Patchwork Post

S__-__-__ in Utah
You would think that now that that nasty S word hit our state, the air conditioning would go off in places of work and worship, but so far, I haven't had too much luck with that. I have felt super cold all summer so I'm dreading this winter.

The Weather Was Nearly Balmy for Halloween
... except for that massive rain shower right after trick or treating time began. At school the boys have to dress related to the books they are reading this year so I made the things a Charlotte's Web costume. The day before I found the last 2 pigs at the dollar store! What a score. My pictures didn't turn out all that great, they reflect a bit, so you don't see it as well as in person, but I bought long sleeve black shirts and sweat pants for cheap, then I painted a spider web on the shirt with silver paint, as if it were the top corner of the barn door and each boy's web had a word in it- Thing 2 was terrific and Thing 1 was radiant. I had a little spider hanging from a string off the web below it but you can't see it too well in the picture. Then I pinned the pink pig hand puppets to the leg of the pants as Wilbur, under the web. Here's the pics.
Random Halloween decoration-some things just never change!
We managed to get some pumpkins decorated but nothing too exciting. Carino was a Roman and Gigio only went as a camouflage guy to his jr high dance. I didn't take any pictures cuz they were too rushed. Of course, the Things managed to put holes in their new pants with the pins, but i guess holey pants is just their style.
For Halloween Carino took a nap, Gigio escaped and trick or treated for the two of them, and Enigma took the Things out while I cleaned house. We didn't go visiting or anything because the older boys were being horrid this afternoon and I just couldn't leave my house another day in the state it was in. We missed you Grandparents and cousins, maybe next year!

Carino and the Ear Saga

So, within 2 months of wearing his ear, Carino had worn the color off it, peeled the base back some and lost it- luckily on the day we had to go back to school for parent teacher conferences. Luckily someone found it. Unfortunately, it had suffered a puncture wound. The prosthetic guy is going to get to know us really well... He's already fixed all the damage. Even though I put off the idea of a prosthetic for a long time because I figured he would lose it and hole punch it and all that, we have decided it really is the best option. This part is to look normal and it looks much more normal than any of the surgical options without all the 40000 risks and nearly insurmountable challenges to get the surgeries accomplished. So, the only thing Carino doesn't like about the ear is the gluing it on part, which frankly is my attitude too, (except I also don't like having to go looking for missing ears and hoping someone didn't think it was a Halloween prop and take it home from school with them). It does kind of crack me up to hear all the crazy things you find yourself saying such as, "Where did you put your ear?" or "You'd better go get your ear on right now before you make us late!" or "Your ear is right here, I'm holding it in my hand." or "Will you listen to me??? Where is your ear?" Out of context, they sound like something that you'd read in a Mad Lib. SO, back to my point, we are planning to get a bone anchored post for him to snap his ear onto. In September we already sent him to surgery for a bone anchored post for his BAHA (sound conductor). But, I got sick the night before and there was no way that I was going to be able to drive to Salt Lake so Papi had to take off work and go with him. Then they call to tell me they weren't able to operate. They put him to sleep but couldn't get the breathing tube in at all because his bite is so small, so for security reasons, they canceled surgery. They still took ALL DAY and I had to reschedule an appointment that Papi had that afternoon for HIS ear. Someone was supposed to call us the next day to schedule an appointment with the doctor to go over our options for the surgery. Possibly to see doctors about his jaw or to just do the surgery at Primary Children's where they are equipped for tiny mouths. No one called. So, the next week I called. They said they'd check with the doctor and get back with me. About this time we were fixing the ear and decided this was all for the best as we could just request that the bone anchor be done for both at once- a two fer! No one called back. So, on my list of 400001 things to do there was an item to call them. Didn't get to it yet. This week he had a sleep study done at Primary Children's. The day before we get a call to tell us his surgery time. SURGERY? WHAT SURGERY?! They just rescheduled the surgery at Primary's for this Friday and didn't bother to let us know. So now it won't be till January, because they made special arrangements due to the circumstances, but now that they didn't bother to tell us, it's our fault and we can just wait till the next opening. We don't know the results of the sleep study yet, except that I can't sleep without my husband making me go to bed. He went again this time because I had a meeting that night. I also had the fun time of taking Carino to have a neuropsych evaluation. All these studies were ordered by the craniofacial team to make sure we're not missing something. Now that he's 11. Sort of overdue, but it's nice to lay some concerns to rest. Luckily, most all his issues are just mega ADHD. That and anxiety. He's too anxious. So anxious that it took two appointments instead of one. So we got some info to help us work on his executive functioning (which is a 7 fer since the whole family needs that one,) and recommendations for counseling and speech (again, to help him spit out what in the heck he wants to say) . I'm not too excited about that one, because it took me a year to get the last therapy session covered by the insurance.

Now I need to stop and go get people including myself to bed before my boss gets mad at me, but this is just the beginning.... WHy are there so many changes in Shellie's jobs? WHat happened to the goats? Stay tuned!