Bloggity Blog

It's been a very long time since my last blog.

It's Thursday night. It's been a long week. There's a great thunder and lightening show going on outside, so I thought - "hmmm...PERFECT time to blog". So here I am.

There have been so many changes in our lives in the last 6 months. We sold our house. We bought a new house - brand new. The kids both changed schools. Aidan started karate. Liam started football. We went on an awesome vacation to Galveston (hold the laughs...Galveston can be fun you know). I got a new car. I guess that about sums it up. All big stuff. Well, all GIANT stuff. It took some time to get used to our new life, but I think we're all pretty much settled in. Funny enough, we all love our new house so much that we don't remember living in our old one that we lived in for 10 years. It's crazy. We love the house, the neighborhood, the schools, everything. Well, except for the armadillos. Yep, armadillos. They come visit every single night and make a huge mess of my flower beds. That's my only gripe.

Liam is doing so well in school. His grades are fantastic and he is L-O-V-I-N-G football. He made tight end, punter and safety on the A team. That's crazy! Not only did he make all those positions, but he's really really good at them too! He's had great games every game. I love watching him do his thing. I'm one proud football mama! As if he wasn't already a soccer star and karate star, now I can brag about his football skills. He's awesome.

Aidan started karate back in March and is loving it. He's just breezing right through and he really likes having his "thing". And of course, everyone loves him. He's at a new school too and doing really well. I'm so satisifed with our decision to move and get the kids out of the schools where we were at. Aidan is settling in nicely at his new school and his teachers seem to "get" him, which is important. We've hit a bump in the road. 3 weeks ago, Aidan was outside after school playing with Liam and a couple other kids and he fell while running with the football and broke his arm. Compound fracture of the radius and ulna. It wasn't pretty. At all. I called 911, thank God, who got him to the ER since I pretty much freaked out. He had a 3 hour surgery that night to try and fix the bones and we spent the next 3 days in the hospital. He did great and is finally recovering, after a minor set back. He'll be in a cast until mid-November. At least he waited until the summer was over...

Elliot is getting ready for his next race. It's another 100-miler in 2 weeks. He'll be going back to Oklahoma, but this time it's a "loop race", which basically means instead of running from one place to another, he'll be running in a loop. I'm not going. Not that I don't "support" him, but because about 2 years ago, he was so mean to us the night before because he was tense and stressed, that I said we wouldn't go to another one - at least another over night one. It's not the most spectator friendly sport and he knows how I feel about it. We cheer him on from home and he knows that. Go honey. Keep running.

I guess that's about it for now. I've got a million I could attach here, but I honeslty don't feel like it. It'll take way too long. It feels good to be back!!!

WAIT FOR IT...

Hello? Is anyone still out there?

I know it's only been, ohhhhh...7 or so months since my last post.

Sorry.

I have no explanation.

I just disappeared from my blog-erapy.

So...I'm coming back. So much has changed since February. I have so much to blog about that it may take several posts to feel caught up and who knows, at that point, I may quit again. I had valid reasons in my head why I wasn't blogging anymore, but I'll keep those to myself. The point is, I'm back and I hope you will be to.

I feel the urge to blog again. About life, things and whatever else comes to mind. I thought about starting from scratch with an entirely new blog, but honestly, it's too much of a hassle. So...I'll just pick up where I left off and maybe make some changes to this blog. It may take a few days, but I'm going to do it. I hope you'll be along for the ride.

Wait for it...


Feels good to be back.

Rough Patch

So, it's been one of "those" weeks. We haven't had one of them in a while, so I guess we were due a rough one. I took Aidan to the doctor Saturday for his sinus/ear infection and he seemed to be on the road to recovery. He played outside Sunday and Monday after school and was getting better. Or so I thought.

It's funny how I can revert back to the scared and panicked Mom I once was when he gets sick. He woke me up Tuesday morning and was really struggling to breathe. He looked scared and just climbed in bed and nestled himself in my chest asking for help. It almost made me cry when he said "Mommy, I can't breathe, can you help me?". Ugh. So, I kicked into caretaker mode and got the trusty nebulizer bag out of it's place in the cabinet, hooked it up and got him going. I was able to get Liam off to school and get back to taking care of Aidan.

I can usually pinpoint his triggers, but this one had me stumped. He was getting better. The only thing I can think of is the change in weather and the wind. The damn wind.

Needless to say, he spent Tuesday and Wednesday home with me being watched like a hawk. I kept him on the breathing treatments until I knew he was better and kept him doped up on all his medicines. I really try and refrain from using the steroids since they are an immunosupressor and he was already sick. I was able to tackle this episode without them thank goodness. He went back to school this morning after sleeping horribly last night. He was literally in tears this morning, but I made him go and promised him a video game rental on Friday after school if he quit crying and went to school both days. I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Stinker.

Liam had stripe testing at karate last night. He's on his second black stripe on his advanced blue belt. Moving right along. I also had a parent meeting at the Middle School he'll be going to next year. I have to say, it was actually kind of not bad. The school he's been at for the last 2 years has been so horrible that I've really been stressed about his move to Middle School, but after last night, I'm not so worried. He's really looking forward to playing football and being a "jock". I don't know how he grew up so fast, but he did and I'm so proud of him and the young man he's become.

Well, here's to hoping the end of the week is way better than the beginning. Happy Thursday people!

Pay to Play.

Well, we got through the second ice/snow "storm" in a week's time. It wasn't nearly as bad as the one the week before - thank goodness. The weather the last few days has been amazing! Our weekend was pretty busy.

After school Friday, Aidan complained about his ear hurting. He had been fighting off a cold for almost 2 weeks, but I guess it had turned into something that he wasn't going to get over without the help of some medicine. And, of course he tells me when I can't get him into the doctor. So...the plan was to call urgent care first thing Saturday morning and get him in. I guess everyone else in Mansfield was sick too, because I called at 11 and they put us on the waiting list to be seen about 3 hours later. So, our day was pretty much devoted to waiting. That's ok. He got some antibiotics for a sinus and ear infection and on his road to getting better.

My sister in law Casey had her baby Saturday. Dalton Denholm is now the baby of the family and we're so excited to have a new baby around!!! I'm sad that since Aidan was sick that we didn't get to go for a visit while they were in the hospital on Saturday. I can't wait to meet the little guy. When I showed Aidan the picture of him while we were waiting at the doctor's office, Aidan said he looked like a little "love of bread".

Aidan's been slowly getting better. But, he woke up this morning wheezing pretty bad. He hasn't done this in a while. I'm not sure what brought it on, but I'm going to assume it's his illness, along with whatever's blowing around in the air and the fact that he's been outside playing for 2 days. So...I started the nebulizer and will be keeping him home from school until he's back to normal. I know he's not feeling good and that makes it a little bit harder to deal with. He's pretty tough, so when he complains, I know it's bad.

Hopefully this week will turn around. The weather is gorgeous and it's too pretty to be stuck in the house. Wish us luck!

Super Bowl Fun.

Well, the Super Bowl is FINALLY over. I've gotta tell ya, it was a whip. The horrible winter weather didn't help either. The local news stations had a hay day with all of it and made it almost unbearable to tune in. But I did. Because I'm a sucker. I have to have my finger on the pulse of - well - everything.

Elliot works for Cowboys Stadium. He started a few years back when the Cowboys were still at Texas Stadium for the sole purpose of being able to work at Cowboys Stadium and being there for the Super Bowl. It paid off big time. Not only did he get to work one of the biggest sporting events in the world, he got to see his #1 (Steelers) and #2 (Packers) teams play each other. He was ecstatic to say the least. He even wore his Steelers shirt under his uniform.

He had an extremely long day that started at 5 am and didn't end until midnight. He was within spitting distance of almost any who's who in the world. He had stories to tell and was pretty starstruck - which never happens. Not to mention, he's finally come around and developed a man crush on my crush - Usher. How can you not think that guy is kooler than the gang? He and Justin Timberlake are almost in a dead heat if you ask me. Yum.

Here are a few pics that Elliot snapped. He wasn't supposed to take any, so let's keep these on the DL...between you and me - lol.

THE VIEW FROM ELLIOT'S SUITE...NOT TOO SHABBY


ANOTHER VIEW OF THE FIELD


ELLIOT WITH HIS BELOVED STEELERS ENDZONE IN THE BACKGROUND


THE GINORMOUS JUMBO TRON


THE OUTSIDE OF THE STADIUM ON SUPER BOWL MORNING


ELLIOT - ALL DRESSED UP IN HIS FRIEND'S SUITE - WAITING FOR GAME TIME


CONFETTI



Since I haven't been blogging much, I've got tons of stuff to talk about and even more pictures to post. I'll try and be better about it. It looks like we're going to have more winter weather move in tomorrow and there's a possiblity that we'll be snowed in for a couple of days, so I'm sure I'll have some time on my hands. Stay warm everyone!

2011.

Well, it's February and I'm just now getting to my first blog of the new year. Oopsy.

We had a great Christmas around here. Kind of subdued, but no complaints from me. I believe I said on here before that we were hoping to move. We did buy a house in North Bedford, but ended up having to cancel the contract on the house. I guess it wasn't meant to be. We're disappointed, but we also realize things happen out of our control and for a reason. So, we're accepting it and continuing on. We have gone ahead and made some changes to our current house. If we're going to stay, there were things that needed to be done around here and it's made a huge difference.

We switched the kid's rooms. Liam needed more space and Aidan needed to get rid of the bunkbeds. So, we bought Liam new bedroom furniture and moved him into the bigger room. It was a huge undertaking, but such a total makeover. His room is really awesome now. The furniture we bought will hopefully last him for as long as he needs it to. I'm still waiting on some of his pictures to come in that I ordered to finish up the wall decor and I'm on the search for the perfect lamp, but other than that, the room is complete. He spends all of his time in there now. It seems to have cut down on the crampiness of the house that we were all feeling.

Aidan's happy with his new room as well. His furniture isn't new, but he was excited to switch rooms and get out of the bunkbeds. I ordered him new bedding, which he's not so patiently waiting to arrive. I'm hoping it will be here early next week so he'll quit asking me when it will be here. He just doesn't get the whole time thing.

With all the other transformations going on around the house, I didn't want to be left out. So, Elliot and I decided to buy ourselves bedroom furniture. I mean - we've only been married for almost 14 years. Neither one of us have ever had a nice "set" of furniture to speak of, so we felt like we deserved it. Talk about a HUGE DIFFERENCE!!! Our room looked like a horrible college bachelor's apartment and now it looks like a grown up's room. We both love it. There are still some minor decorator's touches I want to put in there, but I know I can't do it all at once and I'm totally cool with that. I don't mind doing small things at a time. I love it and love the fact that I don't feel like I need to shut the door anymore when people come over.

Needless to say, we're both pretty much done with painting and hopefully won't need to do any anytime soon. We've had our fair share here in the last 3 weeks. Although, the bathrooms could use some revamping....nope. I'll stop here...for now.

The kids are doing ok in school. Liam is moving right along. Growing into such a young man. I just don't know where the time has gone with him. I can't believe how fast he's growing up. He asked me today if he could go to the movies with a couple of his female friends. Darn it if we didn't have things to do this afternoon. Too bad...hee hee hee. I'm not sure if I'm ready for him to start doing that kind of stuff just yet, but I have to try and remember I was going to the movies with my friends - both female and male at the age of 12 1/2. *sigh*

Aidan's Aidan. Nothing new. We had a pretty rough time with him a few weeks back at school. All 3 of his teachers came to me with concerns about his focus. Luckily with a talk from Elliot and I he seems to be back on track at school. I'm still not sure what is in store for him next fall, but right now we need to get through this year. It's going to be a nail biter for sure and I'm not sure I want to be on the ride. We have his ARD meeting sometime in the next couple of months to discuss his IEP through the public school system and we'll make some decisions after that. I'm not thrilled, but it's time to put on my big girl panties and deal with it I guess. Another *sigh*.

Liam's still rocking it out at karate. He went through a period about a month ago when he wanted to quit. He was basically bored with his classes, but he has moved up to the advanced classes now and I promised him they would be much more fun from here on out. And I was right. I can't keep him away from the dojo. He's wanting to go every night, which is unrealistic, but I don't mind taking him when we don't have anything else going on. We've also decided to sign Aidan up in the next few weeks too. We had wanted to wait until he was a little bit older and showed a little bit more responsibility with things, but he isn't doing any sports this spring and we're hoping that karate will help with the things he's having trouble with. It also helps that he'll know how to defend himself from the bullies if he does end up having to go to that horrible Intermediate School next fall :(. I know it's a horrible thing to say, but it is what it is and I'm not going to live in a fantasy world about it anymore.

The weather has been crazy here this week. We had an ice storm blow in Tuesday and it all but shut down everything until this morning - Saturday! We had about 5 1/2 inches of snow fall on top of it Thursday night. The kids were out of school for 4 straight days and even Elliot had a couple days off of work and it's only the beginning of February! Hopefully that's our dose of winter for this year and we'll be dodging tornadoes and heat waves before we know it. We did manage to book our summer vacation to the beach this week. So, that's something fun for us to look forward to.

Tomorrow's the Super Bowl! We are so excited to root on the Steelers to what will hopefully be another victory!!! Elliot's more than excited to be able to be there tomorrow - albeit working - so he can watch his 2 favorite teams play each other in what is sure to be an outstanding game. Super Bowl fever has definitely hit the area and I'm sure it will be the first of many - even with the filty weather we've had.

Well, I think that about catches me up. Sorry for the sporadic blogs. I just haven't gotten in the groove and I'm not going to force it. I hope everyone is having a great year so far and I look forward to more exciting things to come!

xoxo

Slapped in the Face.

I typically don't pour my heart out here, but I think today I might need to. I kind of need the therapy of it if you will.

I had lunch room duty at Aidan's school today, which I didn't think would turn into a reality check, but it did. I noticed about 5 minutes into lunch that Aidan was sitting alone. Then 10 minutes. Then 15 minutes. I walked over and asked him if he ever sat with any friends and he said "sometimes". Broke my heart.

After lunch, the kids go out and play at recess. I know this is where Aidan shines. He's an athlete and loves playing sports, and I thought all the kids loved him. But I was wrong. It was hard to watch my sweet little boy stand in the middle of kids playing football and soccer and wait for someone to throw or kick something at him. All the kids just played - as if Aidan was invisible. Broke my heart even more.

Don't get me wrong, we know Aidan's a little socially awkward. This isn't a newsflash to us. That's what makes Aidan "Aidan". We love it. He makes us laugh every single day. Everyone loves him. But, kids don't get him. They just think he's weird. And today that was made clear to me. It's hard to watch and for some reason, I was totally unprepared for it.

I'm so grateful for so many things in my life. I'm also very grateful that Aidan's health has steadily improved every single year and what was once a constant worry for me is somewhat a thing of the past. Sure, he gets sick alot, but I can handle that any day. At least I know that now his health won't hold him back anymore the way it used to. This is totally different. This is him and this is how he is. There's nothing we can do to make him different.

I'll take Aidan the way he is any day. I just wish 10 year old boys could see how great he is too...