More videos

I guess if I say videos, that means more than one, huh?

Videos of Thomas

Mondays

Today after work I went to the doctor. I have been having ear pain and hearing loss since my last cold in December/January. The doc said my ear drums are bulging from fluid again, and gave me more meds. He says now I need to get a hearing test. I sure am hoping the pain goes away soon, although I am not looking forward to how sleepy this decongestant is going to make me.

4th of July weekend

This weekend was pretty uneventful, but very nice and relaxing just the same. For the 4th, (Friday) we went with some new friends, April and Patrick and thier children to a creek near our house. It was nice and shallow, Thomas was able to sit and there were deeper parts for the older kids. Friday night we went back to April and Patricks for fireworks. We stayed till late and had a great time. They are going to become good friends, I can tell.
Saturday we decide to for go the normal trip to NOLA, and try to get some things done around the house. It is so hard to get anything done with the kids right behind us. So we got baseboards nailed down, and the lawn mowed. I went Saturday morning with April for a pedicure and lunch thereafter. It was very nice. Sunday we went to church and our choir leader forgot to tell us to come on stage so we all rushed as the service began. It was kinda funny actually.... had to be there I guess.
Monday we took the kids over to Nick and Cristi's house to swim. We were there for 2 hours maybe and brought the kids home for a nap. We relaxed the rest of the day, and prepared for my work week.

The last week.... very busy days

Last week was very exciting! Monday and Tuesday I went to work. Wednesday we got up and rolled out the door at 0430 to go to Atlanta. We arrived in Atlanta 5 hours later with no problems other than road construction. The kids were really good the whole trip. We took the kids to the Atlanta zoo, and they seemed to enjoy it. I was really greatful that the weather was not too hot.

The meerkats above we took pictures of for Ethan, so he could see what a real meerkat looks like. Then, later that day we met Katie, Don, Robert and Luke at the airport to hang out. (My whole motivation for going on this trip)






We then went to our room. We stayed at NAS Atlanta. It was nice, but a challenge to get the kids to sleep in the same bed. Thursday morning I got up and found out that I am being promoted to E-6! I am SO excited!!! So to celebrate, we went to Steak and Shake for lunch before going to the aquarium.







Thursday night we took the kids to a park in Marietta, close to where we were staying and had icecream. They ate, and then played on the train. Thomas felt like we were cheating him and screamed for a cone till Ryan got him one.





Friday, we drove from Atlanta to NOLA to drop the kids off for a anniversary celebration. My Aunt Julie watched the kids Friday and Saturday night.

Sunday

Yesterday and today were very relaxing days. Yesterday I got all my house cleaning done.. Today we went to church for the end of VBS celebration. It was so cute, and I can't believe I forgot my camera. Luckily, I sat next to Cristi and she took some. I got to see Ryan in a hula skirt, that was so funny. After the waterfest of VBS teachers getting wet, we went to El Saltillo with Chad, Kristen and some new friends. Chad told the waiter that it was Ryan's birthday, so they came out with a hat and a dessert. It was so funny cause he had no idea what was going on. Then he tells Chad,...you do know my birthday is in December right? It was so funny.
Then we came home and planned to complete the touch-up paint but instead decided to take a nap. The kids took a long nap today too... we must ahve all been tired.
Today I have felt extreeeemly blessed to have the best husband ever. I am so greatful that he got to teach VBS. I truly pray that someone he meets will reach him with Christ. On another note, Zoe asked Ryan if she could go up to the altar during VBS, and when he asked her why she said "I don't know"... I think she is getting closer everyday to making a decision for Jesus. YEAH!!!!

more pics

The living room/kitchen


The kitchen


Zoe's room


The living room


Thomas' new room... I am so proud of the work we did!





My husband studiously trying to fix the fuel line on the weed eater


Our new rental house


Zoe and Lindsay


Zoe learning how to take pictures of herself

Some recent pics

We have been SOOO busy. I will recap soon.. but for now here are some pictures...

Long days long nights

Well, since I last wrote, we have moved our entire house 15 miles east. It was a tiring and exhausting process. Mostly because we rented this house under the pretense that the people before us somewhat took care of it. They did anything but that. They had pets and smoked in the house. Every door and painted wall had damage from the smoke and/or pets. Can anyone say NASTY? I scrubbed on Friday, the entire day. The carpet guy came, and worked miracles on the carpet. By Saturday morning, there had been a rag rubbed over every part of the inside of this house. We worked Friday night till 4 am, painting, hanging borders (of which I will now only ever endorse the stick kind... the pre-paste kind was not nice to me.) We got some volunteers from church to help and I had to pick them up at 8am Saturday morning. We were all moved in by Sat at 1200, and we have been unpacking ever since. Hopefully I will get the remainder of the unpacking/organizing/de-cluttering/hanging of curtains tommorrow. For now, I think I am going to sit back and watch some tv.

Long day

This morning started at 0445. I showered, and dressed for work and was there barely by 6 as usual. Thanks to Ryan I had lunch packed and Thomas ready in 45 minutes. What an amazing man I have!!!! Work today was reviewing, and all my students passed block III test yeah!!!! After work, PT in the HOT HOT HOT 94 degree sun and then off to the new rental house. I got the two bathrooms clean, but I still need to mop one bathroom, and clean the baseboards and fans. We will defintely be getting new toilet seats from Lowe's in the next couple of days. These people were SOOO dirty. I don't think I have ever seen that much hair in my life. And I still have the urine smell in my nose, 3 hours later. I have a headache and my eyes burn, but that could be from being tired. So more tommorrow, if I don't go to the Stevie Nicks concert. I have Friday off, praise GOD!!!!
.....more to come on the house day by day.........

Time flies

Thomas my little rock star


Zoe and the beauty queen wave

Wow!!!! Where did the last week go? What did I do? whew!!! I had to read Ryan's journal, and even then, it's sketchy. Today I am immensely excited to tell all the world that Thomas learned to spit today! Okay, I know it doesn't really sound that great but I am talking about spitting in the sink, while brushing his teeth with big boy toothpaste. He was so excited about finally using the Dora and Diego toothpaste that Zoe got. I showed him one time and he was on it! I just hope he does not use his skills anywhere else. He was so cute he says "Daddy I PIT!!!!!" and we tried to get him to say sssss-pit to no avail. Children are so cute and innocent sometimes.
So lets recap the last couple days....

Tuesday
When Zoë woke she and Ryan spent time on finetunes.com creating a play list together. She named the songs and I would type them into the search bar. After breakfast they wanted to go to the beach so they walked bar foot along the shore and found alive a hermit crab that was sheltered in a sea shell. They also found boxes for our move. It has been decided that we will go with the Curious George theme for Thomas' room so I took back the things we bought the day before and ordered the new borders and stickers for his room.



Wednesday

The packing begins... although I went straight to bed. Later that evening Zoë and I went to a dinner for a someone in my ofice that's seperating and Thomas and Ryan went to band practice.

Thursday

Zoë and Ryan packed her room.

Friday

We all went to Dora at the Lynn Meadows Discovery Cener. Thomas loved it. The rest of us were very disappointed. What can you expect for $2!! Good thing we didn't go during the day show or it would have been $9 a person!

Saturday
I took the kids to Bram’s birthday party and Ryan stayed home and practiced the Vivaldi Concerto.

Sunday June 1st, 2008

We went to church this morning to see the Bird Songs. They do some real nice bluegrass and modern rock. We liked it so much that we went back to see them again for the evening service.

Thanks to Ryan for the recap.... where was I last week? wow!! My brain hurts just thinking about it. Hopefully I will be more in control this week!

Memorial Day

In honor of Memorial Day I decided to post this picture of my brother and I.

Today is a day to remember our fallen Airman, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines. I am so thankful for all the veterans that ave gone before us to pave the way for the freedoms we sometimes take for granted.

Today will also be in my memory for some other reasons. This morning I woke up to a huge pounding on our door, and when I went to the door realized it was the police. They had come at the calling of one of my neighbors who had gone out to walk her dog. She found my purse and scattered belongings behind the maintenance shed near our apartment. My ID card, along with my credit card and digital camera were stolen out of my van. Thank goodess they didn't break the glass to get in. It was unlocked. After discussion with Ryan we both thought the other had locked it. I had Ryan immediately call to cancel the card as I was talking to the police, but it looks like they may have spent some money last night.
I have decided thier is no reason to be upset at this event, cause it could always have been worse. I am so greatful they didn't try to break into our apartment or do something horrible. We have learned our lesson about not locking our car though!

Gas Prices

Have these people lost thier minds? Yesterday I got gas it was $3.72, today it's $3.83!!! THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!! Looks like our vacations are gonna turn into staycations. I really am going to have to ride my bike to work instead of driving!
Just my getting on soapbox guys!

Ughh tiredness

Is anyone reading this? We finally got an appointment to see the neurologist and he said that Zoe's brain seems fine and that he does not want to put her on medication unless she has another seizure. Which I agree. No sense in putting her on it unless she really needs it. So we will wait to see if she has another one. He referred her to the cardiologist which we will be seeing tommorrow, and to the opthamologist. He also ordered an MRI for her for June 4th.
Zoe went to her first girlfriend sleep-over last night and she had loads of fun. It was kinda weird coming home with just one child last night. Very peaceful though.
I am becoming increasingly tired. I am becoming increasingly worried about my tiredness.. every night I am so exhausted I can barely play with the kids. I mostly just stare at them. And then later I feel really guilty. Since I have been working out I feel a little better, but not great. Does that mean
I am not pushing hard enough when I work-out? Or just that I am in a rat race I will never win?
Father- please give me the energy to be a great wife, mother, worker and friend.

Manic Mondays

This morning I rose at 0420. Wow!!! I got to work on time, but no lunch and no water. That was a mistake. My class is on Day 1 today and I should have known better. I tried all day to get Zoe an appointment with the pediatric neuorologist to no avail. My boss said he is suprised at how calm I am about the whole situation and the fact that he would be standing on top of someone's desk shouting if he were in my shoes. So I promised to shout tommorrow afternoon if I don't get my way by then. And while though some on the outside looking in are seeing a calm cool collected person, I know that it is the peace that passes all understanding. I hope I was a good example of God's peace today.
After work was PT and we ran 3.0 miles... whoa! My knees really hurt... note to self, see podiatrist.

Another note to self.. you really stink at getting to bed on time.... look what time it is!!!!

Friday morning

I woke up with the intention of fixing Zoe's hair before I dropped Thomas off at daycare for my day with Special Olympics. Well... as it turned out, none of those things happened. I was in the bathroom combing Zoe's hair when she said "Mom, my eyes burn! They burn really bad!" So I turned her to face me so I could see her eyes and as I did her pupils got so large I could barely see the iris in her eye. Then in a panicked voice, she said "I can't see!! I can't see!" I waved my hand in front of her face and she went into a trance-like state. I was yelling her name and she was unresponsive. This went on for about 15 seconds. I started yelling for Ryan to call 911, as her eyes rolled back in her head, she hit her head on the toilet and collapsed on the floor. Ryan didn't move fast enough or agree that she needed an ambulance, So I had to call 911. By this time, she was awake from the collapse. I was scared to bring her myself to the hospital because I kept thinking what if she has another one in the van on the way there? Her cousin Addison has had 2 fever induced seizures, and I didn't want to take any chances. I have since learned that my grandpa had seizures. I never knew this till today. (Saturday)
So off we went into the ambulance and to the ER. The ER doc gave her breakfast and did an EKG on her heart since in the ambulance the heart readings were VERY sporadic. They were like 50 to 98 and back and forth. They then made is an appt with the pediatrician, who said she believes Zoe had a seizure called Simple absence. It's when they go into a trance-like state you can't snap them out of. So we have an appointment on June 4th to see the neurologist, but I will be calling tommorrow to find out if we can get her an earlier appointment, because after the whole episode was over when I talked to Zoe she said she had the same feeling the day she fell off the monkey bars at school and broke her arm. So if it's the same thing, it's twice in two weeks. So, we came home and have been "chilling out" ever since.
Saurday- Today we didn't go to my grandparents as usual. We tried to no avail to get some boxes for packing, but we did accomplish cleaning the apartment. Well the countdown begins... 14 days till move day. Sure hope we get our extra tax refund soon!

Winding down for the week

Wednesday.. Always a busy day at our house now cause we get home, eat and go to band/choir practice. We love it though! So it's way past my bedtime. I need to prayerfully consider what to do with Zoe. She has not been using her listening skills and it is not for a lack of our speaking or lack of taking her toys away.
Hmmmmm..... I have to admit... kids don't come with manuals and I (at times like these) get stumped. So what verse do I turn to? "Children obey your parents"... I need to show her that. I just hope we are being good enough examples for her. I think we are, it's just at times like these I get discouraged. I feel like I am always getting upset with her about something.

Father, help me to always be a good example to my children, as you are for us. And please help April find her diamond that she lost today. Give her a sense of peace about the situation. and just in case she forgot to say it.. Jesus lost and found. Amen

Zoe's cast

My power on my computer shut off while I was ploading the picture to the last blog, so here it is seperately.

The last two days

Let's start with yesterday. After work we went to look at yet another house for rent. We decided to take it, despite the couple short-comings. Ryan is so excited because the house comes with a piano... something I can guarantee was not on the list of amenities. Needless to say I am not thrilled. Anyway, the place was decent except for the stains in the carpet, (which will be cleaned by the owner before we move in)and the fact that they were smoking in the house, which I can hopefully chase the smell away with my cleaning techniques I plan on employing before my stuff gets anywhere near that place. So we begin the countdown. We move in the weekend of 7Jun.

Today, I got to take Zoe to get her cast. She picked pink.. not a suprise. Finally we got to clean up the apartment a little. So maybe now is a good time to take the photos I promised Katie. It's almost time for bed. Hopefully I make it on time.

Mother's Day

yeah!!!! Mother's Day!!!! A day for honoring mothers of all generations.
My kids are sooo sweet. They both made me things at school. Thomas made a picture frame that says "This is the hand you used to hold when I was only 2 years old" and the picture is his hand. Cute! Then at church he made a card with a handprint that he colored.
Zoe made breakfast in bed!!!! She brought me a bag that she decorated that had a granola bar and a juice box in it. VERY cute! As well as a bunch of different colored papers and pictures. She wrote me a card that says "You are sweet like a strawberry, yes it's true! Here are some reasons why I love you: You are pretty as a princess and a red rose. I love you momy." Love, Zoe
And then of course there was the my special mom paper.
My mom is as pretty as a princess
She weighs 08 pounds and is 7 feet tall
Her favorite food is icecream
I think my mom looks funny when she is silly
I know she is really angry when she puts me in time out
I wish my mom would hug with me everyday
My mom is more special than my brother to me

Ryan bought an electronic picture frame for me that goes with my easy share camera. It's so awesome!! I am so blessed!!!!!! And I also got a rose from the place where we had lunch. We ate at a catfish place called Aunt Jennie's. It was pretty good. I plan to relax for the rest of the afternoon, and then later tonight to get ready for tommorrow. I will try to be in bed early!!!!