Updates, a surprise, and some great shopping deals!

Thought I’d give an update of both how Rachel (the new bunny) and our cats Samson and Delilah were getting along, as well as an update on Mom and Dad’s new house. Oh and some other stuff, too. lol

Yes, it’s another one of those mixed posts with a little bit about a lot. Some sort of planned randomness, I suppose. hehe

The three animals are all doing just fine. Well better than fine, actually. We put the rabbit cage on the floor in the living room temporarily. We can leave the cage door open all night while we sleep or all day while we’re gone. The cats watch the bunny and LOVE to lay right up as close as they can get to her in the cage, but they don’t ever actually go up TO her. Rachel, on the other hand, will go up and sniff the kitties if she wants (and if they don’t jump backwards which is the norm), but mostly she just completely ignores the kitties. She (Rachel) is loving being able to explore instead of being in that little cage 24/7 and she’s also quite pleased with the first change we’ve made to her diet/litter/habitat/etc. In this case it was making timothy grass available to her at all times. Oh boy does she love that stuff. And of course she gets a chunk of carrot or apple once a day, too.

Mom and Dad were finally able to close on their house last week. They got the keys either Wed or Thurs, I can’t remember. On Friday she got hold of the city to turn the power and water on and was told they couldn’t because their meter base was not in the proper position. It was ‘red-tagged’ and they were going to have to get and electrician (licensed and registered to work in the city) to put in a new meter base and weatherhead and whatever else that stuff requires.

Since then we’ve been working, working, working on all the different little projects (and 1 big) that Mom and her crew wanted to get done before they move in, as well as trying to get hold of an electrian. We’ve just about finished painting both boys rooms. J’s is in gray with black trim and 2 big horizontal black stripes all the way round, and R’s in a butternut squash soup/puree color with gold glaze on top and American barn red trim. Both are looking really, really good!

We’ve also been painting the pantry. It somehow got missed when they whitewashed EVERYTHING when they put the house on the market. It was pretty icky! =( So, we’re painting. Right now it is a very light shade of tan, actually closer to coffee with a LOT of cream in it, and the shelves are the palest of pale blues. It is so pale it is almost white. Her pantry is a big pantry, but it’s not walk-in and there’s not a light, so she wanted light colors. Tomorrow we’ll be texturing the walls with the blue, a hot pink, and a hot orange; and the shelves with the ecru(?), the hot pink, and the hot orange.

Also we’ve done things like install a carbon monoxide detector (haven’t gotten the smoke alarms up yet), replaced all the locks, put up the American flag, installed a new shower head and toilet seat, and tried to get all the windows open after having been painted shut with the white paint, and who knows what else. My brother M (28) got one to open but his elbows popped the glass and shattered it. Praise the Lord he had only 3 teensy, teensy little nicks! Last time one of my brothers broke a window (J) he fell through and got cut up bad. I think he had 22 staples altogether.

So the window was replaced. The big project is getting Mom’s new kitchen flooring in. It’s a roll-out vinyl. Well, she went to putty up the slight cracks and holes and what-not in the existing flooring so they wouldn’t transfer through to the vinyl and she discovered the old self-adhesive tiles were actually peeling up. So we had to take that layer off. A friend came over to help and she started scraping stuff up and didn’t stop with the first layer. She pulled up ALL the layers down to the plywood subfloor (now covered in icky, tarry glue). Now it’s all gotta come up to make stuff even… which means there’s been a LOT of floor scraping/tearing out. =)

Today an electrician came out (in answer to Mom’s and my own prayers) that was able to get the job done today in like 1hr. He had originally thought it would take 4-6hr! All that’s left before we can have light to work with in there is for the inspector to come out in the morning and then the electrician to connect something or another; it’s supposed to take like 5min.

Now, another topic. J is turning 17 tomorrow (Wed), and I decided since his room is kinda car garage themed to get him a garage nuts/bolts/etc holder. One of those with like 5 million little drawers. All they had was metallic blue so I just got through painting it gloss black. Then I went to Tractor Supply and bought a bunch of weird little hardware things. Then I went to WalMart grocery shopping (more on that in a min) and got him some Snickers bars and a Bag of chicken nuggets jerky (though that won’t fit…). Everything will be stuck in one of the drawers. I’ll probably throw some things in from around here, too. Mom’s getting him a peg board. How cool is that?!

Matt was going to go shopping with me tonight. On the way out, he spotted a kitty on our porch. I stepped out and it started coming towards us. It came right up to me and rubbed and asked to be petted. She was soooo skinny. =(   No collar of course. She had to be starved, but we’d been out of cat food for 3 days! =( Go figure! The twins ate up a big ol’ can of pink salmon until I could get to the store (tonight) but now there was nothing. She was sooo pretty and sooo loving and sooo hungry, I begged Mike to let me keep her.

He said yes!! =) She’s  gray and white. She has a white face, chest, belly, and both her front legs and the most of her back legs are white. She has the the gray back end and a little on the top of the back legs, back, tail, and the top of her head and ears. She has a very light pink nose and the prettiest pale green eyes ever. Also, she has like a thin line of black outlining her eyes so she looks like she’s wearing make-up! LOL We brought her in and the kids fed her some lunch meat until I could get back from the store with kitty num-nums.

She’s in my room for now. I got her a small litter box and a pink collar when we went shopping. We put food and water in there and the poor thing keeps eating. She’s still a kitten, old enough to be weaned, but not grown yet. I’d guess probably about 3-4mo old. She’s in my room for now because Lilah was hissing at her. Not Samson so much. I figure we’ll introduce them all slowly and so she is locked IN my room and the twins are locked OUT. I’m not overly worried about Lilah. She hissed at Samson for a couple of days after he got back from the vets. Of course this is a new kitty altogether, but I think they’ll all get along great.

At Wal-Mart I shopped and shopped. I’d worked hard at planning this trip (about 3hr worth)  because I was going to get some GREAT deals. Here’s my break down…

*Savings due to price matching with other stores – approx. $28.60 (I don’t remember the original price on a couple of things, so I estimated them)
*Savings due to coupons – $36.55

Total savings – $65.15 !!

Here are a few of my favorites…

• Ziploc container packs – on sale at IGA for $1. I had 5 cpns for $1.50/2 and 2 cpns for 55c/1.  So I paid 25 cents ea. for 10 packs, and 45 cents ea. for 2 of them.
• 1 subject spiral notebooks – on sale for 1 cent (limit 3) at either Office Max or Depot. So I got 3 for a total of 3 cents.
• Candy bars (Snickers, Twix, Dove, 3 Musketeers) – on sale for 2/$1 at CVS. I had 4 cpns for $1/2 and 1 cpn for BIGI. That gave me 8 free, and I paid 25 cents ea. for 2 of them.
• Luzianne Tea – on sale for $1 at Diamonds and I had 2 cpns for 60c/1. I paid 40 cents ea. for 2.

Talk about GREAT deals! Woohoo! I was so excited. I did got over the groc budget for this week by $19, but I’m going to take it out of next weeks. I could NOT pass up deals like this! lol

On Curtains and School, Mostly School

The curtains were one of my latest blessings. After the kids and I got back from camp (GREAT time, awesome preaching, nine saved!!), my mom and I went to Lowes. She needed to do some looking and pricing at stuff for her new house (flooring, appliances, etc). When we went in they had some curtains on sale out on the sidewalk so we went and looked. They were nice, but the prices were fairly steep (for me, anyways) even after the discount.

About 3hr later (I was on a motorized cart or I never would’ve made it!), we were done and headed for checkouts. We’d found some marble tiles and each picked out 2 (at $1.50 ea) to use as cutting boards. Right in front of the checkouts were the curtains. We were waiting in line and kinda looking at the curtains while we waited and the cashier told us they were 90% off what they were marked. Our jaws both dropped and then we dropped out of line and started going through them more carefully.

When it was all said and done I got curtains for the living room and the master bedroom. A total of 5 windows. Two sets of panels on the living room windows (one blue, one white), and panels and valances for in here in the bedroom. Original retail price of $525 and some change. I paid (after taxes) $30 and some change!

WOW, huh? =)

Ok, on to school. This coming year’s schooling has been a subject of prayer for me for months now. Years ago, I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that I was supposed to homeschool the kids… and I did. Occasionally I would contemplate putting Meagan into a private or public school, but each time after prayer and closed doors, I realized it just was not supposed to happen.

Then the year before last, right before school started, our pastor offered Meagan a scholarship to our church’s school. After a crash course in prayer (because there were only a few days to decide before school started) and asking the Lord to let Mike make the decision that God wanted him to make… Meagan ended up going to the private school.

That first year with Meagan in the church school and Matt at home promised to be very exciting and it did turn out that way, but in a much different way than I anticipated. Because of my health quickly deteriating and Matthew’s behaviors/moods/etc (brain symptoms) also getting worse and worse, the homeschool was a big bad flop that year. We didn’t get done anywhere near what I wanted to. Both our lives were miserable because of the frustration and stress. It became evident by the end of the school year that I could not homeschool the following year. I was too sick to deal with it.

So, Mike made the decision (again… HIS decision) to send him to the church school (out of our pocket) if they would take him. For many reasons we didn’t/don’t want our kids in the public school system… not even for a year or two. Also, Matthew’s anxiety was such that we knew he could not handle going to a public school. We weren’t sure he was even going to be able to handle the church’s school, even though it’s only 2 adults and about 15 kids big.

Matt started antibiotics treatment right at 4wks before school started last year. The week before school he attended a short ‘class’ on movie-making at the local library for a couple of hours a day. We anticipated having to not only force him to go and to stay while we left him, but also that he would stay in a corner, scared and unmoving the entire time. Prior to antibiotics this is exactly what would have happened. We were determined to make him go though, since it seemed like a good transition to having to go to school for the full day and also be expected to focus on things or face consequences for not doing so.

We *did* have to force him to get into and then out of the car. However, Mike said that he sat down at a table and didn’t make a scene or say anything when he left. When it was time to pick him up, he actually thanked us for making him go. He had a blast and couldn’t wait for the next day.

He literally hasn’t had a problem with anxiety/social phobia since! So, the next week starting school was no problem whatsoever, thank the Lord!

Anyway. Over this last school year, with both kids in the church school, we’ve all made progress in every area of our home-life, including in our health.

I am doing MUCH better physically, emotionally, and mentally than I was a year ago. I do still have enough physical problems that my doc still considers me ‘disabled’, but I can oversee things being/getting done from my bed or the couch on a bad day. Mentally my brain is back. By the end of the last year Matt and I homeschooled, I couldn’t think or focus or work anything out. I couldn’t even figure out how to score a math worksheet using the score key (answer sheet)! It was that bad. Now? Not only am I back to reading (a lot) and understanding, my brain is functioning almost back to 100%. I occasionally have some short term memory or word retrieval issues, but I can not only score a math sheet, I am back to doing complex math problems in my head.

Matthew, too is doing much, much better. In the last year, his doctor has made several med changes and adjustments and so he is now and has been for many, many months being treated for Lyme, as well as some of the symptoms it has caused for him. He is on medication for depression (which helped a lot with his behavior) and ADHD (which brought him the rest of the way). His behavior and attitude now is completely different than before. He’s no longer ‘difficult’ (and that was putting it mildly to be sure!). Now he’s no more of a behavior problem than an average 10yo boy. He’s even pleasant to be around! LOL

He’s been talking about wanting to go back to homeschool, and of course I would love to, as well… but I only wanted to do so if it was God’s will, and not just our will. Thus the praying… for months.

Over the last several months, not only has it become more and more evident that we are supposed to go back to homeschooling with Matthew, but I also prayed and asked the Lord for the same thing/s I had each of the last two school years. I asked that He would help me know where each kid should be schooled, and also help Mike to know. I asked that He would give Mike guidance and wisdom as well, and let him make the decision concerning school that the Lord would want us to make.

Mike and I have, of course, been discussing the schooling issue for months. Around mid-June, he made his decision. Matthew would be homeschooled.

Then a couple of weeks later our pastor said something that led me to believe that the church was considering sponsoring Matthew’s tuition to the school as well as Meagan’s.

I went back to prayer and also back to Mike. Now I was doubting whether we (Mike, and then me following his decision) had made the right decision. That’s where it’s been for the last month or so. It was becoming more and more evident, more SURE, more peaceful-if-you-will, that yes we had made the correct decision, and that through this possible offer, I may need to stand up for myself/family/the Lord, and politely decline.

It came to a head Sun night. Pastor told me they had decided to pay Matt’s way. As nervous as I had been about talking to him about the schooling (and I had been and had been praying for strength and guidance and the whole 9 yards because I suspected what was coming for a couple of weeks at least by then), all my nervousness disappeared.

Looking back I know I could have stated/explained a couple of things a little better, but overall I think I did ok. Pastor told me that “where the Lord leads, there will be peace” (which I had felt for weeks, if not months, already about homeschooling, but none whatsoever about sending him back to the school) and to keep praying… which of course is what I had planned on doing, and have done and will do. He also told me he would be praying also.

I kept praying as I had been and talked to Mike about things again, letting him know the church had offered to pay Matthew’s way. In spite of the ‘free’ price tag (well as ‘free’ as Meagan’s is, there’s still uniforms and what-not), Mike still feels we should do what’s best for Matthew, and he stills feels that is homeschool. So… again Mike has made the school decision (with help from the Lord, whether Mike realizes it or not!), and again I am following.

Why isn’t Meagan supposed to be homeschooled anymore? Well, honestly I do not know all the reasonings God has. I just can’t know them all. I can say, though, that Mike and I have always had doubts about homeschooling Meagan (not Matt) and have often done the whole circle through options thing with her. Until our pastor’s offer a couple of years ago, we’d always had to stop at homeschooling because we had no way to afford any other option.

The kids are very different. They’re both very intelligent, but their personalities and learning styles and so much more are just vastly different from each other. Meagan has leadership potential in a big, bad way. She needs to be around other people ALL the time. She also needs to hear from someone other than me to get her school work done and done properly. She slacks off much too much with me, regardless of how strict I am. Matthew does better with his studies if he can work alone at his own pace, not just in broad terms, but in smaller ones as well. If he gets interested in a particular subject’s lesson, for instance, he wants to soak up as much of that subject right then as he can, so he’ll work further ahead in that subject that day and maybe not even get to the others. That’s ok, though, because then the next day it might be a completely different subject. He has no problem getting ‘enough done’ over the course of a year, he just doesn’t like to do a little of everything all at once like Meagan does. Also, he doesn’t have to be around people all the time, in fact just the opposite. He needs more alone time than Meagan. He’s certainly not devoid of social interaction and won’t be, but he needs time to himself more often and longer than Meagan. He might be ready for an all-day field trip with tons of friends and other kids one day, but another day he may just need to be alone most of the day. That is how he thrives.

It boils down to that, I guess. Meagan was surviving in homeschool, but not thriving. Matthew is the opposite. They both could/would get a good education in either place, but they’re only going to THRIVE in one or the other.

More about diabetes…type Mike!

When I was at Walmart the other day, I spotted a little pocket edition of Diabetes for Dummies. I bought it on the spot!

I read it tonight and already feel so much better informed about our latest ‘cross to bear’.

Over the years we’ve acquired more and more medical conditions and so I’ve had to learn how to manage several different things. I’m no expert by any means, and I’m DEFINITELY not a doctor (though for the first 20yr or so of my life I planned on being one), but I do feel reasonably ‘versed’ and capable handling:

• asthma
• allergies
• eczema
• subcutaneous injections
• nebulizer treatments
• precocious puberty
• growth hormone deficiency
• colon cancer (my Dad was the not-so-proud bearer of this and the following conditions)
• dehydration
• ileostomy
• bowel obstruction
• chronic diarrhea
• fistulas

Last year (2008) we officially added ADHD, depression, and anxiety to the list. All of which I’d suspected and so had really been managing for many years, just at a more relaxed level and with no help from the medical community.

We also added me into the mix. For the first time ever I started trying to manage/care for ME and my diagnoses/conditions. That also added new ones to learn…

• chronic Lyme disease which actually encompasses several different strains of infections and several different deficiencies
• hypothyroidism
• intra-muscular injections (though I made Mike give them!)

And the diagnosis/condition/area of study of the year?

• High blood glucose

That would be Mike’s and as I said before I’ve just begun this new crash course in medicine.

Just tonight I learned a few basic facts about both type 1 (not Mike) and type 2 diabetes, as well as the period before full-blown diabetes begins, which is known as prediabetes. I think Mike’s blood glucose levels put him into this category (prediabetes), but I’m not entirely sure, because the doc did not tell us his actual level. He just said it was “a little high”. We haven’t been able to start testing at home yet, either, so I have no #s to judge by.

As I’ve had to do with every diagnosis/condition to date, I’m having to educate myself (and my family), because of a failure on the parts of the doctors to do so. However, I have to give credit where credit is due! My Lyme doctor has done the absolute best job of educating the patient and/or family out of all the doctors (and that’s MANY) this family has dealt with in the last 10+ years. Unfortunately I did not meet my doctor until after I had already done a ton of research/learning on the TBI (tick borne infections) and the management thereof. In fact the research I did helped lead me to him.

Back to the diabetes. =) Tonight I also learned a little bit about how we will need to manage his condition, and how I’m going to need to help him change his diet and lifestyle.

A couple of specific things that I can do to help are to change the type of butter and oil I use in cooking. I’m also going to try and get him to switch to wheat bread and to cut back on the amount of sugar he uses in his coffee! I have a couple of ideas about exercise, too. I’m thinking about maybe taking evening walks as a family on days he doesn’t work.

I’ve also decided to invest in a couple of books to help with this particular condition. I’ve never really purchased (though I have read some) literature for most of the other things we deal with. I did purchase a couple of things on life-threatening food allergies when we first started that journey because it meant such a huge change in thinking and looking at things. One thing I bought was a cookbook. It was invaluable back when we were dealing with multiple food allergies.

This diabetes type Mike… whether it’s prediabetes or full-blown type 2 already… means another huge change in thinking and looking at things. And like the food allergies it means I need to re-evaluate my grocery shopping and cooking habits. That is why I bought the books before, and that’s why I’m doing it again. =)

I’ll be getting me a diabetes cookbook soon, as well as the expanded version of Diabetes for Dummies (unless I find another general diabetes book that is more highly recommended).

Now that I have my own set of the Oxford Medical Textbook, I’ll also be reading the pertinent sections in that, too. (Of course!)

I’m actually getting a little excited… as I always do… because of all the new learning. PLUS, I’m already seeing signs of better health in Mike because of the new medications (he mowed a LOT today and tonight told me he did fine-didn’t get real fatigued- and still wasn’t tired), AND I’m seeing signs of potential health/life improvements based on the things I’ve read so far. It’s almost like anticipating a new baby, I guess. I’ve felt the same with every diagnosis we’ve gotten.

We get the diagnosis and pretty soon afterward it hits me… Once we get this under control and are managing it fairly well, we should enjoy vast improvements! It’s kinda exciting to think about just how much better that person might get to be feeling/acting/functioning once we get the newly diagnosed condition under control!

I count each new diagnosis as a blessing for that very reason!

A new adventure. Thanks, VA!

Mike got his new prescriptions in the mail today (VA). I am SO not happy with the supposed ‘care’ the VA gives. Or at least through this particular office.

He was put on Metformin last year with absolutely no instructions on anything having to do with diabetes. No diet info, no blood sugar level info, nothing. He called several times and even went back in to ask about a monitor and test strips, since we were thinking it was probably a good idea to test if he was taking meds to lower his blood sugar. The doc kept telling him there was no need and so he never got a monitor.

Since we had no way to test to make sure his levels weren’t getting too low (and his levels at the doc’s were only just barely high), he just quit taking the Metformin.

He had another checkup last week and I went with him this time. This time he did get a script for testing supplies along with the Metformin, cholesterol med, nitroglycerin, and inhaler. Still no information on managing the diabetes, though. He also got put on a waiting list for a sleep study so we can get something done about his horrible sleep apnea (granted it’s a years wait, but at least it’s in the works…).

Anyway. His meds came in the mail today. He now has an Accu-Chek glucometer, lancets, test strips, and something else that goes with it that says to use 1 dose a day to calibrate the glucometer. The problem is there was NO information or instructions on how to use the thing. So, we have all these new tools for managing his diabetes, but not a clue on how to use any of them. Lovely.

It’s a good thing he married into the family that he did. I have an aunt who is a diabetes nurse. Her whole job is teaching newly diagnosed diabetics what they need to know to be able to manage their condition. I’m hoping we can get her to meet us at my grandparents sometime soon and give us a crash course.

It makes me wonder about all those veterans who DON’T have access to that, though. How many other veterans has this doc put on blood sugar meds with absolutely no instructions on what to do to take care of themselves? How many of those are capable of figuring it out on their own? I mean some of the older veterans may have difficulties with memory or may even be Alzheimer patients. Does this doc prescribe meds to them the same way? That is– he enters the meds into the computer (says nothing about the meds in the office) and then a couple of weeks later they just show up in the mail.

Add to that the fact that they didn’t want me going into the exam room with him (I insisted) which tells me that 99% of the time no one is “allowed” in with the vets…

It makes me sick to think of how many veterans are getting such sub-standard care just out of this one office. =(

*update* Mike just got back from asking the pharmacist at Walmart for some help. Turns out the lancets the VA sent will not fit in the pen-thingy. Also, there still is no actual machine to READ the test strips. This thing that came in today is just for pricking the finger. >=(