March 11, 2013

Weekend Recap

 

We'll start with a self pic of Hank & I from Friday morning.  It was a good morning and we were both excited for the weekend!

 

 

I started to get a headache at work on Friday morning & it just progressively got worse.  By 2:30 I felt like I was going to die so I left work for the day to go home & try to sleep it off.  I slept from about 3:00 until 6:30 and felt a little better when I woke up.  I still had a headache, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was before I laid down.  When Creag got home from the gym & the kids left with their Dad we met his parents at Rio Grande for dinner.  I got my usual Taco Salad & a Margarita.  After we ate, Yvonne & Dave left & Creag & I finished our drinks at the bar.  We left & stopped at the Red Box to get a few movies.  I didn't make it through the first 5 minutes & Creag was asleep shortly after.

 

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Saturday morning, I slept in and Creag went for his run.  He had 12 miles to do this weekend, but didn't make it through it all.  He called me while I was cleaning to come & pick him up.  He's had a rough time training due to cramping & he thinks that he has the problem narrowed down to either a stress fracture on shin splints.  He's taking a few days off of training to hopefully let it heal.  He may end up at the Dr this week, we'll see.  After he was home we picked up the house a little more & took a nap then went to run some errands.  We ended up in Crestview Hills & had dinner at John Phillips.  We had a gift card from Christmas that Michael had gotten us.  We ended up just ordering appetizers and a few drinks.  After dinner, we drove out to Cincinnati to check out the Horseshoe Casino that just opened last week.  Creag had already been once, but I had not.  It was very crowded & took awhile to get a drink but we had a good time.  Pete met us out there so we hung out with him for a bit and then afterwards stopped for some late night Taco Bell & a UDF Sundae.

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning, we slept in and then went to First Watch for breakfast.  After breakfast, we walked around Crestview Hills Shopping Center & did a little shopping.  We found new luggage on clearance @ Macy's and bought sunglasses for our trip coming up in a few weeks.  After that, Creag was avoiding going into work, so we stopped in The Pub for a Bloody Mary. 

 



 

Creag ended up going into work for a few hours after we left & I went into Florence in search of a few things to complete the gallery wall that we were putting up in our Living Room.  We met back at home & Creag hung our new TV in the Living Room while I did some cleaning AGAIN.  It never ends.  We had my parents over for dinner on Sunday night & we grilled out burgers & watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall on the new TV.  After they left & we had the kids in bed, we hung everything up in the Living Room & it turned out amazing.  I really love it.  I think I'm going to paint the wall the same color as the rest of the Living Room w/in the next few weeks & then it'll be complete.

 

 

This week shouldn't be that eventful so hopefully we'll be able to get caught up with a few more things around the house and just relax!

 

 



 







March 8, 2013

HYPOPHOSPHATASIA

Around September of last year, after Wyatt had lost his first two teeth at such a young age I started to get pretty concerned.  Skylar & Hank had not started losing teeth until well after 5.  Probably closer to 6 so I just knew that this was not normal.  Our neighbor had referred a Dentist that she takes her kids to, Dr. Greenhill of Union Pediatrics Dentistry.  They were able to get him scheduled right away.  They did a regular cleaning on him and then the Dr. Greenhill took a look at him.  He definitely agreed that he was very young to be losing teeth, but said that it may be nothing to be concerned about.  He said that he'd like to take x-rays to make sure that he didn't have anything going on that he couldn't see.

 

The x-rays came back, and he did have bone loss in the bone under the gums.  He saw it mostly on the bottom & couldn't really see any on the top, but he had moved during the X-Ray.  Dr. Greenhill recommended that we follow up with Wyatt's Pediatrician to have his blood drawn to rule out this very uncommon Genetic Disease called Hypophosphatasia.  I had also explained to him earlier in the appt how off his teeth looked when they came out so he asked me to email him a picture if I had one.  The root was extremely long & I had never seen anything like it.

 

 

I scheduled his appt with the Family Dr and he said he thought it was very unlikely that Wyatt had Hypophosphatasia, but he gave us orders to go to the hospital to have his blood drawn.  The first time that we went was an evening after work & we pre-registered & waited.  When it was his turn, the girl at the desk asked me if Wyatt had been fasting.  I said of course he hasn't been fasting, it's 6PM.  I was never told he had to fast, so I just asked if he could give the urine sample.  He was able to do that, but the following day I got a call saying that the urine was not stored properly so he needed a re-test.  That wasn't that big of a deal since we had to go back anyway.  We went back over the weekend & he fasted.  He gave a urine sample again & they drew his blood and he took it like a champ!  We left, thinking we were done.  Last time we had to go.  FALSE.  We got another call that they didn't store the blood correctly, so we had to come back again, but he did not have to fast this time.  They drew it the second time and he still took it good, but not as well as the first time.  Got a call a few days later that they STILL did not store it correctly & at this point I was pissed.  I felt horrible for Wyatt for having to go through this.  This was not necessary & they're mistake and they needed to fix it!  I spoke to the manager of the lab & he reassured me that they had given specific instructions & he apologized & offered us some stupid coupons that we didn't even use.  Wyatt took it the hardest the third time, but still better than I expected.  His blood work came back and pointed to Hypophosphotasia, so we were then directed to follow up at Children's Medical Center in Cincinnati with a Genetics Dr.  We made the appt & during the appt the Dr said that he did in fact have Hypophosphatasia.  He said that he was very healthy looking though and just recommended a bone density scan to see if any other parts of his body were being affected & then said to come back to see him in 6 months.  He also recommended that he not play physical sports.  He recently had the bone density scan & even though I have not heard back from the Dr at Childrens, the the tech said that his spine looked normal so that was a huge relief!

 

He just had a cleaning at the Dentist on Monday and had no cavities or any other loose teeth which is great.  They did a few more X-Rays and the Dr said that he may have a little bit of bone loss in the back of his mouth but nothing serious.  Again, he moved a little so it was hard for him to tell.  He said we'll just keep an eye on him & we'll come up with a game plan as we go.

 

 

What is Hypophosphatasia (HPP)?

Hypophosphatasia is an inherited metabolic (chemical) bone disease that results from low levels of an enzyme called alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Enzymes are proteins that act in the body's chemical reactions by breaking down other chemicals. ALP is normally present in large amounts in bone and liver. In hypophosphatasia, abnormalities in the gene that makes ALP lead to production of inactive ALP. Subsequently, several chemicals - including phosphoethanolamine, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (a form of vitamin B6) and inorganic pyrophosphate - accumulate in the body and are found in large amounts in the blood and urine of people with Hypophosphatasia. It appears that the accumulation of inorganic pyrophosphate is the cause of the characteristic defective calcification of bones in infants and children (rickets) and in adults (osteomalacia).

Nevertheless, the severity of hypophosphatasia is remarkably variable from patient-to-patient. The most severely affected fail to form a skeleton in the womb and are stillborn. The most mildly affected patients may show only low levels of ALP in the blood, yet never suffer bony problems.

In general, patients are categorized as having "perinatal", "childhood" or "adult" hypophosphatasia depending on the severity of the disease, which in turn is reflected by the age at which bony manifestations are first detected. Odontohypophosphatasia refers to children and adults who have only dental, but not skeletal, problems (premature loss of teeth).

The x-ray changes are quite distinct to the trained eye. Similarly, the diagnosis of hypophosphatasia is largely substantiated by measuring ALP in the blood (a routine test) that is low in hypophosphatasia. However, it is important that the doctors use appropriate age ranges for normals when interpreting an ALP level.

Prevalence

It has been estimated that severe forms of hypophosphatasia occur in approximately one per 100,000 live births. The more mild childhood and adult forms are probably somewhat more common. About one out of every 200 individuals in the United States may be a carrier for hypophosphatasia

Prognosis

The outcome following a diagnosis of hypophosphatasia is very variable. In general, the earlier the diagnosis is made the more severe the skeletal manifestations. Cases with severe, not mild, deformity at birth almost always have a lethal outcome within days or weeks. When the diagnosis is made before six months of age, some infants have a downhill and fatal course, others survive and may even do well. When diagnosed during childhood, there can by presence or absence of skeletal deformity from underlying rickets, but premature loss of teeth (less than five years of age) is the most common manifestation. Adults may be troubled by recurrent fractures in their feet and painful, partial fractures in their thigh bones.

Symptoms

Depending on the severity of the skeletal disease, there may be deformity of the limbs and chest. Pneumonia can result if chest distortion is severe. Recurrent fractures can occur. Teeth may be lost prematurely, have wide pulp (inside) chambers, and thereby be predisposed to cavities.

Inheritance Factors

The severe perinatal and infantile forms of hypophosphatasia are inherited as autosomal recessive conditions. The patient receives one defective gene from each parent. Some more mild (childhood or adult) hypophosphatasia cases are also inherited this way. Other mild adult and odonto hypophosphatasia cases seem to be inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern (the patient gets just one defective gene, not two, transmitted from one of his/her parents). In this form, mild hypophosphatasia can occur from generation-to-generation. The perinatal form of hypophosphatasia can often be detected during pregnancy by ultrasound and by measuring ALP activity in chorionic villus samples from amniocentesis.

Individuals with hypophosphatasia and parents of children with hypophosphatasia are encouraged to seek genetic counseling to explain the likelihood and severity of hypophosphatasia recurring in their families.

Treatments

As yet, there is no cure for hypophosphatasia and no proven medical therapy. Some medications are being evaluated. Treatment is generally directed towards preventing or correcting the symptoms or complications.

Expert dental care and physical therapy are recommended. An orthopaedic procedure called "rodding" may be especially helpful for adults with painful partial fractures in their thigh bones. Severely affected infants may manifest increased levels of calcium in their blood that may be treated with calcitonin and certain diuretics. Doctors should avoid the temptation to give calcium supplements or vitamin D unless there is clear-cut deficiency.



March 7, 2013

GEORGETOWN, OH

My Parents Place on the River
July, 2010

 

Present day, we wouldn't really consider a weekend trip to the River an actual vacation but when we went for the first time we had only been dating a few months so it was a big deal.  This was in July of 2010.  All six of us staying together for the weekend was a pretty new thing and throwing my parents in the mix was huge.  We stayed together in their house.  We went out with my parents on their boat during the day on Saturday.  I think this may have been the first time that Sammie had been on a boat & I seriously cannot get over how little they are here, especially Wyatt!

 

We stopped at the Boat Club one day for lunch & I think we just ordered pizza.  I'm pretty sure lunch was insane even though Creag & I look pretty relaxed in this picture.  We had not quite mastered the blended family yet, so 8 of us at lunch together was probably insane!

 

 

We stayed out on the boat all day.  After the sun had set, we went for an evening swim.  It had cooled down quite a bit & the water was so calm.

 

 

The rest of the time we were there, we did the usual.  We grilled out, had a campfire, made Smores & made sure the kids did not fall off of my Dad's unfinished deck.  That's what you get when you go to Mom & Dad's, all of Dad's unfinished projects, BUT you also get lots of fun!

 







March 6, 2013

This week started out rough.  Before school on Monday, we were running late and the kids were just NOT listening.  I had to keep repeating myself over and over again and I was just not getting through to them.  They wouldn't eat, they took their time getting coats on when it was time to be at the bus stop and I ended up yelling like a maniac.  I feel like I ran out of patience way too quickly.  When I loose my patience & yell like a crazy woman, I feel guilty and feeling guilty about the way you handle things with your children can be the worst feeling in the world.  I felt defeated.  I felt like the worst parent ever & that feeling sucks.  It was not their fault we were running late, it was mine.  I should have gotten up earlier.  In fact, there are several things I should've done differently.  I know that no one is perfect & parenting is difficult.  We're going to have our good days & our bad days and we have a whole lot more of good days than bad.  But on the bad days, I wish I could control myself just a little bit better.  Stop and remember the good days.  Not yell as much because that is NOT setting a good example for them.  I don't want them to be angry and yell, but here I am, yelling. 

So many thoughts ran through my head the whole day at work on Monday.  I figured the kids probably hated me.  Skylar, especially.  She caught my wrath the most of them all.  I told Creag how bad I felt and he tried to reassure me which helped some.  I couldn't wait until 4:00 when Skylar would call me after school so I could apologize.  When she called, and I finally got my chance to apologize, she just said, "it's OK Mom, I know it was crazy this morning."  I was forgiven & that's the best feeling in the world.  Sometimes I guess I just over think things way too much.  I was so worried that she was so mad at me all day for the way that I treated her, like I was failing as a parent.  I know as an adult, I probably would've held a grudge all day.  Kids are different, though.  They seem so resilient and just able to brush things off & move on.  They don't hold grudges, they just love unconditionally.  That day, my daughter set an example for me to not hold grudges.  Brush off the petty things because life is crazy and in the madness of it all you sometimes forget the good and only focus on the bad.  I need to not let the bad mask all of the good that we have in our life.  I also need to realize that I'm not going to be the perfect parent, I probably never will be.  I just need more patience & to brush off the petty stuff and we will all be fine!

  

March 5, 2013

GULF SHORES, AL
July, 2010

There was an Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 that I'm sure a lot of people will never forget.  The spill was so bad, that it took weeks to even figure out how to stop the oil from gushing into the Ocean.  The oil obviously affected many things, one of the things being tourism.  In an effort to get people to travel to Gulf Shores, AL, Jimmy Buffett, Zac Brown, Kenny Chesney and a few other artists teamed up and scheduled a free concert on the beach.  The only thing that you had to do was to get onto Ticketmaster.com & be one of the lucky ones who got tickets before they were gone.  There was a minimum of 4 tickets per order allowed, but that was the only stipulation.  Being huge Buffett & Zac Brown Band fans Creag & I decided that we HAD to go.  With only being allowed 4 tickets per order, we were each going to try to get online and get tickets so we would have enough to take all four of the kids.  I had everyone at work that morning signed onto Ticketmaster to get the tickets because we knew they'd go fast.  Fortunately, we did get tickets, BUT we only got four before they were gone.  We decided since we didn't have enough for all of us to go, we'd just take the girls with us.  Unfortunately, we found out the day before we were leaving that the concert was cancelled due to a storm that was supposed to come through.  We went anyway, and had a blast.

We left the house in the evening & drove most of the way through.  The girls slept through the night for the most part.  I remember Creag getting really tired at one point so we pulled over at a rest stop & slept in the car for a bit & then we stopped at Burger King for breakfast.  The morning we got there, we stopped at the beach.  This was Skylar's first time to see the ocean so it was pretty special:)  A lot of the brown stuff that you can see in the pictures are clumps of oil.  We tried to step over the oil, but there was just so much of it that we did end up with some on our feet.  The girls found sea shells & loved the ocean.

 

After the beach, we checked into at our Condo at the Purple Parrot.  It was a nice place with a very nice pool.  With it being close to the 4th, they had all kinds of activities scheduled.  On the drive down, we were listening to Buffett Radio on Sirius & had heard a rumor that Buffet may show up at his sister's restaurant, LuLu's.  We went to LuLu's the first night we were there in hopes of seeing him play.  Buffet didn't end up showing, but we had a great time listening to a Bluegrass Band while the girls played in the sand.  I can't remember the name of the band, but they were very original.  They used washboards for instruments & were just very entertaining. 

 

 

Another day, we went to a restaurant called The Hangout.  It was great for kids & while we were there, I taught the girls the Maccarana.  They also had a bubble machine that was a hit.

 

 

We rode the Ferris Wheel at a place called The Wharf and then had dinner at a pretty good seafood restaurant. 

 

One day, I think we spent the entire day at the Purple Parrot.  They had a pig roast around lunch time so we took a break from the pool & had that for lunch. They had tents with tables set up & it was great food!  I think that night, we went to the grocery to get the stuff to grill out.  We made amazing Juicy Lucy Burgers. Juicy Lucy's are two hamburger patties, but in the center is your cheese and anything else that you want to stuff them with. They were probably the best burgers I've ever had.  Come to think of it, we haven't made them since so we should probably do that soon.

I think the highlight of the trip, was being there on the 4th and being able to watch the fireworks on the beach.  We actually went to a point on the beach where we were the only ones there & it was awesome!!

 

 

 

 

 

Gulf Shores was a great vacation for the four of us, and boys, if your reading this years from now you'll be going on all boy fishing trips every year so there is no jealousy allowed that only the girls went on this trip :)

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

March 4, 2013

I'm going to do a weekend recap today & then be back tomorrow with a look back to our 2nd trip, Gulf Shores, Alabama with the girls.

This past weekend was very low key.  We didn't have any real plans and just kind of went with whatever we felt like doing day by day.  We usually love weekends like this, but they're very rare.  I had said on Friday that Hank had been complaining of an ear ache since Thursday night at Silverlake.  Well unfortunately, it did not go away after I sent him to school on Friday.  I got a call from the School Nurse around 2PM that he had been in the office complaining of ear pain.  The nurse said that he did not have a fever, but was congested so she gave him a cough drop and sent him back to class.  I knew that this was obviously not going to go away, so I called the Dr. to see if they could work him in that afternoon.  They were able to get him around 3:45, so Creag picked him up from school and took him to the appointment.  The Dr. said that he really didn't see an infection, but there was some blockage from ear wax so he cleaned that out as best he could.  I guess even though Hank had been complaining a lot about pain, he kind of down played it to the Dr.  Maybe that's why he wasn't as concerned with it, who knows?  After the appt. Creag & Hank headed to Silverlake and as soon as Creag checked him in to Kids Quest to work out, he got pulled out because Hank instantly didn't feel well and was complaining about ear pain.  Why he didn't explain how bad it was to the Dr. is beyond me but I really wish he would've.  Anyway, they all left & headed to the grocery to pick up the stuff for dinner & I met them at home.  When I got home, I gave Hank medicine & he relaxed on the couch for a little bit while we made mini pizzas for dinner out of English Muffins.  Creag got the idea from a book that he had read to Sam.  We let the kids each make their own.  They just did pizza sauce, pepperoni, ham & mozzarella.  Creag & I fancied ours up w/ BBQ sauce instead of the marinara, onions, jalapenos, green peppers, ham & mozzarella and they were amazing.

The kids ate their dinner at the new bar in the Living Room while they watched one of the movies that we rented from the Red Box, Puss N Boots.  Hank started to feel better half-way through dinner, which was good.  I made him a pizza & he was able to eat all of it.  Creag & I had our dinner in the kitchen at the island & it was really good to just sit & talk for a bit.  After dinner, we got the kitchen picked up & baked cookies for dessert & Skylar was finally able to bake with her Easy Bake Oven.  Wyatt came downstairs in his Cowboy Hat & had his horse that he made at school that day, so I snapped a picture & then Creag, Sam, Wyatt & Sky had a wrestling match in our Living Room.

 

After dessert we pulled our couches together & cuddled up to watch Avengers, the second movie from the Red Box.  Everyone made it through the movie but me which is typical.  Saturday morning Creag had to do a 15 mile run, which was part of his training program for the Flying Pig Marathon in May.  While he was gone, I tried to get the house completely cleaned which did not happen.  I got the entire first floor, but the second didn't get touched.  I stuck our St. Patrick's Day window clings up since we hit March 1st.  Creag needed a break from holiday decor so I wasn't allowed to put them up a day sooner.  Creag made it through his run which was awesome and a huge relief for him.  He took about an hr & a half nap while  I made the kids lunch & they watched their 3rd movie from the Red Box, Men In Black 3.  When Creag woke up, we went shopping for Skylar's friends birthday party & then dropped her off for the night.  After we dropped Skylar off, the rest of us headed to dinner @ a Chinese Buffet, then we stopped at Shoe Carnival & Dicks for some things that the kids needed.  When we got home, we headed across the street to Mike & Tammy's to play cards.  Hank may or may not have used Larkin's play dress up clothes to dress up like a girl.  Can you say black mail?

 

 

There were three couples there, so we played Texas Hold 'Em just for fun.  No money involved but left kind of early because Hank was not feeling well.  He ended up waking up in the middle of the night with severe ear pain.  He was really delirious & talking in his sleep, so he had us pretty worried.  We gave him another dose of medicine & he slept on the couch for the rest of the night.  Sunday morning, we made an early breakfast.  We decided to try something new & were not disappointed.  Breakfast Pizza.  We used pizza dough, gravy, sausage, eggs, green pepper, onion & cheese.  It turned out really good.  Creag & I had no issues eating lots of it but it's always tough to get the kids to try new breakfast recipes.  We spent the rest of the day Sunday straightening up the basement & putting in some shelving that Creag's step-dad gave us.  We also did a lot of dreaded laundry.  We feel like we cleaned the entire weekend & didn't get anywhere but I guess that's what happens when you stay home most of the weekend.  We were constantly picking up after each other. 

 

 

Sunday afternoon Michael stopped by & we made fried chicken for dinner. It's kind of funny because both Creag & I had a craving for it at the same time so we decided on Friday to make it one day over the weekend.  Sunday was the winner.  We had a little grease mis-hap in our new pan but after that was figured out & we had a house full of smoke we had a pretty good dinner. 

 

 

We breaded the chicken w/ Buffalo Wing Pretzels, flour, egg, beer & a few other spices. We also had homemade mashed potatoes, green beans & biscuits. County Cookin' at it's finest.  After dinner, Creag baked the kids cookies again, and then we decided that starting one month from the day we leave for our trip we are not eating any sweets until we leave.  We'll see how that goes.  I kept throwing in exceptions, so that was pretty funny.  We can cheat once a week.......we can have dessert at parties.......blah, blah.  We'll see how it goes.  We got the kids to bed early last night, and Hank did talk a little bit in his sleep but did not wake up crying.  I hope his ear problem goes away and does not cause him too much more pain & trouble.  I hate it when the kids are sick.  This has been a terrible Winter for it.  We have a cold week ahead of us, but the days are getting longer which is a little sign that Spring is right around the corner.  I'm really looking forward to Spring Break & that trip we're going on.  I've been told we're leaving in 31 days!!

 

 





 

 

 

 

March 1, 2013

After work yesterday, I picked up Skylar from the house & then we drove to Little Ceasar's to grab a $5.00 Pizza Pizza before we met the rest of the family at Silverlake to swim & eat dinner. We just went through their generic drive through. No speaker/intercom ordering system, so you just pull up to the window & wait for help. I rolled my window down & waited patiently for the guy to help us. His window was closed, thankfully because Skylar was in a mood. While we were sitting there, she starts saying "Ding Ding Ding"!!! And she didn't stop. She just kept saying it louder and LOUDER. She was cracking me up. To top off the already hilarious time we were having in the Little Ceasar's drive through, while the guy was on his way to the window she burps LOUD! Louder than I've ever heard before. It was sooooooo embarrasing!! The guy was grinning a little bit so I think he heard her. 

 

When we got to Silverlake, I had dinner w/ the kids while Creag ran on the treadmill & then after that I did a Jamz class while the kids went swimming.  After Jamz I went to join the kiddos & Creag by the pool.  Wyatt & Hank weren't really into swimming.  Hank was complaining of an ear-ache & Wyatt was just cold I think so we rounded up the girls & headed for the showers to get ready to head home.

This morning was pajama Day at school for the older kids and cowboy day for Wyatt, so they were all pretty excited about that.  Hank was still complaining of a really bad ear ache this morning.  Crying and miserable, so I hope he's feeling better tonight.  If not, it may be off to the Drs. Office in the morning.  We're planning on a low key family night tonight, making personal pizza's & watching movie's.  Here's to a relaxing weekend!!!!