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.