Surgery and Transformers

Well after much changing of the surgery time Jeremiah, Joseph and I headed to the surgical center at 5:30 am. They took us back and got us all settled and were preping for the surgery when the doctor came in to talk to us. He had been talking to his collegues and thought the best thing to do for Joseph at this time was to inject steroids inbetween the outer layers of the eye, the sclera and the conjunctiva. The steroids will, over a period of time, diffuse through the eye and reduce the inflamation. There is also the possibility that this may clear up the media in his eye. What is more likely is that Joseph will still have to have the vitrectomy (removal of the fluid in hes eye) on his left eye. However, reducing the inflamation will make the operation and the recovery easier. So we proceded with what the doctor suggested. We were in and out in 3 hours. Dr Cory said Joseph did really well. His right eye (the one operated on last Wednesday) is looking great. He said it has cleared up and he should be seeing really well out of it. We will be going in to have his eyes looked at again on Monday and we will procede from there. Dr Cory is guessing we will be having surgery on his left eye in about 2-3 weeks.

Now since Joseph has gone through so much Jeremiah desided that Joseph need a special treat. So he took him to Target and got him a Bumblebee transformer. Well when he got home Michael and William were upset that they didn't get transformers and complained endlessly about it. So after I got off of work we headed to Walmart to get a few things and Jeremiah decided to get all the boys transformers. And it wouldn't do that Isabelle didn't get anything so she came away with a My Little Pony. I just shooked my head at Jeremiah. He responded with a "I'm a sucker." Gotta love the softies of this world.

Here we go again

Yes I am talking about potty training. This is how it all started; about 3 weeks ago Isabelle decided to start taking off her diaper and sit on the toilet every time she peed in her diaper. Well I didn't think much of it other then that it is great that she doesn't like to be wet. Well a couple days after that she started peeing and pooing in the toilet. Not often enough for me to take away her diaper. But she started refusing to wear her diaper and I would often find her completely naked. So after a few days of letting her wear her brothers underwear (just to see how well she would do) we went and got her very own underwear. I was quickly reminded how much I hate potty training, though Isabelle is so much easier then all three of my boys were.
The negative is this.
1. She won't let me take her potty. If I do she refuses to go.
2. She is wetting her pants about 3 times a day and pooping in them about 1 time a day
3. She is so independent that she won't let me help her put on her underwear and quite often she starts crying because she put her underwear on wrong and she now has a major wedgy.
4. I have more laundry to do.
The positive is this.
1. All I have to do is leave the light to the bathroom on and most of the time she will take herself potty.
2. She stays dry during nap time. (I haven't been brave enough to try the night yet)
3. Even though I have more laudry to do I still am saving money. Since she is so tiny I have to do about 1 load of her wet clothes a week. And before when she was taking off her diaper every time she peed we were going through at least 6 diapers a day which added up to about 5 dollars a week and a load of laudry cost me about $1.75
Needless to say we are in potty training mode again.

Eye Update

Joseph is healing really well. We went and saw the eye specialist, Dr. Corey, today. He said Joseph's eye is clearing up great. They had blood work done and everything came out clear. Dr. Corey said there is a chance something might have been not have registered on the test so they will do further testing. The most likely cause of Joseph's uveitis is Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Testing has been done to rule it out, but Dr. Corey is going to bring in a pediatric rheumatic specialist to help with the diagnostic. The surgury for Joseph's left eye is scheduled for Friday, April 25. For those who have looked up info about the uveitis, Joseph has posterior uveitis, or panuveitis. Nothing we have looked up talked about surgury as a treatment. This scared me that we had jumped into something crazy. We spoke to the Dr. Corey today and he told us that normally they would treat it with eye drops but Joseph's case is so severe and unusual that if we didn't do the surgury that he would never learn to use his eyes properly and likely develop a lazy eye. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father has guided us to get help when we did. For those who would like to read more about it here are two links that I liked. We will be posting more as we get more info. Please keep our little Joseph in your prays. Thanks for all the love and concern.

http://www.iritis.org/ http://www.stlukeseye.com/Conditions/Uveitis.asp

Eye see?

We had a roller coaster of a day today. I will start with telling you what happened last Saturday. Joseph's eyes had been bothering him so we took him to the eye doctor to see what was wrong. After having him look at pictures and decided they needed to take a better look they decided to dialate his eye. He was so squirmy that they rescheduled for Wednesday (today) to have him be put under anesthesia and check out his eyes better. So this morning at 6:45 Joseph and I headed to the hospital. By 7:30 they had taken him back and I was left waiting for about an hour the whole time thinking that we were going to have to start investing in glasses. Well the doctor came back to talk to me and informed me Joseph had cataracts. WOW! What a shock for me. I had to tell myself not to cry. He then went on to tell me he had more problems with his eyes and was not quite sure what it was and we would have to take him to a specialist up in Salt Lake. He left me to go and see if we would be able to go up today. They soon brought Joseph back into the room and we started getting some liquids in him since he had been fasting. Within a half and hour the nurse came back in to tell me the doctor doesn't want Joseph to have anything to drink or eat and he was coming to talk to me more. So at this time I was thinking 'are they going to do cataract surgery right now?' Well they sent in another specialist to inform me about what else was wrong with his eye. They believed he has uveitis and they need to go into both of his eyes and take out his vitreous and put some other form of liquid and steriods into his eye and with hopes that this would help clear up the cataract. Since both eyes need the procedure done they said they would do the right eye today and wait until next week to do the left eye. Well Jeremiah got Micah(his brother) to come watch the other kids and hurried down to the hospital. By 12:30 they were rolling Joseph back out of the room to go and have surgery. One of the sweet nurses gave us some meal tickets so we could go get lunch while we waited. Well the doctor finally came back in around 2:30. The procedure went really well and the really great news was he did not have cataracts. What they believed to be the cataract was just caused by the uveitis. He informed us there was plaque on his lens, that they got most of it off, and that the steroids should help the rest to come off. Joseph was brought back into the room around 3:30 and he slowly woke up. We finally got to head home around 5:45 (11 hours after arriving). He is doing really well and is acting pretty normal. He has a big patch over his eye that we are trying to keep on until tomorrow morning when we go in for a check up.
Please keep him in your prayers. He is such a brave boy who we love very much. He was such a trooper and all the nurses told us what a good boy he was and how cute. We will keep you updated with next weeks surgery.

The Westward Trek

Well it seems that the Muldowneys are all succumbing the siren call westward. Most recently Ryan Muldowney acquired employment teaching Art at Sheridan College of Wyoming fame. After they move this summer one quarter of Charlie and Judy's children will be west of the Mississippi. Happy trails Ryan and Ann.

Happy Birthday William

William is now 6 years old. He is such a big boy.

We love our William

Likes: Soccor, baseball, Joseph, Michael, Isabelle, School, Reading, riding his bike, Playing make believe, wrestling with daddy, cuddling with mommy, reinacting stories, making new friends, Going on walk, being a big boy helper.

Tribute to the 80's

Meeting the Easter Bunny

All the Kids were very excited to meet the
Easter Bunny. Though we could only get Isabelle to sit on his lap.

When leaving Isabelle just stood there and stared at the Easter Bunny. Jeremiah finally had to pick her up so we could get out of the way for the next kids. She stared at him until he
was out of sight.

Welcome Peter

Jeremiah's sister Leah had a baby boy. They named him Peter Charles Muldowney. He was a big healthy boy weighing in at 10lb 8oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. Welcome to the family Peter

Let Kids Be Kids

A good friend sent me this letter she recieved. I love it. I feel too often people are expecting my boys to be perfect. I have a hard time yelling at my kids for doing kids stuff. Maybe because I see alot of myself in my children and I remember feeling looked down upon a lot for being so silly. I say we are only kids once. And if we are really lucky (as I feel I am) we will get some kids with great imagination and a lot of energy to use the imaginations and maybe once in a while they will let us join in and pretend we are kids again. Now I am not saying let your children run crazy and do naughty things. I am saying let them enjoy being children. After all they will have to be an adult for the rest of their life.
The letter is as following
Parents need to remember that a kid deserves to be a kid
The other day a friend asked me about my pet peeves. After determining the runners-up - wasting my time and buying clothing for dogs - I finally settled on my No. 1 pet peeve: expecting children to act like adults.
I am so tired of some teachers thinking that if a little boy does not sit still during school there is something wrong with him and he needs medication. I am completely incensed over parents expecting to take a child to Wal-Mart at what should be bedtime. They do this with the mistaken belief the child won't start whining, begging and - to the delight of other shoppers - screaming for the majority of the trip. Oh, and the worst is those people who get angry when a valuable heirloom, sitting within reach of a toddler, is broken.
It's time for each of us to take a minute and reflect back to a time when your first inclination at seeing a puddle of water was to jump in it, with or without your brand new shoes on. Can you remember how fun it was to run down long, vibrating, echoing halls screaming at the top of your lungs? Think of the masterpieces you drew with permanent marker on your walls, dresser, clothing and belly ... all before Mr. Eraser came along, too. Hopefully we all, to some extent or another, had the good fortune to be a carefree child. However, it seems to me we are trying to take that same opportunity away from today's children.
Children were not made to ignore the mud puddle, even in their Sunday clothes. They were not designed to be able to pass by a bowl of candy without reaching for a fistful. They need to build forts, catch fireflies and dream of unicorns. It is our job as caring adults to ensure that there is time to build the forts and that the fireflies are being caught in something besides the antique vase. For heavens sakes, we need to make certain our children know what a unicorn is so their dreams can be beautiful.
Before you all start writing to me criticizing my parenting strategies, I should let you know I get quite enough of that from my 4-year-old daughter. However, if you still feel the need to chastise me, you should also know that I do believe in teaching my children respect. I just believe that it should be done in an age-appropriate manner that keeps in mind my responsibility as the adult and their inclinations as children. As an adult I have come to the conclusion that my childhood passed by way too quickly and I am bound and determined to ensure that my children have a childhood worth remembering.
So the next time your child gets the baby powder down to make "snow" remember three things: First, imagine how neat it looked shooting out of that bottle and landing on everything. Second, why was it where they could reach it in the first place? And, lastly, don't forget the camera. This precious little child will grow up much too quickly and you will want a lasting reminder of the moment.
Amy Bates is a resident of Cedar City. She is a member of The Spectrum & Daily News Writers Group.

Sledding time

We finally found time to go sledding this year. Michael decided he only liked going down with out a sled. He even gave me a stern talking when I made him go on the sled. He informed me that he doesn't go down on a sled just his bottom. Everyone else enjoyed using the sleds.

Hinckley Challange

For those who do not know there is an e-mail going around to challenge everyone to read the Book of Mormon in 97 day in memory of President Hinckley. Now I know this is not sponsered by the church but I believe it is a fun thing to do and what can hurt by reading the Book of Mormon. If you are interested in more information and want to sign up here is the link www.hinckleychallenge.com . Jeremiah and I are very excited about this challenge and we know we will be blessed by reading from the scriptures.

YouTube - Tribute to the late LDS President Hinckley

YouTube - Tribute to the late LDS President Hinckley

I found this on a friend Blog (thanks Sara). I love what Glen Beck says. Sorry I couldn't figure out how to post it so you can watch it on my blog so you will have to just go to the link and watch it on YouTube.

Shoot out at the OK Corral

Jeremiah and I were getting ready to get the kids to bed when I heard "Stick them up Daddy". We looked over and there were the boys on the couch with their make shift guns....
Here is Jeremiah trying to dodge the bullets

I have come to realize Jeremiah is a Matrix wannabe

Here we go a camping

Here are just some fun pictures of when we went camping back in December. Building the fire, the tent and bed time.