not me! monday

what a fast, busy, fun week! we did NOT have a wonderful thanksgiving with ben's family on thursday. we did NOT eat to our heart's content and did NOT gaze for hours at all the black friday ads.

ben and i did NOT make a spur of the moment decision and we did NOT take his mom up on her offer to have the kids spend the night so we could go shopping on black friday. after deciding we weren't going to go to toys r us at midnight (the line was crazy long) we did NOT go get "dinner" (no we hadn't eaten dinner yet) at the gas station. i seriously did NOT eat a hot dog, half of an apple fritter, and a cappuccino at 1am. really, who would do that?! we did NOT stay up until 2:30am shopping online, go to bed, and then get up at 4am to go to target.

we did NOT have so much fun! after the day was said and done we did not go to target, walmart, toys r us, a different walmart, and a different target. and then on saturday ben did NOT go back to target. two times. we did NOT get a LOT of our Christmas shopping done!

we do NOT have a stack of items to return to walmart and target...

and speaking of Christmas shopping, ben did NOT tell me that he was going to buy me a present. (we normally don't exchange Christmas presents, so this was a surprise!) and then he did NOT tell me that it was in the ebay room. i have NOT been wrestling with the thought of going and finding said Christmas present.

the more i think of it the more i do NOT want to go peek...

i am NOT staying out of the ebay room...


how was your week?! go check out mckmama.com for more not me! monday fun!

furniture fighter

my specialist of screaming, blower of raspberries, carrier of steak knives, tackler of daddies, breaker of dishes, lover of trains, expert of disobedience, epitome of cuteness, and master of mischief...


...can now add fighter of furniture to his repertoire.


the nightstand won.

worldess wednesday ~ stylin'

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.

last monday my tooth broke. like the whole side of it cracked and was pulling away from my filling. so because i know that i won't be able to get into the dentist anytime soon (and because we don't have dental insurance and i don't feel like paying for a crown or a bridge—it's a tooth that's had a root canal.), i did NOT super glue my tooth. nope. not me! i did NOT get my handy dandy trusty headlight, my home dental kit (you know, the mirror and the pick thingy), and the super glue and i did NOT pull my tooth away from the filling and then squirt a bunch of super glue down in the crevice and push my tooth back into place. no... i definitely didn't do that! because if i did, i surely would've made a drawing or something. (sorry guys, i really did plan on making a visual aid, but i didn't have time today.)

after driving around to 4 local targets looking for a specific item, and calling my sister in minnesota to look for it, i did NOT convince my husband that we needed to go to a target 20 miles away. it was NOT an item that cost $2.50. i did NOT finally find it there, making the 40 mile round trip excursion a success. please don't ask how much gas we wasted...

on thursday i did NOT re-super glue my tooth.

on friday i decided to finally put away the groceries that had NOT been sitting on the floor in bags for about a week. and while i was over by the panty* i was NOT attacked by a swarm of fruit flies. ok, so i wasn't really attacked... anyway, in the bottom of my pantry i noticed that a walmart bag full of apples had a bunch of condensation on the inside. so i went to touch the bag just to find out that they were all rotten! (the bag was sitting on a couple other bags of potatoes and apples that were sitting on a couple 12 packs of soda.) so i got a trash bag to put it in, and when i pulled it out i realized the whole bag was pretty much liquid. it got all over the floor and all over me and it smelled like apple wine! a wonderful reminder of why i don't like wine... i cleaned out the rest of the stuff—the rotten apple juice had seeped down through the other bags, and through the packs of pop all the way down to the floor. needless to say, everything went to the trash. man, what is it with me and fermented fruit?!

*thanks for pointing out the typo, heather. no, people, i really do not keep groceries in my panties...

tonight i did NOT cook dinner. we did NOT eat at the kitchen table (third time in a week! *gasp!*). i did NOT put away the food after we were done eating. i did NOT wash the dishes. by hand. i did NOT then dry said dishes and put most of them away. my mom will NOT fall out of her chair when she reads this!

on thursday morning i did NOT stupidly cause a small fire in my kitchen. you'd think i'd learn from a mistake like that, right?! wrong. all day yesterday and most of today my stove did NOT look like this:



really, who would put the newspaper on the stove after they started a fire three days ago?! certainly NOT ME!!

the fire department is NOT on speed dial...


happy monday!

stupid. just plain stupid.

it was a slightly normal morning. i hit snooze on the alarm clock a couple times and then (after 5 hours of sleep) got up to get ready for ryan's therapy appointment. i didn't wake the kids, as i wanted a few moments of peace before they woke up. i went to the kitchen and turned the tea kettle on so i could make myself a mug of chai, then sat at the kitchen computer to check my email and facebook. i groggily read through emails and statuses until i heard a soft little 'pop'—like the little poof when you light a gas stove.

i turned around to see what it was.

and then i jumped up!!

there were 12 inch flames shooting from the plastic pampered chef micro cooker that i left on the stove from a few nights ago.

yes, i turned on the wrong burner again...

i calmly panicked. i looked at the sink and back again at the flames. both sides of the sink had dishes in them. i looked back at the burning microwave-use-only dish and back at the sink again. so i quickly grabbed the few dishes on the one side of the sink, set them on the floor, grabbed the melting micro cooker, and hurried it over to the sink.

i grabbed the faucet sprayer and hosed down the remaining fire in the sink, then turned around to see the burner still on fire. the sprayer wouldn't reach that far, so i grabbed the dirty lid that i had set on the floor and covered the burner with it. but it's the kind of lid that has a hole to vent steam. so while it contained most of the fire, it didn't smother it all. i turned back to the sink to get something to put water in to pour on the fire. ah, the dirty pan on the floor... i grabbed it, put some water in it, ran over to the stove, turned off the burner (like, DUH, right?!), and picked up the lid. that big breath of oxygen made the flames shoot up again, so i dumped the water on the stove and went back for more. after the second dose, the flames were finally out.

i stood there, my legs shaking, looking at my mess and thinking about how bad this could have been: i never sit in the kitchen to check my email. never. i always use my laptop in the living room. and if i would've gone in there like usual, i would've never heard the popping noise.

and what if the kids would've woke up before i realized my mistake?! i could have been upstairs getting them dressed and not had a clue as to what was happening in the kitchen...

thank God i didn't experience a what if this morning. and thank goodness i didn't have to use the fire extinguisher (which was actually sitting right under the computer desk. and yes, the thought crossed my mind.), or worse, call the fire department!

well after all was said and done, i left the mess. the house was smokey and smelled like nasty burnt plastic, so i opened the doors, then went and got dressed quick. i got breakfast for the kids to eat in the car, then got them up and dressed, and we left for therapy. well, and to get away from the stench.

after therapy we went shopping, met daddy for lunch, then did some more shopping. we got home at 1:30 and the house still stunk. bad. so i opened the doors and windows again. thankfully it was a really nice day to air out the house!

when ben got home, i reenacted the whole thing for him, sans fire of course. i took a couple more pictures, and then i cleaned up.

needless to say, the burner and the drip tray went into the trash.



as did my one of a kind and just the right size for my itty bitty sink dish drainer.


oh, and also my mutilated micro-cooker.


i cooked dinner tonight, all the while with a husband and daughter who were cheering and clapping for me that i turned on the right burner, and used the correct pan on the stove.

oh well. it won't happen again... because i have no burner. and when i do get one? the knob will still be safely disconnected from the stove until needed!

not me! monday

it's monday and mckmama's back for not me!! hop on over to her blog for some theraputic reading or to play along. of course, you know, after you read this post!



if you're friends with me on facebook, you may already know this story. samantha likes to play farmville on ben's facebook, and one day while playing it, she did NOT ask me, "mom, what does e-m-a-i-l mean?"

me: "why honey?"

sam: "because i'm signing up for facebook!"

me: "ummm.... no you're not!!! you're too young to sign up for facebook."

sam: "no i'm not too young. see..?!" as she's pointing to the sign-up page.

me: "no, you can't sign up honey.'

i did NOT think that was that, and go about my business, when a couple minutes later she did NOT ask, "mom, what year do i put in?"

me: "SAMANTHA YOU MAY NOT SIGN UP FOR FACEBOOK!!!!"

* * * * *

this week ben did NOT open a wii game (that we got for samantha for christmas) to try it out to see if it would be a good game to get for some other family members. he did NOT end up showing it to samantha and letting her play with it just so that he could keep playing it also. oh well, right?! so then a couple days later he did NOT do that with yet another game that we had gotten for her. and in the days since then, he has NOT played those games more than she has... ok, i admit it, i have NOT been playing them more than her either!

* * * * *

and not to leave ryry out, the other night i did NOT try to bribe him to give me a goodnight kiss in exchange for his binkie and chewy (his lovey). he did NOT refuse my offer. so therefore he did NOT have to go to sleep without said binkie and chewy.

when i tried that trick again last night, he did NOT cry and cry "BIIINNNNKKKKKIIIIIEEEEE" for about 15 minutes. and when i finally gave in and let him have it, he did NOT tearfully say "thaaaaaank yooooou." ahhh. it did NOT melt my heart. and speaking of the little peanut, he did NOT have some hard-working guardian angels this week...

* * * * *

what have you NOT done lately?! happy monday!

thankful thursday

there are so many things to be thankful about concerning ryan, but as my day unfolded, i discovered a few incidents to be thankful for.

somehow ryan stuck his head in the handrail on our stairs this morning. it was lodged pretty good. and the metal balusters don't budge. at all. thankfully, after pulling and maneuvering, i got his head out. i'm SO glad he didn't stick it in there any further, otherwise i would've been calling someone. (who would i call? the cops? a blacksmith? do blacksmiths even exist still? boy i'm confused. i'm so thankful that i got his head out!)

fast forward to right before lunch. ryan emerged from the kitchen carrying a steak knife. apparently he's just now tall enough to reach the counter. i am incredibly thankful that his clumsy little self did not trip on the air and fall and letsnotevengothere...

and then at lunch stupid me decided to give ryan orange slices in a glass condiment bowl. bad idea. yes, he ended up throwing the bowl on the floor, shattering it to pieces. once again, i was quite thankful that he was restrained to his high chair—i would HATE to have to pick pieces of glass out his feet!!

oh, and i can't omit the immense amount of thankfulness in my heart when naptime rolled around. talk about my cup overflowing!

and as i sit here pondering the unexpected events and close calls of the day, i am thankful that tomorrow is a new day. let's hope he got all the accidents out of his system today!

what are you thankful for today?!

not me! monday

happy not me! monday y'all.


after our mountain of halloween candy that was purchased last year (that we gave most away and didn't even eat), we did NOT go to 3 different targets looking for cheap clearance candy this past week. and even though we didn't really find any candy to buy, ben and i did NOT find costumes for each other for 75% off. so if you saw that couple in target with the desert dancer and french maid outfit in their cart it was NOT us.

ahem.

moving on...


i took ryan to a thrift store the other day and did NOT find the complete game of "lucky ducks" for him. as ry held it while we looked around the store, the game did NOT turn on while inside the box. there was NOT loud quacking coming from our cart. and when i opened the box to turn it off, i couldn't figure out how to turn it off. so i did NOT close the box, continue to walk around the store with a loudly quacking game, pay for it, and walk out to the car and stick it in the trunk. ryan did NOT show me how to turn it off later...


while sitting in the drive-thru yesterday, i did NOT roll down my window and attempt to dump water out of an old taco bell cup. however i did NOT stop to think about the fact that the wind was blowing in right at me. you see where this is going, don't you?! ...i did NOT toss the water out the window only to have some of it come back in on me. ben did NOT have a good laugh.


i am NOT on pins and needles today waiting to hear updates on stellan. please pray for him and mckmama (founder of not me! monday) as they face a very risky surgery today. get all of mckmama's twitter updates here, or visit mckmama.com.

happy monday!

ryan 101

get comfortable and grab a drink—this may take a while! and pay attention because there's a test at the end.

just kidding! maybe...


last friday (oct 30th) i met with dr. h, ryan's neurologist, to go over the results of his MRI and EEG that he's had in the last 2 months. i was SO incredibly glad i recorded the appointment, because with big long medical words and an iranian accent (yes, i decided she is from iran, not india), i wouldn't have remembered one single thing!

i spent the weekend googling. and diagnosing. and writing down questions for dr. h. and after talking with her on the phone yesterday, i finally have some information about ryan.


here's what she said at our appointment:

from the MRI, both sides of ryan's brain are abnormal in different ways. the right side of the brain is abnormally larger than the left side. this is a rare condition called hemimegalencephly which can result in intrackable frequent seizures and also mental retardation.

ryan also has abnormalities on the left side of his brian. he has clefts, or slits in his cerebral cortex (the outermost layer of the cerebrum. you know, the ripply, wormy looking part of the brain.) due to migration defects or abnormal migration.

are you totally confused? yeah, so was i! as a brain develops inside a mother's womb, neurons in the ventricals of the brain migrate to the surface to form the different layers of the brain. and when problems occur with these migrating neurons, you end up with migration defects. (click on the link for some nice light reading. hehe!)

as for his EEG, the results showed slowing on both sides of his brain (meaning the rhythm of the brain waves is slower than would be expected). it also showed sharp waves (which indicate that partial seizures might come from that area) coming from both sides of the brian, but more from the left than the right.

now with ryan, dr. h is quite perplexed. with hemimegalencephaly (the abnormal enlargement on the right side of ryan's brain) it is common that there are abnormalities on the other side of the brain (which in ryan's case, there are) but usually the main symptoms come from the bigger side of the brain (the side with hemimegalencephly).

the confusing part is that ryan's main symptoms (weakness and delays in the right side of his body) are coming from the other side of the brain (the left side with migration defects). dr. h said this is unusual and was puzzling for her because after looking it up in medical literature, she couldn't find a similar report. she said she didn't really know how to explain that.

for what ryan's MRI showed, he is doing exceptionally well as compared to other kids with the same MRI results. he is not having frequent seizures (so far) and his delays are mainly physical (gross motor and fine motor skills) and not mental. as far as a prognosis goes, dr. h said we'll just have to go by what he shows us. most kids with the same diagnosis are not doing well.


soooooooo now that i've told you about the appointment, here's the update since talking with her on the phone yesterday! (hey, i warned you this would take a while!)

first of all, ryan had a seizure on thursday night (yeah, i forgot to give him his meds). it was different than his other seizures have been, but it started with his right hand shaking. this is good to know because it means that the seizure started on the left side of the brain (the side with migration defects).

secondly, in my googling and diagnosing, i came to the conclusion that ryan has schizencephaly on the left side of his brain (the side with migration defects), which is a rare developmental disorder characterized by abnormal slits, or clefts, in the cerebral hemispheres.

Symptoms can vary widely depending on the extent and the size of the cleft. Patients may show developmental delays that can range from mild to severe.... Paralysis of the limbs may be present... Abnormal muscle tone, including decreased tone (hypotonia) and increased tone (spasticity), can be seen. Some patients may have only seizures. Seizures usually present before three years of age.

thank you, answers.com!

when i talked to dr. h, she told me that the left side of his brain is causing more trouble right now. so he may not have hemimegalencephaly (abnormal enlargement) on the right side of his brain. the radiologist diagnosed it as that, and that's what it looks like, but it just doesn't make sense, medically. the neurologist and radiologists have a conference each month so she's going to discuss all of this with them to try and figure out if indeed he has hemimegalencephaly.

she also said that it looks like he has schizencephaly on the left side of his brain. ah hah, i was right! there just may be hope for me becoming a neurologist yet! she also said it could be polymicrogyria, but i won't bore you with the facts of that.

our game plan right now is to see an opthamologist (hemimegalencephly can have some findings in the eyes. this could help diagnose which type of hemimegalencephaly he has). he will also see a rehab doctor (because of his right-sided delays) and a speech therapist (just for an evaluation). we will continue doing therapy once a week (i'll update you on that later!) and continue on the anti-epileptic drugs. and if all goes well we won't have to see dr. h for another six months!

bottom line, God made no mistakes when he formed ryan's little large brain. ryan has a few slight problems, but we are blessed that his health is SO well!


and now for your test: if you made it to the end of this post, A+!

contraptionization

i have made an ingenious a redneck contraption.

and this is it.



allow me to backtrack. i was washing clothes one night. mounds and mounds of laundry. the washer had worked fine the whole day, until that night. i went to put a load into the dryer and opened up the washer lid to find my washing machine filled with water and my clothes unspun. my washer had quit in the middle of the cycle and wouldn't spin. you know the switch (when you close the lid) that has to be down when it's in the spin cycle? come on, admit it. we've all stuck a pencil or something in the switch so that we could watch the clothes spin.

what? that was just me?? uhh...

anyway, well the switch broke and wouldn't spin a few months ago and then before ben got a chance to fix it, it started working again. when it first broke i could stick a pen or a toothbrush in the tiny little hole to trigger the switch and then take it out. and then that night it finally bit the dust. almost.

until my contraptionization instincts took over. i stuck the toothbrush in the hole and maneuvered it around until the washer started.

now how am i going to make the toothbrush stay at this angle?



ah hah!! the vinegar bottle! i'll just prop that up against the toothbrush...



but then how will i get the vinegar to stay? maybe if i lean it up against the lid. erg! the switch depressor on the lid is in the way and now there's a little gap so it won't stay...



hmmm... let's see if ben's paint bucket can prop the lid open. ugh! the bucket is sliding because it's too light. oh! i got it! i'll use the other paint bucket full of dirty brushes to keep the lid-propping-bucket in place.



voile! perfect!




hey, whatever it takes to be able to cook and clean read blogs or play online games instead of standing there for the entire cycle holding a toothbrush at just the right angle...

have you ever contraptionized?!

not me! monday

i did NOT get ryan's EEG and MRI results on friday. and although i wanted to write an update that night, i was NOT incredibly confused by the diagnosis. so i have NOT been googling like mad this weekend. and after i read the first sentence of an article and was NOT totally perplexed by the terminology, i did NOT spend over 2 hours just reading about the brain and trying to understand basic stuff you'd probably learn in school.

i am NOT incredibly glad that i video recorded the appointment so that i could relisten to it at home. i did NOT just randomly hold the camera, so when i got home and watched it i did NOT enjoy watching the kids play during the appointment (and ryan sticking his tongue out at dr. h)!


i am NOT going to call the neurologist with some more questions today and hopefully get her email address in case i have more questions! then sometime i will NOT get an update for y'all!

* * * * *

in the process of making a cup of chai one early morning, i did NOT turn on the back burner for the tea kettle, all the while making sure the dirty plate (from the night before. not pictured.) on the front burner was far enough away. and then i did NOT smell something burning. maybe the dirty napkin fell off the plate onto the burner? and then i heard popping. as i went to see what was happening, i did NOT notice that i had in fact turned on the front burner, thus causing the food particles on said plate to burn. i did NOT grab the plate off of the burner, totally forgetting that it would be burning hot and almost drop it, and quickly set it on the cutting board that was on the other burner. it did NOT melt a ring on my cutting board.

for a cup of chai, it was totally NOT worth it!

* * * * *

we did NOT crack open the bags of 1-year-old halloween candy to see if they still tasted good. they were NOT still delicious. i did NOT double check their goodness. and we did NOT pass them out (along with our new candy) to the 100+ trick-or-treaters that came by. i do NOT think we should go buy some more clearance candy this week to save for next year...

ahem.

* * * * *

this morning i did NOT realize that i still have a love for sesame street. i did NOT pause my computer work to watch bert and ernie's great adventures...

* * * * *

as i'm sitting here on my laptop, ryan did NOT just bring me the broom and the stick vacuum. i am NOT gonna take a hint, get off the computer, and clean the house. well, maybe i'll clean after i go shopping...

happy monday everyone!!