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!!!!
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