1st Week of School Done

We are done with our first week of school.  Other than traffic issues with Sugar Pea's school, everything went by smoothly.

Warrior is a senior this year!!!!  OMG I can't believe he's almost done with high school.  It makes me sad because there's so much going on this year.  So much going on that his dad isn't here for.  

Sugar Pea is in 8th grade. I can't believe my little girl is almost in high school.  Not to mention she's about 6 inches taller than her mom too.  

May Already?!

I can't believe its already May!

We have been in South Carolina for 9 months now.  And have been super busy from the moment our feet hit the southern ground.

Its amazing to me the difference in how people interact here.  In California, most people don't talk to you unless they absolutely have to.  Here they stopped us in the stores to find out where we moved from because they hadn't seen us around before.

Also paying almost a 3rd of what I paid for rent in California has made life much more pleasant.  I'm not nearly as stressed as I was there. 

Plus the move has proven that it was the best decision.  Even the kids have thanked me for moving out here even though they fought me at the time.

Warrior is a junior this year and has been busy with studying for SATs, lacrosse, and a club at school that raises money all year for St Jude's.  Then the weekend before spring break the teacher rides from here to Memphis on a moped to take a check to the hospital.  The students are allowed to ride in a van following him.  So much fun and such a great cause.

He's also driving.  Let me tell you the thought of him driving isn't nearly as terrifying as actually being in the car with him behind the wheel.  Don't get me wrong, he's a great driver, but its all these redneck drivers that scare me.  No one around here believes in turn signals.

Sugar Pea is in 7th grade this year and has blossomed into an amazing girl.  We haven't had a bully problem since we left California.  No worries about someone commenting about her not having a dad.  No worries about them throwing things in her hair.  She's focused on her friends and school.  She's also in the middle school club for raising money to St Jude.  She was in the archery club at school, and active in the grief club at school.  Her counselor told me she's amazing helping other kids know that what they are feeling is normal and that they aren't alone.  She's the only one in the club that has lost a parent, but she realizes that no matter who you've lost, grief can be hard to deal with.  I'm so proud of my girl.

I had her IEP meeting 2 weeks ago and can't believe how much progress she has made.  She is officially done with speech therapy!  This is a huge step.  And her teacher says that not having people constantly making fun of her has brought out her confidence, so she isn't afraid to speak up.  TO think, had the school dealt with the bully issue several years ago, she could have been done with speech long before now.

She's also made huge progress with her processing disorders.  She still gets a little extra time, especially on tests, but we feel she doesn't need the resource time she had before.  This means next year she'll be able to take more electives! 

She's also decided that she wants to be a nurse when she grows up.  Not just any nurse, but a nurse in a cardiologist office.  And a nurse that designs cool looking scrubs as a hobby.  She's done 2 days of job shadowing nurses.  One in a peds office and one in a cardiologist office.  Warrior job shadowed the cardiologist too.


Its hard to believe they only have a month left of school.  I'm looking forward to it, but it also makes me sad because then I will have a senior and an 8th grader.  I'm not ready for that.

Driver's Permit and IEPs

Warrior started driver's ed at school this week.  Yesterday we spent the morning at DMV so he could get his learner's permit.

Let me tell you, this mom isn't sure she's ready for this.  My wallet on the other hand is loving that I don't have to pay for driver's ed. 

Yesterday afternoon I had Sugar Pea's IEP meeting.  Usually we have them at the end of the year to decide which way to go for the following year.  But since she's new to this school/district/state we had one now and then will have another in May.

Every other year I have hated walking into the school for this.  I knew I was going to be bombarded with a lot of bad news.  So of course, I had the same feelings this time too.

Only I was met with great news!!!!!!!!

Sugar Pea has had an IEP in place for speech, math, writing, and allowing her extra time on assignments, tests, and quizzes.  The resource teacher and the speech teacher can't figure out why she has IEP for speech (which is huge), math, or writing.  That she does great in both of those classes.

They also don't feel she really needs the resource help but do agree that she still needs the extra time.

We left everything in place for now, but will definitely be redoing everything at the end of the year.

I am so proud of her.  At the end of 4th grade I was told that she was working at barely the middle of a 1st grade level, and now in 7th grade she's right where she needs to be.  She's come a long way in such a short period of time!!!!!!

Honoring Tin Man

Friday night we went to the Nationwide series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

I am by no means a NASCAR fan, and find watching cars drive in circles for 200+ laps pretty boring.


Why did we go?

Because Tin Man's picture was on the Donate Life race car.  We wanted to see the picture up close and personal, and meet the driver in person. 

We met some other amazing people that are part of the transplant community.  We all shared some laughs and lots and lots of tears.

9 Month Difference

Its amazing how much change a child can go through in just 9 months.

1st day and last day of 6th grade

1st day and last day of 10th grade

Well Hello There

Well Hello There!  Its been a little while.  I started school a couple weeks ago and have been trying to get used to a new routine, not to mention homework.  All the homework.

Add to that the kids' activities and when I'm not in school, I'm in my car driving from one activity to another. 

If you haven't heard yet, California is in a horrible drought.  Like "seriously run out of water in the next 2 months" horrible.  Not all of California is about to run out of water, but 17 communities, including the area I live, are.  We've gotten a little rain the last few days but nothing like what we need.  We need lots and lots of rain. 

Ewok wasn't sure what to think about the rain.  Unfortunately he liked it and I had to chase him in it to get him back in the house.

I had a conference with Sugar Pea's teacher last week.  You have no idea how happy of a mom I am.  In math she is above grade level. In reading and science she is at grade level.  THIS is huge!  Since she wasn't diagnosed with the Visual Processing Disorder until the end of 4th grade, and at that point was about 3 years behind, having caught up in less than 2 years is amazing.  We still need to concentrate on writing, but he said even that has shown a huge improvement.  So proud of her!

Warrior has had an ingrown toenail for about a year.  The old doctor didn't want to remove it.  She did the antibiotics, epsom's salt, and hoping it would grow out.  Insurance issues forced me to find a new doctor for the kids.  This doctor took one look at it and said the nail had to come off.  That was 3 weeks ago and other than not having a nail, his toe looks normal, and is back to normal size.

soaking his foot and texting, of course.

 He took a break to watch her numb his toe.  I love the look on his face.

 back to texting while we wait to make sure its fully numb.

 off the phone to watch her remove his nail.  He looks a little to excited to be having this done.

He claims he needed a haircut because of lacrosse season, but I'm thinking the new girlfriend had a little play in it too.

Christmas Tree and Ms Vice President

Last Christmas we weren't in the mood to do anything.  We were counting down the days until it was over and all the Christmas decorations went away.  This year we still aren't 100% into Christmas, but its slowly coming back. 

The kids decided they wanted to get a tree to take out to Tin Man's grave.  We were going to wait until we got down there to get one, since I am severely allergic to pine, and really don't want a tree in my car for 7 hours.  But the Christmas tree farm that friend of ours run means a lot to us because the last Christmas we had with Tin Man we spent a lot of time up there (and tons of money on allergy meds). 

So I gave in and decided the kids were right and this was the best place to get a tree.  Its small, and fits in the trunk, but is going to be tied to the top of the car.  Its the only way I will be able to survive the drive.

Sugar Pea's school started a student council last year.  This year she decided she wanted to run for Vice President.  I was very impressed and so proud that she got up in front of the entire school and gave her candidate speech. 

Considering this is the child that wouldn't speak in class not that long ago, her getting up to give a speech in front of the school is amazing.  Once we finally got a diagnosis (auditory processing disorder, visual processing disorder, and short term memory loss) and finally knew how to help her, she's made amazing progress!

Yesterday was the election and Sugar Pea is the new Vice President!  I'm such a proud mom.

Summer Coming To An End

I can't believe how fast this summer went by.  I know part of it is because we have been gone this last month.  2 weeks in Southern California and 2 weeks in Oregon.

We are still have days that being in the house is hard, so getting away helps.  A lot.

We spent the time in Oregon with my sister and her family.  Plus my mom.  Then my mom came home with us to help me out after my surgery. 

On Monday Warrior starts school.  Sophomore year.  

I know I am biased, but I am so proud of his schedule for this year.


On top of these classes he's also joining student goverment, playing lacrosse again this year, and helping organize the blood drive.  So so proud of him.

Sugar Pea doesn't start school until the 26th.  She will be in middle school this year.  She's still in the same school, but 6th, 7th, and 8th are separated from the rest of the school for most things so they have the feeling of being in middle school and not part of elementary school.

She's excited for school to start.  She misses a lot of her friends, and she's getting bored.  Plus school starting means she's that much closer to science camp at Yosemite this year.

I can't believe how fast my babies are growing up!

Cardiology Appointments

On top of last week being 1 year, we also had to make a trip up to the hospital.  Twice.  The first trip was hard.  This hasn't been the first trip up since Tin Man passed away, and won't be the last, but it was the day before the 1 year mark.

Both kids had cardiology appointments on Tuesday.  Sugar Pea's appointment went as expected, ekg, echo, check up, doctor asking how she's doing, if she has gotten a boyfriend since we last saw him, and then him telling us everything looks the same and he will see her in 6 months.  I didn't know what to expect with Warrior.  He had the ekg, echo, and seen the doctor.  Doctor said other than the PFO, his heart is structurally sound, but that the PFO wouldn't be causing the chest pains, so heordered an exercise test (exercise ekg) to see if his heart is doing anything weird while he exercises.  The chest pains have happened a few time while he is resting, but they seem to me more often while he exercises.

Warrior got to watch Tom and Jerry during his echo.

 Sugar Pea got to watch Shake It Up during her's.  Wish I got this kind of treatment.

While we were there we one of Tin Man's doctors made the time to come see us and talked with us for almost 20 minutes.  He even told us that he was the doctor reading the echos that day so he would take extra care with theirs.  He said it was the least he could do since he failed Tin Man (I do not and never will believe the doctors failed him)

Everyone was telling us that the doctor was having a hard time dealing with Tin Man's death and he was so excited he got to see us.  The last time we were up there he was on vacation so we didn't get to see him.

On Thursday we had to go back up for Warrior's exercise test. 

First was the breathing test.  He was not a fan of this at all.

 Says he's rocking the ekg leads.

 Time to start running.

We are still waiting to hear back with the results.  I called Thursday morning to see if the results were in but they are still waiting for another doctor to read the results and then they will get back to me.  Not sure if this is good or bad.

Hiking, Thieves, and Police

I've been depressed lately.  With all these first coming at me one after the other, I can't recover from one before the next one is here.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day that I decided the kids and I were going to go for a hike or 2.

Being out of the house was great.  Something all 3 of us needed.  It was great to see the kids laughing and playing, and even though we were in the middle of town, it felt like we were 1000 miles away from everything.

I wish I had one of these trees in my yard.  We talked about planting one for Tin Man, think we might do that soon.

 The kids had a great time watching this guy.  I bent over to tie my shoe and he chose that minute to swoop down to get his catch.  Kids were bummed I didn't get pictures of it.

 So many ducks.  Kids want to go back to see all the baby ducks later on.

 I hate everything we have been through, and wish I could change it and take away all the pain these 2 kids have gone through.  But I do love that it has brought them closer together.  Most of the time.

 He just had to have a picture of him pretending he was falling.

It was a fun day.  We had walked all around this slough, and decided we weren't done.  So we headed back to the car to head out to one of the state parks to hike a 5 mile trail.

Plans were changed quick when we got back to the car.  I unlocked it and noticed that everything from the glove box was all over the seat.  Then I realized Sugar Pea's Kindle was gone, checked the trunk, and my purse, Warrior's school backpack, and all of his lacrosse gear was gone. 

Warrior didn't get his window rolled all the way up, was down about an inch.  Just enough for someone to stick something through and unlock the door. 

Called the cops, and while waiting for them realized that they had all my information along with my house keys.  So we raced home to check out the house, and then wait for a friend to bring the set of house keys they have. 

Cop shows up, takes statement, and inventory of everything that was taken.  Then dusts my car for prints.  My brand new, less than 2 weeks, car!!!

Once the cop realized that Tin Man was my husband, he was furious.  He said normally it angers him when people break into cars, but knowing Tin Man through work, he said this was closer to home. 

Then my oh so awesome friend, went for a bike ride in the area where we were parked and found some of our things.  My purse, with wallet minus all the important things, Warrior's backpack, empty except for his library books.  And most of his lacrosse gear.  I was so excited he had that back since we were renting most of it from the school.  They took his stick and his cleats, but those I paid for.  Still angry that they are gone, but not as bad as something that wasn't ours.
 
I have to say I have some great friends.  Because they have my house keys and my information, I was very worried about them coming to my house.  So friends loaned me some money to get by this week, but also so I could run and buy new locks. 

Warrior and I changed them last night, but even with the new locks, every little noise last night woke me up. 

Of course its a holiday weekend, so I have to wait until Tuesday to replace my ID.  I have to replace Sugar Pea uses the Kindle for school as part of her IEP to help with her reading.  So its important that its replaced.  Also Warrior's first game is Wednesday, so gotta get the cleats and the stick. 

You never know what all you rely on on a daily basis until its gone. 

So my relaxing day turned into a nightmare, but everything that was taken was materialistic and can be replaced.  I'm just thankful we didn't walk back to the car while this was going on and no one was hurt.


 

Kisses to Dad

On Christmas Eve we took some flowers out to Tin Man's grave.

As we were walking back to the car I turned around and saw Sugar Pea blow her daddy a kiss.  I was able to snap a picture of it, and then Warrior did the same thing.

These pictures break my heart, but also bring me a sense of comfort.

Wordless Wednesday - Our Heroes

The kids made a poster for the Rose Parade.  We were amazed at how many people gave them a thumbs up, or actually made a point to point out the poster and tell them how amazing it was.

Even one of the Stanford band members told them that their dad and his donor were his heroes too.

Birthday, Thanksgiving, and Girl Scouts

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I wish I could say we did.  Yes we had great food with great friends, but I just didn't want to be there.

I wanted to be at home.  In bed.  Away from the world.

Thanksgiving was also Warrior's birthday.  He tried his hardest to enjoy it and throw himself into the center of attention, but I could tell it was all forced.  Although he did like being attacked with the whipped cream.  He also liked the part where he got to blow out candles and then eat a couple cupcakes.

Friday wasn't anything big for us.  Again, it was something we enjoyed with Tin Man, so we tried to find something new to do, and stay as far away from stores as possible.

Saturday Sugar Pea and I had a Girl Scout badge-a-thon to go to.  The girls earned 4 badges in 8 hours.  They got to take a watered down photography class, a cooking class, drawing class, and first aid class.  They also go to interview a sheriff officer, a nurse, an artist, a painter, and the guy that comes to their schools to do the school photos.

The cooking class seemed to be a favorite of all the girls.  They were broke up into small groups and got to cook meals to share with the rest of the groups.  Sugar Pea's group made south west corn bread, while another made a pot roast, one made falafels, and another made spaghetti frittata. 

Sunday and Monday we cleaned out the closets and cabinets.  I can never figure out how we end up with food we never eat sitting in the cabinets.  It also amazes me at all the things I find in my kids' closets.  I really need to start looking in them for all the lost items.   

Today we took the bag of food to the local food bank and 2 bags of clothes, and a bag of nothing but socks to the women's shelter.   Now to try to rest the rest of this week and prepare for the weekend.  The next 2 weekends we have Girl Scout events, and then we're done for the rest of the year.  Plus this weekend Warrior has a 2 day lacrosse camp.  Then next week starts the deep conditioning to get ready for the practices and games once school starts up again in January. 

Maybe one day I'll be able to relax on a weekend.  I just don't see that happening any time soon.

Food Allergies and Science Camp

If your child doesn't have a food allergy, you have no idea how lucky you are.  When Warrior was little I never even thought about it.  I just knew he could eat anything he wanted.  I never even thought about having to check food labels to see if it included certain foods.

When Sugar Pea was 8 months old we found out she's allergic to strawberries.  I fed her some strawberry banana baby food and she ended up with huge hives and a trip to the ER.  I kept a close eye on what she ate to make sure she didn't get strawberries again.  I never realized just how many things use strawberries. Fruit snacks, juices, even some candies.  Anything that has strawberry flavor and is listed as natural flavoring she can't have.

Then when she was 2 a friend of mine's little boy gave her a strawberry.  That sent us to hospital via ambulance for a week.  Since then we've made sure she knows, and kind of scared her into knowing that she can't eat them. 

The worst part is when we moved 4 years ago we moved to the middle of strawberry country.  We knew before we moved up here that she couldn't eat them, but we didn't realize that just coming into contact with them, or their juices would send us to the ER via ambulance.  We learned that real fast in 1st grade.  For a birthday, parents brought the kids chocolate covered strawberries (Sugar Pea got chocolate covered banana).  Her table made decided to play with his and finger painted the table with the squished up strawberry.  Sugar Pea stuck her hand in it and almost instantly couldn't breathe.  Her teacher told me that in her 25 years of teaching that was the first time she's ever had to use an Epi Pen. 

When you see a strawberry you see a red juicy delicious fruit.  I see a landmine waiting to go off.  Especially when you have a class walking around with them. 

Thankfully the smell of them doesn't affect her, just physical contact with them.  So far.  If the smell ever does start to affect her, we're screwed.

During the harvesting times, we have to wipe everything down when we go out in public, and in some cases, like the store, she will wear gloves.  I know I look insane to some people.  Waiting rooms I will pull out my disinfectant wipes and wipe off the chair/table/whatever before she's allowed to sit.  Some of the looks I get from people are priceless.

Now her allergy may keep her from being able to go to science camp in January.  Well the allergy and Blue Shield.  She's been looking forward to this since Warrior was in 5th grade and got to go.

I have to have the doctor fill out a paper stating that yes she is allergic to strawberries and can not eat them.  If she doesn't have this filled out, she will be fed what everyone else is.

The problem I'm having is insurance and getting her into see the doctor to have this paper filled out. 

We're having issues with Blue Shield and Med-Cal.  Blue Shield keeps bringing Tin Man back to life and reactivating that policy.  When that happens, Med-Cal refuses to pay for anything because we have other insurance but Blue Shield won't pay for it because they have record of the policy being canceled April 30th.

We were in the middle of switching doctors when Tin Man died, which is making things even more difficult.  The old doctor won't fill out the paper because she's no longer her patient and the new doctor won't fill it out with out actually having seen her at least once.

I spent most of the day on the phone with both insurance companies and both doctor's offices trying to see what I can do to get this form filled out.  I have until the 30th to get it filled out and turned in or she can't go.

With it being Thanksgiving week, I doubt I'll get much done, but I have my fingers crossed that Blue Shield can get things situated in their computers tomorrow, and then call or fax Medi-Cal whatever they need tomorrow.

I am not going to be a happy mom if Sugar Pea can't go to science camp with the rest of her class because these 2 insurance companies can't get things straight.

Wordless Wednesday - Cow Tongue

First I must say, yes I was very excited when I found this at our local store.  For this reason.  I wanted to freak Sugar Pea out with it.  And second, yes I admit that I get some sort of sick joy out of freaking my kids out with gross things.  Like making them hold a package of cow tongue just so I can get a picture of it.

Boardwalk Arcade and Lots of Tickets

We went to the board walk a couple nights ago.  We had some out of town friends come to visit and figured it would be a great place for the kids to hang out, and we could sit back and just watch.

Warrior's favorite game was the Ski Ball Basketball.  You roll the ball up like you do in ski ball, but its got 9 baskets with different points.

 Sugar Pea's favorite was anything that spit out the tickets the fastest.  She even found one that returned 2 quarters to her.

 So many tickets!

 Its hard to see the number but it was at 1078 and they still had more.  The machine broke and we had to wait for someone to come print out their receipt and then put the rest of the tickets into another machine.  All together they had almost 1500 tickets.

 I was amazed at how cheap the prizes were.  Sugar Pea picture out this hat, that Warrior wore most of the night, for 850 tickets.  Warrior let Sugar Peas use most of the tickets because there wasn't anything there he wanted.  Well that mom was ok with him getting.

It was fun, and something I think we're going to do once a month.  Either the arcare or the mini golf.  Just something to get us out of the house and spending time as a "normal" family and not this insane one we're turning into.

Who knew having a child in high school turned you into an insane taxi driving mom.

Speech, IEP, and Fighting

Last week I talked with Sugar Pea's principal a little about trying to get Sugar Pea's speech class changed from 1 day a week to 3 days.   She's made huge progress in the last 4 years, but she still has a long way to go. 

Today I had a conference with her teacher.  She was telling me that Sugar Pea will be one of the first ones to raise her hand to answer a question, will raise her hand to participate in a class discussion.  This is great to hear because last year she barely spoke in class.  3rd grade she was a little more open, but last year she wouldn't talk unless she was forced to.

I also filled out the paperwork to request her IEP be moved from March to as soon as possible.

I want to add to it.  There is a new program at the school for ESL (English as a Second Language) kids that the school.  I'd like to get Sugar Pea into it.  Because of the hearing issues when she was a baby and toddler, the speech delay, and the Auditory Processing Disorder, I think this would be great for her.   I've done some research on it and talked to her teacher and a friend of mine about it (she's ESL teacher) and we all agree that this may with her delays in language concepts area.  Especially getting her thoughts down on paper.

That's the only concern the teacher has.  She's doing awesome with her reading assessments.  This latest one that was done last week she scored a 92% on the 5th grade level assessment.  95% is proficient.  So being 3% away from that is awesome compared to where she was this time last year.  I'm so proud of her!!!

Her latest math assessment she scored a 89%.  It covers everything they've learned so far this year.  


I can remember when I was young and hated parent/teacher conferences because I was always afraid to find out what the teacher was going to tell my mom.

Up until this year I've been afraid of the conferences about Sugar Pea because they always focus on the delays and the problems and never really talk about the good part.  Her teacher last year, made her out to be this horrible student, didn't know anything, couldn't read, and pretty much a lost cause.

So to finally have a great conference, one that made me come out with a smile on my face was great.  Especially with everything that's been going on in our lives this year.  To know that even with all that and the roller coaster of emotions we've been on, that Sugar Pea is still giving it her all, and now that we know how to really help her its starting to all pay off.

Trick Or Treat

This Halloween was very hard, and I've never been happier that its over.

Halloween was like Tin Man's Christmas.  He would start planning costumes in June or July.  He would decorate the house like most people would for Christmas.

We put out the inflatables, but other than that we didn't do much more decorating.  We had friends volunteer to help us, but we just weren't up for it.

Our Halloween tradition was to go over to a friends house and decorate their monster trucks for Halloween.

This year we weren't up for this, but they weren't in town anyway.  They have a show in Pheonix, so it worked out for us.  We went trick or treating with a couple of the kids' friends and their parents.  It was a nice distraction to having other people with us.  It still wasn't the same without Tin Man there, but at least it wasn't just the 3 of us.

Normally we don't do store bought Halloween costumes, unless there is a certain mask someone wants.  We love the hunt for a great costume and figuring out what we need for it.  Last year Sugar Pea went as Draculaura from Monster High.  We found the top, tights, and skirt she wanted at Goodwill for $6  However, this year I just wasn't in the mood to do any of that, so I went with store bought costumes.

Sugar Pea was a nurse.  Not just any ordinary nurse though.  She went as 2 of our favorite nurses from Stanford.  Both of them were touched that she wanted to dress up as them. 

Warrior went as a surgeon on vacation.  He couldn't wear his scrubs to school because of them being blue, so we bought him a costume to wear to school, and then he decided to wear it with his scrub top, surgical hat, mask, and stethoscope.

Kids had a lot of fun last night and made out with a ton of candy, 10 pencils, and almost 30 erasers.