So today was Honey Nut's 8th birthday. I must say it was bittersweet almost, for one thing she is my only girl, and two she is also my first born child. Why oh why do our precious angels insist on growing up on us? haha.
Honey Nut has always been an easy child. She is the most energetic, spunky, sweet, sensitive, smart, caring, big hearted little girl. She has such a sparkly personality, she loves people, she loves life, and has the most addicting little laugh you will ever hear. As a baby she was so beautiful and had the most curly brown hair just like Shirley Temple...now of course when I tell her this she does her best to make me feel young by asking who in the heck is that? She has a smile that lights up the planet.
Anyone that knows Honey nut knows that she is a fan of horses. She has all her friends trained well. Anytime they attend one of Honey Nut's bday parties each child brings some sort of a horse toy lol. It was no surprise to anyone that she wanted to take Horseback riding lessons. This year she was surprised by Grandpa, Nana, and Gigi (short for Great Grandma) with her very own saddle. Boy was she excited! I honestly think this child was a horse in another life. But as her instructor says..."It is cheaper then rehab" lol
Honey Nut is homeschooled as you know, one thing she has learned this year is we joined a new church and she is really coming to know God and I for one am thrilled. She really seems to have an understanding of him and what he stands for. This was one of the main goals for me this year as a homeschooling parent. In fact the other day we were looking for new dresses for her and she said "Mommy, how come all these dresses in the store or so short? I don't think God wants us dressing so provacatively." yes she really did use that word. I was secretly thrilled that she felt that way. For one thing I could write a whole other post just on the subject of the latest fashions for young girls...but I will not. I will just say that we found some wonderful cute girly dresses that make her look like an actual 8 year old. She is a beautiful girl, she is a Daddy's girl, a Momma's girl, Grandpa's girl (she is the only granddaughter on my side a title she treasures), a Nana's girl...she is an everyone's girl.
Ok this post is getting so sappy. I cannot help it. I am so blessed that God chose Hubs and me to be HoneyNut's parents. It is a big task and one I don't take lightly. But I sure feel priveledged to have her! She is amazing!
Happy Birthday Baby!
Till next time
The cheerio queen
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Happy Birthday Baby!
Friday, April 13, 2007
Friday Musings
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
WFMW
This is an easy quick tip. My kids are forever losing shoes and coats. We had the cute little show cubby organizer thing and that wound up mostly holding various toys and on several occasions food that the kids swore they finished at dinner...you know the usual..brussel sprouts, green beans etc. More then anything that cubby thing took up space and held junk.
so I finally came up with a shoe and coat basket. Since I implemented the rule that we don't wear shoes in the house to protect the carpet..since it is already in such great shape with playdough on it you know. We come in and leave through the garage and that is where I put two laundry baskets. The kids know the coats go in one and the shoes go in the other. I also have special shoes that are not worn a lot like my daughters dress shoes, and the boys dress shoes put up and away for those rare occasions. So really the kids know they cannot step foot into the house until the right materials are in the corresponding baskets. It has saved a lot of time and energy although the first few weeks the kids though their names were "honeynutputyourshoesinthebasketnotonthesideofit"! But now the way it goes is if someone does not put their shoes or coats in the basket then they do without for that trip, usually becasue I hear it as we are walking out the door. They have only forgotten a couple times to put the stuff away right.
Works for me!
The Cheerio Queen
Monday, April 9, 2007
Menu Plan Monday
Sunday, April 8, 2007
HAPPY EASTER!!
We had a great day today...even Hubs went to church! He is slowly coming into his own faith I think although I won't push it. Yes I want him to attend with us but I want it to be for his own reasons and not because I pushed him into it lol.
In any case the kids woke up this morning and went into euphoria over their easter baskets and I think I caught them just in time before they ate too much candy before Sunday School today. The Easter bunny even brought a new story book bible for the boys so we read the Easter story today and they loved it. We got dressed up and went to church where the kids had a blast at the easter egg hunts and the awesome thing about our church is they used plastic eggs that had more toys then candy in them little trinkets and such...awesome!
After words we came home and played and had family time all day. Then we ate dinner and now the kids are running around the house in an attempt to run off the sugar high and hopefully they will crash early tonight. :)
As most of you know we have had a pretty rotten week the last week or so however today in church as always God put me in check by reminding me just how much Jesus went through for us and it can always be worse. I took that time to reflect that although our week has been through a lot of trials and tribulations...I do have a happy healthy family, Trix is ok now and Hubs although still not working is looking hard. We have food on the table for Easter dinner even though many people don't, we have an awesome church family, great friends, and wonderful family who is there when we need them most. So I guess when I really re-looked at the direction our life has turned it is not as bad as it first looked. I like to think of it this way...It is not a matter of "if" we will be tested during life...but rather it is "how we handle the test" that is important. Sure I could sit around and moan that things are not going as peachy keen as I like but I believe God puts us through these tests to keep us in reality and give us a wakeup call when we need it. He keeps us grounded. He has a plan for us and although I don't understand what it is yet...I really do trust that he has our best interests at heart. He will pull us through whatever trials we have...I think it is just one way for him to make sure we still believe in him. As I am sitting here writing my post tonight I am listening to my children playing upstairs laughing ...and thinking of how close they are and how all three of my children missed each other when trix was in the hospital this week, and I am watching my husband cleaning up something in the kitchen for me; not because I asked him to but because he is considerate and I can only conclude...that .... Life is Good. Thankyou Jesus for making this all possible you are our Hero!
Happy Easter and I hope yours is as good as ours.
The Cheerio Queen
Friday, April 6, 2007
Yeah a new happy post!
I am joining in on this one as I have been reading it for awhile. Check out http://www.biblicalwomanhood.com/blog.htm for more great frugal ideas!
My tip this week is going to be for freezing food. :) I bet this has already been posted but I am going to post it anyway. Having a family of 5 like myself and also a home daycare I do a lot of cooking and spend a lot on groceries. When I go shopping I always get the lean hamburger in fact I get two of them. One package I cook and add spices etc. and then seperate it into individual bags and freeze...when I need some for soup, nachos, whatever I just bring it out and throw in the microwave to thaw out. It makes cooking a lot easier. The other package I usually put together meatloafs, or hamburger patties and then again freeze and I have them ready. I also like to cook a double or triple batch of whatever casserole or thing I am making for dinner and then freeze the leftovers so that when I get into a hectic evening then I can just take something out and cook it without all the fuss and muss of assembly etc.
I am a homeschooling mom of 3 and have a home daycare so by dinner time I am often tired lol. This saves me a time and money and I am less likely to eat out or order in. It is also healthier.
Hope this helps.
The Cheerio Queen
Thursday, April 5, 2007
update
Hello,
The Cheerio Queen has been a little busy to post this last week but I am going to explain why.
We won the lottery and have been planning our next 5 vacations.....yeah right I WISH!! lol
Seriously the last 7 days have been pretty hectic and not good but things are looking up so excuse me while I get out the negative stuff and then I can move on and back into the groove of things in a good way. :)
You all know Hubs got laid off with zero notice last week. Our weekend was ok kinda mellow and laid back, Monday started out great the kids got a lot of schoolwork done on Monday in between laps around the outside of the house. Seriously..when the kids get to where they cannot focus I send them outside on the trampoline or to run laps. It helps! Besides it gives me a chance to sneak in a small coffee break (ok for me hot chocolate i dont like coffee) and a load of laundry.
Did I mention that on Friday our medical insurance ended?? Of course...and what happens the second it ends?? One of the kids needs medical of course!
This is where my story gets a little depressing. Tuesday morning I woke up super early like before my alarm clock which does not happen often...I thought I heard a strange noise and so I went into check and found Trix in a full body massive Grand Mal Seizure!! He was making a sound like he was drowning almost. I dont know if you have ever seen a seizure but they are unsettling to see and downright terrifying when you see it happening to your child! Let me back up a second by saying that Trix has had two tiny seizures before but both of those were what they call "sleeping seizures" where he was awake but just kind of 'zoned out" for a little bit. He kind of went into a trance and could not speak back but then snapped out of it. The first time we were not sure what had happened but I called the doc and he told me so the next time it happened i took him to the hospital...unfortunately by the time he got there he had snapped out of it and they decided not to do any tests until a week later...but they also neglected to order the tests from the neurologist who could not see us for 3 mos...which would have been about now.
So anyway back to the other morning...I of course did my best "calm mommy" interpretation after discovering him in a full body seize...by SCREAMING for Hubs to come in ...he came running in and he has been trained in this before so he was calmer then I was. The problem? It last 45 minutes after we discovered him seizing...we have no idea how long he was having that seizure before we woke up. If he had not made that noise I typically would not have checked in on him because I get up before the kids. So nevertheless we called the paramedics and meanwhile I was a hysterical crying mess and it did not help that me yelling for hubs woke up honey nut, and lucky charms who saw the whole thing...I tried to keep them down stairs. Lucky charms shares a room with Trix so he kind of could not help seeing him (as he put it...wiggling)
Anway Trix was rushed to the hospital via ambulance because they had to give him something right there in the living room via IV to stop the seizure, unfortunately on the way to the hospital he started to have another one so he got another dose of the medicine. I drove behind and called my mom who was at the gymn two minutes from the er that they took him too so she came down to see me and sit with me until Hubs could get the other kids dressed and ready to go and took them to Grandpa's house so he could meet me there.
When i got to ER they did a CT scan and it showed nothing which in a way was as relief because I was going through the "oh my gawsh he has a terminal tumor" scenario and he is not...but also frustrating because the ER doc said that kids that have seizures...about 80% of the time they cannot pinpoint a cause. This is of no comfort to a parent who has just seen her child in a state that they cannot fix. Remember we as parents want to be able to "fix" whatever is wrong with our children and this is just not a typical booboo requiring a bandaid and TLC.
So then i knew what the doc was going to say next...because I hve heard it twice before..."he most likely will not have it happen again" NOPE...not gonna fly this time Doc. I have heard it twice before...I told doc he is not leaving until we see a neurologist this time. So they decided that they would transfer him to a different hospital which I was secretly very happy about. This ER he was in was jsut the closest one and I said it is ok this time because I just wanted him somewhere fast where a doc could help stop the seizure and make sure he was ok until more tests were needed. But this hospital is not my favorite. Although the staff behind the desk was very sweet to me. I came into the er and did not say one word...they took one look at me and said "you must be trix's mom...come on back we are right here it is going to be ok" they were waiting with two boxes of tissues and one of them held my hand and guided me back to where Trix was about to go into CT.
Anyway Trix was transferred by ambulance to another hospital where he got to see one of the top two neurologists we have anyhwere around. His neurologist also happens to specialize in seizures..thank goodness the Lord was watching out for us. I have always prayed but I feverishly prayed this time all the way to the hospital. This neurologist ordered an EEG which he should have had the last time something happened and they by the good grace of God actually were able to pinpoint a cause for the seizures! These seizures have only started last june and no sign of anything wrong before that so this has been going on less then a year. But anyway it appears that there is a tiny pin size area in Trix's brain that was messing up signals or something , or underdeveloped etc. but anyway it is treatable and he suffered no brain damage...we were really concerned becasue of the long length of this seizure. In fact whatever is causing the seizures they said it does not affect his intelligence at all...he is perfectly healthy, normal etc...he just happens to be prone to seizures and most likely he will grow out of it. However until then he has anti seizure meds no to take twice a day for the next two years to help keep it from happening. In case he does have another one and it lasts longer then 5 minutes we also have some meds to give him to stop it. Thank goodness!
He spent the night at the hospital with Hubs since I had to open up the daycare the next day. Hubs is setting up a bunch of interviews with new companies...of course all the people who finally saw his resume etc. called when we were at the hospital. But Trix came home last night and is doing well..although Mommy and Daddy's nerves are still shot to heck...even hubs who is really calm in situations like that..even he was looking nervous and startting to shake a bit...the paramedics looked nervous too. This did nothing for me except scare me more. I honestly thought we might lose him right there in the living room when they were giving him all that oxygen etc. I felt awful I kept having to step out of the room for a second because watching it was making it worse. I hope that no parent ever has to see that happen. And for any parents who have see their child go through something like that or worse...then my thoughts and prayers are with them too. It is so hard to have something happen to your child like that and have no control over what happens to them. I am probably an over protective mom...ok so what there are worse things to be. I would rather be over protective and have my kids safe then be sorry. I want nothing but the best for my kids as does any mom for their children. I usually do have control over most of what they do, I am the mom who does not let my kids play with anyone that I don't know their family really well, my daughter is almost 8 and I don't let her leave the cul de sac on her bike unless I am with her. ok that is just me. I know it is maybe a bit much but you know what...I wont make apologies for it. I am who I am, Hubs is who he is...and we are just trying to do the best we can as parents. Sure we will make mistakes and have made mistaks but we are who we are lol.
ok enough lecturing for the day. If you read this whole post here is a cyber cookie for you.
Hopefully my next posts will be good news. Hubs has several interviews to attend to so we will go from there. :)
Till next time
Cheerio Queen
