Happy Thanksgiving!

I'd have to agree...."WOOF!" Haha! I know it is a few days early, but I probably won't get a post up before Thursday.

This past weekend, my beautiful, intelligent, sweet sister-in-law got married to a wonderful man! It was such a lovely wedding, and I cried as she walked down the aisle, and again as my other sister-in-law gave a toast to the bride and groom. WOW...I am getting choked up yet again, it was that powerful! Anyway, it was just beautiful and I am so very happy for them...


Nathan was an usher and was all dressed up, I hardly recognized him, LOL!

(Sorry for the not-so-good cell phone pictures. Maybe someone will send me better ones.)

In other news, Raia is having sleep issues. It is taking me almost 2 hours (or more) to get her to go to sleep at night. Sometimes we start at 9pm, and most times I don't have her down until midnight. And her naps? Well...they are just a struggle. A normal day we wake up between 8 and 9am, depending on when we went to bed the night before, and if I have to go to work. Her nap usually falls around 2,3, or 4pm, and can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hrs (if she falls asleep at 4pm, there's no way I'd let her sleep for 3 hrs. - that is a very RARE thing). So please keep her in your prayers that she gets this worked out, I am getting very frustrated. I am absolutely convinced that her sleep problems stem from her still being in the room with us at night. For some reason, Nathan doesn't want to finish her room so that we can move her over there and let her be the Little Miss Independent that she wants to be. He isn't known for being very quick about doing things, so maybe by the time she goes to college....

Remember my posts about losing weight to raise money for SMA research? Well...I lost 12 pounds!!! I feel great, but honestly, I think it had more to do with the Topamax I am taking for the headaches than anything else, but I did exercise and eat better, and portion control was a big thing too. I was going for 15-20 lbs, but I will take 12!!! I had 6 sponsors (thank you ALL!!!) and raised $150 total, isn't that awesome?! My friend Devon lost 10 pounds, and she did great!!! With all this hard work, one day SMA and SMARD will be a thing of the past!!! Speaking of which - if you have NOT signed the petition online, please go there NOW and sign it, it takes 30 seconds of your time. The Petition to Cure SMA will help pass legislation to end the #1 genetic killer of infants and young children. You do not have to be 18 to sign this petition, ANYONE can sign it, so it is important that everyone in your household sign...each signature is important!! PLEASE take that 30 seconds to go sign! If you can't click on the blue link above, Google 'Petition to Cure SMA', or click on any of the Gwendolyn buttons I have on the right hand side of my blog.

One last prayer request for tonight. Baby Jonah needs prayers. Although he has been eating much better the past few days, he will probably still need a G-tube. Jonah has EB (Epidermolysis Bullosa) which creates painful blisters with the slightest friction on his fragile skin. He is 9 months old. I do not "know" Jonah, but through this wonderful blog world, I have gotten to know him and his wonderful family. I have a "Pray for Jonah" button on the right hand side of this page as well, you have probably seen it a million times....just click on it and go visit his blog and read about him, maybe leave a word of encouragement for his sweet Mommy and Daddy. I have had them on my mind a lot this week, hoping things get better.


Ok, that's all I've got for tonight, thanks for checking in!

xoxox~

P.S.
Raia has had to have a "kee-toe" every night before bed for the past, oh, I don't know....3 weeks? "Cream on her toe", WITH a bandaid! And it is always the big toe on her right foot. Gotta love this child of mine!

Headaches

I don't have much to update. I have been MIA for a few weeks because I haven't felt much like being on the computer. Weekend before last I got the worst headache, and by day two when I was practically in tears and felt like my eyes were melting in their sockets, I finally asked Nathan to take me into the ER. The Dr. gave me a shot and sent me home, but the medicine in the shot made me pretty sick the next day, blah :( So I called my neurologist. I have seen him already twice this week. He increased the dosage on my Topamax from 50 mg to 75 mg, and gave me a nasal spray called Stadol to try for severe headache. Since my headache has still never completely gone away, I tried the Stadol. UGH! Bad mistake!! He told me it would knock me out, make me sleepy, but I was awake for hours!!! Felt like I'd drank coffee and taken drugs at the same time! So I called his office again and they made me come back in - another co-pay, dangit! He ended up putting me on another medicine that is working much better, so far anyway. It's call Fiorinol. I am not so sure the Topamax is working so great, but I am still on a very low dose. The side effects are killing me! The maximum dose of Topamax is 400 mg, and I am only at 75 right now. I am experiencing numbness in my fingers/hands, toes/feet, I forget words or letters while talking/typing, and I am losing weight (that could be a good thing though!), among other various things. We will see what happens over the next couple of months, I guess. I am just thankful I have insurance.
I will try to take some pictures this week of a cute little girl I know, and I might even try to get them posted. I am working a lot of extra hours this month, trying to save up for vacation, so please forgive me if I am not as frequent with my posts this month as I usually am. Also, Nathan's sister is getting married this weekend, and we are all *planning* to be there. How was that for a random paragraph?! Blame it on the Topamax! Haha!
Ok, I am off to rest my weary head(ache). Thanks for checking in!

xoxox~

Videos

The first video is of Raia doing her forward roll. This is something she taught herself! She had already done it a few times today, but while we were putting clean sheets on the bed and then making the bed up, she decided to show off and use that as her gymnastics mat / floor. I'm telling you, this child will have me gray before I am 35. She was attempting to do these off the edge of the bed today, and when I screeched "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" I thought I had broken her little heart into a million pieces :( I just want her to do it safely!





The second video I'll post is the one where she is singing her ABC's! Now don't get too excited, she can do it much better that this, and all the way through. I don't know why she was only doing part of it, I'm guessing she was just camera shy, the little stinker!




Thanks for checking in :) I'd post a little more tonight, but just posting those two videos took more than two and a half hours to upload, and I am TIRED.

I will share this with you though - I went grocery shopping again today, spent $52 and got all this:

I already threw the receipt away, but I know I saved more than $60. I have no idea how many items it is either, I wish I had saved the receipt, oh wel! I'm sure just by looking you can tell that all that for $52 is pretty darn good :) *You can click on the picture to enlarge it to see everything I got!

Ok, off to dreamland! Hope you enjoyed the videos!

xoxox~

Halloween '09

This was Raia's first year to go Trick or Treating! She wasn't nearly as excited as I was, and never really "got it", but we all had a pretty good time anyway.

The day started out like any other day, Raia and I had breakfast in bed (always LOL). Nathan was still in Denver, and due to arrive home by 4pm, so the rest of my day was spent doing laundry, cleaning the house, doing dishes, and last but NOT least, giving the costume a final trial run.

Aaaaand, her model pose:

I couldn't decide if she looked like Tinkerbell or an angel. So we went with Tinkerbangel :)

Nathan made it home a little early. He took Raia out in the stroller for a walk to try to get her to take a nap before our big night, but it just wasn't happening. At around 6pm, Raia and I headed over to a friend's house. A couple of us ladies from the resale shop where I work got together to let our kiddos go trick or treating. After all the pictures, we only got to go to about 5 or 6 houses.

Here's the gang:


Before we got started:


This was one of their first houses:


Raia's boyfriend (haha!) Jayden - cutest little turtle ever!


My friend Brandi's little girl, Jordi and Raia. Jordi is about the sweetest, most mature 10 year old you'd ever meet. Always so helpful, very respectful, I hope I can teach Raia to be as respectable as Jordi is. Love you, girl!




I had to leave at 7 to take Raia to Nathan's parents' house. We swung by the house and picked Nathan up, and headed over to the in-laws. Once we were inside, Raia didn't want to leave! There is too much fun stuff to do at Grandma's house! Add in a cranky baby who has had no nap, and yeah, she didn't want any part of more trick or treating. I really wanted to take her to a few more houses, just because Nathan missed out on our first round. I really wanted him to see how cute and bewildered she was when these people were dropping candy in her bucket! We did finally manage to get her out the door and down the street for more trick or treating, and once we were there she was fine and had fun! Maybe once Nathan's mom gets a chance, she can email me some of those pics and I will post them.

After her evening of trick or treating, she crashed at around 8:15pm. That is unheard of for this child; I am usually up until around midnight with her, at least since I have weaned her. So I thought I was in the clear! Get a bite to eat, check a few emails, play around on facebook....oh wait, who is that stirring? None other than Raia, at 10pm. We were up until midnight. So I guess she got her nap afterall, it was just a very late nap.

This morning we woke up refreshed. Thank goodness she doesn't know what candy is yet, or else she'd have wanted that for breakfast! Instead, we, (did ya catch that?....WE) yes, she and I made muffins, or as she calls them, "muppins".



She is becoming quite the little helper in the kitchen! A few weeks ago when we were doing one of the bake sales, she was helping me make some of the Amish Friendship Breads. She never forgot how much fun we had, and every chance I get, I try to let her help me, even if it is just to stir something. She loves it! Her grandma bought a cute little apron that says "Queen of the Kitchen in training". So cute!

Still a little big, yet, but I think we can make it work :)

Well, that's it for today's update. I DID happen to get her on video singing part of her ABC's, but I will have to post it at another time. It take 14 years to upload video, and I've got a cranky 2 year old to deal with! I think Nathan is ready to clock out!

xoxox~