I HATE hospitals!

I repeat... I HATE HOSPITALS! Needles, blood, the smell of disinfectant, people sounding like they are dying, thinking about germs every time you turn the corner, worrying, doctors in no hurry, trying not to think about what they are doing to who ever you are there for... I hate everything about them!

We have been three times in the past two weeks! Let me explain a little further. I had NEVER... NEVER been to the ER (for me or anyone else) before I met Tyler. Call me lucky, call me fortunate, call me stupid, whatever... we just didn't go, you waited until the doctor was open. Also we weren't crazy kids who did things like set up two trampolines and jump over a fence!

Whatever the cause, I survived 18 years of my life without stepping foot in an ER or having any hospital stays. Now that I've met Tyler, I've been 4 times for him, 7 times for Mallori, 2 times for myself, and 1 for Jace. A little ridiculous don't you think? I do!

To make a long story short... Here are our trips listed out..

1. A couple of days after the hurricane, Tyler stands up under a carport at Sean's and finds the flag pole bracket. After a consult with about 3 EMTS, we go to ER. Result: 2 stitches
2. Jace runs after a ball in his room (why were we throwing balls AND running in the house?) Lands on the first two fingers on his right hand with them bent. We think nothing is wrong, just hurts, but he keeps crying... very unlike Jace. The next morning, both fingers are bruised across his middle knuckle. We take him to the doctor who sends us for X-rays. Jace's favorite part of the day was getting to see his bones! Result: Nothing broken. Just give him Motrin. Which we didn't have to do for the tough little booger.
3. Tyler calls me at work and completely freaks me out. (Just ask the girls in the office!) He is having his headaches again, a sharp pain right above/behind his right eye. However, the room starts spinning, his ears are ringing and popping, he falls if standing up and vomits and his face goes numb. Result: About 6 hours in the ER with a cat scan, lap results, and the threat of a spinal tap, they tell us to go see his doctor tomorrow at 1:30.... in case you missed it.. they didn't do ANYTHING! No medicine for the nausea, nothing they can do for the ringing in the ears, no pain meds for the headaches, not even something to knock him out until tomorrow. GGRRR not only did we waste who knows how much $$$$ but we wasted an entire day and no answers! In case you can't tell, I'm FRUSTRATED! Apparently, they can't even do an MRI in ER without admitting you....

On a happier note, Mallori had her first soccer game and practice and enjoys it. She was upset about her daddy being sick because "he can't been my coach.. he's sick." I'm hoping he's OK by then baby!

Lessons Learned from Ike

• Tree frogs (the little green slimy ones) will stick around and cry for water even during a torrential downpour and 100+ mile winds.
• Little boys are hard to entertain without electricity.
• Mommies can substitute for electricity.
• Big boys are impossible to entertain without electricity!
• If disparate enough, you can shave your legs in a mud puddle. Just listen for cars passing by!
• 5 adults, 1 kid, and 2 dogs can live in two rooms of one house for a week off of a generator.
• 3 year old little boys can teach their 70+ year old great-grandmother how to use a flashlight with great patience.
• My family needs to work on our vocabulary. Throughout two games of scrabble the longest word was "Tattoo."
• Love bugs love the smell of gasoline!!!
• You can cook gumbo, rice, pancakes, eggs, and bacon on a fish fryer.
• Air mattresses are made for two people.
• Little boys think air mattresses make good trampolines.
• Fans work wonders!! Especially if there are two old women snoring in the room with the AC.
• Emergency room waits are shorter when 70% of the town is evacuated.
• Cops do not really enforce the curfew, as long as you don't look suspicious.
• Little kids and grandmothers do not understand the concept of electricity. They will ask you a million times if they can do something just to hear you say "That works on electricity..."
• You're best bet for a hot shower is to befriend someone with a gas powered hot water heater.
• If you aren't friendly enough, you can take a hot bath by boiling a pot of water on a fish fryer and combining with cold water.
• Dogs can chew off the wires of a generator.
• I can get spoiled to working from home easily... very easily!

On a side note, I posted some of my pictures from the hurricane here. Let me know what you think. We didn't have any damage to speak of. Jace's pirate ship docked in the front yard, loosing pieces along the way and his sandbox lid ended up in the road in front of the neighbors house. Our outside AC unit was almost knocked off of the cement block but it slid back into place without a problem and seems to be working! We were very lucky! God was definitely looking out for us!

Ike

We have decided to ride this one out. More of a lack of decision that forced us into the decision! I'm not waiting forever in traffic. We'll take our chances here! Thank goodness we don't have any trees close to the house! I'll update as things go on... so hang on... Here comes Ike!!

Kids Say the Darnest Things...

Let me set the scene for you. We (4 adults) and 10 pre-schoolers are walking over to The Helping Place. Tammy is explaining what The Helping Place does and how the kids can help. She says something along the lines of...

Tammy: You can bring your old clothes, clothes that don't fit anymore and share them with other children who may not have any. We want clothes that are in good shape though. Ones without stains, and no holes. Things you are too big for....

Jace: Mrs. Tammy! My daddy has holes in his under-roos.....

Logan: That's OK Jace!! You can fix them with duct tape......

At this point the four adults are laughing hysterically and cannot see through the tears much less hear who says what but SEVERAL of the other kids chime in that their daddies also have holes in their under-roos. At least Tyler isn't alone!

Tammy pulled it off nicely though. She asked the kids why they think their daddies might have holes in their clothes and suggested that it was because mommies and daddies spend the money buying the kids new clothes and toys and yes... under-roos and sometimes don't have enough money to buy some for themselves.

On another note... Tyler has resolved to buy new under-roos.......

Winnie Trade Days

We headed out to the Winnie Trade days today. My mom and Tyler love to go and since they won't go alone, together, Jace and I tagged along. Don't get me wrong. It's OK. I like to look at all of the stuff as long as it's not too hot and I can stop when I want to. However, my mom likes to look at dishes, flowers, jewelry, and house decorations; Tyler likes to look at tools, furniture, guns, knives, and guy stuff. This means that we stop at EVERY booth and look at EVERYTHING! That gets to be a little much.

Today Jace and I had a mission though. We were going to find a police car Hot Wheels. It is just about the only one that he doesn't have! We were playing cars this morning and had a crash. When we called the cops, a cowboy Patrick (from Spongebob) was the one who showed up. Thank goodness we were all OK. I don't know if Patrick could have handled a real emergency!

After digging though a couple of boxes of Hot Wheels, we found a police car sitting on a table. Jace swiped it up about the time the lady came over and told us (with a look of please don't break it!!) that those were collector edition Hot Wheels and cost $2. In case you haven't priced Hot Wheels recently, they are $0.97 at Wal-Mart for brand new ones. I told Jace to put it back that we would keep looking and if we didn't find another one, we would go back. At one of the last stands, we found one for $4. By this time, Jace was not walking, he was being carried by (you guessed it) me. I decided $2 dollars more was worth not having to carry 40lbs all the way back to the beginning!

On another note, Jace is a talker... and he NEVER meets a stranger. We stopped at almost all of the booths to talk to the people who were running them. He even got a free poster from one guy. Which resulted in his other two Hot Wheels because we felt like we had to buy something from the guy after that! Another man told me he would trade some ceder furniture for Jace. Jace said no... and I liked the rocker too! Two women were laughing at him and telling me how cute he was... All he did was walk by. Another man and woman got him to talking and got the whole story about how he gets to move up a Sunday School class and won't be in Nana's anymore. I had to literally DRAG him away from several people. You want to just tell people not to encourage because he would stand there and talk to them all day! This is the same little boy who befriended a homeless lady at the Buna "park" and had her pushing him on a swing! He has not fear when it comes to people which scares me to death! We keep a very close eye on him anytime we are in public!

Just thought I'd share. I hope all of the people that I imagine are reading this are having a great weekend also!

Evacuation Vacation (Part 2)

We're home!!! Ok so we decided to head back early. It looks like Gustav isn't to be so big and bad after all so we headed home to beat the traffic. Here's a summary of our vacation....

12:00 noon Monday: Finally finish packing up and hit the road. Me, Tyler, 2 kids, my mom, grandmother, my grandmother's friend and two dogs (I mean puppies.. we're not allowed to say the "d" word).

8ish Monday night: We arrive in Benbrook!! I'll spare you the details about that journey but let's just said the kids ended up colorful but were actuallly VERY VERY good! Much better than our last evacuation when Jace SCREAMED the entire way to Arkansas! Here's a picture of Jace when we arrived at the hotel. We finally got into bed after we all took showers. Jace and I slept in one bed and Tyler Mallori took the other. They threw a fit to sleep with us (ok with me) and we weren't in the mood to fight by that time!

7:30 Sunday morning: "Mommy's the sun is up" We go downstairs for breakfast. They had a waffle maker that made waffels in the shape of Texas! I was impressed! Then it was off to the zoo!! The whole crew went and the kids had a pretty good time. Towards the end, they got tired of walking and they were just hot! But at least we got to go do something fun!

2:00pm Sunday: We get back to the hotel and eat our ice cream from Braum's.. YUMMY! Then it's time for a much needed nap!

4:30pm Sunday: Wakey wakey! We change into our bathing suits. (I had prevsiously won the battle with Mallori over wearing it to bed) and it's off to the pool. This was a complete workout for Mommy! My kids are little fish and LOVE the water but that comes with it's disadvantages. The shallowest point of the water (other than the steps) was 4 foot. Neither one of them could touch bottom. This meant that I had to stay in arms reach of both of them and frequently let them hang on and rest. Not as easy as it sounds.. remember I said they were fish? They can both swim just far enough to get into trouble!

5:30pm Daddy gets back from site seeing with Gramma. He brings back cowboy hats!! The kids absolutely love them. Jace takes to saying "Howdy partner" and tipping his hat to any one who came up!

6:oopm We all split up and went out to eat. We went to the Macaroni Grill. First time I've ever been there. A must if you've never done it before! Then we went to see Ms. Kathy and give Lauren her soaking wet wallet... ooppss!

This morning it was on the road again at 10 and home by 5. Unpack and try to relax!!! I really don't like all of this hurricane mess!