Happy Halloween!!!

Today was quite the Halloween. We carved our pumpkins that we grew in the front yard. The kids pretty much carved there own this year. It was a lot of fun.

Samantha and Brett's Jack-o-latterns.

Mine, very traditional.

Mine is in the back. Tori's, Duncan's and Jason/Curtis' are in the front.

Samantha was very proud of her pumpkin.So was Tori.Brett lighting the pumpkins.
Then we went to a trunk or treat that was put on by Grandma Siddoway's Ward. The kids had a ball! Grandma and Grandpa Siddoway always have hot dogs at the trunk or treat so we run by there and have a little dinner. Then we stop by Grandma and Grandpa Child's house for a bit of Chili, so that I will eat dinner. Duncan=Death, Samantha=Cat or Cheetah, Tori=Witch, Jason=Devil, Brett=himself in his shirt and kilt that he made himself.Jason hated his costume. This was taken at our Ward trunk-or-treat the night before and he tried to get his hat off the whole time. He also tried to take his wings off and ended up chasing them in a circle like a dog chasing his tail. Way cute!!!Samantha was thrilled with her cotton candy.

Then we went home and the trick-or-treating began. Duncan took off and went with his buddy. I think they ran to every house they could possibly see. Then I took the girls out while Brett stayed home and gave out candy. Jason was uninterested in trick-or-treating so he stayed home with Daddy. We went a different route this year, and went looking for a spooky house that Duncan told us about the year before. I kept asking the girls at every corner if they still wanted to keep looking. To which came the immediate response to the affirmative. We almost gave up, until I heard someone scream and I knew we were close. We walked around the corner and Samantha said, "Ok, I'm a little freaked out now." After all that work I made them go up and get the treat from the girl dressed in the spooky clown costume. I guess this guy goes all out every year and adds more and more as he goes. It was awesome! I have no idea who they are but I really appreciated his efforts. We started on our trek home and Tori said, "Now I really wish I hadn't wanted to see it so bad." LOL!!! I even made Brett go back to the house and take pictures for me. Then when Duncan got home Brett had to take him back there as well because his buddy's had already gone and seen the house this year.

We had a fun safe year, and I can't believe Halloween is already over. We actually weighed the kids bags and we now have a combined total of 20lbs of candy. YUK!! I'm going to have to slowly throw some of it away. They are going to be sick!!!!

Friday at Last

Brett had to go out of town this week. He left Sunday morning and got back Wednesday night. I just am not a good single mother. I pretty much did my best just to survive until he got home. He of course has to work the rest of the week, but having him come home every night is a huge blessing for me. I'm not sure how I would be able to handle life without him.

My goal for the weekend is to get farther along with the 3 children move. I'm still not there. Jason has been doing really poorly the last week. I think that having Daddy gone is bugging him. We'll see how it goes.

Halloween

A friend of mine posted this on her blog so I had to make one myself. =)

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

What to do.....

My poor Tori is so wasted tonight. She had that wonderful field trip on Friday, and had quite a bit of homework to make up. Unfortunately most of her homework is rewriting things. Grammar is not my strong suite but we have been working through them as they come.

She told me that her teachers motto is, "Do it nice or do it twice." Then she says, "I spend a lot of time doing it twice. It's just so hard to keep up with everyone else, and then I'm just sloppy. "

My poor girl can't see! I'm really considering adding no grading handwriting to her IEP. She is so tired and so stressed out. This is not a good time for my sweet girl. I guess I get to go see Principal Holmes again, and possibly get a little ornery with him.

Those of you who know me personally are going to think this isn't going to be that big of a deal for me. Yes, I am a very ornery woman. However, going into the office multiple times and having to start yelling and screaming isn't something that makes me happy. I really don't want to do this. I really don't want to be that parent that makes the teachers and Principal cringe when I walk in the door. I really want to be the parent that is so sweet and kind that the staff wants to do anything for me or my kids.

Well, obviously that's not going to happen. Cross your fingers for me.

And So it Begins

Duncan freaked me out!

I told the kids to just go to bed. It was 9:00pm when we got home and I had to get Jason down and the kids put themselves to bed. I went downstairs to work a bit, and then came upstairs to go to bed myself. Duncan scared me to death! That facepainting lady did an AWESOME job. I'll have to send her the bill when I have a stroke.

Happy Birthday Kacie

My nieces birthday was today. She's such a sweet little thing. My sister goes all out and had a lady come paint faces and make balloon animals. The kids had a lot of fun!
Samantha doesn't like to have anything put on her face. She hates make-up of any kind. So she had the lady paint her arm.

Child family Halloween party

Tonight was the Annual Child Family Halloween Party. It was a lot of fun. Duncan went all out this year and even wanted to make some "Candy". We made some Crystallized Pineapple. It turned out pretty well. The kids were so cute in there costumes, and were just loving being with the cousins.

Duncan thinks he's so bad in his DEATH costume.

Tori had to bring a broom for her Witch costume, even if it is white and yellow.

Samantha loves the Kitty costume, and she really likes the leg warmers.

Jason HATES his costume and wants the hat off as soon as it's on. He's darn cute though. He really didn't want to have anything to do with the crowd at my sisters house. He wanted to mainly be left alone.

My Dad came in the back door to scare the kids. I think the only one who was genuinely scared was Jason. At least for this taping. The little ones didn't really like the "Mean Monkey".

Chad came up with a great new game. The Human Pinata. Give the kids bats, the adults silly string, and a couple of the adults get the candy. The kids chase the adults and hit them with bats and then the adults throw candy as needed. I'm not sure it will catch on, but my kids thought it was AWESOME!!

Dating my Hubby

We had a few things fall apart on Friday, so Brett and I decided to run out for a date. We dropped the kids off at my parents already child infested house, and went to eat at Olive Garden. It's one of my favorite places, that we never go. Then we ran and did a little shopping for Brett's business trip, and just talked and enjoyed the silence.

Brett is so sweet! I love him, and I know he loves me. I hope to have more alone time with my Hubby soon. It's good for us to just be together.

Vision Impaired Students

The girls got to go on a field trip today with the Vision Impaired Students. They are going to the Utah Museum of Natural History to an exhibit that is a touchy feely kind of thing.

I'll have to get more out of the girls when they get home. They were very excited and got to meet some of Marcia's other students. There is one other little girl that is in the girls school, she's in 2nd grade and Tori had this wonderful teacher as well.

Tori helped one of the older students find his cell phone that fell out of his pocket. You should have seen how proud she was to have been such a big help.

I think it's fun that they both got to go. Samantha and Tori are far enough apart in age that they won't have too many of the same experiences for a while. I'm excited that there are some things that they get to share with each other.

I think I'm a little overwhelmed.

I can always tell what has been worrying me, because I for the most part always remember my dreams. Sometimes this can be a bad thing. =)

My most recent dream that I'm pretty sure "meant" something was yesterdays. I was on a really big boat rafting down a river with my family and my side of the extended family. Even though I was on this boat with my Husband, Mother, Father, Sisters and their Husbands I felt overwhelmed and torn in too many places.

It didn't matter how many times I tried I couldn't keep all 4 kids together with me all the time. I was always missing one of them. I just new that one of them would end up in the rapids, because I couldn't keep my eyes on all of them all the time.

This is me. I'm always juggling. I know I'm really BAD at juggling. I know that one of these is going to fall. Which one?

The funny thing is, this is how I really am. I can't see Brett behind me catching the rest of them. He's always there to support me, and the kids. I hope that I can figure out how to feel his support, because logically I know he's always there. My emotions and "psychosis" always get the better of me.

Migraine City

I think my body is rejecting the amount of stress piled on it lately. Too much, is too much. I'm trying really hard to stay on top of everything, but am feeling so weighted down today.

Of course when you wake up with a headache life really seems bleak for the rest of the day.

Tori had a complete melt down this morning so she is having a mental break. It's hat day at school, she couldn't find a hat that she felt she wouldn't get teased about. We had a nice long talk and she spilled her guts about really not wanting to go to her class.

I'm hoping, that we have got her transferred by the end of the week. She just can't handle the kids or the teacher anymore.

Jason's New Friend's Jean and Jeane

We had a couple lovely women visit our home from Early Intervention this morning. Jean Dellangelo and Jeane Fowles. They are going to help Jason along his road to speech and interaction.

Jean Dellangelo is the Speech Therapist. She has recommended that we work with a program called The Play Project. It will be a lot of "work", but mainly it's just structured play time with Jason. During her visits she will be video taping us and our interaction with Jason, that way we can see the progress that is happening. Sometimes any progress that we see helps you to continue the work. She will also help us with some ideas on how to help Jason improve. She will then give us a report on her visit and any feedback that she might have.

This is the handout she gave us this week about Jason's view of the world. He is between Comfort Zone and Sensory Motor Play. You can pull him out of "Jason's World", when you physically play with him. For example: Tickling, moving his legs, throwing him in the air, getting him jumping, running, swinging.

Jean also gave us some suggestions about Jason's attachment to his bottle. Jason chews on his bottle more then drinking out of it a lot of the time. So we are going to get some beef jerky, and some licorice and see if maybe he just likes the chewiness of the nipple and wants that sensation.

Jeane Fowles is going to help us as well. I believe she is a Behavioral Therapist. She will be possibly bringing the Occupational Therapist next visit so that he can see Jason and evaluate him personally. Jeane, again, seems like she really has an attachment to my baby boy. She is so sweet and wants to help my family in any way possible.

We'll see how much structure is making it's way into our life.

Hallelujah

Hallelujah!!!!

Jason fell asleep in the car. No Melatonin, just old family home movies. =)

One of my siblings had my parents old family home movies put onto a CD. I grabbed it to put in the car DVD player, thinking it was one of the newer Bear Lake CD's. He crashed in about 10 minutes.

Those are good for something!

School Pictures

Gotta love school pictures, I love my kids!!

Tori should be getting Transfered!!

I went and spoke with Mr. Holmes today. He is AWESOME!!! I think I love him!!!!

I didn't have an appointment, I just ran over and asked if he was available. He had me come into his office, yes I was in the principals office. =)

I told him my concerns, how Tori is sitting in the back of the room again. How she is sitting next to a boy that followed her around last year after her first retinal surgery and smacked her on the back of the head and told her he was going to make her go blind. How she is completely intimidated by this teacher, and doesn't know how to express her concerns.

I said, "Tori is going to have self esteem problems anyway, I don't need Teacher Induced self esteem problems."

Tori needs a teacher who she feels comfortable enough to talk to, so she will speak up when there is a concern for her. Tori needs a teacher that will WANT to help my daughter.

I advised Mr. Holmes that we have a lot going on at home. I can't worry about Tori at school.

He was very understanding, he knew the concerns with this particular teacher. He told me about the other teacher that has room in her class, and the personality that Tori will have to deal with there. I'm hopeful that she will have a better experience, and that Tori knows that we will do whatever it takes to help her with her problems and concerns.

Pretty Productive

I'm feeling pretty productive today.

Saturday we cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, laundry, cleaned.......

Sunday was a stay away from the world day, so hopefully everyone stays healthy for another week.

This morning, I ran Jason up to Grandma Siddoway's house, worked at the office for a couple hours, and ran over to the school to talk to Principal Holmes.

Then I dropped off the quick mock up that Grandpa Siddoway made for the backdrop for our play. Dick seems really excited to do this, which I'm so glad about! He is a very talented man, and I'm sure we will have beautiful scenery.

Now Jason is asleep and we will see how much I can get done while he's out.

Loving Neighbors

The other day I got an email from a sweet neighbor of ours. She said she felt she needed to make us dinner. Do I feel like we need dinner made for us???? No. Did I REALLY appreciate not making dinner? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She made us a wonderful Taco Soup, which the kids inhaled! I'll have to get recipe from her, because when my kids eat dinner without complaint it makes my day better.

Thanks, Angela!!

Tori Update

Tori had an appointment with Dr. Olafsson this morning.

We got into an exam room pretty quickly. We had the resident doctor do a pretty thorough exam on her. He spent a good 45 minutes, trying to adjust her vision. I could tell he was getting a little concerned because he couldn't get her left eye to adjust to the lens correction. I suggested that maybe her artificial lens might have been bumped out of place. He looked at her through the slit lamp and then his demeanor changed. Her lens is starting to build up proteins. Which explains the difficulty in the correction. This is good news in that we will be able to fix her vision once again. She will have to have her lens polished in the next little while.

Dr. Olafsson came into the office looked her over, readjusted her correction, agreed with the lens buildup, and put a bifocal contact lens into her left eye. She was really excited about the print in her book, but walking around and looking at distances is a little weird. It will take some time for her to adjust to the new contact lens, and we will see what happens when she has her artificial lens polished if she will still need the lens.

So next will be seeing Dr. Moshirfar. More appointments for me.

Jason Update

Jason is doing much better today. Early this morning his Fever was crazy, but we got some more medicine in him and he's doing really well. We are going to be rotating Motrin and Tylenol every 4 hours to make sure that we keep his fever down. So far so good this afternoon.