Are you giving your child what they want for Christmas?

Are you giving your child what they want for Christmas this year? Well, unfortunately, we can not. Let me explain..... This afternoon after school, Emily told me, "Mommy, I know that special surprise that you and daddy are giving to me for Christmas this year." Of course, I started thinking, great, she has somehow figured out what it is. So, I asked her, "What do you think that it is?" Emily then said with such a big smile on her little face,"You found a cure for diabetes, didn't you? And you are going to give that to me for Christmas." My eyes filled with tears and told her, "Sweetie, I wish that I could give that to you for Christmas. But if I had the cure for diabetes, I would give it to you now and not make you wait until Christmas." It just breaks my heart I will never be able to make her wish come true.

As many of you know, Emily's school just concluded their "School Walk for Diabetes". Thanks to our great family and many friends, Emily was able to raise $965 towards helping someone find that cure for herself and the many of millions that endure what her little body does everyday. It meant so much to Jeff, Emily and me that so many of our friends and family would donate their money to help in the fight to find a cure. I pray and try to believe that someone, somewhere will be able to give my little girl her wish. And with everyone's donations we are all helping Emily's wish come true. Thank you!

Halloween, Deer Hunting, and Gymnastics!!!!

We have had a few busy weekends!

First, there was Halloween. This year Luke obviously dressed up as Spiderman and Emily as a sweet, good witch.

The kids really enjoyed Halloween and all it offers, but it was cut short this year. Luke and Jeff left our trick or treating fun to go to our deer lease with my family! This is one of Luke's favorite things to do with his daddy and cousins. It was a weekend full of nothing but boys, dirt, rocks, deer, spotlighting and of course playing with his cousins. Luke thinks that they are the greatest thing ever! He can not wait to go back!

Then this past weekend, Emily competed in her first Gymnastics Meet!!

She did very well and we are really proud of her. She can not wait for the next one!!

What Could Have Been????

Well, this was ALMOST the scene at our house last night. THANK GOD it was not though. Let me explain.....

I had just starting cooking supper and had put some potatoes in the oven. About 20 minutes later, the entire house smelled of gas. I had mentioned to Jeff last week that I thought that our oven might be leaking gas, but this time was worse than the times before. This time I could smell the gas all over the house and not just in the kitchen. So, I called Jeff. He looked up the gas company's phone numbers on their website. But it stated, IF YOU SMELL GAS, CALL 9-1-1. At this point, I was not really sure what to do. Did I really need to do that? So, when in doubt it is always best to call your mother. So, I called her and told her I think my oven is leaking gas. She immediately said, get the kids and get out of your house and call 9-1-1.

Emily of course was very obedient, but Luke was taking a nap and really did not want to be awakened with mommy letting him know that we have to get out of our house because there was an emergency.

So, we went next door and used the neighbors phone to call for help. I think that this is my first and I hope only time that I have had to call 9-1-1. After stating my emergency, they informed me a fire truck was in route to my house and to obviously to stay out of the house.

Within about 5 minutes, many, many MANY sirens filled the air. It was very scary to think that they were all coming to my house. The ambulance was first to arrive, followed by 8 HUGE fire trucks, two police cars, the Battalion Chief, and MANY spectators. I was taken back by the number of people that were at my house. It was quite the scene to see about 10 firemen all dressed in their uniforms, oxygen masks in all, carrying axes and picks ready to enter my house. It was a scene I will never forget. It reminded me of the movie Backdraft!

At about this point, Jeff made it home. There was a police officer directing traffic at the end of our street and he had to let him know that he lived at the house where all of the fire trucks were. Later he said to me, that he never thought that he would have needed to say that sentence to come home.

Firemen soon started to exit my house. One of the men made his way to me and said that they could not detect any gas in the house. I knew what I had smelled gas and even had my neighbor confirm it that she had smelled it as well before I called 9-1-1. I asked them did they turn the oven back on. But obviously they could not, due to the risks.

After some time, the firemen entered my house again and were going to try and turn the oven on. They have an air monitor that would detect if there was any gas in the air. A few minutes later, they came out and said I was right and that there was a GAS LEAK. They had turned the oven back on and as it was heating up their air monitor quickly detected gas in the air. They figured out that one whole side of the oven was not igniting once I would turn the oven on and instead was spilling out gas. So, needless to say this could have been a catastrophic situation. The gas company also came out and looked at everything and confirmed what the firemen had said.

We are SO lucky!! Before calling 9-1-1, I was about to turn the stove on to start the rest of my supper. Thank God, I did not. I can not even think about what could have happened. My dad informed me, just something as simple as the phone ringing, could have made enough electricity in the air to blow our house up. Very scary!

But in the end, we are ok. Luke got to hang out with the firemen and ride in their truck. They were great. They also told me, that my potatoes were probably not going to be done tonight. :)

Since, I was not going to be able to cook we went to eat at Double Dave's. As we walked in, some of the same firemen were there. It was really funny to see them again!! Emily and Luke were glad to see them again and to be able to tell them thank you for saving our house. They were such a great group of guys! I do not think that any of us will ever forget this experience. It could have ended up so much worse than it did. Even though there were no flames to barrel through or doors to kick down, the firemen were ready, ready to save my house. I will always think of firemen a little differently from now on. We were so thankful for everything that they did and were prepared to do. They truly are a special group of people!

It's Soccer Time !!

Luke had his first soccer game this past Saturday! His team is called the Sharks. There are four girls and one other boy on his team. His daddy is the coach and they both seem to be enjoying it so far!!

First Day of School!!!

I am finally posting Luke's first day of school pictures! He is excited to be back at school, but is counting down the days until he goes to kindergarten. It is hard to believe a year from now he will be in kindergarten!

I'm a Big First Grader!!

Here is a picture of E the morning of her first day in first grade. It is hard to believe that she is old enough to already be in first grade. She was really nervous, anxious and excited. But she really likes being a first grader and getting to do more big kid things! I think her favorite part so far is getting to have her own desk!!

However, we have had a really hard week controlling her diabetes. To put it into perspective for you, she should never have too many lows (low blood sugar). In fact, the doctors have advised us if she ever has three lows in a week we should contact them in order to change her care plan. Well, starting the night before school started and for the next 36 hours she had 5 times were she was low. Not good and actually very dangerous. We have contacted the dr. twice this week and have changed some of the things we are doing. Stress and anxiety can make her blood levels low and obviously have done so. We are hoping that by next week she will be more comfortable with everything and her levels will start to normalize. We hate that it has been this way for her this week, but know this is just a part of the fun diabetes game.

Even though we have had rough few days, we are looking forward to a great year and getting to see and experience all of the fun things E will get to do and learn this year.

Our Disney World Trip

We recently returned home from our week long stay at the magical and oh so wonderful world of Disney. Great memories were made for a lifetime!

Little Boys!!

Tonight as we were getting L ready for bed, he found a microscopic scratch on his knee. Of course, he immediately requested a band-aid. At the time of his discovery, we were working with him on his counting. We told him as soon as were done, we would get a band aid.

Well, he was no longer interested in counting and ran out of the room. Counting is not nearly as exciting as a new Diego Band- Aid.!! All of a sudden we heard the toilet flush and his bedroom door SLAM shut. (A definite clue L was up to something.) So, J and I went to his room and L was in his bed sitting there with big eyes and a peculiar look on his face. So, we asked him did he get a band - aid. He said he did not! Well, when we started to lift up his PJ bottoms to see if the evidence was there, he quickly tried to push our hands away so we could not see it. Yep, you guessed it, underneath his pant leg was a band -aid. He got a small swat on his leg and we left the room leaving him to think about what he had done!

Shortly there after, L reappeared with a very sad look on his face and said, " I do not have the band - aid anymore. I flushed it in the toilet." J and I then talked to him about lying and that even though we may not like what he has done, he should always tell us the truth.

J tucked L back in bed and said, "Daddy, I will never lie again." How sweet! We hope he has learned his lesson, but the reality of it is, is I am sure that there will be a few more "band-aid" episodes in his little life!

My Little T-Baller

Saturday was a big day for us! My daughter started her t-ball career. She is on a team called the Grasshoppers. :)

First, we had team pictures bright and early Saturday morning, followed by the leagues opening ceremonies and finally her first t-ball game.

She played great! She hit the ball every time the coach pitched it to her when she came up to bat and did a great job of stopping the ball while playing pitcher. I think that mommy was more nervous than the little athlete.

It was a fun day for the family! We were very proud of her!!

Enjoy the pictures!

Will it ever end?

I realize that my last post was about the kids getting sick and here I am about to write another one about the same thing AGAIN!! But lately, that is all that we seem to be dealing with. Since my last post, my daughter has gotten back to normal, but my son has just not been able to get any better. We are almost going on three weeks of the same thing. So, here is what has been going on......

Several days after he first got sick, I took him to the dr. He had a double ear infection. So, they prescribed him antibiotic #1. Nine days later he is no better. So, I end up taking him back and the dr tells me he still has fluid behind his ears and the infection that is in both ears is not any better. So, they prescribed him antibiotic #2. Having him take medicine has never been easy, but this time it was absolutely miserable. He has to take it two times a day and these were never fun, easy times in our household, but he would finally take it.

Today was the first day back to school for both kiddos. They were both really excited to get back. After we took my daughter to school, we came home to attack his morning medicine routine before it was time for him to go to school. Soon after the fight of taking the medicine, my son runs to me with his shirt lifted and says ,"Mommy look !!!!". I could not believe what I saw. His little tummy was covered in red, whelping, hives. He was itching his tummy which I am sure made everything look alot worse. I immediately start to freak out because that is my nature and what I am suppose to do, right? I am allergic to alot of medicines, so I figured that he must be having an allergic reaction to the medicine. I call my husband and expect to hear that he is just as shocked and worried as I am, but he says, "Oh, yeah - I saw that too after I gave him his medicine last night". (I wish that I could be so calm and collected like my husband.) Then, I call my mother to get her advice on what to do. It is always good to be able to bounce things off of her. She agrees and thinks he is having an allergic reaction to the medicine. She freaks me out even more by telling me to watch him closely so that his throat does not start to close up and that he does not go into anaphylactic shock! Boy, that calmed me down.

So, I call the nurse at the dr's to see what they wanted me to do. After about thirty minutes waiting on hold, I finally talk to the receptionist. She took my message and said that the nurse would call me back soon. Five hours later, the nurse calls and also agrees that he has had an allergic reaction to the med. I told her I thought that it was odd that it would start up so many days after he initially started it. She told me that sometimes the allergic reaction will not show up until they are finished with the entire round of medicine. She said that sometimes it just takes that long to build up in their systems. (I thought that I would pass that along to all of you moms out there.) She then talks to the doctor and calls me back again to let me know they are going to start him on ANOTHER antibiotic. Just in case you have forgotten, this will be antibiotic #3.

So, we have started it tonight. He will only have to take it once a day. Thank God!! I am hoping that he will get better with this one and that we will not be visiting the doctor again anytime soon!

What are the chances??????

As some of you may already know, we have been in the process of buying a new car. This past Saturday, we loaded the kids up and went to Houston to search for the new Tahoe that I wanted. After about nine hours of searching, we finally found the one that I wanted, but it was 300 miles away. So, the dealership offered to let us take one of their NEW 2008 Tahoes back home and when our new car arrived we could come back and get it. So, that is what we decided to do.


On Wed., my new car arrived at the dealership , but we were not able to go and get it because my daughter was at home with 104.3 fever, an earache and possibly strep throat. She was still running fever this morning , so she stayed at home again with me. Since she has been sick, she really has not been eating much. So, today for lunch I offered to go and get her anything that she wanted as long as she would try and eat it. She said that she wanted Schlotzky's. So, me and the kiddos got in the NEW car and off we went.

On the way there, my son fell asleep in the back seat. That really did not surprise me because he had gotten up three times in the middle of the night. (That should have been a hint to me that something was not right with him because he never wakes up in the middle of the night.) On the way home, he suddenly wakes up and starts to cry very loudly. I tried to calm him down as I am driving, but it was a lost cause. I am looking at him in the rear view mirror and he stops crying long enough to start throwing up all over the car. Let me remind you throwing up in the car that is brand new and is not ours. I am not one of those moms that deals well with kids throwing up, even if it is their kid. I could tell based on the sound, it was not alot. So, I thought maybe it was not too bad. I could not even finish the thought when suddenly he REALLY starts to throw up. My daughter announces she doesn't feel well. I tell her to not look at him and to just look out the window. So, now the car that use to have that nice, new leather smell is now filled with a sour throw up smell. I call my husband and ask him to meet me at home to help out.

By the time that we got home, my daughter had survived and my son had not thrown up anymore. After cleaning off the buckle to his seat, I got him out of the seat and into the bathtub. By this point, my husband had arrived and is frantically trying to clean up the car. Thanks to Lysol, paper towels and ALOT of Febreze, I think that it will be ok. Thank goodness it is a nice, windy day and we can leave the window down to help air out the car.

What are the chances that this would happen? First, that my kid would throw up in the car. In the six years I have had kids, neither one of them have ever thrown up in the car. And secondly, the time that they would throw up it would be in a nice new car that is not ours. So I ask, what are the chances ...........

Well, I have finally joined the world of blogging. It is a relatively new concept to me! I never knew how many people blogged. Lately, I have really enjoyed reading and viewing other peoples blogs and just thought that I should join in the fun. I have to admit, it really becomes quite addicting! I am not sure how often I will post because I really do not think I have much to say. Maybe I will surprise myself and have more to say than what I realize! Let the fun begin.......