It's Been So Long

When I decided to start this blog, I had no idea how difficult it would be to keep it updated. So much has happened since I last blogged, but that much should be obvious since it has been over a year since the last update. The new school year starts in 3 days for Parker, Jackson and myself. Parker is in the 7th grade and Jackson is in the 1st grade. Grayson attends preschool at the church down the street. All 3 of the boys are doing great. I completed my first Fall, Spring and Summer semesters this past year and can't wait to start my second year. After 3 semesters, I have a 4.0 GPA and I made the Dean's List. Not too shabby for someone who had been out of school for 15 years! I hope to transfer to IU Southeast at the end of the semester, since they have an excellent Education program. I am majoring in Middle/Secondary Education in English. I always did love English growing up, so it only makes sense to me to pass that appreciation on to the younger generation.

The family is doing well. Well, most of us are. Dad had a horrific car accident in June that put him in the hospital for a month. Two months later, he still spends most of his day in a hospital bed in the living room of his house. He was sitting still in traffic when he noticed a heavy duty truck barreling down on him in his rear view mirror. The driver rear ended Dad doing around 60 miles per hour without ever touching his brakes. The list of broken bones and injuries is a mile long, but he survived. We are all very lucky that he is still with us. He is still undergoing surgeries to repair the damage, but hopefully he will make a full recovery. The doctors do not think he will regain full range of motion in his left shoulder or his wrist, but he's a tough guy. Only time will tell.

It's getting late, so I'd better wrap this up. As always, I will attempt to keep this blog updated, but with all of the papers I have to write, I can't promise anything. Until the next time...

Preparing for Fall

Well, we're barely into Summer and we're already getting ready for the Fall. We're getting ready to sign Parker and Jackson up for Fall soccer and they're both getting excited already. Parker hasn't played since the 2 seasons he played at the age of 6, so hopefully he won't be too far behind the rest of the kids his age. Jackson just turned 5, so he's finally old enough to play. Eric is considering coaching, so that would be a lot of fun.

We have some big milestones coming up where school is concerned! Parker is moving on to Middle School and Jackson is entering Kindergarten in Elementary School. My babies are growing up! I was just thinking about the future the other day...when all three of my boys will be in school. When Grayson starts Kindergarten in the Fall of 2013, Jackson will be in the 3rd grade, and Parker will be a Freshman in High School! Wow! That's so crazy and it makes me feel ancient. And, not to be outdone by the boys' milestones, I turned in my college application two weeks ago. I've really been thinking about going ever since I graduated High School. (That was only 15 years ago! LOL) I've just been worried too much about putting myself in debt, so I kept putting it off. Well, I've decided it's now or never, so I'm taking the leap. I'm getting pretty excited about it. Now I just have to decide what degree I'm going to shoot for!

Since today is the 12th....Happy 11th Birthday, Parker!!! I love you!

Damn You, Wiggles!

The two youngest boys have been on a Wiggles bender recently. Seriously. If they're in front of a television, they request to watch The Wiggles. Well, to be fair, Grayson doesn't ask for them, he just makes the wiggling hand motion with the thumb and index finger like those 4 annoying Aussies do while screaming, "Iggle?!? Iggle?!?" The music isn't terrible, so I don't mind sitting through an episode now and then, but then they talked me into buying the stupid CD....which is requested EVERY time we get into the truck to go somewhere. So, it's been hard to get the damned songs out of my head.

Two nights ago, Eric and I went to dinner with 3 other couples that we're friends with for our friend Sherri's birthday. There are 8 adults sitting around a table eating great food and drinking alcoholic beverages. We had a great time. We did a lot of laughing and it was good to get away from the kids for awhile. However, while you would think that my mind was focused on this great time I was having, I was instead aggravated because The Wiggles were singing "Can you point your fingers and do the twist...." in my head. Nothing annoys me more than having an annoying song stuck in my head, especially when it is one of the kids songs we listen to daily. And I thought I was doing a great job at pretending we were a childless, young, fun married couple for a few minutes there! Alas, all I could think of from that point on, is that somewhere across town, there was probably a diaper waiting to be changed, and a request for "just one more Wiggles show!"

One of Those Mornings

How do I explain my love/hate relationship with Motherhood without sounding like an awful Mom? Some days I find myself smiling just because one of my boys does something, however silly it may be, that reminds me exactly why I love being their Mommy. Then there are mornings like I had today. Jackson and Parker fighting, Jackson taking his sweet time getting dressed for daycare, Parker taking his sweet time doing everything. I went to get Grayson out of bed, and as we passed through the kitchen, he started screaming because he wanted juice. Now, I knew if I gave him juice, it would forever alter our normal morning routine. He gets milk at breakfast time, as soon as I drop him off at daycare. I wasn't about to give him juice, because I never do first thing in the morning. I continued dressing Grayson and getting everyone ready for school, while Grayson screamed the whole time. He never stopped. Seriously. 40 minutes later, I was dropping him off at daycare and he was still screaming, "Juice! Juice!" Maybe it sounds mean to someone who doesn't understand how important it is for us to stick to our routine, but it just has to be that way. So, as if I wasn't already stressed, I get everyone loaded up in the truck and leave for work. A mile down the road, Parker decides to share with me that he never took his medicine. Wonderful. In a split second, I flash on a recent memory where he came home from school with a note in his agenda from his teacher stating, "Did Parker take his medicine this morning? He was not able to stay on task at all today and was very distracted." So, immediately I know what I have to do. I turn the truck around, and drive back home so Parker can take his medicine, even though I'm already running late.

I start to relax as soon as I finally get to work after depositing everyone at their respective daycare and school, because I think to myself, "Now I can relax. I can have at least 8 hours of peace." Two hours later? The phone rings. It's Grayson's teacher at his daycare. "Lori, we need you to come pick Grayson up. He's had diarrhea 3 times since you dropped him off." Hahahahahaha!!!! I mean, I just have to laugh. If they had called me the FIRST time he had diarrhea, I would have been able to clear the 24 hour required "all clear" window so I could still take him back to daycare tomorrow. But no, they waited until after the 3rd dirty diaper, and waited 1 hour past the latest allowable drop off time to call. Know what that means? Not only do I have to take the day off from work to stay home with him today, he also has to stay home tomorrow. Like I said, it's just been one of those mornings!

And off to daycare I go...

Slacker

One of these days, I'll actually keep up with this blog. Well, maybe. We've been working on the house, trying to get it ready to put on the market. Eric was up late last night laying tile in the basement. Once we finish sanding and repainting all the trim in the house, it'll be ready to go. It sure will be nice to finally move to a house that the whole family fits in!

The boys are doing great. We just finished enrolling Jackson in Elementary School. It's hard to believe he is going to be a Kindergartner! Parker starts Middle School next year, so it's a milestone for both of them. I'm sure I'll be a bit weepy on that first day. My boys are growing up so fast! Grayson is finally starting to talk, although a lot of it is still very hard to understand. He's also been showing some interest in the potty, so it may be the beginning of the end of diapers for us.

We added a new member to our family this past November. I rescued a Snorkie (Miniature Schnauzer/Yorkie hybrid breed) from a local vet's office. They found her in a ditch, wet and cold and infested with fleas. Now she is a spoiled rotten little diva. Her name is Roxy, and the boys are in love with her. She's so good with them, too. She's definitely stolen our hearts!

Well, I guess it's time to get back to work. Hopefully there will be more updates to come!

6 Month Anniversary

Well, today is the 6 month anniversary of Grandpa's passing. I can't say it's really gotten any easier, though. I still think of him everyday. The boys still talk about him, too. (That secretly makes me very happy, as I was afraid they would start to forget him.) After the funeral, we took the remembrance candle, pressed flowers from the arrangements, prayer cards, pictures, and some other trinkets and put them all on a shelf in the middle of one of our china cabinets. It's kind of become like a shrine, but it looks really nice. I sometimes catch Parker or Jackson standing in front of the cabinet, staring at Grandpa's pictures. I don't say anything and try not to interrupt them. It's really sweet, though.

I was able to leave work for a couple of hours this morning so I could go to church, since they were dedicating the mass to Grandpa's memory. It was very nice. My favorite part of this day was going to breakfast with my Gran, Aunt Gayle, and Aunt Kathy. We had a lot of fun and, as always, the conversation was never dull. Gran never ceases to amaze me. She's such a strong woman. If you've never met her, I'm telling you now...you're missing out on one amazing, funny lady. I think the world of her. I don't think I could live without Eric. I'm not exactly sure how Gran does it without Grandpa, but then again, most days it feels like he never really left. I'm sure she still feels surrounded by his love everyday, which probably makes it easier.

I'm Baaaaack!!!

It's been so long since I've blogged, but I honestly just haven't felt like doing it. Grandpa's passing affected all of us, and with me, it just took away all of my motivation. So much has happened in the last 5 months. The boys have grown like weeds. Grayson is running all over the place, but still not having much to say. Jackson is just as wild as ever. He just started Pre-K, so he's excited about that. Parker just started the 5th Grade. How depressing is that??? In less than a year, he'll be a middle school student. Crazy.

A lot of changes have taken place in our house. After finally being fed up with the state of my health, I cleaned house. I threw out all of the food from the freezer, refrigerator, pantry, cabinets, etc. I went grocery shopping to replace everything with healthier foods. I now find that I spend most of my time in the produce section. All of our breads and pastas have been replaced with 100% whole grains. It's worked wonderfully so far. In 3 weeks, I've lost 9 pounds. Right now, Eric and I are working on saving up for a couple of bikes. We plan on going for a family bike ride every night after dinner. In the meantime, I've found a couple of hip hop dance cardio programs on FitTV. It's a pretty funny sight, seeing Parker dancing with me in the middle of the living room. It's been lots of fun so far. Hopefully we'll keep it up and this will be the new beginning of the rest of our lives.

I was finally able to get some answers on the extreme fatigue and exhaustion I've been dealing with over the last few years. After realizing anti-depressants weren't making me feel any better, I began my journey to the Neurologist, Gastroenterologist, Pulmonologist/Sleep Disorder Specialist, and finally the Otolaryngologist (Ear, Nose, Throat doc). My sleep apnea has only gotten worse, so the Ear, Nose, Throat specialist decided to do Laryngoscopy. The results? He said he could understand why my CPAP machine isn't helping me any, because it would be like trying to force air through a pinhole. I have to have extensive surgery in early January to repair the problems. I have to have my deviated septum corrected, a growth in my nasal passage that has to be removed and biopsied, my tonsils removed, my adenoids removed, and the inferior nasal concha/turbinate has to be filed down. It's probably going to put me out of commission for a couple of weeks, but hopefully I'll have a clear head when it's all said and done.

Eric finally had a sleep study done through my Pulmonary doc. They said he has minor obstructive sleep apnea, but they've decided to do a follow-up sleep study, since his oxygen levels were only at 84% while he was asleep. (I have moderate obstructive sleep apnea, but my oxygen levels are usually around 94%.) It's starting to sound like we're both going to be wearing CPAPs at night. Won't that be a sight!

Other than that, it's pretty much the same old, same old! I really am going to attempt to pick back up on my blogging. Once I get all of my pictures uploaded and organized, I'll blog about our trip out West we just got back from. As Jack would say..."Good times! Goooood times!"