a couple months. Since taking it I havent really had any pain so maybe thats what it was. I also saw the Nutritionist who keeps track of my Blood levels and she is sending me back to the Hematologist because my iron is so low. She sent me to get my blood drawn and I did it yesterday. The kids and I met Daddy at work (he was working both jobs yesterday) and we got to have a late lunch with Daddy and then I got 9 (YES I said 9!) tubes of blood drawn for all the tests! Geesh... you would think I'd be tapped out! LOL :) So we'll see how those go and how low my levels are as of now. The last time I had them done was April and my iron was 4 then.

Tyler started this week with the two sound words... he now says "Daa-Dee" and "nuh-mee" and has been saying "bay-bawh" and "boo-bawh" (Baseball & Football) for awhile and LOVES both. He just sees it on TV or a picture and goes crazy saying it over and over!! :) He's still quite the "Stunt Man" climbing on stuff (appropriate things at least!) and trying to jump off of everything and purposely falling down lol. He's got a sense of humor already... though living in this house, you'd better have one!!! :) He's actually 18 months old today and his appointment was supposed to be this morning but we had to reschedule it because I totally forgot about the Field trip to the Pumpkin patch with Kaitlyn's school today and they were at the same time!! So will update on that next week after his appt.

Thats the other thing, Kaitlyn had her first field trip today! We went with her class (and families) to the Pumpkin Patch where they got to pick a Gourd, Mini Pumpkin and an Indian Corn. They also got to run around and play and then have story time and roll down a hill, pet some animals, a hay maze and tunnel and even a Hay Ride!! :) It was great and Kaitlyn and Tyler both enjoyed it a lot. It did end up being FREEZING cold and, of course, I was NOT prepared and the three of us were about froze to death but at least it was a good time.

Meeting Baby Ben

Well we went down to Long Island this past weekend to meet Michelle, Jon's sisters, new baby! His name is Ben and he was born the beginning of Sept but we decided not to rush down and to give them some space and time to get used to being parents! He's a gorgeous little guy and I guess really liked me since he decided to fall asleep on me for about an hour!

I'm pretty tired and it has been an eventful week so far so I dont have much to write. I did go for my CT Scan yesterday but I wont know much about it until I see the Dr on Monday the 19th so I'll let you know more then.

One good thing is that Tyler is now saying "Baybee" perfectly! He was trying it yesterday but then today just keeps saying it. He has been babbling a lot of different sounds lately so I think we're going to be hearing a lot more English out of him rather than "Tylerese." So good for him! He's such a big boy and I know now that things are going to start going quickly for him developmentally! I'm excited!

Ok off to do some Laundry!!!