I didn't hurt him!

Well just to let you know the roid rage has seized. I am doing much better. I am no longer mad at the world!

Last night actually ended on a unforseen circumstance. I finished my blogging and was just doing some house work getting everyone ready for bed and got a phone call from my dad. I was doing laundry and didn't hear the phone ring, but noticed there was a message. I checked and it was him. I could hear in his voice that it seemed something was wrong. I hadn't talked to him in awhile so I was almost afraid to call him back and my grandma was the first thing that came to my mind. She has been frail for the past few years, so it made me a bit apprehensive to call him just for fear of the unknown.

Just to be clear, this is my dad's mother. I often talk about my Grandma Grace on this blog (she is my mom's grandma). This was not her.

I mustered up the courage to call within just a minute or two and he said that my Grandma was in fact very sick and in the hospital and not likely to make it through the night. I rounded myself up and headed up to Bixby hospital in Adrian. I thought all the way there that I felt very fortunate that I would have the chance to say goodbye if this was the end. I am so glad he thought to call me.

I got there and went to see her and spoke to her and told her how much I love her. I told her a few things about how thankful I am for the legacy that she has left for her family and a few other personal things I wanted to tell her. She was unresponsive when I was there (she had taken a quick turn for the worse a few hours earlier). However, it provided a certain closure that I didn't know I would get to have. I am so thankful to God that she is not suffering and that she passed peacefully. She put up one heck of a fight. She passed this morning at around 10:30am. My aunt the youngest of her 4 children and her only daughter was in Wisconsin for a wedding and there was a big concern that she wouldn't make it in time before Grandma's passing. She did make it around back to Michigan around midnight. That relief that she made it in time will forever be etched in my memory and I think it is a good memory. I kept sending up prayers once I knew my aunt was on her way, God if its your will please let Aunt Denise make it here to say her goodbyes. I heard my aunt tell her mom, "thank you, you have been such a great mom and you have fought so hard for the last few years". I know that has to make my grandma humbly proud. Motherhood was certainly her biggest passion and all us moms know that motherhood doesnt come without being tough! She sure was a tough cookie!

My Grandma has undoubtly been the matriarch of her family and she was serious about her kids an their families. My mom has always told me that my grandma taught her so much when she was growing up, as my parents were high school sweethearts and then married (for those of you who don't know me that well, my parents have been divorced since I was small and are now both remarried), however beacause my mom and dad were together at such a young age im sure there was alot for both of them to learn and im thankful my mom was able to share some of those things with me that Grandma Howard taught her. It's so incredible to have her in our lives and just have all those things she passed on about herself in ways im sure she probably didn't even realize that she was. However in many ways im sure she was very concious of the things she WAS passing on too. She is a very noble woman.

I realize that some people may find it odd that I chose to include all this on my blog because it is such a personal matter of the heart, however... I just want everyone and myself to be able to look back and see how special she is and will always be to me and my family. Thank you Grandma for fighting so hard. I am so lucky to have had you in my life for 27 years. I am so greatful that you got to meet Carson and get some pictures with him over the last year. I of course wish selfishly we could have more of you and your time, but I am so happy for you that you are now at peace and home with Jesus. We will miss you so much, but my promise is that all the wonderful mothering tendencies you taught me thorough my parents and aunts and uncles about family and the importance of it will remain in my kids. Again thank you for always keeping your family close. I can really understand that having kids of my own and it makes it that much more important. Im sure each time I watch Dr. Phil I will think of what your thoughts might have been about that particular topic. The smell of fresh laundry each time I smell it will remind me of you. Now thats a perfect Grandma touch if I ever saw one! Afterall you knew all the laundry tricks and I LOVED the smell of your laundry area and freshly laundered sheets! Rest in Peace Grandma Howard! I love you very much.

Thank you to all of you for your prayers for our family. Please keep all of them in your thoughts over the next few days.

Roid Rage.... :-(

WHAT THE HECK IS THIS???

Seriously I shouldn't even joke about this, but I can't help it. If you wake up tomorrow and find that my husband is murdered... I probably did it!!!





I have thought all weekend about blogging. I have lots to chat about! I had a busy weekend, but I guess its been good. As I told you in the past post, I have poison ivy... I CANT GET RID OF IT. I got it about 10 days ago and i've never had it before. I have had two shots of Depo-Medrol (a long acting steriod). I have done a medrol dose pack (a taper dose of steriods) and everything over the counter I could get my hands on. (these are just a few)





Well, this morning I called Dr. Robertson and asked if he could call in some more steriods for me because my dose pack was empty. He said, Kari if you have done all that and the shots, another dose pack probably wont cut it either. He said I should go and have some IV Solu-Medrol (an intravenous steriod) and not mess with it any longer. So at about 9:30 I left from Jessica's and went to the PICC center and had my infusion.... GUESS WHAT.... I dont think it worked! The itching stopped for maybe a few hours, but I think the side effects were worse than the relief it provided. Why don't doctors warn people about this? I have serious Chris Benoit steriod rage! I'm really not a nice person today. I don't think most people could even blink right! No im exaggerating, but for the love of God I need this crazy skin condition, which at this point im not even sure is Poison Ivy anymore, to GO AWAY!!!!





I feel like im loosing my mind with all the things I have to do around the house and kids, and work, and more work and organizing pictures, and dishes, dinner, clean my car, laundry, phone calls, baths, get ready for the week, get prepared for my mom to come visit at the end of the week. I know it will get better, but I just need it to do it all by itself while I go curl up and try to sleep. Yeah that's nearly impossible to do when your doped up on Steriods too by the way. Sorry I can't find an optimistic smigen of hope in my body right now! Check back in a few days and hopefully my optimistic self will return!

Updates on my kiddos! Carson has decided that it would be fun to climb on top of the table today. I cleaned out cupboards and the refridgerator (by the way I clean when im pissed off) so if you come over to my house and it's spotless... hint: somethings wrong with Kari!) Anyway... im cleaning away under my table and I look over and guess who is on TOP of the dining room table... yeah that would be my monster child. He just looked at me while my chin was hanging down in awe and despair, like, "what mom?" "did I do something?" The I got the look of, "leave me alone or I swear ill scream"!!! I think he liked it up there because I got him down and told him no baby you cant climb on top of the table stay down, thats danger and etc. I continue to clean and yeah pretty sure he was back on top of the table. In my meltdown of a day I couldn't even find the fun in getting the camera. Im sure there will be a next time. Ill capture it then.

Ok well I think I better stop scaring people and maybe go start some laundry now!! Ill try this blogging thing again tomorrow.

TGFMDP

Blackberries and bluberries and a new big boy chair to eat at the table with his family!!! Tell me why im having SUCH a difficult time letting go of the highchair. I think its because it's another phase of babyhood that just isn't there anymore! They grow too fast :-(

What the heck does that title mean right? Thank God for Medrol Dose Pack! I have terrible Poison Ivy for the first time in my life. I had no clue this itched so bad. I feel like I look like I have some icky nasty disease that makes me need to be quarintined! It's just gross. I got it out at my Grandma's farm the other day in the field. I had no clue that I could get it. I would think that I would have gotten it at least once at this stage in my life... but nope! Well im on some serious steroids and have had 2 shots and now antibiotics because one area is getting infected from itching. yeah goo times!


So updates... im a slacker blogger. I am just so dang busy! Yesterday Kenedey had to go see Dr. Adams at U of M. She feels that she is adequately responding to the Methotrexate. Her right knee is getting straighter all the time. She gave her a script for a heel lift to help with the limp. We talked about things to plan on about the school year and the fact that she is in flare we have to educate the proper people at school. Mostly teacher and Gym class. They always give us a little brochure to take to the school that's called "When your student has arthritis". Who knows if they read it, but at least they have a resource if they should need it. Gym class may be tough becasue of the running, but that's ok, she will still try and sit out if she needs to. I think she wants to be like everyone else so she will probably try most everything. Running will be the tough part, she still has difficutly with that. It's almost like learning it all over again.

We found out who her teacher is. She has Mrs. Merriman, she has been asking everyone she knows if she is mean, she DESPERATELY doesn't want a mean teacher because she had a very tough teacher last year. From what the other kids say, it sounds like shes mean! I guess we will see. If she is who im thinking of, she goes to church with my dad. I'm not sure if thats a good or bad thing. I don't really have an opinion about that. Anyway...

I took Kenedey to get her hair cut tonight at Patrones. She needed a trim desperately. We got the new girl first day on the job! It was a little akward and she really didn't do a good job. Oh well... what are ya gonna do. It doesn't look bad, it just not what Ken asked for.

We took Carson to get a trim too at the barber. It was awful this time. The first time he did awesome. This time... eh not so much! SCREAMED the entire time. We gave up after a few minutes. He even had a sucker and that didn't work. Ugh. Guess we will let it grow awhile and then ill probably end up cutting it myself, just seems easier. I just like taking him to the barber, kinda a man thing ya know.

We had dinner tonight at Hawkeye's in Brooklyn it was WAY too hot to cook. The humidity is awful. Its one of those things where you walk outside and your pores instantly saturate your skin with H2O because your body says, "MUST COOL OFF!" I like hot, but humid... not so much!

I made an appointment for myself at the salon next week im in DESPERATE NEED of a good highlight, malibu, and haircut. I can't do a thing with my hair. It's pony tails daily. UGLY!

Ok well thats the update for now!!! Chat with ya'll soon! Ill go climb some walls now since im crazy steriod girl who is STILL itching!

One last pic of "rotten"! He is too cute here... very decieving!

Saturday's Rock!

Aren't these two the cutest!!!

This is the look I get from her when I get my camera out at breakfast she can't stand it! LOL She's WAY too cool for that!

I just want to say that I love Saturday's. So we spent last night at Jessi's after we had our "High

School Musical Party"! Yes you heard me right we had a PARTY!!! Complete with their High School musical clothes! Well for the kids that is, for those of you who dont know, last night was the premiere of High School Musical 2 on Disney. Ken has been looking forward to this for a long time she watched the countdown for like 24 hours before it came on! She had a friend come along... another Taylor (Bentley). They had a wonderful time! The movie was good, they had pizza and then popcorn and treats (candy). We played the High School Musical DVD game that we got Taylor for her bday. Good Times!

So today was great... slept until 9:15 this morning and then got around and went to breakfast at hometown cafe in Grass Lake with all of our kids... let me tell ya we have too many dang kids! Between Jess and I we had 6!! I never thought id see that day! We left there and headed over to the Grass Lake park and had a great time. As you can see from the pictures I took an over abundance of pics. The girls were up for a little photo shoot and we did a lot of fun things... We decided to go over to the water and they hopped in to get their feet wet... well that ended in 3 little girls swimming in their clothes! It was so funny! We figured what the heck why not let them! It was cute! Lauren and Carson even got soaked! We had naked little babies leaving the park because of wet diapers!

Got back to Jessi's and all kiddos got a bath and then the two little ones went down for a nap. Guess where I could be found? Yeah napping with Lauren! It was wonderful... I guess thats why its now 1:30am and im up blogging!

We got up from there and then went into town for dinner at McD's (and playing in the play place) and then to Maggie Moo's for dessert.

We picked up our pottery from last weekend... turned out great!

Then home to here and now everyone is at my house. Me and Jess are the only ones up. I played with Elements and did some fun stuff with that. I love the new book my mom got me so im experimenting with that!

Well that's the update for now! Good night!

I leave you with FEET!

!

So finally I get the opportunity to sit down and blog. The computer has been unavailabe for a few days because Jason is working on his CAD program getting ready for things at work. So... i've been banned from the computer! Yeah it's driving me crazy!

Yesterday we had to get out of the house to give him some time to concentrate without any distractions, so we headed over to my grandparents to visit with them. Got some fun shots of Carson, but he has this if my mom takes out her camera I CANNOT look at her thing goin on. I HATE IT! As soon as I set the darn thing down he seriously looks at me! Who knew this day would come. Ugh!
Anyway... I captured a tantrum of him, yeah thats not difficult to do... so that was no feat! He gets over it pretty quickly, but none the less! I can't help but chuckle when he does this, seriously its pathetic! I find myself wondering what will the age of 2 look like if this is 15 months?!

Kenedey had a good day, she didn't have therapy because her physical therapist was out ill today. Mrs. Bosse (Kathy) called and asked her to come up to the school and help her do some things to get ready for school to start. Ken said she scanned books, put bar codes in and a few other things. I think she throughly enjoyed doing this. It makes me so thankful that she has this opportunity. I think it's wonderful for her to go and hang out with them in the library. Not something that everyone gets to experience!

I got a little present in the mail today! I got a new book for photoshop elements that my mom ordered for me at Barnes and Noble! It is wonderful!!! I LOVE IT! She also sent me a book called skinny bitch. I'll let you know how that one is very soon! Thank you momma!

Well, I better get to bed, early morning tomorrow, should be fun! Im hanging out with the Wallace's (monica) tomorrow afternoon. Pics to come!

NIGHT!

A girls day!!

Today was WONDERFUL! I got to spend the entire day with my wonderful girl Kenedey! We started out the morning at my work because it was my turn to work a Saturday, Ken loves to go in with me and she had a great time. We finished up there and headed out to a new place in Jackson called "Make it Yours". It is a paint your own pottery type of place. You get to choose whatever ceramic you want and then paint it. We spent about 2 hours there. It was a lot of fun.

We left there and went out for lunch at Olive Garden and had a wonderful lunch. We had great conversation. I sat there thinking to myself how grown up my litte girl has gotten. She is at a great age where she is still a little girl, but yet so capable of carrying on "grown up like" conversation. We talked about the upcoming school year and who she hoped her teacher would be, what kinds of things she wants to accomplish this year and etc. It was very cool. I feel so blessed to have such a neat kid in my life.

We went over to Kmart from there to check out their school supplies, Kenedey had seen a commercial with a backback at that store that she really liked. Let me tell you they had the LAMEST school supplies for kids and what do ya know, not the backpack she wanted. We left there with a cute binder and paper pack and then got the heck out of there. We went over to Target because I figured they have to have cute stuff there. We made out good. $65 later! LOL She got all her supplies and then some... she had to add in a few items to dress up her locker which included a clock a magnetic shelf type thing and a back pack. She did a great job picking out supplies and such. She's very choosy about what she wants! LOL I think thats a good thing!

We left there and I had to run into Office Depot for a few things then we went over to the Hospital because Ken needed to have her monthly labs drawn. She did great with that. As you know by now she has a huge fear of needles. She got sick before and all upset, but once she got in the chair to be drawn it was no problem at all.

This evening we are just hanging out at home. Im on the new computer and its WONDERFUL!!! So fast! It doesn't take me 6 hours to open Photoshop! LOL Im so glad! Daymian (Jason's nephew) is here to stay until Monday morning.. ill drop him off on my way to work and Jessica and her kids came over for a few hours just to visit. Well im off to make a new banner for this website! More later!

MIA

I have been missing from the blogging world. Once again I have just been so busy. I wish I could say its because I have been going to bed at a decent time, however thats just not the case. I have been still staying up late although making an effort to not go past midnight. My family gets a little frustrated with me because I am on the computer so much, but its tough not to be when I have so much to do on here! You know me and my hobbies... aka digital scrapbooking, photography (digital), internet window shopping, and blogging! Keeps me busy.

Hopefully my time will be cut soon in at least half. I spend a lot of time waiting because our computer has gotten old and we have filled up the memory with stuff that we use on here. WELL.... we fixed that today. Jason and I had a "date" day up in Ann Arbor. All we really did is just go shopping for a new computer and a few other things we needed up that way. We purchased a new/refurbished computer at Affordable Computers today. We are both WAY excited about it. It has been rebuilt to fit our specifications. It was an EXCELLENT deal. I dont worry about getting a refurbished one like that because J is a computer whiz dork and knows how to fix just about anything that can go wrong. The computer we have right now I think we bought about 7 years ago. In my opinion it has served it purpose and then some. We have done all the upgrading that can be done for what we need to be able to do and it has reached its limit. However, it wont be retiring too soon. We will still keep it hooked up so we can both use it for internet at the same time, and im sure Kenedey will use the old one for games and stuff like that.

Date day was fun to just be together. We really need to start doing stuff like that more often. I need to come up with more things that dont cost money. Thats usually why we dont do stuff... plus time. But we don't even get a chance to talk just the 2 of us with 2 kiddos. Dont get me wrong they are GREAT to have around, but you know just that time here and there for us im realizing how important it really is. We did find our selves talking lots about the kids though. I guess thats healthy! IT IS afterall what we have in common! DUH!

Jason went to spend time with his cousin tonight so the kids and I just went and had dinner at the little restraunt in Onsted. Carson made a little friend there named Sara and she gave him a little matchbox car. CUTE

We then stopped at the park to play a bit and then the movie store for Ken to get a movie. It was a great day all together! I haven't uploaded any new pics of the kids lately. I will do some this weekend mom I PROMISE!!!

Lyrics to below song

I LOVE THIS SONG! I like how it makes you feel like you ARE TOUGH! No matter what life throws at you brush it off and STAND!

"Stand"

You feel like a candle in a hurricane
Just like a picture with a broken frame
Alone and helpless
Like you've lost your fight
But you'll be alright, you'll be alright

[Chorus:]
Cause when push comes to shove
You taste what you're made of
You might bend, till you break
Cause its all you can take
On your knees you look up
Decide you've had enough
You get mad you get strong
Wipe your hands shake it off
Then you Stand, Then you stand
Life's like a novel
With the end ripped out
The edge of a canyon
With only one way down
Take what you're given before its gone
Start holding on, keep holding on

[Repeat Chorus]

Everytime you get up
And get back in the race
One more small piece of you
Starts to fall into place
Oh

[Repeat Chorus]

Stand - Rascal Flatts

My FAV SONG!

This is how WE do it!

Party that is! Or Celebrate if you want to call it that! Tonight Kenedey went and stayed the night with her friend Shelby. Carson went to bed at about 7:45 (barely a nap today) and Jason and I celebrated his new job and had a mom and dad's night playing Guitar Hero rocks the 80's. LOL Yeah now im over here on the computer because we beat it and now we have to play on the hard level and I CANT DO IT! I just get pissed because I cant do it as fast as that level goes! Yeah I think we are dorks, I can't believe this is what our life has come to! Good times! :-)

Can I just tell you....

HOW EXCITED I AM!!! First of all, its FRIDAY! Whoo Hoo! LOL yeah I love weekends! Here's the GREAT NEWS! Jason got a new job. As most of you know he has been working for the State of Michigan DNR since April. Well during the winter months they only do weekends because they are not as busy due to obviously the weather. So that cuts back $$ seriously when you are paid hourly. Well.... here's the good news. I haven't said ANYTHING to anyone because I didn't want to jinx it, but HE GOT A NEW REALLY GOOD JOB. He went to school when we were in Florida at ITT tech for Computer Aided Drafting/Design. Well, he is going to be working at Classic Turning in Jackson doing CAD.

This means so much for us! It's benefits for his diabetes havin butt, thats huge and with both of us with REAL jobs that means come January... WE CAN PROBABLY BUY A HOUSE!!!

It has sucked around our house lately too because I think underneath it all he was worried about not enough money coming in, and this opportunity I think is just meant to be. He is a computer guru anyway so im sure once he has this chance which someone was willing to give him he will exceed their expectations. I am sure he will be happy. This company that he is working for builds parts for Aircraft carriers. His cousin Joe works in the shop and has a pretty big role there. Joe tells us that the shop is doing extremely well despite the lousy economy! So enough jibber jabber about how excited I am for him and "us"! Good Job babe, im proud of you!

I have been SO busy!!!

74%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Brooklyn Singles from Mingle²

Well everyone out there, I am so sorry that I haven't had much time to blog lately. I have been super serious about going to bed on time and that is certainly cutting into my blogging time. Believe me I spend tons of time thinking about wanting to blog today and so on, but I just cant do it. So today I am doing it on my lunch at work! I have been so busy with other stuff on the computer editing photos and such. I desperately need a new computer. Mine is old and weve done all the updates it will allow. I think once we can afford one we will get a bare bones system and Jason will build it to suit us.

Kenedey is doing very well. I really noticed an improvement yesterday with her walking. She doesn't seem to be struggling so much to walk. She still has a ways to go, but were getting there. She had her 3rd shot last night and did AWESOME. I am so proud of her. We went over to the farm to visit the new little piggies at the farm. They are SO cute! I did take some pictures but I wont get them up right now, ill attempt to later.

Carson is doing great. He is getting another tooth and I think I felt a molar popping out yesterday!

I had a terrible migraine yesterday. I went home from work around noon to go crash and home. It was probably one of the worst I have ever had. None of the meds I took did a darn thing except make me even more tired. I can still feel the residual behind my right eye today, but its SUCH a relief because its gone. Sure makes me feel for chronic suffers of migraines it's so debilitating to me. I hate that feeling. I have way too much on my plate to be laid up because of a stupid headache.

Kenedey has to have blood work drawn next week so I think we are going to make a girls day of it... we will probably go get her labs drawn and then out to lunch and then maybe a trip to the pottery place where you paint your pottery (in Jackson). Should be fun! It's rare her and I get to do stuff just the 2 of us without the monster child! So that's the plan!

In other news... yeah not much else! Its VERY HOT here in Michigan I think it's supposed to hit 100 degrees today! Yuck! It's the type where you feel like you can't breathe when you walk outside.

Ok thats it for today!