Fire Ants and Iowa and All That Stuff

It's Official! Everett turned FOUR YEARS OLD! I gave him planes on his cake because he had taken his first plane ride just a week earlier and is quite smitten with flying now. Hard to believe it's been four years - technically, his clubfoot journey is over, he could stop wearing his foot abduction brace with everyone's blessing...but, it still fits so as long as it fits him he will keep wearing it for just that much more added insurance against his feet relapsing. He doesn't mind anyway, and I figure when he does outgrow it we will have him one whale of a Graduation Party for the event. Four years - perfect feet. THANK YOU DR. PONSETI!!!!!

Wow, been a while since I checked in here. We made it up to Iowa City for the 7th annual International Clubfoot Symposium and family banquet dinner with Dr. Ponseti and Mrs. Ponseti and lots of wonderful people and friends in the clubfoot world.

The boys rode the plane like it was a walk in the park - I could not believe how well all three of them handled it! Even total strangers commented on their good manners, wow! No last minute freaking out like I sort of expected, they just walked right on (which was interesting because on the small jet we had to walk across the parking lot to climb the stairs in to the plane), took a seat and had a ball looking out the windows at 30 thousand feet.

"Mommy." Said Everett. "Do you see those things that look like ants crawling? Those are cars." I'm glad he was there to educate me. Actually I did not handle the four different air planes nearly as well as the boys did. Taking off and landing terrify me, along with almost all the other aspects of flying except the actually getting off the plane alive part. A couple times when Brian sat beside me he held my hand real tight for me and kept asking, "Are you OK? Are you OK?" I sat with my eyes squeezed shut and my butt cheeks so tensed up they actually hurt for two days afterwards.

It was a great symposium though with doctors from all over the world and great strides made towards the actual formation and organization of the Ponseti International Association. We are looking for volunteers to help us get it up and keep it going so if you follow that link I just gave you, you can learn how you can do your part to promote the Ponseti Method and the well being of children world wide (hint hint, go visit that link now!)

Moving along in our current adventures we have a small photo show:


these are Garrison's feet after a Fire Ant attack recently, photo taken the day it happened - which was also Everett's 4th birthday! September 22nd. .......

This is the next day, September 23rd.



The next day they looked like this, Sept. 24th.




Not a pretty site when he has to wear his foot abduction brace (clubfoot brace) 16 hours a day!

On his heel, we had this....
a major pustul that grew as big as a pencil eraser. I haven't seen a sore on a baby's heel like this since we gave up using the Markell braces 4 years ago!


And a day after that, on September 25th, his feet were at their worst:

Fire Ants are nothing to fool around with! Fortunately little Garrison Goo Goo Baby was a trooper and we managed to keep his braces on him through the ordeal.

I didn't know what to do being new to Fire Ant country so I rushed him to a sink and poured in a box of baking soda. Obviously that old wives tale doesn't work. But I was inspired at least to look further on the web and read several accounts saying to pour bleach on the bites immediately, with in five minutes of the attack, so a couple days ago when poor Everett came in screaming with ants biting his feet, I threw him in the sink and doused him with Clorox.

Amazingly, he did not get the huge red welts and infections!

In other news we have torn out our kitchen. I mean walls, switches, lights, cupboards.... Oiy. Kids crawling around in chaos dragging sheet rock dust and power tools every where they go. It's been so fun to watch Everett though, he is just so impressed with his Daddy's ability to just take a sawzall and cut a wall in half, just tear the thing down and throw it out the back door. His eyes would get so big with amazement! Not to be outdone he had to start picking up the biggest chunks of debris he could and throwing them out, and then because Monkey See Monkey Do, Garrison had to get in on the act, holding the end of a 2 x 4 with me to carry out, or picking up what chunks of broken sheet rock he could for a while - and then, he promoted himself to supervisor and simply pointed at things that needed carried out and screeched at us. Point, screech, point, screech until someone picked it up. He'll make a good boss some day when he learns to talk.

Other than that, I guess it's just the SSDD routine. If you live in the south, remember that clorox bleach trick on the fire ant bites, it really works!

Till next time,

Soggy Bottom Momma and the Gang

Gearing Up for Iowa

Today is Tuesday. That gives me today, tomorrow and the next day to get geared up to fly to Iowa City for the International Ponseti Symposium.... I couldn't be less ready if I tried.

I haven't flown on a commercial jet since I was a teen ager. I don't want to talk about how long ago that was but every bit of two decades ago. And I've never had to fly with my children. None of them have ever been on a plane either, except when Brian and I flew back and forth on little Angel Flights. I guess the only real difference between a jet and a little piper is the number of people screaming as it goes down, but I am nervous anyway, and that has frozen me in my tracks with a sense of denial so I haven't washed or packed or even called the airline yet to see just what we can or cannot take on with us... are the boys considered carry on luggage? Can they be?

It is going to be insane to say the least. We must leave home Friday morning around 3 o'clock in the morning to get to the airport on time. Our flight departs at 7, providing there is no delay. Then there's a layover somewhere; then to Cedar Rapids where I hope our luggage arrives with us. Speaking of luggage I've been meaning for two weeks to run by Good Will to see if they had a suit case instead of taking our duffle bags. From Cedar Rapids we will rent a car and drive to Iowa City, getting there I hope as early as 1 PM to our motel.

Then it's the insanity of finding lunch, getting cleaned up and finding our way to the event by 4 PM for a fund-raiser meeting, then the party part of the night starts at 5 and who knows when it will wrap up but I expect kind of late in the evening. The next day we'll have just enough time to check out of the motel and run back to Cedar Rapids to catch our long flight home.

It hasn't helped a bit that yesterday was my birthday. That wouldn't be so terrible except my mother's birthday is today and for all my life we've shared our birthdays with each other and she died two years ago. Last year wasn't quite as bad because I had my mother in law to think of, as her birthday is the 9th (mine the 10th, Mom's the 11th), so I still had someone there to dilute the day a little for me. This year we are in Florida, Mom is gone and my mother-in-law is a thousand miles away so it all hit me hard with loneliness. And even that would have been tolerable except then my Aunt Sally sent me a small box of personal items from my grandmother who passed away just a few weeks ago - so that came yesterday. It was a sweet thing to get on my birthday but it broke my heart none the less, the loss of Mom, the loss of my grandmother...... Oiy.

Husband took me out for dinner. We dressed the boys nice and he dressed nice and I put on this little blue dress I found at a 2nd hand store recently that i had no reason to buy whatsoever except it was sexy and I thought what the hay I'll buy a sexy dress for six bucks and maybe someday I'll actually wear it. Everett and Garrison fell asleep on the drive to the restaurant so when we got there we carried them in and laid them on the seat of a booth. Both slept until dinner was over, giving us an almost-private dinner with Brian. I drowned my sorrow in fajitas and margaritas then came home to the birthday cake Chriss had bought which was simply beautiful.

And now here we are at today - three days to get the laundry done, organize a hard whirlwind trip for five people and try hard not to chicken out of the whole affair which is really where my mind is at with it. I've been concentrating on getting my website cleaned up as a diversion, which is sort of what I'm doing right now instead of laundry and organizing...guess I really should start to get all that done. I hope I see some of you at the Ponseti Banquet!

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My!

Greetings!

It was an eventful week in Soggy Bottom Land. It started off with a bang last Saturday when Brian told Everett, "Put this nickel in your mouth, we'll do a magic trick!"

Should I whip Brian for telling his baby brother to put things in his mouth, or whip Everett for putting it in his own mouth? Indeed.

Everett staggered in to my office coughing and gagging, red in the face, holding his throat.

"What did you swallow!?" I demand.

"uh .....!" he wheezes.

"A what?"

Then he managed to say "Nickel." right before he began to barf all over the office floor, hallway floor and most of the bathroom as we rushed him towards the toilet. The stuborn nickel did not come up, however a glass of milk did manage to make it go on down at least. Where the nickel has gone from there over the past week is anyone's guess.

The young raccoon whose mother was a "Nuisance Animal" - well lets say the fruit does not fall far from the tree. He has turned in to quite the brat. The three squirrels on the other hand have done exceptionally well, growing fat on milk and whatever food I rob from my pantry for them.

This picture shows Brian feeding one squirrel - she is holding up her own baby bottle!

Meanwhile we are anxiously wrapping up our plans to fly out to Iowa in a couple weeks to attend the Annual Ponseti Association Symposium...the clubfoot races and the dinner banquet with Dr. and Mrs. Ponseti along with many, many other parents of children born with clubfoot.

I have not flown on a commerical plane in more than twenty years. My boys never have at all so I'm expecting this to be a very interesting trip for all of us.

Labor Day weekend was fun for us. Chriss actually took two days off instead of his usual one per week. On Sunday we drove over to Cedar Keys to fish. We caught 3 eels, 2 sting rays, one seagull and various small fish ranging from minnow-size up to a few pounds.

Here is a picture of Chriss freeing the seagull - it looks mad!

And here is Brian holding his eell, and his sting ray.







It was really a fun fishing trip. Poor Googoo, we had to fight him off the bait, and the fish we caught as he claimed it all for his own. He will carry around any little crab, lizard, snake, fish, squirrel, raccoon, (you get the point) hugging it close and saying "BAY-BAY!", which of course is "baby". He'd put them in is small wagon or the tonka dump truck and drag them around the pier, or carry them around or just sit with it (whatever it was at the moment) on the ground poking it and exclaiming loudly BAYBAY. Any attempt to get it from him would result in wails and sobs.

I packed us a lunch and naturally the frozen weenies were still frozen late in to the afternoon; I also forgot the mustard. Garrison threw our three cups off the dock. I reckon they are now Reese Family artifacts somewhere on the bottom of the Gulf. Everett had started the morning getting the fire bit out of him by his pet Hermit Crab at home; then at the beach Garrison was pinched severely by a wild crab he picked up.

Beach combing at low tide was a lot of fun though we found these large conches. I put them in the dumptruck to give an indication of their actual size. That is a tiny snail in Everett's hand. The shells on the beach there were fierce though. Garrison ended up cutting his toe, shin and finger, thin lines as if a razor blade sliced him that bled a great deal. Packing the cooler that morning I heard a voice tell me to pack the First Aide kit. I ignored it and walked away, turned around and promptly picked it up, tossing it in the cooler with everything else. Mother's should never, ever ignore that inner voice!

Now it is Monday, Labor Day and we have rain. The boys are asking for food so I'm going to let you go now. Wishing you a happy holiday.

S.

Dogs and boys and raccoons

This is just such a pretty picture I wanted to share it with you - my middle son Everett sitting with my dog Sara Lee last spring.

Poor Sara, life in Florida has not been kind to her Turkish breeding. The heat has caused her to shed this beautiful coat down to bare minimum.

She's a year old now, and tall enough to eat from the dinner table with out stretching her neck at all... a fact she certainly enjoys. She remains as gentle with the children as ever, and intimidating to strangers with her guardian instincts to protect her small herd of "lambs" here. I always trust a dog's instinct and judgment of a person - and so far there are a couple individuals in our new neighborhood whom she warns against quite strongly while the majority pass freely.

Life goes on here as usual - the usual being the same weird stuff we always end up with. We have a new pet on the property - a young orphaned raccoon Chriss brought home. He's moved in as if he were born for a life of luxury on our laps or sofa. The boys are quite smitten with him, and he starts many a fights as they struggle for his attention. It is really getting on my nerves, to tell you the truth - fight, argue, complain and tattle tale....


Here's a picture of Ricky Raccoon (I wanted to name him Zorro) sniffing noses with Little Debbie and Sara Lee; that's Mowgli on the floor.

If we were in Oklahoma still we'd take him to the lake to play, but with the alligator infestation down here, we hesitate to risk him becoming gator-food. I'm thinking he might enjoy a ride on my kayak though.

The lizards in our new Bug Screen TV are thriving well. We've witnessed two of them share their ... eh-hem... affections with each other, and one laid an egg on the floor of the habitat. Two days later the egg disappeared, not sure where or how. They are a huge pleasure to watch though and educational.

Well that's the scoop from here today, wishing you all the very best.

Fort Matanzes Florida

I guess you could say we've been up to no good as usual - you know, just the day to day things that make life tick. Today it was a trip over towards St. Augustine again to visit the beach; this time we went further south visiting the old Spanish fort there - Matanzes I believe it was called. This is a free thing to do, so if you're in Florida around St. Augustine it's worth the drive a few miles South to see it.

The idea was to go fishing but I swear we're always running late. By the time we were done touring the fort, the beaches were full of people and Chriss didn't want to fish with a crowd, so we just took the boys swimming in strong wind and waves instead.

Our 57 inch Bug Screen TV is up and running in our living room now! That's the big display case we turned in to a lizard,frog,snake cage. Garrison calls all creepy-crawly things Bug-bug so it's the bug screen tv. We put a bunch of crickets in there for the frog to eat. He did, much faster than we anticipated but we did notice many of the crickets were laying eggs before they were ate - so maybe a few will hatch out on their own lessening the need to buy them so often.

Here is a photo of Garrison holding a Bug-Bug (a small crab in this case). He loves all these things dearly and will carry them around "loving them plumb to death" given any opportunity to do so. Snakes, lizards, crabs, bugs.... He's a dandy.

The Annual Ponseti Symposium is coming up in mid-September with the 1st annual banquet dinner with Dr. and Mrs. Ponseti. Damn, I'd give my front teeth to be there but alas, my lofty plans do not mesh with my less lofty budget. It breaks my heart, really - but getting three boys up to Iowa from north central Florida is no cheap excursion, believe me.

I guess I will sit this out much like Prom and Home coming and all those other big events in life I never found my way to. At least I made my own wedding, eh? ha. Sit it out here and do my good work from home. Six-Feet.com is growing in leaps and bounds and it makes me proud. I get notes daily from parents across the globe regarding the care of clubfeet in one aspect or another so I know they are out there, and know I am providing a good service even if I do have to miss the damn banquet dinner.

Well gang, it's late, I'm off to la-la land, hope all is well with you.

I'd like to say Greetings from Sunny Florida but we've had rain every day for weeks now. So much for that big drought, eh?

Swimming lessons are over, thankfully. Getting up to drive 17 miles then get in to a cold pool under gray skies every morning was starting to get old. I'm not sure if any of them learned much except Garrison who knows now to hold his breath before he jumps in.

We went to Crescent Beach last weekend - Wow! It was a picture perfect beach day with crystal blue water that was warm, enough breeze we didn't roast and it was late in the day before the wind kicked up the waves, although those are fun to play in too if you're not a toddler getting knocked down and washed fifteen feet up the beach by 'em.

All the boys had a great time though. Everett pushed his Tonka truck around until he had blisters on his hands from the salt and sand, poor kid. Garrison found a crab and carried it around forever thrilled with his "bug-bug", squeeling with delight. He's a strange kid - give him a lizard, snake, crab - anything creepy and crawly and he goes nuts to have it, then go even more nuts if it's taken away. One day he'll walk in with a big rattle snake and then where will I be? Calling Critter Control, I guess! I hope my husband won't charge me for that house call seeing's how he's the guy that would be sent to our neighborhood now that he's managing the Gainesville / Ocala office.

Here is a picture of Chriss catching an alligator!

OK, not really, it's just one of our feisty pet lizards. We picked up a display case meant for a retail store the other day from some folks who had it in their front yard. We're working on turning that in to a big natural'ish habitat for the snakes and lizards we find. Can't wait to have that done!

We got stuck in the sand trying to leave the beach.... Chriss will happily tell you that I ran him over as we tried to free the car, but really all I did was bump him in the knee with the car bumper and he was on really thick, soft sand to boot. What was he doing standing in front of the car anyway??! I suppose all is well that ends well. Late that night he tried real hard to squeeze some swelling in to it so he'd have some actual proof of the "injury" he kept trying to complain about but really there was none and by the next day he couldn't even legitimately show me the non-swelled knee cap anymore cuz my sense of mercy had fled along with any amount of injury there may have been the previous day.

I guess that's about it from Soggy Bottom Land today, hope this find you all well!

Shaw and the boys

It's Sunday night in Soggy Bottom Land, following a great day working outdoors in the yard between late morning rain showers.

The quest to save energy continues as I found the old water softener unit attached to our house that we thought didn't work was actually hooked up to the juice and running so hot it's a wonder the house didn't burn down!

In our defense I suppose, we've only lived here a couple months and we really, really were of the impression the thing didn't work so we never fooled with it. Today though, I heard a small noise and discovered it had a motor that was kicking on. Chriss hunted it down and got it unhooked. Wonder how much that's been costing us???

I've included a picture of Chriss here, by the way. That is Garrison with his hand in his mouth, and Everett beside him. They just came out of the bath.

The boys and I put together some home made laundry soap yesterday... the jury is still out on that, whether or not it'll work as good as folks claim. Even if it does, I figure it will take about a dozen batches of the stuff before i start to realize any savings in making my own after the amount of time and gas it took me to find the right ingredients.

Holy cow - go to eight different stores with three kids, two of them still confined to car seats! Aaahhhh! Insanity, all of it is pure insanity.

Why do I need a better and more affordable laundry soap? This is Garrison just 2 days before his 1st birthday... if he gets this dirty and not a year old yet, imagine what he gets in to now that he can walk!

I decided if it doesn't get the cloths clean I'd just start putting it in their bath water instead.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week! The boys get to Soggy it up starting their swimming lessons tomorrow! Wish us luck!