Posts Tagged ‘Olivia’
Today, Olivia started Kindergarten! She has been so patient, waiting an entire week longer than her brother to start school. She had a great first day and she is excited about her new teacher and her new school.
So grown up!
Adventure awaits!
This weekend we took the RV up the mountain to Rockport for a little fishing and some r&r. We left Friday evening and I ran around, frantically trying to get everything packed up. I did have to run by the pharmacy that day to fill some prescriptions for Julia. I picked up the dreaded TOBI, along with three others, and when I walked out the door, tears welled up in my eyes and I quickly pushed them back. I’m sure as time goes by I won’t have this reaction to coming in contact with TOBI, but filling it means Julia and I devote another hour of our day to fighting cystic fibrosis. It makes for very long treatments and very long days. I wore my FUCF tank-top for the occasion, because darn it, sometimes that’s just how I feel. What I would give to come home after a long day and just put my kids right to bed. What a treat that would be…
My new favorite tank-top
Are we done yet? No we still have another 30 minutes of TOBI!
OK, I done complaining now…on to our fantastic weekend. We got up to the lake late Friday evening and the kids tried some fishing and then rode their bikes. They liked riding around on the paved campground roads. On Saturday, the kids fished, swam in the lake, dug in the sand, and rode their bikes. Sunday was a highlight because we rented a boat and took it out on the lake for a couple of hours. It was a blast!
My parents were with us and so was my brother Dustin. Now the tricky part was getting Dustin to board the boat. You see, for those of you who don’t know Dustin, he has Down’s Syndrome and, in his day has watched way too many Jaws movies. So, he is deathly afraid of large bodies of water because he believes that there are sharks swimming around, ready to attack. My parents can tell you a hilarious story of Dustin on a cruise ship during the “drill.” You know, the one when you all have to put on your life jackets and go out on deck to your muster station. Yeah, that’s the one. Well, lets just say that all the people at my parent’s muster station got a good show of my dad pulling Dustin out on to the deck. Dustin is not a kid anymore, well, not physically anyway. He’s almost my age, so good entertainment for all.
Well, Dustin wasn’t about to get on the boat with us at Rockport, but my Dad was trying anyway. This nice man came up and offered to help. Joey told him that Dustin thought there were sharks out in the lake and the man explained to him that there weren’t any sharks and offered to walk with Dustin and help him aboard. Surprisingly, Dustin trusted this man and held his hand and walked out onto the deck and climbed aboard! He held on tight to the side of the boat the entire time and had a death grip on the tie off rope, but he did enjoy himself, especially when Joey opened it up and went really fast. You could see a look of enjoyment come over his face. My dad did try to get him to fish, but he refused, holding tight onto his rope and the side of the boat, not even considering letting go of either to hold a fishing pole.
See, he is enjoying himself...uh oh, is that a shark I see! Notice Dustin's hand...holding tightly onto the side!
We came home Sunday evening, totally exhausted. We got the RV all cleaned up and ready for next time. We are making some good memories with our kids in this RV. So the tradition continues. Next stop…Yellowstone!
Austin attempting to catch a fish...sadly, no luck again this time.
The captin at the helm...
Julia, enjoying her boating experience.
Olivia, as happy as can be!
My kids and my mom
The kids loved playing in the water and digging in the sand.
Mascot Mania!
Ladybug Julia
Ladybug Olivia
Snake boy Austin
We were given some special tickets by Primary Children’s Hospital to attend a night out at Hogle Zoo. It was perfect weather for the event…overcast and cool t-shirt weather. We had dinner provided by Chick-fil-a, face painting, pictures with various animal mascots, and lots of fun. To Julia, it was like going to the zoo for the first time, because she can’t remember the times we’ve been there before. She had a blast seeing all the different animals. The kids all loved their face paintings and Olivia wore hers for two days afterward. She was disappointed when I had her wash it off for church.
School is finally out. The kids start gymnastics today! They are all so excited. We are camping this weekend with friends and can’t wait to catch lots of fish. Our yard is just about finished as sod is going in the back today. I’ll post some before and after shots in a day or so. I hope to be able to slow down a little bit this summer.
Julia has had good health. She is three days out from finishing another round of TOBI. I will be so glad to get a 28 day break from it and I know she will be as well. She has been on a nasal-steroid spray, which seems to be helping some nasal congestion she’s had lately. I can hear CF in her more and more each day. She now has a cough that appears randomly during the day, and has coughing spells during treatment time. It’s a change from when she was younger and I never heard her cough, ever. This disease slowly does it’s thing. Julia is such a trooper and she is truly an amazing little person.
Miss Michelle & Olivia
Miss Laura & Olivia
I can’t believe that Olivia has finished preschool. It has been a fantastic year for Olivia. She has simply blossomed this year and will enter kindergarten just as ready as can be. Olivia’s preschool program was so much fun to watch. Olivia stole the show with her singing and dancing. Watching Olivia was such a treat. She really displayed her talent for dancing and singing. She didn’t miss a beat and sang flawlessly. She had her part memorized and spoke with such confidence. I’ll try to post some video of her performance soon.
Vasectomy
On another note, Joey had a small surgery on Thursday. This surgery included clipping two manly cords. This kinda seals the deal and our family is now considered complete. I have had much anguish over this decision, but we both feel that it’s the best thing considering the cards we’ve been dealt in this game we call life. There were numerous factors that played into this decision, and we feel that as hard as it was to make the decision, it’s the right decision for us and for our family. Maybe I’ll get into more detail on another day, but for now this is all I’ve got.
So, this means my sisters better start cranking out babies like crazy so I can get my baby fix as much as I need. It’s so great to be a mom! I am so blessed to care for three such special spirits. Hope this Memorial Day finds you all well!
My pretty little dancing princess!
So, this Saturday will probably go down in my life’s history as possibly one of my worst days. I’ll probably never forget it and sorry to say, but my Olivia will probably never forget it either. I’m actually entirely embarrassed about my mistake and considered keeping it to myself, but maybe some of you will relate, or at least I hope you will so I won’t feel so completely alone.
Saturday was supposed to be Olivia’s big day…the day when she was to perform at her dance recital. This was moment that she had been practicing for for the last five months and we were all looking forward to seeing her shine. Well, somehow…and I’m not making any excuses…I got the time mixed up. Somehow, I thought the dance recital was at 5 PM when it was in fact at 4 PM. I told my sister to be there at 5 and we showed up at 4:30, early, so Olivia could get situated with her classmates. Well, we showed up just as all of the preschool dancers were taking their final bow.
I was completely devastated…and as you may guess, Olivia, even more so. We missed the whole thing! I wanted to go crawl into a hole and cry. Olivia held it together pretty well until I apologized to her and then she broke down. There was nothing I could do to fix it and make it all better. I’m usually pretty good at recoveries, but this time I was out of luck. This day will go down in history as one of my worst days…a day we both won’t forget. I imagine that years down the road, Olivia will remind me of the day that I got the time wrong on her dance performance.
This day, I also realized that I just pack my plate way too full. This month I have been just barely keeping my head above water with all of the birthday parties, ball games, kids year end activities, Julia’s care, fund raising, etc. I really need to slow it down and start limiting activities. Most Saturdays we’ve had three scheduled events and that’s just way too much. One event would be much more reasonable. As much as I’d like to be, I’m just not superwoman and I’m going to have to start saying “no.”
What would really make me feel much better is for any of you moms out there to share with me how you’ve screwed up. Come on, I know you all have. Please do tell so I don’t feel like I’m the only loser mom out there. I would really like to feel like I fit in somewhere because I was totally kicked out of the Perfect Moms Club for this latest fumble.
Olivia is such a good sport. She is turning into such a wonderful little girl. I appreciate her more and more each day. Her willingness to help…the way she always looks after Julia…the way she’s always giving gifts and treats to her dad. There’s nothing more heart wrenching than seeing your child devastated and heartbroken, knowing that you were the one to cause the heartache. I hope to never feel this ever again…it was truly awful…a real low point for me.
So, I’m putting my trust in my new ipod touch to save me and organize my life. However, I have a hard time getting to use it in between all three of my kids. They seem to love the thing more than I do. Julia loves to hear songs from our Wii Just Dance game. Olivia watched a movie on it tonight. Austin loves the music and if I can get any games on that thing, I’ll never see it again.
This month has been rough. TOBI has been killing me! Ugh, two plus hours of treatments and nebulizer sterilization every day. Julia is such a trooper. She teaches me everyday that patience is a virtue. If a two-year-old can put up with it, then what am I complaining about?
And there you have it…now it’s all out there and I can breathe and move on…