My Kids Are Cuties

School 2014

 Today is the first day of school for the 2014-2015 school year! This year Henry and Irene will be in the same school. Drop off and pick up is a breeze this year. Irene is in second grade and Henry is in third. Gavin is doing a second year of preschool since he won't be five for a couple of months yet.

This year we are doing something different for preschool. Gavin is going to do preschool online at home. Originally I had signed him up for a private preschool that is walking distance from our house. Last year he did preschool through the public school. We still had to pay for it each month as well as volunteer. I hate volunteering. I will send in supplies and cookies and any of that stuff, but (please God!) don't ask me to come in, especially when I am paying for school. Anyway, this new school did not require volunteering and I felt like it was a better fit for Gavin.

 Unfortunately, both public and private preschool cost far above what we can afford right now. I finally made the decision to pull him from it. I about cried when making this decision. I am a real believer in having children get socialization and learn how to work in a group setting. Still, it just wasn't in the cards for us. Instead, Gavin is signed up for 41 weeks of online preschool. It costs us $20 a month. He'll be learning numbers and letters as well as some arts and science.

It about broke my heart this morning while we were doing pictures when he wanted his backpack and wanted to go to his new school. I keep telling him he'll be doing it here with me. Hopefully, after a couple of weeks, we'll be in a got rhythm and he'll love it.

Captain America

 I couple of posts ago I wrote about the death of my beloved Tibetan Spaniel, Chang Po. He died at the age of 12 in August 2013. I was heart broken, but his death was quick and I was able to hold him, tell him I love him and thank him for being my sweet boy since the day he was born.

 We went six months before Gavin started talking about wanting another dog. He and Chang were always having fun together and Gavin wanted another buddy. We checked out Craigslist and finally found a dog we thought might work out well with us.

 Captain America (named by Gavin who is a HUGE Captain America fan) is a shepherd mix and was around 10 months old when we got him. He is very playful and does not realize he is a big dog.

 It took a little bit for LuLu to really accept him into our pack. She has had separation anxiety since Chang passed away and having Captain here for company had helped with that. Captain is so similar to Chang. There are all these little tings that he does that just stop you for a second because it is like having Chang still here. We always used to say that Chang was a big dog in a little dog body and now it is like having that big dog version of him.

Still, Captain is his own dog and has many unique qualities as well. He loves to dig and jump our backyard fence. He is a sweetheart, but likes to chew. Hands/fingers are his favorite things. He gives kisses to your fingers before chomp-chomp-chomp.

Yes, I found him a collar on Etsy.com that has Captain America's shield on it.

Summer Flood

Right around the time that school finished for 2013 we had major flooding. We are near the Grand Rapids area and all around the rivers overflowed. In our little town we have the Grand River and the Flat River. They meet just past the downtown area. We happen to live within sight of the Flat River. When we moved here I asked my mother-in-law if the river had ever flooded. She scoffed and told me there was never a flood to worry about. Yeah....

 Train bridge by the flour mill that is downtown. This picture was taken when we first moved here. The picture below is the same train bridge taken during the flood. The water actually got higher than this.

 See that road above? That is the main street of town. The above picture is when we moved here and the picture below is from the flood. Of course, the flood picture was taken while I could still get over that way. The water got higher than this.

The water flooded the Riverwalk and the Showboat. It made its way towards the library. The library was cleared out as much a possible. The main street was closed down which cut us off from town and the grocery store. A 20 minute alternate route through dirt roads was the only way to get around for a day. The police finally started letting people that lived in our area through but you had to give the address that you were going to. The power company decided they would shut the power down to our side of the city since there was a large transformer type thing right near the Riverwalk and rising water. We got the notice and decided to leave our place. In the end we were only gone for one night since the water finally stopped rising.

Our street did flood while we were gone. We actually got taken out by the Grand River. It flooded across Main Street and met up with flooding from the Flat River. The water was too much for the storm drains. The city had pumps and tubes running from one set of storm drains to another in the hope of keeping the water down.  There was a lot of damage done to homes and businesses. The Kent County Fairgrounds had tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

 

Of course, the water receded and today everything is frozen over and covered in mounds of snow.  

 

 



2014

A new year has started. It is very cold here with wind chill temps at 21 degrees below zero. School was suppose to start up on Monday, but we are on our second snow day. Considering that the last day of school before the Christmas break was cancelled for ice, the children have had an extra 3 days of vacation time.

Less than a week after writing the last post in August my beloved Chang Po died. He was 12 years old and had been my baby since the day he was born. His passing was unexpected and very quick. I am thankful that I got to hold him and tell him how much I love him. I wrapped him in the cardigan my mother always wore and we buried him next to his mother in my in-laws' backyard. I would love to write an entire post based on him and all his Tibetan Spaniel silliness, but even writing this much has me in tears. He is much loved and very missed. However, I am at peace with his passing. A long life lived to the fullest and a dignified, swift passing.

LuLu has been much more clingy since Chang's death. She does not like being an 'only dog' and she hates being left alone for more than half an hour. She sits on my lap whenever I sit down and being a Lab-mix she is not actually lap-dog size. Still, she is my comfort and my friend.

That last post in August had us taking Irene to a Pediatric Cardiologist. We went, she had another EKG and we met with a fantastic doctor. He was very charmed by her. Irene was given the lowest grade of heart murmur. She never has to mention it on forms and is not required to see the cardiologist for it ever again. Great news!

Things here are as they ever were. I have been suffering from insomnia for the last two and a half months. It is like living in a nonstop fog. I find that I have a low tolerance for noise. After a day of the kids being silly I have to sit with headphones in and music playing. By the end of the day I feel like my skin is full of prickles. I have to be careful of content when I read because of horrible dreams when I do get some sleep. It is like living in a slightly warp version of actual life.

Today the kids and I will watch The Avengers and Thor. We have become huge fans of The Avengers so we watch Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor and whatever other ones I may be missing. The kids all have their favorite character and Christmas gifts this year reflected that. Gavin wants Captain America bedding.

And....that is life in a nutshell. I do hope that 2014 finds everyone healthy, wealthy, and wise!

Welcome Back!

Well, my one month planned break from the blog turned out to be a little longer. Sickness has not stopped visiting us. We spent every month since March with someone being sick. Unfortunately, June and July it was Irene and she was very sick indeed.

 

After school finished we had Irene's 6th birthday which was an absolute blast. She is all about Build-A-Bear so she got a lot of gift certificates to the place. We enjoyed a couple of weeks of summer just relaxing. Then Irene got a pain in her side. Then a high fever. Then a very high fever. We ended up taking her to one of the urgent care places in the city. I gave them all the info about her fever and pain. The doctor decided that because of the area that Irene was experiencing pain and the very high fever we needed to take her to the Children's Hospital. The doctor called them to let them know we were on our way. At the time it was suspected that Irene had appendicitis.  

 

 

We were taken back to a room as soon as we got there. An ultrasound was scheduled. After the ultrasound, blood work and urinalysis the news came back that Irene had a very bad urinary tract infection that was well on its way to involving her kidney. The emergency doctor decided that Irene needed to stay in hospital so that she could be given massive doses of antibiotics. Plus, she was still experiencing the high fevers.

 

We were moved to their observation unit which is just a hallway away from the emergency area. This unit had crafts for the kids to do and Irene made two beaded bracelets and painted. All the rooms in the hospital have tvs that have access to a ton of movies. We watched a lot of movies during our stay.

 

Irene spent about two days in hospital. When the discharge doctor was doing her final assessment she asked if Irene had a heart murmur. Uh...no. Never has any of her doctors said that they've heard one. Well, this doctor said she could definitely hear it and that illness with make a murmur much more noticeable. We left the hospital with several prescriptions for Irene and a new report to take to her doctor for a follow up visit.

 

We went to Irene's doctor for the follow-up. At the time she was feeling better and her office urinalysis came back clean. The doctor had an EKG done in the office after listening to her heart and hearing the murmur himself. The doctor felt that this murmur is showing all the signs of being an 'innocent murmur' which means that it isn't too serious. However, because it is a new murmur and discovered during an illness she has to see a pediatric cardiologist. They will do an echo cardiogram and ultrasound to see how the blood is flowing to and from her heart and how the valves are working.

 

We went home with this new info and set about waiting for the appointment with the cardiologist and trying to get our summer back on track. Then about a week after finishing the antibiotics Irene starting complaining that her side hurt. Then she started with a fever. Then the high fever. As soon as the fever started climbing we were back into the doctor's office. Another urinalysis was done and another, longer and stronger, antibiotic was given. She was put on restricted activity and told to drink a lot of fluids to flush out her kidneys. Another follow-up appointment was made.

 

I am happy to say that this last dose of antibiotics seem to have done the trick. August has been spent illness free for Irene. We do have the cardiologist appointment set up for the first week of September. Unfortunately, that means she'll miss a day of school that first week of school, but I've already spoken to her teacher about it.

 

So, we have fully gotten into 'getting ready for school to start' mode. Henry will be in second grade this year and starting at a new school. Irene will be in first grade and has the same teacher that Henry had last year. Gavin will be starting preschool. He even got a scholarship through Great Start that covers the cost of the entire year. He'll be in the same preschool program that Irene was in when we first moved here. I think they did a great job with her and I'm looking forward to what Gavin will do in the program.

 

We finish August with school meetings and getting ready for September. Let's hope for good things to come!!

Taking a Small Break...

February has kicked our backsides in the way of sickness. I've never had a month like that one. Each of us hit with illness after illness. I am still fighting an exhausting cough and cannot find the extra mental energy to compose posts for the blogs.

I hope March will be a month of healing and we'll come back in April healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Take Care! We'll be back soon.