Well, it's 0526 hrs...

...and the little one's and the big one's are still A-S-L-E-E-P. Well, the little one's had a bottle at 0500 and then went back to sleep. Yes, sadly, we refer to our children as the "little one's" and the "big one's". But, whatdayado?
So I thought since I was up, I'd try to blog a little.
Things here on the homefront have been realatively...the norm. Well...the norm for us. A couple of weeks ago, when Dolly hit, we had some family come and stay with us. My sister Daisy and her family were without power and water and running out of food with no fridge. So they headed up this way. My dad and stepmom decided to stick it out, but did send my little sister Lilly with my sister Daisy...is there a flower theme going here. Lilly...Daisy... Anyway, my little sister Karen is in Spain for the summer, so she wasn't home. But Daisy, Lilly and the crew came to stay a while. It was actually pretty fun. Daisy has three boys that are about the same age as ours. Her youngest just turned a year old. So all of our boys had such a blast playing together. I'll have to post some of the pics she took while here. And I have to admit, it was nice to have some extra hands around. Just to be able to run to the store for a little something, and not have to haul all of the kids, was nice. Although, one day we decided to take all seven kids to Walmart. That was an experience. Whew! Then on a couple of days, my cousin Claudia and her family showed up to visit. They are from the Valley also and were staying with their Aunt in Austin. They have three boys also and she is pregnant with their fourth....a GIRL! They were without water or power also and stuck it out for a few days. But with being pregnant and with three kids...you just can't do that for very long. So on a couple of days, we had TEN boys, all under the age of eight, running around the house. It was ... loud! And fun! The kids had a blast and we got to talk for a while. So it was a busy week at the Copeland Compound.
What else...
Noah and Nile will be starting school (K4) in a few weeks. They have to wear uniforms this year and I haven't been able to find anything I need for them. Sigh. I'm kinda excited about them going again this year. They really seemed to enjoy it last year. Plus, it gives me a little break during the day to try to get things done without two extra little one's around.
Ken was notified a few weeks ago that all of the CG Reserves in Corpus Christi are going to be Demobilized. Which means...he's coming home! And going back to his "free-world" job at the PD. It's going to be weird. He's been activated for seven years now. We won't know what to do with him home full time. Gonna take some getting used to again. You know, you kinda get into a "routine" and get used to things being a certain way. But, we adjusted with kids/two sets of twins. Now that was an adjustment! So, October 1st will be his last day on active duty.
I'm getting hungry. This morning will be Banana chocolate chip pancakes. It's pretty much become my Saturday morning routine. Most other days we're running here or there. But Saturday is the Sabbath, Shabbat Shalom, and no where to go so it's pancakes for breakfast. Whoo-hoo!
I can't think of anything else to update on. Family is all doing well and we're just chugging along.

Shalom

Synopsis...

...Since I haven't written in a few months, I thought I would just do a little synopsis of what has been going on ...

April -

1st: School

3rd: School

4th: Physical Therapy/Occupational Therapy (PT/OT)

7th:PT/OT

8th: School-left early for Dental appt. for Nile and Noah...teeth fine. Noah has soft spot on one of his back molars, have to keep an eye on it. Made appointment to have the boys back teeth sealed.

10th: School for Noah/Spina Bifida Clinic for Nile

11th:PT/OT

11th,12th,13th,14th,15th: "All Hands" in Corpus for Ken.

15th: School

16th: PreOp for Nile's MRI

17th: MRI for Nile/School for Noah but he didn't want to go because he was upset about Nile's "Dr. appt."

21st: checkup appointment for all of the kiddos.

22: Dental appointment for Nile and Noah - Noah had two teeth sealed before the gas started to wear off. Dr. advised they could not work on Nile due to his "health issues" without a clearance from his pediatrician. Made another appointment for Noah's other teeth.

23rd:PreOp for Nile's surgery. This was a six hour appointment, not including the drive time. One way is 45minutes on a good traffic day. I was very impressed with Nile this day. He did extremely well considering all of the time we spent just waiting to see the doctors.

24th:School

25th: PT/OT

26th: Lela comes down to watch the kiddos during Nile's surgery.

28th: Surgery on Niles feet. All goes well, but he has to stay overnite for observation due to his sleep apnea.* His feet are casted with split casts that will come off in a week and regular casts put on. He does very well that night. I packed some new blocks that I got him just for the hospital, and his Gramms got him some new Army men as well. So we spend much of the evening playing on the floor ( I put a blanket down) playing and building. The next morning we went down to the cafeteria to get breakfast. Nile got to chose anything he wanted. Even if it wasn't Organic. LOL
*I put an asterix here because I do not believe Nile has Sleep Apnea. He has been tested at a Sleep Apnea lab and they diagnosed him with a mild form but they did not actually observe him sleeping. They hooked up a bunch of monitors to him and kept track of his oxygen/heart rate/etc... My opinion on the subject is his tonsils are getting in the way of his breathing. He doesn't stop breathing, there's just nothing gettin in there. His tonsils are so swollen most of the time, he just can't breathe. He can''t sleep on his back because they block the back of his throat, so he sleeps slightly sitting up. So, he has an appt with a different ENT next week and we will see about getting his tonsils out.

29th: Nile released from Hospital

May -

1st:School

2nd: PT/OT

5th: PT/no OT

6th: School

8th: School Field Trip to the Fire Department. It was so fun! The boys loved it!/Followup appt. with Orthopedic Surgeon to check on Niles feet and be recasted. He wanted Red but they were out. Then he picked blue...out. So we went with green. The Techs were calling him the Green Machine. LOL

12th: PT/OT

13th: School

14th: Radiology Appt for Nile's Ultrasound

15th: School

17th: Beach to Bay run for Ken in Corpus... The boys and I stayed home cause they were sick.

19th: PT/OT for Nile and Dental appt. for Noah

20th: School

21st: Followup with Urology for Nile

22nd: School

23rd: PT/OT

27th: Last day of School for the boys. The 29th was actually the last day, but they were having water games and a jumpy thing and Nile still had his casts on so we went to the Whitte Museum instead. We had such a good time.

30th: PT/OT

June:

2nd: PT/OT every Monday and Friday

3rd: Dental appt for Noah

5th: Nile's cast removed. There were several pressure sores on his feet that needed to heal. He still has one on his heel that has not healed.

6th: PT/OT Mom is admitted into the hospital. They advise her that she has Legionaires disease and possibly a mass on her heart. After several days, and several tests later, they advise her that she does not have Legionaires disease nor a mass on her heart. She will get a second opinion from a specialist in Houston later.

13th: PT/OT then head to Lela's house in Houston. Mom has a dr's appt with a heart specialist on Monday.

16th: Still in Houston. Mom has appt and dr. advises that her heart is fine. Whoo-hoo!

25: Dr. appt. with the pediatrician to check on the pressure sore on Nile's heal. Dr. advised that it is fine and should heal soon. One of the problems that we face with his feet is that he doesn't have "normal" circulation down there, so sores/cuts take longer to heal. Much like a diabetics feet/legs.

27th: Appt with the new Orthotist to be fitted for RGO's

30th: Court date over Dusty (my mom's dog) A neighbor has complained that he is barking all day...which is a crock.

July:

No PT/OT till second week of the month due to the 4th of July holiday. Whoo-hoo!

10th: Apptment for me in the A.M. then Dr. appt with a new Orthopedic surgeon to get second opinion on Nile's feet.

23rd: Dr appt for Nile with a new ENT

24th:Lola goes to the Vet and James & Jonah have their 9mo checkup

So that is what's been going on. In between those busy days above, we have managed to make a few trips to Sea World, extend the back deck and Ken has done alot of work on the Duplex for our new renters. So...that's it for now. I'll try to post some new pics and do another real update later. Right now I have to wash some grape tomatoes for Noah to munch on.

Shalom

Hello, my name is Sheila and it has been 18 days since my last post...

Is there an anonomous group for chronically bad bloggers?

The last few weeks have been extremely busy. Since my last post, our daily schedule has been in a total uproar. Ken's work shedule has changed on a day to day basis. So I never know when he will be home or for how long. Which, as far as therapy appointments, dr's appointments, dental appointments and the everyday stuff that seems to come up, it's really a pain. Cause when it comes to making appointments with the military system, it's not like calling a regular "free world" doctor. You can't just call an leave a message and expect to get a call back the same day by someone. You're lucky if they call you back in three days. And as far as making an apptment, they call you, not you call them. And if they pick a day, you better hope your schedule is free cause it may be another month before another appointment becomes available. But I digress. Anyway, we went to the Valley this weekend to visit my family. For those of you who don't know where the Valley is, it's way down there at the tip of Texas by Mexico. Anyway, our dad lives down there as well as some cousins and some siblings. I hadn't been to the Valley since the oldest boys were 6 months old. So almost exactly four years. When I started figuring it in my head that way, I couldn't believe how long it had been. So, me, my mom and the four kiddos piled into HOWhee, the van, and took a little trip. And I have to say, it was so nice having an "RV" to travel in. While the babies slept most of the way, the boys watched videos. When the kids got hungry, we just stopped along the way and had sandwiches and snacks from the fridge and warmed up bottles for the babies in the microwave. And I don't have to tell you how nice the potty breaks were. No public restrooms. So nice.
We left Friday morning and got there that afternoon. We stopped in at the airport to pick up a rental car for my mom. It was her birthday (on Sunday) and she really wanted to toodle around and visit some old friends. So that evening we just kinda hung out at dads house. My sister daisy and her family came over and my Cousin Claudia and her family came over. They each have three boys. The oldest boys will be six next month and the youngest are 9 months and 11 months old. So our boys had a blast with all the kiddos around. My dad had an in-ground trampoline and they had so much fun jumping on that thing. Ken and I want to install one in our back yard. Saturday was cousin Sammy's birthday party. All of the cousins, friends and neighbors were there. My brother and his kids even came over that afternoon. The boys had a blast! We got home waaaayyyyy past bedtime and the boys were exhausted. Sunday everyone came over again and we BBQed and the kids played and played. By the time Monday rolled around and it was time to go, the boys didn't want to leave. And I don't blame them. We were suppose to leave on Sunday, but my mom called in sick and I canceled Niles therapy and we stayed till Monday. We had so much fun! We plan to go back soon but Nile has surgury coming up on the 28th, so it will have to wait till at least his recovery is over with.
Which leads me to our next subject: Nile's surgery on his feet is schedule on the 28th and this week has been jam packed with dr apptments and MRI's and preop apptments. Sigh. It's been hectic. And next week will only be worse. So I'm getting really anxious and nervous about that coming up.
But I gotta go now. A messy playroom has been staring at me and haunting me all morning and I can't take it anymore. I hope to have more pics soon so check in later. PEACE