Katie loves her Maw-Maw

Katie is having a blast with Maw-Maw here. She sticks to her like glue. She is also jealous of mom's boyfriend. It's pretty funny. I think one of the funniest stories I can tell happened last night. We all (except Tom) went to Captain George's to eat crab legs last night. We were thirsty when we left so we went by a convenience store and got bottled Diet Cokes. Katie was in the far back of my van with Maw-Maw and Maw-Maw had the cap off of her Diet Coke and was talking. Katie told her "Put the cap on your Coke so you don't spill it." Maw-Maw said "What baby?" So Katie repeated it. Maw-Maw said "Say it again?" So again, Katie repeated it. Maw-Maw still didn't understand and said "Awww I wish I could understand what she is saying better." Katie (being Tom's smart alec daughter) said very slowly "Put.....the......cap.....on.....your.....Coke.....so....you.....don't.....spill....IT!" It was hilarious!Mom has found out that she doesn't like waterbeds....at all! She has been sleeping with Katie in her waterbed and she is sore from fighting to get out of it. Her boyfriend has offered to let her and Katie sleep in the king size bed and he will sleep in the waterbed from now on. We will see how that goes.
We told her it is time to go to bed and this is the face (above) that we got.

Those big eyes had to come from Grandma Jill's sister, Jeannie, because none of us have big eyes like that. But they sure are pretty.....just like Aunt Jeannie's eyes!

I've called in the troops!

I called in for reinforcements this morning. My mom is coming to help tomorrow. Her boyfriend, Elvin, is coming with her. They will be here for a week and then taking Katie home with them and we will pick her up when we go to spend the week there the week before Easter. My house is a disaster....actually that is an understatement. Things just blew up here. Brittanie had that bad tonsilitis and as soon as she got over that she had her tonsils out last week and is still in major pain from it and now her stomach is tore up. She has loud grumbling sounds all the time. Her ENT is out of town this week so the earliest I could get her to see him is Monday. I took her to her family doctor Wednesday and he did a CBC and said there is no infection and the stomach problem is probably from swallowing mucus and not eating since last Tuesday. Last weekend Tom got a virus, which wasn't pleasant at all, and he was running a high fever. Now Katie developed cold symptoms. I thought she just had a cold. Well since Brittanie had her tonsils out, she has been sleeping in Katie's room in the waterbed and we put Katie in the room across the hall from us. That's when the cold symptoms started. Brittanie has been in her own room for a few nights now and Katie seemed to be improving. Well night before last, Katie wet the bed and we grabbed up the sheets and put them washing and just put her in the other room again. Within an hour, she was coughing. It was 1am. She hadn't been coughing before. That's when I thought about the comforter that gave her the nasty allergic reaction last summer. I went in that room to see if the comforter was in there and sure enough, it was. It was folded and in the closet. I took the comforter out and put it in my closet and she didn't cough anymore after that. So she is getting better with the cold/allergy symptoms now. My baby sitter miscarried her baby Thursday morning 30 minutes after she got here and ended up having a D&C that same day. This is her second miscarriage in 6 months. I'm 11 days behind on my typing. So I've been overwhelmed and that's why I called my mom for help and just like all good moms, when their baby calls, they come running. She should be here tomorrow night. I warned her that the house is tore up from top to bottom. We are three weeks behind on laundry because I get the babysitter to do that. Well she was off for 2 weeks then this week she had to leave before she could do the laundry....so now it has been 3 weeks since the laundry has been done. We are knee deep in it. I'm so tired from everything. I just needed help. Now I'm just going to pray for a safe trip because I would feel guilty forever if something happened to them while trying to come help me. Please help me to pray that they have a safe trip there and back! And please pray for me that I'll get caught up and back to normal. I go back to the doctor Monday for a recheck blood test to see if my iron level and calcium levels have gone back to normal. I was VERY low on both...to the point where he was considering an IV to put the iron and calcium in. He told me that's why I've been so exhausted and feeling like I need to be in bed 24/7. I should have gone to the doctor when it first started but I thought I was just being lazy.
Anyway, that's what's up on our end. I just really need your prayers right now.

Guess what Tom got in the mail today!

Tom has helped with some things concerning Red Hat (you will have to ask him if you want details). They were so grateful with the help they received that the President and CEO of Red Hat sent him a postcard thanking him for his help. This was a handwritten card....not a form letter. This is a HUGE honor to get something personally from the President and CEO himself!! Here is the card....front and back:

Zeus is such a wonderful company to work for. They have signed him up for Red Hat Certification exams in Raleigh. So hopefully by the end of this year, he will be Red Hat certified, which is one of his goals! I'm so proud of him!!!

Asking for donations

Brittanie has been chosen to attend the Norwich University Future Leadership Camp in Vermont this summer. The problem is that this camp costs $1455....plus the supplies you have to buy to go, as well as getting her there and back. If anyone out there wants to help sponsor her to go to camp, we would GREATLY appreciate it! This would be a wonderful experience for her if we can swing it financially. This year we have big expenses like her class ring, letterman jacket and the big one....her car. She wants to get a job so she can pay for the insurance and the upkeep. But we are saving up to buy her a 2006 Honda Civic. We've done our homework and found that this is the safest and most efficient car in its class. Safety is our main concern. But her having her own car will help us out tremendously because she will be able to drive herself to school, freeing Tom up to take Katie to school for me and still leaving me a vehicle at home to pick Katie up from school.

Here is the brochure about the camp: (Remember, you can click on them to make it larger.)

For more information, you can just go to the FLC website by clicking this link: http://www.norwich.edu/admissions/futureleader.html

To make donations, you can either send it via PayPal (address is mrstalltomm@tuxyturvy.com) or snail mail it to:

Brittanie Sightler, PO Box 98, Gaston, SC 29053.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask and, again, any help will be GREATLY appreciated!!

Hey Mark...its real time bloggin! hehehe

Tom said his boss, Mark, was laughing at my "real time" blogging because I'm posting pictures the day they are taken. If I don't, I get behind and forget. Here is a picture I just took of Brittanie.One of my best friends in high school, who is also my 3rd cousin, Brian, is very special to me and we stayed close all these years. He married a WONDERFUL lady named Colleen and I absolutely love her! Don't tell him but I am closer to her now! shhhhh But she just sent me an updated picture of them. Don't they look great? It's Dr. Phil and Robin! Handsome and beautiful...just like Dr. Phil and Robin!

Brittanie is on the mend....sort of

Brittanie is doing much better. She still isn't eating much but at least she is able to drink now. She was determined to go back to school today instead of tomorrow so I told her she could. Well as she was getting ready, she tossed her cookies. I begged her to stay home. She swears she is ok. She missed a drill team practice the day she got her tonsils out. She is determined not to miss anymore because there is a girl on the team that wants her spot in first string. But even with her being sick, she still looked great this morning. I couldn't resist taking pictures of her.

Katie B looked too cute in the outfit Aunt Melissa and Uncle Jesse gave her for Christmas. She loved it. She loved the pocket and wanted me to take a picture of her with her hand in the pocket. This is the only picture I could get where she wasn't smiling so huge that her eyes disappeared and her lips were curled up. She's too funny.

When it rains it definitely pours

Last night, as I was typing my update on Brittanie, I had to cut it short because I heard Tom in the bathroom tossing his cookies. This was just the beginning. He was up all night long with stomach problems. So we really didn't get much sleep last night. We can't figure out what caused it. No one else in the house is sick. Tom made sausage jambalaya last night but only he and Justin ate it. Justin didn't get sick. So I'm thinking it was probably too greasy for his stomach to handle. Tom has always had a delicate stomach. I never let him put butter on his popcorn when we went to the movies because it ALWAYS made him sick. That's why I'm thinking the grease from the sausage probably tore up his stomach. After a few doses of Phenergan, he has not tossed his cookies in 8 hours. I'm hoping we have seen the last of it. I feel so bad for him. He works so much and should be able to enjoy his weekends.

By the way, yesterday he took Katie on a daddy/daughter date to the Riverbanks Zoo. She loved the tigger (tiger) and the penguins but her favorite was the fish. She is just like Brittanie and I with our love of fish. Tom said he was amazed at her attention to detail. When they went into the reptile area, there were large alligators and the like and she kept finding tiny insects to look at instead. I think she will be a CSI one day! I'm not at all detailed oriented but she has a talent for noticing the tiniest of details. Anyway, after the zoo, he gave her the choice of going to Sandy's for ice cream or Krispie Kreme for donuts. She picked the donuts. She had fun watching them make the donuts and seeing them slide on the belt. Well some of you already know that Katie loves to say "What up my nigga!" She doesn't know what a "nigga" is. She calls everyone that. Well yesterday at Krispie Kreme the first family to walk in after Tom and Katie sat down at a table was an African American mom with her 3 kids. And of course, Katie turned to them and said "What up my nigga!" Luckily, they thought it was cute and laughed it off. But Tom once again fussed at her about saying that. That seems to only happen to him. She's never done that with me. hehehe

Update on Brittanie

Just as Brittanie was starting to recover from the pain in her throat from the tonsillectomy, she developed thrush. Her tongue and back of her throat and palate are all covered with white ickiness. Katie had thrush when she was a baby so I had some Nystatin in the house. I got her to swish and swallow that and then called the doctor and got him to call in some Diflucan to help really get rid of it. She didn't tell me until today about the white stuff. She thought it was just cotton mouth. But it is painful....more painful than the surgery pain. So hopefully....prayerfully....once the thrush is gone, she should be almost back to normal. Diflucan usually works pretty fast so hopefully she will be able to eat by tomorrow. She really hasn't eaten anything since Tuesday night. She is so hungry but the thrush makes everything taste terrible and makes her gag. So now she isn't wanting to drink either. When it rains it pours. But at least the Morphine is out of her system and she is not grouchy anymore. Yesterday, she was actually quite clingy and hugging on us....even Katie. It was GREAT! Too bad she has to be sick to get mushy like that. hehehe Today she doesn't want to be touched. Her breath is horrendous from the healing scab from the surgery as well as the thrush so she won't let us near her and she has brushed her teeth and tongue 100 times today.

Please continue to pray for her. We took some pictures of the roses she got from me, Tom and Katie, as well as the balloons she got from my mom, my nephew and his wife and daughter, and my niece and her 2 girls. Unfortunately, Katie kept pulling on the balloons and we have blown ceilings so three of the 6 latex balloons were popped within the first 5 minutes. By the time I took the picture, the other 3 latex balloons were deflating so we only took pictures of the mylar ones. They are the prettiest anyway. So here they are.

What doesn't kill us will only make us stronger!

Brittanie came through the tonsillectomy just fine. Justin (her boyfriend) came over last night to help take care of her. Her best friends, William and Miranda, also came to visit. She pretty much slept the day away until they got there. She perked up a bit while they were all there and then when William and Miranda left, she went back to bed. Justin is going to be taking care of her and Katie for me today and tomorrow so he slept over last night because his mom has to be at work in Columbia at 6:30am. So instead of having her drop him off at 5:30, I let him sleep over on the sofa, as Brittanie is in Katie's bed and Katie is in the guest room. I gave her the pain medicine at 11pm last night. Justin got up and gave her another dose at 3am and another one at 7am. He even came prepared with walkie talkies so that if Brittanie needed something in the middle of the night, she wouldn't have to scream for us. She would just grab the walkie talkie and ask for what she wanted and he could come running. Today, he has been invaluable. He has taken care of everything. William came over today to help too. But pretty much, Justin has done everything. Right now, as I'm typing this, Justin is in the kitchen washing dishes, wiping down the countertops and table, and mopping the floor. He is absolutely a wonderful boy. He adores Brittanie and is very very good to her and very respectful of us as well.

Brittanie had a bit of a meltdown around noon. Katie was being her normal hyper self and on a normal day, it wouldn't have been so bad but today Brittanie still has some Morphine from the anesthesia from yesterday in her plus the Lortab on top of that so she is VERY VERY VERY grouchy. She had a fit at Katie and without thinking I fussed at her for being so ugly to Katie and off Brittanie went into Katie's room to cry uncontrollably. That's when I remembered I was grouchy after all of my surgeries. One incidence I remember was when the staff told me to use the incentive spirometer (the thing that you use to suck in air to prevent blood clots in your lungs after surgery). Well I was grouchy and didn't want to do that thing. My mom kept putting it on my bed and telling me I need to do it. After the 2nd or 3rd time of her doing that, I snapped and threw the spirometer across the room and told her I wasn't going to do it and for her to do it. She also didn't sleep too restfully last night because the Morphine made her itch. Thankfully the itch has stopped now.

But between Katie and Brittanie and my typing, I'm mentally exhausted. But Brittanie is feeling better. She said she thinks she will be able to go to church Sunday and school on Monday.

Tiger Times

Brittanie's name was in an article in the Swansea High School newsletter, The Tiger Times. What's funny is that is names her as captain of the rifle team. She didn't know she was the captain. She didn't know they had a captain until this article came out. Well anyway, here is the article. We are so proud of her!By the way, Brittanie is having her tonsils out in the morning (Wednesday, March 15th). What she doesn't know is that we are having a half dozen roses sent to her when she gets home. My mom, niece, and nephew are sending her a balloon bouquet tomorrow afternoon as well. I will post some pictures of her and her stuff tomorrow. Everybody pray for her!

Recipe

As most everybody knows, we eat out alot. Our lives are so busy, that it is either too late to cook by the time we get home or I'm just too tired to cook. Well a few months ago, Katie's preschool asked everyone to submit their favorite recipe and they were going to make a cookbook. Well I told them I don't cook and really the truth was that I didn't have time to go through my recipes and pick one, copy it, and submit it. So I just told her that my recipe for a good family meal was going to Subway and getting a Chicken Parmesan sandwich. For those who have never tried it, you should! It is DELICIOUS!!! Anyway, I never looked at the cookbook after it came out. Tom was looking through it last night and started laughing at me. This is why:
Tom told me that was embarrassing and that I could have given them a Cajun recipe. Then he turned the page and found that someone else had put the "recipe" of calling Little Pizza Shop II in Gaston and ordering a cheese pizza. So it wasn't too bad. I am definitely saving this for Katie's scrapbook. I thought it was funny that they put that in the cookbook!

I admit it.....I'm an American Idol addict

As a family, we watch American Idol everytime it is on. We love it....even Katie loves it. We all have opinions. My favorites are Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler, and Mandisa. Although I only vote for Chris Daughtry. He should win! Tom and Brittanie like Katharine McPhee.

We all dislike Gedeon and Bucky. I honestly don't understand the appeal of Taylor Hicks. Last night Justin was at the house watching with us and he called Taylor's "dance" attempt "the roll down the window dance." It was hilarious. I have always thought he looked like a spastic chicken when he performed but last night was the worst.

And I just have to say, we are all sick of Paula and Randy interrupting Simon. Simon sits there quietly and lets them finish their stupid gushing. Then when it is his turn to tell the truth, Randy and Paula constantly interrupt him. It is annoying and I would love to duct tape their mouths. They say Simon is obnoxious. Well I find it obnoxious to constantly interrupt someone while they are talking. I will agree that Simon has his obnoxious moments. What do you expect? He is British! But when he is judging, he is right on the money. We have agreed with everything he said this season....with the exception of him liking Sway and Elliot's performances. We hated Sway and was thrilled to see him leave. Elliot's voice is ok but not a winner. Chris is still my pick!!

Happy Mardi Gras!

When we went to visit my mom in January, Katie wouldn't stop playing with the Mardi Gras beads, so my mom gave them to her. She loves playing with them. Today, she decided to get festive and put a bunch of them on. I thought it was too cute and had to take a picture!

The picture below was taken yesterday. It was one of the few times she smiles without scrunching her face so I had to post it. Look at those eyes!! Don't know where those came from but they are so pretty!

Katie's trip to Grandma and Grandpa's

Katie spent the last week of February with Tom's parents up in Spartanburg and she had a blast. They took her to Chuck E. Cheese's twice and to the mountains of Pigeon Forge, TN. When she got home she talked endlessly about all the stuff she did and how much fun she had. She especially loved riding the ponies. Here are some pictures Grandpa sent us of her riding on her ponies.
Remember, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger. By the way, the man in that picture is just the guy running the rides. I didn't want anybody to think that was my father-in-law. My father-in-law is handsome....looks just like Tom. ;^)

She had a blast up there and they enjoyed having her but I think they now realize that when we say she is a handful, we really mean it. She is nothing like Brittanie. Brittanie was calm and mello and obedient. Katie is just the opposite. She is a ball of fire. She has her sweet side but she is quite a pistol 90% of the time. For those who knew me growing up, she has my attitude when I was 14. Unfortunately, she is only 3. I can't imagine what she will be like as a teenager.

We have all been sick in the house and we finally all got better and then Katie came home and caught it and got her first ear infection since she had her tubes put in last year. She is hard to treat because everything upsets her stomach. Right now we are giving her Zithromax and chasing it with Imodium to prevent stomach cramps but it doesn't work 100%. Thankfully she only has one dose left! But she is feeling better. She picked a fight with Brittanie on the way home from school today. So things are getting back to normal. LOL

Cadet 1SG Sightler

Even though Brittanie's semester in JROTC is over, she is still very dedicated to the program so she and the other dedicated cadets wear their uniform every Thursday for the entire year even though they are only required to wear it for the semester that they are in JROTC. Here she is in her uniform with her new Superior Cadet medal on it. She is still owed one more ribbon, a semi-circle and two cords. But they are on order right now.By the way, she has been chosen to teach at the JROTC Leadership Camp this summer! It was a HUGE honor to be chosen and lots of responsibility. Yesterday, 1st Sgt. handed her a drill and ceremonies manual that is 3 inches thick. She has always loved drill and ceremony so she knows most of that already but she will be studying to the point of being an expert so she can teach the cadets who attend the camp. She is VERY excited about it.