First Snow

Today we've gotten the first real snow that actually stuck. I posted some pics on our picture-website.

Kizsie

As Jan mentioned, Kizsie has canine osteosarcoma (bone cancer), which is a very aggressive, metastatic disease in dogs. Our vet gives her 4-6months. It is 100% terminal, with 90% dying within 6 months of diagnosis-whether treatment is given or not. 10% survive 8-12 months with treatment (thousands of dollars). There are a few treatment options aimed at prolonging life and reducing pain. However, due to her recent surgery (on her ACL-knee) she is not a candidate for amputation. Chemo is expensive and without amputation (to remove tumor) does not add much time to a dogs life. Also, by the time a dog starts limping from the pain caused by the tumor, it has already metastasized-generally to the lungs, then throughout the body.

So, really our only option is pain medicine. She is already losing some muscle and bodily function/control. We will have to get our carpets cleaned :) I sincerely hope it isn't TOO painful, TOO soon as I would really like for her to be able to play in the creek again before she goes. She just loves trying to catch the water as it flows over the river rock. She is bright eyed, sweet and loving all the extra attention. It is hard to lose another pet so soon, but c'est la vie. Romeo will probably be the most affected by her passing... he will be lost without her. They are sooo cute together!! Well, that's all the info I have for ya, take care, Sara

And the drama continues

If it's not one thing, it's another: Sara just picked up Kismet, our rottweiler, from the vet (she's getting physical therapy for her back leg she had surgery (torn ligament) on), and it turns out she has cancer on one of her front legs, which is pretty big, and very likely already metastasized. We had noticed her limping on her front recently, and of course she's still recovering from the surgery and torn ligament on her back leg, but we never imagined it would be cancer.

She's apparently got 6 months.

Panorama pics

I just added some panorama pics I took from above our house to our picture site (click pic above to go there).

We bought jamie a new camera to replace one he had previously (and which he no longer has through no fault of his own), and I took these pictures with it to play and test, but I'm pretty impressed, so I took these pictures.

Work around the house

The last few weeks have been sort of non-stop work around (not inside; mostly) the house. We're getting lots of little (and not so little) things fixed and new things worked on.

First we finally hired an electrician to sort out some of the potentially dangerous electrical wiring around here. Turns out some of the wires coming up (seemingly at random) out of the ground here and there were actually LIVE (or at least hooked up). One in particular showed spark-/burn-marks from where people must have turned on the breaker it was connected to, trying to figure out where it went. Could potentially cause a fire in the wrong conditions. Also, we had a 100amp line going from the garage to the electricity pole, where it went into the same 200amp breaker that the house was connected to! That's another potential disaster.

Fortunately we now have a new pole (apparently the old one was rotten), a new electric-panel on the pole (the old one had been gutted by the previous owner and it was cheaper to just replace the whole box rather than try to fix it), and pretty much all of our wiring has been sorted out and made safe (lots of junction boxes without covers, overstuffed, etc). The electrician also cleaned up some of the wiring directly attached to the outside of the house, so most of it is now gone, making the house look a lot nicer, too.

The electric company got out here in record time (under 10 days, I believe) and everything aligned perfectly, so we didn't have to wait too long for the new pole and box, and they got it all done in most of a morning, and the house was back to full power by 2pm or so.

The day before the pole showed up, Justin showed up to start work on the lean-to for the horses in the lower pasture. Also, Herb, the back-hoe-guy showed up and dug the foundation for the barn we hope to get done soon!

Today, the phone company-guy showed up with a 'ditch-witch' to replace my bad phone line (the temporary line has been laying on the ground for the past week or so).

Then yesterday, I got the electric-fence hooked up to the new electric outlets by the new pole (this is basically what started us down the path of having to clean up the electric stuff in the first place), as well as the water-heaters for the horses (submerged in the water-trough to keep the water from freezing). Now I no longer have a LOOOONG extension cord running from the garage to the field for the water, and we can stop moving around the temporary electric-fence-zapper to the lower pasture.

Also today, the concrete guy came by to take a look at what needed doing, and he'll show up monday to start on the concrete foundation and frost-wall. Once that's done, we'll have at least the bottom of the barn done, and presumably framing can start, though that may not happen until April, due to scheduling on Justin's part (the reason he's building us a quick lean-to so the horses have SOMETHING to stand under during the winter.

With all this work, we've had to redo our alarm clocks and timers for the heaters every couple of days, and everyone was getting sick of that!

So thing are coming together and are looking pretty good! It's nice to get all this done in jut a few days/weeks, rather than stringing it along for months and months.

Poor behavior, abnormal EEG, Neuro behavior specialist

(posted by sara)
Well, Jamie had a really rough week...problems with his girlfriend, problems in class and problems at home. It started with an over-packed weekend, leaving a very tired, hypoglycemic child struggling against having to do homework or chores. It continued on with ups and downs of anger, frustration and acting out which of course did not go over well in school. He got detention for problems in class then came home and on the way to an MD appt had a very abrasive verbal attack of his sister and I. I was quite shocked and surprised at the anger and hurt he was feeling and inflicting. All in response to a perceived attack from his sister. He has a super over active defense mechanism. He recovered quickly and felt very, very bad for the pain he caused....however, it is hard to repair burned bridges...and I once again became very worried about the path he was walking.

Many of his behaviors reminded me of 2 years ago...not a pleasant memory. On the up side, his recovery time (to return back into my sweet little boy) is very short, generally within a few minutes (as opposed to hours or days) which is a significant improvement over a few years ago. Even his teachers and the assistant principal (like a dean) have commented on how well he was behaved after the initial incidents were over.

At any rate, I became very concerned about his behavior and about how it is affecting him. It is very easy to see that it is bothering him alot. So, I made an appt with his Neurologist (who is part of a neurological behavior specialty group). At his appt, we learned that Jamie's EEG was abnormal. Where a normal EEG has a nice small even wave pattern, Jamie's had periods of very large waves. Meaning he has periods of disorganized electrical currents (which may or may not affect his behavior) and he is at a much higher risk for seizures. Once again, we were told that all we can do is wait and monitor for changes.. :(

He also spoke to Jamie about the importance of taking his headache meds at the onset of a headache, the general headache pattern and the common trend of men who have chronic migraine headaches (as men are not as strong as women and do not handle the strains of headaches well). When I requested help for Jamie with coping with his behaviors (as he is not likely to have a miraculous recovery from his brain lesion or his abnormal brain waves), we were referred to a doctor who has his PhD in child neurologic behavior therapy and is well respected in his field. We have an appoint for the Thursday after Thanksgiving.

In the meantime, I have spent a lot of quality time with Jamie (while Auri was away with VB for the last 3 days) and we have done a lot of talking, hanging out and playing games. He has decided to "chillax" a combination of chill and relax. He has been completely stressing over school, grades, tests, friends, girls, others opinions etc. to the point that he comes home from school completely exhausted requiring a nap or he becomes over tired and can't sleep (sound familiar to anyone??) So far, the last few days have been pretty nice. I hope it lasts for a while :)

Colds, wiring and Auri driving to church!!!

(added by sara)
Well, the past couple of weeks have been cold on many levels. I started it off by catching a cold. Jan became sick about a week later. Jamie has been coughing, but denies being sick..."I'm not sick, I have to go to school!" Auri has been so busy she is rarely home and hasn't had a chance to get sick ;). Jan and I are doing much better, but it seems to be just hanging on... The weather is also getting colder. The leaves are falling. The horses are getting fuzzy. Still no snow, but I guess winter is on it's way!

The electrician has been out working on our house for the last week :) As we were already aware, we have some crazy wiring in this place...some of it unsafe, some of it just a nuisance. We will be getting a new utility pole from our electric co-op as our old pole is rotted out at the base. We will also be getting a new utility box (updated to this century :) which will make using our electric outside much easier and safer (ie to hot wire the fence or run electric equipment like the horse water heater).

Auri is doing well. Volleyball season is over. YEAH!!! She missed several Annie practices, but has learned her parts and choreography and should be ready for the show at the end of the month. She is adjusting to the harder curriculum in this small town school and her grades are returning to expected levels. I expect she will do even better next quarter. She aced her written driving exam and now has her driving permit. She is doing quite well and is enjoying driving with her classmates and teacher. She is not enjoying driving our car...which is a stick shift. I keep reminding her that it is a challenge for everyone who learns to drive a stick shift and that it is a valuable skill to have. She has decided to start attending the LDS church and it's related activities including seminary every morning before school. She started church today and will start seminary tomorrow.

Jamie has had 1-2 headaches in the last couple of weeks. I will dedicate a new post to update you on his current medical status. The 1st quarter is over for school. He pulled up many grades, but not all. This was partly do to some behavior problems which I will expound upon in the next post and partly of course due to the harder curriculum.