Christian Momma

I had 2 little (and when I say little, we are talking 2 pounds each!) boys!

Happy Birthday Daniel!!

Happy Birthday Andrew!!

2008 has come and gone already.  It sure seemed to go by quickly…sometimes a little too quickly!

January

The year started out with me beginning to work on Power Lab VBS (Ah Ha!).  I was also homeschooling Michael.  We were pretty on top of our schooling and things were going pretty smoothly at the time.  I was also beginning to work in the K-1 Sunday School class room at church.  That, wasn’t going as smoothly as I had wished.

February

VBS started to consume my thoughts.  I was having dreams about not being ready, and just an overwhelming sense that I’ve bitten off more than I could chew.  AKA…I wasn’t relying on God to help me, I was relying on my own strength to do it.

February also brought about Daniel & Andrew’s 3rd birthday as well as my 34th birthday.

Michael entered his first Science Fair and ended up with a Superior rating!  I was proud, but knew full well that if he had applied himself earlier in the month, but he decided to wait until the last minute to do it.  Then we hit a rough patch in our homeschooling…a bad one.  Causing me to question my ability to teach him not to mention my basic parenting skills.  But, through the Grace of God we got through it with help from some friends in our church.

March

March brought in a lot of saddness.  My grandmother’s health begain to fail drastically.  And a friend of mine lost her child in a horrible accident. My heart ached in ways I never knew it would.  Things in me shined trhough as well.  I didn’t realize how “in tune” I was to other’s saddness.  Michael had a meeting with the staff from his online school and things turned out so much better than I had originally anticipated.

April

In April, I took a blogging break…school slipped behind and I had to push Michael to get as much done as possible a day!  Spring seemed to bring out the worst in his schooling abilities and slowly we fell behind.

May

I won this Word Press blog…I’m ever so greatful to Lisa for hosting the giveaway that allowed me to win! The final push to get VBS was upon us.  VBS was scheduled for the 2nd week of June.  My grandmother passed away that month as well.

June

VBS week came and went without too much problems.  Yes, there were a few bumps in the road, but overall things turned out GREAT!  I was elated that things went as well as they did and relieved that it was all over with as well.

July

We celebrated Michael’s 11th birthday in July along with Kevin and I’s 14th wedding anniversary.  In between those 2 events, we threw my mom and dad a 60th Birthday/40th Wedding Anniversary party.  We were very impressed that we were able to pull it off!  Mom and dad had only suspected that we were planning on all going out to eat together, not that we would have all of their friends and family at a hall waiting for their arrival!  We even got one of their friends from High School to travel from Chicago to Ohio to celebrate with them as well!

We also got to see Extreme Makeover Home Edition in our town.  My mother drove down the night before to stay overnight and we headed out to the new house to watch the bus move.  That is a day that was HOT, but I wouldn’t have missed for the world.  To see something like that is a once in a lifetime thing.  Michael still claims to have High-Fived Ty!

August

We went for our 1 and only camping trip of the year.  We had so much fun, and would love to go back to the Michigan Dunes again.  Our church also had a Worship Night.  Something changed in me that night and I have been forever changed!

September

School started right after Labor Day!  We decided to send Michael back to public school since things weren’t working out the best for us at home.  We are happy to report that he is doing wonderful in the public school!

We celebrated Noah’s 8th birthday in September.  We also found out that an eight year old child, when given $20 in cash and not watched very closely at the grocery store (because mom and dad were busy ringing/bagging groceries), will spend the whole $20 on lottery tickets!  And before you ask…YES it’s illegal for him to purchase them, but when they have a “vending machine” of lottery tickets just sitting over by the bubble gum machines, it’s just calling for a child to play with it!  And he only wond $2!

October

In October, Kevin and I started going to a new Bible Study.  I was elated that Kevin wanted to go to one since he has never really showed any interest in going before.

We also walked, for the first time, in the JDRF Walk for a Cure for my Niece.  We were so proud of her, she ended up getting 2 awards…one for the amount of money raised and the other for the T-Shirt design!

November

We celebrated Kevin’s 38th birthday.  How?  Well, I went to a Arbone party and he watched football…now that’s love!

We had our traditional weekend after Thanksgiving shopping adventure.  My parents’ took Michael, Noah, Daniel, & Andrew for the weekend (it ended up my parents had Daniel & Andrew and my sister had Michael & Noah).  We always enjoy that weekend away from the boys.  It’s nice to pretend we are childless…even if it’s just for the weekend!  But we are always so excited when they return.

December

We spent most of the month either running from Christmas Program to Christmas Program or from Christmas to Christmas.  However this year it seemed to be a little less travel than usual.  We only spent 1 night up at my parent’s house and we actually had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home for the first time in a long time!

For 2009, I’m sure there will be new things that God shows us along the way, new challenges to overcome and new friends to meet, but I trust that God will be joining us along this journey and we will rest in the knowledge of Him.

I have 2 Monkeys for sale.  Their Names?  Daniel & Andrew!

Today when I sent them to take a nap, I go in to check on them and they had their toddler beds (which are were on wheels) moved over to their dresser and Andrew was standing up on top of it!  Daniel, I’m sure, was on his way there too!

Needless to say, they were in a bit of trouble for climbing up on the dresser and for moving their beds.  I have taken the wheels off their beds because I’m such a mean mom so they can’t move them as easily.

Talk about having a heart-attack seeing your 3 year old standing up on top of a dresser that’s as tall as you are!  I bet he could touch the celing!!

My days of being a mother of 2 are coming to an end. Michael and Noah will be back tomorrow. And I have missed them!

I have enjoyed my time with Daniel and Andrew. They haven’t messed my house up too much…not nearly as much as all 4 of them do when they are together! My laundry is caught up…for the moment, because you know when someone comes back from being away, they bring dirty laundry with them.

I didn’t realize how much Michael and Noah do around here when it comes to Daniel and Andrew. I’m not used to having to stop what I’m doing 20 times a day to fill up a cup, get Daniel and Andrew out of something they shouldn’t be in, etc. Michael and Noah do their fair share of helping out!

And what is it with boys and balls? Why is it every 20 minutes I have to tell them NOT to throw a ball in the house? Or stop running? Or stop jumping on the couch? I feel like I say that a billion times a day!

Ok, I just spilled my coffee down the front of me, I guess it’s time for me to get into the shower now!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

It’s raining hard outside (not now, just setting the stage)…Daniel & Andrew start telling me…

“Mom, there’s turtles outside!”

I get this confused look on my face and say, “No, there aren’t any turtles outside.”

Andrew goes back to playing, believing mommy that there aren’t any turtles outside.  Daniel keeps looking out the window.  The news jumps into the programming to talk about the Thunderstorm warnings and Tornado watches.  Daniel turns and watches the news, then looks back outside.

He then turns to me and with the most serious look on his face, says, “Mom, there’s turtles outside!”

It clicks…I know what he’s talking about.  I looked at Daniel and said, “No, honey, there aren’t any tornados outside…just rain.”

In his head  Turtles = Tornados

Glad I figured that out…I’d hate to see all those turtles running around when it’s raining outside!

(This entry is backdated)
I can’t believe I missed posting about this on my blog here! It’s not because I didn’t think about it, we’ve all been just sick.

Anyway, on February 16th, Daniel & Andrew turned 3! They are growing so big! From the 2 pounds (that’s how much each of them weighed) to the 25 pounds they are now in 3 short years! They amaze me, like all my children do, with everything they learn. I don’t know if I’m more aware of what they learn because they are twins, or because they are my last…not sure there, but I do feel like I notice it more!

We had Cake and ice cream on their birthday and they got a few presents (what’s a birthday without gifts, right??). We will celebrate next week when my parents come down, not only for their birthday, but also for mine!

Anyway, I just wanted to share!

Saturday night, Kevin started feeling sick (lots of congestion), so he went to bed early. About 9:30 Michael wakes me up and says his ears are hurting, so I take him to the Urgent Care (I don’t mess around with ear aches…I’ve had my share of ear infections…they HURT!). He had a double ear infection and a red throat!!

Sunday, I take Noah, Daniel, & Andrew to church (Michael was instructed to stay home on Sunday). Sunday evening, Kevin finally broke down and went to the doctor…he has an Upper Respiratory Infection.

Monday, Kevin stayed home from work since he had been carrying a fever. Monday evening, I start sneezing and my nose wouldn’t stop running…I’m coming down with a cold!!

Today (Tuesday), Noah didn’t have school because of the ice storm we had. Kevin was off today too…he is still running a fever, so he’s going to be off again tomorrow!

So, we’ve made the inevitable decision to cancel our plans with Kevin’s brother and wife since they have 2 girls (1 with diabetes and 1 that’s only 4 months old). I hate to have to cancel, but as bad as I feel about that, I would feel worse if they were to get something from us!!

Please pray that we all get over this sickness quickly!! Thanks!

It’s been a while since I updated…I have so much to say…so I’ll probably have a couple posts today!

Michael is doing great with his school!! He’s finished Math (like I showed before) and History! He only has 2 1/2 more units left in Science! I think once we get through those and start focusing on Spelling and Language, we will zip right through and probably be done by the end of June (hopefully)!

Noah is loving summer…he’s been drawing and reading every day!

Daniel and Andrew are growing like weeds…but I would expect it from a child their age. But still, I put them in their short outfits that they had from last year (that hung on them) and to see the difference, it’s quite funny…cute too!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an entry! Things are going fine here. Michael is finishing up his schooling and although he’s not going to hit the deadline for finishing like he should, he shouldn’t be too far behind.

Noah is in his last week of school! Thursday and Friday are early release days (Friday being his last). He’s so excited! Next year he’ll be going to a new school, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He’s visited the new school already, so that’s good.

Daniel & Andrew are still having their Early Intervention sessions once a month. They are doing so well. We’ve never had any issues! We actually thought we were going to have to be done because of changes to their policy, but because we were already involved in it, we got “grandfathered in”! However, they only come until they are 3! We’ve had a couple of Therapists come in too…one was a Massage Therapist when they were still infants. That was neat to learn how to do an infant massage. Then we had a Speech Therapist come in last month, just to be sure they were talking like they should at this age…YEP! So things are going well for them. I couldn’t ask for more, especially since they were 9 weeks early!

I’m in my last month as the AVP for the MOMS Club. My emotions about it are torn. Part of me is relieved that I don’t have to worry about it anymore (not that there was much to worry about in the first place), but on the other hand, I’m going to miss working so closely to those ladies and going out to dinner with them once a month for our board meetings.

We are all looking forward to summer. To kick off our summer, my sister is getting married. So we will be staying in Columbus for that (6/9) and then we have our Annual Father’s Day Weekend Camping trip. This year it got moved to a different campground (Ft. Loramie) since our usual one (Indian Lake) was having maintenance done on the pet area that we usually get and we wouldn’t be able to book it until the Friday that we were going to be camping!

After that, we don’t really have any plans…except Kevin wants to get a dog! He wants a full-blooded German Shepherd this time!

Before I sign off…I wanted to Welcome my new readers! Please feel free to comment at any time, but don’t feel like you have to! I’m going to try my best to blog more often! Fee free to stop back., I believe there’s a feature that allows you to get a “feed” on a ticker when I post something new (I know I use it with some of my friends).

Ok, well, I’m off to my message board that I post on!!

WOW! It’s been 2 years already! It doesn’t seem like it at all!!

Friday 2/16 was their actual birthday! We headed up to my parent’s house in the afternoon. Stopped by my old place of work (not sure why I feel the need to do that at times…there’s only a handful of people that I like to see and only 1 that I actually stay in contact with and she wasn’t there!). Then we met mom at her work. We then followed her to the nursing home to see my grandmother. She was so surprised and happy to see me and the boys! Although Michael complained of the smell and Daniel & Andrew were running all over the place! The good thing is her room is right outside this big area that they play bingo and eat at, so we sat outside her room at the tables. Daniel & Andrew loved running around the tables and Michael & Noah played checkers. My grandmother was so happy.

Saturday, we had a birthday party at my mom’s house for the Daniel & Andrew. They got a lot of toys! Almost everyone showed up…well except for my grandmother who is in the nursing home and Kevin’s grandmother whose knee was acting up. Everyone else RSVP’d (except Kevin’s one brother and his family…but that’s a whole other story, and I don’t want to get into it right now).

Well…since it has been 2 years, let me just go over Daniel & Andrew’s birth story…
2/14/05:
I had my regular OB appointment today. My BP was high again. They admitted me to the hospital for what I was told was going to be observation. After being there and them running tests, I was told that I had what was called HELLP Syndrome (Hemolysis Elevated Liver, Low Platelet Syndrome), so they had to transport me to a Level 3 hospital since I only had a short amount of time before I have to deliver my boys. HELLP Syndrome is basically my liver wasn’t functioning properly.

Technical defination of HELLP Syndrome: Blood vessels start to act like a muscle relaxing and contracting. As blood is passed through these relaxing and contracting veins, it causes damage to a special lining that is found in the veins. As this damage occurs to your red blood cells, your platelets come to the rescue to try and heal the damage. In the process, they create clots over the damages. These clots get bigger and bigger and begin to stress your body as it tries to push the blood past this damage.

Your body tries to make up for the damaged red blood cells, which causes your veins to become “leaky” by increasing your body’s water volume. Your kidneys start to hold on to more water resulting in low urine output. Swelling comes from those “leaky” veins. The decreased blood flow only adds further strain to your heart, lungs, brain, kidneys, and liver.

In HELLP, the liver is mainly affected. It is deprived of oxygen because of the clots. It begins to die. This begins the rise in liver enxymes or the pain that is often misdiagnosed heartburn or feeling “flu-y”

Of course these vasospasm that cause damage also cause damage to the vessels in and out of the placenta. The stress causes IURG (Intautrine Growth Restriction). These all result in the HELLP Syndrome.

2/15/05:
After being transported to the Level 3 hospital, the doctors explained to me that they only had a few days (3 MAX) that they could leave D & A inside of me. I’m only 31 weeks. Basically, my body is starting to shut down and the only way to correct this HELLP Syndrome is to deliver the babies. At this point, both babies are fine, but if left in too much longer, they would start to distress and then both my life and the lives of these babies would be at risk. So I will be delivering them tomorrow! I’m very nervous…especially since my due date is April 18th, but I don’t want to risk the lives of all 3 of us. They started yesterday giving me shots for their lungs…and more today. They want to be sure their lungs are developed. As of right now, as long as baby “A” is head down (which they keep switching positions, I will be having an U/S soon), I can have them vaginally…but if they aren’t, I will have to have a c-section. Oh and the best part (hear my sarcasm)…Kevin has the flu, so he’s not allowed in the hospital! It’s a good thing my mom is around!

2/16/05:
Daniel & Andrew arrived today via c-section. My mom was there with me since Kevin has the flu. I feel awful! They have me on Magnesium Sulfate for my blood pressure…YUCK!

Daniel was born at 1:23 pm (he was baby “B” through out my pregnancy, but decided he wanted the “A” position today). He was 2 pounds 15 ounces and 15 1/4 inches long. He is in the NICU and breathing on his own.

Andrew was born at 1:25 pm (he was always known as baby “A”…hence the reason his name begins with A. He was transverse so it’s a good thing we had a c-sect.). He was 2 pounds 12 1/2 ounces and 15 1/2 inches long. He had a little trouble at first breathing, but is in the NICU and breathing on his own.

I have been unable to see them since I’m not allowed out of bed. Mom has been down there a couple times and has brought pictures up that the nurses had taken of them. They are so tiny! I’m not feeling the best at the moment. I’m hungry and tired…but add on top of my c-sect (with staples) a cough/cold…not fun! I can’t wait to get off the Mag. Sulfate and the cath. out!

Those were posts taken from my journal back when they were born. They were in the NICU for 4 weeks, basically they needed to learn to eat and gain some weight before they could come home. I have been so blessed…they are 2 healthy, rambunctious boys!

A poem I had written on 2/21/05:

No One Told Me…
by mommy

No one told me how this could be…
No one told me that I would get pregnant with twins.
No one told me that you’d come early…
No one told me that walking into the NICU could be so emotional.
No one told me that you could be so little, yet thrive.
No one told me that when you look at me I’d melt.
No one told me that I could love you the way I do.
No one told me that love coudl double the way it has.
No one told me that the blessings would be this great!