Mummy Family

I decided that I wanted to keep adding some of the crafts I have been doing on this blog. I do the crafts as my way to get out some stress energy. Lets face it.. Our life is sort of stressful by itself. Then if you add anything else. Well, I need an outlet. Usually I have some added stress and doing and fixing something nice for my house is a good way to get the anger and stress out.

A few weeks ago I went in search of another craft and ran across a mummy made out of a larger piece of wood. A 5x12 ply wood type plaque. I thought " I could do that with some of my left over wood." I had some 2x4 pieces of wood for another craft and I didn't like it and went in a different direction. It was painted purple and I had another "craft gone bad" and it was green.

I decided to do a little family. A mom, dad and "baby" mummy. I bought some super SUPER cheap gauze at the dollar store so I didn't waste my Super Band-aid brand gauze. In order to get the 2x4's white I did have to use a primer on some of them. Most just had some MAJOR coats of white paint.

I stretched out the gauze and I added the eyes at the end. I tried painting them on and it didn't really work out like I liked. So I used pumpkin stem stickers from Ty's foam pumpkin sets that I got at Hobby Lobby.

I will add a few more "how to do it" pictures when I have better light. But there you have it. A mummy mom and baby with a naked Dad.

The results are in

Our sleep study results and follow up was this past week. I have decided that I really like this doc a lot. She was very honest. But first, a little of the first of the week.

On Sunday Dallas woke up with a horrible sore throat. I decided to take Tyler out of the house for a few hours and let Dallas sleep and then we took him to the instacare AGAIN. I was really hoping that it was "nothing" and he was just feeling like crap and feeling a little stressed. But sure enough the quick strep test was positive AGAIN. I was so so mad. We just got done with Antibiotics from a week or so ago. And here we were again.

So we assumed that there was a carrier somewhere. Monday Ty and I went Christmas shopping and headed home. Got a text message from Aunt Sheena that she was not feeling well and she was heading to the doc. A hour later a text that she was positive for strep.

We learned that strep has a carrier and someone with no tonsils can't carry but can get strep. I am the ONLY person in the house that has no tonsils so we assumed it was Tyler the toot.

Tuesday we talked to ped, got scheduled for his last H1n1 shot and we thought we would test him to see if it was him. He isn't or wasn't sick and we waited for the rapid strep test. Guess who was positive? Yep toot face himself.

2 weeks of antibiotics to see if we can't kill off the germ and off we went. For the first time in his LIFE he will actually take it without throwing up. Did you know they can flavor augmentin strawberry?

Its seems his appetite has returned so who knows maybe he was not feeling well. But he has been much better.

His sleep study results came back. And the honest doc said, he doesn't' sleep a lot. I am sorry there isn't anything we can do.

Ok.. that was the gist of it.. The details:

Ty has awesome REM sleep the first 3rd of the night. He falls asleep great because of his sedation meds. He enters into deep sleep pretty well. Then comes his arousal. Around 3 am he starts arousing from periodic limb movment ( about 5 an hour) and ( get this) obstructive sleep apnea.( he wakes up about 8 times an hour with apnea) At first she thought it was his tonsils but she was not convinced after seeing the rest of the results. He wakes up when he can't breathe. He then comes looking for mom. She thinks that his air way is floppy. That taking out his tonsils will be like taking out part of the dry wall. She really feels like it would be a bad idea. She would really like him off his sleeping meds but at the same time anything she gives him will be metabolized in his liver. He has to have meds or he would be up all night.

He gets generally around 440 minutes of sleep that is about 7 hours. A kid his age should be sleeping between 10-12 hours to help him grow and develop. She is glad we have been putting him in our bed because apparently hearing someone else breathe can keep a kid alive.

I was horrified to see that I was sedating my child and he can't breathe. Here we are sedating and suppressing his breathing and yet he still doesn't sleep. I am at a loss but thankful he has been safe.

So we are getting an ENT consult, not for sure taking out his tonsils but getting them looked at. Seeing if we can make him safer. We are letting him out grow his dose and see if there is anything else we can do. We are going to be checking with his neurosurgeon about a ridge on his head that makes me a little nervous and make sure that his little cute head is still growing. I will be devastated if we are having more issues with his head growth.

Next week ( OK Wednesday) we go in for his phenol shots and serial casting. It was pushed back a day. My tummy is in knots till we get it done. Lots of prayers for Bubba!!

Preschool

Another leg of our transition journey came and went on Friday. I had set myself up for the worst of the worst because if I don't then when something goes wrong I can't seem to control my emotions and have a complete meltdown or major anxiety attack.

This particular part of the assessment is one that most parents of special needs kids dread. We have come from a program that is all about positive. They are encouraging and they are wonderful. Moving to a program after three is very very different. Their job is to tell you exactly where you are and what we are doing and give you options for their schooling.

This is where the fear comes in. No parent wants to hear how delayed their child is. They don't want someone to point out the faults or the "issues" but just want someone to kindly tell them that this would be best for them.

Because we are very positive about things in this house I was NOT looking forward to them. I was not looking forward to having to hear how delayed or how awkward he was doing certain things.

The emotions had been running high all week and Friday was assessment day. We took off to Queen Creek where we met with the PT, OT, Speech and the psychologist. They bombarded us with questions and watched Tyler play and did activities with him. They took him outside to play with his dad while I answered questions and then they came back. Ty wouldn't talk to them but did really, really well with every other task given. Because of his vision impairments they didn't come prepared with every bit of available resources for some of the tests but they saw that he was able to do them.

At the end of the assessment he was going to be recommend for the .... You ready ..... The integrated classroom. The one where they are doing circle time, crafts, arts, reading and all that stuff. That his physical impairments are the only obvious impairments and that with time the speech will come and we will see how the vision plays in.

He really is smart. He does so well. He compensates like a champ and is always on the go to do new things. He is so laid back. He is loving and caring. We feel so lucky to have him in our home. We feel lucky that he is ours.

Oh and he had those ladies all wrapped around his Little finger. What a little flirt!! They LOVED him.

I am so proud of him. Now one or two more to go and then we start school.

Finally hitting.......

Work sucked today. I can't even begin to tell you how bad it has sucked this weekend. My head was somwhere else and I didn't want to be there not to mention how stressful the management has been the last 2 days.

For those that don't know, I am a supervisor there. I run the front end. Usually there are a few of us on shift at a time but there never seem to be enough of us. Someone is always needing the help. Not to mention how incredibly horrific some of the customers are. No offense walmart shoppers you are NOT nice. You treat the cashiers there with so much disrespect and disdain. They don't make a lot of money. Don't treat them badly. They are just there to do their job and try and do their best.

Our store is new. It is in an area that is not overly developed yet and the goal here in Arizona is have a Walmart of every exit on the 202. ( for those in Utah it would be like having a walmart off of every exit on either the I-15 or more closely the 2-15) Those who live in other places .. well every exit on your major freeway. There is a walmart up the street from us and there is a walmart going in between our house and where I currently work. (Not sure which is closer but it is starting to look so appealing.. even the hard manual labor of store set up) So there is not a lot of business at my current walmart. We do get busy.. but not like normal walmart busy. Anyway, being that it is my job to do lunches and breaks and have cashiers for the oh so pleasant walmart shoppers I get screwed. Tonight I was alone. There was no other supervisor to help out and we had 2... that is right 2 cashiers for the Sunday rush. Oh.. and let me tell you.. I had NO ONE.. that is right zero people at customer service and NO door greeters. Customer service closed at 8 PM tonight. People were PISSED.

So this is how my day went at work. Got there at 2 after plenty of melt downs with Ty. Not sure what his deal was but he had some issues all day today. ( at least with me.. I love him and not sure what the deal was. (Of course he stopped when Dallas came in to the picture...) When I got to work I walked past the shopping carts where there were a total of 4. I let management know we needed carts, went and clocked in and still no help. I went out on my own. I pushed carts and got told off by a few people. Not that they would bring their carts back after but whatever.

Next I became a cashier. Being told off again because some price somewhere was wrong and that I didn't have the ads for the people to price match. I then became the customer service person. She needed a lunch and apparently no one else was available.

No big deal. Then came the hard stuff. I was left alone to deal with the rest of the night and the rest of the pissed off people who had to stand in a line. It is just a line. You know when you go to walmart you will be there forever. We are trying. It isn't that we WANT to keep you all standing there getting even pissier. I thought the same thing till I worked there.. I really thought they did it on purpose. We don't.

My favorite line from a customer was that I should let Sam Walton know that the ads he is running on TV that claim to have more lines open and better customer service that we are false advertising. I didn't want to waste my breathe but 1. Sam Walton is dead. 2. We do have "more lines open" .. normally we would have one but I got a person to stay later. 3. There is no customer service. They went home!!

See I told you I was pissed.

Then we get to the break down part. Thats right.. I CRIED!! I was so mad at myself for crying. But I did. I cried. After running the store alone we get the night crew on. They are SOOO not my favorite at all. They left rotten food for the "day shift" last night because they were proving a point. What point? We don't have the people to help us get rid of it. You have more cashiers than I had all night and 23 customers all night. Back off and help out. As a team we sure don't work as one.

So .. that was the end of the night. It made me late and it made me upset. I got home and the boys are all asleep so I didn't even get to be with Dallas for a few kisses and hugs. There are dishes piled way to high to even know where to start. ( I will start them tommorow)

It is finally hitting the stress of the week and how scared I am. We need all the prayers we can get. I am so worried about Tyler having seizures. I can't see them but it isn't something that can't happen given his brain damage. The thought of one more thing to add to his long list is so hard for me right now. We need a break for him. He is such an amazing kid.. So.. those who read... send out the plea. Prayers for Tyler and that we are home FAST!!!

So that is my vent. I know that I am super sensitive. I am hormonal and have had hot flashes all day. I am more emotional than I normally would be an this shouldn't be a big deal.. but it is.

Ok.. I am done.. I feel somewhat better.