Darth Maul Jesus

Yesterday in church, Noah was supposed to create a crossword with words he heard in the sermon. I glanced down and noticed "DRAGONOID" right down the middle of his puzzle. Somehow I don't think Bakugans are mentioned in Scripture. This was much more benign, however, than Noah's Darth Maul Jesus. The first Sunday we ever took him to Christ Community, Noah went to the 4 year old Sunday School class. We had threatened all of the kids to behave and make a good impression, of course. When we went to pick Noah up, his teacher handed us his artwork. Each child had been given a coloring page of Jesus holding a lamb. Noah's Jesus had red and black face paint and horns. He told his teacher it was "Darth Maul Jesus." Good impression of the Pross Family: FAIL.

Snail Free

I decided a couple of weeks ago that I'd really like an aquarium. Scott made me sign a "no more animals" contract awhile back, around the time we had the goat fiasco, but he conceded that an aquarium serves as a delightful decoration and would be like HBO for the cats. I went to PetSmart to buy all of the necessities, and I decided to buy live plants instead of the fake plastic ones. On each plant canister, there was bright yellow print that said, "SNAIL FREE!!!" Being completely inexperienced with aquariums, I thought snails were a good thing because they keep the tank clean. Therefore, I bought 2 plants and went to the register to ask for my free snails. Doh! It meant FREE OF SNAILS. I was so freaking humiliated. I came home and told Scott (big mistake), and Paul overheard me. He said, "Mommy, if you went to a DRUG FREE school, would you expect them to give you free drugs?" I admit, this was one of my biggest blonde moments ever.

The Pross Posse and Thick Blood

We had family portraits taken a couple of weeks ago, and our absolute favorites ended up being the outtakes. Go figure. I just love how they capture our kids' personalities and the dynamics of our family.

On a different note, WE HAVE AN ANSWER to why my body would not respond to the blood thinning medication (and probably why I got the clot in the first place). I have a genetic blood clotting disorder called Protein C Deficiency. Protein C is a key factor in the cascade a person's blood goes through in order to anti-coagulate. Normal levels are between 89 and 150. Mine is a whopping 41- not even half of normal. Because of this, my blood can't thin out and leaves me prone to forming clots. I will be on high doses of Coumadin for life now. We are actually so thankful that it is nothing more, that we have a solid answer, and that it is treatable.

Polly Pocket

Nothing gets Paul angrier than his siblings calling him Polly Pocket. Poor kid. Paul continues to amaze us with the way his mind works. Recent drawings for me have been: human lungs, a human liver (complete with capillaries), a diagram of the formation of lightning in clouds, and the solar system (including distances between planets and the sun in light years). Last night he handed me a drawing titled "World's Deadliest Forces." On it, he drew a tsunami, an earthquake, a tornado, a hurricane, and a black hole. :) That's my boy.

1.8

Well, to all of my non-existent followers in the medical profession, my INR is finally on its way up. It's 1.8 now, after weeks of Coumadin therapy, and I can finally stop the Lovenox shots. I'll find out in the next couple of weeks why I am so resistant to Coumadin. My PCP thinks it may be a Factor V Leiden gene mutation. Today while I was waiting at the lab, the man next to me said, "I hope they hurry up. I have mental problems, and I haven't had my medication today." I said, "Yeah, it's probably not a good idea to skip that." He said that he couldn't take it because it made him too sleepy to drive. It was a totally awkward conversation, and I felt a little nervous after that.
On a completely different note, my socially-resistant husband has finally stepped into the world of Facebooking. Is it completely sad that he's on his laptop just a room away from me, and we are communicating via Facebook status comments right now? I'm anxious to see how addicted he becomes. For the first year I was on Facebook, I checked my profile/messages about four times total over the entire year. Now I check it at least once a day. It's funny how those feelings of high school, wanting to belong, wishing I was popular, etc, all come flooding back when I see certain names. Now that I have two stepsons in high school and Hannah in middle school, I am so frequently reminded about how trivial my problems really were. That's not to say they didn't seem enormous at the time, but man... I wish I could do that over again with the same appreciation for life that I have now. Not to mention the wisdom of life experience. Sigh.

Scott is so busted!

Today, while letting Jabba in the patio door from outside, Noah said, "Come on, you fat bastard." We could not stop laughing long enough to explain why he shouldn't say that.

Manson Family Haircut Session

Last night at 8pm, Ashton reminded me that today was school picture day. I normally give all of the boys (including Scott) haircuts once a month, but that has kind of been on the back burner with my accident and everything. The kids looked like chia pets, and I couldn't let them have pictures taken like that, so I started frantically giving haircuts one by one. By the time I got to Ashton, it was 9:45pm. I always start with a #1 clipper around the ears/sides/back of head, and then I fade up to a #5 or so on top. I had shaved half of Ashton's head in the back and on his left side when the clippers stopped working. Completely. No store nearby is open that late. I couldn't send Ash to school looking like that, much less on picture day! I thought of everything... even asking my neighbor to borrow his dog clippers for a minute. We had finally decided that Scott was going to drive all the way to the Green Valley Walmart (a good 1/2 hour away) when the clippers suddenly started up again. Hallelujah! It was a close call. At 10:35pm, I tucked an exhausted and relieved Ashton into bed. I asked him if he was okay (since he had been SO upset about his half-haircut), and he said, "I just hope I can smile tomorrow because my lips are chapped." LOL I wish I had worries that simple.