What a Week!

This week is the TAKS here in Texas. Not only are we dealing with the multiple outbreaks of swine flu with the resulting school closures, our kiddos are dealing with the TAKS. Kels is not a great test-taker and she stressed herself into a seizure in the middle of her math TAKS, poor baby. I don't know if there is a tried and true way to get her to "de-stress" so this doesn't happen. Let's face it -- life is stressful.

On other news, I had a Pampered Chef party this evening. I began this day with 12 confirmed guests, but ended up with five. Those things happen. I know -- I used to be a consultant.

It's getting late so I'll post more later.

Driving

Kels and Kate both got their permits last week and I know consciously that the only way for them to become good, confident drivers is to drive. Oh. My. Goodness. Fear. Of. Death.

I let Kate drive home from school the other day and in-between the bouncing back and forth between the white lines of the lane; the curb checks anytime she turned right (our tires are fine, thank you very much), and the fact that she took out Kels' bike when she parked in the garage -- I wet my pants (although it doesn't take much to accomplish THAT some days).

Tonight I let Kels drive around the neighborhood before taking them to driver's ed and she not one time crossed over 15 miles per hour. She came about six inches from each and every car parked on the street. But the funniest thing was that every time she would turn a corner, she would take her foot off the gas, brake a little bit and nearly go in reverse for going so slow. It just killed me. And the kicker -- the over the top comment? As she was rounding the corner for home, she took her foot off the gas, coasted v-e-r-y slowly around the curve (about negative 2 miles per hour) and stated, "Wow -- I think I should have slowed down for that one." Heh.

Everyone pray for me.

HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY!!

Seventeen short years ago I welcomed my precious baby, Kelsey, into this world. After losing my first pregnancy in a very late miscarriage, Kelsey was my own miracle. All of a sudden, I had a little buddy stuck to my right hip (her hip of preference – thank you very much) everywhere we went. I was fortunate enough to be able to stay at home with her for her first two years and I enjoyed it very much.

Kelsey has overcome so very much in her lifetime that most adults never have to endure. She has proven herself over and over to be such a strong, resilient, child of God – full of hope and anticipation regarding her future. Over the last seventeen years I have laughed with her, laughed at her, worried over her, prayed over her, hurt and wept for her.

Kelsey is not just my daughter, she’s my hero. Happy birthday, baby!

Good Weekend

It’s been a good weekend – not too much drama, not too many emotions and/or hormones running amok, and all the sick ones slowly getting better. We spent the day at church and then cleaning up some at home. I’m gearing up for a long work week, trying to get things ready to be gone for a few days. My work doesn’t stop just because I’m out of the office, it just piles up while I’m gone. My mother-in-law is coming to stay with the girls while we’re gone. LOL – the last time that we had to have the wonderful hub’s grandma stay with us, I ended up with a reorganized kitchen, two new junk drawers (in place of my “lid” drawers) and for some reason, she had cleaned out the pressed flowers and herbs that I had in between some of my cookbooks’ pages. This time, it’ll be my wonderful mother-in-law, who loves these girls to pieces. I doubt very seriously that they’ll even be home often because she likes a good excuse to go out to dinner and shopping. And, of course, my girls oblige her.

School is beginning to kick my butt again. Writing comes pretty easy to me except when I HAVE to write. And writing dry, uninteresting papers on dry, uninteresting subjects is like poking myself in the eyeball with a toothpick. It’s painful to say the least. Gotta go – gotta write – gotta graduate soon.

Cakes, Cakes and More Cakes

We've got cakes on the brain here at the old casa. I made a three-layer chocolate cake for a friend's birthday party tonight and Kate took advantage of the leftovers to make another zebra pattern cake. The best compliment of all was, "Where did you buy that cake?" LOL. Below is also a picture of my poor baby with bronchitis. She was tolerant of my trying out my new camera on her (captive in my bed).

Grief and Drama

Yesterday was full of lots of grief and drama. Kels had been in a mood all weekend and yesterday morning before church it all came to a head. She was vile and nasty. She said horrible, hurtful things that you expect to come from a teenager. Except? We have NEVER heard this kind of stuff from her. She is usually so very laid back and good-natured. Until the Keppra, that is. We begin to wean her off the "Devil-drug" (as we call it) tomorrow. One of my fears is that she is "altered" from the surgery itself, that taking down the Keppra won't make a difference. I don't know if I could live with that. I mean, the surgeries were the worse of two evils. The possibility of a seizure-free life vs. a life-time of possible side-effects. Being a parent is too hard sometimes.

Update

It's been a long time since the last update. I got a new digital camera this week (a Canon Powershot SX110 IS) and while it's not top of the line, it's MORE than enough for my use. One, of which, is taking pictures of Kate and my new venture – cake decorating classes! While I do a lot of cooking and baking, my decorating skills suck pickles. My initial efforts looked like a 5-year old with severe nearsightedness was let loose with a piping tip. LOL. We just finished Level 1 classes and Level 2 classes begin next week. This is not just fun, but good bonding time with my wonderful daughter.

The wonderful hubby and I leave in two weeks for our annual anniversary weekend away. We always stay at this great little B&B that is outside of the city limits and in the country area. It's secluded and beautiful and always very restful. I can't wait!!

I also went back to school this month. I went on a leave of absence when Kels had her surgeries and figured it was time to begin again. I should finish up in March 2010.

I'm going to try to be much much better about updating this more regularly.

Six-Month Neuro Check-Up

Kels had her six-month post-surgery check up today and it went very well. Her EEG showed no seizure activity at all, which is great! And her neuro discussed changing her from Keppra since Kels is so vehemently opposed to taking (as evidenced by her personal choice to discontinue her meds a few weeks ago!!). The new drug is Lyrica and it’s supposed to be well tolerated. Kel is excited to finally be off the Keppra that she nearly floated out of the neuro’s office.

I don’t mind saying that I’m a little nervous about changing meds, since the Keppra (in addition to the surgery) has been the first time in a very long time that we’ve have seizure control. I know that the game is different post-surgery, however it’s just hard to forget the years and years of medication failures. I am praying that this will work for her with few side-effects. Her neuro says that one of the most common effects is supposed to be some weight gain, but at 113 pounds, I’m not really concerned about that for her right now.

The girls are out of school now for the holidays. They were supposed to go to their father’s for Christmas, but didn’t want to. They chose to stay here for Christmas and then go over there for the weekend after, however, he didn’t care for that and was extremely vocal with them about it. After some heated discussion with them on the phone one night last week it was passed to me and I got the attitude. He told me that they had no choice in the matter, they HAD to come. I very calmly told him that he was mistaken – they DID have a choice. I told him that we always encourage them to see him when it’s his visitation, but that we don’t force them. He then claimed that there were plans that he had made for them for Christmas that they just didn’t understand. I asked him if he told them what those plans were (he is notorious for not telling them what’s going on) and he said no. So I asked him to share with me what the plans were and that I would let them know and encourage them to go. At which point he told me that it was none of my business. Yes, I said, it is my business if he would like for me to talk to them and encourage them to visit. His response was that it wasn’t their business either and that he wasn’t “getting into a pissing match” with me (???) and hung up on me.

Sometimes trying to be fair and do the right thing is just too hard some days. Geez.

Snow In Texas!!

I'm nearly 40 years old and a native Houstonian. I've only seen snow a handful of times in whole life (and a couple of those I flew north to see it!). So when it snowed this past week, I made sure that the girls were up to see and play in it.

Lessons Learned

Well, as you know we've been on seizure watch here at the ole' casa. There have been no more seizures since Wednesday, however, there have been frequent auras, which are little seizures in and of themselves. It's been a hard lesson for Kels, but one that I think she's learned well. The paralysis lasted nearly two days and because she bit her tongue all to pieces, it's been hard for her to talk and eat. I hate that she is suffering, but maybe it was for the best.

We're waiting to see that the meds get control again – seizures, auras, and all. If there's no control, then I can up her meds a little to gain it. She's been requesting that we keep the baby monitor on at night for just in case. And if Kels wants it, then we do it. She missed school last Thursday and Friday and as a result, lost a binder and a book in the shuffle from the classroom to the nurses' office so she's behind some in her classes. She was on the prayer list at church and there were tons of people asking about her this morning. She nearly bugged out of going to church because she knew she'd have to face people, but she did well answering their well wishes and how are you feelings.

It's been a long week. Next will be better, I know.