Drama between Schools and Hypertension, Geez just take a break!

Yep he did it a whole day!  So proud of him.  He just handled it like a pro and I never knew if the kids stared at him for this machine going off or not.  But he acted like it was no big deal.

Portable blood pressure cuff

24 hours and he is done!

After dropping off the blood pressure cuff at the doctors and waiting out the results... They finally get in and the they are BAD!  How did I know?  Oh I think it was my power of observation and the fact that Rhett always seems winded and turning blue.  Just like the day he turned blue while we were talking to his teacher and we were meeting with the district superintendent to discuss the placement of the deaf high school kids.  Rhett was in his wheelchair and we were talking about the blood pressure cuff and letting her know that things might have to change but I wasn't sure what the doctors wanted to do with Rhett at that point.  But as we were talking we both stopped and looked at Rhett and he was blue.  I took these pictures but I am not sure if you can see the blueness around his lips and mouth.

Smart aleck, pulling off a grin as we are staring at him and his blueness!

Oh!  You can see the purple/blueness on his lips more from this angle.

After the blueness drama we went to the meeting and found out that the deaf high school students are safe from moving to a different school.  I also found out that the Jr high school that is a feeder school to Skyline doesn't have as many kids as the school that I work at or the one that Nikole attends.  So I talked to the superintendent about moving Nikole to this other school and the principle of Skyline and Churchill were so happy to have her and got me the paper right away.

So the nephrologist was trying to get a hold of the cardiologist to see if they could put Rhett on this certain medication and still hadn't heard anything. After a few days they finally made contact with each other and Rhett is now on some high blood pressure medication. He has to follow up with the doctor this month. Can't wait to see how they panic when I take him back in and he tells them he hates his meds and doesn't want to take them, ok well sometimes he takes them but he really doesn't like them and would rather not.  I figure he is a walking time bomb and it is a miracle that he is still alive and hasn't had a heart attack yet.  The doctors have been on his case about his Flovent, Adcirca, Singular, and Albuterol.  Now we are just adding to the list. SIGH...  I don't even have exact result from the blood pressure cuff.  I wish I could access them online but NO, that would make it way too easy for people to see their medical records.

I was finally able to turn the paper in and took her to see the Jr high school.  She fell in love with the school and the environment that was there and wanted to go to school on a Saturday just because she liked the school.  We also met with the principle and we got a registration card while we were there.

A week later this arrived in the mail.

And she is IN!  She is so excited.

She numbered the electives that she wanted and I just had to laugh at how much she really wants PE.

She asked her teachers except her history teacher what classes she should be in and they filled in the bubbles for her. Smarty pants! She can't believe that she is going to be in honors classes.  HAHA!!  Jokes on her.

We didn't want to use regular pens so we decided to use color pens.  It makes it so much better.

I have decided that Gavin will be going to the same school when he hits that age since the kids that he goes to school with right now will provoke him and cause him to have major problems, like fights and getting suspended.  He is smart enough to not do that but with him still learning how to control himself Jr high is going to be a HUGE struggle for him.

If I could move I would.  I am working on that since all my kids are struggling here with peers.  The only place they are not struggling is with people at church and we don't go often since everyone and there dog are sick right now and we are all recovering or are sick.  We are trying to avoid all illness if we can and if that means staying home from church, shot me.  I only go out when I have to go out.  I would love to get out more but goodness you know how hard it is getting out when your kids get sick so easy? No? Well it isn't easy to make sure you have all the oxygen to cover if the oxygen needs to increase or the suction machine in case Dylan gets so stuffy that he can't breathe very well, the wheelchair so you can actually walk around anywhere you go.  It takes so much that if we do leave it is after careful consideration of how long we are going to be gone and how it is going to affect everyone.

Ok, just thinking of that I am grateful for the music.  I honestly play it non-stop (except at work and a few other places).  But holy cow it calms me and for that I am forever grateful.

After April I might be able to say what my goals are this year that I am make happen and hitting.  I am doing them right now but I cannot say just yet what they are, but I am excited!  I am happy to be doing something for me and as I am doing that I am helping others.  Eek!  I am just so excited and it is killing me that I cannot say what it is but I think the wait is worth it. :)

I will update as soon as I can, with more pictures.  Sorry totally slacking here.

Thoughts and blood pressure testing

2-12-15
Oh the places you will go, things you will do, and people you will meet.

Rhett asked me to update my blog.  Go figure, maybe he is even reading it.  Who knows?  LOL!

Things have been crazy busy and I hope they settle down soon.  I have been working on me and have some major things in the works right now.  I wish I could say I am meeting this singer and actor that I would love to meet and get to know.  But as I sit here I think that it is funny thinking that if it might not ever happen.  But who knows maybe I can pull it off.  I would love to make contact and get to know them and be the kind of friend that everyone wants.

Kids have started testing and it is crazy.  Who knew what went into writing essays and arguments. Yes I was helping Nikole Google them to give her the info that she was going to need to write well. She already knew all the stuff I googled.  HAHAHA!!  I so didn't know until this year.  Amazing how things have changed over the years.

To be thinking, planning and then acting is amazing.  It is like I am watching myself transform into someone that so different but yet so much the same.  Progress is a good thing and I am excited to be stepping in the right direction for that progress.  I am working on coming up with some most brilliant ideas to put into place and focus on from now on.  Working on yourself is a lot harder than helping other people but if you can do it at the same time then you are AWESOME!

I think I would have a hard time testing while people walk around and possibly look over my shoulder. Maybe that is just me and my hyper-distractive brain but that would bother me slightly.
The kids had some doctor’s appointments recently and it was interesting to have to take then while I am still trying to recover from this nasty cough and cold.  Yes I wear a mask when I go to the doctors with my kids and I am sick.  I don’t like it when people think that just because you are at the doctors it is ok to not wear a mask if you are sick.  You are just spreading illness and those that are not sick but are just there because the doctor needs to follow up with them risk getting sick. SIGH!!  I have a love hate relationship with going to the doctor’s office and seeing doctors.  It is hard to explain, but that is the fact of life.

As I sit here and type this I have noticed that I am getting better with my typing which makes me excited.  I know the smallest things make me so excited. LOL!  The looks that you get from others when you mean a lot to them, the smiles that are tender and hold special meanings, the hugs from those that are care for you sincerely, and an active listener and some understandment.  Oh the caring behind these things, they bring me so much happiness.  Too bad I lack them often.  It is hard when you are lacking something that can be so easily given.

To watch these kids be so disrespectful in so many ways is disheartening to say the least.  What happened to the respect you were supposed to give to those older than you and those that are trying to help you learn and grow?  You would have thunk that it would have grown over time but NO, it has diminished.  I am ready to go back in time when that was everywhere.  But since I can’t go back in time I am ready to move far away where that is still very important and is active in the lives of young people.

2-17-15

Today I am getting a portable blood pressure cuff for Rhett to wear for 24 hours.  I am actually excited about this because his pressure is all over the place and the doctors want to change up his meds and everything.  So tomorrow he will be wearing the cuff to school. We will see how many kids stare at him, oh wait they might already do that.  HAHAHA!  I am a mean, well at least in my mind I am mean.  Maybe I should change that outlook.  Ok from now on I am no longer going to be mean just realistic. :) The more I think about it the more I don't want to be, but if I can stay grounded just enough then I will be ok. If I am grounded too much into reality I can't do it, it is too much and too overwhelming for me.

Oh how I wish that I could communicate with them, get to know them and be their friend.  I enjoy having lots of friends but most of the time that is just not part of the bargain.  I pray that I will one day talk to them and eventually become friends with them.  That is my positive thinking playing a tune just for me to hear.  I hold tight to that tune and I will not let it go no matter what.  That sounds quite childish but it is what keeps me going when I am struggling and I have been struggling lots lately.  I know not the best but at least I am recognizing it as what it is and not what it isn't.

The other day when chopping onions with my sister we ended up talking about me having a heart attack and being buried in the backyard.  I know it sounds morbid and crazy but then I totally turned it around and told her that if I was buried in the backyard the neighbors dogs would raise me from the dead they are so yappy.  I told her that I would rise from the dead and scare the crap out of them dogs.  HAHAHA!  Don't get me wrong I love dogs, but not when they are always barking and not trained. :) Wish I could have a dog but with kids having allergies to animals it makes having an animal hard.

My sister tells me that I am old.  I am so not old!  I told her that when I went to her daughter's baptism someone that knew me when I was growing up told me that I look the same as when I was in high school.  My sister then told me that I couldn't come around because they will see me then they will see her and wonder what happened. HAHAHA!  I don't plan on being around for people to notice.  My motto is: You are only as old as you act.  If you look old and act young you are officially young.  What a great motto to live by, seeing as I am around Jr high kids all day I can act super young.  But I refuse to act young and dumb.  Been there done that, and not doing it again.  She was laughing at my other sister because of her age and I guess she can do that since she is the baby of the family but when she realized that my oldest is 15 and my "little" girl is 13, she also realized that she was old. HAHAHA!!  Yep you are now older then I am sister.  :)  Sweet revenge. 

How I miss the water.  I need to figure out a way to be able to swim when I want to swim.  I watched a video of someone going through scuba training to be a master diver and I would love to do that!! Maybe I could do one day soon.  But then I feel like I would need to move to the ocean so I could go more often.  I might do that too.  Wow my mind is on a trip today trying to escape.  I have a desire to learn, grow, entertain, teach, and be happy.  I have some ideas to obtain my desires but I am not saying what they re just yet I need to work out kinks and make definite plans, but one day I will have all my desires and I will be happy.

I can hardly wait to see the report from the blood pressure cuff monitoring that Rhett will be doing this week!  Gosh the doctors are going to give me grief, and in turn I am going to give the school grief about getting Rhett an aide and having him keep an aide.  They are going to hate me by the time he is a senior.  HAHAHA!  Oh yeah I almost forgot that Rhett asked me over the weekend if I heard the rumors... I was like what rumors?  He said that there are rumors going around that the deaf program will be moving from Skyline to Olympus, and the kids are up in arms about seeing as there isn't any ASL classes over at Olympus.  The kids really like Skyline and are able to make friends with so many other kids since there are class in ASL and there is even a ASL club.  Rhett is worried so I sent an email to an administrator at USDB (Utah School for the Deaf and Blind) and she informed me that they talk about location with the school district every year but they have not had a chance to discuss Olympus yet this year.  They want to move it because it is a newer building so it "ADA accessible" (which Skyline is too) But more so then Skyline according to people. it is closer to the main campus of JMS (Jean Massieu School of the Deaf) where the administrators are going to be building a new building.  Ok so it is closer by ONE mile.  It is 3.3 miles to Skyline from JMS and 2.2 mile to Olympus from JMS.  Seriously ONE MILE!  Ok rant over.  She really wants them to move the program even more so now that Rhett is there.  Are they thinking that this is going to make it easier for students, teachers and parents?  I highly doubt that.  But I also found out that the playground that the deaf and blind kids saved for and fund raised for is going to be torn up to build a building for the 5 blind kids and the administration.  Seriously!!!  Build your building somewhere other then where the playground is located!!!  It isn't fair for those kids to be without just for your personal gain.  I understand you want to build a building for the blind kids and the administrators but that doesn't mean that you have the right to tear apart the playground that they just got 3 years ago in order to build your building.  GEEZ!!!

Not quite done but functional

So I have had many people ask me how my bathroom is and I tell them not done but functional.  So here are all the picture that I have taken through the process.

The tile that we got a year ago that I had to match everything to. Let's just say I was hauling it around for a while try to get everything we were going to need for the bathroom before  demolition.

 Pardon our mess. I try to keep up on everything but I am also only one person. The next few pictures were before pictures that I took before I went running to the store to get everything.

Yes that is fake flooring. Someone thought it was going to be a good idea until we could afford to get everything to fix it all up, let's just say it had other plans.

As you can see other plans. this is all from the toilet. :(  It was a sad moment.

A close up of the fake floor. 

I know messy. sigh.

DUN DUN DUN!!!!  As I looked up I just wanted to cry.  We ran out of time, time for a new bathroom whether we could afford it or not.  No choice.

 After taking all these picture I headed out to the store.  I even made a list. Vanity, Mirror, Light, Paint, Tiles for the floor, Tiles for the wall, Wood for the floor, and everything for the floor.

I get back to this!  Holy CRAP!!!!!

Where did the toilet go? Ok now no toilet. Sigh. Anyone that has to pee???  TOO BAD!!!  HAHAHA!

What no sink either?  Ok I guess i expected that but wow this is the only bathroom.  It was a lot to take in.

Look at all that damage. (Head bowing and shaking in despair.)

Seriously it goes under the tub? :'(

Please tell me I am dreaming that is gross!!!

Oh good maybe I did dream it. but still gross!

I so DIDN'T dream it!  EWWWW!!!!

Found my wall!  I want my wall to look like that! No if and or but.

A skylight into the basement. We still need to get more of the damaged wood out. it is under the tub.

The end of the first day. Sigh there is still so much that we need to do.

Sorry it it blurry, but I was in a hurry. LOL! Potty run.

Call for help and help comes!  Jared and Crystal you are AWESOME!!!!  Thank you for helping us!!!

How the...... do we get the tub out in order to get to the bad wood?

1, 2, 3.... Lift! Try not to take out the wall.  HAHA!

It's out!!!  You are amazing!

What?!?! Cast Iron???  That sucker is heavy!!  Good job guys.  Still amazed. :)

Ok so the day is almost over.  We got as much done as we could until I get an idea.

How the..... are we suppose to take care of the water damage where we can't cut out the floor?  That means another trip to the store because you know, you can never get everything in one run.

Ok so I had fun patching holes. :)  It was something that I could do that didn't involve power tools, mostly because I had no idea what I was doing.

Yes I tried to put up drywall.  I did it wrong.  Like I said earlier, no idea what or how I am suppose to do this.

He fixed it.

Before primer/sealer on the floor.

After primer/sealer.

Since the old tub had to come out the new tub went in.  Thankfully it is not cast iron.  Like I could move the other tub.

We might have a bathroom before too long. :) Sweet!!

Before working on the bathroom, as I was headed to the store, again.

After working on the bathroom. (I can't breathe!)  I think I might have over did it on the patching. LOL!!!

Dusty chair. Dusty everything in the house. Oh well.

Primed the walls. Ok this is taking longer than I thought it was going to take. Sigh!

The first coat of paint.  How come we have to wait between coats?

Putting the floor stuff down!  Starting on the floor finally!!!

Yes I painted the closet by myself, thank you!

Starting to figure out the tiles for the floor. What about the wall?? (Worried)

Looking good.  Can we go faster?

Oh yes we need this for the wall.  It better be element proof. Tornado, earthquake, flood, mud slide, tsunami, and every other natural disaster that could happen.  It is going to be the only room standing!

Filling the gaps around the tub since it is going to be element proof. :)

Had to sand again this time so I can get ready for the wall tiles.  It is finally going to get done! Happy dance!

The first coat.  Yes it is still wet since it is pink.

Now it is dry and ready for the second coat!

I lost count of how many coats that I actually put up on the wall.

Yes we made a spread sheet of the wall how it is going to look before we started, since I want that pattern remember.

And we begin!

It is getting futher away from the wall the more we go up. CRAP!!!!!!  I thought this was going to go quickly.

Ready to scream!

So what do we do?  Rip them all down and call it a night.

I was so upset.  What did I do? Call the reinforcements! :)

Thank you Jared and Nicky!!!  You saved me again! :)  So blessed.

Almost out of adhesive leave them like this.

Get back to this!!  One wall down and two more to go then on to the floor.

Ok this wall went so much faster then the first wall.  LOL!!

Two walls finished. Well mostly finished.

One more left to go.

It only took 4-5 days to get it all done. :)

Now we only need to worry about the little tiny strips that go down to the floor and the floor then we will seal it all and be done.  But we have to let the sealer do it's job for a few days.  That means doing nothing for a few days.

Finished onto the floor!

Cutting tile until 2 am so we could get the tile cutter back to Jason.  Thank you Jason for letting us borrow it for so long.  Sorry it took us so long to get it back to you, but we are ever so grateful!

Ready for Grout!

Ok except for the little piece he is working on.

Grouting was so much easier than I thought it was going to be, considering it took forever to get to that point.

Grouting done!!!  On to the floor!!!

This mortar wasn't to his liking.

So I starting putting down the mortar and he could lay the tiles.

That is the second bucket of mortar.  That is a lot of mortar for a little room.  LOL!  Remember not sure what I am doing.

Finished with messy hands. Try taking a picture with mortar all over your hands and not get your phone dirty.  HAHA!

He is finishing up while I try to figure out if there is anything else I can do. 

The toilet hole.  He was proud of himself and so was the tile workers I showed the picture to at the home improvement stores.

We still needed to put up the baseboards but they are also going to tile so I am not worried.  It is just a waiting game.

Baseboards are up now it is on to grout!

Looks good if you ask me.  It has to be finished soon right?

Everything is sealed and ready!  YES!!!

I knew this was going to happen. but getting a vanity like we had was only special order and that is so not going to happen.

Has to be done in days.

We will survive without a sink until we can get some help with the water.

IT WORKS!!!!  Sing praises. :)

A working toilet and shower.  What more could I ask for after a month and a half without one? :)

Got help with the water and have a working sink. Even if the counter top isn't attached. Who cares?

Love the light switches and outlet!

They glow!

Yes I picked a glowing outlet so the kids would know which way the bathroom was in the middle of the night.  HAHA!

This is where we are at still as of today.

Still not done but functional!  Glad I don't have to leave in the freezing cold weather to use the bathroom anymore.  It was hard enough in November and December but to have to do it even now would be so frustrating!  For anyone planning on a bathroom remodel make sure you have another bathroom in the house so you don't need to leave to use the bathroom or get ready in the mornings.

Figure I would let you know it isn't done, but it works and that I am grateful.