No Allergies

After another nightmare episodes with Aspen's eyes, we finally decided to get a referral to an allergist to find out what was causing her troubles. Alas, we went in today and he found nothing. Can you believe it?!? $200 to find out she has no allergies whatsoever (he tested grasses, trees, cats, dogs, dust, etc.). So what's causing it? We're still in the dark. He said the next time she has an episode to try to get her into an ophthalmologist and see if she has some sort of eye defect that causes any illness she gets to go straight to her eyes. Lovely. Here is a picture of her back where they did all the tests. She was so brave! She didn't even cry until they'd poked her about 7 or 8 out of about 15 times. The doctor did find that she had a severe ear infection in her left ear and prescribed an anti-inflammatory steroid to obviously reduce inflammation and hopefully help her ear and nose drain. She of course said her ear doesn't even hurt (although she was up several times last night with an earache). She is one tough cookie.

Connor is once again running a high fever, so my wonderful grandma drove down to stay with him while I took Aspen to the allergist. We don't know what's wrong, the doctor's don't know what's wrong, but he is one miserable boy. Mom needed a break, and Connor needed to get out of the house, so Dennis had Connor "help" him mow the lawn this evening:

Congrats!

Shaylee had her official "graduation" from junior high last night and was also recognized on the honor roll. Congratulations Shaylee!!!

Before I was a mom . . .

I saw this and thought I had to post it, especially just after Mother's Day.

Before I was a Mom, I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom, I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom, I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom, I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt!
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom, I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom, I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom .

Happy Anniversary!!!

Happy Anniversary! We celebrated our 3rd adoption anniversary in traditional fashion by taking everyone to The Mayan for dinner. It's relatively inexpensive, the kids love the food, and they adore the ambiance and entertainment. What a deal!

Connor is his daddy's boy--he loves chips and salsa (and he had to dip it himself).

It was too dark for great pictures, especially with my point and shoot, but the kids loved the divers and the fire dancers.

Final Dance Competitions

Shaylee had her final two dance competitions (one at Lagoon and the other at Skyline High School). Both were really big national competitions, and her team was AWESOME! They performed the best they have all season, and their scores show it. They took home 1st place ribbons for both dances at Lagoon and Overall High Point (out of 101 teams). They took home 1st place and 2nd place ribbons at the National Competition at Skyline High School, and Overall Teen 2nd place champions in the invitational division (meaning they had previously won 1st place at a regional champion productions competition--so they were competing against the best of the best).

Congrats Shaylee on an awesome season. Can't wait for next year. :)

Happy Anniversary!!!

Our 3rd anniversary of adopting Shay & Dev. Love you guys!

Random Pics

Since I haven't posted in awhile, here are some other random pics to share. The first few are of Aspen's Mother's Day performance at her preschool (so cute!!!).

These are my cute piano students who performed at our recital earlier this month (minus all the boys who had soccer games and skipped out!).

Aspen did a great job. She is really coming along and already starting to read music, although she still gets lost trying to follow along reading the music and playing at the same time.

Connor fell on the end of our bed (wood with sharp edges, not smart, I know), and gave himself quite the gash. I was, of course, at work and Dennis was home with him (heading to the babysitter soon). He called a neighbor who is a nurse (thank you Sara!) who came running over to examine the wound. We decided he didn't need stitches (probably did). It's healing nicely, but he'll have a nice scar (the first of many, I'm sure).

Beach Bums

So, I have been meaning to post these forever, but if you saw my last post, you will know we have all been sicker than dogs (where does that expression come from?) for the last six weeks, and after working on a computer during the day, caring for sick kids, and doing loads of laundry, blogging just hasn't been appealing (sorry, it's true). More it's a time factor--downloading & formatting photos, logging on, then having to catch up on everyone else's blog. So, if you're upset that I haven't looked at your blog in six weeks and haven't a clue what's going on in your life, I'm sorry. Call me on the phone (preferably while I'm trying to cook dinner and man-handle screaming, hungry children out of the kitchen). Okay, I digress.

Anyway, most of you know we did not take Dennis on the cursed puking trip to beautiful Newport Beach. Meaning what? No photographer! The few pics I tried with his fancy camera just didn't work out, so I stuck to my cheap-o point & shoot (yes, digital) camera, and did okay. I did realize that I only have one picture of Shaylee sticking her tongue out at me. She was there, promise, but mostly sun bathing (and she did spend a day at Disneyland for her dance performance). We're hoping to find another weekend this summer to go back, but as my kids get older, my summers just seem to fill up. Anyway, other than the puking, we had a great trip, and I sure have cute kids!!!

My neighbor Rebecca & her son Luke:

Rebecca's daughter Alicia (and Aspen's best friend). Can you tell these girls love sand?

=

Check out my boys! Devin is sooo good with Connor, and Connor was a wave kamikaze--the cold water didn't faze him a bit. He just ran straight in and did not want to come out. He loved it!

The ill-fated trip to the tide pools:

Wednesday was really windy, and when we got out to the beach on Thursday we found a cliff getting down to the water's edge. Connor thought it made an awesome sand slide and went down it over, and over, and over, and over.

Devin thought it was perfect for building a throne.

In the morning before it was warm enough to get out on the beach we enjoyed the playground by the pier.

Devin and I particularly enjoyed roller blading up and down the boardwalk. What a workout in the wind!

A parting shot of Luke licking every last drip out of his ice cream bowl during our traditional night out to the Old Spaghetti Factory.