Please Excuse My Typos

As I have reviewed a few of my previous posts, I have realized that I have had a few typos. Most of them come in the Title. I usually do a spell check, but it does not check the title. I usually forget this fact and don't check it myself.

I have noticed that often my fingers get ahead of themselves. I have not had any formal typing class/training. I have just gotten better over time. I can type much faster than I used to but my accuracy rate is not that good. (I really need to work on this before I start back at college.) I have noticed that one of my most common errors is typing the word form instead of from.

Please understand that my blog is not called The Insane World of Motherhood for nothing. Here are a few of the normal circumstances under which I am writing my posts:

• With 1 or 2 whining girls on my lap (this is often one handed typing).
• Catching a few quick minutes during lunch or nap.
• Stopping to break up sibling spats.
• Stopping to change a stinky diaper.
• Stopping mid-word because it is too quiet.
• Stopping to kiss a boo-boo.
• Stopping to do numerous "mommy jobs" (far too many to list separately, but you have the idea of what they are.)
• Late at night when everyone is in bed.
• In a sleep deprived stupor.
• While a million other things are racing around in my head.

So if you do see a typo, please have a laugh on my expense and understand that I try my best to catch them, but they occasionally slip by.

General Updates

I know I have discussed things that have been ongoing so I thought I'd update on a few of them.

The bathroom project is just about finished. All I have left is to paint the door frames and put the trim boards in. I will try to get some pictures taken and post them this afternoon or tomorrow.

I can't remember if i had posted about B's knee, but he can't wait for the 8th to get here. He is having the screw removed from his knee. It is working it's way out of the bone and causing soft tissue irritation. We are hoping that as soon as it is gone he will have better range of motion in the knee. We will not know what time his surgery is scheduled for until the evening before. That's the way the surgery center schedules things, which I think is just stupid.

On the lice situation, L has been back since last Tuesday and had appeared to be nit free. I found one nit in her hair today. Obviously they have not taken care of the problem at home. There is something that they have neglected to treat. It is getting so damn frustrating on my end. I hate to send her home for one nit that I removed, but I really do not want to get them started in my house. My girls have thin hair, so if they get it I will not have much trouble finding and removing anything. My hair on the other hand is very thick. It is currently about 4-6 inches past my shoulders so it would not be fun or easy to get rid of any of those nasty things. I would have to ask my mom to come over and take care of it for me.

Kay has gone home and so far I have not heard from her. I'm sure they made it back alright and she is busy getting the boys' school year started early. She is doing this so that she can take about a month off to come help her dad when he is ready.

Sissy has been having horrible reactions to mosquito bites. She got bit just under her eyebrow last week. Her whole eye got so swollen it looked like someone clocked her. We were outside the other evening and she got about 12 new bites. I put hydrocortisone cream on them and gave her some antihistamine. This really helped to keep them from getting as bad as normal.

If I have forgotten anything that you want to know about, just post a comment and I will address it.

SOME

Sissy has started saying another word. We are so excited!!! She brought me her cup pointed to the fridge and said some. She also brought a package of pretzel sticks & cheese to me pointed to it and said some. She has done it a few more times so I guess it's not just a fluke. I guess she has heard me say "do you want some juice, etc." enough times to associate some with what she wants.

I guess grandma was right. She predicted that as soon as we made the appointment to get her evaluated for a speech delay she would start talking on her own. I did get a call today letting me know that 2 of the therapists that I chose have accepted Sissy. The SC will send them the folders with Sissy's info and they will set up the appointments with me.
Hopefully we can get it all done soon.

Getting Back to "Normal"

Since Kay's mom has passed and she has returned home things are beginning to get back to "normal" around our house. She was planning to stay to start the process of going through her mom's things but her dad is not ready for that to happen yet. She told him to just call her when he is ready and she will make the trip back up and stay as long as is necessary to get it all done. I am sure that it is very hard on him.

With normalcy returning the kids are settling back into their usual routines. One of these is fighting constantly. Jay loves his sisters, but he does not know when to leave them alone. Zee will scream and cry when he is trying to hold on to her and even with us telling him to let her go and leave her alone he will not stop. He spent 2 days with grandpa and it was so quite around the house. As soon as he returned her started picking on his sisters. School starts in less than 5 weeks and I cannot wait!

Samantha's Appointment

We finished with Samantha's intake appointment. We filled out all of the paperwork and picked some developmental & speech therapists. They will be contacting the ones that I chose and one from each category will be coming to evaluate Samantha. If she has at least a 30% delay, she will be eligible to receive services.

The service coordinator (that's what I was trying to come up with in the previous post) explained the process which is as follows:

1. Referral -- Call made to EI by the parent, physician, etc.
2. Assignment to a Service Coordinator (SC)
3. Intake Appointment -- SC comes to child's home to gather all needed info & explain the process to the parent(s)/guardian(s). P/G selects therapists to evaluate their child in the areas that delays are suspected.
4. Evaluations
5. Reports from eval. sent to SC
6. SC reviews reports and determines if services are needed.
7. SC lets p/g know the results of the eval. & whether or not child qualifies for services.
8. A IFSP meeting is done to determine what the goals are for the child's therapy. (This is very similar to the IEP we do each year for Jay's Special Ed. & Speech services at school.)
9. Therapist(s) begin to see the child.
10. Case review every 6-12 months.

I believe I got all steps in there. She also explained that there is a Family Fee that would need to be paid to help cover what insurance does not cover. I know that our insurance does not cover speech services, so I figured that we would have a large payment to make each month. Well I was wrong. The fee is based on your income. The monthly fees are $0, $10, $20, $30, $50, $70, $100, $150 & $200. It does say that families who are on Medicaid, KidCare or WIC, or whose income is at or below 185% of the federal poverty level are not required to pay a fee. Considering that the maximum monthly family fee for a family of 5 is for those whose income is over $144, 780 per year.

I am hoping that we can get the evaluations done next week. I would like to get things going before school starts. I will definitely post again once we have acheived the next step in the process.

Yah, Right Mom

This is the precise phrase that my 3 year old said to me yesterday evening. She is developing quite an attitude; she is 3 going on 15. This phrase I'm sure she either heard from her brother, cousin, day care friend or the TV.

It still amazes me on how quickly she picks up on things and uses them in the right context. Many kids will hear a phrase or word and use them incorrectly or with the wrong inflection. It's the opposite for Zee.

Head Lice - Round 2

After sending L home last week on Monday with head lice her mom decided to keep her home all week. She said that she wanted to make sure that she had gotten rid of all of the lice before sending her back over. I was very appreciative of this.

The problem is when she arrived this Monday I took her mom's word that she had gotten everything out of her hair. She told me that the lice was gone. About an hour and a half later she started scratching her head. I decided that it would be best to fully check her head. Guess what I found. You got it. She was not free of the "headlights" as she calls them. I spent about an hour and a half going through her hair pulling out nits. I found at least 2 dozen of them. I called her mom and her older sister came and picked her up.

Her mom said that she is embarrassed that I keep finding them in her hair. I feel sorry for what she is going through with all of this, but I really do not want to get an infestation at my house. I gathered up the few babies and stuffed animals that my girls had been playing with over the weekend and stashed them away in a trash bag. They joined the others in the basement. I vacuumed everywhere that I could. Sprayed the couch & chair with an aerosol spray that is for killing lice. I washed & dried all of the blankets & throws that I had around, including the ones out of Samantha's bed that L decided to take to use for the baby dolls.

She was free of any signs of lice on Tuesday, she stayed home today and we'll see if she is still nit free tomorrow. I sure hope so!! I am tired of treating the house, just in case.

18 Months

Sissy turned 18 months old this month. I cannot believe that my baby is a year and a half old already!! She went to the pediatrician last week for her check up. She is about average for her height and still below average for her weight. She was 23 lbs. & 31 1/2 in.

One of the things that the doctor said to me was "Tell me she is talking more." Unfortunately she is not. The Dr. L said that Sissy needs to have a speech therapist work with her. She wanted Sissy to get a referral for the program that services children under the age of 3 in our area. She had the receptionist call in a referral. I had already called one in, so they would not do anything further.

I finally talked to the case worker/manager (whatever her title is) late last week. I made sure to let her know that the pediatrician was very concerned as well. We have our intake appointment in the morning. That is the time that they come out and gather more info on the child & family. They also explain the whole process and schedule whatever screenings they feel are needed. I believe they do a developmental screening with all children and then also for whatever area(s) that their delay(s) are in. I hope that they get this process going quickly.

I almost forgot. Sissy started saying a new word. She says ball. It is not as clear as it should be, but it is progress. It brings her work count to 4. Momma, ball, see and either ada or da for Dad. I guess you can't really count ada & da as words, but those are the consistent sounds that she says when she means Dad.

I will definitely update later on how the process is going.

In Memoriam

Kay's mom Pattie lost her battle with brain cancer early yesterday morning. She was taken from this world too soon. She had so much more life to live. The silver lining to all of this is that she is no longer suffering.

Pattie we love you and we will miss you. Please watch over us until we join you in heaven.

A Time to Laugh and a Time to Cry

I sent Kay a bill for her time that she was here. It totalled over $1400.00. She replied that the check was in the mail and she is not responsible for lost or misdirected mail. I told her that her stay here was going to be VERY expensive. I hope it gave her a good laugh. She needs it.

She told me today that her mom left notes for all of the kids. The ones to the boys said that they were her pride and joy. Kay's said that her mom was sorry for not getting her quilt done. I can imagine how sad that made her feel. When I read her email it made me cry. Kay said that she wished that mom had just once told her that she was proud of her. I quickly emailed her back and told her that I'm sure her mom is proud of her and that she loves her. I also told her that I was proud of her. She is a very strong woman and a great mother to her boys.

Where Are The Bugs, Mommy?

That is the question that Zee has been asking constantly for the last day and a half. It is a result of her little friend, L (who I babysit), bringing along some uninvited guests. You guessed it Head Lice.

I have been trying everything that I can to prevent a lice infestation at my house. L ended up with lice last week. She had not been here that much last week and not at all the day that the lice were found, so I was not overly concerned. Plus, her mom said she only found 2 or 3 and I know how meticulous her mom is about treating everyone for lice. Her step-daughter has come to their house for her scheduled weekend many times with head lice. She has always been able to keep it contained to the one child and has been able to get rid of it fairly easily.

Well, I guess there is something different this time. L arrived at my house at about 8:30 and sat at the table to eat breakfast. She reached up to scratch her head, so I decided that it would probably be best to do a head check. I have done so many of these in my years of working in daycare that I know exactly what to look for. I found one louse (singular form of lice) and 2 nits. At that point I stopped looking. It was more than enough for me to decide to send her right back home.

I had to take Jay to his summer day camp or he was going to miss his field trip. I very reluctantly loaded everyone in the van and headed across town to drop Jay off. While on the way there I called L's mom. I let her know what I had found and told her that I could drop her off at home. L's teenage sister was at home, so I dropped her off there. I them came home and started vacuuming like crazy. I went and bout spray for the van and the couch. I bagged up all dolls and stuffed animals and took them downstairs for their 2 weeks of isolation.

As a preventative I bought coconut scented shampoo for everyone to use. I have read that lice do not like the smell of coconut. If anyone has any other suggestions of how to prevent head lice I would greatly appreciate them. Also, any suggestions of how to get rid of head lice that I can pass on to L's mom would also be appreciated. Just leave any of these as comments.

Kay is Heading Home

Kay called me on Sunday to say that her mom is doing better. She is more alert and is again taking liquids and some nourishment. There are alot of things that she needs to do at home, so she has made the decision to go home for awhile. She has lots of things to get done at home. She said that they left in such a hurry that she wasn't able to get everything done that she should have. Also she is wanting to start preparing her lessons for the boys' upcoming school year. She usually starts in early to mid August.

She said that the family was given some literature on the dying process. Her mom is following the process almost to the letter. Kay said that they believe one reason her mom was not taking in nourishment was due to the fever that she had for a few days. They say that running a fever during the process is normal. It is basically one of the stages of dying. Kay feels confident that her mom will be with us for awhile longer. She had originally planned to stay in town until her mom passed, but that seems to be further in the future than we had first thought.

Kay plans to come back afterwards and help go through all of her mom's things. Her mom was an avid crafter. She has TONS of craft supplies, finished projects and unfinished projects. Kay was asked to catalog, write descriptions and photograph each item so that her brother would be able to post them to a web site to sell them. This will take quite some time on her part. Her dad also wants her to research the retail cost of each item, so that they can price them correctly to get at least half of the regular retail on each item. Kay was telling me yesterday that she found a bag of misc. yarns that don't really have any specific info on them. She was saying how hard it would be to research the value of these items. My suggestion was to just keep them together as a grab bag or mystery lot of yarn and pick a price for it.

Personally, I think that the men in Kay's family are expecting her to do too much. I have volunteered to assist as well to help lessen her burden. She wanted to get started on the process while she was there this past week, but her dad did not want her to do that yet. I guess he doesn't want to see his wife's stuff leaving until she is actually gone.

So if any of you are interested in buying some craft supplies I can give you the information of where to find them once the family is ready to start selling.

Bathroom Update

I went and bought a new gallon of paint yesterday. The color that we were planning to use in the bathroom ended up being way too dark once it was on the walls. I choose another light shade of purple. I wanted to go with something completely different from what I have in any of the other rooms.

I put the first coat on most of the bathroom this morning and had to wait 4 hours before re-coating. While I was painting the first time B was upstairs trying to replace some of the parts in the tank of the toilet up there. That particular toilet was in the house when we bought it and was in ok shape, so we left it. I have no way of knowing just how old that toilet is, but I do know that it is not one of the water saving varieties. Well, B was having some major difficulties with parts being too corroded that they did not want to come apart. I suggested that maybe it was time to go ahead and replace that toilet. B agreed, so we went off to the local home improvement store and brought home a nice new toilet.

Knowing that I was not happy about having 2 toilets out of commission he kept telling me we still have one working toilet. After getting that toilet installed I went to put on the second coat of paint. I decided that since we were taking things apart upstairs that we might as well replace the faucet as well. I got one for free that was new in the box as a left over yard sale item. B was having some trouble getting this task taken care of in the confines of the vanity so I finished it up for him. B is not the most handy person, but he is getting a little better.

I am not the most handy person, but I am more so than he is. I remember when we were first dating her needed to replace the wheel bearings on his car. His dad tried to help him as well, but I was the one who ended up doing most of the repair. My dad and brother always did all of the repairs on our cars and I often was needed to assist. Dad also did almost all of the repairs around the house as well. Another example was two years ago when we had only a few days left to get the car's emission test done before facing the possibility of a revoked license. The car needed and EGR valve replaced to pass the test. I was pregnant with Sissy at the time and I believe it was November or December (Sissy was born in mid January). B was having alot of trouble getting to the parts that needed to be worked on in the tight confines of the car's engine compartment. His dad also tried to help, but had difficulties as well. I have somewhat smaller hands and ended up again doing the majority of the work. That is a prime example of what a pregnant woman can do. I hate it when women say they can't do anything because they are pregnant. If there are complications and the doctor put restrictions their activity, fine I understand. But when the doctor doesn't give activity restrictions you can do just about anything that you were able to
do pre-pregnancy. This really pisses me off. I have worked with too many women like this. OK, I will get off my soapbox now.

We also got the toilet put back in the front bathroom. All I have to do is finish the painting in there. I was going to do it tonight, but I decided to relax for awhile. I can always finish it tomorrow. I will then be putting a cute butterfly wall paper boarder up in a few days. I also need to get my house back in order. With all of these repairs projects going on I have been neglecting the house cleaning a bit. I am sure that Kay will need to send the boys over again before long. So far her mom is still hanging in there. I haven't heard from her since Friday morning, so I figure that no news is good news.

Kids and Their Pranks

As I am typing this I am waiting for tonight's prank to occur. The last 2 nights I have had a knock on the door and items left in the mailbox or on the front step. Each of these happened between 10:15 & 10:25.

On Thursday night there was a small knock on the storm door at 10:15. I was not fully dressed. I was getting ready to go take a shower, so I decided to ignore the knock. I figured it was a kid due to the lightness of the knock. An adult would have had a louder harder knock. Friday morning when I was checking to see if the mail had arrived yet, I found a note. It said "I Love U Jay. From Ashley". We teased Jay about having a girlfriend, not knowing what Friday night would bring.

Friday night at about 10:25 I was on the phone talking to my brother and trying to get the bathroom painted. I happened to be in the kitchen and heard something hit the glass on the front door. If something hit the glass that meant that the storm door had been opened. I went to the front door, flipped on the front light and looked outside. The storm door was wide open and on the front step was a white plastic Walmart bag. I decided to just leave it sitting there until morning when I could get a better look at what it was. In retrospect, the dog had been barking prior to all of this happening and I just thought she was barking at a cat or something. I guess I will take her barking a bit more seriously from now on.

She was barking just a few minutes ago, so I got ready to take action. I have a flashlight with brand new batteries in it and my cell phone ready. If there is another incident tonight I am prepared to have the local law enforcement get involved. I believe all of these things are coming from the kids who live two houses down from us. One of those girls is named Ashley. My brother wanted me to call the police last night. I decided to wait and see if this was going to become a nightly thing. He argued with me and said that before long we might have a flaming bag on the doorstep that could catch the whole house on fire. I would hope that these kids wouldn't do something like that, but it is a possibility of something that could happen.

I know when we were kids the worst thing that I participated in was TPing a house or two. I think we may have also soaped a few car windows.

Oh, BTW, the bag that was left on the step contains something stinky. I did not open it to see exactly what. I carefully moved it this morning when I went out to get the newspaper. I left it out there but a bit away from the steps. I did this so that if something happened tonight and I called the Police I could show them exactly what was left on my doorstep the previous night.

I wonder if the pranksters will make an appearance tonight. It is currently 10:30 and so far nothing has happened that I know of. My fear is that all of this will next be directed at our vehicles or the dog. She is usually left outside. I want her out there right now, so that if these kids return, she will very likely will warn me that they are around by barking. The only problem with that tonight is the neighbor in between our two houses is dog-sitting again for his daughter. When that dog is in his back yard Jasmine and that dog bark at each other.

Sissy's Speech Issues

All of my posts lately have been so focused on other matters I almost forgot to post about Sissy and her speech issues. I have made the decision to finally make the call to have her evaluated for a speech delay.

She will be 18 months old next week and her vocabulary consists of mom/momma, ada (this means dad), see (she uses this for everything. ie: when she wants a drink or something to eat, when she needs anything, when she finds things.) She has said what somewhat sounded like "juice" a time or two as well as something that kind of resembled "that" (it sounds more like "at".)

I have been told that the first thing that will probably be asked of us is: Has she had her hearing checked? I have not done this, due to the fact that I know her hearing is fine. I was in the living room one day and said something to Zee about going bye-bye. Sissy was in the playroom, which is 2 rooms away. She came running in the room, grabbed her shoes and wanted them on so that she could go too. Once I have the appointment set and have her evaluated I will definitely post about the results.

Company Update

Things have somewhat calmed down around here. Kay and her boys stayed at her parent's house last night. She did bring them over for about 2 hours. She wanted to see her mom and she took her grandma (mom's mom) with her.

You would think that taking care of an additional 5 kids would be tough, but it really hasn't been. I guess all of my years of experience working at day cares has really helped. The only real problem I had today was with the 2 oldest boys, Jay being one of them. They were throwing toys, choking others and biting others. This is not behavior that I will tolerate from kids, especially from a 9 & 11 year old. It really infuriated me when I heard that the 9 year old was biting. I hate it when Sissy bites and she isn't quite 18 months. As part of his punishment he was told that he was not going to be allowed to spend the night here tonight.

I can't remember if I had said in a previous post that B decided to replace the flooring in one of the bathrooms. He thought that we would have it done by Sunday night. When I say "we" I mean his parents. They are the ones who did all of the work, with the exception of removing the toilet.

Well.....We just got the vinyl laid yesterday evening. I tried to paint the area that will be behind the toilet this afternoon. I figured that I would get it painted before putting the toilet back, especially considering how small of a room it is. I have a can of light purple paint that I thought would be great in that room. The color is so pretty in the can, but once it was on the wall it dried very dark in comparison. I borrowed a can of primer from the in-laws and have put one coat over the purple. When I finish with this post I will put a second coat and hopefully get to paint in there tomorrow morning. I really would like to have the toilet working again. B always decides to do these projects at the worse times and they never go as smoothly as they should. Oh well. I guess I should be used to that by now.

One Hell of a Start to My Week

My day started out with a phone call at 7:20. It was Kay letting me know that she was about 200 miles away and was heading back to my way. She had gotten a call Sunday night that her mom had taken a turn for the worse. She was wanting to come back and spend some time with her mom and help her dad with some things. She wanted to stay here for a few nights as well as spending some at her parents' house.

She arrived at around 12:10 in the afternoon. I had to pick Jay up at 2 from day camp. After I got back she left the boys with me so that she could go see her mom. She arrived back at around 7:30. We got the kids ready for bed and cleaned up the dinner mess. B went to bed at 10 something and Kay and I stayed up talking. We finally went to bed around 4 or 4:30. Two of Kay's boys woke up shortly thereafter, but she was able to get them back to sleep for a bit. I was up for the day at about 7:30. Needless to say, I was dragging all day long today. I really should have gone to bed already, but I wanted to check emails and do some blog writing.

Over all the boys have been pretty well behaved. They tried testing me to see what they were able to get away with. I laid down the law right away and they decided that they had better follow the rules.

Now on to Kay's mom. On Sat. she was alert and recognized her husband, but not her kids. By Sunday she was did not recognize anyone and became unresponsive. She also was not eating or drinking anything. The family has been told that with her not taking in nourishment she will be gone in 2 to 14 days. I believe that today is day 3. It seems a cruel way for someone to die. She is essentially starving to death, but these were her wishes. She had stated that if she got to the point that she had no chance of recovery, she did not want any artificial means of support, including a feeding tube. But if that is her wish, I can respect her wishes.

Kid Free Weekend Postponed

I'm sure this does not come as a surprise. Kay and I have postponed our weekend out to a yet to be determined later date. It will all depends on what happens with her mom and how much help her dad needs after the fact. I'm sure Kay will need some time away after her mom dies even more than before. (It seems so callous to talk about her mom's impending death. We know that it is coming and we are not expecting a miracle recovery. I know that miracles happen, but I'm not counting on one. God's Will will be done.)


I know Kay loves her family, but she really needs, no I think deserves is a better word, a break. Her husband travels with his job, so 80-90% of the time she is essentially a single parent. She is a stay at home mom with 5 boys and she home schools them. I have to say that she is a better woman that I am. I don't think that I would be able to handle all of that.

We will get our weekend sometime. It might be several months down the road, but that's OK.

Update

Kay called me this morning. At that point she had not decided whether or not to stay beyond Sunday. In addition to the 5 boys she had the 2 dogs in tow as well. Jasmine would not be very happy if she had to share her territory with 2 other dogs.

Kay's plan was to see her mom and then talk to her dad to see if there was anything that she could be of help with in the coming week. If he didn't need help with anything she would go home Sunday as originally planned. She called me back a few hours ago and let me know that she was indeed heading for home in the morning.

They all got to see her mom and had a chance to say their goodbyes. Her mom didn't recognize any of them though. I'm sure she is being heavily medicated and I'm sure the size or placement of the tumor is also having an effect on her memory & other cognitive abilities. Kay is somewhat resentful of her dad for not letting her come visit sooner. She wanted to come for a visit as soon as her mom was diagnosed. Her dad thought it was best for everyone to stay away while her mom was dealing with recovering from surgery and the effects of chemo and radiation treatments. Her mom had said that she didn't want people seeing her in that way.

I pointed out to Kay that she shouldn't hold it against her dad. He was in some respects abiding by her mom's wishes by keeping everyone away. Plus, nobody knew that things were going to turn out this way. Everyone was operating under the assumption that the doctors were right. That her mom was going to live another 2 years or longer.

Today Kay has come to the conclusion that her mom will be gone very soon. I hate to say it, but I hope Kay is right. I don't want her mom to suffer. It is horrible when people linger for a long time suffering. If it were my mom, I would rather see her go quickly than see her suffering for a long time. I just cannot imagine what Kay is going through. She has been her normal upbeat self when I've talked to her. I would be a basket case if I were in her shoes.

Kay will be coming back sometime to help go through all of her mom's things. At that time she will probably be staying with us. She said that she can probably swing a hotel room for a night or two. I told her that is not at all necessary. Why go through that expense if you don't have to. It might be quite crazy at times with all of the kids, but we will survive. Let's just hope that when they come I'm not premenstrual. I actually think I need to get on that new birth control that they keep advertising on TV. Well, that story is a good topic for a later post.

I Think I AM INSANE

I have come to that conclusion after I offered to let Kay and her 5 boys (age 1-9) stay at my house anytime they want to. I want her to have as much time as possible with her mom. B is not happy about the offer, but he'll get over it.

If we lived hundreds of miles away and one of our parents was terminally ill, I would be very thankful if someone made the same offer. But B doesn't see it that way. He doesn't think of anyone but himself alot of the time. I guess it has to do with being the youngest and having such a large age span between him & his brother.

Kay and her immediate family are getting together this weekend. Kay, her husband, and the kids will be staying at a hotel for the weekend. Her husband has to travel to the East coast for his job assignment Monday. She is thinking about having him catch a flight out of STL that way she and the boys can stay for at least a portion of the week. She was supposed to call me this morning, but I have not heard form her yet and it is after 2 her time. I am planning things as if they are coming to stay, that way I am prepared. If she decides not to stay she might want to a week or two down the road.

Well if they come, it will be quite chaotic here with 8 kids running around. I hope that we all come out of the experience with our sanity intact. I will try if I can to post how things are going while they are here.

Cancer SUCKS!!!!!

Just to recap what I wrote a few weeks ago. My best friend, Kay, is dealing with her mother's battle with brain cancer. Her mom had surgery to remove the tumor and was given a pretty positive prognosis. The tumor was not as bad as they had first suspected and gave her a prognosis of 2-3 years with radiation & chemo. They also said that it might be possible for her to get 5 years or more. Well, all that has changed.

I just received word that Kay's mom is not doing very well. She was taken to the ER on Monday with a suspected UT infection. She was transferred to the larger hospital where she has been receiving her cancer treatments. They did multiple tests, including an MRI. The brain tumor that she had had removed is back and larger than ever.

The doctors say that radiation and chemo are pointless. With the rapid progression of the cancer it is just a matter of time. They have given her only a few weeks. Arrangements are being made for hospice care. The family (Kay & her brothers and their families) usually gets together over the 4th of July every year. They had postponed this get together until Labor Day weekend knowing that mom would just be starting out with her treatments. They are now making arrangements to have the get together ASAP.

It just seems so unfair. They were so positive after her surgery and now everything has gotten so much worse. All I can really say about this is CANCER SUCKS!!!!!