Well, Mark has been home on Tues and Wed. In Kindergarten here, they have integrated class. The first three days, only a few come, so the teacher can have more one-on-one time with kids so they don't get so scared. He goes back tomorrow. I won't have as much of a bad time this time. :)

My brother has still not been heard from. Another of my brothers is getting nervous. Please just keep him in your prayers.

Be praying that I will hear from Medicaid soon. I'm very worried we won't get it and I don't know what we'll do then.

Trevor has a tooth coming in. I guess that's why he's been so cranky. We go to the doc tomorrow, so I will voice all my concerns then.

Re-definitions

Too funny not to share :)

Arbitrator: A cook that leaves Arby's to work at McDonald's.

Avoidable: What a bullfighter tries to do.

Bernadette: The act of torching a mortgage

Burglarize: What a crook sees with

Control: A short, ugly inmate

Counterfeiters: Workers who put together kitchen cabinets

Eclipse: what an English barber does for a living

Eyedropper: a clumsy ophthalmologist

Heroes: what a guy in a boat does

Left Bank: what the robber did when his bag was full of loot

Misty: How golfers create divots

Paradox: two physicians

Parasites: what you see from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Pharmacist: a helper on the farm

Polarize: what penguins see with

Primate: removing your spouse from in front of the TV

Relief: what trees do in the spring

Rubberneck: what you do to relax your wife

Seamstress: describes 250 pounds in a size 6

Selfish: what the owner of a seafood store does

Sudafed: brought litigation against a government official

And last but not least:

Subdued ...like a guy, like works on one of those, like, submarines, YO!

Mother's

Mothers don't eat quiche; they don't have time to make it. Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the sandbox. Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens, and happy kids. Mothers know that dried play dough doesn't come out of carpets. Mothers don't want to know what the vacuum just sucked up. Mothers sometimes ask 'Why me?' and get their answer when a little voice says, 'Because I love you best.' Mothers know that a child's growth is not measured by height or years or grade...It is marked by the progression of Mommy to Mom to Mother...

The Images of Mother

4 YEARS OF AGE - My Mommy can do anything!

8 YEARS OF AGE - My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!

12 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.

14 YEARS OF AGE - Naturally, Mother doesn't know that, either.

16 YEARS OF AGE - Mother? She's hopelessly old-fashioned.

18 YEARS OF AGE - That old woman? She's way out of date!

25 YEARS OF AGE - Well, she might know a little bit about it!

35 YEARS OF AGE - Before we decide, let's get Mom's opinion.

45 YEARS OF AGE - Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?

65 YEARS OF AGE - Wish I could talk it over with Mom.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!

First day of school

First day's breakfast. Way too early in the morning hehe

Standing ready to go to the bus.
'

At the end of our driveway. He thought it was cold.

Getting on the bus (as I start to cry)

I cried all the way back to the house. When we got back to the house, I looked up in the sky and saw this. It was so big, I couldn't get the whole thing in the pic. It was a whole one, too, ~NO breaks in it. It was so pretty. More than these pics could convey. God knew I needed this. Five minutes later, it was completely gone, gray clouds in it's place with drizzle coming down. I think God was saying to me and reminding me~ "He's mine, too. I'll be watching over him. He'll be ok. He's in my care."

So cool

You'll never know what my blog will look like now :) I found a place with the coolest free backgrounds. I'll end up changing my blog all the time now :)

Labels (long post)

**Fixed my link. Realized I had it going to the wrong place**

Staci wrote about labels on her blog. Labels on children. Here are some things that I wanted to say and didn't want to take up a lot of room on her comment space to say them (it's longer than I meant it to be). This has nothing to do with Chloe's behavior, just looking at things thru my world and stating things that I have experienced.

I have learned thru our many situations with Ross about how labels work around here. Before Ross was diagnosed with anything, we had the hardest time getting help.

In Daycare, his behavior was going down hill fast. He had gone there since he was about 10 months old and when he was 4 and 1/2 , he started being aggressive with his teachers, other students, and even the owner of the facility (and she's not one that you mess with!!!) He got where he was sullen one day, having a good day the next, off the wall the next, then being violent the next (and sometimes, all those emotions in one day, even in a few hours). We had talked to Ross' doctor about something to do...therapy, medicine, what were we to do? We got looked at with a blank stare pretty much. One week before he was to graduate from daycare, he ended up getting kicked out. We were then blamed by the owner for his behavior and told that we were likely to have DSS come and take him from us because of it. (let me say~ I NEVER recommend this daycare to anyone, in fact I tell people to stay away~ I don't care how good the place was, she liked to intimidate you) She never tried to help or anything. He got kicked out 6 months after it all started. SIX months and no help.

We then went back to his doctor and since Ross got kicked out, he was (all of a sudden) able to help. We were sent to a family counselor. There during a few sessions, he told me he thought Ross was having seizures. A simple test that he did suggested it. Have the child draw a diamond. On the final line coming back up to close it off, if the line goes in a completely different direction, it's an implication of seizures. Now there's normal amount of "going of base" with children, but if that 4th line goes too far off that in makes you actually have to draw a fifth line to close off that diamond, that's not normal. It means the brain isn't "connecting" either.

Anyways, Ross had an EEG and it showed there was seizure activity. Actually, we had been seeing them, but not realizing it. Ross has focal seizures. When he'd play video games, he'd wet himself. Well, we just thought he wasn't wanted to stop and go to the bathroom (in fact he got in trouble many times because of this) He'd say he didn't remember wetting himself, but since we didn't know any different, we didn't believe him. When we started watching for them, you could actually catch little ones that weren't causing him to lose control. So we got him on anti seizure medicine.

After that, his behavior was nuts. You never knew which "child" you would have or how many of "them" you would have. I couldn't go in public for a while cuz I didn't know how he'd react to things. He'd react to the same situation 4 different ways, so you could never prepare yourself for what would come. It was so tough.

Then we finally had him evaluated. With info from us, his teachers and the results of the testing, he was diagnosed with ADHD and a mood disorder. They don't want to claim it was anything than mood because the other things are hard to diagnose in a child his age.

In school, we were blessed his Kindergarten year, because the teacher was actually going thru the exact same thing with her own step-daughter. That woman had the patience of an angel.

We went thru many medicines. One would make him a zombie, one would make him worse, one would make him VERY sensitive. We finally got the right medicine, then the doc wouldn't listen to us that it wasn't working. I don't think she ever heard a word we said. We finally got someone to listen and got his medicine changed.

First grade~ not so great teacher. We had talked to her at the beginning to let her know what was going on. She didn't want us to tell her. She said she wanted to learn the child herself. That's great to an extent, but if I can tell you hints on how to deal with situations, why not listen to me? Ross had learned when he was getting too angry and how he needed to get himself away from the situation. The teacher didn't encourage this. We had also asked that if his behavior started to change in ANY way, tell us. We wouldn't know without her telling us. For all we'd know, he was good at school, and had problems at home. We went in for a conference and come to find out his behavior had changed a MONTH earlier. When she started telling how he was behaving, we realized he was having seizures again. For a MONTH. So we went and again had medicine changed. Then due to the seizure medicine changes, we had to change the others too. Here's one incident that happened that year

Because of behavior changes, we were able to get help thru the school for more one-on-one help. They would come in once a month (and if we ever needed it to be more, it was possible) and he'd talk with someone, get help on schoolwork if he needed it, just to have some one-on-one time

Second grade~ much better. The teacher communicated a lot better with us.

We only had one major problem the whole time. On Christmas Eve Day, Ross was outside playing with all the other kids. He decided that he was going to run into the road. He said he wanted to kill himself. It hasn't been the first time that he's mentioned this, but it's the first time he's tried to act on it. He wasn't harmed, but it scared the wits out of me. He said he got mad at the girls and so that's why he wanted to go see God. He don't like feeling mad and wanting to hit, cuz he knows it's wrong and so he thought God would take that from him if he went and saw Him. We one of his medicines changed and got him in to see a therapist. He got better and the therapist was pleased with his progress.

Now were off to third grade so we will see what this year holds. We've learned how to minimize situations and predict how he will react. We just have to get the teacher to be on the same wavelength. We still have help available to us if the need is there. Plus the docs we have now, listen to us so we are able to make adjustments on meds quicker and easier. We haven't had to change meds in a year~ just had to add one. But we know that sooner or later, we will have to change and it's nice to know that the docs hear us.

I started off this post talking about labels cuz without a "label," we wouldn't have gotten help (and I'd be in a looney bin) Labels are only what we perceive them to be. A lot of times, we parents see them worse than they are. I think they help more nowadays because of the help we can give our children because of them.

Your Mind is 86% Cluttered

Your mind is incredibly cluttered. You have so much going on in there, it's hard to think straight. Consider talking to a therapist. It's a good idea to sort through your thoughts, if only to see which ones are worth hanging on to.

How Cluttered is Your Mind?

Pics and video

Love the outfit :)

Click it to enlarge and see his spikey hair :) I love it

I'm sing the Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes song.

Watch to the end and you can hear his coo

Well

Trevor's still been fussy. I think it's cuz he's going thru a growth spurt. He's eating like crazy.

Pray that we hear from my oldest brother soon. The last anyone has heard from him, he was VERY messed up, either drugs or alcohol (or even both). He's in Ca. and the last day he was heard from was last Thurs. We are starting to get worried.

Pray also that we get approved for Medicaid. We finally got all our info into them today. It would take so much worry off of me and Lewis.

I so miss being in school. I wish I went back this semester. I hope to go back next semester.

Any suggestions on how to start out with CVSing? The only thing I know is the scenarios people post, and a lot of them, I don't have the coupons they have. I haven't exactly figured out how to do my own scenarios.

The 25th is getting closer and closer~ school starts. I get teary eyed everytime I think of it. I'm going to be taking care of my friend's son before and after school, so I think I'll be a little better knowing the he can help out with Mark. I don't know how Mark's gonna do on the bus, but my friend's son has ridden the bus, so I hope that'll make Mark feel better.

I'll post some pics tomorrow. Just wanted to write a little tonight. :)

Home early

Mark got home last night. Although I missed him, he started arguing almost as soon as he got home. Oh well. Hopefully once he gets back into schedule, things will calm down.

Trevor has been fussy the last two days. I'm at my wits end. Don't know what else to do. Pray that I have patience. He's sleepin ok at night, but I need him to be better during the day.

Anyone been here? She does a $5 CVS challenge each week. It's to help newbies learn the CVS game. You try and get as much as you can in no more than 3 transactions and spend no more the $5 OOP (out of pocket~ I have learned that lingo :) )

One more week until school starts. It starts on the 25th. My brother, who lives in Ga, said my nephew and niece started Aug 4th. That's how early we used to start. Now it gets later and later every year.

Oh well

I haven't gotten much of the stuff done that I was going to get done this week~ although I do still have until Sunday :)

*Haven't done any painting

*Can't get my hair done. Ran into $ problems. I was so looking forward to it too :(

*Did do some cleaning. Got rid of some things, but still have a lot more I can get rid of.

*I got a new printer, so hopefully now I can figure out how to do the CVS game everyone is doing now. Especially now that we are going to have to crunch our money for a bit. Figured the printer was worth it if overall we can save some money.

Ross didn't know what to do without Mark the other day. I told him he better remember that next time he gets angry at Mark for wanting to play with him.

Getting more nervous everyday about Mark going to school. My best friend is trying to get her son switched to where Mark is going, so maybe he can help Mark out...it will calm me down a little hehe

Trevor is doing good. He smiles a lot. He has learned how to stick his tongue out at ya. So funny.

My mom fell again last week. She didn't have her dog's leash on him yet when she opened her front door, so he went tearing across the yard. Well, she went running after him. And if you know my mom, she hasn't run in 26 years. (except for once when I was little and she wanted to run down a walkway at a rest area with me, just once). She fell flat on her face. Pray for her.

Weird week

This week will be so weird~ it's gonna be Mark-less. He's went on out of town with his Paw-Paw. He'll come back on Tuesday for his Kindergarten testing, but then back to the campground. I've only had a night away from him, so it's gonna be strange.

He called me tonight. He said he was having fun. I asked him what he did today and he said~

Mark: We played golf (putt-putt)
Me: Is that it?
Mark: (after a small "thinking" pause) Well, we ate.

LOL so funny.

So, I've started a painting project in my house. I'll take pics tomorrow. I have white walls and they just get on my nerves. So I have started painting in the "hallway" by the boys rooms. I'll work on it some while he's gone

I'm gonna go get my hair done. I'm so ready for something different. Probably going with the body wave. I'll do a before and after pic :)

Ross' b-day

His cake, made by his grandma

Blow, baby, blow

He was smiling a lot at his party :)

He was throwing his toys in the air and wanted me to get and "in-air" photo. Didn't work hehe

This child racked up in gift cards!!

Got a Pokeman carrying case

Learning early~ Just smile and nod hehe

Disgusted

I went to the flea market today (not as fun by yourself). There was a table that said "Free Junk." On it, was a children's bible and some videos about Jesus. That's fine if they wanted to get rid of it, but do they really have to call it "Junk"??? It's not junk. They could've just said "Stuff"

Doing better

Trevor is doing better. Don't know if maybe he had a little bit of a stomach bug over the weekend or what. Sunday night he slept for 10 hours!

I'm doing ok. Still have a bruise on my leg and foot, so that's sore, but other than that, I'm doing good (can ya tell I like commas hehe)

Mark is going out of town next week with my FIL and his fiancee. They are taking him with them to a campground. They are thinking of leaving Sunday, he will be back on Tues to go to his Kindergarten testing and then go back to the campground. Yippee

So I gonna get something done to my hair next week. I'm thinking of going with a wave....still undecided.

Have you heard of the 100 thing challenge? There's one person that said (as I do) I don't think I can dwindle my stuff down to 100 things. So she changed it a little. Instead of only owning 100 thing, she's challenging people to get rid of 100 things. I think I'm gonna take that challenge. What do you think and do you think you could do either?

I forgot to tell ya

I fell down my back stairs the other night. I was going out to my vehicle and it was raining. I hit a slick spot and down I went. I hit a vein or artery on my leg and it immediately started to pop up. I also hit my foot where I had bunion surgery 2 years ago. That place and my big toe was numb for a few hours that night. My leg still hurts and I am sore all over.

BUT~ I thank God that I didn't break anything. When I landed, my right leg was in a weird position. I was afraid I had broke something, cuz I couldn't move it at first. Then I had to get myself up and back into the house, cuz Lewis hadn't heard me and it was raining pretty good.

Trevor has been doing so well. He had a bit of colic, but I thought it had actually went away. Or at least we seemed to have it under control. We used Gripe Water and it seemed to do the trick. Well, Saturday was a TERRIBLE day. He didn't take a nap all day. He was either spitting up or crying and making his body stiff. I gave him the Gripe Water twice, but didn't give him anymore because it seemed like right after I gave it to him, he ended up spitting it up. He did sleep for 9 hours tho.

Today, he did ok in the morning, but toward afternoon, it was like Saturday. I was afraid to give him 4 ounces at one time, cuz around noon he starting spitting up whatever he ate. So he was eating 2 ounces every hour to hour and 1/2.

I hope he sleeps well tonight and I pray that tomorrow will turn a corner. Mommy is getting frustrated. It's like whenever it seems as tho things are going good and seeming to calm down around here, something else happens. Ugg

Two months

My smiley boy

So hard to get a smile picture in the chair~ all he wanted to do is coo hehe

"Talking"

Never got a good pic with both of them looking at me. One was always looking at the tv hehe

Trevor~ "Enough pics already!" hehe

His appointmen was on Friday. Well, we have had problems about Medicaid (The explaination~ I applied for myself back in Jan. I don't have my birth certificate, so DSS was contacting Ga to get it. In June, they had to close my case out because they STILL hadn't received it. So I'm having to reapply for me and Trevor. Usually, when the mother has Medicaid, the baby automatically gets it. Since I didn't have it, I have had to pay for his appointments (I get repaid after we get approved for Medicaid)) The appointment was going to cost $248~ which I wasn't prepared for (over double what I was expecting), so he didn't have his appointment. I'm going to call my doc and see how much they charge and see if I can move him there.

I weighed him~ 12 lbs. I haven't measured him tho. I will when I can

He's cooing alot more now. He still loves his Kiddapotomus. Doesn't care for car rides that much. Loves watching people. Watched a race on tv. Loves the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". His arm is doing better. He's moving it above his head a lot more.

I'm hopefully going soon and having pictures made. I still have to have Mark's graduation pics redone and I want to do that before school starts.

Lewis' work

Before~








Now~ They have cleared out most of the debris. Looks so weird now

VBS crafts

Crafts the boys made at VBS

Mark's window cling

Mark's fish

Mark's paper mache fish

Mark's drink holder

Ross only went 2 nights~
Ross' paper mache fish

Ross' drink holder