Schedules, Cats, Seizures, and VA

It’s been a busy week.

The kids got their schedules for school. Some of them have pretty tough schedules:

Justin has American History Honors, Chemistry Honors, Spanish 2, English 3 and Trigonometry. Tough schedule! Kayte has Drivers Ed this nine weeks, along with a pretty balanced schedule of English, Geography, Science, World History, and ROTC. Kayla also has a nice balanced schedule with History, English, Geography, Science, math and ROTC. Kayla, Justin and Kayte are all three still in “reading” classes I assume because of their FCAT scores. They have been in these basic reading classes since they’ve been living here. Jonathan has a nice schedule: Algebra 2, Drama, English 2, Science 2, World History Honors, Piano/Keyboarding, and Chorus. He needs to get out of Drama though and get into Spanish 2… I know he doesn’t ‘want’ to… but he doesn’t want to let a year go by and completely forget everything he learned last year. Plus if he and Justin were both in Spanish 2, that would be kinda cool. Maybe they could help each other.

I can’t believe we are going to have three kids with learners permits. Chris was asking Jonathan why he didn’t get Drivers Ed this nine weeks. Jonathan explained to me that he’d have to drop either Chorus or Spanish to get it. I understand – not to mention I’m in NO hurry to have all four of them driving! LOL

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We should ask for prayers for our God daughter, Isabella. Last week she had another seizure. She has these seizures whenever she runs a high fever. I had them when I was a baby as well. They call them febrile seizures and there really isn’t much you can do for them, although they are only supposed to last a few minutes at the most.

Last week, Isabella felt a little warm. My sister Katie had a feeling that she was going to have a seizure… just a gut feeling. She laid her down under a fan instead of in her crib. Sure enough – she started to seize. Katie and Tony took her to an after hours pediatric clinic. She was still having the seizure when they arrived there. Checked her in, brought her in the back – the whole time, still having the seizure. Can you even imagine? I sure can’t…. The whole thing was over 5 minutes which is a long time for one of these types of seizures.

Well – a long story longer – as my husband always points out, the way I like to tell stories – little Isabella has been to the clinic, to the doctor multiple times, to two different hospitals (St. Joes and Tampa General) and finally we know what is wrong with her.

First, the MRI showed that she had a serious ear infection and sinus infection. But, why won’t the antibiotics help her fever? That has been the question that has gone unanswered until Tampa General ran the one test that came back positive: Influenza. Little 11-month old Isabella has the flu.

Poor baby. :o(

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Oh, quick note on this. I have a cat who is addicted to TV. Grace will sit here all day long and watch TV now. At first it was just this bird show... I think it's the one from Planet Earth or something. It's in HD so it's super high quality. No talking - just birds. Yeah, she totally watches that show. But now, she'll sit here and watch whatever we are watching - all the time. Right now she's watching a commercial. Glued to the tube. Right in front of the TV. It's totally funny.

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The VA letter finally came in!

Good news and bad news. Good news because they finally moved on it. I mean, heck, it’s been since what? January?? Yeah… it’s about time they took a look at it.

Bad news is – they asked all kinds of questions: How much money do I make? What are my bills? Do they kids make any money? How much is my electric bill? How much is my grocery bill? Water bill? Phone bill? House payment? Crazy stuff. I mean… honestly…. Does it MATTER what I make? As it turns out, we are just barely making ends meet (although some months we have extra and some months we don’t make it), so I think we’ll be okay. I mean, we are not rolling in the dough. But honestly, it’s the KIDS money, and they should be getting it regardless of what it is I make.

I did get to write a statement to go along with the financials, so maybe it’ll be enough.

Here is part of what I put in that letter:

Currently my husband and I work all the time and take care of all these kids, while Julie works a day or two a week and collects this check which was enough for her to survive – so, why work? I tell you, it’s just not right! Part of that money should be going towards things the kid’s need, the way that Ron intended when he died.

When I called the VA the first time, I was told that we were not allowed to have the money that they were sending to their mother. I was told that “she would have to decide to cut us a check” every month. That was before I was given permanent custody and I didn’t realize after I was given permanent custody that it meant things would change. It wasn’t until someone told me to call the VA because they really felt that the kids deserved this money. I was then told by a staff member of the VA that the kids should be getting this money now that I had legal permanent custody.

Julie has never sent any of this money over to the children, and for years she has been getting this money, spending it only on herself. I am trying to raise them on my income, knowing that she is getting Ron’s benefits and spending them on herself, not her children. It just feels terribly wrong knowing I work full time all day all night non-stop while she sits at home and just collects the check every month knowing she didn’t ‘really’ need to work because the money would just come to her.

I’m aware that we ‘make’ more money than my sister. But it takes a TON of money to raise these kids. We care for a family of seven… my own son, my father-in-law after his stroke, my husband, myself and these three precious children. They have bills such as dental, prescriptions, the clothes they need, their school expenses are unbelievable and the food they eat is surreal. Sure, Julie should get surviving spouse benefits. But the children should have their portion split out and sent to them. If nothing else, we can get them the things they need.

I should run. Chris is starting a new job tomorrow - a commercial job. They have done a lot of home jobs, but never commercial - this is a first for them. They are building a new Coach store at the mall and he's going to be a carpenter there. We really needed this job.... and it came at just the right time. Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for the family, and for Chris and I to continue to make it through this difficult time.


Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary.
When you start thinking of pressure,
it's because you've started to think of failure.
Tommy Lasorda