Our Weekend In Photos

Saturday August 9th @ Playstation for Jace's 5th Bday party











Sunday August 10th at the Amana Colonies

We are CURSED

we had huge rain storm yesterday. This morning we went in to get Ben and Ari up and I saw something on their window sill. WATER. I looked up. The ceiling paint and drywall are bulging. We had a roof leak. It got their ceiling right above their window, their window sill, and their toy basket. I freaking give up. Seriously. I don't know what it is about us, and why we can't get a damn break.

Changes

life is constantly changing as we all know.
jace is 5 now, his birthday was on wednesday and his party is this saturday. he had his appt at the UofI hospitals with a new pediatric GI surgeon. We really liked the 2 doctors that we met there. They changed around his medications and are pulling all of his record to go back through them. They agree that we are missing something somewhere. We are hoping that they are as dedicated as we are to get to the bottom of this. We felt like they truely listened to the entire story. Most just say he doesn't look malnurished all must be good. They took quality of life, social and everything and looked at it as one huge picture. So we are hoping for the best. They said it will take 4 to 6 weeks to truely get an idea of how the medication changes will do, so we wait and watch.

in other news. as you clearly saw i've changed my look. everyone is loving it. i'm not sold on it but that's ok. it will take time i suppose. lots of things are changing with me. i'm trying to figure out where exactly i fit in my family, and all of that. i'm not feeling right now as though i fit in my marriage at all, and that scares me. i'm feeling pretty isolated, and like i've lost a friend. not exactly sure where to go from here, but i suppose the road will make itself clear at some point. as of now i've been told "Let's move on" so that's what i'm doing, i'm just unsure where "on" is.

the kids are good. school starts on the 20th. they are all excited. we need to finish up a few basic school supplies, and do some clothes shopping. Emily and Jace will obviously be in school 5 full days a week, and Ben will be in school 5 mornings a week. So Ari and I will have some time just the 2 of us. I'm sure she will greatly enjoy that!

My parents are on their way into town now. They will be here for the weekend. Jace's birthday party is on Saturday and he's super excited! my parents, his aunt and uncle, and his 2 best friends will be there! After his party we are going to go swimming at our apartment complexes private pool. the kids are pretty excited about that! I probably won't blog much this weekend, but I will try to get on and update with photos soon!

oh and for those who have been asking here are the links to photos of the home we just moved from. These are photos from some of the rains, the last flooding, and then photos for our attorney of the mold and damage and such on move out day. There aren't many pictures of the actual flood as we were WAY to busy during that time saving our things. we didn't think to take pictures! :) there are a few though.
June 8 2008
July 19 2008
Aug 2 2008

My Hair

I colored my hair. The color choice was not my own, it was my husbands. Everyone that has seen it so far says it looks great and that my eyes look really big and dramatic. I'm still freaked out cause I have never done this color. Anyways here is a picture!
(excuse the photo. I tried to take it by myself which as we all know isn't so easy!)

Moved

We are moved. mostly, sorta. it's been a long few days. it's been the hottest humidest days ever for this area AND that apartment that we got is on the 3rd floor. and you guessed it, no elevator. so we had to carry everything up 4 flights of stairs. we are beyond exhausted. we are working on unpacking, slowly, and it's not going very fast.
brian's sister and her hubby are in town so we are heading out to help them move and then back to unpacking. i've also got to get emily registered for school at some point.
internet back, obviously.
more later.

moving tomorrow

Our landlord was served. now we wait and see what he says. we are rushing to get all moved out. we have to be out by the 7th.

we sign the lease and get our keys for our apartment tomorrow at 9am. we have people coming tomorrow and sunday to help us move. we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will get it all out. only time will tell!

the kids are a mess. today was jace's kindergarten roundup. he totally freaked out and they had to pull him off of me. once he was there he did fine. but then we came home and he had nap. He tied ben to the bedroom door, and then punctured the air bed 8 times. I have no idea what to do with him. he draws on the walls and doors, he breaks hangers, shreds everything in sight, etc. He is really getting destructive. i don't know if he's just bored and doesn't know what else to do with himself or what. we've got to figure it out though cause i'm about to lose my sanity.
on the good news side of Jace i was SUPER happy with the school. I think it will be the best part of this move. i think it will be exactly the kind of school we've wanted for emily and jace.

so that's about all for now. we will get internet up and running as soon as possible. in the mean time, like always, i will have my cell phone with me at all times!

Wheels of Justice

We received the first letter from our lawyer for signing today. He will be hand delivering it to our landlord today. We will no longer be in charge of this property come Aug 7th! I'm beyond excited! Now for the fun part to see what our landlord says. That should be interesting. I will keep updated.

In other news we are packing away. I got alot done yesterday, and am hoping to get alot more done today as well. We have people lined up to help us move Friday evening, Saturday late morning thru saturday night, all day sunday and then all day tuesday. We should have no problem getting it all out!

Brian and I are on edge, and fighting quite a bit. He informed me yesterday that he is the project manager and it's his job to manage and my job to do the work. He questioned how I had spent my time, and that I had taken a break from packing 2 days ago and watched a 1 hour tv show. He has been home for 4 hours by himself and has played on the computer. Also I did dishes and laundry, instead of packing. Priorities he said. HMMMM. As most of you can imagine, knowing me, I absolutely lost it. He has yet to pack ONE box out of probably 80 boxes packed. He claims that he sees that what he did/said were wrong and that he will help out. We shall see. I know that nerves are high and stress is immense but still.

Moving Date change

We are able to take possession of our apartment on Saturday. We just found out. So that gets it a few days earlier than expected and allows us to start moving in earlier! we are super happy about that!

BEFORE, IN, AFTER, DROWNING IN....

I keep looking at the title of my blog. Life AFTER transition. During the move to iowa it said IN..then once we were all moved and living here I thought it was safe to change it to AFTER. apparently it should have been BEFORE, then IN and now it should be DROWNING IN. I can't help but laugh when I think about it.

We are still packing and hauling things over to the new garage. It is never ending. Right now she is hoping to have the apartment ready on the 4th. We are hoping that they get it ready on the 2nd or 3rd so we can have the weekend to move.
That's really about all to report.

Moving Sucks

I hate moving. i really hate moving. we have lived in 5 places since august of last year with this whole dang move from kansas to iowa.
our neighbor came over with this truck and trailer yesterday and we hauled 2 loads out to the new apartment garages. We are going to get some more stuff hauled out today.
Last night we went over to a friends house and they took our kids for 2 hours to the park with their kids so we could get some errands run! It was definately nice! We even got Jace's birthday shopping done!
Today we are hoping to get stuff sorted out into keep in apt, store in garage, and get rid of. We bought 10 rubbermaid tubs at walmart to start filling with store in garage stuff. I'm sure it won't be enough, but at least it's a starting point.
We aren't using any boxes for storage, all rubbermaids. We lost all the stuff in the boxes during the flood, and the stuff in the rubbermaids was ok. As we were getting things out of our storage the boxes were all covered in mold and falling apart. Good enough reason for me to spend the money on rubbermaid from now on.
Sorry that we aren't keeping up with phone calls and emails and such. We are just exhausted. Bri and I were talking last night and we think this is probably the most physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting thing we've ever been through. The mold and mildew and such probably doesn't help either. The younger 2 are struggling the most from it with sinus issues and cough. The rest of us have scratchy throats, headaches, fatigue, and Bri has a slight shortness of breathe when he's in there. Basically we are exhausted and attitudes kinda suck to be perfectly honest! :)
More updates soon.
love to all, and again HUGE THANK YOU'S to everyone for all the support!

Fun Day yesterday (all in all)

Yesterday was a bit of a relax day. Yesterday morning the kids and I met up with 2 other families at a place called Playstation. Picture McD's play area but in a 3 story 20,000 sq ft bldg. The kids played there for about 2 hours, then we went to McD's for lunch. The lawyer met us for lunch and we went over all the paperwork and officially signed everything. He will send the demand letter on Monday and we wait and see what our landlords do. If we get no response or not the response we want then we take it to court. I'm hoping to be able to skip that part, but I'm willing to go the distance and refuse to back down. After that we came home for naps. Last night was Family Free Night at Coralridge mall so we headed out there for the evening. They have a big old carousel, and a clown, and the children's museum is free, kids eat free, and a large indoor play area. The kids had a great time running around and playing. We stayed way later than we probably should have and didn't get home and get the kids to bed until 9:45. Ari had a meltdown as we were leaving the mall but fell asleep in the van before we'd even left the parking lot! :) The kids are all still asleep this morning so far, which for them is sleeping in! :)
We've listed alot of things on craigslist, that we simply won't have room for in our new apartment. We have 6 people coming over so far today to look at all the different things. hopefully we will get it sold fast.
our neighbor is bringing over his truck and trailer today and we are going to start hauling stuff over to the apartment garage. Our apartment won't be available to move into until the 5th, but she was able to give us our garage so atleast we could get started.
I lost my cell phone. I think that I left it at the bank yesterday. I will have to call the bank this morning once they open! But in the meantime if you need us you can call Brian's cell phone number or our home number!

Our Kids

This is a picture of our kids last night watching TV in the dry room. This is pretty much where they live. Can't you see the look of pure excitement on their faces? :)

Thank you's and news

First I want to start with thank you's! Over this last week we have received a moneygram, invitations for meals, emails of encouragement, emails with housing ideas, invites to get out and enjoy summer a bit, daily phone calls to make sure we are okay, long phone sessions of sorting things out (and listening to me freak out and fret), offers of free toys to replace all the flooded ones, help getting furniture to replace what was lost, a law firm willing to take on our case for a third of the cost, and in general lots of love and support! I won't list any names, but you know who you all are and we just want to say THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! I odn't think we would be making it right now if it wasn't for all of you. This has been one of the hardest things I think we have been through, and to be so far away from family and such has been tough.

Next the news. Like I said above we were referred by a friend to a lawyers office and they have agreed to help us for a third of the fee. We will be meeting with him to get all the papers to him and he will be taking over all the fighting with our landlords. I'm so greatful for this because i'm just done fighting with them.

We have found a place to live. not ideal but clean and safe. We will be moving to a 3 bedroom apt, 2 baths, 2 garages. It has a playground, pool, fitness center, etc on site. The rent is actually a bit cheaper, and it's free trash and cable. It's even closer to bri's work than we are now (8min drive compared to a 17 min drive.) it's in the BEST school district around. This is the school district that we were wanting to get into from the beginning. The bad news is we have to get all of Ben's paperwork done and redo IEP's again. This isn't ideal but we have no choice. We are going through all of our things figuring out what to sell, what to give away, what to store and what to keep, oh and what all is just straight up ruined from the water and needs pitched.

The smell in our home is horrible. Ben and Ari are both having a bit of sinus troubles and a light cough. Bri and I have had headaches. Doc said it's from the mold and mildew.

That's about all I have to report right now. Life is hectic and we are running in circles trying to figure out what to do next. My bank account is going to be calling the shots soon, which means some things are going to come to a screeching halt! :) I'm sure you all know how that goes! I will update more as i know more!

OMG

%&(@#&%?@#@ that's all I have to say. UGGGGGGGGH I can't scream this freaking loud.

Click Here

landlord, FEMA, housing, sanity

It's been a long few days. Sorry for the slow updating. Our landlord has been out once. He came with a "specialist" who was going to let us know if the walls were wet. DUH! So guess what, he said it was wet. They now have the fans pointed at the ceiling and want us to run them like that for 48 hours. HMMM. They finished the roof, sorta. It's a VERY bad roof job and there are already lose shingles and such. We called an attorney and they advised that we contact FEMA, so we did that and they came out and inspected yesterday. It will be 7-10 days they said before we get an answer back from them. In the mean time we are running in circles trying to find somewhere to live. We are having no luck finding rentals, as all of them are either to small, to expensive, or what not. After the flooding rentals have become few and far between. We have looked at a few houses for sale and are in the process of seeing what we can do there. Not really holding my breathe on any front right now.
The kids are going insane. They are not enjoying being stuck in 1 place in the house. They are bored, and rightly so. Ben doesn't have school today so I think we will go into town and do something...not sure what yet.
I'm ok..tired and sore. The cyst on my stomach is still infected and still really sore. I recheck at the doc tomorrow.
We are just trying to figure out how to get all of this. we are struggling...i'm just at the end of my sanity and bri is as well. The kids are even fast approaching! :) i will update more as i hear more.

insanity

it's a mess.
after fighting with our landlord they finally got someone out to replace the roof. yesterday afternoon the roof people were drinking and apparently didn't cover the roof properly. We went out and shopping and had been home 5 minutes when a HUGE storm came. (at this point we didn't know that the roof wasn't properly covered) I was putting groceries away and heard rain loudly. sounded like the door was left open. i went to the living room and it was pouring rain, IN our house. it was pouring down the walls, in all the light fixtures, the fireplace, the doors, and just randomly all over the ceiling. I screamed for brian and the kids and we started moving stuff out as fast as we could. Mind you this is an 800 square foot living room. it's our living room, a TV room, the kids play room, and my craft storage area for all of the kids pictures and projects. oh and all my pretties are in there. I run to the neighbors and he comes over with tons of buckets. we are constantly checking the rest of the house. next thing we know it starts coming in our garage and storage room. all of our holiday and storage was soaked before we even knew what was happening. we call landlord and he comes with maintenance man. we find out that the already rotting out attic from the flood and such is filling with water. they go on the roof and cover it with plastic. it's to late. the storage ceiling starts cracking open. the living room ceiling is bulging and you can see all of the beams. the smell is horrible. water was pouring in the wall between the living room and the kitchen. the smell is horrible. the electrical got shorted out, so we don't have lights up there or power outlets. we have no idea what we are going to do.
that's all the info i have for the moment. we are in a state of shock right now and are struggling to figure out what to do next. i just can't believe this is happening. i can't deal with all of this and so many things happening at once. when do we get a freaking break?

PLEASE PRAY

they came to fix our roof 2 days ago. didn't get it finished correctly.
our home is flooding. it is coming from everywhere. we are moving things as quick as we can. afraid attic is going to cave in. we have people here helping.
please pray
i have my cell 316-208-3251

Progress....maybe...

I went to the doctor this morning. He put me on a strong dose of antibiotics 3 times a day and I check back in with him on Wednesday unless it gets any worse. I'm not running a fever yet but definately run down and really sore. He will be in the office tomorrow and wants me to call and check in with him then.

This morning a whole crew of people arrived at our house. The took down 1 tree, started taking down another, took down part of the roof and began putting on the new roof. They began digging out part of the drainage dish and outlined everything that they will be doing with us. 3 trees coming down, the drainage culvert dug out, drainage tiles and all that fixed, the back wall repaired, an entirely new roof, the storage shed and dog run taken down, all the satellite dishes removed, our stove fixed, and our AC has finally been repaired. So we are VERY happy to see these things getting fixed. Oh and when the landlord came over for the meeting they took up the carpet and took out the rotted and molded wood and caulked the whole so more rain can't come in. We discussed with him that we love the house and would have considered buying if it wasn't for the issues. He said this is something that we can work out as the repairs are done. We can only hope that he continues to hold up on this. We didn't sign or agree to anything so all is safe there. We will wait and see what his workers actually complete over this next week.

Lastly we heard about Jace's GI doc. Our family doc agrees that we need to move on to a new doctor...so we are going to go ahead and go to the University of Iowa Hospitals to a Pediatric GI Surgeon. I'm excited and nervous to be finally getting into the doctor that we have been hoping for for years! This is a GREAT facility with amazing doctors and cutting edge treatments and programs! Jace's first appointment is on the 7th of August, 1 day after he turns 5!!!!

That's all for now. Dinner is cooking and I'm sore and tired. More later....

Lets Talk

Brian spoke to our landlords yesterday.
Our stove lit on fire and wouldn't work. After some work we have gotten it to sorta work.
It rained yesterday and the water AGAIN was coming into the living room. It's supposed to rain for the next 2 days.
Our AC is all goofed up still.
The landlords said that they want to "sit down with us and work this out."
No clue what that means but Brian agreed. They are coming over today at 3:30. So we shall see. I'm hoping we get this worked out but I'm definately not holding my breathe.

In other news I go to the doc late morning. My stomach is killing me and I only have 1 pair of shorts and 1 skirt that I can wear comfortably right now. So yeah, constant laundry.

Other than that not much else going on...not like that isn't enough! :)
I will update this evening.

brief updates

Our landlord came over tuesday and took a piece of siding off the back of the house. He is leaving it off to let it dry. Someone is now supposedly going to be out Friday to fix the problem. I will believe it when I see it. We've heard that for months. Someone also came out to supposedly fix the AC. It isn't fixed. Go figure. Brian called the landlord to tell him it still isn't fixed and no response back from his voicemail. So now clue. We have been given some contact info for a local attorney that I will be calling today. I'm just so sick of dealing with all of this.

The kids are fairly bored. We haven't had much of a summer. Between the flood, the kids being sick, ben's school and therapy, Ari's therapy, the issues with the house and spending so much time on the phone over them, and everything else we haven't had much of a summer. Jace starts school on August 11. So yeah.

Brian's sister and her hubby moved to Iowa yesterday. They are storing all of their things in our garage until they move into their apt on Aug 4. They just left this morning for vacation. It will be nice having some family close by again!

Today is a lazy day. I have ANOTHER infection on my stomach and am feeling a bit run down and stuff. Ari has speech and physical therapy this morning, but other than that we are going to just lay low at home.

I give up

i'm so ready to give up. Everytime I turn around it's something else.

Friday the babysitters came over. It was my day to go into town and run some errands and have some time to myself. i get a call that emily has a headache and a bit of a fever. i say give her some tylenol and have her lay down. I get a call again later saying that her fever has gone up. I head home. Emily comes running in and says she has to tell me something. the babysitter cuts emily off and starts talking. Apparently one of the sitters was sick so she laid on my couch and watched TV. So Emily had to fill in for her and help the other sitter. She couldn't figure out how to get the stroller to work so she carried Ari and had Emily push Ben in the cheap umbrella stroller. They went on a walk. Emily started complaining that she was tired and her stomach was crampy and her head hurt. The other kids wanted to go to the park. So the sitter picked the park. Emily I guess laid on the ground there. They finally came home after over an hour. By the afternoon (i was home at this point) Emily had a 104.5 fever and was having strange nightmares and we could hardly wake her up. Turns out she was overheated and dehydrated. In the middle of all of this our air conditioner broke. The doctor called us constantly throughout the evening and all and we got her up every hour to force fluids and keep recking temp. Finally around 3am it started going down. I was so mad at the sitters and called their parents. The father of the girl who was sick just said how much did you pay her and nothing more. Needless to say we are going to find new sitters.

and Jace...poor Jace. He has been getting sick sometimes 6 times a day. The other night he got sick a little after midnight. It's been horrible. We've been cleaning up puke almost every single day.

To top all of this off our landlord is being an ass. He still hasn't fixed the water damaged wall. The back wall of the living room is completely wet and molded. The AC is broken and leaked all over the utility room. He refuses to fix anything. We have no clue what we are going to do and it's a mess.

Sorry to sound all bitchy and all but I'm exhausted. Between Emily being sick and the constant struggle with Jace and his stomach, and the issues with the house and all of that I'm exhausted. We are sleeping sometimes 5 to 6 hours a night and i'm just wiped out.

more later....

Jace and his tummy

Life has been busy. We were in Wichita for the 4th and had a fun time. We went to the zoo, did fireworks, visited family, had a date night, ate out, went shopping, and spent time with friends. It was a wirlwind of a visit.
Jace got sick quite a bit while we were gone. Since we've been home he has been throwing up 3 plus times a day. It's been a mess. He went to his GI surgeon today and they are changing around his meds. He will check back in 1 week. If there is no improvement then they will be doing the endoscopy again. Not exciting, and not particularly looking forward to it. He's back on a super strict diet that is constantly changing as more and more things keep making him sick.
Other than that not much else going on.
Will update more as I know!

A few pictures from our trip

Emily and Jace at Wet and Wild at the Zoo

Benjamin and Ari at the zoo

Ari and Grandpa at the zoo

Emily with 2 sparklers

Jace seeing if his sparkler would light the grass on fire

Ben and his sparkler

Ari and a sparkler

Visiting with Brian's mom

Emily and Jace playing in the water

Ari and Poppy Being cute

Ben got sprayed with water

Home

Just wanted to jump on real fast and let everyone know that we are home. We are getting hit with some major storms at the moment.
I will update on our trip with pictures tomorrow!
it was great seeing everyone and getting to spend some time together!

quick hello

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged.
Things are hectic here. The older 2 have had VBS this week, Ben has had school, Ari has physical therapy, Brian has been working extra hours, etc..It's been busy.
Today Benjamin has speech therapy at school. i'm going to stay and watch and listen today, as I'm not sure if I like the new speech therapist.
We will be leaving town and heading for Wichita tomorrow at noon. I'm looking forward to the trip.
No time for more now but I will try to get a full blog up before we leave.

Trip Rescheduled

Jace had his upper GI yesterday morning and now we are just waiting on the full results. They woman did tell us that she didn't see an obstruction but that we would need to wait for the radiologist to read it. So we are waiting.

our trip to Wichita has been rescheduled. We will get into town Thursday evening around 8am and will leave Monday morning to head home. So it's a short trip but atleast we will get to come in. last time we tried to schedule this trip it flooded so lets hope nothing goes wrong this time! :)

Brian is pretty stressed with his job right now. He had no training or orientation at Rockwell and then almost immediately got thrown into a team lead job. He is trying to figure out how they work and where things are and how things are done, with nobody to help. It's really starting to affect him. I'm not sure what to do about it, and don't really know how to help. All I know is he's constantly run down and in his own little world, distant from me lately. Hopefully the trip will give him a much needed recharge.

Jace update

Yesterday Brian and I took Jace to the GI doc. He did some lab work, and this morning Jace goes to St. Lukes at 8am today for an Upper GI. What they are trying to rule out right now is a blockage, ulcers, or such. The next step after that is another endoscopy. So hopefully we will know something soon. He is also putting Jace back on a daily medicine to try and help control a bit of the acid.

YEAH YEAH YEAH

Ben is officially on the WAIVER wait list! I'm am BEYOND excited about that. We got the papers and his social worker called and said he's on the list! Now we wait. It can be a long wait, and that's ok. As long as we know that our paperwork is done and he's approved and that he is officially on the list! I have many complaints about Iowa (the weather for one) but when he gets the WAIVER it will ALL be completely worth it! The day he gets it I will be enrolling him in private therapy! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Updates

Jace ~ He went to the doc yesterday. They are going to put him back on prevacid and have also given him a prescription for nausea meds to be taken as needed. Our doc was able to get thru to his GI doc so we are going to get him in there as soon as possible. They are also going to send him to a dietician to try and figure out a specific food plan to get him on.

Me ~ I had my appointment with the hand surgeon yesterday. We both agreed that the best option at this point is the surgery. the braces have helped a bit at night, but not enough. I'm still having alot of pain and numbness and dropping things all the time. So they will call me today to get that scheduled. i've chosen to have both hands operated on at the same time, to get thru the recovery part faster.

In other news...Sunday Brian took the older 2 kids to the baseball game. the kids got free gloves, and after the game they got to go on the field and run the bases. They got a certificate for crossing home plate.
Last night we took all the kids on a picnic and to the local splash pad. They had fun. Ben wasn't sure about the water and spent the whole time running circles around the perimeter. Ariana went in a bit, but was happy on the outside watching and walking around.

Other than that not much exciting around here. Today is housework day. I'm not super excited about that. I hate cleaning house just to see it get trashed 5 minutes later! :)

Worst Morning wake up ever

The kids slept in a bit this morning. I took my shower and came downstairs for a few minutes on the computer. Emily comes down saying that Jace is up and that he threw up during the night. i go upstairs and have never felt so sick in my life. Jace got sick in the middle of the night all over his bed, 5 books on his bed, the floor, etc. The smell is honestly like nothing I have ever imagined.
He went out yesterday. Brian took the older 2 kids to a baseball game. He had a hotdog. It's the damn curse of the hotdog again. Every single time he has a hotdog he gets sick. I don't understand it, I don't know what to do about it.
this is beyond out of control. I think I'm going to call his GI doc and get him in, today.

Experience of a lifetime

last week my debit card was missing. I called the bank and they blocked the card (brian's also, since it's the same account number) and said we would receive new ones. 2 days later i found it and didn't even think about it and stuck it in my wallet.
fastforward to tonight.
we decided to go out to dinner. we went to applebee's. we ate, the bill came, i stuck my card with it and didn't think anything about it. the manager comes out saying my card was rejected as being reported as a lost or stolen card. i thought OH CRAP. i had completely forgotten. they don't take checks. so i quickly called my bank, and they informed me they couldn't unblock the card and that there was nothing they could do. We decided that i would leave and go to the grocery store and try and cash a check there. as i was getting up to leave this young couple at the table, said they had heard what was happening and would like to help. they took our bill and paid the whole thing for us. we tried to offer them a check of anything at all to reimburse/thank them and they said to just pass it on! we couldn't believe it. i was in absolutely shock. i think that we all told them like 100 times thank you. they just said pass it on.
i feel forever indebted to these people. it made me almost cry. i'm soooo happy to know that there are still such good amazing people out there in the world! I just had to share what happened and you can dang well guarantee we will for sure be passing it on!

Cabin Fever

We are here and are ok. It's just been kind of a lonely few days. We haven't gone into town or really gone anywhere. We've just been home. All of my friends are on the other side of the river so it's been impossible to get together. Two of my good friends, literally had to evacuate so they haven't even been in town.
Benjamin started school on Monday, and today was his 2nd day. We had our 3rd IEP mtg today and hopefully we FINALLY have it all figured out. Ben will be going to school on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9am to 11:30. This is for his summer extended year. So we ended up with 5 hours a week. I couldn't believe it! He seems to be doing well with his 1 on 1 associate so I'm really relieved about that.
Emily and Jace are doing ok. They are getting bored and fighting quite a bit. We've been sending them outside alot and going on walks in the evenings. Jace keeps waking Emily up in the morning and we are trying to figure out how to break this habit.
Ariana is doing good. She's slowly but surely trying to take more steps, and when she falls she's trying to get back up instead of crawling! She has physical therapy in the morning and I'm so excited to hear what they say about her progress!
Brian is ok. He's got a cold at the moment so a bit grouchy about that. He and I aren't on the best of terms at the moment, and to be honest I have no idea why. We arne't specifically fighting but we aren't specifically communicating well and getting along either.
I'm pretty good. Just bored with sitting here at home. I starting knitting Ben a pair of wool shorties yesterday. I should hopefully have them finished up tonight! They are a beautiful kettle dyed wool in browns and greens. They are knitting up beautifully. I have to stop frequently to let my hands rest but I'm having fun knitting again!
Anyways that's about it for now. I think we are going to head out for a walk.

Pictures from Today

we had a great time today at the open house. no rain came and it was in the low 80s pretty windy but that's ok. i had the chance to take alot of good pictures of the kids and such!

Click HERE for pictures

the rain will be here in just a few.
I got a phone call just now all the way from Alana in Germany. She was so excited because she saw us on the news. She said the pictures were all like some of the pictures I took. She couldn't believe that she saw Iowa on the news all the way across the world in Germany! :)

good news bad news

the river in cedar rapids crested yesterday afternoon, over 7 feet higher than the original prediction. bet they can tell as of yesterday morning there is over $736 million worth of damage. But until they can actually get in there that is a low estimate. the river has slowly begun to recede.
the river in iowa city is still rising and is expected to crest on monday. they are doing everything they can to protect the U of I hospital as it's the last fully functioning hospital around right now.
the even worse news is we are supposed to get more rain today, tonight, and tomorrow. Everyone is getting ready and preparing for the worst.

our local volunteer fire department is having a family day today from 11 to 4. They are having tours and games and a BBQ. We are going to take the kids to have some fun time out, and to get to know more in our community. It will be a much needed break for us all.

thank you to everyone for all of the prayers and emails. it means alot to us to know that everyone is thinking about us and our community.

we're alive

sorry for the delay in the update. we are just so busy and so exhausted. this has been physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting. the water is down right here on our property. our living room is wet. very wet. come to find out there is a MAJOR leak all the way across the back wall of our home and the wall is completely rotted out and molded. so now we have a main structural wall completely soaked to the bone. also we lost about 30% of the shingles on the roof and most the rest are just hanging off. we lost the tree in the front and then 2 of our trees have broken branches hanging on the roof.
water conservation is in effect and our town will probably soon be sending the water we have to cedar rapids. gas is high, food is hard to find, mail is nonexistent, highways are closed, hospitals are evacuated, friends are evacuating and losing their homes. my school has stopped sandbagging and is evacuating. some good friends of ours had to evacuated last night as the water was almost to their home. they got their clothes and some papers. i will join her husband sunday to try to get over there and see if we can get in and if we can salvage anything.
it's devasting. i had no idea that this much of our lives would be affected. everyone is just coming together and trying to figure out what needs done. the kids and i went down to the local store and had breakfast and chatted with others in the community. then everyone headed home to try and dry things out. as many things as possible we've moved upstairs and that's taken alot of time and creativity to make it all fit. we've stacked things high etc...
we are running a dehumidifier full speed continuously and have had to empty the huge tank 3 times so far today. the smell in here is sickening from the back wall wet and rotting.

sorry for not answering all the emails and phone calls. it's just been one of those..don't want to talk to anyone days. i don't mean to sound rude but if you aren't here living it you just don't quite get it. heck i didn't even quite get it until it hit home and until we drove down and saw downtown. i was literally ill last night when we got home. words can't describe what is happening here and how we all feel. so i hope i don't sound rude and stand offish it's just hard and we are all trying to figure out how to feel and deal.

the kids have lots of questions and they don't understand what's happening, so that's made it interesting as well.

more updates soon...promise to atleast post once a day so everyone knows we are ok.

update and pictures 939pm

flood stage is 12 ft.
9pm thursday 31 ft
(mind you they thought it was only going to go to 24.9 ft.)

we are still pumping away here. one of our pumps is being quite tempermental so we are having to use the smaller capacity one. the rain is slowing here for the moment so we are hoping to get some catch up pumping done.
We did go into cedar rapids tonight so those pictures are in the link as well. some are blurry as we couldn't get out of our vehicle on the highway.
i can say that i have never seen anything like this in my life and hope to never again.
words can't describe what we witnessed tonight. you will get an idea from the pictures but they don't capture it.

Click HERE for Pictures

update 555pm

we are here. it's been one storm after the next. our landlord had to come out and bring a second submersible pump. the new one pumps 2700 gallons an hour. it ran all afternoon. he also brought a dehumidifier to put where the water is getting in to help a touch until it can get repaired. our roof is falling off in huge chunks. right now we are again between storms. tonight they are calling for more huge storms and possibly tornados. it could be a long night. we are already exhausted so we are hoping to be able to sleep tonight. i don't want to be out there all night digging trenches and such.

i went into town and bought lots of drinks. the area is on water restriction. apparently everyone is at 25% percent water supply. so that's pretty crappy as you can imagine.

i think we will be heading to bed early tonight if at all possible. i didn't take any pictures today as we were to busy working to keep our house safe. there are tons of new pictures on the newspaper online www.gazetteonline.com though and on foxnews.com and such.

update 115pm

all highways in and out closed. large railroad bridge downtown collapsed. our entire yard is now underwater and up on the bottom of the foundation across the back. i just came in from digging another trench across the back trying to keep it away from the foundation. submersible pump is completely submersed in the middle of the backyard's lake.
more later.

Update 1033am

we've been outside for over 3 hrs now digging trenches, shoveling, pumping, sweeping water etc.. the next storm is on it's way. our yard is still about 6 or more inches deep with water. we are having trouble moving the water out of the back of the house. the submersible pump is trying but can't keep up. the water is coming in the back of the house and the whole back wall is rotted out. our landlord put a new battery on the sump back up. it's pumping almost constantly. we still have power so far.
many towns around us have no power. downtown cedar rapids now has water up to the windows and they are evacuating people by boat now. downtown cedar rapids, iowa city and coralville are all on mandatory evacuation.
more later.

flood hits home

the water is here. our entire property is water. it is an 1/8th of an inch from the doors. landlord brought a pump. not working. we moving everything to high ground.
rain bad.
more later

floods

we are contemplating building an ark. it's getting bad here.
www.gazetteonline.com
http://picasaweb.google.com/EJBAMommy/Flood0611
brian and i spent today taking pictures of the flood. iowa city is now under mandatory evacuation and downtown cedar rapids is pretty much closed down. we had to park and walk and on our way back thru it was completely closed.
big storms coming tonight and tomorrow so who knows what will happen now.
will update as we know more.

Not what you think

**warning: probably very scattered thoughts, not perfect sentences, may not be perfectly flowing reading :) **

raising an autistic child isn't what most people think. it's not like the movies. i absolutely HATE seeing an autistic child portrayed on tv. They are usually showed to be horribly agressive and abusive and self mutilating, many times showed involved in murders and such, or they are showed to be stupid. the families are usually showed sticking them into institutions to try and protect the child, or to simply not have to deal with it. It's horrible how autism is portrayed in movies and tv shows.
when people find out that benjamin is autistic i see the look in their eyes. most tell me they saw it on tv, or in a movie. or that they know someone who knows someone who is related to someone who knows someone who is autistic.
then you have those people who think that the child is bad or naughty or that they way we are parenting is what is causing the problem. if we disciplined more, or if we didn't give in, if we didn't give him special treatment, if we just forced him to communicate, etc...
Others treat it as a disease. They don't want to come anywhere near him, or even us. Heaven forbid it could be contagious. I think that autism is a bigger taboo to some than the AIDS epidemic.
Then there are others who see Ben for 5 minutes and make their judgement from that. He said a few words, he smiled, he played with a car, he didn't scream and slam his head into a wall, so clearly he is fine. He isn't really autistic. They think that we clearly have it so easy because Ben acted fairly normal, maybe even a bit quiet, during the 5 minutes they saw him, so clearly that must be how he is during the other 23 hrs and 55 minutes of each day.

Life isn't like any of those things above. Ben isn't contagious. He doesn't have a disease. He isn't stupid. He isn't weird. We don't underdiscipline. We don't over indulge him. he throws horrible tantrums, sometimes for hours. He refuses to eat sometimes for weeks. When he does eat it's a fight and it's strange things. He will eat only applesauce out of the dumb little plastic containers for weeks, every single meal. Halfway thru the meal he could throw it across the room and scream until you figure out that he has changed and now the new obsession is waffles. He gets constipated so bad that we now keep a container of spray lube in his room to help when we have to literally remove a piece of stool twice the size of his fist from his bottom as he screams. he can say amazing sentences, putting words together properly and clearly pronouncing each word, then I can ask him if he wants milk or applejuice and he loses all communication and can't answer the question. He can see a motorcycle and he will say "it's a motorcycle" over and over until we say it exactly the way he wants. sounds simple huh? but it's not because we don't know how he wants us to say it, we aren't in his head. this can go on for hours until he is so exhausted he can't go on or until we figure out exactly what he wants. he can scream for no apparent reason, us never figuring out why. he is OCD, and this can be a long exhausting process. he usually only wants me. if he drops something it has to be me that picks it up and gives it to him. if anyone else tries to it's another melt down. he will follow me around screaming my name over and over. no matter what i do he won't stop. he doesn't ask for help, he doesn't tell you if he needs something, he doesn't tell you what he needs, he doesn't initiate any sort of conversation at all.
these things can be exhausting...and embarressing. I SOOO hate to say that. i feel like such a horrible person to even think that let alone say it but it's the truth. people stare in public and i hate it. sometimes i just want to crawl under the table. sometimes i don't want anyone to know that i'm a part of this at all. sometimes i wish he would just stop. sometimes i scream because i just can't deal with it anymore. sometimes i just want him to stop. sometimes i don't feel empathy for him having to go through this, sometimes i just want the insanity of autism to stop.
i have no idea where we are going to end up on this roller coaster. i would like to think that it ends with ben functioning perfectly in a neurotypical world. but i'm beyond terrified that it doesn't. how long can i do this? can i live my whole life like this? what happens as ben gets older and bigger? i know that i am a mother which we know means indestructible, invincible, etc...i know that no matter what happens i will make it and so will ben, i just hope i can keep my family and my marriage intact as we continue to fight the uphill battle of sanity.

No Trip

Life can be interesting sometimes.
We aren't coming into Wichita this week. I'm not happy about this but sometimes that's how life ends up. We will make it in I just don't know the exact date yet.

Jace had his appointment with the GI doc. He had labwork and all and we are waiting on the results. Then the doc will decide what he wants to do next. So we wait. He's still completely off of dairy.

Ben is officially 3. WOW. His party went well. We had 2 families over, for a total of 6 adults and 8 kids. He loved all of his presents, and loved his cake. He wanted a blue circle cake. It wasn't the most beautiful cake ever but he loved it. So that is all that matters. He is also officially done with his Early Access therapy. He will start his new therapy next week. I'm excited and nervous to see how it goes.

Ariana had her therapy this morning. She met her new physical therapist, and did great with her. She is also going to be referred for OT. They said that she is definately struggling. She has problems with her core and hips. They also immediately noticed her hands and the problems there. They are going to start doing therapy and also are thinking that she may need to be seen by a neurologist. We shall see.

We went to walmart this morning and I parked the cart to look for something. Next thing i knew I heard a loud crash and Ari start screaming. When I touched the shelf down a bit it made the whole shelf slightly shift. Dumb walmart has these rolling file cabinets that you can fold up. They put them on an upper shelf propped up on the wheels with nothing blocking them in. All 8 of them fell and 3 of them hit Ariana in the head. She now has a bump and bruise on her head. I complained to the manager telling them that needs fixed and they filed this whole incident report and crap. I was just pissed and wanted to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else. I'm sure it didn't feel very good, but I think it probably scared her more than anything.

Today is Brian's 1st day to not have to pick up Emily and now he will be home super late anyway. He got to work late this morning so therefore gets off late. Hopefully he can get into the habit of getting up and into work early so that he can get home early and have some time to spend as a family.

well that is all for now as my kids are all waking up and the laundry is needing switched and i'm going to need to start dinner...etc...you get the idea.
more to come tomorrow.

All done

school is finished. brian just picked emily up from her last day of school. today was also ben's last day of in home therapy with the under 3 team. we said goodbye to the last of his team this morning. weird.
i can't believe that the kids are getting so big. emily just finished the first grade, jace will be starting kindergarten this fall, benjamin will be 3 tomorrow. time flies.
we are having a BBQ here at our house tomorrow and some friends are coming over. we figured something small would be best as ben doesn't like big crowds and lots of people.

i finished sewing together the front facing of my quilt yesterday. I will go out later today and get the batting and the backing and then I will be ready to start quilting it. I can't wait till it's finished. It is looking so good!
I finished sewing Emily's curtains and valance this morning and got them hung up for her. it looks really good! A good friend of mine is hand sewing her a quilt in matching material to the valances and such. very girly! :)

New Pictures

It's been a few since I've posted pictures. I don't have alot of new ones but here are a few!

1st is Emily at her piano recital. (I made the dress)


Jace at his graduation.


Ben at his graduation.


Jace getting his diploma.


Jace and his best friend from school.


Ben and Ari being cute in the car.

Summer for the boys

summer is officially here for the boys. today was jace's final graduation and he is now on summer as well. emily has 2 1/2 days left. i'm so excited that we are almost done. only 3 more mornings to have to make the long drive to get her to school.

ben has 2 more in home therapy sessions with the autism team. i can't believe that the time is almost up. since he turns 3 on saturday he transfers to the school district. i will really miss his team. they were so great with him. he will start his new program on the 18th of june. he did get extended year..2 days a week, 1 hour each time of school and then 30 minutes 1 day a week of speech. they got his associate hired and she will be starting summer school with him on the 18th. so he will have her from the very first day that he starts school. i'm so relieved about that. i'm glad that he will get to have the consistency of her always being with him. i can't believe that ben will be 3 on saturday. we got his presents in the mail today...ordered them all from discovery toys. brian's first comment is how it's so weird because they totally aren't a typical toy for a 3 year old. i agree but these are the kinds of things that he loves.

tomorrow is jace's appointment with the pediatric GI. I'm excited to meet the new doc and get working with him. i'm also excited because for the first time ever jace will have an actual pediatric doc in the city that we live in! that's a first and definately exciting. right now jace is on a month of no dairy again. he's drinking a bit of almond milk and thats it. so we are back to be very creative with our diet and cooking. he's doing pretty good although he's really missing all of his foods. he keeps begging for his appointment so he can have milk...if only he understood that it isn't that easy.

brian was watching a video of tornados with the kids, and the one happened to be from the andover tornado. brian said he lived there when it came through. Jace asked him if he died in the tornado. brian laughed and said no. jace said oh. gotta love the things they say!

well ben is now throwing a fit because he got in trouble for throwing a picture. now ariana is crying because ben is crying. ugggh. gotta love life.

more later.

Creative Eating

Benjamin is back on a major eating issue kick. He has eating applesauce mostly for almost 2 weeks now. He's had a few bites of a breakfast casserole, a pb & j(part of it) and maybe some salami. tonight he wanted yogurt. so i took a meatball and the yogurt and 1/3 of a banana and put it all in the blender. he wouldn't really eat it at first and you could tell he knew something wasn't right. Finally he let me spoon feed it to him and he did end up eating it. We always give him whatever we are eating and then we finally at almost the end of the meal give him the applesauce or whatnot that he wants. We simply need him to eat something. i so hope that someday he outgrows this and that he will be able to eat. it's so hard to keep trying to sneak some food in, and to constantly fight with him over eating.

in other news...jace and ben had their graduation today. jace's last graduation is tomorrow. ben is done with school for the semester! YEAH! I'm so ready for this school year to be over.

anyways so much more is going on but i just don't have time right now to type it all out. i'm baking...LOTS. i'm making up 6 goody boxes for the kids to take to all of their teachers tomorrow. muffins and cookies and all that yummy stuff! more soon....

It's official

i forgot to add this to the last post. The wichita trip is ON. The kids and i will head up to wichita on sunday june 8th and brian will join us on friday june 13th. ben's birthday party will be the evening of june 13th. we will all head home on monday june 16th. please post to this message or email me or call me so i can get all our visits set up and scheduled.
i've already been kidnapped for monday the 9th so that isn't open! :)

I hate painting

it's official. i absolutely hate painting. when we moved into this house it was pink..like steal magnolis pepto bismal pink. as you know i HATE pink. it is definately NOT my signature color. We have now painted the kitchen, dining room, family room/office, emily's room, jace's room, and the master bedroom. i have left to paint 2 full baths, 1 half bath, ben/ari's room, and that's all. i'm sooo needing this painting project finished. It won't be done but close. then it's time to start making curtains and hanging pictures and shelves and all of those decorating kinds of things. I've also gotta get the quilt finished for the formal living room. so many things to do but ultimately it will look so good! this place was just screaming to be decorated! :)

in other news...
ari had her appt at the U of I and they that its not technically out of normal limits to walk until 20 or 24 months and that her gait would be something for a neurologist not an orthopedic doc. So we are back at square one. she had her recheck at the doc today from her hospital stay. Her ear looks good and her lungs sound much better. She's put 3 ounces back on so that's good as well. She got a shot, but we are still refusing the MMR. we just feel like that is the right decision.

i had my appt with the hand surgeon today. He is going to try supplements, wrist braces and some exercises for 3 wks and then will recheck and probably schedule surgery on both hands. I'm ready to get this done as i'm sick of the pain and missing being able to use my hands fully.

brian had a doc checkup today and has lost 16 more lbs in the last 7 weeks. that takes him to 60ish lbs lost total so far! YEAH!

tomorrow is ben's final IEP meeting for the year. should be interesting. after how the last meeting went brian has decided to go to this one with me. i'm very glad for that. i'm hoping that we are all able to come to an agreement on what works for us, for the school district and most of all for ben!

brian's sister and her husband are coming in town this weekend. they will be moving to iowa this fall so they are coming in to look at housing and such. we are super excited to see them for a few days and show them around the area!

that's about all in the world of us. more news and pictures soon! Promise!

Normal

We are attempting to get back situated into normal life..whatever normal is. Ariana is getting a bit better each day. She's playing more and starting to eat more. Still being a bit of a pain about drinking but getting better. Benjamin still has a bit of a fever and cough today but he also seems to be doing a bit better. Nobody else has gotten sick so that's a good thing!
My mom left to go home this morning. Yesterday the 3 adults spent the day painting and we got the kitchen all done! It looks so much better. Today Brian and I are hoping to get the TV room done and then hoping to get the bedrooms painted this next week. I will post pictures once it is all done.
Benjamin has 3 days of school left, Jace has 6 days, and Emily has 9. I'm so ready for the school year to be over for them! Will save soooo much driving! Brian is off tomorrow as well so we will have another day at home to relax, or to paint, one of the two! :)

Home

Ariana is home. We got home late yesterday afternoon. I will update more information later as we are trying to get situated and such. But just wanted to atleast let everyone know that she is home.

Also Mr Ben is sick. he's got her fever and horrible cough.

home real quick

It's been a long 24 hrs. Last night when I got back to the hospital Ari was trying to sleep. She started screaming every 3 minutes and this went on for 2 hours. Finally the nurse figured out that her IV had infiltrated, and was pumping the fluid into her tissue. this is apparently fairly painful and her little hand and wrist were horribly swelled. They took out the IV and she was asleep in 2 seconds. They decided to see if she would drink and didn't put in a new one. She played a little bit on the floor and tried to eat a bit but wouldn't really drink. Doc came in and was concerned about how her breathing and chest were sounding. He decided to do some breathing treatments and ordered a chest xray. He also wanted the IV back in. The chest xray came back showing inflammation but not pneumonia. Her blood works shows that she is still dehydrated. They also started her on iron supplements. When I left she was finally asleep and resting. so we have no idea what is going on with her little body, or when she'll be coming home.
I will go back up to the hospital around 9pm and brian will head home.
more updates when i can....

Ari update

I'm home for a few and Brian is at the hospital with Ari. She has 4 separate things going on with her. She has a horrible ear infection in her left ear, she's on antibiotics and pain killer for that. Then she has a yucky sinus respiratory thing. She's on a cough syrup and a decongestant for that. Her nose is pouring, and she's got so much drainage that she literally gags on it. Next she has rotovirus. The throwing up has stopped, but the diarrhea is still going, as well as stomach cramps and gas pains. She's running a fever. The lab work shows that she is very anemic, low iron, really low. They have no idea what's causing that and are going to use supplements. We had no idea, they just happened to run that in all of her blood work. She's on iv's (obviously) and all of the meds. The doc is thinking that she will be in the hospital for 2-3 days. She is on day 5 of pretty much no food or drink. this evening she had a popsicle and some jello. Her throat hurts alot and her tummy so that makes it doubly hard to get her to drink.
My mom is coming in town to stay with us to watch the other 3 kids. She is about an hour away. I don't know how much I will get home but that's al the info I have for now.

Day 5 Ariana sick

Ari still sick, super sick. Lab work came back bad. Lots of issues, anemic, levels low, rotovirus, raging ear infections, sinuses and chest full of mucus...doc sending her to hospital to be admitted. i will have my cell, no computer right now. i'll try to have brian update.

Neurologist

I had my neurologist appointment today. He did a nerve conduction test and tested the muscles. Turns out I have severe carpal tunnel in my right hand and arm and moderate in my left. He thinks that we should skip everything and go straight to the neurosurgeon for surgery. I have my consult with the neurosurgeon on the 28th. So we shall see.

Also Ariana got sick again this morning so I had to postpone her appointment at the U of I until the 27th. She goes to the doc tomorrow. Apparently her lab work from the ER came back low so they want to retest and check on what's going on. She's back to throwing up today and refusing to drink. She's spent most of the day sleeping and laying on the floor.

Quick Ari Update

She's got a cough and a slight runny nose. No more throwing up, still has the dipes though. She isn't wanting to drink this morning. So it's a fight to get her to drink each sip. She had a banana for breakfast and seems to be keeping it down. Everybody else is still doing good, no other sickies yet.

Today is Emily's piano recital. I will take her and Brian will stay home with everyone else. Will try and get a good video of it!

Ari's Sick

Little Lady woke up this morning and had 2 very yucky diapers. Then she started throwing up. she's take on sip of her drink and throw up 3 times as much. Called the doc and he said to take her to the ER. Got there and waited and waited and waited. 4 hrs in she hadn't drank or peed, and she was just laying on the floor of the ER waiting room. I called our doc and he called the ER and complained. Finally after 5hrs in the waiting room I took her up to the triage desk again and really started complaining. A doc came over and immediately did labs and took her back. They gave her some anti-nausea medicine and then slowly started her on some pedialyte. She drank as much as they'd let her, so they decided to let her come home. She's sleeping now, and hopefully will be feeling better in the morning.

Full Results

My doc called yesterday and said he wanted to meet with me today to talk about the MRI results. I woke up this morning and couldn't move my fingers on my right hand. Thy were swelled so much I couldn't make a fist or move them around. Brian took the day off work and I went to the doc.
My C3 has a small bone spur and osteo-arthritis but it isn't what is causing the problem.
C4,5,6 on the left side are bulging which is pinching off the C6 nerve. This is what is causing the lesser numbing and tingling in my left arm. This doesn't explain the right arm though.
So my doc has stopped all therapy but the muscle relaxor and the anti-inflammatory. He called a neurologist and I go there on Monday morning at 8am. They are going to do nerve conduction tests and find out what is happening. Something is going horribly wrong with the nerves which is making the muscles go nuts and tense up and tie in knots which is causing inflammation and swelling which is pinching off the nerves which is making the cycle happen. if that makes sense. so i won't know anything until monday.

in other news today was my last final. YEAH! I'm so glad that this semester is over. Ben and Jace have 2 wks and 2 days left of school and Emily has 3 wks. i've never been so ready for summer break!

MRI initial results

I'm spoiled. What can I say. My doc went with me to the MRI. He stood next to me holding my hand and rubbing my leg and talking to me. Made it sooo much easier. He looked over the initial scans and said that C6 is definately not right. Bulging or something it looks like. We will get the full results tomorrow. I'm just glad it's over and hopefully knowing what it is will make it easier to fix! :)

IEP funnies!

On a Lighter Note...
IEPs According to Dr. Suess

Do you like these IEPs?

I do not like these IEPs
I do not like them, Jeeze Louise
We test, we check
we plan, we meet
but nothing ever seems complete.

Would you, could you
like the form?

I do not like the form I see.
Not page 1, not 2, not 3.
Another change,
a brand new box, I think we all
Have lost our rocks.

Could you all meet here or there?

We could not all meet here or there.
We cannot all fit anywhere.
Not in a room
Not in a hall
There seems to be no space at all.

Would you, could you meet again?

I cannot meet again next week
No lunch, no prep
Please here me speak.
No, not at dusk and not at dawn
At 4 p.m. I should be gone.

Could you hear while all speak out?
Would you write the words they spout?

I could not hear, I would not write
This does not need to be a fight.

Sign here, date there,
Mark this, check that,
Beware the student’s ad-vo-cat(e).

You do not like them
so you say
Try it again! Try it again!
and then you may.

If you let me be,
I’ll try again
and you will see.

Say!

I almost like these IEPs
I think I’ll write 6,003.
And I will practice day and night
Until they say
"You’ve got it right."

Author Unknown

Our world....delivered

I have my MRI tomorrow. My doctor is going to go with me. We shall see how it goes. I'm not looking forward to it but really hoping to find out what is going on with my shoulder.

In other news I'm working on the house. We picked out paint colors for the house and have started taking off all the wallpaper in the kitchen and dining room. We are probably about half done. I have had 2 friends helping me with it so that makes it a bit better! :)

Benjamin went to one of the school options for next year to check it out. He was there for about 1 1/2 hrs today. He was scared when we got there and cried and hid behind me. When I left he had his bottom lip stuck all the way out. His Itinerate Preschool Teacher was with him so I guess that helped a bit. She said he did okay but she had to help him transition and such. Some issues were he doesn't know how to drink from a cup so she had to help him with his drink at snack, and at circle time there were to many kids and it was to loud so Ben just started spinning in circles and tuning everything out. He ended up accidentally kicking 3 kids because of it. This is when I went ahead and packed him up and took him home. He will check out the other choice next week. The school today has the advantage of being an inclusion classroom, whereas the other school is specifically special needs and autism. The other school is a much smaller classroom. If he does go to the school today he will have an associate who will always be with him at school the entire time he's there. So that would help him but still. We aren't sure what decision to make. In good news we were able to get extended year!!!!!! YEAH!!!!! So he will get services all summer. and we even pushed for good ones! He gets 1 hr 3 times a week! YEAH!!!!! This was a HUGE victory.

Ariana is doing good. She is starting to talk more. Walking is still going nowhere. She starts back up tomorrow with her therapy. She also goes to the UofI next week to the orthopedic dept so we will know more then.

Jace is doing ok. He's back to really struggling with his tummy. He's completely off of all dairy again. Makes life pure pleasure let me tell you. He will be referred to a specialist in the next week or two.

Emily is doing good. She has 3 lose teeth right now and she can't wait for them to fall out....especially since she got $20 for the first tooth...damn tooth fairy and no change... :) Em has her piano recital this weekend and she's super excited about that.

Brian is ok. He's working and trying to get situated. He likes his job all in all. He's been a bit grouchy and distant lately but I think everyone is just exhausted and worn out and he doesn't talk about stuff. a man and an engineer. :)

my last final is friday! YEAH!!! I'm so glad to almost be done for the semester! I'm ready to be home for awhile!

Name that Picture

I thought it would be fun this morning to play a game called name that picture. this picture was taken TODAY. this is not an old picture. anyone out there know the answer? :)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!

I hope that all the moms reading my blog have a wonderful day today!

Things are good here. We've had a bit slower of a weekend. I had my "massage" therapy yesterday morning and then we ran a few errands and were home by noon. We spent the rest of the day at home. We did a bit of picking up, and then just goofed off. Brian burned me a CD of some songs I've been wanting and I did some cutting for a sewing project that I'm working on with a friend. We've been buying our mama cloth and have decided that we can easily make our own for sooo much cheaper and exactly the way that we want them. So we split up all the cutting and each took half. We'll get together next week hopefully and serge them all up! :)
Late yesterday I made up a sour cream coffee cake with chocolate chips and raspberies and we made eggs this morning. So that was our super yummy breakfast with some fruit.
We are going to head into a town close to us this morning and find their grocery store. This town is where Ben will be going to school next year as well.
Anyways hope all the moms have a great time!

shoulder updates

my right shoulder is screwed. that's the short of it. apparently not a single part of my shoulder is in the right place. he said it was a mess. also there is alot of scar tissue which ultimately is going to need to be stripped. he says it's as bad as it sounds. YIKES. so they want to try and adjust my shoulder today, do the traction again, and do the STEM therapy. I'm still really hurting on my lower neck and between my shoulders and back area, and my right arm is still in alot of pain and pretty much totally useless. my left arm is still going numb but like always not near as bad as my right arm. i'm still taking 3 meds for all of this and they don't seem to be doing a darn thing. i'm spending my entire life rotating between my doc/chiro, my new chiro, and my massage therapist. lovely lovely lovely. i'm sore and i'm tired and this has got to end soon. i never imagined how much quality of life could be lost from something like this.
more updates later....

Pain

I have been in 2 car accidents in my life, both of which my right shoulder took all of the impact. I've always had a bit of trouble with my shoulder, and can only use my arm so long before it goes numb and I have to take a break and stretch it out. All in all it's been one of those things I've been able to compensate for and haven't had to much trouble. Then the move. I was sore afterwards but didn't think to much about it. Then my arm started going numb a bit quicker and I found I was taking alot more breaks. Then I couldn't sleep because my arm was hurting me so much. Then it spread to my elbow and my shoulder. By Monday I was hurting ALOT and called the doc. My doctor is a licensed MD and a DC! So he got me in yesterday. Apparently the spine in my neck is completely straight instead of curved AND my spine is slipped over to the side completely pinching off my nerves. he did an adjustment and put me on 4 meds...a pain killer, a muscle relaxor, an anti-inflammatory, and a new med on the market used to calm the nerves. (not like emotional like sensation). I took them last night and was sleepy but ok. Went to bed with no change. Woke up this morning and I could hardly get out of bed at all. I was in incredible pain. couldn't turn my head my arms were completely numb and couldn't even brush out emily's hair. i took my meds and brian drove the kids to school and me to the doc. by the time we got to the doc i was so dizzy i couldn't see straight, had trouble keeping my balance standing etc. he did an adjustment and sent me to another doc for traction. every time my head is pulled straight back away from my body the numbness in my arms go away. brian took me home and i fell asleep on the couch. doc called and i flew out the door. the whole drive there the road and everything was swimming in front of my eyes. by the time i got to the doc i couldn't even think straight. i filled out the first 4 lines of the paperwork and then couldn't even hold the pen. the nurse filled it all out. by the time i got back to the room i literally had a breakdown. my back and shoulders were throbbing i could only take fast deep breaths, i was so dizzy i thought i was going to pass out or throw up, and i couldn't use my arms. called my doc and he immediately took me off the nerve meds. i had the traction and then was sent to a massage therapist who searches out the higher temp parts of my spine and does intense pressure massage there. he didn't want to do a full massage because he didn't want to increase my circulation and pump the meds that were already affecting me horribly through my body even more.
now i'm home and feeling like crap. i'm pretty drugged up and have very limited use of my arms and neck.
doc said it will take days to weeks for the pain to go away and that it will take months to fix it. i've been put on permanent restriction from ever lifting heavy items again, and told this will be a life long thing that i will be battling from here on out. gotta love life.
so anyways typing is getting fuzzy. i'm off to the couch.

final stretch

i'm on the home stretch for this semester. this is my last week of class and then finals are next week. i have tomorrow off and i'm pretty excited about that! :)
we have gotten all of our things from our old house, and have gotten it cleaned up and all of that. we've pretty much finished unpacking here at the new house, just some odds and ends left. i'm hoping to get those things finished up tomorrow.
i haven't done a great job at keeping up with the blog lately but things have been so darned hectic. i promise to get back going next week once the semester is over.

Still alive

we are still here, all alive, all living under the same roof.
by the end of this evening all of our stuff will be out of the old house and over here. so atleast that part of the job is done. then we just need to get over there and clean it and get the keys back to our landlord.
and then the true fun begins. we have to unpack this flipping place. it's a mess and everything has been put into the garage. so now you can barely walk in the garage. and mind you our fridge is in the garage because it doesn't fit in the house. so yeah talk about pure enjoyment.
i have one week of school left and then finals week. i'm so ready for this semester to be over.
so that's about all. i don't have much to blog about, but on the other hand i have tons i could say. if that makes a darned bit of sense.

Back

i'm back online. i've been back online since tuesday night but haven't had time to blog.
i have a line from a song that pretty much sums everything up for you.
"It comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel was just a freight train coming your way."
everything with the move and pretty much my life in general has been a disaster. brian and i are fighting right now more than ever before and after last night and this morning i could really care less if he comes home tonight or if he goes and finds a hotel.

in other news the kids are all pretty good, except for jace. his stomach and bowels are really starting to act up again. we have immediately stopped all dairy and have called the doc to get him an appt with a pediatric GI. i will update more there as i know it.

blogs maybe few and far between right now until i can get all of our things over to this house, get some meals going some day, get clean clothes, unpack, and figure out how to fix my marriage.......