Sami's World

**WARNING:   this is a long one**

This last week has been an interesting one for us.   Scott stayed home on Monday because he was sick.   That saved me from finding a babysitter.   Alix had her pre-op physical (in preparation for her colonoscopy on Friday) in the afternoon and so Scott and the other kids watched movies till I got back.

Tuesday was an at home day filled with cleaning, organizing and school.   It was a very productive day that was much needed.

Wednesday was a busy day.   More cleaning in the morning.   Then Jaime had a friend, Maranda, come over.   In the afternoon Jaime and Maranda went to her house.   My friend Camille came over and watched the other kids while I went to our old house to do the final walk through with the owners.   It was a pleasant meeting.   They were very pleased with the condition and cleanliness of the home.   At one point we were checking out the blinds and in the back bedroom, two of the slats on the blinds were bent slightly.   I told them that it was a rule not to touch the blinds but with kids it’s hard sometimes.   The owner looked at me and said ‘I have a hard time believing any kids lived here, let alone 4’.   It was at that point that I broke the news about our 5th child to her.   She looked even more amazed and just laughed.   That was a nice compliment.   There were three things that needed to be fixed in order “pass”.   We went that night and were only able to accomplish one of them.   We will return tomorrow morning and finish the rest.   After coming home I put the little ones down to nap and cleaned up a bit.   At 4 a little boy came over and I watched him for a couple of hours while his mom went to the dentist.   Since Alix was going to be having her last meal we asked her what she wanted.   She said she wanted three peices of peperoni pizza.   We had already decided to take the kids to chuckie-cheese as a thank you for being so wonderful during the move.   So we just combined the two.   We got there at 7:30 and left at 9 pm.   The kids had a ton of fun and were super exhausted.   We enjoyed watching them have so much fun and were grateful for the time spent as a family.

Thursday was “the day”.   Alix had to drink the goo that cleans out her bowels.   I kept the day totally open with the anticipation that she would be mostly sitting on the toilet and watching movies.   Grandma Thompson called that morning and asked Alix what she would be doing that day.   Alix answered ‘sitting on the toilet and going poo!!’   I was to give her her fist dose at 10 am.   She took it with no problem and went right on playing and laughing and running and having a great time.   By 1 pm I started to get worried.   What if it wasn’t working?   I called the doctor.   He said not to worry about it.   Give the second dose and see what happens.   If I have to, give her a third dose.   So at 3 pm I gave her the 2nd dose.   Within minutes she ran to the toilet.   She was in there a good 30 minutes.   We migrated upstairs so she could sit and watch a movie.   After we moved upstairs she threw up, poo’d another 30 minutes and then was done for the day.   She was happy go lucky, ran around, tormented her siblings and was just fine.   Scott and another brother from church gave her a blessing and she slipped off to slumber land with peace and contentment.

Jaime had a busy Thursday.   She missed doing school most of this week so we did a catch up day.   Her friend Maranda wanted her to come play again so she had to get her stuff done before she could go (that was a huge motivating factor).   We did school from 10 till 3.   Maranda came at 3 and they were off.   They went to the mall to a place called Bounce-a-Rama.   It has tons of those blow up bounce houses and mazes and such.   Then they went window shopping.   Then they got ice cream.   Then they went and rented a movie and went back to Maranda’s house.   They played for a while, watched the movie, ate dinner and then played some more.   Jaime got home about 9 pm.   Jaime and Maranda get along really well, but Maranda is a very busy 8 year old and doesn’t get to have playdates during school time.   Since this is her spring break she wanted to spend everyday with Jaime.   Jaime has loved every minute of it!

Today I was up at 6.   I got ready and was out the door with Alix by 6:35 am.   We arrived at the   hospital and did all the registration stuff and lots of waiting.   We talked with lots of doctors and nurses and things seemed to progress pretty good.   We talked with the anestheseologist (sp??) and he was concerned about my problems with anesthesia when I was a baby and so he decided to change his desired method of putting Alix out.   Instead of using the mask he thought it better to put all her medication through an IV.   That would mean Alix would be awake during the insertion of the needle.   That didn’t bother Alix one bit.   She has never cried when she has gotten a shot or her blood drawn.   We were about 1 1/2 hours late getting called in but that was fine.   We got to read this book about dinosaurs that we were both enjoying quite a bit.

The doctor reported that he found 5 polyps.   3 in the rectum   (each about 1-1 1/2 cm), one at the base of the colon (about the same size) and one further up the colon on the right side (this one was big, about 3 1/2 cm).   He was able to remove all of them and is going to get them biopsied.   He said the big one fell off his scope and he was not able to get it out of her.   He said that should not matter, they will all show the same results when biopsied.   So what does all this mean?   Nothing right now.   It just means she had some polyps, that caused bleeding and they may or may not reaccur.   He will have more accurate and concrete information next week when the lab results are in.   After talking with the doctor, I got to go back and see Alix.   She was alert and attentive and eating a popcicle.   She was smiling and asking when she could go home.   She said she felt fine.   After an hour they discharged us.   She slept all the way home and another two hours.   Then she was up and playing and eating dinner with us.   She is totally fine.   She has no stomach ache, no hurt bum and no gas.   She is an amazing girl that was watched over very carefully by a loving Heavenly Father.   We are truely blessed and thankful for that.

The other kids had a fun day too.   Jaime had a skating party to go to today so my friend Jen (her boys were going to the party too) picked her up and took her.   They skated and had fun.   They went out to Mc Donald’s after skating and then back to Jen’s house till I came.   Milo, Niah and Afton stayed home with my friend Carrie and just played and had a good time.   I am thankful for such good friends that I can rely on and that are so good to my children.   It’s nice.

I guess that is all for now.   We are grateful for good health and good doctors.   We love you all.

It was decided that we would go and spend Easter with Grandma Ackerman and Auntie Sara.   Scott decided to get sick on Wednesday of last week.   He stayed home from work Thursday and Friday.   He wasn’t sure if he was going to make it Fresno or not, but was a saint and went anyway.

Friday night was a busy one for me.   With Scott sick I did not prepare as I should have for our Fresno trip, so I did it all Friday night.   I finally got to bed around 12:30 am.   I woke up at 4:30 am, showered, dressed and loaded the car.   Scott helped get the kids in the car.   As soon as we departed everyone fell back to sleep (even me!!:0)   It seemed as though it would be an uneventful trip in a van with lots of power, but boy were we wrong.   I guess, I don’t know because I’ve never been car sick, ridding in the back of a really big van can intensify the feeling of car sickness.   Niah threw up once and Milo twice.   We got to grandma’s about 9 am.

It was a fun visit.   Scott installed an air conditioner in grandma’s bedroom window to help her be more comfortable.   He did a great job and I think grandma will be more comfortable.   I spent the time trying to take care of the kids and their messes and prepare for our bar-b-que and egg hunt.   The kids ran Auntie Sara ragged and the dog too.   They went from one activity to the next.   The kids dyed eggs with the other old people at the place and had to fight a blue bird during the egg hunt (it was the most amazing thing.   The bird went after the eggs and either picked up the whole thing and flew away or just opened it and ate the candy inside.)   We left about 7 pm and got home in enough time to put the VERY tired kids and parents to bed.

The next morning Scott decided to stay home from church.   The kids and I dressed and headed off to church.   Things were going well till Afton decided she needed to eat.   While I was trying to coax Niah to come with me, she started a lovely temper tantrum.   Complete with screaming and hitting me in the face.   I was holding Afton too so I couldn’t do much about the tantrum.   By the time I was out of the Chapel, I was holding Afton by the neck and Niah was screaming and kicking and hitting and just a mess.   As I was considering all the things I should do to her once alone, I realized that I was being followed, boy was Niah saved!!   :0)

Really, the whole of church was great.   That was the only incident and no one gave me a hard time about it, so that was nice.   We came home and put everyone for naps, even Scott and I.   After naps we cleaned up a bit and I cooked dinner.   The missionaries came over and enjoyed dinner with us.   After they left I put the kids and Scott to bed.   I stayed up another hour to do a few things then retired myself.

I’ve been waiting for a night when all the kids would just sleep through the night so that I could to.   Well, I got it last night.   Not one kid came and disturbed my sleep, however, I was up every two hours!!   I guess it’s just habit now, I dunno.   I was up constantly, for no reason at all!

Scott went off to the doctor this morning, he’ll have to report on that.   That’s all for now.   We do love all of you and love to hear how your lives are going too.

As if my last entry wasn’t long enough, I realized I forgot to report a few things.

(Thank you grandma Thompson for reminding me of this)
Joey, our SBC in, told us he would install any extra phone jacks for us.  When it came time, Joey told Scott that he was the one who would have to do the crawling under the house.  Scott was not too jazzed about this and so asked if anyone else wanted to do it.  Alix happily volunteered.  She was very excited about the prospects of doing it.  Once she got the hole, she hesitated a few moments.  Then she saw some little army guys down there.  That got her into the hole.  Then we had her shine her flashlight toward the correct spot and Joey jiggled the cord.  She saw it and got very excited and was off.  She was back in no time and very pleased with herself as were all the adults in the room.  Alix was the hero of the day for Scott.

Last Friday night I was emptying all the half boxes in our room.  One of the boxes had some books in it that needed to come down stairs.  I piled the books high and started down the stairs.  I slipped on the first step and did the classic fall (feet out from under me and books flying everywhere).  I landed on my back/bum on the fifth step.  I felt paralized for a few seconds (I think my body just went into shock) and called for Scott.  After about one minute I could move again but was VERY sore and had a headache.  Since it was 1 o’clock in the morning anyway, I figured I should just go to bed.  I woke up in the morning sure that I was going to have the worst back ache ever, but didn’t.  However, my neck was shot.  Scott said I probably had whip lash.  Saturday evening at Joey and Gayles, I wore a hot pad most of the night to try and loosen the muscles.  It seemed to help.  By this morning, I feel good as new.  Oh ya, did I mention that I broke the step?  If you ever walk up or down our stairs be carefull of step five from the top, it’s a doozy!!  That’s ok, it matches all the other things we’ve already damaged in this house in the two weeks we’ve lived here!!  :0)

Tonight, Jaime was working on some math that she didn’t quite finish before dance class.  She was trying to figure out who had more dimes by reading a word problem.  We had gotten to the point where she should know the answer, so I asked her ‘Who had more dimes?’  Niah, in her cute 2 year old loud voice and from another room, answers ‘I dunno……probably Alix’.

It’s been a good week and a half since I last wrote.  I guess I should update you all.  We are completely out of the old house.  We spent the mornings last week at the old house.  I found baby sitters for the younger kids and told Jaime and Alix if they wanted to earn some money they could come and help me.  They were very excited about that.  We spent about 2.5 hours each day scrubbing bathrooms, floors, baseboards, cupboards (inside and out) and anything else you can think of (except walls, they said they were going to repaint).  I even went one day by myself and cleaned the carpets.  All in all, I think it may have been in vain.  You go into the house and it just doesn’t “feel” as clean as it should.  I’m sure they are going to hire a cleaning crew.  But that is ok, we did what we could with what we had.  I’m very pleased with my girls and how hard they worked and scrubbed.

The rest of the week was spent on the phone with various companies and people trying to change our address and dealing with the internet company (that battle is still not over…..).  I spent one whole morning on the phone with the bank.  My new landlord cashed the check too soon.  I paid him a couple of days before the 1st to make sure he had the payment for the first.  He didn’t wait though.  Lucky for me the bank did not bounce the check but did a courtesy payment and charged me a huge fee.  After pleading my case to three different people, they had mercy on me and gave me the fee back.  They are a good bank and this made them even better.

Friday was our first real clean day here at the new house.  We scrubbed the bathrooms and floors, vaccumed etc….  It felt nice to clean our own house and the kids even felt like it was more of our routine.  They are great cleaners and helpers.

Saturday was spent watching General Conference.  We stayed home and streamed it over the internet.  The kids even listened a bit and were quiet when they weren’t listening.  In between sessions, Scott went over and mowed the lawn for the last time.  Between the afternoon and preisthood session Scott hung pictures for me.  While he was gone I got all the kids showered and dressed.  We ran a couple of errands and then headed to Joey and Gayles house.  We had dessert with them and enjoyed some visiting and then we watched “Trouble with Angels”.  It is a 60’s flick about these two teenage girls that get sent to Catholic School and all the trouble they get into.  It was a very good movie.   After the movie we all sacked out.

We woke up the next morning, cooked breakfast together and then watched conference.  We went for a walk and ate lunch, then everyone sacked out for the afternoon session, well, not Scott and I.  We had dinner with them and then left.   We got home around 7 pm.  It was a fun and spiritually uplifting weekend.  We really enjoyed it.

Monday was a “normal” day.  I got my school shevles cleaned off and all my school stuff out and we did school.  It was a great break from the cleaning and organizing.  It felt more “normal”.

Tuesday we had planned a trip to the zoo because it was $1 Tuesday.  Except it wasn’t.  My friend and I had gone together and so we just had a picnic in the park with the kids, and visited the nearby Japenese Friendship Garden.  While my friend and I were taking some pictures with our babies (she has a little boy 3 months older than Afton) the older kids went running off on an “adventure”.  A few minutes later I see a ranger holding Niah’s hand and walking around.  Niah is just covered in mud and looking happy as can be.  I walked over and the ranger smiled at me.  She told me that it looked as though Niah slipped in some mud and was in the pond trying to wash herself off.  The ranger told me that when she approached Niah, Niah informed her that she was just trying to clean herself off.  I thanked the ranger (who was VERY kind) and took hold of Niah.  Niah kept telling me she needed to wash in the water.  It was very cute.

I forgot to mention the biggest news of all…..Niah is out of diapers.  On Monday I decided to take the plunge.  I put panties on her and she peed on herself all day.  However, she insisted that we sit on the toilet every five minutes.  Once Scott got home it was his turn.  She finally peed in the toilet in the evening.  She was up every ten minutes until 2 am when I finally suggested to her that we just put a diaper on her for the night.  It worked and she slept till morning.  Tuesday she had no accidents at the park and even went to the bathroom there.  Once we got home she had an accident, but was fine the rest of the day.  She was up all night again.  Wednesday was Jaime and Alix’s P.E. class.  She had an accident there but only because the bathroom was a mile away (not really but it seemed like it).  She was fine the rest of the day and she was only up till 11 pm.  Today, she hasn’t had any accidents and has asked to sit on the potty only 2 times.  She even goes poo.  It’s been fun and easy.  She is just so matter of fact about the whole thing, and I’m sure I can consider her potty trained during the day (however, things change fast around here).  Starting next Monday, we’ll work on night time training.  It usually only takes a couple of middle of the night clean ups and the kids are dry all night too.  We’ll see how Niah is.

Also, Afton has four teeth.  Two top and two bottom.  She has been getting one new tooth every Sunday.  I figured she’d get her last top tooth on Easter Sunday, but it didn’t want to wait that long.  She got it on Wednesday instead.  I hope she is done for a while.  We have had some pretty rough nights the last two weeks.

I guess that is the update.  We have about 8 boxes left.  Most of which are craft supplies and desk supplies.  We still have not taken the time to solve our organizational problems, but will.  I hope to one day have “the counter” cleaned off and kept cleaned off forever.

Love to all.