How The Weekend Went...

Friday afternoon I got nervous that Johnny didn't have an appointment for his circumcision. So I finally called to set one up. I asked if there were any Saturdays available and they gave me an appointment for Sunday, late-morning, as usual.

Friday night my oldest daughter left with her bio-donor for his weekend visitation.

...I have an idea, from now on I should refer to him as "Lee Vai". Because sometimes I speak in "code" on this blog. That way I don't have to sound so negative.

We haven't awarded our DOTW (D-r-a-g-o-n of the week) yet. I think we're still undecided too. I'm not sure.

Saturday I slept most of the morning. I wasn't doing so well. I pulled myself together though and we made it to Saturday's Church service. Everyone at Church gathered around me and touched me and prayed for me while Pastor Chris put oil on my forehead and lead the rest in prayer for me and also for John and our Little Johnny and the rest of our family. I really do love our Church. They are just the most wonderful group of people. I'm not just talking about the people who run it either, every member I've met has just been wonderful. I love them all. It's like a real family there. People you don't even know will just walk up and hug you to tell you "hello", and it's totally genuine! I'm not used to getting genuine hugs from my own blood-related family members! I feel the presence of the Lord when I am at my Church, and I feel it in the people I am surrounded with at my Church! "I feeeeeeeeeel the love!"

My Mom has been SO helpful with the kids and baby since my diagnosis. She even took Wiggles out to "do her business" on Saturday morning and once again Saturday evening too.

Our poor dog. Everyone complains to have to "take her out" and it's so hard for me to do these days for sooo many reasons. My oldest daughter, bless her heart, she tries to help me with her and walk her, but my dog is so strong and such a stubborn puppy that she almost always pulls my daughter right to the ground. I keep ending up with a disappointed, scraped-up, crying little girl and scared, anxious doggy that still needs to "do her business".

Moving on... After Church we went to Chapala's for some fabulous Mexican food that I did not get to enjoy. When it came time to order and my husband asked his usual "Does this dish have onions in it" the waiter told us that pretty much everything they serve has onions in it and even if it doesn't come with onions, because they cook with so much onion he can't guarantee that a piece of onion wouldn't find it's way into his dish somewhere. So we had to leave without ordering.

We ended up going to another Mexican restaurant that my husband frequents for lunches, Super Mex. Upon walking in we were greeted with a chalk board listing some specials with spelling errors. My husband, with his corrective nature began fixing their sign. The "Hostess" not only could barely speak English, but she wouldn't even speak directly to us while we were talking to her. Finally after a moment of confusion, as there were another party behind us that our hostess and another hostess were having trouble deciding who would seat who where, we were seated.

All was well at first. Our youngest daughter was with us and she really had a good time at both restaurants. My taco salad, on the other-hand, was served to me with raw hamburger, which I didn't even notice at first, I had already eaten quite a bit. When we showed the waiter he said that the meat is not supposed to come that way. That's reassuring, I think. So he took my plate and brought me another. As I got closer to finishing up the "corrected" taco salad, I started noticing more raw beef! Ick! Worst of all was when we got our ticket. I thought surely they would have discounted something, but there was not one discount on our bill. So where the receipt says "Tip" my husband wrote "Don't serve raw meat!".

Our little girl was owed a DOTW prize for Kid's Quest and Sunset Station had sent us some postcards giving us free slot play money on our members cards so that's where we headed next. I had been craving Cherry Sours for a few days and when we walked in there was a vending machine with Cherry Sours! So I grabbed a handful (.25 worth) of those! Neither of us did any good gambling. It takes forever to get drinks when you're gambling there too! When we picked up our little girl, we forgot to get her card stamped, again. We have these cards for the kids when we take them to Kid's Quest they put a stamp on there for each hour and you earn discounts and free hours. The last two times we've taken them to Kid's Quest we have forgotten to get the cards stamped. We could have had at least 2 free hours for them by now. Pfft!

Sunday morning Lee Vai called and left a message saying that my daughter is sick. My husband called him right back. Lee Vai said that she is sick and needs to go to the DR. My husband told him to take her to the DR then. He told Lee Vai which Urgent Care center all her insurance information is on file at and told him to take her there. Lee Vai called back a few minutes later complaining that they had plans to go to Red Rock today until she woke up all sick and he said he called the Urgent Care place and that they told him that the custodial parent has to be the one to bring her in or they can't see her.

So he was asking me to meet him at the Urgent Care place so he could just drop her off because it is going to be (and I quote) "too much trouble to keep her until later or drop her off and then pick her up again". I told him he can just bring her home right now and I will take her to the DR. I was thinking I might be able to have her seen when Johnny is seen for his circumcision that same afternoon. But Lee Vai's girlfriend was in the background saying that she was keeping my daughter until the time Lee Vai is required to bring her back. Then they put my daughter on the phone and she was telling me how bad she wants to go to Red Rock. Lee Vai's girlfriend is in the background saying that she wants to take her to Red Rock but that they might not get to go if she has to go the DR. Lee Vai and his girlfriend were starting to argue, so Lee Vai got off the phone and said he would call back in a few minutes.

Meanwhile, my husband called the Urgent Care to ask about this silly policy Lee Vai claims they have. They told my husband that everything can be verified over the phone and that they only need to be able to get in touch with the custodial parent and get their permission to see the child and they told him that they explained that clearly to the guy that just called. So when Lee Vai called back, my husband confronted him about his lie and of course, as usual, he went into "retard mode" and started pretending once again that he was "too stupid" to figure out what they meant when he called them.

Side Note: The comments "retard mode" and "too stupid" are there because Lee Vai had nothing to do with my daughter for the first 4 years of her life until my husband attempted to adopt her. When we did this Lee Vai then decided to start trying to have a relationship with her. When we took him to court his only defense was that he was "too stupid" (his lawyer's exact words) to have been able to figure out how to contact her or pay me child support. Their whole defense was that we "out-smarted" them. And the Judge, also as retarded (publicly known that he too was suffering mental and physical debilitating illnesses) took sympathy, of course! Accept it never did come out in court that Lee Vai's mental and physical illnesses are self-inflicted from his life-long drug and alcohol abuse! And for those unaware, she never did end up even meeting him until she was almost SEVEN years old. In fact, they haven't even known each other for entire year yet.

Back to what I was talking about before:
Not too long later we got a call from the Urgent Care and I verified everything they needed me to. Not too long later Lee Vai called and gave us the diagnosis. She has fluid in the ear and sore throat. She was prescribed some antibiotic too. My husband offered to fill the prescription but Lee Vai said he would do it. He was "too stupid" to ask which pharmacy has her insurance information on file, so I'm sure he had to pay for it out-of-pocket. It's inexpensive anyways.

Daddy took Little Johnny in for his circumcision and it went well from what I heard. The most exciting news is how much Johnny has grown. His last well-baby appointment was Feb. 10th, 2008 and he weighed 6 lbs., 9 oz. and measured 20 in. This time he weighed a whopping 8 lbs., 12 oz. and measured 21 1/4 in. I'm so proud! The DR also commented that he did better than about 99% of other babies for his circumcision too. That's good to hear. He seems to be taking it well, considering what has been done to him. Then again, he's been through so much poking and prodding since birth, my poor little guy, he's somewhat used to torture. :(

Mom ordered herself a new laptop computer.

My husband's Mom is buying a car from her other son. My husband was considering buying it for himself but she beat him to it. On the bright side, she won't need it right away so she is going to let me borrow it for a few weeks. Hopefully we can find and afford a decent used van in the meantime and before she needs it back! My sweet sister also called me and offered to help get my Little Johnny to his appointment on Tuesday for his Synagis shot (to prevent RSV).

Later that evening, Lee Vai and his girlfriend brought my daughter back home and my daughter tells us that after she saw the DR that they took her to Red Rock and they walked around all day. Why the heck would a "parent" take a child who is sick out to walk around outside all day!? And to top it off, they took a little girl with fluid in the ears to a place with elevation changes! Yup, that's pretty "stupid"!

"The air pressures of the outside environment are constantly changing with change in elevation and change in the weather. Various infectious inflammatory or anatomical problems can affect the function of the eustachian tube. Relatively negative air pressures behind the eardrum can gradually lead to collapse of the eardrum due to pressure of the outside environment. Additionally, the middle ear space is constantly producing fluid, which must drain down the eustachian tube . The production of fluid by the middle ear is greatly increased in infectious states."

It was so stupid, in fact, that my husband couldn't resist calling him and asking him if he seriously brought her up there after taking her to an Urgent Care. His response? "Yeah, she was dressed warm enough, she was fine."

Oh my, sweet baby Jesus! Please, Lord, help us now!

She feels horrible now and I will have to keep her home from school. She has missed a lot of school since his visitations began. It seems like every time she comes home from there she is sick with something. One DR said she probably has Allergic Rhinitis which is aggravated by Lee Vai smoking around her.

Before we put the kids to bed last night, Uncle Bob brought over the car I get to borrow. He also brought our (mine and my Mom's) Avon orders from Grandma Zee! Uncle Bob got to feed Little Johnny his bottle for a few minutes and then Daddy brought Uncle Bob back home and filled the car with gas for me.

I ordered some after-bath slippers and foot cream from Avon because my feet hurt so bad from cracked skin it hurts to walk on them. I also got my youngest little girl some pink "cotton candy" body paint for bath time and my oldest daughter some High School Musical "Sharpay & Ryan" hand cream. I haven't given them to them yet though. Maybe we will save them to be DOTW prizes.

Here's a Tid-bit: Did you know that my 4 year old can spell "ribbons" off the top of her head and she can also tell you that "1+1 is 2, 2+2 is 4, 4+4 is 8, and 8+8 is 16". And that she knows all those because she can actually count them to equal those numbers, not from memorizing it as a string? Cool stuff.



A friend from Church is also getting together with some of the other women from Church and they are going to bring us meals occasionally, probably once or twice a week or something. That will be incredibly helpful.

Thank you to everyone who is helping us out. I am so grateful to have you in my life.