A week in review

This was my last week. Starting Wednesday 5/7-5/14.

I sold my first thing on ETSY! Yeah! I packaged it up and sent it on it's way. I hope the person likes it.

Thursday 5/8

The meeting that brought frustrating news for us, was followed by a Project Fair at C's school. She did her report on Panthers. It was fun to see her so proud.

S getting his Yellow Belt in Karate. He was so proud and excited! Congrats!

C not getting her Purple belt.........................

Friday 5/9

S's "the very busy spider" play. He was a cat.

I went to a meeting in the afternoon. It was an extremely exciting meeting after struggling with this idea for 3 years. They even seemed more excited then we did. More on this later. YEAH!!!

The evening resulted in a sleep over that followed the next morning with a very rainy canoe trip!

Saturday 5/10

Mother's Day 5/11 - 5/13.

Bob came up that evening and we had a most wonderful 2 days together. Here she is at the board walk by my "work". We saw a deer extra close up too. Must be a "city" deer. We shopped and ate lunch together. We bought A LOT of plants and just loved it. Hey Bob, "Would you like a bag with that??"

Last night, I cleaned my house, went to a very cold and wet soccer practice for S, missed a baseball game of D's, after which, I helped with 2 kids homework and dealt with a super emotional 6 year old for a few hours.

Today brings me full circle with C's 11 Birthday. 11 !!! We had donuts and a small gift opening.

Then I am off to have my final Rabies shot, a special school brunch at D's class, dropping off product around the city, getting Bing's hair shaved off, and to the Mall of America for a 11 year old dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe!

Phew! K~

Please stand by

I seem to be buried under stuff. I'll be back soon. Miss you all. K~

How fitting

I really have had a hard time thinking of blogging today.

I am not sure if I can put my life into words.

Yesterday suckdiddlyucked!!

How fitting that yesterday happened so close to Mother's day.

It is so very hard to be caregivers for 3 little lives.

Hearing things that you don't want to hear, making hard choices for them that will help them the most.

I know that this is totally too much for me and Rick to handle.

This my friends, is a God thing.

All of my kids are struggling with issues that are extremely challenging. I don't blog about it much, because, frankly it is hard to put it into words.

Yesterday I got some bad news about some tests C took for learning disabilities and other issues.

I know that I have been pushing a bolder up a icy hill for years now, but I thought that I could rest for a bit. wrong.

S is not doing well emotionally and needs intervention. 3 calls from his teacher yesterday and charting sheets given to me from their therapist.

D hanging on by his little fingers. Keeping his chin up. Only missing an average of 1 to 2 days a week of school.

Then there are my issues.

Rick is overwhelmingly busy and often works 15+ hours a day with his 2 jobs.

Thanks for reading. If the images give you any idea of how I feel today, multiply it by a larger number.

the study of contrasts

"Work" was fine on Wednesday. I can't however, get these 2 out of my mind. (remember, always stock photos. Can't take photos of the patients to protect their privacy :-)) Anyway. I got to clean the reptile room. There was 4 painted turtles and one Very Large Totally Awesome Common Snapping turtle. I proceeded to get their tanks cleaned out and reset up. I had to drain the Snapping Turtles tank and re set that one up too. He was so cool. He started walking around. All I could think of, is boy, you could get a lot of meals out of him. He was solid muscle and had spines that stuck out of his tail like an alligator. SO COOL!!

Then, in the back of the room, separated by a wall to walled in fence, floor to ceiling, was a lone female mallard duck. It was the one that was raped in the park. She has no feathers in on her head and was just a swimming in her pool.

I needed to clean her pen, pool and food out. The door was open and she wandered out into the turtle area. Then wandered back in to her area.

The words of the head volunteer still lingered in the air " if you leave to get something, just don't forget to keep them separated."

Nothing happened, but I just kept thinking and still am about the drastic difference between these 2 animals. (and how grumpy the snapper must have been for that warning)

I truly enjoyed that time in that room.

Notes taken away from that night of work:

1. A minnow tank shut in a refrigerator STINKS!!

2. Green Slurry is EASY to make.... water, lettuce and a blender

3. It takes a long time to fill little holes with grubs and then hope they stay in until you cover them with dog food.

K~

Gettin' some sunshine

It was time to get the zoo outside. Monday was just beautiful. So instead of a nap, I got the outdoor grounds of the zoo prepared. The land turtles are in the screen covered box. Shelley, Yuri and Pebbles spent their time pooping and walking through their water. Shelley and Yuri kept busy scaling the walls like spider man. Yes..... like spider man. They would hang from the side for a while and then flop on their backs. Which gave them some thing to do for a while, as they tried to right themselves.

The water turtles were out in full force ( I did however, forget LuLu inside..oops)
They swam around and around and around. The 3 large turtles drove me out of my mind scratching on the side. It was not a relaxing sound. At one point Cleo had Magellan's foot in her mouth (they don't usually share a tank together) so, after yanking that out and redirecting her, I realized I needed to supervise them even closer. My second tank is not set up yet, for them so they will get only limited time out. Later that day, I only brought out the 4 little ones and left the 3 large one inside. I need to also get an edging up for their tank. They too like to escape.

Then there was sweet little Puff! He just doesn't seem to like the outdoors. He tried to sit on his stick. He then proceeded to fall in the water! It's OK, they actually should soak quite often, but, he is not too keen on it. Then he fell in again, and seemed to have a fit. So.... I had to pick him up. He pooped all over me for the very first time. He has NEVER pooped outside of his habitat. He has been super clean. But, there I sat. Bing on my lap and Puff on my shirt. I was totally covered in Lizard poo! I sat there for a while trying to enjoy the sun. Nope, not going to happen. I needed to dump Bing, put Puff down, and go wash up. I proceeded to wrap Puff in his favorite Vikings blanket and there he sat on my lap. In his mind, as he should be. Wrapped in a blanky on my lap. I will try and give up making him a wild animal. He's just a "baby".

Then of course it wouldn't be a "relaxing" time with out Bingy. He is just such a curious dog. I don't think you can see the hair cut I had to give him after he got into burrs. I call it Mange chic or Chemo cut. He won't sit still and bites the scissors so terribly, that I just can't do it for too long. So that's what you get. S decided to color red marker on his back. Bing just needed to be involved with the animals and loved "watching over" the land turtles.

Nala, who is not in the photo was off rubbing in the dirt. Teasing Bing the whole time. The fish are still inside, until I can finish the tanks outside. Just another relaxing and calm day at the Walsh home. Moments later, I found myself in D's bed napping a usually. But, at least I tried to be "active" it just wore me out!!

K~

A 6 year old birthday party!

I have one word for you. NOISY!! Boy oh boy. Getting 8 kids, all but 2 of them boys, to keep it down a bit, is impossible. S is so emotional, that we had to remind him more then once that his party guests were enjoying themselves. He only broke into tears 3 times during it. All in all, it seemed to be a success.

He's cute anyway :-) K~

Round 3

Well the breast results that were fine, have now lead me to another minor surgery. I had to see a breast surgeon today. This time it will take all day and I get to be loopy in the process, well, part of it anyway. I have to have the entire lump thing removed on May 16th!

"It's fine, but we need to remove it, just in case" ..... it's not fine????

Man, I tell ya, I wanted to NOT go today. I cancelled the appointment 3 times. But, I dragged my butt in there and now, I need to have the lump thing removed.

deep sigh! K~

A night at Orchestra Hall

C and I had a wonderful time at Orchestra Hall on Saturday night. We went to see Sir James Galway and Lady Jeanne Galway play their gold flutes.

C got a cd of his from her fabulous flute teacher, for practicing so well. C brought it with and got an autograph AND a photo with them.

It was such an incredible concert and very very inspiring. Words can not explain how talented they are. C was just beside herself. She is a true fan of his.

It was neat to experience her excitement. A very special mommy moment.

She kept saying that this was the best birthday present ever! I didn't think about giving it to her for her birthday. She would just sigh really big and lean back in her chair when she was listening.

At the autograph session, she asked him when he started playing flute.

His reply was 9 years old. Same a C.

Wow. K~

..............................................................................................................

More on Sir James Galway.

http://www.thegalwaynetwork.com/bio.htm

Sir James has played for such dignitaries as Queen Elizabeth II, Pope John Paul II, Presidents Clinton, George W Bush, George Bush Snr, President Mary McAleese, Prince Charles, The Princess Royal, The Empress of Japan, The Queen of Norway, Princess Diana, The Earl and Duchess of Wessex, the Duke and Duchess of Kent and shared the stage with an amazing array of entertainers including Stevie Wonder, Henry Mancini, John Denver, Elton John, the Chieftains, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, Jessye Norman, Cleo Laine & Andrea Bocelli. He performed with Pink Floyd in their memorable concert at the Berlin Wall, was part of the Nobel Peace concert in Norway and performed at the G Seven summit hosted by Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace.

My bag of bags!

This is my bag of bags as I call it. I have had it finished for about 2 years now. I just need handles. Thanks to Bob, I think I will finish it soon. I have purchased several Target resuable bags and I think I am going to add this to my collection. K~

Crows Poop

It's a shame that the flight room is cleaner then my own house! I had to hose down the flight room last night. I was in enclosures with flying birds. Weird! I just knew I was going to get a beak in the skull, but I didn't. Here are a few of the birds that I mingled with. (stock photos) Oh, by the way, Crows are BIG and they poop a lot. They also have the grossest food and apparently like to look at themselves in a mirror. I asked the girl that was training me in, if I should pick up smashed stuff on the road, or old McDonald's bags on the side of the road for the crow. She found that amusing. K~

American Crow

Yellow Bellied Sap Suckers

Female Cardinal

Starling

Swallows

Rock Pigeons

(attended in flight room and in rehab cages)

Common Pigeon

(attended in flight room and in rehab cages)

Happy Birthday S!!

S is 6 today! I can't believe it!

The kids are just getting older, taller and eat a lot more! K~