Jessie's 4th birthday

I know I am a little late in writing this as her birthday was on the 7th but better late than never. She had a good birthday weekend. Brandon and her both usually get two birthdays out of the deal because we do the birthday dinner and party with my family and then Scott's family comes out for their presents on another day. Anyway we had my family's party on Saturday and she had a great time. It was princess themed of course, half general princess and half Cinderella. She chose all of her decorations and then told me where to put them up. She even tried to tell me how to decorate the cake. Brandon was a little upset because she is now old enough to want to open her own presents and he didn't like that. He liked it better when he had to do things for her. On Sunday Scott's family came out to give her their gifts. She started to come down with a cold that day so she was a little under the weather but she still had a good time.

She is finally able to reach the doorknobs enough to close doors but she can't open the doors because she is just short enough that she can't get a good grip on the knob so she is always locking herself in places and then hollering to get out. She can also now turn lights on and turn them back off if she is standing on something, she needs about another inch to reach the top of the switch when it is turned on. So now when I put her in her room for her "nap/ quiet time" (which almost nevers actually happens, as she is usually knocking on the door asking if it time to get up yet) she turns the light back on after I leave the room. I don't think I am going to have any trouble with her in school because she is picking up a lot from Brandon and is constantly wanting to read but she gets bored quickly with anything that doesn't involve reading. She is quick to learn though and I think she will have no problems.

Brandon on the other hand is still having difficulties with numbers. He seems to have a block when it comes to math and he does not like to write. I still think he was supposed to be left handed and it is messing with his brain but he was adament about using his right hand because everyone else was. He is doing really well in reading though. They have what they call accelerated reading books that are different levels and when you get three 100%s on the tests, you move onto the next level. He is breezing through the books, one of them he only had home one day and he passed the book and is on to the next. He just moved into a new level so he has two more 100's to go but I am very proud of him. We have resorted to bribery to try to get him to work harder and it is helping to a point but he is only earning his stickers towards a prize for the books and site word lists that he passes not for any of his other homework. It is still a work in progress. I still get amazed when I hear him read to me it just doesn't seem possible that he is old enough to read and to see his progress as he masters it. I forgot how hard the English language is until I started helping him with spelling and phonics. We really do have a difficult language. I am so proud of both of my kids and they are growing up way too fast.

Chris's graduation and engagement

Chris graduated from college again with his bachelor's degree in October. This time it is a Bachelor of Science for Technical Engineering. Anyway we were waiting for them to mail his diploma to him before we celebrated. They wouldn't give it until everything was paid. (His employer helped pay for his degree). Mom and Dad received it at there house so we gave him a surprise party and he didn't even know that he had his diploma yet.

It was fun. We made him wear his old cap and gown from high school and Dad presented the diploma. He also got some gift cards and a frame for the diploma. I think he appreciated it. It was also sort of a double celebration because he finally asked Rachel to marry him. He waited for their two year anniversary to propose. I guess he was pretty nervous but made it pretty romantic. Rachel was surprised he was nervous because it wasn't like she was going to say no. They are tentatively setting the date for August 28th. We'll see though because they haven't decided where they are having it yet so the date may change. I wasn't sure about their relationship at first but she has really changed and I think they will be happy together.

As for the latest on Scott, he is still having issues. I swear the doctor is just trying to milk the insurance. Anyway they are finally going to blast the kidney stone next week and if all goes well he can get the stint they put in over a month ago out a week after they blast it. Hopefully that will be the end to all of the major problems and things will go smoother. I am not sure how much more I can take. Scott can't even really try to get work because he is on pain pills all the time. We have been looking but there is just not a lot of options out there right now. Please keep praying because we need all the help we can get.

Christmas 2009

Grandma (GG) opening gift from Cooks

Jessie helping GG open her electric lap throw

Kids with PEZ from Cooks

This years "famous" socks from Jim

Chocolate orange from Cooks

GG with books from Cooks

Jerky from Cooks

Jenny with Chocolate Orange

GG opening sandart from kids.

We started our Christmas season with our traditional trip to the zoo for the Electric Critters. Chris and Rachel joined us and everyone loved walking around looking at all the lights as usual. It's always cold so this year we got smart and brought hot chocolate to drink while we walked. Jessie wanted to go back to the zoo she loved it so much but it's too expensive to do twice so we settled for walking the River Walk and looking at those Christmas lights. That was a lot of fun too (and free). The kids were a little disappointed that we didn't do the boat ride with Santa this year but we had already seen all the lights while walking and we didn't want to spend the money. Maybe next year. Next was our annual trip to the mall to visit with Santa and mail their letters. We walked around for awhile and Brandon played games in the arcade while Mom took Jessie on the little rides they have. Scott and I did a little shopping while mom watched the kids in the play area. Then we ate dinner at Subway. Last year Grandma went with us but this year she already had plans to go out with a group from the Towers to look at Christmas lights in the van. She really enjoyed that.

Christmas Eve we went to Chris' house (as is our fairly new tradition) and ordered pizza. He cooked chicken wings and made breadsticks and sauce and cookies to go with it (he's quite the male version of Martha Stewart) and then we had hot chocolate later in the evening. We opened some gifts then. We like to open the gifts that Brandon buys at his school Santa shop and the things that Aunt Pat and Uncle Jim send us on Christmas Eve so we can really spend time looking at them when it's not so hectic. The socks and poem Jim sends to dad need special attention. Brandon bought Jessie some lipgloss in the shape of the word LOVE. You would have thought he gave her diamonds the way she carried on and thanked him and kissed him. He gave Scott a sports mug that says DAD on it, me a pin that says MOM and is heartshaped, mom a bookmark with a heart and beads on it, and dad an ornament that says, "I love Grandpa" on it. They were having problems keeping a good supply of items to shop for this year in the Santa Shop so he and Jessie ended up making sandart vases for eveyone else. Jessie got it into her head that she had to give Santa a gift too and kept wanting to buy him a gift at the Santa Shop, but she settled for "writing" on a Christmas card and leaving that out for him on Christmas Eve along with the cookies and milk.

Christmas day won't go down in our memories as one of the best we've had but it was still nice. First Brandon's gift from Santa was a metal detector and it didn't work right. Then Chris had car trouble and they were late getting here. Scott wasn't feeling well (more on that in a minute), Chris forgot my gift and one of Rachel's, grandma (GG) was still tired from the Christmas Eve party, and we just couldn't seem to get organized. Inspite of all that, we still had a nice dinner and a nice day.

To elaborate more on Brandon's Santa gift, mom and I ran out the next day to try to replace it and the plan was to have Brandon write a letter to Santa to let him know it was broken and then Santa would make a special trip to drop off a new one, but they were out of them so dad had a metal detector he hadn't used in years and he cleaned that up and we had Brandon write the note and Santa delivered the "new" one with a note that he felt so bad that the other one was broken that he gave him an even better one, but this metal detector was very special to him so he needed to take really good care of it (since it is more expensive we wanted him to be more careful). Brandon was so excited and assumed that meant the metal detector belonged to Santa and he was giving him his own instead of making a new one. That's kind of true. Aren't grandpas really Santa anyway? He loves it and is very happy.

Now our latest medical issue, Scott. He had gone to the doctor a couple of weeks ago suspecting he might have a bladder infection but his brilliant doctor didn't put him on antibiotics and it ended up getting worse. I ended up taking him to emergency room the day after Christmas and he has a very large kidney stone and an infection, which probably wouldn't have happened if he had gotten the antibiotics in the beginning. He was supposed to have an ultrasound on Monday that would break it up but it was too close to the bladder so they sent him to the hospital for same day surgery to put in a stent. So he is still in pain and trying to pass it and is taking a bunch of different kinds of medicines and has to go back next Monday to see if all is well. I'm the only one that hasn't had surgery recently so I sure hope it stays that way. We're REALLY hoping 2010 will be a better year. Hope everyone reading this blog has a wonderful New Year.

Brandon's Glasses

Forgot to mention that to add to all our medical dilemmas, the nurse at Brandon’s school sent home a note that they thought he needed to have his eyes checked because they said he failed the far sight test so after all the surgeries were over and I could face dealing with one more thing, I took him in and big surprise, he needs glasses for seeing far distances, like seeing the board. He can see fine reading and only seems to have problems with reading far away, he says nothing else looks blurry. So like his cousin Mary, he now has glasses. Also like Mary, he looks really cute in them. He doesn’t seem to mind wearing them, thank goodness. We were worried that he would be upset about having to wear them, but his teacher says he wears them all day at school, even though he really doesn't need to. So far the worst he has done is to leave them at school and Scott had to go and pick them up, but we’re waiting for him to completely lose them at some point. Hopefully not somewhere we won't find them, you were so lucky Rebecca that they sent them back to you. That was amazing that they found them. Hopefully that will be the end of our medical issues and we can move on to more fun stuff.

Jess's Surgery

Sorry it took so long to post about her surgery. Everything went fine. If anybody has had their tonsils out recently you know what it is like but if no one has don't let anyone tell you that is it is just a simple procedure and they will up and running in a couple of days. You have to worry about bleeding and accidently pulling the scabs off the throat for at least ten days. You can't eat anything but soft foods for ten days, and especially for the first few days have to keep drinking fluids, Jessie's size four oz every hour to keep her hydrated and her fever down or they have to go back to the hospital for an IV. Try explaining to a three year old, a stubborn one at that, that you have to drink even though it hurts and you have to take the yucky pain meds to make it stop hurting. Oh and they also don't tell you until right before just when they are starting to feel better, the pain comes back and this time in your ears because the nerve is connected to the throat so your ears and throat hurt as the scabs fall off. Nothing makes a mom feel useless and like a not good mom like when your child is in pain and you can't make it go away. I couldn't even bribe her. She is finally doing better. She still has a few bad times but they are getting fewer. The worst thing is I just got her to sleep through the night a few months ago and now she is falling back into the pattern again of waking up and she wants her binky again which I just about had her weaned from now that she was sleeping through the night. Now I have to start all over hopefully not taking another three and a half years to do so. The surgery was quick and she did really well except that they wouldn't let us be with her until she was back in her room and when we got there they said she was emotional from the anethestic, it had nothing to do with the fact that she woke up in a strange place with strangers and we were no where around. that made me a little angry. Once I got to hold her she calmed down and when we took her home three hours later she was in pretty good spirits because she wasn't feeling any pain at the moment. I think she ate more that day than she had in a week. I hope this makes sense and is not jumbled, I am not used to no sleep again and Jessie is trying to hurry me up so I have to write this quickly but I wanted to let everyone know how it went.

Jess surgery date

Jessie's surgery date is Dec 1. She was so funny at the doctor's office telling everyone that she is Cinderella and a princess and making sure that they didn't forget that she was to get a sucker and sticker when she was through. The doctor told her that they needed to get the monsters out of her petite princess's throat. She was a little surprised by her size but most are when they realize how old she actually is especially when she speaks because she talks very grownup for her age but looks like a two year old. Any way when we went to set up the surgery date she told the nurse her name was Cinderella and I told her that they needed her real name or they would be confused so she huffed and said " fine. My name is Jessie". Unless she freezes at the hospital, she will be very interesting while we wait for the surgery to start.

halloween

Here are some pics of the kids' Halloween costumes. Jessie was Cinderella, which is currently her favorite thing, and Brandon was, of course, a wildland firefighter. The one of her alone was to show her Cinderella shoes. We went to the mall for trick or treating and then we went to Chris' new house for dinner and brought GG to see his house and see the kids' costumes. This year the kids made us dress up too. Mom was a witch, dad and Scott were firefighters and I was Red Riding Hood. The picture of Brandon with the wild hair is from when his school had "Crazy Hair Day" and that's how he wore his hair for school that day.