Another Week gone by.

Yes I know it has been a whole week. Seems like life goes by very quickly around here--probably in your neck of the woods as well. We are continuing to do well for the most part. Paul is still busy and stressed with his job. He leaves for a business trip Monday and will be gone for a week and then will be home a week and gone for another week. :( I am continuing to do my bookkeeping, transcription, volunteer work, housework, mommy work, etc.... Seems like a never ending job, but one I do enjoy.

Bren has had a pretty good week, a few highs and a few lows, but overall he is feeling good and getting to school every day. He got to basketball practice this week and to his game. He also went with me to Sammy's first puppy training class--he really enjoyed that and has been working with him constantly.

Jennifer continues to struggle with her stomach issue. Paul and I are concerned and are anxious for Monday to come when we will see the Endocrinologist and get the results back from the blood work we had done on Monday. A run down of her scenario is that she has been having stomach issues for about 5-6 months now. At first we were convinced that she was having sympathy pains for her brother--or maybe feeling the need for extra attention. We worked on that, had her talk to her counselor and even took her to her regular doctor on several occasions--but really never came up with anything. Then about 2 months ago she had really bad pain on a Saturday--we thought maybe an appendicitis so we went to urgent care. They discovered strep throat, did an abdominal x-ray but found nothing else. So we came home treated the strep and again hoped the rest would go away. A week later after the medicine was through we still were dealing with more of the same. Her teacher had noticed that she didn't want to eat, even if they had cupcakes (maybe she would eat a bite or two) and also she noticed that after lunch each day at calendar time she felt horrible and asked to lay on her desk. We have been noticing similar symptoms at home at meal times she usually stops about half way through her meal and complains of stomach pains. Her pain is always worse when she is tired. She is constantly emotional, over sensitive and and grumpy. We took her to an allergist, did food allergy testing, which came back with nothing. Discovered that she had asthma, and started her on Pulmicort daily for that. He also thought we should try some acid reflux meds for a few weeks. We did this using Previcid before breakfast and before dinner. After two weeks with no change we stopped this attempt. The allergist also gave us several other possible causes to consider: Celiac Disease, Abdominal Migraines, Chrone's Disease, or an Ulcer. So Monday we will find out about Celiac Disease. We have ruled out Acid Reflux, Constipation and most likely Ulcer as the acid reflux meds should have helped that as well. If it is not Celiac (which I hope it is not) we will go back to our gp and have more blood work done. She has given urine, stool, and blood thus far. Poor princess. We know she feels bad, you can tell by looking at her, but amazingly enough and probably the reason it took us so long to really believe her is that she keeps going and finds energy to go to school, play, etc... She doesn't want to stop anything--but now she finally is having to stop some things. Anyways, keep praying for her and I will keep you posted on what we find out.

Ryan--well what can we say about him. He is a bundle of joy--most days. He loves his new Wii, and would play it 24 hours a day if allowed. He loves our new pup Sammy and daily reminds me that he still loves Kodi. He got a special praise note home from his teacher yesterday saying that he is finally making progress on writing his name. He is a typical boy I guess, he doesn't want to be bothered with anything that involves sitting and not playing. :) He loves school and is on a countdown for Kindergarten to start. Almost every day he asks how many days now momma.

My flowers are starting to pop up and I am so excited! I am ready for spring. We have had several beautiful days and it has made me excited to get outside and play in my gardens.

Sammy is doing pretty well. A few more accidents, a couple of teeth marks in some shoes, a chair arm, oh, and Paul's blue tooth headset (well he ate that)--he also has eating and thrown up to count 4 socks. I thought we were doing well, but evidently not good enough. :( Kodi is adjusting. He hasn't barked or growled at Sammy in a few days. Is eating again (he took a "I don't like him" stand for a few days), is back to sleeping on the couch and I even noticed yesterday that he was lying beside him on the floor. So I think overall it is good for him. He gets up to follow Sammy outside whenever he goes out (which is more often then he was going out before) and follows him up and down the stairs to keep him out of trouble (I guess--or maybe to make sure Sammy is not getting attention or a treat that he is not getting), either way he seems to be moving around a bit more which is good.

I will try to keep up a little more often. I will also post a picture of my first Daffodil, should be any day now. :)

Peace