New Years Eve: A Year in Pictures

So I tried to get photos for my post from my husband's computer for this post and I was doing like he said and clicking away at the pictures and when I was finally done....after going through a years worth of pictures.....only 16 downloaded. So I had to go back again and pick the ones I wanted and messed up again.

I will not attempt to rearrange them, because I do not want to run the risk of losing one and having to go back on his laptop again. So here is my 2011 in no particular order.

Santa Claus at Sea World December

Little E getting his first treatment since his was an infant , July

Miss K on her 8th birthday, August

Little E with a cake mustache at Miss K's party

Bolwing at a birthday party, September

Last beach weekend of the summer, September

At the pool on the last beach weekend, September

Saying goodbye, September

Our first Monarchs, October

10 year Anniversary, October

The hubs and I, Channelside Tampa, October

Monarchs hatched, November

Posing after painting the house, October

Church picnic, November

First Performance with the SODA POPS, Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, December

Ready to perform, December

First Christmas with Sadie, our foster turned adopted pooch, December

Fishing trip with my dad, January

First trip of 2011 to Sea World, February

Little E with his guitar that was donated by a friend, January

First beach trip of the year, Spring Break, March

Birthday Party in the park, March

First Camping trip in 2011, Salt Springs, March

Easter Egg tradition, April

First time Easter egg hunting at my house, April

Random photo, May

Trip to New Smyrna Beach to visit relatives, May

After a full day, Father's Day weekend, June

Recital for SODA Dance Studio, Ballet Ms. Dion's class, June

Short haircut for Miss K, June

Summer begins and mommy takes kiddos to work, June

Little E turns 4, July

Shamu Rocks,Summer at Sea World, July

Visit to Uncle Travis, Aunt Christy's house for the first time, July

So I hope you stuck with it and viewed my year in photos.

I hope that 2012 holds as many surprises, good and bad, as 2011 blessed us with. We have had so many life changing experiences this year and hope to continue in the directions we have been heading. May God bless us and you all this year and that it prosper in the ways you hope for.

Happy New Year!!!

5QF: Last Friday of 2011

So here I am finally back to some blogging! I LOVE when I can find the time to sit down and write or do a blog meme. I have been enjoying the latest thing on some blogs A Year in Blogging. I wish I had gotten back on earlier so I could have done one, but sadly my computer was down to a nasty virus! Somehow I contracted it and thankfully my husband was able to remove it and add a new spyware program. But it took a few days to remedy the problem.
Cheers to one last 5QF for 2011!! Happy New Years y'all!

1. What's the oldest piece of clothing in your closet? I think I have finally gotten the clothes from high school weeded out. Whew! So the oldest article of clothing hanging in my closet would have to be, ten years old! That is still VERY, VERY sad.

2. How many random blog readers have you met? Well if Ican count MckMama as a random reader, then one. We met when she was in Tampa for photo shoots and she took pictures of my kids. 

3. Do you let your kids stay up till midnight on New Years Eve? (Or, if you don't have kiddos yet, did you get to stay up until midnight as a child?) Yes, I let them stay up, if they can make it. I have yet to be able to go to a New Years party without kids, so for nine years (including the year I was pregnant with Miss K) I have had kids with me. Seriously though, I have a hard enough time staying up until midnight. There have been many years where I have passed out on the floor waiting. It's a big joke to see how long I'll last.

4. What are the gas prices where you live? Let's see. Today, the corner gas station near my house is $3.279 a gallon. Two days ago it was $3.199 in the morning and when I got back from Tampa in the evening it was $3.299. It's irritating to watch it jump 10 cents in one day, then 10 more the next, then down 2 the next. ANNOYING!

5. What is one resolution that you know you should do but are too afraid to try? Go back to college. I have been thinking about starting classes again. Biggest fear with this~~ that I won't be able to figure out a major again.

PYHO: In God's Hands

You never know what the day is going to bring. What obstacle, miracle, disappointment or surprise. It's all in God's hand and what he has planned for us. 

I thank God for being by my husband's side on Monday evening. 

You never know what lies ahead down the road.

You cannot predict the future.

Despite the fact that you have driven down the same road, five days

a week for seven years.

 Today is day two after his car accident on his way home from work

on Monday evening. Thankfully the people in the car he hit are okay.

Thankfully he is not sitting in a hospital bed, or worse. I'd rather not think

about what could have happened.

He is doing okay for the time being.

I thank God for keeping my husband on this Earth for awhile

longer.

PYHO: Admitting your child has a problem

As a parent you don't want to think that there is anything wrong with your child. They are this perfect human being that you created and you will stop at nothing to make their life normal. They achieve all the growing milestones on or before the average child. They talk at an early age and walk at an early age. Gross motor skills are right on target as well as fine motor skills. Then it's like something else happens.

I first noticed it when Miss K was going on two years old that she lacked the ability to focus on a given task. Even small tasks that only required a short amount of time and thinking, she would struggle.
At every pediatrician visit we would bring it up that she had issues. The answer was always, "it's her age. They have a short attention span at young ages."

So we struggled another year and would again repeat the concerns. Of course they would give us the same answer, that it was her age. They just didn't seem to understand that it's like she has all these thoughts going around in her head and she can't stop them.

Miss K is a very intelligent child, she just lacks the ability to focus for long periods and fidgets. She also likes to talk, too much sometimes which falls back into not being to focus and does not pay attention to her surroundings.  

 Her first year of school was a minor struggle. Since it was only Kindergarten and the school system treats them gently, she made it through.Unfortunately, the next year did not go as well. She received average grades but her behavior was causing concerns. We had several parent/ teacher conferences and a few conferences with the principal.

It was mentioned at one of the conferences about Miss K being gifted and possible testing. Her reading scores were high, she was on the next grade level and other areas pointed in that direction. I was dissatisfied with her first grade teacher and even more so when she failed to file the paperwork in time.

It was then that I was forced to wait until second grade to get the test done by the school. The teacher that Miss K got for second grade was really nice and loved my daughter. However, the class that she was in had two teachers with two classes. So the other teacher was not as compassionate and Miss K constantly got into trouble and her behavior was up and down.

By the time that I knew the gifted test was going to be performed, I realized it was not going to go well.With my daughter's inability to stay focused, it took her longer to complete tests, longer to produce answers and without paper she was going to score low. She couldn't just think the answer in her mind without writing it out. But I knew she wasn't going to ask for pen and paper for this test. It's mostly verbal answers.

By the end of the school year, I knew that I was going to have to pick her teacher for the next year. I was not going to leave it up to chance and hope she was placed with a compassionate teacher. If she was going to be in public school, I knew that she needed a better teacher to be able to make it.

This year has been completely different. Her teacher is amazing. We have had our ups and downs again, but this time I have been ready for it. And I finally stopped letting the pediatricians bulldoze me and I requested Miss K be tested for ADHD. They didn't fight me either.

The questionnaires were very extensive for myself and her teacher. I was also required to get test scores, report cards and any material that could show Miss K' performance. A few weeks after turning in the paper work we were called in for the first evaluation.

Miss K was diagnosed with ADHD with hyperactivity and low focus. The focus I knew, the hyper activity, I was some what shocked. But after thinking about it, realized that she has a hard time sitting still at times when she should be. The next step was deciding if we wanted to go with medicating her. I said yes and accepted their prescription and set up a follow up appointment.

But it wasn't until this past weekend that I finally started her on the medicine. I was still apprehensive. I thought, maybe we could still do this without it. Honestly, I was scared. The side effects worried me some. And explaining this all to her seemed very hard.

But in just five days time, I already see major improvements. It's amazing. We are seeing one of the side effects and we are supposed to call the pediatrician a week after starting the medicine. It's like the medicine has tuned out the random thoughts in her head and allowed her to focus on individual tasks.

I never thought it would take this long to finally get a grip on the issue. 

Dear Santa: She's getting wiser

A few months ago, Miss K started questioning the validity of Santa Claus. I wasn't prepared for her to start questioning whether or not he was real and I convinced her that he indeed was. I pulled it off, even though I would have liked to tell her the truth about it.
For  many reasons, I really dislike the idea of Santa. I don't like lying to my children for starters.  Too much emphasis is put on Santa and Christmas and he's not the one buying the gifts. And most importantly, what does he have to do with Jesus?
I honestly think by the age of  seven or eight, it makes sense to squash the idea. I'm tired of this "jolly old man" taking the credit for Christmas gifts and confusing my children about the real reason we celebrate this holiday.
Yes, this is partly my own fault, because I should have never let it get out of control when Miss K was able to understand Christmas. It was only about three years ago when I changed direction with this. I decided that I would buy the Santa gifts and have them come from my husband and I and Santa would get credit for one of the gifts from her Santa list and her stocking.

 Ok, I'm going to step off my soapbox now.

So last night Miss K did it again. She caught me completely off guard and said to me "mom, I know there is no Santa. There is no way he is real. Reindeer do not fly and there is no Rudolph.."

Me, completely shocked at how much she really disbelieved it started laughing. The kind of laughing that makes you unable to breathe laughing. I was making dinner, so I tried to hide my face in the fridge to collect myself.

After gaining some composure I said " how are you so sure? So if you believe there is no Santa, then I guess you won't be getting any Santa gifts and Little E will."

She stared at me for a moment and quickly rebutted " so it's true then. There is NO Santa. It's just you and daddy."

Some quick thinking on my part here.

"Ok then, I'll call him.You can talk to him".

She looks at me like WTH. I seriously caught her off guard. And then I quickly starting searching the internet for a phone number. Of course, I was not having any luck and she starting disbelieving me again.

Then my husband phone rings.

He tells Miss K, "it's for you!! Come here."

He turns the speaker on and you hear a jolly old voice that sounds like Santa talking about how he's so busy, he's got his "nice list" all ready to go for Christmas and that he heard that you've been good this year.

Miss K was flabbergasted. She got this look on her face that was priceless.

The phone call ended and she was just shocked that he called and told her she had been good. She said "mom, I have been good. I have."

 So I've decided to keep the "magic" going one more Christmas.....we'll break the news after the tree comes down.