Pain in the Eye

Hubby Ch got a metal shaving embedded in his eye. He woke up Thurs. night/Fri. morn. with pain. He didn't think too much about it, so went to work. When he got home, he worked on stuff around the house. Then he mentioned he wished he knew what he had done to his eye because it hurt. He's asked me before to look in his eye to see if I can see anything. Well, this time I did! Of course, everything like this happens on the weekend. We waited until after 9 a.m. to start calling around for an eye Dr. open on Sat. I finally found one, at the local Wal-mart. We took him in, and the doc proceeded to scrape the metal out. It was no easy feat. Evidently, the longer metal sits in the eyeball, the more it starts to spread out, molecularly! So, he waited about 32 hrs. to have it taken out, and it made it much worse. This is a picture of the metal fragment "before" it was removed. It's the small black speck below the pupil. He's feeling better now. And I am hounding him with taking the eye drops as prescribed.

Hornet Sting Update

Son C's hand and arm have finally lost most of their swelling, though it's still itching. He was stung early Sunday morning, so this has gone on for several days now. We did visit the doctor, and yes, we need to get the epi-pen, to have on hand, just in case he were to be stung again. The next time could be the "biggie". So, we'll get our insurance in a syringe, just in case. The doc gave him a DVD and a pretend injector that he's been practicing with. He's most interested in the fact that the shot can shoot right through his blue jeans if need be. Boys are so practical sometimes!

Bad Luck With Bees and the Like

Our family has had more than our fair share of bee, wasp, and hornet stings. But one of us seems to get stung the most. It's happened again. Our second son C got stung by a wasp or hornet or whatever yesterday on his right hand. Now his hand is so swollen up he can't even snap his pants, use a fork to eat, build with his legos, or anything else with it. It just so happens, he's right-handed, so the problem is compounded. He is simply miserable. It's swollen half-way up his arm also, and it stung him on the hand. I figure I need to get him to the doctor to see about the need for an epi-pen just in case it happens again. It could be worse next time!

I took pictures of his 2 hands, the swollen next to the other "normal" size hand as a comparison. He forbade me to put the pictures on my blog. He's embarrassed because it looks "so ugly", he said. Just picture a latex glove that somebody decided to make a balloon out of. That's what it looks like.

I've given him benadryl a few times to help the reaction. If it helps most people to feel drowsy, it's caused him to be either hyper-active/anxious, or maybe he's just over-tired. I can't figure out what the trouble is, but he hasn't slept from it at all. We are, to say the least, miserable from the benadryl as well. It's going to be a long rest of the day.

Mother in Law's Quilt Finished

Well, I am excited that I got my mother-in-law's quilt finished tonight. She has been very sick, and I want to have something to give her if she goes into the hospital again, or if and when she gets a liver transplant. The colors in the quilt will match their house nicely. The darker color is a dark rust, not red as it appears to be in the picture. And if you are wondering, the fabric is "Dandelion Girl" by Moda. You may also be wondering: "Yes, I am a lazy quilter." This quilt was entirely machine sewn, including the binding which was also machine finished. But at least I'm getting some quilts made. I know it wouldn't be happening if I had to hand sew them. : ) I've now finished 4 quilts in under 5 months. This quilt has been the smallest so far, and is a large lap size. Oddly enough, quilting doesn't seem to take up too much of my time. I actually think I am keeping up with housework better, because I have this fun outlet of something "just for me".


I am very UPSET right now, though, because I cannot get Blogger to upload any pictures. I seem to have "pop-up" blocker, and even if I turn it off, I am still not able to load any pictures. I cannot even get the "Help" menu page to display if I click on it. Where can I go for help if not on the help page?

Somebody, Please Help!! I'm begging now..... I am very visual, and I don't feel like blogging anything if I can't attach pictures of what I am talking about!

UPDATE--I was able to upload pictures using a different web browser. Hooray!!!!

Lame Brain & NJ Quirks

I am a bona fide lame brain. I lost my cell phone somewhere in NJ. I have been calling around to every restaurant, shop, and motel we visited there on our last day or so. Nobody has seen it. It's no where to be found. I hate to spend money needlessly. Spending money on a new cell phone just because I lost my other one is pretty high up there on the wasteful list. It really upsets me.

On a much lighter note, here are some quirks about New Jersey that caught our attention. It's definitely a unique state. First, NJ does not appreciate left-hand turns when you're driving. They minimize them as much as possible. When driving down a road you may notice that there is a very long, defined median down the whole road. This median breaks only for another street that intersects perpendicularly. You are not allowed to turn left at those intersections, and you most certainly cannot perform U-turns. There are many signs along the road that direct you to "Make all turns from right lane". There are designated U-turn/L-turn areas before each major road. These places allow you to cross at a stop-light so you can get going in the opposite direction you were traveling prior to your U-turn. As you can imagine, these can be quite spread out along the main road, and you may find yourself traveling a very long way before you can turn around. Also, if you miss one, you got it: drive a long way further to find one again!

In keeping with their mentality that fewer turns are better than many, there are designated entrances/exits to businesses. These businesses will share the entrance with many other businesses. You'll find a large lot of signs all together, indicating that you are to turn at that entrance for where ever you are headed. This can be a problem, when once you get off at the right entrance, you can't even see the business! It's hard to know where to go at that point since the business may be pretty far away from their sign. Very frustrating.

NJ gasoline was very inexpensive compared to our FL gas. When we arrived, the average was about $3.11/gallon. That compares to our local price of $3.52 when we arrived back into town a couple days later.

And the last funny thing we noticed about NJ had us laughing up a storm. We drove on 2 major roads through Wayne, NJ. (Given their policy about U-turns and L-turns, we drove those 2 roads a LOT trying to make sense of everything!) Well, driving those 2 roads so much, we began to notice that every other business, it seemed, had incorporated the State Road # into their name. Here are some examples: Golf 23, Fuelco 23, 23 Nails, 23 Deli, Spa 23, Dodge 23, 46 Ford, etc. I could literally go on and on, as there were that many businesses taking the name of the road they were on. We just found it amusing. I hope you do too. We even went to Golf 23 and drove some golf balls one evening. I'll post pictures of that later. Right now, I have to go order a new cell phone.

Not Much Blogging Lately, I Know

I'm trying to figure out exactly why I haven't been writing much lately. I really think I've been in some kind of a slump. There are a lot of reasons, I guess. I tried to say it was because I've been quilting so much, but that's not it. A couple of ladies and I were talking at the park today (homeschoolers meet every Friday, and we go when we can.) I have come to the realization that I have been trying to blog only positive things. Maybe I am taking that philosophy a little too far. Although I don't want to drag anybody down by reading my not-quite glowing blog posts, I shouldn't avoid posts that aren't exactly perfect life. I don't mind if one of my friends share their trials or something that's bothering them in life, so why should I be afraid to do so? Life is not always "roses", and mine is surely no exception.

So, here goes. There is something that has been bothering me for quite some time. It is quite perplexing at times, and it affects our family greatly. I have mentioned tidbits before about the kids and I being gluten-free, as well as dairy-free and using very minimal soy products in our diet. This is because all 3 kids and I each exhibit different symptoms when we eat these things. (We are also all vegetarian by choice, so this complicates matters. I am quite used to being vegetarian as I was raised that way, but the GFCFSF is quite difficult because of the vege. issue.)

Well, I am not going to complain about having to eat this way. We've been dealing with it for 1 1/2 yrs. already, so that it's almost second nature by now. What is frustrating me now is our middle son's symptoms. Even following this diet very strictly, he continues to react. (I hinted at his difficulties on his birthday.) It's quite difficult, because I cannot tell if he's now reacting to nuts, or corn, or eggs. Or is it something else? Yes, I could do a rotation diet, but that seems very difficult to accomplish given the fact that he can eat very little variety as it is. Given his super-skinny physic, it's scary to think about him starving to death just because he can't eat beans on day #3 because beans are only allowed on day #6, for example.

Okay, so back to his symptoms, which is the reason for this post in the first place. When C is reacting, he is super hyper, has no impulse control, and torments the rest of us to no end. He really gets quite annoying, and even that is an understatement. This is not his normal personality, yet it's beginning to seem normal since it's going on all of the time lately. When he has a good day, he is so sweet and seems like a different person. This is why I don't like to talk about it. I am afraid that nobody will believe me, and just chalk it up to behavioral problems with little or NO discipline in the home. I know it's not true (lack of discipline), but when he is reacting very badly, I am literally afraid to take him outside of our own home. I don't want people thinking badly of him, or of us as his parents for that matter. I also realize it's hard not to judge his behavior. Truly, when he's reacting, I can hardly stand to be around him myself. Talk about guilt! How can I, his own mother, wish it were his bedtime, when it's only 9 o'clock in the morning?? And how can I help the other 2 kids tolerate and forgive, even understand his behavior when I cannot understand it myself?

There's the background of what we've been dealing with for the last 3 or more years. It has been especially bad the last few months, and does seem to be worse the older he gets. I can finally report that we might have found a supplement that just might help. I started him on 5-HTP 3 days ago, and he's been better. Even H and B have noticed it's better. I am crossing my fingers, knocking on wood, and yes, praying a LOT. Of course, I pray about it all the time, but I really don't want to get my hopes up if it's not going to last.

And you know what? It's sure a lot easier to be a nice, fun-loving mother to kids that aren't fighting all the time because one of them is continually pestering the other two!

On-going annoyance

We've been having trouble with the plumbing in our new house. We have 3 bathrooms, and all 3 had a leak in the shower fixtures. It was just pin-prick holes, but I think that might be worse because we didn't know for quite a while that it was going on. We found the first leak in our master bathroom and then the other two followed. Hubby investigated for the exact cause around the New Year, and thought he fixed them. The faucet was actually faulty, made with cheap parts. Well, thinking they were fixed, we forgot about them, except for the holes in the 3 closets, waiting to be patched. They were still leaking, can you believe it, from another faulty spot. SO, another home in B's closet. Hubby says he will patch them when he's good and sure they are truly fixed this time. I know it's a minor annoyance, unlike a fire inside a wall, but annoying all the same. I think the fact that it's gone on for so long now is what bothers me the most. Two of the closets were bad enough to cause mildew problems as well. So I've got the fun chore of carting the dehumidifier back and forth between the two closets on opposite sides of the house. That thing is heavy!! (They seem dry now so I think the problem is finally solved.) Here's a picture of B's troubled wall.