It's All Connected

So, Ally has been complaining about being dizzy and of having pain in her inner ear for about 6 weeks. We have taken her in 3 times. Nothing. Come back if it persists. Finally, they gave her Amoxicillin, just in case. Nothing. Dizziness and pain continues. Took her in to see an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. Nothing. Go see an Audiologist if it doesn't get better in the next ten days. Are you feeling the run around yet? Dizziness and pain continues. Just so happens Brother Kennington three streets over is also Dr. Kennington, Audiologist at large. Spoke to him at church, He says, sounds like a deep inner ear infection, bring her on in. May take some antibiotics through I.V. to clear it up. Great.

The following week, I took Ally in to her annual eye check up. For your information, she failed her Kindergarten eye test back in the day. After a few visits with the Doc it was determined that she had Myopia (nearsightedness) with a form of Astigmatism. She doesn't have a lazy eye, but if she doesn't wear her glasses at all times, she will basically lose her eyesight. Alrighty then, we will wear the glasses. She will be in them atleast until the age of 12. Usually when we go to these check ups all is well, continue wearing your glasses at all times. It is very repetitious, like the dentist. All is well, but continue flossing. yada yada. This time was a little different. As they started the exam I saw her angle her head to the side, still looking through her lenses, just at a slight angle. As soon as I saw her do it, I realized, SHE HAS BEEN DOING THAT A TON LATELY! Hello! Wake up Mom! They asked her to look straight on and continue. Well, without her glasses my little Al is at a 20/500 vision. With her glasses, she is at 20/70. Holy Crap! What happened? She is always at 20/20 with her glasses on. So, A LOT of mulah later, we have new lenses on the way, to get her back on track. Apparently she just had a huge growth change in her eyes and her lenses needed to be adjusted for the change. I felt like the biggest dunce of a mother for not recognizing what she was doing all that time and that it meant her lenses needed adjusting.

So, Monday, we had our appointment with Bro/Doc Kennington. He did all of his tests and he pronounced her with perfect ears and perfect hearing. I shouted, "Hallelujah! Ally, that means you can always hear me and your ears are NOT painted on! No more excuses for you!" She was thrilled, I am sure you can imagine.


So, what's the problem? Why the pain and the dizziness? Turns out her ears were mad at her eyes. Deep in your inner ear there is a little area that works quite closely with your eyes. It is what keeps you standing straight on your own two feet. Since her eyes were so far off kilter, it made it so her eyes and her ears were not agreeing with each other. It's called Vestibular Occular Reflex. So, now we are really excited to get those new lenses put in her glasses. Two birds with one stone!
Plus, no I.V. antibiotics! Truth be told, I never even told her that that was a possibility. Whew! Glad I didn't.

**UPDATE: Eye doc called this morning, lenses are FINALLY in. Yay! Going right after school to get them put in her frames! Yeehaw!**

SOLD!

I have a lot of mixed emotions rolled into this place. This was our first home we ever owned. We brought home our two middle babies here, we raised three of our babies here for 7 years. She has been a part of our lives for the past 10 and half years. I was so ready to move on from her back in 2006. I wasn't gonna miss this place at all! I can count on one hand how many times I went back to this house after we moved out until last October. I wasn't anticipating practically living here ever again. But, for one month, I did. Believe me, I did. What an emotional month that was. I felt anger, hate, sadness and love towards this old place during those days. Not a good idea to be feeling so much during a time of so much physical labor. By the end, I had fallen in love with the old place again. I briefly, very, very briefly, considered keeping her and renting her out. She was so cute again. Not sickly like she was at the beginning of the month. Once I stopped going over there again, it was easier to move back into the "let's just be done with the stupid place, once and for all!" mentality. We listed her on Halloween, she went under contract in mid-March and we closed today. If you go there now, there isn't one personal belonging of ours left over there. Yet, I find myself hoping that the new family will take care of her, enjoy her and make some amazing memories there, just like we did. I am sure I will succumb to the desire to see her again on some random day while running errands. I just hope she looks happy. But I gotta tell ya, hallefreakingluja, I am glad she is gone.

Wish it were that simple

(jan 2010)

Bowling Bonanza

On Saturday we took the kids bowling. What a riot! It was a first for us, to take the kids. It ended up being the best game I have ever played. It was also Nates worst and best game he has ever played. I'll explain in a minute.















I love this photo of Ally. It shows how much force she was having to use to get the ball down the alley. The video is hilarious. It was quite comical to see her take her turns. One time she accidentally let go of the ball and it flew backwards! Luckily no one got hurt. Whew!

Everyone took a turn helping Evie. The kids were gracious enough to let her have their entire 7th frame to have some fun. She did pretty well.



Final standings: Ronda 171, thanks to my five strikes in a row. Seriously, never happened before. I think I have gotten five strikes total in my entire life. Crazy! It was fun to have the highest score for once. I usually get toasted by Nate. I don't stand a chance against him on the wii bowling game. He always smokes me. Ally came in second at 87, she was so excited when she beat Nate! It was hilarious. Even with her wild throwing of the bowling ball she did amazing. Of course the bumper guards helped immensely. Nate came in third with a score of 78. He said it's his worst game he has ever bowled, but his best because of Ally beating him and how much fun she had with that. Ryland and Ethan tied for fourth with a score of 76. It was a really fun night. Can't wait to do it again.

Photo Shoot Sunday: Just The Three Of Them

If you are anything like me, you occasionally force your kids to be in a photo shoot. This post begins my Photo Shoot Sunday series. I might not do this every Sunday, just here and there, but I wanted to pull some of my older "Photo Shoot" sessions out to remember and document them as well.

This particular photo shoot I remember well. It was about 8 weeks prior to Evelyn being born. I wanted to capture some photos of just the three of them. To be able to look back and remember the days of just having the three of them. I love that Ally wanted to hold some of my flowers, that Ryland had drool all over his chin and that they couldn't resist putting their hands all over each other. Most of all I love that these photos capture the fact that they actually really do like each other. Well, atleast they did on this day. Of course, I might have told them to "act like you like each other!" I have been known to do that.









(april 2007)

Shower Performance

Today marks the official day that Ally began singing in the shower. Nate and I enjoyed hanging out in the hall listening to her belt out "Two Voices, One Song" from the Barbie Princess and the Pauper movie. She put on quite a performance. Love it! Isn't it true? We all sound like a rock star in the shower, or atleast we can dream that we do.

UPDATE: Once Ally was out, she showed me her super awesome dance moves that she made up in the shower to go along with her amazing singing. They were pretty sweet.

Smelly Serendipity

Last Saturday on my way home from reupholstering my beloved chair I stopped at one of my new-found favorite consignment shops. Upon entering the store I was greeted with a plethora of eye candy. I was so busy taking it all in that I didn't even see these candlesticks. I actually felt them. Then I heard them. I guess I should clarify, I felt my purse feel them. Then I heard the concrete floor feel them. Ugh, are you kidding me!?! I turned around and saw the smaller of the two lying on the floor, in pieces. You know the old adage....you break it, you buy it. Ummm, yeah, that was me. To make matters worse they weren't even candlesticks I would EVER buy for my house. NICE! Now what do I do with it?

I picked up all of the pieces and CAREFULLY walked up to the register to confess and set them down to purchase. There were still a couple of pieces that were missing, but the head (?) of the candlestick was mostly intact. Well, looks like I could glue it together, might as well get the set. Oh well, I would rather have an ugly set than one lonely ugly candlestick. Grudgingly I bought them both and took them home. Where in the world am I gonna put these? They were a little too gaudy for my taste. It took a couple of days for me to pull them out of the bag and set about fixing the broken one. After some super glue it was almost good as new. A strange thing started to happen then, they were growing on me. It must have been the fluorescent lights at the store that initially turned me off of them. Plus the gaudiness, but even that was growing on me. I first thought about putting them by my master bath tub, then the actual thought of trying to keep them clean in a bathroom, ummmmm no thanks. Then I figured the most formal room in the house was where they would go the best, or atleast not stick out like a gaudy thumb the least. So, in they went. My sister Heidi showed up about now, she called me a stinking brat for breaking something I would normally hate and having it go perfectly in my decor, and ultimately loving it to boot. Ha, yeah, go figure.

So, then the hunt was on for the perfect candle. I kept my eye out when I was out and about running errands but none of the candles caught my eye. Finally I checked Tarjay and wouldn't you know it the old bullseye came through for me yet again. There they were. Chocolate brown on the bottom, rusty terracotta in the center and a pretty cream color on top. They even came with a pretty rusty ribbon and a metallic maple leaf. Perfection. My colors and the maple leaf matches the pattern of my entryway table runner. I try really hard to not get too matchy-matchy with my stuff. Or to have a theme, really. However sometimes, things just match. What are you gonna do?

I snatched them up and took em home. Once I unwrapped them I loved them even more. However, Nate arrived not long after and asked why the house smelled of baby wipes. I told him it was the new candles and that the smell would go down. I thought I was just smelling it because my hands smelled so strongly of the candle scent. WRONG! Those are some smelly candles. Atleast it is a good smell, it could smell like dog food or something. Plus, it will go down, right? Right? Considering they are in the front room and I can smell them when I come in from the garage, you can bet your britches, they are smelly!
I really had a difficult time taking photos of them, they aren't turning out in pictures the way they look in the room. They look a little washed out. Oh well.