Fall Mountian Class of 99 Reunion Info

I just got notice that the date and location have been set for our reunion. Its on Sunday September 6th (Labor Day Weekend) at the Best Western in Keene. Its $45 per person. There are only 34 people listed as members of our class group on Facebook and I'm pretty sure that's the most effort in notifying people that will be made so I'm attempting to inform the rest.

SHrINE ON Springfield

My friends and I are going to give it a whirl. Its not the fundraiser I wanted to do but at least we can do one. And we did raise a lot of money in no time for the March of Dimes, so hopefully we have similar or better results for Shriners. We're putting together a walk-a-thon and we'll most likely have a pot-luck barbecue for the people who participate after the walk, either at my place or at some other local/neutral location. All money collected will be going to the Shriners Hospital in Springfield Mass. I'm not spending any money on door prizes or whatever so there is no start up money to be deducted from the collections. If I get some freebies to offer, great! and if not, everyone who participates will just have the feeling of knowing they did something for a wonderful cause as a souvenir. Pray for nice weather, lots of walkers and donors and that Springfield Shriners remains up and running.

Week in Review

Last weekend Jeremy and I tore down the old clapboard yuckiness that somehow managed to escape the wrath of us for the last 3 years. It was not-so-cleverly hidden by Tyvek for a while and we couldn't take it anymore. So "Mr. Man" went off to Home Depot and loaded up on supplies. We got all the crud down, put up new plywood and Tyvek......and that's as far as that has gotten....and, like a dummy, I decided I had had enough of looking at the ugly 60's wallpaper in the spare room so I starting pulling that garbage off the wall.....um, yeah, wallpaper + 40 years = not a fun or easy task in removing....I'm about 50% done after 9 days....I got my garden in...that's the one project that has been completed... minus the fence......the main reason behind the delay in finishing (besides that I tend to try to do 18 things at once.... Gram's home from the nursing home for 2 weeks, so I've been taking care of her a lot, I take care of 3 kids besides my own and we've been doing a ton of projects at Ron and Sue's house. I'm also trying to pull together a fundraiser for Shriner's Hospital in Springfield.......And....Ron and Sue bought a backhow for our (x4) tractor yesterday. Jeremy and Ron where like 2 little boys with a wad of cash in the toy store. They were looking for anythng to dig. They dug holes just to fill them back in again. What a riot. Once the newness wore off a bit, Jeremy had me dig up a root that had cost us several sets of lawn mower blades. I actually managed to do it without killing myself or breaking anything. Ashtyn had some fun on it too (while it was off of cource). And little miss Taylor now has 5 teeth! Why can't there be like 48 hours in a day?

Emily Brown Burial Service

For anyone interested Burial for Emily L. Brown will be held at St. Marys Cemetary on May 23rd at 11:00 am Father Stan will be doing the service.

Dress up time

The anti-photo child finally decided today she wanted to wear the gown she got from Grandmama & Papa for her birthday.....and....let me take a few pics of her in it. I got about 10 before she had had enough and threw a fit to put the camera away. But at least I got a couple.

Taylor's idea of crawling: the butt scoot

How awesome!!! "Arms for Kids"

What a wonderful way to say "Thank you". Justin and Jeramie you guys are an inspiration to everyone. Good luck Justin. I send you wishes of safe passage and a roof over your head this weekend.


*** click on the pics to enlarge them***



article from The River Record

And we've learned how to bite

Little miss Taylor got 4 teeth in over the last week. I thought the agony they were causing her before they came in was bad ......um....well...... not as much as the agony they are now causing my lactating parts. I forgot how pleasant that feels. OUCH!

Another busy week in New Hampshire

The kids are finally healthy. And now my father-in-law is beyond sick. We're pretty much not going anywhere near there until he's better. Sue's been hiding from him too, so she's been hanging out with us a bunch lately to avoid catching the evil pukey/poopy bug. So I took the kids on the trainthe other day. It was Jeremy's first engineering run on the passenger train. I picked on him a bit but he did a really good job. None of us got whiplash :) I didn't realize when I told Ashtyn we'd go that that run was a special one. We were accompanied by the author of A lucky dog: Owney, U.S. Rail Mail Mascot , Dirk Wales and someone in a very goofy Owney costume that I think looks more like a donkey that spent some time under the train but Ashtyn was in love with the costumed critter. She did not want to leave the dog's side, or let anyone else touch "her" dog. We missed out on the author reading the story but Ashtyn, Taylor or this adorable little girl named Sophie along with her mom all had a good time sitting in the end of the car discussing and looking at Taylor prosthetic, or "cast" as Sophie put it. She was so cute. She hugged and kissed Taylor and told her she was sorry she didn't have an arm. And asked me if she cut it off. She definitely had a lot of questions and was very eager to learn all about Taylor. I explained, to the best of my ability to a 3 year old (who hasn't seen or heard of Nemo), how Taylor got a boo-boo while she was in my belly and that made her not grow an arm. A slight stretch from reality but that was all I could come up with and I knew she could understand it. I took off Taylor prosthetic and showed it to her which she thought was really neat and then Ashtyn had to remind us all that it was Taylor's hand and not a toy. All in all it went well though and the kids all had fun and they all got special Owney dog tags, with the date and train logo on them to commemorate the adventure. Oh.... and about my whining about the rain the other day....we had 2 HUGE rainbows because of it..... and we finally got back outside......so all is much better.

Happy Mother's Day Mom

Trying to Save Springfield Shriners

This somehow squeezed through the cracks of my acknowledgement, but I think its awesome people are rallying to save Shriners......



Hundreds rally for
Shriners Hospital
In danger of closing; decision to be
made in July
Updated: Sunday, 19 Apr 2009, 11:26 PM EDT
Published : Sunday, 19 Apr 2009, 7:21 PM EDT

Sy Becker
Michelle Misiaszek
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - On Sunday afternoon hundreds of people rallied across the street from Shriners Hospital on the lawn of the Springfield Boys and Girls Club . They came to serve notice that they will do everything in their power to keep the children's hospital open. If Springfield's Shriner's Hospital eventually closes its doors, it won't be for lack of community support.

22News spoke with parents and grandparents who've experienced the hospitals healing power on their young. "It's just such a wonderful place and what a loss it would be to the community if Shriners were to leave," said Amy Coons of Wilbraham.

Supporters have launched a petition drive to save the hospital. "I'm a grandmother raising 4 grandchildren that are orphans. Steck and stormy were both born with cerebral palsy and we've been coming to Shriners for seven years," said Kathi Sheehan of Springfield.

The Shriners fervent supports consider their afternoon rally just the starting point. They're determined to keep the Springfield hospital from closing its doors, as they honor the thousands of children already helped, and many more to be cured of their disabilities in the years ahead.

One little girl summed it all up so beautifully when she addressed the rally telling supporters of what the Shriners Hospital has meant to her. "I was suffering from juvenile rhemetitus and they literally saved my life a couple of years ago. I couldn't even get out of bed," said Emily Tonning, Former Shriners Hospital patient.

A decision on which Shriner's location will close is expected to be made in July.

http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/wwlp_local_hundreds_rally_for_shriners_hospital_200904191920


And this write up on Coyote's Tent with contact info for Ralph Semb, President and CEO of Shriners Childrens Hospitals

Rain Sucks!

I think it has rained every single day since April 26th. 12 days! I'm sick sick sick of it. It makes me cranky and puts me into cabin fever mode. All I want to do is sleep. The kids are nuts when its like this. They've both been sick since the 26th too we've done NOTHING and gone NO WHERE and it needs to end NOW! That's another thing that has irritated me for the last 2 weeks: Taylor had a wicked nasty cough and a slight fever. I let it go for a few days thinking it would pass, hopefully quickly, and I really didn't want to drag her to the doctors. Its not that I don't like the kids' pediatrician, I do, he's awesome, I just hate feeling like I'm one of those Mom's who freak out at every little sniffle. But after 3 days of coughing and crying, the pukey diareah showed up and Jeremy said I needed to bring her in. So my immediate thought is: Oh my god, if he says to get her in, I should have done it 3 or 4 days ago. This is the guy who didn't go to the doctors when he cut off his finger....Popsicle stick and duct tape "cured" it......REDNECK..... anyway, so I call the doctor and they get her in at 4:30 that evening, ears look good, throat looks good, no wheezing or anything in her lungs, and the kid didn't friggin cough once. I was not impressed where this was going. "she's fine, but call us if she gets a fever" Give me a f-ing break. So I pack the kids up to go home, pissed off. No sooner do I get outside, Taylor starts hacking and crying. Give me a break! So I get back home and listen to coughing, crying and screaming. So the next morning, about 6:30, she's warm. Jeremy goes to work, still oblivious I brought the kids to the doctor, and I frantically look for a thermometer. I find one, stick it under her armpit, 94 degrees....oh, so my kids a Popsicle! I find another one, I stick it in her ear, 95.1, again my kid has hypothermia. I find the "butt one" 96....so at least she's getting warmer. Then low and behold, I find a bandy-dandy new one. Please let this one work. Into the butt we go, and 102. Finally. So I call the doctors office. "He's not here today....want me to call Springfield for you" seeing how my only alternative is the ER, and this ER would let you bleed to death before giving you a bandaid, yeah, please call whoever. So she calls them and calls me back. 4:30 appointment. So I package up the kids again. Drive 30 minutes to the other doctors office. Wait FOREVER and then finally the doctor shows up, has a nurse take her temperature, check her O2 stats, the doctor comes back "she has a minor fever 100.8, give her some Tylenol", which the nurse then did and sent us on our way home again. Again I'm pissed. I'm pissed that Taylor didn't cough for the doctor AGAIN and I'm pissed that "She's fine".... she's not fine. Saturday comes and goes, this was the day of the March for Babies and Ashtyn's birthday party, I have been religiously checking Taylor's temp every hour or so. All I kept thinking was of Dee's little girl getting sick the summer Ashtyn was born, being repeatedly told she was fine and then passing away on the ride to another attempt at a doctors visit. I kept trying not to over react and look at it rationally, but that morning Ashtyn started in with a cough. At first we all thought it was a joke to get cough drops. But the cough remained all weekend. Monday, I call the girls pediatrician's office again. The evil fill-in-secretary:"he's busy and doesn't have any time today" WRONG ANSWER! Ever so calmly "you look here, I brought my baby in on Thursday, brought her to Springfield on Friday. Its now Monday and now BOTH of my girls are sick" "Both of your kids are sick?" ever so meekly. YESSSSSSS! "Oh. well, I'll tell and have her give you a call" Great. So I wait. Tick tick tick. 2 minutes have gone by....the phone rings. I tell her whats going on, she rescheduled someone's well child check up thing, and we needed to get our tushies over to their office. So we pack up and run over there. Now: Ashtyn has a pretty bad ear infection and bronchitis/bronchiolitis (whatever... phlemmy coughing yuck) and little miss Taylor has an ear infection in BOTH EARS and the same bronchio...whatever. Finally, I'm not insane, they aren't FINE. Some antibiotics prescriptions and we're homeward bound again. Ashtyn's med's are the 4 day kind and Taylor gets the 10 day. At this point Ashtyn has not said a word about her ear hurting. As soon as the meds are gone. "my ear hurts" sure it does, she just wants more medicine..... So I ask what ear hurts.... she points to her left one. Motherffffffffffer. Sure enough, that's the one that had the ear infection. So I have no idea if its still there or what. But today I get to drag them over to the doctors for our 4th trip in 14 days to attempt at making it through Ashtyn's 3 year well child check up and then both of them will get a recovery check up. At least they're smooshing the 3 appointments into one for me.....I hate the rain. Have I told you that lately. You wouldn't be reading this crap if we were outside doing something fun. GRRRRRRR

Jealous

Oh the joys of warm weather. Everyone comes out of their hibernation and flock to anywhere thats not inside the house. There's been a lot of get-togethers in the midwest of families with kids that have limb differences and I'm so sad and jealous I can't be there. Sammy's Friends and I-Can have been valuable resources in getting people together..... just not me. There are only a few people in my area of the country and it seems we have more differences than things in common, wether its the age of our kids...or that the people who want to meet are adults who want to meet other adults, geographic location, the limb difference itself, wether we want to drive or have people come to us and the fact that there's not a whole lot to do.... especially that everyone would enjoy as a whole. We don't have any zoos or big theme parks, our fairs are pretty lame (with the exception of Hopkington State Fair. And the one day in the entire year when something entertaining actually happens near me, Old Homes Day, when we have THE BEST FIREWORKS EVER (besides Disney), which we watch right in my yard, is also the same day as my Family Reunion so its not like I can invite people over for a cookout or something since I won't be around until fireworks time. And Jeremy wouldn't likely be here either since he'll most likely be the one running the train during the fireworks. I really hate New Hampshire. I'm in the middle of no where.