My Dad

My dad with my niece, Lizzie and my mother-in-law, Kathleen

Since I wrote about my mom I figured you should get the flip side of my coin. My dad is a Vietnam Veteran and is dealing with after effects of a horrible war that happened over 30 years ago. I'm reminded daily of the sacrifices men and women make on our behalf so we can continue to live in a free country and so other countries can experience that freedom as well. I'm proud of my dad's service to our country and I'm glad my kid's have that kind of exposure to patriotism. I didn't grow up with my dad since my parents divorced when I was 2. I would see my dad during the summer, send him cards throughout the year and he would send me gifts that would make me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. I loved spending summers with my dad and he always made me feel like a princess and then I would have to return to my real life back home. Finally at the age of 12 my dad moved back to California and I was able to live with him. We started going to a church and I became a Christian. I am so thankful that my dad realized the importance of a father both physically and spiritually to a teenager. Now as an adult I am so thankful to have him in my life and especially my children's lives. He is an amazing grandpa. He makes sure to spend time with each one individually, he spoils them absolutely rotten, he guides them, teaches them, instructs them, builds them up, and respects our decisions as parents. I'm still the luckiest girl in the world.

Boy Scouts

My boys have been in scouting for about 6 years now. They both started as cub scouts and worked their way through the ranks becoming a Webelos and then joining Troop 941 in Pleasanton. We searched and searched for the right troop and finally decided on this one and to be quite honest, I chose it because the Scoutmaster was a woman. Women change things and civilize things. She has done a great job and we're very happy with our troop. We had a rough beginning but after figuring some things out we're doing good. Marcus is about to earn his Star rank, then he'll go on to earn his Life and then the big one-Eagle. He even wants to earn the next two or three ranks after that, Gold, Silver and Bronze Palm. They're pretty much just more service in the troop and more merit badges after you earn your Eagle. Marcus is a good scout and Justin is coming right up behind him. It's easier with Justin because we've had the experience with Marcus and we know Marcus is watching out for him, well, hopefully he is. Justin has already earned the first rank of Scout and is working on the next rank of Tenderfoot. He's younger than Marcus was when he joined so we're not in a rush with him. With Marcus we had to get him caught up to the other boys his age in the troop since he was almost 13 when he joined and most of the other boys were almost 11 when they joined. Two years makes a big difference. I didn't realize it at the time but Scout Camp is where they earn most of their badges and can even earn a rank if they plan it right. Marcus is Patrol Leader for his patrol, the Vikings and he likes having the extra responsibility and I think he likes being in charge like his mom. He's realizing that it's a lot of responsibility and if things go wrong they look to you. It's a good lesson for us all.

My Mom

My mom with my uncle Terry


So that last post was a bit random and strange but I was not in a good place at the time. I have always had a strained relationship with my mom and in the last few years she has been very ill. She has Pulmonary Hypertension, Congestive Heart Failure, Chirossis of the liver, blood clots and a genetic disorder that doesn't allow the blood to clot properly called Protein C Deficiency. I've recently been tested for this and I'm waiting for the results. She's also an alcoholic which complicates things in so many ways. I honestly don't believe we would be in this mess if she wasn't. I've been helping her with her doctor appointments, medications and hospital stays in the past few years and it's been very difficult. It's like taking care of a stranger but worse, you do know this person and you are related to them and they are your parent. In the beginning I honestly wanted to have a relationship with her and help her get better. I still want that but after three years of doing this and after each episode I have to take several weeks to recover from it myself, I've decided that I really need to remove myself from the situation. I've said it several times that I'm done but then I go back into the situation when they call and say she's going to the hospital. I've always said that the end of the day I have to know that I did the right thing. It takes so much from my family when I'm involved and it's just not fair to them though. Is it fair to neglect your children, husband, house, responsibilities to take care of a sick parent? She is my mother, I love her, and so I will continue to honor her but there will be boundaries that will be maintained. She's home from the hospital after a 17 day stay at Antioch Kaiser where she busted out of. They kept telling her they wanted to keep her one more day and finally she had had enough, pulled out all her IV's and walked out of the hospital with security running after her. They finally let her go after she signed the waivers saying she wouldn't sue them. I see where I get my determination from.

10 Things I know For Sure

1. Alcoholics and drug addicts are hard to reason with.

2. If you can't take care of your own basic hygeine without the assistance of a nurse, you can't buy a farm.

3. Driving to Brentwood/Antioch every day for 8 days straight is exhausting.

4. Coming home after spending an entire day at the hospital and knowing that someone is bringing you dinner is so wonderful.

5. Green beans wrapped in bacon is so yummy!

6. You can't fix people.

7. It's about doing the right thing, not what you're going to get out of it.

8. Alcohol is a relationship destroyer.

9. I'm so thankful that my children will never know what it's like to have an alcoholic parent.

10. God is good, all the time.

The Garden

Lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, squash, strawberries and pumpkins, oh and sunflowers too! Have you ever grown a sunflower before? It's so easy and rewarding and it really is just a matter of planting a sunflower seed in the ground and watering it. There's something about looking out your living room window and seeing the huge sunflowers growing in the backyard. It makes me feel like I'm on a farm for a few minutes when I see them waving in the breeze. I'm not sure if we'll get sunflowers seeds from the huge flowers but time will tell. I have some big pumpkins growing too and the one that is doing the best was a volunteer plant. I compost my dead plants back into the garden and usually some of the seeds in the compost take root. I get some of my best produce from them because the plant is pretty hardy if it can root and grow without being planted on purpose. It's crazy that a plant that I prepared the dirt for, planted from a seed and watered on a daily basis doesn't grow as much as a random seed in the dirt that just happened to have the right amount of what it needed to grow. Whatever, I'm just happy that my garden grows at all. The square foot garden that we set up is wonderful and I'm so glad we put so much time and energy into it. I love it way more than my regular rectangle garden that I had before. It's much easier to water, weed and harvest this way since there are walkways in between the plants. Also, as soon as the plant is done producing I can pull it up, clean up the soil and plant again without disturbing the other plants. I moved my strawberries into pots and they have done so well. I harvest about a handful a day of fresh strawberries. I wash 'em and pop 'em in my mouth. That way they don't spoil and I get my morning fruit right from the garden. I'm very happy with my garden this year and as always, you get what you put into it.

Froggie, Allie and Izzy

So we're pet sitting for another homeschool family. Homeschoolers usually have strange pets probably since they're more interesting than your run of the mill dog. Don't get me wrong, they usually have dogs too and spiders, snakes, lizards, guinea pigs, rabbits, turtles and so on but this family has a poisonous dart frog. Ya, you heard me. Crazy, I know. He is really cool looking and of course he's a "look only" pet. He has to be fed wingless fruit flies. I know what you're thinking. Do I sit there and have to pull of the wings of each fruitfly before I feed it to this frog? No, they are bred that way so they don't have wings. You do have to dust them in a calcium powder first and then tap them into the cage. The cage has to be misted twice a day and you have to use spring water to fill his little pond. Our tap water contains chlorine and it would kill him since he drinks from it and sits in it for part of the day. He has real plants in his terrarium so they have to be watered every few days. He also has a heating pad on one corner of his cage and two heat lamps that are temperature controlled. That's just one of the pets we're watching for three months. I know, three months. That's another thing about homeschoolers, they like to go on three month long road trips across the United States so they can see every historical landmark possible. I have to admit, it does sound kind of fun to me. The problem with these trips is who will watch all of the pets? Another homeschool family of course because we see it as an opportunity to learn. We get to learn how to take care of strange animals and it gives us an opportunity to think beyond ourselves. Justin loves reptiles and amphibeans and his friend is the one going on the three month long car trip. All the animals are in his room and yesterday he came downstairs and said it was a dream come true. He said he wants his whole house to look like his room when he grows up. With terrariums and heat lamps and creepy crawlies all around. He really wants a snake but I have a rule. A rule which I have broken during this pet sitting experience. We can only have pets that if they got out of their cage I would not be creeped out. I seriously doubt this little teeny tiny dart frog would be able to escape from his huge terrarium so I'm not worried. So on to the other pets. A crested gecko called Izzy. He's really cool looking and will jump from one branch to the glass. He did it last night when I was checking on him and it scared me because he jumped right at me. He has to be fed baby food mixed with crested gecko powder formula from a spoon. I know, crazy again. I guess he's a finicky eater. Well I know all about those because I have several of those in my house already. The only difference is they're human. He did really well yesterday and licked the spoon almost completely clean. He didn't run away from me or bite my finger. Good thing ha? He has a fountain that has to be filled regularly. The fountain provides humidity. Aside from the baby food thing he's pretty easy. There is also an alligator lizard. He looks like a miniature alligator hence the name. He just needs a few calcium dusted crickets and water in his holder every day. Very easy. No heat lamp, no baby food, no wingless fruitflies. Piece of cake. Well maybe not that but still pretty easy. I hope none of them die on us, especially the poisonous dart frog.

Cookie

My niece's cat got a little frisky with a neighborhood cat before she had a chance to get her fixed and was blessed with kittens two months ago. We picked up our new kitten from her about two weeks ago and we absolutely love him. He's your typical kitten-furry, sweet, cute, playful and has very, very sharp claws. At first, he pooped all over the carpet and the house but we finally got him to go in the liter box. We placed a bunch of small liter boxes around the house especially where he would go the most. We also watched him like a hawk and immediately picked him up and put him in the liter box if we thought he had to go. It worked. He hasn't had an accident for a while. He likes to eat our older cat's food and our older cat likes to eat his food. Well this just won't work because they both have sensitive stomachs. We finally moved Gabby's food outside since Cookie doesn't get to go outside and Gabby can't stand him right now so she won't come in if she sees him. They're working out their differences and hopefully one day they'll be friends. She just needs reminders that she's our first born cat and we love her the most. So the name. We named him Cookie because when he was a newborn he kind of looked like an oreo so we were going to name him Oreo but we changed it to Cookie. Breanna is convinced his name is Cookie Oreo Mero. So cute. He likes to be held like a baby when he's sleepy so he can take his nap in your arms. He also likes to perch himself on Bryan's shoulder like a parrot and take a nap there. It's adorable. He sleeps in the garage at night otherwise he would be up all night playing and keeping kids from sleeping. He's a good kitty and he does just fine when we leave him home alone. So far he's been a very good pet. We're still trying to deal with the massive amounts of fleas that two cats can cause. It's getting under control. Have you ever bathed a cat? Not fun but we managed. We dusted our carpets, washed our cats in special flea shampoo, put flea control ointment on each cat and use a flea comb on them almost daily. It's getting better and he's worth it. He's attacking my feet as I type this. Ouch!!