I want so badly to keep this blog up to date! Clearly it's hard for me so here are some happenings of the last few weeks.
School has started! Hallelujah! Anya is having a wonderful year. Not one bad day so far. She is in a regular classroom at least 80% of the day! She asked every single morning for the last 3 weeks of summer vacation if she was going to school. I finally got to tell her yes! We are trying something new this year. I have always transported the girls to and from school. We decided to give the bus a try this year. It's been a big success. Anya is a huge bus fan! She looks forward to it every day. The last time I had a child on the bus it was Oksana quite a few years ago. Her behavior was so horrible that I pulled her off. I couldn't take one more day of dreading the look on the bus aide's face when they pulled up. She is doing great so far this year on the bus and they have an absolutely wonderful bus driver and aide.
School so far for Oksana has been up and down. She's not being aggressive to other people often which is a huge blessing. She is being aggressive to herself pretty much daily and being verbally aggressive towards others. Thankfully the majority of her day is smooth. We can not get her to stop wetting herself at school. She was in pull ups and we had to move her to diapers because she was soaking through everything constantly. She knows full well how to ask to go to the bathroom and she will ask when she feels like it but if she's busy she just pees herself and moves on. It's infuriating. She's been in pull ups for a pretty long time now and I was trying to spare her having to wear diapers at 11 years old so I held out and held out hoping she would stop. Finally I couldn't take any more urine. Every morning her sheets were SOAKED, her pajamas were soaked, she was going through multiple outfits a day, her wheelchair was wet, etc. It was gross. I finally gave up and put her in diapers because they hold more.If you are wondering if she can control it the answer is a resounding yes. Today she was dry all day despite long drives, lots of activities, a restroom that was far away, etc. She stayed dry because she knew I wouldn't let her participate if she was wet. Funny how that works, isn't it? I asked her why she can stay dry all day despite the circumstances we were in yet when she is sitting in school right down the hall from a bathroom she wets herself. She had no response. She also could care less if she is wearing diapers.
Cheer started last week for the girls. This is Oksana's first year on the squad. Everyone was glad to be back!
The boys haven't even started school yet. They go back on Wednesday though they did have a week's worth of work to do last week to prepare for classes this week. In a couple of weeks we are going to spend a day at the college Clayton chose for preview day. They invite those who are seriously considering Greenville out with their families to have a day of activities. I have no idea what activities but I am looking very forward to it.
Last week was my first week working at home after finishing training for my new job. It's quite an adjustment but once I get comfortable I think this is going to work out perfect for us.
Tuesday Oksana is seeing a neurosurgeon. After her MRI the neurologist told me she saw some very slight abnormalities but it was nothing overly concerning. After discussing it with her team they decided that considering Oksana's issues with still no answers it might be worthwhile for her MRI to be reviewed by a neurosurgeon just to be sure they also think everything is fine.
That's it for now. Since I haven't been great about updating I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have in the next post.
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Bullet points
I'm finally taking a minute to catch up!
- Oksana is doing well. Yesterday was her last day at her behavior school. Next month she will start at her home school where Anya goes. Her urologist couldn't find a reason for her incontinence. They were shocked and really thought she had neurogenic bladder. They are trying a medication that should help her hold her urine longer and empty more completely when she goes to the bathroom. Bowel issue remain the same. She only goes with an enema. She had a MRI and spinal tap last week. So far nothing out of the ordinary on those. There are no answers. It's incredibly frustrating. Luckily she is pretty stable right now physically. Emotionally she is having ups and downs but still manageable.
- Summer school ended for both girls on Friday. This means that we have 3 1/2 weeks to survive! So far this summer has gone really well. Oksana goes to camp Monday-Wednesday-Friday for the next two weeks. Tuesdays and Thursdays she gets to sleep in and rest. Camp is long and fun and exhausting! After that she only has 1 1/2 weeks left with no school or camps. Anya isn't doing any camps so we will just have to keep her entertained for a few weeks. Easier said than done!
- Clayton is going to start his third week of musical theatre class next week. At the end of the week they will do 2 performances of Peter Pan. He is a pirate and loving getting to sword fight and die! After this week he gets to just relax for the rest of his summer. The boys don't start school until after Labor Day so they still have a good solid 5 weeks.
- Evan did a camp at the barn last week. This one wasn't one he was working at. It was an advanced camp learning more about different types of riding including dressage, cross country, 3 day event, and endurance trail riding. This week he will be a camp counselor again at a camp for beginners. After that I think he will have the summer free too!
- I think the biggest new thing in our family right now is that I got a job. I think last time I updated on my job situation I had left the school in search of something I could do from home because managing work outside of the home with the girls various issues was becoming incredibly challenging. Originally I had planned to take classes to become certified as a medical coder. My friend is a coder and works from home. She loves her job. Back when she was certified there was an abundance of jobs available. I took an anatomy class and a medical terminology class. The next step was to sign up for the coding classes which would cost over $2000. We knew this going in and we were more than willing to do it for the benefits knowing we could pay it off when I got a job. About a week before that I got a text from my friend saying that jobs like I was looking for weren't coming around as much and I might have to wait to find a job. I was willing to wait but I decided to do some research before I signed up for more classes. What I found is that there is very little out there part time from home. I knew going in I would have no experience which would also be a huge disadvantage.
We decided to pray about it before we moved forward. In the meantime I have another friend who works from home. It is a position with a major corporation so I had no worries about it being legit. She had been working for them for a number of years and she loves her job! It just so happened that a few weeks earlier she had told me they had an opening. I had not been interested because I was working toward coding certification. I decided to send her a quick text and see if they were still hiring. She said they were and sent me the description. There were pros and cons. It was an at home job but first I would have to do about 3 months of in office training. It paid less money but it would be an immediate job with no wait and instead of putting thousands into training they would pay me to train. It is 29 hours a week and I really wanted more like 20 but that wasn't a deal breaker considering it was from home and I could work any time I wanted to. After talking it over with Larry we decided to start the process of applying and just see what happened. It all happened fairly quickly after that. In 2 weeks time I had a phone interview, an in person interview, a screening process to make sure I could work fast and accurately, reference were checked, and I was offered the job!
I've been in training now for 2 weeks. It's kind of hard to explain what I do. The very simple description is that we manage freight invoicing for major corporations when they ship their products. Believe me when I say it is WAY more complicated than that!
It's been extremely challenging managing child care schedules during the summer but we have a good plan in place. Thankfully Larry has a job willing to be flexible during this time and allow him to work from home when needed, and we have a respite worker who is also on summer break that is stepping in a ton for us. I work 9-2 so once school starts it will be far less challenging. The work itself is also challenging but in a good way! It's a lot to learn, but every day I get better and learn more. I am working on getting everything set up in my home so that when I finish training I am ready to go.
- Larry and I went through marriage mentor training a few months ago but decided not to mentor at that time because of everything going on with Oksana. We recently learned that they have a bunch of couples waiting to be mentored and they need some help so we are seriously considering stepping in. It seems a crazy thing to do right now but it is only a 6 week commitment. We shall see.
I think that pretty much sums up the last month or so!
- Oksana is doing well. Yesterday was her last day at her behavior school. Next month she will start at her home school where Anya goes. Her urologist couldn't find a reason for her incontinence. They were shocked and really thought she had neurogenic bladder. They are trying a medication that should help her hold her urine longer and empty more completely when she goes to the bathroom. Bowel issue remain the same. She only goes with an enema. She had a MRI and spinal tap last week. So far nothing out of the ordinary on those. There are no answers. It's incredibly frustrating. Luckily she is pretty stable right now physically. Emotionally she is having ups and downs but still manageable.
- Summer school ended for both girls on Friday. This means that we have 3 1/2 weeks to survive! So far this summer has gone really well. Oksana goes to camp Monday-Wednesday-Friday for the next two weeks. Tuesdays and Thursdays she gets to sleep in and rest. Camp is long and fun and exhausting! After that she only has 1 1/2 weeks left with no school or camps. Anya isn't doing any camps so we will just have to keep her entertained for a few weeks. Easier said than done!
- Clayton is going to start his third week of musical theatre class next week. At the end of the week they will do 2 performances of Peter Pan. He is a pirate and loving getting to sword fight and die! After this week he gets to just relax for the rest of his summer. The boys don't start school until after Labor Day so they still have a good solid 5 weeks.
- Evan did a camp at the barn last week. This one wasn't one he was working at. It was an advanced camp learning more about different types of riding including dressage, cross country, 3 day event, and endurance trail riding. This week he will be a camp counselor again at a camp for beginners. After that I think he will have the summer free too!
- I think the biggest new thing in our family right now is that I got a job. I think last time I updated on my job situation I had left the school in search of something I could do from home because managing work outside of the home with the girls various issues was becoming incredibly challenging. Originally I had planned to take classes to become certified as a medical coder. My friend is a coder and works from home. She loves her job. Back when she was certified there was an abundance of jobs available. I took an anatomy class and a medical terminology class. The next step was to sign up for the coding classes which would cost over $2000. We knew this going in and we were more than willing to do it for the benefits knowing we could pay it off when I got a job. About a week before that I got a text from my friend saying that jobs like I was looking for weren't coming around as much and I might have to wait to find a job. I was willing to wait but I decided to do some research before I signed up for more classes. What I found is that there is very little out there part time from home. I knew going in I would have no experience which would also be a huge disadvantage.
We decided to pray about it before we moved forward. In the meantime I have another friend who works from home. It is a position with a major corporation so I had no worries about it being legit. She had been working for them for a number of years and she loves her job! It just so happened that a few weeks earlier she had told me they had an opening. I had not been interested because I was working toward coding certification. I decided to send her a quick text and see if they were still hiring. She said they were and sent me the description. There were pros and cons. It was an at home job but first I would have to do about 3 months of in office training. It paid less money but it would be an immediate job with no wait and instead of putting thousands into training they would pay me to train. It is 29 hours a week and I really wanted more like 20 but that wasn't a deal breaker considering it was from home and I could work any time I wanted to. After talking it over with Larry we decided to start the process of applying and just see what happened. It all happened fairly quickly after that. In 2 weeks time I had a phone interview, an in person interview, a screening process to make sure I could work fast and accurately, reference were checked, and I was offered the job!
I've been in training now for 2 weeks. It's kind of hard to explain what I do. The very simple description is that we manage freight invoicing for major corporations when they ship their products. Believe me when I say it is WAY more complicated than that!
It's been extremely challenging managing child care schedules during the summer but we have a good plan in place. Thankfully Larry has a job willing to be flexible during this time and allow him to work from home when needed, and we have a respite worker who is also on summer break that is stepping in a ton for us. I work 9-2 so once school starts it will be far less challenging. The work itself is also challenging but in a good way! It's a lot to learn, but every day I get better and learn more. I am working on getting everything set up in my home so that when I finish training I am ready to go.
- Larry and I went through marriage mentor training a few months ago but decided not to mentor at that time because of everything going on with Oksana. We recently learned that they have a bunch of couples waiting to be mentored and they need some help so we are seriously considering stepping in. It seems a crazy thing to do right now but it is only a 6 week commitment. We shall see.
I think that pretty much sums up the last month or so!
Sunday, July 3, 2016
The Boys
I'm going to do an update on the boys. I know most of you read this to learn about the girls but our boys are pretty cool people!
Let me start by saying that I absolutely adore having boys. In fact at one point I said I would not have any more children unless I could be guaranteed all boys. Having said that, raising young boys is not easy work! If you are raising boys between about 3 and 12 and you wonder how you are going to live to see tomorrow I have hope for you. My experience is that the teen years with them are awesome. They may be my very favorite ages yet, though 2 comes in a close second. Oh don't get me wrong, we still have raging hormones, attitudes, grandiosity that makes them think they are the knower of all things because they have lived to be teenagers, etc. There are days when I want to bop them upside their cute little heads and remind them that the world does not revolve around them. I don't want to make this sound like my boys are some rare version of teenager that came from an alien land. I'm just saying that I'm really enjoying the young men they are becoming and the relationship that we get to have with them in this new stage. It's pretty awesome.
So let me tell you a bit about these 2 "man boys" living in my house ;).
Clayton - Clayton just turned 17 and is going into his senior year of high school! He's really finding himself and stretching himself. It's a cool thing to see. He just got back from 5 days in New York with his buddy. The fact that he did this trip is an absolute miracle. This is my "stay in the safety of your box" kid. It was hard. His friend is even more of an introvert than Clayton which meant he had to step up and take control in many situations. They spent a fair amount of time in their hotel room decompressing because the city was overwhelming to them buy the did it! They saw 3 musicals on Broadway which blew their minds. They navigated the airports and the city by themselves. They did things like check into a hotel, find their shuttle, handle a room key that wasn't working, deal with rude people trying to swindle them on the streets, and more! It was an incredible growth experience!
This week Clayton was at a week long camp at a local college taking apologetics classes. He spent the whole week learning how to defend his faith and answer hard questions. He absolutely loved it. He was with his best friends and got to spend a week in a college dorm. I kept being reminded that some day soon I will be doing this but I won't be going to bring him home in a week! I can't imagine that.
In another week or so Clayton starts a musical theatre camp and he will be a pirate in Peter Pan at the end of the month. When he isn't traveling or doing camps he is working as a janitor at our church or sitting in front of his computer, reading, or texting with his friends.
Clayton has chosen his college already. We toured 2 schools with the intention of touring many more, but when we left the second one he assured me that he didn't need to do any more tours because he had found his college. The school he wants to go to is Greenville. It's a small Christian college and we were beyond impressed with it. It is an hour and a half away. I never in a million years thought Clayton would go away to school so that tells you how impressive this school was! He wants to go into psychology but has no interest in being a therapist. He wants to do research. Now he is working hard to get scholarships because this is not a cheap school, but he is very determined.
Evan - Evan is just about to turn 14 and will be going into his freshman year. He's still got some little boy in him that Clayton has lost but it is slipping away faster than I want it to! He's different than Clayton in a lot of ways but equally a pretty amazing kid. If you have been here long you know that Evan's passion is horses. He has been riding since he was 9. The United States Equestrian Federation has a lettering program so that students who don't play traditional sports, but instead ride horses, can also letter in their sport. Evan lettered for the first time this year! The main requirements are 100 hours of riding time and proof of 3 competitions. I'm thrilled that he has this opportunity as a homeschooled student who loves a non-traditional sport!
At this point Evan's whole life revolves around horses. Here is a sample of some of the things he does:
- He is in a working student program. He works a minimum of 10 hours a month at the barn. Over the summer it's usually way more than that. He grooms horses, does laundry, cleans and organizes the barns and tack, etc. For this work he earns free ride time and discounts on his competitions.
- He is on an equestrian team that does one 2 hour lesson every month. This team competes together, works together, etc. It's a step beyond the kid who just wants to take lessons because they like horses. This is more intense.
- He works as a camp counselor. The barn he rides at has camps throughout the summers ranging from young kids who may have never even been on a horse all the way up to Evan's level of riding. For camps below his he works by getting the horses for the kids, tacking the horse (or helping and teaching the child to tack if they are able), leading the horses with kids who can't ride independently, and overall doing whatever the instructor needs him to.
- He has his own camp too. This year they are doing an eventing camp. Each participant is assigned a horse for session and will be caring for their horse daily, stall cleaning feeding, grooming etc as if it was there own horse. Also, they will focus on learning about other disciplines including 3 Day Event, Cross Country, Dressage and Endurance Trail riding. He is going to love this!
- As if that wasn't enough, remember that he still has his own weekly lessons!
Now you see what I mean when I say his life revolves around horses! When he isn't with horses you can find him playing games on the computer with his buddies from school or reading.
Let me start by saying that I absolutely adore having boys. In fact at one point I said I would not have any more children unless I could be guaranteed all boys. Having said that, raising young boys is not easy work! If you are raising boys between about 3 and 12 and you wonder how you are going to live to see tomorrow I have hope for you. My experience is that the teen years with them are awesome. They may be my very favorite ages yet, though 2 comes in a close second. Oh don't get me wrong, we still have raging hormones, attitudes, grandiosity that makes them think they are the knower of all things because they have lived to be teenagers, etc. There are days when I want to bop them upside their cute little heads and remind them that the world does not revolve around them. I don't want to make this sound like my boys are some rare version of teenager that came from an alien land. I'm just saying that I'm really enjoying the young men they are becoming and the relationship that we get to have with them in this new stage. It's pretty awesome.
So let me tell you a bit about these 2 "man boys" living in my house ;).
Clayton - Clayton just turned 17 and is going into his senior year of high school! He's really finding himself and stretching himself. It's a cool thing to see. He just got back from 5 days in New York with his buddy. The fact that he did this trip is an absolute miracle. This is my "stay in the safety of your box" kid. It was hard. His friend is even more of an introvert than Clayton which meant he had to step up and take control in many situations. They spent a fair amount of time in their hotel room decompressing because the city was overwhelming to them buy the did it! They saw 3 musicals on Broadway which blew their minds. They navigated the airports and the city by themselves. They did things like check into a hotel, find their shuttle, handle a room key that wasn't working, deal with rude people trying to swindle them on the streets, and more! It was an incredible growth experience!
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| What an incredible opportunity to see this on Broadway! |
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| Believe me when I say that he would have done anything to see this but walking by it and dreaming was all he got! |
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| Phantom was his favorite. The production blew his mind. |
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| This was right across the street from their hotel. Since Clayton was the constable and his friend was Tevye in Fiddler for their school it just made sense that they should see it on Broadway. They loved it! |
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| The view from their hotel. |
This week Clayton was at a week long camp at a local college taking apologetics classes. He spent the whole week learning how to defend his faith and answer hard questions. He absolutely loved it. He was with his best friends and got to spend a week in a college dorm. I kept being reminded that some day soon I will be doing this but I won't be going to bring him home in a week! I can't imagine that.
In another week or so Clayton starts a musical theatre camp and he will be a pirate in Peter Pan at the end of the month. When he isn't traveling or doing camps he is working as a janitor at our church or sitting in front of his computer, reading, or texting with his friends.
Clayton has chosen his college already. We toured 2 schools with the intention of touring many more, but when we left the second one he assured me that he didn't need to do any more tours because he had found his college. The school he wants to go to is Greenville. It's a small Christian college and we were beyond impressed with it. It is an hour and a half away. I never in a million years thought Clayton would go away to school so that tells you how impressive this school was! He wants to go into psychology but has no interest in being a therapist. He wants to do research. Now he is working hard to get scholarships because this is not a cheap school, but he is very determined.
Evan - Evan is just about to turn 14 and will be going into his freshman year. He's still got some little boy in him that Clayton has lost but it is slipping away faster than I want it to! He's different than Clayton in a lot of ways but equally a pretty amazing kid. If you have been here long you know that Evan's passion is horses. He has been riding since he was 9. The United States Equestrian Federation has a lettering program so that students who don't play traditional sports, but instead ride horses, can also letter in their sport. Evan lettered for the first time this year! The main requirements are 100 hours of riding time and proof of 3 competitions. I'm thrilled that he has this opportunity as a homeschooled student who loves a non-traditional sport!
At this point Evan's whole life revolves around horses. Here is a sample of some of the things he does:
- He is in a working student program. He works a minimum of 10 hours a month at the barn. Over the summer it's usually way more than that. He grooms horses, does laundry, cleans and organizes the barns and tack, etc. For this work he earns free ride time and discounts on his competitions.
- He is on an equestrian team that does one 2 hour lesson every month. This team competes together, works together, etc. It's a step beyond the kid who just wants to take lessons because they like horses. This is more intense.
- He works as a camp counselor. The barn he rides at has camps throughout the summers ranging from young kids who may have never even been on a horse all the way up to Evan's level of riding. For camps below his he works by getting the horses for the kids, tacking the horse (or helping and teaching the child to tack if they are able), leading the horses with kids who can't ride independently, and overall doing whatever the instructor needs him to.
- He has his own camp too. This year they are doing an eventing camp. Each participant is assigned a horse for session and will be caring for their horse daily, stall cleaning feeding, grooming etc as if it was there own horse. Also, they will focus on learning about other disciplines including 3 Day Event, Cross Country, Dressage and Endurance Trail riding. He is going to love this!
- As if that wasn't enough, remember that he still has his own weekly lessons!
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| This is Evan when he first started riding at 9! |
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| This is Evan now! |
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Disney pictures part 2
Make sure you see my first post for more about our trip. These are some of the pictures I took. They are all out of order. Sorry about that. It's killing me not to fix it but I don't have time to be particular right now!
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| Our "home sweet home" for the week :) |
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| Love this! |
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| Isn't this cool?! It's at Give Kids the World |
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| You will have to be a Harry Potter fan to appreciate some of these! |
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| Carousel at GKTW |
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| Each child is given a star at GKTW. This is just a few of them. It was incredible! |
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| MY FAVORITE!!! I was so excited! |
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| He had his own cafe! |
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| Butterbeer! |
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| Again, if you are a Star Wars fan you get what these are. I don't know but they loved Oksana! |
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| We had ice cream every single day! I love this picture of him! |
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| I was so excited to find chocolate frogs (another Harry Potter thing) |
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| On the Hogwarts Express |
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| I happen to be addicted to Rice Krispy treats. This made me very happy! Yes I did buy it! |
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| You have to have an ice cream Mickey at Disney! |
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| Cinderella's kiss :) |
DISNEY!
This trip was amazing. I'll give you a quick overview of each day and then I'll post pictures. I'll post the pictures taken by the photographers at the park and at Give Kids the World in this post. I'll do another post with some of the pictures that I took.
Day 1 - Our flights were great. The girls were so excited to fly. Anya giggled hysterically when we took off and then told us there were bubbles (clouds) in the sky! Oksana held on for dear life but loved it! She asked me at one point what she would do if she had to go potty. I told her she would go potty in the bathroom on the plane. She was shocked! She said "On the plane?! I have to see this!"
After we got our rental car we were off to Give Kids the World (GKTW). That place is amazing! We enjoyed exploring, getting to know our "home" for the week", and we went swimming before we got to bed so we were well rested for day 2.
Day 2 - We went to Universal Studios and saw Harry Potter! In fact that's pretty much all we saw. It was so amazing but VERY crowded. We got to have Butterbeer, ride Hogwarts Express, eat at the Three Broomsticks, and our favorite part was the Gringots ride. It was incredible! It was also our girls' first roller coaster and after that they were hooked! Luckily the wheelchair and the nice little pass they gave us made the crowds a bit easier to tolerate. Still, by the afternoon we were all hot, cranky, and done with people!
We went back to GKTW, rode some rides, ate dinner, had ice cream, and crashed!
Day 3 - Magic Kingdom! I loved MK! The big part of Oksana's wish was that she wanted to meet Pocahontas. They arranged a private meeting for them and she absolutely loved it! We spent that day meeting LOTS of princesses, riding rides...mostly roller coasters per the girls' request, and eating lots of yummy stuff!
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom day 2. This time we decided to go late afternoon and stay until night. We learned then that this was much better for our family than going early. When we got there it was hot but we were refreshed and ready to have fun. By the time we got tired it was cool and beautiful. We rode a bunch more rides this day and saw the electric parade. It was such a fun day!
Day 5 - Our down day. We spent the day swimming and eating ice cream at GKTW and then met some friends who live in Orlando for dinner. It was a great break and the kids had been dying to swim again so it worked out great.
Day 6 - Hollywood Studios. I wasn't sure I would like this at first but it turned out to be a great day! We did the late afternoon schedule again and loved it. We got to see a Frozen sing along show, the boys got to meet Star Wars characters, and we got to see their light show, Fantasmic. It was an amazing night!
Day 7 - Check out at GKTW, went to Disney Springs for some lunch and shopping, then off to the airport to head home. Oksana was really ready to come home to her own bed but I could have easily stayed another week. It was such a wonderful trip!
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| Gaston was hilarious! |
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| One of my favorites |
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| Another one of my favorites |
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| The look on her face when she first saw Pocahontas |
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| I love this picture. Anya being a nut and Oksana looking at her in awe! |
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| She had no idea who this was but he loved her :) |
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| I'm not a big Star Wars person but this guy was creepy! The boys loved him! |
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| Because dads need hugs too! |
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| Oksana's star on the wall at Give Kids the World |
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| Peek a boo! |
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| This picture makes me giggle! She did not want to get close to him! |
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