He's getting better fast

Sean is getting over this bout of pneumonia nicely. He had a mellow day today. Don got sick last night too so he stayed home from work today. I had to do an interview for a story.

Don and Sean chilling in Sean's room.

Pneumonia Again

Sean's got pneumonia again. Good grief. I took him to the doctor this morning because he had a respiratory distress cough. He really looked go though and the doctor (our family doc) said bring him back if he gets worse. I kept him home from school and je played with Ethan all afternoon. Ethan's mom even buzzed Sean's head at Sean's request. Then at about 5:30 Sean wanted Ethan to go home. I tried to feed him dinner but he said he had a headache and didn't feel good and boom he started retracting and having trouble breathing. We gave him a breathing treatment and then took him to the ER. He's on zithromax and we have the nebulizer so hopefully it will turn around fast. They called it an atypical pneumonia which is what they called it at first last time. He has no fever this time. That poor kids lungs. I talked to the doctor this morning about pertussis because he had this "whooping" sounding cough a couple of weeks ago but the new cough doesn't sound like that. He said we could test him for it if I was worried. Apparently there is an immunization resistant pertussis going around.

Just add kids

Steph's kids started school yesterday. She has 26 students. I went by today to take a treat, some pictures and see them in action. All the treats did not match, there were Cars fruit snacks and some Toy Story. I thought there would be drama. One kid said "I want cars" and three or four other kids said "Git what you git and don't throw a fit!" I like these kids.

Just had to throw in today's face painting. It's Captain America. Sean didn't go to school today because he had a  cough. I took him to the doctor who said, it's either a virus or asthma, here's some cough medicine, come back if he gets worse. I've got a story due tomorrow so hopefully he can go to school for a couple of hours in the morning. Not that being sick has stopped him from playing with Ethan.

I went back over to the condo today and the guy from the state was still at the neighbors cleaning. Today he was wearing a large garbage bag with a hole cut out for his head and arms. He had a grocery cart from Walmart that he was using to haul out garbage. Gross, gross, gross. It sure smells better though. I couldn't smell anything bad in our condo today. That lady is so mad at me! Oh well, at least her house will be clean for awhile. She's just sitting on the porch while the guy works. Earlier today a lady took out all her laundry and washed it. I wonder where the funding for that comes from.

Ew yuck

One of our town house condos is empty. I went over early last week to meet with the tenant that was moving out. She complained about a smell coming from the storage closet after she moved her boxes. It was kind of bad but I didn't pay that much attention to it. I went back over on Saturday to sign the lease with the new tenant. Oh my gosh, the stench! I thought I was going to throw up. The smell was coming from next door. There's a space between our utility closet and the neighbors. Don came over and was filling the hole up with foam. I was seriously considering barfing. I went outside and looked around the neighbors house. She is a 60 or 70 year old crazy woman and a hoarder. The outside of her house didn't look bad but I noticed there were flies all over the inside of her kitchen and living room window. I walked by the other houses on the row and none of them had flies. Hm, I went back in the house and was sick again. I told Don I was going to the police department across the street and request a well being check on the neighbor. Since it was Saturday the police office was closed so I called dispatch. Within a few minutes they had four officers over there pounding and saying "this doesn't look good." We had to leave because we had a picnic. Today I went back over to see if she was dead or if she was just a really gross housekeeper (In which case I was going to call the relief society president and send the Mormon's over!!) When I pulled up her door was open and she was standing on the patio. (Not dead!) The smell hit me about half way across the parking lot. There was a man in gloves and a mask carrying out cart loads of garbage. I talked to Helen. She asked if I called the police and I said "yes,  I was worried you were dead in there." I could tell she was mad but she just said "The smell isn't coming from my house." Pretty funny considering there is a man in a mask hauling away carts of garbage. I said OK, well I'm glad your not dead. She then told me how she was sick and depressed. I said "Well then I'm really glad I called. Maybe you will feel better when your house is cleaner." I asked who was helping her and she said "people from the state." Wow, I've never seen the state move so fast. That must have been one site to behold! They aren't playing around like in the show hoarders they are just throwing her crap away! Smells better already!

Retirement Party for Dr K

Don, Sean and I went to a picnic at Sugar House Park yesterday. It was a retirement party for Dr. Keddington. It was so awesome to see all my old peeps from Pioneer Valley Hospital ER. Those were the days my friend we thought they'd never end but the did. It has been years since so many of us have been together. It was so much fun to spend time with people who for years were such an intricate part of my life. Next to me is Janette, my old boss, Nancy nurse, Claudia and Pia. Some of my best friends ever. Oh the stories we all reminisced about. All the affairs and drama. I didn't take my camera out of the car so I got one picture Don took and one Janette sent me so only a few of many dear friends are represented.

Janette on the left (she is an absolutely insane nurse that Janette fired. We were all kind of shocked when she showed up. She was a pathological liar and I worked grave yards with her. It was fun because she would tell these insane stories and so I would make up totally outrageous stories to top her lies and she would just keep topping me. It was so funny! She said her husband was shot by a crazy guy named Captain Nemo. One day I'm watching the news and sure enough her husband really had been shot by a crazy guy named Captian Nemo. He he even liars sometime tell the truth. Then there's Janette a great nurse, Dr K. a wonderful ER doc who never loses his temper and always has a really corny and very clean joke to tell, then me. In the back diabetic Debbie. We had three Debbie's and she became diabetic Debbie. She was pregnant and had a feeding tube and PICC line the whole pregnancy and continued to work. Nancy Nurse, the very first time I met her she said "I'm pre-retirement." She worked through breast cancer. She looks the same now as she did 20 years ago. She is amazing. Stevie, she is an ENT PA now. Claudia my business partner and Pia a long time friend. We share a birthday.

Me, Pia and Claudia 20 years ago.

15 years ago. Me, Claudia, Gayle (she died a couple of years ago) Sue, still works at PVH, Front row, Gayle's sister, Nancy, Janette and my BFF, Lucinda.

Birthday bowling for Alex

 Alex's birthday is coming up on the 28th. He and Loreal are going to St George next weekend so we celebrated this weekend with his favorite tuna casserole and bowling. They are still trying to close on their house. It went in to bankruptcy the day before they were scheduled to close and it is just one thing after another. You would think in this market it would be easy to buy a house but because everything is a short sell it's really difficult or at least it has been for them.

Steph didn't want to bowl. She has tired arms from decorating at school. Her room was so nicely decorated that after back to school night the school got calls from parents requesting their children be moved to her class. And of course that got her nominated to be in charge of the bulletin boards for the school

Alika with her arm in a sling. This is a sore subject. She was in SLC on Thursday riding her bike with friends, going to bars and she crashed her bike. She saw Ryan at the bar AGAIN. OK, Alika you are spending way too much time in bars if you are running into Ryan that often AND you need to find a bar with a nicer clientele or maybe just quit going to bars. I seriously hope this is an "I just turned 21" phase that she will pass through quickly.

Sean spent the first game playing in the arcade with Alika then he was ready to bowl. Note the fingers in the holes.

Sharing germs.

Carter had a good time. Alika commented that she seldom hears Carter really laugh. He was laughing in the car because Sean kept saying "I AM THE HOLY GHOST!" Carter thought that was hysterical.

Alika and Sean trying to pop the balloon.

Singing happy birthday. I've given up counting candles. I just put whatever I can find in the drawer.

David is back home after spending the summer at his mom's. He starts school tomorrow. AJ and Alika start classes on Wed. They both have full loads. Steph already started work last Monday. Sean's "real" school year starts on the 29th.

Our fun vacation

My friend Charity has this totally awesome vacation house in Lava Hot Springs that she was nice enough to let us escape to. Charity and my joke is that we only have friends with vacation homes. Not really true but we have each other so it's fun to share our pads. Lava is fun because it has a river for tubing, the hot pots and a huge pool with slides. Sean was too little for the big slides. There are play grounds and lots of fun stuff to do. Best of all Charity and Vic have the coolest yard. They have an outdoor area with a pit to cook, stereo hook up, the works so we have spent time chilling. I had planned to eat out at more places but for lunch we grilled hot dogs and for dinner we made tin foil shisk ka bobs. The skewers kept falling apart so we threw it all in foil and cooked it and it was delicious!

Here's the three of us sitting outside a hot pot. The pots were varying degrees of hot. We stayed in the coolest one which was about 102.

Sean picked some beets from Charity's neighbors garden. He was more interested in the game. He loves to eat beets but I don't think recognizes them as beets in their fresh form.

Chilling at the pool

The three of us standing at the hot pot in the morning.

Don and Sean in the pot.

Sean, king of the hot pots.

Don and Sean at the lava pool.

Tomorrow is our big adventure. We are going to tube down the river.

Since Lanette is taking the girls back and enrolling them in school I don't have to avoid Jenny to keep her from asking me to watch the girls for her because she doesn't have a babysitter and doesn't want to pay one.

Our mini vacation

I initially planned a mini vacation to Idaho just to be out of town during the court hearing. It has actually turned into a fun trip. We stopped in Brigham City at the airport when Don is taking flying lessons on Tuesdays. We went in the hangar where the plane he flies is stored but it was getting new wheels.

We went to an ice cream parlor in Lava.

On our tour of diners, dine ins and dives we visited a diner called Me N Lou's in Malad Idaho. It was stuck in the late 80's early 90's. There were fake flowers everywhere. No kidding there were four fake wall flower arrangements in the tiny little bathroom. The food was OK, nothing to write home about. I don't think they have a whole lot of competition in Malad.

This picture is kind of blurry but it's the Lava Hot Springs museum. It had some cool stuff. This is a board with different animal pelts you touch them and try to guess the animal, then you lift up the door and see if you were right.

Kid you not Sean had to stop and pee four times in our 2 and a half hour trip. He just kept drinking and peeing. I get nervous and check his blood sugar but it's been fine. He liked peeing on the side of the road. He didn't know I took this picture. I don't think he would have been happy about that. He's been pretty excited that we "are on vacation!" This morning when we got up I asked "what shall we do" and he said "have fun." So that was our plan for the day.

I talked to Jenny today. I asked her if she got the girls and she said no but she had them for the rest of the week. She said court was postponed until the 8th. I heard the 7th. I asked why and she said she didn't know "they are trying to figure out some stuff about Ryan. The state is just looking for a way to screw me over." Yep, that's pretty much it, the state is trying to screw her over she is not trying to screw the state over. Interesting perspective. Then she asked me to call Lanette and have Lanette call her. All the sudden she is having trouble with her phone, apparently Ryan is too. I called Lanette to ask her to call Jenny. She said she was getting the girls back this weekend and Clarice told her to get them enrolled in school. The GAL had to sign off approving a trial home placement and she refused so the girls are still Lanette's until the next hearing. So the drama continues. It's been 16 months that the girls have been in custody. Time to get this over with and get them adopted and settled. Enough is more than enough.

Court

Remember how I said today was the final, drop dead, make or break, court date? Guess what? It wasn't! Not surprised? Me either.

I wasn't there but I am told there were fireworks. Last week Catherine called and said that Janene, the attorney had gotten the subpoenaed phone records but had not looked through them.
Lanette called me this morning and said that Janene said 95% of the phone calls were between Ryan and Jenny and they talked on the phone numerous times every day. Big shocker, NOT! It is funny that Ryan's phone is in Jenny's name. That I didn't know. Janene told Lanette that she called Cricket on Thursday to ask about the subpoena and they said that they were just getting through the June request and her request hadn't come in until July so forget about it. Janene told the guy on the phone that two little girls lives literally depended on these phone records. This guy actually listened to her and personally walked the subpoena through all the processes in a matter of hours and got her the phone records that day. Janene said God had this man answer her phone call. For all of you who have been praying for the girls, thank you. Keep praying though because it's not over but that was a big deal!

At court Janene told the judge they had the phone records and what they showed. Jenny got the deer in the headlights look and couldn't even talk, Ryan looked like he want to kill someone. Ryan's attorney started screaming that it wasn't fair and they didn't know that they couldn't talk and they weren't going to beat each other up over the phone. Janene then read from the court records of last July where Judge McCullough ordered them to have no contact in person, through phone, email, letters, notes or friends and that they both acknowledged they understood. OUCH! The attorney just kept saying it wasn't fair and Ryan didn't know. Nice defense.

They postponed the hearing until September 7th so Jenny and Ryan's attorney's can come up with some better excuses. Clarice called Lanette today and told her not to babysit the girls this weekend to make Jenny figure it out. That's annoying because Clarice is the one that back Lanette into a corner and had her do it. Of course Lanette shouldn't babysit, just like I shouldn't babysit and Clarice is the one that asked us to do it. Lanette took the girls to Jenny today and apparently Jenny was very quiet.

Jenny told me on Sunday that she broke her foot Saturday night and hadn't been to work. She was chasing the dog. Yet today she showed up in court in flip flops and wasn't limping.
Insanity.

Jenny told me she would call me after court today but it's 9 pm and I haven't heard from her. I'm guessing she's a little distraught.

In preperation for today's drama Don and I left town. I told Jenny last week we were going to Idaho. We are at Lava Springs having a really good time. Tomorrow we are going tubing. It is so nice to have some physical distance today.

Mrs. Cramer Kindergarden teacher

Steph got a job as a teacher at the Dual Immersion Charter school in Salt Lake, This is a public school so she has great benefits and it's a great job. We are really proud of her. I am not getting she got a job so fast. The fact that she has a Bachelors degree in education, has taught elementary school in Costa Rica and is totally bilingual made her a hot ticket. It is funny because AJ is becoming so culturally diverse. He has been taking 5 credits of Spanish this semester and is really immersing himself as much as he can in the culture. He has been at the school every day this week helping Steph set up her classroom. Her class will be 90% in Spanish. Now AJ can plow through school while Steph works.

They just installed one of those high tech white boards. They haven't been in serviced how to use them yet but it looks awesome. School starts on the 24th.

Sean liked the playground.

This is the outside of the building. It is K-8th grade. Steph has been working on wall art, calendars, birthday charts, holiday charts since she found out she had the job. Her room is festive. Her students are lucky to have her for a teacher.

Who's tummy did Sean grow in?

I was driving to SLC yesterday to pick up Sean, Kylie and Brie and take them to visit their dad when Ryan texted me to say he couldn't make it. That was twenty minutes before we were supposed to meet. I appreciated him calling and not just standing us up. He then wanted to know if I could come back today. I said no but he was welcome to drive to Centerville. He said he would. I had told Jenny I would take the girls to Ryan while she was at rehab so now I had the girls and Sean and 2 and a half hours to entertain them. Jenny had to run over to her friend Cristin's parole officer. Jenny said she had to drive her because Cristin doesn't have a drivers license because of a DUI. It is just such a bizarre world to me where everyone in your family and all your friends are on parole. It's just so normal to her. I decided to just take the kids to my house for a couple of hours and I had promised Jenny I would take her to dinner for her birthday after her rehab.

When I was driving home with the kids Kylie asked me why I only had one kid. I said "actually I have six" and named off all the kids. She said but you only have one little kid. I said "that's true." She then asked "Did Sean grow in your tummy or my mom's?" Wow, that's a good question. I said "he grew in your mommas tummy just like you and Brie." She asked "did we all grow in there at the same time?" I said "no, thank goodness for your mom." She said "Well, I'm glad we are out now." I said "so is your mom." Kylie then asked "how did we get out of her tummy?" Sean piped up with "We were in her tummy so she threw us up out of her mouth." GREAT ANSWER! Kylie looked at me for confirmation. I said "no you came out between her legs." Kylie pointed between her legs and said "here?" I said "yep, pee, poo and babies all come out between your legs." She then changed the subject. It was priceless, she threw them up! Gotta love my Seaner.

We got home and the kids wanted to play with Ethan. Ethan's little brother Liam came to play too. Don and I were joking a couple of months ago that it was only a matter of time until Liam became part of the play. Here he is as cyclops eating chalk. I gave him some vanilla wafers but her preferred the chalk.

Miranda came over to practice face painting on girls. Kylie loved it and wanted to go all out.

Brie was more conservative and just wanted a small butterfly.

Then the kids went over and played in Ethan's driveway.  Afterwards we all went to SLC including Aric and Steph, picked up Jenny and met Don at Chuck A Rama for Jenny's birthday.
The big hearing is on Wed so she should have the kids back full time then. Let the drama begin.

Sean is coughing up a storm. I hope he isn't getting pneumonia again. Stress!!

3-year-olds

I was upstairs and Sean was yelling MOMMMMM I ran downstairs and Sean was gesturing and couldn't even talk. He just pointed and said Ethan. He was seriously upset. The front door was open and I saw the blur of Ethan running down the sidewalk, away from our house and his. It would appear that Ethan climbed on a chair and then attempted to climb on a very old table. Kaboom. When I  talked to Ethan he confirmed this theory. His mom came by a little later saying she had heard Ethan broke a table. The table was actually fine. I didn't tell her about the hole it put in my wall because it would have distressed her to no end and there's nothing she could do about it. Naughty little 3 year old. Later that night after playing with Sean for 8 hours I told Ethan to go home for dinner. A few minutes later he came back I said "No Ethan you need to go home we're having dinner. Ethan pulled up a chair and said "I'M NOT GOING HOME!" I was a little Ethan'd out and I said "OH YES YOU ARE!" He started to scream bloody murder and I picked him up under my arm and carried him home kicking and screaming. His dad opened the door and I handed him to him. He was still screaming "I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME!" I couldn't help but wonder what I am going to do when he's 12 and I can't pick him up and carry him home any more. I wish I had a video of it to play for him when he's older.

Ethan's mom Miranda is practicing face painting so she uses Sean and Ethan's faces and they love it. Ethan as a sparkly tiger and Sean as black spiderman.

Sean and Ethan both as tigers.

Sean hasn't gone to school this week he has had a fever and croup AGAIN. Snuggling with Alika. Alika had a fever for a couple of days too.

What else: Mom has gone to NC for three weeks. They took her stair lift out yesterday so we can get the carpet put in.

The drama of Jenny keeps going. I don't even know what to write. She has the girls and Sean today. Ryan called and wants to see Sean so I am going to take him to see Ryan and Discovery with the girls at 2:30 when I pick him up from Jenny. (Don dropped him off on his way to work). Ryan hasn't seen Sean since he was in the hospital in May. Jenny said Kylie through a fit in Walmart yesterday that was so bad she didn't know what to do and had to call Lanette then when she got home Kylie picked up a broken light bulb from the street put it in her mouth and when Jenny told her to spit it out she chewed it. Bizarre. I'm going to take Jenny and the girls to dinner after we are done with Ryan so I will talk to Kylie and see if she will tell my why she did that. Very very strange. I've never seen her act like that. Don said he's heard of being mad enough to spit nails but not eat glass. At the team meeting with DCFS Monday they called and asked if I would baby sit the girls while Jenny works because she can't afford day care. Are you kidding me!!! I told them there is a reason Sean goes to daycare, because I WORK! Now they are asking Ryan to watch them which makes no sense becasue there was a hearing on Friday to try and make Ryan's visits supervised but he didn't show. I swear DCFS is totally screwed up. The "final" hearing is Wed. I'm guessing they will just send the girls back and wait and see what happens. Insanity.

Happy 84th birthday Grandma

My mom turns 84 today. I dropped her off at the airport this morning. Marjie is flying from LA to SLC and meeting her at the gate and then they are continuing on to NC. We got her checked in and off she went in a wheelchair. She is looking forward to NC food. She is staying with Marjie for three weeks. While she is gone we are having the carpet replaced downstairs.

We went out to dinner last night since she wasn't going to be here this evening. We didn't have a cake though. Don and I went to see Gilbert Godfrey at the comedy club last night after dinner.

Alika and Mom.

Face Painting

Sean has been wanting his face painted because Ethan is always getting his face painted. We went to the Bountiful Art Festival and they were face painting and Spiderman was an option. Score. We had already eaten lots of food, listened to music, done crafts and watched dancing.

This is what the Spiderman paint looked like in the picture he chose. The $2 choice as opposed to the $1.

It wasn't what he wanted. He looked in the mirror and cried. "More" and he waved at his face. OK, she added some more. This lady was very good natured.

That wasn't enough so she added the other side of his face. Still, no go it wasn't the look he wanted. OK, lets just add a couple of bucks and keep painting.

FINALLY, here's the look he had in mind.