Busy Saturday!

This time of year is always so crazy! This morning I had Jake up at school at 8am to meet his ARC class for a field trip. They went to a museum and toured the Titanic museum in Branson. He was a first class passenger so he didn't die in the end :) He won a scavenger hunt so he brought home a Kewpie doll and book. I haven't really gotten the whole story about it yet, but Addy LOVES this doll!(please ignore the falling apart chair! It's so comfy and needs to be recovered terribly, just don't have the money to do it and i haven't found a slip cover I like, someday it won't look like we live in a dorm!)


Once we got Jake all settled Cooper and I headed to Missouri State University in Springfield for his State Math Competition. There were so many people there! Students everywhere! Cooper took his test and we had a little time to kill so we ran a couple of errands for a Bunco tournament we had tonight. We went back to Missouri State for awards. The director told the kids that even if they didn't get a ribbon for being in the top 10 they should be very proud for making it to State, it's a really big thing :) He said that everyone else came in 11th place :) We are soo proud of Cooper being in 11th place! Way to go buddy!

We came home and he and Scott got straight back on I-44 to head to St. Louis. Cooper is currently going through confirmation at church and they had a trip there this weekend. Cooper got there just in time to eat, he was a happy boy :)

I got to spend a few moments with this girl!!!

Jarika was in Springfield for some training for her job and she had to come to Marshfield to get her stereo from her car put into her new car :) She has her first big responsibility! She is paying for her new Cobalt all by herself! She is buying my nephews car since he is buying himself a new one. She is upgrading from a 98 Pontiac Grand Am to an 06 Cobalt, she's really excited! We did her laundry and then she ditched me to go back to Joplin :( she had too many other plans to choose to hang out with me and my plans tonight! She did go and pick up Jake from his field trip, he was pretty happy about that!

Addy and I headed out to a new locally owned restaurant called The Cross Eyed Cricket. It's really good! I had a rib eye there and it was the best I've ever had! Anyway, a friend of mine hosted a Bunco Tournament to benefit Addy's Step Up for Down Syndrome team! We raised over $300! Woo hoo! We had so much fun, I love these tournaments, they are a blast! Addy was a grumpy gus, hoping she's just really tired, she definitely appeared to be! If you want to join Addy's team or donate, click here! We REALLY would love to have team members from all over! Even if you can't jon us we'd love to send you a shirt!

So now I am settling down for a nice long rest! Scott is geocaching his way home (shocking!). Jake is crashed out on the couch, Addy is sleeping and I'm about to join them!

Addy sings the ABCs

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Too many topics to title!

This post is full of a potpourri of information. This has been a busy and tough week. Addy missed school and therapy all week due to her pneumonia. She is finally feeling a bit better. She slept until 10:30 am yesterday morning and until after 9 this morning. She definitely has needed the extra sleep. She's still coughing a little bit but it's much better. Her bottom on the other hand is awful. She's had this weird loose still since last Thursday and the cultures were all normal so we don't know what it's about. It's not the antibiotic since it started before she was on it. Her bottom is raw and bloody, it's so sad, I know it hurts :(

On Wednesday my baby turned 10 years old. I'm not sure how that is possible! My boy who will always be Avery to me, is now growing up to be a full blown Jake. He got some video games that he wanted, some new shorts, and of course money. He's still waiting on his money from his grandmama, she gives the big money! He wants to save up for an Ipod touch, he needs about $80 more dollars. We just couldn't afford to get him video games, clothes and an Ipod so we had to choose what to give him! He hasn't had a bday part yet so maybe he will get a little more money and be able to buy his Ipod, I know he'll love it. He's really excited for school tomorrow. He tested into the Gifted program at school!

I'm hoping that this will help him with his behavior. He's not a bad kid by any means, he's just busy and argumentative and argumentative and argumentative. Can you tell one behavior is really making me crazy? When I was meeting with the Gifted Ed teacher, I cried. Not because I'm so proud of Jake, but because of this:

Yes, this is Leasha's signature on the paper. All of the principals have to sign the paperwork. The last principal signed on 4/4/11 so that's the day it's dated. The day Leasha passed away.

This child amazes me though. He has such a huge heart. There was an article in the paper this week about some fundraisers we are doing for our Step Up for Down Syndrome walk coming up in June. He couldn't wait to read it to his class. He's so proud of his sister! I've been watching Glee on Netflix and Addy LOVES to sing along. She really loves to sing. Can you get what she's saying? Not very often, but she gets the melody and knows the words! Jake said "I hope when Addy's in fourth grade and she wants to try out for Junior Jays, that Mrs. Burch and Mrs. Kicker don't let her not get in because she has Down syndrome. She loves to sing. I hope they are nice and give her a chance." What a sweet, sweet boy! These women would NEVER be anything but nice and loving towards Addy, however, they run a "honor" choir and we just have to face facts, she may not be honor choir material, no matter how much she loves to sing :(

Thursday night we worked at McDonald's for a Pancake Supper to benefit our locals DSGO. We made over $440! Scott even helped make the pancakes! I'm so proud of him I'm sure he was out of his comfort zone! His good geocaching buddies even came from Spfld to support the cause! It's amazing to have such wonderful friends! Several of my students showed up with their families too. Thank you to everyone that came and supported us! I was exhausted by the time I got home! I haven't worked on my feet constantly for 3 straight hours in a long time! If you want to donate to Addy's team or even join us click here! It's always disappointing to see that Addy only has her immediate family on her team :( there are huge teams there every year, we can't even get everyone to join Addy!

On Thursday we had a special assembly. Our students were challenged to raise money to support Pennies for Patients to support those with Leukemia. Mrs. DeCamp challenged to kids to raise a certain amount of money and if they did she would kiss a goat. Our kids blew the challenge out of the water and raised over $2000! Leasha would have LOVED this celebration. However, she wasn't here to see it. Her husband, mother and daughter gladly stepped up to the plate in her honor. I was trying to hold back the tears but I couldn't, Leasha should be here. I think I'm hitting the angry stage of grieving. I have a very short fuse right now and I'm waking up with headaches, I know it's stress related. I'm eating constantly and have totally blown my healthy eating and exercise regime. I've got to get back on track. This time of year is tough and losing Leasha definitely has made things much worse.

These are pictures of Leasha that the children made in Art. You gotta love the jewelry!

Friday night we had huge storms blow through. This is some of the hail that fell! It sounded like our roof was caving in! Fortunately there wasn't any damage and things are good. Our cat, Purrpants, had kittens through the night on Tuesday and I haven't seen the kittens anywhere :( we've had so much rain and storms I'm afraid that they've drowned or something. Purrpants has been staying away but she showed up again yesterday but refuses to let me know how her babies are :(

Last night we dyed Easter eggs. Addy loved throwing them so all of hers are cracked. Big surprise huh? Jarika didn't come home :( I miss her, things aren't the same without her here. I'm hoping to see her today but I don't know if she's coming home or not, she hasn't decided!



We missed Easter service this morning, we overslept and I woke up with another headache, it's raining like crazy and Addy's darling little outfit was too little, I guess we were meant to just celebrate our risen Lord at home today.

Urgent Care Update

I took Addy and Jake both to Urgent Care this morning. Addy was diagnosed with pneumonia and Jake with a contact dermatitis (no kidding). Addy also has infected taste buds. Haven't ever seen that before but they do seem to bother her. We're doing nebs every four hours to help with the pneumonia since it's probably viral since she's on antibiotics for her ear infection. Hoping she improves, her coughing is almost continuous at times and she's just not a happy girl :( Jake started Prednisone, hoping it doesn't make him too crazy.

Any ideas what this is?

This was a picture of his wrist today, the rash started on Monday.

Jake's had this rash since Monday. It started on his wrist and then a couple days later we found it on his hip and leg. Two neighbor children have had a similar rash, one cleared up on her own and the other has had to be treated with steroids and antibiotics, it was not poison ivy. I'm thinking we may need to go to doc too, it's getting worse :(

Sick

Poor Addy, she is sick. We were supposed to head up to St. Louis early this morning to have Addy's new set of ear tubes placed and her tear ducts probed. She was pretty crabby Wednesday afternoon and evening and started running a fever yesterday. She also had a mild cough in the afternoon. I called Children's to see what we should do, her temp was 100.4. They contacted anesthesiology to see if we could go on with surgery. They called back to let me know that if her temp stayed under 100 then we could go ahead with surgery. At 7pm her temp was 101 :( then she started having really yucky stool. Fortunately we always have spare specimen cups on hand so I went ahead and gathered a sample. We were getting pretty nasty storms last night and I was woken up around 3am. We planned on leaving between 330 and 4 am to make it to St. Louis on time, I guess my body was just ready! I went ahead and took Addy's temp, it was 101.6 so I gave her some Tylenol and a little bolus of water. G-tubes in the middle of the night are real life savers, she never even woke up! She coughed and stirred a little through the night but not major. I called St. Louis at 6am to let them know we needed to cancel :( Fortunately Scott was off of work for the surgery so he could take Addy into the doc. I really needed to be at work today since we had to miss last week for Leasha :( Scott took Addy in and she has a right ear infection. Her lungs sounded clear but the doc said he could have done a chest xray to see if she has pneumonia but the treatment would be the same. Addy's pneumonias have never been heard, they have always had to be seen. They did send her stool for testing, I'll probably get the results of that tomorrow if they find anything. Hopefully that's nothing. So Addy started Omnicef today and her surgery has been re-scheduled for May 6th, really hoping for no more illnesses!

Missing her

My neighbor came over for a chat tonight and told me about this paper that was sent home with the students last week. Addy didn't get one but I plan on finding one. I think it is perfect.