About Me

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I'm your typical, ordinary, every day woman. Married to the man of my dreams and the best friend I could ever ask for. Mom to 3 loud and wild boys. Step mom to 1 loud and wild boy. I stay at home, take care of my family, and love being able to create a happy home and life for them. My life is more than I ever thought it would be...louder, crazier, more chaotic...but I wouldn't trade any of it.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Cooking Day

Thanks to my neighbors, who woke me up with their arguing around 130am, I didnt sleep well last night and was up early.

So I decided to make blueberry muffins for breakfast this morning. The boys love them and we havent had muffins in forever.

While I had the fridge open I noticed some cooked sausage and some cut up green onions, both of which need to be used soon or they will go bad. I have a to die for recipe for sausage soup so decided to make that. And while I was making that I figured I might as well go ahead and make a potato casserole with the smoked sausage sitting there in the fridge. Then I fried up some bacon for supper tonight. And since I was doing all of this cooking, might as well make a batch of baked spaghetti and use up that leftover spaghetti in the fridge!

And.....since I had all these dishes, pans, bowls all messed up dirty I might as well add 1 more and have a batch of brownies!

Heres the mess I had during the process...

The muffins (kids got to them before I could get the picture). Isnt that muffin pan GROSS?! I got it almost 20 years ago. It was the first muffin tin I ever had, and for some reason it just bakes better muffins and cupcakes. No. Really. It does.
And here's supper for the rest of the week...plus some!

Sausage soup...
Potato Casserole...

Baked Spaghetti...

Bacon...

Yummy, yummy brownies...

And a horseshoe for lunch...

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Things That Make Me Happy

my first cup of coffee in the morning
cool fall days
weekends with no plans
rocking Tommy in his rocking chair
good news phone calls from teachers
iced pumpkin cookies
Disney World
snow days
palm trees
clocking out from work on Fridays
hearing "I love you, Mom"
James calling me "babe"

Thursday, September 22, 2011

I love it when things go my way!

So with all the chaos going on right now in our lives, the kids are taking it quite hard.
Zach and Aidan are both acting out at school.

Aidan, with his plethora of energy, has had the hardest time since school started this year. His usual hyper-ness is magnified because of the inner turmoil hes experiencing.

I think everyone at the school is ready to pull their hair out!!!

So we met with our doctor (who I absolutely adore beyond words!) almost 2 weeks ago and he agreed that maybe its time to try some medication. We left a prescription for Adderall.

Turns out insruance wont cover Adderall. So I went back and forth with insurance, the pharmacy, and the doctor before the doctor finally said hed just switch meds.

Yesterday we got the script filled (Methyline ER) and Aidan took his first one this morning.

Today was the most absolutely phenomenal day teh child has ever had at school!
The Dr said we coudl see a change the first day but it usually took several days to a week to notice a change.

Aidan gets a special behavior chart where he earns a smile or frown face each hour based on his behavior (staying in seat and staying on task).  The last couple of weeks he has had, at best, half and half mix of smiles and frowns.
Today he had all smiles.

His teacher said that he stayed in his seat, got all his work done, participated in the discussions...it was like a different child.

The look of pride on his face today will never be matched. Ever.
He was so proud of himself.
I almost cried!

So Im not 100% sure today was solely due to the medication. Its possible but I think unlikely.
However, at the same time, I do not believe that the power of suggestion could keep this child in his seat all day today! I do beleive in a placebo effect and I think some of that played into today.
However, if you knew this child, you would agree that he couldnt manage this on his own.

I feel like Im walking on air tonight!
I am so proud of my baby.
But more importantly, I am so very happy for him!
He is the most sensitive of my children. He wants to do good. He wants approval. He wants to be valued.
His behavior has really taken a toll on his self esteem the last few months.

I pray tomorrow goes as well as today did.
I pray that this medication will be the 'key' to helping him succeed.
I pray that he learns a way to make a peace with the struggles he is facing now that no child should have to face...along with Zach!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Sunday

Yesterday James had to leave to go back to Florida.
Today I miss him horribly.

I hate this back and forth thing that we have been doing for more than a year and a half now!
I try to keep in the front of my mind, though, that we are very fortunate that he is able to telecommute as frequently as he does. We could be stuck with vacation time only.
I still dont have to like it!

I used to hear people talk about how wonderful their spouse was/is. How they arent 'complete' without the other.
And I always thought that was silly.

Then I met James.
And then I got it.

He is everything that I dreamed of in a husband. He is also so much more that I didnt even know that I wanted.
He is so amazingly wonderful!
Kind, caring, gentle, thoughtful, funny, encouraging, supportive, honest, tender...

Parenting? Yeah. Hes wonderful at that too!
One of the first times I saw him with Myles I knew that he was the kind of man I wish Zach and Aidan could have had for their father.

While he isnt their father I consider him to be more than a father to them.
He didnt have to stick around and help to take care of them.
He could have walked away and avoided the addition of 2 kids to his life.
But he stayed. He has been through all the ups and downs of parenting those 2 with me.
That speaks volumes of his character.

Someday, Zachary and Aidan will realize just how lucky they are to have had a man like James in their lives.

We are all very lucky.

Counting down the days till we are together again...I love you, Babe!
<3

Monday, September 12, 2011

So it finally happened...

My sweet boy was in tears after school today because some of the kids at school were making fun of him.

He has Duane Syndrome in his left eye. Some of the muscles that are used to help the eye turn outward are missing so he lacks the ability to turn his left eye outward. When he tries to look to the left with turning his eyes alone, his left eye stays midline and looks forward while his right eye turns inward, looking his right eye is crossed. When he does get his eyes in a situation like this he has double vision.

Its a genetic defect and there is no cure for it. Not even surgery can fix it. However, the good news is that it doesnt always affect the vision of the person (other than the double vision). In order to correct the double vision he just needs to turn his head more to the left that you or I would.

So he asked me why kids would laugh at him because he has a wonky eye.
We talked about how those kids dont know why his eye does that and they probably thought he was doing it on purpose to make them laugh.
My heart truly broke, though, when he said that it isnt funny and it makes him feel bad because he cant help it. He then asked if we can have the doctor give him medicine to fix it.

Now, I fully recognize that as far birth defects go we got off light on this one. There are far worse defects to have. For that I will be eternally grateful.

However, this is the first time in 12yrs of parenting that one of my kids has faced something like this and it just absolutely broke my heart in pieces.

Heres a picture of his eyes when he tries to look outward. As you can see, its definately noticeable!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Pizza Time!

What do you make for supper for 4 hungry boys and 2 hungry parents?

PIZZA!!!

Myles is here for the weekend and tonight is pizza/junk food/movie night.

James, Myles and Tommy made yummy homemade pizzas. We have the fixin's for root beer floats and popcorn. And we are about to fire up Legend of the Guardians : The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

No doubt about the kids, but I sure hope I can stay awake for it all!



Welcome to my blog!

About a year and a half ago I decided I was going to try blogging. So I started a blog. I made a few posts. I got bored with it. I cant get logged into it now.

So here we are with blog attempt #2. :)