The Last Couple of Days

So, here we are, at Friday already. This week seems to have gone quickly, yet other times it seems to have taken FOREVER to end. On Wednesday I could not believe it was not the weekend yet.

Wednesday we went to the pre-trial hearing for one of the young men accused of vandalizing our rental. He was the one who used to live in that house with his mom and step dad. His biological dad was at this hearing and from what the Procecutor told us, the boy had not been honest up to this point with his parents and when the police reports were shown to the parents, it was a bit of a surprise to them to see the extent of the damages. All 3 have now pled guilty to one felony as a plea bargin. We go before the judge sometime in May to hear sentencing and find out about restitution.

Yesterday Steve went back to Ann Arbor for another post-op check. This time we got good news- the healing is doing well so the stitches and everything came out!! We are all relieved with this. We go back in 2 weeks for another check, but everything is looking GREAT!! I am very happy to see a pretty normall looking belly button. Steve has decided it was worth the surgery now - a big change from 2 weeks ago when he was in so much agony he was sorry we ever did it.

The renovations continue in the rental. Mike changed the window in the bathroom since we pulled the plaster off the walls rather than try to strip the wall paper and then hope the wall underneath was in good condition. It needed insulation anyway - we found absolutuly NONE in that bathroom's walls. He even re-wired it - much needed in this old house. The workers we hired have hung all the drywall now and the last of the wall paper should be down soon. She is properly fixing the cracks in the plaster (not too many are in there either, that was a very pleasant surprise) as she goes, so the bedroom is just needing the layers of mud over the joints and then sanded. We will order the carpet soon so it is here and ready as soon as I have it all painted. Home Depot will lay it in both rooms for only $97 in labor - well worth not doing that ourselves!!

Man Toys

Today I got to play with the Man Toys. Whooaa... I mean the riding lawn mower!!! I had the boys begin mowing the lawn tonight, one on the riding mower and one pushing. My goodness they were taking FOREVER!!! I know we have a lot of land but Come On!! After an hour and a half I called them in for dinner. Not even a third of the yard was done. Now partly due to the job I used to have and partly just my personality, I hate it when the boys poke along getting a job done. Pete of course threw a couple little tantrums during the process until I told him that when we re-instate allowance, that poor attitude would mean an instant loss of that week's money. So after dinner I had Darling Oldest give me a refresher course on how to start the rider then had him do a couple of inside tasks and I began mowing - when he was done with those tasks then he needed to come back outside to finish mowing. It was a little scary at first - it needs some power steering and better shocks!! - but I got the hang of it. I used to tease Steve about mowing on "Turtle Speed", but I must admit I was there for a while myself. I do see why the men go out in the spring with the lawn roller to flatten out all those bumps - No, Mike, that is not permission to go out and buy one, I'm just saying....

Rental House

We are finally making progress on the rental house. We have hired someone to do the wall paper removal, and putting up, mudding and taping, and sanding to "ready to paint" the drywall in the upstairs apartment. Mike is learning how to let go of the control - big sighs as he was looking around at their work last night when he got out of work to check things out. Most of the work was fine, just not how he would have done it. There were a couple issues, but they were addressed last night with the lady in charge of the project. Overall, it will be a good thing. Meanwhile while they work upstairs, I worked downstairs. This house has been empty for years. And Mike knocked down the plaster ceiling, so all that dirt from over the years plus much from the ceiling (he had cleaned up the chunks of plaster, just not swept the dirt and dust) was all over the floor. I have swept in here before, but there is so much stuff all over it was hard to move around. The house had just been left with stuff still sitting in here. We are down to mostly building supplies in here now, and I get a 5 foot round folding table to take home - garage sale destined, since I never have enough tables for my sales. I so badly want to take some Kilz primer to cover the graffitti on the walls down here while I work, but we need to skim coat part of the plaster anyway so it would be a waste of money since I would have to prime again after that. I did get a lot of the vandalism cleaned up - scraped the spay foam off the floors, walls, doors, got rid of the things they broke and the trash they left laying around. I don't think I mentioned that one of these kids was charged as an adult and he pled guilty, his sentencing is sometime in May. The other 2 are charged as minors, and we have another pre-trial hearing on one of them later this week, the one who used to live in an apartment in this house no less. We are going to that one, Mike wants to look this kid and his mother in the eye. We also seem to have a lot of interest in the rentals all of a sudden. The lady doing the work has 2 sons helping her and they both have asked me questions like they were interested in renting. My realator who sold the Sturgis house called me yesterday because I had mentioned the rental to him and he had someone looking for a rental house. I had to tell him we had about a month until it is ready to go. Then today the lady doing the drywall said they had a young friend just engaged who thought the apartment sounded perfect for them. Guess I will bring some rental applications up next time I come and people can start to apply. If they need to give their present landlord 30 days notice the timing would be about right. We figure another month after that and the last appartment will be ready. Then we can concentrate on our projects back home again with the income property taken care of. Overall, things are looking up for us.

The Perfect Storm

Yesterday was one of THOSE days. It started out all right, while Mike was getting ready for work, he asked me what my plans were for the morning, would I mind going out and putting the "Weed and Feed" down on the lawn while the grass was still dewy (is that a word?). Sure, no problem. Hubby leaves and Darling Youngest goes to the bus stop, so I throw on some clothes and run a brush through my hair. HMMM. I'm a little hungry, I grab a quick granola bar for now, breakfast can wait until I am done. Oh, I better throw my cell on the charger now, before I forget, it should be ready for the day after I shower and dress later. We have the same kind of door handles here that I had in Sturgis, you can open the door from the inside whether the door is locked or unlocked. I learned my lesson in Sturgis, locking myself out of the house more than once because of that, so I made sure the door was unlocked and out to the garage I went to get the spreader and 2 bags of stuff for the lawn while Darling Oldest is getting ready for school. I was about 3/4 done with this task when the Oldest comes out onto the porch looking for me and to see what I am doing. He had about a half hour until he had to be down to the bus stop. I sent him back into the house when he tells me the door is locked. He did not know how it was locked, because he unlocked it before he came outside looking for me (Remember that I had unlocked it earlier, so he actually locked it). OK, no problem, check the basement door. Maybe Hubby or Youngest left by that door this morning and it is unlocked. The handle turned - good, we're golden and can get in that way - but door did not open, the deadbolt is still on. UUHHHH. OK, call Hubby to let us in - UUHHH my phone is in the house charging. OK, we have permission to use the Amish phone booth across the street in an emergency, we'll call Mike from that. His phone rings, then goes to voice mail. All right, he's at work and does not recognize this number, I will call again, he'll answer if the calls keep coming or someone in the service shop will tell him to answer it so it will just stop ringing. No such luck. I called 6 or 7 times and no answer, so I leave a message that we are locked out and need him to come let us in. Oldest wants to try picking the lock on the door - "No, I don't know how to pick a lock and you need to stop trying too before you ruin the lock." "But if I don't have my homework and lanyard ID tag for school, I will get detention - you don't understand this is MIDDLE SCHOOL and they expect us to be prepared!". HHMMM - he's the one who locked the door and he's mad at ME because we're locked out???? I found a book to read in my car and there was a lawn chair on the porch. I sit down to wait for My Hero to come let us in - good thing I put on my winter coat to come out this morning. Half an hour later it is time for Darling Oldest to go to the bus stop and off he goes, still mad at me - "you are not staying home from school because we are locked out and you can't get your backpack." I continued to sit on the porch, reading my book ( thanks Mom for sending me a Janet Evonivich book the other day, I never took it in the house!) and begin to think Mike will not come - by now I've been outside almost 2 hours - and I'm getting cold and hungry. With my luck he will not come home for lunch today, so I'll be out here until he comes home from work!!! AND WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WHEN I NEED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM??? Of course this thought makes me have to go. I may have to walk down to Coachmen, but that must be at least 3 miles from home and the day before I had run my bare foot across a pricker bush in the yard and still had prickers in my big toe which hurt like heck. Mike had not been able to get them out the night before and my toe hurt where he had been digging at it with a needle. I really did not want to walk that far. SIGHHHH. Just about then, I saw an unfamiliar car coming up the driveway. It stops in front of the house and a man I didn't know got out of the car - "Mrs. Fair??? I'm a counselor at the Middle School and I think I have something you want." He holds up a key on a lanyard. "Your son told us what happened this morning, and we thought he was just upset about the possibility of getting detention, but then he told us his mom was sitting on the porch. We tried calling your husband again and when we could not reach him, I went to the Intermediate School and got this from your other son. I can take the backpack with me to the Middle School for your son." Hallelujah, I'm in!! I get the backpack, and thank this unlikely savior several times. I decide to call Mike and let him know in case he comes home in response to my first message, that I am in now. I dial and hear his phone ring - in our home office!!!! He forgot his phone at home today. PERFECT! I go potty (gotta have those priorities in order), make myself some hot chocolate and get under some blankets to warm up. After about an hour - DUHHH, Amy, take a hot shower to warm up - I am ready to get in, when the house phone rings - "Honey, I left my phone at home, can you bring it to me during my lunch hour?"

It's True!

People and their pets really do begin to look alike!! Mike and Santara were all cuddled up the other day, sharing some bonding time, when Mike hollered down to me that Sanatar has "Feline Pattern Baldness"! HUH? That's right her hair line is receeding from her eyes back to her ears, in a line about a half inch wide over each eye. All this time I just thought that was the way her markings were. Upon closer inspection, he is right and she has very thin fur there. Who would have thought it? Where do they sell the Rogain for Cats?

A New Pet

Mike went out to work on the Mother-In-Law's apartment over the garage Monday night. He needed to evict a family of birds building a nest and finish closing in the eves to keep out more. This was apparently a bit more complicated than anticipated, Pete came running into the house asking were the awning hook for the camper is kept. Just as I get into the "Why would you need that?!?!" questioning of the child, my phone rings, darling husband told me that he had indeed sent the boy up for it, he needed it to pull the nest from the eves. Sighhhh, I'm blogging about the oldest, and this is interupting my trian of thought. Out to the camper I go to get it (I really hope SOMEONE besides me remembers to put it back so we have it when we go camping this year). Soon, the oldest runs up to the house to tattle - a favorite activity for him - "Pete found some Blue Jay eggs and wants to raise them!" Before I can say much, in comes hubby and the boy carrying 3 light blue eggs (for those of you wanting to be correct, they are Robin eggs). One was cracked, the other 2 intact. One boy ran down for his desk lamp, the other to get Easter grass, while I found a small Tupperware bowl. Hubby will bring the aquariam up to put the whole apparatus in to keep safe from "The Girls"- AKA Santara and Fiona. Mike opened the one that was cracked to see how far they are in their developement, and they are brand new. Guess next I will be researching how to incubate eggs. The boys have been warned how unlikely it is for these eggs to even hatch. Pete can't wait to find worms and chop them up to feed the babies with an eye dropper.

More Trials

Today at 1 PM, Steve was to go back up to U of M for a second post-op appointment. Now, this is a 3 hour drive for us, so the late appointment was a bit of a luxury, we would leave at 9 and miss rush hour traffic on the highways. Steve could sleep in - after all, he was missing school. So, 7 AM comes and first hubby leaves for work, then Pete off to school. Steve was up eating breakfast, so my turn to take a shower and leisurely get ready to leave. I step out and grab my towel when I hear Steve yell to me that there was something wrong, his cathater would not drain. "OK, go get dressed. I am getting dressed now, so when you come back up I will take care of it." After all, I am MOM - superwoman extrodinare!! Or so I thought. I tried all my best tricks and nothing. By this time it is 7:30 AM, the clinic is not open yet to call for instructions - ER or up to U of M early? The Dr. was very adament after surgery, he would be the one to take out the catheter, so I choose U of M. I called them on the way to let them know we were coming. Our Dr. is not in until later but Dr. Bloom, who used to be head of this department when Steve was born, was in as well as a Physician's Assistant and a couple of nurses. Someone would take care of him. I made the trip in 2 1/2 hours, and by the last half hour, tears were running down his face and he could not sit still. I wanted to weep with him. It had been 14 hours since he had last emptied his bladder. Think how bad it feels to REALLY have to go, but then you can't so it keeps getting worse. By the time we get to clinic, he feels sick and needs to throw up too. They had paged Dr. Park and he had left instructions for his staff to irrigate the catether, but not pull it out (he was on the way in to see Steven). And get the bladder empty!! Now, irragating involves pushing more liquid into his already over-full bladder. He was a trooper with only minimal complaints. We had to have him change positions a couple of times, push the base of the catheter around a little (which hurt him) and some other things I won't get into, but finally, FINALLY things came free and he was able to empty. Out come a couple of hospital urinals and by the time he is done, he drained almost 2 liters out of his bladder. Remember, his bladder was agumented when he was 5, so it's a bit fragile. We were close to a rupture. Thank God, I set out early - it was only 15 minutes from his call for help until we were on the road. Dr. Park told me our local ER probably would have been squimish about doing what needed to be done to drain him and it was right to come to him instead. By the Grace of God, this did not happen on the weekend when the clinic is closed.

Flamethrowers

We headed off to Meijer this weekend to do some grocery shopping - they were having their good "10 for $10 with the 11th item free" sale. Then we had to head over to get some general merchandise. We've been looking at grills - Last 4th of July we were having a cookout and the outside of the grill caught on fire while my darling husband had walked away from it .... "Honey, is it SUPPOSED to be flaming out of the bottom like that?" Coincidentally, at our last summer campout, the portable grill we keep in the camper had done the same thing and it went into the dumpster before we pulled out of the campground. We find our usual $20 cheappy grill for the camper and add it to our cart then glance at the regular grills - nothing jumped out at us, and we found one at Sears (a Kenmore) a couple days before that we both really liked, cheaper than the Meijer grills. Over for butane lighters now - ours have been giving us fits trying to light them. The boys are old enough now, get the ones WITHOUT the safety switch. Mike grabbs one that has an adjustable flame control "Wow, look at this one, it has FLAMETHROWER MODE!!!" All the boys are enthralled by the big, long flame. And it is designed to look like a huge match - Steve was all over THAT from the get-go! We bought two. Maybe I should have insisted on the safety switch afterall.

Things Are Looking Up

Thursday was a very good day. I got a call early Thursday morning telling me that we would be closing the sale of the Sturgis house on Friday--and it happened. As of noon yesterday, we own one less home!!!! We also heard back from the insurance adjuster (FINALLY) on Thursday - about 2 months after we filed the initial claim - that they finally have a dollar amount for us and we can begin the demo and re-construction and they gave us a very realistic number. Today we are going up to the rental to begin some of the demo work. It's all been a long time coming, but things are looking up.

76 Trombones In the Big Parade

I am now the proud mother of 2 band members. Peter signed up the week before spring break to play the trumpet, the instrument he must play for a year before he can switch to the one he really wants, which is the french horn. Today Steven signed up for the trombone. It was a race to the end deciding between the baritone and trombone, but much to Steven's horror, the trombone won the race as soon as the band director said the bus drivers won't let baritones on the bus because they are too big. So, trombone it is, simply because he can transport it. It's time for him to learn that cirmcumstances often dictate decisions.

I Am My Mother!!

2010 has not been a good year for my family. That may be the understatement of the century. I have already mentioned that my Grandfather is fighting Pancreatic cancer. Peter can not seem to keep himself out of serious trouble (more about that another day when I am ready to share), the house sale is a roller coaster - it's on again, by the way, bringing with it big financial challenges since we are getting much less for it than we owe, Steven's "easy peasy" surgery is a weekly 3 hour trip to Ann Arbor until the doctor is satisfied, my sister has been fighting her own health challenges that have taken a serious turn. When I am stressed, I have nervous energy I must burn, and my house is looking much better for it.

When we were growing up, we had big, crank out windows facing the lake, and big double hung windows in the dining room. Now, we had a walk-out basement, dug into the hill, so the living and dining rooms were on the second story looking at it from the lake side. A couple times a year, my mom would decide to wash these windows. She is as afraid of heights as I am, so no ladders were used in this endeavor. She would take out the screens and sit on the window sill, hanging on for dear life while she washed them the best she could. For as far back as I can remember, this project always started with the reminder "If I fall out the window, call Grandma." She never fell, but we understood this was a dangerous task. After the windows were done, she would take the screens outside and line them up against the dog pen, scrub them down with a scrub brush and bucket of soapy water, spay them off and leave them to dry in the sun. In my new house, we have a walk-out basement dug into the hill. We have 8 foot high windows, the bottom half of them crank out. I had the ladder in here from hanging a kitchen curtain the other day in another 8 foot window, so I decided to wash the windows. The insides are done. The screens were lined up against the patio, my bucket and scrub brush ready to attack the dirt, and hose brought around the house. When Pete got home, he had to walk around the row of screens left outside to dry. All I have left are the outsides, but the windows are so tall, I could never reach them from inside. Maybe I should call Mom for a refresher on how to sit there and clean them - who knows, she may even be feeling nostalgic for the good old days at the lake.

It's Break Time

Spring break is over and now it is break time for Mommy!!!! Both boys are back to school today!! Steve had is post op appointment yesterday at U of M, and we finally got the lab results back that he did indeed have an infection last week. Our specialist was back in his office yesterday and he fit us in on his normal surgery day to check on Steve. As he decided he needed to re-dress Steve's incision, he left the room to get gauze and doctor Q-tips to clean the incision ( UHHH it hurt me just to watch!). Then he had to leave the room again to get antibiotic ointment. He came back in the room joking that this was like when he went to the grocery store instead of his wife and he had to keep criss-crossing the store to get the things he forgot. As he left a third time to get the medical tape, he asked if any of us (mom came up with us) needed anything while he was gone - milk, juice???? I told him not to forget the bread. We came home with an extention on the antibiotic our family Dr, put him on and we have to go back to see him weekly until the doc is sure the incision is healing well, and the infection is gone. (This next part is gross and not for the squimish!!! But I know several of you are mom's to young boys who will find this as cool as my husband and boys all did...) The doc said that when they closed after the surgery there must have been a little infection that was closed in under the skin. As we went through the weekend, the infection grew and became like a huge pimple under his incision. On Monday the pimple got too big and burst, that was where all the blood and puss came from. So, now Steve gets to add to his medical resume, HUGE BELLY ZIT!!!

Spring Break

Wow, what a spring break this has been! Steven had his surgery on Thursday, but on Monday he had some problems with the incision area and I needed to take him to the doctor. Of course, the surgeon (also his specialist) went on vacation this week with his family, so when I called up to U of M, they told us to start with our family doctor and if she recommended we come back to them, they would find us another doctor who could see him. So, off we headed to see Dr. Davis. She thought, as I did, that his incision was infected, she swabbed it and sent it off to the lab. (I thought the boys would think it was totally cool that they would put it in an incubator to grow for a couple of days and then see what came out to determine exactly what it was, but they thought it was gross and promptly lost intrest! What a disappointment for the woman who wanted to be a doctor to have kids who are showing no intrest in it themselves. Sighhhhhh. Guess my chance to live vicariously through them won't come to pass.) We are still waiting on the lab results, but she gave us a stronger antibiotic than we come home from the hospital on, and showed me a better way to clean it. I am seeing improvement in the surgery area. Hope the specialist thinks we did good when we go back for our post-op check.

Still no final answers on the sale of the Sturgis house. They are waiting on their new bank to approve their loan since the appraiser for the first bank totally dropped the ball and still won't admit to doing anything wrong. I hope this answer comes through soon!!!!!

We're home

Steven had his surgery yesterday and everything went well. His surgery was at 1 PM and by 5 PM we were heading out of the parking garage, and home at 8 PM. He is doing well, and most of the anesthesia has now worn off. He was pretty goofy yesterday ( I know, I know, how can I tell since he is usually so goofy? Trust me, as his mom, I know these things). The doctor was very pleased with the results, and says Steve will really like his belly button when it is healed. He has pain meds for a few days, and anitibiotics both oral and an ointment. He must rest for a couple of days, and no bike riding for 2 weeks. We go back to the doc in about 10 days for a check up.

I updated my Bladder Exstrophy support group on Steve's surgery last night, and this morning I had a message from a mom -from Austrailia- of a boy turning 12 (remember that Steve is 12 until Sept) inviting Steve to contact the boy named Mitch either on Facebook (I have not allowed Steve to have a Facebook page, but maybe it's time?????) or e-mail (again, no e-mail of his own yet). I think this would be a great opportunity for him, so I will let him get the e-mail. I need to do a lot of thinking about the Facebook page. I know I am probably an overprotective parent on these things......