Christmas

Here is a video of Lil Brother at his Christmas program. I started laughing when he did his little trick and that's why the camera is so shaky. Sorry about that. :D




Christmas this year was excellent, with the exception of my grandma being in the hospital. She had a medication issue that caused a series of problems so she spent 3 days in there. I feel so bad for her. She got out today finally. We went to see her tonight. She seemed pretty good in spirit...she has some bruising from the monkeying around they were doing with her blood thinner I guess...and she is bone skinny. If you are so inclined, do say a prayer that she will get some sort of an appetite back. She is far underweight and it scares me...it's not healthy at all and she keeps loosing more.

I had Friday and Monday off of work so that was awesome. Friday my aunt and mom came over and we made cookies....the kind my grandma used to make. Norwegian Krumkake is a very delicate cookie that is best when filled with whipped cream.

Almond ginger snaps are another family favorite:

I'm pretty sure I gained about 5 pounds in the last 4 days. So much good food. We had Christmas Eve at my aunt's house with my mom's side of the family and Christmas day was at my house with my dad's side of the family.

Here are a few pictures:

Christmas 2011, a set on Flickr.

On Friday a pair of Bald Eagles showed up right behind my house. I took this picture from my bedroom window. I just love to see them. When I was a kid there were not any around - it was a very rare sight to see them here. Now they are making a good come-back and I'm so glad.

I got three main gifts for Christmas - we draw names in my family....but everyone buys for the kids under 18. I asked for and received a blender...a quite awesome blender, an Ninja Professional - like this one:

You can't make it out clearly, but there are 3 rows of VERY sharp blades. While taking it out of the box on Sunday I managed to cut my finger. Deep. Like it opened up over and over on Sunday, bleeding. And once today as well. So I'm guessing it is way better than the one that I had before - my old one used to stink like something burning while it ran, it was way too loud, and it would vibrate off the counter if you didn't hang on tight to it.

I also got a heater for my living room from my dad and he always gets something cool too - this year it was a Soda Stream pop maker. You make your own soda pop at home. I heard about it on the radio and wanted to try it, until I found out the price. Now we have it, without the initial investment. The kids LOVE it. It's so simple. No electricity or batteries needed. Just the CO2 tank. So far we've tried cola and orange flavored. They are good. The cola tastes like Pepsi to me...and I'm a coke drinker but the orange is yummy!

The kids made out like bandits of course. They really loved all their presents. The girls are at that age where they are pretty fun to buy for. My aunt M. got them both clothes that they have already worn and love. MK got a lot of fun earrings too. Peanut loves the watch my dad got her. It lights up in bright changing colored lights around the outside. MK got the movies she asked for so she's watching one now. Little brother...hard to say which is his favorite...but he's now sleeping with 2 Angry birds (the red and the blue), he played his Leap Frog Explorer for a few hours already, and he's wearing his Angry Bird T-shirt I got him tomorrow to daycare. He also loves his cars - the hot wheels are all the rage right now with him....and he asked to wear his new clothes both yesterday and today. Happy, happy kids. Happy, happy mom.

I have the best extended family ever. My uncle surprised us all with 100 dollar bills too. I asked him if he won the lottery...he said no. :) That was awesome (and much needed and appreciated).

Today the girls and I met up with my aunt M., my cousins, and my sister for a movie - the Sherlock Holmes one. I have not seen the first one, but this one was great! Little Bro couldn't go since it's not a kids movie, so he got to spend some time at my brother's house. He really likes seeing my brother and his family, so I'm so glad that he could go over there. He doesn't get to very often. I hope as my niece is getting bigger, she'll get to come over to our house more often too. She's so darn cute! Here's a picture I took of her at Christmas:

Tomorrow it's back to work. Sad face. But happy to have a job to go to.

Zooey Mama!* Longer post...lots going on!

What a weekend! It started early Friday with Hollywood getting braces put on. Unfortunately they hurt her quite a bit and she had a hard time all weekend. They have 2 brackets on the inside of her last molars on top which rubbed a hole in her tongue on each side. :(

Friday evening Little Brother had a Christmas program. It was really cute. He didn't sing at all. He was so funny to watch though. I was worried he would cry, but he didn't. He was too interested in watching everyone else to remember to sing. He also found a couple coins in his pocket and tried to show me and the kids around him. I don't know where they came from. I only took a couple pictures and the rest is on video. Here's one though.

And here we are having cookies and juice afterwards in the fellowship hall.

I may post a video later...too tired right now.

Saturday I got up early, cooked, cleaned and got ready for MK's birthday party. That started at noon. She had family and several friends over for pizza, pop, and a DQ ice cream cake.

She took her friends on a tour...showing them our little barn with her chickens...they were pretty impressed with the egg that one of them laid. She took them on a walk to our pond behind the house...and showed them her gecko and hermit crabs. Then most of us (9 kids & 9 adults) went snow tubing in the afternoon. That was AWESOME! We got a picture before we left, but 3 of our group had left a little early to go to another engagement so they are not in here.

I'm the one in the red jacket...the same height as some of the shorter kids. :D My cousins, brother, sister-in-law, sister, aunt, 5 of MK's friends, MK, Hollywood and her best friend are all here (my SIL is taking the picture - thank goodness she had her camera phone with). Everyone said it was really fun and I think they all had a good time.

Let me tell you about it from my perspective...first off, I'm over-weight. Like the most over-weight I have ever been in my entire life. We're talking 25 pounds more than I weighed when I was 9 months pregnant with my last child. Ya, lard ass type of over weight. I stood looking down at the hill wondering if I had the strength to be able to pull my ass back up the hill. It took a while for me to get the courage to go down the first time.

They have a type of pulley system with a rope to get from the bottom to the top. It's pretty basic. I mean like....there's a tractor that runs the pulley system with it's PTO...hooked up to a tire that spins the rope and I'm pretty sure some of the pulley wheels were rims. Like from tires. The tubes as you can see in the picture are from tires. Not the fancy blow up kind you buy at a sporting goods store. Nope...these were watch-out-for-the-metal-valve-stem kind of tires. Not all of them, just one of the ones I got stuck with for a bit. The others had plastic valve stems.

The rope lays on the ground on the way up the hill...you throw your tube down, grab the rope and then jump on your tube and hang onto that rope for dear life. God forbid you start losing your grip and the icy rope starts slipping through your hands. You're screwed then. You better roll off the side and get the hell out of the way of the person coming up behind you. There's no one to direct you as to when you should get on after the last person. You just wing it. There is a woman standing in a booth at the top watching so she can stop it if anything too terrible happens.

I made it up the hill every time. Do you know why? Because looking up at that hill while you're on the way up and realizing that if you slip, you'll have to WALK all the way up gives you a really good reason to hang on for the whole trip. There was one time when I over-shot my tube so it was basically under just my waist and legs...I had to hold my whole body up and hang on to the rope to get up there. I thought for sure my muscles were going to rip away from the bone. I made it though. I can barely move today...but I did it! It was a really fun time with family and MK's friends. I love her friends. They are all sweet and nice like she is.

We got back to my house around 7:15 pm. I heated up the sloppy joe's I had made that morning and got out the chicken salad I had made too. The girls all had some supper and then most of them went home. A few stayed over night. They all had left by noon today (Sunday).

I went Christmas shopping for a bit with MK's dad after the kids left. He called me and asked me to since he was clueless what to get her. I met him in the town where I live and guided him in his choices for a teen girl. :) It was actually pretty enjoyable. I'm glad he and I can be friends. It's much easier for all involved.

I was home in time to give the kids supper and I brought home some meds for Hollywood's sore mouth. I got more wax for her brackets, some numbing gel that the pharmacist recommended for her tongue and some soft foods & ice cream for her to eat. She was finally then able to eat a whole meal for the first time since Friday. It was a chicken pot pie. I hope her mouth adjusts soon. I feel so bad for her. It's hard for her to see the value in it right now, but I know in the long run it is worth it (from experience). I was thankful we were so busy this weekend to keep her mind off of it.

*Zooey mama is what Hollywood and MK always say from the movie Diary of a Whimpy Kid (I don't know how to spell it). :)

Whirlwind

Things are going really fast this week. I took some Christmas pictures of the kids...the group shots did NOT go well. Little Brother was uncooperative most of the time...sometimes being silly (like pinching noses and laughing maniacally)and sometimes just being...three. When he was cooperating some one else either wasn't looking, had just two teeth showing, or was holding a limb in an odd position. I spent most of the time being irritated at how is wasn't going. LOL. I did it two different days with him, so the first day with just him went pretty well. Here's a few that didn't make the Christmas card this year but are cute/funny anyway.

On the list for tomorrow:

Work half the day...leave to go get Hollywood and take her to get her braces on! Exciting for her! Pick up MK from school and Lil Bro from daycare, head home to eat supper and then Lil' Bro has his very first Christmas program that he is participating in tomorrow evening. I'm excited about it! Then it's back home to clean the house because....

Saturday:
MK's birthday party! The celebrating starts at noon....we're all going snow tubing in the afternoon (except Lil Bro - he's too little for this one - he'll be at Grandma's) and then back home for hot chocolate and snacks until their parents come get them. I can't wait!

3rd Anniversary of Adoption

I don't think he cares too much for being the center of attention. :)

I got you a video by SoWhatWhoCares2011 on Flickr.

We all went out for supper together to celebrate the day Lil Bro became a part of our (awesome) family. Words cannot express what this little boy means to me.

The very first day I met him...in the orphanage:

This summer at the MN State Fair:

Then:

Now - December 13th, 2011 - being his usual funny self. He wanted to have his Cars blanket that I made for him and his favorite Bob the Builder toy, Scoop, in the picture too:

I love this little boy. I thank God for giving me the opportunity to raise him and love him forever. I could never ask for anything more. I feel so blessed.

Hmmmm

hollywood, a photo by SoWhatWhoCares2011 on Flickr.

It was 11:45 pm on a Sunday night. The kids had gotten ready for bed long before. I noticed this on the kitchen stove as I was walking back to go to bed. This is Hollywood's doing. She put out all her stuff for the next morning to be ready to get going to school. Instant coffee, sugar, creamer, a lunch bag, peanut butter for her sandwich, and Doritos. This diet does not spell nutrition. Yikes. True to form, she took a "to go" mug of coffee on the bus with her this morning. Nothing like kissing your middle-schooler goodbye and noticing she has coffee breath.

I will at least have to switch her to decaf.

Finally

Now it feels like Christmas....

Fun Friday Night

Hollywood has been baking again. :)  She made this cupcake for a friend from school. She does such a nice job! She told me she wanted to go to a culinary arts school when she's out of high school. I told her she can do anything she sets her mind to. We think it would be fun to open a bakery/coffee shop together someday.  



May is the name of kitten we are keeping from the litter that Natalie (the injured stray that we nursed back to health last summer) brought up on our front steps. She's almost 9 weeks old now. She loves to sit up on your shoulder...she tucks her head in and sleeps sometimes.

I took her to the vet yesterday for a check up and to start her vaccinations and also because she had a really yucky looking eye. I thought she had gotten something in it...the lid was so swollen and red. Hollywood was so worried about her...I couldn't just wait it out...it looked really bad. I used my birthday money to pay for the visit. Vets charge a lot for an office visit. It would have been $55 just to have the vet look at her eye...but for $95 I was able to have her look at the eye, do a complete evaluation, and get her whole first year of shots. It cost a little extra since she needed medicine for her eye. She has conjunctivitis so they gave her an antibiotic drop with a steroid in it. It helped overnight, but she has to be on it for a week. She's in the clear with everything else though - no worms, no mites, no fleas, clear lungs - she looks good.

My cousin just got back from a trip to New York City. It's the first time he's been out there. My mom was actually born in Brooklyn, NY. I've never been there yet either. He visited FAO Shwarz while he was there and got the ultimate Lego set for Lil Bro. My cousin just got back on Wednesday but he called tonight to see if I minded if he gave it to him early. Too cute! Of course I said to come on over. We all had supper together (I made a hot dish) and Lil Bro was so excited to open it he didn't want to eat. I used it as a bribe to get him to eat instead. After supper the kids all sat down with my cousin and put all of it together. That was a perfect gift for him - he LOVES it...he wanted to sleep with it tonight. :)

Tomorrow evening a local church is having a live nativity scene outdoors. Live animals, angels, Mary, Joseph, Wise men, etc. I hope to bring the kids out there. It would be nice to see and come away with the true story of Jesus instead of all the commercial stuff the kids see too much of. 

Thankful.

Random updates:

Lil Bro - doing great! It is coming up on the 3rd anniversary of his adoption next week. Three years have seriously flown by. Hard to believe how grown up he's getting! I was dressing him after his bath the other day and I said, "Look how long your legs are!! You're getting so long!" He told me he didn't want to have long legs but then I told him how great it was and the next thing you know he's yelling for Hollywood to come and see how long his legs were. Teeheehee.

Hollywood - I'm so proud of her! She got all A's and an A+ on her report card, along with 2 "pleasure to have in class" and a "terrific!" on the comments line. What an awesome student!! Tomorrow morning she goes in to get spacers put in between her molars - in preparation for her braces which go on in one week. I'm happy for her.

MK - I'm very proud of her report card too! She's in AP English (advanced placement) and had a really heavy work load in all her classes. She managed to get all A's and one B (in geometry)! Way to go MK!! I am so grateful to have such hard working kids - even though MK was totally frustrated many times with both her English class and her Geometry class, she stuck it out and pulled off awesome grades. Way to go!!

I really admire the young lady that MK is and is becoming. She is such a good girl. She tries hard in school and cares about her future. She exercises every single day and watches what she eats. She has good, close friends that I like to see her hang around and she is so responsible. She's a great dancer and can kick the cowboy hat off of a 6' tall man if she wanted to. I totally trust her and am so thankful that she is such a great kid.

Me - I'm sick again. Ya, no surprise. They took blood this time and said everything looked good except for my white count - that was high...so they said it's bacterial and gave me another round of antibiotics. I have the same sinus/ear pain as before so I also got a referral to an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Great. I don't get that. But maybe I need to go to bed earlier. Like now. :)

TTYL.

Just another weekend in our crazy lives

A snippet of my conversation today:

Me:        I bet you’ll be so excited to start school.

Lil Bro:  With (Hollywood) and (MK)?

Me:        Ya, I bet you’ll love going to school.

Lil Bro:  Thank you. Thank you for saying that.

How cute is that?

Here's something else that is too cute from him:

He fell asleep holding his trinkets he won at a pizza joint we visited after MK's dance show this weekend. He had a blast there.

Hollywood had a friend over for the weekend. MK and the two of them went for a long walk to my brother's house and grandpa's house to see the cats and kittens they have there. We managed to find homes for 2 of the 4 kittens we have. We're keeping one of them for sure - the littlest one - a girl. The other one spent the night at my brother's house last night but wouldn't stop crying and howling so we took it back today. Maybe when she gets a little bigger we can try again...or maybe she'll stay. :) We'll see what happens.

Oh, and they are now in my laundry room. It's big...not like a closet or anything. There was a GIANORMOUS tom cat outside of our house Friday night - a stray - that did something to one of the kittens. We saw it out there and I chased it off, but it came back. We heard Christopher squeal like he was being hurt so we all ran out there...it ran off again. Christopher was okay but all 6 of the cats (mom, old baby, and the 4 kittens) were all freaked out...growling, hair raised, doing that arched back thing. Hollywood declared that they were not spending another night outside for fear of their lives. I made an appeal to my peeps on FB to find homes for them. Hollywood's old girl scout leader got a hold of me...she's the one who took both boys - Christopher and Jellybean. Whew! 2 less mouths to feed. But now I've got all 4...even the old baby in the house (he's not really tame...only Hollywood can get near him). This is temporary.

The one we're keeping took a nap with me today. I wasn't feeling well. I have yet another cold coming on. She's just the sweetest little thing. We took her upstairs and she just cuddled in for a nap on my lap. I went in my room and laid on my bed...she curled up on me and fell sound asleep too. Hollywood came and stole her after a while though...but I slept for at least an hour. Lil bro is sick with a cold too. It was really tough to get motivated today. I guess the tree will wait until tomorrow.

We've been doing our advent calendar countdown thing. Lil Bro loves that whole thing. He gets it now - that we move it just one spot per day and when it gets to the 25 it will be Christmas. I love re-living the excitement of the holidays through him.

A yummy recipe your kids will love - Chinese-Style Meatballs

I got the yummiest Chinese-style turkey meatball recipe off of Disney family website - we can't get enough of them. You can find it here:

http://family.go.com/food/recipe-819870-chinese-style-turkey-meatballs-t/

SO GOOD!!! And easy!

2nd Opinion Dentist & Ablation

I brought Lil Brother to the 2nd pediatric dentist to get their opinion. They were able to do a full cleaning on him and get 5 x-rays too! I was impressed with the time they took with him and the gentleness with which they got him to cooperate. He had such a good time, he asked if he could go back again today! They have a gumball type machine filled with small trinkets and at the end of the visit they gave him a token to use to get his prize. That left quite an impression on him too. He was such a brave boy. The x-rays hurt and made him gag...his eyes were watering too. But after each one he let them do the next one. I counted them down for him...with tears in my eyes watching him. Such a brave boy!

They got the job. They said the same as the first dentist - he needs caps. They plan on putting 10 on - one on each molar and one on each of his two front teeth. The best part is that they are right next door to a big hospital so that's where the work will be done. They'll put him under for about an hour. I have to wait to find out how much the insurance is going to pay and how much I have to pay and then it will hopefully be able to be scheduled for January. I still have to figure the money part out, but am waiting to find out how much it is first.

Right after his early morning appointment, I rushed him up to daycare, dropped off my truck and got a ride down to my doctor appointment (from my auntie M.) an hour away. I had an ablation done on my uterus. Basically they knock you out, insert some machine thing into your uterus and burn off your flesh inside there. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Ya, it is as fun as it sounds. They strongly encouraged me to take a pain pill right away when I got home. I hate pain meds and can't really take them very well. They make me basically pass out for hours afterward. Which is what I did. I fell asleep with a heating pad on my lower belly for a few hours. I had to sleep on my side though because on my back I kept stopping breathing and would jerk awake. Not sure why...but I think it is from the pain meds...maybe a little too relaxed?

I came through it okay...I slept off and on for 18+ hours. I didn't go to work today either and slept in. I haven't taken any more pain meds since they make me feel so exhausted and weird. I've just been taking ibuprofen. I can feel little contraction-like feelings in my uterus...they said it might spasm from what they did. I can handle it though - the pain isn't bad...just a little annoying. I plan to go to work tomorrow.

The point of the procedure is to kill off the tissue that you get your period from. Since my periods were so heavy (like I thought more than once that I was hemorrhaging) and sometimes came twice a month, they had to do something. I'm not having any more kids, so this was an option for me. Going forward I should either not have a period or have a very light period. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

This weekend's goal: put up the tree and get family pictures done (by me).

The Long Thanksgiving weekend

I have so much in my life to be thankful for. My children. My health. My family. My church. My job(s). My life. This past Thanksgiving was about spending time with family. It was so nice!

We started out Thursday traveling to my aunt's house on my dad's side. She has a big woods behind her house that is a nature preserve so after we ate and cleaned up we went for a walk out there. It was a perfect day for it. I took a bunch of pictures with my cell phone (translation=sucky pictures). I debated about bringing my camera but figured we wouldn't have time to do anything outside the house anyway. I was wrong. Sad face.




Later in the afternoon we headed over to my mom's place to feast on a turkey, pork roast, potatoes, yams, cranberries, gravy, pies, etc. It was delicious and I suffered from a food coma the rest of the evening. It was really nice to visit with everyone though. My aunt M. and her family came (my aunt M. is the one who traveled to Vietnam with me). My brother and his family were there too. My niece is getting so big. Again, no camera. I stink!

Friday was a do nothing day. Hollywood's best friend came over to spend the night...I made pho. It was an all day ordeal.

The ingredients:

The fixings to go with it:

And the finished product:

I'll be honest. It was delicious BUT it was way too expensive with all that meat/bones. I also made a big mistake. It said to cook it for a minimum of 6 hours, but I fell asleep on the couch with Lil Bro for an hour (so it cooked for 7 hours) and when I woke up there was hardly any broth left. It had boiled off. To the point that there was not enough left. I was disappointed to say the least. Plus you take out all of the bones and meat it was cooked with - seems like such a waste of all that expensive meat. I would have come out ahead had I just make the couple hour round trip drive to go eat it somewhere. That will be the last time I make it that way. It was fun for all of us though to eat it and the kids all liked it. Except my 100% Vietnamese child. He wouldn't touch it or even try it. LMAO.

I wanted to put up the Christmas tree but we never got around to it. Saturday we went to see a movie and Sunday we went for a walk. Here are some pictures from that. Hollywood's mama cat followed us the whole way (like a dog) and back.

Another random photo:

This pictures cracks me up for 2 reasons...one the kitten just stayed on her shoulder forever and eventually fell asleep there. Secondly - Lil Brother is playing Mario Cart on the Wii. He mastered that skill over the holiday weekend. That boy can drive! With little instruction from Hollywood, he picked it right up.

He amazes me. This evening when I was on the computer he came and sat next to me with his "Angry Birds notebook" and grabbed a pencil and quizzed me on how to spell various things. He can write really well. He asked me to spell words (so he could write them in his notebook) that started with "V" and then "U" and thought it was hilarious when he wrote "underwear". He also asked me to spell the character's names from Veggie Tales. He is so thirsty for knowledge. I just love it. He asks me to look stuff up on the computer for him - like the names I didn't know. He asks me to print Angry Bird coloring pages out for him too. He loves it when we draw the birds for him to color. I SUCK at drawing, but luckily they are pretty easy.

He's 3 1/2. If he already knows how to write...what is he going to know by the time he starts kindergarten?

He's so full of life, love, and personality. He is simply amazing. How could I have gotten so lucky? I think of the path that both of our lives were on before we met...me a single mom from a small town in the Midwest...him an orphan from a poor city in Vietnam...somehow fate brought me to him and him to me. He is the greatest gift I could have ever wished for. He makes my heart happy and I hope I have the same effect on him.

Thoughts....

I've decided to take Lil Brother to another pediatric dentist to get a 2nd opinion. I know he needs major work done, but I just want one more person to tell me exactly what he NEEDS done now. I also want to see what kind of setting they would do it in, what the dentist is like, etc. I didn't really know what to ask or expect last week but now I feel like I want to compare.

I keep thinking about him being put under and them working in his tiny mouth on his tiny teeth and it makes me want to cry. I don't want him to have to go through this. I know he has to, but I just can't stand the image of him in the chair while they work on his teeth for an hour or more. My poor baby. His appointment is early next Wednesday morning.

I will feel better if I have a 2nd ped. dentist look. This place does things differently than the first as well. They will do an exam and the x-rays in office so they can give me a better idea of what will need to be done. The other place was basically going to just put him under, then do the x-rays and do whatever needs to be done all in one shot. I guess I just feel better if he gets this out of the way rather than adding to the time he has to be put under while they do x-rays as well.

What do I know? I'm new at this. My girls never had dental issues. As a matter of fact, Hollywood has never had a filling in her life. And MK only had a couple when she was much older. Lil Bro is so little and I HATE the idea of putting him under. I know it is better for him and them to do it that way, but still. He's my baby.

The week

Short week this week - YAY!!!! I can't wait to have some time off. At the new company I'm with we get a paid holiday for both Thursday and Friday. Love that! We're also having a pot luck lunch on Wednesday...so sounds like a pretty easy week for me!

For Thanksgiving this year we'll be heading to my mom's house. She lives very close by so no travel for us either. Can't wait for turkey! I'm not sure what I'm going to make to bring yet.

Friday the kids and I have planned to dig out the Christmas tree and decorate it while I try my hand at making phở bò (Vietnamese noodle soup served with beef). It takes about 6 hours so we'll have plenty of time to get the Christmas decorating done. I wanted to make the pho this past weekend, but the snow screwed up my schedule. I found all but one of the ingredients in my local Cub Foods, which surprised me. I'm so excited and I hope it turns out - I could live off of the stuff.

Later Friday I think we're heading to my friend's house for a get together. Saturday I'm thinking we'll be heading to my aunt's house for another Thanksgiving celebration, but I have not received confirmation of that yet.

To sum it up, it looks like a great week!!

The Dental Results

Not good. Caps. On most of his teeth. :(  The dentist said that his teeth are all bad. The enamel is bad, most likely due to lack of nutrition during the time he spent in his bio-mother's belly when the baby teeth are formed. I'm so sad for him and for his little teeth. The molars he needs until he is 11 or 12, so they are worth saving. His two front top teeth will get caps too - they will be white on the front so they should look nice. Still sucks though. They obviously have to put him under to do the work since he's so young and would never sit still to have all that done. One of the holes is so deep they're not sure they can save it. He may also need some "root work" (root canals).

I'm angry too. Mostly at my current dentist. I knew that bad teeth were a good possibility given his background so I first brought him to the dentist when he was barely two. Just after his molars came in. They looked funny to me - different colors. The (idiot) dentist said it was nothing to worry about. I brought him back in when he turned 3 this spring. He wasn't very cooperative so they didn't want to push it and didn't do ANYTHING. I wish now that I would have made them give him an exam. Maybe that would have meant his teeth were not so bad now. My poor baby.

Then comes the "How the hell am I going to pay for this???"  I'm waiting for my dental insurance to give their estimate on what they will pay before I totally freak out but the dentist estimated the work to be around $2,250. That doesn't include any of the other charges for putting him under. That would fall under my health insurance...which has a $2,000 deductible. Oh joy. I'm fully expecting that this will cost me about $2500 out of pocket - after the dental insurance pays. We shall see. I'll have to get a loan for it...obviously he needs it done. I can't really afford another payment...and I have my doubts that they will even lend me the money, but I have to try.

Puss in Boots, Jewelry Parties, and (another) Dr. visit.

Ah, the weekened is over. Sad face. I had a nice weekend. Friday night we cleaned house. Saturday morning I bought food for the jewelry party I had later that day...my brother stopped by and changed some lightbulbs for me that I couldn't reach on my 6' ladder in the living room too. While he was over with the ladder, he cleaned my arch window and sill above my entry door. Such a good brother he is.

Hollywood and her friend (and MK helped decorate) made cupcakes for the party. They even put jewelry on them:

The party went well. I have to be honest though, it was a little annoying to me that people don't RSVP. I invited people through a FB event and also through the mail. I would say only about 25% of the people responded at all. Two that RSVP'd yes didn't show up anyway. I found out though that the mailed invites had the wrong phone number on most of them, so that might explain some of those...and some people don't use FaceBook that much.

I guess I don't have parties like that often at all and I like to make it fun...I ended up making way too much food, just in case some came and didn't RSVP. It was a good reason to get the house and yard cleaned up though and it is always fun getting together with the women in my family. I would have liked to see more of my peeps there, but everyone is so busy all the time. MK and Hollywood's old babysitter came - I love her. I wish she still did daycare. She retired long ago. She's the sweetest, kindest lady ever.

Pet update:

The outside cats and kittens are finally using the heated home I made for them. They're all curled up inside there as I type. The house can fit this many in it right now (they are sleeping on top of it in the picture below):

At least I didn't do all that work for nothing. :)

Movie:

Hollywood had a friend stay overnight last night and this morning we all went to church (where we met up with my grandma and aunt M.) and afterward we went to see Puss In Boots. I LOVE that movie. It is soooo cute. I guess you can tell I'm sort of a cat person anyway, but that movie was so great even if you're not. I don't want to give any of it away....so I won't say too much. There's a part in there that shows when he was a baby though - so CUTE! Meow.

Medical stuff:

Little Brother was a little whiney and not himself during the movie. He had told me yesterday that his ear hurt and then he kept making a growling sound like this throat hurt this past week. During the movie he said his throat hurt too. I (stupidly) decided to bring him in to the same day clinic to get his ears checked. A kid at his daycare's sister had strep recently too, so I thought it would be better to catch it early. I guess everyone else and thier grandparents decided today was a good day to visit the same day clinic too. Thank goodness the girls went home with my sister because lil bro and I sat there for 3 freakin hours. It was dark outside when we got out. Oh, and he just has a virus. He's my 3rd kid - I should have known better. Sheesh!!! About an hour and half into it I wanted to leave, but you know after you invested that much time you don't just want to give up. Damn it.

Hollywood is doing great wearing contacts, but she doesn't have a pair of glasses with her current prescription in them. I ordered some today from a place online for CHEAP. I ordered one for each of us since I can't see out of mine well anymore due to scratches. I also found a company to order my contacts through (same brand as I currently wear) for $15 less per box than my eye Dr. charges. Yay me!

Fuzzball

I love this picture...furry little kitten legs and tail.

Lil Bro's teeth

I wish I had been more proactive pushy with Lil Brother's dental care. I have been bringing him to the dentist since he was 2 but they have yet to clean his teeth or do x-rays. I noticed when his 2 year molars came in they looked funny - the enamel was different colors swirled in. That was why I brought him in the first time to see what was up with that. They said it was nothing to worry about. Well, those are the same teeth that I can now visually see holes/cavities in.

I brought him in again Wednesday. They confirmed that he has at least 3 big cavities and referred me to a pediatric dentist. The ped dentist was bothered that the first dentist had never cleaned or done x-rays on him before this. They have to start from scratch and figure out the best treatment. We go in next week with them. I'm scared for him. Depending on what they do, he might have to be sedated to do the work. He's not the best cooperator with the dentist which is part of the reason my first dentist didn't push it. But given his history of (most likely) no prenatal care and poor nutrition in the orphanage, I think they could have done better. The first dentist mentioned something about possibly restraining him. I'm like ya, right - over my dead body. Next dentist please and thankyouverymuch. Sheesh!

I hope I find out good news next week, but I know he'll need something done with them. Poor little guy.

Kittens

Did I tell you about the stray cat (I guess she's ours now) who moved her kittens up on my front steps? Ya, I did. Smart cat. Now we have 4 little fluff balls running around out there. They are so cute I can hardly stand it.

Hollywood is working to raise money to have them all spayed/neutered/shots done so she can keep them. I'm hoping to convince her to let me find them good indoor homes, but she's got other plans. She's allergic to cats so they can't live inside.

This one's name is Jellybean. He's named that because of a story MK told Hollywood about an animal shelter that was having trouble finding homes for black cats. They named one of them Jellybean and posted it's info online. It got adopted right away. So they tried it again with their next black cat that couldn't find a home. It worked again! They started doing that with all of them and there must have been something to it because they found homes way faster than with other names. Here is our black Jellybean:

Next is Bruno - it just fit. He or she is sweet and fluffy and OHMYGOSH I can't stop petting him! It's hard to tell if it is a boy or a girl when they are so young and fluffy.

Here is Jack (with the moustache) and Christopher - named after Christopher Columbus - he's the explorer of the bunch. He was out running around at 2-1/2 weeks, a good week or so ahead of his siblings. Jack is the whiner of the bunch. He's more shy and he cries when he gets too far away from his mama.

They are all very special to Hollywood. I guess they are to me too since I had a nightmare the other night that a giant tom cat came over and killed some of them. I was so upset. So scary - I hate it when I have nightmares. It doesn't happen often, thankfully.