Big Announcement!!!!!!!!!!

What could it be??? Should I make you wait a few days? I have not gotten in touch with my dad yet to tell him, so I better wait. I hear Doug telling his mom now. I told my mom earlier and she told my sister, who called a little bit ago. It is a really great announcement. The kids are really excited. They really love it. Life will change with this annoucement. Our entire routine and way of life is changed by this. We are sooooooooo excited. Well, okay the dog is not overly excited by this, he does not like this announcement. But, then again he is really old and set in his ways. This is really adding to my daily work load and is a big stresser, but in a good way.

Have you guessed yet?

Think we bought a new house?

Think we sold our house?

Did we get a baby?

Did Sarah get another tooth(ok, that would not be so big, but if you have been around when she is teething you would think it was!! She did cut another tooth this week!!)

Guessed?

What to know?

Ok, I'll tell you later!!!!!!!!!!!

















We made an offer on a house with 6.5 acres and it was accepted!!!!!!!!!! The house is 2400 sq ft. 3BR/2baths with a bonus room over the 2 car garage. The kitchen, dining room, and entry have wood floors with a really pretty inlay. The master bath has a whirlpool tub and separate shower. Tons of upgrades to the house. The land has a fully stocked catfish pond, a pretty creek in the back, and flat land around the house. There is a flat patio for the kids to play on, and much more!!! We got a really great deal. The land was foreclosed on and we were able to get it for $75,000 less than it was appraised for. Now we need to sell our current house!!!! We have been working so hard on it this week. It really looks great! Don't know why we waited until now to do all of this. What a difference it makes!! We listed it on Thursday, so praying God sends a buyer our way soon. I will add pictures later. I need to go measure a few things so I will take pictures then. I will take pictures tomorrow of all of the work we have done on this house and show you our handy work!!

Do I Dare Say it........

Sarah seems to finally be back to 100%.  She no longer has any signs of illness.  She is into everything!!  She has become very proficent at climbing.  I can not leave her for even a minute.  She climbs on everything and has no fear.  I am just praying for her safety.  She is definately trying to defy gravity.   She has decided that walking is not all that bad.  She is walking more than crawling most of the time.  If she needs to be somewhere fast she will crawl, but seems to pick walking more often than not!!!  I would finally say we are a walker now.  She has also really improved on feeding herself with a spoon.   Our OT gave us a new spoon to try and Sarah seems to really be able to use it more.  We just started using it yesterday and this morning she was feeding herself oatmeal with minimal assistance.  She is also signing and saying more.  The other day she said goldfish as clear as I say it.  The cutest is to see her sign play.  It is just adorable.  The sign for play is hard for me to do, and she has trouble too, so she does her own little sign, too cute!! 

Elijah is doing great.  We got a list of things that he needs to be able to do prior to Kindergarten and he can do most.  He is really loving school and has really become very social this year.  His whining has improved greatly.  Today I told him we were going to Walmart and he asked if he could get a toy with his money.  I said yes, but he had to get his money together and take it.  We have been giving him a dollar a week and he tithes 10 cents of that.  Well, this kid has been holding back on the money he has!!  He came up with over $40.00 in change.  I am not sure where he has been hiding all of this!!  I am sure he has been collecting it most of his life.  He is always hitting up the grandparents for change!!  He spent some of it and we put some back for another day.  He was so happy and proud of his purchase.

We listed our house last night.  We still need to do a few things that we hope to finish this weekend, but we figured if we waited we could always find more stuff that we needed to do, so we took the plunge!!  We are looking at houses in the county we want to be in for the kids educational needs.  We are excited to see where God leads us in this new chapter!!

Well, got to go do laundry and more cleaning!!!  I will try to post more now that our lives seem to be slowing down for a minute or two(lol).

 

Snow Day

Elijah and Sarah awoke to it snowing this morning.  We only got about 1/2 -1 inch, but it was tons to the kids!!!  It melted faster than it fell as the day warmed up.  Here are the kids first thing this morning.  Elijah went out and got some snowflakes on a piece of paper to show Sarah it was so sweet:

P and C from down the road are here playing now.  They are all having a great time.  I just realized that today is my 1 yr blogging anniversary!!!  What a fun year!!  Now I just need to  transfer this to the kids baby books!

Look what Sarah is doing........

Eating goldfish!!

Drinking KaKa's Moolk!

Making a BIG BIG BIG mess!!!

Being a 2 yr old!!!!!

Today has been a good day!!  Sarah is eating and drinking pretty good.  Her diapers are wetter.  Her congestion and cough is about the same, but you can tell she is feeling more up to par!!!

Update on Miss Prissy

Sarah slept until 8:30 this morning and then got up in a good mood.  No crying or whining!!!!!!  I changed her wet diaper #1 for the day and gave her some more of the boost drink and she drank a good bit.  We went downstairs to play and I got her to drink more and she ate some dry cereal--YIPEE!!!!  She played all morning and would take sips of the drink on and off.  By lunch she had finished off one carton of drink and had 1 more wet diaper(#2).  She would not eat lunch, but did drink a few sips of another boost drink.  Today I am just going to keep her drinking.  If I can get her to finish off this 2nd drink today I will feel good about her hydration.  We will get the food started back soon I am sure, this girl has always loved her food!  She is so cute about the drink.  Yesterday our doctor played with her and told Sarah it was her (doctor's) drink and Sarah would drink it thinking she was getting something her favorite doctor was drinking.  Well when we got home I had brought out the drink from the doctor's and her eyes got big and she giggled.  I said here is Dr. K's drink and she grabbed it and drank it.  I used that all day.  Today it is still working.  Now she will say "Ka-Ka's moolk" for Dr. K's milk.  She is playing good and has made a big mess in the playroom, which actually makes me feel good since it means she is playing.  We will continue to push the fluids.  She is still coughing with tons of congestion, but this too will get better with time!!! 

I did it again!!!

I had just posted 2 days ago about things not to tell my kids.  You know the one about not saying Sarah was better until she was completely well one?  In that very post I typed that she was better and what does miss prissy do?  She tries to prove me wrong.  I've got that girl's number!!!  Last night she seemed better and we had an ok day.  Mind you we were one diaper shy of the 4 a day(1 every 6 hrs) criteria, but we had our follow-up visit this morning, so I figured I would bring it up then.  Well, when Sarah got up I knew things were not good.  Sarah had snot build up completely clogging both nostrils at least an inch thick.  Ok, maybe not that thick, but thick enough, no fun to get that off.  Then she is doing that rapid, shallow breathing, the one you can hear a mile away.  Yep, that one.  Not good.  She refuses all food and drink and just lays in the floor and cries.  Not good.  So, we drop Elijah off at school and head to the doctor.  I am preparing to go directly back to jail the children's hospital.  Well, the ped is sounding a lot like she is sending us over to the hospital, but the more we talk she decides Sarah's dehydration is making her congestion thicker and thus her lungs sound worse.  She is able to get Sarah to drink about 3-4 oz of a boost drink.  She decides we can go home, but Sarah must drink and wet diapers, or we go back to that fun place I love so much.  Sarah cuts it close tonight, but drinks enough and finally peed enough!!!!!!!!  She was actually laughing and playing about an hour before bedtime.  So we will see how tomorrow goes.  She is determine to make sure all of the hair on my head is gray before I turn 40!!!  Silly girl, that hair color is from a bottle and I have plenty of bottles to keep it this color!!!

Here are a few pictures from the day Sarah came home from the hospital:  She just loves to sit on Elijah's train table and throw all of the train stuff off of it!!  Continue to pray that Sarah gets better soon!!!

WW/SE Reunited

Sarah and Elijah were so happy to be reunited after Sarah's hospital stay!!!!

 

  Such sibling love between them.

Croupy Croup Continuation

Remember back sometime ago I posted on things to never tell my children like plans for a vacation, picture dates, etc.  Well, we have a new one to add to Sarah's list.  Never tell(or type in this case) that Sarah is doing better when sick until she is completely well, she might find out and set out to prove you WRONG!!  By midnight Sunday I knew Sarah was not better.  She was breathing very rapidly, shallow, and retracting with breathing.  She was very gunky(is that a real word?) sounding and maybe wheezing a bit, hard to tell with all of that gunk.  After the steam and freeze did not work, I headed to the ER for the second time in a little over 24 hours.  Doug stayed home with Elijah, no since exposing him to the fine assortment of germs in the ER.  We get there and get escorted straight back.  Nothing like a good barking cough and hard breath in to get wide eyed response from the barely out of nursing school triage nurse.  We bypassed admissions and was sent straight to jail a urgent care room.  We had 3 nurses in our room hooking up Sarah and giving her deep suction for the gunky gunk coming from her nose.  The resident made an immediate appearance and ordered steroids.  I explained that we had just received some on Saturday, so he retracted his order for the time.  We were sent to x-ray to rule out pneumonia and then a higher up resident came by to see our pretty princess.  Her O2 sat's were 93-95, but no wheezing.  The x-ray showed mucous areas, but no pneumonia.  Sarah fell asleep during this time and dropped her O2 sat's to the 80's, oh great now we get to be an inpatient in our jail cell wonderfully spacious well equipped urgent care room because someone else had the nerve to take the last room ahead of us  there were so many sick princesses and princes.  About 11 am they moved us to the observations rooms, which of the 3 rooms we had during our stay I must vote as my favorite.  We were one of 3 down this hall, there was no nurses desk, no utility room, nothing, except a few rooms.  We closed our door and turned off the lights after Sarah threw her lunch all over the new room.  We both fell asleep on the quiet peaceful hall.  There were no interruptions, in fact if the nurse had not told me she was our nurse I probably would not have known that we had a nurse(she was very sweet and took care of us, just did not bother us every minute of our time with her!).  We were then awakened and move to a more spacious fish bowl of a room.  Yep, we got stuck in PCCU.  Not a good place to be.  Why do they have rooms with the hall wall completely glass and the 2 side wall completely glass with a thin useless drape to cover them?  I understand the hall glass doors, not the doors to the other rooms on each side.  Sarah kept wanting me to turn the lights off, when we had none on.  Poor baby, she just wanted it dark enough to sleep.  Our fun was taken to a new adventure.  Both kiddos on each side took turns crying so we got to hear crying all night.   Then I realized there was not a bathroom in our room.  What?!?!? I asked and was told that this was an overflow area that they tried to only use for children who were not potty trained.  No one asked me if Sarah was potty trained or not.  I now have a reason to potty train ASAP.  Why would you use this for un-potty trained kids,   Typically kids under 2?  Why would you use this except for children who are catherized?  Kids under 2 are not at an ideal age to leave and go to the other side of the unit to pee.  Doug had to stay home with Elijah so I was there alone.  Sarah was very clingy and would scream if I peeled us apart long enough to take a breath.  Have you ever peed with a child on your lap?  Have you ever had to convince a nurse to unhook your child with breathing difficulty on oxygen and monitors so you could run down the hall turn right, then left then left again so you could pee before you explode?  Neither went over too well.  After we got moved, Doug came and brought me a few things and Elijah and I went down and ate.  I peed before they left, so I did not have to ask for the above until about midnight.  Our nurse was a bit over dramatic and very young, with no kids of her own, and it showed.  Sarah would not have anything to do with her.  There was no way I was going to ask her to watch Sarah for me, no telling what I would come back too.  Plus when a child is sick and has been poked and proded, that is not a good time to leave them with a total stranger in a strange place.  I would have thought someone else would have thought about that before me.   Then I get Sarah to sleep and she is awakened 3 times.  Not good.  She is back to sleep and the nurse comes back in and wants me to get Sarah to drink some more.  The ER did not weigh her 2 saturated diapers during the day and the 1 she had in the PCCU did not weigh enough to offset her intake for the day, go figure.  So the nurse wanted her to drink more so she would pee more.  I refused.  Not going to happen.  She then threaten me with an IV.  I pulled out the I have been a nurse since before you were born card and called her on it.  You can not even consider any intake prior to the first weighed diaper if you do not count the other diapers.  You only need one wet diaper every 6 hours, and we had 6 hours to get one.  I don't think I am her favorite parent for all eternity.  The night was still young.  Before the shift ended Sarah gave them another diaper and the nurse sent in the resident to talk about an IV.  He left and let the nurse know that he agreed with me that Sarah did not need an IV.  That nurse did not tell us bye, wonder why?  Day shift went much better.  Sarah liked this nurse and so I was able to pee without her sitting on my lap.  Doug came by that morning with breakfast and caffeine intake for a few hours and I took a pee break.  At lunch, Sarah was whiney and clingy so I asked about getting food delivered to our fish bowl at my cost and was informed that they do not have that.  I could go down and bring up lunch, then problem with that was that Sarah was hooked up to monitors still(O2 was off to see how she would do), did not even try to convince her to unhook Sarah so I could run to get lunch.  Glad Sarah refused part of her lunch.  We were finally discharge at supper-time and headed home.  Not really sure about how we got discharged since I was told that morning she could not go home until she was 24 hours without the O2 with sat's above 90.  We did not meet either criteria.  Guess the hospital had sicker kids?  Sarah is really much better and was so glad to be home.  I will sleep with her tonight to be safe.  We will see our ped in a few days.  She is not coughing and her breathing is not labored.  I am not convinced that she kept her O2 sat's above 90 all the time prior to this illness.  I told Doug the other day that I think she may still have sleep apnea due to her night time breathing.  Guess we will discuss that with the ped this week.  This is really a great hospital and I would not have left if I did not feel comfortable and that it was safe for Sarah.  I would never risk her health to get home.  I think that she was just so improved that they thought she was well enough to go and would do much better at home, which she is!  At any point and time things can seem bad, but some of it is our perception.  I am way over tired and I get stressed and over protective of my kids especially when they are sick!

Croupy Croup

Sarah just could not leave well enough alone, nooooooo she just had to go and get worse on me. Yesterday afternoon she began sounding more and more croupy. By 3:30 she was retracting just a bit when breathing, so I called the ped. Being that it was so early and croup tends to get worse with nightfall we made the trip to the emergency room. Oh great fun. Seems like everyone wanted in on the fun. Of course one look and hearing we went right back. They got her all hooked up then gave us some steroids(well, just Sarah!!). Her o2 sats hovered at 95-97 so they held off on the breathing treatments. After 3 hours of observation and improvement in the coughing, they let us come home. Sarah and I spent the rest of the night having steam and freeze fun(you go in the bathroom and steam it up to help open the airways then you go into the cold-outside or freezer, to help decrease the swelling). Sarah is still very croupy today, but her breathing is not labored. We have continued the steam and freeze today and she also has gotten choked on the snot and now poor babydoll has to have a bath since snot on the stomach does not sit well and tends to come up! Oh the fun at our house!! Elijah and I now have the wonderful cough and horseness. Doug, who has been sick since Christmas, is the only one well for now.

Fairy Dust, Snot/Croup, Woof, Warm Fuzzy Updates!!

Sorry, again I have not updated much this week, but to say it has been a wild week would be putting it mildly.  Life at our house is always FUN!!! 

Fairy Dust:  Elijah bought the hand written note from the House Fairy.  He is doing a wonderful job!  It is like night and day difference.  He is getting dressed in the morning and night, including teeth brushing without complaining and most days without a word from us to do it.  He makes his bed every morning as soon as he gets out of it.  The playroom and his room is clean.  He takes his dishes to the sink when he is done.  He has been doing other tasks without asking and has been a great helping hand.  Whining is almost gone and we can now enter a store and do not hear I want.  He must use his allowance to buy new toys.  Saving up for things is still a learning process.  He is also tithing at church.

Snot/Croup:  Well, Sarah has decided to go ahead and get totally sick on me.  The 3rd antibiotic seemed to be working like a charm.  We had 3-4 days snot free.  I was so celebrating this too!!  Thursday I noticed a little snot, not much, but snot none the less.  Then she coughed a few times, nothing major.  Thurs. night her sleep was restless and I got up several times with just the thought that her breathing was off a bit.  No distress, just not right to me.  Friday she got up with a weird cough.  Not really croup, but sort of.  My aunt found out she had whooping cough the week after Christmas and we did stay at her house the weekend before and the cough did sound a bit like a whoop.  So, off to the doc to just make sure.  Sarah has some crackles in her chest(sounds generally associated with fluid or infection beginning in the lungs.).  I mentioned that we had been exposed to whooping cough and lets just say my ped was not happy that Doug and I did not get vaccinated as soon as we heard.  I know we really should have, but to be honest I figured we were exposed if we got sick we would go and get treated and then get the vaccine when we had our physicals for our adoption update this spring.  She figures Doug's cough/sinus infection is really whooping cough, but he is on an antibiotic so that should cover it.  Elijah and I are well.  So Sarah is on another antibiotic and has until Mon to get better or we are back to the doc.  She is not better today.  She is still coughing horribly and now has a fever.  Please pray she feels better NOW!!!  Doug got his vaccine Fri and I go Mon to get mine(I know I am a nurse, and I do not mind giving shots, but I am a wimp at getting one, so prayers on Mon would be appreciated!!!!).

Woof:  Our dog is about 14 years old and really does not do well in cold temps.  Since TN is in frigid temps he is having a time.  He has been indoors the last several days, much to his delight!!!  At the beginning of the week we really thought we were going to have to put him to sleep, he just could not move.  He has had hip dysphasia for years and it is really bad this winter.  I have been giving him meds and keeping him in so he is doing so much better today.  He is out for a bit today since it is warmer and we all needed a break from the barking!  We will see how he does today.

Warm Fuzzies:  Wednesday night Pop-pop surprised us with an unexpected visit.  The kids were excited.  He was driving through after a business trip.  He stopped in and stayed a bit and then took us out to eat at Elijah's favorite place, the chip store(also known as a Mexican restaurant).  The kids and me too were so sad that he could not stay the night or longer, but he had to get back so he could make a meeting the next morning.  Next time he is this way he is going to try to stay longer!  On Thurs we finally made the trip to see the house that we had looked at last weekend.  Of course we picked one of the coldest days to do this and the house is vacant without electricity.  A friend watched the kids, so they stayed warm.  The house set up and land was perfect!  It was ideal.  To say something is too good to be true is an understatement here.  The house is not livable in its present state.  Nothing but cosmetic at first glance and something that we could do, then we noticed a brown spot on the ceiling in the master bedroom.  Doug went up into the attic and the roof is in major need of repair/replacement.  Again, this is doable.  Then we went downstairs.  All is looking great until we stepped in a puddle in the guest room.  Hmm, don't think there should be a puddle inside the house and it has not rained in several days and the water is off too.  Yep, a crack in the foundation.  Not real big, probably fixable.  Then the furnace is looking like it needs to be replaced.  The water heater is needing to be replaced.  Several windows need to be replaced, the siding was not completed and is cheap so it needs to be replaced, there is some water damage between the deck and house, so more repairs.  The garage door needs to be replaced.  The list just seemed to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and just too big.  The other major factor is that this house is what is called a short sale, so the bank is foreclosing on it.  The process to buy this house will be months in process.  Even if we wanted to tackle the job, which is tackable at a good price, the added time with added damage is just too risky for us.  So we say no to this house, but we know now God is saying this is the time to make the move we have wanted to do.  We have a peace on the timing.  We started preparing our house for sale and plan to put it on the market soon and will start looking at properties now to find the dream location in the school district that meets both of our kids needs.

Sorry so long.  Thank you if you lasted to the end!  Here are a few pictures from the week:

Computer Woes

Sorry I have not updated in a few days, the computer has been a little puny.  Of course today it is working and I am crazy busy, so it will be short today!!  I will catch up later, I promise.  I am not sure what is wrong with the computer.  I believe it is called VISTA.  Nothing but pure trouble.  Last week for some reason it deleted the printer off.  Now being the well organized person I am(everyone quit laughing right now!!!), it took me until Mon of this week to find the disk.  I tried to download it from the internet, but the computer did not like that and every time the download got to 95% complete I would lose internet connection.  I am telling you this computer does not like me.  So Mon night I tried to reinstall the printer from the disk.  I really needed to use the printer so the House Fairy could leave Elijah a note.  This is very important right now, Elijah is doing wonderful and I want the good work to continue!!!!!!  Well, that of course would not work.  It can not be that easy when time is ticking down (the house fairy visits on Tues or Thurs when Elijah is at school).  Then I uninstalled the printer and all related programs and tried to reinstall it.  It printed a test page and then deleted the printer again.  That was all I could handle for the night so I went to bed.  Got up Tues morning and immediately started the computer.  I uninstalled the printer again for good measure and left it running while I took Elijah to school.  As soon as Sarah and I got back home I ran to the computer and tried to reinstall the printer, nope, did not work.  I uninstalled it again and started over.  For some reason this seemed to go on and on and on.  I decided the House Fairy would need to just write the note today.  Now the House Fairy has a curly print she uses, so this took a bit and she also uses all different colors in the letter so again being organized (No laughing) I had to hunt for the markers.  Let's just say there was limited colors used!!!  Got that done and the computer is still working on the install.  Then it finally got to connect the printer, so I did and then had to leave to go get Elijah.  When we got home over an hour later it was still on connect the printer page.  I left it.  At 9 pm last night it finally installed the printer.  Go figure, I did not need it now!  Now that was just one computer problem this week.  The other problem was our internet connection.  We have the DSL high speed ATT service which means it is so slow and unreliable.  When it rains, no joking, I can not get a good connection.  Don't know why.  The phone works just fine, but the computer just will not stay online.  Then they had an update this week and my internet service has been even less reliable.  It stinks!!!  Last night I could not even get on until really late.  I even reset the modem trying to get it to work.  I guess it was just being difficult last night!!!  Well, this turned into a long post guess I better go for now.  I have tons of family stuff that I will share later.

Weekend Wanderings

We had a relaxing weekend.  No traveling for the first time since Thanksgiving.  It was nice to be home!!!  We got up on Saturday and got ready and went looking for bunk beds.  Did you know that bunk beds are not easy to find?  They are tougher than I thought.  Now grant it we have not hit the main name brand stores, we were trying to find a good deal.  Guess next weekend we will hit the name brand stores.  We did not find anything that was just right.  The kids were great.  They both enjoyed trying out the top bunks.  We then went to lunch at Red Lobster which was yummy.  Then we drove out to a home on 5 acres of land to look at it.  The house was empty, so we peeked in the windows.  It needs some work, but is a good potential.  We just want to have a bit of land and not be in a subdivision with neighbors right on top of us.  We also want a place for the kids to ride bikes and run and play.  We do not have a good area for bike riding here.  We also picked up a dollhouse bookshelf and vanity table for Sarah that were too perfect of a match to her room to pass by.  They look like they were custom designed for her room.  Of course Sarah loves the new addition and that her toys are sitting out and she can get to them better.  The problem with that is I am tired of picking up her toys.  The other bad thing is she loves it so much that when she stirred at 6am like usual instead of going back to sleep until 8 or 9 she saw the bookshelf and said "wow, up, Up, UP, UP".  I went in and tried to convince her that it was not time to get up, but no luck.  She just had to play.  She was really cute.  Here is her new stuff:

While I took the minute or two to run upstairs to get these pictures someone made this mess...

Hmm, who could it be... No, not me...Evidence?  What evidence? Hmm, don't know what you are talking about. Oh that? Well.........Good music, let's dance!!!! (Technically the next to last picture with the play corn out front was taken first.  She was playing with the music toy and started dancing and picked up the corn and tossed it, but it was cuter this way!!!)

Adoption Fundraiser for a Friend

The Garcia's are adopting a little girl from Eastern Europe. She has Down syndrome. They are raising money to bring her home. Renee is making necklaces that has contact information on them. This is very helpful for non-verbal or speech impaired children so you can be contacted if they get separated from you. Here is a link to their adoption blog as well as Renee's post about the necklaces. This is Kennedy's family who I have a link to on my side bar. I ordered Sarah's necklace today!!

http://aspecialkadoption.blogspot.com/

This is our first fundraiser for Kellsey's adoption! Many of you have asked in the past about Kennedy's necklace so I am now making and selling them!!! Each necklace is $10.00 and 100% of the money goes towards Kellsey's adoption!!!
The necklace I made for Kennedy was designed for safety, first and foremost. It has her full name, her address and my cell phone number so should she ever get separated from me, I can be contacted. And then of course, she has to look cute! Hence the fun colors!!!
Here are a couple more necklaces I've made:

This necklace alerts people to the fact that Kallie has diabetes.
It also has her name, address and mother's cell phone number.
This one was made for Jonathan who is 9 and has Down syndrome.
He thinks it's the coolest thing EVER!
Your child already knows her address and phone number?
That's ok! You can use her favorite Bible Verse or quote!

These make GREAT gifts for that special child in your life and provide parents with a feeling of safety should a little one disappear.
I will put as much or as little information as you'd like on your child's necklace. I also just got brand new beads that are white but the letters on them are multi-colored. They're VERY pretty! (I made one for Kennedy with these beads and can't find it at the moment, so pictures are coming soon!)
Want to buy one? GREAT!!!!
Click on the Paypal button below and order the quantity you'd like, then EMAIL ME with the info you'd like on your necklace! All orders will be shipped within 1 week of purchase and all shipping is FREE! Don't want to use paypal? You can mail me a check! Just email me for info.

Color Combos

Multi-Colored BeadsWhite Beads, Multi-colored lettersBlack & White BeadsWhite Beads Black Letters

Sarah's doings

I think we are in another growth spurt of abilities!!  Sarah is just blossoming right now.  We do still have the horrible snot and are on another antibiotic.  Hopefully we will see an improvement in this area soon!!!  Since Dec, Sarah has been walking a bit more.  The week that we started the last antibiotic when it seemed to be working she started using walking as her mode of transportation about 50% of the time!!!!!  As the snot has increase the walking has decreased.  Although she has not had any ear drainage, I think her ears are affected by the cold.  She is still walking a good amount (although at school she refused to walk at all, the little stinker!!).  She is climbing everything now.  I can not leave her alone at all.  She is a fast climber also!  She is dancing more and has begun to move her legs while standing to dance.  All of her dancing to date has just been movement of arms and some upper body twisting if really excited.  The leg movement is with and without holding on, so her balance is really great!  She can climb on the trampoline and "bounce" without assistance and will walk on the trampoline without holding on also.  Today at therapy on the trampoline holding the bar she even moved her feet with the bouncing and was bending her knees!  Her feet did not actually come off the trampoline, but this was a first!!!  She is using a good pincher grasp more often now.  She can open a small bottle and pour the contents out and put them back in again using the pincher grasp.  She can push any button with her pointer finger, and let me tell you she loves to push buttons.  The TV button(this is to make Elijah squeal!), the phone buttons(don't know who she called and talked to the other day, hope it was local), buttons on any toy or object that will make a noise, and my buttons!!!!!  She will line up all of her toys that get on my nerves make noise and go down the line and push the buttons and when she is finished she starts all over again and again and again and again.........and again.  She is getting good upper body strength also.  Today in therapy the OT wrapped her hands in playdough and had her open her fingers to get the play dough off, she was able to do this and was even quick enough to eat a bite of playdough before either of us could get it from her!  She is signing and talking more.  Fish, apple and cereal are the newest signs that she is using.  Fish is used for actual fish, pictures of fish, and GOLDFISH of course!!  She is so funny signing eat-fish.  New verbal words are juice, circle, go, elmo(sometimes just mo), and ora for Dora.  She now wants to eat with a utensil and is getting some better with a spoon and fork.  OT is really going to work on this starting next week.  She has also learned how to undo her diaper with her pants on and more than one occasion has awakened in a puddle.  She now must have a onesie on for sleeping or a one piece outfit!  She is wanting to use the potty again, so after next week I guess we will start potty training again(mommy still does not seem ready for her baby to use the potty---don't know who typed that...Potty training would mean no more washing of cloth diapers.  Let the potty training begin!!  Ok, I will wait until morning when she is awake!).  Well, I think this is probably way too long.  Thanks for reading if you made it this far!!!!

Elijah's Room

Ok, I shared that we were thinking about the House Fairy thing and liked the tools, but not sure if we wanted to do this.  We want Elijah keeping his room clean and doing chores out of obedience.  Well, after Elijah saw the video he has been driving me crazy wanting to have the House Fairy come to our house.  On Monday, we did a massive clean(ok, I did most of it, but Elijah had to help) up of his room.  We took everything out of the closet, drawers, off shelves and hidden behind the bed.  We(I) spent 4 hours cleaning out this room.  Yes, 4 hours, it did take a bit longer with my helper.  I was not happy that there was so much stuff.  He is a pack rat just like his dad and he can hide his loot well!  I rearranged the furniture to take away some of the hiding places I found.  Then we put his room back together.  Several loads came down to the spare room that is currently housing all of the toys I am going to put up for now and then begin alternating their toys so they have new-old toys to play with!  So now there are very few toys in his room.  No toys from the playroom are allowed in his room.  All of the toys are in individual see through containers(house fairy suggestion).  We got a hanging closet bin that we can put a week's worth of school clothes in as well as a bin for the shoes we can never find on school mornings.  There was also a bin for the backpack since he only goes to school 2 days a week.  Play clothes were matched and put in zip-lock bags in his dresser so on non-school days that we are not going anywhere he can pick a bag and dress himself.  His desk is arranged and again we put all like items in individual see through containers.  If he can keep his room clean we are going to redo his room and get him bunk beds and a new desk.  We are going to take down the border and paint the walls a solid color.  Then he can pick a theme that we will use in accents in the room so the basics of the room can last a few years.  He has been doing wonderful at keeping his room clean.  He is making his bed each morning and making sure everything is put away in the proper place before he leaves his room.  We did decide to let the House Fairy visit Monday night because he really worked hard.  She left a note, fairy dust and some gold chocolate coins.  He will not eat the coins since they are his treasure from the House Fairy!  The note suggested that he put his dishes in the sink after meals to make mommy happy and he has been doing this with no reminders or asking.  He has also started wanting to help with things around the house. We are going to start a chore chart(from the House Fairy) next week and give him an allowance from Mommy and Daddy for doing his chores.  We are going to do 10 dimes so we can show him how to tithe and put some into savings every week.  I am now on a mission to adapt these changes to the entire house.  Starting next week, I am taking one room at a time and doing the massive clean like I did in Elijah's room until I have the entire house cleaned.  There are new house rules now.  Everything must be put away before going to a new activity and the house must be clean at night before we go to bed or before we leave the house(when possible).  Once I get everything organize this should(Should being the operative word here) be easier.  I don't want to organize all of this and by the time I am finish I need to start over.  I am hoping to make new clean habits for all of us. 

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce

Santa brought Sarah a mini trampoline like she uses at therapy.  It helps to strengthen her leg muscles and helps with balance.  She loves the trampoline.  It is one of her favorite things to do at therapy.  Santa could not find one that had the adjustable handle on it before Christmas, there are tons out there now!  Doug is going to make a handle for her.  She just could not wait.  She is on the trampoline all the time.  She can now stand up by herself on the trampoline and bounce.  She thinks she is hot stuff bouncing without holding on!!  I did not have the video camera handy last night, but I put the camera on burst and got some really good action shots that I have put in a montage for you to see her in action!!

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Christmas at Grandma's

On New Year's day we celebrated Christmas with Doug's family.  Yes we traveled to IN.  I am so tired of traveling.  We do not plan on traveling again for 2-3 months.  If you want to see us you are going to have to come to us!!!!  The kids are so out of sorts today.   I am so looking forward to the return of the routine next week.  My kids do so much better with our routine!!!  We had a great time at Grandma's.  Most of the family was there and it was great to see everyone.  Although we visit Grandma often we do not always get to see the rest of the family, so it is fun to see everyone.  Elijah is so funny, he still can not remember all of the grandkids names(he is grandkid #9 and Sarah is #10).  Tim and Roxanne got a call right before our get together that Roxanne's mother had a heart attack and was not doing well, so they dropped a few things off and headed to Florida to be with her.  We got a call during our get together that she had passed away.  They had just left Florida 2 days before, so Roxanne has those precious memories.  Please be in prayer for this family during this very hard time.  Tim and Roxanne did not make the 16 hour trip prior to her passing, so Roxanne was not there when she passed, but she knew she probably would not make it.  In so many ways, this is really better.  I was in the room when my father passed away and as much as I wanted to be with him until the end, I have horrible memories of the last few minutes and then the time afterwards.  I would have rather had the good memories and not the last minute to remember.  Holidays always are harder after the loss of a loved one, but I can not imagine losing someone during the holidays.   Back to our get together, it was a great time.  Tim's daughter Madison also did not make it.  We rarely get to see her, so we really missed her too.  Everyone else was there.  We had lunch first, much to Elijah's dismay.  He wanted to open gifts first, so it was hard to get him to eat.  After lunch we opened gifts and then visited.  We also watched Elizabeth's movie "Horton Hears a Who".  Elijah loved it so much we ended up getting him one on Friday and he watched it all of the way home today!  We all really enjoyed our gifts and the family time.  I feel like I have gained a ton over this Christmas season.  As of last week, I have lost every week, I am so praying that I have lost this week too!  I am back on my healthy eating plan and have already exercised since we got home.  I need to figure out how much I have lost so far it is somewhere between 35-40 pounds.  I am feeling so much better.  I still have a ton to go, but I am doing it pound by pound!!  Here are a few pictures of the fun!!!

 

Christmas Day

Finally after this post I will be up to date!!  Of course I will still need to post about Christmas in IN with Doug's family.  Christmas day was wonderful.  Both kids were really into Christmas by this time.  Sarah had figured out how to open presents and tore right in, no wasting time on playing with the paper!  The kitchen was a big hit.  Both kids have really enjoyed playing with it.  Elijah really enjoyed his Geo-trak airport and can connect it with the train station Pop-pop and Karen got him.  The piano was also a favorite of both.  Mommy is tired of it, but the kids love playing and singing with it.  Where are the tylenol?  Here are the pictures!

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa.

Santa set up stuff.

Christmas morning!!!

Happy New Years!!!!!! 

Hope everyone has a blessed 2009!!