Christmas

Wow! We made it through another year! We had a lovely Christmas with our family. It was so nice having everyone together...truly my best gift! 

John and I open our gifts on Christmas Eve as we do each year. He gave me a beautiful Christmas Hummel which is being displayed in my curio cabinet with all my others. He also kept the Coach store in business with all kinds of cool gifts! He also gave me two very pretty necklaces and lots of clothes! I gave him a new receiver, speakers, mixer and clothes...nothing too exciting. 

We started Christmas morning with the kiddo's opening their gifts and I think they were all quite pleased! Timothy, Kathy and Audrey came over around noon and they all opened their gifts, followed by Mommit and Papa. We had snacks throughout the day and a nice ham dinner.

We watched the Cowboys almost win the game and fell into bed around midnight...totally exhausted!

Sunday we did a few exchanges and then took down all the Christmas things so we can have a nice, relaxing, and peaceful New Years Day!

Back to our routine on Monday.

Happy New Year!

More photo's later.

I need a holiday nap but I'm going to have to settle on coffee

We have been really busy with all the birthdays and holidays approaching! We celebrated Thomas and Lainie's birthdays last weekend. They seemed to enjoy the day. It was interesting decorating for a boy and girl at the same time, needless to say they are 12 years apart. I did half blue, with snowmen and half pink, with Hello Kitty. I will post pictures someday....not sure when my developer will give them to me. John has worked 16 out 19 days, so he really hasn't had much time to do anything. He is going to have a week off over Christmas. YAY!

Mom and I just spent 3 full days baking Christmas cookies and making candy. We had a lot of fun listening to Christmas music, reminiscing, telling stories, laughing and I did my fair share of sneaking cookie dough. We made all the family favorites!

We apparently have a Grinch in our neighborhood that enjoys cutting our lights. John spent an hour or more the other night rewiring the sidewalk lights and while we were at dinner last night, they were cut yet again! Everyone in our neighborhood had this same problem last year and they never did get caught. Last night John and I ordered a security camera system that we are going to install on Monday. It records 30 days of footage at a time and it can be viewed on the computer 24 hours a day. Our neighbors have one and they don't have any problems on their property. 

I took Aaron and Lainie to sit on Santa's lap today. Aaron told Santa he would like to have a hamster....first time mommy has heard about this. Lainie would not even get close to Santa she hid directly behind me holding on to my legs for dear life! She did take the candy-cane he gave her. :) 

Maybe next year....

or at least that's what I'll keep saying each year!

Ornament Exchange Party

I spent Sunday afternoon with Amanda, all of her close friends and their mother's. Susie, Ashely's mom organized the event so all the mom's could meet and the girls could spend some time together. Each mom and daughter brought an ornament and each person picked a number, which was the order in which you got to select an ornament. You also had the option of not picking a new ornament and could steal another persons ornament but the same ornament could only be stolen 2 times and the 3rd time it was frozen and stayed with that person. I actually chose to steal someone's ornament since I was 15 out of 17 so I pretty much knew which ornament I wanted. :) Amanda won a prize for bringing the cutest ornament....a crystal Hello Kitty.

We all brought a dish and she had some alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages to drink. I of course chose the non-alcoholic drink. Some of the food was very good! Amanda and I brought a cheese-ball that John and I made. It was really nice getting to know all the girls and their mom's. Some nice people!

When we got back home I listened to rest of the Cowboys game while I made dinner.  It was a pretty intense game.

Go Cowboys!

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was very simple but nice this year. We went out to dinner for the first time and it was nice not having all the preparation and clean up but the food was not nearly as good! Kathy's family joined us and it was a pleasure to have their company. Mommit and Papa stayed home this year and did their own thing.  We decided we are going to stay home and cook next year so we don't feel like we skipped over and Thanksgiving and the good thing is, John is off next year!

After dinner we came home and did our annual family tradition of making giner bread houses. I always enjoy this and of course John's was awesome, as it is each year! Lainie really enjoyed making hers in between eating all the candy! I will post pictures soon.

I have been really busy Christmas shopping but feel like I am really behind. I not only have Christmas shopping but I have multiple birthdays this time of year. I am looking forward to Christmas as I do each and every year! I have been listening to all my Christmas music on my computer this year since my little Lainie dominates the car with all of her DVD's,  although she is watching all the Christmas movies now,  so it does bring back a lot of childhood memories.

I am hoping my mom and I can get some Christmas cookies baked next week while the kids are at school and John is at work. She is feeling a little down missing my gram and I hope this helps brighten her spirit. We all miss nanny and buddy boy, especially during the holidays because they were such a shining star through the holidays and brought so much happiness to those they loved.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

Christmas Pictures

Christmas Cards are done and ready to put in the mail after Thanksgiving. Trees and decorations are all up, so now it's time to concentrate on Christmas shopping....my favorite! 

Our Thanksgiving is going to be less stressful this year, as we are going out to dinner so we can all spend some quality time together. When we get back from dinner, we are going to do our annual gingerbread houses. This will be Kathy and Audrey's first time doing gingerbread houses. We are looking forward to having them share in the holiday festivities this year!

Busy Weekend

We had a very productive weekend. We started by cleaning and organizing our attic and moving some things into a much needed storage unit.  The only thing left in the attic now are all of our holiday decorations, so we can locate them easily as each holiday approaches. John is really happy about this! 

We managed to get all of Christmas decorations out. We had the lights put on the house, but John did all the yard lights and put up all four of the Christmas tress, and I decorated each one. Aaron was the only one eager to help, although Lainie was in awe. She stood and looked at all the decorations and the trees, but she never did touch. Such a big girl!

We also squeezed in the Christmas pictures! We took them just outside our subdivision by the pond. It was very cold, but the little ones seemed to do pretty good. I think we have few really good pictures! 

Yesterday was Kathy's baby shower and it was very nice. It has been many years since I've had to organize an event, but things seemed to go pretty smoothly, and Kathy received a lot of wonderful gifts for baby Ella. Kathy has her last ultra sound November 29th and if she doesn't have the baby prior to January 13th, she will be induced. We are all getting really excited to meet baby Ella Marie.

Today is John's last day off for awhile, so after our busy weekend I think today is good day to go out to lunch and a possible movie. Oops, John just walked in with Lainie and she seems to have the croup with a fever, so we will be staying home with the sick girl.

Happy Halloween

We had a really nice Halloween with the family. Timothy and Kathy came over for dinner and to carve pumpkins. It was Kathy's first pumpkin carving. She said she enjoyed it but seemed to think it was yucky. Lainie and Audrey really weren't interested in helping so they just played outside. 

Lainie was a lion this year. Courtesy of Aunt Lisa / God Mother. She made the costume about 20 years ago for Timothy and it has gone through all my kiddo's minus Amanda because she was a pink only little girl.  We have so many very happy memories and pictures of little lions to treasure, although Lainie said she was kitty Cat....meow. The boys were big mean lions that roared really loud. Audrey was a cute little lady bug, Aaron was Dracula, Johnathon was a clown, Amanda was Minnie Mouse and Thomas was a hippie of some sort.

John said Audrey was very good about saying Trick or Treat and Thank You at each house but Lainie wouldn't say a word, so at the last house John told the lady Lainie was mute. Lainie looked up at the lady and said "I'm mute."  John said "well, maybe not." 

The kids all had a great time and have buckets full of candy!

John's Birthday!

John and I had a fabulous few days together! Thank you mom and dad for helping make it so special!

We started our stay at the Ritz Carlton in Dallas and stayed on the club floor which was pretty cool. We went to the Cowboys game and watched Tony Romo break his collarbone, listened to some drunk obnoxious Giant fans, got spit on a few times, so decided to leave at half-time.  Seeing the stadium, players,  and cheerleaders was pretty cool. We concluded it is actually better to watch the games on television. When we returned from the game we had a rose-pedal turn-down, champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. Very Romantic!

The following day we took a long much needed nap together. I can't even remember the last time we did that! We also went to see a movie and stopped by Sprinkles Cupcakes on the way back to the hotel. We went to eat at a really nice restaurant, Al Biernats.  We decided to take the hotel shuttle which turned out to be a Bentley....also, pretty cool.  

We'll have to start planning for next year. :)

Baby Shower

I think I am finally ready to have this baby shower for Kathy. I can't believe how hard it was to actually get the invitations sent out! First, I fill in the wrong day and had to completely redo all the invitations. Second, I started to redo all the invitations and realized I bought bridal invitations. So the by the third time, I finally managed to buy baby shower invitations and get them filled out correctly. Scary, I really am a grandma!

Luckily, I am not in charge of anything else! 5th Street Cafe is taking care of all the food, drinks and cake for me and my mom is taking care of the games, so all I need to do is show up, and how hard can that be?

Kathy has her last ultra sound this week. She is getting really excited for the baby to arrive!

Good News!

I took Thomas and Amanda to the Pediatric Cardiologist and they both had an EKG and echo cardiogram done and for change we received good news! Both of their hearts are good and strong. The doctor suggested they be checked every ten years as a precaution. He said I can wait until Aaron is between 10 and 12 before I schedule him an appointment.

Aaron finally got his appointment at the Scottish Rite Hospital for his dyslexia testing. He will be going November 9th but we won't receive any diagnosis the day of the appointment. They said it takes a few week to go over all the testing and they will get back to us with any recommendations. The testing process takes about 5 hours.

Amanda goes to her back doctor on Tuesday for a follow up x-ray to see if the curve in her back is changing. She has been experiencing a little back pain and tingling in her feet. She has decided not to wear the brace because she finds it so hard to breath. She tried wearing a few nights and didn't get any sleep. It was sad. :(

Another busy week ahead!

Pumpkin Patch

I had a lovely day at the Pumpkin Patch with my family. Lainie really enjoyed all the farm animals and had fun on the hay ride. Aaron and Lainie both picked out a small pumpkin. We decided we are going to go to Kroger for the carving pumpkins.

Timothy, Kathy and Audrey came over for dinner and to watch the Cowboys lose the game. They are not off to very good start at all. John grilled ribs and I made Nanny's mac and cheese.  I also made a white cake and John made chocolate frosting.  It was all very good and it was so nice to have all my kids together.  It doesn't happen very often so I treasure the moment when it does.

John and I are off to parent teacher conferences tomorrow.  Woo Hoo, John says.

Saturday Night

My day started out really good. I had a chance to visit with my mom this morning while everyone slept in. We had a lot of catching up to do, as it seems we don't have much time to talk anymore.

When Lainie woke up we all went to grocery store and when we returned home I started to put all the groceries away while John preceded to read my calander and asked me why I had Aaron down for 11am and I suddenly remembered that Saturday is tutoring....ooops! I called Miss Kim and explained I forgot and she said I can bring him Saturday and Sunday next week. She is so sweet!

Johnathon made us all dinner tonight for a project in his Culinary Art class. He made Tatar Tot Casserole with fresh green beans. It was all very good and a very nice break for mom!

Amanda is at a birthday party tonight and this is the first party since elementary school that boys are invited too. Kind of scary! They are all going to movie and then over to the birthday girls house for pizza, cake and ice-cream.

John went with Johnathon to The Cutting Edge Haunted House in Ft. Worth. It is in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the longest haunted house. Thomas and Aaron decided to stay home with me and Lainie. Aaron went a couple of years ago and said he will never go back!

Tomorrow is game day......GO COWBOYS!

Summer Vacation

We finally have our trip booked and are ready to go this summer for a 3 week vacation. I wonder what John will think about having that much time off....this is a first!

After working with the travel agents for a couple of months going over all of our options we decided on a 13 day cruise. We will start by flying into to Rome and driving to Naples to spend a few days with   G & G and then back up to Rome, well, a city just outside of Rome (Civitavecchia), to get on our ship. We will be traveling with  Royal Caribbean International on the Mariner Of The Seas.


Our Itinerary:
Rome, Italy
Messina, Italy
At sea
Piraeus, Greece
Kusadasi, Turkey
Rhodes, Greese
Chania, Greece
At sea
Alexandria, Egypt
Alexandria, Egypt
At sea
At sea
Naples, Italy
Rome, Italy

The kiddo's are all very excited! We are too! It will be fun seeing        G & G and I can't wait to see the kids when they actually see the ship. I went on a cruise in 1985 and I thought the ship was amazing so I can only imagine how it must be now.

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

We went to see a see a genetic specialist on Friday because the orthopedic surgeon that Thomas went to see for his chest wall suspected that some of us had this rare genetic disorder. Unfortunately, Thomas, Amanda, Aaron, and I all seem to have it. Lainie is a bit too young to know for sure. We all need to follow up with a cardiologist so we can have our heart valves looked at to rule out any problems. Thomas will be having his work up first because he has a significant heart murmur. This also helps explain Amanda's scoliosis and Thomas' protruding chest cavity. I copied and pasted some information to help explain this condition.

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is an inherited disorder that affect connective tissues, primarily skin, joints and blood vessel walls. 

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, is when a genetic mutation disrupts the production of collagen, the main component of connective tissue. There are several types of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome with varying symptoms, but all types affect the joints, and most affect skin.

Complications of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome limit physical activities. High impact sports should be avoided but some sports such as swimming can actually be beneficial. The syndrome does not affect mental function.

Symptoms vary depending on which type a person has and from person to person even within the same family. The most common forms of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS Type I and II) which is what we all have, this is a partial list of characteristics. You must exhibit one or more of these traits.

• skin problems soft velvet-like skin
• stretchy, fragile skin that bruises or tears easily
• stretchy rubber band-like skin
• easy or severe bruising
• poor and slow wound healing (usually taking weeks to months to heal)
• scoliosis
• joint problems
• loose unstable joints causing frequent dislocations usually occurring in the shoulders, knees, hips, collar bone or jaw
• double jointed-ness (hyper extensible joints), extreme in some cases (flexible joints that extend beyond the normal range of movement).
• fatigue
• eye problems
• nearsightedness
• loose joints
• highly elastic, velvety skin
• fragile skin that bruises or tears easily
• redundant skin folds, such as on the eyelids
• preterm labor
• abnormal scar formation
• muscle fatigue and pain
• heart valve problems (mitral valve prolapse and aortic root dilation)
• hernia
  
  Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is caused by genetic alterations (mutations), passed on from parent to child, that disrupt the normal production of collagen. Collagen is a fibrous protein that gives strength and elasticity to connective tissues, skin, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, organs, and blood vessel walls. These genetic mutations alter normal enzyme activity, leaving connective tissues weak and unstable.
  
  Most EDS types are passed along in an inheritance pattern called autosomal dominant. This means you need only one copy of the disease-causing mutation, inherited from either parent, to develop signs and symptoms of the disease. If you inherit the mutation, each of your children will have a 50 percent chance of inheriting the mutation from you.

Another Week Down

Alone Time

John and I were able to squeeze a movie and few lunches in this past week. We saw The American with George Clooney. The movie was very slow or maybe we were just extremely tired, but we both fell a sleep a couple different times. 

We stumbled across a restaurant in Dallas, Jen's Cafe and Bakery and they had pretty good food, especially the soup. We also ate at a new restaurant here in Frisco, Good Fella's, the pizza was very good. Lainie wasn't too keen on the owner throwing pizza dough over to her daddy and wanted no part of touching the dough or talking to the owner, so she did her best to hide!

Senior Pictures

Johnathon had his senior pictures taken. They did a few poses of him wearing a suit and a few pictures of him in his cap and gown. He is so proud as he should be! It was really hard for him to do the serious poses because his smile kept popping out. We get to view the pictures in a couple weeks.

Yearbook 

Amanda has been busy with her yearbook class. She is required to attend a lot of the games and school functions to take pictures. I think she may actually like the socializing more than the photography aspect.

Montessori

Lainie had a couple of rough days this week and the teacher had to talk to mommy. She did not want to listen to her teacher or follow directions. She had to sit in the thinking chair a couple of times but by Friday she was back on track!

Fish Oil

Thomas went upstairs and saw that Aaron was in Johnathon's room crying so he asked him what was wrong. Aaron said he ate some poison and was going to die! Thomas asked him why he thought he ate poison and Aaron said he thought he was eating candy but it was actually poison. Thomas asked him to show him what he ate and Aaron said, "there it is." It was the outer part of a gel tablet. Aaron said he put it in his mouth, bit down and the terrible poison shot down his throat and now he thinks he is going to die. Thomas explained it was actually fish oil and he was going to be fine. Mommy had a long talk with Aaron about putting things into his mouth.Needless to say Aaron was quite relieved!

Coffee N Cream 

Timothy seems to really his new job and the owner told me the other day he is up for a promotion very soon. This is the couples 3rd location and they have a few more in progress. They carry some baked items that are made from scratch and offer a full coffee service. Some of the baked items have won some local awards. 

Swimming

Thomas has been very busy with the swimming program at the high school and has his first swim meet is next weekend. I finally found someone to carpool with to help ease up on my afternoon driving. We have a dinner to attend tonight so we can meet all the other families. Thomas' coach said he is doing a great job!

It's been awhile

I have been very busy as usual with all the kids and their activities.

OMAHA

We were able to squeeze a quick trip to Omaha in before the kids went back to school. We spent most of our time with family. I was able to to see Aunt Patti, Jack and Lisa. My little cousin Jack is such a cute little guy with quite the personality. We also spent some time with Lisa, Ian and Brittany.

We made a trip to the Old Market and I had the pleasure of taking the kiddo's on a horse and carriage ride. I wish we would have had an umbrella to shade us from the sun. For a minute I thought we were still in Texas! We also went on a boat ride in Conagra Park and took some pictures of the downtown sky-line.

We went to a small water park and all the kids had a nice time. Lainie wasn't too excited about getting off the rides. She just wanted to stay put and go on them over and over again.  She really wasn't a happy camper most of the trip but we were able to get some wonderful pictures of her crying!  Ian said we should blackmail her with them at a later date....sounds tempting!

We ate at some of our favorite places; Julio's, Big Fred's and of course my favorite fast food Runza which I am still eating since we bought a dozen frozen Runza's to bring home. Yummy!

BACK TO SCHOOL

All the kiddo's are back in school.

Timothy is  back to college. He only has this semester and part of another semester at Collin College and then will be switching over to a University to finish up his degree if he ever selects a major.  I am hoping he will go to UT  Dallas/Plano but it's his decision not mine. Timothy also started a new job at a new local coffee shop and bakery and he seems to like it and is getting pretty good hours.

Johnathon is really enjoying being a senior this year. He has early release all this year which has been nice. He helps me in the afternoon picking Aaron up at school. He gets his senior pictures next week. I can't wait to see the cap and gown pictures! He has worked so hard all these years and has so much to be proud of. Johnathon is still working at Market street in the bakery and really likes it. This will really help him get a few scholarships since he will be attending Culinary Art school.

Thomas loves being in high school! He is taking German for his foreign language and is on the swim team this year. He will be having his first competition in a couple of weeks. He is really doing well in all of his subjects and is taking school very seriously since he wants to get into a good medical school. I am very proud of him!

Amanda really doesn't like school this year. She has been rezoned and split from some of her friends and her best friend moved out of the country over the summer so things have been somewhat of a struggle for her. She does like her teachers and classes and I think things will be better next year. She has a few questionable friends this year and we have had multiple conversations about this. She has been grounded quite a bit over the past couple of months mostly do to her choice of friends. I think she is finally starting to understand.

Aaron really likes his second grade teacher this year but she will be leaving this week and will not be back for a month which is a bummer. She will have a long term sub over the next month. Aaron still sees Miss Kim at the Reading Ranch for tutoring and she has been a life saver for Aaron. She has done a tremendous job helping him and has also boosted his self-esteem. He is a sweet little boy!

Lainie started a private preschool this year and to my surprise loves it!  She looks really cute in her school uniform but mommy already got her dress coded once, well maybe twice. I am still working on all these new school rules. Private schools are a little different than the public schools. Lainie is 99% potty trained. The only time she has an accident is in the car so I have been putting a pull up on for outings because I don't know how many more times the car seat cover can actually be washed! I am not sure why she doesn't tell me when she needs to go when we are in the car. John said she won't graduate high school peeing in the car so I must be patient!

KATHY AND BABY

Kathy and baby Audrey are doing fine. Kathy is very anemic and is now taking an iron supplement along with her vitamin. She goes back to the doctor in a month. The name pick right now is Ella Marie but as we all know this can change.

AMANDA'S BACK

Amanda is having her final fit for her back brace on September 22nd and is still considering having surgery this summer. The surgery is a very long and very complicated procedure. The recovery time is 6 months to year. The doctor still wants Amanda to try the brace because this will help with surgical procedure too.

 JOHN

 John's the same.


This sums up the past few weeks.

Inundated with appointments!

Amanda will be seeing a specialist at the Texas Back Institute and at Scottish Rite to do the follow up for her scoliosis. It has been a very frustrating experience working with the orthopedic doctor and trying to get all of her records sent to Scottish Rite.

We will be taking Thomas to the same orthopedist this Friday because he has also been diagnosed with mild scoliosis and his chest cavity is malformed which could be the result of the scoliosis.

Amanda will be getting her braces on August 17th and she is really bummed out. :(

Johnathon is scheduled to get wisdom teeth removed next week but we are considering rescheduling it and making a weekend trip to Omaha. Nothing definite at this point.

I did have the girls pictures taken yesterday and they turned out really nice. 

Scoliosis

I took Amanda to see an orthopedic doctor today and he diagnosed her with scoliosis. She has been referred to a pediatric back specialist at The Texas Back Institute. Treatment is recommended for any curve to the spine over 20 to 25 degrees and Amanda is at 34 degrees. The picture above is Amanda's back x-ray and you can clearly see the curve. Her right shoulder is also much higher than her left shoulder. Treatment options vary anywhere from just keeping an eye on it to make sure the curve doesn't worsen which entails monthly visits to a specialist, wearing a back brace 24 hours a day, wearing a back brace at night only or surgery.

Weight Watchers

Johnathon attended his very first Weight Watchers meeting tonight and he really enjoyed it. He said the meeting is a support group with an educational and training aspect tied in with it. He has all of his weight loss goals in place and is set to go. He will be attending a weekly meeting every Thursday evening. He can't wait to talk to grandma and tell her all about it.

Go Johnathon!

Happy but injured husband

John started his by having his shoulder looked at and it sounds like it may be a rotator cuff injury. If the pain continues he needs to get an MRI and possible surgery.

When he got home we went car shopping and test drove a few Porches and found the perfect one. It's really cool and he is such a loving husband he bought an automatic so I can drive it too! :)

Well, it isn't very pretty!

The back door is dented in the middle and creased at the bottom so he didn't just get the bumper. > : ' (

Really Bad Timing

John was on his way home from work this morning and as he was approaching a light near our house a Suburban rear ended him causing him to subsequently hit the car in front of him. Luckily, there weren't any injuries other than some soreness John is experiencing in his neck and back. He is really bummed out because his lease is due and he was going to get his new car tomorrow and now we are stuck dealing with insurance companies. I did speak to the Porsche dealership and they said there won't be any penalties for turning the car in late but he will need to make an additional car payment which our insurance agent said we can try to collect from the driver at fault. The guy that hit John said his foot slipped off the break and he was actually driving a rental car because his car is in the shop from a previous accident.... not good.  The young man in front of John still had in-transits on his new truck. John has damage to the back of his vehicle and some to the front but it did fair better than back.

 Hopefully, our day will get better!

Kids and their slang

Okay, so I learned an interesting fact today from my daughter, that daughter being Amanda. Timothy made a post on Facebook today saying the movie he saw last night was the shit. When reading it I assumed that meant the movie was really good but before I made a comment I wanted to be sure so, while driving to mall I asked Amanda. She explained to me how it works. If you say the movie is shit it means the movie was bad, but if you say the movie was the shit it means the movie was good.

I think they need a class on this.

Lazy Day

We really didn't do much today.... it was a very lazy day.  We did have a nice family dinner. We had spaghetti with meatballs and sausage. Johnathon made a yummy chocolate cake for dessert. He has become quite the baker!

I watched Pineapple Express with Johnathon and Amanda. The first time I watched this movie I watched it with John and we concluded that Seth Rogen and James Franco must have actually been high. Parts of the movie are pretty funny. Seth Rogen is a Process Server who really really likes weed. He witnesses a murder, and the bad guys are able to track him and his drug dealer, James Franco, thanks to a particular strain of weed. Things get complicated and the two of them end up in the middle of a drug war.

Tomorrow it's back to our daily routine.

A day with my girls

I spent the day with all four of my girls shopping at North Park Mall in Dallas today. I really don't venture out into Dallas much but Amanda loves this mall because she loves Lush and Delia's and these two stores aren't in our local mall. We didn't make it into Lush today because we had some crazy little ones that were much more interested in getting balloons at Build-A-Bear. Amanda did get some jeans and a couple of t-shirts in Delia's for school. She also picked out some interesting zebra jeans....sometimes I just have to smile and go with it. We had lunch at The Corner Bakery and Kathy's sister, Alex, joined us for awhile before she went swimming with some friends. Oh and I must not forget the Gelato, although I am sure it is not quite as good as what grandma and grandpa can get in Italy.

 Johnathon and Timothy spent the afternoon together. They went to see The Predator which had mixed reviews. Johnathon really liked it and Timothy said it was okay but he got a little bored near the end. They both enjoyed their time together and I am glad to see them spend time with each other.

Flowers make me smile!

John is back on nights for the next week and this morning when he got home from work he had left me a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my desk. It was such a nice way to start my day. They have a lovely aroma and are my favorite color... PINK! I love you, honey!

When John woke up this afternoon we took Lainie to the park and let her play for awhile. She loves playing outside but hates the bugs! Actually, she is very particular about a lot of things. She did let me put pig tails in her hair today for the very first time. She looked so cute and it really showed off her big blue eyes. I'm amazed that she actually left them in!

Mom is Coming Home!

After a week in the hospital my mom finally gets to come home. The doctors have been having a difficult time getting her blood levels regulated to prevent future clotting. They finally think they are in the right range but she will have to continue to follow up weekly with her doctor. She is still having some pain in her right lung but the scope of her lungs looked pretty good so it will just take some time for the area in her upper lung to heal. She will also have to continue with daily breathing treatments.

Welcome home mom!

Pump Training

Amanda just switched over to a new pump which also has a 24 hour monitoring system that is available. We had our initial pump training last week and the continuous glucose training today. It's pretty cool how the two systems communicate with each other.

The new pump system, is an integrated system, and incorporates features including predictive alerts that warn us of oncoming lows or highs so we can take needed steps sooner to gain greater control of Amanda's blood glucose levels. With the new pump and the integrated continued glucose monitoring technology, the new pump will give us extra peace of mind...especially at night. 

Continuous Glucose Monitoring 

Predictive Alerts: Predictive Alerts can be set to warn us up to 30 minutes before Amanda's low or high glucose limits are reached.  

Rate of Change Alerts - Notify us when Amanda's glucose levels are changing rapidly for different times of day or night. 

Time Trend Graphs - 3, 6, 12 and 24 hour graphs give us a clear picture of Amanda's glucose levels over time. This has software so John can print the graphs so we can see trends and make needed changes. Her doctors really like this feature.

Finger-sticks are like watching only a few scenes of a movie and the continuous glucose monitoring is like watching the entire movie. We get the full story.

A finger-stick can only tell us what Amanda's glucose level is at that moment. A high or low that happens between finger-sticks can easily be missed.

With the new system, we will always know what Amanda's glucose level is, which way it's heading, and how fast she is heading there. And, as she approaches her glucose limits, we will be warned in plenty of time to take care of it.

We will not use the 24 hour monitoring all the time, as it requires two sites in her abdomen and since she is so lean we need to utilize the space for her pump site. She can wear it once a month for a week, so we can make needed adjustments to her insulin therapy. It's  addicting looking to see what her glucose levels are all the time. It's really too bad she can't wear it all the time...maybe when she starts driving. That gives us time plump her up a little!

Potty Training 2nd Attempt!

Day One:

I sat in the bathroom with Lainie for a long time.....we read, we talked, we giggled and no potty.  Lainie insisted she didn't need to go so we talked about about how she would tell mommy if she needed to go so she could keep her pretty panties clean and dry. With her incredibly big smile she agreed. So you would think after having potty trained 5 other children I wouldn't have fallen for this. This is how it went for the duration of the day. She would potty in her pants and she would come get me and show me where the puddle was so I could clean it up and put fresh dry panties on, with the same discussion each time. No success on day one.

Day two:

I sat in the bathroom with Lainie and again we read, we talked, we giggled and no potty. With the same big smile she agreed she would tell mommy if she had to go potty. Well, she did a little better this time she now sits on her potty stool to go but does it with her pants on. On the bright-side I didn't have any puddles to clean but I did have to change her pants each time and we had our same little talk that she needs to tell mommy before she gets her pants wet.

I am hoping on day three we will have better results.

Our weekend

We didn't do anything too exciting this weekend but it was great having John home for a change. He worked 15 out of the last 17 days and was in need of a break! 

We were able to squeeze a couple of movies in. We watched Green Zone with Matt Damon and The Book of Eli with Denzel Washington. 

Green Zone:

On a quest to find weapons of mass destruction, Matt Damon's character, Officer  Miller begins to question why none of the locations are coming up with the dangerous weapons in question. As he grows more and more suspicious, he runs into a CIA op and a reporter, all looking for the truth as to why we went to war. Officer Miller finds himself in the middle of a deadly game of survival and doing what is right. 

Book of Eli:

Anarchy rules, with murder and rape seen as routine events.  When Carnegie learns that Eli possesses a Bible, he means to win him over to his cause or kill him -- whatever it takes to gain control of that book. Both men see the Bible as the key to social regeneration. A voice has commanded Eli to take the Bible west, where it will be the foundation of a new Earth. Carnegie sees the book as a means of controlling people and their loyalties.

Yesterday, John did a lot of much needed pruning.  Our lawn service only does the pruning twice a year but John likes to do it once a month because it seems to grow so fast. The yard looks really nice and I don't even miss all the plants that John pulled and threw away. Now that the plants have all matured there just isn't enough room.

We grilled steaks and had mushrooms, fried zucchini, new potatoes, fresh green beans and Italian Sweet bread. We attempted to walk off dinner and walk up to Walgreens to get a Red Box movie but I wimped out about 3/4 of the way there due to the EXTREME heat so we settled on the park.

Quiet....but nice.

Welcome to my new blog!

I am not sure how this blog experience will work for me but I thought I would give it a try. So far it seems a bit confusing since I have very limited computer skills. This is my second attempt at finding a blog site I like and seems somewhat user friendly.