This and That

This lat week and a half has been busy to say the least. I think the last time I posted Adam had just broke his foot. That in itself was REALLY a bummer. He has been training to run a marathon in May with Dylan, now he can't even walk. To top that off Adam woke up on Sunday morning with his leg purple and hot, he drew an outline of the area and said he wanted to watch it because it might be a blood clot. After a few hours it had spread and he was pretty sure it WAS a blood clot and he needed to go to the ER. We went in and after a few hours it was confirmed that he did indeed have a blood clot in his leg. This was terribly scary to me because a friend of mine had died of this very thing in December. It was a close one but Adam was allowed to come home from the hospital and give himself injections twice a day. Adam will now be on blood thinners for at least the next 6 months, so he is forbidden from any activities that may cause him to bleed. For anyone who doesn't know Adam well this pretty much excludes anything he likes. The man is a daredevil and pushes his body hard all the time. To say he is going stir crazy sitting around the house would be a huge understatement. Poor guy is now bordering on insane.... and isn't it convenient that this would happen and render him pretty much unable to get around just at the time Zander can be considered fully potty trained? See we had this deal. I would take care of all dirty diapers, and crying babies, but once they were potty trained it would be his job to take the kid to every public bathroom in the United States. With Adam hobbling around on crutches I don't have it in me to force him to go to the bathroom every time we go anywhere, or get out of the car to let the little guy pee on the side of the road 10 minutes after we start any car trip (even if I do make him go immediately before departing... the kid is like a dog, must mark his territory)

We are still "living" with my in laws, though surviving is a more accurate word for what we are doing. Adam has applications in to law schools from Hawaii to Arkansas, and we can't really even rent a place until we know where he will get in. We had hoped to know by now, but the process is slow, and we are still waiting. It looks like it will be middle to late May before we get answers from all the schools, so we are kind of stuck staying where we are until then. It is hard, very hard. To live with parents after years of being independent is a struggle, add kids into the mix and it is nearly impossible. We are often told what time to go to bed (or at least be out of the living room/ kitchen area), showers and laundry are a big source of contention.... I feel like these things are necessary, but my father in law doesn't really like the water consumption. They are not used to living with kids and often get angry or undermine our parenting, and really we can't parent our children in this environment. Our kids don't have a bedroom, Zander sleeps in a playpen and Aidan on an air mattress in the office, so if they need to use their office I will find everything piled into the playpen. Plus I can't put the kids to bed if they are using the office, I can't send the kids to their room, Nap time and quite time just don't work without a bedroom... it is very frustrating. I have recently been limited to me and the kids being in the living room for more than 2 hours a day because my father in law needs to be able to sit on his couch and watch his tv in peace. I can understand this, but I just have no place to go. I already take Zander to the park at least once a day, often more. We go out as often as possible, but with no income there are not that many places I can go........ OK, enough of the whining!

There has been alot of joy in my life lately also. Adam and I are closer than ever. I am so glad we found each other and fell in love. He is my best friend and my rock. Zander has grown out of alot of his bad "babyish" behaviors, and has turned into a truly awesome little boy. He is the most loving little guy I have ever seen. There is nothing better in his book than snuggling with his mom and dad. In fact I was laying on a towel at the playground the other day and instead of playing with the other kids Zander spent about 15 minutes just laying with me and talking about clouds and birds. He is super smart, and not just book smart... he is so logical. He understands so much! He talks up a storm, and he is not shy. He often goes up to other kids and says "Hi, I'm Zander, I'm 2!" He has Aiden Tanner's giggle, which is by far the cutest giggle I have ever heard in my life! He has successfully wrapped every member of our family around his finger, and the best part... he doesn't take advantage of the situation!

My favorite thing in the past week was a few nights ago Zander had a rough night and didn't want to go to bed. He was crying and calling for us after I put him in bed, saying he wanted to snuggle and Adam said "let me get this one". He went and sat by Zanders bed and sang songs to him until the little guy just fell asleep. It was the most heartwarming thing I have heard in a very long time. There is not much that makes me happy like seeing the father-son bond these two have!



Adian went to get his cast of last week and was so very excited. We went all the way in to Tempe, and he was brave as could be through the grinder saw they use to cut the cast off. When they did the follow up X-Ray to be sure his 2 broken bones had healed up just right I got a bad feeling. The Dr. came back in and told us that 1 of the bones had healed up, but the other was not quite ready yet, so the told him they would have to put another cast on. The poor guy was devastated! He did get a few minutes to wash his hand and arm 3 or 4 times, because THAT is what has been driving him the most crazy, then they asked him what color he would like, he was mad and said "I don't want any color, I don't want a cast" Then the smart tech told him that they just got in the new glow in the dark cast and made his day. So he now has a nice, clean, glow in the dark cast on for the next 2 weeks, when they will X-ray it once again. We really hope that THIS time the poor kids bones will heal fully and be ready to be used without any more casts!

Sweet babies in need of help

I have 2 "blog friends" who are really struggeling right now. They need all the prayers in the world, so read their stories and help me out.

Stellan is a 5 month old baby boy who had heart problems in utero. He was not expected to live, but defied the odds. He has not been in the hospital for 16 days and is probably facing a heart surgery that is risky on babies. Read about Stellan here:

Today's post

http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

The backstory

http://www.mycharmingkids.net/search/label/Stellan%27s%20story

Then there is sweet Audry Caroline. Audry was born a year ago today and lived for about 2 1/2 hours. The family knew that she was unlikely to survive, but that does not change the heartbreak. I cry every time I read about these 2 families.

http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

the backstory

http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/2008/01/beginning-of-story.html

To top off our luck..

Adam has been using this down time in our lives to achieve a major goal of his, he has gotten his body and mind into the best shape in his life. He works out often, which helps to strengthen his muscles so that his back does not go out as often, and he is close to a life long dream....running a marathon. Not only that, but this marathon was extremely special to him. Dylan is in the SRLA (Students Run L.A.) club at school and will be running the LA marathon with his classmates. Our plan was to go to LA in late May and have Adam run the marathon with Dylan. He has been so excited about this that he actually gave up our spring visit with the kids coming to us because we could not afford to do both. The plans have been made, hotels have been found, and excitement has been rising! Then on Saturday Adam took our dog, along with his parents dog Spirit on a quick run. This is a common thing, and the dogs know how he likes them to run, but this time spirit saw something that made him cross in front of Adam, Adam tripped over him and knew he was going down. He chose to protect his ankle, and landed all of his weight on the top/side of his right foot. Aidan was riding his bike with them, and Adam sat down in agony and asked Aidan to come get me. So Aidan rode his little legs off and rushed home and told me "dad has a situation and needs me" in a very urgent manner. By the time we got Adam home his foot was swollen about 3 X's the normal size, so in to the urgent care we went again. He had an X-ray and his foot is indeed broken. Not only that but the bone is separated so far that he will most likely need a pin to make it heal quickly and correctly.
So the marathon is out for sure, and the ability to even go on the trip is in question since we don't have any idea how long it will need a cast for.

The poor guy is going stir crazy. He is not one to sit around, especially when we are not even in our own house!
So now we are both pretty broken up :(

This weekend started off pretty rough :(

We were all geared up for a great weekend around here. Yesterday I had to go into town (about 45 min. drive to get the results from the abdominal CT scan the week before. Since we were driving all that way we decided to have some fun and take the boys to see a movie and eat. We got to the theatre and decided on "Monsters Vs. Aliens 3D" which the boys were mucho excited about. The movie was OK, not great for the adults, but not bad as far as kids movies go. The kids LOVED it! Zander didn't make a noise other than once to get up to use the bathroom. He sat in his seat quietly the entire movie, and was perfect the entire time. That alone is worth 6 bucks to me!

After the movie we ran by the imaging office to pick up the CD and reports of my tests so that I can take them to my new Dr. on Monday. I know these reports are for Dr's and the patient really shouldn't even read them, and I was being a good girl because all those reports ever do is freak you out! (Yes they do!) Of course my husband is the curious kind, and he opened the envelope and read the report. It turns out that I have a lesion on my liver, my spleen is enlarged, I have a large cyst on my ovary... there were a few other things that meant nothing to mean... just medical nonsense. I also still have Chrones disease which is acting up. This test showed that I do NOT have any lesions or perforations of my intestines and that is very good news. The other stuff I don't have a clue how bad those things are, but I am scared..... really scared. I have had chrones for a long time but this in the first time in my adult life, and since I had children, that I have felt there may be something serious wrong in my body. The word malignant came up somewhere around my liver in the report. Nothing for sure, just for my Dr. to check into it further. That terrifies me. The thought of even a minor surgery terrifies me now that I have children to take care of. I don't want to go under anesthesia and take on those risks when I have children that I need to be around for. I have a husband, who is my absolute best friend, that I want and DESERVE to spend many many more years with. My husband doesn't deserve to loose the happiness we have or to be left to raise our children on his own. I know I am going way over what will logically happen here, but as I said before, I am scared.

Saturday was going to be a great day..... we had some extended family coming over for a birthday. I will get into more detail on this in another post.... don't want to let any cats out of the bag at this point :)

Lots of random thoughts and updates here.

I know, I know.... you can all yell at me for talking so long to post (a few already have, but I still love ya!)



My reason (no excuses here!) is that my computer crashed last week, the hard drive went bad right in the middle of my last week of algebra. I was a basket case, stressed as can be. No one else had a computer with the Microsoft office 2007 programs that I needed to use to open the assignments, type in my work and send them back to my teacher. I could have gotten a mean teacher that would not accept any work in the improper format, but mine was very understanding. It is clear in the course that formatting is part of your grade, so I did loose some points, but I passed, I ALMOST got an A in the class (I would have actually made it if the computer had not broken!) So besides that being really annoying, I lost all my pictures and videos and have bean a bit down about that and didn't feel much like posting.



Most of you know, but here are pictures finally.... Aidan had a great fall and broke his arm not only once, but broke both bones in his lower arm. He was at the playground a few blocks for my in-laws house (where we are STILL staying!) He is often allowed to walk there by himself, he knows all the safety rules and is very responsible with them. So that morning he was there without a parent. He said he was swinging and did a "totally wicked" jump off the swing and just went a little further than expected and landed on the stairs on his arm. A nice man that had his kids there called me, but I didn't know the number so I didn't bother to get off the phone with my sister... ooops! So then the nice man (it is a pretty close knit community thank god!) drove Aidan home and told me that he thought it might be broken. Adam was out at the time with our only car so I gave him so ibuprofen and put ice on it, and in a half hour or so he said it felt much better. It was bruised, but the swelling had come way down with the ice. So I waited. After dinner I asked him how it was feeling and he said it only hurt if he bent his arm a certain way. He could wiggle all fingers, wasn't very swollen, and the bruising was not that bad, so we all decided to sleep on it. Adam made him a very custom splint out of a paint stir stick and ace bandage, and off to bed we went. Aidan didn't make a peep all night and woke up early running through the house yelling "my arm feels perfect, dad fixed it!" I was relieved and didn't think too much about it. He continued to do great as far as pain, swelling, bruising.... the only complaint was that it hurt when the splint was off. I mostly thought that was for attention. His dad came by a day or 2 later to see him and begged me to take him for an X-ray. He is a worrier, but I humored him because he is Aidan's dad of course. So I took him in to urgent care, they did the xray, and said "oh, you will have to go to see a pediatric orthopedist, this is a worse break than normal........ of course! So we went to the specialist, the checked him and his Xrays out and showed me how Aidan had broke clean through the bigger bone in the lower arm, and buckled the other bone. It does not go through his growth plate, so he will be just fine :)

SOOO, he is in a cast for a month... no bike riding, no swimming (of course there is a FREE water park where we are living!) no playgrounds, running, jumping, or just plain being a boy!

The funny part was after the Dr. finished the cast he patted Aidan on the head and said I bet you won't be jumping off swings anymore, and Aidan of course says "oh if I could do a jump that cool again I sure would!! So here are the pictures of the super cool green cast... finally!



Zander is fabulous, he is bar none, the funniest 2 year old I have ever met. He has his daddies personality, and loves to do anything rough and crazy. Rides on daddies motorcycle are the best thing ever, and the kid spends hours at the park with one or both of us almost every day! He is coming along on potty training, learning his ABC's, counts to 20 and loves to sing. His favorite songs are the opening song from scrubs (which is so cute I had to put it on his baby MP3 player), and the song Anne Hathaway sings in the movie Hoodwinked. He is still a lover and his favorite thing to do is snuggle. Any time his daddy is laying down anywhere, no matter what Zander is into at the time, if Daddy holds his arms out towards Zan the kid will drop whatever he is doing and run to his dad. He will then lay on top of his daddy, on his tummy, put his head on dad's shoulder, and tuck his little arms in between his stomach and dad's. It is so dang cute! He also can't start the day off right without coming in to my bed in the mornings for a drink and some snuggling.... he will lay there and mimic every thing I do. If I run my fingers down his face, or kiss he little button nose, he does it right back to me. That must be one of my favorite times of the day lately!

I have been homeschooling Aidan along with going to school myself since the beginning of January. Aidan is doing great, he is very smart and always gets his work done quickly and well. We have enjoyed this time together, just me, him, and Aidan.... but this has stretched on longer than I wanted it it to, and I am starting to feel like I am either not challenging him enough, or I am holding him back depending on how I approach it. He is currently working at a 5th grade level in math and English, 4th grade in science, he has taken an interest in some local history, so we have worked on that even though it is not in any curriculum I have found for his age group. He should be in 3rd grade, and the only thing he is doing 3rd grade level work on is handwriting. So we have made the decision together to allow him to attend the school right down the road from us. We are staying with my in-laws in this "community" called Anthem. Basically they want to have everything you need without ever leaving the community. There is a Safeway, a gas station, parks, water parks, pools, and even a school without ever leaving the safety and boundaries of the neighborhood. So this week Aidan and I will look into the school and see if the gifted program they have is a fit for us, so he may be back in school and hanging out with friends soon :) This is bittersweet for me. I love hanging with him, and watching him learn (holy cow I cannot believe how the kid picks things up...... I kind of feel like he would "self teach" just by reading the text if I let him, and he has done just this thing when he wants to work ahead. But the poor boy is feeling a little bored without the interaction of kids his age. He thrives on that, and he needs it. During this time of transition I have a hard time providing that basic necessity for him. We are not members of a church, I do not reach out and make friends that I know I will be moving away from, our only real activity is our weekly trip to the Coolidge library.

On another note with Aidan he is doing very well with all of his emotional issues. We have found a medication combo that is working well, and he is a normal happy 9 year old. No more talk of suicide, visiting his dad for a few days every few weeks. There are still some issues that he has, but he has Adam and myself as well as a counselor and we are all there for him. Thanks for all the prayers that I know came from alot of you on this subject!

We are visiting my parents right now. It has been a fantastic little break, and I will be sad to leave tonight. My dad shaved his entire face for the very first time in my life, and holy cow does he look like his fabulous sisters!!!! (Lori I miss hanging out with you. You were such a rock for me this past year, and I loved every minute that I got to spend with you and Jim!)

We had a picnic at woodland park on Saturday, the boys had a great time.... it is so sweet how they slide holding hands :)

My little Monkey

I have had some emotional moments this weekend. My dad and I were sitting in the living room on Saturday watching James Taylor live..... James Taylor is music that just reminds me of my daddy every time I hear it. My dad had to go and talk about which songs were the most important to him, even so far as to tell me what he would like played at his funeral. I hate to think about these things and still refuse to believe I could possibly loose these two incredibly important people in my life, but I could not help it. I found myself thinking of sitting in a room alone watching the James Taylor Live DVD we were watching, except that in this thought of mine I had lost my dad, and I just started crying just thinking about that. I love my parents very much, my dad has always been counted on my list of not only family that I love, but friends that I love as well. They are both amazing people, I am so lucky to have them as my parents!

Me and my sweet Zander ............... the poor kid was falling asleep in the bath

Zander was using Papa's "back to life" machine, so cute!

Seriously can you believe how much my dad looks like his sisters now?

I hope you are all well, leave me a comment, or an email to let me know.
Jen

6 fabulous years ago today

Adam and I went in to see his CPA to get our taxes done. While we were at it we got married….. I bet that is not one you hear every day! Our CPA also happened to be a bishop, and a friend. He married us in a very special and very simple ceremony. It is a day I will never forget!

It is a special day that you get to marry your best friend, and I think there are a lot of people who miss out on that experience altogether.

We had wanted to get married for a while; we had gone back and forth over what to do, neither of us wanted a big or even medium size wedding. We had both had that experience in the past, and it ended painfully for both of us. We felt that the money we would spend would be a waste, and neither of us are the type of people who really need an audience to make things real. After a month or so of debating, do we just invite our kids and parents, but then we have to invite Adam's sister, and her kids, then we would have to invite my sister and her husband and kids. After that we would have to invite our closest friends, and then they would all want to bring a guest…. Do you see how this can get out of hand? It is not that I didn't want all of these people around, but we decided that this marriage was for us and us alone, and everyone else would understand.

We planned a fabulous trip to Vegas, just the 2 of us. We ordered rings that we loved, had our names and the date inscribed on them, and were good to go. Then Adam's parents decided that they wanted to go to Vegas to, and hey, why not go together, and they would pay for our trip if we drove in our car….. Hard to resist. But that threw a wrench into our secret wedding plan. We went to Vegas, but we did not get married, we had the date buffed out of our rings and took some time to regroup.

Then came the awesome idea of Adam….. Our CPA. He would be happy to marry us, and we asked our favorite of his office workers to be witnesses for us. We said vows from our heart, we were able to wear casual clothes, spend no money, and offend no one. Once we were married we picked up all of our kids and took them out to Denny's for dinner, during which we told them that "hey, guess what? We got married today" The kids were all very excited, maybe a little scared, but we quickly melded in to one of the most loving and successful blended families that I have ever seen. We all have a great level of love and respect for every other person in this family, and that is a huge blessing!!

Earlier this year Adam asked me if I would like to renew our vows and have a ceremony for friends and family. I thought long and hard. I knew that deep down Adam didn't care much; our love for each other has never faded, so we feel that our vows are still very strong. Adam thought as a girl I might really want the traditional wedding, and may feel jipped because we choose not to go that route. I came to the conclusion that if something isn't broke, why fix it.

6 years (and lots of tests) we love each other more than that day in 2003. We have had our rough spots, but we have done nothing but learn from them. Our love is strong, and I believe that will stay the case for the rest of our lives.

HERE"S TO YOU LOVE OF MY LIFE!!!! Together forever, Ayla and Jondalar!

Best friends, sometime in 2002

Durango California! Early 2002 ??

In the hospital, our little piece of perfection has arrived!

Me and my love June 2007

You can't but be IN LOVE in Hawaii

Still in love :)

Family Day out

Adam and I took the boys out for a nice day of togetherness yesterday. We started off checking out the SanTan Village mall where we did some window shopping and just hanging around, then we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch. The boys had a great time at the little playground, and Adam and I got to relax for a while. After lunch we went to see the movie Coraline. Both boys loved the movie, and the parents enjoyed it as well :) Zander sat still and quiet through the entire movie, and would have been happy to stay for more. It is a half hour drive from my in laws house where we are temporarily staying to get to anything, so we thought we would do it all yesterday! After the movie we headed home and planted the patio tomato plants that I just could not live without. Life has been very hectic lately, and we all really needed a day of rest, and the bonding time is always a huge plus. I love it when Adam can spend a day with me and the boys and see that Zander is not always whiny and that Aidan is not always argumentative, and that I am still the same little small town girl that he fell for so many years ago.

We have been very busy and are making progress in life. Adam got the court hearing that has been a huge hold up out of the way. The judge was fair, and I think everyone involved walked away happy. Adam finished his LSAT prep course, and took the big test..... he also submitted his application to I think 7 schools, and the schools are now waiting to get the results from his test (we are anxiously awaiting that news as well)

Zander really loved the "GUY" in this car, he kept hugging him and patting his head.

I am still doing well in Algebra (despite my own expectations) and I am still homeschooling Aidan, and he is doing great. Today I had all of his lessons written out, explained his reading, and I started working on my Algebra. Aidan worked faster than I expected and without interrupting me he went on to do his math. When I checked on him he had read the math lesson I had laid out, looked in the book to figure out the problems, and had solved the square root on about 10 problems correctly. I was so proud of him!

On Saturday Aidan sprained his wrist at the playground. He jumped off the swing and landed on his arm. We all thought it was broken at first, but after ice and ibuprofen the swelling went way down and the pain subsided quite a bit. We never got around to the ER to get it X rayed, but it is healing up very fast. The day before that I was taking multiple trips from the house to my car for some reason, and Zander was playing in the front yard. I came into the house to get another load of whatever I was getting, and when I came back out Zander was in the middle of the street crying his little heart out. He had climbed into the golf cart that my father in law had parked in the driveway, and I guess hit the gas on his way in, that apparently releases the parking brake, which considering the slope of the driveway was a very bad combination. Zander and the golf cart rolled right out into the street. He was terrified, and so was I. Thank goodness there were no cars on the road!

Adam and I have both been going to the gym a lot and enjoying this down time while can. As soon as we find out where he gets in to school life will be a whirlwind again!

Zander's grandpa told him once to pee on the rocks, now when he has to pee the underwear come off wherever he happens to be and get thrown on the floor to run to pee on the rocks.... I am working on correcting this problem, but he is kinda cute with his "Packpack"