Let's dance

Well, Melody started formal dance lessons yesterday (Saturday). I hate to brag but she's a natural unlike me and Joe. We both have 2 left feet, but not her. She went straight into that dance studio and did everything the instructor told her to do and did it as though she had taken lessons before. If you can't tell, I'm very proud of her. I keep trying to download the photos from her first dance lesson but the computer keeps stalling on me. I will get them uploaded shortly.
I don't think I will get in trouble for this so since some of you have asked, here's the address to my etsy shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6518517

update on Joe

For all of you checking on how Joe is doing, here's the update: His last comment to me Sunday night was "I don't feel right, I have a feeling you are going to have to take me to the doctor tomorrow." Well, Monday morning came with a call immediately to the doctor's office as soon as they opened with a request to get him in quickly. I'm so glad we have the primary care physician that we do have because I like him, he's good, and he got Joe in quickly Monday morning. Joe's lips swelled up again and they went numb. It appears to still be some sort of infection raging in his face. The doctor doesn't think the urgent care doctor treated him with antibiotics long enough so now the poor guy faces round number 2 of antibiotics. These antibiotics are some of the strongest available and some of the most expensive I've ever seen. $10 per pill after insurance and a discount coupon our doctor found for us. Luckily he only has to be on this antibiotic for 5 days. We are all praying that it works. Today, his face seemed a bit less swollen but I guess I can't expect the infect to go away after only 1 dose of medicine. Please pray that the infection isn't drug resistant.
Now to update Melody. She is so excited to be starting dance lessons Saturday. I think she is going to be darling in her little dance outfits twirling away. I will have to post pictures as soon as I have some. She keeps telling me how much she needs to practice. I think she is bummed that I won't get her tap shoes out and let her practice with them. Do you blame me? She can still practice ballet and insists on showing me her new moves as much as possible.

Why?

Why do things have to be so hard and stressful right now? Are we not heading into the "merry season" when our wildest dreams can come true and the true miracle of Christmas will be shown to all? I guess, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention and I've been learning that lesson the hard way.
Things have not been going well for Joe and having him in the emergency clinic on Friday night have added to the stressors of life. For those of you who didn't know, Joe had a really bad infection in his face and glands. He swelled so bad from the infection that he didn't look much like himself. He looked like he had one of those gobbly turkey things under his chin and his cheeks looked like he was storing nuts for winter. His lips swelled until he could hardly open his mouth. Luckily, the antibiotics are working and the swelling is coming down. In fact, this morning he almost looked normal. He said it is very painful. Poor guy!!! Things haven't gotten better with his work as of yet.
Anyway, back to necessity is the mother of invention. Melody and I have been sitting down doing crafts for the last week. I've discovered just how inexpensively you can buy paper, glue, etc. She is so cute doing her own crafts. She is very independent about doing her own too. She is a brilliant craftsman and I can't wait to see what her inventive brain can create when she gets older. What an inexpensive activity that her and I can do together and enjoy spending time together. Doing the crafts with Melody has allowed me to create some of my own stuff. Jewelery and the likes. And, well, last night I set up an etsy account to sell them. Hopefully I can get some money to help out while our situation isn't great.
Also, I think everyone is getting handmade gifts this year. Hope you all don't mind. If anyone visits my etsy store please keep in mind I barely got my registration done at 1:30am today and have not had an opportunity to make it pretty and get all of the things in there I want. Guess I better go and work on crafts.

Who invented soft wax?

Has anyone out there ever heard of candles being made out of soft wax? I learned tonight that they do make them and I also learned of some uses other than for burning to make pretty smells. My first warning to everyone, don't buy them if you have children. If you win one at a party like I did, throw it out before your children get a hand on it. While I am typing this I am reminded of the time one of my nieces put vapo rub in her hair and how hard it was to get it out. Can all of you see where I am going with this? Luckily, Melody did not put the soft wax in her hair, however, she gave herself a head to toe body wax. She is sitting in the tub with soap. I'm trying to see what I can get off of her without using the dish soap. I know I'm going to have to use dish soap but her skin is so sensitive that I want to use as little as possible. After Melody gave herself the wax job she either gave a wax treatment to Winnie, the goldendoodle with long fur, or gave her an all over body hug and then rolled around on my sheets. The sheets are in the washer with dish soap trying to get clean, the dog is hiding from me, Melody is in the tub and my house is airing out from the HIGHLY SCENTED beauty treatment my daughter just gave herself so I better go and take a few puffs off my inhaler and check on Melody before anything worse happens. I also would like to find out who invented soft wax and make them figure out how to get the rest out of my carpet and bedding.

Parties

I can't believe I am still awake. We had Melody's birthday party tonight and the total children count came to 30. No, I'm not counting men who think they are children in there, that was just her cousins and friends. I'm exhausted. Luckily, the party was not at my home but at a "fun center". Add on the adults that came to and I think the final count was close to 60 people. Melody is loved. She came to the right house when we adopted her. For the most part, Melody behaved herself. She did have to have her "little girl moment" and had to cry something out but after that all was well. There are a couple of photos that wouldn't download off my camera and I didn't notice until it was too late. I think my camera went into "sleep" mode while I was downloading the photos. If I get a moment and think about it, I will download the rest of the photos and add them to the slide show.

I have a few "Thank You!"s to issue. The first one is to everyone that came. When I asked Melody who she wanted to invite she said "everyone". The second one is to Heather. Thanks for taking care of cutting the ice cream cake while I took care of other things. To Becky and Lorena I owe a big one for helping to clean up and get everything to the car.

Some of the time the kids were playing I wish I could have caught it on video. Watching my nieces and nephews launch themselves in the bounce house and get air time. Beau's air time was really impressive. All of the kids red faces from playing hard were really cute. It was a great time had by all who came.

Within minutes of arriving at home, Melody pulled out her new sweater from Aunt Katie and put it on then fell over asleep with it on. I hope she doesn't get too hot tonight and wake me up to help her take it off.

And yes, those are my nephews dressed up in their Halloween costumes. Cute, huh?

Turbulence

Well, I survived last weekend helping to take care of Michelle's quadruplets and now hope to survive the next week with Melody missing her 4 favorite friends. She plays with the quadruplets everyday.... ONE WEEK!!!! Does anyone know just how long one week is to a four-year-old? So far, it has been one day and she is already going crazy without them. Things are a bit worse for her little brain to wrap around because I just got back from having to go to St. George on business. She won't let me out of her site. I think she is secretly scared that I am going to leave her for longer than 3 days. Michelle, you might have to bring her something back so that she forgives you for taking the kids away from her for longer than a few hours, and you might have to bring me something back so that I will forgive you for leaving me with your psycho cat that thinks I am its lover. Yes, you all heard me, the cat is so enamored with me she dares to venture upstairs when the quadruplets are awake and strung out on caffiene just to find me, sit on my lap, lick me like a dog, and purr so loudly she could wake the dead. Nothing like a "bass-ackward tabby" fur covered shirt to brighten my day. If you are out of those sticky roller things when you get back Michelle, it wasn't my fault.

Anyway, I posted the headline here as turbulence and I think that is how my life feels right now, turbulent. Melody didn't deal well with me being gone and when I got home I found out that Kai, our geriatric black lab, has an aural hematoma. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a blood pocket in her ear flap and it is very painful. Everytime the puppies came near her, she growled and threatened to attack. I was hoping to have today to rest and get over the fact that the plane ride home last night was so turbulent I puked. I've never been airsick before. Anyway, I realized this morning that relaxing was not in my schedule. Melody kept waking me up this morning to make sure I was still at home, still loved her, and to ask me to please get up and watch Disney Channel with her and play video games. I had to get Kai to the vet before she had it out with one of the puppies and I had a much bigger vet bill on my hands. Got Kai to the vet and went to pick up Melody from grandma's during a birthday party for a neighbor so that took a while to pry her away from the cake then went to Michelle's to give the "bass-ackward tabby" an insulin injection. I'm finally stopping now to rest. All of my days for as long as I can remember go something like today where I don't stop running. I don't think these days will ever slow down. Maybe I just thrive on chaos and without chaos life would be too boring for me to thrive.

Pictures for Absence

Sorry about my toes in the picture. I know they are ugly.

I can't believe I found the time to put this picture up. What a busy day I had. I just got back from taking care of Michelle's geriatric cat and dog and when I arrived at her house I heard the kids talking and getting into trouble and Jeff telling them, without getting upset, "go to sleep". I don't think I could keep my cool in a room with four kids at 11pm telling them to repeatedly go to sleep. The kids had to run out and see who was there. I told them to go to bed and headed downstairs with the cat's and dog's medicines. Aunt Stacey must have the magic touch, 3 minutes later when I headed up the stairs all was quiet on the western front. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Absence....

Yes, I know I've been absent for a while and here's the reason... I've been madly crocheting an afghan for a friend due to have a baby last Friday. I finished it this past Tuesday morning and gave it to her. As of 5:00 today she still has not had the baby and her doctor said she is going to let her go until she is 3 weeks overdue!!! Yep, 3 weeks. So, 2 more weeks from today, the doctor is going to finally induce her. We discussed today that babies do things on their own time even after they are born and that sometimes dates are off. We were originally told that Melody was due between Christmas and New Years. Then we were told she was due November 10. Michelle made the comment to me that usually if they are off on calculating due dates they are off in 4 week intervals and moving Melody's due date up 6 weeks didn't make any sense. Yes Michelle, you were right and you know it. Melody came when she was ready and 8 weeks different than her original thought due date. She came early November 1.

I'm currently taking care of Michelle's quads and using one of her computers to blog so I will post a picture of said "madly crocheted" afghan as soon as I can get to my camera and my own computer... Not sure when that will be. I'm hearing lots of noise from the 5 kids so I hope that's a good sign that they are not into the worst kind of trouble..... quiet trouble.

Diva Moments

Melody is so cute! She is on cold medicine right now to keep her coughing under control so we all can sleep. I don't know if it is getting extra sleep that is making me more tired during the day or if I am getting her cold. Her cousin, Amanda, told me that Melody and she are having problems with the "bless yous". That's sneezing for all people out there that don't speak 4-6 year old lingo. Anyway, this morning after a bunch of sleep and letting me know that it is not a "fwog" stuck in her "froat" she decided she wanted to have some "diva moments" and make me take some pictures of it so here they are.

Yes, those are High School Musical pajamas she is wearing. She hangs out with her soon to be 8 year old cousin that has more than happily educated her on HSM, Hannah Montana, etc. and as you can see I really need to clean my dresser off. The last picture is of Melody and the dogs. She really wanted a picture of her taken with them. The big black furry critter is Kai. The cream/gold colored one popping up behind her is Winnie and the one down the hallway you can't see is Cinder.

Look Ma no cavities

Well, I took Melody to the see the dentist today. It is the first time we have ever gone there and been told no cavities. Yeah!!! I'm so excited not to have to take her back and put her through fillings again. The dentist let her have 2 toys for not having any cavities and it was his only patient of the day without any cavities. Hopefully, all visits are like this one. She has already has had 9 fillings done. Poor little girl.

Sharp Teeth?

Here's a story from a few days ago that I know some of you can appreciate. Melody was playing with her quadruplet cousins, as usual, and got punched by Mason. I think she was irritating him, as usual. Well, she got mad at him for punching her and she caught his hand and bit his finger. As I was disciplining her for her actions and was letting her know that making Mason bleed was not an answer to him hitting her she asked me what I meant by telling her that he was bleeding. I showed her that his finger was bleeding from both sides and that her teeth had done that damage. She looked at me and simply said "he can't be bleeding, I didn't even use my sharp teeth." I had to turn my head as I laughed.

I promised some pictures and so here are a few. They are old but still cute. I'll post more shortly. We had a rough day today with the storms. Melody wasn't happy and was winey and threw fits all day long. Hopefully, as the storms clear out she gets happier.



See how big I am.















Melody loves having her picture taken


















My binkie baby at the zoo (old picture)

And the rain came

Melody always seems to suprise me. I don't know why. Nothing from her should suprise me anymore. She has always been very strong, smart, compassionate and a bit "bipolar". At 4 years old now she says and does the most profound things.

Last night I got ill. I was laying in bed unable to move too much when she came bounding in with a look of concern etched on her face. She climbed into my bed and put her head on my chest and said "Mom, please don't go to the hospital. I don't like it when you go there." I had not said anything to her about how ill I was or what I was trying to do to get my strength up. I assured her I wouldn't go and that I was fine. I then proceeded to tickle her to try to make her feel better. She gave me a huge hug and as she left the room she turned back and asked "Promise?" I told her that I didn't want to go to the hospital and she was ok with that. After she left the room I cried. I cried remembering how grown up this little girl was just over a year and a half ago when I was extremely ill and hospitalized after my 2nd abdominal surgery in 6 weeks. She came bravely into my room with her daddy and helped take care of me. She allowed the nurses to help her take my vitals and give me my shots that night. The dear nurses then helped her climb around my tubes into my bed, wrapped her up in blankets, and brought her in a popsicle. She was quite upset with those nurses that they wouldn't bring her mom in one too. I think I healed so much that night under her care and watchful eye.

I cried again as I climbed into my friend's car aware of the fact I had told her I did not want to go to the hospital and was not going to go and now was breaking a promise to my little one by heading to the hospital. I did make sure I was home before she woke up, had the hospital bracelet cut off and the bandages off before I climbed in bed and fell asleep and I had made sure she was asleep before I left for the hospital. What will I do if there is a next time? I don't know how to make it easier on her. Any thoughts anyone?

And on the 2nd day.....

Well, I didn't think I would have anything to tell today but Melody suprised me and gave me another funny story to blog about. I left Melody at Michelle's house while I went to work for a bit today. When I spoke with Michelle a bit later she told me that Melody was being really good except for the one incident. Upon inquiry I found out that Jaxon + Melody + shaken up cans of soda + big rock = soda can projectiles. When I arrived at Michelle's and asked Jaxon about the soda and rocks he explained to me that the last can was the best. Apparently, the spray of pressurized soda launched the soda can through the bushes. What a mess they made. I wish my sister would have gotten a picture.

In the beginning.....

Well, I've gone and done it.... yep.... set up a blog. I'm doing this for a few reasons.

1. To tell everyone the stories of the crazy things Melody does.
2. To keep everyone informed... of what, I don't know.
3. To help my sister, Michelle, with hers. If I can figure all of this out then I can teach her.
4. Some sanity?

Let me set up a bit just in case you come upon my blog and don't know who I am. My name is Stacey. I have a daugher named Melody and a husband named Joe. I will add pictures, etc. as I go as it is to late tonight to do that.

I should tell you that today Melody and Michelle's son, Jaxon, got in a wee bit of trouble. It is nothing unusual for the two of them to find something distructive to do with their time. Anyway, my sister's kids turned on the hose and I asked them to turn it off, but by then, it was too late. There was a mud puddle being made larger by the sweet little ones and their wet form of entertainment. They reluctantly listened to their dear auntie and turned off the hose. All of the kids came in the house and sat on the couch except the two little angels. When everyone was in the house, Jaxon and Melody proceeded to noisly "wash" the windows with the mud. I think I came to appreciate today why I sleep with one eye open and it has nothing to do with fear from the outside world.