The Life and Times of the Brabhams

This post - or tirade- was initially written without anything to do with Zeta or our life full of special needs......but as we all know, Zeta (and Steven and Chancelor) all love a little attention - but we'll get to all of that later......

I intended, however, to show you how we are a "normal" family that deals with 'normal' everyday problems.

Problem #1 Clogged toilet

Fortunately, this is a problem we don't deal with too often. UNfortunately, that means that I, evidently, don't know how to properly plunge a toilet. One of my children (who shall remain nameless) loves toilet paper. Thankfully, the 'business' had made it through the pipes, but tons of toilet paper remained. I tried (unsuccessfully) to deal with this problem on my own. By the time I figured out I needed to turn the water off (after I was standing in a couple of inches of toilet paper filled water) I decided I needed to ask for some help. When the Calvary arrived (IE Stevie and Steven) I was practically swimming in Charmin. Stevie was obviously not impressed with my plumbing skills and he began a little tirade of his own. I couldn't help but laugh at him. He ran outside and reappeared with a large bucket (partially filled with leaves and gunk). We began mopping, scooping, and wiping the sea of toilet paper. We finally seemed to be making a dent in the mess when the bucket got full. Stevie ran away with the bucket...............BUT............as soon as he stepped out of our bathroom- through the dressing room - into our BEDROOM.........the handle on the bucket broke.....Now, we not only had remnants of the mess in the BATHROOM, but a whole new mess in the BEDROOM......Only now we had a pile of water, toilet paper, AND leaves and gunk!!!! It wasn't exactly how I had planned to spend the evening, but hey, what good would yelling and screaming about it do??? Stevie, on the other hand wasn't taking it quite so well (that's probably a major understatement). I walked him out the back door and told him he needed to cool off - imagine a full grown man, half-dressed, pacing and ranting and raving about some spilled water on the back porch in the middle of the night! Not a pretty picture! LOL! We did finally manage to get all of the mess up - the good thing is, my bedroom and bathroom floors are cleaner than ever!!

Problem #2 Rats

People tell me they're really mice, but it really doesn't matter to me - THEY ARE ALL GROSS!!!! Normally, I would never admit that we have a rat problem , but with every other thing that we have going on a few little mice seem menial. In case you don't know, we live out in the middle of nowhere on the family farm (Once someone, trying to find my house, called and said, "I just passed a bunch of corn and pine trees, does that mean I'm near your house??" "Ha --- considering we're surrounded by acres and acres of it you might be"........but I digress) Anyway, each fall after the harvest, the field mice start running for cover. When the weather gets cooler we inevitably end up with a few uninvited guests in our house. On to the point-----On Wednesday, I stood in front of my stove warming the wonderful meal my dear, sweet grandmother prepared for us(ironically, I was on the phone thanking her for the food).....THEN>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Out from seemingly nowhere............ pops a RAT- right before my eyes!!!!!!!!!! I think I screamed so loud that I caused him to freeze in fear! "Well, what in the world is wrong, Angel?" Grandmoma calmly asked. "It's a rat, gotta go, love ya, bye!!!" I didn't have to ask for help this time - the Calvary came a runnin'......and laughin'........This was a pretty smart rat. He hid behind a picture frame on the counter. In my quick thinking I decided to get a sticky trap from under the refrigerator. The only problem was one of my helpful, ingenious children (again he shall remain nameless) had put a cookie on the trap.....The problem was in the fact that the cookie was as big as the sticky part of the trap, so the rat had been having a great time chewing all around the cookie without getting caught - the evidence was in all the nibble marks! Eventually, we did catch the rat - but I'd rather not talk about it anymore....uhhhhh....

Problem #3...........I don't even know what to say about this one...........

Can you find what's wrong with this picture?


Yes, there is a hole in my counter. Do you know why there is a hole in my counter?

Because the sink fell down.

Yes, you read that correctly, THE -SINK- FELL- DOWN.

Have you ever heard of such a thing. Last night, I stood there - half the sink FULL of hot water, soap, and bleach - the other side FULL of clean dishes. I heard a crack, but before it could even register what was going on the whole sink fell............ KA-BLAMreallY? Thankfully, Stevie took this plumbing problem much better than the toilet episode. He really just stood there -frozen- for a few minutes trying to comprehend the strange scene. We got the mess cleaned up -

Did I tell you we're having my father-in-law's family for Christmas this week?....bahahahaha .....Dear family -if you're reading this, I hope you're all good with paper plates, Vienna sausages, and going to the bathroom in the woods!!! No, really, we WILL have this all taken care of TOMORROW or some cabinet people will feel the wrath of Angel! (and Yes, I'm speaking of myself in the 3rd person)..........

.....and the saga continues.....I had written about all of this last night and was ready to post when I DROPPED my laptop.........yes, I dropped it. Needless to say, it froze and I had not saved a thing that I'd written so I lost it all.....but I thought this was all just too funny NOT to share,so here I sit again re-writing.....

This is where Zeta comes in - remember, I said that initially this post should have nothing to do with her.....WELL, Zeta went to bed and woke up with fever again this morning....that's only 9 days out of the last 13.......Can I get a 'bless yer heart?' Seriously, I'm not sure what is going on. Initially, I assumed that it was some cold/virus then she got worse so we started some antibiotics. She got better for a couple of days and here we are again. We had a planned appointment on Thursday and they did some more labs looking into her immune system. Dr Brabham (that would be me) has already diagnosed her with a primary immune deficiency.....but we'll see what the results tell us....really, I just want to know how to help her. Please pray that her immune system will be strengthened. That her body will be completely healed. The great thing is that respiratory wise (and seizure wise) she is still holding her own - her blood gases this week still looked good....Have I ever mentioned that her pulmonologist, Dr. Lowell, is the absolute best? (That's a whole other post in itself...maybe I'll share it all in my book one day:)......

Anyway, I wanted to share some of our everyday problems just to show you that we are a 'normal' family with 'normal' problems just like everyone else....Add this to 2 doctor appointments, 4 therapy appointments, a couple of blood draws, and a partridge in a pear tree and there you have it - The Days and Lives of the Brabhams!

Well, maybe we're not completely normal......

But I am thankful that we are a family. I'm thankful that we are together.... That my husband and I still love each other - we even like each other most days....I'm thankful that we are not battling drug or alcohol addictions (food? that's another story).....I'm thankful that none of us are battling cancer.....I'm thankful we have a roof over our heads....I'm thankful I'm not weighing selling my body versus feeding my children......I'm thankful my husband is not deployed to fight in war .......I'm thankful we have a strong network of family of friends.....I'm thankful for so many things that we DO have and so many things that DON't have to contend with.....Many people look at US and say, I don't know how I would deal in your shoes.....Thing is- and I continually say this- we ALL have problems, they're not all the same, and sometimes we feel as if the world is caving in.......Our lives are going to be what we make of it....and we become stronger in FAITH!

This is all the proof I need!

You can never change the past. But by the grace of God, you can win the future. So remember those things which will help you forward, but forget those things which will only hold you back. ~Richard C. Woodsome