Pam’s Blog

Have you ever noticed in your life that one month every year is busier and more crazy then any other month. 

Jason and I noticed years ago – back when we lived in Maryland that October was that month for our family.  The trend has continued even after moving from one coast to the other.

October is just around the corner and I printed the calendar for it from Outlook yesterday.  Yup – it’s shaping up to be another crazy October. 

The month is full of great stuff, lots of fun, interesting and important stuff, but man the month is full.

I start back to work on October third.  I am teaching after school science clubs at Gatewood and at Alki again this year.  I am really excited to be going back to both schools.  That is just one of the things that happens in this busiest month of the year.

In addition Jason and I will be going away to Canada for four days.  The day we come home we are meeting our kids at the train museum where they will be riding the Halloween train. – Sound crazy – not for us that is a typical October weekend in our house.

What does your October look like?  What is your busiest month?

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Yup, I am on the PTA. I am going to the first PTA meeting of the school year tonight.

I NEVER imagined I would be an active part of the PTA.  I mean… well it just seems so “grown up”.  And yeah, I know I am a grown up but I have to admit there are still some days I wake up and feel like I am just playing house.  I never imagined myself a PTA parent.  I mean the PTA is well… an organization.  And it’s well not… I can’t even think of the right word.   I never pictured myself as the PTA type.

Weirder still, I am actually excited about it. I have put every single PTA meeting for the school year on my calendar.  I mean how bizarre is that.

The thing is I really like Alki.  It is a great school and I am so glad that my kids get to go there.  I know you all know the story of getting Xavier into Alki and how wonderful a blessing it was for God to put us into that particular school.  So I won’t bore you with it again.

I will say that after a year and a half at Alki I love it more then I did before and I am even more glad to be an Alki parent and to have my kids in school there.

That is why I want to be part of the PTA, why I want to be active and involved.  Because I think that the staff, teachers and students at Alki are all worth the time and effort to support and I think it is a wonderful community to be a part of.

So yeah, the PTA. Who would’ve thunk it? 

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I have decided I need to get back to working out. Strangely enough I miss it.  I need a routine.  I liked going to the gym every morning and I enjoyed the feel of knowing my body was strong.

Since mid august things have just been so crazy though and then I went into the boot cast and the doctor said I can’t do my normal exercise routine. 

I know that I can swim but that is a lot more complicated.  I would need to wash and dry my bathing suit every night and I am just not that on top of things to do that.  The thought of putting on a wet bathing suit makes my skin crawl.

So I need to figure out a new routine.  I guess I am also hesitant to get to entrenched in a routine because I don’t know what is going to happen with Quinn and preschool yet.  He may start in October and if so that would totally change my routine. Since if he gets into preschool I would volunteer at Westside baby and at Alki one day each a week.

So right now I feel like I am in a holding pattern, waiting for things to stabilize so I can get into a steady routine.

I did find out last night that I am working both Monday’s and Friday’s this year.  Monday’s at Gatewood and Friday’s at Alki.  I am very excited and happy to be able to teach at both schools again this year.

I look forward to seeing familiar faces at both schools. 

Happy Tuesday everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful and exciting (or dull – depending on your preference) day today.

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This years Mom Camp at Lang’s Horse and Pony Farm was amazing.  We had a lot of fun and did a lot of riding.

Even with my injured foot I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the riding.

This years camp was smaller then last years.  I enjoyed the more intimate feel and being able to actually learn everyone’s name.  Last year there were just so many names to remember.

And of course Rachel and Vicki were there.  See – I have proof.

Rachel primarily rode Otis over the weekend.

Vicki primarily rode Josephine.

And I spent much of my time riding Kid, who is so happens is Otis’s brother – how ironic is that?

Unlike last year though we all switched up horses throughout the weekend.  It was interesting and fun to get to ride different horses.  However I missed Digger, the horse I rode at the spring Mom’s Camp and had planned/hoped to ride at this camp.  He unfortunately was not able to be ridden that weekend.  Hopefully he will be recovered by the next time I get to head out to Lang’s for a ride.

He was such an awesome horse to ride.  Here are pictures of him from the spring.

Don’t misunderstand.  I had a blast riding Kid.  Digger however is an amazing horse and I just adore him.

I hope everyone had as much fun as I did over the weekend.  Thanks Lang’s for an amazing weekend.  You can bet I will be back next year.

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Today is September 11th 2008. 

I bet if you are old enough to be reading this that you remember where you were seven years ago today.

I know where I was, and who I was with.  I was at Cornerstone when I found out.  I had just arrived for a Bible study that morning.  I don’t remember if Jason called me or I walked into the Bible study first.  In my mind the two things happened simultaneously.  Our Bible study turned into a prayer meeting. 

Jason came home and the church was opened for prayer.  I brought sandwiches and drinks to the church for the people praying there.

I remember the feeling of desperately wanting to do something… anything… to help.  I wanted my life to have a positive impact in this disaster and I felt impotent to do anything significant. My prayers were just a tiny strand in a much larger net. 

It wasn’t until months later I had the honor of getting to go and work at Ground Zero in New York.  I helped serve breakfast to the men and women who were out in the rubble doing clean up from the disaster.  It was such a small thing and I know that it gave me much more then it gave the people I fed that morning.  I know that I have Terri Hopler to thank for that experience. 

I remember that day as well as I remember September 11th.  I remember driving into New York and my first view of the city.  I haven’t been to New York before or since then.  My only memories of New York are of the night I spent at St. Paul’s Church serving the rescue workers.

My attempts to put into words what I felt that night and how it helped to cauterize the wound left in me by 9/11 fall flat.  A better place to go might be here “Night Shift at St.Paul’s”  When I found this article I had tears building in my eyes as I read it.   I volunteered at St.Paul’s on a Friday night from 8pm to 8am.  In fact I was there in the same month this article was written, possibly the same week.

As I read it I was captured by these words “Those of us who are lucky enough to be allowed inside as volunteers…”

I was one of those lucky ones.  One of the handful of people given the chance to actually “do” something.  I am so thankful to God for granting me that opportunity. 

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Yes…I cried, but I did it last night after Willoweve was in bed and wouldn’t be upset by it.

So today was the first day of school.

Xavier started third grade.

Here he is conspiring with a fried.

And here he is taking care of his sister.

Willoweve started Kindergarten today.

she is so cute.

at her locker

and with daddy

then finally at her desk.  She looks so tiny behind her desk.  (Note Quinn in the back corner of the first picture – he noticed himself right away in this picture. )

So they are off, and Quinn is enjoying time alone with me and being able to play with any toy he wants.

Overall I think it is a good first day of school.

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Irony defined:

So I woke up in the middle of the night from a bad dream about my sister having to take her foster child to the ER.  I called her in the morning to make sure everything was ok.  While on the phone with her Quinn woke up and immediately came to tell me his tummy hurt.  That night we were in the ER.

BEWARE:  Below lies what many may consider TO MUCH INFORMATION. Sorry to those with weak stomachs.

In the morning Quinn was acting all out of character and lethargic.  At one point I even tucked him back into bed. Within half an hour of waking up he started throwing up.  From 9:30 in the morning until 9:10 in the evening Quinn threw up 23 times.

I barley blinked at first.  Quinn is a puker – more so then either of the other two.  If there is a stomach bug to be had he will get it.  If it makes some people vomit and others get diarrhea he’ll vomit.  That’s just Quinn.

However as the day went on some things happened that made me concerned.  First he couldn’t keep anything – at all – down.  Not even the tiniest amount of fluid.  We tried the whole 1 tsp every fifteen minutes – he would throw up by the ten minute mark every time.

He was becoming dehydrated obviously.  Beyond that though I got scared when I noticed a change in the color and texture of his vomit.  He hadn’t even tried to eat anything so why would his vomit be changing from bright yellow stomach acid to dark brown and kind of chuncky.

I turned to my trusted friend the Internet for answers.  Turns out that’s what blood looks like when you throw it up.  Yeah…. so I got a little worried.

Called the doctor.

They said it was probably a stomach flu but the vomiting got so violent something ripped in his throat or stomach or esophagus. Then it bled into his stomach and now he was throwing it up. Nothing to worry about as long as he stopped throwing up soon.

Two hours later when he was still throwing up I made the decision to take him to the ER.  I was so upset on the way to the hospital figuring they were going to put him on an IV and tell me there was nothing they could do to make him stop throwing up.

EXCEPT, that’s not what happened at all.  Quinn was really weak and out of it by the time we got the ER at about 8:45.  He couldn’t stand up without support and he wouldn’t smile, he just lay limply without moving on the bed.

Until he puked.  I was kind of glad he threw up at least once at the hospital.  The doctor got to see it and confirmed that it was in fact blood he was throwing up.

So they gave him this magic medicine – by mouth.  It is a drug they use with kids getting Chemo and it helps them not throw up from the chemo.  Recently it was proved to help kids like Quinn who just can’t stop throwing up when they get a stomach bug.  They mixed it with chocolate syrup… the whole “spoon full of sugar thing” also it helps give the blood sugar a much needed boost.

Quinn guzzled the stuff.  Within 20 minutes he was sitting up talking to me and and even smiling.  Then they let him start having fluids.  5cc’s every 5 minutes for 20 minutes, then 10cc every 5 minutes for 40 minutes, again by mouth.  And he kept it down.  He came home and slept.

No IV, and he stopped throwing up.

Quinn has improved all day and ate soup for dinner tonight without any trouble at all. I am so thankful that he is better.  Hopefully the other kids will not end up with the same bug – even if they do it is doubtful they will fall into the same unmanageable vomiting.

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