Poor Nate

Nate has been sick with a nasty cold for a while now. It started just after Thanksgiving, and has just been awful for him. The last 4 days he started running a low grade fever, so today I felt it was time to bring him into the pediatrician's office to get checked. That, plus last night he said his ear hurt, so it was time to take him in. Well, just a mere 5 days before he turns 4, my poor little Nate Nate has not one infected ear, but two infected ears!! Poor kid!

Brothers and Sisters

Good Deal!

I got a really good deal on cereal a couple of weeks ago, but I have been sooooo busy I hadn't had time to post about. I am really quite impressed with myself and I wish I had more room so I could have purchased more. I bought 8 boxes of various Kellogg's cereal for $9.06 at Target. How? Well first Target had a sale- buy 3 boxes get 1 free, so they only charged me for 6 and I got 8. Then there were Target coupons for $1 off 1 box of Kellogg's. Even though I got 2 boxes for free, you can still use a coupon on them because you are still buying them, in a way. So I used 8 coupons and saved $8. Then I had a manufacturer coupon that saved $1 off of 3 boxes, so I used 2 of those coupons for a grand total of coupon savings of $10, and my total savings with the sale was probably around $17. In the end, each box averaged about $1.13 a box! How awesome is that?

Orlando

Ray and I were able to take a little vacation to Orlando for a couple of days, and so on Tuesday we did just that. We got back tonight and had a good couple of restful days. We stayed with Ray's sister, Katie and her husband Eddie. I had an old ticket to Universal/Islands of Adventure, and Ray had received a free ticket in the mail, so we spent the morning riding some rides, had a great little lunch and then spent half of the afternoon finishing up at the parks, then headed back to Katie and Eddie's house. That night we had dinner at Katie and Eddie's house with Ray's youngest brother, Rob and his girlfriend Sherrie. Today we hung out with Katie at the house for just about the entire day and then headed out for the drive back home around 4pm. It was a definitely a nice, much needed break. Thanks Mom (and dad, except I know dad isn't reading this) for watching the kids for us to make this happen! It is MUCH appreciated!

Phew!

Its been a while, huh? Almost a whole entire month. Quite honestly, there hasn't been a whole lot to talk about. Life has been crazy, as usual, but nothing exciting has occurred. I guess a bullet list of some "maybe" interesting things and tidbits from my life, and maybe some totally random comments would be a good format for today's blog.

• I am extremely proud of my little girl. She got her report card, and while they do not get letter grades until 3rd grade, she had all 91-100 on all subjects, and the 91 was in penmanship! She also had all 1's for behaviors except for a 2 in something like talking. Apples don't fall far from the tree. That saying is true.
• Its been good to get to see family more often. Ray's sister Katie and her hubby Eddie moved to Orlando and we've seen them a couple of times already. Only problem is, that when I saw them in the past I was either on vacation or its been Christmas, so my brain is constantly confused, thinking its Christmas every other weekend. Ha! Glad to have you back, KT
• Whoa, really. Is it TOO much to ask to just be a smidgen cooler? I mean seriously, its been 90 degrees or higher for almost the whole month of October with no end in sight. Please, just let it get a little cooler. It's Fall for Pete's sake.
• Nate has this obsession with cars lately. He's always asking what this does and what that does. He knows that the age to drive is 16. He's 3. What 3 yr old is counting the days until he can drive? I don't even think I thought about driving until I was like 13 or 14. Anyway, tonight I was playing around with him and I told him that when he's 15 he's going to turn 17 next and poor kid thought if he skipped 16 he wouldn't ever be able to drive. So cute.
• The other day, Nate was so cute (when isn't he cute?). He asked for some monies (which what he was looking at was some change in my car) and said he wanted to use it to buy a gift for Grace. Awww. Isn't that sweet?
• 7 more weeks until I get a school break. Yay!
• Its really fun seeing some of Grace's work from school make it home. Some of her assignments require her to answer questions in sentences. Its cute to see what she writes because there are a lot of words she doesn't yet know how to spell. some of the words are: PEPUL (people), PISIFIC (Pacific), MENE (many). My favorite is pepul. That's how I think it should be spelled, too.

Well, that's about all I've got for now.

Thing I love

• Snuggling up with my kiddos
• Snuggling up with my hubby
• My husband
• My kids
  
• The sound of rain hitting my window
  
• The sound of thunderstorms
• FALL
• The smell of Pumpkin Spice candles
• Nate's one freckle on his cheek
• Grace's loving and giving heart, and the birthmark in the shape of a heart on her ankle
  
• That I have the best husband in the world!!!!
• That my husband is tall
• Hot Chai Tea lattes
• Cold Pumpkin Spice Lattes
• Hugs from my kids, especially when they come up to me all on their own to hug me
• That I have a great family
• Vacations
• Relaxing
• Napping
• Doing nothing sometimes
• Doing well in school
• Sleeping on the sheets for the first time after they've been washed
• keeping my windows open on a cool day
• The Fray
• Coldplay
• The cold side of the pillow (Nate loves this, too, as he constantly flips his pillow over for the cold side)
• Chocolate
• BROWNIES- yum
• Pizza
• Water
• NOT reading
• That my nephews are in town for TWO weeks!
• Learning new things
• Watching my kids learn new things
• Watching my kids grow, as much as I hate it, too
  
• Blankets right out of the dryer
  
• Playing in traffic
  
• And long walks on short piers
  

Funny Craigslist Postings, Volume 1

You can come across some funny Craigslist posts sometimes. Ray came across this one, from the San Fransisco Bay area. I figured I would start posting some funny Craigslist posts every now and then to make for some good blog content when I have none, so here you go:

You hit me with your Prius

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Date: 2009-07-25, 3:23PM PDT

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Me - Bicyclist, heading to jury duty on 10th Street, Friday at 8:50am.
You - Prius driver, crossing over two lanes, hitting me with your car and speeding away.

I was hoping we could catch up for a cup of coffee, so I could get your views on the environment, and strangle you.

Not Much

Not much new has been going on around here except for school.

Nate FINALLY begins his new speech appointments with the Public School. This saga all started back in December at his 3 year old check up. His doctor expressed concern with his speech, calling it a Speech Articulation Delay. She gave me a referral to go to the hospital's speech department. We had some insurance issues going on, but had finally got them all resolved and Nate in to see the speech therapist around the beginning of March. At the same time, I had made an appointment for Nate for the Public School Board, knowing that the insurance would not pay for continual visits. That appointment was set up for the end of April, almost 2 months later.

Well when the end of April finally rolled around, we were very disappointed to find out that the appointment Nate had was just a "screening" to see if he needed to be evaluated further, and even more disappointed to find out that that appointed wouldn't be until more than likely August.

We got a call at the beginning of August to go get Nate evaluated. Yes, even after "screening" him and being told that yes, he does have a speech problem, they have to "evaluate" him. I'm not sure why they couldn't evaluate at the screening, but what can you expect from a government-run program? Anyway, we got a call a day or two later saying that Nate indeed did qualify to get speech therapy and that after school started he would get called for an appointment. Last week Ray went in for an appointment for, get this, to be told that Nate would get started with appointments. Sheesh. They could have just saved some money and told us this back in April. So 6 months after I made the first phone call my poor boy is FINALLY getting started. The only good thing I can say is that thank goodness I don't have to pay for it.

Is this just a foretelling of a future with government health care? Can you imagine waiting 6 months to see a doctor? Scary.

First Day of School

The day went very smooth and both kids had a great time and I was told Nate was VERY, VERY good. He was the best behaved kid in the class. Honestly, there isn't much to say, so I will just post some pics from the morning.

Bad Blogger.....What Else is New?

Yes, I know I am a VERY bad blogger. However, in my defense, things have been extremely busy! I have been getting the kids ready for school next week, getting ready for some crazy finals in my Microbiology lecture and lab classes, getting things ready for me for nursing school, going away on a last minute trip to see Ray's brother, John and our sister-in-law Wendi, and our nephews Isaac and Elijah (well it was last minute for me since Ray was planning on going alone with the kids). There will be a blog this week with some pics as Wednesday will be Nate's first day of school, EVER!

Anyway, while next week my schedule will lighten up some, I will still be busy getting the house in some sort of order before I start school, finishing up some last minute shopping for nursing school, and helping Ray get the work paperwork caught up so that when August 24th comes around, there is less on his plate.

Look for another blog around Wednesday or Thursday!

Update!

I am FINALLY feeling better. My only complaint is I still have a cough and its very annoying, and my voice is still a little hoarse. Other than that, it seems like all is well.

Yesterday I took Grace to get a haircut. My plan was to get it significantly shorter, but to keep it slightly past her shoulders. Ray and I had discussed the option of Grace donating her hair, but at Locks of Love, you need a minimun of 10 inches to donate, and that would have made Grace's hair VERY short. However, when I started talking with the haircutter, she suggested we go a little bit shorter and Grace could donate her hair. I told her I thought it needed to be 10 inches, and she advised me that Pantene had a program (Pantene Beautiful Lengths) and they only needed 8 inches. It was going to be a little bit shorter than we had planned, but Grace really wanted to donate her hair, and I really wanted her to do it as well, so we went ahead and got a shorter than expected haircut. The concensus from everyone i

s that it is GREAT!

I'll post some better pictures later when I upload them to my computer. For now, you can see this one:

Almost Better

I am feeling a lot better than I did. My headaches are gone, aches are gone, fever is gone, everything is just about gone except feeling a little tired and unmotivated, and a cough that just won't quit. Hopefully, I will feel 100% soon, but I am very glad I am no longer feeling as horrible as I did for so long. I can't believe I ran a fever for just about a week straight!! Yuck. On top of that, I was in bed for 9 or 10 days. I hope to never have to feel that bad again (or to have any loved ones feel like that either!)!!

Fortunately, no one in my house had picked up my nasty flu turned pneumonia junk. However, poor Ray came down with a doozie of a cold that had his head all congested and making him feel like crud. He did such a good job taking care of me, I feel so bad he feels bad now. I'm just glad he didn't get the flu! I think he is feeling better today than he has, so thats a good sign.

Not So On The Mend.......

So I wasn't going to go back the NP unless I was feeling a lot worse, and quite frankly, I don't know how much worse I can feel. But, I was hacking up a storm and wanted to see if she can give me a better cough medicine than what she had given me because I wasn't getting any relief in the coughing department what-so-ever. So after I went to school to take my midterm that I didn't study for, and because of email problems was not able to make any arrangements for retaking the test with my professor, I went to the walk-in clinic to see the NP. She went ahead and listened to my lungs again, and this time she said my right lung sounded diminished, which meant I could have pneumonia. She ordered a chest xray, and I went so late this afternoon, I was told it would probably be tomorrow before the radiologist called the NP. However, by the time I got home from picking up my prescriptions, the NP called and told me I did indeed have pneumonia.

Yuck.

I have to take this time to to thank Ray and his mom. They have been an INCREDIBLE help to me during this time, and I don't know what I would do without them. Mom had taken the kids out of the house several times, and even had a few sleepovers. Ray has been my "caretaker" (I called him my nurse, but he HATES that, lol). He has woken me up every few hours to give me my meds, he's helped get me whatever I need, he's done laundry, he's cleaned up, he's drove me around today like crazy. Thank you both very much for your help. I'd be lost without it.

I hope to report soon that I am better. I start my new antibiotic today, and the NP said I should feel better after 5 days. I'll keep you posted.

On the Mend....

Or so I thought. I had a pretty decent day. I had alternated taking Advil and Tylenol every 2 hours and felt pretty decent except for feeling beat down. My headache was really controlled and I think it almost went away completely. Then I made a fatal mistake. I decided not to take my 5pm dose of meds since I thought I was on the up swing.

Not the best idea in the world.

By 9 pm I was in a world of trouble. Fever spiked. Severe shivering (and by severe, I'm talking it looked like I was having a seizure-- I had on pants and socks, a shirt and a long sleeved shirt, and was under a sheet and three blankets and was still cold). Headache returned. Achiness back. Add to the my cough got worse and as I hacked away, my headache only tripled in pain. I felt nauseous, and light headed, and just completely horrible.

Problem is, how am I supposed to know I'm better yet if I'm always taking medicine? I could be taking medicine for like 15 years and not know if my fever is gone yet, you know?

Not sure what to do with that department. But for now, I guess I'll keep taking my meds every 2 hours.

I went to the dr yesterday. Well, it was a walk in clinic and there was a Nurse Practitioner there, but whatever.....she's been trained to figure stuff out. Since I want to be a nurse myself, I'm a little partial to NP's. Anyway, she said its more than likely the Flu, which was what I kinda figured out on my own. Ray asked me to ask her if it was H1N1, aka Swine Flu. She said she didn't think so because it would be more severe and I would be completely knocked down. Then today, I was IM'ing with my best friend who moved far away from south Florida for a fancy job at the CDC. She's gone through some extensive information sessions on H1N1 due to her job there, and half jokingly said I probably had it. I told her what the NP said, about it being more severe, and she explained to me in all this fancy talk that thats not necessarily true and asked if I got my mouth swabbed. I said no, and she said that since people have been recovering pretty well, they're not getting swabbed as much because of the expense. Whatever. I don't really care what kind of Flu I have, I just want it to go away. Influenza A, Influenza B, makes no difference, just hurry up and go.

Now I sit here, wide awake, awaiting for my Advil PM that I took an hour ago to kick in. I'm hot, but then I take the blankets off and I'm chilly. It's crazy. My head is killing me, and I have to be back up in an hour to take more meds. Fun.

Ray says I might have to go back to the dr on Monday. Bleh. I really don't like going. Unless they can magically make me feel better or give me some super narcotics to take away this headache, I'm not sure what the point is. Yeah, I know asking for narcotics sounds bad, but remember, I don't even like to take meds in the first place. I just want some relief.

Anyone got any relief?

Still Sick

I couldn't sleep because of some crazy shivering I was going through a couple of hours ago. My fever is back up again, too. I've been controlling it with meds, but since I was asleep, I didn't take anymore since I went to bed, and thus my fever returned. I hope I feel better soon......I'm supposed to be studying for a big midterm on Tuesday. My headache still has not gone away, either. Also, the weird thing is that when my fever is up, I am nauseous, lightheaded and dizzy. Blah. This is beginning day 4 now. Perhaps I should go to the dr. I usually hate going because when I do, nothing is wrong. Then I'm afraid that if I don't go something IS wrong. Ha! Such a terrible predicament.

By the way, its funny how I can go from shivering so bad I can barely breathe, to sweating like I'm running in 100 degree heat.

I really hope no one else gets sick. This is pretty stinky.

I think I will try to go back to sleep now.

Blah

Tonight I feel blah. I started coughing, and then I started a fever, albeit a low grade one, but for me, whose base temp NEVER reaches 98, I got really warm feeling inside, and started the shivers. I think I had about 3 blankets on and my hands were still like ice. I had some serious chills. I went to bed with out taking any medicine, because if you know me, I am stubborn like that. I HATE taking medicine. I will try to live out a migraine until the migraine wins and I succumb to taking tylenol, advil or excedrin. I went to bed at 10:30pm (we were in the middle of a thunderstorm, so it was so soothing to watch the lightning and listen to the thunder roar as I faded into a slumber). It is now 1:30am and I can't sleep. I took my temperature, and it was 101 point something. Ok, time to take some meds. I am achy, and coughy, and headachy (yes, these are words!) but no longer cold. I think I will try to retreat back to bed and watch some TV until I fade out again. I can't even remember the last time I had a fever over 100, much less at 101 point something. Hopefully it will not return, and hopefully the advil will work (and tylenol, too in a couple of hours).

I feel really blah!

Whoa.....

It's hot out! Apparently, it feels like 108. That's pretty hot y'all!

Happy Father's Day to My Wonderful Hubby!

Happy Father's Day to my best friend. I am a very blessed woman to have a husband like you and I am so grateful that our children have such a wonderful dad. Thanks for being such a great man. I love you!

My Big Girl

Last night, my big girl, who in just two and a half months will turn 7, took her first shower. I told her we'd have to get ready for a bath, and she asked if she could try taking a shower instead. My little angel is growing TOO FAST!

From the Mouths of Babes

Mom: "Nate, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Nate: "Nobody. I want to be me."

Mom: "Nate, you don't want to be a real firefighter and drive a real firetruck?"

Nate: "No, I want to be little forever."


Ah.....if only they could really stay little forever.

Yesterday

Yesterday, Ray wanted to work on organizing the kids' toys and relocating them from the living room toy bin into the new cubicles in their room. While we were in the midst of said project when some kid decided it would be really cool to pull the fire alarm in my building. Well, besides the fact that the alarm outside is REALLY loud, we have an alarm inside our house that was even louder (and its not a smoke detector, its like a little speaker)! I seriously had to plug my ears with my fingers. After Ray went outside to make sure there wasn't really a fire, he came back and covered up the alarm so it wouldn't make us deaf. Finally after about 10-15 minutes, the fire department showed up to shut it off. The meter room happens to be right next to my back porch, so I saw the fire fighters pass by and thought, "I need to get Nate and go see the fire trucks before they leave!" So I yelled for Nate, and Ray, Grace, Nate and I all went outside to see the fire truck. Just as we got there, a Lieutenant walked up behind us and said hi to Nate and then asked if Nate wanted to go in the fire truck. But, just as he said that, they got a call and had to go. It was very cool of him to offer, though. Nate was just glad to see yet another fire truck.

Bad, Bad Blogger

Sorry. Again. As usual, I am so busy, and I often forget to update this. Ray and I took the kids to see the movie UP yesterday and we would highly recommend the movie to any one of any age to see it. It was a very good movie. I do think it moved a little slowly at times for Nate, since a few minutes before the end he asked me, "Mommy, how long does it take?" I interpreted that as, "Man, is this thing over yet?" Nate liked the movie, though, despite wanting it to be over. Hey, its hard for a three and a half year old to sit anywhere for over 10 minutes straight, let alone an hour and a half.

Today, I got to take the kids on a tour of the fire station. They had such a great time, thanks to my friend Tessa who had plans to go with a play group and got me in after some cancellations opened up. In case you don't already know this, Nate is obsessed with fire trucks. He probably is either playing with his fire truck, or pretending he is a fire fighter and making fire truck siren noises about 75% of the day, so this we a delight for him. Grace was super excited, too. I took some pics and I promise to have those up in a few days.

I Love It When......

• Nate tells me he wants to "nuggle" with me. I love to snuggle with my kiddos.
• I don't have to cook
• My house is clean
• I go to Olive Garden
• I go to any restaurant, because that means I am not cooking that meal
• I do well on a test
• I can hear the rain pounding on my windows and I can hear the thunder roll and I can stay home and relax because I don't have to go anywhere
• I go on vacations
• Its quiet
• I can take a nap
• I get hugs from my husband. He's the best hugger, ever!
• Its cold outside (is it October yet?)
• I drink Chai Lattes
• I drink Caramel Lattes
• Grace makes pictures for me

Tonight is Grace's Kindergarten Graduation. How cute! I can't believe she'll be a First Grader in the Fall. Yikes....time flies!

My Computer

A little over a week ago, my computer crashed. I was able to turn my computer on, but after it VERY slowly loaded up, I was only able to do a few small things. I was not able to do anything in Windows, which included shutting the computer down properly, check my email, etc. I ran a diagnostic test on it which indicated I had an issue with my hard drive failing. I called Dell, told them the code I received from doing the diagnostic test and they just confirmed my address and sent me a new hard drive with no questions (guess they thought I knew what I was talking about, ha ha!). Ray and I decided that I would just increase my hard drive space and buy a new hard drive at Comp USA, and use the one Dell sent me as my external hard drive instead. After getting my new hard drive, format it, reinstall Windows, load up all my drivers, figure out why my wireless card was not enabled and fix it, figure out why my sound wasn't working and fix that, then I had to transfer the data from my old hard drive to my new one by plugging it into my computer as an external drive and I also upgraded the size of my RAM. Phew! It was exhausting. But I did it. I almost threw my computer out the window a few times, but its done and its working and I'm glad its finally over. Hopefully I won't have to do this again for a LONG time. :)

Experiment

I decided to conduct an experiment tonight.

Perhaps I should back up a bit and give you a little background story. A while ago I noticed that when I ate just a few Pistachios, I would start getting a reaction in my throat, mouth and ears. I've tried to eat them several times after and its been the same every time. Then one night not too long ago, we had a jar of almonds, macadamia nuts, and cashews. I ate some, and soon realized I was having the same reaction. I was pretty certain that it wasn't the almonds or the macadamia nuts since I eat them more often than other nuts and have never had a problem. I started googling online, and soon realized that apparently people who have a reaction to pistachios have a cross reaction to cashews. Basically that means you can have a reaction to something and have a reaction to something else that is different, but similar to what you had a reaction to. Cashews and pistachios belong to the same family, Anacardiaceae, which also happens to be the family that Mango belongs to, however, I just ate Mango a few weeks ago and was fine. But there is a popular cross reactivity between the Cashews and Pistachios.

So my experiment was that I purchased a jar of Cashews from the store to eat to see if I got another reaction. Now basically, I had made note that in the jar of mixed nuts I had a reaction to not too long ago had contained some oils I was not familiar with, and hoped that was what causing my reactions, so I made sure to purchase a jar of Cashews that did not contain that same oil. Well, folks, its true, I am DEFINITELY allergic to Cashews and Pistachios. Goodbye Pistachios and Cashews. I will miss you. I will now make friends with Benedryl.

Bullet Updates

• I went up to see Wendi, John, Isaac, and Elijah a week and a half ago.
• I FINALLY got to meet my little Elijah
• I FINALLY got to hold my little Elijah
• I went to Isaac's first birthday party
• Nate now asks everyday to go see Uncle John, Aunt Wendi, Issac and Elijah again
• Nate is fully potty trained, but just can't seem to stay dry at naps and bedtime consistently
  
• I just cleaned out the kids closet and reorganized it
• I am about 96.5% done with the kids' entire room
• The hall closet is next
• Then its our bedroom closet
• Ray and the kids served me breakfast in bed on Sunday for Mother's Day
• Then Grace knocked over my milk onto the floor
• So breakfast in bed became breakfast out of bed
• But thats ok
• I need to restart my diet
• And I need to drink more water
• And I need to work out
• And I need to go back to the gym by June 1 or I have to cancel my membership
• I need to go read my Microbiology lab experiments for Thursday
• So I am ending my blog entry for today
• I'll try to blog again soon, but we all know how that goes :)
  

Going On A Trip

Thursday Grace, Nate, Ray's mom and I will be going on a road trip to visit Ray's brother John, his wife, Wendi, and their boys (my nephews!!) Isaac and Elijah. I'm really excited as I LOVE vacationing, and of course, because I get to see family. This will also be me, Nate, and Grace's first time meeting Elijah in person! Unfortunately, Ray was unable to take off work to come with us, but we are hoping to go back sometime this summer to visit again with him.

Also, if you live near and like going to Benihana, here is a deal for you. If you sign up for "The Chef's Table" (which is probably a newsletter of sorts letting you know of any specials going on, etc) on their website, they will send you a $30 certificate to use during your birthday month. It's free! Ray and I actually went for my birthday/Valentine's day (BEFORE I knew about this deal, of course!) and it was not nearly as expensive as I had always thought it was. So anyway, here is the link to sign up:

http://www.benihana.com/email

Dentist Appointments

On Friday, the kids had dental appointments set up. It was Grace's Easter Break, so I thought I would take the kids in together at the same time. I made it a point to make sure I got there about 15 minutes early to fill out the new patient paperwork I knew I would have to fill out. They were both new patients because Grace had previously gone to a different dentist who no longer takes her insurance, and Nate had never been to the dentist at all. Well that 15 minutes wasn't nearly enough time to fill out the 45 pages of paper work I had to fill out. For each kid. While I was still completing the paperwork, one of the assistants came in to get the kids to take them for xrays, and then the dentist was going to come in to the little office room I was in to go over the kids' medical histories with me. After that was done, I went over to the room where the kids were, and I see Nate sitting in the chair with the saddest, yet cutest little sad face and his bottom lip was quivering! It was close to nap time, and that combined with a new place, and neither Grace nor I was with him (she was getting some panoramic xrays done), he was scared and sad. He did better when I was there with him, but he kept telling me how he wanted to go home. Apparently, while I was out of the room talking to the dentist, he did really well with listening to the assistant while she was getting his xrays. He also did really well with his cleaning and every thing. Grace was done first, but she had to go get her molars sealed, but Nate was only a few minutes behind her. After he was done, we went and waited where she was waiting, and ended up waiting for what seemed like FOR-EV-ER! The dentist has to check the sealant before she can go and I guess he was tied up with patients.

Overall, the kids' teeth are good. No cavitites for either one. Grace has a crossbite and I was given a referral for her to go see the Orthodontist. Her last dentist had mentioned that she would get some sort of appliance to put into her mouth, but we would have to wait until her molars were fully grown in before we could go. Nate apparently has had some trauma to his two front teeth (uppers). The root is either damaged or stopped growing or something, and the dentist showed me on the xrays how the teeth next to those two have these long roots, and the middle ones do not. I think he said something about watching for abcesses or something (he had a very thick accent) but basically said that he would check him again in 6 months and if the teeth are causing or will cause damage to the permanent teeth behind them, he will have to extract those two teeth. Nate also has a part of skin inside his mouth, called frenulum labii superioris, that grew too far and is inbetween his two top teeth, causing a slight gap. This is the skin that you have between your lip and your gums (top and bottom have it but the bottom is called frenulum labii inferioris, and frenulum linguae, which is the skin that attaches to the underside of your tongue to the bottom of your mouth). I brought this up to the dentist myself as I had known about this problem for years and wondered what we could do about it. For now, nothing is done about it. When he is about 6 or 7 and those permanent top teeth are in, if the frenulum is still causing a gap, it can be surgically corrected. The dentist did mention that Nate would need braces. I don't really know much about teeth, but if his permanent teeth grow in just like his baby teeth did, then yes, he will most definitely need braces. Poor boy.

I'm slighty frustrated because it was VERY hard to find a dentist that took the kids' insurance. Grace is part of the State of Florida program called Florida Healthy Kids. Its a program to ensure that no matter what the income is that children in Florida get on some type of insurance. Now, if you make too much money, I believe you just pay the total premium which is like $110 or $120. However, you can pay as little as $15-20 per month. Luckily, we only pay $15. Nate is part of the State Medicaid system, but since we're not completely poor (just slightly, lol) and Nate is not an infant, he is on a sister program called Medikids. Now, its actually really confusing because Medicaid, Medikids, and Healthy Kids are all part of the same system, but they're seperate (see I told you it was confusing!). Anyway, hardly any dentists accept Medicaid, so I basically had to settle for a dentist, which I did not want to do. I am grateful for the insurance, just a little frustrated. To add to that frustration, the dentist's office gave me a referral paper for the orthodontist and told me all I had to do was call the insurance company and find out which orthodontists they cover and bring the referral to them. I called the insurance company and they told me the dentist's office needs to send them the referral themselves along with the xrays and it has to me medically necessary, like, and I quote, "if the child can't eat or can't speak." Um, then there's NO way they are going to cover this thing. But I will call the dentist's office on Monday and let them know what I need them to do and we'll see what happens.

Man, I can't wait until I am a nurse and I can get our family on some good health care coverage.

Under the Weather

Well, speaking of weather, even though my post has nothing to do literally with weather, (well I guess now it does since I'm mentioning it)..... Can you believe its forecast to be around 90-92 degrees? In the beginning of April? Sheesh. I wonder what summer will be like. Minnesota (for summer) here I come.

Anyway, my post was about Nate. I think he may not be feeling well. He's been complaining of being cold all day. It started after we dropped off Grace at school. Nate and I walked back to the car and once he gets in, he tells me its cold. Its 78 degrees outside. The AC is not on in the car because the car isn't even on. But he's cold. So I gave him a blanket. He's laid around with me on the couch most of the day, and he's had a blanket on him most of the day, as well, except at lunch he didn't. He started saying how he was cold again, and went and got a blanket and he put his booties on his feet. Still cold. So I went and got him a long sleeve shirt so he can move his arms around to eat and not be so cold. A couple of minutes later, he folded his arms, put his head down on the table and went to sleep. This is something he hasn't done in probably 2 years. I think the boy is sick.

Potty Progress

My little guy is officially becoming a big boy. This week he has only wet his pants/diaper/pull up a handful of times. I've been keeping him in big boy underwear all day long, with the exception of nap time and bed time, and he's even kept dry through most of his naps and bedtimes.

He has even been going into the bathroom himself, getting on the potty and going, and then calling me for any wiping assistance he may need, but he is doing SO well. I am really excited he all of a sudden just finally decided to cooperate.

The other night he had his first accident and tinkled while standing in the living room. He was so funny, he just stood there and said, "Uh oh," and I looked down and saw he was getting wet. Ray picked him up and brought him into the bath tub so I could clean him off and on the way in he says, "Yuck!!" Glad he finally thinks sitting in his own pee is gross, lol.

I will try to upload a pick of Nate sometime this week. I'd do it right now but he's asleep.

Four Score and Seven Years Ago.........

Ok, well maybe not exactly four scores, but seven years ago today I married the most amazing man in the world. I am so thankful that he is the man I married. I just love him so much and he is a really loving, caring, sweet, honest, and cute guy. For our anniversary present, he bought me a Wii and a Wii Fit (and while these are very cool gifts, I would still love him just as much if he didn't buy them for me). Grace and I can't wait until it's hooked up!

Happy Anniversary, Honey! Here's to four score more! (Wow, I would be REALLY old if I made it 80 more years!!)

Look how little Rob is!!

Update #2

My mom went home today. She finally got transferred out of ICU last night around midnight, and then was told around 10am today she would be going home. She talked to her surgeon and learned that he was actually very surprised it was not a cancerous tumor, so we are very thankful he was wrong. I stopped by my mom's house and saw her and she looked A LOT better than when I had seen her in the hospital and she was moving around quite well.

Thanks to all for their thoughts and prayers!!

UPDATE

I talked to my brother and he told me that my mom was supposed to be moving from the ICU to another room on a different floor sometime tonight. I did just call the hospital to see if she has moved and she is still in ICU. My brother also said he was told the tumor was benign, so thats good news. I don't really know exactly how my mom was told it was Stage I cancer, but it seems that is NOT the case and that is great.

Prayer Request

Sorry I've yet again been too busy to continuously blog, but honestly there hasn't been much to say except that I'm busy.

Anyway, onto my prayer request. Back in August, my mom was having a colonoscopy and the doctor alerted her that there was something on her ovary that was big enough for him to notice. She proceeded to see her gynecologist, who ordered an ultrasound and determined that everything was OK and there was no need to do anything about whatever was growing on her ovary. Three weeks later she was called by her doctor to come in for a repeat ultrasound, and afterwards was presented with the same result, which left her a little confused as to why it needed to be repeated, and yet everything was fine. Then in December, she was called again by the same doctor requesting her then to get an MRI of her ovaries. Unfortunately, due to insurance reasons, my mom was unable to go at that time. Within the last month or so (I can't remember when exactly) she went in for her MRI and then had an appt to meet back with her dr for the results. Now I don't remember the exact details about how the oncologist and/or surgeon got involved, but what it came down to was she had a growth on one of her ovaries that was getting biggger and not going away. It was also unclear if it was cancerous or not, but she was advised that she needed to have a hysterectomy and was scheduled for the following week (which was about the beginning of March). My mom decided to postpone the surgery a couple of weeks, and went in Wednesday for the procedure. She is now sitting in ICU, mostly due to the fact that they have been unable to control her blood sugar. She is a diabetic on insulin, and even with the insulin so far it has been too high for their liking. Otherwise she seems to be doing well, except for being in a lot of pain. She was on a morphine pump but they took it away because she was too sleepy, so now shes on pain pills of some sort instead.

So I asked my mom today when the doctor expected the test results on the growth to come back to see if it was cancerous or not, and she tells me that it looked like it was at least Stage I. My mom was pretty groggy, so it was hard to get more information than that, and apparently that was news to my brother and step-father as well since my step-father asked why he didn't know that bit of information.

So my prayer request is that they got all the cancer out and that my mom won't need much more treatment for it, and also that she has a quick recovery.

Please pray for me as well. I have the weight of the health world on my shoulders now, and I worry about what my future holds. I seem to have inherited the genes of many possible health problems.

• Heart problems (mom and grandfather - mom's dad- who died of a heart attack)
• Diabetes (mom and grandfather- mom's dad)
• Lung Cancer (my mom's cousin)
• Breast Cancer (grandmother- mom's mom)
• Thryoid Cancer (uncle- mom's brother)
• Thyroid Disease (my mom AND dad)
• Blood pressure (my mom)

So as you can see, the odds are stacked against me as it is in the cancer department, genetically speaking. My mom is one of three children, so out of their family of five, THREE of them have or have had cancer. THREE out of FIVE. That's 60% of their immediate family. And that's not to mention that I think my mom had told me once that my dad's sister had cancer too, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Anyway, I have a lot on my mind right now, and I'm just babbling away. If you think about it, just say a quick prayer for my mom, and for our family and our future health.

Sorry, I'm a Slacker

So I went on vacation (which was SO relaxing, by the way) and once I got back, things were crazy.....unpacking, taking care of kids who haven't seen their parents in a week, trying to get back on east coast time and catch up on sleep, trying to catch up on school work, getting back into the real world, craziness just ensued! So, I have slacked big time on my blogging.

I still don't have much to say as I am just completely busy with the kids and home life and school and everything else in between. But I do want to bring attention to the side of my blog to "My Blog List." I've added some "frugal/parent" related blogs. They are great, they give you a heads up on deals and coupons and ideas to save money, something I am really trying to work on. So have a looksey and hopefully I will blog about something with a little more substance soon.

Cali Here We Come!

I am now officially on Spring Break, and Ray and I will be heading to California tomorrow for about a week. While I am super excited to be spending some quality time with my hubby away from the kids, I am feeling pretty sad to leave them, too. It doesn't help that they are sad as well that we are leaving. I know that this is a good thing for us to be able to get away and recharge for a bit and I am excited for that, but there's that little part of me that feels bad for leaving.

Anyway, sorry, this blog wasn't meant to sound down, but I am very tired, I have a lot to do still, and I'm feeling a little emotional at the moment. But I will have a great time in California, and I will try to blog while I am away, and hopefully I will take some pics to share while I am there.

Helicopter Fun

A friend of mine, who I met last semester in my A&P1 lecture class is a Firefighter/Paramedic for the county. We are taking A&P2 together this semester, as well, so we talk quite often. She happens to work for Sheriff's Office, and the helicopter is both dual police and air rescue. So depending on the call, she's either airlifting someone to the hospital or she's helping the ground police officers find a bad guy.

Anyway, she's mentioned to me before that I can bring the kids by sometime to see the hangar and the helicopters. A couple of Friday's ago, while her Lieutenant was training another person who wanted to be a Lieutenant for air rescue, she had some downtime because there's only room for three people (the pilot, the Lieutenant, and another fire/rescue person, in addition to the patient) in the helicopter. She basically stayed at the hangar her entire shift, so there wasn't a risk of having to leave on a whim for a call (they can also be very busy for hours upon hours at a time). So, she called me up and asked if I wanted to bring the kids by for a tour. After I picked Grace up from school, we headed down the street to the airport. It was a little dreary that day, and a tad windy, and pretty cool out (a front was coming through), but we got a good tour in. The timing worked out great because we had just enough time for the kids to go right out to the helicopter and sit in it for a few minutes when a call came in. The kids got to watch from close proximity the helicopter rev up the engine and take off. It was so loud and so windy, and the kids loved it. They had such a good time on the tour. We also got to see some mobile command vehicles, and SWAT vehicles, and some other grounded helicopters and a big tank like vehicle. It was a good time for the kids (and it was FREE!). So here are some pics from our time at the hangar. Now every time they see or hear a helicopter, they think its my friend.

Grace in the chopper

Closer shot of Nate in the chopper

Getting ready to leave

Waiting for Air Traffic to clear the skies for takeoff

Lifting off

Off they go

Nate's Dictionary: Acuz

Thanks to my friend, T who has been posting her little Hoper's dictionary online, I thought I would post some of Nate's here and there.

Today's word is:

Acuz (ah-cuh-z):

• conjunction: for the reason that; due to the fact that
• idiom: by reason of, due to

Example-
Mommy: "Nate are you eating your lunch?"
Nate: "No."
Mommy: "Why not?"
Nate: "Acuz I'm drinking my juice."

On a little side note, when I took Nate in to his 3 year old check up, the doctor discussed with me the fact that she thinks Nate may have a speech problem called Speech Articulation Delay. Basically, his vocabulary is fine, but by now, most 3 year olds should be able to have their words recognizable by strangers. His is not always that way. Heck, sometimes we don't even know what the kid is saying, ha ha. Thanks to insurance issues, I had to wait until after February 1st to bring in him for an evaluation. So on Tuesday we went and saw the Speech Therapist or Pathologist, or whatever it's called. Nate was a VERY good boy, and he sat very well. I was so proud of him. She flipped a book and showed Nate a bunch of pictures and asked him to name the things in the pictures while she wrote things down. She said he does have some issues with the way he is forming some letters, and its mostly due to an oral motor problem, which basically is a fancy way of saying the muscles around his mouth need some strengthening. He doesn't have eating problems, so its not severe, but he does need to be coming in to help correct the problem. We will also be working with him at home on some oral motor exercises to help strengthen those muscles more quickly. (For some reason "more quickly" doesn't sound like proper grammar, lol).

So that's the update, for now.

PS: Funny thing Nate just said while eating lunch today: "Mommy, this cheese doesn't look very tasty."

Nate Has A Chip on His Shoulder....

I know he's young, but for some reason, my little guy has a Chip on his shoulder. I really don't know how to handle this.


HA HA!!!

P's and Q's

Well, it's more like A's and B's but P's and Q's just sounded better. Just the other day, I started going over the letter A with Nate. I have no idea when Grace was able to recognize her letters, and I'm sure this is probably not a big deal for a three year old. I suppose most kids are probably able to recognize their letters at this age, but my son is very active and doesn't like to sit still for very long. For that reason, I haven't really thought he was able to learn anything that required more than 30 seconds of his attention. Anyway, we went over the letter A and he has been able to recognize the letter A (upper and lower case) every time he sees it. Then I did the letter B. He gets a little confused with the lower case B, but the upper case B he has been very consistent with knowing. I'm so proud of my little boy!

I guess the other reason I haven't felt like it was a big deal to rush this because I know once he starts school, they will go over this. I know with Grace, they were learning letters, and colors, and shapes and I was REALLY surprised they had to go over that at that age, since she had known colors and shapes at 2. All of my friends' kids knew that stuff early, and definitely by the time they started school, too, so I thought that was normal. Anyway, Nate knows his colors and shapes, too, so now we are working on letters, and then its off to phonics.

We are TRYING to work on potty training this little booger, too. That's not going quite as well. He is very stubborn. There are times he will tell us all by himself that he has to go potty. Most of the time, however, I have to put him on it myself and then he will go. I've tried putting him in regular underwear, but he will still go in his pants anyway. I will change him and he will go again in his pants. I'm not sure what else to do, really.....so I will just keep trying. Maybe one day he will get it.

25 Random Things

I did this on my facebook and thought it would be a good post to post here to give you few faithful blog checkers something to read to reward you for checking my blog. (If you're on my facebook, you will see I did make some changes, so read again anyhow).

1. I have a bad habit of making sure the dishes are completely rinsed off and free of food before they are put into the dishwasher. I'm not really sure why I don't just wash them.
2. My second nephew was born on Saturday! Welcome to the world, Elijah Luke.
3. When it gets cooler out here, I can feel a change in my skin: mostly my hands get VERY dry and feel all weird and gritty.
   
4. I have a scar on the right side of my upper lip. I was bitten by my dog.
5. Grace's middle name is spelled like this: ELISABETH
6. Nate's name was almost Cole. We couldn't decide, and just said that when we first saw him we'd see what he looked like more. He looked like a Nathan.
7. My birthday is in a week. I cannot even believe I am in my 30's much less going to be 32.
8. My husband is the best hubby, like, ever!
9. We will be celebrating 7 years of marriage next month. Here's to 70 more, babe!! <3
10. One of my favorite shows on TV is called "Deliver Me" about three OB/GYN docs in southern California. I love this show. I want to be an OB nurse!
11. I didn't go to college right out of high school for many reasons: I didn't get into the ONE school I applied to, I was never really encouraged to go to college, I wasn't guided into applying to more than one college (or ever the community college for that matter), I wasn't guided into applying for financial aid to help pay for college, I thought I couldn't afford college, etc. Now, looking back, I'm glad I didn't go. I may not be where I am today if I had. I probably wouldn't have gotten all A's and B's in college either if I had gone 13 years ago!
12. I will start the nursing program in either August of this year or next January- just not sure which one I am applying to, yet. (More-than-likely, its going to be January, though).
    
13. I trust my husband completely. He's one of the few good guys out there. And he's mine! :)
14. Sometimes I think about having more kids.
15. I don't like to cook dinner.
16. I hate cockroaches. I really, really hate them.
17. I'm glad I don't see cockroaches in my house.
18. I really want a puppy. And a flat screen TV.
19. Grace's birthday is 9/12. My birthday is 2/8. Ray's birthday is 7/4. If you add Ray's birth month to my birth month (7+2) you get Grace's birth month (9). If you add my birth day to Ray's birth day (8+4), you will also get Grace's birth day (12). Cool huh?
20. I get WAY better grades in college than I did in high school, go figure.
21. I am VERY afraid of not doing well in nursing school, thanks to all the horror stories I've heard about the program at my school, and also because I constantly doubt my academic abilities on a pretty much daily basis.
22. My middle name is Marisa
23. I am exactly 5 feet tall.
24. My husband is 6'5"
25. His arm is as long as my leg, sadly.

Scary

The other day, Nate gave us quite a scare. He had his first MAJOR fall at the park. We go to this park quite often so the kids are really familiar with the whole playground and have gotten good at climbing and jumping and running and playing on it. Well, the other day Ray took the kids to the park while I was home studying and they were all running around playing. We still don't know the exact cause of the fall, but Grace and Nate were attempting to climb down a ladder about 6 feet-ish high up in the air from one of the platforms on the playground. Grace may have bumped into Nate or she might not have, we're not sure, but somehow, Nate took a tumble about 6 feet down off the ladder. Apparently it was so scary that quite a few people came over to see how he was doing while Ray was taking care of him. I obviously didn't see it, but I am glad I didn't. I would have been an emotional basket case seeing my little buddy fall that much. Ray was close, but unfortunately not close enough as he tried to make it there in time to break the fall. The good news is my little guy is a strong little booger and he didn't even get a scratch! Thank goodness. That was quite a little scare.

My Kids

I remember vividly, at various ages, not being able to wait until I was older. When I was 7 I couldn't wait to be 8. When I was 15 I couldn't wait to be 16. When I was 20, I couldn't wait to be 21......24 I wanted to be 25. That's where it stopped. Ha! I never wanted to be anything higher than 25. Well anyway, I think that's normal with every kid. They always want to be older. Well, all of them except for mine! I have no idea why. Grace has said various times she does not want to be older. Today, I asked Nate what he wants to be when he grows up. I asked if he wanted to be a fire fighter. No, he told me. I asked him if he wanted to be a police office. Again, he said no. Then he said, "I don't want to get bigger. I want to stay little." It was so cute the expression he had on his face as he said it. I think they realize that when you are bigger you aren't with your parents anymore, and that is kind of scary to a little kid. It's cute of them to think, right now, that they want to stay with us forever. I know in about 6 years there will be a way different feeling for my almost teen (YIKES!!!) daughter who will then want nothing to do with her parents. But for now I will bask in the fact that they want me always closeby and that they want to stay little forever. I wish I could keep them little forever, too.

Chilly

Yay, I'm so happy its chilly outside. Today, I went to bring Grace over to Elizabeth's (she takes her to school on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings) and when I walked outside, I could see my breath!!! How wonderful is that? I LOVE it!!! Today is a great day. Yippee! Here's a screenshot of weather.com. I think I may frame it, lol.

My Son

Three year olds tend to say the darnedest things sometimes. My son is no exception. Last night before bed, I told him, "Nate, you need to go right to sleep, okay? Say, 'Yes, mommy, I will go right to sleep.'" He then says, "Yes, mommy, I will go right to sleep."

A little while later, after he had been making noises and obviously not going to sleep, Ray went in to tell him to go to bed. He says to Nate, "I thought you said you were going right to sleep." Nate, being the ever-so-clever three year old that he is, says, "Yeah, I told that to mommy."

Sigh. Three year olds. Can't live with them, can't live without them.

Week One Update- I Forgot.....

I forgot to include my weight loss results for week one yesterday in my post. I am down 4 lbs, and thats including eating about 3 puddings the night before for some throat comfort. I haven't been eating much these last few days, so I'm sure the lack of food may negatively affect my results for this week. Last week I was trying hard to make sure I ate every 3 hours or so, and I haven't been doing that since I've been sick. We'll see how this week goes. I won't sweat it. I'm sick, and as long as I don't gain, that will be fine. I'd really like to get exercising, but as of right now I just don't have the energy, and plus I would probably hack up a lung if I got even remotely out of breath.

I'm still sick, but the kids seem better, thank goodness. Nate hasn't had a fever since yesterday evening, and Grace has been fever-free since Sunday evening. Grace went back to school today, so I will see if she's still feeling well after school later when I pick her up.

That's all for now, folks. Thanks to Ray's mom who is on her way over now to bring me medicine and chicken noodle soup. She's my hero! And she cooked us dinner the other night, too. Ain't she awesome?

Sick Update

Grace seems to be better. She had not had a fever all day yesterday, then yesterday evening she started running one again and looking like she did on Saturday. We kept her home from school because of the fever she had last night, but she hasn't had any fever sin

I, on the other hand, have definitely gotten sick. I don't know what this is, but its not good. This is the sickest I think I've been in a long time, and last night Ray even said he's never seen me this bad. I've been running a low fever, but I feel the fever, you know, when you feel feverish-feeling very hot inside my body, while the outside is very cold. I have chills and shivers, then I have sweats. My head aches mostly all the time, my body aches, I have absolutely NO energy, and I am very tired, yet I can't sleep very well. I have a horrible cough. Whatever it is, I wish it would go away.

On top of that, now my little Nate started running a fever. Poor thing. I feel bad for the kids, because if they feel anywhere close to what I feel, I know it must be hard for their little bodies . Their temperatures have been higher than mine, but I know my body fights things pretty hard, and I rarely ever get fevers. Mine has been around 2ish degrees higher than normal, while the kids have been around 3ish higher than normal. Anyway, I hope this is the end of it for Grace, and I hope that Nate feels better soon, too. As for me, I hope I feel better soon as well. Its hard to just lay around all the time and not do anything at all. We have a great week of weather coming and I'd love to take the kids to the park- if we're better of course.

And Ray has been the best husband anyone could have. He's been such a big help to me, I don't know what I would have done without him. Unfortunately, he will have to go to work tomorrow, so I am REALLY hoping I'm better then.

Gracie-Lu

My little Gracie-Lu is sick. Not sure what's going on exactly, but she started running a fever yesterday evening. She looked sick, too. She didn't really have any symptoms except that she had a headache, she "said" she coughed, but I never heard her, and she said her throat hurt her, but that was only for like 10 minutes. It stopped hurting and hasn't hurt since. Today, she still has a fever, and the fever keeps coming back. She looks pitiful, ate only half a slice of toast and its almost 1:30pm- by now she's normally had quite a bit to eat. She hasn't moved off the couch, except for once where she laid on the living room floor, and then got back up onto the couch. She even took a nap this morning.

So, I'm not really sure what's going on with her......just keep her in your prayers. And I think I may be getting something, too. I've had a headache, which isn't whats making think I'm getting sick (but Grace has been complaining of her head hurting, so who knows), but I feel my chest getting tight, and I feel the way I feel in the beginning stages of a nasty cough. Ugh. Anyway, I'm more concerned with Grace, poor thing. Here's a pic of how she looked just a little while ago, just so you can see what I mean by "pitiful".

Love you Gracie-Lu. Hope you feel better soon!

What Do You Do?

What do you do when your two kids share a room and one wants a night light on because they're scared of the dark, while the other wants it off because the shadows scare them?

Oh yeah, and how do you get your three year old to go right to bed without calling you in 15 times every night after putting him to bed?

I need answers people! :)

Must.Resist.Cocoa.Rice.Krispies

Today is day 1. My start over day. The day I've chosen to re-embark on a journey I set out so long ago to finish. Here I am, starting over for the 100th time. But I am here. I'm ready (I think) and so we begin.

I made it to about 10:00am and then found myself staring at a box of cereal assortments, which included Apple Jacks, Fruit Loops and Cocoa Rice Krispies. Being the chocolate lover that I am, I only found myself drawn to the Cocoa Rice Krispies more than the others. I REALLY wanted to pour myself a nice big bowl and eat away. But I didn't. I resisted. I told myself that I really wouldn't be doing my body justice by eating it. I made some eggs instead with a one slice of Ezekiel bread. A nice little balance of protein and carbs, and much better fuel than sugary cereal.

Another Year....

Another year has gone by and man, that was really fast! But as the new year begins, what better time to recommit to my weight loss endeavor that has sadly fallen by the wayside. I'm not quite sure what happened exactly, or when, but I've fallen WAY off track and I really need to get back on it. I embarrassingly have to admit that I have gained back almost 26 lbs of the 36 I had lost. I guess its not as bad as gaining back ALL 36 lbs, as a friend encouragingly made me aware of. But the fact is I need to get back on the ball, and I need my blog to help me remain accountable to that. So there. Blog readers of America, or at least the 3.6 people that read this, you are my accountability. I will blog, you will read and hopefully this train won't get derailed any more.

I know that I can't do this alone, and that I really need the Lord's help, fully and completely. I know that unless I rely totally on Him, I will not succeed. I know I still have to do the work, and it won't be easy, but He will be there with me every step of the way and will be my source of strength.

Happy New Year

Happy new year, everyone. I am going to post a longer blog post, but due to computer issues, we only have one computer right at the moment, and Ray needs his back. Therefore, I don't have time to blog right now. Check back later today, or tomorrow, for a longer blog post. Hope you're having a great start to 2009!

Also, real quick, I will be starting a blog, currently titled, "Misadventures of a Pre-Nursing Student" that will be a blog solely for school stuff (later to be titled "Misadventures of a Nursing Student"). It may, at times, contain graphic talk of science-related things that may or may not be of interest to some. So this is an advanced warning. Mostly its just going to be a way for me to talk about school and for venting purposes. School starts Monday, January 5th, so check there soon!