Time is ticking by.....

It's been quite a while since my last post. It has been a little crazy around here. Dan is now completely healed from his surgery. He went back to work and there are a lot of changes there to get used to. I need to keep in mind that "Prayer Changes Things". I'm a firm believer in this, but need to remind myself of it more.....

Randy is settling into college good. He's getting good grades which we are very proud of! We took him down to Nashville on June 15th, and we stayed for a week. He came home for the 4th of July, and we went down there in August to visit him. LOL Yes, I miss him more than I can put into words! I just wish we could travel more - we love it down there....much more peaceful and not so busy, hurry, hurry like it is here.

Dylan will be starting 8th grade! I can't believe it! He's turning into a young man and not my little boy anymore. It's crazy to watch your children develop into fine young people right before your eyes, and it makes you a little teary eyed to think you once rocked them to sleep in your arms!

Miranda is going into the 4th grade.....she's turning into a young lady too, but still has all of her tomboy energy too. She's a great help when she wants to be with the younger two who keep me very, very, very, busy.....

Speaking of Joshua and Justin....LOL They were accepted into the Early Childhood classes at the school here, however Dan and I opted not to put them in there for their speech therapy after all. We just felt going to school for five days a week for 3 hours a day is just too much for three year olds.....We were very fortunate to find private speech therapy through Sertoma and our insurance is going to pay for it (so they say, so pray they do)! They all start on Monday, August 24th! Dylan and Miranda go to school for 2 1/2 hours and then the twins are off to speech therapy....It's going to be a very busy day and I'm sure they are all going to need naps as they are not used to going to bed early and getting up early.....

Today is also a very eventful day for my sister....(Ben and Noah are spending the night here too) She has met her brother and sister whom she has never met before. I'm so very excited for her. She met Machele about 4 years ago. This is her oldest sister, now about two months ago they find out they have a brother and another sister! I talked to her a little while ago and they have had a great time. I'm excited to hear all about it tomorrow.....and hopefully see Machele too.

And to think that this time five years ago it was just her and I. LOL She never felt the need to know where she came from and how, but look at her now! Just in time for her too. She needs this so much right now.

Okay, now for what else is going on around here....Justin has an appointment with a pediatric urologist. Need to get his "direction" of urination checked out. LOL It's going sideways and up when he goes to the bathroom. Kinda hard when he's trying to stand like Daddy! Hoping and praying that it can be fixed with time and not surgery.

Joshua went to the dentist for the first time and did great! NO CAVITIES!!! YEAH! However, his sister wasn't so fortunate, but they are in her baby teeth and they are going to leave them alone since they are getting ready to come out...

Justin is 27 lbs and Joshua 30 lbs....always 2 - 3 lbs heavier...they both need haircuts again too. I really need to learn how to cut hair! LOL

Our 15th anniversary was on July 30th! Dan surprised me with a limo ride (thank you Southside Limo!) to downtown and we went to dinner on the Odyssey Dinner Cruise We had a fabulous time and the food was great but the company was outstanding! He does out do himself at times. Thank you to my sister also for keeping the kids for us so we were able to have a terrific night out!

That's about all I have to say now.....hopefully I'll be able to post sooner than I did this time!

Love you all!

Sheri

So many changes

There are so many things going on in our lives that sometimes I feel so very overwhelmed!

Randy is graduating in one day! I can't believe he's going away to college in a few weeks, and not a few years! I always knew this day would come, but never so soon! I don't feel that old to have a college aged son!

Dylan is also getting so big! Took him shopping for some summer clothes yesterday and can't believe we had to move into the men's section - and he's in a size 8 shoe already! LOL It's funny the joys that parents get in raising kids! LOL He's doing great in school. They went to Great America today and I think I'm getting the first hints that he likes girls! LOL Oh, boy here we go again! LOL

Miranda went on a field trip today too to see the Crestwood baseball team. Can't remember what the name is! LOL She got the game ball! She was very excited! School is almost to and end.....

There is also talk about sending Justin and Joshua to Early Learning classes in September so they can continue their speech therapy! Not very happy that my three year olds are going to school, but if it will help them not have problems in school when they are in Kindergarten, First Grade - I'm all for it. It's recommended by their Ear, Nose and Throat doctor....Dr. Marra.

We also had some changes at home. We had to take Dan to the ER today. He was at work on Sunday and lifted a tire and felt something pop in his groin area.....They sent him to Rush Oak Park hospital and they said it was a muscle strain! When he came home there was a lump there. When he'd lay down it would go away, but when he'd stand up for a bit it would come out! So after almost 8 hours in the ER at Palos, he has a hernia! So we have to contact a surgeon tomorrow to schedule surgery around Randy's graduation etc......

Okay, I know I haven't updated in a while, but I do what I can do......LOL

So proud of my kids!

I know I'm a little biased here, but my kids are so smart! LOL I'm sure all moms feel the same way I do about their kids, but when they keep bringing home these wonderful report cards it's such an ego buster for us parents.

Dylan is doing fantastic in school - passed his constitution tests and is getting ready to go into 8th grade next year!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so scared! LOL

Miranda is doing good in school. Her teacher tells me all the time what a good student she is...She was student of the month for February. She got to have lunch with the principal too!

Randy continues to amaze us in his studies. He's such a hard worker too. I sometimes wish he didn't work as much as he does and could have more free time and fun with his friends, but such is life. He wants to work 5 days a week after school. I guess we raised him to have a good work ethic.....I just hope Dan's workaholic antics don't rub off too much!

Happy Birthday Joshua and Justin

I can't believe the boys are 3 already! It's amazing to me every day how much they are growing and turning into little men! Sometimes very mischievious little boys, but at the end of the day when I fall in bed - it's all worth it.

We had a call to poison control the other day. They some how managed to get the linen closet door open by standing on their empied toy box and opening the door (the door knob is higher than most of the doors in the house for some reason - maybe to keep toddlers out? LOL) Anyway, they got in there and got their gummy vitamins. They ate the whole bottle before I noticed how quiet they were....I hurried and called poison control and thank goodness there is no iron in those gummy type vitamins. Joshua must have eaten the most as he was the one with a stomach ache and the poops for a couple of days. They told me to feed them something with bread and let them drink milk - I guess this gets it out of their system or something. Needless to say, I did not get very much sleep that night.

I made them a cake for their birthday and we sang Happy Birthday to both of them individually and they each got to blow out the candles...They both did it twice as they helped each other. Too cute! We are going to have their birthday party sometime in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully it will stay warm outside.....wishfull thinking in Chicago, huh? LOL

Submucous Cleft Palate - What the heck is that!

That is exactly what I thought when I heard those words...Lets start the story...

August 2008 - we get a new speech because our old one never shows up. She comes to our house and does the basic evaluation with the boys. I was a little steamed because I felt we were starting all over from scratch. Within the first hour she asks if the boys have allergies. I told her not that we were aware of. She states that she hears a nasally sound coming from the boys and that she suggests that we get them checked out by and ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat dr)just to rule out that there is nothing going on there. So I make the appointment thinking nothing is wrong and we are going to waste $30 in co-pays for them to say nothing is wrong they are perfectly healthy!

September 2008 - We go to ENT's office, fill out mounds of paperwork times two, I have two tired two year olds (can you feel the stress - LOL) We get in to see the dr and they ask a million questions. He looks in Justins ears first, then Joshua's. Justin has tons of fluid in his right ear which explains why he failed the hearing tests. Joshua's is fine, just a little fluid, but not a lot. Then he looks in their mouths and says, "So when did they have surgery" while still looking in their mouths....I said "what?" and he repeated himself. I told him they had never had surgery and asked why he thought they did....He then proceeded to tell me that they were both born with a submucous cleft palate and I said "a what?" So he showed me in their mouths and sure enough there is deformaty on the roof of their mouths and in fact they both have what they call a bifid uvula. this is where the roof of the mouth does not come together properly and causes them to have either two complete separate uvulas or one that is connected at the top but split at the bottom.

Joshua has two separate uvula, Justin's looks like a snake tongue, it's connected at the top and split at the bottom like a snakes tonge is forked. You can read about it more here http://www.cleftline.org/publications/submucous

The doctor asked about four times if I were sure they had never had surgery, because the scaring on the roof of their mouth is indicative of having surgery. Albiet it didn't heal properly, but it was fused together. Justin actually has a little dimple (hole) above his uvula. I finally told the doctor "I don't know how religious you are, but the only surgery they could have had is divine sugery, because they've never had any medical surgery". He kind of looked at me funny, but the nurse smiled. This is the only way I can explain any of this....a divine miracle.

It's kind of crazy and I was in shock and disbelief. The doctor kept asking me how long they were in NICU and all kinds of questions. Our question was how could the doctors in the NICU miss this. According to the doctor, this is common in premie babies and he thinks they should have checked for this. Especially with their feeding issues, swallowing, choking and subsequent ear infections over their first year of life. It explains so many things. It explains why they could never latch on very strong, which all the doctors told us that was normal in premies. So we believed them. It explains why they got choked very easily and why we had to use premie nipples for almost the whole first year of their life. And it explains why the speech delay....

However, the ENT is amazed at how well they are doing and have over come this on their own. He contributes it to a few things we did when they were little. We never laid them down while they were taking a bottle. We held them on an angle and we proped their beds up on a slight angle under the mattess. He thinks these few things we did on our own helped them not have as many ear infections as they had. Also the fact that they were speaking at all was amazing to him with the amount of problems they had going on.

Justin's left ear was so full of old fluid, he couldn't explain why it wasn't infected. So he gave him Nasonex to try for three weeks and if it wasn't cleared up, he recommended Justin for ear tubes. We went back in at the end of September only to find out there was no change in the fluid - so off to surgery we went.....

October 9, 2008 - Justin was set for surgery - we waited longer to see the doctor than the surgery took. About 10 minutes and it was all over. First words out of Justin's mouth after surgery was "where's Joshie". They can't be away from each other for very long. This was the first time they were apart for a long period of time. After surgery, we were going to go home and take a nap and leave Joshua at my sisters house for a bit, but Justin was so adiment on finding Josh that we thought it would be a good idea to get Joshua and put them both down for a nap....

Follow up visit went well for both boys - no fluid at all. Joshua's went away on it's own without getting infected! Another shock to the doctor (isn't God amazing!) He would have been scheduled for tubes next....so far so good though!

December 3, 2008 - both boys passed their hearing tests with flying colors! Just pray the tubes stay in place and that Joshua doesn't get any ear infections....we tend to keep their ears covered all the time now, especially in the cold...

So that is the long story, but felt I needed to document things for them....so now when they don't come when I call them I know they are ignoring me on purpose, not that they can't hear me!

Christmas Eve

We're here again - LOL We have decided to send out New Year's cards instead of the ever popular Christmas cards - We'll start the new year off appreciating those that mean so much to us!

We are off to my sister's house this year. We have had a few changes in plans since dad is not doing so well. However, he is doing way better than he was. His blood pressure is actually sometimes too low. His blood sugar however, continues to fluctuate - especially when no one is watching what he is eating! LOL

We are so very blessed to have such wonderful family and I thank God everday for allowing me to have such a terrific husband and beautiful, smart, healthy children!

At this time of year I always tend to get very emotional about things. Especially miss my mom so very much around the holidays - I miss her all the time, but these times seem to be especially difficult. I wish she could see my beautiful children and see how happy we are. I know she is "seeing" us, but I just wish I could talk to her and feel her hugs again........

Dan and I have been talking a lot about Christmas's past.....like when we were kids and so forth. I miss being a kid and not worrying about anything - just the excitement of the holidays. But then we have to stop and count our blessings also and think that if it weren't for all the things we have gone through, we probably wouldn't be here today - together and happy.....

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! I'm off to carve the ham!

Church Christmas Play

The kids were involved with the annual church Christmas program. The associate pastor's wife Meagan Nichols wanted the twins to come up also and join in. She has a daughter who is almost the same age. Well we tried...LOL They both went up and stood by Miranda for about 1 minute and then Justin was not going to have any of it - He came back by Dan and I. Joshua however decided he liked it and stayed most of the time. Dylan started the program off and Miranda sang the first verse of Away in a Manger - all by herself! I'm glad I video taped it! LOL I couldn't see very well through my watery eyes when she was actually singing.... Here is video of her song - a little off key, but oh so cute to this mommy! Hopefully next year she'll be playing the piano.......