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.