Right direction?

I forgot to update after Dr. day. Elijah's primary care provider has been a fantastic help to us this year on our journey. She agreed wholeheartedly with us that Navy Medical just wasn't meeting his needs and gave us a referal to a Dr. out in town. What a relief! Our first choice was Dr. Bellis he came very highly reccommended, unfortunately because he's so good he's also so busy he's not accepting new patients. His office reccommended Dr. Taimanglo. We saw her for the first time yesterday morning and I'm fully convinced she's God's answer to our prayers. She started he career as a teacher for 13 years, then went back to school and is now a psychologist, even better she's a liscensed school psycologist. So she knows both sides of the issue. Not only can she work with Elijah, she also knows what the school is required to do to help us, what paperwork they have to make available to us etc.

I went in yesterday with the decision that I wasn't going to tell here what I thought was going on, kind of here's what I think prove me right or wrong. I wanted to hear what her conclusion was just based on what we told her. Dave and I gave her a lot of background, things that have went on in the last few years, the lack of formal testing etc. And she looks at me and says, well have you looked into Autism? I said I had, but that not everything described him. Then she asked what about Aspergers? Which of course is the conclusion I had come to with all my research. It was so nice to finally have someone really really listen to us and not make us out as parents who just want something to be wrong with their child. And to hear her validate what I've bben thinking this whole time was very refresshing. She was incredulous that all through this whole thing, there has been nothing more than a little time watching him in class two years ago, never any formal testing. To make a long story short, she'll be testing him in a couple of weeks. Sometimes it amazes me that this whole fight can drag out for so long then suddenly the wheels are in motion and things are happening rapidly. Then the Dr. thought I was upset that there might be something wrong with him. I kind of laughted, because I was very emotional, like I always am, but never have I been upset or not wanting to admit that Elijah has issues. I've fought for this child his own life to make him healthy etc, my anger is that it has taken this long to find him the help he needs. I was angry that so many people will gloss over the probelma nd not try to help. I was also angry about parents who deny diagnosis or help for their kids because they can't admit that their child isn't "perfect". What these parents don't realize is that God makes every single one of us, and all of us are perfect, just because someone's brain works a little different than theirs doesn't make them any less perfect. God has huge plans for Elijah, I just know it, we just want to help him prepare himself for those plans.

It's doctor day

Yup, I get to go argue with some more doctors about my son. Please note the air of excitement in the air, as if. I look forward to these days hoping that this time will be different, but it rarely ever is. Last time the Dr. was all ready to diagnose him PDD, but then changed his mind and was convinced it was ADD. So we gave in and let him give him the medication, which had no good side affects and basically made him miserable. He was easily angered or would cry over everything. He was yelling at me, something that really just isn't Elijah. So the first reason for todays visit is to get him off that stuff, and hopefully get a referal to a civilian Dr., I've just lost my faith in the Navy Drs. right about now. I've pushed and pushed to get this kid help for over 2 years and they fight me every step of the way. The poor kid is barely holding his head above water in school, and what happens when we get back to the states and the curriculum is harder? Well, we'll see what happens today. Any prayers would be gladly accepted.

Up to my ears in....

Girl Scout cookies. We ordered an extra 44 cases of cookies, on top of what the girls sold in presales, for booth sales. That's 528 extra boxes of cookies sitting in my living room, not to mention Caitlynn and Hannah's orders that haven't been delivered yet. Can you say crazy? I guess it wouldn't be so bad if we weren't in this itty bitty house. I could've done this in the Georgia house, which has the same square footage by the way, and not even noticed. That house was just much better laid out I think.

What else is new? Tonight is Tommy and Shawntelle's wedding and I'm so excited for them. The kids have been hilarious asking all kinds of off the wall questions. Like, "How come Ms. Shawntelle lives in a house by herself, if she's not married shouldn't she live with her mom?" My personal favorite was "Are they going to live together after they get married?" Nah, they just figured they'd see each other at work lol! The girls are real excited because they've never been to a wedding. Not that I have much more experience, I was of course at my own wedding, and also at my mom's when I was 12, that's it for me.

Have I mentioned that we have orders to New York? I am just so excited over that, of course because we want to go there, something will happen to change it. None of the kids remember living in Saratoga Springs, and there will be so many fantastic things to do there with them now that they're older. Not to mention going to Boston and NYC for visits. Even better, the Cartwrights will be in Baltimore, not all that far away. And of course there's my family and friends from school who will be a short 2 hours away. Who could ask for anything more?

more photos

Australia

I know it's been over two weeks since we've gotten back and I'm just now getting around to blogging finally! Things have just been nuts as usual.

Our trip was fantastic! We arrived in the early hours of New Year's Eve, around 12:30am to be specific. We were all pretty exhausted later that day so we just did some low key exploring of Cairns, which we quickly found out the locals pronounce Cans. We went back to our apartment we rented, at Getaway on Grafton(highly reccomended) pretty early and just lounged around. One very cool thing we found out is that they do fireworks twice on New Year's. There's a 9pm show for the kids and athen the traditional 12am show to ring in the New Year. So after the 9pm show the kids went to bed and I followed not long after. Dave woke me up when the later firework went off, we watched them from the balcony, wished eachother a Happy New Year and I promptly went back to sleep. Needed my beauty rest you know.

New Year's Day we went out to the Great Barrier Reef. The boat ride out was pretty rough and poor Elijah got sea sick. He felt terrible the whole way out and almost made it through okay, unfortunately the poor thing got sick just as the ship was tying up to the pontoon. Luckily that made him feel 100 times better, thank goodness, because we were out there for the whole day until the boat went back to the city. Dave had two dives on the reef. The kids and I did a bit of snorkeling, fed the fish and rode the semi-submersible boat. There was an underwater theater where we could watch the really big fish feed, which was absolutely amazing. We didn't get as great a view of the coral as we'd like because of the weather but it was still a once in a lifetime experience.

I loved the reef, but I think the next day was my favorite. We took the Sky Rail to Korunda, what a beautiful ride that was. We started at the Aboriginal park at the Sky Rail station before we even went up. The kids loved the show, and the art was beautiful. I bought a handpainted print that I need to frame and display. The ride over the rainforest was gorgeous, I took a ton of photos, There were two stops along the way where we could get out and walk a bit int he rainforest. At one stop there was a waterfall, unfortunately, there had been a drought and the falls were barely a trickle compared to photos I'd seen from the past. Korunda was a sweet little village at the end of the ride. We enjoyed a few hors there eating lunch, shopping and looking around. There was a butterfly sanctuary that we visited which was ok, but not worth the money. I did get a couple good butterfly shots, but the rest of the family was really bored while I tried to capture the perfect shot. After that we decided we'd be better off saving or money and skipping hte Koala place, can't remember what it was called. So we looked around a bit more and then all relaced with ice cream cones. The ride home was on a the Korunda Railway. The trip was a bit hot, but just as gorgeous as the Sky Rail but from a different view.

The rest of our time in Cairns was spent exploring. We did a ton of walking, to and from restaurants, shopping and other places. I really think I could get used to the city life, I enjoyed not having to drive to get anytwhere. I think my favorite place to walk was the Esplenade along the water. We saw some goergeous birds down there, that's also where the fireworks took place on New Year's. We visited some shopping malls which was quite the experience for us. You figure since we've been here in Guam we've only visited the mall once, and it wasn't much of a mall. So we just walked and just stared at everything totally overwhelmed. I got to walk into an actual camera store and was so enjoying it. You figure it was just a small shop in a mall, I can't wait to go back to the states and get lost in one of those huge camera mega stores.

After our times in Cairns we went up the coast to Palm Cove for a few days. Talk about relaxing! Palm Cove is a sleepy little oceanside town, right near the Cairns Tropical Zoo. We spent an afternoon at the zoo, which was good. If I could do it again we would have gone in the morning instead. By the time we got to the kangaroos they had all been fed all morning and were full by the time we got there, so they didn't want any of the food from the kids. We watched a snake show which was very informative. I can't remember the exact statistics, but something like 18 of the 21 most veemous snakes int he world come from Australia, or maybe it was the deadliest, something I never knew. We had the opportunity for the kids to hold the koalas, but I'm mega cheap, I just couldn't see spending $15 per child to let them hold the koala, maybe that's wrong. I just see paying the money, knowing that at least one of them would chicken out at the last minute. The crocodiles were very cool, they ranged in size from babies about 2 feet long to the humungous things you read about in story books. The really large ones actually looked fake, their mouthes were constantly open and they looked stuffed, it was the weirdest thing. THey even had an American Alligator there too. THe baby crocs were too fnny, we were walking by one of the cages and as soon as Elijah got in front of it, they all came running out of the water toward the fence. Needless to say, fence or no fence we were moving on rahter quickly. It also seemed the wombat had a thing for us. Everytime I spoke he came toward my voice, which was great for photos. I think my favorite part of the whole zoo was the walk through bird sanctuary. There was a very cute Red Panda, but there were so many people in front of the exhibit that it was hard to really see him.

THe rest of our time was just spent do some much needed relaxing. Some things I noticed in Australia: People eat dinner much later than I'm used to, meals were real cheap until 6:45 to try and get more people to come out and eat earlier, which was great for us, since we usually eat around 5:30pm. Our bacon and theirs is totally different, theirs is more like fried ham steak. The size of meals are much larger than here, I couldn' even have finished eating most of the kids meals they had. In the end Dave and I ended up sharing a meal or two, just to keep from wasting so much food. Have you noticed that everything so far has focused on food? Cadbury makes much better candy in Australia than in the US, so not fair. The good thing is now the NEX MiniMat has started carrying a few of their candies. Tim Tams are the ultimate comfort cookie, love them, especially the special Pink Wish ones. People are much more laid back, everything is "No Worries" I still haven't figured out the two buttons on the toilets, I keep meaning to ask Kerrie but I have a very short memory, whatever they beat the squat pots in Asia! Trying to work appliances in foreign countries without directions is all trial and error. I forgot what it was like to be able to drink water straight from the tap, I haven't been able to do that since leaving upstate NY. That's all I can think of for now.

Almost forgot the going home experience. We get to the airport at 10pm, you know the customary 3 hours before an international flight, that was a joke. The counter didn't open until after 11pm. Then just as we're getting up there in line, the boarding time changes from 1 am to 2:55am. When we check in the lady tells us the flight from Guam which should be landing at 12:35am has just left Guam, so much for getting to Guam at 6:30am. Of course they gave us absolutely no information while we waited, thankfully the kids slept the entire time we were at the airport. 2:55am came and went without a change on the board or a flight landing. FInally at 3:15am the flight arrives, they offload the passengers, load us on and refuel and manage to have us in the air at 4am. We arrived in Guam at 8:15am exhausted and came home and crashed.

What a week!

It started with last weekend. Friday was Dave's command Christmas party, it was nice to get a chance to hang out with people I haven't had a chance to see in a while. Saturday brought on the real insanity, we had Elijah's birthday party in the afternoon at the bowling alley. I think there were about 15 kids total, there's nothing like semi-controlled insanity. Then it was home for a couple hours off before Hannah's sleepover party. Including Hannah and Caitlynn there were 6 girls total. Sounds fairly easy right? Not quite, of course nobody wanted to play the same games, or watch the same movies. Most of the evening was spent doing damage control. All in all the kids had a blast and enjoyed their birthday parties, and really that's all that matters. Sunday after all the girls went home we had a Cub Scout hike with Elijah's den. We hiked to Haputo, the hike down to the beach wasn't bad, and the beach was GORGEOUS, but the hike back up really sucked. I haven't had a chance to really look at my photos from the hike, but I think I got a few good ones. Monday was their actual birthday, I can't believe my babies are 8, man I'm getting old. Usually we go out to dinner the night of peoples birthday, but it was also the night of Hannah & Elijah's last gymnastics class. We gave them the choice and they both wanted to go to gymnastics instead of dinner. So we had dinner and cake at home, then we took them to the exchange to spend their birthday money before heading to gymnastics. Of course Tuesday was Girl Scouts here at our house, which always adds up to craziness and running around doing things last minute. Wednesday was a welcomed break, with nothing to really do. Thursday was Elijah's appt with the specialist. After the runaround last year I wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised. He said he definitely isn't Autistic, which we knew all along. But he does exhibit autistic tendencies. Of course we're doing the obligatory ADD medicine trial that it seems everyone must rule out first. Basically to see if his concentration issues are in addition or because of his other issues. He was ready to classify him as having a PDD(Pervasive Developmental Disorder) which is the big heading that Autism falls under, but decided to see what effect the meds we're trying had before making anything definite. The Dr. is supposed to be back on island in 5 weeks and wants to see him again. Last night Hannah's Brownie Girl Scout troop had a field trip to the planetarium and Caitlynn slept over a friend's house, so it was just Elijah and I most of the night. Today we have to start baking cookies for Caitlynn's GS cookie exchange and go pick out a gift for the gift exchange.

What's New?

Lots been going on lately. We're into Girl Scout Cookie season, so of course that's kept our troop very busy. Between Hannah and Caitlynn their goal is 250 boxes of cookies, we haven't me it yet, but I still think we can do it, we'll see. Hannah had her Brownie rededication ceremony on Wednesday. Caitlynn's Dance recital is fast approaching, she has performances on December 4th and 5th. Hannah and Elijah are still doing Gymnastics and loving it, we heard there might not be another session after this one and we're bummed. Elijah is still loving being a Wolf Cub Scout and working on his rain gutter regatta boat with daddy. We just received the popcorn he sold for the cubsout fundraiser, so we have to get that delivered. Dave's still teaching diving and having fun with it. I guess the biggest thing for me lately is that I won a local photography contest and had two of my Fire Dance photos from Sub Ball published. It was definitely a pleasant surprise. This evening I'm taking the kids to Gab Gab beach to HOPEFULLY get our Christmas photo done. We'll see how it works out. I wanted to do it first thing in the morning when they were fresh, but I just couldn't get moving this morning.

Of course yesterday was Thanksgiving and we had a nice evening at Kerrie's house. I just wish I hadn't been fighting off a migraine all day. I'm looking forward to being stateside for the holidays next year. As much as I like the culture and weather here, I'm ready to go home. There's just so much that we don't have here that I'm starting to miss. I'm not happy with the school and the lack of help we're getting with Elijah, of course it's not just the school the doctor's aren't helpful either. The same people who say he's struggling and wired different from other kids, also tell me that I'm looking for something that's not there. I really wish they'd make up their minds. His teacher this year is pushing to have him tested, but I'm leery of going down that road again with the same team that told us all this last year. Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens.

Sorry for the blurry scan of Sweet Girl, I just didn't feel like fighting with the scanner anymore. Love that picture of Hannah from Easter. Not really happy with the printed version of the photo in Pool Girl, but that's the printer again, haven't gotten it and the new monitor on the same page yet.

What I've been working on lately....

I pulled out the professional photographs we had done last year and have been using them to complete a couple of challenges. I really don't like the family portrait at all, they printed the one that Elijah has a weird look on his face. I absolutely LOVE the one of Dave & Elijah. I can't wait until I have the opportunity to have my own studio. Then again, my family probably wouldn't want that because I'd be bugging them to take photos even more than I do now, and I'd never some out!

looking for a new kit club

anyone know of any good ones? I loved my Paper Popsicles kit, but I like to try new kits every few months. Of course not everyone wants to ship out here to Guam so that can be a problem sometimes. I think I want to look into a more technique driven or embellishment type kit. I all ready have more paper than I can use in this lifetime lol.

sad news

I'm sad to say that Ruby is going to have to close down www.bloomscrafts.com
I am so thankful for Ruby to giving me a shot designing for her. She's getting rid of all her inventory at 50% off, so please help her out by stopping by the store.

Some projects I've finished recently

Where does the time go?

Another week gone and I don't know where it went. Monday evening was Hannah and Elijah's first gymnastics class and they absolutely loved it. Tuesday I was feeling a little crazy and went to Curves in the morning, after that I went to the base pool to do water aerobics. What was I thinking? When it came time to wlk the stairs to get the kids at school in the afternoon, my legs were like jelly. Wednesday morning was groceries, ick. That afternoon Caitlynn had her second dance class, and she's really loving it. She's taking a hip hop and jazz class and she's picking it up pretty quickly. Thursday morning was another 3 hours of Girl Scout training. Thank goodness we didn't have anything Thursday afternoon cause I didn't have the evergy to do anything. Yesterday I spen 2 hours at Ross finding a dress for the Khaki Ball next weekend. Last night was the first AWANA meeting. Dave has all day leader trining for Cub Scouts today so the kids and I are just hanging sround the house trying to get it in order. The kids rooms seriously need to be cleaned so that's what they'll be doing after breakfast. I've already got a load of laundry going and another ready to do when that's done.

TGIF

I don't know why but this week has really tired me out. It hasn't been a particularly bad week, maybe I'm still getting used to the school schedule. Monday of course was Labor Day so no school. Dave had duty that day so the kids and I didn't really do anything much. We watched movies and played outside. I honestly don't remember what I did Tuesday while they were at school, couldn't have been anything big. Wednesday I went to Curves then to lunch with Michelle and Sam. We went to Tony Roma's and then walked around the mall, I had a nice time. Michelle and Sam always make me laugh soo much. Then Wednesday evening I had a Girl Scout Leader meeting, did I forget to mention that? My friend Jennetta and I are going to be the leaders for a Junior troop for Caitlynn and her oldest daughter. I still have some more training to do this month before we can get started, but it should be a fun year. Yesterday I had to go to the hospital to pick up some prescriptions and on the way home I stopped at one of the beaches so I could take a photo of the old governor's palace. Here's a color and sepia version of it. I need to go back and take more photos, I didn't have my telephoto lens with me. I just remembered what Tuesday was, Elijah's follow up on his lip. The dentist said it's healing fantastically and that the only concern was he might have to have a root canal in the future on the tooth that he pushed back into the gum. Not much going on during the day today, I have to get some cleaning done before the kids are home all weekend and destroy it. Tonight is the Cub Scout pack meeting. Elijah will be bridging up to the next level which is Wolf. I still can't believe my little babies are in second grade. Don't tell them I called them babies or they'd have a fit!

New layouts

Kerrie and I scrapped last night for the first time in months, it was good to be able to scrap together again. Here are the two projects I did last night.

September Projects

My September kit is up for sale at www.bloomscrafts.com Here's a few projects I made with it.

First week of school

WOW, what a week. Monday was their first day back and everything went great until about 5 pm. We were out playing at the playground behind our house and Elijah fell from the equipment, I have never heard anyone scream the way he screamed when he fell. I knew from that scream he was hurt bad. It was so loud that people came out of their houses to see what happened. By the time I got to him his mouth was filled with blood and it was all over him. I carried him home and cleaned him up and saw that his bottom lip was split really bad. So off we go to the ER, most of the bleeding has stopped by the time we get there. When they examined him his bottom lip was split by his bottom teeth, his top teeth had punctured the outside of his bottom lip, all four of his front permanent teeth were loose, one of his top teeth had been pushed back into the gum and his gums on top had been cut. In the ER they totally freaked me out, they have him morphine and told me he would have to have oral surgery that would last at least 1 1/2 hours. When the dentist saw him he said he probably didn't even need stitches, but gave him 8 since he was there. The biggest worry is that the tooth that was pushed in may have hurt the nerve and he may need a root canal in the future. Needless to say Elijah stayed home with me on the second day of school. At home that night Elijah scared us some more and ran a fever of 104 and puked everywhere for 3 hours, then he was fine.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, thank goodness.They all seem to like their new teachers. Elijah has Mrs. Borja, Hannah has Mrs. Masteller and Caitlynn has Mrs. Cahill. 4th grade is definitely going to be very different for Caitlynn, it's the first weekend and she already has about 1 hour of homework to finish before Tuesday.

Yikes!

I've been seriously lacking in the blogging department lately, but that's the story of my life. I do great and keep caught up for a while then something sidetracks me and it's all out the window. I can't believe summer is almost done, only 5 more days until the kids go back to school. This has honestly been our best summer yet, not because we did anything terribly exciting besides our trip to Saipan, just because the kids are growing up and hanging out with them is much more fun lately! Until this last year they have totally drained me throughout the day and I'm running on fumes when Dave gets home from school. But I guess they really are growing into little people who don't need me as much anymore, which is kind of sad, but also very liberating. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids very much, but I get tired VERY easy, so not having to wait on them hand and foot has helped me be a much happier mommy.

Our trip to Saipan earlier this month was fantastic, again we didn't do much but sit by the pool and relax, but that was the point wasn't it? It was a relaxing vacation, which we don't usually do. When we went to Japan and Hong Kong we were constantly busy sightseeing, which was great I wanted to see everything knowing I'll probably never get the chance again. But when we got home I was just as tired if not more tired then before we left. When we returned from Saipan I was rested, recharged and ready for the rest of the summer and school year to come. I committed the first cardinal sin of photography and forgot my battery charger for my camera, so by day 2 it was ready to die. Of course there wasn't a place on the island that carried my battery charger, so I didn't get most of the photos that I wanted, but that's ok. I have the memories and that's what really counts. Of course I'd rather have the memories and the photos! I saw a gorgeous bird the morning we were leaving, it was white with turquoise colored wings, absolutely amazing. The kids had a blast playing at kids club, of course Hannah and Elijah wanted to go everyday and Caitlynn didn't want to go at all, so we compromised and they went every other day for half a day, which was nice cause Dave and I could just hand out together, something that doesn't happen too often. As a family we played mini golf everyday, practicing for the big championship we held on Friday. Dave won, big surprise lol, and that entitled him to choosing what restaurant we ate ant for dinner and a window seat on the plane going home. We also played a lot of Foosball, ping pong and Jenga. We were lucky, even though it's rainy season it didn't rain as much as it could have. The rain was really only bad one day, but there was plenty to do indoors. All in all it was a good trip, I still hate those little puddle jumper planes but for the 35 minute flight I can handle it.

I'm almost done with my photography class, only a week left. I've learned quite a bit and am very happy Dave talked me into signing up. Now I have to decide what my next course will be. I've been scrapping again lately which is good, cause I had a dry spell for a while.