The Guests are coming! The Guests are coming!

Twas 3nights before Christmas and all threw the house people were scurrying to clean up the house! Why does the story not start that way? Probably because it isn't very catchy. Well we are scurrying about. We are spending tonight cleaning from top to bottom. The Other Half's folks and Bro come into town tomorrow. They will be staying with us until Friday! While we clean tonight the other half is going to try to hon his mad fire making skills. That way we can have a proper fire on Christmas eve and Christmas. Sounds cozy doesn't it?
I have to tell you we must be crazy. We really should be locked up. We have volunteered to host Christmas Eve at our house for my sister, her hub, my mom, and my fam. Then Christmas day is The Other Half's entire family.
In order for the kids to have fun on Christmas day, and stay out of the way, we are rushing to get the floor finished in the basement. It really is a must. They will have a play room therefore keeping them from running threw the kitchen in an attempt to go upstairs. Mayhem! So we are hoping we can get that project out of the way by Christmas eve afternoon.
I am really hoping that The Other Half's mom takes the lead in cooking on Christmas day. I have found I am a spastic perfectionist like my Grandmother. Which means I freak out in an effort to get EVERYTHING out on time, all the while alienating/scaring family members. It isn't pretty. We will see...
I have almost all my shopping done. Tomorrow the last of it should be finished. I just love shopping or making things for others for Christmas. It's one of my favorite things to do all year long!
Well I should get to work on the house...I wonder, if I procrastinate further do you think the house will clean itself? I better not wait and find out. I am off!

Sorry so late, Updates!

Let me start out by saying all of your prayers have been appreciated and have helped so much! My cousin was released from the hospital the day after my last blog! She is on the same heart meds as my 70 year old Grandmother, but she and Tallia are doing well!!!! The doctors decided to release her after her heart was able to behave for a 2days straight. The meds she currently is on shouldn't harm Tallia either. We are all so happy! Unfortunately, because of the heart condition, my cousin cannot go into labor. They have told her it will kill her. So at the end of March, I believe, they will do a C-section for Tallia. She will be a couple weeks early, but they have determined that she is very healthy and it shouldn't harm her at all. So ,for now, my cousin and her unborn daughter are enjoying lots of rest and relaxation. Thank God for modern medicine!!!

Now, the reason I haven't updated in a while was the morning after my cousin was released from the hospital The Other Half had ACL surgery. We were so naive to think he would be up and moving by the weekend, WRONG! He was having allot of fun trying to steady himself on crutches as he hobbled his was to the bathroom with me right at his heel ready to catch him at a moments notice. Well, I was going to try to catch him, anyway.... So for the last couple of weeks I have been nursemaid and mom. Exhausting! C has been great. She has been on her best behavior. G on the other hand.....After 4days he found out all daddy could do was yell at him from the couch when he was misbehaving. Man that kid is smart! He would continue being naughty until I came around a corner and then it was Stop! Drop! and Run! It was an adventure I will tell you that.

Even though he was laid up The Other Half managed to hobble to G's first big Psychologist meeting. It was our first meeting with the Doc so it was just grown ups. It was so nice to have him there. He remembered to mention things about G that I had grown accustomed to, but aren't "typical" behaviors. He also had things to say about how G is around him that is different from his time spent with me. So it was a good meeting. We both came out of the meeting feeling hopeful. I am feeling overwhelmingly hopeful that this woman will help point all of us in the right direction. Her testing will be done tomorrow afternoon and then March the 12th we will find out the results. We will know whether our son has high functioning Autism, like preliminary test have shown, or is just ADHD and slightly delayed. This will also help the school, and us, decide which schools in the district he should attend for Kindergarten and what programs are available to him. We are so scared to send him to Kindergarten next year, but these tests will help to ease some of that. It's yet another life line we have been given during his dimly lit journey. Thank God for it!

My highly injured Other Half also managed to shock me with a surprise birthday party last month! I was completely floored! I had no idea! It was so sweet. He managed to get about 8 of our friends to brave a snowstorm and eat Mexican with us for my bday. They all worked together to make it so special, it was so sweet. My friend Mimi came up with some party games, Other Half bought a round of Margaritas, and we all just chatted, sang If you Like Pina Coladas, then we made wishes. Mimi had collected milk weed pods over the summer and was trying to think of something to do with them. So she came up with this great idea that we would all take one, go out side of the restaurant, open them, blow the fluff out and wish as it flew into the snow flake filled air. The pictures she took turned out so cool! I will have to get them from her and post them. After that we finished the night with lots of hugs and car donuts in the snow covered parking lot!

To all of you out there, again, thank you soososososososos very much for your prayers on behalf of my cousin they are truly working.

Vacation Over, Update on My Cousin

Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, we flew out of the States on Thursday and headed to the UK for the Other Half’s gig. We arrived on Friday in the Uk. We hung out with friends. The gig went great on Saturday. We headed down to London on Sunday. Then we were on a flight out of the UK around 7am their time, which would have been something like, 2am our time! Yuck! Needless to say I am jet lagged. I will blog on our vacation tomorrow and give pic. I am so tired that this will be more of a summary piece today.

First off, thank you all for your prayers for my cousin and her daughter. They are both still stable. As I posted I visited with her briefly last Tuesday. She was doing better. Well, Wednesday evening her heart started to spike again. I guess they were giving her oral meds that are easier on the baby and hoping that would be enough to get her heart back to normal. Well, it wasn't enough and it started to spike again. So, they had to bring in the University Hospital to consult and it was decided that they should give her intravenous drugs. That helped but it's not so good for Tallia, the baby. They took an ultra sound of Tallia and her weight is a little over 2lbs. There was talk of giving my Cousin a c-section because it would save Tallia, but the chances were not favorable for my cousin. Hearing this, my mom called some ladies from our prayer group and they weren't down immediately to pray for my cousin, Amanda and Tallia. Amanda wept and thanked them immensely for praying for her and the baby. As of Friday she had stabilized, some what. From what I understand there is still a possibility for a C-section if Amanda should go into some form of arrest. Amanda is so scared of dying. And we all know that Tallia's chances aren’t that great either. So please continue to pray. Their situation is still touch and go. I am hopping to go down and visit her today. They don't allow a phone in her room, so I can't call and talk to her personally. I am appreciating all of you thoughts and prayers. Many thanks!

Yet Another Update

Visited with my Cuz for a very very short bit. She said the Drs. think she always had something wrong with her heart but the pregnancy exasurbated it. She said the meds she is on finally feel like they are working. She said her heart beat kept going up to 245 yesterday. The baby ,little Tallia , is, in my cousins words, " doing well, for now." My poor cousin looks so tired. I can tell she is worried aobut her little girl. Please continue the prayers.
Thanks

Monday Munchies

Most of you who have been reading my blog know that my son G is on a special diet that helps to curb his Sensory Processing Disorder. G is on a low/no gluten diet. Having one person in the house on a special diet can present problems for the chief of the house. Many of the gluten free products taste "funny" to the gluten loving palette. Not to muntion that gluten free is not cheap! So I am always on the look out for a good middle ground. I have found that in Gillian's Foods Gluten Free Pizza Dough. You can find it almost any health food store. I purchase mine at Whole Foods. It runs about $5, but it is a dough the whole family can enjoy. You treat it as you would any other frozen pizza dough. Even though it is gluten free, wheat free, and lactos free it tastes "normal". So for those of you with a family member or a friend in need of a yummy gluten free, wheat free, lacotos free food. I highly recommend Gillians Pizza dough, not just for them to enjoy, but everyone else as well!

Bon Appetit!

I love Christmas and family. I love the shopping, giving gifts, decorating, and having family stay with me. It's nice, even when it isn't. Thankfully there weren't any real dramatic episodes to report this holiday season. I enjoyed my house guests. I enjoyed visiting all types of family. I just hated having to observe some of my family. Let me explain. Christmas eve eve was nice, until I got into a heated discussion about Brittany Spears with my sister. BRITTANY SPEARS?! Who argues about Brittany Spears?! We do. I didn't realize until much later that my critic of Brittany's mothering skills was, in a way, a critic of my sister's mothering skills. So I fought with myself over my feelings of guilt over inadvertently dissing my sister, but not really feeling all that guilty about it.
Then there was Christmas. Christmas was wonderful, it really was. We finished it off by visiting my Dad and stepmom's house. It seemed like a perfect way to end the evening, and it almost was, except for the fact that my dad is an alcoholic. Some people don't think this is a problem because he is not a mean alcoholic. I, however, find his alcoholism to be a problem, because it isn't good for his body or our conversations. My dad talks forever about the same subjects over and over again when he is drunk and you can't get away. All I can think of during our conversations is how sad his state is, how much I know he doesn't want to be this way, how awkward this all is, and how can I get out of here! I know all I can do for him is pray. Nothing more. Sometimes I worry about he and my sister. My grandma tells me not to. She says I've always tried to save people and that I can't save anyone who doesn't want to be saved. She's right. So when I worry about them, I get into some major prayer. It really is all I can do.
So, with this you are probably saying, 'this doesn't sound like a wonderful Christmas.' It was because I was able to spend a good amount of time with all of my family. Everyone enjoyed their gifts, I enjoyed mine. This holiday also opened my eyes even more to my sister and my dad and sisters problems and helped me to resolve to pray for them more. I also hope the conversations my sister and I had will bring about some epiphany for her. I know it did for me.