Patio!

We are pouring a concrete patio in the back of the house this weekend/week. Here are the before pictures.
Such nice grass!
Bobcat at work!

So this is after! B rented a sod remover which made really nice rolls of grass!

Looks a bit scary at this point.
This section is actually all dug out now- there's about a 2 foot high dirt wall here now and it's dug out flat.
You can see Mike, B, and our neighbor watching the bobcat work
Here he is digging it out.- B will build a retaining wall here with the same bricks around the rest of the beds. The concrete will butt up against it. Where I am looking down there will eventually be stairs going down from the deck! It's a mess right now, but it's going to be nice!

GE day one.....

Playing outside the other day with the cars....
Jumping over the line!

So proud of his cars!

Day 1 of Operation GE.

Food list:
BF- 2/3 nutri grain bar, blueberries (refused yogurt)
Snack- raspberries, slice of colby jack cheese, danimals yogurt drink (refused rice crispy treat)
Lunch- 2 club cracker sticks with cream cheese in the middle, couple of baby carrots (refused hot dog and ranch dipping sauce)
Snack- Fruit snacks, 4 oz juice (refused mini bagel with PB and jelly and cinnamon apple sauce)
Dinner- watermelon (refused chicken, couscous, cheese stick, peas)

Hungry much? When I laid him down for his nap he looked at me and said, "I need milk." Hmmm....too bad bubba! I told him he should have eaten his food and he said, "No food." I said, "Ok, but no milk." He napped fine and then got up and played. He seems eager to eat and sit in his booster seat, but continues to refuse his food. He was REALLY pissed when he figured out that there was water in his cup at dinner. I assume there will be a LOT of screaming tomorrow when he figures out this isn't just a one time thing. Right now he's throwing a fit because he wants a banana and milk. sigh.....

Operation G.E. (Griffy EATS)

So I took some pictures the other day intending to post them, but we are NEVER inside anymore when I am home, so I didn't get it done. I have made a serious commitment that I'm going to need a LOT of support with. I have decided to fully take on Griffin's refusal to eat. If you haven't been with us from the beginning, you don't understand, but if you have, you can imagine that this will not be fun or easy. I felt like he was getting better- he was eating cereal bars consistently, trying out new things, etc....but it's bad again. Really bad. He lives on pediasure and pediasure alone for nutrients and protein. He consistently eats only crackers, fruit snacks, bananas, berries, and cheese. It's getting old.....REALLY old. In his defense- it all started out with him not being able to eat. He did have a real medical oral aversion that kept him from eating normally, but he has since been released from Therapy and now it is ALL behavior. He doesn't want to. It's too much work, it takes too much time, and he just doesn't feel like it.

Tomorrow his milk (pediasure) goes away. AWAY. I spoke with the dietician today at work and she gave me permission to take his milk away completely for a day or two and then replace it with regular milk for awhile to see what happens. She said the one thing pediasure can cause is long term feeding issues because they get too full from it and never feel the need to eat. Well, we are going to make him HUNGRY. She gave me some handouts and I've been doing some reading about how to tackle the issue.

Starting tomorrow we will eat EVERY meal and EVERY snack at the table in his new booster seat (which I plan to make a really big deal about). He will get 3 meals and 2 snacks each day of appropriate portions and nutrients. He will NOT get any milk at all and he will NOT get any food that is not eaten at the table. I do not plan on forcing him to eat- no more forcing him to take bites. He can eat it or not, but if he chooses not to, then it's going to be a long few hours before the next chance to eat- AT THE TABLE. He's pretty smart, so I'm hoping he'll catch on rather quickly. The first week or two I plan on giving him things I know he likes relatively well or that he has eaten in the past. I don't want to spring a new system AND new and scary foods on him at the same time. For awhile we are going to be stuck at home. We had already agreed that we would not be eating out at all for an entire month, but I really think we need to not even go to friends or families' houses to eat. We need to eat in the same place and the same exact time every single day until we get this resolved.

This is going to be bad. Really bad. There is going to be melt down after melt down. LOTS of screaming. Please- pray for our patience.....

Update.

Just updates again, no pictures. For whatever reason, we didn't take ANY pictures the entire weekend my sister was here. Stupids.

Molly got in on friday and we did some shopping and ate lunch. We headed for Albany around 3:30 and finally got in just before the visitation at 6. We stopped at Grandma's to grab some food. All of the cousins were there which is comical. You have Molly and I and Justin, Jared, Melissa and Melanie who are relatively normalish. Then there is Jeremy and Jessica who are interesting.....Jeremy ended up wearing his wife beater for the second 1/2 of the visitation. You'd never believe we are related.

The visitation went well and we went back to Grandma's to visit for awhile. About 10 we headed out to see the night life in Albany. WOOHOO! We went to the nice bar first and it was empty. Had some snacks and a couple of beers and headed to the Shadowfax. Interesting to say the least. It's probably been there as long as anyone can remember. We closed it down at about 1:30 with the bar tender leaving with us, locking the door, and driving about 5 people home. An experience to say the least. Molly and I stayed at the motel in Albany which is brand new and quite nice.

The next morning we got up and went to the West End Cafe for breakfast. The great thing about Albany is that no one has any qualms at all about staring directly at you. We walk in and all eyes turn to stare. It was the same at the bar the night before. Breakfast was fatty and delicious. The funeral was at 11. We went to Grandma's to meet Brooks and the kids and went to the church for the service. It was a nice service. We had Subway Sandwiches and dessert at the church afterward and spent the rest of the day at Grandma's.

That afternoon we took the kids to the park, ate some pizza, gave them a bath, and headed home. We all went directly to bed when we got home! It was a long day but I had a really nice time with my family.

So I know you are all wondering about my dad- he didn't show. I think he is probably embarrassed about his state. It took a big load off of all of us to not have to worry about him- I thought it strange that no one at all asked either of us where he was. It was pretty weird to be these grand kids with no parents at the funeral. Lots of people asked about mom, but none about dad. Knowing that we were his seemed to be all they needed to know.

Sunday Brooks and I joined our church and had the kids dedicated. It was a good service and I'm glad to finally be a part of a church family. I feel at peace about our decision. We went out to eat and then hung out the rest of the day here. Molly left on Monday afternoon. It was a very busy weekend and I'm still pretty overwhelmed that it's over. I feel awful when I think about my grandma waking up alone every day. I need to make a point of taking the kids up there more often- maybe even to spend the night.

Two weeks ago I rejoined weight watchers to see if I can finally get under control again. We ate a ton, and I totally undid my awesome week. Things are slowly getting back to normal, so hopefully by weigh in day on Saturday I'll have fixed it!

I feel like I haven't worked forever. It has been a long time. It's so weird for me to not work my scheduled shifts and I feel nervous that I'll get fired or something, but I know they are understanding.

Mira seems to finally be back to herself. She was still overly grouchy yesterday and asked for her medicine twice, but today hasn't asked at all and says it doesn't hurt! YAY! Two nights now she's slept 7 and 9 hours in her OWN bed and not woken up screaming at all! It's a miracle! We are living outside these days. I figure that's our future for the next few months. It's nice to be out of the house.

This weekend we are getting our new back patio poured, so updates for sure after that!

I know.

I know I've been a bad updater- there has been a LOT going on in our lives right now. Mira is doing better- still having a fair amount of pain and pretty grouchy a lot of the time, but we're getting there.

My grandpa passed away early this morning. I took Mira up to see him in the hospital yesterday so I am pretty peaceful about the whole thing. It will be a busy next few days though. I am working tomorrow because I'm going to take Monday off to get my sister back to the airport and get things settled down. Molly will be here tomorrow sometime. Today I need to attempt to get my house in order.

On top of everything else, my dad is a mess and we are seeking guardianship for him so the family won't have to figure out what to do with him. It's really quite embarrassing if nothing else. Apparently the family has a "plan" for what to do if he shows up at the funeral and what state he is in. How incredibly sad.

Our Easter.

Well, I was supposed to work on Easter, but I just wasn't ready to leave her yet. In the morning I hid plastic eggs filled with candy around the house and they found them. M kept stealing G's for her basket. They got baskets filled with stuff and this easel. The easel I actually bought them for Christmas, but left it at mom's, so we thought today was a good opportunity to get it out!

We never did anything overly spectacular on easter at our house, but we always loved it. Mom hid easter eggs around and we went to Grandma's.

Mira on Easter morning playing with her new easel.G lining up all his stuff from his Easter Bunny Basket.
After our Easter morning we went to church and then to Grandma Lana's. It was a good relaxing day.
After church.The hunt at Grandmas.
G was really good at it!
Having some skittles. M wouldn't eat many yet- still too hard for her throat.
Getting tired.
Kellen and G.
Grandma Sarah and M.
These are from today after we got up. G lining up all his cars.
And showing me his stickers. "Mater on dere."
Mira today after getting dressed. She asked for waffles today- I was surprised because they're pretty scratchy, but she did eat one!
Together. CHEESE!

Surgery!

So Mira had her surgery today- I was so impressed with how brave she was. I woke her up this morning and said it was time to go. She said, "To my surgery? Ok." Here we are in the same day surgery waiting room.
Got her hospital clothes on and she's showing the nurse her blankie she wanted to take with her.
Thrilled. She got tired of waiting and decided she wanted to go home.
She took a nice picture of Grandma.
My friend Mandy is a CRNA who was in her case with her. I was so relieved. She brought in an anesthesia bag for Mira to play with and ended up taking her back. It helped a ton.
It was funny to play with that balloon!
Look at those swollen eyes! She was bushed but didn't want to sleep much at the hospital.
Getting ready to go home- got her new Jammies on and her blankie. Ready to ride out to the car.
Colored a little princess on the way.
She has slept most of the time since we've been home. I woke her awhile ago because she hadn't peed since before surgery at about 8 am. It was freaking me out. She ate some powdered sugar donuts and drank some milk. Yum!