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.

Christmas update

Well, we had a really nice Christmas. Everyone had a great time. However on Christmas Eve, we were not so happy. I had to take Christopher to the ER because he was having issues with his breathing and just did not feel well. They gave him an IV, which of course he hated! Then they took him to get an x-ray. He had pneumonia!!!!! They gave him a very powerful antibiotic through his IV and then let him come home. Of course, I had to pick up his medicine before we could actually make it home. Anyway, he felt a LOT better for Christmas and he feels even better today.
On another note, my ex-husband is out of jail. I am still sorting out how I feel about this new development. He has not tried to get in contact with me or my kids (HOORAY!!!), but I am sure it is just around the corner. Maybe soon I will start to get child support. That, I think, will be about the only good thing to come out of him getting out. I have not told my children that he is out yet. I have not figured out how to, but I am not hiding it either. When people ask me about it, I tell them and if my kids figure it out then that is okay. (Cassidy figured it out on Monday. She said that she does not want to see him again because he is a bad man. For those of you who do not know me, I do not talk bad about my kids father, especially around my kids. She said that one all on her own. He told them where he was and to a certain extent why he was there.) I am most worried about Christopher figuring it out. He is just now starting to get everything in order. He is doing soooooooo much better is school and things are going really well at home. I am afraid if he finds out, his little life will flip again and he will start doing worse again. Oh well, we will see. Maybe he will surprise me and take it all in stride.
Well that is enough for today. Talk to you all soon

Family Update

I am back. My fall semester is over and I only have one more semester to go. I really cannot wait. I am a psychology major. I am planning on getting my master's degree and working in a high school. I am not planning on being a teacher, however the family bug to work in school is still working in me. I want to be a school counselor. My kids only have 4 more days of school until their winter break. My oldest, Christopher, is eight and has so many allergies that life is not always easy for him. He also has severe asthma. He was diagnosed with ADHD in September but now that he is on medication he is doing extremely well in school and at home. The only issue that we are having is that his medication is making him NEVER want to eat. He is also a Tiger Scout. He really enjoys it. Cassidy, my middle child, is six. She is in the middle of kindergarten and having a wonderful time. She is a Brownie Scout and thinks that selling cookies is great! (She sold 180 boxes of cookies this year.) She loves anything that has to do with dolls and girlie stuff. My youngest is Barry. He is four. Of course, his favorite thing to do is to spend lots of time with me. He always wants to be in the same room I am in. Right now he is decorating my mother's Christmas tree. He is looking very carefully at every decoration and deciding which one goes on the tree first. All three of my kids are in AWANA at church. They love to go. They are all doing well and passing section every time. Barry loves to quote John 3:16 just to show that he can.

Hello!

Well, I am going to try this whole blog thing. I know that it will be a nice way for me to let everyone know how things are going. I will post some pictures as soon as I get a chance.