Prayers & Pictures from the recent past

Yes, I said I would be better at Blogging, today I will catch you up on my life.



First and foremost, I ask that you pray for my friend Morgan and her family. She’s a 7 yr old ball of fire and today she is going her 11th cardiac surgery. Morgans long story is found on her CaringBridge site. While it was updated in February w/ great news, Morgan began a rapid decline soon afterwards. She has a big brother and a little sister, and tons of friends are supporting their family through this.

Now on to the random photos of the past few months …

Remember when I was so sick in February?


I did manage to sneak go out for one night of fun with friends.
A great friend of mine is Jacob Merlin and he has one of the BEST bands in Portland, soon to be hitting up Seattle and Tacoma! I manage his Merchandise for him as well as his Blog (which we just started). This is just some of the fun from that night.




 




Michael is his guitarist. Talk about TALENT!











Oh, while I was sick in February, Abigail broke her foot. Yeah, THAT was (not) fun!












Tim insisted on taking me out for a date night, it was Applebees. We discovered that after 9pm they sell Jello Shots made in orange peels!  He couldn’t resist. While I was tired, it was fun and a needed break.








We needed to get Abigail out of the house … what do you do w/ a kid in a wheelchair?












You go BOWLING! David wheeled her up to the ramp and she let the ball roll down!


This is a special place for us as Mark and I bowled league here for years and later on, Mark and David bowled here together.





What’s the saying? March arrives like a Lion and leaves like a Lamb?
Well for me it arrived w/ Shingles! (there are more pictures on that post if you want to see them)










Easter arrived any my girlfriend Katie and I decided to make chocolate covered Rice Krispie Easter Eggs. It was a ton of fun.







…. well there is quite a bit more to add, but that’s for tomorrow…

Less than pleased...

Abigail was sent to us sick. Very sick.
Her Mom came down sick on Sunday, very sick.
Abigail went home Sunday night.
Tim woke up sick.
Abigail and her mom went to the doctor today.
Abigail has the Flu and rec'd the vax because she has Downs Syndrome and a heart condition.
Abigail's mom has H1N1.
There is an approx 40% False Negative on the H1N1 detection test (according to my Nurse neighbor who just came back from a major training on it).

Leads me to believe we've ALL been exposed to H1N1 and are on our way down. I started coughing this afternoon. I have never been one to use Purell and Lysol wipes, but I'm heading to the store right now.

I am less than pleased w/ the Ex-wife. She gets pissed at us if we bring Abigail home and "expose her daycare" to anything, but never has an issue with sending her to us sick without telling us first.

Dear ex-wife;

I am writing today to express my frustrations with you. I wish that you would sincerely take this to heart and see what you are doing to Tim and your daughter.

This weekend is a perfect example of "things gone wrong", you see, you promised your daughter that she would go see Mimi and Papa this weekend and then come spend the week with us. Then that changed to going to see her Aunt and having a sleepover there before coming to our house, and then last night, on the way down, you decided to bring her straight here instead. Ya know, when we told you that we weren't able to make it up on Friday you said that you had set up a TA Training on Friday and Saturday and that you would need to find a babysitter for your daughter; how is it you were able to deal with a "Peanut that is being difficult today" if you were out Training?

I'm happy to say that the negativity she showed towards me disappeared w/ in 5 minutes of you leaving however TODAY she is very, very, VERY upset that she did NOT see Mimi, Papa or her Aunt and cousins. As a matter of fact, she has her bag all packed and at least once an hour since she woke up, she has brought all her belongings upstairs saying "Mommy said we're going, I'm ready". She calls us LIARS and screams and stomps her feet when we say "You're staying here, Mommy is on a trip". She honestly thinks you are back at home and going to take her to see her grandparents. In fact, she thinks you're going to be home when she gets there Tuesday, even though she is having "special Sissy time" with her older sister. She told me this morning "Mommy is taking me to school Wednesday" and was VERY upset when I explained that Mommy wasn't home and would be gone all week. I took the brunt of that maneuver for you, you're so welcome. I'm used to being the bad guy, just add it to the list of lies I've told her.

Now, about the food she was eating when she arrived to our house, why is it ok for you to take her for Dairy Queen and feed her hamburgers, french fries and Blizzards but WE aren't allowed to do that? I can't recall the number of times over the past 18 months you have said "Oh she's supposed to be on a low fat diet", in fact SHE tells us she's not supposed to eat "that stuff" and yet you feed it to her yourself? Stop being so hypocritical.

Well, that's all for now, I need to go cook dinner for this crowd and unpack Peanuts clothes for the umpteenth time today. (oh ~ please tell me why you don't want me to wash her clothes, what don't I do right?). Oh... one final thing, this attitude I have, yeah, well I've learned it from your "snappity snap" daughter. Duuuuurrrrrrrrrrrr ....

Sincerely,

The Step-mother

She who forgets

The text message arrived at 8:30pm last night:

Peanut had one hell of a day so we got started later than expected so I apologize for it being later than expected but I really think it’s best if I bring her straight to you then I’ll drive till I’m tired and get a motel. it makes more sense than keeping everyone up.

Uhhh WHAT?? Thursday night we talked and you said you were bringing her here Sunday afternoon! David was getting ready to go to bed, we were going to watch a movie and enjoy a quiet night.

Tim texted back and said “We were expecting her tomorrow afternoon”; To which she responded “Oh yeah, I forgot”. You FORGOT? You FORGOT!?? How in the world do you forget that you’re leaving for California on SUNDAY and suddenly do it on Saturday. I just don’t buy this “I’m going down there for training” bit. Sorry, There are just so many things that don’t line up in your story.

And so we waited … and waited … and at 10:30pm we got a phone call, “Hi Daddy, I’m here”. The ex won’t even come up to the door. We have to go out to the street to get Abigail. We are handed a bag of garbage from Dairy Queen, Abbie is asked if she wants to finish her blizzard, she can even have Moms (wait a minute, doesn’t she go nuts on us when we do fast food because she needs to be on a low fat diet?). Grrrrr … and we are handed 1 bag of clothes for the couple of days we will have her. Hmmm and what’s that in the back of your truck? Hmm they look like CAMPING SUPPLIES not “training” supplies. I give up, seriously, this lady is absolutely nuts! I try so hard to be nice, to her face I am, even when Abbie is nasty to me in front of her mom. The first 5 minutes with her in the house were hell, and then she changed, like a switch was flipped.

Now, if we can get this kid to stay in her bed all night and not wake us up constantly.

It's Friday!

We're still 12 days away from the start of school, my son is bored to tears (literally, he cried last night about being so bored).

Today we're going to finish his bedroom transformation that was started on ... oh ... April 28th! Yes I AM that procrastinator. Life has just been in the way, seriously, STOP LAUGHING at me! Better now? Good.

So on the topic of life getting in the way, we were supposed to head up to WA for a couple days, pick up the step-daughter, go to a 21st Birthday BBQ for my Kings' neice and then visit my sister in law and brother in law tomorrow. They recently relocated from CA to the same town that one of my Kings sisters lives in. However, if you recall, my King lost his job almost a month ago and the money just isn't in the budget.

(Here's where it gets good) Sooooo we contacted the Kings ex-wife and let her know of our change in plans (funny, we have no problems ~other than grumbles and laughs ~ when she changes plans but when we do it we screw up her entire life). She's bringing the step-daughter here Sunday afternoon and we will bring her home Tuesday. Why Tuesday? Well because she starts school on Wednesday. Now ... you are surely wondering, WHY is that a problem? Well I suppose it's not, but the reason ex-wife is gladly dropping her off here (because it doesn't happen, believe me) is that she's going to CA for a week. WHAT??? YOU ARE LEAVING YOUR DAUGHTER TO DO HER FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL ALONE? Well not alone, her older sister will get her off to school...but Come ON! How many moms, especially one that calls almost daily crying when her daughter is on visitation here (even if it's only 2 days) telling her "baby" that she misses her so much, misses the first day of school for any child, especially a special needs child?

Ok, I had better stop, because the mean, nasty side of me is going to rear it's ugly head. I try so hard to be a good christian, but bottom line, I'm human and this woman really really tests all my beliefs in people. Breathe, breathe, breathe ....

My king is making yummy omelettes for us to eat ... off to enjoy.

Saturday = Chaos

• Dog barking and whining to get out of his kennel
• girl kicking about between us in bed
• girl wakes up and lets dog out of kennel
• dog pees, which is why he was whining
• i take dog outside
• girl is running around singing "YMCA" and "we shall overcome" as i try to watch the Tour de France...

it's sheer chaos around here, Happy Saturday.

Wow ...

What a week it has been ...

Father's Day
Ed McMahon passing
Anniversary of my husbands passing
Dougy Center burning down
Farrah Fawcett passing
Michael Jackson passing
2 kids all week
1 dog all week

and a boat load of laundry to show for it all....

guess where I'll be hanging out!!

Naptime

Yes ... this is Abigail taking a nap in all her bedding, in the laundry room.