January 30, 2014

Seth's back really started hurting yesterday. He started running and then started screaming in pain. I figured it was a result of his fall.  That was weighing on my mind at night when I was reading my scriptures. I'm using the seminary home study guide. It asked the question what are some things you put your trust in The Lord?  I didn't have a good answer for that because I feel like I trust in the big stuff but lots of the smaller things I try to take care of myself. So I put to on my to do list for the next days scripture time to ponder more things I should trust to Him. Then as I said my prayer the first thing that came to my mind was the blessing Bob gave Seth after he fell. It said Seth would be fine and recover from all injuries from his fall. I knew that I need to trust The Lord in that blessing. I know he will be fine and need to have faith while he heals. 

January 26, 2014

We had the most wonderful miracle in our family this week.  Monday was MLK day so we decided to go to Valley of Fire with the Deans.  We pulled in to a campsite and Kata and I stayed there with the little girls and Bob and Collin went to keep an eye on the kids while they climbed.  They climbed for a while and then Danny came back and said "Did you know Seth just fell really far?"  And then I saw Bob carrying Seth back looking a little limp.  Seth had been up on a high, fairly wide ledge with Maeli.  Bob was watching him and couldn't tell he was in much danger, but there was a lot of loose gravelly rocks near the edge that Seth stepped on and slipped.  Bob and Collin watched him fall head first about 8 feet onto the rocks below. Somehow right before he landed he turned enough so he landed on his side.  He was really in shock when he came back, but the only injury he complained of was scratches on his arm, chest and thumb.  He wanted bandaids for everything.  So we got him all bandaid-ed and had him sit in the car for a while, but by the end of the night he was running around and happy.  There was nothing wrong with him.  Bob slept with him that night, but he was fine.  When we first checked him out it looked like he had a pretty good bruise on his hip that I thought would hurt for a while, but it didn't.  Bob gave him a blessing when we got home and it said he would be completely healed.  We can't even believe how blessed we were that day.  I'm so thankful for Seth and my Heavenly Father who blessed us so that a little accident didn't have to be catastrophic for our family.

We also recently found out that Collin Dean lost his job.  They're looking like crazy for a new one, but there's a good chance they will move.  I'm really praying that doesn't happen.  That would change so many things for us.  We'd all loose our best friends.  We're all such better people because of the Deans.  We love them so much.  I know things will work out as they should, but I really hope we get to keep the Deans.

I'm going to get appointments with Seth's doctor and maybe the elementary school to ask some questions about learning disabilities.  We've always known that Seth moves at his own speed and when he wants to, but I'm wondering if there is more to that.  It's taken the last 6 months for him to learn to consistently count to 10.  He had a hard time keeping 789 in order.  And getting him to memorize his name and address and now sight words is extremely hard.  It's frustrating for him and me.  It seems like he know how to retain some kinds of information.  He constantly says her instead of she.  I've corrected him countless times, but he never changes.  I don't know if he actually has any kind of disability or he just learns in different ways.  Hopefully I can find some different strategies for helping him learn.

January 21,2013

I take stess too physically.  I breathe shallow and tense my body even though I don't usually feel like I'm that stressed. So I need to work on that to help my headaches. 

Ideas

Stop and relax all muscles at 10 12 2 and 4. Set alarm on phone. 

Practice deep breathing every time I'm in the car or sit at computer.

Visualize and think about perspective a couple times a day. 

Sleep 8.5 hours a night

January 12, 2013

Christmas was great.  The kids loved all their gifts.  We had a lovely day with just our family.  We did Christmas Eve at the Pettingill's Christmas party and then back to our house with the Deans to act out the Nativity.  Then the day after Christmas, Bob worked a half day and then we drove to Visalia.  Everyone was there. We had a great time there with everyone too.  We went to the beach and rented atvs, and went to the park a lot and went shopping a little.We stayed until New Year's day. We celebrated Kwanzaa again this Christmas break.  Then, since there weren't any good movies out, the kids chose to go to the buffet as their reward and we invited the Deans to go with us.

Danny's middle school basketball team is done.  He had a lot of fun on it, but I'm glad it's over and he can only have one basketball team. Although, soccer tryouts are next week.  But maybe he just won't make it.

Bob and I are going to see the Therapist again mostly about Aaron.  She was really helpful last time I went. She gave me some good consequences and rules to use that have really worked well.  Aaron is doing so much better, but he still has some really hard things like a low self-esteem, quits when he doesn't think he can succeed. I just don't want to fail him, so we're going to see if she has some good ideas for him.

This weekend I went to Arizona again with Amanda and Wendy.  It was fabulous.  We shopped and ate, went to a movie, saw a play, went for walks and sat in the hot tub.  We had a really good time being together.  I love those girls.

We got a new YW presidency.  I got to stay 2nd counselor because of my relationship with a couple inactive beehives.  I'm so glad I get to stay.  I absolutely love my calling and the beehives.

Now I need to really jump back into things and get back into regular life.  I have a lot to catch up with and get some routines going again that I got behind with over the holidays.

I set a few new years resolutions.

Planned out fhe on Sunday nights

Piano-have at least 3 hymns ready to play

game plan for hastening the work

sleep better/more

set up a learning circle in our ward

Pray for kids one a day

December 22, 2013

It's Christmas break.  Bob and I have been working together a lot better with the kids.  It's so great. We're going to go see the therapist to talk about Aaron in a few weeks.  But for Christmas break we offered Danny and Aaron a reward.  If they can not fight, or solve their own fights quietly for the whole 2 weeks, we'll buy them another xbox controller.  Danny is getting an xbox for Christmas and it only comes with one controller. So we think it'll be a really good motivation.  They already fought once and Aaron went ballistic.  I think he just doesn't have the confidence.  When he thinks he will fail then he just lets himself fail big.  At least I think that's what's going on because I gave him a big pep talk after he freaked out and told him I know he can do it and Danny will help remind him and now he's doing great.  I really hope they can succeed with this so it can build his confidence a little.  Bob is saying prayers with Aaron now too.  So between the 2 of us we are more consistent. I think it will really help too.

Today I made homemade eggnog to drink during a family game night tonight.  If it's good maybe we'll make it a tradition.  But it'll have to be pretty good because it took an hour to make.  We went to the chocolate factory on Friday night.  That is always so fun.

I put some effort into researching a club basketball league for Danny.  He really loves basketball and is pretty good.  So I thought he'd for sure want to take it to the next level.  That's what I always wanted with dancing. I got a scout to come watch him play his game yesterday.  He said Danny has potential, but he's kind of rough.  But he thinks he can get Danny on a team.  I told Danny about it and he didn't like hearing that his skills were rough.  And he said he likes being in the NJB league where he can be one of the best ones.  Who knows.

The kids are dying for Christmas to be here.  They count their presents and talk about it constantly.  This will be a big Christmas this year.  We blew our budget by a couple hundred even after each of the kids paid $100 toward their gift.  It was so hard to just give them their one big gift and nothing else.  But they are getting lots of socks and underwear filler gifts this year too.

December 15, 2013

The boys are big into basketball now.  They're doing really well.  Rachel's volleyball starts again this week. All the kids activities are fun, but it sure makes it hard to fit in lots of fun Christmas traditions. We've made fudge and christmas pretzal kisses and we went to the lights at the speedway this weekend.  But we're lucky if we get one afternoon a week when all the kids are home, and then they want to play with friends.

Aaron is doing better in lots of ways, but he still has trouble with some things.  Like helping with anything. He just doesn't do it or lies about it or falls on the floor in a fit.  He's a little addicted to the ipad and sneaks away and spends too much time playing.  He cries his head off and is going to die when he gets hurt, but only at home.  He and Danny fight a ton.  He doesn't notice other people's needs or feelings--his needs are way too big--more than other kids.

I finally got botox last week.  It seems to really be helping. Today is my first really bad headache.  I still get headaches most days, but they aren't as bad and they can be short.  It used to be that if it got really bad it would stay that way until I went to bed.

The skin on my right knee went numb about two weeks ago. It doesn't cause me any problems and I can't remember anything I could have done that would cause it. But in case this ends up being a long term thing now I'll know when it started. 

December 1, 2013

We just got back from Ryan's house for Thanksgiving.  We weren't going to go because they just had Ella on Monday, but they talked us into it.  We had a good time.  We had a great dinner and went to see Frozen on Thanksgiving.  Friday we went the the beach.  Danny had a great time fishing with Ryan. Seth loved playing Jake and the Neverland pirates on the pirate ship at the playground.  It was great weather and we all had a good time.  Saturday Ryan and Grandpa took Danny fishing again and then we went to the park and came home.

I'm mostly done with Christmas shopping.  This year Danny, Rachel and Aaron all wanted a big expensive gift.  Danny wants an xbox, Rachel wants an ipod, and Aaron wants a go kart.  They were all between $200 and $250, but we try to not spend more than $150 per kid.  So we explained that to them and they are each paying or doing jobs for $100 toward their gift.  I feel a little bad that they have to pay for their own Christmas presents, but I don't want them to be spoiled or think they can get anything they ask for, so I guess I don't feel that bad.