The Tinkerbell Times

“I Can’t Believe That Baby Is Going To Be 2″

epirush — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:33:52 +0000

The palate team called me today to schedule Beth for her 2 year evaluation. She has to go every year to see the team in St. Louis to make sure she’s healing and progressing normally. She had her palate repair in November of last year and she’ll be seen again this year in November for a hearing screening, speech eval and the doc will look at the palate. We saw them in April, I believe it was, for a pin hole. That may or may not be anything to worry about. Only time will tell. So far though it hasn’t had any effect on her at all - at least not that we can tell anyway. The team coordinator tells me today “I Can’t Believe That Baby Is Going To Be 2″ - neither can we. Didn’t we just let her turn 1 a few weeks ago?

The time flies folks. It really does.

Where Did All That SHIT Go???

epirush — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:53:58 +0000

I was asked recently where all of my garage decorations went. You know, all the things that Matt and I have collected over the years and didn’t have room for in the house? Yeah.. all that junk that was in the garage that I wanted to move into the shed. I mentioned having to rebuild our tiny shed out back to make room for it all.

Anyway, his question reminded me that I promised a better picture of the remodeled/rebuilt shed. We have the siding ready for it, just waiting for the bedroom to be done so we can side the house and shed at the same time.

YAY!

I’m Ready For FOOTBALL!

epirush — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:38:50 +0000

Thank the pigskin gods it’s PRE SEASON!! My entire year revolves around my Rams football. I swear, in my mind, there is nothing else to watch on television if it’s not football season. The new 51″ plasma that we bought to replace the 42″ plasma, the DirecTV with the HD reciever and the Sunday Ticket. The PC with the complete media package and tv tuner and DVD burner. Yeah. It’s all about my Rams. Every last penny of it.

If you’re ever in town on a Sunday or Monday night, drop by for a game - I’m sure to have plenty of good food an drinkage. Just knock!

How Much Is That Reflection In The Window?

epirush — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:33:49 +0000

PRICELESS! After months of waiting, the right sized window FINALLY came in! The last one was a foot too wide and had to be reordered. What a pain! I swear sometimes it feels like I’ll never have a bedroom again. But anyway, progress is progress and I’m happy to see it.

Running Down A Dream

epirush — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:57:37 +0000

My daughter goes through sleep phases that I swear would drive Charles Manson sane.

This child is 23 months old and can go for 2 hours on as little as 5 minutes of sleep. That’s even after going all day long without a nap! I rock the child to sleep after a long day and Matt takes her to her crib and lays her down. If I take her to the crib, she pops up in a second and she’s wide awake for God knows how long. But last night, even with Matt tucking her in, she was up and at ‘em! Matt put her in her crib at approximately 11:00 PM and by 11:05 she was up, in my lap again and ready to go! She didn’t give up again until 1:00 AM.

Let her cry it out, you say? Sure! Only if you’ll come over to the house and clean up her sheets and give her a bath. The child screams until she pukes if you try to let her CIO.

And the palate team nurses call her “willful”.

We dream of sleep.

The Gramma

epirush — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:39:32 +0000

As most of you know, back in January I moved my gramma in with me after my papa died. This is the reason for the big reMOODel mess my house is in. But anyway, what’s a family to do? The best it can with what it’s been given, right? RIGHT!

Anyhoo, my absence from the blogosphere has been because of her. She had another bout of bronchitis the weekend before Father’s day and ended up in the hospital that Friday before. She was scheduled to come back home the following Monday and had an accident at the hospital and fell. She broke her right hip and her right wrist and has had surgery on both. She has pins in her wrist and a new hip as a result and is now in a long term care facility for rehab. Hopefully she won’t be there any longer than six weeks - that’s what we’re shooting for. She’s been gone long enough and we want her to come home!

Spanish Fly

epirush — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:17:47 +0000

The remoodel continues! Believe it or not, things CAN keep going even without the Token Mexican. Just slower. (I love you Matty!)

Anyway, as of today, this is what things look like. If we’re not careful, we MIGHT have a bedroom before the kids go back to school in August. *cough*

It’s me closet!

What will some day be my sitting window… ahhh I can’t wait!

My ceiling. The beams are wrapped now too! YAY!

Here’s the spanish lace texture that Matt has put on the wall. Notice my fly. He’s into that Spanish stuff. He’s my freak. He’s my Spanish Fly.

The Token Mexican Strikes Again!

epirush — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:24:59 +0000

Well, the Token Mexican made it back here a few weeks ago to help again. While he was here this time he got to sample more of the local cuisine and get pelted during a hail storm. You just can’t make a trip to the midwest and not experience a sudden hail storm. Leaving without that experience is a sin and makes the baby Jesus cry.

Can you believe I still don’t have a bedroom? But it’s getting closer..

LOOK! It’s a CEILING!

“Wow.. you know, I think you’re right!” “I bet THIS is where we’re supposed to put that sheetrock Kim was talking about.”

YES!!

Hey Art!! How do you feel about those Dodgers?!

(We knew it all along.. check out the cap!!)

Silly Token Mexican. This is NOT what I mean by “Sitting Window”.

Got A Light?

epirush — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:00:45 +0000

We’re still off the cancer sticks! YAY! It’s been well over a month now but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel the need for another one. RIGHT NOW! I’ve been craving like mad for the last week and have come close so many times. I even had an unlit cigarette in my mouth - just for the feel of it - the smell of it. My oldest got so mad at me, but as I explained “It’s not lit!!”.. he continued to give me this really shitty look. Didn’t matter. It was a cigarette and it was in my mouth. Lit or not, he was livid.

Still yet - no smoking and I don’t intend to. As with any additction, this is a one day at a time kinda thing. Each day presents hurdles and invitations to fall off the wagon. If I can stay on the St. Louis Rams wagon, surely I can stay on the No Smoking wagon too.

That’s It, WE QUIT!!

epirush — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:26:53 +0000

You ever get to a point where you throw your hands up and say “F-it”? Sure you do. We all do. And this past weekend was no exception for us. I had went to the doc on Friday for yet another sinus infection. That made the third one this year! Each time I get a sinus infection, by the time my head clears, my chest is full once again from all the drainage. Needless to say, I got sick of it - sick of coughing - sick of not being able to breathe - just SICK OF IT ALL. My doc said that my lungs sounded really “tight” - meaning not much flowing around in there and the infection that was in there wasn’t loose and budging any time soon. She asked if I was ready to quit smoking and of course my answer was “no”. I mean, I wanted to quit, sure - I’ve been trying off and on for years to quit! I just felt that I wasn’t ready. We had the big auction on Sunday and I knew I’d need some sort of comfort that day. She assured me that she could help me quit when I was ready and I promised her I’d let her know.

She should have been around on Saturday night when my Tinkerbell was screaming her head off in the back seat of my truck. She’d made the trip to Portageville and back with us - only a tad over an hour one way - but TOO LONG for her! We’re 30 minutes from home and she starts in crying. Non stop screaming, desperate crying - as if someone was constantly pinching her or something. It’s dark in the truck so I turn a light on - I think “well, maybe she just doesn’t like not being able to see anything”.. no, that’s not it. She’s still screaming her head off. I turn the light back out so I can see out the windshield. 10 minutes later, she’s still screaming so I flip the light on once more and this time she’s got her arm all twisted up in the car seat straps. I’m about to lose my mind, so I light up a cigarette. My nerves are shot, my grandmother is talking about the same thing over and over and over, I’m exhausted from packing up her house to prep for the auction and my daughter is screaming nonstop in my ears while I’m trying to drive. (THIS IS WHY I DONT DRIVE TO QUINCY, MOTHER!) I don’t know if I felt like I couldn’t breathe because of my nerves or if it was because of the infection in my lungs or if it was both, but either way, it was enough to help me quit. That cigarette was the last one I lit. After we got home and got everything settled, I packed up the one ashtray, hid what was left of the Marlboro carton in the kitchen and forgot about them. Off and on Sunday I felt as though I couldn’t breathe and that kept the cigarettes away again. I didn’t feel the need once to light up.

Matthew had one cigarette Sunday and didn’t light up at all yesterday. I’m so proud of him. I know it’s been harder on him to quit than it is for me. He wasn’t sick at the time he tried to quit and he wasn’t having trouble getting air into his lungs - and he was under the same stresses I was. He’s sick now though from the withdrawals. Poor guy feels like he has the flu, but once that’s over, it will be so worth it. We just bought ourselves more life. More time to spend with our kids and the lung capacity to do it!

When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.

I love you Matt! :) You totally kick butt.