Oh, For goodness sake...

I was just making a comment on a friends blog (Good Luck JP!) and I realized it's been a while since I updated. Here I am trying to upload some pics. I've been trying to post a bio pic and it just keeps freezing up. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'll try uploading photos to my post this time.

I just have to say, that I'm sorry that karatemommy had a rough time, but I'm glad she's back. It means I have friends at home. And Doreen is coming home early next week! I'm so excited. It's been so lonely to be out of the Villa and my best friends gone. My kids aren't even tan!

As a tangent to explain...All summer long, in the Villa, my kids were outside playing with their friends. They got *really* tan in the summer and I did too. Last weekend we went to Bear Lake and they weren't even as dark as my sister's kids! I was shocked. Mine are usually darker, but my sis just moved into a neighborhood where the kids run from yard to yard on their cul-de-sac and mine now live on a street with college students living on all sides of us. It's too hot to be outside unless there is real motivation and playing with siblings just isn't it.

So..to something totally different, a couple of weeks ago, B was being tested by her Speech Pthologists for her regualr eval and they asked her to identify one of four pictures on a page. They were objects that she knows the signs for and has repeated them back to me numerous times. She wouldn't do it. We waited for a long time and she just wouldn't do it. I chalked it up to age-appropriate beligerence and didn't worry. But her vision therapist has asked me to start working with her on some abstract shapes so that she can identify them and then we can test her acuity. Once again, she has never done it for me. Meanwhile, back at the ranch of the CommD feeding clinic, another speech path gave her a "voice box" which talks for her after she pushes a button. It has pictures of objects she likes and she pushes them when she wants what it shows on the pictures (for example, a button has a pic of some crackers and it says, "I want a snack." She has a couple of "favorites" (see previous example) and she won't touch the other buttons.

When the vision therapist came back to test my progress at getting B to obey, I started putting everything together and asked her if that could all be connectd. She was very convinced that it was and that B proobably has a vision processing problem and possibly (I think probably) a language processing problem as well. We won't know the extent of it or what exactly it affects for years. I asked pne of her speech teachers today if we were dealing with it appropriately, and she said that the only way processing problems are treated is by repetition, but it almost certainly would improve with what we are doing. Oh fun, I can't wait to see how this manifests as she gets older. How do we tell people who spend large amounts of time with her (primary teachers, for example) in a way that they can understand? I don't even think I can understand it to my own satisfaction. I guess we just keep doing what we are doing.

So this first pic if my beautiful B in june. The second one is the birthday one that I promised to post. It's me in my "birthyda outfit" from omi and the cute purse/knitting bag that she got for me. (of course, my appendage, aka Rapunzel, is with me).

Enjoy!

Good Reads!

I just finished a book from one of my all-time favorite authors. I admit, I like romances, and I love old Gothic ones, but right now, I adore Juliet Marillier. I fell in love with her Sevenwaters Trilogy and she has newer series out called The Bridei Chronicles. I just read the first book, The Dark Mirror. They are yummy books to curl up with. Lots of subtext and complex characters.

Anyway, I spent all of my birthday money at knitpicks. I've never bought anything from them in loyalty to my LYS, but I thought I'd better try them just once. I'll have to send a pic when it gets here. 12 balls of yarn! I'm so excited I could almost wet myself. I've started a new pair of socks and I love how the lace is shaping up. I've finally finished the longies that I spun up and started for Belen last November (why did I think that I would finish them last winter?) well...kind of. I still need to graft and weave, but who counts that, right?

Jared is going to be selling homemade ice cream at the Gardener's Market tomorrow. That is, if they let him, he hasn't technically been approved by the market powers-that-be. I tasted some of the respberry ice cream that he'll be making and I'm sure that it will run out before the market is over. He's only planning to make three batched so you'd better come quick! He's taking Zeke with him in the car and I'll follow on the LTD with the girls. He's running around the house madly right now, gathering everything and making sure everything is ready.

Birthdays are...

yeah, it was my birthday yesterday. I'm 29. I look at that number and I feel a lot older than that. Other times, I feel so much younger. I don't want to minimize any one else's experiences, I just feel like I've had my fair share for a while. I usually reflect a little on my birthday, and make some goals, but I'm not really in a place to do that right now.

Anyway, Yesterday was GREAT! I went to the Temple with a dear friend in my playgroup. H was baptized a year ago and has been chomping at the bit to go to the temple. At 9:00 am we were all seated in the Logan Temple and about 1/3 to 1/2 of the people in the endowment room were people there to support her. Someday I'd like to know I've had that much influence. Micheal Ballam was there for her! After that, I had to mow the lawn (Ick!) so I also had to take some benadryl....

Then we went to my parents house and they took us to Famous Dave's. It's a restaurant that I really like. The kids all ate their food and then omi and opi took the kids while we traipsed around Layton for an hour and a half. I realized that while I enjoy window shopping, I don't really like "real" shopping for myself. All sorts of guilt and frustration for not finding exactly the right thing. Ah well, if I don't find the right shoes, I can always find some yarn to spend my birthday money on, right?

My mom got me this cute purse and an outfit, along with some spending money and Jared took me to look for a table for my basin and pitcher! I haven't been able to find just the right one, but it will come.

All in all, it was a pretty nice birthday. Oh yeah! My bil and sil said they would take the kids for a night for us as a gift as well. I'm so excited! I took a coupe photos, so I'll post those as soon as I find the camera...

Joining the rest of the Universe...

Okay, Okay, I've done it. I'm now a blogger. I won't have a witty blog like Yarn Harlot (I'll make that a witty link when I figure out how...) and it may not be very funny, but I'll try to be genuine. This won't be a strictly knitting/spinning blog or a music blog or even a mommy blog as I don't do enough of one thing to make that even remotely interesting. I may be on a soapbox or two occasionally, but I'll try not to do that often.

so...I told the kidlets that I was going to have a blog and they could even post if they wanted to, the only rule was they couldn't use their real names :-)

That got them so excited!

They realized the world of fake names was open to them and they started thinking in earnest for the perfect name to be on the blog...

Son #1: I want to be Ammon, that's a good name...and then he thought of all the superheroes he could be. He came up with Frodo all though he may change that as we go along. :-)

Daughter #1: I want a queen name, can I have a queen name? Not a kid name, mom, it has to be a grown-up name! We came up with Queen Rapunzel although she is both a kid (according to her) and a princess, but it seemed to be exciting enough, that she acquiesced. (She loves Rapunzel right now)

Daughter #3: She's taking a nap right now, so we get to choose for her. I think we'll call her Little Buggy because that's what we call her anyway...

DH will be HeaterBoy and I won't explain that one because that may just be TMI. :-)

Now that we've got that all set up...

I have to vent about this week's happenings, Buggy got a respiratory infection that Rapunzel brought home (isn't it nice when kids share everything?) and I was afraid it was getting worse. Tuesday night's SATs were terrible and we had to turn up her oxygen to 5 whole liters! After a fiasco with the dr's I finally called my midwife and she was so kind and gentle. She's also amazingly intuitive. Every once in a while, I question her and wonder how she can be so spot on, but Dh and I agreed to try her course of herbs for 24 hours before we started the antibiotics (nobody really believed it was bacterial at this point, but they didn't want it to get there).

Can I just tell you how much I love my midwife? Overnight, Buggy's oxygen needs got steadily lower until this morning she was on no supplemetal oxygen. She woke up chipper and the mucous doesn't seem to be out of control. She even ate breakfast this morning. I know that there are many doctors who feel it is their "calling" to heal people and that is why they choose their profession. My midwife feels the same way. I know they are both right, I just know that for me, I'll use pharmaceuticals sparingly and use the plants that God gave us for healing as much as I can.

Yesterday I had a small breakdown and the kids were there to witness every bit of it...I was so ashamed. But because of that, they started talking about their own fears surrounding Buggy's frequent hospital visits to the Children's Hospital in Salt Lake. It was tender as they revealed how afraid they were of losing Buggy and me. That one kind of blindsided me, but it was definitely one of those eternal teaching moments and I know that they feed me spiritually as much as I feed them.

So that's my first post...