Busy, busy, busy...

Its been a while since I posted anything.  Things have been pretty busy.  The girls and I went to visit my family last week.  We had a great time.  :)  We got back home Thursday evening.  Friday evening Ella started complaining of her ear hurting and running a fever :(  So her and I spent our Saturday afternoon at the doctors office.  Doug and the other girls went to a cookout/pool party that a coworker of his had.  It sounds like they all had an awesome time.

Today was Stepping Up Sunday at church.  Lilly moved from downstairs (babies-preschool) to upstairs (kindergarten-5th grade).  She was so excited!  It will be interesting to see how Ella does from now on since Lilly won't be in the class with her anymore (she didn't go today since she was sick).

This week is going to be a super busy week.  Tomorrow we have to do some cleaning, take Sydney to get her allergy shot, then Alyssa and Lilly have dentist appointments at 2:00 and Ella has her pre-k physical at 2:30.  Yeah, I goofed and scheduled 2 things for the same time.  AHHH!!!  Thankfully I have an awesome husband who is going to take the afternoon of and take Alyssa and Lilly to the dentist for me!  Then tomorrow night is my first night of class!  I'm taking Anatomy and Physiology 2 on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 5:30-8:30 and then I have 3 online classes (College Algebra, Developmental Psychology, and College Study Skills).  I'm kinda nervous...and scared...but I know I"ll be fine.  And with all the girls in school this year (that still sounds so weird....I was expecting one more year with Ella home...) I'll have time to get school work done (hopefully...).

Tuesday morning Ella's pre-k teacher is coming for a home visit at 10:00.  We will get all the info about her class/school and everything.  (She has open house on August 31 then starts on September 1).  Then Tuesday afternoon we have to take the school supplies Alyssa collected for her Safety Patrol project to school and she is also going to interview the teacher she had last year (also her Girls on the Run coach) for her paper on the person who she looks up to in her community.  Then Tuesday evening is Kindergarten open house!

Wednesday is officially the last day of summer break!  I cannot get over how quickly summer has flown by!  Alyssa, Makaela, and Sydney start school on Thursday.  They all met their teachers today and I think they are all going to have an awesome year this year!  Lilly goes for a half day on Friday then starts full days on Tuesday.  She will find out who her teacher is tomorrow.

And sometime in there I've got to finish filling out the mountain of paperwork for the girls to take back on the first day.  I finished with Sydney's stuff and got started on Makaela's before I got writer's cramp and had to stop for a while... :)

Whew, what a day!

Its been a busy day today.  Lilly had an appointment with her neurologist at 8:10.  We left the house at 7:25 and still ended up being about 10 minutes late due to traffic.  Thankfully they were fine with it.  I was so scared we would have to reschedule and wait who knows how long for another appointment...  Lilly has been having dizzy spells lately.  She's also been having a lot of headaches...some just "regular' headaches and some migraines.  Her pediatrician was concerned about the dizzy spells and sent her back to the neurologist (she went a couple years ago and had some tests done due to some dizzy spells/passing out spells, but everything came back normal and they said they thought they were just probably breath holding spells or something).  Since Lilly is older and able to explain what's going on better, the doctor was able to get a better idea of what's going on.  She said she thinks the dizzy spells are related to the migraines.  We've been treating her with medicine that makes her sleepy and she sleeps off the headaches, but since she's going to school and having headaches so often, that won't really work.  So she put her on a daily medicine to prevent headaches and gave her something that won't make her sleepy and will stop the headaches when she gets one.

After her appointment, we went to Bojangles and got breakfast (well it was the girls' second breakfast...).  Then we went to CVS to pick up Lilly's medicines (the 3 the neurologist prescribed her plus 2 asthma meds...retail price was $827.30!!!  I nearly passed out.  I don't know how people without insurance do it!). Then we ran by the house to grab a few coupons and take some hamburger out of the freezer so it would thaw out for supper tonight and then went to get Sydney's allergy shots.  Then we went to Target, to Carmax to get the oil changed in the van, and then to Harris Teeter.  We finally made it home a little before 4:00.  It was a super busy day and the girls did great.

Tomorrow we have to run to Bi-Lo and Harris Teeter and do a little coupon shopping (and remember to buy cat food since I forgot, yet again, today...don't worry, they still have food) :)  Then Friday I have absolutely no plans except for laundry, cleaning, and packing for our trip to Roanoke Rapids!  :)

Just rambling...

This is one of those weeks with several appointments.  Yesterday Lilly had a dentist appointment to get a filling.  She did great, as usual.  She LOVES going to the dentist.  Before her appointment she asked me if her appointment was just for a cleaning.  I said no, she had to get one more filling and she said "YES!  I get two prizes instead of just one!"  After her appointment we went to the library and then took Sydney to get her allergy shot and then came home and did some much needed cleaning.

Today I had to go to the college to buy books for this semester (which starts August 22...I can't believe how quickly the summer has flown by!).  It was insane.  We got there a little before 9:00 and got in the back of a huge line.  I had all of the girls with me, but they did really, really well.  We didn't leave there until 11:15 and then I had to run to the grocery store (but I forgot cat food again...ahhh!!).

Tomorrow, Lilly has an appointment with the neurologist to talk about the dizzy spells she has been having.  After that I've got to run to the Observer office and get a few Sunday papers since I forgot to get papers on Sunday and then I told the girls we would go to Bojangles and get biscuits (and mashed potatoes for Ella....they really don't have many gluten free choices, but mashed potatoes are her favorite food, so it all works out) if they behaved during the appointment.  Yes, I bribe my kids.  Growing up I swore I never would.  Its just one of the many things I swore I'd never do when I had kids...  Sometimes you just have to do whatever works and if rewarding (okay, bribing...) them with boberry biscuits works, then so be it :)  And we each have $1 off gift cards that we got at Fan Fest on Saturday, so it ends up being pretty cheap too!  After that I have to run to the store to get cat food.  I'd like to go to Harris Teeter at some point since Super Doubles starts tomorrow, but since I won't be able to go first thing in the morning they will likely be sold out of everything that is free or super cheap by the time I can get there.  But, I have a $1 off coupon for gluten free bread which would make it $3.99 instead of $5.99.  And maybe I'll get lucky and they won't be sold out of everything else I want.  Oh, and I have to take the van in for an oil change at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon.

Great weekend :)

We've had a really good weekend.  Yesterday we went to Home Depot so the girls could go to the kids workshop.  They made pencil boxes and had a great time.  They were able to paint them and then once they dried, decorate them with stickers.  They turned out really cute.

They have already looked all over the house for all the pencils, pens, crayons, erasers, markers, etc that they can find to put in them :) 

Yesterday was 6 weeks since Ella got her ears pierced which meant she could change her earrings.  She picked out the pair she wanted to wear and then the crying started...  She didn't cry at all when she got them pierced, but for some reason she freaked out about me changing them.  After I finally convinced her to let me, she was fine, but man it was a drama filled few minutes.  She's wearing pretty flower earrings now :)

Yesterday afternoon we went to Panthers Fan Fest.  The girls were so excited :)  

Today, we haven't done much of anything and its been great.  I was able to take a nap this afternoon and it was heavenly! :)  Everyone needs to have a lazy day every now and then.

Ella is on a gluten free diet in hopes that it will help with her joint pain.  I've read about people having very good outcomes and I hope the same is true for Ella.  Today is day #4 and so far, so good.  Its getting a little  easier figuring out what she can and cannot eat.  Gluten is in all sorts of things...things I never would have thought would have gluten in them (like cream of chicken/cream of mushroom soup and some brands of chicken broth...).  I had read that some kids have trouble switching and don't like the taste and/or texture of gluten free breads/pastas/cakes/cookies/etc.  That hasn't been a problem though.  She's eaten a couple of sandwiches and said the bread is great.  We had spaghetti last night and she had gluten free pasta (brown rice pasta) for the first time and loved it!  I thought I'd made her too much, but she ate all of it and asked for more (but settled for  a bowl of just sauce and cheese).  And of course she loves the cookies she's tried :)  She has whined and cried a little about not being able to eat some things (mainly apple jacks and oreos...) but for the most part she's done great.  I really hope this helps her.  It really stinks to see her hurting so often.

Trying this again...

I'm going to try this blogging thing one more time.  My goal is to post at least a few times a week...hopefully daily.  I guess we'll see how it goes.  My problem before was I didn't think I had anything interesting enough to post about, so I just didn't post anything.  But I've got 5 kids...there is always something going on :)  Some posts might be boring...some might be me rambling about something...some might be about what's going on with me or my family.  Who knows...

Day 2: I'm thankful for...

our washer and dryer! Even though they have had some issues lately and it takes 2 cycles to dry a load of clothes, I'm thankful that we have them and that they are still working as well as they are! We have a ton of laundry. And, I've come to realize that it will not be totally caught up for a while...maybe ever. As soon as I think I've gotten caught up, the girls will clean their rooms and the laundry basket is overflowing again. I've been doing my best to stay as caught up as possible lately though. I'm very thankful that we have a washer and dryer so I can do that. I can't imagine having to lug our dirty laundry to the laundry mat once a week or so in order to have clean clothes. And I really can't imagine what it was like before washing machines were widely available. I don't even want to think of washing all the clothes we go through by hand. Now I'm off to use the washer and dryer I'm so thankful for :)

What I'm Thankful For-Day 1

I have decided that I'm going to write about one think I'm thankful for every day (well, I'm going to try...I can't promise I won't miss a few now and then!) for...well, I don't know how long :) So here goes!

Today I'm thankful for coffee!!! :) After nights like last night (I couldn't sleep...no clue why, but its beyond annoying!) and days like today (super busy...one thing after another, so definitely no time to rest, much less time for a nap!) I love coffee! :) I didn't even like it until a few years ago and now I drink it all the time. And on the same hand, I'm thankful for our coffee maker. Its definitely nothing fancy (although I'd love, love, love to have a nice one one day) but it works and provides me with hot coffee and for that I'm thankful :)

Patience

I've been asked several times how I find the patience to deal with 5 kids. I hate being asked that question because I don't have a clue. And honestly, a lot of the time I'm not very patient. I wish I was more patient. Patience has never been one of my strong points... And right now I'm really, really struggling with being patient. I'm trying my best to just be patient and wait for Ella's doctors to get all the test results and then get back to me, but its just not working out too well for me. My patience is gone. I want to know what's going on and, most importantly, I want to know how to help her. This has been going on for months now and I'm ready for answers. I'm really, really, really hoping that I hear something tomorrow. I've been praying for patience, but I'm starting to think I might need to revise that prayer some.... Things seem to keep getting pushed back and having to be rescheduled and I'm starting to think that in order to give me patience God is giving me more reasons to NEED patience. Which is totally not what I had in mind. I guess its like they always say... Be careful what you wish for :) Makaela's appointment also had to be rescheduled (although I need to call back and make sure they actually managed to schedule one this time. I'm seriously considering switching her to a different neurologist...) so that isn't until the 24th. I'm anxious to see what the doctor has to say about that as well.

We've got a fairly busy week this week. The girls are out of school tomorrow, but we've got to take Sydney to get her allergy shot and then she has a penguin project due on Tuesday (we were hoping to make cupcakes, but since they were out of school all last week she wasn't able to ask if that would be okay) so we have to make an igloo out of marshmallows and then make penguins out of toilet paper rolls :) That should be interesting. Then we'll use any left over marshmallows (we bought 3 bags, so we should have plenty left over...) to make rice krispy treat! Or maybe fruity pebbles treats :) Tuesday Ella has an appointment with the eye doctor. I'm determined to get caught back up on laundry this week....as long as the washer and dryer will cooperate... Hopefully I'll be able to :)

Ice Day!

We got some ice on top of the snow, so the girls were out of school again today and Doug was out of work. We were able to get a few things done and just hung out. I'm loving spending so much time together with nothing to do. I am starting to go a little stir crazy though! We decided to talk a walk to the gas station up the street just to get out of the house a little. The roads are still pretty bad in spots. I'm hoping by Thursday they are clear and the girls are able to go back to school! Makaela is supposed to have an appointment in the morning, but we're going to have to reschedule it. Hopefully they will be able to get her in soon. Ella's ultrasound was supposed to be today but its been rescheduled for Friday (we have to be there at 7:30 so I'm really hoping the roads are clear and the girls are back in school by then!). And her eye appointment was supposed to be Monday, but they were closed yesterday and today and will be closed again tomorrow, so hopefully that will be able to be rescheduled for sometime soon as well. I'm SOO ready to get her ultrasound done and hear back from the rheumatologist! I called today asking if they'd gotten any more results and she called back and said they were waiting for the ultrasound results and then she'd talk to the doctor and call me back. So I probably won't hear anything until next week. I guess a few more days really isn't that big of a deal...I mean we've been waiting and wanting to find out what's going on since July, but I'm loosing patience. I know that some of the tests have come back abnormal/elevated, so SOMETHING is going on. I want to know what and how to help her. I'm scared of hearing the answer, but at the same time, I'm more scared of not getting any answers again.

Snow Day!!

I have made a (late) New Years Resolution to post something new at least a couple times a week. Hopefully I'll stick to it :)

We have quite a bit of snow (for here). The girls didn't have school today and Doug didn't go to work. We've had a great day. We made snowflake tortillas for breakfast...

They were a huge hit! :) Then, after lunch, we went out and played in the snow for a little while. I was hoping we'd be able to build a snowman, but it wasn't snowman-building snow... Maybe next time (like next year...I've had enough for this winter!). We still had fun though!

Then we came in and did some baking, took a nap, played, and just hung around not doing much of anything :) There is no school tomorrow either (we're getting sleet and freezing rain now and its supposed to continue all night...ugg) so hopefully we'll be able to do some sledding (on the toy box lid or whatever else we can find...) and have another fun day. Ella's eye appointment was cancelled today and it looks like we won't be making it to her ultrasound tomorrow. It stinks that those will have to be rescheduled, but hopefully they'll be able to get her in soon. And I'm hoping to hear back from her rheumatologist soon...like tomorrow would be awesome!

Here are a few more pictures from today :)