somewhere between hysterical laughter and hysterical tears

[Momo]

Double post

[Momo]

OK so here I am, almost 3 weeks on my medication and it REALLY has made a difference, thank God. DH has been really great since my last blog. He did sorta show his ugly side during supper Tues. night, but it didn't last.

My hardly a fix it man/DH, managed to get the garage door working just fine after the schiester repair/ SALESMAN said everything was going to have to be replaced, door,and opener! The only thing wrong, was that it needed to have the roller wheels put back on the track, and to have a few bolts/nuts tightened. The thing works just fine!thank God. DH said the guys an idiot, he could have charged us 100.00 to "fix" it, and we would have paid. Instead he took my 20.00(for the service call) and gave me the whole schpiel and written estimate for the new door. The repair guy(salesman) put it back on track &unplugged the door opener; he made sure to warn me the "whole thing may break if I tried to use it. " LIKE I said DH went out there tightened some bolts,straightened a slight bend ,plugged everything back in and it worked just fine! :ra:
DH also took the plumbing apart under the master bathroom sinks, and completely cleaned them out! DrainO & liquid plumber couldn't help those pipes. Can I just say Disgusting w/ a capital D! He also got on the ball and planted rose bushes, some in the ground and others in containers. Honestly he did more in one weekend than I have ever seen him do since we moved here, oh he also worked on his car and cooked all weekend! The down side is that the car failed to start this past Mon AM so I have been w/ out transportation for another week! (thank God those meds finally kicked in)

On the pregnancy front I am feeling like crap! The baby has shifted or just growing, and there is so much pressure on my stomach. I am having reflux almost every day. I actually had to resort to sleeping in a sitting up position on the couch Tues night. I also seem to have insomnia. last night I didn't fall asleep until 1:30 and was up sick @ 5:00...puking as a result of the reflux indigestion....ugghh! I'm sticking to a multi vitamin, crackers and water today. I have an appt. next Fri.

I am having major stress and anxiety about DH wanting to bring his folks over here for yet ANOTHER EXTENDED visit when the baby is due. Can I just say that I WON'T ALLOW FOR THAT TO HAPPEN!!

[Momo]

Well much to my surprise :stars: my OB said we needed to book our OR time for my C-sec. I couldn't believe that we needed to do it now, in Feb, even though the due date isn't until 5/12. She said the hospital that I am having it at, is in high demand, and that it fills up quickly. So, God willing, our 2nd little boy will come into the world 5/3/2007 in the AM :babyboy: ! I am already feeling much :mom2b: discomfort, so the sooner the better...as long as the little guy is fully cooked. I changed my baby ticker to reflect this. I promised DS that he could play his Blue's Clues Computer game, so I have to go ...will try and post more later!

[Momo]

So I renamed my Blog...it soo describes my life! Thanks DCJenn

I can't concentrate enough to make an entry...today is one of those days that the kids just won't give me a momment of quiet!!! + :mom2b: = :thud:

[Momo]

So here's a little bit of what's going on or has gone on!

Well the area of my incision that opened is now 90% closed! It has been a total drag! I was really upset at first, especially w/ the infection and all, but the antibiotics kicked in and cleared that up pretty fast! The baby is doing great! TbtG I will hopefully get DH to upload the photos soon ( hopefully b4 he starts walking.) I used to do it myself but I jacked things up pretty badly once, so I don't mess w/ it anymore!

I am back to being a dawkters wife...I found a great housekeeper!! She comes every Mon and every other Thur...trying to get her to commit to Mon & Fri. She does everything as well as enjoys and is good at out door yard work . She used to help her friend out that had a landscape maintenance business. She tamed the beast of a shrub ,that was so embarrassingly over grown(it was starting to swallow up the sidewalk to the front porch/ door). It is sooo nicely manicured now! She said she'll weed and trim things as needed. I pay her a higher price for outdoor work as AZ is atrocious in the summer. She is is slower than my old housekeeper, but she makes up for it in attention to detail , plus her hourly rate is $3.00 less than what my last gal asked for! this lady is American and older, but the fact that English is her native tongue makes a huge difference! I am sooo happy to have her!

With the older 2 going off to all day Montessori in the fall ,my girlfriend who will watch DD2, on occassion and having the housekeeper, I may actually get to have a life!!! I hope to get together w/ Spottydog ,more once school starts! It was so great meeting her and the her little man(what a cutie pie)!

DH is @ Costco w/ the 3 older kiddos! He is also going to shop around for a manual pool vac...we need one badly. Our pool is self cleaning except for the fact that the jets fail to get all of the crud close enough to the intake areas There has been such a build up...dust storms don't help! It a shame we aren't enjoying the pool this weekend. If DH can get the vacuum and we can get the chemicals back to normal then hopefully by next weekend we will be enjoying it!

Can you believe that I posted about us having a landscape overhaul so many months ago...well in true DH fashion, we are finally meeting w/ the firm next Sat when they come out for the initial assessment!!!!! I want to see about having a mister installed with the play set. We are looking to have an olive tree and some fruit trees planted as well as some mature large trees, to give us privacy from the neighbors balcony and master suite windows. There is a small area of the back yard that I have to wear my scarf in, but once we piss them off by obscuring their mountain views and subsequently part of our back yard , I will be sans scarf through out my entire walled oasis!! The pool/BBQ side is totally private, as there is a 1 story home next door.

My sister was here for the delivery and was a God send the day of the section , but basically became a total Biddy after that! I won't spill all the details but let's just say on my 1st night home from the hospital I carried a dinner tray up to the guest room for her anti social self! She later @ 8:00PM cussed me out in front of DS1, when I told her DH & I needed her to watch the kids for 15 minutes while we ran back to Walgreen's to pick up med,s diapers and sanitary products for me!! DH just went , and I stayed with all the kids in our master suite while she rested up for her flight home! Did I mention that she doesn't work, so it wasn't like she was going to be traveling back to the Midwest to return to a job! I don't know where she got off demanding she be left alone to rest when it was me that needed her support that first night back and her last night there...oh well!
Her new husband constantly called or text messaged her... it was ridiculous! I am ITA, w/ a comedian I saw on TV, who said "anyone over 13 that is addicted to texting needs to get a grip and grow up":... there is something wrong w/ older people who are obsessed w/ texting and My Space , IMO...all things in moderation are reasonable, but to behave like your in middle school is soooooooooooooooooo lame.

[Momo]

Fantasy Time


These are the ones that I can come up with right now, I'll add more as I recall or read about our users' talents/skills/gifts/vocations/areas of expertise!

I would like to have:
DCJenn be my personal trainer
Nellie,Heidi and JennP teach me the true art of Baking (not from a box)
House Elf/Kelly for training me to run a marathon/ running partner
Reciprocity/Eric for teaching me rowing
Angie for teaching me fencing
Spotty_Dog for teaching me knitting
TRJenn for teaching me her organization skills for homeschooling( in case I would decide this)
Sylvia for teaching me to care for and ride a horse properly
Julie/Vishenka, as a personal stylist
Crispin's Crispian/Cassy as a nanny/Au Pair until she becomes a Dawkter's wife

[Momo]

A few months ago DH and I pulled out all the paper work, that the previous owners had left behind, for the pool they had installed just before we moved in. DH took apart the filter system and hosed down our cartridges to clean them off. I told him they looked pretty bad, I mean heck they were coming apart! I said "let's just buy new ones." He said "no way, they guy just hosed them down last year so we'll do the same!" Then he put them back in, added chemicals and voila...clean beautiful pool . Well he said he was gonna keep it up ... a month later it was green again from lack of attention .
I recently went out and cleared it up AGAIN
( this was the 2ND time since DH hosed down the cartridges , that it had turned green). *


I rehired the awesome pool people we had our first year here. My ILs when thye lived w/ us for 6 mos, pressured DH to drop the weekly cleaning/maintenance service?????!!!!!! :banghead: :banghead: get this "Because they could do it for us. I mean after all, they sat out there sipping their morning tea and watched him/ the pool guy, use his little net on a pole and his long brush... they didn't see him caring for the pump, filter, the spa features, testing and adding chemicals....therefore when it started turning green DH kept saying "I thought you 2 studied what he did when he came??? You said you could do it??!!!" Well as it turned out THEY NEVER SHADOWED the guy they just sat on their duffs thinking that it just needed brushed and skimmed with the net ...I told DH they were nuts if they thought they could handle it and he was whack if he believed them or even thought about humoring them !!!!! Well I lost that argument and we had a mess. We hired a different service last year and it seemed like it was a different stoner showing up every now and then...too many no shows , so I canned them.

Fast forward to this week! I have the old guys back. Our old cleaner got reassigned to us, an older gentleman from Iowa that retired out here. He noticed the self cleaning wasn't working properly , ours is a self cleaning pool, therefore it doesn't need vacuuming.So out came the repair side of the business. Well today the guy tells me after spending 15 minutes (w/me watching) that our filters are shot...and boy it was soooo obvious once he took off the cover and showed me! So he proceeds to tell me that the cartridges(we need 4) will run between $125 and $150 each WTH plus labor billed @ $35 per 1/2 hour!!! I then say "that sounds steep, because when I shopped around a few months ago they were anywhere from $65 to $99 each?" He gave me a BS story. I told him I'd get back w/ him...well I called the company that manufactured my type of system and found out that the guy I found on line is extremely reputable and has great pricing. So I ordered all 4 @ $64 each, avoided sales tax, and only paid $8.95 in shipping. Everyone I spoke to today said that I have one of the easiest filter systems made and that people w/ my system usually just buy and put the filters in themselves. We have just big tube cartridges that you just lift out the old ones and put in the new ones, close it up and turn on and that's it. If you maintain ( not let it go green) they can last up to 5 years easily...so instead of 500-600 for the filters and 35 to "install"...I will only be out $256...I still owe the shiest-er $80 bucks, to tell me what I told DH months ago ...oh well @ least he said that was the problem and nothing else.



* everytime the pool goes green the filters get mucked up and you need to pull them out and hose them down.

[Momo]

Wowza!

Well here I am the day after DH's 1 week @ home vacation ended & a week before DS1 & DD1 go off to Montessori!
I am feeling a bit of anxiety.
Starting tonight the kiddos will eat dinner @ 5:30, then bath time, into their jammies, then bed time hopefully by 7:30! I plan on waking them @ 6:30AM to do a dry run of what our mornings will be like. I figure after I nurse & change DS2 I'll just strap him into the car seat (he always falls back sleep for a few more hours) and leave him in my bedroom until it's time to go. I need to be out the door by 7:50, then we will drive to the school & I will drop off some paper work. I will do the same trip in the afternoon to see what traffic will be like. I was upset when DH said that
he probably won't be able to take them in the mornings.I think Mon & Thur are the only days he will for sure be able to swing it. His NP can always see the first patients on those days ( clinic/his office appts).

I need to take DS2 to the pediatrician's tomorrow for his 2 mos well baby check up(even though he's 3 mos now )
I am staying w/ my old practice and seeing the nurse Practitioner that I liked from a previous sick visit. There is another physician there that I haven't met yet, so I will try her out next time.


I can't believe I will begin my " mini van era" next Mon! This is it... the beginning of life on the go

[Momo]

What a week!
New beginnings, birth, and possible death!

My 2 older kiddos started off to montessori last week (8to3 5 days a week)! They seem to really enjoy it!

My sister gave birth, last Mon to little Clara Grace. They decided not to know the gender before hand. She was a peanut like my 1st born. 6lbs 19 & 1/2 in. They seem to be adjusting well. I am hoping we can swing a trip back to the mid west this fall!

My oldest brother got engaged!There will be a June wedding!

[Momo]

I didn't want this in the same post about the good news of my family,
But I definately wanted to write about it, as it has been thought consuming .



**!! Note: The following contains a graphic tragic tale

A girl I knew from childhood was horrifically burnt in a fire @ her home. She's the cousin of my life long best friend. When I called my friend (S) to tell her about my sister's baby, she was just getting ready to call me about her cousin "J" .

Over 70 % of her body has 3rd degree burns. Her head, as well as her buttocks and back were burnt the the most. They all expected her to die that night, but she wound up breathing on her own. She was rushed to to the burn unit in Indy @ Wishard, and then had to be transferred to the children's hospital because of her petite stature.


My friend said she will not visit her unless it is clear she will survive. She has been told by the relatives that have seen her, that it is too horrific for words. She will be blind, apparently her contacts were in when she caught fire. She survived the first surgery for removing the destroyed skin, and as of Sat was still alive;She is of course in a induced coma.

She is in her mid 30s, unmarried, no kids. She recently went back to college and was working hard on trying to get her life back on track , after the unexpected death of her only sibling a year or so ago! She said she had hopes of getting married & starting a family.

She was a smoker and they believe that it was a lit cigarette that ignited the floor & the recliner that she had dozed off in. I am just in disbelief that it happened to her, that it was so bad AND that she is still alive. She will be unrecognizable she will or has lost her fingers, toes, ears & nose and possibly her hands and feet. She is on dialysis.

I know this may sound bad , but I feel awful that she is still alive ..I will just pray for mercy, and that she won't suffer. Many in the family feel the same way...her poor father is beside himself.

Her house, as well as a few others on her street are owned by her dad & other relatives...they all were there, when I believe an aunt pulled her out( the aunt suffered some burns). A nurse & her family were driving by when they saw what was unfolding, she pulled over and immediately began directing them on how to care for her until the EMTs arrived.

Today is her second surgery;they will remove some more burnt tissue & graft some cadaver skin. Her prognosis is bleak at best. They are amazed she's lasted this long...it's soooo tragic.


I hate it because I keep seeing her as a little girl that I played w/ on occasion when I was visiting my friend...this is the type of thing you don't even wish on your worst enemy.

[Momo]

Re: somewhere between hysterical laughter and hysterical tears

My BFF called today ... her cousin (the one I mentioned in my last blog)Jocelyn, passed away today. She held on for 5 &1/2 weeks. Her father Tom is in a dark place...he lost his only son (suicide O/D) not too long ago, and now his "little" girl/only child is gone. Her heart failed while they were clearing her lungs ( she had pneumonia, and massive infection had set in).
They put her back into a drug induced coma about a week ago. Had she survived long term, they had told her father she would have eventually had to have 3 limbs removed...he said then that there was no way she would want a life like that. During her conscience moments she was able to communicate through blinking...she couldn't speak and apparently her vision was gone, but she could hear and was able to blink. She was in her 30's...and was so ready to get her life on track...things were rough for her after the sudden death of her brother...
God rest your soul Jocelyn.

[Momo]

Re: somewhere between hysterical laughter and hysterical tears

Well I have a feeling it will be @ least 1 more week of coughing & blowing around here!
Sophia is now my first child to be on antibiotics, since they diagnosed her w/ pneumonia. The NP checked her ears 1st , guessing that it was probably an ear infection causing the fevers. When I mentioned that we have not had ear infections yet, she said that was amazing considering the ages and amount of kids...I'll just keep saying "thank God"!

DH is insistent upon bringing his folks over for another marathon visit this winter !!!
I am being so honest when I say I am not sure our marriage can survive it.
I plan on taking the Jenn & Jenn approach by joining a gym. I will just pack everyone in the van in the AM , drop off the older 2 and head to the Y until it's time to pick up!

I have always held back on the stories that I could tell, but this year I will post all about it , everyday & every time something happens or is said.
I will have a record of it, to show DH when he doesn't believe me.

Gotta go, my sick little baby needs me!!!

[Momo]

Re: somewhere between hysterical laughter and hysterical tears

WHAT A GREAT DAY!!!

IT'S OFFICIAL I FINALLY LOVE...YES FOLKS YOU HEARD ME I LOVE WHERE WE HAVE SETTLED FOR OUR PRIVATE PRACTICE LIFE!!!

Today the older 3 kids and I got in the pool while DH continued w/ his power gardening/ landscaping!

We ate a nice lunch outdoors.

The kids were nature explorers throughout the day, they found a catipillar, an earth worm, and an orange lady bug!! These are rare out here(remember we live in the desert)!
We put each one in the official bug jar for around 30 mins, that way everyone had a chance to inspect the insect up close! We then aloowed them to go back to their habitats, where they more than likely will be lizzard food! We have little lizzards, that run around like the chipmunks did when we lived back east!!

Life is good

[Momo]

Re: somewhere between hysterical laughter and hysterical tears

I cut & pasted this from my "This is Ridiculous!" post:

...Our anniversary was Thur. 8 Years!!! We spent that night tending to DS1. Last night while DH tucked the kids in, I made a Walgreen's run and then picked up a romantic meal @ Jack in The Box.
We have made arrangements for our housekeeper/babysitter to come Sat. @ noon and spend the day into evening w/ the kiddos! We are going to dose up on cold meds and try our best to have a day to ourselves! We are going to go out for sushi, and shop for living room, home office and outdoor furniture. Depending on how we feel we will either do Eddie V's (a bit of a drive) or a more local restaurant like Ruth Christ's or Flemming's for dinner.

No fancy dinner I was feeling too sick.
We managed to get out and go to lunch @ Paradise bakery, we sat outside and enjoyed the sunny, breezy weather and reminisced about the last 8 years and how far we come...it sure has been hard @ times but it was nice to connect w/ the deep love that is still there!

We looked @ houses, then went shopping. We purchased a lawn mower & weed eater, a first for DH! He grew up in an a condo/apartment bldg in Damascus.
We did some furniture shopping, but as usual DH couldn't commit; we still have no living room furniture , except for 3 antiques pieces that were mine.
All in all it wasn't a bad day...just wish I had felt better.
Good news, the older 2 are feeling much better and are off to school this week!!!
Hopefully they won't pick up another virus!

The bad news is that the baby has the croup,and DD2 is still under the weatherplus she's cutting molars big time!
Poor thing

DH is much better and I'm getting there!

[Momo]

Re: somewhere between hysterical laughter and hysterical tears

Well this has sure turned out to be a good news bad news day /
First the good news...I spent the morning and early afternoon w/3 rockin' iMSN babes :Kirsty/Bugs, Alison/Spottydog and Kelly/houseElf. We met in Scottsdale and had a nice chat @ a Barnes & Noble. Kelly was wonderful! Just as awesome IRL as I imagined she'd be.
Alison & Kirsty brought along their little men! Alison's little guy was such a hoot, he kept running back to the counter in the cafe section and "flirting" w/ the coffee girls. Kirsty's little sweetie pie was mellow as could be while we all sat and got acquainted. We decided to hoof it to the Cheesecake Factory for some lunch fare. The conversation was pleasant never a lull
(but then again I am a Chatty Cathy). After lunch we said our goodbyes to Kelly and the 5 of us headed back to the south end of the valley. I'm hoping to have Alison&Kirsty over next week!

The bad news is just horrible. One of Dh's dearest friends from back home , who also went through training here, and practices in FL lost his littlest child a couple of days ago. Dh called me when I was driving back from Kirsty's to tell me that their little boy who is just a few days older than my youngest drowned in their pool. Both parents were home, he recently started walking, and managed to get outside he got through whatever type of safety pool fencing they had. It just breaks our hearts. They had 4 kids like us, the older 3 were teens/ pre teens. I am putting a pad lock on the gate that leads to the pool after I get done on here.