AUGH!! I AM SOO STRESED OUT!

Well that lasted along time didn't it?!?!?!?!!? First let me point out that I NEED a break. I love my kids, but I am really at my breaking point right now. Thom has been working a lot of extra hours, been out of town a lot, had no days off, and when he has been home, he has not been helping me, and me and the kids have all been real sick. So I have been in real need of some help and a break. So this weekend(Thom takes Friday thru Sunday off) was supposed to be MY weekend! I am getting my hair done, a pedicure,a nd my nails done, and I was going to go shopping with my best friend. (you know some really mommy time, no kids just having fun) So all that being said, everything that transpired yesterday probably does not sound like a big deal to you all, but in my emotionally distraught state it is VERY bad:)

After having the scare of my life yesterday afternoon with not knowing where my kids were. I sent them out the door to the bus yesterday morning, or so I thought. I prayed with them and kissed them good bye. Now my parents on on their bus route(which is really convient if I am not able to make it home in time, they can get right off at my mother's house), so they wave every morning and afternoon, it is this thing that thye do. I am talking to my mom about 3:30(as the kids are getting out of school), and she mentions that sshe did not see the kids on the bus this morning and did Thom take them to school, I said no, Thom is out of town today, they were on the bus, she says hmm, she id not see them. So we keep talking and the bus stops there before heading home, and she says again she did not see them on the bus. So I am starting to freak out about this point. And I keep telling myself that it is okay, i prayed with them this morning God was watching out for them, they are on the bus and just fine. So I am loading up the other kids into the car becuase (PTL, we got the state part of our taxes deposited into our bank account! and we are headed to Wal Wart to get a couple things), and I am watching the clock, watching around the corner for my kids(now we are only about 1/8 of a mile away from the bus stop and it is all residential, so this is not a dangerous situation with the kids on the bus) and they should have been home 2 minutes ago!!!! The bus is generally very punctual. So I am REALLY freaking out! And FINALLY there they are! They are fine and perfect, and do not know why they were not seen on the bus, but all is great! But mom had a freakin heart attack and am still trying to calm down from this. When Makayla hands me a very professional looking letter addressed to me from the school. It is a reading recovery program that Makayla has been enrolled in at school because she is just 'not quite there yet'. So I start crying and freaking out (not on her) on myself. You know, just gosh how have I failed so miserably. This is her second 'special ed' class. What is wrong with me? Why am I such a terrible mother? You know the drill. So I push the letters asied and head out to the car, and we go into town. We hit Auto Zone first, cause I need knew brakes on my car. So I buy those and the rotor. And we move on to Wal Mart, get the oil changed and go shopping. Now Wal Mart is not the best place to be alone with 5 kids, now generally my children are pretty well behaved, but yesterday they were NOT! Now normally I can treathen bribe, you know whatever it takes to just get out of the store still somewhat sane. But yesterday just as we got there, I was on the phone with Thom, cause I had not heard from him and I wnted to talk to him about Kayla. I had texted him a few times, but he was not responding to me, so I called him, and I said where are you at (hoping he was headed home) and he says "Oh..I am in the ER", "WHAT, why are you there?", "Well you see....(ramble, ramble, trying to be funny, in a situation I clearly do not see as funny)" "So what is wrong with you", "Oh I gotta go, the doctor is here to see me" CLICK!!! Seriously! So now my frame of mind is NOT Wal Mart friendly(if there ever were such a thing). So I am wondering amailessly through Wal Mart trying to deal with said bratty kids, and NOT lose my mind, but I cannot even concentrate wondering what the heck is going on with my husband! And guess what? He is NOT calling me back!!! We are in Wal Mart for about 2 hours, and during checkup(of course you get the shortest line, with the DUMBEST cashier, there is a reason nobody is in that line), and wait, the peson in front of me only has one bag of items, but it takes AT LEAST 20 minutes to check her out. During this 20 minutes, my kids are touching EVERYTHING in the line(you know they line everything up there so they can watch the parent freak out and then they sit back and laugh about it) and I finally get a call from my hubsband! He has a broken ankle, they are headed to the pharmasict to get the prescriptions and crutches and then will be headed home(no I do not need to go get him, because luckily his friend was up there helping him out with the display) Okay I can maybe handle this. Maybe I should calm down and quit being mean to my kids. But they were being REAL bratty. So I am up to pay by this time, and the guy gives me my total, and I run my debit card, seriously I am there for 15 minutes waiting for him to figure out how to take my money. AUGH!!! So frustrating, and no he was not new, he was just not as intelligent as someone else might have been. I go pick up my car, and decide okay, so maybe i should call my husband and be nice to him, cause I was short, cause he had not called me. So I called him and say okay now tell me exaclty what happened to you.**blah, blah blah, still thinks he is being funny** Short version is, they have a mechanical bull that they take into the schools for displays. This bull also has an attachment that can make it a surf board. So he was fooling around acting like a teenager (when he is in the schools with all the teenagers, he has a hard time remembering that he is 33), and fell off. broke his ankle, end of story. So now I am really mad! You were playing around on something that I told oyu you were too old for, and had asked you to not do it, and now I get STUCK taking care of you!!!! And now my weekend is ruined! He can't watch the kids, he may be able to handle the older ones, but there is no way he can watch Will. So now my break(my weekend, time away fom th kdis, time of HELP) is not going to happen, I have to stay home and not only meet the demanding needs of my 5 children, but also the needs of my crippled husband. Why should I have to do all this???? I need a break, or at the very least a husband who calls me just to say, "hi honey how is your day going, do you need anything?" Is that honestly too much to ask for!!?!?!? I am venting really bad right now and I am sorry, I am just so at the end of my rope right now. I have been really struggling, and just crying out to God to help, literally on my knees bawling. So here is an update for you and a HUGE request for your prayers.

UPDATE

Well I think things are finally going good for us here:) We left the house yesterday and went to play at McDonald's with some friends, this is the first time in WEEKS we have been out of the house, everyone is finally done with their antibiotics and feeling better. Let's just hope things stay this way.

This is what our front yard looked like Monday afternoon. Now we live in the desert! But yes this is snow, our first and generally only snow of the year, every now and then we get hit with a good storm that produces some snow, we love it! When the kids got home from school they all went out to play in the snow, I laughed cause you would have thought there was at least a foot or more out there the way they were playing in it! They LOVED it! I think we are going to have to take them up to our friends' house in Pine Valley, this is about an hour from us, but it is in the mountains and they have TONS of snow. So I think some day this month we are going to have to go take a trip out there and play for the day.

The only bad thing is that Thom had to go up to Salt Lake Sunday afternoon, as the storm was rolling in, to get his computer fixed for work. And as he was headed home on Monday afternoon the storm was so bad up near Salt Lake that he had to turn around and take the trailer back to the office and when he got there the Commander saw him, and he grounded all personnel, no one was allowed to drive ANYWHERE. So he got snowed in for another night up there, and in the morning yesterday by the time the worst of the storm had passed, his truck(not used to 14 degree temperatures) would not run, so he got stuck there longer until the sun warmed the truck enough to start. LOL, it was such a frustrating trip for him. Well and us, but he did finally get home safe last night. There was so many accidents, that I am glad that he was safe in his hotel room. So I guess all worked out well after all:)!

William's ears are finally cleared up, there is still fluid in them but they are no longer infected. So now that he can her a little better, he is finally starting to really talk, I was so concerned that he would never talk! But he is crawling through the house as fast as he can now, and when he gets to a room with dad in it, he smiles, and chants"DA-DA", it is so cute, and he follows me around during the day while I am doing my housework and chores chanting "MA-MA". He is so cute, so he can now talk(a little late), but he is not just generally saying the words like they do at first, he has jumped right to knowing what he is saying and who he is saying it to:)

So we are finally all feeling better for a while I hope, I did not think we would ever get to all healthy EVER!

BIG BOY

Well William is now 10 months old! I can't believe it, he is getting so big!!! It seems like just yesterday I was going to the hospital to have him:( He is just a tiny little thing though. At the doctor's Saturday night, (yes, he had to go back to Instacare:( ), he was 18 pounds 9 ounces, his little cousin is 4 months younger than him, and is only 1 pound smaller. He is so tiny! But being so sick does not help, he is still not feeling well, but he did sleep through the night last night, WAHOO! and has started eating a little bit again, he did not eat for 2 solid days. I ask his doctors about him being so small and all they say is, well look at his mom and dad! But all my kids are small, they always have been, and I guess always will be. He is in less than the 5th percentile for height and weight, so less than 5th that it is almost off the charts. But Kaiden was off the charts, below it, for a couple years, so he is following in Kaiden's footsteps. All the other kids are small, but at least they are somewhat on the chart.

So Will is 10 months, and he is standing and walking around all the furniture, and he is walking with help. He loves to play with his walker toys he got for Christmas. He walks them all over the house:) Until he realizes he walked into a room where nobody is, he cannot be alone. He is a VERY spoiled child:) No not spoiled just very well loved:) He loves to play with his brothers and sisters. And just LIGHTS UP when Kaiden and Makayla come home from school. And when dad gets home from work, Will generally meets him at the door first, he is such a fast crawler, he just LOVES his family:)

SICKIES, SICKIES, SICKIES:(:(:(

Well things are not getting any better for us here:( The kids are coughing there little heads off. We decided to have a family night last time, I took the kids to Adventure Pizza, where Thom met us, as he had been out of town again. Then we took the kids to see the Bee Movie, it was cute, but the baby did not want to sit still through it, and the others were coughing so hard we had a hard time paying attention. So after that since we were already in town we headed to our pediactrican's night clinic. We waited there for 2 hours before we finally got seen. Kaiden has a real bad sinus infection and a pulled muscle in his upper thigh. Kayla and Rylie also have the sinus infection. Nic has croup still, I guess, and Will of course has a double ear infection. So all five of the kids are on antibiotics, as well as cough syrup. Now I had had Nic to the ENT earlier in the day for a consult for his tonsils coming out. And while at the doctor last night, the doctor recommend the girls get theirs out as well (Kaiden has already has his out). SO, I have been on the phone trying to schedule them appointments with the ENT to get tonsils and tubes(as Will's doctor has already said he will need them if he gets another ear infection so soon). But the best the ENT can do for me is the end of February:(, with surgeries maybe going into March:( So I am not sure how the next month is going to be for us. But hopefully the next 10 days of antibiotics will kick what they have now, and help them till they get in to the ENT and get surgery. Now if mom can just start feeling better, so I can help them get better:)

WHAT A WEEKEND!!!

Well the weekend was pretty uneventful. First we sat and watched football all day Saturday, BORING!!:) But the Packers did win so, WAHOOOO!!!!

But anyways, things were pretty uneventful until Saturday evening, well Sunday morning. Nic was being your typical 3 year old, obnoxious:) We put everyone to bed and all was fine. Makayla had been coughing for a few days, but had no other symptoms and nobody had even developed the cough. So I was treating her cough and all was fine. Well back to Saturday night, we put the kids to bed. And I was awakened at 4:06 Sunday morning, and woke Thom up, had him go check out the noises I was hearing. It was Nic, he was trying to get a drink cause his throat was hurting, now this was fine, but the problem was, was that he was coughing and gasping for air, as he could not breathe. So we tried to wait it out, we calmed him down, gave him a sucker and sat with him on our bed, and I took him outside knowing that the cough he had was probably croup, as he has already had it twice. But after half an hour he was still not breathing real well, so I got dressed and took him to the ER, now the ER is half an hour from our house. So it has now been an hour since he started having this attack. I can not imagine what is wrong with him, it sounds like croup to me, but he has NO other symptoms, he was perfectly healthy when he went to bed. Or I thought it might have been an asthma attack, but I have no experience where this is concerned. Well after a really jerky doctor checked him out, he said it was croup. Gave him a breathing treatment as well as a steroid, and sent us on our way. So we then went across the street to Harmon's and got him a big bag of candy, ( had to bribe him to get him in the car with me at 4:30:) ). But the doctor gave explicit orders to keep him away form the baby, as well as the others, who seemed to be coughing, he assumed that Makayla brought it home from school, and that is why she has been coughing so much, and it just did not affect her as bad cause she has a bigger airway. But if the baby got it, he may need to be hospitalized (which Nic was when he had it the first time when he was about the same age as Will is now). So we got home, and tried to get some sleep. But Thom ended up taking the girls to church without me or the boys, we stayed home and rested. But all the kids have developed a cough, all except the baby, PTL!!! And we actually had a sick day today. Kaiden stayed home from school, and we all rested. Makayla is feeling better, and she went to school. I am struggling to keep the baby away from everyone but it is HARD, he is a lot faster than me nowadays:) I am not feeling too well today, I have been feeling a head cold, sinus infection coming on for a couple days now, and I woke up about 5:30 this morning and could not move. I have the hugest knot in my neck and shoulder, which is giving me a headache, and I cannot move my head in any direction:) So it has been an interesting and unhealthy few days for us here. But so far the baby is healthy:) So I am praising God for that, and praying His continued protection on him:) And we are looking froward to feeling better this week:)

**Now with 5 kids, it is not usually very long between ER visits:), this time it was only a month between visits, hopefully it will be longer next time:)***

IT'S ONLY HAIR, IT'LL GROW BACK!

Well I got tired of Rylie's hair, she had cut herself bangs last year, (yeah, that was SCARY!!:) ) and it was growing back, but looked a little silly, cause her bangs were down to her chin and then her hair was to the middle of her back, and it was just not flowing, and it was bugging me! So I decided to cut it myself! Last night after she got out of the shower, I just took a deep breath and started, (cause once you start there is no going back!). Hers ended up looking pretty good, it is right at her shoulder, and she likes it, and I actually like it:)

Then Makayla started fussing cause she wanted hers done. Well her hair is really thick and it gets are for her to do when it gets longer, so I thought, yeah you should get a haircut also, it will make it easier on you. So after I was done with Rylie, I began Makayla, cause Ry's turned out so well. Well now you must understand that Kayla's hair is curly like mine, well not as bad, hers is just wavy. I started to cut it right at her shoulder, cause that is only as short as i will allow it to go. But by the time I got to the other side (now remember REALLY thick and wavy), it was up to her chin!!!!! So then I had to go back around and fix it! So now it is up to her chin. She LOVES it!! But mom is not totally impressed:( Oh and dad threw a FIT!!! LOL! But in the light of day, it is not so bad:) And I think if I blow dry it and straighten it every day (I know this will ruin her hair, but I have some good products), it will look pretty good until it grows out a little:) And hey, it will grow back , right?:)

GOALS FOR 2008

Well I have been doing a lot of thinking about the new year, and I do want to change and be a better overall person:) So far I feel like I am doing good, granted we are only 7 days into the new year:) Now some of these sound outrageous, like why are you not already doing that? But well obviously I am not.

1. LOSE 50 POUNDS!
A.START EATING BETTER
a. correct, healthy portions, no eating after 6:00 dinner
B. EXERCISE MORE
a. begin exercising daily, setting aside at least 30 minutes a day for exercise. (on this one I have been getting up early and instead of sending the kids off to the bus, we all get up, bundled up and me and the other 3 kids take the two to the bus stop, and then we proceed to go on a mile walk, before we go home and begin our day, it is actually very refreshing, and we enjoy our time out, playing:) )

(now this one I am doing pretty good on:) )
2. BE A BETTER WIFE
a. let it go!
b. suck it up and deal!
c. more loving and supportive
d. be calm and cool
3. BE A BETTER MOM
a. get kids on a schedule
b. make time for my kids(make them a priority, not my laziness)
c. lovingly speak to them always!
d. don’t take my frustrations out on them (deal with my issues before I deal with the kids)
e. don’t fight in front of them!
f. be calm and cool
g. get down and play with my kids(interact more with them)
4. BE A BETTER CHRISTIAN
a. have my quiet time every morning before I get out of bed
b. get into the Word more
c. get involved in Bible studies wherever possible, and follow through with them
d. turn to God first!
5. BE A BETTER HOMEMAKER
a. do laundry every day!
b. make sure house is clean before we go to bed
6. BECOME FINANCIALLY SECURE
a. stick to the budget!
b. save money, don’t take it out of savings, for anything!
c. never borrow money again!
7. OTHER THINGS
a. remember I have my children in the car, obey all traffic rules
b. be a person that I can be proud of
c. be the person my husband fell in love with and still wants around

So actually as I read these over again this morning typing this, I am doing really good:) I have actually so far (for a whole 7 days) been keeping to my goals. Things are going really good for all of us this year so far. The kids are really enjoying being back in school after their week and a half long Christmas break. Thom is overwhelmed with his work after taking the week and a half off for Christmas break with the kids. He is struggling to catch up on his work, and get in contact with his guys. And we are still waiting on test results about his kidney stones:( Yes, he has attacks of them at least once a week still. So we are anxiously awaiting these test results to fix him once and for all:)

A FUNNY EBAY AUCTION LISTING, TOO TRUE TO LIFE

A friend sent me this Ebay auction to check out. And as it seems so close to my life, and extremely hilarious, I thought I would share it here. (I just cut and copied it here.)

"I'm selling a bunch of Pokemon cards. Why? Because my kids sneaked them into my shopping cart while at the grocery store and I ended up buying them because I didn't notice they were there until we got home. How could I have possibly not noticed they were in my cart, you ask? Let me explain.
You haven’t lived until you’ve gone grocery shopping with six kids in tow. I would rather swim, covered in bait, through the English Channel, be a contestant on Fear Factor when they’re having pig brains for lunch, or do fourth grade math than to take my six kids to the grocery store. Because I absolutely detest grocery shopping, I tend to put it off as long as possible. There comes a time, however, when you’re peering into your fridge and thinking, ‘Hmmm, what can I make with ketchup, Italian dressing, and half an onion,’ that you decide you cannot avoid going to the grocery store any longer. Before beginning this most treacherous mission, I gather all the kids together and give them “The Lecture“.
“The Lecture“ goes like this…
MOM: “We have to go to the grocery store.”
KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“
MOM: “Hey, I don’t want to go either, but it’s either that or we’re eating cream of onion-ketchup soup and drinking Italian dressing for dinner tonight.”
KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“
MOM: “Now here are the rules: do not ask me for anything, do not poke the packages of meat in the butcher section, do not test the laws of physics and try to take out the bottom can in the pyramid shaped display, do not play baseball with oranges in the produce section, and most importantly, do not try to leave your brother at the store. Again.”
OK, the kids have been briefed. Time to go.
Once at the store, we grab not one, but two shopping carts. I wear the baby in a sling and the two little children sit in the carts while I push one cart and my oldest son pushes the other one. My oldest daughter is not allowed to push a cart. Ever. Why? Because the last time I let her push the cart, she smashed into my ankles so many times, my feet had to be amputated by the end of our shopping trip. This is not a good thing. You try running after a toddler with no feet sometime.
At this point, a woman looks at our two carts and asks me, “Are they all yours?” I answer good naturedly, “Yep!
“Oh my, you have your hands full.”
“Yes, I do, but it‘s fun!” I say smiling. I’ve heard all this before. In fact, I hear it every time I go anywhere with my brood.
We begin in the produce section where all these wonderfully, artistically arranged pyramids of fruit stand. There is something so irresistibly appealing about the apple on the bottom of the pile, that a child cannot help but try to touch it. Much like a bug to a zapper, the child is drawn to this piece of fruit. I turn around to the sounds of apples cascading down the display and onto the floor. Like Indiana Jones, there stands my son holding the all-consuming treasure that he just HAD to get and gazing at me with this dumbfounded look as if to say, “Did you see that??? Wow! I never thought that would happen!”
I give the offending child an exasperated sigh and say, “Didn’t I tell you, before we left, that I didn’t want you taking stuff from the bottom of the pile???”
“No. You said that you didn’t want us to take a can from the bottom of the pile. You didn’t say anything about apples.”
With superhuman effort, I resist the urge to send my child to the moon and instead focus on the positive - my child actually listened to me and remembered what I said!!! I make a mental note to be a little more specific the next time I give the kids The Grocery Store Lecture.
A little old man looks at all of us and says, “Are all of those your kids?”
Thinking about the apple incident, I reply, “Nope. They just started following me. I’ve never seen them before in my life.”
OK, now onto the bakery section where everything smells so good, I’m tempted to fill my cart with cookies and call it a day. Being on a perpetual diet, I try to hurry past the assortment of pies, cakes, breads, and pastries that have my children drooling. At this point the chorus of “Can we gets” begins.
“Can we get donuts?”
“No.”
“Can we get cupcakes?”
“No.”
“Can we get muffins?”
“No.”
“Can we get pie?”
“No.”
You’d think they’d catch on by this point, but no, they’re just getting started.
In the bakery, they’re giving away free samples of coffee cake and of course, my kids all take one. The toddler decides he doesn’t like it and proceeds to spit it out in my hand. (That’s what moms do. We put our hands in front of our children’s mouths so they can spit stuff into them. We’d rather carry around a handful of chewed up coffee cake, than to have the child spit it out onto the floor. I’m not sure why this is, but ask any mom and she’ll tell you the same.) Of course, there’s no garbage can around, so I continue shopping one-handed while searching for someplace to dispose of the regurgitated mess in my hand.
In the meat department, a mother with one small baby asks me, “Wow! Are all six yours?”
I answer her, “Yes, but I’m thinking of selling a couple of them.”
(Still searching for a garbage can at this point.)
Ok, after the meat department, my kids’ attention spans are spent. They’re done shopping at this point, but we aren’t even halfway through the store. This is about the time they like to start having shopping cart races. And who may I thank for teaching them this fun pastime? My seventh “child”, also known as my husband. While I’m picking out loaves of bread, the kids are running down the aisle behind the carts in an effort to get us kicked out of the store. I put to stop to that just as my son is about to crash head on into a giant cardboard cut-out of a Keebler elf stacked with packages of cookies.
Ah! Yes! I find a small trash can by the coffee machine in the cereal aisle and finally dump out the squishy contents of my hand. After standing in the cereal aisle for an hour and a half while the kids perused the various cereals, comparing the marshmallow and cheap, plastic toy content of each box, I broke down and let them each pick out a box. At any given time, we have twenty open boxes of cereal in my house.
As this is going on, my toddler is playing Houdini and maneuvering his little body out of the seat belt in an attempt to stand up in the cart. I’m amazed the kid made it to his second birthday without suffering a brain damaging head injury. In between trying to flip himself out of the cart, he sucks on the metal bars of the shopping cart. Mmmm, can you say “influenza”?
The shopping trip continues much like this. I break up fights between the kids now and then and stoop down to pick up items that the toddler has flung out of the cart. I desperately try to get everything on my list without adding too many other goodies to the carts.
Somehow I manage to complete my shopping in under four hours and head for the check-outs where my kids start in on a chorus of, “Can we have candy?” What evil minded person decided it would be a good idea to put a display of candy in the check-out lanes, right at a child’s eye level? Obviously someone who has never been shopping with children.
As I unload the carts, I notice many extra items that my kids have sneaked in the carts unbeknownst to me. I remove a box of Twinkies, a package of cupcakes, a bag of candy, and a can of cat food (we don’t even have a cat!). I somehow missed the box of Pokemon cards however and ended up purchasing them unbeknownst to me. As I pay for my purchases, the clerk looks at me, indicates my kids, and asks, “Are they all yours?”
Frustrated, exhausted from my trip, sick to my stomach from writing out a check for $289.53, dreading unloading all the groceries and putting them away and tired of hearing that question, I look at the clerk and answer her in my most sarcastic voice, “No. They’re not mine. I just go around the neighborhood gathering up kids to take to the grocery store because it’s so much more fun that way.”
So, up for auction is an opened (they ripped open the box on the way home from the store) package of Pokemon cards. There are 44 cards total. They're in perfect condition, as I took them away from the kiddos as soon as we got home from the store. Many of them say "Energy". I tried carrying them around with me, but they didn't work. I definitely didn't have any more energy than usual. One of them is shiny. There are a few creature-like things on many of them. One is called Pupitar. Hee hee hee Pupitar! (Oh no! My kids' sense of humor is rubbing off on me!) Anyway, I don't there's anything special about any of these cards, but I'm very much not an authority on Pokemon cards. I just know that I'm not letting my kids keep these as a reward for their sneakiness.
Shipping is FREE on this item. Insurance is optional, but once I drop the package at the post office, it is no longer my responsibility. For example, if my son decides to pour a bottle of glue into the envelope, or my daughter spills a glass of juice on the package, that’s my responsibility and I will fully refund your money. If, however, I take the envelope to the post office and a disgruntled mail carrier sets fire to it, a pack of wild dogs rip into it, or a mail sorting machine shreds it, it’s out of my hands, so you may want to add insurance. I will leave feedback for you as soon as I’ve received your payment. I will be happy to combine shipping on multiple items won within three days. This comes from a smoke-free, pet-free, child-filled home. Please ask me any questions before placing your bid. Happy bidding! :)"

NEW YEAR'S EVE

Well we had a wonderful New Year's Eve. We had a big party at our house, with most of our friends, some were unable to make it, but we still had a blast. We ate lots of food, and just played and hung out. And surprisingly there was no alcohol, yet we still had a great time!:) Now I am looking forward to a new year, and and new changes, happy times, and FINANCIAL FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!! We have lots of goals and resolutions, I am not actually planning on them all sticking, cause well they never do, but I do want to lose quite a bit of weight, which is going to be my biggest challenge, but Thom says he will support me this time:) We have lots of exciting trips planned this year, and are really looking forward to this new year. We pray God's blessings on all of you, our friends and family this coming new year.

WILL'S EARS

Well I told you that I would let you know how Will's doctors appointment went to check on his ears. Well all went well! WAHOO!!!! He loved his doctor, and was just playing with him the whole time. But the doctor did say the all the infection is cleared up, finally after 2 1/2 months!!!! There is still fluid, but he said we will give them 2 months to clear up the fluid before we do surgery! He is no longer in pain, but he still cannot completely hear properly, but we are on the mending path!!! And he has FINALLY started babbling the way he was supposed to be for a few months now. And he is saying 'da-da'!!:) How cute is he!?!?!?!?!?!