Wow.

It's been forever since I posted and I've really been slacking off with only 1 or 2 posts a month. I didn't post anything at all in March, what was that about!?! So I'm going to update with a bunch of pics. I'm not going to back track their dates. I usually do, but this time I'm not going to. I'll try to include when they were taken in the post, but it will be current so that what pops up will be the most recent stuff and no one will have to go looking for old pics.

July is going to be a busy month around here. James and Jayden are each taking a class once a week. James will be taking an art class for an hour and a half on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings Jayden will be taking a cheerleading class. I am also trying to get her in to a reading clinic at Western. The tuition fee for it is somewhat expensive. I figure if nothing else, Jason and I will "donate" our birthday money to it. Gotta do what needs to be done, right?

I should be getting the results of Jayden's eval shortly. Jason has to go in on Wednesday and do his part of the question/answer game and then we'll have them. I am pretty sure that I'll be told that she has severe dyslexia, which I know already. That is what the reading clinic is for. To give us some help and ideas on how to approach reading with her differently. I've been doing some reading and I have found out that for some dyslexic kids, they don't learn to read until they are teenagers. I hope that it doesn't take that long for Jayden, however I now know a better way to help her with her school work. We'll keep on working on the basic reading skills as well as sight words, and I'll help her with her other stuff by doing the reading aloud for her. I'll also be having James do some reading to her.

I have an appointment next Friday, the 11th, for Izzy to begin the process of an evaluation to see if he qualifies for the Croyden Autism Program. We are hoping that he does. It's a 5 day a week, full school day, all year program. We are hoping that if he can do that for ages 4 and 5, then by the time he is ready to start Kindergarten, we can homeschool him. We are hoping that the day to day therapies will be enough to get him signing/talking consistently as well as get him to sit still and be able to focus on a task for a short period of time.

We have switched agencies so we are getting settled in with a new case manager. We have to have a case manager in order for James to continue seeing Dr. O with Community Mental Health. Dr. O is a psychiatrist and is the one that handles the meds for James. We are trying to get James in to a program that does a mentoring thing. He'd go with the trained therapist 2-3 days a week for about 3 hours on average. They'd go do social things. It'd be a way for James to work on those social things he has such difficulty with in a setting where I wasn't right there to directly and immediately monitor and correct him. Which is something that he is going to need to learn to do.

I tried my meds at a double dose today. The twice a day dose is what is "usually" prescribed. I see the doc on the 8th for a follow up and I like to know what kind of effects I'm looking at before I ask for med increases. I do this for James usually, but it works great for me as well. The difference is ASTOUNDING. I actually had energy. I wasn't put off by the enormity of my tasks. I just hunkered down and worked on it. I got the girls' room almost completely cleaned and reorganized. Tomorrow I'm going to finish that room and then work on the boys' room, the stairs, and the landing area at the top of the stairs. On Sunday it will be the playroom and I see that easily carrying over in to Monday.

Jason has the weekend off so I'm hoping that once I get the boys' room cleaned, he can go in and paint it. We've had the paint sitting in the basement for quite some time, it's just been waiting for the right moment. I also have a wallpaper border to put up in there as well. I want to try to find all the stamps that I was using for the girls' walls and get back to finishing that. I have curtains to make for all of the rooms as well. It seems like a lot, but I know if I just take it one day at a time and focus on the task of the moment it will all come together.

I have been reading the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover. I've just started it. It is making sense, especially the part about the person in the mirror. I'm going to talk with Deb on Monday about some of that to see what she suggests. Having grown up without a lot of direction about money, personal finance, budgeting, prioritizing, and personal responsibility I am a bit lost in this at times. I know that Jason and I have it worked out that I handle the bills and I'm just trying to make sure that things get done. I want to make sure they are getting done better however, so we can actually start making progress toward our ultimate goals. I've been talking with Jason about what I've been reading. One thing I have noticed is that some of his suggestions are out of context for a larger family on a smaller income. The concepts are sound so we'll see what we can do with what we have.

I have energy to "work" now, which is amazing. I am still doing ChaCha but I am making a more concentrated effort on doing it. I'm also listing things on eBay. I'm starting with my maternity clothes. They are in good condition and I know I'm never going to need them again so they are just taking up space. It's also hard to find affordable plus sized maternity clothes. They don't exist but for a very few stores, and then they are rather expensive, especially considering they are meant for a short period of wearing.

James is gone with Linda for 2 weeks. He left this past Wednesday morning. Jayden will be going for 2 weeks in August. Katy will be spending about 1/2 of her summer with us, a fact that she isn't too pleased about. That is because she would rather spend the time with her friends. Thankfully Jenn and I are in agreement that family trumps friends. This also is kind of "make up" for the school year when she has commitments and that kind of thing that allow us to see her about once a month. We'd love for it to be more often but the 1 1/2 hour drive one way is also a bit inhibitive.

Well, I think that is all for now. I'll be back in the next day or so to post some pics. I'm hoping to make daily blogging a habit again. I'll be updating The Journey blog after my appt on Tuesday, or even Monday after I have therapy. Prayers and blessings everyone, I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

It's All Done!!

Katie's wedding was today and I survived! It's all done! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!! Now I can focus on getting office reorganized and painted and knitting my baby sweaters. Oh, and I need to pick up fabric for the moses basket cover. Anyway, it's ALL DONE!!!!

I'll have pics to share over the next week or so, Jason is going to start editing tomorrow. I also have pics from Easter (everyone but Izzy rode in a fire truck!) and from a trip to the park last week that INCLUDED Katy!

Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and some task that you have been putting off or dreading is finally done and over with for you!

Oooh, Updated Posts!

I'm feeling better, thankfully. I think Izzy is now coming down sick. He's not his usual "Destructo Boy!" self today. Poor guy. If you scroll down, you'll find a post for his birthday, and very shortly, I'll be putting up the ultrasound pics and the babies' names.

Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope your week finds you warm (we have chilly temps and some slush) and well.

Where oh Where Have I Been?

It's the holiday season which means busy busy busy. And then more busy.

Baking, shopping, wrapping, cleaning, travelling, gifting, visiting. You know, all that craziness.

I got the bee in my bonnet that I would make homemade breads on top of doing homemade cookies. My in-laws benefited from this, my mom however did not. I was just so tired after getting home from the in-laws that I said "I'm going to bed" and then the next day there just wasn't the time. Oh, we did manage to forget the camera at my mom's house, not that we were actually USING it or anything though. I *think* Jason *might* have taken some pics of the kids as his sis' place, but don't quote me on that, at all.

We've had crazy weather around here. The week before Christmas it was record freezing temps and snow snow snow snow and then more snow. Over Christmas we had RAIN and record HIGH temps. Go figure.

Our van is crying for repairs, however we won't have the money until we get our income tax return some time in February is my guess. We don't drive much, especially now that all the holiday visiting is all done, so she *should* (knock on lots of wood and say lots of prayers) ok until then. We have one trip to see Katy at the end of January and that will be all. I may ask my sister to borrow her car for that trip just to feel safer.

We still haven't done our gifts for the kids. They are all wrapped and under the tree. We were going to do them this morning, however the only kid that is awake at 6 minutes to 10 in the morning is Izzy. They did go to bed pretty late last night. Even Jason is still asleep.

Lately, he has been letting me sleep in, which is really nice, but it totally throws my schedule off. Of coarse, just having him home all day, every day throws my schedule off. He is getting very upset with being home all the time. Apparently, the kids and I are a lot to handle all day every day. Uh, yeah, DUH on that one! Hehe. I love the man dearly, but he was definately meant to be at work. Stay at Home Dad he is not.

James sees the psychiatrist this afternoon. It's just a med check really. I'm going to ask the doc about applying for SSI and if he feels James would qualify. We applied last year, and between the fact that our old case managers left the agency we had been working with for the past couple of years and not having any recent workups of James and all of that, it was denied. The application didn't even have the most pressing issues listed on it as reasons for applying. It was a debacle all around. Now that we are in the more intensive therapy program, and with James seeing the psychiatrist regularly, we are going to reapply.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I will be back to posting regularly now that the hulabaloo has died down. Prayers and blessings everyone.