Friday, October 21, 2011

Lollipops and Crisps

Elle's blog is now officially up and running.  On occasion, I may double post (same blog post here and there), but I THINK I will be posting just pure Elinor updates on the other blog and Elinor shenanigans over here.  At the moment it is almost purely double posts, so if you've kept up with this blog, at the moment it is pretty much just cut and pasted blogs relating to Elle's medical journey you've already read with the exception of this one.

Sorry for the fact that to keep up you'll have to follow both blogs, but I just really feel that this is the way to go from here.  I appreciate all my readers and hope you enjoy both blogs, I really enjoy writing them.

PS there is a link to Lollipops and crisps on the side of my blog, but for the record, the url is : http://ourlittlelittle.blogspot.com/.  (Some stupid, emo teenager took the url "lollipopsandcrisps" to make a stupid blog she wrote like 3 posts and declared that she hated it.  Now the url is gone forever.)

I am still rankled over the waste.


Cheers!

Emily




Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Time to break out your violins and pipes

(Or nicotine patches if you're a fan of the latest adaption.........and I am)



Alright all you Sherlocks-- the detective that is able to best piece together the events of this little crime wins.













When I bent down to check her out she raised her head and giggled.  Someone was mighty proud of themselves.......

















The game is afoot!




(Or "on" as it were)


























Monday, October 17, 2011

School (School, School)

This fall, school has hit this household like never before...........and I for one, think it's GREAT. 


Here is the run down:




Dad

For those that may not know, Rob has decided to go back to school this fall.  After the fall of real estate and his subsequent move into the wood refinishing business, he has decided that redoing cabinets is not what he wants to do for the rest of his life.  This fall, we moved in with his dad, Rob bought a wood refinishing franchise, and has enrolled in full time school at UVU.  He is getting a nursing degree, planning on taking it into hospital administration of some variety.  The wood refinishing is going to keep him pretty busy we think, as will school of course.  We have the idea to sell the business when school is over and be able to move on into something better, but it is a great opportunity for now that really kind of just fell into his lap.   So far he is finding his psychology class a bit dull but is loving English and Nutrition.  This is adding a new element to the family schedule, but is something I am really excited about and is working out good so far.  











Scout


Scout started the 1st grade (in a new school might I add) this year.   1st grade is a big step-- all day, eating lunch, real school work, etc.  I am happy to report that all elements are going really good.  She has made some good friends already, I know that Sam was irreplaceable, but she seems to be doing fine without him and has found about 4 little girls to take his place.  They don't play Mario and Bowser at recess though.  *Mom bragging about her smart child alert*  --Sorry, but Scout is my only child that has the ability to be an "academic", so all my proud-mom-book-smart-eggs are in her basket, so I am really proud of her.  I roll my eyes as much as the next guy when moms brag incessantly about how smart their child is online, but like I said- she is my shot, so indulge me a little (or skip this next little bit).  We just had our first parent/teacher conference and her teacher beamed about Scout.  She is good in class and follows the rules, she is getting math concepts really well, has gotten 100% on every spelling test so far (except the first one, she didn't write anything for "I", -I can imagine she spaced for a second and didn't hear the teacher, cause I am reasonably sure she can spell "I"-).  She also at the first of the year, tested as high in reading as they test 1st graders, so they put her in a 2nd grade class for reading time along with 4 other students in her class.  *Ok, bragging over, it's safe again.*
First day of school.  she was pretty excited- while walking with me down the hall to her class that morning, I was worried she was really nervous, but then she turns to me and says, "this is the best day of my life".

Later at a school "Cougar Walk".  She is playing a cake walk kind of a thing, but the winner wins a school shirt.  She played that game with strangely intense purpose in winning a shirt.  I am happy to report that her efforts were successful.



























Elinor

Elinor has started two weekly classes this fall.  The first one we go to on Thursday mornings.  It is a motor skills class (fine and gross).  We start with free play where the therapists that run it visit each child and interact, help them find an activity that is good for them, and see how they are doing.  Then we sit in a circle and sing songs with actions.  Then we go to the "ball room" and practice gross motor skills.  They have a lot of equipment for kids to strengthen the areas they need to and be able to play while doing it.  Then we have snack time, honing our fine motor skills again under supervision to get tips and advice on their particular feeding skills.   The above pic is Elle during free play, she is playing a little piano very Schroeder like- I love it. 
This is a great class and once again, I am impressed with Kids on the Move.  Some day, if I have a lot of money, I am going to donate a lot of it to them.
*
Then on Friday mornings, we head to Highland, and go to a horseback riding class called "Courage Reins".  It is a center that does therapeutic horseback riding for people/kids with disabilities.  It is really awesome!  When it was mentioned to me, I just went -Sure!  Sign her up- as many things like this that help the better I say.  But the first few minutes she was on the horse that first time, I could see what a great thing this is going to be.  I am amazed by what horse back riding could do for her.  It is hard work staying steady on them, and she did really well.  I think before we make too much progress on Elle's gross motor skills, she needs to develop more trunk strength and not just in the abs, and this riding once a week is going to be great for that.  By the way, no- Scout has no idea we do this every Friday.  She is at school and I figure that what she doesn't know that goes on- is just me being a nice mom.

Waiting for her turn to ride

I love this pic (I had a hard time getting a good pic that day, this was as good as it got).

Riding backwards- extra tricky.  Betsy works that girl good.  (Betsy is her PT (in the tan shirt)- she has a Sesame Street shirt she wears just for Elles sometimes.  We like Betsy.)


We were dropped off that first day, and walked to Kohler's to wait for dad.  Almost the entire walk, Elle held her legs out like this.  I don't know if it had to do with her 20 minute horseback ride or not- either way, it cracked me up.


She spent a period with just one leg up at the end there.  So silly.








 We saw a katy-did on our way and took a picture of it to show Scout.  Least I could do considering the horses and all.  Mommy really feels guilty little sis gets to ride horses every week.  I really do.  Hope I can keep it from her forever.  We'll see.













 Mom

Nope.  Mom did not join the school ranks.  (Unless you count the fact that she tries to keep the kids and the house quiet while daddy studies and supports him any way she can so he can do his best.  Walks Scout to and from school every day, sits down with her every night with her homework and helps Scout read and attends her book club group and joined the PTA (and packs her school lunch when the menu reveals that today's entree is gross).  Takes and participates in both of Elinor's classes and supports her as best she can, doing Elle's little homework everyday, and attends and participates in each and every one of her 8+ appointments every month.)

Phew.  School is hard work for mom, even when she isn't the one going.  Love it all though.  I'm even finding a way to love the fact that Scout got put in the early schedule and has to be at school at 8 and comes home at 2:15.  I really wanted the 9:15 to 3:30 schedule, but it was not to be.  Gets my butt out of bed and dressed early every day, and that really is a good thing.

Can someone please explain how people do this with 5 kids?
























































Sunday, October 9, 2011

Full Disclosure

This is what my kitchen looks like right now.


Why am I showing you all this picture?  I was inspired by my Relief Society lesson today.  Our lesson was on Pres. Uchtdorf's recent talk about the forget me nots  and when we got to the petal "Forget not to be patient with yourself" we spent some time discussing how others may seem perfect to you and that brings you down, because it is harder to forgive yourself of your imperfections then to forgive others.  This brought my mind back to the problem that is out there that people find it so easy to put their best foot forward on their blog and weed out all the crap in their lives and just tell and show pics of the idealistic world they want to show and this is making some women feel bad.  They read them and think about how perfect this woman's life seems to be and then they look at their life and you can't weed out the imperfections as easily when they are surrounding you.  I've brought this up before on my blog, but after today, it seems worthy of revisiting.  I don't want my blog to become that...... so there is my kitchen in all it's glory.  (Lest any of you have been reading my blog and feeling bad about the idyllic beauty and perfection that is my life.)








Why does my kitchen look like this?  
Well, that's simple (kind of).  We moved into this house and my husband wanted to redo the cabinets right away, so I never did unpack my kitchen, just stacked the boxes of all the stuff I'd need around the table.  Then life and months happened and the cabinet project is half done, out of necessity I have put some things in the cupboards haphazardly, and the kitchen has become a fantastic dumping ground for baby equipment and work stuff.  The good news is Rob thinks he has progressed to the stage where I can load the cupboards and a little while after that (Saturday) I snapped and had it.  I am organizing and scrubbing the cupboards one by one and getting everything in them and then am going to throw the boxes as far from my kitchen as they will go then I will find a place for everything that does not belong in the kitchen.  At that point, we may not have doors on the cupboards, but we will be able to move around in there and maybe even utilize the table.  We still will have that golden colored fridge that freezes all the vegetables I bring home, but maybe just maybe, it will inspire us to get the bigger nicer beautiful black glass fridge fixed that is standing unused and wasted in the car port at the moment.  Ah, dreams........



Here is the view from the other side.  This view gives you a peak at the matching golden oven that has only two (dubiously) working burners.  It also shows the new computer I am typing on right now that never got moved to it's proper place in our bedroom.  
All in good time guys.
































Did I mention that my dog has emotional problems and sucks her paws?




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