Steve's Dad had surgery on Monday. He had 7 titanium screws put in his back (yeooow!!) - these replaced some others that were put in in the 90's... He's in pain and recovering. We're sending lots of numbing, pain-relieving thoughts that way...

My Dad had a colonoscopy yesterday. A few biopsies and some stress later and they are treating him for colitis. No cancer seen, but the biopsies will come back at some point - but the Doc doesn't see anything to worry about.

Kyle has bloodshot eyes - apparently from allergies. Allergy drops were helping dramatically, but tonight - nada. So I picked up some kids Zyrtec (now available OTC!) and we're trying that. He's also stuffed up, sneezing and coughing. Spring isn't being kind to him this year!

Work is turning up a notch as we bear down on two releases. Gives me no time to worry about other things! And no time for snacking either ;o)

Snowflake had an ultrasound yesterday. The tumor is taking up most of his liver. If they tried to remove it there wouldn't be enough liver left. So we're doing the wait and watch - Keep him comfortable routine. At the moment he's not complaining. And surprisingly, the blood work shows his liver is still functioning almost normally. When he starts to show signs of pain and/or deterioration we'll evaluate how to manage the pain, and when to let him go. I plan to sit down with the boys again this weekend.

let's see if I can just push through the rest...

Wednesday in Bermuda we went down to walk around. We wandered through a craft shop, then on down the street to a little beach (snorkel park). The water was COLD! We only waded as we didn't come prepared for swimming - it was too cold anyway. The kids all had lots of fun. Then we wandered some more and stopped into a glass blowing shop. The kids could have stayed there for hours. Without us even - they were mesmerized.

On the way back Ry fell and skinned his knee. Oh the tragedy! I carried him back Piggy back because he *certainly* couldn't walk on it! The drama! I got picked for a random search getting back on the ship - goodie. Pick the Mom with the child that won't walk ;o) The grownups all got to go out again Wednesday night as it was our 2nd babysitting night. This time we found the 'club' and watched some folks look completely ridiculous (and others that were having fun without looking ridiculous).

Thursday was our last day at sea - and it was so nice and calm out. I brought Ky up to the pool again. It was cooler, and sprinkling from time to time. Oh I left out that he won a medal for participating in a poolside game! It was some sort of race - he had to waddle with a balloon then pop it, join hands with teammates and pass a hulahoop over/under to the other end of the chain, then the selected their two best swimmers to dive for a ball in the pool. Boys vs girls and the boys won. That might have been Wednesday while I was reading. Thursday we went up again and sat in the hot tubs during the belly flop competition. Ky got his last round of swimming in too.

We did some packing and checked out the formal pics we had taken. Ky and the girls got 'tattoos' ;o) and I bought new gold chains for the boys. Then we went back and packed up. Paul and Steve got to hang out this final night on their own. :o)

Friday we got up and packed up the last of the stuff - brought it all down to breakfast with us. This was the only day we hit the dining room for breakfast. Slabs of french toast - yum! Then we hung out at the aquarium lounge until we could disembark. Baggage collection seemed much more organised than last time. We grabbed a guy with a cart and piled up. He pushed the luggage AND the boys through customs and all the way to the car. Nice!

Then we went to Nanna and Poppy's - you've already seen the fire adventure story there. Saturday we got up and came home.


After all of that I do have some sad news. When we came back I noticed Snowflake - our neutered, male cat - looks like he's expecting a litter of kittens. Today I took him in for xrays and bloodwork. It's definitely a tumor - but we won't know details from the bloodwork until Monday. He's having an ultrasound on Monday as well. He's somewhere in his 14th year so he's had a decent run. At the moment he's happy as can be - just with a round ball of a belly. If there is reasonable treatment that will help him live comfortably, we'll do it. We'll know more next week. In the meantime, I sat down with the boys and read Lifetimes with them tonight. Kyle asked immediately - "why did you read this to us?" So I explained that Snowflake is old and sick. The vet says 'nursing home old' :o) I didn't want to say 70's because they have Grandparents in their 70's and we don't want comparisons. I explained that we would try to help Snowflake but that they need to remember that he's not young. And he's nearing the end of his lifetime, even if this particular ailment isn't it. They immediately asked for a snack - so I guess they are OK about it so far. Of course he doesn't *look* sick. But I wanted to make sure they had plenty of time to snuggle with him while he is still mostly healthy. We'll see how that goes. Ky was a wreck for a long time when my Mom lost her yorkie.

Yesterday's lack of an update was just because I was tired. Today I am taking a conscious break. And will instead tell you about the loss we felt today...

Yesterday, my Director was involved in a car accident in the UK. Sadly, he didn't make it. He leaves behind a wife and three children.

I hadn't actually met him in person yet, though we had had several phone conversations - usually me presenting something or other for approval with our product's current release. He was a good guy, though if he felt there was a flaw with something he was sure to tell you so. You always knew where you stood. And he reminded me of a bear. And when you talked to him you could hear it in his voice - he enjoyed what he was doing. He cared about the teams he managed and the products coming from those teams.

He leaves some very large shoes to fill.

My thoughts are with his family and friends today.

Monday we were at sea all day. The water wasn't too bad, but it was super windy. The boat was rocking a bit. It was really funny to watch Holly try to walk around - she's still getting used to walking on land! We lost an hour to crossing a time zone, which I promptly forgot about. I signed the boys up for Adventure ocean - being the ever watchful and mindful Mom I am I remembered to add in Sensory Integration Disorder and mentioning it to the girl with the 'you probably won't even need to worry about it - but just in case' - TOTALLY forgot to add to Ry's that he was just recovering from Mono and shouldn't be running around. *sigh* - guess I miss out on the Perfect Mom of 2008 award :o)

Stopped in an hour later to check on Ry (wasn't terribly worried about Ky this time - yay for hurdles past!) and they were just getting ready to call us. Ry wasn't being horrible, just refusing to participate and demanding to sit on the rock wall - the premise for calling me being if one of the 50 kids gets away with it... well.... you see where it's going. No problem. Picked Ky up at lunch time - they never went back. That wasn't a conscious choice - I had fully intended on giving them more opportunity, they just had other things they wanted to do.

We walked around the bow of the ship - holding on to each other's hands for dear life - it was *THAT* windy!!! But it was fun. Then we wandered around a little more. I think this was the day that Ky and I went to the Adventure Beach - kid's pool. I sat in the sun and Ky swam. He tried out the water slide too, but mostly swam.

That night was Formal night and we had pictures taken before dinner. We all looked so nice! We managed to get a reasonable shot too! We had gotten a call just before dinner that we didn't get a baby sitter for that night (bummer!). Then after dinner, when Paul and Liz were getting ready to go we got a call - someone else had cancelled, would we still like a sitter? Sure! So we met Lorena and life was good. She promptly took out a bag of toys and all were happy. We didn't do much with our new found freedom - mostly hung out in one of the lounges. Where I noticed that they had barf bags even in the bathroom! The boat was pretty rocky!

We came back to Holly snuggled up on the bed and the boys totally passed out. Lorena reported that shortly after we left the boys announced they normally go to bed at 8:00 and then they went to sleep. Wow. We were impressed.

Tuesday morning Holly woke up with a very crusty eye. So I took her down to see the ship's Dr. I figured pink eye we probably shouldn't continue to spread around. He took a look and said he needed to see her officially, but to come back after the office opens at 9:30 to avoid the extra $30 fee for early service. Once back and registered he happened to hear her cough. So he did a more thorough exam - hey that's an ear infection! No WONDER she hadn't been sleeping (in our defence, she didn't complain and did not have a fever - just not sleeping well). Have to also mention that Holly's new found distrust of strangers did not apply with the Dr. He scooped her up in the waiting room and she went with him without a fuss. I figured that was a good sign.

Tuesday morning we pulled into Bermuda. Beautiful, wonderful, not rocking, Bermuda. Actually, I kinda like the rocking of the boat (as long as I'm not being thrown around). But I feel bad for the folks that really feel it. And seeing all the bags in strategic places is slightly unnerving. Makes me feel like I *should* be sick! We spent some time in the pool in the morning and then had our Glass Bottom Boat tour. We went out to a coral reef - which was grown up over a ship wreck (cool!). There was lots of coral and lots of fish. The fish all kinda looked the same :o) - the best part was feeding the fish off the side of the boat! And if you throw a whole slice of bread they fight over it! So the boys loved that. And the sunken ship sticking up. There was lots of wind - and Holly didn't enjoy not being able to wander around, but overall it was a nice trip.

I think we went back to the kids pool. That night was the midnight buffet - Liz and I got to go! There were a surprising number of kids there. And we decided that while we wouldn't hold them up for it, it would be something we might wake them for in the future. Before the buffet we had wandered around a little, hanging out in the Aquarium bar and at the pool bar before that.

Brian over at Rossidudes posted today about a local fire.

My fire story today isn't as alarming. But that's probably because of the fast response.

While sitting down to dinner at my Mom's on Friday several fire trucks pulled up to the end of the street. When they got to the end where the woods start, the bigger trucks (tankers) backed back down and parked in the cul de sac my Mom lives in. There was a brush fire up in the woods. They waited for their nifty all terrain thingy to show up and sent it off with some guys on foot to take care of business. Mostly, they were standing around and waiting. The buggy thing was some sort of cross between an ATV, a golf cart, and a water tank. It came back 2 or 3 times to be refilled.

The view from Mom's driveway:


Ky came out with me to watch the trucks. And he was obviously worried. At one point the chief asked another of the firefighters for status... "something is on fire in the woods" - which made me laugh right out loud.

When Ky told me he was worried I asked him specifically what worried him. He said it was that the fire would come down to Nanna's house. So I pointed to the firemen - do you see all these men? They are here to make sure it doesn't happen. It has to get past them before it reaches us. AND if it does make it this far, that big tanker will just spray it with water - it can't make it up into the woods, but here on the road isn't a problem.

One of the firemen saw me talking with Ky and came over - 'wanna sit in the truck?' - Ky got a personal tour of the two big tankers at the end of Mom's driveway. Total little boy heaven!



Holly got to look too:



The fire didn't come down to the houses. There was no property damage and no injuries. Thanks in large part to the firefighters - all volunteer by the way.

A great big personal thank you goes out to the Warwick Fire Department. You guys rock. Specifically, I also need to thank Charlie and Wendel for showing my kids around :o)

Ryan chose to stay inside to tend to his skinned knee. So he missed out. Hasn't complained about it though.

Friday I had to bring Ryan in for his 2 week post-mono follow up. So I raced home and grabbed the dogs, then Ryan and headed out again. After declaring Ryan 'not quite over it yet' but OK to go on the cruise, we dropped the dogs off for their doggy vacation.

Steve and I finished a majority of the packing and then we went to bed. We loaded up the car Saturday morning and hit the road, arriving at Nanna and Poppy's house between 1:00 and 2:00. Traveling without the dogs is so much easier! We've been leaving them either in a kennel or with a sitter for over a year now and everyone seems happier for it. Sarek is 13 now, and I just think he's less stressed not traveling. Even if we kennel them. And he gets a vacation from the kids.

It was a beautiful day and the kids played out in the street with the girls from across the road. We chatted with their Opa for a bit. Holly had previously treated us to 3 nights of sleeping all the way through - but that was it. Saturday night was pretty darned awful. Mostly, just re-covering her and giving her binky back was good - but it was almost hourly. Ouch!

We hit the road Sunday morning and discovered that Cape Liberty is a mere hour and 15 minute drive from my Mom's. Nice! We were thinking more like 2 hours... so we had some time to kill. But where? It's Sunday and all the stores in NJ were closed. Argh. Malls closed on a Sunday? Only in NJ!!! LOL. To be fair it's not ALL of NJ with these odd blue laws - but the part we were in.

So we got to Cape Liberty MUCH too early. Very nicely situated is a strip mall right next to the port! Yay! We killed 45 minutes in Dunkin Donuts, then stopped in to the Game Spot - Pokemon Time and Pokemon Darkness were released that day - we were kinda hoping we'd get a chance to pick them up. The boys were thrilled to pieces !!!

After our snack and electronic indulgence, we popped over to the port. Where we all got to see the Statue of Liberty across the water. Yay we can check that off the list of things for the boys to see - hee hee. I HATE the craziness that happens here. Everything is rushed, and I hate that - with a passion. I'm normally a pretty even keeled kinda person, but when you rush me I get stressed. So we pull in and pull all luggage out. We label it all and off it goes... We pile back into the car and head over to long term parking. A shuttle brings us back to where we started (without the kids, we would have just walked... it wasn't exactly far).



Checkin was a breeze since we had Priority Check In with our Junior Suite reservation - yay! Cookies and juice accompanied our very short wait for the bus that brought us over to the ship. We boarded and then headed over to the Windjammer for some lunch while we waited for access to the cabins. Cabins opened up around 1:15 and we settled in. Our luggage showed up before our attendent even came to say hello - being early pays off! Paul and Liz and family arrived a little bit later and settled in to the cabin next door.

We started off with our Muster Drill at 4:30, and we wandered around and popped into the Open House for Ocean Adventures. The boys were SO excited that they'd get to go tomorrow! It was pretty windy, even just there in port, and Marissa (our attendant) warned us to not open both the slider to the balcony and the door to the hallway at the same time. Sounds like a woman broke her arm a few weeks back when the wind slammed the door on her. Ouch! At some point we all wondered how the medical setup works (and I got to visit it later in the week - but we'll talk about that later).

Dinner was 'as you are' the first night - and we got to meet our waiter and assistant waiter. The kids ate off the main menu most of the week which was wonderful. And with the main seating for dinner they didn't fall asleep during dinner like last time! After dinner the kids all passed out pretty quickly. Actually, so did we :o) Liz and I also hit up Guest Relations at some point during the day to reserve babysitting for later in the trip. Holly had another really rough night. We chalked it up to the nasty changes in routine she was experiencing...

And there you have it - we were at sea!

We are home.

I will write about the week, I promise. I'm gathering my thoughts. And doing laundry!
In the meantime you can see the trip in pictures (295 of them!) in my Picasa album


This sums up how I'm feeling at the moment :)



(happy and sleepy)

Where does the time go?

Just two work days left and then we are on vacation! I hate leaving my team right now, but it's been planned for so long, and I know I need it. So we work around it. It's a bad week for Steve too - but again - we didn't know 18 months ago!

The boys are so excited. And we'll be cruising with Uncle Paul and Auntie Liz and girls. It will be way fun. We're planning on at least one night of paid babysitting and since the cabins are adjacent I'm bringing the baby monitor so we can hang out together after kiddy bedtime.

Kyle went back to ride Minnie on Sunday - he totally enjoyed it. Posting came right back to him. J was very happy with how he did after his winter break. We'll be going back again regularly after the cruise. With me joining on occassion. First I need a helmet though!

We've been encouraging Holly to talk more. Trying not to just give her what she's looking for. And this morning I caught her 'talking' to some stuffed animals. She may even have said 'bear' but I'm not certain.

The boys had haircuts on Sunday (including Steve) and all look much less shaggy now. I had my dip and clip on Saturday. So we're all nice and pretty now! I did my nails this week too - now I just have to keep them nice!

I'm probably 75% packed. Yay! I have to pack the stuff we use all the time (like the boys' undies... Steve's stuff... etc) and our dressy stuff. I put together some fun activity books for the kids too - and some goodies. Just because.

We're almost there!

That's Holly I'm referring to. She doesn't talk. So when we went to see the Doc today for her 15 month visit I said "last time we were here and I told you she had 4 or 5 words? Yeah, I apparently made that all up" She says DaDa. Very well, very clear, you can totally see she means "that's my daddy right there and I love him to pieces he's the best daddy ever!". :o) But it's really all she says. She signs for 'more' which means 'I'm hungry' to her. And she gets her point across in other ways - this morning she came over and handed me her blanket. You want a nap? OK. Popped her and her blanket in the crib and left and she settled down for a nice long nap.

The daycare center sent home her 12 month evaluation in January and they noted her lack of words. She doesn't babble. Well, she babbles occassionally, but mostly she's just quiet. She hears us and clearly understands us - she'll retrieve her coat and shoes when you tell her it's time to go. When you ask her if she'd like milk or if she'd like to eat she comes running and hands you her binky in exchange. If you tell her it's time for shoes she sits down and gives you her feet. She's bright and hears us. But she's not talking. So we have a referrel for Early Intervention for a speech delay. Because hey - extra help is never a bad thing :) It could be as simple as - we respond to her actions and her 'eh' and know what she needs so she doesn't NEED to talk. But it's better to find out.

Otherwise her motor skills are excellent, and she's still growing. Everything looks great. She got 3 shots today and that was about it.

We're riding home in the car and Kyle asks:
"Is holding up your middle finger all by itself a swear?"

(hmmmm wonder where this is going...)

Me: Yes it is.
Ky: Which swear is it (aha! now I see where it's going...)
Me: I can't tell you because then I'd have to say it
Ky: Oh. Is it F - - K? (he spelled it perfectly, not missing a beat)
Me: Yes, actually, it is. But you aren't allowed to spell it either. Spelling it is just as bad as saying it.
Ky: Oh. OK. *pause* What are the other swears?
Me: I can't say them, they aren't OK to say.
Ky: *seems to be thinking outloud* - I know the "F" word and the "s-h" word - how do you spell the "s-h" word? *tries to work it out on his own*.

Then he dropped the topic. Which is good. I don't know how much longer I could have kept the chuckles in. Hopefully, Ryan wasn't listening too closely. While Kyle was just matter of fact with it and seemed to really just be looking for information, Ryan would need to actively explore them and use them and try them out on others. A lot.

Did I mention Ry now has mono? Thankfully, he should be OK before we leave on the cruise. And that's it - it's not allowed to spread to anyone else!!!

I don't forget my own birthday.

It's not that I forget other people's birthdays. I KNOW what day they fall on. They are numbers after all and that is how my brain works. I remember numbers. I'll remember phone numbers from my childhood and then wonder -whose was that? Was that Cathy's? Michelle's? Darnit! Do I need to call it and see if someone answers? But that's a tangent. So I remember birthdays. I do NOT, however, always remember what day we are currently on in the calendar. Not sure why it happens but I totally lose track of the calendar. I'll be thinking - Steve's Mom's birthday is in - x - days. Gotta send a card. And then the next thing I know I'm thinking "hey - Steve's Mom's birthday is in March - what day are we on? Oh crap - it was 4 days ago!". So if I've 'forgotten' your birthday - know that it's not you or your birthday I have forgotten. It's my state of being that is in a jumble. And it's been like this for a long, long time.

At any rate - yesterday was my birthday. And apparently I can no longer wear black. According to Stacey London Black after 35 just makes you look round. And since I heard this from Stacey London, it must be true, right? Liz and I figure we heard her say *after* 35 - so it doesn't hit until you're 36. Which is what I now am. Yikes. Where has the time gone? (of course Steve's going to be 40 - so I always feel better remembering that).

Then there was the conversation with Paul and Liz during Girls' weekend (why was Paul part of Girls weekend? why would it be any other way ? )
Paul commenting on a friend he's made on facebook:
P: "he's 50! That's 15 years older than us."
me: "Not YOU!!!"
(Paul is just shy of a year younger than Steve - I won't out him here - but you all can do math I assume?)

It was entertaining... :o)

So back to my birthday. It was yesterday as I've said. I worked. I came home. Me and the boys went to the chiropractor. We had Thai takeout for dinner (yay!) and there was chocolate ice cream cake. And flowers. Yay!

And Steve got me a new HD 12megapixel camera for my birthday. Woohooo! And an 8gb memory card to go with it. I'm playing with it to see what I can do and maybe I can do a little better with this one than the last. I did perfectly fine with the last one - but never managed to get good quality 8x10's out of it. That's my goal - I need to replace most professional photo sessions. I'm hoping for a nice weekend some time soon for a fun outing with the camera. Worst case it gets a great run during our cruise. Which of course I've mentioned. 2 weeks from tomorrow we'll be packed up and at Mom's house. We all can't wait!

Today I had Kyle's follow up for Mono visit. And I squeezed Ryan in too. Ryan has swollen glands and a red throat. Not tired but then Ryan doesn't ever get sick the way other people do. So the Dr agreed and felt we should screen for mono (throat culture was negative) - we're waiting for the results. Since Kyle was there to tell Ryan all about the needle they use to take blood out of your arm, the waiting for the blood test was worse than the procedure itself. Once again I am impressed with how well they deal with children. Once the needle was in he calmed down. Not completely relaxed - he definitely wanted it done, but a majority of the fear was gone. We'll probably know tomorrow. Not that it makes much difference. Ky was given the OK to go back to being his crazy old active self - YAY! He was really feeling the lack of activity (and so was I!)

Mom and Dad cancelled their trip up - again. Besides Ryan's new illness, Holly came home with a fever at lunch time. So we'll just wait and see them when we leave for the cruise. Now we have another open weekend with no big plans. Sounds like a weekend for working on the new room to me!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend :o)

Can it be? My counter over there ==>>
tells me that in just 18 days I will be at my Mom's. I'll be trying to keep the boys from bouncing off the walls from excitement. Because the very next morning we will leave from Mom's to head to Bayonne, NJ. Where we will board the Explorer of the Seas for our 5 day cruise to Bermuda.

Sun. Water. Peace. NO BUGS. And certainly no snow.
And no work.

Yeah, I'm a little excited!

"The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -- and achieve it, generation after generation."
--Pearl S Buck

I was looking for something around children and success and looking at things more the way they do and their lack of fear and so forth. This is what I landed on. I try to remember as often as possible to try to see things (or not see as the case may be) from the point of view of the kids. They are in awe. Everything is something to learn.

Though today - after going to Sunday school and talking more about the resurrection - Ryan declared - "Jesus. He was a zombie!" - ummm yeah. Something like that :o)

Find out How to Post your own Success Sunday!

Yesterday in the car we were talking about Nanna and Poppy coming up to visit. They did not visit at Easter because of Ky being newly diagnosed with Mono.

"So I'm all better now" he asked. "No, but you can just not kiss them when they hug you". "OK".

"Mommy? Can you tell them that for me? I want them to know why I won't kiss them when they hug me."

He didn't want their feelings to be hurt.
I found this incredibly perceptive - not just for a child who in the past had no clue that other people even had feelings - but for any child of 7. My Ky has come a very long way indeed.