Skittles

This morning Daniel told me he had to bring a bag of Skittles to school for their 100th day of school project. At first I grumbled about having to leave the house early to stop by the store and unload all 4 kids just to grab a bag of stinkin' Skittles. But, then I thought maybe this would make an excellent learning experience for Daniel. He is 7 now and I have been trying to let him in on some older kid stuff like taking the garbage cans to the street, getting the mail, cutting veggies, filling pots with water and putting them on the stove, etc. So, I pulled up to the grocery store and luckily got a spot right in front of the door (not Wal-Mart, just the small local grocery store so I knew it would be an easy experiment) then I explained to him that the candy was on the first isle which I could see through the door, told him what to get and handed him a few dollars. I made sure to tell him which line to go through. Then, I stood at the door (looking like a dorky mom almost in tears because my first baby is growing up) for extra encouragement and to watch my other kids in the car. Daniel had a HUGE goofy toothless smile on his face the whole time. The cashier recognized me standing at the door since I am at that store on a much too frequent basis. She was great guiding Daniel through the payment process. The other shoppers all smiled at him and said encouraging words to him. It was adorable! When he was done he did a double fist pump in the air and shouted "I really did it Mom!" Apparently he enjoyed the experience so much he was going to write about it during journal time at school. Its amazing to me how something that was at first so annoying and filled me with frustration turned out to be the highlight of my day.

Weekend Getaway

Johnny has been working in Hanford (south of Fresno in central CA) for the past few weeks and he will likely be there for a few months. Its about 5 hours from Hemet where we are renting a house so he can't come home every weekend, its just too expensive. Luckily the company he is currently working for had their holiday party which provided a perfect excuse to leave the heathens with my parents and spend a whole 36 hours with Johnny alone. It was divine! We sat in the jacuzzi, danced to live music without worrying about what time we had to relieve the babysitter, ate ice cream, sat in the jacuzzi, went to bed late and slept in late, worked out at the gym for hours, sat in the jacuzzi, took long hot showers, went clothes shopping, took a nap, and then got all dressed up to go to the party.

I was nervous to meet the guys Johnny works with. Linemen are a rough group and I didn't really know what to expect. Johnny warned me about a few of the guys in advance, one was super scary looking but turned out to be a big teddy bear. The party was great fun. The food was great. The dancing was fun. The people I met were very nice and one guy in particular made a hilarious drunk. We were given $500 gambling chips each to use at the poker tables to earn raffle tickets. Our drink tickets we used to suck up to the guys on Johnny's crew. It paid off. Since Johnny and I don't ever gamble it was fun to learn a few new games and bet big knowing we had nothing substantial to lose. Some of the other guys started asking me to play for them when they saw my stack of chips. One guy told me I needed to win big so I could "win the Kitchen Aid to bake for [my] 45 children." He was hilarious. I guess 4 kids does seem like a lot to some people, especially when they are drunk. What I really wanted was the 60" flat screen, but I settled for $40 to Cold Stone. At least we didn't leave empty handed. Then what do you think we did when the party ended? Jacuzzi, of course! The time seemed to go so slow without the normal hussel of keeping the kids on schedule to avoid meltdowns. I was so relaxed the entire time. I miss being relaxed. 

The problem with the weekend being over is that now I need something else to look forward to. I have the kids all on my own so much of the time. Its hard to breath sometimes much less even remember to go to the bathroom or brush my own teeth. I am struggling to just keep my head above water. Going to a cold bed alone at night is not appealing so I tend to stay up too late reading then regret it when my boys wake early the next morning. Each day I tell Johnny he should be happy we are all alive. I know it is hard for him too knowing that I struggle and he can't be here to relieve me. Most of the time our limited conversations are cut short by the kids. I know it will get easier over time. I count my blessings that we are not in the trailer any more and that at least two of my boys are in school most of the day. I think later in life I will be able to look back at this time and laugh, but not yet. Not yet.    

Jaxon EE Update

I took Jaxon to the Rady Children's Hospital EE Clinic in Murrieta, CA a few weeks ago for a follow-up appointment. After we left Denver last year with a list of new foods to try I was scared and felt that we were setting Jaxon up for failure. Jaxon, however, never ceases to amaze me! He is doing SO well. Since Denver we have added one by one rice, dairy, wheat, and egg back into his diet. There is no sign that he is reacting to any of them. No tummy pain, no vomiting, no trouble swallowing, no rash, no hives, nothing. His last two scopes have been clear of any EEs. So, with that in mind I made an executive decision. No more scopes. He had five by the time he was 4 1/2 years old. I am done and he is done. Until I see some strong indication that he is reacting in some way to the food he is eating we are moving ahead. Currently he has NO FOOD RESTRICTIONS! Wahoo! Five years of tests, reading labels, seeing doctors, attempting to explain his condition to others, etc. Such frustration. I am not sure if I'm ready to use the word "cured." I'm not sure if that is really an option for EE kids to ever really be cured, but for now Jaxon is healthy, happy, and boy can that kid eat!

I wish with all my heart that all the kids out there suffering from eosinophilic conditions could be doing as well as Jaxon.    

These are a few of my favorite things!

The last week I was feeling a little mopey because we are not in "our own home" and I was dissatisfied with having to rent for a while. Buying a new home for our family excited me and then it didn't happen. To try and get myself out of my "woe is me" funk I decided I needed to concentrate on the positive things and make sure to tell Johnny about them so he would know how much I love and appreciate all of his hard work to support our family. I didn't want him to come home to me every day pointing out the things I hated about where we are living (i.e. the butcher knife tip broken off in one of the cabinet doors).

Here it goes. Really this is what is at the top of my list!

1. An actual full size refrigerator, ice maker and all. ICE! We actually have ice at our finger tips! I picked out and bought an excellent but very inexpensive stainless steel refrigerator from a Persian couple off Craig's List. Compared to what I have lived with the last few years our new refrigerator feels absolutely gigantic! I promptly made a trip to Costco to fill it up! I have missed Costco and now I have the storage space to shop in bulk again!

2. A dishwasher! No more stacking our dishes sky high in the little drying rack! No more rock, paper, scissors to see who will have to wash dishes.

3. A water heater larger than 5 gallons! The hot water seems ENDLESS! I can finally take a shower longer than 2 minutes, shave my legs in the shower, and leave the water on while I scrub!

4. Not just one, but two FLUSHING toilets! Now I don't have to make one of my boys pee in the shower while the other one is sitting on the only available toilet! Seriously they all have to go at the same time and now one of my most frustrating problems has been solved. AND, I get to remove draining the tank from my boy's chore list. I bet no other 5 and 6 year olds would even know how to drain the tank on a travel trailer. I guess I'll replace that chore with loading/unloading the dishwasher. Wahahahaha!

5. I have a walk in closet. It would not be considered massive to some, but to me it is easily over 3 time as big as our trailer bathroom was and it is all mine! In the trailer I had one little cabinet and a tiny drawer. After losing so much weight my clothes take up maybe two and a half feet of the closet, but I am sure I can work to fill it over time! Wink, wink! Johnny has his own huge closet too and it is heavenly not to have to share.

6.  I don't have to light a pilot light to cook or check the over for toys! And I don't have to store food under the couch!

7. All of my kitchen gadgets are in cabinets now and I can bake the day away using any pans and bowls I want. In the trailer there was only room for a few things so I would rewash the same bowl or baking dish over and over. Not any more!

8. I have a backyard where my kids can play. They can come in and out without having to ask. I don't worry about them being run over or falling in a pool or being taken by a stranger when they are out there. A private back yard! Who knew it could be so heavenly?!

9. Separate rooms! Seriously?! Need I say more?! With 4 kids (and only a curtain separating them from us in the trailer) I love having a door to close between each room. And not just a door, a door with a lock!

10. A laundry room. No more going to the public or coin laundry. No more loading my kid's red wagon with laundry baskets and trekking over speed bumps to see if the machines are available. We have not bought a new washer and dryer yet, but we will soon. For now I wash clothes at my parent's house a few times a week. Sometimes I just stand in our empty laundry room and imagine having my own again. It will be soon, very soon, and I can't wait.

I think I might go on forever, but you get the point. Living in a house again, any house, is growing on me. I am very blessed. I just needed to recognize my blessings. I have been thinking about some of the women I know who are great friends of mine and who are having a very rough time right now. Some have been having very difficult struggles for years. I have every reason to be happy. I need to be more grateful. My grandmother has a saying "if all our troubles were hung on the line, you'd take yours and I'd take mine." So true!

Jaxon Update

Jaxon is doing well trialing dairy. He has gagged a few times and thrown up a few times, but he also might have been reacting to shrimp. He had shrimp twice. He has never had any previous reaction to shell fish in the past, but this time the side of his face swelled...but he also had an ear infection and was on antibiotics so it also could have been the ear infection causing the swelling. We go see the EE clinic at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego the start of November and will probably schedule another scope. I hope to trial egg after we get the all clear on dairy. Egg will be the last restricted food we have to trial, but we will be staying away from shell fish for a while just to be sure. If we don't get the all clear on dairy I know I will cry and Jaxon will be devastated. Our battle over dairy will be epic if I try to remove it from his diet now. I have never seen a child so in love with cheese, Gogurts, and ice cream. He is a pizza fiend and will eat more than Johnny and I combined if we let him, which we don't. He eats like the food is going to get up and run away from him when it is something he really loves.

Moved

We FINALLY made a decision and rented a house in south west Hemet, CA. After 3 years I couldn't take the trailer any more. Now it is in storage awaiting the time when Johnny is sent to work far enough away that he can't come home every night. We looked at quite a few houses to buy and every time it didn't feel like it was the right one, or right time, or right anything. Nothing was falling into place. I was so unsure. I look back on it now realize I was seriously having a "stupor of thought." Eventually Johnny's truck had more issues and we dumped over $8,000 into repairs in two months...goodbye down payment. So we are renting and moved in this past weekend. It feels good to be in our own place again but it doesn't feel like home yet. After having all of our "junk" in storage for over 3 years much of my own stuff doesn't even feel familiar and I have quite a large pile of Goodwill items for the boy's school fundraiser. Seriously why did no one tell me I am a terrible decorator when we lived in Mesa? I am fighting the urge to go buy new EVERYTHING! Even all the clothes I had in storage are being sent off to friends or thrift stores. I keep thinking over and over "why did we pay to store this"?

I know I will feel more comfortable with time. The boys love having two separate rooms and more space to run and play. They love the freedom to go play in the back yard whenever they want. I love having a toilet that will flush and a dishwasher. The house echos due to our lack of furniture so the kids seem very loud the last few days. Surprisingly I have slept well here and look forward to decorating for the holidays.

Percival Family Camping Trip 2012

This weekend was my little sister's 26th birthday and in a few weeks my dad will reach his 60th birthday. To celebrate we went on a family camping trip to Tent Peg campsite near Running Springs on the way to Big Bear California. The weather was beautiful and the campsite much more remote than we were expecting. With no official bathroom (just a fly hut with a hole in the ground) and no running water, I ended up being very happy that we hauled our 32 foot travel trailer down a treacherous road and through a washed out river bed to the site. We even tore off one of the back jacks going over some rough terrain.

My parents, sister, niece, and others (including two dogs) slept in the trailer, but to our boys sleeping in the trailer would not be camping considering we have lived in it on and off for the last 3 years. My boys slept in a tent and Johnny and I opted for a mattress in the back of the truck.

The first day we spent the morning Geo Cashing. We found two canisters not far from our site and had a nice hike.

 After nap time we went to a small creek and let the kids frolic while we washed off our nasty dirty feet. Garrett found a little hole where the ice cold water was running to make himself at home.

Garrett and my nephew Toby both had the time of their lives getting dirty and sticking every single piece of food they were given on the ground before partaking. If you took the dirty food from them they would fall to the ground and throw a fit making the mess even worse.


My older boys had fun exploring, hiking, riding their bikes down the hill, playing Hide and Go Seek and Piggy Wants a Signal.

How is it that camping is so relaxing yet so exhausting at the same time? When we left I had every intention of sleeping the entire way home before unloading and taking a shower. That didn't happen. Going up the first hill on the road home we sank deep into some soft sand and had to call my sister Jeanine and her husband Kevin for some assistance. Luckily they were only a little ahead of us. It made my heart hurt to see our little "home" on wheels, something that we have invested quite a bit of time and money into, stuck on the side of a hill! We had to keep backing up to try and get the truck out of the sand, but the trailer fish tailed and almost went off the side of the road into a fence. Being the genius I am I tried to bend the metal fence post out of the way enough that our one reaming back jack wouldn't catch on it when we got going. Apparently the fence was not as strong as I thought because it popped loose and I rolled back word down the hill. I was only a little sore but very embarrassed. Of course that was after I slid down the embankment on the other side of the road into the trailer tires one of the times Johnny was trying to get going. Whoops.





 After over an hour pulling with two 4X4 trucks, five tries, digging out the embankment, lots of wood, and one close encounter with a large tree we finally made it up the hill. We also tore off our other back jack on the same spot as the first one going into the camp site. Maybe the trailer was not such a great idea...