heather__ , 28

[font=georgia]I can't WAIT till this Friday.
Smudgie is driving me nuts with the cone on her head. She won't leave her stitches alone so I have no choice but to keep the cone on her, but she's such a little brat! She's been keeping me awake at night with her "exploring" (basically she's running into stuff and yelping cause she's scaring herself).

Brian's working. He got called out last night. I'm hoping he'll get sent home, but I won't know anything for sure until he calls me.

President Bush signed a bill into law that benefits Brian a lot. It's a rail safety bill (I forget the spiffy name of it) and we're hoping to see it go into effect next year. It'll give Brian more time off between trains, more rest days (he'll have six days working and two days off versus the six days working and one day off he has now), there's a cap on the number of hours he can work in a month, there's a cap on the amount of limbo time he can have, there's new conductor certifications that are required, and there's lots more but I'll quit boring you to death. I'm so thrilled that it was signed into law.

Seth's doing well. I finally figured out that nothing I do with him is going to please his teacher. She sent a note home on Thursday stating that Seth needs to practice cutting at home because he can't cut a perfectly straight line. *sigh* I know he's supposed to be able to do certain things, but cutting a straight line is something that has to be learned. Regardless, I'm working with him as much as I can. He's enjoying coloring a lot more than cutting right now. He does a really good job at coloring when he sits down and pays attention to what he's doing.

Seth can also write his name now! He has trouble with the "S" sometimes but that's it!

We got Seth's school pictures back last week. He's absolutely adorable! I'll have to scan one of the pictures and post it in here.

Brian's little bro wrecked his car over the weekend. He was driving into work and rear ended a 3/4 ton pickup truck. The roads were slick and we think that's what caused him to wreck. The guy that he rear ended even said that Brandon was following behind him around six or seven car lengths and the cop didn't give Brandon a ticket or anything. He just has a totaled car now. He didn't have comprehensive insurance so insurance won't pay for the repairs.

Here's a pic of it:


Brandon's not hurt other than where the air bag got him.

I've been in hiding over the weekend. I haven't went anywhere or been outside of my house. My sperm donor's family is in town for a funeral (my sperm donor's brother died) and I received an anonymous email on MySpace about it. Apparently the brother that died kept in close contact with someone that knows me and kept getting info about my life through this person. It's scary, to say the least. If I know this person, who's to say that they won't bring my sperm donor's family by my house? I want absolutely nothing to do with my sperm donor or anyone in his family with the exception of a couple cousins and an elderly family member that I've kept in contact with. The cousins aren't involved in their dad's life (which is one of my sperm donors other brothers) and the elderly woman has always been a sweetheart to me and my family.

So, yes, I've been in hiding. My mom's hiding out as well. She's not going to church today because my sperm donor's family will be there "mourning" and it's not something she wants to deal with.

I also found out that my sperm donor got remarried for the third time. He married a lady with two young girls. I just hope he doesn't treat those poor girls the same way he treated me and April.

I'm gonna run and take a shower now so I can get started on the massive piles of laundry that need done today.

Have a good day!

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cm_nghs

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[font=georgia]After being on a waiting list since late July, miss Smudgie is officially spayed.

She hasn't taken to it very well. She went to the vet on Friday morning and I picked her up Saturday afternoon. The anesthesia knocked her flat on her butt for most of Saturday. She was grumpy, to say the least.

I had to go to the vet's office today to get her a cone because she won't leave her stitches alone. She doesn't like it, but there's not much I can do. I'll take it off of her when I can keep an eye on her all the time, but at nighttime and when I'm not home she wears the cone and she's NOT liking it. The poor baby just lets it drag the ground when she walks sometimes.

Even with the cone, she's eating and drinking fine and she's a lot more alert so I'm not too worried about her. I just hope she adjusts to the cone soon.

She goes back to the vet around the 14th to get her stitches taken out. It's a quick in and out trip and I don't even need to make an appointment.

I had to separate Smokie from Smudgie. Smokie will take a swat or ten at Smudgie at any given point. I figure it's because Smudgie probably smells like the vets office. So, Smokie's in the laundry room (Smokie can jump -- Smudgie can't) and Smudgie's out with me. Both cats have their own food and litter boxes. I pay attention to Smokie every time I'm in the laundry room, which is multiple times daily.

I can't wait till this is over. It's so stressful, but I know having Smudgie spayed was for the best. I don't want kittens and she was at the point that she was going into heat every two weeks.

Think about me. I know it may seem odd, but it's taking a lot of extra energy to keep things running smoothly in the household cause I'm giving extra attention to an animal that needs me.

In other news, Brian's still holding the Grafton pool turn. He's on train number two for the pay period right now and he'll bring home train number three tomorrow night. Thankfully there's no school on Tuesday so Seth will get to see Brian for a little while before he heads back out to work.

Brian thinks he might be bumped off the pool turn sometime this week. I hope not, but I know it can happen. I'm just hoping that it doesn't.

We still have Glenn's truck so we're a two vehicle household for a few more days. It's nice to not have to run Brian to work at odd hours. I'm really, really hoping we get a second vehicle this coming year. We're going to buy it outright because we can't afford another loan payment right now.

I need to get myself to bed. 5:30 comes awful early in the morning. Plus I'm sure Smudgie will be up in bed with me sleeping most of the night and she snores so she'll keep me awake...

Why do I end up with the eccentric animals?

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[font=georgia]Nothing new to report, really.
Brian's still on the pool turn. He's worked three times since taking the pool turn. It's good money, but I hate having him gone so much. I whine about him being gone now, but when he's stuck on the extraboard and not working very much I'll be whining about him being home all the darn time, haha.

I had to call and fight with insurance today. They've been denying all our medical claims for the past few weeks saying that we haven't filled out a paper that they sent us. We did fill it out and mail it back at the beginning of the month, so I guess they either never received it or are slow to update their records. Either way, it's fixed now (even though they wanted to talk to Brian instead of me) and we should start getting the readjusted claims sometime in the next few weeks. As sick as we've all been this month, they picked a heck of a time to decide to lose paperwork.

Smudgie went to the vet this morning to get spayed. I'm hoping to pick her up sometime tomorrow. She's going to be my baby for a few days. I remember being cut open and how much it hurt. I'm hoping she'll start calming down and maybe even become a lovey kitty after she heals.

I'll leave you all with pictures now.
There's some of our pumpkin carving adventures at home, a few from Seth's school party on Thursday, and a couple from trick or treat on Thursday night. Enjoy!

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[font=georgia]Pictures of our ventures at Glenn and Tanya's carving pumpkins and at Trunk or Treat at my mom's church are at the bottom. You get a sneak peak at Seth's Halloween costume -- even our families (other than my mom) don't know what his costume is!

Brian's doing tons better. He has 2 more days left on his antibiotic. I'm now in process of convincing him to get a doctor to check out his high blood pressure. It's one of the things that's part of his Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

Seth's doing tons better. I got brave over the weekend and tried letting Seth have some foods with milk in them. What a mistake! He had HORRIBLE attitude for two days while the milk was in his system. I won't try that again anytime soon. No milk and no food colors is definitely the diet we're sticking to with him! He gets calcium from his rice milk and he has a multivitamin with 100% of his vitamin D value in it, so I'm not concerned over him losing any nutrition.

Brian decided to take the Grafton pool turn again today. It's good money ($275 per train!) but it's very busy. With one car, it's going to be hard. Brian's planning on getting his dad's truck for this week (Glenn had hernia surgery this past Wednesday and still can't drive his truck cause it's a standard) but after this week we'll be doing a lot of juggling with the car. It wouldn't be so bad if the weather wasn't cold (we could walk to and from school), Seth didn't have oodles of doctors appointments and school activities (doctors appointment tomorrow and a Halloween party Thursday), and if we didn't have a million things that needed done.

One of the million things we're getting done this week is Smudgie's getting spayed Friday morning! I'm thrilled, to say the least. She's back in heat (AGAIN) so I'm ready for this to be OVER. I'm hoping she'll become a cuddly kitty once she loses her hormones. I'm just worried that something's wrong with her because she's been going into heat every other week for the past few months. I'm hoping it's just a hormone imbalance or something.

Seth's still doing really well in school. He got his daily behavior paper on Thursday and it had stars on all five things we were having problems with! How exciting! I just hope it continues. Seth absolutely loves school. It just about killed him to miss the two weeks he did due to his pneumonia/pink eye/ear infection. He even told me that he missed naptime!

We went to Glenn and Tanya's today to carve pumpkins. They bought a pumpkin just for Seth to carve, so that's what we did with part of our afternoon. Brian's little brother was in town visiting, so Seth was super excited to see him.

We also had Trunk or Treat at my mom's church this evening. Seth enjoyed that as well. April went to Trunk or Treat and I toted her around to all the things she wanted to do and pushed her around outside when it was time to go get candy. I swear, if it wasn't for me, no one would've helped April at Trunk or Treat and that makes me so sad. Yes, my mom would've helped, but she was in charge of snacktime so she was busy tending to the rest of the kids and couldn't devote her full attention to April. Regardless, April had a blast and got tons of candy. Seth got lots of candy, too, but he can't eat a lot of it. He understands, though, and that's good.

I think that's about it.
I'll shut up and post pictures now.
Enjoy!

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[font=georgia]We are having a heck of a run with Seth's pneumonia.

After six hours in the ER, it was confirmed today that Brian has acute bronchitis. He's on an antibiotic and cough medicine. He was coughing so hard and so often that his chest hurt to the point of bringing him to tears and requiring oxygen while he was in the ER. That was scary! It takes A LOT to make Brian cry. In the almost nine years I've been with him, I can count on one hand how many times I've seen him cry.

Brian's also out of work for three days, which means he can't work till at least Sunday. It sucks, but if it makes him better then so be it. I'd rather lose a little bit of money than lose him.

I'm thankful for Brian's amazingly good insurance. Both of his medicines cost us $14 out of pocket and the ER visit will be billed to us and should only cost $25 ($50 if the insurance company decides it wasn't a true emergency). I'm also extremely thankful for Brian's good job and his amazing union rep.

Glenn had surgery to repair a couple hernias this past Wednesday. He's recovering at home and doing pretty well. I took them over dinner tonight (it cooked in the crockpot during our ER ordeal) and I think I scored a few daughter-in-law points. We're going over to Glenn's place this Saturday to let Seth carve pumpkins. Glenn's going to sit in his recliner and try to do it with Seth.

I'm feeling tons better than I have been the past few days. I think I might have started trying to come down with what Brian has but my body fought it off. I still have a little bit of a cough, but that's it. I figure I'll have that for a while.

Seth went to school today (Thursday) for the first time in two weeks. He missed out on learning 3 letters and he's totally bummed about it, even though he already knows them and the sounds they make.

He's also doing amazingly better in school. His teachers are starting to see a dramatic change in his behavior. He's been so good that his teacher sent a note home telling me not to worry about having a conference with her this coming week (it's parent-teacher conference week) unless I felt it was necessary. Yay! We're doing something right somewhere...

Halloween is coming up too darn fast! We have lots of cool things planned this coming week -- Trunk or Treat at my mom's church on Sunday, a Halloween parade at his school next Thursday, and trick or treating Thursday night. We're only taking Seth to family member's houses this year. I figured with his diet that it would be best to do it that way.

Hmm, I think that's it in our ever-interesting lives.
Think about us and hope that we beat this string of sickness and that we all get better soon!

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