five

Here is a list of 5's about me:

5 things I was doing 5 years ago:
waiting for john to come home from his mission
finishing up another year of high school
working at The Grand Cinema

traveling to Washington to go to my dad's funeral
Competing in the State Gymnastics meet and scoring 3rd place all-around for my level (i miss those days!)

5 things I'll do tonight:
fold/put away clothes
cook a ton of food for tomorrow
feed my kids
take pictures of the beginnings of construction on our house!
write a blog/post pictures (maybe)

5 things I would do with a million dollars:
pay off the soon-to-be mortgage, car note, all other debts
get a van!! (second vehicle)

finish school by simply paying for someone to watch the kids and going back full time

maybe buy some land that could eventually have a house/farm/ everything we need and our families and friends too! (i've always dreamed of having a little community of everyone doing some one thing that made the community self-sufficent being comprised of mostly Latter Day Saints, but also friends and family who don't mind living the "Law of Consecration where everyone has a part in making everything work.)

save the rest of it for "a rainy day" 

5 places I have lived:
confederate ave

glenfield dr

oakleigh apts

with my in-laws

apts off of walker s rd

5 jobs I have had:

The Grand Cinema

Walgreens

Sav-A-Center

rasing kids!!!!

making meals and delivering for lunch

5 things I want to be doing in 5 years:
being close to finishing school
visiting John at Walgreens where he's the Store Manager

Watch Kathryn and Daniel go off to school!

Start doing something exotic/creative with our backyard (maybe a pool, a fish pond, some shade trees, a veggie garden...)

enjoying life

5 people I tag:
Jolie, Holly, Jamie, Emma, Cherie

Well THAT explains a lot!

So yesterday was a big day for us...a diagnosis was made, not that it was a surprise or anything, but we learned a lot.

Kathryn finally got to see a Geneticist. Dr. Superneau, and let me tell you, he is the best doctor i've ever met! He took his time, was very thorough and understanding, and left no questions unanswered! 

Needless to say, Kathryn has Neurofibromatosis. I kinda figured that. But what is interesting is people with NF are highly likely to have some type of learning problem...like ADD, ADHD, slow learning, memory problems, Dyslexia etc. well GEE... so THAT'S what is the cause of all these learning delays we already found out about... and the doc recommends she go see a development Dr. about ADHD...he's certain she has that. yeah...well that explains a lot of Kathryn's behavior... he said that it's basically caused by anxiety (for her at least) when she is put in situations that aren't familar to her...like being at church (she never wants to sit still) or at a DOCTORS office...at the store, etc. and soon will be when she is at school. so we should figure out how to handle this before she starts school...obviously.

so what else does this diagnosis mean? well, she has a few neurofibromas and is sure to develop more of them, so we just have to monitor her to make sure none of these are causing problems or pain (they usually don't do either) and they can be removed if necessary, but they aren't very noticable so no worries unless they bother her. she also most likely will develop these internally, and so she needs to be examined yearly for:

1. hearing

2. eyes

3. blood pressure

4. yearly pediatrician visit

5. ADHD and speech issues

and that's it. she'll live a normal life, will be more tan than most (lots of cafe au lait spots and freckles + unusal pigmentation genes) and will always have vision problems, and will need special attention when it comes to finding out how she learns best. 

so now we get to see how to deal with her attention problem.

besides all that... i am finally feeling sucessful for one of my "money making" endeavors. the "plate lunches" are a success at Trendsic, so next week i'm bringing them to my dentists office and hope i can get one more business to jump on board and i'll be set. i'm ironing out the kinks and i'm doing great. now i just need to find someone who might be interested in watching my kids while i deliver the meals. and i would be able to pay them! yay! so hey, any one interested? it would be from say, 10:30 or so (depending on how far away you live) to 12:30...

is there a house in our future? YES

so it's official. we've signed papers to buy our first house. but it isn't built yet. so we have to wait. darn. but it's worth it, and we are super duper excited to go from 800 sq ft (i'm just guessing) to 1730 sq ft... 2 bedrooms to 4. needless to say...it will be nice. it's a mile down the road from where we are now, and we have one of the biggest lots on the very end, so only 1 neighbor to deal with, no one behind us. anyhow. i could go on and on, but i think it may get annoying after a while, so i'll keep it brief. WE'RE GOING TO BE HOMEOWNERS REAL SOON!! yes! ok ok, so i know that it's "not all it's cracked up to be" but in a brand new home, not a whole lot can go wrong that isn't covered by a warranty. so we are making a list of everything you need as homeowners that you don't need as apt renters, and we'll work on saving for that stuff now. i'm a little on edge becuause it's quite a responsiblity to take over, but i guess after a year i'll breathe easier. i'm just that way when it comes to finances. 

besides that, kathryn went to the eye doctor friday, and her glasses haven't corrected the "strabismus" or cross-eyed problem. to me, she isn't crossing her eyes like she was before the glasses, so i dunno, but clearly, if you cover her better eye (the right) her left eye definitely crosses. so the doctor wants to try patching. apparently "bandaid" style patches work best for little kids, as they semi-hurt if they try to remove it, so they are less likely to bother it. this is true for kathryn! after she leaves it be for...5 mins, she forgets it's there. i sure hope it helps. our other options are vision therapy (great, more therapy) or surgery (will it even work?) so i've never been cross-eyed, and i don't know just what she is experiencing, but apparently, she is seeing close to what we would call "double vision" where there are 2 mommies in the kitchen or 2 toys on the floor to not step on...no wonder she is so clumsy! i feel so sorry for her. she has a lot of minor issues that could result in major issues down the road. i dunno. i guess i'm waiting to see what the geneticist says. i'm about 100% sure she has neurofibromatosis. but what does that mean?? it seems like she has what is called a cutaneous neurofibroma (i've noticed 3 so far) basically a benign button-like tumor on the skin (same color as the skin) but i guess the doctor will let me know all that. i just hope she can live a normal life. although, to her, she knows no different.

and last but not least, daniel is incredibly impressive. of course i'm sure i have kathryn to thank for a lot of the skills he is developing, but he is wasting no time getting around. he wishes he could run. poor lil legs just don't quite move fast enough for him sometimes. he wants to feed himself. i should just let him go at it with a spoon, but i am a mess-avoiding freak when i can help it, and baby + spoon + food = huge mess in my eyes. who knows. we'll try it soon enough. he has the grab and turn skill. like unscrewing the screw that adjusts the height of our pedastal fan...or turning the switch to on on our box fan and our dishwasher...he is good at that now. silly boy. oh, and today, he pulled himself up to the door of the dishwasher from  pulling up on the top rack...he seriously did a pull up!!! before john and i knew it, he was in the bottom rack in the dishwasher! crazy daredevil kid...when he gets up on our bed (or any pile that looks temptingly fluffy) he belly flops (for lack of a better term) straight down! seriously, he stands straight up, leans forward, and waits for gravity to pull him flat to the surface! maybe face plants would describe it better. he is crazy! i can ONLY imagine what he has waiting for me over the next year! his hair is getting much darker now. i'm interested to see how he'll look in 6 months. hard to believe a year has almost come and gone!

HELP!!

ok, so thanks to Jamie's husband Joe, i am re-motivated to make plate lunches to sell. i have been wanting to do it, but a bit overwhelmed...but i'm gonna just make the jump and see how it works. 

here's what i need your help with...i am thinking i'd eventually like to make this a 3 day a week occurence, and if it's popular enough...possibly more, we'll see. right now i have a great lasagna recipe, and what i think is a good jambalaya recipe, and i'm debating on doing a roast lunch with potatoes, carrots, and a roll...i haven't looked into the cost of it tho. what other lunch meals are people interested in having??? what about fried chicken?

and second, locally, are there any of you out there that would be willing to "taste test" my meals/portion sizes? i'm thinking i want to do the tasting within the next 2 weeks...maybe i'll bring them to church...so if you are interested let me know! i need feedback before i disappoint any paying customers!!

Debt Reduction Surgery

so today John and I finally decided to go through with the Debt Reduction Surgery. we had been holding off, thinking we might be able to get this pre-forclosure house next to his parents, but after the long consideration and thought we put into trying to make it work (it needed about $25000 in repairs) we decided not only would the bank most likely not accept our low offer, but it wasn't in our best interest...we had a goal (to get out of debt) and we need to achieve it first. so the house thing is off. it was a pretty big decision and rather emotional, seeing as to how we don't know when we'll get a house, but to break the mood of remorse, we jumped right in to our Debt reduction! we were holding on to about $3700 for a down payment for the "maybe" house, and since that was a no-go, it was free again! we stripped off $7500 in debt since the last "total money makeover" post! we paid off our credit card with our bank, our debt consolidation loan, and citi credit card, and we are now attacking our car loan!!! it feels so awesome to be paying more than the minimum for the car note. that has never happened! we suddenly can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!! we have just under $8000 to pay off in our debt and that just made our day! life without a car note??? very soon, very soon.

so in the midst of this life-changing decision, we got to talking about other life-altering decisions like, when to get a second vehicle, when will we get a house, how much house can we afford, do we still want to move to utah? and so we have changed our minds about a few things, and i'll explain.

first and foremost, we have decided we aren't going to move to utah...house prices there are just as much, if not more than houses here, so we'd be waiting even longer to get into a house, and the big reason we decided not to move is the cost to visit...plane tickets would run $1200 to $1600 if john came, and that would leave us without family for a long time. and since kathryn has gotten quite attatched to the extended family, we have decided we can settle for Walker, La. it's a much smaller town than BR, and i LOVE that. and the school system is not too bad...or so we've heard...so, we'll be looking for a house in the Walker area, probably in another year and a half to 2 years. we are going to be saving up for the second vehicle as soon as we become debt free, and we will pay cash for it. we'd like to get a van, but it looks like there aren't many to choose from...no one is selling them! so i guess we shall cross that bridge when we get there...hopefully we will have a second vehicle in a year. then save for the down payment for the house/fully funded emergency fund. and maybe i may try to go back to school after all that...but idk.

so aside from that...the kids are...still alive! i had the flu a week ago and didn't know it (i wondered why i felt so TIRED and achy and terrible) and turns out Daniel caught it and he had it bad! his fever was 104.5 at the docs office on saturday morning...i was really worried about him. and kathryn probably had it too, she was sleeping more than normal and had a bit of a fever, but nothing over 102.5...and just as daniel starts to get over his flu today, kathryn breaks out in hives...well, that is very sad for her. i called the nurse and she said it is usually caused from a viral infection...so she is still sick =( i dunno if there is anything more than benadryl that she can take... i just hate it when my kids are so sick and there is nothing i can do to make it better other than comfort them.

so the last bit of news we have is kathryn finally got evaluated for speech therapy and turns out she qualifies for a whole lot more...i guess when you assume your kid is normal, you never want to think otherwise...i never had much of a reason to think kathryn was anything but a typical kid developing at her own rate...well, apparently she has quite a few developmental delays including her speech. the good news is...they want to offer her therapy for all the areas she is weak in. so that is terrific. i guess to all the parents of 3 year olds, you have no idea how frustrating it is to not be able to communicate properly with your toddler, or to not know what they are trying to say 90% of the time. i only hope it works/helps her to improve her speech. everything that i have tried with her seems to not help much. oh well, leave it to the professsonal. bad news, they are going to take up to 2 months getting back with me about when we can get started.

o ho busy busy

o lots have been going on in our little world!

Daniel is now walking all over! this has been about a 3 week thing from the time he took his first steps...and everyday he is getting faster and better and choosing walking over crawling! it's pretty crazy. i may just post some videos of him later.

I cut John's hair last night for the very first time (the first time i've ever cut hair) before i always just used the hair trimmer, and thought that was basically fool proof, but decided this time i wanted his hair longer than 1 inch...so i cut it. before i cut it, his hair was a good 7-8 inches long or so...it was a bit to much, now he is much more conservative, and i think the hair cut is a success!! yay! so before:

and after:

and daniel also discovered he can dig in the cabinets and so he likes to pull out all the mixing bowls and pan lids and then crawl into the cabinet...he's so full of energy and fun. super cute even when he's doing things he's not supposed to..

and kathryn has learned how to pretend with her stuffed animals...all of her activities now have to include her stuffed animals as well.

this week she also has her speech therapy evaluation, so that will be nice to see if it helps, or what i can do differently at home...

and baby Braden is 1 month old today, and he is getting soo chunky! he's so cute! and such a good baby. he never ever cries.

Neurofibromatosis

so it's been a busy week for us.

my nephew was born on Feb 2. Braden Robert Slocum. Sweet little boy. and i got to keep my niece Lydia (Braden's big sister) from Monday to Wednesday. It was interesting. Overall, i think i did better with 2 toddlers than 1! i got Lydia to listen to me and Kathryn followed anything Lydia did...and vice versa. so it wasn't too bad. of course some chores were ignored...like laundry. oh well. i would have kept her longer, but she was dying to see Mommy, Daddy and Baby Braden.

On Tuesday of this week Kathryn went for another audiology appointment to test her hearing (last time she went she had a cold it she got bad results, so she needed to come back when she wasn't sick to compare) she passed the tests with flying colors. she might not be able to see real well w/o her glasses, but hear she can. do that was good news. However, the audiologist gave me her opinion about kathryn's delayed speech development, saying that if kathryn really is chronically sick during winter, that could be part of the problem. she explained that when we are sick fluid has a tendency to drain into our ear canals in our inner ears...and it makes the sound waves muffled when they try to travel through the fluid, which could be equated to having cotton in your ears...everything sounds blurry or slurred to the brain. hmmm. good to know.

kathryn has been getting much better with the speech issue, but she has an evaluation with a speech therapist in march to start speech therapy. yay!

i also got the "Your Baby Can Read" program in on Monday for my 30 day trial, and i have high hopes, although i haven't been able to get Daniel to watch it all the way through yet. On the other hand, Kathryn LOVES it! 

So Thursday we went to the doctor for a well check for both Kathryn and Daniel. Kathryn is 32 lbs, 37.5 in tall. she had one shot and took it well. Daniel being 9 mon. got 3 shots, and he's a breath holder...poor thing. he is 18 lbs 4 oz and 27.75 in long. both seem fine. 

But when the doctor was examining Kathryn, she noticed quite a few "cafe au lait" spots on her, and i mentioned how i've been noticing that she's getting more of them...just thought they were birth marks or something...well apparently if you have more than 6 pea-sized or bigger, it raises a concern. well, when i looked over kathryn yesterday i found at least 11, so hmmmm. she said she wanted me to take her to see a geneticist though after noticing freckles in her arm pits. once again...didn't know that was a big deal. but after i thought about it...freckles are supposed to be from sun exposure...how often do your armpits get sun exposure...so ok, that makes sense. anyway. she thinks kathryn might have Neurofibromatosis which is a genetic disorder, but that's for the geneticist to decide she says. i thought...wow that's a mouth full...what does it mean?

well, it is basically a mutation in a specific chromosome and the mal-production of a protein that stops tumors from forming...so basically tumors could start to form on the nerves anywhere in her body, but eyesight and skeletal structure were the main things affected by the type of NF kathryn may have...well, her eyesight already sucks, but that's been fixed with glasses. but the bone problems...that wouldn't be cool. anyhow, it relates to slowed speech development in kids and so it seems like this fits...but i dunno. bad thing is, there isn't anything you can do about the disorder other than treat the symptoms. treatment may include removing painful tumors, stopping radical bone growth, and she could get scoliosis. she may also develop freckles in her irises... well, all of this is if she has this...so i guess we'll have to see. things you never think to notice. good thing there are smart doctors who study this.