Amundsen House of Chaos

Let's face it, when you have a kid who survived a stroke, life is always going to be a little chaotic.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

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Not much going on

So nothing much has been happening lately. We are still waiting for orders to move down to Salt Lake. Stupid army can never decide if they want you to stay or go so as of now the slot is reserved for John at the sandy office but it will take another month to get orders cut. So maybe 4 months maybe 3 who knows.

Riley is sick. She is quite possibly the most clingy child when she feels the slightest illness. She is literally sleeping on top of my chest at night. Fluid on the ear, red throat and cutting canine teeth all at the same time makes my life peachy!

I'm on this insane Hcg diet so I get the priveledge of only eating 500 calories a day. Yes this is technically a starvation diet but the hormones yada yada yada it all works out and you don't actually starve to death even though I could go to an all you can eat buffet right this second and I don't think there would be a single bite of food left for anyone else. Supposedly the hunger goes away around tomorrow. We shall see. So in 9 days of starving myself I have lost 6.5 pounds. which is actually right on track. I'm supposed to go 40 days but I have given myself permission to stop in another 14 if I don't feel like continuing on. You have to do 23 days so that is when it will be 23 days.

Pretty much that is it. I'm tired and hungry and a little crank. I think I'll go find a cup of cabbage soup and eat it.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

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Partly Sunny

Jahnna cracks me up. We were driving home from therapy and she said "Mom, look it's partly sunny outside" I said "How about mostly cloudy?" She says "No, look right there it's partly sunny." It was the tiniest litle sliver of sunshine coming through the dark gray clouds. You just gotta love a childs optimism. I guess I should focus more on the partly sunny than the mostly cloudy. It's good to learn from your kids.

Friday, January 2, 2009

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Welcome to Holland

I just saw this little story and and felt it represented our life this past year. I realized that I have come to appreciate Holland in spite of my desire to go to Italy. It almost feels like we were in Italy for awhile but woke up one day and found we were in Holland. Even though our plans have changed I have realized that Holland has taught me more than I ever thought I could learn or appreciate.

WELCOME TO HOLLANDBy Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a
disability – to try to help people who have not shared the unique
experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like
this:

When you are going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous
vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your
wonderful plans. The Coliseum. Michelangelo' s "David." The gondolas
in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very
exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack
your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The
flight attendant comes and says, "Welcome to Holland." "Holland?" you
say. "What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy. All my life
I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plans. They've landed in
Holland, and there you must stay. The important thing is that they
haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full of
pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. You must learn a whole new
language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would
never have met. It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than
Italy, less flashy than Italy.

But after you've been there awhile and you catch your breath, you
look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills,
Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and
they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And
for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where I was
supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the loss
of that dream is a very significant loss. But if you spend your life
mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free
to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

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More pictures


Jahnna and dad building an igloo on the back porch.




Going out to play


Video games with dad


Yes you must hold a gun to play war games. It's some sort of rule in my home. In order to watch a war movie or play a video game a real gun must be present. Unloaded of course.


Uncle Travis taking Uncle Galen out while Colby tried to shoot him.


Setting off bottle rockets in the snow! You gotta love the fireworks from Battle Mountain in NV.


Jahnna dancing with Uncle Galen.


Riley looking cool in Daddy's hat.


John corrupting the nieces with temporary tattoo's. Tessa loved them Allie wouldn't let him touch her. It was pretty funny.


Colby, Allie, and Jahnna


Riley playing the harmonica


The price we pay for good fashion. Jahnna wouldn't take them off even though they didn't fit.


Princess Jahnna


Helping Dad unwrap his gun.

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Happy New Year

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. Here are some of the pictures from Christmas off of my brothers camera. I still haven't downloaded mine so more will be coming.