Does the hurricane have wind? 3pm 9/12/08

Not very much yet. I'm sure we'll have a ton later, but we decided to try it out for now to see what kind of wind we could find... you'll notice we had to hold the kites kinda close to get them to fly.
...and exercise the dog while we were at it... she's almost like a kite!?!


NOTE: We tried again at 6pm and although we could get the kites higher, the wind is not constant, so we still couldn't fly kites.

Getting ready for Hurricane Ike 9/12/08

We're trying to figure out the safest place for the kids during the hurricane. What's your vote?!

(We didn't really have room for the chairs in the garage, so we at least chained them down.)

Clark started soccer -- but apparently it wasn't "Real soccer"

This past week, all of the activities have been starting up...

Kate started Tumbling. She did really well.
Alyssa started Dancing. You would have thought that she never took a few years off.
Grant starts back to Cub Scouts on Thursday. Baseball starts in a few weeks.
Clark started soccer...

...but apparently, it is not "real soccer". There is no goalie, so it can not be real (in his mind).
Which, honestly, I didn't even know to watch for the possibility there wouldn't be a goalie. I've heard 2 thoughts on the idea since then:
1. The kids like scoring more goals.
2. It teaches them to assist the goalie.

I'm going with thought #2.

But, Clark was appalled that he is on this team with no goalie. There are 6 kids per team, 3 play at each time. So, at the first practice on Saturday, his team scrimmaged. The other 3 guys scored and Clark's face just looked like, "What happened. I think I'm a little mad." Clark was really playing well, dribbling the ball, and doing just what he should. Despite that, the other 3 guys scored again and we knew Clark was upset. So, when the ball went into play the next time, Clark ran over to stand where the goalie should be. It was like he was saying, "If no one else is going to be goalie, I'll take care of it." So, the ball came up, he knew he was the goalie, and he grabbed it with his hands because the goalie is allowed to touch the ball with his hands. You can imagine how crushed he was when the coach blew the whistle on him for touching the ball. Afterall, there really is no goalie in this league.

So, this week, it was Tuesday, his regular night for practice and I asked him to get ready for soccer as soon as we finished eating dinner. He told me that he needed to go to "Real soccer"... the kind with a goalie. I explained how this would teach him and really prepare him... all this stuff that I don't know if I believe or not, but I paid my $110, so I believe it now! Hah! Finally, I said, "Clark, I'm going to have to call Ms. Liz to have her help me parent you through this one." (We'd been talking about it the day before.) Clark said, "Can I call her?" I said, "Sure." He said, "Ok, what's her number?" I rattle it off and he calls her...

"Ms. Liz, This is Clark. I have 1 question for you..." that's about all she understood. So, I quickly filled her in. They talked as I took care of cleaning up from dinner and helping Kate get ready for tumbling. When they were done, Clark handed me the phone, Liz asked if he understood it was "real soccer." I told her I'd find out and call her back. I asked Clark what Ms. Liz told him. He said very honestly, "She said it is not real soccer because real soccer has a goalie." Hah! I called her back and told her what he got from their conversation. She rolled her eyes through the phone and told me something like, "that's not what I said, but I tried." I appreciate friends like that.

So, I took Kate to gymnastics. Jason took Clark to soccer (along with Grant & Alyssa who wanted to watch). Clark was fine playing and kicking the ball. I think it helped that this soccer practice was actually on a soccer field, not just a make-up practice in some grass. (It had rained the Tuesday before, so we had the first practice in a field on a Saturday.) Jason told me that Clark ran around like he was trying to stop the ball from going anywhere, but he never actually did anything with it, just held his hands out and ran around the other people. I imagine it kinda like a foosball player that is spinning around, but not helping the game at all. Jason said Clark never tried to touch the ball with his hands but kept looking over to Jason for approval. Jason would give a thumbs up, Clark would give a thumbs up, and he'd go back to being a spinning foosball player again.

Jason almost popped a blood vessel, though, because Alyssa apparently had to go pee the whole time. She told me later that she had to go pee on the way there. Jason looked around in the middle of soccer practice and said, we are in the middle of an open field, there are no bathrooms. He said she screamed for an hour. (practice is only 45 minutes and I'm sure she did not start throwing a fit until after 20 minutes or so.) He finally text messaged me to see if I could come get Alyssa. I told him that we were just leaving tumbling and would not get to him before soccer practice was over. I told him to let her go in the grass. He said everyone will see. I said so what. He said there's nothing to wipe with. I said, she doesn't wipe half the time and I know it because she doesn't always flush either. He came home in a not-very-good-mood.

So, I got the kids to bed. He went to bed. It was all good. And, he got up early for the 3rd time in a row to go work out this week. I've been really proud of him. He's actually been very pleasant since taking his vacation. (Ok, except for this night... but he is a guy... we still love him.)

First Day of Sampson Elementary 8/25

Grant is in 3rd grade, Alyssa is in 1st grade, Kate is in 5th grade:
(Clark starts Pre-K on Wednesday. I'll post pictures of him soon after that.)


Kate - 5th grade. She loves her teacher. That was a big God-thing... here's the story...

She was clustered into the Horizons program (gifted & talented) in 1st grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade. So, each of those years, she took the test and just barely missed actually being in the program, but she was high enough that she was put in the same classroom as others that were in the program. For 4th grade, she was in a regular class with WONDERFUL teachers and really great friends. (Of course, her other teachers and friends are really great, too. But, she had an especially great 4th grade year.)

Well, I just automatically signed her up to take the test because I knew she had almost made it so many times. When she found out I signed her up, she told me she really did not want to take the test. I said, "Sorry. I will not sign you up for it again." Which was all great... until she passed the test and got into the program officially. I was more than a little worried about telling her. I thought she would want to be with the new friends she had made.

When I told her what had happened, she told me that she was bummed... mostly because she wanted Mrs. Tolls as a teacher, but now couldn't have her as a teacher. Of course, she wanted to be with her friends, but she was really bummed about the teacher.

In 5th grade, there are 3 horizons teachers and they were all set ready to go by May of last year. They had to replace one teacher and they knew who they wanted. But, then the school district had budget cuts and they couldn't hire the teacher they wanted. Things were switching all around even into the last week of school.

On the last week of school, I was up there sorting out yearbooks to be passed out and Mrs. Tolls stopped me and told me she ended up being put into that 3rd place and was the 3rd horizons teacher. I literally jumped for joy. I was so excited.

I knew Mrs. Tolls because her oldest daughter is in Alyssa's daisy girl troop. And, I knew her husband in college. In my freshman year of college, I hung out with her husband's sister. So, since he hung out with his sister, we all knew each other.

I was really excited for Kate because I knew that Mrs. Tolls would have just the right temperament for Kate -- pushing her forward, but with gentle encouragement, not too much pressure, but just enough to get the job done.

Grant - He's excited about his teacher because he has only had language arts teachers each year, never the math switch teacher. He has Mrs. Hubbard, she's the language arts teacher. Yeah!

He says he hates math, but he qualified to be in the Horizons program only in math. Funny.

Alyssa - She ended up with the teacher I started hoping she would have. I had her tested for the Horizons program because as she started kindergarten, she was reading the same books that Grant was reading in 2nd grade. She missed the program by one question -- probably one that I marked her lower on. There's one question I hate... it says "Is bored easily." I always mark that one low because I teach my kids how to find something else they can do before they get bored. So, they really don't get bored very easily.

Anyways, I found out that one of her friends that has food allergies like she does was going to be in the Horizons class. So, I was really hoping that they could be in that class together so that the other mom & I could work together with the food allergies.

And, that teacher has diabetes, so I thought that part might go well, too.

But, I don't even know if I like the Horizons program, so part of me didn't even want to go there. I know I have the kids tested, but that's mainly because I don't want a door closed to them that could be open. I figure if they are in the program, we can choose to pull them out. If they are not in it, there is no choice. There are some things I like about the program, there are other things I don't.

So, I just felt like it was really a God-thing that I even wanted Alyssa in the class. Well, she got in to the class and has Mrs. Engle. That's the same teacher Kate had in 1st grade. We're looking forward to a good year.

Here's the kids riding their bikes to school. We rode bikes every year until last year. Last year we rode the bus. This year, the kids may end up riding the bus, but I will not put them on there until I know that it won't take forever to get to school or get home. I was traumatized when I made Kate ride the bus with Grant his kindergarten year. She wanted to ride bikes. He wanted to ride the bus. I asked her just to do it on the first day. Well, that day, the bus didn't get to school until 9:30am. School starts at 8:10am. I felt horrible. After that, Kate rode bikes, Grant either rode bikes or rode the bus, I didn't care which.

See their new backpacks and lunchboxes?

Apparently Clark decided to take some pictures from the bike trailer where I'd put the camera. Hah! I thought it was funny. It also reminded me of something funny that Grant said. I was taking the kids to school and going straight to the "Boo Hoo Breakfast" for parents with kindergartners to talk about the yearbook, so I was dressed and ready to go. It wasn't until I got to the bikes that I thought, "Hmm... I'm wearing heels." But, then I thought, "Hmm... I'm not going back in to change." So, I wore the heels. Grant said, "Wow, mom... You are amazing. I didn't know you could ride a bike in heels." It was so funny because he went on and on. Really, riding a bike in heels is easy because the pedal fits in the middle part, so it's the same as flip flops.

It was in the afternoon when we were going to visit friends down the street and were in the garage when Clark decided we were going to ride scooters... and i had the same thought, "Hmm...I'm not going back in to change."... that I was impressed. Scootering on heels is a little more challenging. Grant wasn't even impressed at all. That's my life... I'm truly only wonder woman when it doesn't matter. Hah!

Oh, and just for the record, all bikers were fine. The only one that got hurt was me -- and not because of the heels. I took Peanut (our 90 pound Golden Retriever.. I know, the name doesn't fit her, I didn't name her...) on the bike ride with me. She was so excited because she knew something was up that she was harder to control than normal. At one point, I tried to pull her closer so she wouldn't go on the other side of the fire hydrant, but something happened and I lost it. I fell straight to the ground. Thankfully, as Kate pointed out when I told her the story, Clark did not flip over in the bike trailer. He just called out, "Bad dog. You hurt Mommy." So, I have a nice looking 4 inch rash on one leg, an even nicer looking 4 inch bruise on the other leg, and some nice raspberries around. I especially like the one on my collarbone that looks like a hickie. I mean, really, if I have a hickie, I would like to have really earned it fair and square. Hah!

Trip to the Beach 8/18

We'd been meaning to go to the beach all summer. Last summer, we were going to go the week before school started, but we couldn't because a hurricane blew through. Details. This summer, we were going to go about 3 weeks ago, but a hurricane blew through. I mean, really, such details... I finally decided to just go on Monday since school was going to start in a week. The Leuschner family (Brad, Tammie, McKenzie, Austin, & Zachary) that I've been friends with forever told me that they were going to the beach for a week to stay with the Cooks (Jerian's family) at a beach house. So, we said, "Great. That's where we'll go."

I like to go in the afternoon so that I don't have to deal with sunscreen for the kids. Leave right after lunch, stay through dinner, then head home. So, we left here at 2pm, where it was pouring down rain. It was raining all through the drive there -- knowing we were crazy for attempting to go in the rain, but knowing that if we didn't try, we definitely would not get to go. If we did try, we might get rained out, but then it wouldn't be my fault for not trying.

So, we went and it rained a little, but we still got to swim in the ocean. It was very fun and we wished we could have stayed longer.

My Beach Bums!!

Clark picked up shells and lined them up on his arms. He was a little frustrated when they fell off.

Sleepover at the Quadruplets 8/16-8/17

After I took the quadruplets swimming, Mari wrote me the sweetest thank you email and said that she thought it would be fun to have the kids over for a sleepover. At first, I thought NO WAY would i do that to her. But, then, I had to turn around and think if I would be willing to have her kids, which of course I would. So, after a while, I said ok and had to let all thoughts of guilt leave my mind.

The kids had a blast. Chris and Mari took all 8 kids to the park. They sent my kids around the house on a treasure hunt. (With gold dollar coins from the bank.) They played games. I liked hearing about when they played Apples to Apples... the card was disturbing and Clark was just tossing out cards... his card said viagra... so, since he didn't know what it meant, and neither did the other kids, they all wondered why Chris & Mari burst out laughing.

Chris very patiently let Grant help him cook. That meant a lot to Grant.

When I picked the kids up in the morning, I wished I would have thought to take them to the library before they went so they would be calmer, but i didn't, oh well... I'll know for next time they do something that I should get books first. At least they had fun playing on the computer and doing pretend rollor coasters & swimming.

Bowling with Daisy Girls 8/18

Alyssa's Daisy Girl's Troop went bowling. (Daisy Girls are the Kindergarten & 1st grade year of Girl Scouts. They just changed up the program, so Alyssa's year is the first one to have a second year of Daisy girls.)

It ended up just being Alyssa & Emma that were able to attend, but it was a lot of fun. Jason had come back in town and taken the day off of work, so he went with us. We're glad he didn't hurt himself when he slipped on the alley. He had just told Clark not to step over the line so it was really funny. And, we would have felt bad if we laughed and he got hurt. :)

Kate & Alyssa ready to bowl.

The Olympics are On!!

The kids are getting to experience the Olympics for the first time that they remember... so for the first week, we had one big sleepover in my room. I let the kids fall asleep while watching the Olympics. After a week, that had to stop because the kids were getting tired from staying up too late. But, it was a fun time.

Getting Ready for Extra-Curricular Activities

Ok, I am feeling crazy. Here is our extracurricular schedule for the fall: (basically, 1 sport/kid + scouts + bible study)

Sunday Mornings - Every other month or so, Jason will go to church early to play the keyboard during church.

Monday 7:00pm-9:00pm - Kate, Grant, & Alyssa go to Bible Study Fellowship with Jason

Tuesday 5:30pm-6:30pm - Kate goes to Thompson Tumblers
6:00pm-7:00pm - Clark goes to soccer practice (playing with Fairfield Sports Assoc.)

Wednesday afterschool - Every other week, Kate, Grant, & Alyssa will stay for Good News Club at school
5:00pm-6:00pm - Alyssa does ballet/tap/jazz at Dance Central

Thursday afterschool - Every other week, Alyssa has Daisy Girls
Every other week, Kate has Girl Scouts

Thursday evenings - Every other week, Grant has Cub Scouts
7:30- whenever - I go to Bible Study

Friday afternoons 1pm-3pm I volunteer in the library at school.
I am also co-chairing the Sampson Elementary yearbook.

Saturdays - Clark has soccer games

Not set yet - 3 times/week, Grant has baseball. 1 practice, 1 game, and 1 practice/game. He's playing with Cy Fair Sports Assoc.

I think we are going to be a little busy. It's a good thing I limited it to one sport. Hah! Grant also plans on doing Basketball in the winter. Alyssa plans on doing soccer in the Spring. And, some of my kids have talked about doing swim team as the school year finishes out.

Did I mention that I love staying home and chilling?! Hmm...

What people ask me about: Diabetes Update

2 Years ago on 7/21/06: Alyssa was diagnosed with diabetes... As I look back through the pictures, I realized that she felt like a princess when she was in the hospital. Honestly, I have pretty much ignored all pictures because I didn't want to look back at this time because I was afraid of bed memories, but all I found were good ones... friends visiting us... having special time alone with Alyssa... she felt so special... it was a hard time, but it answered so many questions as to why Alyssa acted the way she did (throwing fits, peeing all the time, so thirsty all the time, starting to take naps again after she hadn't had naps in years), it all suddenly made sense.

Here, Alyssa learns how to give Amy, her "diabetic" bear, her first shot.



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The day we were leaving the hospital, there was a rainbow outside!










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Last year on 3/30/07: Alyssa goes off of shots and onto the pump. A lot of people ask if the pump is used for people that have diabetes worse than others... the answer to that is NO. The pump is just another way to give insulin besides shots. I, personally, think that it is easier to send Alyssa off to playdates and school with a pump then with shots.

Here is the "infusion site". This pink circle has tubing attached to the pump and a little plastic "cannula" that sticks into her body so that the insulin is still injected... It has to be moved every 2-3 days. We rotate between the arms, stomach, bottom, & leg.
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Unfortunately, Alyssa still has to prick her finger to see what her blood glucose numbers are. The FDA has just approved a "continuous blood glucose monitoring system" for kids ages 7 and up. But, that's still a few years away, so we have some time before that's an option.

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Winter 2007: Alyssa was written up in a local magazine. Click on the following link for more info:

w.cyfairmagazine.com/pdf/Articles/2007/winter/Healthy%20Cy-Fair%20Families.pdf
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July 24, 2008: These days, Alyssa is a healthy diabetic (& celiac, but that's another post that will come soon). She's able to do anything anyone else can.

I'm torn on whether I like the pump or not. It broke one day and it was horrible not having it. I had to get a loaner pump until the real one came in and it really threw me for a loop. But, her numbers were great on plain old insulin shots. I've also figured out that the pump costs an additional $2000/year on top of the rest of the supplies. I've just found out that there is a Novolog pen that she could probably inject herself... We'll see... all the literature I've read says that the pump is the smartest way to handle insulin. I'm working with a doctor that is on the same pump as her to see if we can pull her numbers down. I don't like how high her numbers have been, but I believe he's working on bringing them down gradually. One of the things I really like about the pump is that it calculates how much insulin is in her system before automatically adjusting for a high number... that would be hard to do by hand. So, we'll see how this journey continues.

Overall, diabetes is going well. I just want to see the numbers come down, but it is a process that we are working on.

VBS - Cy Fair Christian Church 7/14-7/18

I created this video for the PowerLab VBS we did at our church. Our VBS was at night time. It was a lot of fun. I had a lot of technical difficulties, so I didn't have much time to work on the quality of this video, still, I felt like it turned out decent. I used ProShow Gold to create it in.

This week, we also had fun sleepovers:


On Tuesday night, we had a blast with David & Madison Knight... we brought them back in time for VBS on Wednesday night.

(David's mom, Maggie Knight is in the picture with him.)


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Silly hair was the way to go this week!!

Then, on Thursday, we were able to have the Kidd kids sleep over. Ashley is 13, Coby is 10, Audrey & Christian are 3. We had a lot of fun. I wish I could have played more, but I was trying to work out my technical issues with creating the dvd. Still, for having 8 kids and a busy mom, the place ran amazingly well. We were so glad to have them all here. That night, the meal they served for volunteers included gluten free parts, so we were able to eat dinner there. Apparently, a kid at the table next to ours kept commenting on the bigillion kids that were at our table! Hah! I felt lucky to be with them all and know how excellent they all were!!

Saturday we did NOTHING. Sunday, we had a lot of cleaning to do!!!

Alyssa's Church Camp 7/11-7/12

This camp is created for a parent to go with the child and get used to the campgrounds so that when they go in future years, they will feel comfortable going with others.

It was much easier only having to make 4 gluten free meals at this camp!!!

It was interesting going with a diabetic child to camp. They decided to have smores right before bedtime... I didn't know about that or we would have made some yummy grahamn crackers... so she just ate the marshmallows. So, at bedtime, her numbers were really high. She was thirsty and had to go pee. I felt so bad for everyone else there, but I had to let her take care of the diabetes. I finally got her calmed down to sleep. Then, I checked her in the middle of the night and she was low, so I had to give her sugar. Then, she fell out of bed (another girl had fallen out of bed earlier in the night... at least they were both on the bottom bunks... poor Jo-Jo at Grant's camp fell out of the top bunk). Then, it was time to wake up. But, we had a good time and Alyssa enjoyed her time with me and with her new close friends from church. She especially liked playing tetherball.


Mackenzie, Emma, & Alyssa in the pool.

Meanwhile... back at home July 4th

Jason & the kids enjoyed fireworks and XBOX & Wii while I was gone to Missouri!!

Apparently the kids were cold?! They said they were afraid they would get cold... Grant said he was fine.

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New Japanese Friends come 6/28-7/3

Micah (pronounced Mee-ka), Jo-Jo, and Lucah came to visit. Micah made this awesome sushi dinner on the last day she was here!!

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They were in town visiting my parents and came to Houston to visit. Then, Jo-Jo, my Dad (we call him Gichan), and Grant went off to Church camp... I'll write about that next...

The rest of us stayed and played at water parks and games and such...Oh, and helped my friend Shannon Farrier who unfortunately lost her house due to a fire caused by lightning. See http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6220516. With my mom & Micah's help, we packed up Coleman (Grant's age) for camp and made food for Clay. (He's 6, on the autism spectrum, and eats on a very specialized diet -- not gluten, dairy, rice, potatoes, etc. Since I now know how to cook like that, I did my best to help out.)

VBS @ Cypress Bible Church June 23-27

This week, we all went to Vacation Bible School at Cypress Bible Church. This is not the church we attend, but we do go to VBS there every year and the older 3 kids went to preschool there. The VBS is always unique and amazing. Penny, who was our neighbor until May of this year, but thankfully still runs the office, is in charge of music and is the one that got us going to this VBS. I decided to volunteer in an easy place... snacks... but quickly became the snack person in charge of food allergies. There were about 25 kids that had food allergies and I made sure they received a non-allergenic snack each day. This is a really fun week and I'm glad we went. After I catch up on this blog more, I'm sure I'll show more personality. Right now, I'm just trying to get things written down. :)

Meanwhile, back at home...June 15-20

This picture is from Grant's crossover to being a Cub Scout Wolf back in May.

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While Kate & I were at camp, my mom stayed with the other 3 kids and got to experience my very full life. Grant went to cub scout camp from 9am-2pm and had a blast... he enjoyed archery, golf, and eating lunch.

Alyssa & Clark stayed home and played with Nana. I came home to a PILE of library books because she told them they could take as many as they could carry. Apparently, they could carry A LOT!!! Poor Nana was very done by the end of the week... cooking allergy free and dealing with all the diabetic issues is a lot!

Summer 2008 began

Summer began and we had 2 weeks before any major events... it should have been a breeze... so we decided to mix things up and go to San Antonio. At least, the 5 of us did... Jason stayed home to work tons of hours "guilt-free" while we played. We spent most of the week with Nana -- she was so awesome -- she cooked allergy free for us and we enjoyed hanging out. We also saw Gchan, Uncle Quinn (& his girlfriend Lauren), Aunt Rachel, Cousin Kendall, and brief glimpses of Uncle Darrin, but didn't take any pictures.