It's Finally Coming Out

Here in a reputable publication. The deterioration of this family before my very eyes in the last 2 years has made me sad. If anything shows that money don't buy happiness, this reality show hits it head on. Those 8 children are the losers in all of this. While the season premiere of this show is on many TVs this evening I will be praying for this family.

Andy's Owie Arm

On Tuesday night Andy tripped over a toy on his way to my bed. He kept holding his arm and crying. He would not put any weight on it. I wasn't seeing evidence of major injury so I figured he bruised something. A couple hours later no improvement, and he could not pull himself up on to my bed when normally he could do it no problem. At this point I called my emergancy babysitter and we were off to the ER. It was just before 1 am Wed. morning. I honestly thought they would not find anything major and we would be sent home with instructions to keep an eye on it. The xrays...let's just say this was not a fun process. It was obviously painful for him. Being held down was not helping matters. The doctor saw swelling in his elbow so they took pictures of that. No break was seen so they brought him back for pictures of his wrist and forearm. After this he was quite angry with everyone. Doctor came back and told me that they did not see a fracture in the xrays but with the swelling and fluid in the elbow joint provided evidence that a break was there but could not be seen. Doctor said they would be coming back with a sling he had to keep his arm in. I was worried how I was going to keep him in that! Then 2 nurses came in with bandages, ect and told me they were putting a cast on him. I wasn't expecting that. They acutally put a molded splint on him. They used bandages around a splint that got really hard, no plaster was used. It looked enough like a cast to pass as one. Then his arm was put into a sling. It was hard to find one that would adjust to fit him. We were sent home with instructions to see an orthapedic surgeon, keep the arm in the sling during all awake times and to not get it wet. We got home a little after 3:30 am. Of course this was my birthday. Happy Birthday mom! I got a broken arm! At least I will remember this one (for this and many nice reasons too :-) )!

Here is the molded splint.

He is not too happy about this sling. Don't blame him. It was a real pain to adjust so it would do it's job.

He went to the ortopedic doctor this morning. More xrays were taken and this time it was seen that there is a chip in the forearm bone by the elbow. He was put into a regular cast and we lost the sling thank God! He will wear his cool new blue cast for 3 weeks. Then he will go back for more xrays and hopefully be done with this. He his handling all of this so well. He did fuss when xrays were taken and when they put the cast on this time. He has been in a great mood today. He's not letting this stop him. I have pictures of him waiting for the school bus yesterday (he got sent home until he has a release from the dr., didn't go as well as I thought it would) and many pictures of his new cast. Unfortunately the transfer cable for my digital camera got fried with my computer during that power spike yesterday so I won't be able to post those until the new cable is shipped to me sometime next week. At least there were no people hurt in that incident so I am not complaining about that (even though it blew out the mouse and keyboard too, the power of electricity!). It is going to be 2-3 weeks before I have my PC so the laptop it is. It works. So the short version of this, more pics to come :-)

The Bubble Machine

This was the best $11 I ever spent. I seen Kym got one for her kids and KNEW mine would love something like this, Andy in particular. The first day Andy would have had this out all day and night if I let him. I even had to change the batteries on this thing the first day. It is so awesome to see them so happy. I hope this works. Thankfully I uploaded this video on Facebook since a power spike fried my PC yesterday. I lost my other videos, and most of my pics of this which really stinks. We will see if this works...

Play Ball!!!

Last week my wonderful friends David and Tracy treated me to a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game as an early birthday present. The respite funding for my boys just recently came through so I took advantage of that for the free babysitting and enjoyed a few hours of adult company. This is the first opportunity for me to do this in months. It was so needed. The stadium. I was very happy to see the retractable roof open. Temperatures in the mid 60s, sunny and a light breeze makes for perfect weather to see a baseball game. The roof is a nice thing to have when it is raining or cold so there are no delays, but it feels so much more like a real baseball game when it is open.
We had a great view of the action. Our seats were great for seeing the game. Too bad they were right in the middle of the row and we were a little late. All the other seats in the row were occupied so we would have had to go around a lot of people to get in and out of them. With that we decided to not use the seat and watch the game from inside. While it seems like a waste I felt better that way having more space. Ryan Braun up to bat. This is our multimillion dollar man.

Prince Fielder up to bat. Another one of the teams bombers.
Berny Brewer's Dugout
The $4.25 brat. It took a bit to get over the sticker shock at the concession stands. This was a good sausage, but $4 good, nah! I could buy a package of 5 bratwursts and good buns for the price of 2 of these. My friends each bought a cheeseburger and a large soda for a grand total of $20.50. They said it was good, but not worth $6 for a cheeseburger. There was a $1 special on hot dogs and small sodas. Too bad I'm not a big hot dog fan. Maybe I should have been anyway for these prices!
The Klement's Sausage race. The contestants: hot dog, brat, italian sausage and polish sausage. The winner this day was italian sausage. This pic may be a bit blurry. Everyone gathers to watch these folks in sausage costumes run around the field. It's not easy to get a pic of this.Me at the game.

The Brewers won the game. The score was 5-3 I believe. We had to leave after the sausage race so I could get to an appointment after. I had a great time.

Remembering Grandma

June (Tetzner) Sampson
June 9, 1915-May 12, 2002
Mom to 4 sons and 1 daughter
Grandmother to 13
Great Grandmother to many

Mother's day of 2002 the Lord took a very special mother home to him. She had a stroke that left her incapacitated. She was still bossing around the hospital staff however she could until her last breath. That would never change. Don't think any nursing home would be ready for Grandma Sampson. She took care of Grandpa after he lost his legs while being in her 70s and not that great of health herself. She would have it no other way. All the while she would host me and my older cousin for 2 weeks every summer. I looked forward to that every year and cried every time I had to go home. Every 4th of July the whole family would get together at their house. Getting into a bathroom was not easy those days. This was the best time to enjoy the beauty of Northwest Wisconsin and Lake Superior. Grandpa built their house in the woods with his own 2 hands. It was a very unique design, but was perfect setting for the heart of the Sampson family. She never kicked me out of the kitchen when I wanted to watch or help. It seems like she always picked the vegetables I did not like and would not let me go until I took one bite. She taught me to sew and crochet. I was introduced to rummage sale shopping during my summer visits. The last 2 years of her life were a struggle with the death of Grandpa and declining health. X The last conversation I had with her was on the phone. She was talking me out of getting married, and told me it would be a mistake to make a rash decision just because I was pregnant. Maybe somehow she knew what would happen, or that I was not happy going along with this. It didn't take long for me to wish I would have listened. When I heard of her stroke I was 7 months pregnant with Eric. She passed away before my dad made it up there. She lived 400 miles away. My husband and his mother did not want me to go to the funeral because of the pregnancy, and whatever other reasons. Like an idiot I let them order me not to go. The family probably never understood why I didn't come. I never got a chance to say goodbye. Any time I brought it up I was cut off and told too bad, my current family came first. Someday I want to visit her again. This is an 8 hour drive across the state. The house has been sold long ago. My parents, myself and one uncle are the only remaining family members in WIIt wouldn't be the same. Most have moved to the Minneapolis area and I've already been invited to go there . It would be the closest I would come to the family gatherings of my childhood. Now to get brave enough to attempt this trip with 3 kids. I know she would have enjoyed Eric, Andy and Jon. She is seeing them from Heaven. I love you Grandma. The time to say goodbye is now since I couldn't before. The memories in my heart will never die...

Sombody Has Something to Say...

Andy thought it was time to update my status on Facebook. He has my feelings right now down pretty good. Over 30 times wasn't necessary, but he wanted to get the point across ;-) This is what happens when I get sleepy, and wait for Eric's bus to bring him home. I tried to turn off the monitor, Andy is too smart for that trick to work. He likes Zac Browser, but this must be more fun. Sorry Andy, you are too young to have your own Facebook page. You may be more of a Twitter guy anyway...You are one lucky boy Andy. There are a bunch of ladies noticing you and saying how cute you are. My friends are nice fortunately for you. To those who thought I lost what little of my mind I have left, sorry to disappoint you. I'm crazy, but this is not me at the controls here. It didn't take long to clean all of this up before Facebook mistakes me for a hacker, spammer or total nut job.

With that friends, Andy says Hi!!!