Duncan's soccer game

We went to another soccer game. I didn't have to coach so I got some pictures.

Tired and Warn Out

The little boy from yesterday's post is OK, and home for the day.

I had a funny day today. I've finally caught up on my work, for the first time since I think Tori's second surgery. I had panic attacks all day, because I felt like I was forgetting something. How sad is that.....? Here I have been working 10 hr days for about 9 months and now that I have a day that is a little milder I worry about work all day. Lame!!!! Hopefully it won't last very long and I can adjust to having a little free time.

I went walking with my Mom and Dad. Dad wasn't supposed to come but Mom thought it would be good for him. He's one ornery man when it's past his bedtime. He probably won't be joining us again. Hopefully I'll be walking a little bit more because I have 4 pregnancies on my body and I need to get at least 1 of them off!!!!

A lesson for my kids

Today my kids ran in from school a little freaked out! A boy was riding his bike out from behind the school and got hit by a truck. I quickly herded them into the front room so that I could talk to them about it to see what happened. I figured I needed to see if there was anything I should do.

Behind the school there is sort of a cul de sac. The only thing that makes it possibly not a cul de sac is that the parking lot of the school empties out through here. So the biking kids always ride out of this. I can not tell you how many times I have told my kids to stay on the sidewalk because I've seen some pretty inattentive parents come through there. But also it's a quick turn with low visibility.

I guess this boy rode down the hill as fast as he could in the middle of the road and got slammed by a full sized truck. My kids happened to walk that way and saw this poor kid sitting on the ground pooling blood from a nasty gash in his arm and he was spitting up blood. Many adults were around him and the ambulance was pulling up. This boy did not have a helmet. I also, learned later this evening that he had been hit by a car before.

I hope that my kids have learned a good lesson from this poor kid. Even if it's just that Mom said not to ride in the street on the way home because she said that we could get hit by a car. And check it out, someone was riding in the road and they did get hit by a car. At least they know that I'm not all full of fluff and I do know a little bit. I'm also praying that this poor kid has no lasting effects from this accident. It sounded pretty nasty. I'm sure that there will be an announcement at school tomorrow so I'll find out if this poor boy is ok.

100th Post

Not much happened today so, and it's my 100th post. What the heck? I have nothing exciting to share, nothing out of the ordinary....maybe that's a good thing. Ever since Jason was born the world has been one crazy week after the other. My hope is that life settles down for us for a while and we can finally get back to a stable environment.

I've enjoyed blogging and will hopefully continue for quite some time!

Saturday Stuff

Samantha had her swimming lessons this morning and she did really well. It's her last day of class and she is now moving from level 3 to level 4 in her lessons. She's very excited and Tori was full of praise for her little sister.

Then we spent the majority of the day cleaning what we lovingly term, "The Room of Doom"! It is our Laundry/Utility room. My real motivation is the toy room is right off the room of doom and Jason needs something to do!!!!! He is driving me up the wall. I don't know what to do with this little monkey. He's hit the frustration phase of life and he will throw a tantrum anytime you look at him wrong. He climbs on everything and makes life pretty darn miserable. My thought was if he had a nice place with lots of stuff to keep him busy maybe he'd be a more content baby. So hopefully "The Room of Doom" will now be the Room of something else.....very, very soon!!!!

The Hubby's Back in Town!!!

I'm a bit exhausted. I'm not a good single parent. My husband was in Logan this week and I had to play Mom and Dad for a few days. This morning I woke up to Jason writing with permanent marker on my sheets.

Next Tori came into my room bleary eyed and somewhat incoherent and says, "Mom I need to bring home lunch today because we have our field trip and we're not sure if we will make it home in time to eat school lunch or not."

I jumped out of bed, which usually doesn't happen until at least 8:00am but happened to be 7:15am, threw on some clothes and then started making a sandwich for her. I realized at that point that I don't have sandwich bags. Ummmmm.........now what? So I told Duncan he's in charge while I take 5 minutes and run to the local convenience store to pick up some baggies. The trip is uneventful and I'm able to complete Tori's lunch without any casualties while I'm away.

It's X day at school for Samantha so I grabbed the X-ray we have of Jason from six months ago, after he swallowed a dime and it got lodged in his esophagus. I ran down to the "office" and made a copy for her to bring to school. You know that is the first thing that everyone thinks of on X day, but does everyone have a copy of a real one? Probably not. Especially one that is so blatantly obvious of what is wrong with the poor child whose parents are incompetent and didn't realize that he'd swallowed a dime for, oh...... 3-4 days. Then had to take him to the ER because he hadn't really eaten anything in said 3-4 days. Where they said ummmm......Your son has a coin lodged in his esophogus and we will need to do surgery to remove it because it isn't going anywhere. Ya, I'd say I'm an awesome parent sometimes!!!

Brett got home with around 1:30 pm and Jason was already asleep. Thank Goodness!!!!! It ended up being a pretty uneventful day other then the hour with 10 cub scouts that really wiped me out for the rest of the evening.

Then the dreaded ice cream man started playing that dreaded music as we were walking in the house from dinner. And it has actually gotten quite cold today!!

Duncan's 4th Grade Program

(Sorry, low lighting bad camera)

Duncan had his 4th grade program today and he did a really good job. He was one of the few kids that knew every word to every song, as well as the sign language. The boy has a knack for remembering music. He loves to sing and he loves to perform. They had a group of kids sing the verses of one song while the rest of the 4th grade sang the chorus, Duncan got to be part of the group. You can definitely hear him over the rest of the 6-10 kids, and he made sure they were almost as loud as the whole 4th grade!!!

Unfortunately my nice camera that zooms really well takes a ton of memory for video and so I used the flip video which doesn't zoom much at all. Duncan is way in the back, but you can sure hear him from time to time!!

Duncan Scores!!

Duncan had his first soccer game of the season. They played AWESOME!! Last year our boys were slammed and I don't think they won one game. But the program we are in wants all the boys to succeed so they have the boys mainly playing against the recreation circuit. Brett and I were excited by this because we won't have to do much traveling this season!!!

Duncan played quite hard, and he actually kept running. He has a bit of a problem with this part of the sport. LOL!!! He's a tough kid and just keeps going!! He has some pretty good foot skills and gets a lot of satisfaction dribbling around people. He scored 2 goals, and they won 4-2.

They have this cute little guy named Josh who has been struggling a little bit because he is a bigger kid. He likes to play defense and has a natural gift for it. He decided to help me out and play goalie and he rocked!! The boys themselves after the game said that they wanted to give Josh a cheer for his job well done. It was awesome!!! I love my boy, he was one of the instigators of this. I'm so happy that he is pays attention enough to those around him to point out the good things in others.

My husband is out of town this week, so of course I had to coach, what the heck? I showed up and one of the mother's was already annoyed at the situation. I actually don't mind coaching the game, but I HATE dealing with crazy parents. The sad thing is the kid who belongs to this mother is one of those kids that picks the grass and probably doesn't really want to play the game. But, Mom is going to come and make a big fuss about everything.

We are part of Bantam which is a pre-competition league. There are 6 teams that practice as a big group and run drills with 80 kids instead of 11. They have professional coaches come and teach the boys different skills and move them around to help improve the skills that come most naturally to them. She's upset because they changed the teams in the middle of the year. She said that her kid is really upset by the change. I told her I told her my son has no problem with it because when we told him about the Bantam program we explained fully to him what it would mean for him as far as commitment and how they run their program. I said, "It all depends on how you present it to your child." Then she said, "Well he had a friend on our team so he's sad to not be playing with him anymore." Which I responded, "They are preparing them for competition and there are no buddies in competition. Besides if they have been coming to the Bantam training sessions they should have known everyone and have started relationships there." But really it all came down to Momma's dissapointment. She said, "Well, they were in our ward so we could carpool."

I understand this problem more then anyone, but you shouldn't go into any program without knowing what you are getting yourself into....Oh well. Brett should be home next week!!!!!

Another School Program

Duncan had a little program this morning that they were able to put on with the help of This Is The Place Monument, and the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. It was a cute program and they had a lot of fun. The band that performed everything is called "willing", it was a fun time. I think I'll be taking the kids to This is the Place this year. They've done more with the park so I think they would really enjoy it.
I even got a picture of Duncan's first Crush. =) She's the one in the middle. Although I do believe we have teased him about both girls on either side of her as well.

Here is some video of Duncan dancing the Virginia Reel and the band that performed.

Jason Update

This is my baby on a good day! He is so busy he wears me out!! He hasn't been feeling well, and hasn't been eating. My In-laws watched him yesterday while I took Tori to her 5 hour doctors visits, and he was tilting his head to the side all day. I tugged on his ear just a little bit and he let out a scream. So I took him to the doctor today. He has an ear infection in both ears. I now have an appointment with Dr. Muntz the E.N.T. to see if we need new tubes in his ears. The old ones are not doing what they are supposed to so he will probably be going under once more. But I won't have to worry about that for a couple of months because I can't get into Dr. Muntz until June.

We saw Paula this evening and she was concerned about the infections and the delay in seeing the Dr. so we will be working on a few signs with him over the next couple of weeks. Sandwich, Potato, Spaghetti, Be Careful, Wait, and Milk. I should be getting his ear mold in the next few days but if his ears are plugged the only good we'll be doing with the hearing aid is getting him used to wearing it again. Oh well, such is life.

Tori Update

It's late and I need to go to bed, but I'm going to do a quick update.

Tori had 2 dr's appts today. Dr. Moshirfar, who is the surgeon who did Tori's cataract surgery, checked her out and she looks great. She is guessing at the letters that are 20/30 and I can see that she's at least guessing in the general ball park. He did finish pulling the stitch out of her eye that Dr. bernstein attempted last time and she did fabulously.

Then off to see Dr. Bernstein. Again her retina's look awesome and she can resume normal activity, which she was doing anyway because it has been impossible to keep this child down. We have more appts to come but we have a couple months until we see them again.

Today's craziness

Tori's class has been reading The Wizard of Oz. The idea was to read the book and then watch the movie and see how different they were. They also learned that a book usually has more to it then the movie. For watching the movie they were supposed to dress up like their favorite character. Tori wanted to dress up as Toto..............Uh-huh........

So here is my interpretation of Toto. Notice the lovely green glasses for being in the Emerald City. We also found some flowers that resembled poppies so I went to town with those.

I didn't want to have her wear a collar and leash like she wanted to, so I got her a bandana and wrote TOTO on the bottom. It worked.Then we wove her hair with the remaining "poppies". She has so much hair!!!

Then later this morning I had to attend the girls IEP conferences. If you don't know what that is, it's an Individualized Educational Plan. My sister Kristen watched Jason for me and Samantha got to sit for two of them. First we discussed Tori, and our concerns for her. Miss Palmer came to the conference and Marcia, the vision teacher and IEP fasilitator, ran through everything that Tori will need in the classroom. Since Tori can see ok, there wasn't much to worry about. She just needs to be within 10 ft. of the whiteboard, her papers need to be crisp clean copies, instructions written on the board need to be in print and not cursive. We also discussed that fact that she might struggle with "bubble tests". I told them not to make any changes with this as of yet because I want to see if this is a concern, but I have been told that they could prove difficult in the future. So I've advised them that if she takes a bubble test and it shows a lot of wrong answers to let me know, and then to check to see if this is an accurate representation of what she knows.Marcia did some testing prior to the IEP and she has determined that Tori has some fine depth perception problems, and she has some contrast problems. That would be helped a lot from print and not cursive as well as the clean copies. Obviously sitting in the front of the class is going to be an ongoing need for Tori, not surprising. The one thing she told me that concerned me a little is that Tori's hearing test in one of her ears had to be taken up to 30 DB's. I don't know if she just had a cold or if something more is going on with her. We'll have to do some more testing on her at her next well-check and see if the findings are the same. The loss wasn't bad enough for us to jump on anything as of yet. Tori will be taking Braille classes 4 days a week for 30 minutes a day.

Then it was Samantha's turn. One of the only nice things with the girls is that once one IEP is done both are almost taken care of. Samantha has also had the testing done prior to the IEP conference and she has some fine depth perception problems, but she was unable to do the rest of the testing because she is so young she couldn't complete the tests. My only concern with Samantha is that she falls down a lot. The occupational therapist said that she didn't see any problems with her ability to manuver the classroom, but I advised her that I'd like to have Samantha evaluated out on the play ground. I don't know if she is just being a little girl or if she is really have peripherial vision problems and doesn't have time to look at what she is doing when she is running around. The OT said she would come and watch her at recess sometime soon and let me know what she finds. Samantha will be taking Braille classes twice a week for 20 minutes a day for this year, and 4 days a week for 30 minutes a day next year. With Kindergarten's short schedule it made more sense to have her taught only 2 a week right now.


They sent me home with a Brailler. We can now make raised bumps on paper!!!!! Of course I don't know how to read it so I've gotta throw away all papers that were played with just in case I've typed up some naughty words.

Then my little boy isn't quite so little. Duncan is having his first "real" sleepover with his buddy. By "real" sleepover I mean not at Grandma's house. We'll see how his night goes and whether he is going to come home really grumpy or some what normal.

My Cross Stitch

Someday I might finish this. =)

Maybe Competition is a good thing

Jason was standing on a folding chair behind my office chair. The boy loves to climb! I leaned back and asked him for some kisses. Being a stubborn little thing he refuses. So Samantha comes over and gives me a kiss. Jason violently pulls Samantha's hair and pushes her out of the way and proceeds to smother me in loves and kisses. He, he!!! =)

Eye Appointments

I drove out to the Moran Eye Center again today with Tori, Samantha, and Jason. Tori needed a new contact so I had to run out there and get her a new one. I love how ornery old people are with children. I'm struggling to keep Jason happy and I hear this older woman on her phone say, "Ya, I'm at the doctor's and it's REALLY LOUD here." I seriously wanted to turn around and say, "My baby has a hearing loss I'm thrilled he wants to talk at all!!!" But, I didn't so now I'm sharing it with you. =)

Tori has a new contact and they will be sending me a 6 month supply so hopefully we won't have this run in for a while.

I just had to light the furnace, which always makes me happy when it's SNOWING!!!! It's done pretty good this year, I haven't had to relight the thing as much as last year but, I hate how you just don't know the thing is even out until your fingers are frozen stiff!!

Late nights....

I was up til 1:30am reading the 4th Fablehaven book! I love these books, because I can actually finish them. With how crazy my life is, finishing a book is a hard thing to accomplish. So I've started looking for young reader books that grab my fancy and then take 4 weeks to read the darn things. I highly recommend the Fablehaven books, they are fun and easy to read.

Now with that, I woke up looking at my cute sleeping baby in the middle of my bed and listened to the other 3 playing with the toys the Easter Bunny brought them. In the back of my mind I was thinking, "They should be getting ready for school, but Jason is still asleep so it can't be too late." Boy was I wrong! Jason finally sat up and greeted the world with his sweet smile and as I sat up I spyed the clock and it was 8:30am. The kids were late for school. Duncan was dressed and ready to go, but Tori still needed her mass of hair brushed and her contact put in.

I think that Duncan had decided it was his turn to stay home, because he told me he had a soar throat. I advised him that he could stay home, but that he would babysit while I worked, take a nap, not go to karate, and not play with any friends. He went to school. However I had to check the monkey's in because they were so late. So on the check-in slip where it says "reason for late" I put "Goofing off". You should have seen the look on his face. Priceless.

There also was another reason for my being a stay at home mom today. Tori called me about 1:45 pm and said her contact fell out. So I loaded up Jason and the contact solution and ran over to the school. I get over there and her contact is drying up. I soaked it with solution over and over but the edges stayed crinkled. I put it in but she said it was hurting, so I had to run home again. I had to get her glasses with one lens missing since her prescription is a huge difference then before, and the contact case. In between all this I had to call the Moran Eye Center for the 15th time to try and get her in to see Dr. Vincent the contact specialist who's office has not been helpful in getting Tori another contact. So I yelled and threw a fit, and they have finally gotten her an appointment for tomorrow morning.

I then was late for Jason's audiology appointment to get his ear mold redone. He was a pill, I was frazzled and I'm sure the audiologist thinks I'm a complete moron!!! Oh well, the things got done today that needed to get done.

Sick kids and eye openers.

I woke up this morning to Tori telling me she had a soar throat. I told her if she wanted to stay home that was fine, but she had to help me with Jason. Of course she was thrilled to stay home, and Duncan was madder then a rattler that he had to go to school. Tori was a great help while I worked, and then we decided the weather was nice enough that we would walk Samantha to school. Yes, I actually walked Samantha to school. I'm so excited that the weather cooperated today! On the way to school I advised Tori that she would be taking a nap. When you stay home sick from school you always have to take a nap. We got to school and Tori advised me she would like to stay for the rest of school.....LOL! I advised her that that was not an option and just because she didn't want to take a nap didn't mean she was going to go to school now. So my two kids that are home today are now in bed. Teach her to stay home from school, huh?

I finally listened to a tape that Paula, from PIP, brought me on Friday. It is an audio of what a severe, moderate, and mild hearing loss would sound like. WOW!!! All I can say is I can speak English and have been for 30 years now, and I couldn't understand what was being said, even on the mild hearing loss portion of the tape. No wonder my baby isn't speaking yet.

Now I know what you are going to say, "But Mel, your son only has a hearing loss in 1 ear." But, that means on a GOOD day he is only hearing about 50% of things. He's a busy boy. He never stops moving. When is his good ear always facing the right way? So I've gotta be more diligent about the hearing aid!!!! Wish me luck!

Happy Easter!

Today has come and gone, and I actually got a nap today! Usually Easter is from Dawn til Dusk go, go, go. But my sweet hubby let me take a break in the middle of all of it and rest up for the week.

I'm not a fan of the Easter Bunny. I find it all very silly. That is not what Easter is about for me, it's about the love of Christ and what he did for us. He died and then was resurrected so that we could live again. Also, my father tried to shoot the Easter Bunny when I was little. It really made him angry that the plastic easter grass would end up all over the house and he would always have to clean it out of the vaccuum. He chased the Easter Bunny out the door and the Bunny left a huge trail of candy as he ran with his life, and his fluffy tail tucked between his legs.

However, the kids really like the Easter Bunny, and they like candy so we always have Easter baskets. The kids found their baskets and we got ready to go to church with sugar filled children. Here are my cute kids in there new Easter Clothes!
Jason was exhausted all day. He fell asleep at church and refused to take a nap afterward. As you can see he's got very bleary red eyes.Duncan thinks that he needs to act cool when he has his picture taken anymore. It drives me crazy!! He advised me the other day that he was now a Pre-Teen. UGH!!!!

Tori's eyes still hurt quite a bit in the sun. This was the best I could get with an outside shot.

Samantha is my goober. She didn't want to sit for a picture this morning.

Here is a quick run through of the Easter egg hunt at grandma Child's house.

Another Samanthaism

Samantha: "Just because I'm wearing my helmet doesn't make it safe for my hands, or my bum-bum."

Daddy: "You're right honey!"

I love my girl!!!

Statement number 2

Samantha: "Mom I have a confusion to make. I dropped my fork in the garbage, but I got it out and put it in the sink."

Isn't she just AWESOME!!!

The Ice Cream Man

The onslaught begins!!! We live in a very child infested neighborhood, and the ice cream men know it. Yes I said MEN. We have about 4 that drive around our area almost daily in the summer. I've come to detest the music box music as they drive through the streets. I actually had to help Samantha break open her piggy bank so that she could join the other kids at the curb. Oh, well. At least the weather is warming up.

Spring Break

The kids are all home from school. Wow, my favorite!!

Jason does enjoy having his siblings home for the most part, but he still needs a ton of attention from Mommy. Thank goodness for Blue's Clues. I'm not sure how I'm going to get anything done this morning but maybe I'll get a little done with the babysitter going. Duncan did help a lot though and took him for about an hour today. He tries, but he is only 10 years old and isn't really able to babysit all day.

Samantha and Tori again are being pretty good together. They are either best friends or at each others throats.

Tori's eyes are fabulous. She is doing really well with her contact and is slowly feeling like herself without her glasses.

Duncan had pack meeting this afternoon and it was Space Derby time. He and Brett built his rocket yesterday and finished with all the gadgets when Brett got home from work today. The boys had a ball. Duncan earned his swimming belt loop and his outdoorsman...? I'm still not sure about this because I think it's a webelo's award and he's attended that scouts once. Oh well. I'll figure it out soon.

I'm absolutely worn out!!! Work has done me in....what's new. I had people yelling at me from all sides today. It sure makes life harder when you have the boss on the phone flipping out, crazy ultrasound technician texting and instant messaging nasty messages, and the kids in the background fighting. What a day!!! Hopefully tonight and tomorrow will be better.

Well enough whining. Here's a lovely video of Duncan's first run at the Space Derby.

Normal Life

Tori lost another tooth last night. That girl pops them out so fast the tooth fairy can't keep up with her. She has a pretty small jaw so as soon as a new grown up tooth starts growing in the next tooth behind it falls out. So she always seems to have a missing tooth. At least the tooth fairy remembered to come to the house last night. =)

This morning I got a phone call from Duncan. He forgot the first paper of his story that he is writing for school. I swear there is always some little thing to start my day off balance. This is another reason I stay home with the kids, even if it is a bit inconvenient. I advised him however, that he owes me one kick to his rear.

The girls have decided that they want to spend "EasterEve" in the toy room, so they have spent most of the day cleaning up. It's been really nice to have the day go by without too much girl drama.

I think that Jason has RSV. I know I'm not a doctor but he's on an antibiotic right now and he's getting really raspy. I'll have to keep on eye on the boy and see if his breathing becomes hindered. He has also turned into quite the biter. He had something in his mouth this morning that he didn't want me to get out so he chomped onto my finger and wouldn't let go. Than, when I was trying to put him in the car to drive Samantha to school he tried to bite my neck. Watch out everyone! This one has his own ideas about things.

Work and Play

Jason hasn't been feeling well, he has a pretty good fever at the moment and is a cranky little baby. So we decided since we were home to make some Sweet Pepper Relish! I've been looking for this stuff in the store for years. I used to eat it at a bountiful bagel restaurant but it went out of business and no store around here carries the stuff. So Brett and I made it and canned a ton. Yes I said canned!! Brett did most of the canning, he's more intelligent then I and can pick up on that stuff faster. We did a really good job. I think all the cans sealed and now we have 24 1/2 pint jars of the stuff. It's really good. So if you want any let me know!!
Then Paula Pittman came to the house and we had a nice talk about Jason and his progress. He has started to talk to people, in his own language, and try and communicate. He's fascinated with telephones and can talk to Brett for 1/2 hour if I would let him. We'll see if things get better over the next couple of weeks. We are supposed to be repeating sentences for him to hear, and recognize. Hopefully someday he'll be able to communicate a little bit so he doesn't throw so many fits! He's starting to get frustrated, and I think a lot of it stems from not being able to say what he needs. We'll see how things progress.