Speech Graduation

Yeah! Titus has graduated from speech. He has made so much progress this past year and a half. It used to be impossible to understand what he was saying and he would get so frustrated

. He actually looked forward to speech every week. He had a great therapist named Ms. Beth. She came to our house once a week to work with Titus. Of course, I have 2 other kiddos that she had to put up with too. I was so thankful for her patience. Titus is already asking for her. He misses his teacher. He has learned alot from her. You can actually hold a conversation with him and understand him now. Although recently, I have wished a few people hadn't understood what he said. For instance, he is going through a name calling and insulting stage. He may have even called his Mamaw a liar and that she had a fat butt. So he got in trouble but then I was told later that I was fat too. I have got to break him from this soon before he insults a stranger and I get clobbered. Titus has been a little handul again around here. We went to the flea-market last weekend and he had his hands full of items he had picked up along the way. I knew that a couple booths had given him a few toys, but obviously it wasn't all given to him because a lady came chasing him down and said, "give that back" and jerked stuff out of his arms. Oops! I honestly don't think he realized he was stealing because the other stuff was given to him. Sunday night, he wasn't so innocent. Maynard has been letting him take up the offering. Well our pastor was out of town so Maynard was leading the service so Titus was on his own. After taking the offering up, Titus sat on the front row so sweetly. Then I noticed it appeared that he was trying to count the money. Ha! So I motioned for him to come to me so I could put the money away. I noticed him sticking something up under his armpit aa he walked over. He handed me the money bag and I grabbed his arm. I pulled a $20 dollar bill out from under his armpit. Let's just say he lost his job as an usher real quicklike. Will someone please tell me that they had a wild child like Titus and that he turned out just fine? Oh yeah, he even told the garbage man his mommy wasn't paying the garbage bill no more so he didn't need to come back to our house anymore. The reason for that was Titus blames the garbageman when he hauls off junk that we throw away. Titus finds it hard to part with stuff. The last thrown away item was a chair of theres that they had broken down. Maynard threw it in the garbage outside and Titus was devastated. He thought he could trick our garbageman into not coming anymore. I wondered why he had asked me what would happen if I stopped paying the garbage bill. Of course my answer was, "they will stop picking up our garbage, Titus." Ha Ha! You reckon that was the answer he was hoping for? lol That kid never ceases to amaze me. Now I'm hoping he or Amelia don't get sick. Josiah's chickenpox turned into another virus called slapcheek or 5th disease. It's going around now so be careful. Symptoms are a highfever and a red face. Sometimes you get covered in a red rash which Josiah got on top of his chickenpox. Don't worry, he isn't contagious anymore and I kept him home for several days until it was safe to get out again. I am wore slap out, but so thankful for a healthy boy once again. It will be a miracle and an act of God if the rest of us don't get sick. Well, I'm done rattling. Have a great weekend.

Bittersweet Tears and Laughter

What a week this has been so far.  I am not real sure where to start.  If you have kept up with my last post then you know that my Dad ended up having a heart attack and ended up in the hospital while he was in town visiting.  We went from believing Dad would be just fine at times to wondering if he was going to even make it at other times.  We would be laughing our heads off at stuff one minute to fighting back tears the next.  I believe the 2nd floor of our hospital now totally thinks our whole family is a bunch of nuts! 
Let me clarify a few things about Dad from my last post.  Dad had been in the hospital last week where he is from.  He had suffered a TIA, which is a mini-stroke.  They told him the cause of the stroke was from an aneruysm on his brain.  He was discharged the very next day with a clean bill of health as far as cholesterol, sugar, and even tests ran on his heart was amazing.  He made the trip down here to attend campmeeting, but he really should have stayed home to heal up from the stroke.  When he got to my house he had a yellow color to him and no appetite.  If you know my dad then that is major warning signs right there when he doesn't want to eat.  He kept saying it was allergies and sinus trouble that was bothering him.  Sunday morning he was too sick to go to Sunday School with us.  He then asked to go to the hospital because he was smothering in his chest and thought he had pnuemonia.  He assumed it would be a quick trip to er and get an antibiotic and then back to my house again.  Wrong!!!  His blood work showed he had had a heart attack and there was some damage to his heart so they needed to admit him.  They wanted to send him straight back for a heart cath, but Dad explained to the heart doctor that he just had a stroke and had an anerusym on his brain, plus he was told 4 yrs ago by his VA doctor that he would never live through a heart cath procedure because his arteries around his heart were too diseased.  The doctor gets the ball rolling and starts gathering all dad's medical records in from his local hospital and the VA hospital.  After several hours the doctor looks in at Dad and says, "There is no record of a brain anerusym.  The reason you had a stroke was because your heart is beating out of rythm and your heart is not pumping the blood away like it should and you have a small blood clot on your brain."  (I hope no-one with any medical knowledge at all is reading this because I have to be butchering these medical terms, lol).  This should have relieved  us, but it didn't because we knew then they would for sure be doing a heart cath.  Mom said Dad layed his head back on the pillow and tears trickled down his face.  He was scared and I didn't blame him.  So during this time it was around 10:30pm and I needed to pick up my kids from their other mamaw's house.  We were going to get the kids, put them to bed and then I was going to head back and stay with my mom and dad at the hospital.  But much to my dismay, when I picked up the kids Josiah was the only one asleep.  When Tara tried to wake him up she screamed for me.  I ran back there to him and she pulled his shirt up to show me these awful red bumps all over him and he was burnt up with a fever.  He starts screaming, "My brain hurts, my brain hurts", and then he starts puking everywhere.  So instead of going home to bed we made another trip back to er.

 My second trip that day.  We were there until 2:30 and his diagnosis was a measly ear infection.  I had a dr that was pretty much worthless.  "What about the rash?", I asked.  "I don't know, it looks like ant bites.  He'll be fine."  The dr gave him zithromax and discharged him.  We went back home and I dedcided to just stay home and keep an eye on him instead of going back to the hospital.  The next morning Josiah felt alot better so I took the kiddos back to their mamaw's house for the day and headed back to the hospital.  Dad's room was full with my brother and sisters.  When I first walked in I knew we were in for it because the chaplain of the hospital was there and my family already had the giggles.  He was praying a fancy prayer and all our cells phone were ringing all at the same time.  Dad was irritated because he hadn't been allowed to eat since midnight and he was starved.  They had him scheduled for a heart cath and he couldn't eat.  We all tried to entertain him to keep his mind off of it while we waited.  We had some crazy times in there.  We had contests to see who could bend down and touch the floor without bending our knees, who could sit down on the floor the fastest and get up without using our hands for help, and yes even stepping up on the couch and back down the most times.  Maynard entertained us with some cool apps on his phone such as the aging booth, and the beauty tester.  I am ashamed to say that my dad, sick laying in a hospital bed, scored higher than me.  My sister-n-law, who happens to be blonde and blue eyed, scored a perfect 10.  So of course we all demanded retakes and that lasted quite a while. Ha!  One of our highlights of our funniest moments was when the nurse came in with a razor and towels for my dad to shave his groin area to prep for the procedure.  My dear sister Christy had been confused the whole time to what an actual heart cath was.  She kept thinking it was a type of heart surgery and that they would be opening his chest, but we didn't actually know that she was thinking this until a little later.  Dad asked who need to do the actual shaving, the nurse or could he do it.  She said it didn't matter he could if he wanted to or someone could help him.  My sister says, "I got dibs, I'll do it.  Ha ha, I'm going carve my initials."  So we were thinking, eww, she's weird.  So after dad is all shaved and laying back in the bed she once again says something about dad having surgery.  So I do my best to try to explain to her that its not surgery, but a procedure and that they have to go through his groin to go in and take pictures of his heart.  So that is when she realizes that it was not his chest he was in the bathroom shaving.  She is so grossed out especially when she realized she even said she wanted to carve her intitials.  By this time we are literally rolling in the floor laughing.  Dad didn't get took back until around 3 pm that afternoon.  I felt so sorry for him because he was so hungry and was dreading the whole thing so bad.  We all made sure he didn't see us eat m&m or chips, but we got caught every now and then.  The dreaded time came and they wheeled him away and suddenly no-one was laughing anymore.  We all said bye and that we loved him.  A 45 minute procedure kept us waiting for 2 1/2 hours.  We were getting worried sick.  Finally the dr came out and said dad was fine, but the results weren't so great.  Dad's heart arteries were really diseased and he had lots of blockages. At least 2 were 100%.  They couldn't do stents or anything because where it took them so long his body would not have been able to have endured it.  As we had to explain everything to Dad when we seen him, tears once again were rolling down his face.  We quickly cheered him up while we fed him peanut m&m's while he was laying flat on his back.  Then we took turns actually feeding him chicken strips, fries, and apple pie while he was on his back.  Everyone else was putting food on the spoon and handing it to him.  When Christy fed him she tried to spoon feed him like a baby and he was trying to jerk the spoon away from her and well, we had a mess, ya'll! Ha!

We all hung around all evening and then decided to leave to let him get some rest.
Tuesday was a normal day.  Everyone hung around until late afternoon and then headed back to their homes while me, Maynard, and my kids hung out with Papaw the rest of the day.  Dad was feeling pretty good except for some sorness from the procedure.  His sugar got extremely high.  I think the highest was 468, but the nurse said it was normal because of the medication they gave him prior to the heart cath.  Wednesday, Dad got discharged with instructions to be seen by his heart dr to decide what they are going to do in another week.  So it looks like either open heart surgery again or maybe stents.  Either one is dangerous in his condition, so we are begging and praying for a miracle.
I had dropped my kids off with my pastor's wife, sis. Lora Allen, to let them swim in the pool, while I stayed with dad, while he got discharged and seen them off back to their house.  When I picked the kids up my pastor told me Josiah felt like he had a fever.  I felt of him and he was warm, but they had been in the pool all afternoon and was sunburned so I assumed that that was what it was.  A hour later we were sitting around visiting when sis. Lora said, "I'm telling you, Amy, this kid is burning up with fever."  So I had a thermometer with me and I checked his temp.  It quickly rose to 103'.  I gave him some motrin and we took him on to see his dr.  She took one look at him and said, (ya'll ready for this?) "He has CHICKENPOX."  Yep, so them ant bites are really chickenpox and he is very sick.  Even though he was vaccinated he can still have a light outbreak of them.  He is really a sick child.  So now not only do I have to worry about Titus and Amelia catching them, I have to worry about Maynard catching them.  Yep, that's right.  He never had chickenpox when he was little.  Chickenpox is awful on adults I've heard, so fun fun at the Parker's house once again.  Why oh why, must my life constantly be so chaotic????????
And since I have poked fun at my family a few times I will admit to a few blunders of my own to make it fair.
Well, you know how the hospital has the hand sanitizer thingees every few feet down the hallways?  Well, I stood there in the hallway with my hand up in midair trying to get hand sanitizer out of a light fixture.  But, in my defense it was white and had a silver part on it and I just got confused.  And so you know it does run in the family, my mom was caught the next day doing the same thing.

Another blunder was, I was mentioning how our hospital was built like the hospital in Bardstown.  I said, "Oh, what is it called, and then I said, "FLAG-IT".  Everyone started rolling in the floor laughing.  So, I said, "well, how do you say it?"  They all said, "FLA-JAY".  The correct spelling is FLAGET Hospital.  So let's take a poll.  Would you have pronounced it the way I did or would you have said, "FLA-JAY". HA HA

Happy Father's Day 2012 ~~**edited~~** Again...

Just wanted to remind everyone that I'm Dad's favorite. Go ahead and ask him, I'm sure that's what he'll tell ya, I'm sure of it. Ha! Dad has given us quite a scare over the last few years with his health.He has scared us to death with several heart attacks, open heart surgery, diverticulitis,surgery to remove polyps and part of his intestines, many other illnesses such as diabetes, and heart disease in which they said there wasn't anything else they can do for him. The latest scare which just happened this past week was he was found outside in his truck suffering from a mini-stroke. He was hospitalized and further tests revealed a small aneruesym on his brain. The good news is that it can be treated with medication at this point, but it will still have to be carefully watched by his dr. He been released from the hospital, but he still feels so bad. Please help me pray for my Dad that the Lord will touch him and give him many more years on this Earth. My Dad is actually passing through town and I will get to spend Father's day wth him on Sunday. That reminds me, I need to go buy him a present real quick. Ha! I truly love my Dad and I am so thankful for each sacrafice he gave for many years in raising all 7 of us kids. I also want to say happey father's day to my hubby. He is such a good Dad to my kids and a great provider. I love you Dad and Maynard. ** Dad is in ER here at local hospital. He is having a hard time breathing and they are running a bunch of tests. I'm guessing he is in Congestive heart failure, but we should find out in a little bit. Please keep praying. He feels really bad.**Dad's bloodwork shows he has had a heart attack. He may have a heart Cath tonight or in the morning.««UPDATE»» Dad came through the heart Cath ok,but not with results we were hoping for. His arteries around his heart is so diseased and he has many blockages. His body was not able to handle surgery or stents yesterday so they want to let him heal up and then maybe a bypass a little later. He is anxious to get home, but his sugar was 450 this morning so they will keep him until it goes down. Of course, we did fed him m&m's right after surgery but the poor man hadn't eaten in almost 24 hrs. Do you believe he ate those laying flat on his back? Ha! Please keep paying. Thanks!

Has anyone seen my keys?

Only one more day of steriods after today folks. I couldn't be anymore happier. I mean Titus is wild on a daily basis, but with a little extra help with steriods it's about more than this momma can handle. I already told you about how wild he was last Sunday when he got his shot. He did calm down a little since then, but he is still a little wild. We've been spending a lot of time outside to burn that extra energy off. I took him to the grocery store with me the second day on steriods. Such a big mistake. He jumped on an electric wheelchair cart and turned it on then drove it backwards and slammed into the wall. The he climbed on the milk counter and jumped off. He pulled a gigantic magnet off of the meat counter. All this happened in about 10 mins. I only needed milk and bread and got out of there fast. The picture above is Titus in a regular wheelchair at the Goodwill. He seems to be awful interested in them right now. Ha! So here's the part about my post title. Maynard woke me up at 6:30 this morning (I mean, while I was up cooking breakfast for my hubby, lol) looking for his keys. We searched everywhere and he was running late and we didn't know where else to look. Then a lightbulb went off in Maynard's head. TITUS! He went to ask Titus if he had seen his keys. Titus smiled real big and boastfully said, "I hide-ed them from you." "Titus, where did you hide daddy's keys? I got to go to work." "I hid them under my bed because I wanted to go to work with you today." Do you believe that? He is such a brat. And in case your wondering if Titus went to work or not, he didn't! ha He is such a handful at times, but yet he is always the one who wins everyone over. Every where we go people are drawn to him. He is so funny and you never know what's going through his mind.

Fishing and a camper

I was forced against my will to go fishing the other day. I'm just not into that kinda thing. I don't like tall grass, weeds,bugs, snakes, frogs, or any critter for that matter. I mean Im the person who takes a shower after I pet a dog. Any winged animal is completely out of the question. Ducks, chickens, and birds. I got chased by a swan at the park when I was a kid and I have been scared every since then. Did I mention frogs? Eww! I would rather a mouse or spider crawl on me than for a frog to even get close. If I was Pharoh back in Eygpt, I would have let the Israelites go just as soon as I had seen the first frog. For some reason we have lots of frogs in our yard this year. My kids just carry them around. Even Amelia will hold one. Eww! Oh, about that fishing trip. We found a nice "private drive, do not enter" place to fish. They provided benches, picnic table, a nice mowed area to fish. It was great, how kind of them. Ha! Titus caught 2 fish within the first 15 mins and then he dumped our worms out into the water. I guess he didn't want us to catch more than him. Maynard dug up a cew more worms and we continued to fish. I say we because I was hooked ya'll. I loved it. I baited me and Josiah's hooks and casted like a pro. Everyone was in the car ready to go when Maynard hollered, "reel it in, Amy. We gotta go. I had to drag you out here now I can't make you leave. I really enjoyed it. I didn't catch anything but neither did Maynard so that was cool. If he had caught any I would still be there trying to beat him. Ha! My other great news is that we bought a camper. It's only a pop-up, but we don't care. We will upgrade later, but this will work for now. I am very excited about camping with my family. It will make for good memories and I am so excited. I have graduated from sleeping in a tent. Yay, I am so excited. Enjoy some pictures.

Amelia's Artwork

From my coffee table in the living room, a few stops in the kitchen, and all down my hallway. Even Titus has never pulled a stunt like this. Any suggestions on how to remove crayons from walls and furniture. Trust me, I have more pictures I could post, but they would all look the same to you. One day I will laugh about this. Just right now it don't seem so funny.

Wedding Bells

Welcome Jacob Cody Harper!

I really thought he was my baby!

I was 14 when he was born and was crazy about him.  We would have races off the school bus to see who got to hold him first.

See, even when he was 4 he still loved me.

Here he is getting ready for my wedding.

He is not happy about having this little girl holding onto his arm, even if she was his cousin.

Doesn't he look alot happier here with Jonelle on his arm?

Yep, my baby brother just got married this weekend.  I have never cried at a wedding, but this was my first.  As soon as I walked in and seen him standing in the back all dressed up in his tux, I was choked up.  I mean he didn't even need our help.  He was all grown up and there wasn't nothing I could do about it.  Don't get me wrong.  I am so happy for him and Jonelle.  I just feel a little sad that he's not a kid anymore.  When I got married he was only 4 yrs old.  I took him everywhere with me.  After I got married though, I moved 2 1/2 hours away.  I wasn't homesick at all.  I was happily married and had started a new job.  Everything was great until my Mom called me one day at work about 3 weeks later.  She told me that Jacob had asked her when I was coming back from my honeymoon.  It was then that I realized he didn't know I wasn't coming back.  He thought I was on a vacation and would be back.  My heart was broken into a gazillion peices.  After that, I was homesick!!!!

I also can't help be a little jealous that he and his new wife just flew out to go on a cruise somewhere in Mexico, I think.  I mean good grief, all the rest of us went to Gatlinburg, Tn.  Ha!  They work hard though.  He works at the hospital in ER and goes to college full-time and Jonelle works as a loan processor at the bank.  So they've worked hard and deserve a nice Honeymoon.  I'm just a little jealous, that's all! Ha!

Congratulations, baby brother! I hope you and Jonelle are very happy together for many years!

Love,
Your big sister

Wild Child

Titus has had some type of allergic reaction to an insect bite.  At least that's what we are guessing anyway. We took him to urgent care and he got a steroid shot along with a steroid prescription.  He had a terrible rash that was spreading fast and nothing seemed to help.  He was miserable.  So after the shot I was amazed at how fast it went down.  On the other hand, the child is literally out of his head. I could not control him at church.  He could not be still.  He's acting mean and aggressive.  He told Maynard he wish he was dead.  Then he told Josiah he wished he had those boo boo's instead of him.  I had to take him out at church and told him he wasn't obeying me.  His reply, "I am not obeying you because I don't want too, for real."  So I smacked his butt and back in church he said, "You know what, I didn't even cry." Aargghg! 10 DAYS of steriods. Seriously?  After church Maynard put Titus in our van. Our van has 2 doors so Titus went in one door and out the other.  Not only is he wild, but he is starved. I can't fill him up. He wants to eat nonstop.  I finally got him to bed.  I did have to confiscate a snap gun though.  I mean seriously, did he really think I wouldn't hear gunshots from my bedroom?  I sure hope he feels better tomorow.  Well, I hear footsteps headed toward the kitchen.  Gotta go. Goodnight.

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