Not Everyone's Mama

Poor Junie.  I’m wondering if she thinks she lost her dignity now.  Want to know why?

Poor dog in a diaper.  You see, Junie had an accident……or 2.  On my brother’s carpet.  I think it started the night Shelley and I went to Wal-Mart, Hyvee, and Michael’s to get stuff for the kids’ Valentine’s Day boxes and stuff for Superbowl Sunday.  Junie was with Pato and Josh for hours.  Pato didn’t take her out because he said she won’t pee for anyone but me.  Once she found a spot in the house, she’d much rather go there than out into the negative degree weather.

Yesterday I went and grabbed her diapers after I took her out in the morning, stood there for 10 minutes, she did nothing.  I brought her back in, went to get Nano his medicine, turned around and she was running out of the toy room.  1 minute or so after she came back in.

She is not digging the diapers too much, but I have to protect my brother’s carpet.  She can’t pee wherever she wants.  I’d use a puppy pad, but I couldn’t even use those inside at the apartment.  Christiano would have touched it.  Here there is Christiano and my 1 year old niece Cambria.

She’s only had an accident in one diaper since I bought them.  Maybe she’ll realize that she doesn’t like to wear these and if she goes outside every time she won’t have to?

She’s a smart dog.  I’m hoping it won’t take long.

After we went to the pet store to get those (I had taken Junie with me to keep an eye on her), we were on our way home when she threw up cat food all over my front car seat.  <sigh>

She keeps getting into Tiger’s food and Midnight keeps eating her food.

Midnight puked on the carpet the other day.

Not having a great time with bodily functions and our animals right now.

I ran to the car wash and used their shampooer to clean my car seat off before it sank it too much.

Junie is lucky I love her so much. 

Pato, my dad, and my brother-in-law are off to pick up some furniture donations right now.  Mind you I don’t have a place to put it in, but I can go sit on my couch in my garage.

After that if we have time before he goes to work at 3, we’re going out to the mobile home court to look at the 1 mobile home I saw that looked like it would fit our family from the outside.  It’s not the ones that I wanted before, but right now we’re just looking to buy something we can afford with the down payment we have.  We’ll work on the dream house later.

If he doesn’t have time today, we’ll go look tomorrow.  He has to work from 11-1 tomorrow to make up for his boss working for him this morning so he could get stuff moved.

My poor dad is still doing this with the kidney stones.

I <3 my daddy.  And my BIL.  I have such a wonderful family.  Busting their butts to move us, letting me live with them.  I don’t know where I would be without them.

I think later on I’m off to my grandma’s.  She said she had some stuff for me too.  I hope it’s donated stuff because I don’t want my grandma to put out any money on us.  She’s by herself since my grandpa died and she needs that for her.

Did I mention that I have a headache the size of Mt Everest?

I need to go get Jordan some new Cell phone accessories, namely a new charger.  His has disappeared in the move.  Plus, Nano dropped my phone and broke my case.  Just one thing after another.

Have a wonderful day!

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• It’s A Little Past Monday

But it works.

What might you ask?

You know that Jordan has trouble getting up and ready for school.  Since the apartment burned down, it’s been worse.  So much so that Katiana has been getting tardies because of him.  Yesterday was the final straw.  He made her 15 minutes late for school.  He doesn’t weigh a lot less than I do, so physically getting him ready and carrying him to the car is not an option.

After dropping them off yesterday, I called the principal.  I was hoping he would have a greater impact on Jordan than I do.  (Have I mentioned that our principal was voted elementary principal of the year in Iowa?  I adore him.)

He brought Jordan to his office and told him what happens with kids who fight their parents.  He showed him numbers taped to his computer.  Police officer numbers.  He said when kids fight their parents, they don’t fight any more, they just call him and he picks up the kid with a police officer and takes them to school.  He said, Jordan, you’re not the kind of kid who needs picked up by a police officer to get to school.  Jordan agreed.

He also told Jordan if he goes one week without a tardy that he can have a buddy lunch in his office.  Bring a couple of friends down, they can turn on the cartoon network and have fun during lunch.  Jordan said he preferred a root beer float.  The principal agreed.

Jordan was in the car this morning by 8:20.  (Yesterday he wasn’t in the car until 8:50, the time the school starts.)  He was at school with plenty of time to go to his locker and get to class.

Yay Mr Principal.

On the Jordan front, when I took him to the doctor the other day we found out he had lost 6 lbs in a week.  You know what that tells me?  That Jordan was sneaking a lot more food than I thought he had been.  He isn’t allowed to open Uncle Josh’s fridge without permission.  It’s having an impact already.  A huge impact.

I’ve lost about 10 lbs in the last 2 weeks.  I know that’s not healthy.  It’s called the stress diet.  The first few days I was so sick to my stomach over what happened that I couldn’t eat.  I’m still having problems choking food down.  Nothing tastes good right now.  I’m eating, but a few bites here and there.  I just don’t feel like eating. 

Hopefully I’ll start feeling more like myself soon.  I’m still taking my antidepressant and my doctor gave me lorazapam Monday after the fire. I’ve only taken 3 of those in over a week and only when I feel a panic attack come on.

The positive is Jordan got to school on time.  Yay Jordan and again yay Principal!

Have a great day!

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I took the girls to Wal-Mart last night to get them out of my brother’s hair while he had the realtor here.  They each asked for something for their hair and since all I’ve gotten so far is plain bands and barrettes, I said yes.  Alyce was too cute this morning.  When I took Jordan and Katiana to school, I

came back to this:

My 4 year old thought the dog needed a matching bow in her hair too.  Alyce darling, you’re too adorable for words.

I needed that too.  I had to leave a message for the principal asking him to talk to Jordan.  Katiana was late again today because Jordan wouldn’t get ready.  He only weighs like 10 lbs less than I do, it’s not like I can physically make him get ready.  All the punishments in the world would not make him  move today.  I was so frustrated by the time he finally got in the car WITHOUT his coat (5 degrees out, –11 with windchill).  I just wanted to scream.  I’m hoping if the principal can explain to him the importance of him not being late, including the fact that I could go to jail for truancy, maybe he’ll move his butt?

I don’t know, all I know is that it’s not fair that Katiana is late when she was ready 20 minutes before we had to leave.  It’s ridiculous. 

Alright, I have to go get our tax stuff gathered up because Pato is on his way to get it.

Have a great day!

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The day after my apartment burned down my mom told me that my dad had gone to the dr and they were questioning him about whether we have bladder cancer in our family.  They said he had a trait of it in his urine.  (I’m not going to go into details because my mom knows more than I do and I was in panic mode, I’m not sure if I have them all correct.) 

I was all, um, mom, could you have told me this on Monday.  I can’t deal with this now.  OMG, my dad might have bladder cancer.  If you know me, when it comes to medical prognoses, you don’t give me worst case scenarios.  I worry worry worry until we know that it’s not the worst thing it could be.

Yesterday my dad went for a cat scan and he has kidney stones.

Now most people wouldn’t consider kidney stones good news, but compared to bladder cancer?  I call that good news.

My poor dad was helping me clean out my apartment while suffering from kidney stones.  He helped us Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.  He was carrying heavy stuff, my bed, the girls’ bed, my desk.  The things we could save.  I love him.  Dad, thank you so much and I’m so glad it was “just” kidney stones.  On that note, I hope they pass quickly. 

In other news, if you want to know how to get permanent marker off of wood, tooth paste.  Katiana got pink permanent marker on my brother’s wood table.  Shelley and I were having a heart attack.  I googled it after calling my mom for SolUMel (Melaleuca) and found people recommending tooth paste.  We spread tooth paste on it and scrubbed it and it is coming off.  Yay for Google and Colgate!

Another OT:  I just figured out that I like grits.  Shelley has them here and I just had them for breakfast.  So yay for Quaker butter grits.

It took me 3 hours to post this.  Jordan laid in bed for an hour.  He wouldn’t get up no matter what I said.  The kids were late to school because of it.

Christiano is so cranky still and wants to be held all the time.  My poor back.

I just put in a call to the doctor because he hasn’t eaten but a couple of bites since Friday night. 

And this too shall pass.

Have a great day!

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• Crisis Averted

Life must go on, right?  Jordan and Kat both need Valentine’s Day boxes for school on the tenth so Shelley and I went shopping and got some things to put them together.  Shelley is so much more creative than I am.  I usually cover a cereal box in computer paper and let them decorate that.

We got gift boxes and taped them together.  We also got all the stickers you can see on their boxes and shelley had chalk and other fun things.

Jordan refused to make his.  He said a grocery bag would work for him.  My 12 year old niece Taylor made his.  She still wants to do more so the boxes in the picture are incomplete.  They were waiting for the chalk to settle after they sprayed hairspray over them to make it stick.  Tonight they are going to do stamps and paint and all that fun stuff.  Alyce doesn’t have a school to take hers to so I’ll have the kids each put a Valentine in her box before she goes to school.  I just thought it would be fun for her to make one also. The one in the back with the heart cut out is my nephew Carter’s.

So, when it rains it pours right?  I took Nano to the doctor on Saturday.  He has an ear infection and spots on his throat.  He says his head hurts.  He’s burning up all the time.  He most likely has RSV also because my 1 year old niece has it. Poor babies.

Last night, Jordan got up at 3 in the morning crying that his ear was hurting and he has stuff draining out of it.  He’s off to the doctor today.

Did I share that Pato blew a tire driving home Friday night?

Nothing else can happen for awhile.  I’m feeling slightly stressed out.  Keep that smile pasted on and I’ll make it through this.

A lot of people have sent me clothes donations.  I have to say, the girls and Jordan have enough to get by.  Nano doesn’t have very man, so those asking for suggestions, he’s who I need.  If you have a few 3T pajamas laying around that yours has outgrown, he could use them.  Especially since he keeps throwing up on his right now.  Pajamas, sweatpants, sweatshirts, warm stuff.

He could also use a pair of shoes (size 9 – toddler).  He living in his snow boots and slippers right now.  They don’t have to be funky cool shoes, just a pair of tennis shoes.

Again, thank you everyone for thoughts, prayers, donations, everything I appreciate everyone so much!!

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A guy a went to school with generously gave me a laptop to work on until we get a place again of our own.

Thank you Brian.

We are hanging in there.  I am still at my brother’s house.  We’re still waiting to do our taxes.  We have had so much to do with getting into the apartment and saving what we could.  My brother, dad, BIL, and Justin are over there right now.  Today is the last day to get our stuff out before they lock the building down and throw everything out.

They are just throwing stuff into bags and putting it in the garage so I can look through it.  I can’t tell what is ruined until I get outside of the apartment and see it in the light of day.  Smell it.  I can’t bring it all to my brother’s, so it’ll have to wait until we get a place.

So far all of my living room furniture was destroyed.  My kitchen furniture also.  I’m not sure about my small appliances.  The stuff in the pantry is probably gone because there was tons of water in there, so much so, when you pick up the food boxes they fall apart in your hand and the food goes all over.

My new food processor made it through it.  Priorities people, priorities.

For real, it’s the little things that make me happy right now like buying new hair ties so I can do my girls’ hair.  You have to take joy in those things or you go slightly crazy.

I can’t dwell on everything that was lost.

I am refusing to believe anything except that we will come out of this stronger and in a better place than we were before.  There is no other alternative.

Life sucks, then your apartment burns down.

You move on, adjust your attitude, think positively, and just start living again.

You know?

You find out how many people care about you.  People you didn’t even realize thought of you as more than a passing acquaintance.  You see a community gathering around a group of 13 families (with children in the elementary school) to protect them from everything.  You see them work so hard so these kids don’t miss what was lost.  So these kids have clothes, toys, so that their lives go on.  You see them doing everything they can so these kids have a reason to get up and smile and not cry.  They have just wrapped their arms around all of us.

I’ve found so much love and support from my fellow Waukee Warriors.  They too have just done everything they can to make this easier for us.  The support coming from people that I haven’t seen in years,  but have reconnected with over Facebook, it brings tears to my eyes.  It fills my heart to the point of bursting. 

My digital scrapbooking community to has just been so amazing.  They’ve listened to my cry, they’ve listened to me vent.  They’ve reached out over the miles to do whatever they can to help us.

My bird friends, they have been an amazing support unit too, they are just as amazed as I am about the budgies surviving the fire.  God cares about even the littlest sparrow and I’ve never been more aware of that than I am now.  I swear he put a net of guardian angels over their cage.  There is no logical explanation for why they survived 5 hours in a building that was on fire.  In a building I was choking when I ran out of it with the other animals.  No reason other than they had their special angels around them.

My friends, my family, all of you who read my blog who have offered prayers and thoughts, every single last one of you, I love you.  I thank you for everything you have done for me.  From leaving comments with your thoughts and prayers to donations.  You don’t realize how many people care about you until a tragedy like this occurs.  I know my family and friends love me but the love I have received from across the world really, it is the most amazing thing. It doesn’t matter what we’ve lost when I think of what we have gained.

Thank you again every one.

From the bottom of my heart.

I love you all.

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They found out the cause of the fire.  Someone in a second floor apartment put their ciggerette in a plastic container and it wasn’t out.  One ciggarette took down the whole building.  $1 million in damage.  We’re still trying to get our stuff out.  People keep asking what we need and other than clothes for us right now I honestly don’t know.  I won’t know until I can get it all out into the light of day to see the condition and smell it. 

Our clothes smell like smoke even after washing them 4 times.   We’re working by flashlights so I really can’t see what our furniture looks like.  It looks like most of the water damage was confined to the kitchen and the living room where the water made a huge bubble in the paint over the ceiling and then exploded in both rooms. 

If you’d like to see them interview Jordan on the news for school, here is the video.  I cried when I watched it.  He was so grown up and well spoken.  He really is such a wonderful kid.  His principal said he was even more protective of Kat at school, to the point of annoying her.  She told him to back off that she was ok.

Kat is a trooper.  She hasn’t complained or cried or asked for any of her things though we’ve tried to bring her some of the things that we were able to wash.  Her DSi was up on the entertainment center and was saved.  Her computer was having a problem a few days before the fire but one of the guys that I went to school with is generously looking at her laptop and mine to see if he can get them running so we have our computers.  I’m not sure about the condition of my computer.  It was on the floor in the living room under my desk.  I did rip my external hard drive off of my computer when I grabbed Junie and the birds so I still have my pictures of them up until November or so.

This has been really hard for Alyce.  She wants her apartment.  She wants her stuff.  I understand, it’s the only place she has ever lived.

Nano is doing really well.  He just needs more pants.    I went through the baskets and I could only find 2 for him that I have.  I’m hoping Pato can rescue a few more pairs today.

I’ve been telling people, our stuff smells like smoke bad, but at least we have smokey clothes.  9 apartments were completely destroyed.  Those kids don’t even have smokey clothes, smokey or water damaged toys, smokey beds.  They have nothing.  I just keep trying to keep that in mind when I’m feeling sorry for myselves.  We may stink but we have something to put on us, you know?

We’re hoping when we file our taxes (we’re in the middle of a blizzard and getting our stuff into a garage) that we will have enough for a downpayment on a mobile home.  I talked to the manager of the mobile home court and he said that he thinks there are 3 mobile homes that the owners would take a $4-5000 downpayment and then sell on contract.  Keep us in your prayers that goes through.  I don’t want to impose on my brother for very long.

This is really hard for me.  I’ve never liked asking people for help and it’s hard for me to accept it.  I just keep telling people to please help the families that lost everything but they keep insisting that we need it too.  I know we do, but I hate to accept it when there are others who lost so much more.

I’m just thankful that no lives were lost and nobody was injured.  That our pets all got out safely.  That we are together as a family.  That is what is important.

I want to thank everyone who has sent us thoughts and prayers and kind words.  Those mean so much to me.  We can use all of the prayers that are being sent our way.

For the people who I work for on PR, I have my mail on hold until we have an address again.  I’ll pick it up every couple of days.  I had the UPS route everything to my brother’s house but I haven’t called Fed Ex yet.  I can’t get any reviews up quickly for things that were already on their way.  I don’t have my computer to get my old emails to let PR reps no, so if anyone could pass this on to other PR reps you know I have worked with or to some of the mom companies that I work with, I would appreciate it.  I don’t have a lot of internet access right now as I don’t want to monopolize my brother’s computer when his family needs it also.  Again, if you need to send me an email, use this address admin[at]digiscrapping[dot]net.  That is going to my phone.  

Thank you again everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

ETA – I have had people ask for my Paypal address to send donations and it makes me feel funny to accept them, but instead of getting emails about it, I thought this might be easier.  Please please do not feel like you have to, this is just for people who have asked.

Thank you again.

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