Happy Birthday, Mom!

Hope yesterday was a great day for you!

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Rugby's Tubes

Hello!

Terribly sorry I've been majorly slacking on the blogging lately. I seem to be in a funk. Anywho, Rugby had an appt to see the ENT last week (I think I told ya'll that...) and he had his tubes placed today. They said that they were long overdue as the fluid was thick and sticky like glue. We have to go back in 2 weeks because he's concerned that it'll clog the tube and that just isn't a good thing! So, we were in St. Croix Falls (about an hour NW of us) at 8:15 and leaving by 10:15.

On the way home, Rugby was hungry, so we stopped at Mc D's in Turtle Lake and ate in the car on the way to pick up Riley and TJ from Edna's. He was so good the whole time. Then we saw the school. And there were cars there and waterworks ensued. Rugby was upset that he was missing school and that school wasn't cancelled. (Actual air temp was -29 this morning) So, being that he was doing well and his homework was done, we dropped him off at school where he is now.

Only my kid would be upset about missing school.

Anyway, he's doing great!

In other business:

Happy 51st Birthday, Daddy!

Insurance ROCKS!

Recall January 8th? TJ got tubes in his ears after fighting ear infections and fluid since LAST January. I never should have let it go on so long, but here we are and he's doing better.

Last Thursday (like a week ago today), we got a note from the school nurse that Rugby failed his hearing test for the THIRD time since school started. Ugh. So, I called the insurance to find an ENT we didn't need a referral for. There are 2 ENT's in Eau Claire that take our insurance. One is the wench we saw that asked me "what's his problem" when TJ was crying (scared). The other retired and the new guy hasn't started yet. So, then they gave me another phone number to try. It was for St. Croix Falls....about an hour from here. It's not really that much further than Eau Claire from here, but it's kinda out in the sticks. Anyway, I called Thursday, they saw him Wednesday. His hearing was just as bad or worse than TJ's and it's because of the fluid in his ears that never drained from his ear infection this fall. So, Thursday next week (the 24th) Rugby is getting tubes and maybe having his adenoids removed. He snores and constantly sounds stuffy, so they're going to check it out while they've got him sedated. Anyway, I'm SOOOOOOOO glad we have insurance to help cover this!!

THANK YOU GRANNY!

Riley and TJ got bunk beds from my MIL and FIL at Christmas. I realized when Joel brought the other mattress last week that I didn't have enough sheets to have sheets on the bed and an extra set to wash. I only had enough to have on the beds, so my mom happened to have Spiderman and Batman sheets in her gift closet that she sent to the boys. They are in HEAVEN! Riley was thrilled when he saw them. Take a peek:

Projects, projects and MORE projects!!

It's been BUSY around here! Since TJ got his tubes, he's been SUCH a bundle of energy. I knew he wasn't acting like a normal, healthy kid but he's SO busy now that I have a really hard time keeping up to him and Tucker. I'm glad Riley's still here a few days a week, but it's also nice that he's in school a couple days.

Tim's been on winter break from classes, so he's been taking the time to do a few projects. I think I already showed you that he set up the bunk beds in the space room. Here's a few of the others:

He hung the shelf we got from Grandma and Grandpa for our wedding. I love it! I also hung the "Household Rugby" stove door over the doorway. It was laying in a closet since it got taken down to hang a Christmas decoration. I like it here much better!

Then, Tim took the shelves out of the hall closet, removed the old (no longer needed) water heater exhaust pipe, laid some hardwood flooring, used old bi-fold door to fashion new shelves to transform a half useful closet to a fully functioning storage station! It's fabulous! Riley and I painted over the nasty yellow with "brown sugar" that we painted Tim's bathroom with and VOILA! Here's the closet in progress. I have to take an "after" pic yet.
The front entry closet was also a thorn in our side. It wasn't deep enough to use hangers on the closet bar, so it was just a catch all junk closet. Tim took out the bar, put in some hooks and shelves and it's a much more useful and handy closet!!
Then, in Tucker's room, there was a normal 3' door on the closet, nothing majorly wrong with it, but his room is TINY so there really isn't space for a dresser and all the other stuff we have to have in there. So he's turning the closet into a built-in dresser/closet. I can't wait until it's finished, but it's pretty useful to me even in it's current state. We picked up lumber to work on it, but that was only a couple days ago so he hasn't had time to get back to it. Soon....
Also, I had asked for a shelf on my craft desk since it was terrible hard to organize anything. We had the pegboard here, waiting, since....well, it's been a while. Anyway, he built the shelf, built a frame for the pegboard and hung that, then the kids and I painted the shelf and desk the same color as the walls. When we were at Menards getting lumber for the closet, they had a chair on clearance the height I needed, so we got me a chair, too! Tim had some pull-out drawer things that he hung for me, he put up the light from the garage that he didn't need out there and now I have space to do my beading or other projects and it's not all over the dining room table! YAY!
Timmy also used a bi-fold door to make a shelf over the boys craft area downstairs, but I didn't take a pic of that yet. I hope to paint the desks, then I'll take pix to post.

TJ's Ears

We're home from getting tubes. TJ's doing well. He's playing with Tim now. More later.....

Not such a great day......

+Rugby was having technical difficulties with his feet on Thursday......



Since then, though, things have improved. Rugby and Riley are outside helping Tim take plywood off the garage walls to re-wire it. Great project for winter, right? At least Joel sent a kerosene heater for him to use.

Here's boys dressed for playing in the garage:

Then I hear Kerosene playing in my head. It's too weird. Anyway, that's the random thought for the day. Here's the video for you:



Here's a link to my Project 365 Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22444582@N08/

Besides updating the blog, here's what TJ and I were doing:
taking pix together :) AWE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ok, so we're 4 days in, how's it going so far?

Things here are looking up and down. Broke, but that's our own choice and we're making due. Tim graduates in May, then things will get better (I HOPE!) Up in the sense that Tim is getting projects done around here, re-connecting with the boys in a MAJOR way. Riley was copying him yesterday and it was so cute. TJ hangs on him and Rugby has become a little project warrior. CONSTANTLY wants to work on a project with Tim. They've gotten a few little projects done that have made a MAJOR difference. Also, yesterday we saw another ENT for TJ's ears and this one was AWESOME! He explained our options (tubes vs. meds), that environmental factors really don't affect this and that tubes would probably be our best option. So, TJ is getting tubes.....Tuesday. That's right, he can get him in that quick. WOOHOO! We've only been fighting ear infections since LAST January. So, Monday I can call to find out what time to arrive for surgery on Tuesday and all that other fun jazz.

I have some pictures to post, but the camera batteries are dead. I've been keeping up with my Project 365, though! I created a Flickr account to post them all on and I've been posting them on Mommysavers. I'll create a link for the Flickr thing for you later.

Anyway, Tim's off cutting wood with Adam today, R&R are at school, and TJ & TJ are sleeping, so I'm going to go charge batteries and get something done. More later.