Playing Catch-Up

Easter eggs we made this weekend:
Tanner says the pink on is me and the blue one is him. Check out the hippie tie-dyed eggs we did.

These last 3 weeks have just been a blur. They say we had a spring break in there somewhere but I didn't feel it lol. Actually, I spent nearly the whole spring break painting in the new room and painting in Tyler's room. We've really come a LONG way on the room since the last post. And that's why I have gone so long with no post - because we've been extremely busy working on it and very TIRED as well. To make a long story short, we got the walls finished, painted, the carpet in, pretty much everything finished and we're now working on the shelving and guitar hanging, etc. We have already had band practice in the room once and we had NO complaints from the neighbors. You can just barely hear any music from the end of the driveway. So I think our soundproofing has worked very well and we're glad of that. From the outside it just looks like it should have some windows or something, but when you realize that our goal was to be SOUNDPROOF above all, then you understand the no window thing. ANyway, I will put the photo updates of the room all at the bottom. I also painted Tyler's room over spring break while he was gone to Alabama with Mom and Pat. He wanted green. I didn't want the walls to be solid green. So I devloped a design with lots of angles and lines in it. Then I thought of putting a big V for Vicksburg High School in the design. And it all came out pretty neat. He was very happy with it. And all the kids that come over think it's the coolest lol. So, other than the home improvement updates, the following things have gone on these past 3 weeks:

- report cards came out. Tyler brought 2 of his F's up to B's. I was very proud. If he maintains this then he is going to pass with no problem. Except for Algebra 2. We can pretty much count on him having to retake that one. Tanner, who is usually on honor roll, completely BLEW his 9 weeks math test and brought his B down to a 69/F. We were shocked, so was he. But he is going to get it back up.

- Holly came to town for a funeral of a friends of hers. She stopped by to visit with us for a bit. I told her I've seen her 3 times in 6 months now, that's a world record! Was great to see her. Brooke should be in town for her spring break on April 3 and Tanner is jumping up and down.

- TAnner had lots of kids over during spring break. Drew, Cody, Dustin, Connor, Naomi. He had a really fun week. TAnner and Drew spent most of the week living in a tree. Kept their shoes and socks up there and everything. One day they had a milk crate wedged in the tree holding some canned soft drinks and toys. When Tyler went to Alabama though, Tanner got REALLY lonesome and missed his brother BAD. I had to import kids to keep him occupied so he didn't get too lonely.

- Nothing new on the cataplexy. The doctors last suggestion did not work, as we predicted. Tyler has talked me into letting him take some more of the anti-depressant to back off his cataplexy attacks and I have let him take it because I can't bear to watch it anymore. We go back to the doctor this week I think, then we'll see what's next.

- TErri and Donnie came over and hung out with us last Saturday night. We had a nice visit with them, and Tanner sure enjoyed the kids being over. Mike and Cheryl have been visiting with us every few days as Mike is steady helping us get the room done. Don't know what we would have done without Mike!

- Easter has sneaked up on us this weekend. I just realized in the middle of the week that this Sunday is Easter. No one has really made any plans much, or has the time to do much lol. So I guess we're just gonna do a small egg hunt at the house today. I think Terri and Donnie and Mike and Cheryl are all coming over. There will be pictures next week I'm sure.

This is Tyler's room BEFORE being painted:

Then Tyler's room AFTER I painted. Pretty cool huh?:

We did a little "mini" egg hunt on Saturday for Tanner and Matthew. They had a good time. Smokey thought he was supposed to find eggs, too. So he was running around grabbing up plastic eggs and chewing them hahahaha.

Tanner has had Jack the cat playing the piano. He's not bad. Although he totally HATES to practice. Speaking of which, I'm ordering some basic piano and theory books this week. I think Tanner is about ready to learn to play a bit.

With the room being almost finished now, I'm hoping things will slow down around here some. Our new band project is going well. We found a drummer, and with various people taking turns singing as well as playing, we seem to be complete. I'm really enjoying this one for sure. We're not limited on what we can play. Not to mentioned, I won't have to poof my hair 80's style lol. But we're doing a very wide range of material. And I'm getting to play some saxophone as well. Ok, I'll tell you what we're doing so far! hehehehe:

1. Already Gone - Eagles
2. Copperhead Road - Steve Earle
3. Running Down a Dream - Tom Petty
4. Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
5. Wild Horses - Rolling Stones
6. Last DAnce With Mary Jane - Tom Petty
7. Tequila Sunrise - Eagles
8. Summer of 69 - Bryan Adams
9. The Break Up Song - Greg Kihn
10. Good Girls Don't - The Knack
11. Amy - Pure Prairie League
12. Werewolves of London (hehehe) - W.Zevon

Some others that we're toying around with, or at least talking about:
Taking Care of Business - BTO
Mississippi Queen - Mountain I think?
Tush - ZZTop
I'm No Angel - Allman
Boys of Summer - Don Henley
If You Wanna Get To Heaven -
I'm really hoping for Drops of Jupiter-Train and Walking in Memphis-Marc Cohn myself. And I want to do at least one Elton John. Hopefully I can talk them into those before too much longer. And there will be some heavier ones like Metallica or KISS or Aerosmith and such. I'm expecting that we will have quite an eclectic list of songs from the 70's through the NOW by the time we are playing somewhere.

Anyway, you can see how totally different our format is, and how we are more free to do whatever we want. I'm REALLY liking it this way.

Spring already???

Mike and Rusty worked hard all last week and the weekend, too. They got the outer wall put up, and the remaining doors and storm doors. All that needs to be done on the outside now is the painting. I think we're gonna wait and do all the painting at once, inside and out. Probably over spring break. Then we have to get some carpet put in. And we just might be.....almost......finished......maybe......by that time! Of course, they still have some major ceiling work to do......... Anyway, here are the progress photos from this week. TAnner and Matthew had a great time playing with all the spare pieces and garbage. They built a fort in the front yard!

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE my new front door in the living room. I will not be able to get enough of it. Having a door that actually works. It shuts and locks and everything. And we can go in and out of it! And we can open the door and the sun shines in and it just opens up the entire room. I can just sit and stare out it all day. Jack is totally enjoying it also. He sits and stares. Sits. And stares..........

Rusty got a good deal on a guitar on ebay this week, so he's been a happy camper. He now has TWO purple tiger striped guitars....

Mostly last week was just filled with work, work, work. We have this week of school, then next week is Spring Break - already!

Tanner talked to Brooke on the phone a few times last week. One day he was just a singing away at the top of is lungs on the phone........"The Lion Sleeps Tonight". I asked him what on earth he was doing. He said they were playing American Idol on the phone. He was singing and she was coming up with smarty pants comments to say about his singing like Simon does.

I taught Tanner how to make tea last week. I've been so busy lately and they seem to be going through 2 gallons a day around here. So I showed him how. He was proud of himself. Later that night I heard him tell Rusty........"Hey Dad, guess what? The next time we are out of tea, we don't have to just sit around and wait for it to happen! Now I can make it!!!" Lol he has such funny ways of putting things sometimes.

Saturday night we invited Mike, Cheryl, and Brett - the bass player from our old Big Hair Affair band over for dinner. We all had a nice visit, it had been awhile since we've seen or talked to Brett. He's a good guy.

Sunday we had a band rehearsal here at the house with Keith and a guy who may play bass with us, named Rusty oddly enough. We also had Johnny, Steve L., Dale, and Mike and Cheryl come by for visits as well. Was a big day, good to see everyone too. I made a HUGE pot of red beans and rice. And I used "Tiger Dust" seasoning that I bought back around the Sugar Bowl week. It was some good stuff.

We are still quite frustrated on Tyler's situation. I've been reading, studying, etc, on the internet for weeks and weeks. And everywhere I look it says that anti-depressants are used to treat cataplexy. Over and over again. I read the success stories. And our doctor has not even MENTIONED the use of anti-depressants. So. I got really upset one day, as I watched him nearly fall down the hill coming from the field house. And I decided to try it on him myself. I had some old medicine I had tried once, but didn't stay with. And I gave it to him. And on the 3rd day of taking it, he had a whole day of school with NO cataplexy attacks. And another the next day, and so on. For a week I had him take them and he was SO excited. But he was still a little scared to trust it, still self-conscious of doing anything. But he was excited. I told him I would insist that the doctor give him some when we went on Thursday. But the doctor would not give him any. And I was too scared of getting in trouble to tell the doctor that I had treated him myself and it worked. Maybe I should have told him. I don't know. Rusty says I either need to be given an honorary medical degree or a prison sentence. But the doctor wants to double up his Provigil as a last ditch effort. But Tyler and I both know that it's not going to work. The doctor does not want to put him on anti-depressants because he is a teenager and all the risks, etc. The doctor said if increasing Provigil does not work then we can discuss a "plan B" which will either be an anti-depressant or a referral to another doctor friend of his who is a really high ranked sleep doctor. So, yeah, more waiting.

I told tyler we're going to do exactly what the doctor says even though we know it's not going to work. And the very next morning, Friday, he BEGGED me to please let him take the anti-depressant just ONE more day. Just one more day of not falling down! So I had to let him. Then today, Monday, he begged again but I told him no. We're going to do at least 2 weeks of what the doctor says - knowing it won't work - but we have to show him I guess. And don't worry, Mom, I hid the medication away good! But it's hard not to give him what I know is helping him. Very difficult situation for me right now.

What would YOU do????? lol

No diet seems to be working for me lately. The fact that I cheat about every 3rd day I'm sure has plenty to do with it. It's just not as easy as it was 3 years ago. I've put back on about 20 of the 70 I lost. And I gotta STOP. So maybe I"ll figure out something on that over spring break.

I've got another program at work this week. I think this time I might try to take some pictures to post. It's hard to remember to when I'm the one directing it. But I should try to.

I know I"m leaving out tons of great stuff from the week. But that's about the sum of it.