Christmas Vacation

There is a video at the end of this post :)

Our Christmas trip was MUCH better as far as driving goes. Both ways it only took 6 hours each way. Unlike Thanksgiving where it took 9.5 hours. The kids were much better this time too. When it got to the point where they were extremely bored, we put a movie on the laptop and had it positioned to where they could still be rear facing in their car seats. I was very happy we didn't have to turn them around.

We left on Tuesday the 23rd. Thankfully Clint got off work really early so we could get ahead of traffic. We got to our destination around 6:30.

Christmas Eve we spent with his parents and just relaxed. Up until dinner time anyway. Yeah, so those of you that followed my blog last Christmas, you'll remember that Kayley ended up in the ER for several problems and it turned out to be Roseola. Well, this year she decided she wanted to visit the ER again. Oy. Most kids can safely play with cardboard boxes, the world cheapest toys for toddlers. Not my kids, nope. Instead, Kayley went to reach in the box and fell into it. The flap on the box then sliced the inside of her mouth and lacerated the upper frenulum. The flap of skin between the to front teeth that connects to the lip. Well, she cut that all the way back to her gum line. I was worried about infection and her teeth. There was blood all over, which is to be expected with a mouth injury. I wasn't worried about the blood.

So we got to spend 4 hours at the hospital only for them to tell us that we jus needed to keep her mouth clean. Um, anyone that has kids knows that they put everything in their mouths. So keep it clean, uh...yeah right.

The next morning we had Christmas gifts and the kids got a ton of toys. Then we went to some other relatives for dinner and then went to another one for pie.

The best part though...Clint's brother Bob came home from his deployment. He was supposed to be at Ft. Bragg for inprocessing stuff, and could only get the day off. So we all told Clint's mom that Clint wasn't feeling well and that he would go back to the hotel to get some rest. He was really making the 2 hour drive to go get Bob and bring him back to surprise her. All the while we were convincing Sharon that we would go see Bob the next day. She had no clue. When Clint came back and she saw Bob, she was in tears and so happy to have him home safely. Unfortunately Bob couldn't spend Christmas with his wife and son, since they are in New York, but at least he was able to spend it with us.

Friday we didn't do much. More family came over that we visited with.

Sat. was the big day for the kiddos. We got to go to the Transportation museum. The kids had a BLAST!!! They were running around saying "Train train" "All Aboard!" "Car" "Truck" "Plane". We even got to ride a train for a little bit and the kiddos were so excited.

We came home Sunday. We expected a ton of traffic, and were surprised when we were home by 4:30! I'm glad we didn't spend money on plane tickets. By the time we would have had to be at the airport, parking, waiting for flights, the actual flight, etc. We would have already been to our destination. Now we know that Thankgivings are the worst with traffic because everyone gets off the same day. Unlike Christmas where people travel on different days throughout the break.

The kiddos birthday is coming up! They'll be 2 years old!!!! We don't have anything planned though. Last year they were screaming for both of their parties. So this year, we'll just keep it simple.

Kayley regressed with her potty training while on vacation this time. She would pee a tiny bit in her potty, but within a minute of putting the pull up back on, she would soak it. She is doing better now, I think she got used to going in the pull up as though it was a diaper, so she is back in undies again.

Wed. we will be starting Kaiden on the potty! Clint has several days off in a row, so we figure we should take advantage of that to get Kaiden used to the concept of a potty.

So here is the video of Kaiden sleeping while eating his pickle on thanksgiving. Sorry it took awhile to get around to it.

My fellow M.O.M. tagged me...so here goes...

Ok Heather, here are the answers to the questions:

1.How long have you been together? We have been married for almost 5 years come Feb. We have been together for 7.

2.How long did we date? We "dated" for 4 months prior to getting engaged. Then we were engaged for 11 months prior to getting married. When we started dating, we really only dated for about a month, then we got orders to both deploy to Iraq in 2003. We were both in Germany at the time. So the remaining dating period we would go to work at 4 am and not get off until around 11 pm. Then we would go grab a bite to eat and head to his barracks room where we would fall asleep on the couch watching a movie. We never did get to do fancy dating. Prior to getting engaged in Kuwait, our version of dating would be to get our wonderful MREs (Military food rations) and go sit in his tent watching a movie on his laptop.




3. How old is he? 38, he just had his birthday on the 9th.

4. Who eats more? LOL, it depends. Sometimes I have a huge appetite, but for the most part he eats more.

5. Who said, "I love you," first? He did.

6. Who is taller? He is, by 8 inches :P

7. Who does the laundry? I do. But he helps me fold.

8. Who does the dishes? He does the evening dishes. I do the morning and lunch dishes if there is a bunch. But there usually isn't. I cook dinner, so Clint does the dinner dishes.

9. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does in this house. It really depends on where the bathroom is. I don't like him tripping over me when he gets up for work in the morning. So whichever side of the bed is closer to the bathroom he gets.

10. Who pays the bills? I pay them. The last couple of times I let him, we were almost overdue.

11. Who mows the lawn? Clint does the backyard, the military has a lawn company that does the front.

12. Who cooks dinner? Mostly I do. There are some days where I don't feel up to it, and Clint makes mac'n'cheese or something that doesn't require a whole lot of effort :P

13. Who is more stubborn? I had to laugh at this one, no comparison really. I am by far way more stubborn than Clint.

14. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first I'm sure. I am very shy in that department, so I am pretty sure that he always had to make the first move.

15. Who asked who out? Well, it kind of played out like this. We had some mutual couple friends. Apparently Clint had asked about me to them, but seeing that he was an NCO (an enlisted army officer) and I was merely a PFC (um, very low on the totem pole), he was worried that he would get in trouble for approaching me. I had no idea he was interested in me. I saw his picture on our friends fridge and asked about him. Then they went on about how he really wanted to ask me out etc. Through them we both agreed on going to a mini Oktoberfest in Germany and that was our first date.

16. Who proposed? OMGOSH! He did, but he left a lot to be desired :P See, we were on the border of Kuwait and Iraq the day the war started. Him being all studly like, came up to my ambulance I was working in, and he leaned up against the vehicle, not even on his knees, and his exact words were "So, you wanna get married?" As though he were asking if I'd like a soda or something. I have never let him live it down :P I gave him 7 days to think about it. Then I walked up to him and simply said "Yes" he looked at me funny and said "Yes...what?" I explained "If you don't remember the question, then I can't help you" well, he about died from excitement.

17. Who is more sensitive? It depends. I swear he has as many mood swings as I do. I love you babe :) He holds a grudge longer. He'll let me do about 10 things that tick him off, and I'll have no idea what. Until he starts snapping at me. Then I'll realize, oh boy, I must have done something about 6 months ago that I never apologized for. Like I could even remember what it was. We have tried to get him to work on this :P I explained that it's a whole lot easier to just talk to me if I have done one thing wrong, because by the time he finally spits something out, he can't even give me an example of what I did. He just feels angry still. I'm on the other end of that spectrum. I get ticked off easily, but within a couple of hours, it's no big deal. Even if he owes me an apology, I don't care. I figure getting an apology is just going to make us both more mad. So the majority of the time i just drop it. I get more angry over one thing and Clint holds a grudge. So I think we're about even though :)

18. Who has more siblings? Again, no comparison. He has 2 bio, 3 adopted. I have 6 step, 2 adopted, and 4 biological.

19. What were you doing ten years ago? Dec. 1998. Uh... Well, let's see. I was a senior in High school. I was working at PetsMart. That's about all I remember :P I was pretty busy.

20. Five things on my to-do list: Oh goodness, I have no idea.

21.Things I would do if I was suddenly made a billionaire. Well, I would pay tithing on that. Then, I would get a huge ranch with some seriously nice facilities. We would also have an 18 hole golf course for Clint. A small lake for boating, you know, all kinds of fun stuff. I can dream can't I? :P

22. Three of my bad habits: Yelling at the kids when I'm mad at them. Horrible lack of patience. I don't clean the bathrooms as often as I should :P

23. Five places I have lived: ROFL, is it limited to just 5? OK, I'm going to go with more. CA., AZ., UT., LA., TX., MO., CO., DC., Germany, Kuwait (for 3 months), Iraq (for 6 months).

24. Five jobs I have had: Only 5? Too bad, I'm listing more. Dog/horse groomer, Video store worker, PetsMart, Natural Wonders (kind of like the Discovery store), Rescue Services International (EMT), I was even a rent-a-cop, and an Army Medic.

25. Things people don't know about me: Well, I guess that I was an artist at some point. I sold a couple of my watercolor paintings. Never continued the hobby though. I used to work on movie and TV production sets as a medic too. I met a lot of actors and actresses.

Clint's Birthday

Things have been going well lately. Not much to report. Still having good and bad days with potty training. The kiddos got pics taken with Santa at the mall a week ago and I was able to send out some cards of them. They aren't great pics though. The kids refused to smile, they preferred the deer caught in headlights look.

Clint had his Birthday on the 9th. We had plans to do stuff, but we were waiting on his gift to arrive by UPS but they didn't even get here until after 7:30 at night! So our plans were pretty much shot by then. We did spend the day relaxing (Clint was off work early). We had pizza and I baked Clint a cake. No worries, I don't plan to become a cake decorator. It was yummy either way though :)

The flights to go down to NC are crazy expensive, so looks like we're driving again. UGGGGHHH!! I don't mind being there, I love being with Clint's family. But the drive, wow.

So here are a few pics. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving...

Well we survived Thanksgiving! I was really worried how Kayley would do with the potty training while we were away from home, but I was worried for nothing. Kayley did even better on the potty there than she does at home! She had a few accidents, but that was because she drank a TON! She pooped several times in the potty. What was the most impressive was on the way home. She said poopoo and stinky a couple of times. So we pulled in to a gas station parking lot and put her on her little potty in the back of the van...door closed of course so no one could see. She pooped all on her own without us trying to push her. She just sat down, pooped then stood up with arms raised yelling "I POOPOO, I POOPOO!!!"
She has become a modest pottier (not that that's even a word). She will go much faster when we leave her in the bathroom to do her business. So we have been doing that. We no longer have to use warm water to get her going. She'll hold her pee a lot longer now too. We have been potty training for about 3 months now. But we took 10 days off in the beginning. So I guess only 2.5 months or so. I definately think by Christmas she'll be done. Sure she'll have accidents every now and then, all kids do.

The drive to and from North Carolina was HORRIBLE!!! Apparently every person in VA. goes to North Carolina for the Holidays, and they all go at the same freaking time! It is technically only supposed to be a 6 hour drive, 7 with stops. Oh no, turned out to be 9.5 hours. For only 3 days to actually visit. I guess the one good thing of having gas at $5 a gallon is that there isn't as much traffic. Now that gas prices are down, so are the IQ points of drivers. Apparently 90% of drivers slept through drivers training when they talked about how to MERGE in traffic. It's not complicated people, 2 lanes go to one, every other car...MERGE! Not "get as many people over as possible before the person takes a break from texting on his cell phone and realizes he should go forward now." I mean seriously, we moved 3 miles in one hour. Construction on a holiday weekend, alright dumbies. Seriously, the spot of construction was all of 100 feet. Yet it caused an hour worth of delays. If we were in our F-350 dually truck, our butts would have driven on the side of the road all the way. 4 wheel drive is awesome!

The kids had a great time, and the grandparents did too. I was so stressed, I could have been in Hawaii and been grumpy. I am a control freak, duh. I am not used to my kids having free reign of the house. Not that it was a big deal, there were 4 adults and 2 teenagers that kept an eye on the kids, but I still felt like I was constantly trying to make sure which kid was where. Hard to relax like that :P

The grandparents were amazing with the kids. The kiddos had no problem being left with them so Clint and I could go out on a much needed date. I got to go to my fav restaurant and watch a movie I really wanted to see (Twilight). Clint was a good sport :) We then got to walk through Walmart. As bad as that sounds, I really enjoyed it. You see, out here, the Walmarts are BEYOND ghetto. So being able to walk through a nice walmart was really fun. Out here I have to stick to Target. Not as much variety as Walmart has. Oh well.

We also took the kids to see the new movie Bolt. The kids did amazing! They watched the whole movie and Ky only had to get up once to pee. But that's the night she had tons of pee accidents. In order to bribe her to stay seated she got to drink as much juice as she wanted. Boy did that backfire!

I didn't take any pics because I just wanted to relax and enjoy the moment. Not like that happened, but still. I did get a great video of Kaiden eating a pickle in his sleep. I'll find a way to post that somehow. It is hilarious!

On the way home I really felt like jumping in to a meat grinder would have been more tolerable. Traffic was backed up for over 120 miles. Again, the idiot drivers not knowing how to merge. For 3 hours we were in rush hour stop and barely go traffic. Almost 10 hours of driving total. Kayley screamed for most of that. Kaiden did good, he didn't start screaming until near the end of the drive. By the time we got home I was so angry and tired. I am so glad the trip is over. I loved being at Clint's parents house. Next time we are flying down. I'll gladly pay $250 per person to fly. I don't think my nerves could take any more traffic!

We're going down again for Christmas. At least now we have all the kinks worked out. I know what to expect so I won't be as stressed this time.

Thank you Sharon and Rick for having us! We really did have a good time. Plan on picking us up at the airport next time :)

Kaiden is a natural....

Today Kaiden went with Mommy to the ranch. It was COLD! Kaiden had so much fun though. The ranch is a rescue that also has boarders like me there. I put Kaiden on Bonita and he did great! He was holding the reigns like a pro. He stayed very balanced and was smiling and laughing. Bonita didn't seem bothered by him at all. She was very relaxed. I decided to get up on Bonita with him and we rode around the arena for about 45 minutes. He was pointing at the birds, cats, dogs, and the other horses. Bonita did great! She didn't try to test me or get nervous that Kaiden was up there with me. Debbie (the owner of the ranch and rescue) said that she hasn't seen a child as young as Kaiden do so good on a horse. She wants to start giving him lessons next summer. They have a couple of small ponies at the ranch that she wants to work with him on. I think he would absolutely love it. The next time I go out, I'll be bringing Kayley so she can get a turn on Bonita. I had a wonderful time bonding with Kaiden on our little ride. Here is a picture, it's not great, it's from my cell phone. Bonita was half asleep she was so relaxed.

I'm STUCK!!!

So Kaiden decided he wanted to try and climb over the fence. What he wasn't counting on was how to get down the other side of the fence. He screamed and screamed. Because he got stuck. He was afraid to get down the way he got up, and was afraid to climb down the other side because he had nowhere to put his feet. I let him sit there and scream for about 10 minutes before I put him back down on the fenced in side. He was not happy being stuck and hasn't tried to climb back over since, lol. I think I "tortured" him by letting him be stuck that he doesn't want to try it again. Hopefully that plan works. Kayley tried but didn't get her leg over the top. Which is FINE by me!

The 2 pics above show what the kiddos look like when they eat a banana. It doesn't matter how small I cut the banana, they still stuff their face :P

On the potty training, Kayley is doing AMAZING! She hasn't had really any accidents for over 5 days now. She has been pooping and peeing in the potty. She is starting to let us know when she has to pee instead of us always taking her every hour. She had somewhat of an accident last night. But that was because I was making her laugh so hard she couldn't hold it...my bad :)

We are all getting better now, the sickly bug is going away. Clint and I have some sinus stuff lingering, but we're all MUCH better now.

Next week we will all be going to Clint's parents house for Thanksgiving. It's only about 7 hours drive to get there, so not too bad. It may be a little longer since we'll have to stop and take Kayley potty. Something I didn't have to do on any other drives. We'll see how it goes. I hope that the trip doesn't set Kayley back with her potty training.

We have put Kaiden on the potty a few times and he pees for us, but I'm not going to go extreme training on him until after their birthday. It's going to be hard enough keeping Kayley on track while away from home, let alone both of them.

I have jumped on the Twilight bandwagon, thanks a lot to my sisters Kaci, Jessica, and Ashley. As well as my step-mom Karen. Hehe. they tried for months to get me to read the Twilight books, but I kept saying I didn't care to read about vampires. Well, they got there wish. I saw the previews to the movie and decided that I would give the books a try. I have finished the first and second books, and now waiting on the 3rd and 4th ones in the mail. Clint and I are going to see the movie when we go to his parents house so they can watch the kiddos.

That's about it I guess. Hope everyone is well! Take care :)

Sickly

Sorry I haven't posted much. All of us are sick. Ky had a fever of 103.6 and we took her in. They put her on antibiotics for an ear infection.
Kd is doing fine. Hopefully it was just a fluke and won't happen again. My concern now is that my brother was Kd's age when he started having seizures regularly until he had brain surgery at 19 years old, and he is a twin too. So it's a little unsettling if it was a seizure.
So the kids are getting better, but neither Clint or I have slept really the last week. Now Clint and I are sick, so we're up coughing all night. At least we can take cold medicine to ease our symptoms. Not many options for the kiddos. Mucinex didn't do anything. Benedryl helps them sleep a little but doesn't help the symptoms. They don't need motrin/tylenol because their throats don't hurt anymore. We just have to ride it out. Although I gotta say, I don't think the antibiotics really make that much of a difference. Ky and Kd have the same thing, and they have been sick just as much as the other. They are both healing at the same pace. Makes me wonder if the antibiotics are even doing anthing, since Kd isn't taking them and he is healing just as fast Ky and she is taking them.
Overall, we're hanging in there.

Concussion, ambulance, and ER for Kaiden

SO, last night was quite the adventure.
I went to put the kids down to bed. Ky had a fever of 102. So we had her on motrin. Kd didn't have a fever but he was getting motrin because they both are sick. Full blown nasty coughs and noses.
Their bedroom is completely child proof. Or so I thought. That didn't stop them from not being child proof from each other. We had taken out the toddler beds and just put the mattresses on the floor. Since Kd had fallen out of his crib we went to toddler beds. Ky fell out of her toddler bed, and hit her head and woke up with bruises. So that's when we decided to put the mattresses on the floor.
Anyway, so they were running around the room and ran right in to each other. No biggie I thought, they do it all the time. But then Kd went to step up onto his mattress and slipped. The thing is only 5 inches high. I noticed right away something was wrong. Usually when he falls, he either cries or get's back up. He didn't do either.
I called his name, and his body flopped over. I ran in the room and called his name. He didn't respond. He was face down, so I did the best spine protecting roll over for him as I could. But I was worried that he wasn't making any noise. As soon as I turned him over he went completely stiff. His whole right side of his body contorted behind him. He turned the deepest purple and blue I have ever seen. He completely stopped breathing. His eyes rolled back in his head and was getting even more blue. DH was already on the phone with 911 by that point and they were sending an ambulance out right away.
I started giving him mouth to mouth for about 10-15 seconds and his color returned. Then his body went limp and he still wouldn't respond. He finally would open his eyes, but then he would black out again. The whole ordeal lasted about 1 minute. That was the scariest minute of my entire life. The ambulance arrived within 5 minutes of the call, thankfully we live on a military post with an ambulance on standby.
By the time they got here, he was mostly awake. Still kind of lethargic. He wouldn't talk or anything. He didn't make a sound.
I was in the back of the ambulance. There was an ambulance, fire engine, and military police on scene. Then more firetrucks came in addition to another ambulance. Apparently the call we put through to 911 got confused because instead of just the military emergency response team coming, the Washington DC response team came.
The DC team was called off and we headed lights and sirens to childrens hospital. We were put through triage quickly and sent to the back. They did all the neuro tests on him and by then he was back to acting like his usual self again.
The docs were confused as to how exactly he ended up unconconscious and not breathing. We think it was the way he fell that maybe gave him a concussion. They also said it could have been a febrile seizure, but I explained to him that I used to be a medic and my brother used to have seizures, and that was definately not a febrile seizure. I also explained that I had just taken both of their temps about 15 min. before the episode happened because I knew Ky was running a high fever. But Kd didn't have one.
So around midnight we got home. Ky was still having a fever of 102 and she was shaking like crazy. They were both coughing horribly. DH and I have been up all night with both of them.
That was the absolute scariest night of my life.

I'm a dork...

I feel like I should be writing with a lisp, because that's how I am talking right now. Last night, oh so graceful me decided to do what humans do, eat dinner. I put a pepperoni in my mouth, bit down and tried to bite the tip of my tongue off. Ever heard of the expression "Bite your tongue" who knew that it was a figure of speech. I took it literally. So uh yeah, I couldn't sleep last night because it hurts THAT bad. If you look at the picture, you can see where there is a red circle, yeah, that part hurts bad. The white part, well, that part is dead, it has no feeling in it anymore. It's numb. Maybe with time new taste buds will grow and I'll get feeling again there again. Oy.

Kayley is doing GREAT with potty training. We haven't had any pee accidents in almost 3 days now. Only 1 poop accident too. She has pooped twice in the potty. I think we're actually getting somewhere now!

It's come to this...

Ok, so the reason for my caption...

We have been racking our brains coming up with a cheap solution to child proofing the window in the kids bedroom. By looking at the pics, you may be saying that's a little extreme. But when you have 2 toddlers scheming together, it is a necessity. Anyway, they kept destroying the blinds, we tried stapling and nailing a blanket on the wall, but they just kept pulling it off. They can unlock the windows, which is definately unsafe. The other problem...they take after me, it has to be pitch black in the room in order to sleep at night. They come by it honestly :P

So we finally brainstormed and figured it out. The result works perfectly. The other problem was fire safety. We couldn't just nail up some boards, otherwise in a fire, we couldn't get out. So we came up with a sliding mechanism with wood flooring. It's easy enough to just slide it up. It's hard enough that the kiddos can't lift it up, but easy enough for a teenager/adult.

In order to get the idea across better I added some pics. Clint did the handy man work.

So a little extreme? Maybe, worth getting a full night's rest over...priceless. Ok, it cost a little bit of money, I think the supplies cost under $20 for the whole thing.

Potty training is going great! Kayley has pooped and peed in the potty with no accidents in her underwear for 2 days. She only had 1 poop accident and that was in her pull up while we were out. She is peeing right away on big potties when we are out and about. We were at church and had a dinner at the church after, and Kayley did great. She only had the one accident, and that was the poop one. Last night and earlier today she has pooped in the potty right away!

Halloween continued...

So today was pretty fun. We went to the playground across the street to play before the trick or treater's came. That's where that picture came from.


Then after dinner, I took Kaiden out to trick or treat. He was having SO much fun. He would run up to the house and say "teeotee" then grab the candy and put it in his bag. He was laughing and trying to keep up with the big kids that kept running past. I didn't take Kayley because Clint stayed here to pass out candy, and I didn't want to stress with both of them. It worked out well though. Kayley was the one putting the candy in the bags of the kids. She would laugh, then the next one would come and she eagerly put it in the next bag. Of course, she kept trying to steal some for herself. Turns out it was a good thing I took Kaiden, because we wouldn't have had enough candy to pass out otherwise. We basically just recycled the candy. I don't need the extra calories anyway :)


Potty training and Halloween don't mix by the way. Kayley had 2 pee accidents while we were busy with the trick or treater's, and I was gone with Kaiden. Oh well, tomorrow's another day.

Halloween fun...

We had a church Halloween function tonight. We dressed the kiddos up in pirate costumes. The kids had a BLAST running around and even got to do some TOTing. They were absolutely adorable with their bags. They would hold them out and say "Tee o Tee". I told people we were collecting candy for potty training bribes :P Anyway, here are their pics...

On the potty training front...

Kayley did amazing tonight!!! We kept her in a pull up just in case. But she held her pee and poop the ENTIRE time we were gone. Which was over 3 hours. When we got back I put her on the potty and she peed right away! Then I waited a few more minutes in the bathroom and she started saying "ew" with that uh oh face. So I put her on the big potty and she pooped a ton...sorry if that was a little TMI ;) I am so proud of her. She did such a good job on the potty today...NO ACCIDENTS!!!

At a loss...

Here is the problem. I don't really think the whole wait until they're ready thing applies here. I know she is "young" by many people's standards. But Kayley has shown signs that she is "ready" to potty train. I know several people cringe at the word "ready". Sorry about that. I have played with the whole EC thing since they were about 6 months, but was never consistent. It was more just to show what the potty is and get them used to the sounds of a flushing toilet.
We aren't working with Kaiden right now. 1 at a time thanks ;)
Well 3 weeks ago we started full time potty training with Kayley. We did 2 weeks and she was doing well, but she she started getting stubborn and throwing a fit just to sit on the potty. We were having days in a row with no accidents with pee and just poop accidents. We put her in underwear all day except when napping and night time, which we'll put her in pull ups for. So at the end of 2 weeks, the rebellion started, and we took a few 5 days off. But she started saying "I pee pee" "I stinky" and "ew" everytime she had to go. So we started back up with the training again.
What we do is take her to the little potty, because she won't stay on the big one. With some help with warm water on her feet she'll go right away. Several times, she's go without any help, and she'll fill up the potty with all her pee. So I know she has bladder control. Sometimes I just have to say is go pee pee and she'll go right then and there. Then we take the pee and put it in the big potty, flush it, and wave bye bye.
She has accidents every once in a while with the pee, but over all I think she is doing great for just 3 weeks of it.
Now my concern is the poop. She has NO problem pooping in her undies. She knows what she's done, because when she's done she would walk up and say "stinky". Well after the break we took, she doesn't say it after she goes anymore. Only if we find out what she's done. Then she starts crying saying "stinky". She refuses to go on the potty with the poop. We can sit there for 20 min. and nothing. As soon as we let her out, she poops right away. I thought, well maybe it's the whole comfort of something on the waist. Well, not so. She has no problem pooping without undies on, with undies on, in pull ups, no pull ups. It doesn't matter. This girl poops fast! By the time we get to her when we see her trying to go, she's already done. I have tried showing her where poop goes, either big potty, little potty. Doesn't seem to matter.
This isn't a matter of her getting constipated either. Kayley poops like 3 times a day, at least. So giving her something to help her go, would do more damage than good.
I am really at a loss on what to do next. I have a potty in the play area, and she'll sit on it without me "making" her for 30 min. Then go walk away and poop. We have a potty in the bathroom, and a couple times DH has just let her run around in there, and she'll squat and start to go and he'll rush her to the potty and she'll finish it off. But for some reason, she won't do it for me. Heck, she'll even sit on the big potty to finish off her poops with him, but won't for me.
So what do I do now? DH can't be home, he works, but when he is here, he will usually take over. I tried going in with him while we wait for her to poop, but she won't. As soon as I walk out she will.

Back in the saddle again...

Ok, not the horse one either :)
We started back up with the Potty Training on Sun. so far so good! She actually pooped in the potty!!! Hopefully we can keep this up. Things are going a lot better than before. I think the break did some good. Kayley even says "I pee pee" and "stinky" when she goes.
On the other hand, the kiddos are both sick. Last night Kayley was up every 15-20 minutes. We are all dragging today because of it. We took the door off from their room. Kaiden can get his body up on the side of his rail on the crib. Which means within this week he will be getting out on his own. So we didn't want him smashing his fingers in the door. We put a baby gate in the doorway though so he can't go wandering off in the middle of the night. We also put lots of pillows on the floor for the "thud" when he falls out of the crib.
Kayley can totally get out by now if she wanted to. She doesn't seem to care. Although, she is a lot more tempted in the playpen. She can get her whole leg over the side of that. And that's taller than the crib rail. So who knows. There are pillows under her crib rail for when she gets out too.
There isn't anything in their room they can get into trouble with. The only things that fit in there are the 2 cribs. And the closet has a door knob that we can lock. Their dresser is in the guest room.
So whenever they choose to get out, the room is ready.

HAHAHAHA! Edited to add:
Kaiden got out of his crib. Well, fell out, and bruised his face. So the crib rails are off and they are officially in toddler beds now. The cribs grow into stages. They turn into toddler beds, then full size beds. They were having a party up there. We had to take Kayley's off because she was screaming that Kaiden could get out and she couldn't. So, should be an interesting night.

Cox Farms :)

Today we went to Cox farms and had a blast! The kids had so much fun. They went in a corn maze, hay ride, pony rides, huge slides, a train playground, a petting zoo, and a pumpkin patch. They were running in all directions and giving Clint and I the exercise we needed to burn off all the calories from the yummy food they had there!

Not much to report...

Things are calming down here. Not much is really going on. We have made a decision for where we are going for the Holiday's this year. We'll be going to Clint's parents in NC. for Christmas and Thanksgiving. We were going to go to NY. But Clint's brother Bob, won't be back until after Christmas. So we are thinking of going to NY. after he gets back, so maybe not until Spring Break. That's several months away, so we haven't really planned for that.
Clint also can't really take any days off since we just got here. So he'll get the normal federal holidays. Since Clint's parents only live about 7 hours away, that will be where we end up going for both. Less travel time taken away from the vacation days.
We have both already voted for who we would "rather" be president this year. Not necessarily who we "want" to be president. The lesser of the evils I guess. At least we are on the same page as far as who we voted for. His vote won't really make that much of a difference in the state he is registered for.
My vote is in one of the battleground states. Colorado. So hopefully, we get the one we voted for there.
LOL, like I said, nothing really going on :P
This weekend we are going to go (weather permitting) to Cox farms. It's a fall festival type thing. Hay rides, pumpkins, petting zoo. Basically a place where the kids don't have to be contained to a stroller! A friend of mine that has twins posted on her blog about it, and I thought it sounded fun. The kids need to get out and play.
As far as the potty training front, we'll get to it eventually. I'll likely start it up again on Monday. That will be a week off, we'll see how she does. Take care all!

The step back...

So the whole 2 steps forwards, one step back. Yeah, that's us right now. Kayley has gone on potty strike. We don't know what else to do with her, and I am losing my 1 ounce of patience I do have. So we are going to take a break from this until Fri. then try approaching the issue again.
The hardest part, is knowing she has to go, but she absolutely refuses. So much for hopes she'd be done by Halloween. At this rate, we'll be lucky if she's done by Christmas. It's so frustrating when it becomes a power struggle to get her to stay on the potty.
We went to giving in to her "demands" just to get her to stay seated on the potty. Well all that has done is created a spoiled little girl. She whines over every little thing now when she doesn't get her way. So in order to preserve mommy's sanity. We are holding off for a few days.
Some may be thinking, "she's not ready". Sorry, but I have read horror stories of those who have waited until the kids are "ready" and the kid is over 4 years old. She's already showing signs of "waiting too long". Especially in the poop department. That little bugger will have poop starting to come out, and yet she refuses to sit on the potty. As soon as underwear goes on, she poops. She'll just scream and scream until she gets the underwear on. Then happily poop away.
I am at a loss.

Short but sweet...

For me anyway.

The last 2 nights I have been out riding my horse. She has been doing amazingly well! I absolutely love her :) I got to ride for over 2 hours today.

Her leg is healing nicely too! She is getting much better about respecting boundaries now. I go out again in a couple of days for another ride. I am trying to get as much time on her since we are all going to go on a trail ride in a couple of weeks. Maybe even as soon as this coming Sat. So far things look optimistic. She has never been on a trail ride away from home, with me anyway. We will actually be loading the horses up in trailers to go to some nice trails not far from here. So I need her to be as ready as possible before then.

Ok, off the subject of potty, pee, and poo :P

How about a more pleasant topic!

Although it seems all my thoughts only consist of the above mentioned items these days. Other stuff is going on.

As you may have read, my horse really messed up her leg. It's healing very well. I actually got to go out and ride her a couple of nights ago. Just inside the arena. It went well considering her cut leg. Great training for her and for me. There were some other horses in there, and she didn't know them. Yet she did very nicely and paid attention to me...and the gate :) Something about horses and gates. It's bad practice to let the horse stop at the gate going in and out of the arena. So that's my biggest task I am working on with her. Getting her to only stop when I tell her to stop. Not when she wants to stop!

Clint is doing well. He is settling in at work. They kept saying they would be moving his office here on base this month, turns out it's not going to happen until sometime after the New Year. Am I surprised, not at all! He is heavy into this Fantasy Football thing they have online. I guess they pick several players they want as a "dream team" and when they play in real life, they can stack up points for his "dream team". The winner gets a prize. I think that's the true love of his life during football season!

Kayley is doing well in other areas beside the potty. The last couple of days she has been able to count to 10! Ok, not every number. But she'll fill in the blanks when I count to 10. She knows 1,2, 5, 6, 7, and 9. Very impressive I think for a 21 month old. She doesn't know as many words as Kaiden, but that doesn't mean she isn't just as smart! The fear that she may have autism is gone. She has definately caught up to her peers.

Kaiden is a riot! He has mastered the skill of jumping with both feet in the air. He had been working on that for a couple of months now. He is getting very good at puzzles. We have a wooden puzzle with 9 pieces, and he can get the thing put together in about 20 seconds. When we put them to bed at night, he'll say "night night" and blow us kisses and wave bye bye. When ever he notices a car, he yells "car...beep beep". Same with when he sees a cow, "cow...moo moo". Horse is still "sueie...neigh neigh". They love throwing a ball to each other, ok, more at each other.

For me, I am trying to master the skill of patience. I think my kids will have the entire dictionary memorized before that happens though ;) I am trying to get back to becoming me, not just mommy. There are times where I find myself asking, "what about me???" Of course, those thoughts always get interrupted by a screaming child or a child trying to capture my attention by playing peek-a-boo around the corner. I complained of how I had no life when I was a teenager. I was always bored. Not anymore! These 2 keep me going all day, and sometimes all night :)

So what exactly do we do to get her to go?

So several people have been asking what the process is that I have been using, so here it is:
The first day I started off just having her nakey bottom. I would keep track of how often she would pee. Then show her the potty and tell her that's where pee goes.
I then put underwear on her with a baby washcloth as a pad inside the underwear. For Kayley, she pees every 60-70 minutes. So I take her around that time. To start her I used warm water and would pour it on her private parts. She wasn't comfortable with that. So I decided to just try letting her play with warm water. I got a tupperwear container and put warm water in it on the floor. Then I would put her foot in, and instantly she would pee. I then rewarded her with an M&M, at first it was every time, but now she get's an M&M every other time.
I also let her play with toys in the warm water, so it keeps her entertained. Today I was able to just run the water in the bathroom and she would start peeing. For her, the reward for peeing is now getting to actually play in the water. She gets mad because she wants to play in the water, but she's already peed. So I just let her play for a minute or so.
Then I take the little potty and put the pee in the big potty. She doesn't like the big potty at all, even with a sizer in there to make the seat smaller. But she loves saying bye bye to the pee as it flushes down the potty. She waves to it and everything, it's hilarious.
Tomorrow I am going to try and put the water container that is usually on the floor, on top of the step to the potty. That way it's as though she is on the little one.
As far as timing her. Some people use a timer, and that's great. I am afraid of that. Not sure if you know of Pavlov and his experiments. He is the one with the dog and saliva at the sound of a bell. Anyway, I am afraid that if I use a timer, then she'll associate that with peeing, and start peeing at the sound of a timer wherever she is. So I just log down everytime she pees and poops. Then use that log to get an idea of when the next pee will be at. I keep a tally of how many accidents she has, and how many times she used the potty correctly. It's very encouraging to see the numbers add up in the right direction.
Believe me, this isn't easy. I am the worlds most impatient person. I want things done immediately. So this has been very hard in that area. I am also a control freak, so I am working VERY hard to not yell and get mad when she does have an accident. So far I think I am doing ok. It also helps that when DH comes home from work, he takes over for the evening. I think that helps her to know she doesn't just have to use the potty for me.
Sorry if I rambled. I hope I gave you some ideas to work with. Give yourself a goal. TJ made me :P She said give it 1 week. If I didn't see improvement, then I could stop and go back to it at a later date. Well, I have seen a ton of improvement, so I really can't stop at this point.

A little review and an update too...

So a week ago DH and I started working with Kayley full time on the potty. We introduced her off and on for several months (same with Kaiden) but we started officially training her last Wed. Here it is a week later and she is WELL on her way!
She will pee 8-9 times a day in the potty. Very rarely does she have pee accidents now. She does have poop accidents. I'm still trying figure out how to get her poops in the potty.
Day before yesterday she had no accidents at all, but then again she didn't poop that day.
She is no longer in diapers during the day now :) She wears pull ups at night and for naps, but other than that, she stays in underwear.
Today she started vocalizing when she needs to pee. She'll run up to the gate and say "pees pees" which I think is please and pee combined. She says please all the time too, and she'll say pee pee when she's actually on the potty peeing. Today she said potty for the first time. She peed 11 times in the potty today, and only 1 accident, but that was poop.
Anyway, I am so proud of her. I think by Halloween she may be potty trained during the day completely. Maybe ;) No later than Thanksgiving I'm sure.
I took her out today for the 1st time since we started training, and she was overdue to pee by 30 min. but she held it until we got home and she went in the potty!!!
Definate progress :)
As far as Kaiden, well, I'm waiting on him and just working with Ky for now. When I am sure she'll tell me when she has to go the majority of the time, then I'll start with Kaiden.
Kaiden is fully diaper trained. He FREAKS out if he goes to the bathroom without a diaper on. So I think he'll be a lot more work :(
I know in PT 2 steps forwards 1 step back. So I am mentally preparing myself for a "relapse".

When the going gets tough...

BLEH!
Ok OK, Kayley is doing well as far as no accidents today! Yup, all 8 times she went to the bathroom, she did so in the potty.
However, keeping her ON the potty is a WHOLE other story. I had to resort to a popsicle today just to keep her seated. At least she peed with that one!
I'm preparing myself for that step back, you see, today...she didn't poop. Which means tomorrow, we may not be so blessed as we were today.
I was not at my proudest moment today. I had a mommy breakdown. With all the stress, I finally lost it. I had my pitty party and now I am up on my feet again...we'll see what happens tomorrow.
Clint, he is my biggest sanity saver. I really don't know what I'd do without him. When he comes home from work, he does't skip a beat. He jumped right in to the potty training. I don't think that's what he really wanted to do. But I had had it. I couldn't take anymore. Maybe he sensed that and went with it.
My other problem, is when I take Ky in to the potty. Kd gets EXTREMELY jealous. He wants that attention. So today I decided I would try just having him in with us while I tried to get Ky to pee. That did absolutely no good. All that did was get Ky distracted and want to play. Ky is doing so well with not having so many accidents. I think it's more that we're trained, but not her. I don't care, I am saving a bunch of money on diapers! She hasn't been in a diaper in 4 days. She wears the pull ups at night and naps.
If nothing else, I am learning my daughter's cue's on when she needs to go. The problem is getting to her fast enough. I am not wanting to use timers to get her to go because the fear that we'll be out and about, and someone's timer will go off, and she'll just start peeing. I don't want a Pavlov experiment on my hands. He was the scientist that got the dog to salivate with a ringing of a bell. I don't want her peeing with the ringing of a bell!
Although I do have to use one from time to time if we are busy with something and can't see a clock.
So instead I have a log of all the times she pees and poops, and I try to guess when she needs to go again. My theory is that I can push her between times, by distracting her or whatever, so that the number of times she has to go get's less, but more comes out each time. So instead of every 45-60 min. I would love for 1.5-2 hrs. on a regular basis.
I guess right now, my main focus just needs to be getting all potties in the potty though

Great Job Daddy!!!

If any of you are going to talk to Clint, give him kuddos! He has been taking Kayley to the bathroom for the last 3 days. He has been the one to really get her going. So great job Clint!!!
The totals for today: 8 in the potty and only 1 in her undies!!! She wouldn't have had that one, but I was a little too late running to get her. I saw her look down when she started to pee, but by the time I could get to her, it was too late.
She really is doing well though. She managed to get 2 poops in the potty today!

Things are looking good, but....

Kayley is getting really good about peeing in the potty. The poops are harder to get in the potty though. She shows no signs that she is pooping. So I have no idea how to get her to go poop in the potty and not just pee. Her totals for today, 8 in the potty and 4 in her undies.
On another note,
The kids are progressing very well. They have TONS of new words now. Kaiden knows more than Kayley, well, he can say more than her anyway. They really are such fun to be around. They have very different personalities. I wish they would both have their Dad's but sadly they don't.
Kaiden has mine. I have the worst temper. I am not always very good at hiding anger outbursts from the kids either. Kaiden sees that and now I am getting bit in the butt by it. They are copying words very quickly, so we have to be very careful what they are exposed to now. Especially TV. I can't believe the words they are allowing on there now. At all hours of the day too. Thankfully Disney and PBS are very good about it. Those 2 channels are my sanity saver!
So developmentally, the kids are doing great. They are mastering all kinds of skills, from throwing, climbing, and actually walking up stairs now, instead of crawling.
Kayley's favorite game is good old "Pat a cake, pat a cake"
Kaiden loves "Head shoulders knees and toes"
They actually sing along with it as I sing it to them.
By far, Kaiden's favorite word is sui. Sounds like sue ee. Daddy taught Kaiden Horsie instead of horse. So now he sounds like he is speaking chinese or something. Especially with how he fluctuates his voice when he says it. I try and correct him and say "no horse" to which his reply is "no sui". LOL, it really is cute.
Kayley has been doing this really cute thing with her arms. She'll throw them out to her side and say "what" which sounds like "whaaaaaat?" It really is adorable. She and Kaiden will both put their hands to their face and say "oh no" and have a pouty lip as they say it with sad little voices.
When Kaiden sees Kayley cry he will run up to her and give her a hug. When Kaiden cries Kayley looks at him with disgust. Mostly because he is crying because he can't have her toy. Which inevitably, he always gets.
If Kayley falls down and starts crying, Kaiden will get jealous and purposefully fall down and pretend to cry. It's quite hilarious.
They have both mastered utensils. Well, mostly. They can actually get the food in their mouths now, instead of their eyes, ears, hair, etc. They are also using plates and bowls now too. Instead of eating directly off the table or high chair tray.
Kayley can undress herself. Kaiden can't. Kadien can put shoes on, Ky can't. Basically, they are both at the same stage developmentally right now, but just better at different things than the other one. They are interacting a lot more now than they used to. They actually "talk" to each other and play with each other. Before, they just played next to each other.
I am so blessed to have these two. I know I complain about the stress a lot, but they really are very good kids and a whole lot of fun. Thanks for reading!

Potty Training (PT) continued...

Oct. 2nd

So today we had a step forward in potty training Kayley.
She woke up and went potty right away.
The totals for today are:
In her underwear 2 in the actual potty...8!!! So A LOT better than before! She is doing great today. We have been warned for the 2 steps forward 1 step back in potty training. We'll see what happens.
Kaiden was so cute watching her today. I had her on the potty and he would sit in front of her making the "psssss" sound. Kayley was laughing at him.
Not much else to report. Bonita is healing well. She doesn't even act like her leg bothers her. Good thing, it looks really painful.

The potty training chronicles...

OK, this is it. Potty training has OFFICIALLY begun. We have been "playing" with the potty idea, and have had hits and misses (mostly miss). But Tanja left yesterday, and we are officially "housebound" well, the kids are anyway.
So far...AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! Ok well, it's just a lot more stress than I bargained for :) We are moving forward with the plan anyway ;) Even if I just end up working with one at a time.
The beginning of this process is crazy. If I had a singleton it wouldn't be so bad. But I don't, I have 2, making work twice as hard, if not more. Why is it that when you have one on the potty, the other one decides they will go potty, and not in the toilet?
This morning started off with Clint taking Kd to the potty right before work. He didn't go. Duh. So after about 20 min. I decide to take him to the toilet. Ummmm, nothing. Ky wakes up and I bring her to the potty, again, nothing.
So naked bottom they went. Within 5 min, Ky peed all over the floor. Great.
I fed them breakfast, and then within a few min. Kd sarts grunting. So I take him to the potty. He SCREAMED like he was dieing. I figured, what the heck. Forget it. Then decided to work with Ky. She sat on the toilet for a couple of min. Then decided she was done. I took her back to the play area, and she pees in the corner. Wonderful. I look over and Kd had peed all over the floor and couch. Uggghh. This is going to be one VERY messy process.
So I decided, maybe nakey bottom is a bit much. I put underwear with washcloths in them on Ky and left Kd in his diaper. It was only a matter of time for him to poop anyway. I look over and Ky has peed in the underwear. YIPPY!
So I went on the big potty to show them how to potty. They thought it was hilarious. I put Ky on the potty with chocolate chips and M&Ms to keep her motivated to stay there. She hadn't pooped yet.
Kd started grunting so I took off his diaper and put him on the potty. He didn't want the chocolate. I couldn't leave to find more bribary, since Ky was still on the toilet.
Kd on the other hand started screaming and freaking out like he was terrified. I looked over and poop was coming out his bum. I knew it didn't hurt, the poop wasn't hard. He was terrified to go without a diaper. Well, his butt is going to be in underwear when not sleeping now. I do not want him being terrified to go without a diaper on. I want him potty trained, not diaper trained.
After reassuring him that it was ok to poop, and showing him where the poop goes, he finally calmed down. But that was after the enitire bathroom floor was covered in poop smears. OY!
Ky never did go in the potty. I took her and Kd out of the bathroom. Ky went to a different corner and peed on the floor. Uggghh. Well, at least she isn't afraid to go without a diaper. She thinks it's funny. She was pointing at it like "look Mom...I peed!!!"
And that is just 3 hrs from this morning. They are napping peacefully in their diapers.
EDITED TO ADD:
So after their naps I decided I am just going to work with Ky for now. She was only in diapers for her nap and bedtime. The rest of the day she was nakey bottom or in her undies. She did manage to poop on the potty (not in the potty) But we'll count that! So the grand total for today: Floor 2, Undies 4, potty 2. Hopefully tomorrow the potty can get a higher score!
I just need to keep repeating this quote:
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” Dale Carnegi

July through Sept. 2008 review...

Hope you don't mind that I c/p an email I sent to friends and family. Some of it is a little repetitive from my other post. But there are pics at the end.:
So DH will be home from his deployment On Aug. XX!!!! We have orders to be stationed in Washington, D.C. and we will be living on Bolling AFB.
We have quite the trip ahead of us, and I won't bore you all with the insane details of our move. For some reason jumping off a cliff looks a lot more pleasant than a 4 day drive with 19 month old twins, a horse, 2 cats, a camper, horse trailer, truck, van, myself, DH's mom, DH, and myself.
Anyway, we have been assigned a house at Bolling. Which was a huge fear because we have been pretty high up on the waiting list. We started at 59 a few months ago. A few days ago we were at XX, but we got a call, and we have a house now! The move in date isn't until the XX of Aug. We are definately looking forward to just getting there and settled in!
We have a horse stable lined up for Bonita, which thankfully is only a 25 min. drive. Everything else was about 45 min.
We are only going to be about 6 hrs from DHs parents. We'll be about 7 hrs from every other family member he has out in Buffalo, NY.
I'm also excited about how close we'll be to major tourist spots. I have never been to NYC, and we're only going to be about 4 hrs away!!!! I can't wait!

Physically: Kayley is 22 lbs 4 oz. which puts her in the 16th % for weight. She is 31.25 inches tall which puts her in the 32nd % for height. Kaiden is 22 lbs and is in the 4th % for weight. He is 31.75 inches tall and that puts him in the 25th % for height. Remember, boy and girl growth curves are different.
They are both going to need to have surgery on their upper lip when their baby teeth come out, before the permanent come in. The flap of skin is too short and thick, which could cause problems for their permanent teeth.
Kaiden is overall advanced for his age develomentally. He is catching up physically though. He may need to go back to the neurologist for an eval on his head since the sutures of the skull closed prematurely. He is starting to get a very prominent ridge on top of his head. His ears are also getting very uneven. If it gets really bad, then they would have to go in and break the bones in his skull and reallign them.
Kayley, wow. Something is always going on with her. The doctor is suspecting mild autism. If she has it. The doc wants to wait until Ky is 2, to give her a chance to catch up to her actual age. She is still having to go by adjusted age since she was a preemie. Even though Kaiden isn't having that problem. There are a couple of signs that the doctor noticed and wants to keep an eye on it. In addition to that, Kayley may have to get leg braces. She has been doing a lot of tip toe walking. Almost the entire time we were there she was walking on her toes. So she has a refferral put in for physical therapy.
So, once we get settled in the D.C. area, we have a lot of doctor appointments we'll be going to.

Sorry things have been REALLY crazy around here. We are in DC now. After a VERY long drive with some very crazy adventures on the drive. Anyway, we're safe, and in our new house. We finally have internet and cable. But we still don't have our household goods yet. So we have been using folding chairs and the floor as our "furniture". The kids, Clint, and I are really stressed out, and just can't wait until our goods are here, and unpacked.

So yesterday our exchange student Tanja (she used to be our exchange student a few years ago), got to experience the "grand entrance" of the president and VP. Some huge motorcade of like 5 busses with 10 police escorts came by to the white house. Then a secret service motorcade came by with even more escorts. Then the helicopters came by with the president. We were standing at the Washington Monument when the motorcades came. Then we were at the white house when the president landed. That was pretty neat to experience that with Tanja.


OK, I have tried and tried, and tried some more, to be patient and optimistic about this place. It's just not working. EVERY time I feel like "hey, it can't be that bad" I am only kidding myself, no, torturing myself. At every turn something goes wrong... here's a little bit of what I am talking about....
We moved to DC in Aug. We got to temp lodging where we stayed for a couple of weeks. The people upstairs had 6 kids, yes, 6 and they all figured that the floors were a trampoline. Yet there was no where else for us or them to go. So we had to wait there for our house. Now usually, they give you your address as soon as the house opens up. Well, they refused because this and that. Finally they gave it to us. We should have been all moved in by the 27th of Aug. Household goods and all. Well, because we didn't have the address, we couldn't even get household goods here until the 5th of Sept.
Well, let me back track. While we waited for the house, we decided to buy a TV so that we could "do" something while we waited for our stuff. We went to Target, which is normally a nice store. Well, not here. Target is the "walmart" out here. I don't know what happened. I think it's worse than walmart. And I actually liked Walmart. We waited for the guy to get done talking to his girlfriend, who also works at Target. He finally decided to go get the TV for us. After about 30 minutes, he finally comes back with the TV. The end result, we have a TV that skips on the DVDs. In otherwords, broken. We went back again to get a couple of car seats. Different Target mind you, and waited for over 45 min. for the seats to be brought out.
Well, we then got our house. So we had to wait for our household goods sleeping on air mattresses and only had a couple folding chairs for a couple weeks.
We decided we needed a new mattress anyway so off to the furniture store we went. We got a really nice mattress. Hmmmm. Supposed to be anyway. We had them set up for a Tues. delivery. I called midday that Tues. They said that they weren't supposed to come out until Wed. Which meant another night on an airmattress that deflated throughout the night. Trying to reason with the guy was useless. The next day the mattress got here. The thing had dirt all over the bottom of it. They said they could take it back. LIKE HECK!!! I was more than happy to deal with some dirt than another few days on an airmattress. They gave us a promise of a $75 check to pay for cleaning costs. Yeah, great. When I was at the store, I told the lady, I didn't care for a bed frame, that it will just end up moving all over when we get on and off the bed. She talked me into it.
The thing is sitting in our closet.
We had to do a walk through of the house to write a list of broken things. The carpets had burn marks on it, the back porch light didn't work, one of the stove burners didn't work, the fridge was leaking, the smoke detectors didn't work, outlets didn't work, the ice maker didn't work, and the garage smelled like cat urine.
So Service (contractors) came out. They fixed the smoke detectors. Attempted to fix the light switch, didn't touch the carpet, said they didn't see the obvious leaking in the fridge, they fixed the stove, and they fixed the outlets. They also fixed the icemaker.
Well, apparently "fixed" is a relative term out here.
We called them back, because the fridge was definately leaking, all over the floor. Let's just stick to the fridge a sec. He came back, fiddled with it, and says "I promise it won't leak anymore" uh huh...So the third time he comes out, and said, "I guess this fridge is done, we'll bring a new one out". Well after a few days, I called service and asked where the fridge was. The lady had no record of them saying they would replace the fridge. WTHECK??? Instead, we'll send yet another tech out to come take a look. So he'll be here tomorrow.
Well, then there's the light on the deck. Apparently, by fixed, it means that the light is no longer working, and the fixture is hanging upside down. OY!!! We'll be calling on that again. By the way, they came out 4 times to fix that thing.
Then there's the stove/oven. Yup, they fixed the stove. But after several nights of cooking and nothing seemed to be cooked all the way through in the oven. I got an oven thermometer. Well, the oven is about 75-100 degrees off what it says it's at. No wonder my food isn't cooking all the way through. We'll be calling on that tomorrow.
Ah yes, the cable and internet. Let me tell you first, there is this thing on post called a monopoly. Only one internet provider, one phone provider, etc. Lucky us.
We had them come out to set everything up. We have a desk top comp and a laptop. One is wirless, one isn't. We have a wired/wireless modem. Provided by the company. Well they came out to set everything up, but the internet only worked for about an hour before we kept getting bumped off. So we called in. After being on hold for about 30 min., we finally got someone. They said they'd send a tech out. YAY! The tech comes out, pushes a couple buttons. Internet works...for about 45 min. COME ON PEOPLE!!! I told the guys, it's got to be the modem. Just replace the modem. When the thing plugs in, the "power" button should light up. It didn't for a minute or so after. They said, nope, we did this this and this. Your internet works. OK, no biggie. Thanks. I am not kidding you, about an hour later, it no longer worked. Now, those guys came out 4 times. Each time we called we were on hold for 30 min. then it would be 3-4 days before someone could come out. Then they would be out here for a couple hours...each time. The end result, they replaced the modem...and the internet has been working just fine for several days now. GRRRRRRRRRRR, I told them that's all they needed to do.
Well, then the cable. Oh yeah, internet and cable are the the same company....WOOHOO!!! We had it set up. Then it would work for awhile, then not. We were supposed to get the DVR (records live TV), instead, they gave us a stupid HD box. In addition, it only had us getting 20 channels, when we had ordered a lot more than that. So after being on hold, they said that we could either wait a couple weeks for someone to come out to replace the box, or we could take it in ourselves at any time. Wonderful. We took it in. We got back, turned it on, and they didn't give us all the channels we already paid for. After another 30 min. hold, they finally fixed it. Oh yeah, and a tech was still supposed to come out, but he was a no show, at least we got a $20 credit to our account for that.
Well, now the cable and internet are good to go... for now.
Then the movers came to drop off our stuff. They had broken several sentimental figurines. It looks like they drop kicked our kitchen island down a flight of stairs. They literally broke the legs off the thing. What's worse, they had left crystal glasses inside the cabinet portion of it, unpacked. Those weren't broken. Yet the "packed" figurines I have were. Go figure. They ripped the bottom of a king size mattress we have, and broke the fronts off of 3 different dressers. They lost a bike seat that was attatched to a bike...how does that happen??? They ripped the backs of our couches too. I can't believe how much stuff was broken and ripped. So we're still waiting on the claim adjuster to come look at everything.
Let me add to the mix, I have fibromyalgia and a messed up back. All aquired from a serious injury in the Army. Stress and humidity levels make mine worse. Uh...lets see. Not stressed, yeah right. Washington DC...yeah, definately humid.
So then I tried to get a medical appt. Because the fibro has gotten so bad that I can't stay in one position for long, because my legs and arms start tingling and get very sore. Well, I can't make an appt. because even though we are in the military, and use tricare/triwest, we are only registered in the west region, not the north. It's all the same exact insurance. And it's on a military post. I shouldn't even have to register to be seen on post. But according to them, we have to wait up to 10 business days before I can make an appt. Because it takes that long just to push "enter" on the computer.
So, I think I am done ranting now. If you have read this far, thank you! I know things could always be worse. In fact, I feel bad complaining about this stuff. I just needed to let it all out.

So today Heather (theholleranfamily) and I with all of our kids met up today at a local park. She's a friend of mine I met off www.iVillage.com She has twins that are just 6 days younger than mine. We had a great time. Although, I think the squirrel had a better time. Word of advice, never take pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to a park where squirrels live!!!That little bugger took off with a huge bag of them and left them up in the tree so we couldn't get them...Punk!

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"
Murphy's law is kicking our trash. We are officially in a funk. I posted in the rants of how bad things have been going. But now this isn't a rant. I am two steps away from locking myself in a padded room...
The plan... I was going to take the kids out to see our horse at a ranch we board her at. It was a very nice day, and we hadn't been to see the horse "Bonita" for a week due to weather. I was going to get some great pics of the kids sitting in the saddle enjoying being with her. What ACTUALLY happened... That is a horse panel. Supposed to hold horses IN a contained area. My horse didn't want to be in that area. She wanted to be near the hay on the other side of it. So like a typical "toddler" which she is still considered to be. She threw a FIT!
TMI TMI TMI if you get sick at the thought of blood. I won't show pics of the actual wound. It is bandaged.
I pulled up, no one else was at the ranch. I saw Bonita on the far end of the barn. As I got closer I could see that her leg was red. The whole leg. I didn't even notice the panel. I got on the phone with the emergency vet and the lady that owns the barn. While I waited I got a closer look at the leg. I shoul have taken a picture, but I think even TOS violations would kick it off for being too gross. There was a 6-7 inch flab of skin hanging off of her, just dangling there. She was bleeding really bad. The ranch owner got out and helped me calm Bonita down, and calmed me down. The vet came out. Took one look and decided we needed to sedate her. She was messed up bad. She basically tore off all the skin down to the muscle. About 7 inches long and 1.5 inches across. She was still bleeding too. After sedating her she gave a tetanus shot. Then she had to cut the skin off.
It was still bleeding nearly 2 hours later. So she had to "explore" the site to make sure there were no major arteries involved. Thankfully there wasn't. She did have pockets under where the skin was ripped off that were pretty deep.
So now she has to have 2 forms of antibiotics, Butte (pain reliever/swelling reducer), bandaged changed daily, and on stall rest for 2 weeks. Here are pics of her after the bandage:
She looks kind of silly because she was still somewhat sedated. So what was supposed to have been a peaceful couple of hours, turned into having the vet come out and care for my horse.
Then they showed me the panel. I couldn't believe it. The panel was older, but sheesh! The vet said Bonita is very lucky that she didn't rip her tendons and break any bones. I very well could have been faced with thousands of dollars in surgery, or having to put my horse down.
Add that to all the other crap we have been dealing with...I don't know how much more stress I can take!!!!