No Title

Regards my yesterday’s post- yes, the tonsillectomy is a pretty brutal surgery done the old style, but it was quite necessary, since I was sick most of the time and my tonsils were getting pretty bad. I wasn’t looking for pity either, just thought it would be a good proof for those doubting my statements about how it was done :)! No long term damage done here!

Hopefully this procedure is done more humanely now that there are lot of foreigners sponsoring some of those Belarus hospitals, I know that in Latvia they have been done in the very civilized way for a while now too.

There are so many brutal procedures still going on around the world, I think the most brutal and sadistic one is female circumcision, done all over Africa and in some Muslim countries, that brakes my heart just imagining what those little girls go through   during procedure and the horrendous impact it leaves in their lives. It hurts my heart to think of all the ways children are suffering trough out  the world. As heartless as it might sound I try not to think about it and sort of trying to ignore it, because if I didn’t, I would be a basket case. Every time I hear Johnny Cash’s “Man in Black”, I say a little prayer for all those suffering around the world and then I move on by listening to some happy “Queen” music.

Tomorrow Jack is going in for his ear tube procedure! This hospital believes in joining it together with the adenoid removal, but I’m still hoping that Jack won’t need that done- time will tell. Jack’s speech has been delayed as some of you may know- he does a lot of jibber jabber, but not so much clear talking, so we finally figured that he has a significant amount of fluid in his ears what could most likely be the culprit of his speaking troubles. He has not had any ear infections, thank goodness!!!, but we still need to take care of the fluid, since that can lead to hearing loss in the long run. Sadly, we are quite familiar with that- Ethan had the same problem and at age 5 he failed the hearing test. On the happier note, right after his tubes were placed and the excess fluid drained his hearing bounced right back and Ethan has perfect hearing now.  It definitely feels good to go in for Jack’s procedure and know what we are going to deal with, that little bit of experience helps a lot. Hopefully my baby cakes Jacksie Boo will be well enough tomorrow to let me sit down at the computer and write an other blog tomorrow.

And I’m off to entertain a 2 year old who needs to stay up and eat a lot of food, since he’s not going to be able to eat breakfast until the procedure will be over.

Have good night and thank you for reading!

Flash from the past

Ok…where do I start???       I was watching a video on YouTube today about kids from Chernobyl  expecting to hear an overload of info about how the radiation has affected generations that came after the horrendous tragedy, instead I saw a video of tonsillectomy! The minute that video started I had a flashback and  knew exactly what that poor boy is going to go trough. So here is my  flashback from year 1990..or maybe 1991

When I was in first/second grade I had to have my tonsils removed. My mom prepared me the best she could- she gave me just enough info not to freak me out, but also prepared me mentally for things to come. It was a 3 day stay in the hospital for this type of thing, so my mom had packed me a bag with some clothes and some toys. It didn’t take long to unpack my things into the little hospital nightstand and as I was done doing that they called me to THE BACK ROOM! Thank goodness for my mom explaining to me(without traumatizing me ) what is going to be done to me! The minute I saw that big brown dentist looking chair with all those leather straps hanging from it, my heart sunk and I just wanted my mommy. The nurse calming me down and telling me that this will just be a quick check-up for my throat didn’t really help, I still remember clinging to that vague hope that just MAYBE that nurse is telling the truth all throughout the tonsillectomy.  From then on all I remember is my slippers flying trough the room, extra straps being tied around my chest and neck and blood everywhere! And it HURT!!! Oh and my tonsils were taken out with NO PAIN MEDICATION! That would explain the pain I suppose, he he! Just in case some of you are brave enough to attempt watching the video, here is the link- skip right to  about 0:50 of it and enjoy! Grab some popcorn! Don’t forget a drink! But really, be prepared to shut your eyes and turn away, I did- I’ve lived trough and have no need to see it! Here’s the link:

How did ’ya  like it? Like I mentioned above, I can’t watch it, I sort of listened to it while peaking at the screen and it hurt just from that, it’s been a couple of hours since I watched it but my throat still feels a little raw…

On to the next subject- I guess this might explain my annoyance with overreacting people who call little procedures surgeries and ask for insane amounts of prayers as they go to have a skin tab removed, really? Be thankful you live in a great country where these things are considered brutality. I know I am thankful that my son’s have all the advances that medicine here can give, I mean you get anesthesia for a simple  bilateral myringotomy with tubes(got to love the fancy names for simple ear tube placement procedure) to save them from the traumatic experience and make sure they are still.

Well that was me- reliving my traumatic childhood experience. What doesn’t kill you just makes you stronger.  Have a nice day and be thankful for little things that make your life a little less painful.

State testing

Ever since Ethan was in kindergarten I have been  dreading this day- I have no idea why, but just seeing signs all over the school that advise you to be very quiet because state testing is in progress have given me the weird feeling. Maybe it is because I know that Ethan has to come a lot more responsible stage at his school career or just the reassurance that he is definitely growing up, or maybe even the fear of him not showing his full potential and doing what I did as a kid and always freeze up when it came time to take a test.  But the day has come- Ethan has his PA state testing in 2 weeks! He is calm about it, looking at it like that will be just an other day at school. Me- not so much, I am a basket case, making the poor child take sample tests every day and lecturing him on right techniques about answering reading questions and writing little essays.  In all reality my sane  side of the brain knows that my little brainiac will do just fine- he didn’t miss a single answer on the 4th grade’s math quiz. But he is a boy, age 8 who has no patience to bother with  any kind of creative writing, but even with that he is doing just fine most of the time.  I am also in process for planning the breakfast menu packed full of protein and figuring down to the last second of what the perfect time should be to leave the house- he’s not going to be taking a bus on the testing days, I’m driving him to give him little pep talks  :) . These are going to be rough next few weeks for Ethan and me, admitted that I am driving myself crazy and taking Ethan along for the ride of his mother’s madness.  But I will keep you updated on how he did once he get the results back, that I’m estimating won’t be for quite  a while.

Meditating Brainiac

Long time in the making

I started out writing this huge long story about our past year…and then I scratched the whole idea about catching up on the past year and will just write about what’s going on now. I’m thinking of making things a bit different- maybe taking a little story from our every days lives and comparing it with something bigger.

So here it goes- perfect story from life: last night Jack was running trough the house like a hurricane. This youngling of ours has never ending energy and no fear of anything! And then IT happened, he fell down and we could hear crash, bang and a blood hurdling scream(he yelled less after breaking his collar bone), so I rushed to my baby and there was blood everywhere!!!! – it was just gushing out of his mouth like a waterfall. There was a puddle of blood on the floor when I picked him up(literally 1 second after the fall) , as I rushed him to the sink the blood trail followed and our kitchen sink was all covered in blood splatters in a matter of seconds! And I freaked out! I mean that was no surprise to me since I  just about fainted when Ethan lost his first tooth. Thank goodness for Aaron- he kept his cool, calmed Jack down, figured out that we are dealing with a busted lip/tongue combo and sent me to take a deep breath and calm down Ethan who was on a verge of crying seeing his brother bleed and scream! To calm you all down- Jack was just fine 10 minutes later and thankfully his tongue was not pierced trough(we were a little worried about that) and his lip stayed swollen for other 10 minutes- as of this morning  you couldn’t even tell what horrific deal we have been trough :)! 

Either way- I am telling you this to demonstrate my belief in the matter why woman should definitely not poke their noses in combat MOS’s in the military. I am not saying we are weak or can not handle extreme conditions- however most of us do freak out when  things like these happen! As strong as I consider myself to be, there are some things I have really hard time dealing with. Just imagining myself in the situation where I was being shot at- I already know that I would freeze up because of the chance that I might get shot-it would paralyze me. I did hear a story of a female soldier in Iraq who happened to get caught in a mortar attack and she literally laid down in fetal position and started crying. I don’t think I would do that- I would scream and look for cover, but you bet I WOULD NOT get out of my safe hiding spot until it was all over! This being said I do not expect anyone to agree with me, just my rambling thoughts…

Now let’s hope I can keep up with this blogging thing ,because it does feel good to sit down and think about this and that and write it down.  And it will be nice to look back at my own rumblings when I’m older and possibly  even wiser than I am now. Until next time-

ieva sandidge

 

 

P.S. I do not have ANY pictures of Jack’s busted lip/tongue combo, so this entry will have to remain picture less.

Oh the time of Christmas cards

Let me tell you- I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!! For me it is such a magical time . To enjoy that special time I’m usually all done with Christmas shopping by the time Black Friday comes around. Cards are an other thing- for me it is such a headache- to pick just the right one, make sure it says Christmas on it- what by the way is hard to find these days- cutest and most special cards are ruined by Happy Holidays on them!!! It’s Christmas to our family! That’s why this year I have decided to go ahead and make some nice photo cards! Shutterfly  has some amazing quality products, I just received my last order from them – I printed out 400(!!!) pictures and 2 photo books- http://www.shutterfly.com/home-decor/canvas-wall-art- here’s the link for canvas art what we are thinking about ordering some of the small canvas for the boy’s rooms, just got to get to photographic some things that they love.

So here is the link I will be using- Christmas cards -to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards and here is a link for a great gift idea for family that is not around - to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards. So I suppose I should get going and starting picking out those special little outfits and finding just the right background idea for that perfect Christmas picture, and decided if all 4 of us should make a grand appearance or should I just show off those cute little man folk of ours to the world- decisions, decisions! I would put some pictures on here from our last year’s Christmas card, but ooops- with all the moving and all, we just did not have time to  do it, so even more reason to buckle down and get it done this year right?

Something Exciting

So not much exciting happens here, not much to do around here since we live in “nowhere next to nothing”, so once in a while we have to break out and go do something more fun than play in the backyard or at the valley play land.  And when we do break away I just have to blog about it:

Ithaca, NY was on the “to go” list for a while but we waited for some warm weather and Ethan not having school and today was the day! YAHOOOO!!!! Ithaca has a pretty nice kid’s museum “Sciencenter” so we headed there first , kid’s museum in Fayetteville doesn’t even come close  to this one! The kiddos had a blast and it even seems they might’ve learned some things what is always good. Here are some pictures from that: 

After the museum we decided to check Buttermilk Falls

, I wish the picture actually did justice for the falls, they are HIGH! And we got brave enaugh to hike up to the top…yeah not having a backpack for Jack and being cooped up without any hiking practice for about 4 months now, made this whole thing a bit difficult, here is a video of us half way-

(you can tell we were not prepared and hiked with a stroller for goodness sakes!!!)

Ethan and Jayden however did not have any problems getting up the steepest and longest mountain we have ever hiked! if it wasn’t for the boys running way ahead and disappearing the minute they could catch a glimpse of us we would’ve probably turned around and walked right back down, but we did have to catch them to turn them around, but it never happened…

We ended our super good trip with a stop at a playground since a “little hike” with an insane incline was not enough to stop two little boys, they always have some more energy for playing. But it turned out to be a nice park with a creek right behind the playground what was a good thing since Ethan and Jayden were pretty bummed out for not being able to play in the water at the falls. And Jack got to play in the creek for the first time in his young life.

Me and Jack bailed on the creek pretty fast and enjoyed the playground and got his little feet dried in the sun. he also got to experience his first bare feet walk in the grass.

Jack-a-boo loved the grass under his feet but was not a fan of it touching his legs while sitting down, what a silly boy!

And now i will go and get some things set up for out own Easter egg hunt we are going to be having tomorrow, Ethan is so excited about that, maybe i will get motivated enough to blog about that too.

What a good day we had!

P.S. Ethan and Jayden are absolutely conked out in the living room, so sweet!

ICE CREAM

We live right next door to a little ice cream shop. I think there is no need to explain what that means- easy access to ice cream, of course! And the boys love it. Yesterday was super nice so Aaron treated the boys to some white goodness and I got my camera out to document every bite(lick) of it. Here are some pics: