Catch up Time

Well, it has been over a week since I sat down to catch up on the blog so here goes a long week synopsis.

This week is spring break for Chase so we took off Sunday to go to see Gramma Betty and the grown kids and grandkids in the Seattle area. We got to take Alura with us since they now live in Wenatchee and have the same school breaks. We stayed near Gramma Betty's house at a hotel that had a pool and that made the kids extremely happy. They got to go swimming two different evenings and are ready for the weather to get warmer so Mom & Dad can get our pool up and warming up for them.

We got to drive through the tulip fields in Mount Vernon as the daffodils are just in bloom and the tulips were just starting. The kids enjoyed pointing out to Daddy - there are more so he could take pictures. Mommy gave her opinion on picture taking too but informed Daddy that if he can backseat drive while in this cast and unable to really drive, then I can give photo taking advice.

Sunday was Dave's brother Kevin's birthday so we got to go to their house for dinner and Dave's other brother Ted was there too so it was nice to have the whole group together for the first time since Chase's first birthday.

We spent Monday with Gramma Betty and enjoyed some fun in her yard and watching movies at her house. Finished the day off with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. The kids got to swim for quite a while that evening and then went to sleep quickly - from exhasution I am sure.

Tuesday we spent the morning with Gramma Betty and then went to Stephanie and Ken's to see all of the grandkids and celebrate all of the birthdays that are in the first part of the year that we had all missed with one another. Dave got to have all 6 grandkids in one place at one time - a rare event. The kids played hard and were pretty tired when we got back to the hotel but not too tired to go swimming so they got an abreviated swimming session that night.

On our way home on Wednesday we got to stop in Woodinville at meet Melissa & Sarah at the Country Village. They provided four loaves of cut up bread to feed the ducks (& one lonely bunny). The kids always enjoy that time. It was nice to see Sarah and Melissa. Sarah told us that Mommy has her baby sister in her tummy - guess she will be disappointed if it is a boy.

Yesterday was a day of rest as we were all tired - especially Mommy. We are excited about coloring eggs later today and the easter egg hunt on Saturday so there is lots of fun to come.

Both kids are happily counting the days till Mamma & Papa get here to visit - Chase has it in his head that Mamma is going to watch the new Charlotte's Web movie with him (he watched it last night and loved it) but I have assured him that Mamma loves him but not enough to endure spiders that are that real and that abundant.

Last but not least - today is Chase's 19th day off all meds and no seizures!!! Praise the Lord for success with that.

New machine @ Store & fun time out with kids

Dave left out of town with a friend last night and will not be home till tomorrow afternoon. We all miss him a lot but the friend was really in need of support and we are supporting Daddy as he does that for his friend. With Dave out of town, I got to go to the store this morning to get the machine for our new 24 flavors of soft serve and get a lesson in how that works. It is quite the machine and I got lots of samples and I don't usually eat ice cream at 11:00 AM but it was good and quite the program that I think will bring a lot of return business once people come in and try it. We have the machine on a 2 week trial basis and that will include the week of spring break here so that should give us a good idea of how well this program would work for us.

The kids didn't get to get out much today as the weather was not that cooperative so we headed to Company Creek Pizza for dinner. Mackenzie had a cheeseburger and fries - with sauce of course and Chase had "new" fish and french fries with tartar sauce. They each played their dollar of quarters in video games. They are still at the cheap age as they think they are still playing even when the big "game over" is flashing in the middle of the screen.

Chase and I spent a long time today working on writing his letters. He finally seems interested in that and is recognizing letters on the frig and putting them together to try to spell words now. His speech is getting much clearer every week and his talks a mile a minute (I don't have any idea where he got that, probably from his Mamma). He called Mamma tonight to tell her that he learned to write his own name today. He now just wanted more paper and more words written for him to copy. It is nice to see him becoming interested in that.

Kids are in bed and I have things ready for class at church tomorrow when we will be studying Moses parting the Red Sea. It think the kids will enjoy that. They still play Moses and Pharoah at home and tell one another to "Let my people go" and play Joseph and the Innkeeper and "sorry no room". They absorb so much of this at this age and they so look forward to it each week. It is a lot of work for me but thanks to Mom and Dad I have materials from the extras they have at Roseburg and it is all put together by week and I just have to supplement with activities each week. It may be a lot of work but the rewards are eternal and I can't think of a better way to spend my time than on my children's walk with God.

One last thing, praise the Lord - Chase is at the end of his first week with no seizure meds and all is going well with no signs of any seizure activity.

Good night and sweet dreams.

Here we go - Day 1

I have always thought it would be interesting to try this so here I go! It is a slow day at home today as there is no preschool & Chase has decided not to go to karate for now. Today is his last day of being grounded from his trains. He has been without his favorite toys for a week because he hit a classmate at school. Boy is it hard to be the bad guy but he had a good day at school yesterday so hopefully he is remembering why he doesn't have his trains. Today is the second full day without his seizure medication (Lamictal). I reduced his meds in January to half of the usual dosage as it is really causing him problems with his sleep and attention span. He has been seizure-free since May 2006 so I am stepping out on my own to eliminate his meds. Thankfully Dr. Waz is very supportive of me and cooperative with these efforts. We go backt o Children's in May so maybe by then he will be totally off the meds.

Daddy is sleeping so Mommy is back to work as Mommy!