Write More, Read Less

2009--165
2010--160
2011--60
2012--24

This is a list of the number of blog posts I have written since I began blogging.  Only 24 so far this year.  I am missing so much of what is happening this year, it makes me sad.  6 of the 7 of us have had birthdays this year.  I realized that other than a brief mention of Bryce's, not one of them has made it into the blog.  As Fall Break approaches for the older boys (Bryce and Annalise are on break now), I decided to look back at what we did over Spring break earlier this year.  We did some great stuff...none of which made it to the blog!  I have the pictures, but they are all still tucked away.  This is my journal, my thoughts, my memories.  I want to remember and to have my children remember the good things that we do or that happen.

So many times I sit down to blog and I get side tracked.  I begin reading other people's blogs.  I love doing that and many times the blogs I read make me feel more grateful for what we have.  More grateful that our life is not more challenging than it is.  That is a good thing, but I am missing our life.  So I have made a commitment to write more and read less...or at least read later!  The blogs of good friends and family members I will still read, but the ones of people I don't really know, I will skip until there is more time.  I need to get our memories into the blog and then into books.  I need to turn more into our life for what it is...the good, the bad, and everything in between.

As much as I dislike writing without adding pictures, that is how it will have to be until later.  I will get them up soon...I hope.  So in a nutshell what we have been up to.

I had extra respite hours in the month of Sept that would be lost if I did not use them up.  So I took advantage of that time and worked on dejunking my house.  It is bad.  I think we may need to move so that I can start over.  :)  I've never lived in one place as long as we have lived here and I've realized that I don't really know how to dejunk and organize without moving.  Something new to learn I guess!

I need to get rid of the rest of Annalise's baby stuff.  I don't want to.

I also went to see a movie with my friend Denise Hauer.  We saw a matinee of The Odd Life of Timothy Green.  One of the best movies I have ever seen.  It was even better the second time.  I had a fantastic time.  It has been way too long since I have gone out with a friend, and Denise is a great person to be with.  She also gave me some dresses that she had made for Annalise.  They are adorable!

We are converting our garage into a room.  It will be a divided room for William, Jacob, Spencer, and the food storage.  By doing this John and I hope to have our bedroom back to ourselves (there are two boys sleeping in there now), and have a therapy room.  Much of our house is now taken up by therapy items and medical necessities.  They need a place of their own and we need more room to work with Bryce and Annalise.  We sometimes have up to 5 people here at a time working with the little ones.  It takes a village, I tell ya!

I continue to fight the transportation department, the insurance company, the support coordinator and others to just get what my kids need.

I am working to switch Bryce from formula to real food through his g-tube.  The first step has been to slowly increase his daytime feeds and decrease the nighttime ones.  He now gets 4 small meals throughout the day along with 5 boluses of water...plus his green smoothie.  Yeah, that's a lot of time spent feeding.  He is doing great though.  He has even been wanting to have small tastes of food by mouth again.  If all goes well, he should be free of night time feedings in a couple of weeks.  Then on to real food!

Bryce rolled over on his own twice this week.  He hasn't done that for a very long time.  He can also tolerate holding a balloon without throwing up!  The attendant care hours for both Bryce and Annalise increased this month.  I think it helps to have everyone home when the support coordinator comes by.  :)  I could not do this without the help I get on a now daily basis.

We are trying our very best to get enough calories and fluids into Annalise and keep her from needing a feeding tube.  She is struggling.  It makes me sick to watch her go through this.  She has very little desire to eat.  I guess I would to if I choked as often as she is beginning to.  Her therapists think that the decrease in appetite may be due to the fact that she is not as active right now.  I hope and pray they are right.  She holds food in her mouth.  I have to remind her to swallow.  She very rarely will feed herself anymore.  It take about 45 minutes to get a very small amount of food into her. What she is doing looks all too familiar.  Bryce had his Mic-key placed just over 3 years ago.

As I work to help Bryce and Annalise gain weight, I continue to try losing some of my own weight, or at least to feed my body in a way that will help it instead of continue to harm it.  We are working to eliminate artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives from our food in a hopes that it will help with some of the challenges the boys are having.  That is a serious struggle, but I think it will be better for all of us.  It will definitely not be an overnight change.

The boys are doing well with their counseling.  John and I are trying to attend the temple often.  John will be going out of town later this month and the next for work.

John's good friend, the friend's wife, and son were in a serious car accident.  We were able to go visit him in the hospital.  Luckily they are all still alive and will eventually be okay.  My little sister had an emergency appendectomy 2 days ago.  I wish I was in Utah.  Luckily my mom was able to go up and is caring for her now.  Debbie is doing well.

Like everyone else, we continue to have our normal everyday activities of school, homework, piano lessons, scouts, choir, church callings, etc and the normal challenges that come with them.   I live for Tuesday nights off and bunco with friends!  We work and pray everyday to keep our home peaceful and a place where the spirit wants to be, to keep our relationships where they need to be .  Some days are easier than others.

I called Jenni at the Ryan House and scheduled us for a weekend stay in Nov.  She encouraged me to plan some stays into the future as well since they fill up quickly.  I am working on that.  I love that place!

Well, it is time to go check on Bryce's food, change Annalise's position, and head to bed.  That is not nearly all we have going on right now,  but it is definitely enough for now.  Tonight I am committed to writing more and posting more pictures.  I'm hopeful that tomorrow and beyond, it will happen.