Monsters and Brains

Driving home from a long day at the beach today this is a discussion that came up in the car.

"Mommy, I don't like being 4 and 3 quarters. I hate it. I want my brain to stop growing. I am going to be scared of the monsters when we get home."

(Sam has recently developed a night time fear of monsters - apparently this is a normal stage of development for 3-5 year olds. I told him this and that his fear comes from his brain growing and his imagination developing. I told him it would probably go away in a few weeks but in the meantime we will check the house every night for monsters and spray "monster spray" to keep them away. This is working well so far, kind of.)

Then from Elise, "Mommy, do I have a bwain?"

"Yes."

"Is it in my head?"

"Yes."

"Is it hard?"

"Yes. I mean, No. Well, sort of, your skull is hard."

"Can I take it off?"

"No."

Not to belabor the point...

Sorry to bring up the snake again. But Jen commented on my last blog update that Kevin was able to identify our scaly friend as a Western Diamondback rattlesnake. Let me share with you some quotes from websites describing the snake.

An ambush hunter, it typically sits near the trail of a mammal, waiting for it to pass by, then strikes at and releases the prey. The snake then follows the trail of the envenomated animal and swallows it whole. http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/c.atrox.html

We are mammals and we were on a trail! Look again through the snake post at how close the boys were to this snake. (By the way, if you click on pictures on this blog you can view them larger.) I know he did not really want to eat us...but read this next quote.

It ranks as one of the most dangerous snakes in the world. Bites are serious and potentially deadly if medical treatment is not reached immediately. http://www.sdnhm.org/fieldguide/herps/crot-atr.html

I thought they were mostly out in the summer, but then I read this...

They emerge in spring, sexually driven, hungry and mean.

And, from the same site...

It bites hundreds of people a year, more than any other venomous snake in the United States.

The Western Diamondback, which can exceed seven feet in length, is the king of our twenty odd species and sub-species of Southwestern desert rattlers, not only in terms of size, but also in terms of its fearsome reputation. http://www.desertusa.com/mag01/jan/papr/rsnake.html

I don't know if you noticed in the website addresses these quotes are from, the word herps appears. I was curious about this because it looked awfully close to the word herpes and I was wondering what the two had in common? So I looked up herps. Did you know when you google herps, google suggests that you are looking for herpes and brings you lots of herpes results? Anyway, after sifting through all the sites available on herpes, I found a definition for herps. Herps = reptile or amphibian. Ahhhh...makes sense. Don't I feel stupid? I went to college, I took biology courses. How have I never heard this term? Must have been lost with the other 45% of my brain that disappeared after childbirth! But I digress...the point of this post is HOLY CRAP! That was a scary snake!! I am so glad I was blissfully unaware of how scary that snake was and I am so happy we all remained calm. Now I am completely freaked out by that park and need to seek counseling before I can ever think about taking my kids on that hike again. Darn. Look at how pretty this park is.

Photoshop is not good for my health

We let the snake scare us out of a hike, but not out of staying at the park for a photo shoot. Here are some from our rattlesnake day.

I started playing with photoshop tonight around 10:30ish. I told myself I would not stay up too late. Now it is almost 1:00 AM and I am posting on my blog. What am I thinking?? I just get too excited after editing pictures and I immediately want to post. It's a problem. You can see my other problem is narrowing down my selections. I take a bunch of pictures at the same time and can rarely pick just one that I like. Sorry for the slightly different duplicate shots.

BTW...I really like how their family photo turned out. I blame that picture for me staying up so late. :-)

Need...more...time...

I was really so proud of myself for keeping this blog up to date. For the first three days of April, I think I had 4 posts. And then, the Brodehl's came. And my brother came. And visitors are too much fun. Who would want to sit on the computer and write when you can sit on the sofa and be lazy while a 7 year old visitor takes care of your kids? Who wouldn't want to just hang out and talk with one of your best friends while sipping one of Kevin's yummy bubbly drinks? Their visit was like a vacation for me. Kalie would get Elise dressed, brush her teeth, get her pajamas on, wash her hair, almost everything! Kalie loved taking care of Elise, Elise loved all the attention from Kalie, and I loved the break. Although I did miss my kids. I felt like they were gone for a week. The four kids are so busy when they are together. It is probably a sneak peek to the future when they are older with their own social lives. (sob...sniff)

So I have many updates to post on here and hopefully I will get to that later today. First I need to get some bathing suits on little bodies and rush over to swim lessons. But here are a couple pictures from their visit. I still have not had time to edit the pictures so these are the straight out of the camera shots. Not as pretty but I will try to edit later...

Don't Worry About Snakes

The first full day the Brodehl's were here, Kevin went on a run through the neighborhood. He noticed a red sign at a nearby park warning of snakes in the area. For some reason, the worry of snakes came up in several conversations. Jen ridiculed Kevin, saying, "We don't talk about snakes on our San Diego vacations. We have never seen one. Don't worry about it." I don't think Kevin could get snakes off his mind. So we blame him for what we encountered on our attempt at a hike at San Dieguito park.


A rattlesnake! A big one. See... This is pretty much at the beginning of the trail head. The kids were so excited to go on an "adventure hike" and see the forts and the swinging wood bridges. Sam and Ethan were just a few steps ahead of me. Then I saw this. The black circle represents where Ethan was standing.

I grabbed Ethan and I feel like I threw him to Kevin. I hope I handed him over but with the rush of adrenaline I had...I can't really tell you what I did. I just know I grabbed him and got him away as quick as I could. Sam was already a few steps ahead so I told him to keep going - to walk another 10 feet up the path and wait. Jen took Ethan, Kalie and Elise back down the hill. I somehow stayed calm enough to take a quick picture and we all just stood still, including the snake. We were just waiting each other out. Sam was so brave and calm. There was my boy, looking back at me with a large rattlesnake between us. Sam said in a very calm and quiet voice, "Mommy, I'm scared." I handed Kevin my camera and my bag and was about to walk past the snake up to Sam. I couldn't take seeing him standing there alone. When I turned back to start up the hill, the snake also started to move. He turned around and disappeared back into the brush. Sam came back down and we all decided that was it for the hike.

I did not have time to get a great picture of the snake but in the photo above, where the arrow is, you can kind of see the rattle. Thankfully, the rattle was not rattled. I think the silence helped keep us all calm. I would have been much more freaked out if he was more upright and rattling.

It was the favorite topic of conversation for the rest of the week. The little people in our group had lots and lots of questions. One afternoon, I think Kevin and I fielded questions for about 25 minutes. The kids wanted to know how the snake can have poison in his mouth but not get poisoned by it. And why was he out at this time of year? And how quickly can a snake move? And why didn't we still go on our hike? And what about the other people on the hiking trail that didn't know about the snake, will they be okay?

Did I mention Kevin was worried about lightning on this trip as well? Jen and I laughed. I told Kevin I had only witnessed lightning once in the three + years we have been down here. He warned the kids before getting in the pool that swim time would be over if we saw any lightning.

Later on Thursday evening, a bright flash in the window followed by roaring thunder.

We told Kevin to start thinking about lottery winnings.

More good news for Deana

Deana posted herself again today excited to get to see her boys soon. Jack has flown home to pick up the z-boyz. She will actually get to see them for Easter! This is the previous update from Jack on Friday. Thank God for this hospital in Texas!

Friday, April 3, 2009 8:27 PM, CDT
At about 6pm this evening, as Deana and I were both catching a cat nap, a familiar face appeared in the room -- one we weren't expecting until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week: Dr. Rodriquez, Deana's oncologist. To say the least, we were surprised.
Dr. Rodriguez had some VERY GOOD NEWS to share with us. The bone marrow biopsy performed yesterday showed absolutely no Burkitt's lymphoma cells. The doctor explained we have an aggressive schedule ahead, and as soon as the CMV treatment is complete or near-complete, Deana will begin a single-drug regimen of Methotrexate. The doctor explained that our goal is to get the Burkitt's to a near non-existent state to facilitate a bone marrow transplant. That is a way's off, but she was very frank about the multiple steps and Deana's candidacy for either bone marrow or cord stem cell (experimental) transplantation. On Monday, the doctors will have a comprehensive schedule. Until then, Deana will have a quiet weekend.
I will fly home Sunday most likely to get our boyz. There isn't much time before Deana resumes chemo. We're so excited!
I took Deana downstairs for a hot chocolate to celebrate and we're now just minutes away from videoconferencing with our Zboyz (Skype). We haven't seen their beautiful faces in over a month.
Thank you, thank you, thank you all for your prayers. God is listening and we feel your love. Please give your loved ones big hugs, and an extra one from us.
Have a wonderful weekend. We will!
Love,
Jack and Deana

Our visitors are here!

We have guests at our house. The kids are in heaven. Two of their favorite kids are here to play for the week, Ethan and Kalie. Their parents, Jen and Kevin are two of my favorite people. I will be sure to take a lot of pictures while they are here. In the meantime, here are some pictures from a few days ago. The kids and I went on a hike on a little trail in our neighborhood. How can we live here for over 3 years and not have found this hike before?? It was beautiful! I am so happy that we know about it. The kids felt like we were on an adventure. I will post more pictures when I have more time. Right now, I have 4 hungry kids to prepare breakfast for. Here is a quick sampling from the hike.

A new wagon!

Since moving to Southern California, we have been on the hunt for a wagon. Not just any wagon. No, we need a special, beach friendly wagon. Most wagons have plastic tires. Those little suckers won't roll on the sand. Some wagons are too little and some are too large, custom and expensive. I have looked at REI, Toys-R-us, Target, and above the freezer section at every grocery store in town. Finally, at Costco last week, an in-store special, a local Costco test, a special display of wagons. Costco forced the designer of this wagon to put rubber air tires on the wagon so that it would be beach friendly. Thank you, Costco! I am so excited! I don't know if you have been to the beach in a while, but when we go, we bring chairs and towels and toys and umbrellas and coolers and gallons of sunscreen and changes of clothes. Not an easy task to get all of these things from the car to the perfect spot on the sand. But this year, we will have our wagon and two kids who can walk in the sand. Ahhhh...life just got easier.

We took it out for a test ride through the neighborhood last night. As you can see from this first picture, the kids are far more excited about the gummy bears we brought for a treat than for the wagon.

Things you find in a house with kids

I think we are very fortunate to live in our house. I love that we have a playroom. A nice big room where we can keep all of the kids toys organized and handy. This is what the playroom looks like.

Just kidding. It looks like that about once a week. Most of the time it looks like this.

I sometimes go through phases of forcing the kids to clean it up at night before bedtime. But usually by bedtime, I am too tired and lazy to be that disciplined and we just stick to brushing their teeth and getting their pajamas on. What's the point? 30 minutes after they wake up in the morning, it will look like a big mess again. And that's okay with me because the mess is upstairs and most of the time I don't have to see it.

But I love the hints that kids leave behind throughout the house. Reminders that kids live here no matter how often you tidy up the downstairs. Sometimes I take pictures of the random things I find.

A bouncy ball outside my bedroom door.

A spider on my desk.
A dog on Keith's nightstand.

A piece of pizza on my bathroom counter.

A naked barbie on my desk.

And dolls on the floor. Babies are loved around here but they need to be tough.

I always seem to find them face down on the floor and if their clothes are removable, they will be naked.

There are the lucky ones. Sometimes I will actually find them carefully wrapped and buckled in a stroller.

But most of the time...naked and face down on the floor.