well that sucks

Now the company is claiming that they are still considering people for the position and now Ben is just being strongly considered.
So thanks a lot to the guys that just screwed us.

Still standing

yup, we're still here amidst a sea of boxes. Waiting for that official offer for Ben so we can get a move date. 

Aloysius is still crated most of the day.  He is learning to really love Garrett for bringing him snacks.  Yesterday it was cheese puffs, this morning it was cereal pieces. 

The condo is looking rather sad since we packed all our books and pictures.  Otherwise nothing else to report. 

Sometimes it's the little things that make it all alright

Ben ran into the grocery store to grab a few things while I waited in the car with Garrett.
He gets back in to the car and says "You said earlier you wanted chocolate so I got us a 2 piece Snickers to share."
He hands me my bar and I said "cheers" and held it up.
Ben then "clinks" his bar against mine.
We both giggled and ate our chocolate.

Some days it's so stressful. I'm glad that I'm not in this alone.

Writers Workshop 3/24/11

My friend Samantha pointed me towards Mama Kat's Writers Workshop.  With all the stress of moving I figured why not give it a shot.

Something you do that drives your significant other CRAZY.

Oh man, it isn't easy to drive Ben nuts but there is one habit I have that annoys him.  I correct him.  He hates it.  Honestly I hated that he said things like "acrosst" and "nuke-u-lar" (especially considering his new job is in nuclear energy).

I did good.
No hun, you did well.  

He hates it.  He says it makes him feel stupid.  I know he isn't stupid, he's a very intelligent guy.  But...when he talks like that he doesn't sound very intelligent.

Stop correcting my grammarical errors
It's gramatical.  
I pronounce it differently.
You said a completely different word.  

I see the complete lack of ability for people to use the English language these days and I worry about Garrett.  I keep telling Ben that he's setting an example for our son.   And I'll correct Garrett too.

It's never just easy

We decided to schedule the MRI for Aloysius.  We know he'll most likely need surgery but we wanted to get the diagnostic testing done. 
Well, the $1200 for the MRI and the $2000-$3000 we were quoted for the surgery was wrong. 

The MRI is $2500 plus all the vet visits because their vet needs to examine him.  Surgery will run $3000-$5000.
So instead of around $4000 we're looking at $8000.
We don't have enough in savings. 
So here comes the donate button.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  I hate asking for money, but everything is in such a state right now. 
We are checking out how much it would cost to have the testing and surgery done in NC, but it will still run us several thousand dollars that we just don't have. 

Doggy days

Aloysius went to see the vet today.  The news is a little confusing.
He is doing well on the medications but he does need to get that test.  It's $1200 and while money is tight we're going to do it because he needs it (plus we know Ben has a job).   The test will let us know if he still needs surgery or if the medication will be enough.
While he could stay on the meds for the rest of his natural life we'd prefer not to do that.  He is constantly eating and peeing and still needs to spend most of his time in the crate.  We already have plans to re-crate train him because he's peeing on the floor because he has to pee so much.


We'll know more after the test.   I'm hoping he'll be ok without surgery since he's responded so well to the medications so far.

Gesundheit

The snow is melted, the weather is getting warmer and allergy season is on it's way. Good thing I've got lots of tissues.
While tissue boxes have nifty designs now it's a lot more fun to make your own tissue box covers.  I love that I can customize them for each room.  They make great gifts for the allergy sufferer in your life and are really easy to make.

No boring tissue boxes in our house

The small box pattern I found just from googling "Tissue box covers"
The felted cover I got from Sew It All Magazine.  Instead of doing a heart I did  a leaf shape to match the fabric.  I love the reverse applique and can't wait to try it on other projects.

THUD!

Ben got a job.  
Not the original job he applied for, but they offered him a different position.  So we're moving to Wilmington, NC. 
Forgive me if for the next month my posts are erratic or sort of loopy sounding.   I'm so excited right now.

The Mom Pledge

I'm taking the pledge.   What's the mom pledge?  It's pledging not to bully other moms. 
We moms are all in this together.  I've gotten the nasty comment for nursing, cloth diapering, what I chose to feed my child. 
He's healthy, he's happy.  We don't all parent the same way but we all have our child's best interests in mind.  There are so many online communities dedicated to insulting other mothers and even harassing them for having different ideas from us. 

I'm pledging to be supportive of my fellow moms and not tearing them down online.  I'm setting an example for my son.  I want him to see that bullying (online or offline) is never acceptable.

A very doggie update

This weekend Aloysius goes off his Prednisone and Robaxxin.  All he has left is Tramadol.   This is the real test to see how he is doing.
He's been feeling better and not screaming in pain.  In some of his out of crate time yesterday (he is still spending 90% of his time in the crate) he jumped on the couch.  No scream, no look of pain.
I know that many dogs live with IVDD and don't always need surgery, we're hoping that will be the case for Aloysius. 

Since he's still on crate rest we needed to clean everything in his crate.  I decided to make him a new pillow for his bed out of some comfy flannel with robots on them.

Aloysius approves of this bed.

He's looking much better and doesn't look like he's in pain.  I'm hoping he continues to recover and that we don't need to have the surgery done.


EDIT:  He's still in pain so we've called the vet for a refill on his pain meds.

Busy week

It's been a busy week.  Most weeks are busy but these few have been hellish.  With Ben's official lay off in 2 weeks we're in crisis mode and running around getting extra things sold and the condo downsized.
This past week I was so stressed I couldn't keep food down.  I'm still not very hungry but at least what I'm eating stays in my stomach.

Because of this my breast MRI was rescheduled to this Sunday.  Nothing I want to do more on a weekend than spend an hour in a little tube with my tits hanging through a hole in the table. 

Garrett has his pre-school class on Fridays from 9:30-11am.  He'll also have Early Intervention groups twice a week starting next Wednesday.  Plus his weekly home visit.  EI has been wonderful and upon seeing Ben's severance paperwork told us that we wouldn't have to pay at all for services.   
All these groups are walking distance so I'll get lots of walk in and workout time. 


We're still hoping to hear good news on the job front.

A new comment format

I made a move over to DISQUS with my comments. 
Sadly some people felt the need to continue to harass me here so I need some better tracking.

I was hoping to give a happy update about Aloysius.  He has been doing better but Garrett went to pet him tonight and he jerked his head and started shrieking.  Poor Ben was near tears.  Garrett has been pretty good about staying away from the crate and only wants to pet him puppy (or give him biscuits).

We're hoping that the medications will work for Aloysius, even if it just means being able to hold off on his surgery until Ben is working again.  Several people have donated and we are so grateful for that because the vet bills are piling up. 

Weekend Rewind

Things have been hellish lately (in case you haven't noticed) but we still wanted to get out this weekend.
We decided to take a trip up to Salem for some provisions.  
Aloysius is now sleeping on a white pouch with copper, jade, peridot and a bit of a healing oil (under his pillow of course). We also picked up some other things for health, prosperity and dispelling negative energy. 


On the way back we stopped by the beach by Swampscott and walked along the outer wall.

Garrett had fun walking on the ledge

We walked for a while watching the waves crash into the sea wall.

Waves are silly

The waves were really amazing that day.  Both Ben and I find the sea relaxing so we all walked for a while and watched them.


Sunday I did some crafting.  I made 2 mail bags and a tissue box cover.

My poor sweet Aloysius

This is the face I see now.  He doesn't want to eat or drink.  He's drugged to the gills.  I sit with him and he puts his hand in my face.  This face is actually the least pain he's been in for quite a while.


I am not above begging right now.  It would break all our hearts to put him down and all agencies we are checking can't offer us any help.

Enough is enough...

Just came back from the vet.  They're pretty sure it's a ruptured disc.  He's in a great deal of pain and they've put him on steroids, pain killers and anti inflammatory meds. They've upped his dosage from last time and have one more level they can give him if this doesn't work.
We're referred to a Neurologist but can't afford the $1200 for testing.   The vet said that if we can afford the surgery there is really no point in even bothering with the testing.  He's in so much pain that if we can't afford the surgery and the meds don't work the only choice will be to put him down so he isn't in pain. 

It's hard to think that we could lose Aloysius.  I can't stand the thought of putting him down but he's in so much pain.  Sadly if the choice came between the surgery and the mortgage we need to keep a roof over Garrett's head.

I've had enough right now.  This downward spiral is maddening to all of us.

Crafting in chaos

Ben was sweet and brought me back a gift from Wilmington.  Sadly he only had the airport to shop at so I got a t-shirt.   I don't wear t-shirts and this one was massive. 
I've seen several tutorials online for Upcycled T-shirt bags.  It's pretty easy and despite all the stress I needed to craft something simple.  

You can see just how huge the shirt is

This will make a great travel laundry bag.  Or even a bag for Garrett's toys if we move.   Now the question of what to do with the sleeves.   They fit perfectly as bandanas.  I'll probably end up embroidering them so they aren't so boring.

Forgive the tired look.  I've been under stress lately.

I wish I could be a rubberband girl

Oh last night was indeed a saga for both myself and Ben. 
The first part of his flight went off without a hitch.  He flew into LaGuardia airport with no problem.  His connecting flight to Wilmington was delayed.  Then delayed some more, and more and canceled.  The next flight out from LGA that would get him there was Monday evening.  Now Ben is getting a bit panicked and I'm on the phone with him.  

His first idea was to rent a car and drive the 10 hours down there.  (This was at 10:30pm Sunday night).  There is only 1 car rental company that has 1 way cars available for that distance.  He gets to the counter and they tell him that he can't use his debit card.  We don't have any credit cards since declaring bankruptcy.  We just got our tax return so we ask them if they could just put a really large hold on the account or something.  Nope, so dejected Ben takes the shuttle back to the main terminals.

I get on the computer and call up companies at JFK and even Newark airport to see if they can rent him a car.  Then I look up the earliest flights down to Wilmington.  I find one leaving Newark at 6am with a layover in Charlotte and getting in to Wilmington at 10:30am.  I then reserve a car with budget for pick up at LGA and drop off at Newark.   (Keeping in mind that all his travel expenses will be reimbursed)
Ben calls the Budget cars from the kiosk and they tell him he needs a credit card.   I'm on the webpage and it says no such thing. So I call the LGA location and tell Ben to head over.  It turns out if he can show he flew in to LGA and is flying out of Newark they'll accept a debit card and put a $350 hold on it until the car is dropped off. 

Ben got to Newaark and even got to Wilmington at 8:30am.  He had been updating the company by voicemail all night long and they told him he was certainly the most tenacious person they had come across.


But back to last night.  It's midnight once all this is cleared up and I turned to Garrett and tell him it's finally time for us to go to bed. I'm in the middle of saying this when he projectile vomits all over the couch coating both me and himself.  I picked him up and put him in the empty bathtub in case he puked again while I stripped the couch (thank got for couch cushion covers) and threw it in the wash along with everything we were wearing.  We took a quick bath together and he fell asleep pretty quickly.   I didn't sleep. 

I swear, I didn't break any mirrors.

This is not the end, this is not the beginning

I just dropped Ben off at the airport. 
I packed his Brook's Brothers suit and his deep purple Kenneth Cole button down shirt and a silver/grey tie. I packed his shoes, tie clip and toiletries all in his garment bag so he can carry them on. It didn't have a luggage tag so I gave him one of our address labels to just stick on a paper luggage tag at the airport.

Garrett is clinging to me and I'm hoping he'll fall back asleep since he woke up when I took him from the car back into the house.

We need this so badly right now.  We'd still need to sell the condo and move but that would be a stress we could handle.

F You life!

I'm finally at liberty to post...so here goes.
My surgery that we wanted to move up has to be put off indefinitely.  Not because we want to but because Ben was laid off.  He has an interview in NC on Monday.  We're trying to downsize everything in the condo because we know that we'll have to sell.

On top of that the doctors (and Early Intervention) think Garrett has Autism.  He's high functioning like Ben is, but we need to see a developmental pediatrician.  We've been told we're doing all the right things for him but it's a hard pill to swallow.

Our world is a mess right now.

SNAFU

Due to some situations beyond our control I probably won't be blogging as much as I would like.  I'm not going to be able to keep up with my Friday series and I don't even want to write everything out. 
Needless to say the world has totally screwed up right now.