Fall Family Photos

We finally had some professional photos taken outside! They turned out amazing! Iowa has the most beautiful fall I have ever seen. Here are the final 20! I can't wait to get them printed and framed!
Enjoy!

Blog to Follow

There is a link on the right side with my blog list that doesn't seem to refresh itself so I wanted to point it out.
It's Colby Kids <---Click there
please check in and read their amazing story and offer any words you might like, or simply prayers!
Thanks!

Thanks everyone!!!

Thanks for all the support everyone. It's just hard sometimes and so frustrating. I just think I really need something for myself. I'm thinking about knitting and quilting and maybe selling a bit. Right now I would stick with more soakers and longies and kids stuffed animals, and baby and twin sized quilts. I can do larger but the amount of time involved is just something I'm not quite ready to do. So I may look into it and test the waters per see on etsy and hyena cart. i just need to do something. Something I enjoy, something I can do on my own time, and something that can bring in a touch of money. We shall see.

In other news...Everyone here is good. It's been super cold, low 20's in the mornings. It's supposed to warm up a touch this week into the 60's so that would be nice. The kids are excited for halloween! Ben has a field trip tomorrow, and all of the kids have fall parties at school on friday! will make for a fun rest of the week! Emily tested out of all her addition. She finished the last level and her teacher has now moved her onto subtraction! She apparently did REALLY well! it's 100 problems and they have 10 minutes and have to get a 90% or higher I think it is. Well Emily missed 1 out of the whole 100 and did it in 6 minutes! So she has moved on! Jace is also doing super good! He is already up to 35 out of 42 jolly phonics sounds. 1 month ago he was at 12 out of 42! His teacher is super excited and so are we!
That's about all for today. Going to do some quilting and have another lazy day with Ari!

So frustrated sometimes

sometimes i get so frustrated i just want to scream. I love being able to be home with my kids, but i'm tired. I can't do everything by myself. I spent the entire weekend in the kitchen cooking. I hardly got to visit, I didn't get to spend time with my kids, nothing. i cooked and cleaned. If my mom hadn't have been here helping me in the kitchen i wouldn't have made it. Not once did my husband jump in and help out. Then this morning before work the same thing occurs. THEN he has the freaking nerve to tell me that "atleast you get to live here for free" OMG. I paya higher price to live here than anyone else in this house. I do ALL the cooking, dishes, housework, laundry, appts, kids homework, cloth diapering, meal planning, shopping, organizing, bill paying, phone calls, family contacts, therapies, gym classes, music classes, school events, etc..I do ALL OF IT. I work from the moment I get up until the moment i go to bed. He goes to work forr 8 hours, ALL of that sitting at his desk, some of it searching the web and reading blogs and articles. He gets to interact with adults, do something he enjoys, gets quiet time and breaks etc...Then when he gets home he thinks he shouldn't have to do anything because he already put in a work day AND on weekends he tells me it's his day off. When the hell is my day off? when have I put in a work day and get a break.
I know that other mothers deal with this but I wonder if to this extent. Do all fathers say it's their things and they are the ones who bring in the money, do they say their wife lives for free, etc...
i'm just at the end of my rope. i need a job. i need to get the hell out of this house and away from all of these people.

Emily's 8th Birthday!

my oldest is 8 years old today! WOW! Time flies! We had Emily's party on Saturday. She had 23 kids and 8 adults. We think that's the count anyways. It's not so easy getting that many kids to sit still long enough for a count! :) The party started with dancing and music and the kids all playing in the decorated basement. Then we did 2 pinata's. 1 a high school musical. we used blindfolds and they had a blast! Then the 2nd was a huge llama. no blindfolds and they just couldn't seem to break it. So I took 1 big swing and it broke right off at the neck. OOPS! lol the kids had a candy hayday! Then we did cupcakes, and opened presents. Then the kids all headed outside to play on the swing and monkey bars and started up a game of soccer! it was a great time for everyone!
My parents left this morning, and the kids don't have school today. We are going to enjoy a lazy day at home today!
Here are some pictures from her party!
all of the candy and prizes needed to fill the pinatas!!

the high school musical pinata and emily taking a swing at it

the llama pinata

The beheaded llama. hehe

Cake and singing:Emily was just beaming!

Missy and Ari enjoying cupcakes!

John and Ben taking a break during the party to play!

Emily opening presents

Emily opening presents

snow

there is nothing more to say. that one word says it all. it is snowing. our first snow of the year. wow.

PARTY!!!!

todays the day! emily's 8th bday party. we are expecting 30ish people. 19 of them are 8 yr olds! should be busy! :)
we spent last night stuffing 2 pinata's. we used over 20lbs of candy and tons of treats. we took pictures, i will post them tonight!
today it's cupcake baking...tons of cupcakes!
she is so excited!

Busy Weekend Ahead

This is going to be a busy whirl wind kind of weekend! the kids are all off school friday and monday. Emily's 8th birthday is monday and her party is saturday. She has had 18 classmates RSVP and that's not counting the rest of our friends and family who will be here! She's having a cupcake tower, a pinata', and dancing. She's pretty excited as you can imagine! my parents will get into town tomorrow afternoon around lunch time and will be here for the weekend. Emily also has a birthday party to go to tomorrow for a friend of hers!
Ari starts her new round of gymnastics today. i have tons of errands to run, food to make, snacks to bake, cupcakes to bake, decorating to be done, basic housecleaning, laundry, etc...
So i figure we'll be busy, but it will be alot of fun getting to visit with family and friends!
this morning I'm hoping to get my errands run before gymnastics. Then some housework and cookie baking done this afternoon! Fun stuff!
pictures coming soon!

Surgeon Appt!

This morning was my appt with the plastic surgeon. Insurance has approved 2 of the stomach surgeries, 1 of which he said he has only seen approved 1 time before. So I feel pretty lucky. Then he mentioned that there is a research study that I qualify for. With my insurance approving 2 of the pieces of the surgery and then this study I would end up having very little to probably no cost for the full belt lipectomy. Mind you this is a 20,000 to 30,000 dollar surgery! This is the surgery that I really need, that I really want! I'm beyond excited! So now I wait till next week to hear if it was all definately approved! Any way you look at it I will definately be having the surgery it just depends on which one! I'm so excited to be in the final stages of this!

Photo Journey to the Pumpkin Patch

Here is our day at Bloomsbury Farms in Photo!
There were over 25 activities there! We had so much fun!
Tire maze

tunnel slide

corn pit

Ben nervous about getting into the corn pit, he did in the end and loved it!

corn pit

corn pit

barrel train ride

barrel train ride

barrel train ride

pedal cars

pedal cars

Wagon cuteness!

Huge tractor tire swing. Brian pushed the 6 of us till I was so dizzy I couldn't see straight.

Roaming the pumpkin patch for the perfect pumpkins!

Ari insisted on getting this huge pumpkin! it's in the shape of a triangle!

jump pillow..the older 2 had a blast on this!

wagon full of pumpkins!

Doc updates

Today was my appt with my OB. We talked and we are going to go ahead with a hysterectomy. The goal is to have it done at the same time I'm having the plastic surgery on my stomach. I meet with my plastic surgeon on monday and then will meet back with my OB the 1st week of november. We are shooting to get everyone's schedule coordinated to have the surgery right after christmas/beginning of january time frame. We will wait for all the additional DNA testing fo the breast cancer and will make a decision on it later. I'm putting the surgery off until right after christmas so then my mom can stay with us to help during the recovery time. Also these are major surgeries and I want to be able to enjoy the holidays with my family!

Also Jace's doc called today. They want to first try splitting his meds to 2 times a day, 1/2 dose each time. They said that it can make a difference and they want to try that before lowering his dose. He did fine last night, so that part was good. We didn't give him his med yesterday or today though until we had heard back from the doc. So we will see how it goes.

Tomorrow evening brian and i are going out for our anniversary. It's not till the end of the month but with life so hectic at the end of the month we figured it best to go out now. We don't know yet what we are going to do, but excited to just get out together for a bit without the kids!
Emily's birthday party is on the 25th. she's super excited! She wants to have a pinata. We shall see! :) i can't believe that she will be 8! Time flies!

Insurance Approval!!!

YEAH!!! My insurance has finally finished all the paperwork and we've gotten the approval letter for my plastic surgery!!! I will be calling my surgeon tomorrow to get it scheduled. I'm hoping to get it done right after christmas! I'm so excited!

i also will be meeting tomorrow with my OB to discuss all my options at this point. Right now we are wanting to start with the hysterectomy and go from there. I will update tomorrow after my appointment!

Jace had quite the rough night last night. His meds are working a bit to well and he couldn't make it to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The ladder of his bed, the carpet, all the way down the hall, the bathroom, and his bedding were all covered in poop. He tried to clean it up by himself and made it worse. We discovered it hours later and spent FOREVER cleaning it all up. one of the worst things i have ever had to deal with. I immediately put a call into his doc, and am waiting to hear back. His meds clearly need adjusted. Poor guy. We told him if it ever happens again to immediately come get us. We will see how tonight goes!

Good weekend!!!

It's been a busy but sorta lazy few days. Saturday morning I went and got my hair done. It looks much better and it was nice to have 2 hrs at the salon! Then Saturday evening I headed to coralville and had a nice quiet dinner and a movie with my friend/SIL. We had a great time chatting and walking around the mall for a bit as well! It was a much needed time without the kids!
Yesterday I began quilting again! YEAH!!! I spent 3 glorious hours working on a quilt. It was sooo nice to get back to it! The apartment was so tiny it was hard to get everything out and then getting moved and situated I just haven't had time! I really enjoyed it!
Tonight we are having family pictures taken! We are having them taken outdoor at a local park! We are in full Fall around here and it is absolutely gorgeous! We are really excited!
It's super cold this morning, a whole 38 degrees! i'm hoping it warms up a bit as the day goes on! :)
The newest results should hopefully be in this week. So we are waiting.
More Soon!

Positive, Negative, OR Variant

Positive-means the gene mutation is present that they have found so far to look for as 1 sign of breast cancer and ovarian cancer risk.
Negative-means the gene mutation is not present that they have found so far to look for as 1 sign of breast cancer and ovarian cancer risk.
Variant-means something isn't right but they aren't far enough along in medical research to know what it means yet, unsure if it is the gene mutation or what it is.

Guess what BOTH of my results came back as. You guessed it, Variant. The genetic counselor said this is the worst result to get, because we simply don't know. My insurance has approved Level 2 DNA testing and so the lab will get started on that and it should be about a week to get those results. Hopefully they will shed more light.
Normally at this point the insurance will still go ahead and approve a hysterectomy. With the family history, and the risk, and the variant and such it's usually a given what to do. The problem is the hormones needed after a hysterectomy increase AGAIN the risk of breast cancer. So we are hoping for some more definite results from this next round of testing. We will still wait to make any decisions until we have ALL the info back.

I'm frustrated, and still just as scared as I was. It's not that I was expecting the tests to be negative or positive. But I would have rather knowing what we are dealing with so we can get this over. Saying something is wrong, but medical science can only move so fast, is beyond frustrating. So we will obviously keep everyone updated as we know more.
Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts and phone calls and emails. I've called a few of you on the phone already with the results, and at the moment just don't feel like talking anymore. will call everyone else back in a bit.

Still Waiting

I'm still waiting on my results. She was hoping to get them yesterday and didn't. She contacted the lab yesterday to find out what's going on and now we are waiting to hear back from them. I hate waiting.

In other news...Everyone is doing pretty well. Last night was our 5th week in Dave Ramsey's FPU. We are enjoying the class and learning alot. It has taken alot of time to get thru some of our homework but we are finally figuring it out.

Jace had a rough night last night. He did throw up and had some stomach pain. This hasn't happened much lately so it was a bit unusual. We will be having him take it easy for the next few days.

Ariana has therapy this morning and I'm excited to sit down with her therapist and go over some stuff. Her last appt was cancelled because of our move, and the appt before that Brian was the one with her not me. So I haven't been to a session for quite a while!

My oldest and a few randoms from the afternoon

here is a promised photo of my oldest this afternoon. I promise she really is the person behind the book. The older she gets the harder it is to get photos of her.

and here are a few more of Emily and everyone but still napping Ben!

Getting Antsy

I'm hopefully in my final countdown on my results. I spoke with my genetic counselor last week and she's expecting the results midweek. So I'm waiting...not so patiently. I so badly want to know, but there is that part of me that isn't quite ready to know yet either. Once we get the results decisions will have to be made pretty quickly. We think we've already made both choices for either result, but clearly once we get them, we MAY change our mind. We know that the doctor has already supports both of our decisions so that will make life easy there.

in other news. We had a good weekend. We had some friends over with their 2 kids on friday evening. everyone had a great time! saturday we did some housework and had a nice lazy afternoon. Sunday we tried out a local church, and weren't impressed. We had another lazy afternoon and went for a walk at our local nature park. It was gorgeous there. All the trees are starting to change and drop leaves, it is like a slice of heaven out there!

today was back to the real world. everyone back to school and work. little lady and i are having a bit of a lazy day today!
here are a few pictures from our weekend. Emily was outside all darned weekend so none of her. need to coral her for some pics! :)

Jace friday after coming home from school. tired boy!


Ben this morning before school being so cute!


And my little lady Ari this morning. Such a cutie!

Crab Apples

Yesterday morning Emily took the last apple to school. Ben decided this was an issue that needing discussing.
he informs me that the apples are all gone. He said that we needed to buy more. i agreed. Then he stares out the window at our crab apple tree. He says there's apples. I said those are called crab apples. Ben says "crab apples aren't yummy. They have crabs in them." Then he went back to finishing his waffle.
He's so adorable!

In other news. Emily and Jace are finishing up there first week at their new school. They are loving it, and have already made some friends. Today is school spirit day, and they each left sporting their new school shirts. They both are doing well! Every afternoon they've spent outside riding bikes and playing with the neighborhood kids. They've loved it!

Ben and Ari are doing well too! They've been outside exploring as well. Ben has been trying to figure out how the tricycle works! Ari has enjoyed having alot of space indoors to run around as well!

Brian and I finally got the TV put together last night. Now we can actually relax and watch some TV. There are 3 boxes left to unpack and I'm hoping to get that done today. one is all the movies and entertainment center stuff. So it should go pretty fast. Then my goal for the weekend is fall decorating! I'm excited to get to decorate!

Jace has his appt at the UofI yesterday. He is going to keep his medication doubled, and wants to start changing around the dosage on the miralax. He's hoping to be able to find the "sweet spot" dosage. It will be an interesting road. he's also wanting us to start letting Jace have all of his trigger foods and drinks. He wants to begin figuring out how much the medication is helping. We will slowly start this on the weekends. His next full recheck there is Dec 4th. So we will start a bit this weekend!

That's all for now! Ben is finishing up breakfast and his bus comes in 15 minutes, Emily and Jace are at school, and Little Lady is still asleep! YEAH!!!!!!