Breaking through the Fibrofog…

tackling 3 boys, a dog and a few rare health conditions, it’s all in a day’s work for this SAHM

Filed under: General — Amy at 8:58 pm on Thursday, August 31, 2006

Life is never dull at the McKenzie home. We fought w/ the squirrel some more last night, put some “food” up there where he was chewing in hopes he’d go away for good. but the darn thing we just as persistent today. before fixing the roof the other day the contractor went into our attic and made sure there were no animals. We’ve never heard any animals and he said he saw none so he fixed the holes and that was that. This evening I heard what i thought was a baby bird, but after I realized the squirrel wasnt going away even when I tried to make it and the noises from the baby were louder, I began to worry there was a baby in our attic, baby squirrel that is. So when Dean got home I made him listen and he went up and couldnt see the baby either but definitely could hear it up there. So he went out and tore up our new gutters and such to get out the squirrel. In his attempt to not touch the squirrel in case the mom would know he did and not want it, he somehow was scooping the baby into a box while on the ladder on the roof, and the squirrel fell. for a while it appeared dead, but shortly after we heard it moving and it was making noises again. So it’s alive but it might be hurt pretty badly from the fall. I feel horrible about it all, and I’m sure dean does too. we would have tried to get the baby out had we heard it before. I’ve never heard it until today. He was pretty big considering it was a baby. so I’m not sure why we never heard it before today. So we left the baby in a box under the tree in our yard, hoping it and the mom are gone for good from our yard. Hoping the mom wont want to hurt us after it realizes we hurt the baby, more than anything hoping the mom isnt sick from the rat poison we left out on the gutter. ugh….at least now we know why it was so persistent in trying to get back in. poor thing!

aside from that last night was horrible. Caleb got up shortly after we put him to bed compaining his mouth hurt. we thought he had bitten the inside of his mouth since he grinds his teeth so much. but he kept screaming how bad the pain was, yet refused tylenol. so we told him there was nothing we could do but give him medicine or take him to the hospital. he eventually fell asleep but woke up throughout the night in severe pain. this morning he didnt want to go to school but after realizing he really just didnt want to go to school all day we werent sure if their was any real pain or if he was just trying to avoid school. I had mentioned yesterday that today was to be his first full day of school, that he’d go all day. he took that to mean he’d go until the time Dean got home from work, which is all day to him. I told him no, just as long as he went to school for preschool last year, that he’d be home a few hours before Dean. he finally decided he was ok to go to school today and Dean told the teacher we werent sure if it was real or a ploy to get out of school. but she called during the day and said he would calm down if given attention and a drink so she wasnt sure if it was real pain or not either and left it up to us if we’d get him early from school or not. I was working today and since I only do so once a week I made Dean call to make an appt for him to see the dr after school so I could finish working , run to get Caleb then take him to the dr. it was a fun afternoon. Caleb said his ear did hurt at school, but that at lunch time he felt like he was going to throw up then after that felt better. Then on the way to the dr he said theres something in my ear, yucky stuff. sure enough it was draining pus, his ear drum had ruptured, which is truly painful. poor kid was in miserable pain all night and wouldnt take tylenol, so I am sure he was hurting! so now he’s got medicine and should be much better by tomorrow. but after it started draining he was already feeling better, at least not screaming in pain! so it was a rough night, and a very very busy day. tomorrow will be busy preparing for our trip to Ohio. I’m worried about leaving the house unattended since there’s flood warnings for the next few days and the history of our basement flooding. Granted it hasnt in quite a while, but so soon after doing repairs any water down there would ruin so much hard work we’ve put in to make things nicer around here. thinking we’ll have the neighbor come check the basement for us while we are gone, but dont know what it will matter if we wont be here to clean it up!

I’m exhausted beyond belief. We’re planning on heading back on tuesday, I have my u/s on Wednesday to find out why I have been in so much pain and having so many problems since having Zeke. Thursday afternoon I have an appt w/ my primary care dr to discuss some things too. So next week should be fun too. At least I can look forward to a few days of hanging out w/ the hubby instead of working on the house or taking care of the kids all day while he works. well I gotta go clean up and start packing.

may or may not update again before our trip, depends on how the day goes tomorrow.

update on the squirrel

Filed under: General — Amy at 3:03 pm on Wednesday, August 30, 2006

I’m losing it!! there’s a shingle from the roof on the ground, guess who put it there?  Part of the gutter that Dean put up is coming off.  I am beyond pissed.  I bought rat poison today, if I was brave enough to put the ladder up I would have put it up there in the gutter for the little bugger to eat for lunch.  Maybe he’ll have it for dinner.   Dean couldnt get home early to work on the problem so I’ve just had to deal w/ going out and trying to get it to leave when I hear it working on gnawing on the roof.  Seriously, why do crazy things happen to us all of the time.   People keeping saying” i didnt know squirrels were like that”  well folks they probably arent.  he’s probably the one crazy squirrel planted on my roof because that’s what happens.  maybe it’s this house, maybe just maybe if we get out of here and get someplace new life will be different, no more craziness, no more sickness, no more pain….oh wait, God dont take it wrong, I’m not ready for heaven yet, but heaven on earth would be nice.  really, it’s just a squirrel, and I know the neighbors are having fun laughing at me scolding him as he tears up the roof, but it’s not funny.  I’m sick of stupid things like this happening.  it always ends up meaning something needs done , usually with finances we just dont have sitting around.   seriously, why can life never be easy in the McKenzie home? one day of simplicity, is it really all that difficult?  I mean come on , God you can make light from darkness, you made everything, just one day with no major or even minor catastrophes and NO absolutely NO pain or illness.  Just ONCE. PLEASE

Filed under: General — Amy at 7:42 am on Wednesday, August 30, 2006
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Dear Mr. Squirrel,

I want to thank you for visiting our lovely home. We always enjoy having our children learn about how others live in the world. But once we discovered the damage you had bestowed upon our lovely home we found it only fair to begin the eviction process. We made some repairs and left the “door open” for you to collect your belongings and head elsewhere. After checking to make sure you had left the premises we again finished repairs and changed “the locks” on your old entryway. Unfortunately you failed to realize this and have since tried to resort to breaking and entering.

What was once guilt over having to break our landlord tenant agreement, has turned into plain anger at your lack of abiding by the rules we’ve set. Disabling our satellite tv cable is no way to thank those who so nicely let you live in their attic rent free and who even repaired the damages you created at no cost to you. Again, continuing to damage our property, which you have no claim to lest I NEED to remind, will only result in severe retaliation on our part.

You may think your cuteness will let you win, but make no doubt about it, this is WAR! as Dean so nicely put it, “that squirrel has evil eyes!”

*p.s. anyone good at catching squirrel and interested in cooking him for supper? dont get on me about animal cruelty, I was trying to be nice to this creature of God but he’s hit my last nerve and all patience is gone. I will not shell out more money to fix repairs that can be prevented by giving the creature back to his maker! ;-) We even cut off most of the nice long branches from our tree that was enabling him to get to the roof but seems we didnt cut enough, sadly the tree is more bare now that looks good so it might have to be cut down, all in the attempts to keep the squirrel off the roof. ARGH!!  I’ve been listening ot him chew a hole in our roof all morning and there’s nothing i can do about it! I keep going out and yelling at him, he’ll go away for a bit then come back.  I have to get out of here or I’m going to lose it, maybe I’ll go by a gun or some poision…darn squirrel!

Filed under: General — Amy at 8:25 pm on Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Zeke is just too darn cute, that’s all I can say!

kitchen backsplash

Filed under: General — Amy at 8:38 pm on Monday, August 28, 2006

updatedkitchen.jpgthe house is finally looking so nice! Dean has done an amazing

kitchenstovetile.jpg job on so many different projects, thanks babe!

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Added a link on the sidebar that says Pics of our home where you can check back to see all of the completed rooms!

Big Day!

Filed under: General — Amy at 8:06 pm on Monday, August 28, 2006

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And not to be left out, the middle child’s first morning alone withoutlittlebrother1stdaykindergarten.jpg big brother, hoping it helps his speech along to be without Caleb for most of the day.    caleb only had school til 10 a.m. today.  Tomorrow half of his class goes to noon, he’s in the half that doesnt go.  So his next day of school is on Wednesday when he’ll go til noon.  Then Thursday and Friday are full days.  it’s the craziest phasing in schedule, very annoying and I dont see how it’s helping the kids to adjust when it’s not consistent.  not to mention they’ll have a three day weekend after getting used to two full days of school.  Someone seriously needs to rethink this process.   Anyway…more pics under the MORE link below of our almost finished master bath.   will upload the FINISHED kitchen back splash later.

(There is more where this came from … )

Recap

Filed under: General — Amy at 2:29 pm on Wednesday, August 23, 2006

can it be true, Zeke is 5 months old.  At 21 months old, Bo is just around the corner from turning two any my big  5 year old starts kindergarten on Monday.  Dean has been laid off, he’s got a little while to find a job.     I thought I had recovered from my back problem, still never got authorization from insurance for the mri the dr wanted.  then today my back is right back to where it was, almost as bad anyway.  Perhaps that painting the bathroom last night wasnt so smart?   cleaning tomorrow as well as parent orientation for kindergarten.  Friday is free I think, but Dean is supposed to be working at the theater this weekend.   He’s off on Monday though so one of us can attend the first day of school thing for Caleb.  Hoping to do something fun in the afternoon, but chances are we’ll just be spending the day finsihing up house repairs.   We’re trying to plan to be in Ohio the following weekend, labor day weekend to look for a house and visit.

our van is fixed, nearly $600 to fix this week, it cost a little over $500 in repairs last week, the van isnt even worth either amt probably, except in new parts now!   I am sure something else could go wrong but if anything else happens to us soon I am sure to end up in a need of professional assistance to deal with the stress, seriously.   Caleb has taken on a horrible attitude, no doubt aided by my lack of patience this last week or two.   school starting will be good for all of us, then he and Bo wont be fighting over things all day long, just half the day!  that should help my mental state!

I’m gaining weight at a rapid pace, or so it feels to me.  I havent consulted a scale yet.  Vaguely remember this and the other symptoms I have creeping up at this point post Bo, but could just be the consumption of golden oreos that I’m overeating to help me feel better, but in the end it just makes me feel worse.   sucks how that works!   with any luck if it is a thyroid thing I’ll start to lose quickly next month or so!  I think I will try to cut back on the oreos to help too!  ;-)

i know some of you were concerned about my vague post the other day, I’ve been dealt my fair share of things in life and sometimes folks are impressed with how well I cope, but I cant this time.  Too much piling up, way too much.   Too much too quickly and no way to relax or get away from it.  life sucks sometimes and lately theres been little to take joy in, if it wasnt for the silly things my kids do all day I am sure I’d be in a much worse state.   but the other things they do arent helping to keep me any more sane either….

probably wont update again until theres more solid news of our plans.

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