Kindergarten!

Holy Cow! We did it! We made it through the first three days of kindergarten. For those of you who don't know, we decided to homeschool for a while and see where God leads us. This decision did not come easily at all. It was a very long few years (seriously, it was years!) of me arguing with God and telling him NO! Apparently, God won! Anyway, I am so proud of my child! She has jumped right in and done really well with our new schedule. She came into my room really early this morning and said "Mommy, hurry! The sun is up, we need to start our school day! " It made me smile! I'm glad she is so happy!

Where did the time go?

Oh, how I miss this little two year old! She is so excited to start kindergarten on Monday. She will be five next month! Kindergarten and a birthday in less than a month..... my heart hurts...in a good way! 

I was planning on having a nice relaxing weekend before the school day routine started, but it's turning out to be the opposite of that! This month is a very busy month for babies. I was really excited because I have had three moms give birth in a week and a half.  Two of the births were in a 30 hour period. I was tired, but adrenaline kept me going. The morning after the third birth, I came home and slept for two hours until I had to go to work at Babyology. When I woke up I thought that a bug or something had bitten me in my sleep, but soon found out that I had hives! By the time I got home from work I was covered from my shoulders down and very itchy! This morning I woke up and my eyelids were covered and they were all over my tongue. Of course my doctor is out of town until Wednesday! I called urgent care and they said not to worry unless I had facial swelling or I had trouble breathing. Nice! I have been on around the clock benedryl since yesterday. This is the craziest thing that I have ever experienced! I have no idea what caused it.  Hopefully all will be better by Monday!

Laurenism...

So, today my mom was talking to Lauren on the phone and they were talking about a painting easel that she had gotten a few years ago. Lauren stops talking, looks at me and says "Mom, where is my painting weasel?"  Paul and I both cracked up for a few minutes! I love it when little things like that come out of her mouth because I am reminded of how young she still is.  Anyway, that was a bit of humor form our Sunday afternoon!

Here it is...

Some dear sweet people have challenged a blog off. The subject is "Favorite Things." Here you go, Friends!

Fountian cherry coke from Steak n' Shake. The .29 cent charge for the cherry syrup is so worth it!

HGTV - I love to watch people take a horrid looking room or yard and transform it into beauty. Then I dream about what I would do if I had the money. Then I get slightly depressed....it's a vicious cycle! :)

Flip Flops - A girl's pedicure needs to breathe!

Fall/Cool weather - I love the feeling of putting a sweatshirt on for the first time when it gets cool. When you can combine a sweatshirt and the flip flops for a week or so, that is the best!

Ethnic Food - I'll try anything once, but I love mexican (hole in the wall, real mexican restaurant food!) and my new favorite is Somolian food. Yum!

No judgement! I like country music. Not the twangy, roadhouse, "you think my tractors sexy stuff."  I like Lady Antebellum,  Zack Brown Band, etc. I am a bit picky when it comes to music.

Favorite verse - Isaiah 43:2   Go read it! It has become the verse that has spoken to me over these last months.

Tidbits....

I love the way a little kid's mind works.  It looked like it was going to rain earlier and we were on our way out for a meeting and Lauren says "Did you know that there are really big drums in the sky and God beats on them with his hands and that is what makes the thunder?" I really couldn't help but smile at that one! In her mind that was perfectly logical!

She has learned that we live in one state, but her daddy works in another state. Instead of asking what place we are going, she asks "What state are we going to be in?"

Because of my job, Lauren hears me on the phone quite often discussing pregnancy related issues. I put down the phone earlier today and she came over and said "So, did her water break yet?"  She hasn't asked any questions yet about how babies come out and I am not going to share until she does ask. It was quite interesting when I overheard her talking with one of  her  little friends about where babies come out. Friend: "It comes out of your bottom." Lauren: "No it doesn't. It comes out of your belly! That's why God gave us bellies. It goes in there through your belly button."

Lauren update

We had our Neurology follow up today. Ever since we switched her medication everything seems to be going really well.  We haven't seen a siezure in almost three months. Just because we haven't seen them does not mean that she isn't having them, though. On Aug. 26th we are going to do a 24 hour EEG to see what her brain activity is. They are looking for little "siezure bursts" that last 5 seconds or longer. Those are the ones that will effect her driving and activities as she gets older. She has to be two years siezure free before we can bring her off the medication. When she is 6 1/2 we will try to wean her off the meds and see if she is still having any issues. If she doesn't show any siezure signs then there is a good chance she might have grown out of them. If she does show signs of siezures, we will put her back on the meds an wait another two years. We will continue this process until she hits puberty. Taking things one day at a time is a lot easier said than done for me. It is still really hard not to dwell on what her teenage years might look like!  Thank God that for the time being  things are calm for her.

Color on the wall!

Lauren's new walls....she asked for polkadots so Paul gave them to her!

The valance.....no sewing!

This is what I walked into when I went to check on her one night. Snoring with a russian fur hat on her head!

Everything has been pretty busy here. We have been trying to get our walls painted, finally! No more builder beige! I have been busy this week trying to prepare for the kindergarten year. Lesson plans and a school day schedule.  Our start date is going to have to be flexible due to having three babies in the next three weeks that I am waiting on. Busy! Anyway, Lauren is really excited to start school. I got her books out of the box and she just sat there saying "Oh, thank you, Mommy! Real live school books all for me!" Lets see if she stays that excited in the coming years! 

Paul and I just celebrated our 8th anniversary this past week. I can't believe it's been that long! Life seems to be going by faster and faster. My baby is in kindergarten and reading, next she'll be going ot college and getting married.....sigh, I better stop, I might start crying!

My Favorite Things

Thoughts...

I was reading Zephaniah the other day and I read this...

He is a mighty Savior.

He will take delight in you with gladness.

With his love, he will calm all your fears.

He will rejoice over you with joyful songs."

Zephaniah 3:17
 
 
He is there. He loves you. He delights in you! How awesome is that?





I also read this and it made me smile...


"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in staying strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day & I believe in miracles." - Audrey Hepburn

A little bit of this and that...

Leave it to the four year old girl to turn exercise bands into fashion!

The sky after a major thunderstorm. I thought it was pretty. 

Summer Fun! Finally got to break out Lauren's inflatable pool. Trying to get as much use out of it as we can. She'll be too long in another month or so!

                       

I'm still here!

       Sorry that it has been so long since I've posted. Life got complicated for a bit. So here is the Lauren scoop: We are officially on ONE medication. Weaning her off of the other one was quite the experience. Her little mind wasn't sure what was going on and her behavior and attitiude got pretty nasty. I literally would put her to bed at night and then sit on the couch and burst into tears. Thankfully, all seems better now.  The only side effect we see is that she has a period of hyperness right after she takes her medicine.  I will take a little hyperness anyday over what we went through before! She is sailing right along in her reading lessons and is really excited to start kindergarten.  It's so excting to watch her learn!
        So the question was asked by my other blogger friends: What is your favorite sport and why.....Well, believe it or not, when I was younger I was actaully pretty athletic. I played tennis, soccer and I swam on a swim team for a while. I had a very short fascination with ice skating for a while.  My favorite sport to participate in was swimming. You could move much faster in water than on land so that made me feel like I was really good! :)  Honestly, I don't watch a lot of sports now, but I do love to watch the Olympics. Swimming and diving are my favorites in the summer and my favorite in the winter is ice skating. Only in my dreams am I that graceful!

Reading!

So, I feel the need to brag on my child. She read her very first sentence all by herself today.  Her sentences are things like "Sam sat on a ram and the ram can not see" type sentences. Maybe next week we'll start on a novel. :)  This is a major milestone for us. I was a bit worried about how all this medication and epilepsy would affect the process. She has done so well. She has caught on better than I ever imagined she would.  It is so exciting to see her so proud of herself!

A moment in my head...

I wish I had some random funny things to say about the week, but I don't. To be honest, things have been a bit crazy. I blogged earlier about Lauren's medication change. Well, we are slowly weaning off of one and increasing the dose of the other. The outcome at present is that we have the same side effects from the first medication, just not as intense, with extreme hyperness to top it off.   The tough part is she is also going through her four year old stage of trying to practice self control. There has been quite a few tears (from both of us!) and some privileges taken away. Parenting is challenging to begin with, but parenting a child who is on medication that affects her moods is craziness. We are constantly trying to figure out if her behavior is due to medication, epilepsy or just being four.
Please don't think that I'm griping and complaining! Life could be so much worse!  I really shouldn't have anything to be upset about. Our needs are met. My child is living and breathing.  I have come to realize that when I pray I have such a "woe is me" attitude sometimes and that is so wrong! My attitude needs to be one of thankfulness. When I am thankful it doesn't change my circumstances. It radically changes my viewpoint and brings back into the presence of God, where I can find joy.

Easter

Our Easter Tulips....I couldn't find any Lillies

Getting ready for the Easter egg hunt with our lovely prefilled eggs from Target! Yes, I forgot the the camera for the egg hunt. Yes, I have mommy guilt! 

 The Dress...this dress was big news in our house. My mom found a dress that had a matching doll dress with it. There was a big discussion about leaving the doll in the car when we got to church. Apparently the doll needed to hear that "Jesus is Alive" too. I wish it had been warm enough to go without the sweater because the sleeveless look was really cute. I was really excited that she let me put a pony tail in. It's a daily argument over her hair. FYI: Just keep the hair short until they can take care of it themselves!

It was an amazing day. It was actually very low key and we ended up doing yardwork and things, but our worship and message at church just stayed with me.  I am so thankful and so glad that God chose to love me!

Spring?

I am so excited to see the sunshine! I love walking aroud without a jacket or a sweatshirt. It's so pretty outside, I'm afraid that it won't stay! We'll probably have some freak storm soon. I'm having a difficult time being positive about our weather. We tend to have windstorms, blizzards, icestroms...heck, let's through in an earthquake!
 I was able to attend another birth on Monday. It was incredible! I picked up a lot of massage business this week. My whole body hurts today! I love my job, but.....ouch! I can say, though, that I can arm wrestle my husband and almost win. If you have seen him, then you know that is quite an accomplishment! :) At least all the massge helps me build up my upper body strength even though I feel like I just worked out 12 times in a row.
 I am really looking forward to focusing on Resurrection Day and family time this weekend. I might just read a fiction novel! I made it! 40 days and no novels. Only in God's strength.  I came close to caving a time or two.

Update on Lauren: We have decided to go ahead and switch her medication. Her side effects from the previous one were not subsiding even though we lowered the dosage as far as we could. It's going to take a few months for us to make the switch. We have to introduce this new medication VERY slowly or it could cause problems. She will be on both medications for a little while. Please pray that she can handle this new medication a little better!