Short update.

There is nothing new to report. Both kids are doing really great. Both of them are happy and healthy right now.
I think I am starting to get Pre Memphis Syndrom . lol We will be flying over there on 11th( early morning) and back on 16th. I hate going there this time. HATE, HATE, HATE. On 12th there is little Christmas celebration on Reginas school and 16th is the last day of school this year. She will miss it. :(

I also found somone who will "adopt" Gabriel for a week . I feel horrible about leaving him with somebody else, but I really have no other choice right now. I do not want to take him to Memphis for 6 days. There are lots of things for him to do in the hospital that can keep him busy, BUT,for me, it will be one of the most nervwracking times ever. ( not because Gabe is there, but because I will be worried about Reginas MRI's and other apointments, and with 2 kids and no help at all- I'm sure I'll go grazy..... :)
Parisa- right now I have no Idea how I can pay you back- I probably will babysit your kids rest of my life...... ;) Thank you so much for that great offer. I would have never thought about asking it from you :)

Oh- I think I am allergic to my cat. I can not get myself tested this year b/c of insurance issues, but all the signs are telling me that my rescent healt problems are b/c of my naughty kitty. So kitty has to go. Sooner the better. Kittys Original owner will take him back and keep him. :) So at least I know that he will be in good home. :)

View from the Park.( palm Springs)

 

Thanksgiving 2005

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It was fun filled day. Day before thanksgiving we went to our neighbors house in Palm Springs. They just bought their second house there. People who know me, know that I am total chicken when it comes to driving to new places. My car has navigation system, but I still get all sweaty and nervous. So few days before our trip I did some research about addresses,and places and how to get from one point to another. etc. lol.
Anyway- our trip started out kind of weird. We were supposed to follow our friends to Palm springs( last minute thing). I was about to take 5 North( highway), when I suddenly hear cops, and fire trucks and ambulane everywhere. Oh boy, I just knew that there was accident on 5. I was so freeking right.
I got a phone call from our friends and they told us to wait for them , because we have to take another route to Palm springs. So we did. I followed them till Riverside- traffic was total bitch. HORRIBLE. I lost them about 6 miles before Riverside mall. My friends husband had business meeting somewhere there and me and Soch with kids just walked around in the mall until he was finished.
So finally around 5pm we started driving again - it was 60-70 mile trip from Riverside to Palm Springs. We followed our friends closely and it was around 7 pm when we finally arrived to Palm Springs. We all were hungry and stopped in KFC. KIDS ate without complaning - That was real fun for me to watch. lol.
-- After KFC we went grocery shopping. We bought food for our Thanksgiving dinner.

__ On Thanksgiving morning Soch baked really good chocolate cake, I made prep. for dinner and after Cake was baked we went to park to play. But oh boy, it was wrong thing to do. IT WAS HOT, and it was around 10.30 AM. HOT HOT HOT HOT. We only played for 30 minutes and it was enought. To much heat is never good.

Then we had simple lunch, kids had theyre quiet time , then played a lot indoors and around 4 pm I made dinner.

Our menu was not traditional at all. Our past week was filled with traditional thanksgiving food , so , I made something else.

-- Bacon wrapped, cream cheese and garlic filled chicken breasts
-- Potato , carrot, cabbage, squash cooked over low heat for about 4 hours.
-- Cream sauce for chicken
--Basmati rice with almonds
-- And Miss Sochys famous Chocolate cake

So , there you go. Nothing fancy. For kids we made pizza. After dinner we played and acted silly. And around 12.00 am we finally hit our bunk beds and fell asleep.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you all :):):)

Larger than life..... :D

Happy Thanksgiving. lol Kids wanted to decorate something , so instead me letting them draw on my white walls, I opened boxers full of christmas stuff , and told them that they can decorate this tree.

What a day...

Whew- I am glad it is almost over. lol It started 7 am for me. I woke up, made my famous Estonian potato salad to my pregnant Mexican friend who was in mood for Estonian food. lol She is funny. She is pregnant and has these weird pregnancy food moods. Since she DOES not cook ( yup, she eather eats out or orders in), I help her out in food department. After that kids woke up, we made pancakes and waffles, and cupcakes for breakfast . Gabriel wanted to have his farfalle pasta- FOR BREAKFAST!!!!!!!! Then we just watched some old christmas shows for kids and around noon time we headed out to Reginas friends B-day. AGAIN, it was in Scooters Jungle- THE hippest place for 5-6 year olds to hang out and chill. lol Us moms just sit there and wait until 3 hour fun is over or take slides with kids and play ping pong . After that party we went to someone elses house for hour- another B-party/ early Thanksgiving party combined and then party NO3 was in our neighgbors house who also celebrated Thanksgiving little early. Menu for a day was filled with pizza, potato salads, turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pies, cookies , nuts , beans, mashed potatoes, spinach( spelling) tips, and other foods that tend to make you really fat. But it was fun day. It is 8.41 now and both kids are in bed and sleeping. They were worn out today. Really.

Regina is doing pretty well. She has runny nose that does not want to go away. Lately she has been pumping her head into things . Falling down, hitting her forhead with car door couple of times, pumping into things. Her poor head must be hurting all the time, but she never complains, so I really do not know if she is in pain or not.

We have been working on weekdays really hard past couple of days and she finally got them right now. She knows exactly what comes after friday and what comes after monday etc.

We also have been working on some other things like- If I ask from her , WHAT MAKES HER HAPPY- she tells me she does not know, or she is always happy- which is not true at all. When I ask from Gabriel what makes HIM happy, he has million answers, he tells me he loves playing with his cars, and eating corndogs makes him happy, jumping makes him happy, playing with mommy and daddy makes him happy etc. Then Regina hears his answers and tells me OH yeah, same things make her happy to. BUT she can not answer to these questions first, she has to have examples.
If I ask from her what is her favorite book she tells me all the books, and then I start asking from her about if she likes scary scooby doo books, or Nightmare before christmas books, or my books etc. She finally gets it and tells me that she likes Dora books and strawberry shortcake books. It takes A LOT OF time for her to think and come up with answer, and most of the times she has no answers for my questions.
She also has become very sensitive to everything. She can not stand if I am right and she is wrong- She gets mad, really mad at me. She listens to me talk and sayes YES mom, and then she forgets it.

EX. She was sitting on sofa. I asked her if she wants milk. She sayed yes. So I went and got her some milk. I gave it to her. She looks at me and tells me that she does not want milk she asked for ORANGE juice.
OR. She is dressed up and I am ready to take her to school. I tell her LETS go Regina, it is time to go to school. SHe tells me , YES mom. And she just sits there and does nothing. SOmetimes I have to tell her that couple of times before it registers in her brain. She finally gets it and does what I told her to do.

Other than that she is doing great. She is pretty happy most of the time.She misses her dad very much and ask constantly when he is coming home to play with her. :(

Bird and Gabriel- That bird flew over my head, almost touching me.

Found this...

I was just reading my past posting and found this pic http://diana78.blogspot.com/2004/11/regina-and-her-tpn.html

Last year Regina was admitted to the hospital during thanksgiving and was in pretty bad shape.

Hour at the beach. Oh, it is such a beautiful day today. I asked what kids wanted to do today and they both wanted to go to beach. So we went there to play at the park and just hang out. Regina has serious issues. lol She wants to go to beach, but she hates sand. She hates how it feels between her toes. So, she constantly sat down and cleaned between her toes...lol she is funny.

Gabriel had a haircut today. At first he refused to get into Creat clips, but when I promised to buy him a car( I KNOW, I should not have), he agreed to get his hair cut. First pic is taken 3 days ago and sec. today. :)

Chilis update!!!!

Chili's Grill & Bar raises $3 million for St. Jude

http://www.stjude.org

Chili's Grill & Bar and its patrons showed their support for the life-saving mission of St. Jude in September by helping to raise more than $3 million during the restaurant chain's national fund-raising campaign, "Create a Pepper to Fight Childhood Cancer." This success was achieved as people nationwide, including those at St. Jude, focused their attention on the tragedy that unfolded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Speaking of Chili's commitment to make the campaign a success, Todd Diener, president of Chili's Grill & Bar, said, "These kids need our help in order to have a fighting chance against cancer and other deadly diseases. We are proud to support St. Jude's efforts to find cures and save children."

During the campaign held in honor of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, employees at more than 900 participating Chili's restaurants nationwide encouraged guests to donate $1 or more for the opportunity to color a pinup of Chili's signature pepper. The pinups were proudly displayed throughout the restaurants to recognize the donors' support for St. Jude. In addition, Chili's donated 100 percent of its profits from September 26 to St. Jude to help reach its goal of raising at least $3 million in September.

"Chili's 'Create a Pepper' campaign touches the lives of thousands of children who depend upon St. Jude's life-saving research and care," said John P. Moses, chief executive officer of ALSAC, the fund-raising arm of the hospital. "I know I speak for our patients and their families when I say a heart-felt 'thank you' to Chili's and their patrons for making a difference in this critical fight for cures."

The inaugural national campaign held in September 2004 raised nearly $2.6 million, building tremendously on what originated as a local campaign in Memphis and then grew to a regional effort.

This is one of my all time fave pics of Regina. It is taken in 2003. She used to go To Tutor Time, and these pics were taken just before Mothers day and we received them on mothers day( i think). So pretty much, the wanted to surprise , us, moms , with beautiful pics. Pics did not surprise me, I knew that my kids are adorable .lol I was surprised to see the prices on these pics. lol But since picture packages came out so good, I just had to get them. :)

Hoping for miracles to happen.

In St Jude we met lot of kids. Some of them are doing awsome now, but some of them are trying to survive. There are 2 girls who we met, and both of them have same kind of cancer.( Osteosarcoma)
Sadly, doctors ran out of options and there is nothing much they can do to save them. :(
Pamela has been fighting since March 2004- http://www3.caringbridge.org/tn/pamelahensley
Ashley was also diagnosed in 2004( august) - http://www.caringbridge.org/la/princessashley

Thank you :)

I just have to post this pic. lol This is how my girl loves to eat her fruits. First, she cuts them to tiny pieces, then she tooks sandwich pics and sticks it to every single piece. Long process, but hey, at least she will finsh up the whole pear without complaning . lol

Friday

Today was no school for REgina. Public schools celebrate here every holiday and since it was Veterans day, she got day off. I did my 40 minutes of cardio workout and then I took Regina to see movie Chicken Little. But oh boy, what a surprise when we arrived at movie theater. At 11.15 Parking lot was full, parking structure was full. It is not some little movie theater. It is huuuge plaza with shops and restaurants and usually at that time of day it is never full, infact, It is almost empty. After driving around we finally found parking spot. THen the real fun started. We had to wait on line for 35 minutes to buy ticets. We wanted to catch 11.30 show, instead we got 12.10 show . We also planned to buy popcorn and drinks, but line inside was even longer than outside and because of that I decided not to buy snacks. Regina got really upset and mad at me for not following her rules. But I won anyway. lol

Chicken little was ok movie. It had some funny jokes inside but in overall NMS. I did like the message this movie was sending out to parents. lol Go see, then you'll know what I am talking about !!!

I did not take Gabe to see this because he was preview of this movie( that preview that kind of looks like war of the words) , and he got scared and did not want to go to see it :)

:)

3 of us

Sometimes things just happen.

Today, after school, I took both kids to mall to get their pics taken. Pictures came out beautiful this time. They are way to overpriced, but I just had to get them. I ended up spending 92 dollars for 6 sheets of pics. We'll be eating bread and drinking water rest of the month. lol

After we got pics taken, we had hour to just shop around. Both of my kids wanted me to take one of those 2 seat fire truck cruisers. lol. They sat in and were really happy. Then They wanted to walk around for a while. As regina started stepping out, her leg got stuck in truck and she fell. Her forhead hit the floor. I am not sure what material was used for flooring but it was rock hard. I grabbed her and we both were crying her eyes out. I was so scared that she cracked her scull open. After 5 minutes of crying, she stopped and told me that everything is fine. Tomorrow her forhead will have nice purple bump , just in center. Oh, I am still worried. Kids fall and hurt themselves all the time. But when Regina falls or something is wrong with her I just get extra nervous. I do not have such a feeling with Gabriel. I am worried, but not psycho kind of worried. Will it ever change? Will I question every cry, every weird wink, every limp? I hate to feel this way. I absolutely hate it. I love both of my kids very much, but Regina always gets more love, more attention more everything. I just hope that Gabriel will understand this all one day and forgive me for not deviding everything 50/50.

Wednesday

Regina feels pretty good today. She still goes to bathroom quite often , but her energy level is good.
Today was fun afternoon. Regina was invited to his classmates Birthday . So all of us went to Scooters Jungle. http://www.scootersjungle.com/
It is a indoor playground for kids , with huge slides and other fun things to do. Regina and gabe had fun sliding down and then climbing up again. Even I took quite few slides down. I like having fun like this. After 1,5 hour of jumping, screaming, sliding and bouncing it was time for pizza and cake. I think my kids are done with pizza. Everywhere we go it it PIZZA. Seriously. Seems like it is the only food kids eat on birthdays. Pizza and cake. Pizza and cake. No offense ( how do you spell that word?) anyone, but if my kids refuse to eat pizza at your place, then know that they had enough. lol Offer some soup or salad for a change. lol

After that ( around 4.30 pm) we came home, I cooked dinner for kids, because they did not eat anything at all at that pary. Then they played for a while, Regina did her homework. Then I read them few Christmas stories( old fashioned ones) and now they are finally sleeping. snoring, really.

Myself I am doing ok. I think weather is about to change to worse because my left sholder is hurting really badly. It is hard for me to type with left hand. every time I move my fingers, pain shoots straight to my sholder. :(

Monday-

+++7.11 PM
We are back from Dr's office. Doctor thinks that Regina might be coming down with cold/stomach flu. She has been running to restroom very often and had couple of little"Poop" Accidents. :( Her fever is down and she is doing her homework now. I will let her stay home tomorrow to make sure she is ok. :)

Reginas teacher called me today and asked if something was wrong with regina. She has been very emotional today and wanting to participate in any activities. So I went there and picked her up. At home I took her temp and she had 100,6 fever( latest). So Now she has chills, and then she feels hot and chills again. I just hope that this is not flu b/c she got a flu shot on last tuesday. Tonight I am taking her to see her doc. to get more answers what is going on with her. :)

Today ( sunday) , 3 of us went to the park. They always wanted to go to that EXpensive park, but I sayed no, because entrance fee is 5 dollars. But it is beautifu and clean park with lake for fishing, little river, playground for kids and lots of green grass. :) They had fun playing and swinging. But we had to leave soon ( about 45 minutes after we arrived), because both of my kids got whiny and I really dislike whining.

One more week has passed. It was good week. Kids went to school as usual, and after school we spent time in bookstores, parks, and Chuckee Cheeses. On friday Reginas school hosted Family fun night. It was from 5pm till 7.30 pm and was filled with games for kids, dancing , and silent auctions. Anyway- I swear, I do not enjoy taking care of 2 kids on one event. If my husband was there to help me we would have had fun, but since one kids wanted this and other that i just got stressed even thinking about how to please them both. We did eat pizza,( haha, theme was Western), did 3 legged race, jumped in sak, and Regina and Gabe played with hoola hoops( sp?) After one hour chatting with people we know , we went back home and did nothing. On saturday we went to our friends house for little fall party. Kids had lots of fun playing with other kids and we adults had some much needed adult conversations about life, guys and food. ( pretty much all the things that suck). lol

Monday, tuesday...

For now ,I am pretty sure Reginas memory and learning skills are not what they used to be. She used to know all the days of the week, months of the year.

I noticed that she asks me every day What day is it? I tell her what day is it and go on with it. So Next day she ask me again what day is it. I ask what comes after tuesday? She does not know. She tells me saturday or monday, but never the day that comes next. So now for about a week I have been constantly working with her , teaching what comes next and what is before. We do it in the car on our way to school and during her lunch. She remember them for a day- Like Whatever we go over on monday she will remember them for next few hours, but when she wakes up in the morning , she has no idea what is going on or what day is it. :( Gabriel knows all the days, months and he does not mix them up. He has memorised everything. And he remembers
them no matter when I ask it from him. She used to know when is her birthday ( 19th of sept) and when I asked from her when it is, she told me she forgot .
We also read every day. Sometimes she does very well with her words she knows- but there are days she does not recognise word- this, are, they- and there ara days she know all the words. So I really do not know how her brain works. But I know that mine stopped working, because I am running out of ideas how to make her perform better.

Today is one of those days I need hugs from people who care, but nobody is around. So here I am with my cup of decaff and pile of napkins next to my rocking chair... Today sucks...