I'm horrible about blogging, we'll see if this attempt goes any better than previous attempts.

I have thought about posting several times in the last few months, but I was in a very very very dark place. We've had some serious medical issues.

In April I noticed Sam was peeing a million times a day. It was a horribly long involved process, that ended with him having surgery to make his urethral opening wider. A super fun trip to the Children's hospital ER to learn he almost had an impacted colon. We found out the constipation we thought was better was much worse than ever. He had a biopsy to test for a disease that means you have no nerves in the large intestine. That was negative. Finally after tons of research on my own I found Celiac Disease (gluten intolerance). After we went gluten free and it helped immensely (not only Sam, but Mady, Noah, and I, too) I found out that two of my half siblings have CD. We don't have an official diagnosis for Sam and we may never. I'm not willing to take him off the diet for months to make him worse so they can do a biopsy of the small intestine. We'll just assume he has it and go from there. Gluten free is not so easy, but getting easier every day.

During all that we had a HUGE scare thinking I had a tumor in my ear that my jugular vein went through. Thank Heavens it's not, just my jugular vein ends in my ear instead of my neck.

Savanna wants to be homeschooled this year, so we decided to homeschool all of them. THe girls got accepted into k12 virtual school and Sam is on the waiting list for second grade. Hopefully he will get in, too.

Bryan has been amazing through all this. He has been my strength to get through the hard times without me falling into a deep dark depression.

Now on to the FUN adventure of potty training Noah!

I guess an update is in order

It's been ages since I've posted. My computer is being very weird and I have to clear my cookies several times a day just to check my email or go to a few other websites. Very weird. So it won't let me sign in here half the time.


Let's see.

We've started our homeschooling adventure. Sam was having some issues at school, not all of them with him. So we pulled him out and we are doing it at home now. It's going very well. He really likes it.

Savanna is doing excellent in school. Straight A's. She loves it and doesn't ever want to be homeschooled because she will miss her friends. Although she is intrigued by the idea she could do as much math as she pleases.

Mady hasn't had any other issues with her blood sugar, so hopefully that's all gone. She loves her preschool. She started seeing my chiropractor. She has always been pigeon toed, but it's been changing lately. One foot going straight and the other turning in more. One of her hips is rolled forward, which makes her thigh muscle really tight, which makes her foot turn in. So the chiro is helping.

Noah is a bundle of energy. He has discovered climbing and that he can move chairs around to climb wherever he wants. He is so funny. He cracks us up all the time, especially the faces he makes.

I am seriously thinking about starting online college courses this spring semester. We shall see how that turns out. Every time I thought about it before i got pregnant, but since I can't get pregnant anymore we don't have to worry about that ;)

And Bry is the same. Working and trying to get enough sleep. I will try to get some pics posted in the next few days.

A day in the ER

I took the kids to church solo today. It's Bryan's weekend to work Sat nights, so he sleeps Sunday. After we got home I made Mady a jelly sandwich. About 20 minutes later she started screaming that her stomach hurt. It kinda freaked both Bryan and I out. She was in so much pain she could hardly breathe. So we took her to the ER. They did some x-rays and a urinalysis. She has been going potty a lot more often lately, and having at least 4 accidents a day. She had a urinalysis done last Wed when we went for her well check for preschool. Both were negative, but they are doing a culture just to be sure. The x-ray showed a few large gas bubbles in her colon. Todays urinalysis showed that Mady had sugar in her urine. He ordered a finger stick blood sugar and it was normal, but it had been at least 4 hours since she had eaten anything. Mady is at a higher than average risk of having diabetes since most of my mom's family has it, Bryan's dad does, and I had it while pregnant with her. The weird thing is, that the thought has crossed my mind several times in the last few weeks. I'm going to see if I can find my testing supplies and I'll check her at home a bit and see what it says. If they are higher than normal I willc all the dr and set up an appointment. I so hope she doesn't have diabetes.

some changes

It's that time of year, school starts in a week and a half! I don't know what I'm going to do, 3 kids will be gone! Savanna will start third grade, Sam first grade, and Mady will go to preschool. It will just be me and Noah. I'm going to try to make some changes. I would love to get the house organized where it doesn't take much to clean. I'm such a clutter bug that it's hard. I'm also going to start walking again. I'll take the kids to school, then go walk while Bry stays up a bit with Noah Bear. I got a heart monitor so I stay around my target heart rate. Apparently this will help me lose weight better. I'm also going to institute a morning meditation time. Scripture reading, prayer, etc. And, of course, less time online. I won't have much time with the changes I hope to make, plus Noah. He won't have anyone to entertain him except for me. I'm looking forward to time with just him. I hope he adjusts better than Mady did when she was the only one left home.

Stupid computer

My stupid computer has not been letting me log on here to post. It's making me nuts!

Noah has officially been discharged from all therapy. The therapists are astounded. None of us thought he would be discharged when he was almost 14 months, we all thought it would be YEARS! I'm so grateful to my Father in Heaven for our miracle!

Hi!

It's been awhile. We had family visiting several times, the Loper family reunion, end of school stuff. It's just been busy. I hope to get some new pics up soon. We're all doing well. Kids have gotten way off schedule and it's been kinda chaotic around here, so we're working on that.

The boys

Sam taught Noah to sword fight. It's so cute! I'm sure one day I will be saying it's not cute at all, but for now it's cute. Here's a link to a video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-823TCW8pc