Adventures of the Hirt House

Time.

2010-01-21T10:27:00.001-08:00

SO how do you spend your time? Is it being used constructively or being wasted?

I have had 6 weeks off of my 'regular' schedule. And during this time I was without a computer for 5 weeks, and no car for 2 weeks. And I loved it. I truly realized how much time I waste by being in/on these 2 things regularly. The kids were off school when I was without a car so we figured out plenty of things to do at home. And not having a computer showed me just how much time I waste on stuff like facebook and other peoples blogs.

So now the kids are back at school and my life is calmer. I have let go of some things that I realized were just adding stress into my life. I am one of those people who have a hard time saying 'no'. But I realised that this does not give Glory to God. I am saying 'yes' as to not make people feel rejected. So I added all these things to my already busy schedule of being a mom of 4 kids and was stressed and then rejected my children in the process of trying to accomplish what I couldn't say no to!

Does this sound like you? Rejection is a terrible thing. I know that I am scared to reject anyone because I my self have a worry of being rejected. But guess what...what matters most to me is Jesus and I will NEVER be rejected by Him. So I am trying to let go of my 'fear of rejection'.

I also know that God has given me the most important ministry that one can hold. A family! My family is my number one ministry. And everything else comes after that. Which is why I have let go of some stuff in my life, or changed things around! I want to be a wife who has a clean house and dinner for her husband. And I want to be FULLY engaged into my children's thoughts and activities...not half listening! (like I tend to be)

We recently had a serious injury to one of our children, celebrated 10 years of marriage, celebrated a six year olds birthday, celebrated the life of my grandma who passed away...and these experiences were not hindered by my needing to do meaningless stuff. Because I made the change to use my time wisely! What is the point of being a stay at home mom when you have so much outside things to hinder your mind. So I have let them go...and know my first question will be 'how will this show Glory to God?' When I decide to take on a new task. And the second will be 'how will impact my family?

So how do you spent your time? Think about it!

"Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established." - Proverbs 16:3

When it smells like cow poop...does that mean change?

2009-12-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

So I am one of those people who doesn't adapt to change very well! Or so I like to think. With each form of change I complied diligently. Things are changing around here, and I like to think that I am hating it, but really I am just excited and hopeful on what God will do. I walked out back tonight and smelled the great smell of cow poop, and here in Norco, that means IT's COLD! So weather changes and we adapt. Why do we put up such a struggle when God hands us change? I don't know.

I have loved blogging about my days and my awesome kids. Showing you pictures and all the fun stuff we have done. When the boys went back into a private school, I thought I would blog all the time. But I didn't. Because I was bored with blogging. I needed a CHANGE! I have been following a blog from a mom who has a child just like Ashlyn, SOTOs, and I just love to hear her words. She is a mom of special needs. And it hit me that I should blog what I feel and what goes on during the day in the world of me. Because after all I am many things! Number one I am a daughter of our Heavenly Father. Second I am wife (and most times not the one God wants me to be to Marshall) . But 3rd I am also a mom to 3 typically developing children. And I am a mom to a special needs daughter who makes me laugh and makes me cry!

I noticed lately that I have been walking towards heaven in a straight, boring line. Not running up stairs or skipping there. But I also haven't fallen into the black hole away from Him. I was just being...being a Christian. And it has hit me in the past week, that I no longer want to walk that straight line. I want more of myself and of my faith. And so comes change.

A few years ago, I told Marshall that I wanted more kids. He refused!! So after pleading and whining, I dropped it. We have now signed up to be foster/adopt parents. (see how God brings change when you are quiet and waiting) The process is taking us a little longer than a typical family because we have some obstacles to go thru. And I want to give up all the time. I think, 'I couldn't even love homeschooling my own children, how can I love having someone else in our home?' And then I will hear on the news about something tragic that just happened to a child in the hands of their parents, or of a terrible foster family that abused the child it was supposed to be helping. Or that email from a friend who is doing amazing things and witnessing these foster children on their level. And I just feel God, putting his hand on my shoulder and telling me, "see!'. And so we trek on! To be the change that these children need.

I need to change the way I see my daughter, the one with special needs. Sometimes I cry when I see what she cannot do. Or that she is so special acting, that I look around to see who is staring at us. And sometimes I laugh at things like her no longer eating a corn dog because "IT IS HIDEOUS!" But I need to change the way I see her, as my daughter with special needs. I need to have more conversations with her. Just her, in all her beautiful glory. I have taken some time off of her medical care. Meaning I am no longer PURSUING an answer to her stomach/bowel/urine issues. I am just letting them be. I have a new approach and I am sticking with it, so we will slowly dealing with these issues instead of my being a mad women searching for answers. I need to just take care of my daughter as a whole, and not just try and fix what is broken. Why do we as moms do this. Focus on the broken, and forget about the pieces still attached.

I need to slow down with all my children and just be. Be there for homework, and not have a hundred things running thru my head. I need to be there for my husband with a clean house and dinner cooked (what can I say he is a simple man). Continue my commitments with the boys school, as Ashlyns room mom, MOM2MOM, MOMS Club and anything else that may come up. But I need to these things with HIM as my center. And if it won't reward me as a Christian, mom or wife, then I need to make the change and say no.

Now don't get me wrong, I will still put up pictures of my awesome kids, but hopefully the change of this blog will be that it is more fulfilling to me. Gets my frustrations out, and is a place to vent or share my thoughts. We'll have to see.

Busy Day Yesterday!

2009-09-04T09:40:00.000-07:00

So we dropped Ashlyn off at school, and headed to the beach! Picked up my cousin and her baby and went to Newport. The water was warm and the air was humid. But perfect beach weather. We played from 10am to 12:45pm and then off to golf practice and picking up Ashlyn.

After that we came home cleaned up and then off to the Norco Valley Fair. I got good pictures but the time spent there wasn't all that great! I spent $80 and nothing to go home with, other than buttons and a parking pass! We didn't even eat there. So frustrating! It was very disorganized and sometimes I think we live in the ghetto, lol! I love moms who smoke while holdin their brand new babies,or the grandmas smoking and drinking around their 12 grand kids! Whatever!

The boys are heading off to camping tonight, so the girls and I will be back to the fair all weekend! We are up for a fun weekends.

Bad blogger

2009-09-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

So there are lots of reasons I haven't blogged since July 12th! One of the reasons is I hated my template and was too busy to fix it. But the main reason was because we were just so busy with Summer!

We went to the Orange County Fair...a new tradition that was started years ago when I only had 2 kids. I love the OC Fair. Food, animals, rides. James and Shane braved the ZIPPER this year, and I almost cried through their ride. They looked scared as all heck. I felt terrible but the were proud of their accomplishment. Ashlyn also tried some of the bigger rides too! We saw her friend Emily there and they rode a few rides together. James came home from the fair and was convinced he was going to be a juggling unicyclist! I just said what ever makes you happy! LOL!

We got Ashlyn hearing aids finally. That was a struggle because we had to pay out of pocket for them and lets just say hearing aids are not cheap!

I went to Utah with my girls for 5 days so we could attend the SOTO's syndrome association conference. It was awesome. I drive their in 10 hours, one day, and we stayed at a friends 'second' house there (a house that was better than mine!). The house was great, I loved being able to stay in a house with no chaos that a hotel can bring! I have a friend in Utah that I meet years ago when Ashlyn was first dx with Sotos. And we have stayed in contact thru the years. She was the one putting on the conference. Conference was great, we meet new friends and learned lots. Especially how to deal with some behavior issues...like having a 'hug list' for the child whois overly loving and cannot read social cues!!! We also went to the Temple, you cannot go to SLC and not visit the Temple. I learned a lot. I love religious history and was so glad my girlfriend who is LDS was able to explain and give me lots of history. It is beautiful and serene there. She took us up to the Garden Restaurant (on the same block of the Temple) for dinner and it was awesome. It is on the 10th floor and it was an open roof so you just see the sky and get a breeze . Awesome! Utah was beautiful. It really made me not want to live in CA anymore (I have had that burning desire to get out of SO. Cal for a while now) . The drive home was good, and guess what you drive thru Arizona! (I won a HUGE bet with hubby about this one...ask me in person what was the bet!!) That is what the ROCK picture is of! The drive home was good, but seemed longer than the ride there!

After that August has been busy with Retreats and appointments and just hanging out at home!! Ashlyn and Shane also started soccer, which has kept me busy most nights! James has golf and katie is just a mamas girl! My MOMS Club is Also new things have come full circle in this house. Things are changing and God has the ONLY hand over this! I walk for Him and I let him lead. And right now that is what he is doing. James and Shane will be entering Private School in one week, can you believe it? I love homeschooling, and I would do it forever! But things just fell into place and they will be attending for 2nd and fourth grade! We also have new adventures that we (Marshall and I) are pursuing at this current moment! Stay tuned!!

I will post first days of school pictures later...as well hearing aid pictures.

Don't Tear Me Down - Widget

2009-07-12T10:50:00.001-07:00

Fourth of July

2009-07-07T18:03:00.001-07:00

We had our annual 4th of July BBQ here at the Hirt house. A few friends with kids and food, what could be better? We didn't go anywhere for fireworks, because once everyone left Marshall was just to tired to be any fun anywhere else but home, lol! So we watched the local fireworks on my balcony and we could see them well, I just missed that LOUD sound of them popping! You know what I mean! I don't have many pictures because it is getting time to retire my camera...does anyone else go thru a camera a year or so? Geez!

The above pictures are from yesterday, but they're just too darn cute to leave out!

Bake Sale and BMX Outreach

2009-07-01T16:35:00.000-07:00

Our church had a big Outreach on Sunday from 3pm-8pm. So all Saturday I spent baking and making! We made cupcakes and sprinkled rice crispy treats.

Aren't the pig cupcakes just the cutest!

The kids had fun on the bounce houses, getting painted and eating lots and lots of goodies (snow cones, pop corn, cotton candy!)

After all that fun, they had Extreme BMX'ers show their stuff and share their testimonies. It was pretty awesome. Too bad James missed it. He is in Washington for a few weeks with Grandma and Grandpa!

Creation and Animals

2009-06-26T23:45:00.000-07:00

Last week I took the kids to a museum in Santee called the Creation and Earth Science Museum. I looked at reviews and they all seemed to say very little. The drive was about 2 hours, and so not worth it! Very tiny and lots of reading. It is definitely more geared to adults...hence the lots of reading part. So after that we headed off to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido. I love this place, well worth the money we spend in passes. So here are some pictures.

Pictures since last blog posting

2009-06-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

I have been having trouble unloading my memory card onto the computer but I have fixed the problem, So here is our last month in review.

Homeschool Fair in Ontario, CA.

We had so much fun here. Next year I will bring lots more money to have fun with.

Norco Ranch Tours

Gotta love our town! Every year there is a Ranch Tour and this is our first year attending. The boys were camping so we had a girls only weekend. My girls love horses and the horses love the smell of their hair. All in all a fun, tiring day. And what a better way to top off the day then going to Polly's Pies for dinner and boysenberry pie!

End Of The Year Banana Split Party

Ashlyns' class through their annual ice cream party. She has 2 more weeks left of school then off for summer break. I love the ice cream party because there is always a video played of all the kids in the class. It is funny to look around the room and find all her stuff just from her 'dots and lines'. Too cute!

So that's just the fun stuff. The unfun stuff is all Ashlyn drama. Her ears are terrible even after just having surgery. We were getting hearing aids no matter what, but we still expected some improvement of hearing after surgery.. This is not so at all. It is just the same. I could scream with frustration. Oh...but... wait...there...is...more!!! After seeing Gi 2 weeks ago they asked how everything poop wise was going I said perfect same as before, 2 poops a day and they look nice (love describing poop with someone in a white clean coat!). She basically says great, would you like to do an xray to make sure colon is clean and intestines look clear. I hesitate but say yes because I just want to satisfaction of knowing poop is gone and we are well on way to having the cleanest colon in the world. A week passes and I get a call from Urology...saying they want to move our Sept. appointment up to NOW, because doctor finally got the MRI (remember that one?) and is concerned so we need to get in asap...guess what asap is to the medical profession...6 weeks! 6 stinkin' weeks. I sit here and wonder what have they seen, what is so urgent. Anyway I left a voice mail for dr and am waiting to hear back or get a new sooner appointment. So then get this...GI calls results from xray were filed and tha tis what took so long to hear back from them...and GUESS WHAT? She is more impacted with poop then they thought. I was crushed. Dr ordered another 'clean out session and make sure you continue to give Ashlyn her Miralax everyday'. I felt like being mean but I just thanked the doctor, hung up the phone and cried. I do not know what to do? Gi is saying nothing about how we solve this problem...don't they love poop and intestines? Or what about Urology, they keep saying follow up with GI! Now don't get me wrong I love all of our doctors, truly I feel blessed and feel that God hand picked each one. But I am still frustrated at all this wait and see, or go see another specialist. I even asked Marshall the other night if they give children colonics...he about thought I lost my mind...you wanna do what to my daughter???

Enough ranting, hopefully I will know more soon. I am off to bed, we have a fun day at the Creation Museum in Santee!

Good mom vs. bad mom

2009-05-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

These 3 things just happened in the last 20 minutes:

You have just sprayed the table with Windex...
A good mom keeps the kids away until it is wiped off!
A bad mom says' if you keeping licking that you may get sick'!!

You have just made a PB and J sandwich for little daughter...
A good mom makes sure all the dogs are out of the house!
A bad mom yells at her daughter everyday for not watching that sandwich as the dog licks her lips and little daughter is crying!

Little daughter wants to pet boy dog, but big daughter says no...
A good mom talks about how they need to share boy dog because he needs lots of love from both of them.
A bad mom puts little daughter and boy dog in the dog cage so there will be no more fighting!!!

Guess which one I am????

Ashlyns surgery update and other stuff

2009-05-16T10:39:00.001-07:00

So Ashlyn's surgery went alright...it could have been better. They got an adult tube in her left ear, but there is still so much scaring and tissue. They could NOT get a tube in the right ear. So she has an open 'hole'. We want an open hole but Dr feels that there is no way this hole is gonna stay open. He said when he would touch the surrounding tissue it would just crumble so the fear is that it will close in a few weeks. He also said that the left tube will probably fall out in a few months because there is not a strong hold on it. Both ears will need to be completely reconstructed, I asked 'like in the next year?'. He said no in like a few more years, we need to allow the scar tissue to get thicker and also the ear to just settle and heal from all the surgeries...count them FIVE in Four years. The good news is that we finally got the go ahead on Hearing Aids. YEAH! We see Dr. in 2 weeks and will go from there with a new audiology report and a referral for hearing aids. Ashlyn is only 1 of 2 in her class with no aids...so she is so excited. We are gonna go all out...pink or purple neon is probably what the decision is gonna be. So that is that update.

We are signing Ashlyn up for VIP AYSO soccer in the fall (special ed. soccer). She is exited about that. I got her a soccer ball and shin guards on sale at Target for $6 each...and of course they are pink and purple.

The boys have only a few more weeks left of 'school' but I am so ready to stop for summer already. We are currently going thru the Public Charter school and using our own curriculum(that I purchased) . But I am exploring my option for next year. I wanna use Alpha Omega LIFEPAKs, but that is so Christian based that I am sure it will be unacceptable. There is a church out here beginning their first year as a home school private school so that is an option. But I love the classes offered by the charter school (1 or 2 days a week). So lots of decisions to come.

Also both boys will be doing a play tonight called Spotlight on Broadway. James hates it, Shane tolerates it. My boys will definitely not be the next actors in our nation.

James is doing Golf once a week, and both Shane and James just started Tennis lessons. So far so good.

I love the freedom homeschooling has for us.

Big News here!

2009-05-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

ASHLYN CAN NOW RIDE A BIKE WITH NO TRAINING WHEELS!

I tried to get a picture of all her cuts and bruises, but it wouldn't show up right. Anyway...oh yeah, and I cannot figure out how to turn the darn 'movie' around...so I am sorry.

Anyway, Ashlyn has surgery tomorrow. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Ashlyn post!

2009-04-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

So Ashlyn will be having another surgery next Wednesday on her ears. We will see the audiologist tomorrow so that way we have a before and after of hearing. So this will be our 5th ear surgery. Yuck!

Our poop plan is working some what. It is hard as a mom of 4 to know when someone is pooping. I am too unorganized in my day to day life to plan to have her sit on the potty after every meal.

We say the orthopedic doc last week and I felt it was a waste of time. Her asked how she has been doing without braces...I was dumbfounded. Apparently, he said last time that he wants her without braces from now on. I do not recall this conversation AT ALL. From my 5 yrs experience as Ashlyns mom, I find Orthopedic surgeons very BLACK AND WHITE. My daughter does not live in a black and white world. I adjust my day according to her in the sense of- if she wore braces all day and now is too tired I will take them off. If she is falling over and miserably weak I put her braces on...we work well like this! There are days with no braces or strenuous activity that Ashlyn just doesn't have the strength to walk (not that she doesn't...she is just sluggish and hunched over) so we use her wheelchair on outings. That is how we will continue to go about our days. I see Ortho in 6 months!

After Ortho, We saw ENT and obviously the finding were poor so we will go in for another surgery.

We also saw Urology last week. Ultrasound showed the same....except we have double tubes!!! This is a big finding! At this point because we are dealing with poop...we did not add anything aggressive to our days. Apparently the bladder relaxer causes constipation, so we can use that at this time. Also she told me that I am to not allowed to let Ashlyn use the potty all she wants. I need to have her go hour stretches at a time. Build up her control?

I am sick of doctors appointments and being told how to do this or that...I am just exhausted from it all. I love our doctors appointments for the simple fact that Ash and I get to spent time by ourselves, but other than that I am just so overwhelmed at times. This doctor saying one thing...the other contradicting what another just said! I am so over it!

Other than that, all is good. Could all just pray that Ashlyn doesn't get SWINE FLU...that's all I need! LOL!

Kids Say The Darndest Things

2009-04-27T10:56:00.001-07:00

Oh my heck...are these not the funniest videos ever. My kids and I replay them all day...They will make you smile (go down and turn of my music player to hear what they are saying)

Spinach and Carrots health insurance commercial

2009-04-27T10:51:00.001-07:00

HorseweekParade and Ashlyn Update!

2009-04-18T16:21:00.000-07:00

Today we rode in the traditional Horseweek Parade for MOMS Club. Usually we sit sidelined but we decided to throw the candy instead of gather it. Our float won 1st place. The kids enjoyed throwing the candy and seeing people on the street. James said' wow, mom! I swear I know everyone in Norco!' Too cute'

As for the long awaited Ashlyn update: The funny thing is that we have 2 other appointments this week so the updates are always continuing!

As for Psychology: the report stated 'that thru all the testing her intellectual function is that of an IQ score of 72, placing her in the 5% in the borderline intelligence (5% above mentally retarded). Her strengths are basic verbal and nonverbal reasoning. However she required much encouragement to complete each of her sub tests.' Also states that 'personal weaknesses are understanding social situations, information typically learned in school, attention to detail, problem solving, visuomotor scanning, visual spatial skills, naming skills, math skills, spelling skills, some aspects of adaptive functioning and visual recall for pictures presented to her' Continues with 'Ashlyn shows many deficits typically associated with SOTO's syndrome...learning disabilities, speech deficits, ADHD, social and behavioral problems and poor motor skills. ' The suggestions she lists for future are 'special education under other health impaired, additional time to complete school work and tests, occupational therapy, she would benefit from one-on-one attention as well as a small classroom and would benefit from a social skills group. The end!

The ADHD and social skills group kinda bothered me but whatever. Basically this test told me everything I already knew. But it is helpful for her teachers to know this kinda stuff. This does not change our school setting at this time except for the occupational therapy for fine motor skills.

The results from the MRI showed that her spine was currently in correct position, does not a have tethered cord and that the spinal cord is tight in her brain. To be honest I have no idea what any of this means, other than poop issues are not a result from a tethered cord. Hallelujah. I see this doctor Monday because he wanted to see us back in 6 weeks...I am apprehensive about this appointment because we went years with out seeing him and now he wanted us back in 6 weeks. So we'll see what that is all about tomorrow. Also the MRI did show poop on her left side.

So we saw GI last week. They said she is constipated and has probably been since she was an infant (we dealt with enemas a lot when she was tiny) and they said it probably created a stone of poop and now the new poop needs to find it's way out. It finds its way out everyday twice a day, but she strains more and more lately. So they gave me a CONSTIPATION PLAN. I need to give her clear liquids all day, and 3 five ounces of the Magnesium citrate, until she has a 'BLOW OUT', seriously the word she used ( I have do this on a day when she will be home and I can monitor her...we'll see when that is, lol). and then she will be on Mira lax for about a year. I need to keep a daily poop journal and basically be totally aware of all the poop that comes out of this child.

Urology sent us for another ultrasound and we see them this week on Tuesday. So I am hoping the tests show some change either positive or negative. If it's negative we will have to start a new plan of action. But with the poop being an issue The colon is full of poop so it pushes on the kidneys which is why the left kidney is more inflamed and enlarged. So the poop plan may be all we need to fix this problem.

We also see ENT this week too! So I'll update that too!

THIS & THAT

2009-04-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

Camping! Ashlyn rode the quad for the first time. I about had a heart attack, my stomach was nauseous the whole time. She can barely hear on a good day and to have that helmet on I was just a wreck...but she did great. Nothing too exciting, I still don't enjoy the Jeep all that much but being in the Glamis Sand made me feel better if we crashed/flipped. We ran out of water on our last day, of course while I was in the shower with Shampoo and Body wash all over. I had to use six FREEZING bottles of water to get it all off. All in all a good trip.

Easter! We went to Crossroads for MOMS2MOM on Good Friday. They did an Easter Egg hunt, and I was convicted years ago to not do anything 'fun' on Good Friday. The day is somber in my heart and seem to cry A LOT on Good Friday. I explain every year why I do not like egg hunts on Good Friday but the kids are still too young to understand, so I was just a mean mom for about 5 minutes. We headed over to the Sanctuary for the Stations of The Cross. Crossroads does it awesome every year. They get different artists to represent all the Stations and they are so individual. Growing up Catholic I remember being bored to death with the stations of the cross (but I too was young and easily bored!) but it was still a 'tradition' I missed once becoming a Christian. Anyway, the stations were fabulous and James understood them a lot. Next year I would just take the boys and read everything so they could understand a little better.

Katie has been fighting this nasty cold/ flu thing. So she was up and sick all weekend. There is no surprise to Easter Baskets. In fact I went Shopping with all the kids and my mom on Saturday. And I ask my mom to take the kids to the car and Ashlyn says 'have fun buying my Easter Bunny Day Baby!' Whatever! So we have to set the baskets up in the nook of the kitchen because we are re-doing the living room and there is nothing in there except cold concrete. I bought the boys nerf shot guns...because we are learning about the Civil War in home school so I figured a good ol' shot gun has to be educational, right! I did not go to church on Sunday (rare for us) but with the snot that these girls are fighting I did not want to hinder those first time church goers in not coming back because their child left sick! KWIM? So we headed to my parents house for a simple nice dinner and then home.

I have more Ashlyn news, but I will post later....I just love to keep you all in suspense on her. Just kidding, I just have no time to do so, but hopefully soon!

Edible Fun

2009-04-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

What does 16-18oz of Peanut Butter, 6 tbsp of Honey and 3/4 of a cup of Powdered milk give you...many hours of quiet. First they all had to measure and mix and then they played so nicely.

We returned from our camping trip on Tuesday...and haven't gotten out of our pajamas since! Spring Break rocks!

Relay for Life and lady problems

2009-03-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

SO we had Relay for Life this weekend, it was so fun. We as a family all look forward to Relay every year. James looks forward to it more than his birthday. This year was more sentimental because we lost Marshall's mom less than a month ago. We spent the night again, and this year there was more to do with/for the kids. I didn't take many pictures, but here are the few we took. (we saw a friend who has Soto's Syndrome there also, he is in the 4th picture with the girls)

I also had my procedure ( i am unsure why this is called a procedure...it needs a more awful name...it was in no way a 'procedure') for my uterus yesterday. Oh, what fun. I was heavily drugged and literally slept for 24 hours after it was done. I was in horrible pain yesterday, horrible!!!! Today is better, giving all the thanks to Vikodin. I just hope this one works. I am hoping all the pain I am feeling means this one worked. I'll let you know.

I also wanna update Ashlyns recent stuff like psychological evaluation and MRI results. But I am gonna go lay down...so I'll leave that for another day.

Family Science Night

2009-03-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

Ashlyn's school had a family science night at her school. We all went, this Marshall's first event at this school and we have been there for 3 years. The cost was $5 a person, parents paid as well. It was fun. The kids made flubber and they had a bubble room, magnetic room and electricity room. Enjoy the pictures.

Busy week.

2009-03-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

Monday I schooled the boys...2 hours but it felt like 8. I was exhausted after it was done...so I sent them to play. (weird that on Saturday and Sunday we SWAM in the pool because it was 85 degrees and on Monday it was back to being cold). Then we headed to the doctor to clear Ashlyn for the MRI.

Tuesday I had a doctors appointment...the surgery I had in November was unsuccessful. We discussed hysterectomy or another similar procedure to the other one. I chose the other procedure because I am not ready to part with my Uterus. Even though I will no longer carry babies in my womb, taking it out seems so scary.

Today is Wednesday, We had co-op. I am the PE teacher. Kinda ironic since I choose not to sweat on purpose. I love co-op but it seems a little 'too young' for James. Tonight is Grandma Nancy's service. It has been almost 2 weeks since she passed and I do not know where the time has gone. The boys understand, Ashlyn does not. Yesterday Katie was holding Nancy's licence and Ash said 'Nancy will be so mad at you!' Please pray for Gods hand over this service!

Tomorrow Ashlyn has an MRI of her spine with Anesthesia. Pray that we get thru the day with no sneaking of food or drinks. Pray that she comes out of it well and that the results can help solve some of our problems like pee, poop, balance and other stuff.

Friday is a relax day, or should I say was gonna be a relax day until my cat got sick. Seriously like we needed one more thing! But when your kitten is pooping clear jelly like nastiness...i guess you gotta take it to the vet, lol! I even told the lady at the vet that I feel like I am being cruel to wait so many days but I just do not have the time in the next 2 days to get it done. After that we will go to the park and play for HOURS and get the last few weeks behind us!!

All in All, God is good. He continues to give me strength thru all this with Ashlyn, oh yeah and with homeschooling.

Nancy lost her battle

2009-02-21T06:48:00.000-08:00

Grandma Nancy lost her battle with leukemia on Thursday night. She will be extrememly missed. Please pray for healing and guidance for Marshall and his siblings. Also pray that funeral arragments are made and taken care of in a timely manner.

Ashlyn Update

2009-02-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

On January 15, we had Ashlyns IEP for school. It was basically the same as it has been. She needs to recognize letters and numbers (ha!). Also an evaluation was ordered so that they can see how poor her fine motor skills are, she needs OT but currently does not receive it.

On January 20th, she had an ENT appointment. Dr says left ear has no tube in place and so far so good. (I can actually see it in the ear in the right light!) Her right is still severely damaged but the tube is working at keeping fluid drained. Reconstruction of the right ear is still an option, but I think he wants to give it a few months to see how these tubes work. Meaning if the one that fell out has made enough space in the ear to drain properly. And if the right will fall out. He doesn't want to send her into surgery more than once a year for this issue. So we are just waiting on the ear thing. I see him again in 2 months.

On January 28th, we saw a urologist. It was an awful appointment in terms of waiting and frustrated parents (or should I say RUDE parents). So I do not a doctor but a Nurse Practitioner. This is Ashlyns first Urology appointment. We are here because her Nephrologist (kidney) sent us here. Ashlyns ultrasound showed inflammation and enlargement of the kidneys. So the lady asks me what is up with her pee issues and if she has ever had a UTI. I say I wish!, at least that would explain Ashlyns pee that burns and causes her pain. She then asked me what SOTO's syndrome was! I hate this! I feel doctors should at least do a little research on a rare syndrome so that an appointment doesn't spend too much time having the parent explain the condition. So annoying. Ok so she checks her potty area and abdomen, and says that she is highly impacted with poop. I said it was impossible because she poops twice a day and it is a lot. She is convinced Ashlyn is 'controlling' her bowel and a form to control her parents. I just shake my head. She then asks if Ashlyn has ever seen/or had an MRI of her spine to rule out a tethered cord. Her suggestion is this (what a load of crap!) To give Ashlyn fiber 2 x's a day so that she poops more, and in four months get her back into the Urologist and she how her tummy feels, then possibly send her for another Ultrasound, if that comes back with the same results, we will then send her for xray with contrast, if still no changes we will get an MRI of her spine. I walked out of there shaking me head...I left that appointment with more questions than before and with no help for my child and her burning pee and wetting herself.

So I get into my car and feel God tugging on my heart to not wait the 4 months. So I comply. More on this in a second.

On February 6th, Ashlyn had a psycho-neurological evaluation. So I talk the Psychologist about Ashlyn and her development. She tells me she did research on Soto's and wants to know if I agree with what she found! Praise Jesus...a doctor who did her research. I leave and she does 'work' with Ashlyn for an hour, then comes out and says she needs a break. Ashlyn and I walk around and she keeps telling me she wants to go and is crying. So now I bribe her with Chick-fil-a, like any good mom would do, lol! She goes back in and about 10minutes later the doctor comes out and asks me to com ein because Ashlyn is not responding to her at all (this means Ashlyn brain is on OVER LOAD and she is totally ignoring everything the dr. says,lol...not I would consider that controlling a situation). So we play puzzles and she is asked a question and she needs to give an answer. like 'ice cream and brownies'..she says 'for hungry' 'milk and juice' 'for thirsty' 'dog and cat' she says 'for loving!!!' It goes on until she no longer wants to talk and she looks out the window. I take her to pee and for a walk. She so wants to go home. We go back into the room for more 'testing'. This is where is got sad. She put a piece of paper down for Ashlyn to circle all the 6's in the mix of numbers and letters. She circles everything. The lady gives her a pencil and paper and asks her to write her name. She looks at me and says 'what's my name again?' And then writes circles and lines to form her name...we praise her for doing such a good job! So there is more tedious work to go thru to test her correctly. Ashlyn has given up completely..no eye contact and she is now so tired...physically tired. I talk to the doctor some more and explain that Ashlyn will shut down when her brain is overloaded, and that she will now take a 3 hour nap because of this. She sends us home and our results will come back this Friday. Ashlyn did take a long nap but was proud of what she accomplished. She loved the puzzle part, lol. We were there from 8am to 12pm...I took a nap too!

In the mean time I had been calling GI, Orthopedic Surgery and my Geneticist. The Geneticist says the first one I need to see is Ortho. Surgeon. I call and leave several messages. I get a call back and she asked if we had been seen by any of the other doctors I had called. I said no. She then talks to the doctor who happens to be standing right there. She gets back on the phone and says we need to see asap, hows tomorrow? Hello, I have four kids...it doesn't work that way, lol! So we schedule for the next day. I see the doctor and he automatically sends forth an MRI with being put asleep! . He is confident it is not a tethered cord because she is still so loose, and a tethered cord tends to make muscles tight. But he is concerned about her tail bone, and the fact that when she falls (because she has hypotonia) it is hitting hard on that bone and it is neither good for the spinal cord or her brain. So we are waiting for authorization from insurance to have that done.

So in the mean time I hope we get some answers and hopefully this MRI will lead us in the right direction!

lots to update

2009-02-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

Follow me through last months adventure, I also have an Ashlyn update but I will give that after this. So I am now homeschooling both James and Shane, it just didn't seem right to have Shane still in public school. When I would think of having both boys home I would have tightness in my chest. I asked God to make me calm when I would think about the both of them here with me all day. That day came and I pulled Shane out of school. So far so good...he is doing all 2nd grade work and James is still learning some 2nd grade concepts, so I basically have 2 second graders. This is a huge issue I have about public school, on one hand you have a child who is excelling but being told to wait so the other kids can catch up and then you have one who has fallen behind the standards and then left there while new concepts are being introduced. We are going slow and having fun, I love homeschooling more than I thought I would.

Ok, Ashlyn had a great birthday, she chose Polly's Pies for dinner and we had Costco cake.

We went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park 2 weeks ago and it was so hot. 85 degrees! I love how in So.Cal you have 85 the first week of February. Geez! Notice we all have Green shirts on!

We also celebrated Kaitlyn's 3rd birthday. My parents came over for pizza and cake.

Marshalls mom is having a tough time with Leukemia (who wouldn't?) He is there everyday, and it is exhausting on all aspects of our life. I wish she lived here so we could take care of her and get her the best care...which is something I do not see her doctors/hospital doing. I pray that she gets better soon, but if it is God's will that He takes her, I pray it is fast and painless.

I also have a friend who lost her husband last weekend at the age of 41! Can you believe it? He has two little ones and an amazing wife left behind. Please pray for this family if you think of them. It makes me hug Marshall a little tighter when I see him. The pain I feel for my friend is awful, I cry often whenever I think about it. I try to surrender this pain to Jesus but it just keeps creeping up on me, so I just continue to pray to ease the pain for her and myself. God is good, He will provide!

Ok on to an Ashlyn update!

Please pray

2009-02-07T10:04:00.000-08:00

So I have a lot to update! But first I would like to throw a prayer request out there to all who pray. My mother- in-law was dx with leukemia in December and has been in the hospital since that day (minus 2 days @ home but was immediately back in the hospital). The family has received mixed 'reviews' from both the infectious disease doctor and oncologist of what this disease is doing to her body. So I ask for prayer in that if she does pass it is fast and painless. If it is God will for her to survive that He gives her the strength to overcome physically. I pray that she comes to Christ before her passing as for her to enjoy the glorious future in Eternity, with the Almighty. Marshall has had a rough few days and we visited her last night. She was in good spirits and her personality totally showed thru the drugs and feelings of pain. Things of Heaven and God have been much on his mind. I also ask for prayer for his sister and brother, as well as Marshall, so that they can make correct decisions with her health and that they rest in Christ in their loneliest/saddest moments! Thanks!

Imagine Spot 1

2009-01-29T23:49:00.001-08:00

No on FOCA!

2009-01-29T23:42:00.001-08:00

Urge Congress to vote no of the Freedom of Choice Act.

For more information visit FOCAfacts.com

Do not let this country become one that says abortion will help strengthen the health of women and children. Give me a break!

Ashlyn has Survived SIX YEARS!

2009-01-12T22:47:00.000-08:00

I published this last year! But it is still so true!

You may think I am being funny, meaning she has survived 2 rough brothers, 1 crazy sister and 2 parents who question their parenting often. But I mean SURVIVED in every literal sense. This is a child I did not think would make it 2 years let alone . She is a miracle in every sense of the word. Ashlyn has taught me to value life, no matter how short! She has taught me what having true faith is really about...seriously who else but God could get you through those situations. Ashlyn is amazing. This story starts 6 years 9 months ago.

I had just had a baby and a 2.5 year old when a few months later I would myself pregnant again. I was sad in the sense that our new baby Shane would feel a sense of neglect (let me reassure you that this has never been the case, LOL!). I had an awful pregnancy, I was dx with a blood disease and instructed to take heavy doses of steroids to avoid bleeding to death...literally! The steroids put our new babies life in jeopardy. As I was getting fatter from the drugs the risk to HER was that my body was taking away all her nutrients and she could die in utero, she also had a high risk of cleft lip and palette. I went in for a high risk ultrasound when they detected a hole in her heart. As my pregnancy went on I felt that something was wrong...a sense of urgency to get her out. I was miserable. This baby FELT huge, even though she supposed to be this tiny thing. SO I was induced at 35 weeks, 5 weeks early under my urging!!! My dr kept saying it was because I had an infant already that I was just tired and miserable. WHATEVER, new rule always trust a pregnant women. After an easy labor, thanks to some great drugs and a TERRIBLE delivery...I gave birth to an 11 POUND BABY girl. And she was sick and broken. I got one picture of her before she was whisked off to the NICU. (this isn't that picture!)

When I finally got to see her...I cried and got on my knees and surrendered my child to God. I prayed that if He took her that He please make me a decent mother to the ones I already had, thru the grief. Everything else I left up to Him. Ashlyn stayed in the hospital for about a month and we brought her home...not knowing what the future held.

She ended up back in the hospital at 3 months for Failure to Thrive...my once 11 lb baby was now 8 lbs. I praise God for this day at the same time as the cloud of sadness came along. Ashlyn was diagnosed with SOTO SYNDROME. We finally had a name for what was happening to our baby. At 6 months she was put back in the hospital and a g-tube was placed.

By eight months old Ashlyn could not longer function normally. She had lost 4 lbs in less than a month, was having blue spells and sweated all the time. The time to have OPEN HEART SURGERY was now.

Ashlyn recovered much quicker than anyone could have imagined. (I am gonna try and wrap this up now). She is strong...stronger than anyone I know here on Earth. She has battled hearing loss, seizures, vision problems, kidney malfunctions/urological issues and the list goes ON!! And every day she wakes up with a renewed Spirit and Smile (that could easily change if she doesn't get what she wants). And she has LIVED Six YEARS. And God gave me those six years when I haven't even deserved it. And for that I THANK GOD FOR THIS SPECIAL BIRTHDAY.

Happy SIXTH Birthday Ashlyn

Just another Saturday

2009-01-10T15:05:00.000-08:00

We went to Lowe's this morning to do the craft they have every other weekend. I usually go with my girlfriend Marla...since she is usually the one who reminds me. I love being with her and her kids...especially since when it is just the two of us we have 9 kids between us...and we are always counting them. Ashlyn likes doing the hammering and is getting better at being patient while I have 3 other projects to get started. Today she had the Lowe's man helping her. She loves attention! Katie called baby Jacob her boyfriend...as in "Hannah, don't touch my boyfriend, baby Jacob'. For all of you that aren't with us on a daily basis...Hannah is Ashlyn. Katie has NEVER called her Ashlyn...and will refer to her as HANNAH always. If you were to ask her what her sisters name was she would tell you it is Ashlyn, but she only calls her Hannah. We all call her Hannah too. I have made the mistake of taking about Hannah before and someone asking who the heck I was talking about! If you were to ever wonder why I LOVE Hannah Montana it is because of our own Hannah.

BTW: Here is our Solar System...we painted all of it and measured the distance so it will be level! Kinda proud of myself....I mean of James!

Week in Review

2009-01-09T17:54:00.000-08:00

Ashlyn and Shane started school this week, but James goes back next Monday. We (James and I) had a pretty lazy week.

Monday: Laundry and Urgent Care Visit. Are you surprised we started off another year with an emergency visit? Ashlyn came home from school and started to brake out in HIVES. They were awful and I was scared. I picked up Shane and the doctor said to go to Urgent Care. So we drive to OC and wait. I signed Kate in to be seen too (might as well, right?) for a rash she had on her butt. Dr. sees Ash and says 'Yup they're hives...give her benedryl'. I never even thought to give her benedryl, DUH!!! Now for Kate. He is more shocked to see her butt. I explain it started off tiny and now had spread. She is potty trained so she wasn't sitting in pee for any amount of time. And she wears cloth diapers at night just in case even though she has never actually peed in them. He tells me she has a STAPH infection! And that every time I put cream on it it spread...he took a 'sample' (much worse than it sounds!) and sent it in to see if it was antibiotic resistant staph. My moms said she probably got it from the ER last week...she may be right. When I came home from the ER that night I rushed her to the potty and pulled down her pants with out ever washing my hands...I am the WORST mother.

Tuesday: I got permission to buy new sheets and blankets for our bed. SO off to Bed, Bath and Beyond we went and I splurged on new stuff...hey I got permission. Then off to Target and home to do more Laundry. James and I put together a Solar System. I was proud of our accomplishments! Ashlyn comes home from school and brakes out in hives again. Call Dr and he says just keep giving her Benedryl. I put on my new sheets and blankets and I never want another child or animal in my bed again (like that'll ever happen, lol!). I feel like I am in a LUXURIOUS hotel in my own home. I love THEM! Ashlyn's teacher calls at 8:20pm and said she thinks it is the Strawberry milk...Ashlyn is allergic to chocolate so we have always done Strawberry...but they changed manufactures. So we will see if this helps. And I slept awesome in my new sheets.

Wednesday: James, Kaitlyn and I have our first day of CO-OP for homeschool at church. It was fun and Katie took a great nap afterwards. Ashlyn gets hives at 6:30pm.

Thursday: Marshall takes James to work with him and Katie and I are all alone. So we head to Walmart. I need simple things like a tablecloth, juice boxes, COOKIES and presents for Ashlyns birthday. All is accomplished at Walmart. Do Laundry and start dinner. No hives!

Friday: LAZY DAY, James played computer and watches movies. I clean all day, and started dinner at 2pm. Sushi rolls, Rice balls and cheese sticks...all using the Deliciously Deceptive book.
We have no hives...so we will assume it is the Strawberry milk. Katie's butt is so much better.

A week in the life of the Hirt's.

Happy 2009

2009-01-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

So included is our first photo of 2009. Aren't they all so precious...little blessings for God. The cake was made from scratch...I love those domestic moments I sometimes throw out there. We don't do resolutions. But I am gonna accomplish reading the Bible in a year, read Created to be Help Meet daily (a daily reminder is always good, this book has already strengthened my marriage over the last two years), and just continue to be a better daughter of the Lord, a better wife and a better mother. IN THAT ORDER! Have a blessed 2009!

Too funny not to post

2008-12-31T09:54:00.000-08:00

So my cousin plays USC football. Can you guess which one he is? Leave me a comment and let me know!

The USC football team had to watch some "special" game footage yesterday -- after their coach got wind of their massive brain fart of a performance on TMZ. There's a post on a USC football website detailing yesterday's team meeting where coach Pete Carroll, "showed the video...

http://www.tmz.com/2008/12/30/usc-coach-drills-team-on-current-events/

giving the players plenty of opportunities to laugh at each other and also offering a teachable moment. He reviewed some current events with the players, including Biden's role as! the nex t VP and Blagojevich's scandal."Carroll was also quoted as saying, "Our players were clearly not on their game last night at Lawry's ... We've got some things to work on."The Trojans are scheduled to pound Penn State into oblivion during their Rose Bowl matchup on New Year's Day.

ER Trip last night

2008-12-31T09:14:00.000-08:00

Do you know what happens when a 'tiny girl' with a tiny nose sticks raisins in that nose? You go to the hospital! Not much explaining needs to be done. Stuck raisin the nose, cried, drive to Corona Regional, sit in the nasty ER waiting room, they call her, pull raisins out with a tool and the we fill out paper work and we are on our way. As gross as that hospital is too me, they got us in quick and we were out even quicker. We were one of the lucky ones. There was about 8 babies in there all running fevers. And one boy came in having just been 'jumped' for his bike. It was AWFUL. I was sick to my stomach seeing all that blood. I prayed for that kid all night and for the police to find out who did that. Anyway, no pictures. Nurse threw it away before I could think. OH...but it was no longer a raisin when it came out....it was more like a grape!

DUH...I forgot to say who went ....KATIE! Ahh, her first ER experience!

Merry CHRISTmas

2008-12-24T23:09:00.000-08:00

May you and your family be especially blessed as we celebrate God's greatest gift, a Saviour born so many years ago. Merry CHRISTmas!

Duck Pond

2008-12-24T23:02:00.001-08:00

Relay for Life, parade walk

2008-12-24T22:52:00.000-08:00

We walked in the Holiday Parade of Lights for Relay for Life. I truly love Relay and wanna support it anyway I can. So we walked...the longest walk ever!!!! And you, the people participating in the parade, have to be on the look out for poop piles in the middle of the road. I love our town.

Rain in Norco

2008-12-24T19:59:00.000-08:00

This is what rain in Norco will do to your backyard!!! (btw- I know I have been a bad blogger!)

'Spider Guy'

2008-11-17T08:09:00.000-08:00

So the 'Spider Guy' came to Ashlyns school on Friday. I am not sure why they call him the spider guy. He really is the Reptile guy. I brought Kate and James also. I grew up with a girly mom who still to this day is deathly afraid of snakes and such. I grew to feel the same. But have learned to have a fondness for such little creatures. Especially since James got a snake in March. You watch a little mouse brutality and you kinda lose your fear of a snake, instead you are left seeing how remarkable they are. Anyway, my girls have NO FEAR or caution when it comes to reptiles. They had spiders on their heads and snakes around their necks. James is always into learning new things about reptiles. I always tell him he should be the reptile guy at the zoo. Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

Hi, I'm Katie

2008-11-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

Yup, that me. Katie. And boy do I make my mom and dad tired. I love to be naked, always naked. Get me dressed and I am sure to be half naked if not all the way undressed in less than an hour. I am a dress wearing, playing in the mud kinda girl. I have these eyes...you know those kind of eyes that are so sweet and makes everyone fall in love with you. I hide behind my eyes. Because it seems that no one can ever be mad at a little one with these kind of eyes. I make my parents earn their title as parents on a daily basis. I have to have the refridgerator pad locked and the pantry too. I love when my brothers forget to lock it back up. I love to hide food, even frozen food. And I love to CLIMB. I am a monkey. I am a busy girl. But I am the best kind of girl. The kind that makes my mom and dad thank God for me daily.

Halloween Party on Halloween

2008-11-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

So we all, Marshall included, went to a Halloween Party instead of going camping or trick-or-treating this year. The party was fantastic. The kids said they want to do that every year instead of house to house. They had games, crafts and good ol' plain fun. Bobbing for apples was the big hit...my children have NEVER done that before. Shane was soaked, he had to change his clothes into James' costume because Shane 'forgot' to wear pants under his costume. Anyway, it was great and I am so thankful for the invite we got from my friend. I may actually start to like Halloween if it starts to get better like this year. Oh yeah there are so many pictures of Ashlyn because she demands lots of pictures be taken of her.

MOMS Club Halloween Bash

2008-11-04T08:19:00.000-08:00

So I need to add that I did not get ONE picture of ALL The kids together this year. Weird. And also Shane wore a different costume at each event we did. He is too funny. I love my MOMS Club and the Halloween Party that one of our moms put on was awesome. They literally ate candy from 3pm to bed. At about 8pm Shane says mom we didn't even have dinner. I told him his candy was his dinner and he was shocked that I would be such a good mom and let him eat candy instead of real food. Our rule is when you get candy you can eat as much as you want in one day and then it is GONE!!!Forever.

Homeschool Halloween

2008-11-04T08:15:00.001-08:00

Last Wednesday we went to the park with our homeschool group. I love how they do their Halloween Party. They have each parent set up a 'house' and the kids trick or treat to each 'house'. The kids love doing this.

Tagged?

2008-10-18T23:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks Michelle! http://libertyacademyanaheim.blogspot.com/

Ok?

I was married on Dec . 26th just so we could get the tax break
I went to an all female college and was in a sorority
I recently had a dream that someone wouldn't let me adopt their baby because I 'was just too fat' and woke up crying
I want more children by means of adoption
I have only lied to my husband ONCE and felt guilty the whole time, that I told him and he told me it was the dumbest thing he ever heard and he couldn't believe I even worried about it.
I live for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior
I worry all the time about not raising children for the Lord, and I pray that they will make it to heaven about a hundred times a day!

Here is who I am tagging:
http://heidisipe.blogspot.com/
http://thenessnest.blogspot.com/
http://thesheepshack.blogspot.com/
http://ransomedredeemed.blogspot.com
http://www.freewebs.com/domesticsuperhero

Well, it look like I don't have many friends, LOL! Oh well!

Irvine Regional Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-18T22:49:00.001-07:00

We went there yesterday, Friday. We have waited for this moment for so long. Our first pumpkin patch of the season. Well, once we get there I realise I have left my wallet at home and only have 30 dollars. And guess what $30 will get a family of 5, not VERY MUCH! We rode the train ($20), and we love it. We have been riding that darn train for 8 yrs now and we never get sick of it. We drive over to the zoo, because it is 88 degrees in the middle of October. Oh yeah and I have a bladder infection, so there's nothing like having the urge to pee every 2 seconds and then having to run to the nearest nasty potty. Anyway, we saw some of the animals at the zoo ($10), again who the heck wants to be in the hot sun in October? and then buy two drinks (2.50) and we head home. Just in time for nap.

I ended up buying six pumpkins today for $15 at Henry's Market. And we spent the night carving them. I will post that tomorrow. Because now I am going to bed!

Discovery Science Center

2008-10-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, we went to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. Since James is homeschooled...this counts as a day of Science. And both Shane and Ashlyn are off track, so basically it was just a day of fun. The best part was the earthquake room. Ashlyn HATES earthquakes, just the word will send her crying. Our last earthquake here really shook her up. We are just now getting her back to her sleep routine with out her screaming of an earthquake. So anyway, we sit in the room and she freaks out hysterical. So she watched from the side and then by the time we left that center we couldn't pry her away from it, LOL! Also she loved the Wind/hurricane simulator, the wind is something else that she deathly terrified of. So I think she concurred all her fears that day. The boys had so much...I think they don't even realise that they were learning. I hope to one day have the kids here all day long, every single day. I just need to learn patience and learn to pray in my moments of frustration.

2008-10-10T17:22:00.000-07:00

2008-09-03T16:55:00.001-07:00

Norco Valley Fair

2008-09-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

Went to our little fair on Thursday and again on Sunday. Plus we had our parade on Labor Day.
Thursday we went with 'Miss' Lindsey. The kids had a great time. The fair is so fun with kids. They were so excited. We watched the cowgirls play on their horses and then left when they started to rope the animals. I am way too much of a city girl to watch that kind-a thing. Poor goats and calf's. I kept trying to explain to Ashlyn how mean it was to hurt the baby goat, but she said she wanted to stay and watch! I totally pulled the mom card and shoved her outta there! We rode rides and ate lots of junk and headed out about 9:30 when the crowd started to change. I came back on Sunday with the girls (the boys didn't get back in time from their trip to Big Bear) . We played with all the 4-H animals and headed over to the Medieval Rodeo (jousting). It was the most amazing thing I had ever witnessed. Even Katie would scream FIGHT!!! The girls clapped and yelled and we had a great time. The rodeo was next and we headed out ( I guess I have a heart for bulls and their testicles, I just cannot watch it and enjoy it) We watched the talent show for about an hour and then spent another hour back with the 4-H animals. Katie is a country girl at heart. Kissin' the cows in their snotty noses. Oinking with the pigs. She just loves animals. Ashlyn loves them also but from a distance. We got home around 10pm and the boys were sleeping. We did the parade on Monday morning, and actually had a great time. Last year it was about 109, and this year it started at 79 and finished at about 95. So it was awesome. It all made for a great Labor Day weekend.

Adams Birthday @CEC

2008-09-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

Happy 6th Birthday to Adam, Shanes' best friend (except when Adam tattles on Shane for things like drinking out of the chicken coop water, LOL)! We had a great time last night. Thanks so much! (BTW- my post will be going backwards)

Don't you just LOVE these two!

2008-09-03T15:13:00.001-07:00

Update on Ashlyn.

2008-08-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

We have been to CHOC so many times in the last 3 weeks. First she had surgery to get her tubes done on the Aug. 7th. Doctor was disappointed with her scar tissue. And he said most likely she will be going in in a few months to have her entire right ear reconstructed. We will have ear and hearing issued for her entire life. He said I need to prepare for this now because it is never going away. And then last week were there for her coin incident. And this week she had an EEG to monitor her brain waves and see seizure activity. The tech said no sign of seizures but results will be in next week. Poor girl. She is now scared of the drs and we have to brain wash her just to get her relaxed for her appointments. . But this all necessary to keep her in good health. She has an appointment in 2 weeks with Nephrology (kidneys) to see what is up with her pee problems. Her frequency of having to use the bathroom with no pee coming, started to worry her teachers. But since we have had perfect urine results...it seems to be the new mystery. Please pray that this is a successful appointment, and we can help her potty feel better.

Harvest

2008-08-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

(Shane is POSING for this picture, what a dork)

We went to Harvest this Saturday and saw POD and Kutless. We had a good time! The boys weren't as excited as I thought they would be but I had a good time. Felt all young and cool again! LOL! The message by Greg Laurie was awesome. When they called all the people to the field (if you've been to Harvest you know why), James said 'wow, that's a lot of people who would have gone to hell!' I had to laugh, he was so serious and concerned. We left at like 10pm and had Weinersnichel for dinner (bluh!) and got ice cream cones (a very rare treat). When we pulled up to the house at 11:30 this is how I found James! LOL~!

Kids started school

2008-08-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

Since all the Ashlyn drama, I am behind on posting. Shane and Ashlyn started school on the 28th of July. And James officially started homeschooling today. I was actually impressed with all we got accomplished, and all before 1pm. He is having a hard time with the structure (even though we aren't really structured) and the NO TV rule! But all in all a good day.

Making change!!!

2008-08-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

Look at the top right and you will see half the coin
After emergency surgery, Donald Duck was the visitor that restored Ashlyns senses (and she was no longer in drunken madness, lol!!)

So are you all wondering what happened? Just call it another Hirt Adventure!

Monday after I pick up Ashlyn from school. I start painting pictures for her room and we spent three hours doing this. So much fun. I was hot and sweaty (there is a reason I am going into this much detail) and Ashlyn is wearing her paint clothes. We pick up Shane at 3:30 and come home. I move the girls furniture around in their room and hung up the pictures. SUper cute! We find a Norco CAr Wash Coin under her bed. She holds it continuing to say she has a hundred dollars. You know when you have a HUGE coin it must be worth more than a quarter! RIGHT? At this point I am talking to my mom on the phone and see Ash on the floor holding her stomach. She looked weird!!! I said whats wrong. She said 'my tummy hurts' I continue to talk. She then says, while still on the floor " i EAT a penny!' I hang up. Seriously! She says yes. I show her a penny, she says 'no bigger, a quarter'. I know what is going to entail at this point. So I show her a quarter...she says 'no , 100!' I call Marshall (it is now 4:30) and ask when he is coming home he says ' around 5:30, I know you have a meeting tonight' (mind you I have a meeting at 7pm and I JUST spoke to our leader at 3:30 saying I would be there!!!!!) I said "I think Ash swallowed a coin!' He came home at 5:10 (I call our ped, urgent care in Corona, Corona Regional, and a friend before he walks in )So off we go to the OC (yes, me in my painted, dirty clothes!)to visit Urgent Care that is affiliated with our Ped. (I am at this point doubting that she even swallowed it...there is no way in my head that she swallowed something that big!! but her tummy hurts so we head over!) . Sit in the waiting room, and I just know we are coming home with a cold or flu after walking in. Dr (not my ped), says no way she swallowed something that big. I ask for an xray. Joking he says if I was a betting man I would bet you it isn't in there. Jerk! I just walk out shaking my head instead. So off to xray, xray girls takes the pic and says ok! I say is it in there? She says what are we looking for? A coin! So she moved the machine up a LITTLE bit higher. And there was half the coin9 other half above xrayline). I go back to the drs office and tell the head nurse that I want the other doctor to examine the xray not the arrogant one!! So my PED walks in. PRAISE GOD! Now the man with few words, says 'wow, gorgeous, now we have to take it out' OK, sure get it out Mister Doctor that I love so much at this moment. He says ' no, you gotta head over to CHOC and get this out by means of surgery.' He proceeds to tell me that this so TIGHT in her esophagus that we have less than 24 hours to get it out before it explodes out of the esophagus and punctures her lungs. Awesome, I say! So into the car and off to CHOC with our XRAY. I am now yelling at God in my head ' seriously, after all we have been thru you will not take my daughter because of a stupid coin! STUPID COIN! ' So into CHOC/St. Joes we go. Awful and even grosser than the last office. Now I know we are coming home with meningitis! And I am so frustrated. We stood for 10 minutes before there was at least 2 seats open. All I wanted to be doing at this point 8:30 is watching the Olympics! But our choices were Spanish soap operas or Chan 9 news..you know all about the great sex Sen Edwards gave this creepy girl who now knows she has his kid. This is the point I tell James (oh did I mention I have James and we haven't even eaten) to put on his iPod. I don't need the 'how come that lady had a baby from that man who had a wife!!!!!!' UGH...oh and I love the families there with 20 people in tow because ' the baby has a cough!' This was my WORST ER experience. So finally they call us back...and guess what they put us in another waiting room. I cannot figure out why they have put us there. So I finally asked what is going on and they say they are waiting for a room at CHOC because we need to be admitted and surgery has been scheduled for the morning. Ok. So it is now 11pm and my cousin arrives with food as we are heading to our room in CHOC. We get settled and she takes James to her house. I eat and Ash says 'not me swallowed a penny. Lets go home. I hungry.' I feel so bad for her at his moment. So instead of eating I made her fall asleep. At 1:30 a nurse comes in to place an IV for fluids and surgery. The dr comes in and says surgery is scheduled for 11am. Nurse finds a vein, BEAUTIFUL VEIN, and pokes her and it blows. Ashlyn is screaming and crying. I remain calm. Pokes again and it blows. CHOC has a two poke policy with their nurses. Another nurse comes, 2 pokes 2 more blown veins. Another nurse comes in a two pokes and two blown veins. I am crying now because she is SCREAMING and saying she just wants her dad and to go home. This was the worst of all our stay. Finally OLDER, nurse, I will emphasize this because next time I will ask for the oldest nurse to place a vein!!! And she gets it in in the first time. Ashlyn is SWEATING and crying and they have to change the sheets. They also up the AIR. Iv in and Ashlyn looks better all ready. We sleep decent. Now it is 7am and we are both awake. She is prepped for surgery and now we just wait till 11. She has to have antibiotics because she is cardiac and that takes a while to go in. So off we finally head to surgery. Doctor actually calls Ashlyn a 'dummy' for doing this.I was mad, but hello I was thinking it already! He tells me there may be complications because of how big this is. But reassures me that because it went in it should come out. They give her her sleeping drugs and she starts to freak out and I start to cry once again. SO out to the waiting room I go and 10 minutes later dr is back . I love this man even thought he called my daughter a dummy. He says that yes, it is truly amazing that she even swallowed such a huge coin but because she had such bad reflux/ GERD when she was young that the thin lining in her esophagus made it very comfortable for this coin to just sit there. So I go in to see her and she is crying but hilarious at the same time. She was like a four year old druggie. I just kept laughing at her. She was waving her hands in front of her face and talking like I could understand her but it was really just babble. Too funny. So we head back to her room and fall asleep together. I wake up at one point and go get food, eat and go back to sleep. I wake up to my Ped their asking how she was and I was just elated to see how much our dr cares about Ashlyn. We are finally given orders to eat/ get food for Ash. And orders to go home. The discharge dr explains that Ash is at a very high risk for getting pneumonia and we need to keep an eye out for the next 72 hours. we get jello in her and we are discharged. We head over to McDonalds for milk shake and fries...nothing like artery clogging food to make you feel better. Once we get home 4:30pm, Ashlyn falls asleep and wakes up today a 8am. I have lots of things to be truly thankful for in this whole experience, including an awesome husband and family members. Thank God we got thru this with our token to get our car washed.

Ok, I am done because I am tired of writing this. Thank you to all who prayed during those stressful times.

Mrs. Lindsey Burger

2008-07-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

Ashlyn's teacher and my friend, Miss Lindsey, got married. The wedding and reception was great. The girls danced their little hearts out...they were so in their element. Their was osmething special about this wedding because both Lindsey and Jason were entering their marriage PURE. Amazing...because now a days that rarely happens. We love LIndsey and will miss her when she moves out of state but for now we have her still here and we will smoother her.

Orange County Fair

2008-07-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

My favorite place to be this time of year is the Orange County Fair. We made the decision a few years ago to only attend on Senior Citizen Day because the crowd doesn't seem to appear until after 4pm on these days. So my mom heads over, we pick up my cousin and we head to Costa Mesa. Traffic was great. I love getting out of the car and smelling all that fair food and gasoline, and the smelly barn animals! We always head over to the barn first and then view the fruits and veggies, especially the odd shaped ones. After that we went on a few rides and had lunch...yummy fattening Fair food!!! Then we did the petting zoo, more rides, 4-h/FFA animals. We went thru all the exhibits, even the boring one. More rides! James and Shane can now go on some of the bigger ones. We even took Ashlyn on a big spinning ride, that turns. I started to get worried that she would freak out (like she did on the slow elephant ride) but she didn't...she did fantastic and when we got off she said 'I picked a good ride, huh!' SO back to the petting zoo, and a magic show. Had some funnel cake and Icees, bought some toys that would only last a few hours and headed home. We got home around 10pm...the latest we have ever stayed. I love July in Orange County.

Hidden Valley Nature Center

2008-07-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

We have a nature center in our own little town and I never knew it. One of our MOMS Club moms set up this field trip and it was AMAZING! Not only will I visit it often, I will continue to donate to this place to keep the programs running. And the best part, it was entertaining for each one of my kids (2, 4, 5 and 8).

A big Thanks to my Friend

2008-07-14T15:13:00.000-07:00

So I am not very computer literate, and I have been trying to change this blog for about 2 weeks...each time freaking out because I thought I lost all my stuff ( pictures, words, everything). Then today I check my mama friend's blog and she has the coolest background. So figure if cute little Salena can do it so can I, maybe...I think....I don't know.

So anyway how do you like MY NEW BACKGROUND! Holy Heck I totally figured it out. Hooray! I love it! I am a cute blog girl, right??

So go check out the Ness nest when you are done...and see my friends cute page, and those beautiful boys of hers, all three of them .

I love you, Salena Ray!

http://thenessnest.blogspot.com/

Summer fun and Knott's Berry Farm

2008-07-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, 2 weeks have passed since the kids have been on summer vacation and we have basically filled up every hour! Between library days, craft days, swimming, park playdates and slumber parties. We are having a great time. Yesterday we went to Knott's Berry Farm, just the boys are I. We had so much fun. I was a little disappointed because Shane was ONE HALF INCH too small to ride some of the bigger ones. We made due. I brought lunch and we only bought funnel cake and ICEEs so we totally did Knotts on a budget. We ended up leaving about 6:30 because James had a 'rash' from walking around in wet shorts all day...our first ride was Big Foot Rapids and he had a canker sore. One the drive home he said' geez, mom! I am a mess...itchy butt, loose tooth and a canker sore. Ugh!' They boys passed out after dinner but we enjoyed our little girl free day. Next week is more of the same, except we will going to the Orange County Fair, whoo-hoo!

Cardio Appointment and updates

2008-07-11T17:55:00.001-07:00

So we had our Echo and saw the cardiologist on MONDAY. Things are good. Ashlyn laid perfectly for her echo...wish I could say the same thing for Kate. So when we saw the Dr. I wasn't so sure what he would say. I was really nervous. So here is our update...Ashlyn has more leak in her valve and her ventricle has increased in size...but there is good news...her heart function at this time is perfect for her body. Meaning her quality of life at this point is good where the heart is concerned. So basically even after surgery and the rate of her growth her heart is continuing to function FOR HER and how she needs it to. Awesome, huh, God is so good. Trust in the Lord with all your HEART!!! So we will not need to see the Cardiologist for another year. Oh and he said that her 'symptoms' of losing weight, sweating and bedwetting is not heart related. Her surgery for her ears has also been cleared and she will have it done in 3 weeks.

This now leads me to our next items up for prayer: Ashlyn needs to go to a nephrologist (kidneys) to see how her kidneys are functioning and see if that is where her bedwetting and sweating issues are coming from. Kids with soto's tend to have kindney problems but I am thankful that at the age of 4.5 she only NOW seeing one and hasn't needed one prior. Also a new EEG is being scheduled to see if sezuires are related to her bedwetting.

Wait let me go back a few...bed wetting is a new problem!!! Ashlyn was fully potty trained at night and during naps, as well as all day long! A few months ago this became a problem where she is SOAKING her pull up and sheets every night. And 4 out of 7 naps during the week she is wetting the bed(, or couch, or car seat). And she seems to be devasted by this, she has no idea she is doing it.

Ok so back to our other drs appoinments. We have had NO seisures in a year, during the day...but hopefully the EEG will pick them up if they are happening in sleep. I saw our neurologist 2 weeks ago, and she said that Ashlyn is probably not seizing but sleeps like a dog! LOL! Aside from bed wetting Ashlyn is very active in her sleep...talking, singing, moving, flailing, etc. Our Neuro said that when dogs sleep their brain don't shut off that part to have a RESTful sleep so they move and twitch, This is what Ashlyn does/ has. There is no worry there other than prtecting her from herself while she sleeps. Ok, so far so good at the doctors.

so here are some specific prayers: Pray that doctors at both Nuerology and Nephrology do what is needed to further Ash's health. If something is found or dx, that the best treatment is availible. Also that she continues to stay healthy and active. And that her ear surgery is at least successful for the next YEAR.

Fourth of July Fun!

2008-07-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

We had a BBQ on Fourth of July and then headed out to see fireworks put on by the City of Norco. We love fireworks and get so antsy waiting for it to get dark. The kids did good waiting and playing in the field (poor dad tried to sleep with all the waiting going on!). Here are some BBQ pictures.

2008-07-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

You Are An ESFJ

The Caregiver

You are sympathetic and caring, putting friends and family first.

A creature of habit, you prefer routines and have trouble with change.

You love being in groups - whether you're helping people or working on a project.

You are good at listening, laughing, and bringing out the best in people.

In love, you value harmony and mutual understanding.

You will apologize or give someone the benefit of the doubt, if it means getting over a fight sooner.

At work, you are good at building relationships and connecting with people.

You would make a great nurse, social worker, or teacher.

How you see yourself: Organized, dependable, co-operative

When other people don't get you, they see you as: Opinionated, critical, and know-it-all

What's Your Personality Type?

James Principles Award

2008-06-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

James received an award today at The School Wide assembly.

Shane lost his first tooth

2008-06-25T11:05:00.001-07:00

Shane Graduated

2008-06-25T11:02:00.001-07:00

Quick Update

2008-06-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

So Ashlyns ENT called today to cancel surgery for Monday. He said the cardiologist will not authorise clearance for surgery because her last ECHO in June was abnormal (which I knew) and he wants another one done before he can approve surgery. So I now have one more thing to worry about...I may be over reacting but, she has lost over 6 lbs for 51lbs to 45 in less than 2 mths and is starting to have excessive sweating at night (but heck it's been so hot lately!). When she had her last Sleep study she had a few desaturations that were cause for concern. Of course I worry because we have always been on the look out because her previous open heart surgery didn't fix all the problems. Anyway, I have an appointment for a cardio evaulation and new ECHO and EKG for Ashlyn on July 8th for that. Hopefully ear surgery will follow soon after that! Oh, we took some pictures today. The first is of James and his paint. They had an artist at school today and he was THRILLED to come home with this. The second is of Shane wearing one of Ashs' swimsuits...holy cow these children thought it was the funniest thing...except Kate, she was just a little confused.

pictures in the camera

2008-06-19T10:58:00.001-07:00

SO I 'lost' my camera a few weeks ago and here are some of the pictures in it. Shane got an assembly award, my cousin graduated and got a full ride to USC for football, and we had a BBQ with some long lost friends from Colorado and other OC mamas. These girls I have known the longest since becoming a mommy.

Growth and Changes

2008-06-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

I had an appointment for Ashlyn with her Orthopedist. Her braces that we purchased less than ONE YEAR AGO are now too small and she needs to be re-casted to get the new ones. I am amazed, I knew she grew but I was not sure how much. Then last night we had Open House just for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing kids and she has grown FOUR INCHED since last July. Can you believe it, she is beast.
Shane will be graduating tomorrow out of Kindergarden. He cannot wait to officially say he is in First Grade. Ashlyn has a neurology appointment at 10am and I have had it for 5 months...I tried to change it but the next one is November with OUR DOCTOR and I am not willing to have some other doctor or wait that time...so I will be missing the graduation.Marshall will be there. I am not really a huge fan of K graduation (or homework, or tv in the classrooms) but he is excited so I try to be happy with him. It is so weird when we put Shane in Kindergarden at the age of FOUR turning 5, I told my self I would remove him if it wasn't working in the early few months. Well that kids loves learning and is reading at a 1st grade reading level, I am amazed. He love to read and dislikes math, and James loves Math and will not read. Two totally different kids! James is excited to be homeschooling and cannot wait to get his books and take guitar and Karate all while the kids are at school. He says he's glad to have Kate around because he doesn't really know her. Lord Jesus, I pray that this works! Ok, gotta go mop the floor I will post pictures from my camera later...I promise.

June 10th

2008-06-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

So today is a lazy day. Ashlyn ran a fever all night and has stayed home from school. Her temp. reached 105 last night and I continued to worry about a seizure. But it never happened. She had been hallucinating or something last night, I laughed at her so much. She kept singing in her sleep 'everybody needs America!' and then she said 'me need my shoes so I can ride a horsey!' SO funny. What wasn't funny was that she was having a very hard time breathing and again I worried about seizures.

So here's a quick update on stuff: Ashlyn will be having surgery in 2 weeks to fix her ear drums again. Dr did say most of her hearing loss is neurological and not from her ear drum retraction. So another surgery here we come. Now James, has a lump in his lymph node, in his neck. There was some great concern to this because his CT scan showed to be large enough for everyone to show concern. He had some blood work done and we wanted a positive result in something like strep or mono. We got a negative. So we went to a critical care surgeon to see what he had to say. I was worried, but not trying to over-react. So the Dr. said to keep an eye on the size and if it increases, removal will be necessary and biopsy will be preformed. The only concern I have with this is that at times this area hurts James, painful to move his neck in one direction. But we will wait it out and continue to pray.

Everything else is good. School is almost out, and I will be homeschooling James for 3rd grade. Shane may switch schools to the private school that I love or stay where he is, and Ash will still be in the DHH class for preschool. We have no real plans for 'summer' vacation, just relaxing and having fun.

I lost my camera a few weeks ago but have since found it...I will download pictures later.

Ashlyns latest procedure

2008-05-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

Hope you all had a grand Mothers day! We have been busy here with all kind of medical stuff! Ashlyn has all her yearly stuff going on.. she need to have her ear surgery done once again. She is wetting the bed again after a full year of dry nights. We (her drs) think it may be neurological or seizures. I just want to know it is regression so that way we can just move on and night potty train again. But they need answers. Her hearing is well! We had a sleep study done last week, that is wht the picture is of. James is having some issues also. I will not go into to it until we have some answers. We see Dr. A Ashlyns ENT tomorrow, and a Critical Care surgeon for James next week. Please pray that these are productive doctors appointments! That we get answers for James and a surgery date for Ash. God is good and has been blessing us so much lately! I'll try and keep you updated as the week goes on.

Good Big Brother

2008-04-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

So I was doing homework with Shane the other day and asked James if he would play with Katie for a while. So I go to check on them and I see what fun they are having! Notice, Katie is wearing a new dress that is white (hand-me-down of course, but new to us!) and is having a blast!! Thank God for Spray and Wash!

Why I love my town

2008-04-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Here is just one more reason why I love my town. Horseweek is all week, and it gets started with the parade. The city shuts down the main street and we all sit on the side line and watch...oh and they throw candy! Where else can you see a camel (Deputy Bert the Camel) walking down the road and go to the Rodeo a block a way.

Tiny TOT Olympics

2008-04-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

Our city had their first Tiny TOT Olympics. I signed up Shane and Ashlyn. We had fun...but way to short. Shane said it was boring because he wanted to do more stuff. Ashlyn was funny trying to do the stunts...she is so special.

Relay for Life

2008-04-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

Well, Relay is over...I have had to take a few days to recover. It is hard to be the planner and then stay up all 24hours (minus 2 for sleeping). The kids had a great time, and we loved having my mom there. Relay is inspirational and so worth all the money earned. Our group, MOMS Club of Norco, raised over $2000. Pretty awesome for a 'bunch of moms'. James kept saying 'why do you have to pay to walk' or 'I already paid my money, why do I have to walk! Here are some pictures:

He is Risen!

2008-03-23T22:53:00.000-07:00

I LOVE Resurrection Sunday! This is the first year we didn't go to my parents house, so I packed the day with stuff to do. The kids woke up, and got dressed THEMSELVES (btw- take a look at Ashlyn...I almost peed my pants when I woke up and saw her! She is such a glimpse of God's sense of humor. Stripped shirt, overalls and stretch pants! Then she added the hats and boots!) We went to church, came home and made sand art pictures, small naps, swimming, dyed Easter eggs, a movie and then tether ball. I am wiped out, it seemed to have no effect on the kids...then again I am the one left setting up and cleaning up. Anyway, God is good. I love Spring. And I pray He continues to do amazing things with my life and my families lives!

Good Friday

2008-03-23T22:52:00.001-07:00

Our church had an awesome Good Friday Service. This picture is only because the girls were dressed alike!

Moms Club Easter Party

2008-03-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

Thursday was our East Party for Moms Club. It was a little hectic, but we all made it thru! Of course it was child who was throwing raw eggs at the wall AFTER the egg toss. He says "sometimes, mom, I just have so much fun that I don't wanna listen to my brain!' That's my Shane. The picture of Ashlyn above is of her running...I love it. It reminds me of Phoebie from Friends when she says 'haven't you ever run so fast you feel like your legs are gonna fall off' '. (Kris you know!)

Happy birthday James!!

2008-03-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

Today, St. Patricks Day, is James' 8th birthday. He got a snake!! He has been reading books on taking care of Corn Snakes and today he got one! So now we have: 3 dogs, 2 cats, 1 fish and 1 snake!!!

San Bernadino Museum

2008-03-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

I went on a field trip with James' class to the San Bernadino Museum in Redlands. It was pretty cool. James whole class consists of 14 students. So I got 5 kids in my group, and they were awesome! The field treip itself was alright, nothing too exciting about stuffed birds and animals, but talking with the kids was awesome. One just moved here from Mexico and is learning English amazingly and another is from Nigeria been here 2 years now. I LOVE second graders.

Our EMILY Saturday

2008-03-17T13:50:00.001-07:00

Our friend Emily came down last Saturday for some fun. Emily has CP and Ashlyn just LOVES her! Especially that wheelchair of hers!

Relay for Life

2008-02-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I am team captian for the Norco Moms Club Relay for Life. I am so excited. If you are willing to donate you could go to this website and click donate (please note that you are donating for ME! , please.) http://main.acsevents.org/goto/norcomomsclub . Thanks.

MOMS Club Founders Luncheon

2008-02-11T22:17:00.000-08:00

So I got away this Saturday with some of my favorite Norco mamas. These are strong friendships I have made over the 2 years that I have been living here, and it is all because of MOMS club. It was so weird to look around the room of 1000 women and realise that we are all here for the reason. We are ALL moms and doing the best we can to fulfill our roles as mothers. It was fun and a nice chance to get away with girlfriends. Next year I will bring more money for the baskets, holy cow those things were amazing!!! Each group/city makes a basket and has them raffled off and all proceeds are donated to Mother-to-Mother fund. Although I didn't win a basket, I did win the centerpiece. BUT...only because I had the most children and seen a tornado (thanks to my years in Mich.),Sorry Misti! LOL!

LA zoo

2008-02-08T16:07:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures from the zoo last week. Ashlyn and I had fun, the other three were brats. We left after an hour and it took us three hours to drive there and back! ANNOYING!

Ashlyns new hair cut

2008-02-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

Before: After:

Apparently, new hair mean new found sassy-ness!

Ash FINALLY gets her new wheelchair

2008-02-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

Princess Ashlyn and Princess Kates Party

2008-02-01T16:29:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had a girls only princess party for the girls. It was so much fun. Pink stuff everywhere. SO much fun! Here are the pictures:

Maxwell conference

2008-01-20T22:10:00.000-08:00

The Maxwell family ( http://www.titus2.com/) trekked down to Buena Park to hold a conference. It was truly amazing. I was convicted on so many things on so many levels. I loved hearing Teri speak on 'loving your husband' because it coincides with a book I am reading right now called Created to be His Help Meet. Basically referring to how the Bible has called us to be submissive to our husbands. It also went a lot into detail about how to manage your home with a planned daily schedule and how to keep our children's hearts, and have them be good stewards for the Lord.

After the conference, I headed over to a friends house where I had such a great evening. So inspirational, and I came home with a huge bag of books to read. Thanks!! I need more moments like that!

Oh, and BTW Marshall took THREE kids camping this weekend. So I am enjoying my time alone with Katie. It's been great, she is great! She makes me laugh with all her funny comments, including ' you so funny, mama!' I set a potty out for her and let her run around naked for about an hour and she came and got me saying 'pee in the potty'. And she DID! I am NOT potty training her, but it was a fun experiment. I have cleaned the whole house and gotten most of the 20 loads of laundry done! I miss the kids and Marshall but this was a well deserved break!

My first accident

2008-01-14T15:24:00.002-08:00

Driving to pick up Ashlyn from school, we got hit from behind. We were going 40 down Hamner and someone hit us going 50 or 60 (passing the yellow light). It was so scarey. Katie was screaming and Shane said' wow that felt weird!'. I got out to see the damage and when I saw the KIDs car it was terrible and leaking like crazy! When I turned to look at mine I was amazed. Nothing much but cosmetic damage and a tweek to our trailer thing. I called to file a police report because I was scared. And then came a fire truck. I felt so silly but was still scared because Katie had been crying for like 10 minutes at thi spoint. Everyone checked out fine and fault was placed on the other driver. I felt so bad for him...young and driving his dads truck. He was nice and actually asked if we were ok (never know how people will react, right!) And then his dad came and made sure we were all ok. I still shaken from it but so glad it wasn't worse.

January 13th

2008-01-14T15:24:00.001-08:00

Happy FOURTH birthday, Ashlyn!

Shane big week

2008-01-14T15:17:00.000-08:00

Shane had a really BIG week last week. First he was STAR student for his class. He got to share something special from home each day. And on Friday, he brought our dog BOB to share. The kids loved BOB and Shane loved the attention. Also on Friday, Shane received an award at the school wide assembly for Best Reader in his class. Whoo-hoo, I am so proud.

Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year

2008-01-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

Wow, It's 2008. Where did the

time go? We had a great year and are looking forward to a more Christ centered year. We don't really do resolutions but I am gonna try and be in prayer more this year. Is that a resolution? Maybe just a life change! I am looking forward to a healthy year, especially for the kids, and a calm one! No more drama. Hopefully I will be better at posting, I really wanna share our life with everyone, but I am biased...I think I have the best kids and husband!! So God bless all of you and I will pray you have a blessed year.

Fall in California

2007-11-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

James is learning about the difference between Fact and Opinion. He was reading an assigned story about fall leaves... it saying how magnificent the colors of fall are. When he is done I ask what is a fact about leaves/fall, and what is an opinion. He says it's a fact that leaves don't change to beautiful colors, that they just die and fall off the trees, and that is how we know it's fall. Sometimes, I really wish we could move and get out of Southern CA...you know, experience REAL change of season.

Halloween is finally over, Hurray!!!

2007-11-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

How is it that now Halloween lasts almost two weeks instead of ONE!! Our first party this year was with the Moms Club, followed by one at my cousins friends house. Then came school parties, Halloween and last night we finished it off with The Harvest Fest at the boys' school. Katie was a giraffe, Ashlyn was Cinderella, And James was a skeleton. Now, Shane was something different at every party/event. A ninja, a football player, a soccer player, a PowerRanger and then last night a skeleton. I only bought James' costume this year, all the others were obtained from a costume exchange held at Chick-fil-A here in Norco. I spent a total of $14 on costumes. We had a lot of fun. My kids are like junkies looking for their next candy fix. Marshall is going thru the candy tonight to see what he wants and off it all goes in the trash! Whoo- hoo one more Halloween down! How many more to go?

Eastvale Fall Festival

2007-10-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

The kids and I, with friends Dawn Marie and Trey, headed over to the Fall Festival at Mid Hill Dairy in Eastvale. It was a fun time. They had lots of businesses advertising with free stuff, my kids love free stuff. They had a pumpkin and corn launch, cotton hill, dried corn kernel pit and petting farm. We came away with dirty kids and lots of goodies, especially pumpkins to decorate our front yard! I love fall.

Chinese finger cuffs

2007-10-13T14:00:00.001-07:00

We went to a birthday party last weekend for our friend Toms 7th birthday. We left after about 5 hours of fun with a goody bag in tow. Driving down the 91 freeway to the 55 freeway, Ashlyn starts to scream. Like a freaked out kind of scream. She has her Chinese finger cuffs on and cannot figure out how to get them off. She is in full blown panic with tears running down her face. I cannot do anything except drive and scream direction on how to get it off. Not working!!! I tell James to get out of his seat and get them off. He cannot do it. I tell him to sit back down and let her cry! Mean mom, I know! She finally figures out how to get them off, and things are calm...like 15 minutes later. I HATE Chinese finger cuffs!!! Thanks, Michele!!