Family Tradition

Our family just returned from our annual tradition of visiting the North Pole, via the Polar Express train. Every Christmas season, we drive 4 hours to get to the Polar Express train station. Kids in jammies, Polar Express book in hand and excitement in the air, we happily board this magic train. We have cookies and hot coco as we race through the "magical time tunnel" to the North Pole.

Once we reach our destination, we see a beautifully lighted North Pole Village. Elves working hard, shooting stars, and of course Santa waving from his enormous red sleigh. The train stops long enough for Santa to board. The kids wait patiently, while singing Christmas carols, for Santa to enter their train car. Then there are cheers and screams as the jolly old man in red enters the train car with his red sack. In his sack is a bell for each child. The ringing bell I hope my kids will always hear, just as I do.

Please view our pictures from our Magical Experience using the side bar option.

A Few Prayers

So, I am not a religious person. I do not attend church on a weekly basis, nor on the big religious holidays. I was raised going to church weekly, and have not continued that in my adult life. But despite the fact that I am not involved in organized religion, I am a spiritual person.

I believe that there is a higher power, whatever that might look like. I struggle with how to explain this to my children seeming they have not step foot in a church, and have not heard much religious dialog in which to have a basis for such discussions. But, how many near car accidents of a distracted mom have been narrowly missed, how many nasty tumbles of kids have been taken, and illnesses resolved, to realize that there is more, something bigger in this world.

With all of this in mind, I have been praying a lot. Praying for things in my life to be fixed, resolved or re- balanced. I am hoping with enough prayer, faith and maybe some lessons learned, this higher power will grant my family a few prayers.

Asthma, Asthma, Asthma

I can't tell who is my new best friend this week. Is it the school nurse or my portable nebulizer? I have not been able to get through even the first part of this week without either. Both my children's asthma has been flaring up every time I turn around.

The new portable nebulizer I purchased has been a great buy. I can plug it into the car or take it with me anywhere, the best part is that it is so quiet.

My son has been in school for two days so far this week and has visited the school nurse's office twice. I saw the school's number on my caller ID and new what they were calling for.

After school while my kids and I were at the PTA meeting my son started asthma coughing, and I got panicked. His inhaler was in the car and I had actually left without his portable nebulizer. I waited to see if it was just a cough or two, or if his cough was going to escalated into a coughing fit. Luckily it was just one cough, but I so dislike that a cough can throw me into a panic about where his inhaler is.

I cannot tell if the change of weather is affecting the kids asthma. They have an appointment with a pediatric lung specialist after Thanksgiving that I am eagerly anticipating. I have my daily records of peak flow reading, rescue inhaler usages and asthma symptoms documented for over a month. It took that long to get an appointment. Hopefully their asthma can be controlled a little better then it is now.

Mixology

Mixology..... hmmmm.... the science of mixing???? That's what I think. Well, that is exactly how I describe my family too. We just returned from a trip to Utah to see them and this phrase just came to mind at dinner.

Let me give a little background to help explain.

My father was married and adopted 4 children (adopted is only mentioned because it is a interesting phenomenon I will mention later). My father got divorced and remarried, and my sister and I were the surprise product of their marriage. Interesting, seeming they were not supposed to be able to have biological children. So there you have it. 4 children from one marriage, 2 from another, and don't forget 2 different wives added to the mix. Trying to mix all these kids and families has never been easy and actually has been downright difficult at times. We have had periods of being close and periods of not talking. But now, all as adults, things have evened out. We even went on a family vacation to the Outer Banks and all lived in a house for a week together, and all lived to tell about it!! Seriously, we all had a blast.

So, with this little background in mind, and our mixology of a family, the dinner table laid out as such.

Myself sitting next to my biological sister Diana. To her left, my half brother Jeff was badgering his mother Ms. A (my dad's first wife), who was sitting across from him. Next to Ms.A, was her boyfriend of many years Mr.J. My half sister Chelle was loudly talking, as she has such hearing loss in one ear, Chelle was sitting next to Jeff's boy who was concocting some science experiment at the table. Then my son and Chelle's boy were sitting at the table drawing Star Wars figures in their own little world. The thing about these two boys is they look so much a like, you show them pictures when they were young and they don't know who is who. Now, if there was a genetic relation it would be no big deal, but since Chelle is adopted with no blood relation, I don't know how these two look so much alike. A little digression there. Back to the seating chart. Jeff's wife Dom was sitting next to me, and my daughter and Chelle's daughter were behind us dancing. Every so often Chelle's husband, the owner of the restaurant we were having dinner at, came to check on everyone from time to time.

What a mix!!! Did I think I would be having dinner with my father's ex wife and boyfriend??? Nope, they probably thought the same, although Ms. A was worried how my mother would feel about that. But some things do not need to be shared. Mr. Chelle was worried that my sister and I would not get along with Ms. A, hence his constant checking I believe. Family loans, were discussed and Ms. A. was talking about phone conversations to my fathers sister in law, and Mr. J was interested in talking to my soft spoken son, but could not hear a word he was saying. Ms. A used to work for the FBI and according to Chelle, Ms. A was very politely interrogating my sister Diana about school and her husband. Jeff was glad one more sister did not show up so we could all have a "fun" time, and the oldest of my dad's kids had mooched all he could off his family and was back in Denver.

Despite all the family gossip, and dynamic interactions, we had a great time.

Maybe this "mixology" thing is not so bad. We all function within our own dysfunction.

It's Here

It's here!!!

The new travel nebulizer was delivered. It is small enough to fit in Carson's hand, and it is so quiet compared to our regular nebulizer.

We got set up with the newest nebulizer cups and a dispenser with a filter that only dispenses medicine when he breaths in , so less medicine is wasted.

At our local Asthma walk we met the wonderful people from NEB Doctors of Nevada, who went and got the prescription for the the portable nebulizer from our physician and delivered the nebulizer to us, with new masks, tubing and nebulizer cups. Thank you Joe and Theresa from NEB Doctors of Nevada for all your assistance.

The downfall of the delivery of our new machine is that Carson had to use it. He was not having a major flare up, but enough he felt he needed his albuterol inhaler and we decided to try out the new nebulizer in its place. Carson loves it, and is really excited that he can use it in the car, and it is quiet!!

In a Split Second

It was a nebulizer night. How is it, in what seemed like a blink of the eye, my son went from being o.k., to needing to take his inhaler, to using his nebulizer?

We had gone to Costco, and when we left, his little eyes started to get grey and his face a ghostly shade of white and he was deep breathing. One of his many early signs of asthma flare ups. He took his inhaler and we thought we could go on with our night. We made one more stop to Toys R Us. We were there for 5 minutes when Carson said he wanted to go home. A child, who wants to leave Toys R Us??? I knew he was not feeling well.

He took his inhaler again in the car. When we made it home he went and retrieved his favorite stuffed animal Mugsy (Mugsy is the asthma animal, he went to the hospital with Carson for the initial asthma flare up and seems to be in Carson's arms during nebulizer treatments.) and found his way to the couch. He said he felt yucky, that it was his lungs, and continued to deep breath. I went and prepared his nebulizer and he started his treatment.

After his nebulizer treatment he decided he did not feel any better and needed to call Papa (his maternal grandfather, who luckily happens to be a retired physician). Papa happily came over, listened to his lungs, talked with him about his symptoms, and Carson and his sister looked through all his doctor gear. About 20 minutes later Carson was off the couch and playing with his sister.

I am still trying to figure out both my kids asthma. Carson seems to have more acute symptoms and my daughter seems to have more very mild chronic symptoms. I am so ready to see the Pediatric Lung Specialist, but that is still a month away. I am excited though, that they are delivering a portable nebulizer to our house today. It is so little, and has an adapter for the car. This is just in time for our trip this weekend. As a mother of 2 asthmatics, I cannot imagine what would be more scary then one of my children having an asthma flare up and be driving between cities. Now I can plug the nebulizer in the car.

Halloween

Halloween at Mama Maria's. I had a little Jack Sparrow and a bee with an attitude. I was so proud of little Jack Sparrow. He had dressed up as Captain Hook for 2 years in a row and finally branched out this year to a new pirate (he loves pirates).

Little Miss Bee was hot in her costume and did not like to wear the hat, but with the threat on not trick or treating she begrudgingly put her costume on.

Fun was had by all and more candy then can be eaten was in the pumpkin pails. The "candy fairy" will have lots of candy to take back to "candy land."