Then and Now

Shauna Anne Sylvia's adoption day, July 31, 1998, age 9 months

11 years later

Quote of the day

(When we get to the beach...) "Are we going to just park and go straight to the beach or do we have to unload everything?"--Shauna

Oh, how I wish we could just go straight to the beach! Loading and unloading are only second in highest vacation stress level to packing!

Question of the day

19 year old son pees in the kitchen garbage can in the middle of the night. This is witnessed by 11 year old who got up to see the sunrise (huh?). My question: Is this a manifestation of his mental illness or is he just a freaking idiot?????

CUP, do not answer this, I already know what you are going to say!

Shauna's New Bedroom

Shauna in her new bedroom.

Daddy and Shauna

Hannah and Shauna

The closet and alcove side of Shauna's room

Graduation Pictures

Dad, Shauna, and Mom

Daddy and his baby girl

Shauna and her bestest friend

Shauna and Alex

Shauna and Gramma

Doctor results

The doctor doesn't think Shauna has the flu because she doesn't have any body aches. Duh, why didn't I think of that? She did a strep test and it was negative. Barring any other symptoms coming up in the next day, the doctor is confident that Shauna has a virus that is going around. She told me the name of it, but I couldn't repeat it if you paid me! Shauna is resting and her only complaint, other than feeling just plain yucky is a sore throat.

Uh-oh

When I went to pick Shauna and Sydney up after their DC trip, their chaperone told me that Shauna hadn't needed to take the ibuprofen I provided. I was so relieved because I had been worried all day that she might be feeling sick on the trip. Then I saw Shauna and we started walking back to the car. She told me that she wasn't feeling well and that her neck was hurting. Ugh! We got home and took her temperature and it was 102.9! To be fair to the chaperone, she didn't look like she was sick at all and Shauna didn't say anything to her, so there was no way she could have known she was sick. I couldn't even tell when I saw her. I gave her a dose of ibuprofen as soon as we got home and her temp came down a little, although it is still 101.6. I'm kind of worried about the sore neck, thinking possible meningitis, but I have been checking her every few minutes and she said her neck is not sore anymore. I would think if it were meningitis, it wouldn't stop hurting. She is going to sleep in my bed tonight so I can keep a close eye on her, but I'm thinking she has the flu. I'm going to take her to the doctor tomorrow for a flu test.

Washington DC

Shauna is on her 5th grade trip to Washington DC today. She was so excited this morning. We had to get up at 4:30 to have her and her friend, Sydney, to the school by 5:30. I hope they don't run into any bad weather, as I can hear storms rumbling to the west of us and I know some severe weather is expected for many parts of Virginia today. They are planning to arrive back at the school at about 7:30 tonight.

Yesterday, when she got home from school, Shauna wasn't feeling well. She had a head ache and was sneezing like crazy. We couldn't tell if she was coming down with something or if it was allergies, but no matter what, she felt crappy. She was so worried that she would have to miss the trip. She has been taking Claritin for allergies, but on the pediatrician's advice, I had bought some Zrytec, so she took that last night. I guess it worked because she felt better this morning. I gave her some ibuprofen before she left and gave her chaperone some more for later in the day, so I'm hoping she didn't run into any problems.

Alex's Show

Alex goes to a performing arts school, not a day school, but an after school school. He is in the Musical Theater program. I know I posted about it before, mentioning that he got a scholarship to attend. He attended a couple of years ago, but we just couldn't afford it anymore. He found out a few months ago that they were offering scholarships for boys and he applied and was accepted. He has learned so much there and I'm really glad he has been able to go. He is dying to take private voice lessons there, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the owner will let him do that next year.

Anyway, they always do an end of the year program, highlighting what they have learned during the year. Each class and the private lesson students did a dance or song and it was really wonderful. We went in, not expecting much, but ended up being treated to what, at most times, seemed like a professional performance! The costumes were beautiful. Too bad I forgot my camera! Alex, unfortunately, only participated in one song and dance, but he did a great job. The show was a lot of fun and my Aunt Louise, who is here visiting from Florida and my Mom came along, so I'm glad it was a good show!

After the show, we went home, planning to make eat at home, but we then decided to go out to dinner. Alex really wanted to and since he hasn't been home much at all for the past 4 months or so, we decided to splurge and go out. The only kids who wanted to go were Alex and Shauna. We went to Red, Hot and Blue, which was really good. We had a GREAT time! It was just a fun and funny, relaxing time. It was nice to have Mike along with us, since when he is home, he is usually really tired and sleeping or busy doing stuff around the house. Several funny things happened, but the main one was that I had my cell phone in my purse and whenever I got a text message, it says, "message received". Alex thought that was SO embarrassing! It was actually quite low and since it was in my purse, I don't think anyone around us could hear it. Plus there weren't even that many people in the restaurant, since it was pretty late when we finally got there.

After a few minutes of Alex teasing me about being embarrassing, he proceeded to drop his cell phone down between the end of the booth bench and the wall. He tried to get it out with butter knives, his hand, his flip flop, etc., with no luck. Mike, being silly, decided to call the phone. Alex had his ring on pretty loud and his ring tone is an obnoxious, rap-type song. So suddenly, we and the people sitting anywhere near us, hear "turn my head right round" music! Mike says, "And you had the nerve to say that Mom was embarrassing!" We had quite a few laughs over that and some other things, while we enjoyed a delicious BBQ dinner. Eventually when we still couldn't get the phone out ourselves, our server came over and tried to help. She first brought a broom stick from the back and tried that, but it wouldn't fit in between. Then she brought a bunch of kitchen gadgets with long handles, like a slotted spoon and tongs. Nothing worked. Finally, Alex tried pulling the bench out from the wall (which the server had said couldn't be done because it was attached!). Well, lo and behold, it was not attached, although it certainly did look like it was. Alex was able to rescue his phone, thank goodness.

Sleeping Beauties

I guess that huge Italian dinner was too much for these two!

Steven, Wrigley, and Shauna

Yearbook Pictures

Steven, 1st grade, 1996

Hannah, pre-school, 4 1/2, 2001

Shauna, pre-school, 3 1/2, 2001

Steven's friend, Joe, 2nd grade, 1996

Winter Wonderland

Shauna and her friend, Sydney. Yes, that is Shauna's winter coat in the snow. It was 24 degrees and she was hot!

Shauna at the bottom of the hill

Alex enjoying some of the first snowflakes

A thrilled Shauna, with her coat on!

The snowy night sky in front of our house

Quote of the day

Background for quote of the day: Alex, Luke and Shauna were trying to figure out how to get a third snow day, now that the roads are clear. They said they would spray the roads with water, so when they send transportation out to test the roads, they would see the ice and cancel school again. A few minutes after they finished the discussion, this happened:

Alex: "Mom, I just got a text message from Shauna that said 'Get a warm, heavy jacket and tonight at twelve, I will wake up so we can fill up a lot of buckets of water'. "

This is probably only funny if you know Shauna, but we do and it was hilarious!

Quick post

I have to make a quick dinner and then go pick Alex up from theater class. He got a scholarship to go to a performing arts school and he started yesterday. He is very excited. He took classes there about a year and a half ago, but had to stop after 6 months because we just couldn't afford it. They now have scholarships for boys only and he applied for and got one. We are still waiting to see exactly what classes they are going to let him take. So far, he is just in musical theater. He is hoping for dance and voice lessons, as well.

I had Shauna's IEP meeting yesterday morning and she got approved for an IEP! Yay! I was really lucky to have the support of a teacher who has known her since kindergarten, as well as the school social worker and psychologist, who just happen to be married to each other and friends of mine! After all the testing was done, it was determined that her IQ is on the higher side of average. However, she has a severe math disability, that only 1% of the population has. Ugh. She also has a lot of memory issues, probably due to prenatal alcohol exposure. I'm so happy she is getting the IEP because she will be in middle school next year and will not survive there without one. I just hope she gets the same special ed case manager that Hannah has this year.

My kids are making fun of me!

Alex and Shauna were making fun of me tonight. Everything I did, they narrated it, like this:

"Oh, I'm putting meatballs on my plate. I'm going to blog about this."

"I'm pouring milk. I'm going to blog about this."

"I'm sitting down with my dinner. I'm going to blog about this.", etc. etc. etc.!

Then, a few minutes after they stopped making fun of me, Shauna was practicing for her science project presentation. She was speaking quickly and it sounded like she said, "Jesus cleaned the pennies" (she actually said juice cleaned the pennies). I said, "Jesus cleaned the pennies? I'm going to blog about this!" She laughed and said, "Have you heard of privacy, Mom?"

Quotes of the day

"Let's get some of those.....things to serve the meatballs." (I make a hand motion, like I'm using tongs, since I can't remember the name)--Me

"Oh, you mean tonsils?"--Shauna

**********

"Don't take a really long shower because water is expensive, plus we are trying to save the planet."--Me

"We're trying to save the planet???"--said by a wide-eyed, shocked-faced Hannah

Valentine's Day

Even though Mike is in Las Vegas, he hid some Valentine cards and treats for his girls with Luke. This morning we were presented with cards and candy. Thank you, Mikey! His being in Las Vegas for the weekend is the reason we celebrated last Saturday at Red Lobster. I am jealous, though, he had dinner tonight at Aurelio's Pizza. There are actually two in the area and we went to both when we were there last month. Aurelio's originated in Homewood, IL and is one of our favorite Chicago pizza places. He even sent me a picture of his pizza and his appetizer, which was fried ravioli. It looked delicious! Not to be outdone, we are having homemade lasagna tonight, that I made at Christmas time and put in the freezer. It may take forever to cook, however, since I forgot to take it out of the freezer until this afternoon.



Alex and Shauna surprised me by making some brownies today. I asked them to set the oven timer for 30 minutes because I wanted to take a short nap and then shower because we were going to Steven's new house for a little while. Apparently they decided to make brownies while I was sleeping and kept setting my timer for longer so they could be done before I woke up! I guess I got a little bonus nap time and I'm not complaining.

They cut the brownies with a heart shaped cookie cutter and put some on a fancy platter to take to Steven, which I thought was nice. Steven appreciated it and even hugged Shauna (although he called her Skeletor!). He also hugged me when I was leaving!

He and Will have been working on their room and it looks really nice. He even made his bed, which believe me is a total first for him! Poor Sassy is still scared about being in a new place and spends most of her time in the closet when she isn't hanging with Steven on his bed. I hope she gets used to it soon, I feel so bad. Steven's finger looks a bit better today. The swelling has gone down a bit and it isn't visibly throbbing anymore.

Cats, hysterics, and dog bites

Well, yesterday started out normal and turned into quite an eventful day. First of all, Steven was on day two of moving out. He came over to get some clothes and a few other things, like a cat. I mentioned before that he was going to take Booty-Boy (aka Spaz) to live with him. Well, that didn't quite work out because we couldn't get Booty into the cat carrier. Not even with a catnip bribe. So, we tried a box, but that didn't work out, either. There were four of us and we could not get this cat anywhere near the box or carrier. It was actually quite funny and CUP, Luke, Steven and I were having a good laugh, much to Shauna's dismay! While we were trying to stuff 20 pounds of furious orange and white fluff into a container, Shauna was in the room sobbing and screaming because Steven was taking Booty. She was really hysterical, so I was trying to calm her down at the same time as we were trying to wrestle the cat. Hannah and Alex were already in bed and had no idea anything was even going on, although, how they slept through all that noise is beyond me.

Since Shauna was so upset and we couldn't get Booty in the box, anyway, Steven asked Shauna if she would be happier if he took Sassy (aka Fridge Cat, Kitchen Cat or Cabinet Cat) (No, none of our cats have one name, like normal people's cats!), instead. Shauna said she would still miss Sassy, but she would be a little better with Sassy going instead of Booty. So now she was still sobbing, but the screaming stopped. First they put Sassy into the box, but then as they were taping it shut, she crawled out. So, they put the carrier out and Sassy, being the most laid back cat on the planet, just walked right into it. She had to be pushed a little to go all the way in, but it went really smoothly. So, Steven left with his clothes and his cat. It took me a while to calm Shauna down, but she had taken her melatonin and was getting tired, so that helped. Steven had told her that she could come visit Sassy anytime, so she was already making plans to go every day to see the cat!

After I got Shauna into bed, I decided to watch some television and crochet for a little while. CUP had taken Steven to his new "crib" and was going to help get the cat settled and check out the new house. About an hour or so later, CUP came home and told me that Steven's new house is very nice and the people who live there are very nice and that Steven had gotten bitten by one of the dogs. These dogs seem to be really nice dogs, but one of them was eating a cigarette butt and Steven didn't want him to get sick or choke on it. He put his hand out and said, "drop it" and the dog bit him. He is used to our dog and we trained him from a puppy to let people touch him and his food, so he doesn't bite, even when the kids pry his mouth open to get things out (which happens more often than you would think!). This dog got upset and sunk his teeth into Steven's middle finger. He has one pretty serious cut and several other puncture wounds. One of his housemates had a first aid kit, so he cleaned the cut very well and while I knew Steven would have to at least go to the doctor since it was a dog bite, I thought it could wait until today.

When I got to Steven's house today, it had begun to swell, but didn't look infected at all, which was great. Steven called the doctor's office said they couldn't handle a dog bite and we needed to go to the ER. By the time we waited and waited and waited and finally got it to see the doctor, it had swollen up quite a bit more. The doctor said that had he come in last night, he would have gotten stitches, but it was too swollen at this point. He took an x-ray, which I'm assuming was negative because he didn't tell us anything more about it. He put Steven on two antibiotics, gave him instructions about cleaning it and keeping it very dry and told him he has to go to a hand specialist right away on Monday to have it checked further. He also told us what the danger signs are if it starts getting infected, which he said may still occur, even though it has been well-cleaned. Animal Control will also have to be notified, as mandated by law. I just hope that the dog is truly current on his shots (as the owner's say he is) because if he isn't, they will quarantine the dog for 10 days. Probably not the best way to start a relationship with new housemates! The doctor also said that Steven can't work for at least a week, so I'm not sure how he is going to be able to pay his rent. Steven's boss is really mad because Valentine's Day is one of their busiest days and they were counting on everyone working that weekend.

So now Steven is back at his place and I am home, completely exhausted and fighting a headache. I took ibuprofen a few hours ago and it is still hurting. I don't get headaches very often, so this is a little weird for me. I think I just need a really good night's sleep.

Santa's DNA

This is the first Christmas that all the kids know that Santa doesn't bring the gifts. We will still have "Santa" gifts on Christmas morning, though. As always, I had someone, this year it was Mike, take the kids to the park or out somewhere, while I wrap all of the Santa gifts. I got everything wrapped while they were out, except for several clothes boxes. I figured they could come home while I was still wrapping those, since they couldn't tell what was inside.

So....I was wrapping and marking the packages with Santa's handwriting. Shauna saw me and said, "Ah-ha, now I have Santa's DNA!". It was sort of a "had to be there" moment, but funny. She meant that she had seen me writing in the fancy Santa writing and now knew for sure that there is no Santa.

Christmas Decorating

The lights on the porches and the wreath on the garage

A close up of the wreath

We worked on finishing up the decorations tonight. Alex and Shauna helped me put the outside lights up. They look really nice, as always. Then I finished putting the blue lights on the green tree. Drew ran to Rite Aid for me to buy some more lights and pick up prescriptions. He has been home from work for the last few days with an eye infection, so this was his first time out of the house. He got the infection from leaving his contacts in for two weeks, when they are supposed to be removed and cleaned each night and then the entire pair changed after two weeks. Well, he was in a lot of pain and wouldn't go to the doctor, so I'm pretty sure he learned his lesson.

After putting the blue lights and white garland on the green tree, Alex, Shauna and I put the ornaments on. Luke helped Alex carry the ornament boxes down, after Alex located them in the attic, after looked couldn't. I think Luke's idea of looking for the ornaments was to open the attic door and glance left, then right, then close the door! We had to really cram them on, but we got all of the good ones to fit. We have two small trees this year, instead of a big one. Since the cats climb and ruin our trees, I have to be able to put them in the sun room each night, so they can't tear them apart.

I took pictures of the green tree and will take pictures of the white one tomorrow. I didn't even bring the white one out today because I didn't want to have to worry about the cats getting into it while I was working on the other one.

The green tree with all the family ornaments

Rebel straight chillin' in the box

Hmmm, this isn't such a great chill spot, once Wrigley sticks his snout in!