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.

Friday, October 30, 2009

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Five Question Friday

I've never done 5 question friday but it looks like fun. Thanks to Mama M for doing this.

Rules: Copy and paste the following questions to your blog, answer them, grab the MckLinky Blog Hop code, and link up! No blog? That's okay! Just leave your answers in my comments! Oh, I'd love it if you'd link back to me!


Five Question Friday, 10/30:


1. What were you doing the last time you really had a good laugh?


2. Who was your first CELEBRITY crush?


3. What is one talent that you wish you had?


4. How often do you and your spouse go out w/o the kids? Is it frequent enough?


5. What colour(s) is your bedroom?


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1. What were you doing the last time you really had a good laugh?

Yesterday I came in to lay down by Colby and he started laughing really hard at me. He laughed for almost an hour. He kept trying to roll away from me and was just really silly and giggly. It was so much fun to watch him be that happy. I don't think he's laughed that hard since his last surgery in April.


2. Who was your first CELEBRITY crush?

I had to laugh when Mama M. said her crush was Donny Walburg because mine was actually Joey. I hung onto that crush FAR longer than most girls did. I remember the bag I puffy painted with NKOTB all over it. Makes me laugh thinking about it again.

3. What is one talent that you wish you had?

Goodness there are tons I'd love to have but most involve music. I wish I could play the piano, the violin and the cello. Wish I could sing. Stuff like that.

4. How often do you and your spouse go out w/o the kids? Is it frequent enough?

Are you supposed to go out with your spouse and no children? Really? The last time we went out without one of the kids was to see Angels and Demons. Sad I know. We were going to go before John's back surgery but life happened and well now we're two weeks post op and he's only able to sit up for about 20 minutes so it'll be awhile.

5. What colour(s) is your bedroom?

White. It's a rental. Plus I just took down the curtains that were here in the house when we moved in so it's even more white. I've really got to get some curtains up or something.







Wednesday, October 28, 2009

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Can I get a little diaper rash cream?



Riley, Riley, Riley. You make me want to scream some days. Today was one of them. You woke up at 6:30 this morning yelling "Mom I awake, I ready to get out" Sometimes I wonder how you get so much volume out of such a little body. Your proceeded to terrorize your older sister, following her around and hitting her all morning. How I love to hear your sounds of love. Once Jahnna and Colby were safely off to school you asked innocently to watch "t" or tv. So I let you watch Word World. Oh how I regret that choice.

I figured I would get a load of dishes done while you watched cartoons. It would be a nice quite little break for me. I don't love quiet when it regards you. You came into the kitchen and said "See mommy I pretty."
You are. That's all I can say. It's a good thing your so cute. You had covered your sweet little face with Boudreaux Butt Paste. It was all over your clean shirt (the second one of the day) and your skirt and leggings. The dread began to swell in my head. I asked you to show me where you made yourself pretty. You said "Colby's room"

So off we went down the hall. Someday I know you will be a rich artist and I will look back on all of this with laughter but probably not today. You had painted your brothers oxygen concentrator, his IV pole that hangs his feeding tube and bag, his bed, his oxygen sat monitor, his bed skirt, and the dresser. I muttered a few things and got busy cleaning you up. If only I had known this was just the beginning.

After Colby got home you were cranky. So off to nap time you went. HA HA HA. Right. You decided to throw everything out of your crib and then yell at the top of your lungs "Mom I awake I not tired". So down you came. I started another cartoon for you and your brother because I needed to get some laundry folded. Who am I kidding? Some laundry? Try 7 loads or so. Anyway I got busy and I figured since I was only 1 room away I'd be safe from any disasters. HA.

You found a tube of A&D ointment. How you find these things I will never know. I swear I put them away or at least try to hide them from you. This time you did your hair, your shirt, your pants, the bed, Colby's wheelchair, his favorite spiderman hat, his spiderman backpack, his dynavox computer stands, the tv and the dresser the tv sits on. I walked in to get you ready to get in the car and almost screamed! As it is I said NO really loudly and took the tube away from you. You looked up at me and said "Member I say I sowee Mommy"  What was I supposed to say to that? I stripped off your clothes (by this time we were on your 5th outfit of the day) quickly washed your hair 3 times, got you dressed and into a jacket since it was only 32 degrees outside and got you into the car. Then I got Colby into the car. He was laughing the whole time and looked at me like he thought you were crazy.

We got home and I came downstairs to check some email. You were in the toy room but not for long. After about 15 minutes I heard you crying. I went searching for you. I looked upstairs in all your usual hiding places. I checked closets, bathrooms and in cupboards but I couldn't find you. I went downstairs and searched. You scared me to death. I couldn't find you anywhere. Finally I heard you knocking on the front door. Lucky me You figured out how to open it. I guess we'll be using the deadbolt during the day from now on. Your fingers were freezing and your little nose was red.

I think from now on I will tie a rope to you so you are never more than 5 feet away from me. Only that scares me a little. I think you might just be old enough now to end up tying me up and still causing mass amounts of chaos on our family. It's a good thing your so cute little girl and that I love you so much! It's also good that you are safely sound asleep in your crib right now so I don't have to worry about what you are getting into.

Monday, October 26, 2009

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Some OCD and a bit of Not Me Monday



Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.




I would never wait until the last minute before a Halloween party to get Colby a costume. I did manage to get Jahnna hers about two weeks ago and Riley's we've had for two years. Colby only wanted to be spiderman this year. Funny boy he's on a spider  man kick. He wouldn't even look at any other costumes. He kept turning his head away. So I'm good with a $10 costume from Smith's it works for me!



Here is our little caterpillar. In her words she is an angel caterpillar because everything must be prefaced with angel. If she gets in trouble she tells me "I not in trouble I an angel like grandma" Oh the fun times we have with our precious angel. I have never not once told her she is an angel with horns.



I would never forget to buy Halloween face paint and instead use up the last of my eyeliner to draw a very crooked face on Jahnna. She loved it though. And no she is not JUST a kitty. She is a Velveteen Kitty and no one better forget it!



I did not take 5 pictures of Colby until I finaly got one of him smiling. That would be torture right?





Ok onto the OCD part of today's post. I cut recipes out of magazines. Recipes I will probably never ever use. I got started doing this while Colby was in the hospital. I dreaded the cafeteria and every tuesday when the new shipment of magazines would come into the gift shop (how sad I know the delivery day!!!) I would go pick up 3 or 4 new ones and drool over the pretty pictures of good food. So in my infinite wisdom I decided to save all these yummy recipes so that one day I could make them for my family. It's been two years since Colby's stroke and I can't stop!!!!!! Someone help me please!!!! John saw my basket of clipped recipes and told me I needed to put them in a binder so maybe I might use them. I think he was trying to hint at me making something other than taquitos and pizza but I'll just say he was being helpful.



That's a stack of magaines waiting to be shredded in my search for recipes. I don't even really like Rachel Rays recipes. She uses way to many ingredients if you ask me but I still do it. Again someone help me please!!!!!


This is the first binder I filled. Yes I said first.


This is the second. It's smaller but that's just cause I didn't have a different one. Sick I know!


Because I'm not done. This is the basket that still has recipes in it. I ran out of sheet protector pages!


This is the pile that still had to go into the basket you just saw. The basket is full but at least I have no more magazines to ripe up. Except that I almost got one at the grocery store this morning. I stopped myself. Maybe it's the first step to recovery! And just so I couldn't say I'd never used a single recipe yesterday I made Pumpkin pancakes that were just like eating pumpkin pie for breakfast. Even Riley ate them, which is a miracle in and of itself. She never eats anything! So I've decided that maybe I better start to use my new resource. Wish me luck. Does anyone else have a crazy thing you do like this? If so leave me a comment and make me feel better about myself! Thanks!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

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Swagbucks

So I signed up for this search site. You enter in your info and get a tool bar for your webpage. Then when you do searches or buy things on the internet you go through this site. It earns you swagbucks. You can exchange them for amazon gift certificates and tons of other stuff. If you'd like to help me out or learn more just click on this link and it will take you to the website for more info. If you sign up I'd love it since you'd be helping me with my Christmas shopping for free and you could earn swagbucks toward your own Christmas shopping. See it's a win win for everyone!

Search & Win

Monday, October 19, 2009

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Not Me Monday



Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I would never laugh for over 5 minutes at my two year old. That would be wrong. But what are you supposed to do when she says in a fake crying voice
Riley "I'm crying."
Me "Why are you crying"
Riley "Becausa you washa my hair. So I cry."
Me "Why does washing your hair make you cry?"
Riley "Because you mean ta me. You washa my hair and say die baby die."

She was pretending to shake her baby as she was saying this to me. Now to clarify, I don't shake my children and I have never told any of my children to die baby die so where this flair for the dramatic ccomes from I don't know. I couldn't help it I had to laugh.

I also would never take my kids with me to the hospital to visit John when there is a no kids under 12 policy in place. I figure if you add up 6, 4 and 2 that equals 12 right? They never clarified and said each child has to be 12! I wouldn't walk in like I own the place, making no excuses and pretending I don't know that kids aren't supposed to be there. That would be wrong. Or right depending on how you look at it and how much money our insurance has paid to the hospital. Plus I've personally written this hospital a check for $10,000 for Colby to have hyperbaric treatments there so I really don't feel that bad about pretending I own the place!

I would never cringe when the physicians assistant put up an x-ray showing what John's back would look like after they placed the $80,000 worth of titanium rods into his back. I would tell him "ok that's enough of that picture you can take it down now." I mean that would mean I was a big wuss and you'd think after everything I've seen in hospitals over the last 2 years that a stinking x-ray wouldn't totally give me the creeps and make me have chills while I'm typing about it a week later.

I also would never go to a Japanese restaurant order a spicy tuna roll, a tiger roll and gyoza and eat it all by myself as a treat to myself! I went for John and I but by the time I got back to the hospital he was asleep from his hydrocodone and perkaset (don't know how you spell that and don't want to look it up). So I ate half there, woke him up told him I was going home to can some jam and syrup and then ate the other half for dinner. That would be totally selfish and a complete waste of money but man was it good!

Monday, October 12, 2009

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Not Me Monday



Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I would never get the flu one day go to bed at 7:00 that night. Be miserable all night long, get my kids off to school the next morning and then go back to bed until noon. During this time my two year old would not have free rein of the house. After I woke up at noon I felt so much better and be fine less than 24 hours after starting to feel sick. That would be a crazy day in my life. Honestly I just think I'm blessed and since Colby's stroke I don't get very sick anymore. I think the Lord knows we have to much going on for me to be sick for very long. And on that note I would never jinx myself by making a statement like that!

I would not feed my family chicken nuggets and taquitoes all week either because I didn't feel like cooking. I am one of those wonder women who bake my bread every day and make healthy and nutritious ground from scratch meals and snacks. Or not! Much to my dismay I've never been super at cooking even after taking foods (yes that's what it was called!) in highschool for two years. Plus I even won the semester cook off three out of four semesters I was in there. How did that happen and how have I sunk so low! Just kidding. I totally only beat myself up about it when I'm craving home made bread!

I would not skip therapy for Colby this week because it was the day I had the flu. He should always go to therapy every day he can because he needs it. Ok I just didn't feel like dragging myself out of the house plus I'm sure that the lovely therapists at therapy appreciate me not bringing my germs to them!

I also would never dread my husbands up coming surgery simply for the reason that I'm tired all the time and I don't want to handle Colby and him at the same time. That would be being a horrible wife. I thought I had it bad with him when he had his last back surgery and that one wasn't a fusion. Plus it was pre Colby's stroke so all I was dealing with was a two year old and a 6 month old the first time. He's supposed to be out of work for 12-16 weeks for this one. I might just go crazy! I hope my back holds up trying to get him up and around and then having to lift and transfer Colby also. Pretty soon I'm going to have to break down and get a manual lifting aid for Colby that will help me get him into his wheelchair and bathtub and stuff like that but I'm holding out on those items for as long as I possibly can. It's not like we don't have a ton of other medical equipment in our home.

And finally back to the cooking issue. I would never ever ever put chicken on the stove to cook on high (why high I don't know it sounded like a good thing at the time) then come downstairs get distracted by blogfrog discussions and realize that I had burnt it all to a crisp. AGAIN! You'd think I would have learned my lesson the first time but I didn't! Oh well.

Monday, October 5, 2009

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Not Me Monday



Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Ok here we go. I have an insane headache and am super tired right now so if it doesn't make sense sorry in advance.

I would never burst out laughing when my 2 year old was trying to bless our dinner. John kept trying to help her and the conversation went something like this.
John - Heavenly Father
Riley - Hevedly Fader
John - Thank you for this day
Riley - Yes
John - Riley say Thank you for this day
Riley - Yes
John - Thank you for this day
Riley - Yes
John - Please bless the food
Riley - Yes
John - Riley say please bless the food
Riley - Yes
John - In the name of Jesus Christ Amen
Riley - AMEN. Mommy I did it. I blessa food.

Sometimes she can be such an agreable child. Other times not so much
Like at 3:00 in the morning when she starts screaming Mom I frowed up at the top of her lungs. I did not groan out loud and say Riley couldn't you have kept it in the bed? I always show complete sympathy for my children. Especially when I"ve been up at 12:00, 1:00. 2:00, 3:00 for the throw up fest and then 4:30, 5:30 and 6:00 at which time I gave up and just got up.

I also would never tell Jahnna that she couldn't brush her hair on the way to school because she had spent a half an hour screaming at me that she couldn't find her shoes this morning. Jahnna immediately burst into tears when I told her she had to put on socks and shoes today instead of wearing flip flops. I'm the worlds meanest mom because I wouldn't let her wear flip flops when it's supposed to snow today. So since she spent a half an hour crying over lost shoes I wasn't about to let her use my brush. Mean I know but hopefully she might learn to put her shoes away, instead of putting them behind a hamper in her sisters bedroom. How did they even end up there?

That's all I've got today. Seriously I've had a headache since Riley clocked me in the cheek bone with the telephone last week. Why did she throw the phone at me? I don't know. Why do 2 year olds do any of the things they do? The headache went away for the day but I've had a headache every day since then. If I could take Hydrocodone I would but I'm afraid it would knock me out and then who would take care of Colby? Who is yelling at me cause he's laying on the floor next to me and not holding him. Oh well life is never dull around here.