YES!

All four eggs have hatched. 3 yesterday and one this morning. Last year only 2 of the 4 eggs made it. I feed her extra worms for it was so cold this morning.

Background

We often change our background on the computer. Here the new desktop background. Isn't this as cute a pie? You can easily see by the look on Georgia's face that she is having fun with daddy and doesn't want to go in the house to take a bath. Gotta love it!!

G & A

G really loves her pigs. She loves telling the pigs what to do and where to go. She has no fear of pigs, and she gets upset when you take her out of the pig pens. She really enjoys playing with the pigs. G liked tell me all about them and showing me how to clean out the pig waters.


Can you believe that I put G, a little two year old, into the pig's pen and I stayed on the outside of the pen just watching her? I didn't fear the pigs hurting her, I feared that her boots would get stuck and I'd have to climb into the pen too to get her unstuck.


A's looks are growing and changing daily. Here he is eating dinner with two spoons. Not sure if he ate any faster but he did have a lot of fun with a spoon in each hand. He is so cute!! He has a smile that will melt your heart and he has a very easy going personality.


This was one of A's favorite things to do. Pull him self up to a standing position and then climb onto the top of this step stool. In the living room he would then reach down and grab up toys off the floor. Grandma thought why not grab things off the refrigerator in stead. The toys are the floor were more fun for him.

and we're off

Going to the other side of the state.
Can't wait to see everyone.

My husband's brother is coming with us.
My BIL has packed more to go for the weekend
Then the three of us
Including Tom's formula, diapers and the wheelchair

Earth Day Celebration

Today is Earth Day or Green Day. It is intended to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's environment. Was not totally sure on how to celebrate such a day. Creatively I made this apron out of grocery bags. A great 4-H project. Cut bags flat, lay between wax paper, warm iron. NO sewing needed. The apron is about 4+ bags thick. I think I used about 16 to 20 Food Town bags to make this apron.

The Weekend

Mark realized he had not ridden he unicycle in a while. Outside riding up and down the driveway when a car pasted the house often. The two guys in that car finally stopped. They have a cable show called "Monkey Bone" on the CW Toledo at 2 in the morning. They filmed Mark for their cable show.





My mother called yesterday and talked to Mark. Her church was having a rummage sale. She saw something there that she thought Mark would like. Can you guess what it was??? Mark is not playing polkas yet, but he did spend most of the day playing, no trying to play us songs.



Tom spent Saturday outside and he enjoyed every minute of it. I would push him close to the bird feeders and it wouldn't take long and the birds would come and feed with him there. Too cute! In this pictures Mark was playing the accordion next to Tom. I ask Tom is he liked Mark's music? I think his face said it all.





Yesterday was Don and my 29th wedding anniversary. Did we doing anything special or exciting this year?? Yes!!! Don and I brought a roto-tiller!! We both took turns using it! So far we've planted spinach, peas, carrots, beets, and kohlrabies.


We have a robin that builds a nest every year in a planter that is hooked onto an arbor that everyone walks through. We get close to the bird and it doesn't fly away and it's very accommodating when we take pictures of it's nest and it's young. I do reward the bird with meal worms.

Today

For some strange reason someone in this house usually ends up in the hospital on this date. Today is Don and my 29th wedding anniversary. Maybe if we all ignore it, nothing will happen this year.
Are we doing anything special or exciting this year?? Yes!!! Don and I brought a roto-tiller!! Watch out lawn and gardens, here I come!!! We've already planned peas, carrots, beets, and cabbage. Love also grows in our garden.

Look!

I should have taken a picture of all the weeds I pulled out of the ground today. Huge pile, I am on the attack against weeds. Look at one of many happy little rhubarb plants growing. It makes me so happy!! Rhubarb pie is one of my favorite things to make.



Mr. Asparagus is poking up from the soil! I just can't wait!! My favorite springtime ritual involves nothing more than a few fat stalks, olive oil, salt, and a good, hot oven.

Always Complaining

Last evening as Mark left work he pulled out in front of a car and caused a minor traffic accident. Everyone is fine, Mark didn't even get a ticket but now has a car that needs some minor repairs. $$

Don called home from work today, he thinks his heart has been racing again. I told him he should go back to the doctor's ASAP. Then he tells me "well, it's not as bad as it was yesterday." I was so mad I wanted to kill him, but if he keeps this up I won't need to worry about that will I?

Tom has not been sleeping at night and can't tell you what's wrong. I've taken him to every doctor there is and had tons of blood work done too. We even visited with the dentist. I questioned the dentist about wisdom teeth, both my other children had problems with them. Being that Tom doesn't eat, he has yet to cut all his 6-year molars and has none of his 12-year molars. I was assured there never would be any wisdom teeth. BUT now if you put your finger way back on the lower right side of the mouth, you feel a tooth that is growing in sideways. That's way all the drool! Called the dentist, he'll only look at and take care of Tommy in a hospital setting. Tom is to high risk for his office. We don't have dental insurance. With what we have paid out of pocket for Tom in his life time we could have purchased another house plus. I don't wanting to go into more debt over medical bills. Is that so wrong? When will it ever end? I know, I know, when he passes away and then I still lose.

I had my mammogram today. Nothing better than flatting my big boobies to help forget everything else that's going on.

Very odd night

Last night was an unusual night to say the least. During the night somehow the CD player that has been in our living room for years, turned on and played 3 CD’s by it's self. This morning both Don and Mark said they never got out of bed during the night and I know I didn’t do it. The hours of music throughout the house kept Tom settle down and let me sleep. How that turned on out of the blue, I don’t know.
The other odd thing about last night was about 4 in the morning I swore I heard our doorbell ring. After checking doors and looking out into the driveway there was no one there. Then I did my normal, while I up, checked on Tom. Finding him in bed awake he had pulled and played with this diaper and had gotten it unhooked and open. Could you have imagined the mess I would have found in the morning if I hadn’t of gotten out of bed?
Let’s just say an Angel was watching over us and turned on the CD’s so we could sleep and rang the door bell so I would check on Tom and find him with an open diaper.

It's still not funny

My husband had his hip replaced in December in 2006. Surgery it self went better than expected, it’s what I had to deal with afterwards that hurts my very soul. I hope to one day find humor in what happen but even to this day, looking back is upsetting.
It’s hard for most people to realizing all the work that goes into taking good care of Tom. At the age of 22 he has never walked, talked, or learned day from night. He needs someone to do all his care, from feeding to diapering. I've learned so much from Tom. He is a lot of work, tons of work but worth every cent of it.
After my husband's hip replacement, he couldn’t even pull up or down his own underwear or pants. I had to put on his socks and shoes too. During the night would wake me up to ask me just to move his leg for him. Don could hardly move, couldn’t drive, and had to be to therapy 3x’s a week. So what would be so wrong in asking for help? Read on and see if you can understand why I now hate, yes, hate asking for help.

Weeks before surgery I sent out my S.O.S. through emails, phone calls and just asking family and friends asking for any and all the help I could get. Any kind of help and in any way is needed and would be deeply appreciated. No one committed to helping me (except Laura and Mark) and from that time on until after surgery the regular emails and forwards that one would get, completely stopped. Was everyone trying to hide from me? What is going on? Is everyone pretending they don’t exist? Did I make them feel uncomfortable, like they were obligated to help me?

On the day of surgery we walked into waiting room to discover my brother-in-law brought up my father-in-law, who is 83 years old, with the plan of leaving him with us until my SIL showed up after work that afternoon to pick him up. What was my BIL thinking? This 83yr old can’t walk around the hospital to pass time and I can’t sit still during a 3+ hour surgery. Was the plan for me to entertain him? Why did I feel like a babysitter? That will NOT work and made him take him home!

The afternoon of surgery I was up to the hospital and a volunteer said she would get Tommy off the school bus and take care of him so I could stay up at the hospital. She called me at the hospital wanting to know where in our freezer she could find some chicken, for she had found my potatoes. She needed to cook supper for her husband and 3 children. Is this a way of helping me by eating my food and messing up my kitchen? Do I owe her chicken as payment?? I couldn't even think of dinner at this time!

That evening some of Don’s co-workers showed up to the hospital after spending hours drinking at the bar first. It was apparent to everyone they were very drunk. My husband was notably upset.

I returned home that evening and my chicken cooking volunteer quickly left for home with food for the family. Walking into the living room with the odor I realized that she left Tom in the diaper from school and it was full of poop. Tom not knowing any better but probably wanted in out of his diaper; got his fingers in it and smeared it EVERYWHERE! That evening I cried. I needed sleep was exhausted with knowing I had to be up early the next morning, but needed to give Tom a bath, clean sheets, and still find my self some kind of dinner.

Someone from Don’s family brought my FIL up to the hospital daily for visits. He always brought bananas and apples from the reduced bin at the local grocery store with him. What was I to do with rotting fruit? Don was in so much pain, eating was not a high priority. Yes, when we left the hospital I had a huge bag of rotten fruit? Sorry no time to make banana bread.

The only relative from my side of the family besides my parents that visited Don in the hospital was my annoying cousin that worked there. I am so upset and embarrassed for I am one of nine children and all live within a 15/20 minute or less drive of the hospital.

A volunteer wanted to help do some Christmas shopping for me. I wrote out a list. She called me from every store and for every purchased. She just wanting to check to make sure the gift was OK. Phone rang about every 15 minutes while she was out shopping. I couldn’t keep running to the phone, my help was needed else where. I would always say if it’s not right, I’ll return it later, but the phone kept ringing.

Don's home from the hospital my sister and her daughters were visiting when my brothers and his wife brought over a hot dinner. The sister volunteered to set the dinner table for us. Next thing I knew there were dinner plates on the table for her and her daughters too. Extra dinner guest, do you think they helped with dishes???

Don received a get well card in the mail, at the bottom of the card, was written "return card when finished". Never did return understand that or returned the card.

Father-in-law made and brought over sandwiches for us. Between the sliced of bread you would find pizza pepperoni, carrot slices, and tomato slices. He was so proud of his creation that he had to sit across from me at the table to watch me eat it.

Boss from Don’s work showed up and said “Don’t you think it’s funny?” There is another man named Don who had lots things in common with my husband, Don. He listed many of them and said “Both you Don's had your left hip replaced in Toledo on the same day. He died and you didn’t.” How is that funny?

Someone close to the family who is known for their addiction to pain killers show up just to talk. Yes, right after they left we counted pill and 4 were missing. We hid the pills, then they stopped coming over.

Another volunteer called saying she was bringing over leftovers from a teacher lunch-in. It would be great food from a good restaurant. She forgot to mention that she also invited herself, her daughter and grandchildren to eat dinner with us. They all arrived at our house and said “Let’s eat” During dinner a child wanted me to get up and make her mac & cheese.

A friend sent over a meal. She then called me on the phone stating she didn’t have time to go to the store and get cheese and the sauce that is needed in this dish. Where I am to find the time to go? No way could I leave Don and Tom home alone at this time.

I had asked a nephew to help me bath Tom while Don’s hip was mending. He acted happy to be helpful and went beyond the call of duty. Then I found pictures of Tom, not dressed fresh from the tube on his cell phone. Yes, I should have called the police. Still at time wished I would have. What a family uproar that would have caused. My nephew is not allowed back into my house!

Am I crazy?? Do I need to seek mental help? Where did I and am I going wrong?? All of this happen within a short span of time. But to be truthful this is what I deal with often, help that is more work for me. I hope to one day see some humor in this but as of today when I still ask for help it usually backfires and makes even more work for me. I think I'm going to scream at the next person that tells me "you make it look so easy."

We did it

For a 50th Birthday gift, my sister Sandy gave me this huge remote for the TV with the joke, never lose your remote again. Yes, less then a week after receiving it, it is lost somewhere in the house.