November Update a Little Late!

Christopher is nine! I cannot believe my oldest is nine. It seems like just yesterday he was a tiny little baby! Outside of the very cold and snowy weather, November was rather uneventful. For this I am very grateful. The kids are pretty healthy, although Chris did get strep throat. Cassidy has not been on antibiotics recently and she has been referred to an ENT. Finally! I am still waiting for the doctor's office to call and let me know who she is going to go to. Barry is very healthy and happy. He does not really remember Brad, so he does not seem to have the same kind of issues as the other two. We are still getting counseling which is really helping. My kids really like to go and see Kathleen (our counselor.) She is very nice. The only problem is that as of the 18th, she is out of work until the grant is renewed. Anyway, she is going to give me the names of some people that will take our insurance and still be able to help the kids. My life is a little overwhelming at the moment and the kids have nothing much to do with it. They are doing well in school and swimming, AWANA, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts. It makes me happy that they are feeling so much better about things. Anyway, my life is crazy mainly becasue of, well, you guessed it - Brad. Long story that is not really important, however, if we did not have kids, I would be done talking to him altogether. Anyway, have a wonderful holiday season!!

27 out of 40

Hello everyone! I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! This year my oldest will be nine (tomorrow)!!! I cannot believe that he is already getting so big! He was tested for allergies (finally) last week. The allergist gave him the "40" test. They pricked Christopher's back with 40 different environmental things (trees, grass, animals, mold, dust mites, etc.) He was allergic to 27 of the things. Every tree that he was tested for, every grass, 2 different types of dust mites, and cats and dogs. They will test him for food allergies in March. He hated it. He now takes five different kinds of medicine every day. One for ADHD, 4 for allergies/asthma. He also has an emergency inhaler for his asthma for only when he needs it. He is supposed to take another allergy med, but the insurance needs to get the doctor's pre-authorization. At least now we know part of his allergies.

Cassidy and Barry are fine! Cassidy will be seeing an ENT soon to discuss whether she needs her tonsils removed or something like that. Right now though she is feeling pretty good. Barry is doing great. He is the healthiest of my kids. Anyway everyone is doing fine!

Seven

My friend Christa (who blogs at No End in Site) tagged me for this little survey. You’re supposed to reveal seven random things about yourself that others may not know. This could get interesting…

1. I like Jelly Belly Jelly Beans way more than I should! I like the sour ones the best.

2. I chose my daughter's name when I was in fifth grade after I read a book with main character with the same name.

3. While I was in college, I worked as a camp counselor at a Bible camp. I got to play nurse the last year I worked there.

4. I actually like racquetball (although volleyball is better). I learned it at Cedarville.

5. I was a lifeguard for 6 years. To this day, I still "guard" any pool I go to. The guards at the YMCA have even asked me to guard for them when they are short handed. It can get a little overwhelming!

6.I love Gloria Jean's coffee. I do not really like any other kind of coffee. I am so glad that the nearest Gloria Jean's is at the mall (at least 30 minutes away.)

7. I love to read! I really, really love to read. Mostly fiction, but I will read almost anything.

Now I’m supposed to tag some other bloggers to do the same thing. I’m not sure they’ll all do it, but I tag:

Anyone who wants to.

October Update

Total chaos. I suppose anyone with kids can understand where I am coming from. I think at the moment the chaos is somewhat controlled. I went to AWANA last night and the girls had a lot of fun. One of our girls has downs syndrome. She had emergency surgery on Monday, her growth plate in her hip slipped out of place. Please pray for her. Her name is Libby. Anyway at the end of club, I had one of Christopher's Sparky leaders tell me how smart he was. She said that he would read the verses and then change the worlds he did not really understand to words that meant the same thing so he was sure that he knew what he was learning. I am so happy for him. He is finally able to focus enough to show the world how smart he is, something I have known all the time! Cassidy is at a girl scout event right now. She sold over 200 boxes of cookies so far. She is so proud of herself. Barry loves to come home from school and tell me everything that happened over the whole day, to him and his friends. Today and tomorrow the kids are not in school. Their teachers have inservice. Christopher's teacher went on maternity leave on Wednesday. Cassidy got a new teacher about two weeks ago. Her teacher got a new job. Barry is the only one so far that did not get a new teacher yet. I hope he does not. Christopher's teacher comes back in January. (She is having a boy, she thinks!) Anyway, I just thought I'd update everyone.

Just a quick thought -> I am SO not ready for snow!!! (The weather report says we might get some on Sunday!!) TOO SOON!!!!!

AWANA

Well, everything here is pretty normal so I thought I'd tell you all about AWANA. For those of you who do not know, AWANA stands for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed. It is a church club with Bible memorization, instruction and of course games. The club is divided into age groups- Puggles (2 year olds), Cubbies (3 and 4 year olds), Sparkies (kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders). After Sparks, the clubs are divided by sex also. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth graders are in Truth and Training. (All three of my kids are in Sparks!) For the junior high and senior high, I know that there is a club for them, but our church does not do those clubs. I am the director of the girl's Truth and Training. We have done a lot of fun things in there. Last week we had a mom and daughter game night. We had most of our girls there with some of their moms. They had such a good time that they said we had to do it again! We are going to do two service projects. I hope to do one this month and one in the spring. We are doing a Missionary project with Bethesda as soon as they get back to us about what they need help with. We have about 12 girls that come every week. They really seem to enjoy coming. There are 4 books to do in T&T. No matter when you start you begin with the first book. We have two sixth graders who are in the fourth book. The books are designed to be done one a year, but any girl that starts late can move through the books as quickly as she can. We have a fifth grader who is in book 2, but she will probably be done with book three by the time the year is over. I just thought I'd let you know what is going on with me every Wednesday night. :)

Kids again!

Wow, last week was a bit insane. This week looks a little better, well it did before all three kids got sick and missed school today. As soon as I leave here, I am taking them to an after hours clinic, so they can HOPEFULLY not miss any more school. It is really hard to get them an appointment on Mondays. They all started getting sick yesterday, and well now they got me sick too!!! Christopher slept until 2pm today. He was so pale. He looks and feels better right now, but he still gets to go in to the doctor. Any way, I think I keep jumping from one thought to another, so if none of this makes any sense, I am sorry. My head is a little achy right now. Cassidy probably has an ear infection (she has them a lot and never really has a fever or earaches), she has been coughing and that usually leads me to her ears. Anyway, Barry just has a cold I think, but you never know! I'll fill you in later!

Crazy life!!

Lets see, where to begin? I do not even know! My life is so crazy! My kids really seem to be going in ten different directions and they are still little. What am I going to do when they get big enough to really have lots to do. I think I will just have to let them figure it out. This past weekend the Colvins took my kids on Saturday and kept them the WHOLE day. It was so nice to have a day with no kids. I did not have to feed them breakfast or lunch (they ate at grandma's house), I did not have to entertain them, I actually got stuff done! Hooray! Yesterday Christopher had a counseling session that went really well. Today Cassidy has Girl Scouts, and then all three kids have swimming lessons. I am watching my nephew so his mom can go to a funeral. Tomorrow we have AWANA, and Thursday we have more swimming lessons. I am pretty sure the kids do not have some place to go on Friday, but I have an AWANA activity with the girls T&T. Then on Saturday, I have a counseling session with Brad's counselor again. That is just this week. Oh well, I will survive! :)

When it rains. . .

WOW!! We had so much rain here this weekend. Northwest Indiana does not flood that often. This year we have had two major flooding issues. First this spring, but that did not really affect my neighborhood. However, this past weekend, it poured!! My yard was completely under water. My neighborhood is situated on the top of a hill. We live very close to a creek, but it is below the hill. The road leading to the creek was completely under water. Lake George in Hobart flooded so badly that it washed away 3rd Street (the water is not down yet, so it may to be as bad as that.) There is a huge sinkhole on 73rd Avenue, one of the major road ways in the Hobart/Merrillville area. There was so much rain that most Northwest Indiana schools were canceled yesterday, including all of the area colleges. Most schools are back in school today, but some are not. I do not think I have ever heard of our area schools closing because of flooding! We always seem to have to make up snow days, but this year we will have to make up a "flood" day also. The major highways around here are closed also. I 80/94 is closed from the IL/IN state line all the way to Chesterton (close to me.) That is about a 30 mile stretch (or more). I know that IN did not see the amount of rain and wind that Texas did, but man, this is a lot more rain than I am used to. The rain ended on Sunday night and the roads are still closed. What an awesome God we have. Yes, we got lots of rain, but it did not flood every where. My house and family are safe. My mother's house is safe, my friends and their families are safe. It could have been so much worse. I thank God that it was not any worse for the people that I know and care about.

Weekend of rain!

What about this rain!? I took Christopher to the Colvin's house today. Ron was going to spend the afternoon with him. (They had a really good time.) Anyway, I got a phone call from Ron telling me not to take 73rd. If you know 73rd avenue in Hobart/Merrillville, then you will know about the dangerous curve that is between 51 and Colorado. There is a sinkhole about 14 feet deep across both lanes of the road. When I got to the Colvin's house, there was a car in the sinkhole almost completely under water. All I could see was the left rear tire and part of the trunk! The man driving the car got out OK, but his car was flooded in a BIG way! For all you Northwest Indiana people, you will know that the rain is not over yet. We are supposed to get heavy rain tonight and the weather report on the radio said "100% chance of heavy rain tomorrow." Roads all over the area are already under water. There has been so much rain already. I suppose I should not complain. We are not in the middle of Hurricane Ike, so it could be worse. Cassidy is at a horse show in southern Indiana and they have not had rain there yet. She got pushed over by the baby horse and got muddy, so I guess that means that they did have rain earlier this week. Anyway, I'll keep you posted!

Quick Update

Christopher decided this morning to wake us all up by throwing up! YUCK!!! He is asleep on my mother's chair right now. (We had to come here to be here when the Sear repairman came to fix the washing machine.) He was not so patiently waiting for him to leave and now he is waiting for me. Anyway, hopefully this will not travel through the family!!

Update

I have a little update about Brad. He got out of jail last December. I expected him to really cause a lot of problems for me right from the beginning. I have been pleasantly surprised that he has been on his best behavior. He only communicated with me through his mom because he was not allowed to talk to me until I talked to his counselor. I did not talk to her until the very beginning of August. That was the hardest meeting I have ever had to go to. Everything that I thought I had gotten past was brought back to the surface. I have come to the decision that I am not quite as over everything as I thought. I have gone back to talk to the counselor twice. Once alone and once with Brad. (The first meeting Brad was at and he had to do all the talking.) I am getting child support, again another thing I did not think I would ever see. Brad has not tried to see the kids yet. It is part of his parole that he stay away from kids under 18. From what he has said, he does want to see our kids. I am still a little uncomfortable with the idea, but it will be court supervised, so it should be fine. The kids have all figured out that he is out of jail, but Christopher is the only one who is having a hard time with not seeing him. After my first meeting, Christopher said that since I had talked to "Daddy" he should be able to see him too. I have been considering getting Christopher some counseling, but could never afford it. I found a place near our home that counsels kids for free, so we have our first appointment on Wednesday right after school. Cassidy has started telling people that her dad is dead. I have told her that she cannot lie to people about things. She may start counseling also, if I see that she is continuing to have an issue with the "Daddy" stuff. I think that she is angry that her dad is not around to do thing with her, like her friends' dad's do. Matt and Nick have both done special things with her, but she is starting to see that it is not the same. (Nick and Matt both took her to her Girl Scout Daddy/Daughter Dance the past two years.) Barry does not seem to care much about whether or not he has a daddy in the picture. Anyway back to Brad. I have been told that he may not be able to see the kids until at least December and if that does not happen it could take as long as December of 2010 or 11, before he can see them. Anyway, I will let you know how things are going as things happen.

Just wondering

Well, I am a little confused. I have been sneezing like crazy and my nose keeps running, but until today I was not coughing at all. At first I thought I was just allergies, but now I am not so sure. Also, my kids started swimming lessons again this week. Of course, I HAVE to swim too. I wonder if that has anything to do with me feeling sick. Anyway, Cassidy has a horse show this weekend, her first girl scout meeting next Tuesday, AWANA started on Wednesday, Christopher's boy scouts start next Tuesday (after Cassidy's girl scout meeting), and the swimming lessons are every Tuesday and Thursday. I think that I am going to go crazy this month. Maybe that is why I am sick!! :)

August update!

Well, we are officially back to school. The kids are having a good time in school. Barry came home last night and told me that there are 5 school days and the other two days are called weekends. He thought that was the greatest thing to learn. Our church starts AWANA on the 3rd. All three of my kids are in Sparkies! They are getting so big. I am the director of our girls Truth and Training club. Our theme for this year is going to be Women of the Bible. We are starting with Deborah. I am really excited about the year and I can not wait to see the girls again. Have a great Labor Day!!

Horse Show, August 17, 2008

My kids all competed in a horse show today.

Cassidy competed in SHOWMANSHIP, WALK / TROT 9 & UNDER, PONY WALK / TROT, SENIOR HORSE WALK / TROT, NOVICE RIDER WALK / TROT, and ENGLISH SADDLES WALK / TROT 18 & UNDER. She came in second in WALK / TROT 9 & UNDER, fifth place in PONY WALK / TROT (she did better than Connie did), and sixth place in NOVICE RIDER WALK / TROT. She did not place in the others. This was her first English saddle competition. In her SENIOR HORSE WALK / TROT, there were 27 people. Cassidy was the youngest. She had a really good time.



Barry competed in LEADLINE class. Connie (my sister-in-law) lead him around while he tried to guide the horse. He came in first. He was quite excited.



Christopher competed in the WALK class. He rode the horse with no one around (all by himself). He was proud of himself. He was afraid of first. He also got first.



We spent the whole day at the show and the kids cannot wait until they can go to another show!

Summer Update A Little Late

WOW!! It has been a long time since I wrote any update! This has been an interesting summer. I have been babysitting my nephew (Brad's older sister, Kim's son) every other week all summer. Zack is eleven so he is a little older than my kids. Christopher, Cassidy, and Barry are all fine. They love having Zack over every other week. Cassidy and Chris were is Danny Martin's wedding in July. Cassidy was the flower girl. Christopher was the ring bearer. They thought it was great fun. I am still working for my mother. Nick (my brother) is building a deck for her. I am helping as much as I can. The kids start school next week. Barry is in full day kindergarten, Cassidy is in first grade and Christopher is in second. Cassidy and Christopher are in a multi-age class. These classes have about 10 first graders and 10 second graders, so they have the same teacher two years in a row. I really like the program. They do have two different teachers, but the teachers work together some of the time. Cassidy is still riding the horses. She moved up from the Leadline class to Walk/Trot. She is working on the canter part and is almost ready to move up to the Walk/Trot/Canter class. She is also learning to ride an English saddle and bareback. She has not competed in English riding or bareback yet, but she is getting there. She went to the Lake County Fair last Friday and came in first place in the Walk/Trot class and second place (out of 12 people 18 and under) in the costume class. She had a great time. Christopher came in first in the Leadline class and Barry came in first in the "Stick Horse" class. They both thought it was cool that they got to be in a horse show like Cassidy does. She has another show hopefully on Sunday of this week and them she is in a weekend long show on the 22nd-24th. She can not wait. The boys will be able to ride in the show if we go this Sunday, but not the 22-24. On another note, I had a meeting with Brad and his counselor about two weeks ago. It was the first time I had seen or talked to Brad in over four years. It was very hard to get through that meeting. I got the first apology since everything happened and he also told me that it wasn't my fault. (I know I did nothing, but it was nice to hear from him.) He had to tell me some stuff I did not know about. I thought I was over most of that stuff, but, it reopened the hurt and I guess I am not as over it as I thought. He will still not be allowed to see the kids for at least a year. After a year he can petition the parole board and maybe get to see them, but if not it will be at least three years. We will see what happens. I have a meeting with his counselor on Saturday and then another meeting with him and her in about two weeks. Anyway, life is not bad. The kids are ready to go back to school and I am more than ready for them too. :) Here is a picture from the wedding.

I just realized how long it has been since I wrote anything! I have been finishing a semester in school. (I have two classes left to take.) My life is pretty full right now. My kids seem to be going in ten different directions. Christopher has boys scouts and swimming lessons. Cassidy has girl scouts, swimming lessons, and horseback riding stuff. Barry has swimming lessons. Last week was the last week for AWANA so that is one less direction to go. Cassidy competes on the horse. She does showmanship, costume class, trail, and one other class that I cannot remember the name of with a Western saddle. This year she is also learning English riding. She has her first competition of the season next weekend. She is really excited. Last year she came in second in the state for her age group. She was in 6 and under lead line. (The horse was lead around the arena.) This year she could still be in lead line, but she is good enough to ride without a lead line, so she is doing it alone. She loves it!!! Christopher is doing great with his swimming. He is reviewing the guppy class at the Y, but I could have just let him move up to the next class. He has not taken swimming lessons in almost a year. Barry and Cassidy are in their first class. They are both doing great also.

Christopher is still struggling with his ADHD. We changed his meds (again) and instead of helping they are making it worse. We go back to the doctor on Monday to see what we can do next. He is trying so hard and I feel so bad when he ends up in trouble for something I know he can do, and has done, right.

I will try to keep up on this blog stuff, but I cannot promise anything!!

A Reprieve

Christopher is doing better. At least with his stomach problems. I have stopped giving him his ADHD meds while he is on spring break (this week). He has not had a single stomach problem since then. I am hoping when we go back to the doctor on the 3rd, we will figure out a new kind of med to help him. I am hoping that he will be put on the ADHD patch. It would enter his body through his skin and not through his stomach. I am hoping that if we can switch to the patch his stomach issues will go away. I will have to put him back on the Vyvanse next Monday when he returns to school, so I am a little worried that his stomach issues will return again. He is very hard to keep focused most of the time when he is not taking his meds for ADHD, but I will put up with the chaos if he feels better! We did have a little problem with his asthma today. I am so happy that the doctor I changed to in Jan. takes walk in patients and has late hours. We went to the office at 4pm today and because asthma is so serious they put Christopher to the front of the line and saw him immediately! He was given a breathing treatment right a way and he felt better and ready to play within minutes. He is now on some new meds for his asthma and allergies, but they are both inhalers so they should not affect his stomach. He is on an oral steriod again, this time a pill but it is only for 5 days. Hopefully it will not affect his stomach and we will not have a repeat of the vomiting that we were dealing with off and on the past couple of months. Cassidy and Barry are fine! That has allowed me to focus my energy on Christopher and trying to help him. We are staying at my mother's house until tomorrow night. She went to Texas for a funeral and will be back late. Her dog cannot be left without someone, me, to take care of him. The kids are treating the couple of nights at her house like a party. They are enjoying being here. God is watching out for my family in a very big way!! We now have a doctor who is doing everything he can to get Christopher set up to be healthy and happy. It makes such a big difference when the doctor is as interested in keeping your children healthy as you are.

On another note, I will post pictures as soon as I can figure out how!

Life in general

Enough is enough!!! My poor son (Christopher) has been diagnosed with medication induced gastritis. :sad: He now has to take a new kind of medication (yes, more meds) to deal with that. He is on Zantec 75 twice a day. He really does not like to take that pill. We go back to the doctor on the 27th to see what needs to be done next. I took him off acidy food, like tomatoes and ketchup. He has a really hard time with that. He likes to eat pizza (tomato sauce), spaghetti (again tomato sauce), and ketchup. I bought him honey so he could use it instead of ketchup with chicken nuggets or stuff like that. The other kids are doing pretty good. They start their spring break tomorrow.

And what is with this weather!! I want warm sun shiny skies with green grass, flowers, and leaves on trees. Is that really too much to ask!?

Feb. Update

Well, things are going pretty well right now. My kids are doing fine. Christopher did great on his last report card!! Last year he was really behind in everything. He is now back in the regular class most of the day and he got an HP (high performance) in math. An HP is the same as a A. He got S or S+ in everything else. That is the same as a B or B+. In school he is like a different child. His teachers are really happy with his improvement. I am so proud of him. We are still dealing with some behavior issues, but we are getting better.
Cassidy is doing well. She had another ear infection last week and I am worried that her hearing is damaged from all the infections she has had. (She has probably had 30 infections in her little life.) She had a hearing test done and she could not hear the lower tones at all in either ear. The school nurse said that it could be due to her current infection, however Cassidy's teacher and I have both noticed that she does not hear everything that she should. I have switched my children's doctor and their new doctor is very interested in keeping them healthy. He had already done more for Christopher than their old doctor. He is already talking about putting tubes in her ears (I think that should have been done long ago.)
Barry is fine. He loves preschool and comes home with all kinds of interesting facts to tell me. He started last week telling me all the planets in our solar system. He was quite earnest in the recital of them even when he did not pronounce them correctly.
About Brad, I went to his parents house last week to pick up a shirt for Cassidy and had a nice long talk with his mother. He has decided to let me keep the computer. That is a huge relief because I use it for school. He has still not tried to contact the kids, which is okay with me. They know that he is home, but they have not really asked about him much. Christopher is the only one to really be interested in why he has not called yet. Until last Wednesday, I had nothing to tell him because I had not talked to anyone and did not know what was going on myself. He is not allowed to talk to the kids right now. I do not know when that will change. Please pray that when it does I will know the best way to handle the results.
I will post more when I learn more.