Thank you God

Sleep I got some sleep last night! Matthew did not get up except to take pain meds 2 times! And once he did not really wake up too much. I got to sleep for hours straight! No one woke me up! Thank you thank you God! I feel soo much better today. After a full week of no sleep really it was getting bad in this house.

Anyway I will try to do an update later today. I have things to do like drive to Mom andDad's. Cut Dad's hair and then bring miss Lisa back here to my place. I have teaching her and Lisa C to make cake balls. And since they both wanted to learn so much easier with both here. And it just so happens that Lisa C needs some for school. So we will be making them htis afternoon.

Tonight we are renting a movie and watching it. Dennis hopes we can find Bride wars to rent. So we will see. But I will try to update when I am bored with watching a movie. You know me. And I may just get those pictures downloaded by then!

Matthew is feeling much much better he seems to have crossed that line of feeling good finally! He still complains of his ears hurting but it is nothing like it has been. I knew this day would come but it seemed to take forever!

So I am off and I will return and I will return much happier I know!

Happy 10th Birthda Samantha

oh how far you have come baby girl of mine.

You turned 10 on me this year. And it has been a rough year for you. Your birthday really got messed up with your brother having surgery the day of your birthday. Then the next night we had dinner with Grandma and Papa but it too was hard because Matthew was still in pain. And we forgot to eat your cake till Sunday. Not my best moment as a Mom. You and I have struggled a lot this year. You have grown up so fast. As I looked back at these pictures to find some of you I am amazed at how small you were.

And how far you have come sweet girl of mine. Soon I know it will be time when boys instead of girls will call and I will have to tell them to go far far away. I know make up will be brought up soon as I know many of your friends wear it now. But just so you know you do not need it. You are beautiful. I hope you know it. But I must say your attiude could use some adjusting. I love you but man girl you are even more stubborn and ornary then me. But you too will learnt o control it and your temper. All people do. Well at least we hope so.

You have gone to Gillette this year you have seen an eye specialist and an ortho. I must say I hope someday you stop making me see specialists to. But no matter what we love you. And we will love you as you ge tolder and become more and more like a teenager. And most days you are more like a teen then Stephen yet but we know our days are numbered with both of you.

I know it was not your birthday of dreams but I hope this year will be a year of blessings for you. I pray as you grow you understand that sometimes as a Mom I just can not make things right but I will always try to make it ok. I fail but I will always try again. And I will no matter what love you with all my heart. Happy Birthday sweetheart!

and the day started out so very well

they day started out well really. Matthew cut back to half doses of pain meds. I am hoping it makes him poop soon. So far not though. But after cutting back on pain meds he willnot rest either. he cries becaus ehe hurts and I htink it makes it hard for him to sleep. He told me he is so tired his eyes hurt but he doe snot want to shut them.

So even though he did not want a dose I had him take more meds and at least now he says his kneck feels better.

Poor Mini is on the same antibiotic as Matthew. he is not pooping hers is making her butt sore. So it has been a long day here. And nothing done once more. But soon right? Soon they will be good and let me get things done?

Dennis is on his way home from work and I have to run to wal mart. i had hoped to go out with the kids today but it just did not seem like a good plan. So I will run this afternoon. And then try to get somethings done tonight.

rough times

It is rough in the household of the Alexander's right now. Matthew has slept most of today. Or cried. We are struggling to get liquid down him. He has not ate anything. And the dream of having all the popsicles he could eat is not a friend to him now.

Dennis and I were hoping today would be a better day but it is not yet. I think he over did it yesterday. I think he felt ok yesterday afternoon and we let him do too much. And by last night he was not doing so good anymore. And by the middle of the night he was not winning with the pain meds. I am so hoping tomorrow is better. Dennis goes back to work tomorrow and the older kids go to school. And I will be home alone with the little ones.

And since yesterday afternoon I ended up taking Mini into the doctor for her ears which turned out to be strep I have 2 really crabby little ones here. Matthew is calling for me. I must go. But pictures will just have to wait for awhile as he wants Mom all the time.

turned a corner

At about 3:30am Matthew finally turned a corner. He slept. He stopped crying in pain and he slept sound. He also for the first time made the 4 hour mark without crying at the 2 hour mark from pain.

I am so happy to be around that corner. He is sitting downstairs with Stephen now playing a game. And Dennis Lisa and Samantha went to a breakfast . SO it is just me, Stephen. Matthew and Mini home. And I am cleaning since no one needs me this second.

I will try to get on later. I have posts to post. Including Samantha's birthday one. But not right now. I just do not have it in me.

we are home with Matthew

And he did good in surgery. He is in pain and not wanting to eat or drink so we are trying. The pain meds do not seem to work if you ask me. Better drugs is what little kids deserve.

But he is alright. They said his tonsils were really big and the tube went in good and his adnoids came out fine too. So now we just have to get on top of the pain. Of course he is crying from pain now and no more meds can be given until 3:40pm. Hate when kids are in pain.

Anyway I will update again later whenhe is feeling bettet. It will be a long day here.

Going to go get Lisa

I am off in a few minutes ot the airport to get Lisa! Yes she will arrive this morning. And she will stay here to watch over the other kids while Matthew goes for surgery tomorrow. I love her!

Anyway I will update later! Got to go! Got to go drive with those other million people who drive down in the cities!

did you miss me?

I did not run away. I did not even have really sick kids. Are you not just proud of them? We had Tia and Kent and kids over for supper on Friday. Then Rachel called during the day and her Dad was having chest pains so I had her daughter Faith for the day.

Well then after school I had her older daughter to. Well so they all stayed for supper too! And since Rach got home about supper time she came to supper to. They her husband stopped over and since we had planned a fire they all stayed for the fun! And well then the neighbors came over to visit. They wanted to check on Matthew. Yea so if you can believe it I ran out of beer. Well i did not run out of beer but I ran out of cold beer because I was not planning on an extra 4 adults who drink beer. But we had fun and we sat out at the fire till 1:30am and watched the fire burn out. (well it was still burning Sat afternoon) but you know what I mean.

Sat Dennis and I went to dinner on Nancy. She gave us a gift cert back at Christmas and we went and had a steak sandwhich! Awsome is all I can say! And then we went moonlight bowling. I bowled awsome really. I had a 221 the first game and a 170 something the 2nd game. Third game I threw Dennis' ball because he did not think it curved. (it does) But it was funny anyway.

But mostly this weekend we hung out at home and laid low. We bought Samantha a DS for her birthday. And she has been busy making up for lost time with it. And Dennis got a new game from his birthday. And so he is starting a new one there. Got to love it. Quiet is life here. I still have htis cold but I am hoping it is gone here soon.

I will post pictures soon. I am going through and renaming pictures as we speak. And I have to clean out my frig as my milk leaked in it again as it got put on its side and it had a leak. I hate taking that thing apart to clean it. So you will have to wait for a better update on us. As I should be cleaning! shhh don't tell anyone I am on here!

Look at my score

Yea view it people! I was so excited I could have fallen over. But do not get too excited it was a no tap game but notice the 7 real strikes and the perfect 300 score for me! But I only had a 261 the game vefore so I lost by 3 pins. But we had a good time. I got 3 awards for the season. Including my 75 pins over my average and a 500 series.

I never did earn my patch for filling all frames but there is next year people there is next year!

I wil lpost more pictures later from the banquet. We had fun and got to eat lots of food too!

My seeds

These were taken before the hospital too and I need new ones as some of them are way different now. And well the tomatoes half died and I had to replant. Because i left them on the deck when I went to the doctor. Then I never came home an so they stayed out all night. Not good for baby tomatoes. They died like a lot! the squash and watermelon pulled through but I have reseeded a great many tomatoes.

The herbs were just coming up here and they are getting way taller now. I can not wait till they are big enough for me to use!

Playing so nice

These are from before Matthew went into the hospital. You may wonder why is she taking these shots. OK you most likely think that about a great many I post but well these are just funny.

Notice the jump rope in there? Yea Mini is pulling Matthew down the street. How funny is that!? Not only did she pull him down the street but up the driveways and then let him ride down. They had played so very nice together.


Also you may notice Mini has her long pants one leg up the other down. No one is real sure why she does it but most days at some point you will see my daughter walking around with one pant leg pushed up and the other down like it should be.

Matthew at Children's

Matthew never got that he went form one hospital to another. He never remembered he rode in an ambulance. He thought he got a bear and balloon from Children's. It came from Mercy. He slept. I was so glad.

We arrived at Children's at 2am. Yea we looked bad already by that point. I will not scare you with the shots by 5 or 6 am. It is not good looking!

How is it such a small cute little tummy could cause soo very much trouble on such a cute little boy I am not sure. And his tummy looked no different. But something was sure going on in there.

The sedative worked most of the night on Matthew he slept from 11pm till 7am with very little breaks of waking up. Mostly just to throw up and go back to sleep.

I spent a lot of the night watching his Sat's and his heart rate. Whenever it went to 130 he threw up. I got good at watching it. And his o2 made me nervous as it would never go above 97 and would drop as low as 85% but then you just shook him a bit and reminded him to breath and he was fine.

me and that clock hated each other. I swear the time moved slower just to bug me. It never seemed to get later and tests to forever. I hate waiting have I ever said that?

Yea what else do you do at night sitting by a bed but take pictures of a clock so you know when things happened.

Dennis passed out for a short time. I know I did too a few times. Our head resting next to Matthew and just passed out hoping the night would pass and news would come. A lot of waiting and not knowing what was going on.

At 7:30am Matthew woke and finally felt good! I mean good! And so we went for an x-ray and then an u/s to be sure the obstruction had really cleared.

you want to know what put this happy smile on a little boy?

getting to have a drink for the first time in 19 hours! And since he kept it down we were out of there and on our way home!

Now we just have to keep an eye on him that it does not come back. He goes for a follow up today to have his ped just take a look at him. I will be glad to see her.

Thank you God for watching our son as we sat waiting. I know it was all the prayers that were being said for Matthew while we were in there that made this correct itself and no surgery or anything was needed.

Now next week is a trip to the hospital for his tonsils and adenoids. I am so not looking forward to that after this.

Our little ambulance ride

It did not take long once they put in the call for us to head to Childrens for the ambluance to come. And they loaded Matthew and I into the back. Yea I got to sit by him and hold his hand. This was a much better experience then when Stephen rode down to childrens from Grand Rapids.

Matthew slept the whole way. Only reaching out for me one time the whole trip. They did put him onto oxygen for most of the ride as his o2 sats dropped a bit. It has been up and down a lot the whole night after all the meds he had got.

Matthew's Mercy hospital stay

Our day started out great. We had lunch with a friend. We played, then we went home and Matthew took a nap as did Mini. Yea a perfect day so far if you ask me. I was sewing a sweatshirt. At 3:15 Matthew woke up and was just crying. I thought he had a nightmare or he was not awake and had to pee. He told me yes he had to pee but I had to carry him he hurt too much to walk. And it got worse as time passed so since Mini had an appt already to see the peds I took him with. I had 2 crying kids when we walked into the clinic. We got seen 30 minutes early. And she looked him over and sent us to the ER. She and I both thought it was his appendix.
This is how Matthew laid until they got him some pain meds. Holding that right side. Not a happy boy is all I can say.

When we got to the ER Matthew was just in pain. Out in the waiting room for 3 hours and Matthew started throwing up. On their floor in the garbage. Good times! After they seen him throw up for the 6th or 7th time they got us back right then.

The iv part for Matthew was not great. They tried once to get it in. The vein did not hild and they had to put a new one in right away so 2 pokes before pain meds sucked! But once the antinause meds went in it slowed down the throwing up.

But we used a lot of these anyway! Like 10 or so! Yea and just so you know contrast getting all over me a second time now is no more fun then the first time! Really why make people drink the stuff. I know no one who has kept it down!

Dennis came ot hang out with us which was nice. Matthew was a happy boy to have both of us there.

Pain meds made for a happy boy! Funny as all get out trying to talk! We all laughed! He told the doctor his side did not hurt just his heart and then pointed to his side! OH we laughed!

The ER doc thought his appendix would be coming out soon. So we drew fro white blood count. It was perfect. SO we had to drink the contrast and go for the CT scan.

Please refer to above on my thoughts on this!

But thankfully the meds made him sleep. So for him he was ok with all the waiting that goes on in the ER. His Mommy not so much!

The CT scan showed a bowl opstruction. Not his appendix. And so they put orders in to transfer him to Childrens Minneapolis as they do not see this ever. So off we would go. Onto our next stop the ambulance.

a really long night

Just so you all know I am home. Matthew is home and so is Dennis. I will post all the details later but it was a long long night of not knowing what was wrong with Matthew but he is ok now. It involved 2 hospitals and an ambulance ride and tears from Mommy and Matthew. We are going to go to bed. I am setting the phone to voicemail as I need sleep. Dennis needs sleep and Matthew needs sleep to. Mini she is taking a nap because she loves me.

frustrated with doctors

Ok can I say sometimes I think doctors think families with insurance have unlimited money. That our insurance pays 100% of visits and therefore really not a big deal to have to come back everyday or so to fix something they did that really I knew was wrong in the first place.

I just want to scream! Mini and her ear infection are driving me batty. I took her into urgent care yesterday because once again I could not get into our clinic. Which in itself is driving me nuts that half the time we have to go to urgent care which costs us more anyway. So we go to urgent care and yes she has an ear infection.

So the doctor says we will put her on amoxicillin. I told her we had that a month ago. I thought it had to be at least 6 months before she goes back on that. She said no as long as we knew her ear was better form it we would use again. OK maybe I am wrong here.

So I leave and call her reg ped and check before buying an antibiotic I do not think will work. Her nurse calls back and sure enough nope she would not give that but she will not call in a different prescription without seeing her which can not be done till the next day. Yea so I have a choice. Listen to her cry for another night with no meds or give her the meds and bring her in the next day still and get a new med then. OK great so now because I could not see my reg doctors I get to pay 3 doctor visits in the end and 2 meds co pays.

Yea we are made out of money and it is a good thing our money trees in the back are in bloom because between Mini and Matthew The doctors are making out his year!

OK my rant is done. And we are looking into different clinics where you can be seen same day and all that fun stuff. I hate this. Have a good day everyone! As it is sun shining weather here and i plan to enjoy it all!

Happy 3 years of blogging

Can you believe that it has been 3 years since I have started this blog. I never thought it would become this blog of so many pictures and so many updates. I thought I would come update once in awhile and post new pictures of the kids. It has become a way for me to make sure I am taking pictures of my kids often. I love that I can look back for almost any day of the year and see my kids. At least 1 or 2 of them. And that at least once a week I can see all 4 of them. I know what we were doing each week because I can come look it up.

My first year from April to Dec I only had 158 posts, 2007 I had 317 and 2008 620 posts! I seem to be much more into writing now. And to think in 2008 I split and quit posting embroidery pictures over here!

I have added the embroidery blog to this one. And you know I love coming to share my family with others. So happy 3 years blog!!

My inside garden

So my seeds started to come up last week! Yes they did! My egg plant just starting to come up.

This is watermelon, not any watermelon but watermelon that they say will be 200 pounds! Yea I know they will not be that but so excited that all 6 seeds came up in the end. I have new pictures of my seeds. Egg plants are up now as are some of the hot peppers. No roasting peppers are up yet or the bell peppers but I expect any day now they will be.

My herbs are up though now. Cilantro and parsley and oregano are all up.

These are tomatoes 4 different kinds. Beef steak, Roma, pear and sweet 100's

Here are the spaghetti squash up and growing. Not they are much bigger!

So tired

Mini has been sick with a cold. Well the other night she fell asleep eating supper. I could hear snoring and there she was sound asleep onthe bench. Poor thing! I just hope she gets to feeling better soon!

Last night of bowling

We are done. These are form our roll off night for first place. We lost. Though we were sitll happy as you can see. Of course Lisa got me to laugh by licking my face but what can I say!

Sp we tppk 2nd place over all for the season!

tired people and puppies

Dennis found me and Twitch sleeping the other night when he came up.

He took too long coming upstairs and we must have fallen asleep waiting on him. The red chair has become twitches spot to rest. It is in my office so he can sit and watch me sew right now.

Just so you know

I have a voice not lots but it is there. I know you are all dying to know that. Also, I know everyone who has talked to me today says I sound bad but I promise I am beter.

Bit I was up most of the night with a child. I would say guess but you would get it wrong as for once it was not my Matthew crying about his ears. it was Mini. Taday we went in and yes you guessed it and ear infection. In her left ear this time. So yea for us! I am off to get her meds here in a minute and then I am hoping she is feeling better soon. Like so we can sleep tonight.

no voice

I have no voice literally. My throat was sore htis morning but tonight I can not speak. It hurts to try. And so if the phone rings and I do not answer understand why. There is no point in answering when I can not talk to you anyway. I am hoping by morning it is better. Since the kids were so kind as to give this to me. And they did not lose their voice or cough up this amount of junk I am assuming mine will follow a different path. I just hope we are all better by this next week.

I wonder if this cold understands I have things to do? I have shirts that need made and I have people to talk to this week? I wonder if it understands that I am not a person to not be able to just pick up the phone and chat away with people? I wonder if it is possible to itch you throat form the inside out so it stops itching and stops hurting when I cough.

I am going to try to sew a shirt or two tonight yet then off to bed with me. I am washing all the jockets form winter to put away. And snow pants are washed. I still have hats and gloves to do tonight and a load of regular laundry too yet. So I should have time to work on shirts. It all depends if I can sit up that long though. Because a pillow sounds really good right now.

Mom and Dad are going to head back here to the great non frozen North tomorrow morning. With stops in Kansas to see Mark and Iowa to see Linda and Nancy. Then they will be home on the 23rd. I am so ready to see them again. Now if I can just get people not sick in my family so I can see my Mom and Dad again! PLEASE!! I have not seen Mom since my birthday and that is a really long time for me to go without her. Really a week is a long time but this seems like forever. So pray their trip goes smooth and they get home safe and sound and we are all healthy so we can pester them. Well and they can come to dinner on the 25th for Samantha's birthday.

I wonder how much work it would be to throw together a surprise birthday party for her. And get some of her friends here without her knowing? I mean really how hard can it be? Do it this Sat so Matthew is not recovering form surgery or do it in May when she would not suspect a thing. May sounds so much better to me.

Nancy if you made it this far, she wants a white webkinz as that will complete her horse collection. She also would like another underwater pet. She has the gold fish already. Or a DS but she said she did not expect you to get her that but that is her whole list.

I am going to sign off and go play sorry with the kids and Dennis and then sew. Have a good night all!

Happy Easter

I just wanted to say good morning! and I hope your day is a happy one. May you feel the blessings of Easter all around you! We are planning on going to see Judy today for lunch. The Easter bunny was kind to children. They got legos and very little candy. Not too bad if you ask me. They girls got singing microphones. So fun is being had by all children.

potty training

So I have not talked about it as it seems when I say how good my daughter and my puppy are doing at potty training they would go back to peeing on my floor. yes both of them. But Mini has been in undies now since October. And for the most part is doing great at it so I would consider her 100% trained now. But trained is not what happened in this house. It came down to. My Mom got sick I was focused on her and what we needed to do there and I put Mini in pull ups and never mentioned the potty again. And you know what? She trained herself. She asked to go potty and would hold it till we got to the hospital to go potty. She stayed dry for 2 weeks and I told her she needed to go to undies. And she had a hard time at first but then she got tinkerbell undies and she was all on board. And she never looked back. We still have odd accidents because well sometimes the potty the fartherest from you seems like a good plan. And then in hind sight not so great. But we are working on that to. A few times she found it funny to pull said undies down and squat in my toy room and living room and pee. Marking her territory from the puppy I guess. But that too we got over.

And as for our puppy at almost 10 months old her has gotten really good at the whole potty thing. Outside and off my pavers! Though when it was 30below he peed on the pavers and really I did not blame him get the job done and get back in the house. Now that is is nice out he take froever to find that perfect spot to pee again. Now the new job is to teach him to stay in my yard or I will never let him out again! As he finds the middle of the road an awsome playzone!

Teaching a dog to dance

Yea just because Dad is on the floor does not mean you can not work with the puppy right? Right? Mini snaps her fingers. Tricks the dog into thinking he will get a treat out of her and there he goes and dances around on two legs in circles and is all cute. And for what some love of a little 3 year old girl. Who though he still pretends to hate is slowly and I do mean slowly coming around to a little girl. Who will lay on the floor and pet him if he lays by her.

They are very sweet together. And maybe someday my puppy will learnt o love children. Since he has 4 of them he best get on it.

Matthew oh tired Matthew

Since all this has started with Matthew and his ears. And well before even he is so tired. He wakes at night and he comes to find me. I happen to be sewing this night. So he curled up in my chair to stay by me. Never really awake but not sleeping well either. Nights like last night where he comes to find me in the night from a nightmare or his ear popping. I am looking forward to him feeling better. I hope it does what it should do and let my son sleep. All night again. Because In the last year I can count on one hand how many nights he has slept all night. And he has gone form a kid who sleeps till 7:30-8 to a kid who wakes at 6am and is so tired he is whiny and crabby. I miss my little sweet boy.

The hobbit's box

So what do you do with a toilet box? Well of course you turn it into a fort! But not any fort they wanted a circle door. Dennis thinks they are form the hobbit. Me it is scary how close that door looks to my washer and dryer doors! Maybe they want to play getting clean?? Not my kids! They love water to much why play it when you can go get it in the tub! So little hobbits they are!