doing time

"What're you in for?"
This sounds like it could be a line in a movie set in a prison or jail cell.
In reality, it goes through my mind every time I see a new face at this House.
Everyone here is here for at least 4 days, many for much longer.
We expect to be here until February.

Without asking that specific question, I receive many replies.
Some families are here for a couple days of testing to find out exactly what is going on with their child's body.
Some are here for transplants. Their stay is usually a few months.
Some are here for cancer.
Some are here for the psychological damage that bullying has done.
Some are here for their "yearly maintenance." (annual testing and treatments)
Some are here for surgeries to fix imperfections.

To many (or most), it does feel like a prison of sorts.
There is no other place for us to be, but we didn't do anything to HAVE to be here.
It just happens.

Although, in many cases, instead of fervently wishing for an early parole (which we do, at times), we plan/hope to stay for the full course of treatment.
Often, it's the ones who get an "early parole" who don't have such a good prognosis, and home is where they will be most comfortable.

It is so much like a different kind of family, those who live here.
Everyone REJOICES when a family who has been here a long time gets to go home.
We understand that there is life after treatments.
That having more than one room for a family to live in should not be taken for granted.
That being able to eat dinner on matching dishes and normal silverware is a luxury.
That being together as a family is heavenly.

So, for now, even though it seems like a VERY long time for our family to live separately, we are content to be here until our as-yet-undetermined release date sometime early next year.

all alone...

Ok, I am alone in Seattle with the baby. Andy took the other children home for a couple days, and the baby and I need to be closer to treatment if needed.

It is weird, to say the least.

To follow my last couple, almost childless days, I'm going to copy and paste from my facebook...


going to go buy groceries for 1 1/2 people. well, he's not 1/2 person, but mainly eats only baby food in jars.

watching a movie tonight..."When in Rome"

Wow. I feel so lazy. Am I going to wake up and get going this late every day this summer?!

Didn't know I was burnt out. It was so relaxing to be able to just get in the car and go...to the library and the music store. Got some DVDs (yoga), books, and bought some piano music. Now I just need to get over to the church or the playroom at the hospital to play the piano. This is better than Calgon.


Now, I'm going to watch "Leap Year." It's kind of nice to watch movies and not hear griping about how someone wants to watch Disney or Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network instead.

p.s. A family here lost their battle this week. Their baby girl did not receive a new liver in time and passed away two days ago. Be grateful for health, children, and smaller trials.

A special visit

The other day, the kids were snacking on leftover pretzels from Maggie's party.

Josh made this angel and the girls were all excited.

So, he glued it together and suggested we put it on the blog.

Do you see my new blanket underneath?!

I love the blue of it.

And, it's all one color so the room doesn't look as cluttered.

Andy, Daniel, and Kelly came over by train on Monday.

I "got" to pick them up at the Seattle station, so we stopped by the kids' school before heading back to the House.

They were at recess, so my biggest kid (Andy) played with the regular-size kids.

Everyone kept bugging Daniel about getting a haircut.
I told him it's nobody's business, and if people kept bugging him about it, he could let it grow as long as he wanted.
I must be getting feisty.
Anyway, he was willing to get it cut today.

Same thing for Josh.

But, not everyone was bugging him about his.

It needed cutting though.

Today was the last day of school for Josh, Lilly, and Maggie.

So, "right before field day, and I mean right before, Mom," I scraped my knees!

Poor guy, he's in a little pain still.
Again, he suggested I take a picture for the blog.

Sorry for the gore, blame Josh.

Andy wearing a cheesy smile and a candy necklace.

Didn't I say he's my biggest kid?

We picked up the station wagon today.

I never remember to take pictures during the daytime.

So, here it is at night, in the parking garage.

It looks like a fishbowl.

The children all like it better than the minivan (although the van's seats are more comfortable), and DEFINITELY better than the green Geo.

The car has seating for up to 8, like our Suburban, but not the same cargo space.

I'm just hoping it gets better gas mileage.

Maggie's party and playing in the sunshine!!

Saturday, we had Maggie's party.

It was crazy to plan for, because at this house, there could have been 5 children here at the time, or 30 children, or any number in between!

I think we had 8-10 children.

The tables above had the food stuff.

The children decorated their own cupcakes.

The baggies with marshmallows were for them to dip in melted chocolate, then put sprinkles on.

Maggie wanted an artsy party, so we had a couple crafts too.

There were terra cotta pots with shells to glue on them (total flop).

There was also painting and making/gluing popsicle stick creations.

Not the most exciting party, but the children had fun together.

My yellow tissue flower. Not as good as Martha Stewart's, but I loved the color.

Maggie painting

Josh dipping marshmallows and putting toppings on

The birthday banner, more tissue flowers, and the beautiful artwork the girls made.

Maggie's friend, Nick, gave her a Lego set. She loves to do Legos when she goes to visit his house.

Here is the set all put together. :) She had fun with it.

Today, we had a clinic appointment early, so we came back to the House and I slept another 2 hours.

Cabin fever set in, so after dinner, we made the short walk to one of the other houses. There are 3 houses, but one is only for transplant patients. They have to be completely isolated from the public for several months, often.
So anyway, the house we went to has a much better backyard.

The children always want to play there when we walk behind it, on the trail to the hospital each day (on our way to the hospital pool).

See the blue in the center of this?

I thought it was an egg, and had the children check it out.

Josh pulled it out and said it's a bubble container! :)

Gotta have some innocent mystery in every day, right?

We'll be back to that yard more this summer.

Next time, I'm going to weed and maybe clean some stuff out. Yay! A project!

Ahead this week: last day of school for our younger children, possible visit home, purchase and pick up of our station wagon, possible visit to the cousins', and I get to see Andy tomorrow!!!!!!

Maggie's birthday and the IRS

Maggie turned 9 on Monday.

She was the birthday princess at school.

Some of her presents included her zhu zhu pet and new webkins frog, an awesome chocolate cupcake from Trophy Cakes, and bubbles.

She will be shopping for other fun stuff soon, courtesy of Nana. :)

For birthday cake, Maggie wanted strawberry shortcake, so that's what we had.

Juliann and her son came, and some other children here at the House had LOTS of whipped cream along with my children, plus the angel food cake and strawberries.
Saturday, we'll be having an artsy party here at the Seattle house.

Yesterday, I pushed the stroller (heavy!) up a 90-degree hill in Seattle to go to the 32nd floor of this building.

Small-town me had to document that I traveled that high.
I had forgotten that in a federal building, you have to go through a metal detector.
With all the stuff in the stroller, it took over 3 trays to put everything on.
We still beeped, the baby and me. I remembered why later...heart surgery (not me) makes the patient have metal clips on the sternum.

Pretty detail outside the building.

Josh and his friend were throwing their parachute guys around on windy yesterday. They kept throwing them, and the parachutes kept getting stuck in the tree. They tried and tried to get one out (remember they only cost 20 cents, basically) and couldn't get it, even with a broom handle.

So, a volunteer was arriving here, and he saw the boys' predicament and drove his truck up to the tree. He untangled the toy for the boys.

They then relocated their playing to the other end of the drive.

Josh made a diorama of Mt. Rainier. He researched the mountain, and made this cool 3-d visual.

Josh spent his money last week, on the big fake diamond on the left. It's pretty cool. He thought the light reflecting into rainbows was neat.

Ok, I've got to go check out official stuff. Just won an auction for a station wagon. Andy gets to drive it. at least it's bigger than the geo.

origami frogs and balloons

We went upstairs to the book den today and found a book with 365 crafts and art projects in it. Thumbing through the pages, we saw these leaping frogs, and Josh showed us how to make paper balloons when we mastered the frogs.

One of Lilly's teachers back home collects frogs, but we didn't have time to mail her frog before school lets out for the summer. So, here are all the children and their creations.

We must be kite people

It's been awhile since I last posted.
A few days before we got to go visit home, I went to get my blood pressure checked. It's always run borderline high, but with exercise it's stayed on the good side of the border. Knowing I'd need to have a physical for the adoption process, I had a nurse check it. WAY too high. So, I now have a doctor in Seattle, and while it was a long inward battle for me to actually take the first BP pill, my blood pressure is going down, slowly, but it is going down.

So, to go with that lovely week, when we arrived at the house, I read all the mail from that week. There was a letter from the IRS, saying that we didn't report something right and that if we couldn't support what we put, then we owe $863. I am not a dishonest person, and would never try something like that. During the 4 days home, I cleaned again. This time, it wasn't for "fun," rather to find the 2008 tax paperwork that wasn't in the accordion file (which had every other year in it but that one). Finally, the night before we came back to Seattle, I found it in an obscure folder that was in our homeowner's binder. Our house is now clean.

I had the children walk or ride with me to the local school at home. Here's Daniel.

Maggie and her kite

Lilly and her kite

Josh and his pterodactyl kite

The girls were playing vampire mommies. Daniel and the girls switched rooms and while cleaning, he gave them the vampire cape.

After we got back to Seattle, the children got to do a soccer clinic with James Riley, of the Seattle Sounders FC (I hope I typed that right). The Seattle soccer team. James is awesome, and he has volunteered at the House a couple times. Great guy. Always has cool shoes too. :)

Yesterday, it was finally sunny for a day. We went to Mathews Beach and flew kites again.

Depending on the blood counts, we should be able to visit home again, later this week and next week. But, we might not go over until the weekend so that we can have Maggie's birthday party here (Seattle) before we go. Her 9th birthday is tomorrow, but I didn't have time to plan a party before then, so we're thinking Friday or Saturday. It all depends on House schedules.