Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!!! I hope that you all have a wonderful day with your family and young ones. This is our first Easter in our own place since 2011 when we were renting the house. It is such a great feeling knowing that we have our own place to be able to spend Easter in. We weren't able to get the kids Easter baskets since we are still budgeting money and making sure that we have enough money for bills, but we were able to get eggs and coloring and we were able to color Easter eggs with the kids and hide them so that they can find them in the morning.

 

Cheyanne was so cute last night while we were coloring Easter eggs. She interacted so much while they were decorating the eggs and it was great to get it all caught up on camera! She was even making funny faces at the camera lol she is becoming such a vibrant and adorable little girl! I just love her so much and I love cuddling up with her.

Time for a major update

WOW!! It's been such a long time since I have actually sat on here and wrote an update!! I can't believe that I have let it go this long till I wrote an update, but there have been so much that has been going on since I wrote my last update in December.

So let's get started on all of the fun updates that we have going on :) On March 7th, we FINALLY moved out of the motel that we had been living in since July 2011!!! We now have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment with a washer/dryer, dishwasher & an actual wood burning fireplace!! It is so nice having a full sized kitchen, I mean I actually have an oven to cook meals in and it is just so great! I even have a full sized fridge! I haven't had a full sized fridge since I lived in the house that we were renting and that was back in 2011. I have seriously forgotten what it was like to live in an apartment and have all the room that we have. All 3 of the boys are sharing a room together and then Cheyanne has her own lil princess bedroom :) I love having the washer and dryer in our apartment as well. I am able to do laundry when I need to instead of either waiting for a laundry room key and/or hoping that I have change to do the laundry.

(Cheyanne's bed and part of her wall decorations)

Matthew and Jackson are still going to the same school, their teachers didn't want them to leave that school, so they talked with the school counselor and she was able to set up transportation for them. They have a bus that comes to pick them up, take them to school and drop them off at home. Its really great to know that their teachers are thinking about them and they are able to stay at the same school. There is also a lot that is going on with Jackson right now. Right before school started in September 2013, Jackson started to have hallucinations, we were so scared, we didn't know what was going and we didn't know what was causing it. The first time it happened, we rushed him straight to the ER because we didn't know what else to do. The ER doctor there thought that it was from his ADHD meds, since his CT scan came back clean. So we made an appointment with his primary doctor and they changed his ADHD medications, after a few months of being on the new medication, he started to hallucinate again, so we took him off of all the medications totally. Even though he was off of all medications, he was still having hallucinations. It has now come down to the fact that the doctors are thinking that he may have a tumor pressing on his brain somewhere. We are having to wait for the referral to come through and get approved from the insurance company before we can get his new CT scan done. It is a very scary thought that my son might have a brain tumor. There are tumors that are cancerous and some that are not, but of course we won't know what kind it is (or if he even has one) until we get in there and take a good look at it. We were hoping that we could get a full family history from their biological father or someone in his family, but they are not wanting to talk with me, which I totally understand, things between my ex and I didn't end on good terms, but I don't want that to get in the way of us being able to be civil with one another when it comes to Jackson or even Matthew, but I can't make someone do something that they don't want to do, so I'm not going to force them to.

Aidan and Cheyanne are doing great! We still have to get Aidan in for his Autism/Aspergers testing to do done, so that we can figure out what is going on with him. Next year he will be starting school for sure, we used this year to kind of get him a little bit more prepared since he is also developmentally delayed (he is now mentally the age of a 3-4 year old), when he was 5 years old he was mentally the age of a 2-3 year old, so no he wasn't ready to start school at all. Cheyanne when we first moved into the apartment, was having a hard time, but it took her a few days and she got used to the apartment and sleeping in her own room. She is walking and running all over the place, she's talking a lot more. She is just blossoming more into her own person and it's just crazy to see how much she has grown already. She is a handful, that is for sure, but I wouldn't trade her for the world!!

Much needed update

Wow, I can't believe that it's been a little over 7 months since I have last been on here and wrote something. It's just been so crazy and hectic around the house that I feel like I am going totally bonkers. Cheyanne is on the go all the time and I have been so busy with trying to get things organized around the hotel room and make more room for all of us in there.

Matthew and Jackson have started school back in the public school and so far have been enjoying it and they are both doing very good. I was kind of worried about putting Matt back in the public school because of all the things that happened in the past at his old school, but since they are starting at a new school, I was hoping that things would be different and so far things are, but in a good way. He isn't being bullied in school, he is making a lot of new friends who don't turn on him, he is doing really good in school and if someone is bugging/picking on him, he goes straight to an adult instead of taking matter into his own hands. Jackson is also doing very well in school as well. We are going to set him up with a reading tutor, he is a little behind on his reading, but we believe we know why, but it's not a for sure thing as of yet. But other then the reading, he is doing really well in school and is excelling in all other areas. Matthew is trying out for track this year and Jackson is going for Digital Photography, which I think is just totally great!!

Cheyanne has been walking all over the place lately. I just can't believe how big she is getting. She is going to be a year old on the 17th of this month. It doesn't feel like I had her almost 1 year ago!!! She is talking a little bit more now. She says mama, dada, baba, ow, Mah (Matt), and yeah. She waves goodbye, hi and night night. When she waves night night, it's to herself and in the mirror :) she is just an all around cutie! I can't believe that I finally have a little girl.

Neil and I have been doing pretty good. We did hit a big bump in our relationship to where we almost filed for divorce. Things were going really rough with Matthew and Neil has been having a hard time with it and it got to the point with him that he figured that the best thing for him to do was file for divorce. Thankfully I was able to get through to him and told him that this wasn't something that I wanted and that we could get through this. We have already been through so much as it is that we would hate to have it end. Since then things have been going better between us. On the 12th of this month we will be together as a couple for 7 years!! I can't believe that we have been together for 7 years. I love him more now then I did 7 years ago!! I still can't believe that I have such a great and amazing husband in my life and my children's lives as well.

An Amazing Husband

 

What can I say, I really have been blessed with such an amazing husband and wonderful father to my children. We have been through so much in the 6 1/2 years that we have been together and yet we are still going so strong. People didn't think that we would make it through and that we more than likely wouldn't be together still, but here we are, almost married for 6 years and still going stronger than ever! He took on 2 children that were not his and has cared for them as if they were his own biological children. Not a lot of guys these days would do something like that. If they see that you have children, they don't want to deal with all the baby daddy drama that could come along with it. He always finds way to surprise me with things, even if it's just something that is small, like a card. He shows me affection like no other and makes me know every night and every time we get off the phone that he loves me. Thank you Neil for being such an amazing husband and a wonderful father to our children. We couldn't have asked for a better man in our life.

I lovve you Neil, forever and always!!

Homeschooling and more 3/13/13

3/13/13 @ 2:30pm

Yesterday the boys and I did our schoolwork & we had a lot of fun. Matthew and I did Social Studies & he got to learn about the Constitution. We had a lot of fun yesterday. Both f the boys are doing really good in school and I have noticed they are learning a lot better at home than they were in school. They are able to take their time on the lesson and have someone explain it to them to where they can understand it. The other thing that the boys like is the fact we can take our own field trips to places like OMSI, the zoo, Kids Club, etc and they love that. Back when I was in school we went on field trips at least 4 or 5 field trips a year. Since the kids started public school they only went on 1 field trip & that was to the pumpkin patch, not even a place that is educational. Back when Neil and I were in school we would go to the zoo, OMSI, The Children's Museum, The Water Resource Center, places like that, plus we would go to the pumpkin patch as well. They love the fact that we can go on our own field trips and they also count towards their PE as well. I know a lot of people think that kids who are homeschooled don't have social interaction, but that's not true at all. We have outings that they do with K12 and meet kids in the area that homeschool as well. 

So as some people know, my youngest son, Aidan, is developmentally delayed. He will be 6 years old on November 28th, but he is mentally the age of a 2-3 year old. He was born at 36 weeks, now I know that some babies born a lot earlier and don't have problems, but each kid is different. Aidan now goes to physical therapy and will start speech therapy and occupational therapy. There is no guarantee that he will ever grow out of it, he may be like this for the rest of his life. Everyday is a struggle & a new challenge, but everyday also brings new goals & achievements. Neil and I also think that he has a form of Autism, but we have to get him tested for it first, but he does have signs of having Autism. He has been doing so good at physical therapy & is slowly catching up to where he needs to be age wise, but its going to take time for sure, but I know if we keep working hard we can do it and make it through all of this and get him up to where he needs to be. I am applying for disability for him, which he will for sure get.

I have been trying to clean the hotel room and get things ready to go be put into our storage unit, but it's been hard cause I also have no where to put anything at the moment. Literally everything that we own is in this hotel room, so we had to go and get a 5x5 storage unit because we basically live paycheck to paycheck. We lost everything and loosing everything is not easy on a person. We have one 5 drawer dresser that has Neil, Cheyanne, Matthew, Jackson & Aidan's clothes in it, all of my clothes are in a tub. Living out of a hotel is no where near easy and yes it sucks, but it's the only place that we can live right now since no one will take us in.
  

Physical Therapy

12:50pm

Well right now I am at my physical therapy appt, waiting for it to start. Kind of nervous and hoping that this works cause I really don't want to have yet another surgery, but because this injury is from when I was like 15-16 years old (16 years ago) they may have to do the surgery. But it's better to try this first to see if it does help.

6:05pm 

Well after seeing my physical therapist earlier today, just the smallest and easiest exercises make my shoulder hurt, which is not a good thing at all, so she is afraid that I am going to need to have surgery on my shoulder as well.  

Fresh start and more

5:40pm 3/11/13

Right now I am at Matthew's counseling appt, so I figured I would work on a new entry for everyone ^-^ I am just a writing machine today lol

So earlier today I had a meeting with the boys' teachers and their lead teacher to basically say that I am going to follow certain rules and things so I can enroll them in school in the fall. So today starts a fresh new start on everything and that is a great feeling. Not that the kids were not doing school work, but the internet is so horrible that I can't get on there every day to log in their work. But ti's good to know that the school and teachers are there to help us all out. It's like I told the teachers, I have to do everything I can to keep them homeschooled at this point. The boys do NOT want to go back to public school, especially Matthew, after everything they went through. Matthew was being bullied from Kindergarten to 3rd grade, he finally had enough (he would tell the teachers and other staff, but they would say if they didn't see it, they can't do anything about it), so he started to stand up for himself and he ended up getting in trouble (even though the teachers and staff never saw him hit the person) and they labeled him as the bully instead. Matthew was starting to get suicidal thoughts because of it. I know some people don't agree with my choice of homeschool because they need social interaction, but I also can't put my child through that again.

With Jackson, he needs more one on one to be able to understand things, he also needs to be able to get up and move around (other than reccess) due to his ADHD. The teachers had him labeled as a trouble maker cause he was always trying to get up, move around and talk to other kids when he should have been doing schoolwork, they also thought that he was lazy because he was not understanding somethings and they refused to word it another way for him to understand. Now yes I know not all schools are the same way, but I also don't want to take the risk of it happening again and I want them to get a good education. My kids mean everything to me and I will make sure they are safe and getting what they need.

 I am in the lobby of Matthew's counseling office (which is also my old work as well) waiting for him to be done and there is this couple out here with their son, who is about a year old or so, and they are letting him just totally run wild and tear things up. It's parents like that, that irritated me to no end. They have no respect for anyone or anything and so in the end they are teaching their child the samething. I understand that the child is young, but you have to do your part as the parent and discipline them as well (and I don't mean spanking, but at least get off your butt, go and get them and tell them that's not right). My children knew when I say no in a certain tone they had better not do it again and that's still how it is to this day. I, by all means, am not saying that they are bad parents, but they are what I call "lazy" parents. They have another baby who is about 5 months old or so and the baby leaked through her clothes, so the mom changed her (and she has a change of clothes for the baby, as she told her boyfriend that she did) but brought the baby out in only a diaper. When her boyfriend asked her why the baby was naked, she said because she didn't feel like dressing her, like really, it's 46 degrees outside and very cold. When we left, she still hadn't dressed the baby, had the baby sitting in the car seat, and just put a light blanket over the baby. I was so upset that she did that with the baby.