Gustav, Hanna, etc.

I feel like a little kid. I want to dig in my heels and fold my arms and just yell, "NO!" I am so not emotionally ready for these damn storms. The prep is mostly done, and now we wait. I went to the store last night and it was nuts. Many many empty shelves. No bread, fruit, canned meat, toilet paper, paperplates/cups, batteries, bottled water, more I am sure. I just hate that this thing is 6 days away and could go anywhere in the gulf, but because everyone around us is panicing, I have to go through this prep with a bunch of idiots. I believe in being ready. But do the shelves of the stores have to be empty 6 days ahead of time? NO! That's retarded! This whole town needs to take a chill pill.

And those stupid storms need to go away!

Healing well

I took the bandage off to peek, and Gregory's cut is healing nicely.

"Mom, I hurt myself."

Nothing will stop you in your tracks like the sight of your child bleeding.

Yesterday, I had called my friend Brandie and told her I'd come over and help her get some clothes washed and dinner made & allow her to get a shower. I was leaving about 1:00, and Greg reminds me we are supposed to go to a birthday party at his office at 2:00 (free awesome food). So, okay, I'll go a little later than planned. I ran out for a quick errand, then came home to get ready. It was nearly 2:00, and I asked Gregory to put on a shirt from his closet (his *nicer* casual shirts). I was in the bathroom when I heard him say, "Mom, I hurt myself." I have NEVER heard that before. I go into his room and he has his hand to the side of his neck and there's blood just pouring down his hand and neck. I thought he'd stabbed himself in the neck with something. My first words were to Greg; "we may need to go to the ER." I have NEVER said that before. I asked, and he said he'd slipped on a blanket and hit his head on the doorjamb.

I got him into the bathroom and started cleaning him up to find the wound. It looked very small, but I realized I'd have to cut some hair to get to it. As I began to cut, I saw it was bigger than I originally thought (but not huge). The scissors weren't helping much, so I got Greg's clippers out. Gregory claimed to be in no pain, but it was awful (for me) to be using that machine so close to his open wound. It stopped bleeding pretty quickly and I decided it could be closed with butterfly strips. I found the ones I had, but they were so old... So off I go to get new strips. When I got back he was still doing well, playing the video game rental that he got in the mail. Back in the bathroom again, I cleaned up the little bit of blood that had dried on it, put Neosporin on it, and put 2 butterfly strips on it.



Not much later, the strips were beginning to fall off and Greg said it really needed to be shaved with a razor. And I thought using the clippers was disturbing! I never want to have to shave around a wound again! That was traumatic (for me!). Still through it all, he complained of no pain. He was a little mad about the blanket that made him slip (I do feel responsible for that. All of the blankets and sleeping bags from the slumber party are piled in the corner by his closet. It's a corner I don't see unless I am in his room, so I just don't think of it). And he was a bit concerned about how his hair would look. After the fact, he wanted me to shave the other side to match. My first reaction was "No", but if he asks again, I'll do it. It's his hair.

Thankfully, it's the back of his head, on the left side. He never saw me cutting, and the faces I was making while doing it. And it really won't show. There's enough hair left over it to cover the gap. He thought I was crazy for taking a picture, but he is a bit proud of his war wound.



He's in his room, yelling at the video game. All is well.
:)

more baby love

Let's see - Saturday night, before being born, her name was changed from Melina to Alina. And Sunday night it was changed to Alena. Alena Kristine, final answer. :)

(Almost) the whole family. Missing is big brother Devin, age 15, who lives with his dad.

Brandie and her little girls...

Eyes wide open!

A new baby to love

Well it's just been a good baby weekend. We saw all of our babies in New Orleans yesterday. And today, Alina Kristine finally made her grand entrance. Brandie had called me last night to let me know it wouldn't be long. I was suprised she made it all night. She called me about 10:30 AM & said she was hurting, was going to call her doctor and go lie down for a while, but let me know to be ready. She called me back within 10 minutes & said I'm having a baby! This is baby #6. Number 5 came within 2 hours of labor, 20 minutes after getting to the hospital. I got to her house about 10 mintues later and it took us a good 15 minutes to get out the door. She was really hurting and not even responding to our questions. She was just concentrating on breathing. So I put on my flashers and off we went. I ran red lights carefully and flew down the interstate. We got to the hospital, got her in a wheel chair, and then she and her husband went back for assessment. When they hadn't called us to join her in 10 minutes, I knew she'd given birth already. I was right. Alina was born before all of the admission paperwork was done. But we still got to see her right away. She was having some breathing trouble, so she went to the nursery for a couple of hours. Her hands and feet were somewhat blue for a little while, but that gradually got better and she was nice and pink all over. She was just born so fast she didn't get much contraction squeezing which helps clear the lungs. Big sister Angelina and I finally left about 5 PM when things had all settled down, and my camera batteries were out. :)

But it's good to be home to my own baby...

Alex's Birthday

Alex will likely be the newest addition to our extended family. He is the son of my nephew's live-in girlfriend. (nothing complicated or anything, LOL!) Anyway, he's adorable, and he turned 5 this week. Plus it was a chance to see my niece and nephews and all of their babies, which is a rarity since my sisters are not speaking to each other (that's a long stupid story, so we'll skip it).

And then we stopped in to visit Stella too. She was wearing the crocs we got her as an infant. They were so big at the time compared to her tiny feet, I never dreamed she'd wear them this soon. Of course, at 9 months, they are just an accessory. She is very close to standing alone!


Oh, and the day began with Greg going to a job fair @ the Army Corps of Engineers office. I love the irony that their office is on Leake Ave! Anhoo, his cousin that works there was at the job fair and introduced him to a few key people. It almost sounds like it's just a matter of which job Greg wants! There's still a financial miracle needed for us to be able to move, but "signing bonuses" aren't unheard of. Also, they'll buy our house if it doesn't sell after 6 months. This could happen quickly! Or, it could take quite a while. Who knows. But it looks like we will be going,sooner or later.

Still celebrating

Yesterday we went to New Orleans to celebrate Greg's birthday with my sister and her granddaughter Kayla (almost 9). It was a beautiful day, and the kids got along well. They don't always, she can be very mean, and when prevoked, so can he. But when it's just the 2 of them, and most especially if they are outside, they get along pretty well. It was a nice day.

Video Game Blowout

My boy turned 10 last Tuesday, and Saturday night he had a slumber party. We made tickets for his all night video game blowout and sent to about 10 friends. We ended up with 7 boys, aged 7 - 12 who ALL made it to daylight! It was so fun to watch a few of them as they beat their record for staying up late. We had video games going in two rooms, sometimes 3, plus hand-helds-a-plenty. Everyone had a great time.

We started the day with a special visit from Stella and all my in-laws. It was her first time here.


Then friends started arriving later in the afternoon for cake and such.


Later in the evening, my nephew and his family brought Chase for the sleepover. It was Joey's first visit here too.


But Mikey's beginning to know his way around...


After all the grownups left, the blowout was on!




We did have one little girl here - Angelina. She's 4, and her 3 brother's were staying, so I said just let her stay. I really expected to have to bring her home late that night, but she did fine. She asked to call her mom around 11. She said, "I want to call her, but I don't want to go sleep there." After that, she started playing one of the games they had going in the living room, and winning. She was beating everyone. The boys were calling "Next!" over who'd play this 4 year old girl next.


Angelina was the only one to fall asleep, around 1:30. She played till she dropped.


I have to admit, around 4:30 I was giddy. I had made some coffee at about 3 AM, but that just made me wired and giddy. Greg was dozing now and again, but I stayed awake. It was rough, but I wasn't going to just arbitrarily make them shut it down so I could sleep. So I began awaiting sunrise. At sunrise, I could tell them they'd all officially stayed awake all night, and then send them off to Gregory's room to watch a DVD. And that's exactly what I did. I had already told Gregory what I was going to do, and he was okay with it since he wanted his friends to see his new Invader Zim DVDs anyway. By 5:30 I was staring outside praying to see the break of dawn. And it finally came around 6:15.


So I went around the house, gathering boys as the game rounds ended, then brought them all outside for a picture (not very good since I really couldn't see).


I then told them all that they'd officially made it, but I needed to sleep. I asked that they all go to Gregory's room, grab a pillow and a comfy spot and watch the new DVDs. I let them know they didn't have to sleep, but I wanted them to stay in his room (with the exception, of course, of needing the bathroom). It got quiet quickly, and I went to bed. What I didnt know was that Greg got up shortly after that and was occassionally peeking in on them. He tried to take a picture, but couldn't figure my camera out (eyes rolling). He said they were piled everywhere, like a pack of little wolves. Anyway, he said they all slept until at least 10. He let me sleep til 11. :)

Everyone was gone by about 2. I drove about 45 minutes away to meet my niece-in-law to return Chase. We had leftovers for dinner and all turned in about 9:00. Gregory was still awake when I fell asleep around 10:30, but barely. He slept until 12:40 Monday afternoon.

It was quite exhausting, I still feel *off*, but I am so glad we did it. And so thankful for friends who let us keep their kids up all night. All of these kids have bed times and game limits at home, and no one gave us any grief about doing this or asked us to do any limiting. My son had exactly the party he wanted and I couldn't be happier for him.