Happy Valentine's Day!

We're not doing much - but ...  I do have a few things to share.

 We made some handprint "trees" ...    Noah and his

 Nathan and his

 Captain Underpants and his...

 They came home with a few things on Valentine's Day ...

 Nathan made the one above and below.  His classmate valentines were in the giant heart.

 Kaedyn made an envelope ...

 The wall....

And Calahan met up with his girlfriend Alana.  He gave her a ring, a necklace & earrings ... a bear...

And here they are together....

Becoming a Ginger....

So every once in awhile I get this need for a change....   so I either cut my hair or give myself highlights.... but this time....  I just wanted a change...  so I picked up some red hair dye....

Here is my before pic ..... I actually really like this pic... LOL

Smothered in hair dye...

 After (hair is still wet)

 Next day ....

A few days later .....

I like it :)

Happy 11th Birthday Noah!

Once upon a time, I got pregnant.  I had already suffered five miscarriages, so I wasn't oblivious in my thinking that nothing bad could happen, but I never expected what I experienced.  I was so excited, I had wanted another baby for so long and had fought hard for one.  But it was apparent, early on ... that things just weren't .... normal ...

Soon we found out that the baby I carried had a rare genetic disorder called MOSAIC TRISOMY 16.

I was told, "he'll die in utero, if he doesn't he'll die shortly after birth.... and if by some miracle he comes home, he'll be so mentally and physically delayed, it won't be worth it."

Imagine how heartbreaking that was.  Especially hearing your child would die.  No doubts about it.  That doctor sat there and gave the baby I fought for a death sentence.

He was born alive, all ONE POUND TWELVE POINT TWO OUNCES of him.

There was barely anything to him.

He didn't die....  infact, he started to breath on his own after only 40 hours and doctors would stop and wonder why this tiny baby wasn't on a vent.  But he beat all the odds he was given.  Sure, he had medical issues going on... he's been hospitalized.  He almost died in 2007.  ALMOST.  He has grown and he has thrived, he learns at his own rate and he is amazing.

Today.........  he turns ELEVEN!

For Noah's birthday he wanted to hang out in his PJ's all day and have cake and Chinese food ... and open gifts.  :)

So that's what we did.  We got Chinese for lunch, and he got to open his gifts.  He got some World of Warcraft Legos, a book, a movie, WOW subscription .... and cake!

We celebrate his life EVERY YEAR!  So little is known about MT16 and we never know what could happen.  My miracle is 11 today ....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOAH!!!

I am the mother of a 17 year old....

Calahan wanted a home-made cake for his birthday - he always likes home-made cakes.  Instead of just a plain ol' cake mix though, we decided to get creative AND try our hand at decorating.  To say it was a FAIL is an understatement but it was fun and Calahan liked it.

After torturing him for several days of looking at this wrapped up box, it was fun to having him open it up and see what he wanted, the new Resident Evil movie (and a couple notebooks).  Calahan has a bad habit of "guessing" gifts, so now I have to get creative wrapping them so he can't shake it, poke it or look at it and know what it is.

Here he is while opening and reading his cards...

Since our cake was a fail, Nana came to save the day and brought this over.

I just love this picture of him.....  and Nathan....

Nana also brought over the other thing he really really wanted.....  from her an Papa

About to blow out the candles....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALAHAN!!!

Here is a song for my son today...

17 Years Ago ..........

17 years ago today, I was on the cusp of becoming one of the only things I ever wanted to be when I "grew up" .......

......... a mom. 

I was 19 years old, married, and over due.  I had an ultrasound ...  I remember, the lady doing it kept getting this concerned look on her face, and I asked her if something was wrong, she wouldn't tell me.  She just told us to wait in the waiting room and she was going to call the doctor.  A little while later she came out and told us to go home - the doctor would call us in about an hour. 

That was a long hour. 

Finally the phone call came and she told me that I had little to no water left inside my womb with the baby and they wanted me to go to the hospital and 6pm (where I had just been doing the ultrasound) ....  and be admitted to be induced. 

I had been complaining for over a month that I was leaking water - but no one believed me.

So I tried to sleep, I couldn't sleep ... I was so anxious... scared.... happy....  excited...  I made sure everything was packed, little girl outfit because I was sure it was a girl, a neutralish outift just incase ...

Then the time came to go .........

I was checked in .....

Admitted ......

Sent to a room ....

Told to change........

They got an IV hooked up ....

They stuck in a suppository of  something to help "ripen my cervix" ...   while they checked me. 

They were going to wait a little bit before starting the petocin ... but they didn't need it, my contractions started almost immediately ....  (around 6pm)

I was fine for a long time. 

But at about 10 or 11 o'clock I was hurting bad ....  I didn't want an epidural...  but they gave a shot to take the "edge off" that didn't do NOTHING .....

Eventually - around 2am .... I fell asleep in the rocking chair ... I was in that sleep state where you are sleeping, but you are aware of everything around you ..... 

I started coming around to where I could hear things.  I heard the nurse come in, I heard the sound of her grabbing the paper coming out of the machine and saying "Her contractions have completely stopped" ...   and "well get things started again in the morning, we'll let her rest" ......

I remember thinking, aww crap.  But also being thankful I could sleep for a bit. 

My (ex) MIL and my (ex) husband decided to leave the room and go down out of the hospital so my (ex) MIL could smoke... 

From what my Mom tells me, they couldn't have been down to the elevator when I shot upright with my eyes bugging out of my head cuz I went from nothing for 45 minutes to HARD LABOR ....

I went into shock and I was shaking and throwing up with every contraction.  Shaking so hard that there were several people trying to hold me down/make sure I was safe ....  it was crazy....

About 6 o'clock in the morning I finally hit 10 centimeters ..... and I was able to start pushing.   After 13 hours (almost 14 hours) of labor, I finally gave birth to my first child........

 The day he was born - 17 years ago tomorrow ....

 A few days old, when we went home.... 

 Back in the day when they suggested you put babies to sleep on their bellies .... 

My baby .............  (sniff)

TeHee Thursday ..... New Years

So I'm starting this ........  I think it would be fun to share something funny you've seen on the internet and share it ...  it's always a good way to pass Thrusday, with some laughter ....   so share one thing, share a lot.  If you do this, please comment for right now until I can figure out the linkie thing.....

Here are a couple of giggles I came across when I was looking for new New Years graphics....

Wordless Wednesday: 17 Years .....

2013 Goals ....

 Last Year's Resolutions .... as seen HERE ....

1: Be a lot meaner to my kids........ they need attitude adjustments.
2: To treat my friends like crap!
3: Shut all doors to my family!
4:  Talk about everything I know nothing about

I thought these were the BEST ............  of course I did none of them! LOL ...

Let's start with the REAL goals I failed on last year. 

#1:  Be better and being proactive with my diabetes.  To be honest, I fell off the wagon when Dennis got sick.  Stopped taking all my meds, including my insulin.  :c/   But I don't WANT to be like this.  Gotta be honest though - to not be doing 7 shots a day is fantastic.  But I know I need to manage it again.  My blood sugar has NOT been crazy outrageous though ... so I am going to ease back into things.  I did do a lot better.  I did have times where I "fell off the wagon" ...  but I think I did good.  Can I do better?  YES ....   so I'll continue to work on it. 

#2: Read 25 Books this year.  I was going to do 100, then figured 50... but realized that 25 is more realistic.  I don't read books in a day - and it usually takes me a couple weeks of reading when I get free time to get through one.  I'm not going to count kids books either - if I were doing 100 - I'd be counting EVERY book I read the little boys ...  so 25 is good.  I have four kids....... and school....  and a husband who can't do much so everything is on me....... 25 might be a stretch! LOL  ... 25 was a stretch!  I read 8 books!  EIGHT!!  I didn't even read my first book until the summer, but now I'm back in the habit of reading almost everyday ... I hope to get closer to 25 this year.  I mean - realistically - 100 books?  That's reading/starting a new book every 3-4 days.  Unless we count all the kids books I read to the kids, I'd never get to 100.  50, that's still a book a week.  It's not plausible in my life. 

#3:  I want to BLOG every day!  I made this resolution last year........ quickly failed.  I don't want to fail this year - but who knows.  I really really really want to blog every day.  Two years in a row I failed this.  So i don't think we're going to continue it .... we're just going to say - be a better blogger, and if I happen to blog every day - YAY ....  

#4:  Take photos everyday ......... again, re-resolution ... but ...  hoping to do it this year!  I do take pictures NEARLY everyday ...  I may miss a day here and there, but I take a lot of photos!  Some of them, I'm not sharing... LOL...  but...  yeah .... I can take pictures everyday ...  

#5:  Continue to do well in school!!  I am looooooooving going to school.  LOVE IT.  Looking forward to classes starting on Tuesday :)   Dennis got to the point where I had to be home ...  so school stopped, I do want to get back to it though.  

#6:  Potty train THREE this year!  Nathan, Kaedyn & Marnie! LOL.... Kaedyn - totally potty trained!  YAY .......... Nathan, he's ALMOST there.  He still has accidents but he's wearing underwear during the day.   Lets not even talk about the dog...   


So I did okay.  

So what about this year.  What are my Goals this year?  

 

And that's ......... that....