The place to be!

This is the New Year's place to be if you are 10 or under. When I went to pick Sean up from Kylie and Brie's after I left the hospital they wanted to have another sleep over. I probably should have said no because they are all a little sick of each other but they were so adamant at the time. Sean just said "I want Kylie and Brie to go home. I want some alone time." I made them popcorn and they are watching a movie and then I'm putting them all to bed. Kylie called her mom and said she wanted to come home but her mom told her she really didn't want to drive on New Year's eve unless she absolutely had to. 

Khloe was hysterical she chased the kids around and around and laughed and squealed. She is a little clown.

Claudia's hair

I went to the hospital to see Claudia last night after we dropped Sean and the girls off at the Richardson's. I hadn't seen her in over a week. When I walked in I was horrified. She looked terrible. Her head looked like a dog with mange. It might not have been so shocking if Claudia wasn't so obsessed with looking good. She always has her hair done and her make up on. They did a 12 hour EKG on her 10 days ago. They put the equivalent of superglue in her hair to hold the 20+ electrodes on her head. No one had tried to get the glue out. Claudia was too confused to know how bad she looked but it really bothered me that people were seeing her look so bad. The glue was solid and there were spots where they'd pulled part of her scalp off with the electrodes.

 She also didn't recognize me when I walked in the room. She just looked at me with that blank Alzheimer's look. When I spoke she recognized my voice and said "Carol." I said "Holy crap Claudia you look like hell." (I'm just nice like that.) When I was talking to her she kept looking to her right at the ceiling I asked her what she was looking at and she said "those things." I don't know if she was hallucinating or having focal seizures. When I left I texted Lynda and told her she HAD to do something with her sisters hair. I told her I'd look on the Internet and see what to do and call her. When I talked to her she said she's been bothered by her hair but was scared to do anything about it. I told her to remember what Yoda said about fear. (But I couldn't quite remember what he said.) I think fear is the path to the dark side but that doesn't really fit the situation. I told her I wasn't scared so we were going to get this crap out of her hair. Lynda said Claudia was doing the ceiling gaze with her too and she was worried she was seeing Garret and Kathy and they were trying to take her.

Claudia had not had a bed bath or a shower in the two weeks she's been in the hospital. It was quite awful. Lynda and I met up with a plethora of remedies we found on the Internet. I asked the aide for a bed shampoo tray and she said "I don't think we have those." I said, "oh I think you do. This is a big hospital. If you don't have one on this floor I bet they have one in the ICU, go look." About 15 minutes later she came back and asked "is this what you want?" Why yes, yes it is. Good work my little C.N.A. friend. I had the nurse give her pain medications before we started. She asked Claudia if she wanted one or two. I said "2 Claudia you're going to want 2!" She was pretty comfortable while we deglued her scalp and hair.

The knots were crazy and she had dreadlocks in the back. We tried conditioner and shampoo. The glue was not water soluble. We used some stuff Lynda got from her niece that is supposed to remove hair extension glue and that didn't work. We shampooed and conditioned it a couple of times, soaked it in olive oil and then started combing that crap out. The longer it soaked in olive oil the easier it got. I used Sean's lice comb to comb out the glue and it slid off her hair. Like picking nits I found it oddly therapeutic. Perhaps when I start my nit picking business I can add EEG glue removal.

Claudia's son Brett went down to the gift shop and got some bobby pins so we could pin up the parts we had gotten free of knots and glue. It took the two of us two and a half hours but I have to say we did a great job. We got her up to the shower and washed her hair again and combed it all out with the conditioner still in. It hung down her back so straight and clean I could have cried. I put it in a braid so it won't tangle up in the back but I think we kicked that glues butt. Claudia said the shower felt so good. She was exhausted when we were finished. 

Such a beautiful sight. I didn't take pictures of her face when her hair was so bad it just seemed wrong!

Here she is feeling clean and like Claudia. She looks about 80 years old but she looks a sight lot better than when we started. I bet she's lost 20 pounds. They still haven't given her a diagnosis. I'm worried she's got a prion disease. I guess time will tell. Last night I was sure she'd never recover but today I felt better. She seems to do much better in the morning and it was after 6 when I saw her yesterday. Today she even asked me how many students we have registered for Monday's class.

Snow Mobiles at Daniels Summit

In keeping with my "experiences and not stuff" quest we decided to take Sean and his sisters snowmobiling. I made the reservations a couple of months ago. It was cold, really, really cold. It was around 20 degrees near the hotel and probably closer to 10 at the Summit. I'd never been snowmobiling and it was a lot harder than it looks. It takes a lot of muscle to steer that beast. There is no power steering and you have to lean against the curve or you will fall over. Don, Sean and Kylie fell over. One other person in our group fell over and one ran into a tree. The only two that didn't roll or get stuck was me and the other mom. We were going too slow to get in too much trouble.

Brie loved it, Kylie liked it, Sean hated it. Sean said it was "miserable." He said he was praying that they wouldn't die. Kylie said she kept her eyes closed and she was praying too. She said she was thinking "if we die it will be Uncle Grandpa's fault." They cracked me up. Sean and Kylie said they wanted to switch and ride with me. Ha, Don's a much safer bet. They were somehow convinced I was going slower which made no sense because they were behind me. Don was worried I was going to get left in the woods. 

On the way up I was thinking, "never again." On the way down I understood how people could enjoy the sport. I'm not sure I will do it again but I'm glad I did it once. At the restaurant they have a video of extreme snow mobiling and Kylie said "that's what we were doing." Yep, Kylie we are exactly like the extreme guys.

Sean being angry! His little tears were frozen to his little cheeks. He cried pretty much the entire time. He asked how much longer and when I told him we were half way he had a little melt down. I told him there was no other way to get off the mountain other than go back down it. We were supposed to go in a big loop but the weather got really bad. The sky was gray and it was really snowy so our guide decided it would be safer to turn around. I think it was a wise choice. The poor guide was probably thinking how did I get stuck with two such inept families. I was glad the other family was struggling too. I didn't have to feel so bad about slowing them down.

Brie was having a good time. Apparently she didn't feel the need to pray that she wouldn't die.

Sean's body language says it all!

There's only one place to eat at the resort. It was
OK but after breakfast, lunch and dinner it was getting old. The diner was funny. They were really slow bringing the bill. They had the attitude of there is nothing else to do and no where else to go. They are right once you're done snowmobiling your options are limited. The kids spent a lot of time in the pool and we played Uno.

Madness I tell you it was madness

Sarah checking out the gingerbread houses.

It's been pretty cold and snowy for the past week so we had 14 kids with a lot of energy stuck inside. I was surprised nothing got broken. I would periodically yell at them to stop using the Nerf gun (I swear I thought I hid them all), stop throwing the ball, stop beaning each other with the Nerf Star Wars lasers. Each time I yelled I would get a bunch of kids saying "I didn't do it!" Ha, I never said any one's name! The funniest thing was little 3-year-old Caleb was always in the thick of it.
John said that Uncle Ed has a significant pulmonary embolism.

Kylie and Brie came to join the festivities. Jake was there too. When Don was walking Jake home Jake asked "who were all those kids?" Don said Sean's cousins and sisters. Jake said "I have ancestors too." Funny!

I hid Sean's robot in the laundry room until most of the kids had left. It wouldn't have stood a chance against all those cousins.

I posted this picture on Facebook and Alex called plagiarism. I told him it wasn't plagiarism it was stealing. Loreal made a ginger bread house earlier in the day and left it. Sean only put two pieces of candy on his so when it came time to take a picture he took one of the Brie's and she took Loreal's. I'd say that was a small price for Alex and Loreal to pay to escape the madness. 

Merry Christmas

It was a strange Christmas morning with no Grandma. I kept looking where her chair sat. I'm glad Brad and Teresa took her chair out the day after she died it would really bother me to see it sitting there. She really only used it a couple of times the last year but it was still the chair where she sat for years. AJ, Steph and Khloe were in Costa Rica. Alex and Loreal couldn't get up until the afternoon of 25th because the weather was bad.

Sean really wanted this poop emoji pillow. Strange thing to want but it made him happy.

Sean got a robot for Christmas. It was for ages 10 and up but I think it would be a pretty sophisticated 14 year old that could put it together. Sean helped for about an hour and then we went to the movies.

Jake was over about noon. I tell you his mother spends as much time in bed as a newborn. The other day he got sick at school and I had to go pick him up because they couldn't get either of his parents to answer their phones but they were both at home. Susan then complained on Facebook that she was soooo tired and hadn't been able to get any sleep and I'm thinking dang woman your kid woke you up when I brought him home at noon! I digress, I took Sean and Jake to see Star Wars. It was Sean and my second time.

When we got home Don had finished putting the robot together.

By dinner time Alex and Loreal had arrived. David, Alika and Garret came up for a crab and salmon dinner.

Claudia

Claudia started feeling bad the week before the Christmas class. She thought she had the flu. I told her on Wednesday that I would teach for her on Friday but she was convinced she'd be better. She said she was confused and had terrible vertigo. She'd been to the ER and they told her she was fine and to take some meclazine. Thursday night she called and said she was too sick to teach. She was even more confused and kept repeating herself. She went to the ER again on Thursday and they sent her home again. On Friday they finally admitted her. I went and saw her Saturday on my way home from work. She looked terrible. She said she had gotten so sick in the night she couldn't breath and thought she was dying. She kept pushing her call button and no one would come. Doug had gone to get something to eat. She got out of bed and crawled in the hall. The housekeeper found her unconscious in the hallway. Good grief. They called the rapid response team and did another CT scan. They still couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. On Sunday she has a seizure and coded. They moved her to the neuro ICU. She couldn't follow instructions and didn't know who anyone was. I talked to Lynda this morning. Claudia's back on the floor. She had another seizure but she knows who everyone is and she's not in pain. They did an MRI with contrast. The latest diagnosis is some sort of virus in her brain.

Cutest little lamb EVER!

Khloe was a lamb in DIA's Christmas program. She was the cutest lamb ever.

I feel your pain Khloe. It was a longgg boring program. It was crowded and hot. I went to the office and Steph brought Khloe to me because she had to pee so I kept her our for awhile. Even Angela, the principal was out in the hall. She said it was too claustrophobic. They had the entire school preschool - 8th grade in the gym doing one program. Next year they need to divide that up into two or three different programs. The kids and parents would be happier. The little kids and the big ones were both bored. It was probably the poorest done school program I've ever seen. They have a new music teacher and it's her first year.

Poor little lamb!

Lousy

We had a big snow storm! We've had a couple of decent snow storms this year.

Sean had been complaining of an itchy head for a couple of weeks. When he was going to sleep he would ask me to scratch his head. One night I even got him out of bed and washed his hair. I used a flashlight and put on glasses convinced he had lice but I couldn't find any. Flash forward a month. The night of the big snowstorm Sean was getting ready for bed and he was complaining that his head really itched. He had scabs at the base of his neck. I knew he had to have lice. He has soooo much hair. I got a flashlight, put on two pairs of glasses and started searching. I could see the bites. It took me awhile and I found nits around his neck and ears. Finally, I found some lice. It was late and it was snowing so I dumped a bottle of Avocado oil on his head and he went to sleep.

The oil slowed those suckers down so I could catch them.

I used some lice shampoo made of sodium and eucalyptus, then I blew his hair dry and used a flat iron. Sean really didn't want a hair cut so he tolerated a lot of nit picking. I picked for two hours. I found it rather therapeutic. There were so many lice that when I would comb they would land in my hand. Poor kid, no wonder he'd been itching. He has so much hair. The lice must have been in paradise. Neither Don or I had any. I guess they were so happy in Sean's head they didn't see any reason to go anywhere else. That boy has a lot of hair!

All those dryers were full of our clothes. I decided to take everything to the laundromat and get it done all at once. It took about 2 hours and cost fifty bucks but I got it all done. There was another one of Sean's classmates mom there. Her kids had barfed all night.

All and all I didn't find the lice experience too horrible. It took all day to get everything washed and Sean's head clean but not much work after that. After seeing that salt was the main ingredient in the shampoo and leave in treatment I just mixed up a cup of salt and a gallon of water. Every night after I washed his hair I dumped salt water in his hair and blew it dry. Those nits turned into nit raisins. I took Sean to get his hair trimmed. I was worried the lady would say "he's got lice" but she didn't say anything. I looked again last night and found a couple of dried nits and that was it.

Santa in Centerville

Hot chocolate and cookies out in the cold.

It was cold and rainy the night they turned the Christmas lights on. 

Sean told Santa he wanted "home security cameras." Santa (who is Tay's grandfather) looked shocked and asked "what would you do with them?" Sean said "put them up in my house."

Khloe didn't say anything to Santa.

I'm not sure what Jacob said he wanted. 

Hang on Snoopy

                                             
                                    
Kylie and Brie spent a couple of nights. We went and saw The Peanuts movie. The kids went and sat down on the very first row.

I was laying down with Brie at bedtime and she quite conversant. Kylie and Sean had made her cry so I went in the play room with her and we were being really quiet. Kylie and Sean couldn't figure out where we were until we started to giggle. Brie was telling me about old memories. She would say "I don't know if it was real or a dream." Some of her memories were spot on and some were quite diluted. One involved her and Kylie being locked in a room during a party and when they got out Ryan and Jennie were fighting and they broke a window. "Then the police came and Ryan disappeared." I know the exact house where that happened. Most of her stories I could visualize. We were talking about when Jenny and Ryan shaved her head. I told her I felt like she lost her power when they took her hair because she wouldn't look at anyone and she quit talking. She told me she still quits talking and won't look at people when she's sad.

Oh Christmas Tree!

We put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. We were all sick with colds so that's about all we did.