Today marked our anniversary. We have been married 18 years! I just can't believe it. We have had many ups and downs during those years. But through it all we are definately happier now than 18 years ago! I recently read where a friend said that if she knew then what she knew now she would have somersaulted down the isle. Well, I ditto that! I was so nervous as a bride. I was a baby you know! I wanted everything to be perfect and beautiful. If I had known how beautifully Steve would treat me then I would have skipped the whole thing and rushed to the first JP I could find when he proposed!
How did we celebrate? Steve and Angie style. We went to church, late of course. Then I talked too long while everyone waited in the van. Then we went to lunch with some friends and the kids. Once we got home, Steve and little J took a nap while the kids and I made a mad dash for school supplies (6 stores and counting!). Then we all had smoothies for supper and watched a Veggie Tales cartoon and played with flashlights. Now everyone is asleep and I will go wake Steve up to watch a silly TV show and eat a Twix and drink a coke!
Okay, so J is our third. By the time our first was 6 months old I was taking her to the party supply isle to pick out decorations for her first birthday. Boy have I changed gears. Last year for J's first birthday I threw something together the week before. This year I was out of town the week of his birthday. As soon as I got in town though I started thinking!! LOL!
But I was able to score some free Wiggles tickets for a little work. So I have my mother-in-law, hubby and three kids working to get in to the Wiggles for little J. Well as it turns out J really couldn't have cared less. He does not watch TV or movies and I guess nor does he watch live shows! So we wrestle through the whole thing and go home exhausted!
Next we keep 4 kiddos for some friends that are moving. Each of my kids has a friend their age over for 3 days and 2 nights. Now that is what I call a 2 year old bunking party right? Can't I count that as a party?
So finally the big day comes and I throw together a little family dinner. I plan the menu as posted in the previous post. Sounds good and sweet right? Well this is the inside story of what really happened.
I am marinating the ribs while at least a thousand other things are going on. I turn around to find our outdoor puppy with paws on the counter licking the ribs. I yell at the dog and try to rescue the ribs somehow. Then Steve takes them out to and burns them - excuse me, prepares them very well done! S is standing in the corner for yelling at H and I tell her there is never, yes I used the word never, a good reason to yell like that. So what happens 2 seconds later? The puppy now steals a cupcake from the counter! (Why is the dog in anyway?) So I spin around and yell that "I am going to shoot the dog! No, I am going to shoot all three dogs and be done with the whole thing!" I look at Steve and he has this look of total disbelief on his face as I hear the wailing begin from S! She is our animal lover and standing, remember, in the corner not 5 feet from me. I try to quickly back peddle that one but I really uh oh'd big time with this one. Steve just says "great timing" and walks out of the kitchen for me to fix the tears. I think there was a smile tugging at his mouth! I am sure he was headed out to burn those ribs!!!!
Well the green beans weren't good the night before and they aren't any better warmed over. The German potato salad caused the kids to hold their noses because they smell like vinegar! So the kids basically eat chocolate cake and root beer for dinner!
Now all good parties have presents right? I suddenly remember that I can't remember where I put the presents! So I drag out Grandma Marcia's big box of gifts and take pictures! (Don't worry Grandma Marcia, we gave you credit but I had to have pictures for the future!!!) Finally, H says he knows where I put the presents!! (Think I need a different hiding place for his things now, but my odds of losing them in a new hiding place goes way up!) So I rescue them from their very safe hiddy hole and wrap them in strewn tissue paper!!!
As we are falling into bed that night I sigh and tell Steve what an awful day. Now the saddest thing of all happens! He honestly looks at me and says "Why do you say that?" I then remind him of all the things that went wrong and he simply says in reply, "Well that is just kinda normal don't you think?" :-0
So there you have it. Want me to plan your next party?
This year we had a small family party for J. We had ribs, green beans, and german potato salad, green tea and chocolate cake. But we also had 4 other kids over for 3 days so I am exhausted and going to bed. I will have to fill you in on all the details later. But isn't he cute?
Thursday we went to the ortho doc again and little S's arm is still healing fine. They removed the old plaster and fiberglass cast and replaced it with a new waterproof cast! It is purple and much more lightweight and she can get it wet!!!! That is a big deal! We have taken as few baths as summer demands until now. She also went swimming tonight and will be able to go to the water park with the church in a couple of weeks. She may not be able to zip down the slides, but she can go! Sometimes it is the little things in life that make the difference.
Little S is doing better. Her arm is not hurting near as much. She has had some itching already and that was interesting. She was writhing in the bed begging me to scratch it. I did everything the paperwork said to do and nothing was working. After your daughter cries and begs for you to help her it just get to ya. So I did what any self respecting mom would do. I got something long and skinny and pushed it in the cast and wiggled it around. She immediately stopped kicking and crying. I was so scared I was going to hurt her. But everything was fine. So know that little plastic stick is sacred in our house. I thought I lost it tonight and panicked. I think I need to get several sicks to keep around!
H and J are of course jealous of all the attention that S is getting. There have been lots of arguments and tears. The rainy weather has not helped at all. H finally went to a friends house tonight and we had some peace. Well almost peace. S is a little more whinny than usual and J is always a commotion. But no screaming and fighting. And of course it is not all H's fault. It is just that he is now absent from the picture. I think we would have had the same calm if S had gone to a friends house. They just needed some space.
I will try to post a picture soon. She gets a new cast this week. The plaster cast is so heavy and then they put a layer of fiberglass on it. She has to carry her arm around with the other hand if she does not have the sling on. The new fiberglass only cast is supposed to be lighter.
Well more excitement in the Titus household this week. Thursday morning at work I did not answer my cell phone when it rang because my head was literally in the sink as a gloved nurse helped me wash my face and hair. Don't ask why, I had obviously showered and dressed before going to work, but something really gross at work caused me to start all over. Now it turned out that this just happened to be one of those calls you really don't want to miss. By the time I get another shirt on and my hair wrapped in a towel Steve is on the office phone sounding very stressed. He began telling me that S had been hurt while she was riding horses at her aunt's house. So I immediately call the aunt and hear commotion in the background as the aunt tells me that S fell off her horse that morning and has obviously broken her arm and they are taking her to the ER! They put her on the phone and she burst into tears saying it really hurt. Needless to say my day at the office was over and I bolted for the door. They were going to a hospital a little over an hour away from where I was and of course my gas tank was on E.
When I get to the ER over an hour later she is pale and very still. She already has an IV in place and has had some morphine. I help them hold her for the X-rays, which was painful for her, and we soon learn that she has broken her little arm in 3 places. Two bones are broken completely in two and overlying themselves and the elbow is cracked. They will need to send her to the OR to reset the arm. This required intubation and complete sedation. While waiting for room in the OR they gave her 8mg of morphine through her IV and she never closed her eyes for more than a mere second or two!
She was in the OR and recovery for about an hour and came through the procedure fine but in a lot of pain. She cried more after they set it than I had seen all morning. The doc said it was very difficult to set and they really had to manipulate it to set it. He was glad they had chosen the OR route instead of trying to do it in the ER. (Me too!) But now because it is after 3 they are short staffed and send her to a regular room to finish up the recovery. Due to her pain level we stay about 3 more hours.
Finally about 12 hours after checking in we put her in the car and head home. Fortunately, she slept all the way only moaning with one bump! Through the night we got up every 3 1/2 to 4 hours to change the ice bag, potty and get more pain meds. Her arm has been cramping and spasming a lot. This morning she was nauseated and her belly hurt. Then we had to get out to get the boys from my cousins house and she was really beat by the time we got home. She slept a couple of hours and woke up feeling much better. But the tears came again tonight. She hurts more when she is tired. So I am trying to keep her quiet and rested. She has also been running a low grade fever and I am watching that closely.
We go back in one week for X-rays and a permanent cast. They put a splint cast on because they are anticipating swelling from the difficult time they had setting the bones. They said 5% of these types of breaks require pins, so please pray we will be in the 95% that do not!!
Since riding horses is her favorite thing in the world, everyone keeps asking if she thinks she will want to ride again. She smiles and says she thinks she will but might need a little time to get well first. We are planning on taking her to see the horse this weekend if she is up traveling that far in the car.
If you all remember last summer S had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from a tick bite. Well, thanks to country livin' little J now is on antibiotics for another tick borne illness called Ehrlichia! The kids have all run through 5th's Disease the last two weeks. It is just one of those childhood rashes that come and go. It started with S then move to H the 2 days ago little J began his bout. But yesterday morning he woke up with a scary rash. The type that can be from vomiting to much, crying really hard, being strangled, bad disease or things like leukemia. Well you don't just ignore that so I had his blood drawn but wasn't too concerned because he had cried a lot when I put him to bed the night before. But two hours later he had the same rash on his arm where they held him to draw blood. Possible just from the arm holding but a little unlikely.
When the lab came back it looked a little unusual and I freaked just a little, so I called the doc on call since my doc was out of town. (I don't treat my own kids!) He took a look at the lab and said he wanted to see him. He said he thought it was 5ths disease although a little atypical and not to worry. Well,when my doc called to check on the office I told her about our scare. She asked me several questions and then said do you have ticks at your house? Well of course we do and we have been outside A LOT lately. She said well then this is considered Ehrlichia with a normal platelet count and slightly elevated WBC until proven otherwise and put him on antibiotics. He has not missed a beat but I am thinking townhouse!
I have been without a computer and either no Internet or very poor connection for several weeks. But we have been busy cleaning up the yard. I feel like I post about the yard all the time, but this place has been so neglected for so long, it is going to take a lot to get it in shape. Our latest venture is selling timber. We have had several log trucks leave with our trees. I have grieved the poor trees. I love trees. I have my favorites and there are several! I kept bargaining for their very life with Steve and the log guy. My first to save was the little crooked tree by the road. He certainly couldn't sell that one and it looks so cute. Then I was after two oaks in the back. They were on the line Steve had drawn. I just redrew the line. Then there was the large red oak that he buggered up cutting one next to it. It looks bad but will heal. Then there was the large white oak that was on the trail to the long forgotten pond that filled in when the new road was cut 20 years or so ago.Next was the ironwood that I am still not sure about it's safety. Steve agreed to leave it but reserved the right to take it's life later on if need be. But my most passionate plea was for all my dogwoods. I love love love my dogwoods. I lost several just in the falling of the trees. I think a few more will have to go for the barn. Then lastly the big double moss covered oak by the road with the wisteria vine as big as my leg! I am beginning to think I will name all these precious friends. Steve finally told me that I was no longer allowed to go outside and talk to the tree guy. But my MOA was to take him a nice cold Mt. Dew (the man's favorite of course!) Works like a charm. I even had ice cream sandwiches when necessary for the negotiations!
So for the last three weeks we have spent almost every single moment at home in the hot weather hauling, cutting, moving and burning tons of tree tops and limbs. The ash pile in the back yard is almost as tall as me and at much greater in diameter! I would have tons of potash for my soap making if it wasn't mostly pine. After all my tree rescues I didn't think it would be prudent for me to ask the men to burn two separate piles! Hardwood ash makes the best lye. The funny thing is I had salvaged a big pile of apple wood (the best for lye) and had it drying in the sun. The tree man was very kind to keep most of the tops in the burn pile so we had less to clean up with our small tractor. Well one day he scooped up my pile and burned it thinking he was helping! Steve was pretty glad he got rid of the pile while I stood looking at the spot with my mouth open. Oh well, apple trees have to be trimmed sometime!
I had the electric and phone company come to remove the lines for the day so that he could fall trees across the driveway. So we were without power for a day and the phone would have to wait because they wanted to bury the line and reground the new line to try and help out Internet problems. The next day the gas line was hit as he fell a very large pine on the road side. We knew it was going to be the hardest to get out, but one of the more important since it blocked our view to the very busy road we live on. When the gas company came out to shut off the gas, he said sorry now that it is broken you have to replace the line all the way to the house and then took our meter! So for the next week we heated water for the kids (and me occas.) sent the kids next door and took cold showers! I was so happy to get the hot water back. I am rethinking my position that hot water is a luxury! Anyway, they could not hook up the phone until the gas line was finished. So no Internet for 2 weeks.
Well that is enough rambling for tonight, my fingers are cramping!
Okay so I just get this crazy forward text about how wonderful women/mothers/sisters are and I had a revelation! Hard to believe that a sappy text could help me define my life but it happened. In one short statement at that! Are you ready? It has a bad word.:-) Okay you were warned, here goes! I want to be the woman that when my eyes open in the morning the devil says "Oh crap, she's up!"
Well, it has been a while since I blogged. We have been in a real funk around here. I went to my first OB appt. in mid-March. They did an u/s to rule out a twin pregnancy. (I grow really fast, usually measuring a month to 6 weeks ahead of schedule.) When they did the u/s there was no heartbeat and a sack that was too small for my dates. I quickly figured in my head and according to the u/s I would not have been pregnant when I took the home pregnancy test. They wanted to repeat the u/s in 4 weeks. I knew this would be a very long 4 weeks.
In the meantime I got sick and ran a fever of almost 103. This prompted another visit. They repeated the u/s and talked with me at length about a very possible miscarriage. In a week the sack had only grown the equivalent of 2 days. So they scheduled another appt. for repeat u/s in a week.
The next u/s showed the sack had collapsed completely. But the doctor wanted to wait because my hormone level was still so high it indicated my body was still supporting a pregnancy. He said he had had 2 other ladies in his long career that had similar findings and suddenly they were able to see the baby on u/s when it was not visible before. (like when they only see one baby and actually there are twins.) So we waited another week for the next u/s.
I don 't want to be too graphic and I will spare you most of the details but I think mostly women read my blog anyway. So I will tell you I began spotting before the next visit. At this visit the doc just talked with me about how I was feeling and what was happening. He explained that he was worried about an ectopic pregnancy either in the f. tubes or abdomen. At this point he did not feel like it was cancerous pregnancy called trophoblastic disease. So we set up a recheck u/s the following week. He warned me to let him know if I had any unusual abdominal pain. So I spent the next week wondering if every twinge was "unusual".
The last u/s showed no new baby and now a funny spot on my right ovary. At this point he became very concerned for me. He ordered STAT blood work, which means the lab that had been taking overnight to get results would be available in 2 hours. (I don't even want to know how much this costs!) At this point he was thinking it might be an abdominal pregnancy or the cancerous trophoblastic disease in my abdomen (both are really bad). He said if my levels were not down he would need to do a D&C in the morning with a laproscopic surgery to look at my ovary. So I went home and began furiously cleaning the house to get my mind off it all. Well, God provided a distraction or Satan provided a complication! I was stung by a red wasp in my house! This really did take my mind off things for a little while. Then the doc called and was much relieved because my levels had really fallen. So we avoided the surgery and would wait for my body to resolve the lost baby. As far as the ovary goes. He wanted to follow up lab work every week and recheck by u/s in 4 weeks. He warned me that my ovary could rotate due to the weight of the mass on it. He said this would need immediate attention if it happened. He said it would hurt really bad- "not the kind you look at your husband and say I wonder if we should do something about this, but the kind where you say get me help now!"
Well, after all the drama and repeated u/s I decided I was going to wait this one out. I was already spotting and every 3-4 days it seemed to pick up a little. He said I would bleed a lot because of the endometrial lining that had formed over the last 3 months. So I figured a little for several weeks and I would not get anemic. Well, I was in Target yesterday when it all began. It was a nightmare to say the least. Steve said only I would go ahead and check out! But I did and went to the school and picked up the kids and stopped by the post office . Then went straight home and to bed. I had began cramping on the way home and was really glad to lay down. S is old enough to watch the younger two and let me rest. I had called S on the way home to let him know what was going on and hoping he would get to come home a little early. I must say I was not prepared for what came next. They had warned me of heavy bleeding and "cramping", just like a heavy period. HAH! I was doubled over crying in pain. I think the only reason I did not scream was because of the poor terrified look on my daughters face every time she came to check on me. I could not even call the neighbor to come get the kids for me. I kept telling S to take the boys and go next door, but she was so scared for me she would not leave. She called S and asked when he would be home. Fortunately, he was on his way. When he got here he called a friend to come pick up the kids and then called the on call doc. He said I could hurt a lot and that if it did not resolve in an hour we should go to the ER for an emergency D&C. Fortunately it did not last that much longer. I was even thinking I needed an ambulance at one point! I did natural childbirth with S until they had to do an emergency c-section after 19 hours of labor and I handled it much better than the miscarriage. I guess it had to do with the emotions involved in both. Anyway, it is all over now. I was about a 4 hour ordeal that I hope I never have to repeat. I am worn out today and went to the doctor again. He said everything looks good and I will still get the follow up u/s for the ovary.
I will keep you updated, but I don't expect to blog for week or two while we grieve the loss of our precious baby. But I do want to tell you about a converstaion with little S. She looked at me one day and said, "Mommy, do you think Mor-Mor will take care of this baby if it goes to heaven?" I said, "Yes, I think Mor-Mor and Minnie will love rocking this baby and taking care of it for us until we get to heaven." She then said as she took my hand "That makes me feel a lot better."
John 10:28-30
Okay, I now have the cure for that tapeworm desire! Our cute new puppy 
has had them and let me just say GROSS!!!!! Oh yuck!!!! There are very few things that gross this nurse out but wow! Worms do the trick. I have shivered and danced and nearly thrown up. I have done more laundry simply because it touched the floor where the dog was. I have washed floors, hands, faces and more repeatedly. I DO NOT WANT A TAPEWORM!!!!!! See these little segments break off the end of the worm and this is what lays the eggs. This little segment moves like an amoeba or maybe and inch worm and as it gyrates around it is laying invisible eggs. Thousand of them! Makes me shiver just typing it. And there are dozens of them!!! I do not want that in my body! If I could get a tapeworm that did not do that I might think about it again. But I think I will go back on weight watchers in November and be happy to count those points! God has interesting ways of teaching us things. So thanks God, got the message!
Well I guess if you looked at the ticker above you have already figured out that we are expecting baby #4!!!! We were shocked but once it wore off we became very excited. I never thought I would have this many kids! Mom always said she thought we should have at least four. So I know she would be happy for us. Growing up I thought it was ridiculous that there were four of us! Almost every other family I knew only had two kids. We had twice that many and I was old enough that it was often a "pain" to have little ones around. I often felt "put out". Well, which one would I have gotten rid of? That would have depended on the day! Some days all three! But I think the feeling was mutual for all of us! Anyway, now I can not imagine my life without one of my sibs. We are all close and enjoy being together. (Although there are days...)
So why have we decided to have "so many" kids? Well I don't really know. I argued with God when I found out I was pregnant with J. If I had won we would not have him today. Wow what a blessing I would have missed! We all love him so much and he adds so much to our lives. So I trust God and His perfect wisdom with our family. I trust that this new little one is His perfect will for us and we accept him of her eagerly. And as far as large families go, we are still a smaller family in our church!!! (And no, it is not Catholic it is Baptist!)
So how else is the family growing? Well if we aren't crazy enough already, we adopted a rescue puppy this weekend. We went to the local pet store this weekend and saw a few dogs. One in particular stood out among the rest. When J wrapped his arms around the little girl, she stood perfectly still and waited. She won us all over and after going home and sleeping on the idea and talking it over and praying about it, we decided to go for it! She is 4 months old white with golden patches with some black mixed in and one eye is partially blue. The think she has some cattle dog in her and maybe some spaniel. Whatever she is made of, we love her to pieces. The kids talk about nothing else right now. I will try to post some pictures soon.
Sorry I have not blogged in so long! I used to blog in the wee hours of the morning when it was just the baby and me awake. Now that sweet little thing sleeps almost all night every night. The little awakenings he does have are brief, just long enough to earn a place next to us in bed! They learn so early that I am a push over in the middle of the night. I do not like to wake up and when I do I am desperate to go back to sleep, so just about anything goes as long as mommy can close her eyes again.
So now I am left trying to find time to blog. So why today you might ask? Well we have all had the stomach bug and today as I was picking up my things to leave for work little man released all his tummy contents on us both! So we are home today. I am back in PJ's doing laundry and he finally went to sleep! The house is never this quiet! Makes me forget the big to do list! Oh well, it will only last another hour or two! Then I'll have my brain back on thinking of what I could get done if only the baby would lay down for a nap. :-D
I say baby very flippantly the little man is 18 months old now. He runs around chasing the bigger kids and loves to be outside. We have this great back porch with railing all with the door open. We smile at each other through the screen as we both "fix up" our kitchen. around. I lock the gate and he plays with his ride on toy or the toy kitchen while I work in the kitchen. In the yard he likes to slide but hates to swing. I have never seen a kid hate a swing before. It absolutely terrifies the poor kid. So we walk around a lot looking at all the nice leaves (tongue in cheek here)!
Steve and I have been busy getting the land ready to have trees cut to begin the barn. I took out the back fence over the last 2 weekends earning myself a nice tetanus shot! It is an old wire fence that I have had to cut into sections I can handle. Not sure what to do with the sections yet, but I am guessing they will find their way to the recycle center soon. Then we pull the post out which has been easier than I thought because they are pretty rotted out. One was almost rotted in half at the ground. We did find a nice little treasure of pretty red brick my grandparents were using as some sort of retaining wall. The whole area is level now and we actually had to dig them out of the ground. They are in pretty good shape and we will use them in my garden later. So what is Steve doing all this time? Riding around on his new tractor. I keep telling him I want to ride around while he cuts, clears old fence line, drags it across the yard and pulls up posts, but alas I am scared of the bush hog. I don't think he would really appreciate me just joy riding while he works! I did try to use the scooping bucket on the front to move a pile of debris. I worked really hard and when I went to dump it - nothing was in the bucket! So I guess that needs a little more practice.
Sarah made Honor Roll and Hogan would if they got grades in K. He is reading at the highest tested level for his grade. I imagine he would test higher if they scored higher than they do. He loves words, letters, and rhymes. Sarah is already having to negotiate the girl world. I hear all kinds of stories! Girls can just be mean! They don't talk to each other then talk mean. Seems ridiculous to me. But I am sure my sweet angel is completely innocent. I do talk to her about being a good friend, so hopefully it sinks in. Sometimes I wish I could just watch and listen without them knowing I was there. It is hard to guide your child.
Well, that sums us up in a nutshell. I promise to try to do better!
