Life as a Leach

I realized I didn't post on here our updated surgery date.  If you don't follow me on Facebook, Abby's date was moved up to September 8th.  We were really happy about this because her kyphosis is getting worse and the concern for spinal cord injury is real. I'm so thankful that Abby gets to start school on time, even if it's just for a week.  She needs that little bit of normalcy and it's a "first" that should be celebrated! Speaking of normalcy, Matt and I talked the other night about our constant need to cram in as much normalcy as possible while we can.  Crafts, trips to the zoo, pool time...so much fun, so little time.  In my urgency to give them so much normalcy, I'm reluctant to just hang out and rest at home.  The rain today forced us to have a day at home.  After church, we got some things done around the house, the kids played Disney Infinity together, they went over to our neighbor's house for a little while, I made dinner, and we...

So, we had an interesting Spring Break.  Interesting may not be a positive term, in this case! It started out great, with a trip to Gettysburg with Matt to celebrate our anniversary a little early.  I'll post separately on that, so that I can share about our adventures. We got back Tuesday night and we spent the next day unpacking, doing laundry, dealing with lots of frustrating behaviors, and quickly emptying out the kitchen so that we could get a new vinyl floor put in on Thursday. While the installation seemed to go fine (once the A team got there and took charge!) and we love the look of the floor, we noticed that night that all of the chairs were putting indents into the floor--even the ones that no one had sat in!  I realized we truly had a problem when I was sitting on the floor looking at the dents and realized that my ankle had also dented the floor.  So, we called the first thing the next morning, but they were closed for Good Friday. ...

Oh my.  I've been neglecting my blog recently.  Between illnesses (and therefore going to bed very early), attempting to work out on a regular basis, and working on a project for work after the kids go to bed, there hasn't been much time.  I don't blog while the kids are awake, and those precious few hours have been spent doing other things! So what's new?!  *  Caleb turned 8!  We had a fun laser tag party the day after his birthday.  He loved having some of his close friends and cousins with him.  I only questioned my sanity a few times!  :)  No, it really was fun.  Pictures are coming--promise!  Favorite gifts include some new Lego sets, lots and lots of books, several Amazon gift cards for his Kindle, and an awesome microscope and slide set.  He is a happy kid! *  Abby's pancreas and liver issues appear to have subsided. Her blood work is back to normal and the new reflux medicine has finally allowed her to k...

Lol!  Hope this made you smile!

1.  These two are so funny together!  They were having a "hoe-down" here. Yes, that's a colander on Sara's head... 2.   The girls have quite enjoyed the dress-up doll quilt Grammy made for Abby!  Little felt dresses and hats stick to the dolls.  So cute! 3.   The boy who wasn't tired after a long weekend fell right asleep on the couch! 4.   A super-sweet former student of mine made Abby a cute little purse.  Abby promptly put all of the checkers pieces in it. :)

Guys, you know I talk a big talk about Choosing Joy.  And I do try.   Try.    But today was rough.   I kinda had a feeling that I was teetering on the edge of stability when I sobbed through "Our God" on the radio on the way to church.  But all it took was a totally innocent comment in Sunday School about how children are a gift and we never know how much time we will have with them for me to completely lose it.  I had to make a quick exit before they saw my Ugly Cry.   These sorts of emotional meltdowns are usually unannounced.  One day, I can nonchalantly sing along to a song on the radio, and the next day I flood the driver's side.   I don't expect people who are not in this situation to understand.  But our reality is that the VEPTR is a last resort.  Without this surgery series, we will most likely lose Abby.  But the surgery series has risks and complications in itself, and Abby's respiratory sta...

My boy loves World War II.  This book is a pretty intense, high-level book.  He absolutely loves learning about each battle, examine the maps that show the invasions, and identifying the "good" guys and the "bad" guys.  He has a lot of questions, so it's a good thing that WWII is my favorite too! My van is in my garage for the first time in 3 years.  We got a beautiful storage shed, threw a lot of stuff away, took a lot of stuff to the thrift store, and loaded up the shed.  It's wonderful to have my van back in the garage!!! Abby got Lambie (from Doc McStuffins) a few weeks ago.  I think she's the new favorite.  She goes everywhere! This is the rough draft of a thankfulness book Caleb is working on in school.  He's such a sweet boy.   I'm thankful that he "gets" it!

...and so little time!! I have lots and lots of pictures and stories to share, but I have been super busy.  Work is really picking up and my job has kind of morphed from teaching to doing mostly staff development.  It's very new and different, but I really like it! I do have a few cell phone photos I can share with you to give you a few indications of what we've been up to. We went to Disney on Ice with Starlight!  As always, the kids loved it.  We met a delightful Starlight family with a very entertaining son who kept me smiling through the entire show.  He was so sweet! This picture says so much!  Abby got sick with a little stomach bug on Halloween, which meant our festivities were limited to decorating pumpkins with play-dough while Caleb and Matt went to the fall festival at church.  We decided to make a Hello Kitty in honor of Reagann, a friend of ours from RMH who is fighting a very serious infection back home in Missouri.  S...

My presentation went really well, and we got some great feedback.  It just about killed me and I think I put in a total of 18 extra hours (in addition to work hours) in the last week, but it was worth it! Sadly, my computer crashed Tuesday night (AFTER I finished my work on my presentation, thankfully!)  and I haven't had anything to use but my phone.  It's kinda hard to write a blog post on your phone! My laptop is still in the process of being fixed, but Matt is hauling his work laptop back and forth so that we have something to use. I did manage to take a break from my work long enough to get in on a little of this action, though!  :)

The little ole blog is going to be a bit quiet over the next week or so.  Why, you ask?  Well, my coworker and I have a tremendous opportunity to do a SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) presentation for a whole bunch of teachers in our county...and it's next week...and we just found out yesterday.  Because it's a big deal for us to get to do this and has the potential to get the word out about the program we are presenting (and love, and believe in!), we need to do it right.  Which means that I will eat, sleep, and breathe SIOP for the next week.  But it will all be worth it if we can spread the word about the awesomeness of the program. So here's an update to catch you up and tide you over: Abby loves school.  She isn't telling us too much about it, but I consistently get that she plays with Anna and gets a stamp from Ms. Susan.  Her Friday Mom's Morning Out program is awesome too, and I love that she has the same teachers and can...

I have lots of fun pictures of recent events on my camera right now!  I just have to help them make their way to my computer, then edit them.  This all takes time, which I am very short on at the present time...between two crazy kids, feeding Abby every meal, doing work for the training I am leading next week, and managing a household from 2 hours away, I don't have lots of time.  Add very spotty internet to the mix and blogging is pretty much not going to happen too often.  Sorry! We had a great 4th of July with our little family of four.  This is actually the first time all four of us have had the opportunity to have some fun together since we've been up here, because Matt is only up here for short amounts of time and most everything is centered around feeding.  I'll save the details for another post, but our holiday included Port Discovery, fireworks, and RMH friends! Unfortunately, we are seeing more and more that Abby is suffering from separation a...

Caleb is officially up here with Abby and me now, and life is certainly not dull!  (Abby keeps things lively too, but Caleb just adds an interesting  element to things!) Yesterday in the car, he informed me that he has an entire world in his head.  He calls it his "Imagine-Nation."   Get it?!   :) Today, we took Abby to feeding school, stayed for breakfast, then came back to RMH.  We put together a Lego set, watched some cartoons, ate lunch, and snuck in a little writing practice (it's amazing that just drawing a picture to go along with his writing makes it so much more bearable!).  We'll head back to the hospital in a little while so that we are there in time for snack.  It's unfair for me to expect Caleb to stay at the hospital all day, so this seemed to work out well. Tomorrow, we may try to go to the zoo if the weather cooperates.  Otherwise, we'll probably spend a few hours at the Science Center.  I want to do something speci...

Yesterday, a car hit my parked car while trying to pull into a parking space at MW.  The door and back quarter panel do not appear dented, but there are a lot of deep gashes that will rust if not repaired.  Although she certainly could have gotten away with it, the sweet woman left a note with her contact information.  When I called her, she was very apologetic and told me that she would never hit a car and not leave a note.  Praise God for some people who still have integrity!! The claim has been filed and my van will be fixed as soon as I can get it back home to our local auto body shop...the same shop that fixed it so wonderfully just a month ago.  :( So, it's an annoying problem, but it definitely could have been much worse!  I'm thankful for the woman's honesty, because there aren't too many people like that these days.

Our local strawberry patch is open!!!! Once you eat these organic, fresh-picked strawberries, you'll never buy them from the grocery store again.  Ever.

Bad news:  I was rear-ended today. Good news:   It wasn't my fault. I was going to pick up Abby from preschool when the car in front of me stopped short as the car in front of it turned left.  I went over onto the shoulder to make sure that this car had plenty of room.  The car behind me also tried to come over onto the shoulder, but she was going too fast not to hit me.  I'm glad I moved over, or I would have probably been sandwiched between 2 cars! It was a little more than a fender-bender; the bumper, back hatch, and left corner panel will have to be replaced.  There's also damage to the metal undercarriage behind the bumper, due to a hitch piercing the bumper.  I'm not sure if anything will need to be replaced in the undercarriage. Thankfully, I had a witness who confirmed that the accident was the woman's fault to the police officer.  My insurance company has already put the cost on her, and I will be able to get a rental car. Appar...

Here comes Miss Personality! She swears these are Daddy's shoes.  She was walking around the kitchen with her pom pom cheering, "Daddy's shoes!  Daddy's shoes!  Daddy's shoes!"  When I told her they were mine, she looked me in the eye and said, "No they not!  They daddy's shoes!  I wear them!"

I am exercising...like, on a regular basis.  Like, getting up early, sweating, and willingly causing myself to ache all day.  Yeah, I know!  Crazy! Matt and I both have started going down to the basement in the morning before the kids wake up.  We do different things and share the bike, but we figure that at least we are doing something  on a regular basis to lose weight and get in shape.  (Side note:  Matt went on the "stomach bug" diet last weekend and lost 10 pounds!!  I'm not sure he would recommend that one though...) I bought this video over the weekend because I liked the idea that it's just a 20 minute workout.  Even though I knew it would be intense (That's Jillian Michaels' middle name!), I figured that I could do it for 20 minutes.  Huh!  It is rough!!!  I'm doing it though! There are 3 different workouts that all are good cardio workouts, but each have a different focus (upper body, lower body, and abs). ...

Our house is a germ pit, and it's not because of a lack of disinfecting on my end!  Lord knows I've done more laundry this winter than I have ever done in my life, and the bleach/water solution has been my best friend.  However... *  I was miserably sick a week and a half ago.  I had a fever, chills, body aches, head ache, and nausea.    There isn't much that keeps me in bed (or from going to work, for that matter), but I could barely lift my head off of my pillow without getting dizzy and nauseous.  I was so appreciative to my sister who came over in time to get Caleb off the bus and watch both kids for the evening while Matt was at youth group.  Looking back, it was probably Flu B.  (See below vvv) *  Caleb tested positive for Flu B on Friday.  He'd had a fever off and on since Tuesday, and it spiked to 104 on Thursday.  He was given Tamiflu and seems to be on the mend.  He's excited to finally go back to school tomo...

So what if Abby drinks her Pediasure out of plastic shot glasses I found at the Walmart check-out aisle?! She loves the bright colors and likes dictating which color she wants to drink from next.  The size is perfect for her because we've found that bigger cups with the same amount of milk in them overwhelm her.  I pour four "shots" at each meal and if she finishes all of it, it's about 3 ounces.  That's really good for Abby!!  Our feeding therapist LOVED the cups and thought they were perfect.  She's going to start suggesting them to other families! So...I say, whatever works!!   For the record, we have not yet actually done this out in public.  I fear what I might say to a "well-meaning" stranger who chastises us for encouraging under-aged drinking...

I recently heard about the Cozi app from my sister.  It is an online family calendar that can be accessed by multiple family members who share the same password.   There is also a free app, so I figured I would try it out.  What did I have to lose? Oh. My. Goodness. I am in love!!! The set-up process is really easy, and you just make it a password that everyone who accesses it will know.  For our family, only Matt and I are using it, but I can see where a family with busy teenagers would love for everyone to have access. Once you have an account, you can start adding events to the schedule!  Each family member has their own color, or you can enter an event for the whole family.   You adjust the time, the place, and the day. You can also say if this is a repeating event (like Wednesday night youth group), and you can have it repeat weekly, daily, biweekly, monthly, etc.  You can also include a stop date for the repeating.  One feature that...