Slackers!

It was great to see you family... sorry it was under grim circumstances (we'll miss you Grandpa Maestri). It's sad it takes the passing of a loved one to bring us all together, but I think he would be happy knowing he brought us all together at the end. I love a miss you all already... we really need to get serious and plan annual family vacations, even if we meet some where in Oklahoma to see the worlds biggest ball of yarn... We really enjoyed seeing everybody and hope we can all converge on some lake, town, or campground sometime soon.

Brother

Welcome Mom!

Mom,

Just wanted to say welcome to our blog. Thanks for all you do. In twenty years I will look back on this and know that we (your children) were able to put a smile on your face.

With Love,

Your Son

home

i came home for a couple days.  sitting in grandpa's hospital room.  eleven pm to eight am.  giving our aunts a break.  i watched them be so gentle with him today, and with each other.  

he is sleeping now somewhat, but talking a lot.  pointing at things and giving commands.  and always talking to grandma.  judy, judy, mother.  

they say his sundowner has been really rough the last couple days.  today he conducted a pam board meeting, did mayoral things at city hall, and drove the bus for a while.  im pretty sure he is at pam in his dream right now.  he keeps arguing about something and they came to check because his heart rate went up.   

it's hard to see him like this.

when he gets upset, calling him grandpa seems to best calm him down.

love you all.

lins  

         

Welcome Mom

Ok, I think every thing is up and running soooooo.....Hi Mom! Sorry I ruined the surprise! We were gonna send a card and everything. Oh, well. I hope you like it. I know how much joy it brings you that we stay in touch with you, but also how important it is to you that we stay in touch with each other. So now you can make sure we are keeping up our brother and sisterly relationships. Not that we wouldn't anyways, but now there will be proof! Dad is welcome to participate too. You will be an Author on the blog as soon as I send you an official invite. You can compose posts, add photos, and comment on others posts. I will also set it up so you will get e-mail notification when there is a new post or comment. This Blog thing is something that should be easy enough that despite the crazy hectic schedules we all have, we should all be able to keep up with. Lindsey can even post from Ireland. Hope you enjoy your blog.  I love you way past the moon! 

Rock

P.S. This is a pic of me after a whole day of Blog Designing. A job in case you were wondering I have ZERO training in, knowledge of, or experience with! It was absolutely absurd. If you accidental delete one silly period your whole screen will turn like 6 shades of orange. Apparently in computer speak, a period means orange. I would like to see some stats on the number of people that do this type of work that are on psychotropic meds, own a gun, and have been involved in some type of violent act in the past year. I seriously think I would have felt betterbetter if I could have shot something. ( not the kind of shot in a glass, although at around 2 that wasn't sounding like a bad plan) Good thing Daniel didn't come home for  lunch, or he may have left with  wounds. PLEASE don't ask me to change the back ground for at least 6 months!    : ) We were almost stuck with a way too pink one but around 3 this afternoon I was finally able to pull this argyle one off. Thank goodness. 

And One more...

The following is a test of the emergency broadcast system...

Just testing out the video stuff... but I think these are great.

Introducing... Charlie Jo!!!

Just got first picks of the newest twig on the family tree... Going to name HER 'Charlie Jo Pack' after Milah's late father (Charles) and my late grandmother (JoAnn). I think we'll just call her 'CJ' for short... but that's not mother approved, yet. LOL.

Doc said we're further along than they thought... ETA September 24th! The same birthday as Jim Henson (Roxie do you remember the hours wasted watching Seasame Street and The Muppets?) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Authored "The Great Gatsby"), and the same day Hurricane Rita hit Texas, the same day President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent United States National Guard troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation, and the same day the first Ford Model T was built.

Till later...

The #1 Son

EveyLynn's Surgery

This is Evey and I at 6:30AM waiting on the Dr. to arrive, which didn't happen till 7:15. By this point she was royally hacked off cause I wouldn't let hare have food or drink. She kept pointing to the diaper bag and hollering. Funny! Real Funny! Tip for the day: Never get between a chubby girl and her breakfast. I'm just saying.....
This is the anesthesiologist carrying her back to the OR. She was more than happy to go with him by this point since she was mad at me over the no food and drink thing. Him and the two nurses argued over who was going to get to carry her in. I think he pulled rank on them.
This is Evey about 3 min  after the surgery. They had warned me that most babies wake up very fussy and confused. Oh no. Not EveyLynn. When I got back to recovery there was 1 surgen and two nurses on one side of the bed and the anesthesiologist, another surgen ( not hers) and a nurse on the other side of the bed and Evey was crawling around the bed taking turns putting the oxygen mask on each one of them. Of course they scattered when I grabbed the camera, but here she is with the two remaining nurses. I wonder if she wasn't upset cause she lives in a constant state of confusion, so the drugged feeling didn't bother her? She also had no clue who I was when I came in. I thought she would reach for me,but no. I was just another patient of hers needing oxygen.
This is us about 20 min. after she woke up. She woke up hungry and thirsty, but was having trouble getting any juice from her sippy cause her mouth was numb. It was funny to watch her try. She was fine till they had to remove the IV in her foot. It pretty much went down hill from here. She cryed off and on with out any rhyme or reason till they wheeled us to the door and dumped us at the curb. 
And this was the tail end of the very long nap she took when we got home. She woke from this nap as if nothing strange had happened. Not fussy or anything. She does have quite the bruse on her foot from the IV, and three sticks on her hand from where they tried to start an IV there. but other than that she is all back to normal. I have been trying to get her to stick her toung out,but she won't. It will probably be a few days till she figures out she can. The surgen had originally said she was only moderately tongue tied when he examined her in the office, but after the surgery he said it was pretty suaver, and she had no movement of her tongue past her teeth in any direction. I guess when it is this bad they usually have trouble eating, but again Not Evey. She has the thigh rolls to prove she can eat just fine. Now hopefully she will start talking any day! Or maybe not. Maybe mommy needs a few more weeks of quiet before they both start saying what I'm sure will be there 1st word! NO!

Aloha La Familia (Thats my new language... Hawanish! Sun tans and burrito's!!!)

Tuesday... just another day. Destinys failing math and doesn't care. What do you do with a kid that is more interested in the social aspects of FIFTH grade than an education??? AAAARRRGGGHHHH! Her TACS test is next tuesday (A retake, she failed the first one) and if she fails its summer school. No vacations. We've tried tutoring, doping her, grounding her, pretty much everything shy of beating her. Math... according to my brilliant child is stupid, and she'll never use it anyway. It really is suprising just how little math I use on a daily basis, at least anything more than simple arithmatic. I think my take on mathmatics at 30 something is more logical than anything. As in I just do it without realizing Ive just multiplied, divided, etc. But do I dare tell my precious young Artist (according to her thats what she wants to be) that yes, she's probally right? That outside of fifth grade arithmatics she'll probally never need to know the square root of 654847? Or that a stop sign is an octagon? I dont see a stop sign and say "Oh looky... what a pretty octagon!". No, I freaking stop! What to do?





On the bright side I dont have the mexican pig flu. But Im still ill'n. Doc says it's just a nasty sinus infection and not the flu... they tested.





Milah's doing good. GROWING prettier every day! Find out this friday if its a boy or girl. So until then... let me know if you have any suggestions outside of strangulation on your favorite neices little problem.

With Love

Can we all say AHHHHH!

I just had to put this pic on here. I found it wile looking for something else. I just don't know how they got so darn cute. I could just eat them up. I love you all.

here is my photo posting practice.  so sad lindsey i know but isnt my "suit" pretty.  

this first post will be short and sweet from me: hi family.  i miss you all so much.  xoxo

I'm still learning and need family pics

Hey everyone. Just wanted to say happy......um..... Sunday! Yah, that's it. Anyways, I need you all to send me some pics. I need one of every one with your spouses, and I need pics of the kids. Katie, one of both of them would be good.  Brannon, an ultrasound pic of Bitty Pack would be good if you can swing it. Do you all like the rainbow pic on the header? I had a really hard time finding anything I thought mom would like. I was tempted to use a cool Wizard of Oz pic, but it didn't really go with the In Twenty Years theme. Any ways, if you have one you think would be better let me know. Oh, hay didn't we get a couch pic of all of us when we were together for EveyLynns adoption? Maybe I can find that. Kate, look and see if you can find it. also send me a link to LeighAnn's blog so I can see what she did. I'm starting to figure out this blog thing a bit better. Brannon, you need to respond soon so we know you are still alive. Don't make me call your pregnant wife and tell her you are holding up blog progress. Lin, thanks for joining me at the commissary today. It was nice! I love you all and will talk to you soon. Night, Night!  

  

This is Owen pouting in time-out. We sent him to his room and when we went to check on him he was on his bed with his cowboy hat on sideways. To show how sad he was he pulled the sides down and pouted his lip when we came in, it was too cute! 

So I got my Pell Grant Award today! It covers almost but not all of what I need for school, but I also accepted my Stafford loan awards. So as of today it's official, I can actually afford to go back to school, and we're also in debt for the first time in 5 years! I'm not sure if that's worth celebrating or not! I register for classes on Monday at noon. Wish me luck!

Ta Da! Actually, Brant did this for me, it took him all of 5 seconds to figure out. This pic is from the Zoo last summer, but I couldn't resist, I think it is a very accurate depiction of our family! 

Still blogg stupid, and two missing bloggers

Good afternoon every one. Sorry to say Istill know almost nothing about how this blog thing works. I haven't had much time to fiddle with it. I am probably going to have to break down and read the How To section. I hate that! Any who. Brannon and Lindsey, are you two lost at sea? Send me a message and let me know if you two got your invites to be authors on here. Katie said she did. Lin, I think you will have to set up a g mail account to participate. Well I did figure out how to get a picture on here. Notice the beautiful web cam  portrait of me! I am doing some major spring( I mean summer) cleaning and house rearranging this weekend, but hope to have some time to keep making updates on here. Brannon, we want to see baby belly pics soon! And Lin, how about some random pics of your art. I always love those.,and Kate, show us those two weeble wobbles of yours. Not those, I was talking about the kids silly! :) Lets all practice putting pics on here so we can see if it works. Love you all! 

Do you copy?

I'm tuned in, but I have no idea what I'm really doing, so lead me oh great one! When your setting it up I think it might be cute to have spot for Milah's pregnancy, like "pregnancy through dad's eyes" or something for Brannon to post updates and comments on. Mom would enjoy that. I'm not sure if I "SAVE NOW" or "PUBLISH POST", so hopefully this will get out. 

Testing, one two teating! Did you all get your invites? I also set this thing up so it will send all of us an email when a comment is left on a post, but I'm not sure if we will all be notified or just the person whos post had a comment left on it. ????I think we will all just have to dink around on here till we figure out how it all works. You can also set it up so you can post from email and your phone, but I have NO idea how that works. I am goign to try and make it pretty and figure our how to put a profile for each of us on here. If you figure it out beofr I have gotten to it, feel free to help a girl out. I hope this blogg is going to work. I really think mom will enjoy it a lot. I love you all talk to you soon.