Gotta Love Flash Fiction...

Here's the contest information...

I’m hosting a Super-short story contest. Here’s how to enter: In 100 words (give or take a few), write, then private message me a story using ALL of the following words: gator, captain, watermelon, gangbangers, Camaro, rescue, ice-pick, pivotal, and gushing. You have 48 hours to submit. The 1st place author wins a $25 Amazon gift card, plus I will post the winning story and a link to the author’s newest book or favorite book on my Facebook page for all to see!

Here's my entry...

Captain Camero looked over at his companion, Ariel Gator. He grimaced. “The gangbangers are at it again.”
“Yep. This watermelon is thrashed. They must’ve wasted a ton of ammo using it for target practice.”
“Look at this. They used an ice-pick on it.”
“Yep. They’re planning a hit. A big one.”
“Do we know who the target is?” Captain asked as he toed a watermelon with his boot. The shredded insides came gushing out as the rind split.
Ariel shrugged. “I’m guessing it will be a pivotal political candidate. We need to be ready to rescue whoever it is.”

I'll let you know how it goes! Should be a fun contest!

Here’s the scoop – Kidney update

Here’s the scoop – Kidney update (I'm writing this as I sit - waiting for the scheduling desk to coordinate our next round of appointments)

We went to see our wonderful Nephrologist (kidney specialist) yesterday. According to the charts, Jaydon is growing! He has gained at least 2 pounds and just over an inch in height. This is excellent news as we’ve been discussing the possibility of using growth hormones. Apparently, the switch in medications this summer was the perfect thing. I’m so glad doctors can work together to come up with a solution.

Jaydon’s labs look okay. Everything is stabilized and is holding steady. They don’t look good, but they’re not horrific either. He looks really healthy and seems to be doing well. We are still in the watch and wait category, but we’re doing good so far.

All in all, it was a fairly good day with an incident that resulted in mom getting a new pair of pants (I'm not posting that event here, it is much too embarassing).  This isn’t much of an update, but no news is good new sometimes…

I’ve gotten asked this question several times over the past couple of days so I’ll answer it here.

Question… Why don’t you just do the transplant now if he’s gonna need it in the future?

Answer… It’s complicated. He’s technically not bad enough yet. He has enough kidney function at the moment to maintain quality of life. He sleeps a lot, but he’s doing good still. Because puberty is so hard on internal organs, we’d like to get him through that milestone before we jump into that frying pan.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.

 

 

 

Mixed Nuts

Mixed Nuts. That’s what today totally was! I filled my car at the local station and went inside to pay. The cashier ran the check for the wrong amount (I had written it for over). I didn’t notice until I was at my car. I ran back inside. Since she hadn’t ever fixed one, I stepped behind the counter to help (I work there). While we were getting things squared away, a lady walked up and rather rudely asked me to move my car “People are waiting,” she said.

I took a moment to explain what we were doing so it didn’t seem like I was ignoring her. She stood there the entire time, huffing & puffing and tapping her foot. Talk about a Thumper Complex! I get done, collect my change and head out to the car. She practically herded me to my car! Then she and her husband/companion made several snarky remarks, which I promptly ignored. Let me insert here, there were a total of 4 vehicles at the 12 pumps, leaving at least 8 empty pumps, and I have to move?

Registered my oldest for school. Can you believe I have a freshman? UGH!

My hubby gets home, driving the truck he thought he had fixed so we headed over to Montpelier to haul one of the junkers to the scrapyard. Yay! It’s gone! We didn’t get what we wanted for it, but when do you ever really get what you want? I totally forgot to buy milk, too. On the way home, the truck started making funny noises so hubby pulls over and starts crawling around underneath. I hear “Oh crap.”

Oh crap as in ‘call for a tow now?’ OR oh crap as in ‘we can make it to the bottom of the hill’. We have friends at the bottom of the hill. Apparently this is the first “oh crap”. I grab my cell. “Start walking, cause we don’t have service.”

He scopes out the situation then we coast to the bottom of the hill & pull off the road where we have service. The calls ensue eventually ending with a very dear friend driving out of her way to pick up my wee ones and me. I get home, drop the kids off with my oldest, grab some water, order a sandwich & get on my way. At the store I discover that I’ve left my wallet IN THE TRUCK. So, I “stole with permission” and hurried to where my poor hubby waited in the hot, unair-conditioned truck.

We unhook one vehicle, hook up the other and then load the first. The construction guys had quite a laugh seeing our little Durango pull the big, ol’ extended cab, long-bed truck that barely fits on the trailer back into town.

The silver lining – At least the truck broke down this weekend where we’re close to home instead of in 2 weeks when we journey to the family reunion towing a camper trailer. AND, we know what's wrong with the truck-probably.

PS… I DID pay for the sandwich after we got back to town! AND, my mom was able to pick up milk, so we’re good there too.

When Chickens Attack... OR ... Haunted by Chickens...

It started like this, several months ago we acquired 5 meat birds (fast-growing chickens) that we have been raising and pampering and coddling all summer. We managed to save them from their own stupidity, raccoons, skunks, snakes and dogs. Finally they were big enough for the freezer and today was the day! Poor birdies!

I heated up the water to dunk them in – it loosens up the feathers to make plucking easier. We dispatched the poor beasties as humanely as possible. Down into the depths of the 90 quart stock pot. And now for the count. One one-thousand, Two one-thousand… Twenty One-thousand. Test the feathers. Some of the birds took more than one bath.

We commenced with the plucking. I’m such a mean mom, I made the boys help! Ha Ha! Moving on to the part where I eviscerate the carcass (for my non-farming friends, this means to remove the giblets, etc. No, they don’t come in those really nice white packages. It’s a little more messy than that).

Around the time when I was eviscerating carcass number 4, my knife slipped. I sucked in my breath quite rapidly then pressed my thumb over the already gushing wound. Making it to the bathroom past all my kids without them noticing the blood was quite the trick. Let me tell you, soap and water BURN! I grabbed a gauze pad from the first aide bucket and applied pressure.

I'm convinced that the chickens are trying to haunt me. I tried to convince my 14 year old that he could finish the job. It didn’t quite work. I called Josh who was at work and couldn’t leave. Then we tried our home teacher who was at football camp which is where my oldest needed to be. Josh texted another friend who headed over to finish the job. Glenn did an excellent job finishing up that bird and taking care of #5. I’d hate for the poor thing to have been left out of all the fun.

I called my mom to ask if she’d mind driving me to the nearest ER (45 miles away – the other way is about sixes with the construction). She arranged for a sitter for my kiddos and away we went! The hospital in Kemmerer got us in and looked at my finger.  I filleted the first  knuckle of the pointer finger on my left hand.

“How did this happen?”

“I was shaving? No, really, I was butchering chickens.”

“Did you bring the piece you cut off?”

“Ummm. No. I couldn’t really tell which piece was chicken and which piece was me. I didn’t want to chance growing feathers.”

There was much laughter and sarcasm. If it didn’t hurt, it would have been much funnier. Several shots of lidocaine later, my finger was numb enough to scrub. OUCH! Just kidding! It wasn’t really that numb. The sweet doctor numbed it again and again and again. Then she started cauterizing. Again, OUCH! And it was still bleeding. Really? I bleed really well – in fact, I got an A+ in blood! ;) She cauterized at least twice. Now it’s wrapped really well and I look like I have ET fingers. It’s AWESOME! (I'm tempted to put LED lights in the bandage)

If you’re gonna hurt yourself, do a good job of it! There’s no nerve damage that we can tell. It’s a really clean cut (thank goodness for really sharp knives). As of midnight, it’s still quite numb but it’s starting to throb. I’m already imagining the fun I can have trying to get chores done.   :P

Medical Monday

Jaydon is feeling better by leaps & bounds. He has been attempting to take the state-mandated PAWS tests a section at a time. His proctors have been great. He gets super tired really fast. Today, he started going to school for 2 hours at a time again. We'll see how far he gets with the testing. The last day for the testing window is Wednesday.

Our next appointment has been scheduled. I'm both looking forward to it and dreading it. We are scheduled for a cystogram. Apparently, they pump his bladder full of dye and take x-rays. I'm hoping they use the catheters that are already in place. Then we'll go to the doctor's office to get some catheter training.

As for me and the baby, we're getting better. Bronchial things are a little hard to get rid of sometimes. We are making improvements with the help of a vaporizer.

In the writing department, things are at somewhat of a standstill because I've lost the disc and keycode for Microsoft Office. Since I had to take my computer back to factory settings, I have to re-install the software. Oh schwell I guess. I'll find it eventually.

Trying to keep everything short, sweet and to the point today. Family night is about to begin.

Book Review ~ Not My Kid… by Mary Billiter

Book Review ~ Not My Kid… by Mary Billiter

Mary Billiter had been one of the key people that fueled the fire of writing in me. She is an amazing person-quite an inspiration.  It took quite a while for me to purchase this book. Finances have been tight for several months and I couldn’t justify the price (not that its expensive, we were just cutting out all the little things). I finally managed to get some Amazon gift cards and made my purchase. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the prize. Everything I had heard about the book was positive. When the package finally came, I opened it right there in the post office. Here is the “blurb” about the book…

Megan Reilly is a newly divorced single mom trying to raise two sons. She is also an ambitious journalist covering a story about bomb threats at her son s middle school. After her thirteen-year-old, Cameron, is arrested for shoplifting, he becomes the prime suspect in Megan's big story. Her response is, "Not my kid." As the case against Cameron builds, even the man who loves Megan thinks the boy deserves to be put away. But the authorities haven't bargained on the fierce power of Megan's maternal devotion.

I scraped every morsel of time I could find, picking up the book and reading. Almost every chapter brings a different point of view. I love how Mary did this. This book really grabbed me. I could connect with each of her characters as I worked my way through this novel.

Mary touches on some very real issues including domestic violence, single moms trying to raise their kids, relationships – both past and present, and troubled teenagers. She painted a strikingly accurate picture. While there is some colorful language (creative adjectives I think is what they were called in high school), it is used in context and not splattered through the book unnecessarily.

I would definitely read this one again and I can’t wait for her next novel! Mary, thanks for the wonderful read!

Medical Monday

During the surgery, the OR team removed part of Jaydon’s intestine and patched it onto the bladder, making it big enough to hold about a liter of liquid. Then they removed his appendix and created a stoma through which he will be able to catheterize himself once everything has healed. Then, they discovered his urethra was closing off so they fixed that issue. He has 3 new holes in his stomach, 2 catheters (1 suprapubic and 1 in the stoma until it heals to prevent it from closing off), a 4-inch incision and various stitches all over. Poor kid was really worked over! We spent exactly a week in the hospital recovering.

We had hoped we could go home Sunday-crossing our fingers but not holding our breath. The doctors had hinted Friday night, Saturday or Sunday. Aunts, cousins, Grandma, Grandpa and all his siblings came to visit and to play in the Forever Young Zone on Saturday. Did you know 13 people fit in one hospital room? Jaydon was really worn out and in all the commotion, we (all of us) had forgotten about pain meds-he seemed to be fine. We discovered Jaydon doesn’t complain about pain until it is overwhelming. He started throwing up Saturday night. As a result we got to spend Sunday in the hospital. The branch president happens to be related to one of Jay’s parent’s neighbors in Montpelier and he knew several of Jay’s aunts and uncles. Small world, huh?

We have been home from the hospital for about a week. Jaydon has been doing well except for the fact that I can’t seem to get him to eat. I have heard that going under anesthesia can cause strange side effects with taste buds. My mom finally got him to eat on Friday by offering him a variety of things like pizza bites, hotdogs and apples. We think he over ate because that night, he started throwing up. Poor kid wasn’t even able to keep pain pills down. At any rate, he fell asleep around 5. Sometime after 7, I woke him and told him he needed to come out and TRY to drink at least a little bit. He groaned and rolled over. I tried again. He pulled the blanket over his head. I leaned my hip against the doorjamb, folded my arms and said “Here’s the deal. You can either come out and drink some Gatorade OR I’ll drag you to the car and take you to the nearest hospital and have them put in an IV.” He practically flew out of bed and down the hall. I almost had to take the Gatorade away to keep him from drinking it too fast. Silly boy. I’m here to tell you, kids bounce! Sunday, he was up and moving like he hadn’t been hugging the pink bucket all day. He seems to be doing fine.

Mom caught a cold. My wonderful children shared it with me. Because being the primary care-giver 24/7 is so draining, I'm not doing entirely well. I'm starting to feel better, not so much like I've been run over by a truck now. The Relief Society has been wonderfully supportive. I was able to attend a writing chat online with Ali Cross Thursday and the ladies were amazingly supportive and made me feel like I have accomplished A LOT when I actually feel like I'm dropping the balls I'm trying to juggle. I can't do it all and what I can do at the moment needs to be enough.

Thanks to everyone for all your prayers, thoughts, smiles and support! I couldn't do this without you!