We "met" the Roloff's!!!

*Warning: Very photo heavy post!*

This past week Hannah, my Mom and I went to the LPA (Little People of America) National Convention. It was held downtown in Detroit at the beautiful Marriott Renaissance Center. We had such a great time and the workshops were very informative. I was a little worried ahead of time because I did not know what to expect and whether or not it would be worth going since Hannah was still pretty young. However, the workshops were great, the people were great...just about everything was great! I attended some really informative workshops that included: Ortho issues in young children, Achondroplasia specific diagnosis workshop, the ABC's of education, Sewing and Alteration, Dwarfism in Ancient Egypt, Dwarfism a world view and how we impact it as well as a couple of others.

The following are a few highlights from the week!
Here is the sign that greeted everyone in the lobby.

I say we "met" the Roloff's, but we really did not. We did get our picture taken with them though. They did a nice presentation about where the met, and how the show has impacted their lives and at the end had a picture time. Even though Hannah does not know who they are, I think it will be a nice photo for her to have when she gets a little older.

During the Newcomer's Reception, Owen decided to take over the International Group and become the leader! As always, he was such a cutie!!

The hotel was located right on the Detroit River and directly across the river you could see Windsor.

Apparently the GM building (which is attached to the Marriott) has spent a lot of money renovating the area. One of the things that they have done is to revitalize the waterfront. Hannah really enjoyed the fountain that the put in as part of the revitalization.

One of her favorite things to do was to step on the water when it would go down and try to block it from coming back up.

Another one of her favorite things was to visit the "water falls" that were located in the GM building. Every time we would enter the building for a workshop she would ask if the waterfalls were on and if we could go see them.

Detroit and Windsor put together one of the Nation's largest fireworks displays. Here is Hannah in awe of the fireworks.

Here she is with some 3D glasses that somebody gave her to try.

Knoah enjoyed the fireworks as well! He is such a cutie and he was such a ham the entire time we were there that I think my mom fell in love with him!

Here is Miss Priss with her sword that Gramma Cath bought for her. She was soooo spoiled the entire time we were there. Pretty much whatever her little heart desired she got. You gotta love Grandmas!

When I got home I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me!!! I have been wanting a Wii for quite some time and my hubs surprised me with one for my graduation present. I think it was sort of a combination of celebration of his exciting news and my graduation.

What I didn't tell you the exciting news? He had a job interview Monday, which is the main reason why he did not go to convention, and he got the job!!! Hooray he finally got the job. It was not the job that he had originally wanted but it is with the same company and he is really excited about it.

So we had quite the week...now wii are having a grand time...I mean getting ready to leave on vacation tomorrow!!

Summer of Meeeeee!

Have you been wondering about my weight loss? I know you are just dying to hear all about it. Unfortunately I kind of fizzled out. I did a great job on cutting down my portion sizes and sugar intake. However, I kind of fizzled out on the whole exercise thing. I would rollerblade here and there, or go for a walk with the kids but nothing to really get me motivated. Summer Slimdown came and went and I only lost 5 lbs. Nothing major. Of course it also could have been my sweet tooth that slowed me down.

So I decided to try again this time it is the Summer of ME. Christie over at Baby Tea Leaves is keeping the fun going. This time I decided that I am going to do an actual program to keep me motivated. I have actually done the program before and had good results, so I know I can do it. I am doing the Couch to the 5k program. It is a fairly "easy" program because it starts off in small intervals and gradually works up to 30 minutes of running. I actually started the program today and boy oh boy are my legs tired! Going up and down the stairs is killing me. I really need to shower but I'm putting it off because I do not want to go up those steps! So, I have my program now I just need to find a 5k to run!

I should also try to start some sort of diet. Does anybody have any suggestions on a good one? I don't care for weight watchers that much because even though it works, I hated having to calculate my points and how much food was worth etc. So, I would like something a little easier to use.

Anyway, feel free to leave weight loss tips, recipes or any sort of motivation to help me keep that ticker moving!! Now I'm off to try to hobble up those darn stairs!

Something to cry about

OUCH!!! Poor little Zander-doodle! We had a serious high chair malfunction last night and it was not pretty. We were eating dinner at my in-laws and we had just sat down for dinner with the colonel. Zander started to squirm and the highchair seat flipped forward (out of the base) and he smacked his face on the table and flipped him completely upside down. Hubby flipped the seat back up and his face was just covered in blood.

It took a while to clean him up and calm him down, but it was not that bad. Of course I was the one wearing most of the blood. We (and by we I mean me) decided to take him to the ER just to make sure everything was ok. He thankfully did not need any stitches, and we were out of the ER in under a half an hour!!!

Apparently over time the screws came loose (although my in-laws have had that chair less than a year) and his wiggling was enough to cause an imbalance in weight. We were blessed that it was nothing more than a bloodied up lip. He hit the table so hard and it could have been much worse, like a broken nose, if he would have been positioned slightly different. Even though it was scary, he was back to his busy little self by the time we got back from the ER. That boy is one tough kid.

Scum! SCUM!!!

So. Hubby and I have been talking about buying bikes. (By the way does anybody have a recommendation on what type of bike to get?) We decided that we would go look at some tonight, do some window shopping and comparisons. So he tells me to get a one of our store credit cards out, just in case that store has something that we like. Well I went to get it and couldn't find it. We looked in a couple of different places that we keep our credit cards, we looked in our wallets and could not find it. So, hubs decides to just look online just to be certain that there was no recent activity. Guess what. There was $1,700.00 worth of charges!!! What?! So we immediately called the credit card company to report the card stolen. The rep. that I talked to said that a charge was actually going through as we talked. She added up all of the charges and came up with $2,500!!! Are you kidding me? It makes me so mad that there are people that do this sort of thing. Yes I know that it happens all of the time and no, I am not going to say that I never thought it would happen to me because I have thought about it. That is why we do not carry all of our credit cards in our wallets. We only carry the one that we are using.
The thing of it is that it was not just one or two charges, it is a lot of little charges at a lot of different stores over the past month. The first charge showed up on May 17. It makes me wonder that there are that many stores and non of them checked I.D. It makes me angry that this person is just running around the area, yes it is local, (they have used the card in many of the surrounding cities) using my card. It angers me that nobody is checking I.D.'s, it angers me that some stores do not even require you to sign if the charge is less than a certain amount.
We filled out a report with the local law enforcement. We are working with the credit card company, but I have little faith that this person will be caught. We are not going to be held responsible for any of the charges, which I am thankful for, but I am just so angry that this person can rip off a company and not get caught. Maybe the credit card company will take it a little more serious than I suspect they will, who knows. Scum, scum I tell you.
Just make sure that you write CHECK I.D. on the back of all your cards!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Have you ever read the book: No, David! by David Shannon? I used to read it to my three year old class when I worked in a daycare. It is a really cute book that apparently Shannon wrote when he was a little boy. Every page he illustrated a picture of himself doing something that he shouldn't be doing and at the top of the page would be the words "No, David!"
Back in my childless days I found the book to be humorous. At the time I was an Early Childhood Education major and scuffed about how I would never spend my days telling me child no. I would redirect, I would say yes to more things....I would be the best parent I could be!
Hahahaha!! Fast-forward a couple of years. Here I am with two kids: my mellow, sweet Tater who rarely "gets into trouble" aside from telling me no or hitting her brother and then there is my bruiser Zander. What can I say? I spend my days chasing him around, trying to keep him from killing himself and guess what the most common phrase out of my mouth is? Yep! "NOOOOO!" It is like he is looking for trouble. Climbs anything, eats anything, can open ANYTHING, can reach anything...nothing is safe from this kid.
When I reflect on my day, it makes me feel sad knowing how often this kid hears no. He can sometimes be found saying "No, no, no!" for really no reason. I am trying to redirect more, I am trying to engage him in more activities (by the way have you ever tried to engage a 20 month old in an activity?) but I still find myself saying the dreaded N word more then I would like. What I am finding is that boy, this kid can throw a tantrum. Up to date the most embarrassing just happened on Thursday. I say most embarrassing because it was our first public meltdown. We were shopping at the local mall and trying to find a pair of sandals for Tater's wide feet. In the last store we visited we finally found some crocs. We thought we should try some on Alex too, just for fun...until I saw the price tag ($40.00!! um, online they are 24.99) and about had a heart attack. I think we will keep looking, I told my Mom. These don't fit very good, I told the girl and boy. I took the shoes off Alex and he just started to scream! Thankfully he was strapped in the stroller because that would have been lovely if he was able to throw himself on the floor. Anyway, I got the pleasure of pushing the screaming child out of the store to the parking lot where he continued to scream until we drove off. Fun times.
I say this because I am in a rough patch right now. There are a few areas in my life where I am feeling like a failure. My weight, my parenting skills, my organizational skills and some too personal to mention here. I just have that overwhelming feeling of failure that makes me want to curl up in a ball and hideout for a couple of weeks.

WOOOO-HOOOOO

This has been a very crazy weekend. I was running around trying to get my FINAL school project done because yesterday was my VERY LAST day of class. It was so exciting turning everything in and knowing that I am done (for now) with school. I will soon be the proud owner of a nice shiny diploma. Now...what to do with that diploma.

I seriously have no idea what I will fill my time with, in the evenings after the kids go to sleep that is. I could catch-up on my scrapping. Or I could read some good books. Since most of my books lately have been from the child selection or accounting selection I need some suggestions. Has anybody read anything good lately?

We are leaving tomorrow for Columbus because hubs has interview there Thursday morning, so please pray for him. He really wants this job and our savings is starting to deplete. After his interview we are heading south to Arkansas because my little bro is graduating for high school. CONGRATULATIONS BRANDO! We are not sure how long we are staying there, but on the way back we are stopping in Kansas City to visit one of Tony's buddies from the Marines. So it is going to be a very busy week or so.

Did I mention that I am done? Soon I will be considered a college graduate!!!!!!

My little ballerina

This past weekend was Tater's first recital! I was probably more nervous than she was. First off let me start by saying that this was a much bigger production than I thought it would be. Initially, when I signed her up for dance I had two options: beginner's ballet or a mommy and me class. The beginner's ballet had a recital at the end and I thought: "How cute, a recital! Same cost...how much fun would that be." I had no idea. I did not realize that she would have to have special shoes, make-up, a bun, $14.00 a seat tickets and no flash photography or video (because you can buy a professional video for only $30.00)! Seriously, this was a 3 and 4 year old class, not a Broadway show. Moving on...

(Notice my adorable niece next to Hannah really rockin' the show. She was so serious about dance!)

Like I said, I was much more nervous than her. I thought for sure she would get out there and freeze but she did exceptionally well. From what I could see backstage, she remembered all of the moves! The only mishap was that half of the girls (Hannah included) ran off stage the wrong way. It was so cute, they ended and stood there for a minute looking back and forth and then ran off the wrong way. Meanwhile we were back there trying our hardest to get them to come to us.
Here she is after the "grand ally" holding her flowers. I made sure that Daddy picked some up on the way to the show and she was so proud to get them. However, once her Grandma gave her a figurine the flowers were long forgotten.
Meanwhile, Zander was with Uncle Ty...the bachelor. Notice anything funny about his diaper?

Happy Mudder's Day

I hope that everyone had a wonderful mother's day or mudder's day according to Tater! Were you all pampered with breakfast in bed, no housework and no dirty diapers? No? Well me either! What is that about? We should all be royalty for the day! Seriously though, it was a great mother's day. Time spent with family and an amazing gift for a day at the spa as well as a beautiful gift picked out by the Tater herself!

However, as I was thinking about mother's day I started thinking about all of the mother's that don't get acknowledge and/or women who find mother's day to be extremely hard. What about the first mom's, who chose (or we coerced) into placing their baby with another family. Or those women who long to hold a baby in their arms, and can't conceive. Those of us with are complete family can rejoice this weekend because we are complete!

For others everything about this past weekend (and week building up to it) have been extremely hard. Another reminder of what they are missing. Everywhere you turn it is another commercial, ad or program reminding us that mother's day is upon us and we should honor mom with that something special gift. Can you just imagine being reminded at every turn just what you are missing? I can't even begin to fathom the pain.

On this mother's day, I would like to honor those women. Give them the acknowledgement that they deserve. So, to all those women whose arms are empty...there is not much that can be said to ease your sorrow, but I would still like to acknowledge you. Hopefully, someday soon you will be able to fill your empty arms. Happy first-mom's day, to all first moms! If I were a Hallmark card creator, I would make a card just for you.

Now for a little humor: check out this song.

Scavenger Hunt

Have I ever mentioned that I am a procrastinator? That would explain why at 7:45 I was running around like a mad woman trying to get my pictures taken for the scavenger hunt. I have known about said scavenger hunt since Monday and have been formulating my pictures since then. However, today I kind of forgot about it and the next thing I knew it was 7:45. So, I did not get to do it quite like I would have liked, but oh well.
Below you will find some of the healthiest foods in my house....mmmm, the fixings for a yummy salad!
Here is the most unhealthy food in my house. One of my weaknesses: cake batter ice cream. It is so delicious! Thankfully, we have had it four two weeks and there is barely any missing! (And yes I realize that the flowers are very brown, but Tater just picked them and wanted me to use it in my picture!)

Here are two of my favorite workout must-haves! My favorite shirt for jogging in and my Ipod...although it is rather large and not easy to run with. I would really like to get a nano, but that is neither here nor there.

A picture of part of me exercising:

This one was the trickiest as it was 7:45. However it is usually a nightly ritual when Mommy gets on the ball to do abs, kiddos see it as an open invitation. This was a very hard picture to take, in fact I had worked up a sweat by the time I got this shot that actually shows the ball. I do hate how I look, but time was running low.

To top it off....I lost a pound and a half this week. Woo-hoo!

Hello....?? Anybody there?

Geeze! I cannot believe that it has been so long since I posted! Where does time go? Well I blame it on my computer woes. (Yes I know that is the same excuse Cat used, but it really is true.) Something is up with my computer, first I couldn't leave comments on other blogs, then when I would try to log in it would redirect me a couple of times before I could log in and then it would redirect me over and over again and sometimes I could log in and sometimes I could not. So, I would just give up and move on. Point being, in order for me to post I have to use hubby's computer sometime during the day. If I don't get to it before dinner time, I'm out of luck. How often do you think I have time during the day to sit down uninterrupted? Yes, there is nap time but usually I am doing things like, oh I don't know laundry, dishes, vacuuming, picking up toys etc. I hope you all didn't give up on me...we're still here!

Hannah has her recital tomorrow! She is so excited. I just hope she does ok once she gets up on that big stage and sees everybody looking at her!

My other excuse for being MIA. It has been so nice out that we have been spending a lot of time outdoors. The kids are usually so much happier when we are outside AND they sleep so much better after running around all day. It really makes my life easier.

Weight Loss Extravaganza....Week 1

Well....I did not lose much weight this week. (Little side note: I actually thought I gained weight, but I think I read the scale wrong the first time I weighed myself because I did not turn the light on and I did not have my glasses on. So I was shocked when I read the scale the second time and I saw a 7 instead of a 1!!! At least I'm hoping that I read the scale wrong because I don't think it is possible to gain six pounds in a matter of a couple of days.) I am blaming my lack of weight loss on my Mom. She not only bought a cheesecake from Olive Garden (mmmm, black tie mouse cake) and sent me home with four pieces, but she also baked her awesome chocolate chip cookies and gave us about two dozen! So yeah, I'm blaming her!! Way to be responsible for my actions I know. I did however do very good with getting some exercise. I walked almost everyday (with a pinch of jogging), did some videos online, and of course tons of abs. Unfortunately, the junk food killed me. So my goal for next week is to jog a little bit more and stop eating the junk food! I think I am actually going to keep a log so that I see how much I am eating.

So I am a little disappointed with my results this week, but it just shows me I need to work a little bit harder next week!!

Edited: I just weighed myself again...not because I am obsessed or anything but because I thought that I did a lot of work this week and the scale just had to be wrong. Well when I weighed myself again I was down a total of 2.5 pounds!!! So I'm counting it for the week!

She is a QT!

The Tater got her outfit for her recital on Thursday. Doesn't she make an adorable ballerina?

The outside time-out corner woes. This is what happens when your Mommy tells you THREE times to get out of the neighbors yard and you don't listen!

Because this view is much funnier then the one previously posted!

Missing: One adorable, sweet baby

Found: One Rambunctious Toddler!!!Exhibit A: Climbing out of his stroller.

I do not know what happened. One day I was holding this sweet little baby and the next thing I know someone switched him out with a much more active toddler. This toddler does not sit still, he is always on the go, always getting into something and always climbing! This toddler does not like to cuddle, or be rocked to sleep as he is quite independent. Seriously, what happened to my little baby? Has anyone seen him?


Zander had his 18 month (18 MONTH!!!!) well check today. He is looking good, weighing in at 25 lbs, 40% and standing at 34 1/2 inches, 93%.





Exhibit B: standing in the tub (full of water) with his clothes on!



Exhibit C: large bruises can be found on his body at all times!



Well, I guess he is kind of handy to have around the house. He loves using the sweeper, which cuts my cleaning time in half! His vocabulary is really exploding right now it is amazing to listen to some of the things he has to say! (I need to make a list because right now I can only thing of regulars like MOMMEEEEE!)
It is also amazing to see how different he is from Hannah at this age. You would think as busy as Alex is, he would not like to walk in the stroller. However, he loves going for walks and I can take him on looong walks without a single complaint. Hannah on the other hand used to hate going on walks. We would barely get down the street and she would start whining. I would have expected it to be the exact opposite. He is also more adventurous then she was, but he is more shy around new people then she was.

Exhibit D: Eating a bowl of frosting!

I guess I should have seen it coming, you blink and the next thing you know they are grown. However, I am begging here: whoever took my baby and replaced him with this man child, could you please return him to his MOMMEEEE! I miss him and would love to rock him to sleep just one last time.

Weight Loss Extravaganza!!!

So after watching the Spring into Summer Slimdown for two weeks I decided to join in the fun! Seriously, I had my baby 18 MONTHS AGO! and still have all of my baby weight hanging on with the death grip o'fat. I have been saying that I am going to do something about it and as a matter of fact I have. I have stopped buying soda, I try to drink more water, buy more fresh fruits and veggies, and some natural cereals etc. However, the one thing that I have not done is actually get off my bum and exercise. After reading a great post about obsessions that described exactly how I felt; how I get so mad at myself and obsess over losing weight but don't. I decided to actually do something about my fatness...like oh, I don't know, maybe exercise. My goal is to lose 20 lbs! I want to look good in my swimsuit this summer when we go on vacation to the OBX.
So after deciding to join I get out and scout a good route to walk/jog. I only had the boy, so it was an easy walk with a single stroller, however I still was so unmotivated! I got through about half of what I thought my route would be and kept thinking that was far enough and I should just head home. Seriously, I was walking and I wanted to stop! (I should interject that it was a face pace walk, not just your leisurely stroll) Obviously I have a bit of a motivation problem. I just kept pushing on and made myself keep going. I need to figure out what can motivate me to actually exercise this week. Maybe the fact that when I put on a pair of capri's from last summer they did not fit! How did that happen?
Anyway, I will be trying to figure out what will keep me going. Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated! Wish me luck. By the way, hop on over to the Baby Tea Leaves if you want to join in on the fun!

Hannah's Story

*The extremely long winded version*

Tony joined the Marine Corps in the summer of 2003 in the delayed entry program, meaning that he did not have to leave for boot camp until late November. He left the last week of November and his actual date of entry was December 2, 2003. A few weeks after he left I found out I was pregnant. This was a complete (wonderful) surprise. The problem was that the only form of communication I had with him was through letters. So I was faced with a choice, tell him in a letter, wait until he got home, or hope that he got a phone call on Christmas and tell him then. We got a five minute phone call in which I told him he was going to be a daddy!
The weeks went by, he graduated from boot camp in February and was home for 10 days before he had to got to MCT (Marine Combat Training). During that time my doctor did an early ultrasound so he could see the baby. At that time the doctor guessed she would be a girl. He left for MCT in NC and then headed to Missouri for his specialty training. Since Ft. Leonard Wood was only three hours from where my Dad lives I "moved" to my Dad's for about five months so I could be closer to my hubby.
Shortly after I got there I had my 20 week ultrasound. My step-mom actually worked at a OB/GYN office so I got a little special treatment. The doctor came in on a Saturday and did the ultrasound so Tony could be there. He spent at least thirty minutes with us, and even gave us a video copy of it! He confirmed that it was a girl and that was that.
At about 34 weeks I went for my doctor's appointment and was having a few problems. (I will spare some of the details here.) I was given a non-stress test and Hannah's heart-rate dropped pretty low during this. The doctor came running in and told me to roll onto my side. I did, it did not help. I rolled to the other side and it came back up. He told me the baby did not like me laying on my back. He also told me I was having some contractions and he wanted to monitor them. He very quickly sent me down to the hospital, I was hospitalized (the weekend of July 4th) to try to get the contractions to stop. Originally I was sharing a room, but when one of the doctor's saw that he simply said "This won't do. I'll get you your own room." Shortly after, I had my own room. (Did I mention I got special treatment?) I was given the wonderful Magnesium Sulfate...which gave me hot flashes, nausea and really was no fun! I was also not allowed to get up...pregnant lady + bedpan = no fun. Seriously can you just imagine trying to use a bedpan at 34 weeks? Anyway, I was sent home on Sunday on bed rest and was given a prescription to take every four hours to keep the contractions from coming back.
I started noticing that my contractions were coming back between the pills. I went back for my weekly appointment at 35 weeks and I was having contractions again. I was hospitalized and the doctor told me to be prepared to stay until I had the baby. Shortly after I was admitted the nurses started noticing that Hannah's heart rate was dropping after each contraction. They just said they would monitor it because for now it was fine. Then my membranes started leaking. Did I mention that she was breech? So, there was no way she was coming on naturally.
My step-mom contacted the red cross in order to get ahold of my husband. Even though he was only at school, during the day I had no way to get ahold of him. The red cross said they could not contact him because it was not a life threatening situation. To which my step-mom put the doctor on the phone and he told them that it WAS a life threatening situation any time anyone went into surgery. Not to mention that the baby was five weeks early and was experiencing fetal distress. So they called him around 1:00pm on Friday. His Sgt. would not let him leave until around 3:00.
Around 5:00 pm Tony still was not here and the doctor said we could not wait any longer. My Dad went into surgery with me. I was really amazed at how fast the surgery was! I could feel pressure, but tried not to think about what was going on. Then I felt the doctor pulling Hannah. He was really pulling hard, so hard in fact that I felt him pull me up off the table and I had really bad bruising around my incision a couple of days later. He finally got her out and she had the cord wrapped around her neck twice, which is why she was stuck. She was also not breathing. They whisked her over to the bassinet where I could not see her, but I saw the blue bag! I was so scared, I remember asking my Dad what was going on. I kept telling him to go check, but he said he didn't want to get in the way. After a few minutes she cried, then they whisked her away to the nursery. She was such a tiny baby, 5 lbs 11 oz and 17 3/4 inches long! (By the time we left she was only 5 lbs).
I went to recovery and on my way out, they stopped at the nursery so I could see Hannah. Just as they brought her out Tony walked around the corner. This was about 6:00 pm so he just missed her! Anyway, I remember how beautiful she was and how much blond hair she had! They took her back to the nursery and I did not get to see her until after 9:00 because they wanted to monitor her and make sure everything was ok.
The next morning my mom and Tony's parents arrived after driving all night from Ohio. Sometime that morning the pediatrician came in (when Tony was not in there) and said she noticed a problem. She said that Hannah's limbs were shorter than they should be, specifically the long bones. She also said that she was born early because when something is wrong this is how it is taken care of. (Although my Mom does not remember her saying that, she says that she said she was born early because she had something wrong.) Anyway, I was devastated that she would give me this kind of news, especially when my husband was not with me and then to say something rude like that. I have an entire different post about that. The rest of our stay was uneventful, except for the fact that Tony got food poisoning and was sick as a dog. We got sent home on Sunday the 11th and Tony had to head back to school that night.
The first week of her life she had so many tests. She had several blood tests, she had an MRI and she had jaundice so she had to stay under the light for the first week. The second blood test was a DNA test to check for the gene mutation in the FGFR3 gene. She was poked five times, including once in the head, before the doctor decided to do an arterial draw. That was not fun. The MRI came back normal and we had a few weeks to wait for the lab results. The DNA tests are 99% accurate for achondroplasia and 80% accurate for hypochondroplasia. The results said "No sequence change from normal" Hmm, what does that mean? The geneticist who ordered the blood tests had said that Hannah had very mild outward appearance of achondroplasia but she still thought it was achondroplasia rather than hypochondroplasia.
When she was five weeks old, Tony graduated from his school and we went back to Ohio for a few weeks. Then we moved to North Carolina which would be our home for the next three years. However, when she was six months old, Tony left for Iraq so we went back to Ohio for the seven months to be with family. During that time we went to the Cleveland Clinic to see a geneticist. He did a full skeletal survey and diagnosed Hannah with achondroplasia from that. He said he would like to find out more about what happened at John Hopkins, but we never heard back from him because by that time she was a year old and we were back in North Carolina.
Since then she has had no serious problems. It was just nice to have an official diagnosis so we knew what we were up against. We had already assumed it was achondroplasia and had researched it, and understood it but now it was official.
Looking back I feel like I was so uninformed, mostly by my own fault. After looking back over the results it now brings up questions that I should have asked back then. There are so many things that I should have been concerned about that I did not really know about. I was wearing my rose colored glasses thinking that everything was going to be ok. Which, up to this point it has and I am very thankful for that. It has taught me that I need to be more informed and I need to be prepared to ask questions to ensure that she is getting the care that she needs.

Be on the lookout for my "report" on what achondroplasia is.

Little Person BIG BED

The girl has been "sneaking" down at night and climbing into our bed. I say "sneaking" because we usually hear her, but just let her go. Last night when we went to bed this is what we saw. I had to laugh because compared to her the bed is so big and yet she is in the corner with her leg hanging over the side! Silly girl.
Apparently my kids like to take turns being sick. Hannah just finished taking antibiotics for a double ear infection yesterday and then Alex started getting fussy. So I took him to the doctor and he has another double ear infection. Geese this kid gets so many ear infections (you would think he was achon). Thankfully we are going to the ENT on Tuesday!

On a side note, I am having issues with blogger. I tried to comment on several blogs today and I kept getting an error message. So I'm not being antisocial, I'm just having issues with blogger. Is anyone else having problems? Kim you can add me. (Preston is such a cutie by the way!)

See, I am crazy!

I do not know what I was worried about! We met four amazing families and with so many beautiful kiddos to talk about, I was never in the corner by myself. We spent the majority of the time oohing and aahing over the children and chit-chatting. The kids were all beautiful, here are just a few of the many pictures I took. Unfortunately the older kids were busy running around so I did not take any pictures of he AH kids. First meet the infamous Knoah! Just look at that grin...doesn't it just say "TROUBLE?"
We also met the beautiful Kaela! She is the prettiest little girl with beautiful blue eyes and the sweetest personality.

Here is the handsome Owen. He was the big man, showing off all of his tricks! Look at that adorable face. He reminded us so much of Hannah at that age (except for the fact that he was a boy and didn't really look like her!)

Next up is Aidan, whose Mommy does not have a blog! Just look at those adorable blue eyes. Owen and Aidan both have gorgeous red hair...they almost look like they could be related.

We tried to get the kids all together, I did not have much luck on my end maybe one of the other moms got a better picture. The poor kids had so many cameras flashing at them, they probably were getting tired of it by this point.

Here are all of the Mommies with our beautiful children. From left to right, is Sarah and Kaela, Sue and Aidan, Me and Hannah, bottom: Cat and Owen and Tonya and Knoah.

We had so much fun playing with all the kids and my Hannah absolutely fell in love with Tonya's Hannah! She was still talking about her right before bed. I am so glad we got the chance to meet so many amazing people, thanks Tonya for getting everybody together.

Nerves

If you know me, you probably know that I am pretty shy. When I first meet somebody I tend to come across as being either a snob or a big dork because I am so shy. Don't get me wrong, once I get to know a person it is hard to get me to shut-up. It is that initial awkward phase that I hate. I hate being in large social settings, I hate meeting new people and I hate being the center of attention. I get anxious and worry about every little detail. In fact I even get anxious about simple things...my husband orders the pizza's around here! Sometimes I just want to stay inside so I don't have to meet new people.
I am telling you this because we are meeting a bunch of new people tomorrow and I have been on edge about it all day long. We are going up to Monroe to meet with four other families that also have children with achondroplasia. While I am excited to meet people who are in the same situation as us, I am still as nervous as all get out.
What should I wear? Man I look HUGE in everything, I really need to get serious about losing this weight! What if they don't like me? What if my pies are no good? (Did I mention that I am taking pies?) What if my kids misbehave? What if I have nothing to talk about and I end up alone in the corner?
Seriously people, these are the types of things that have been running through my head all day long. Is this normal? Am I some sort of recluse that should move up to the mountains and stay in a secluded cabin? What has happened to me that I have become such a shy person? Where has all of this fear come from?

Too much chocolate?

I really never thought I would say this but perhaps we got too much candy from our three egg hunts. Take a look at our loot:
Seriously, that bucket is overflowing with candy! Anybody want to place bets on how long it will last? I am guessing that in this house...not as long as it should!

Really, that is a lot of candy...so I decided as of yesterday that I would go on an all chocolate diet. What? I think I hear my father-in-law telling us to just smash it on our hips and call it a day.

An Easter Photo Essay

Our Easter spanned two weeks, as we had Easter at my in-laws on Palm Sunday and then Easter at my parents on Easter. So I thought I would use a bunch of pictures since I have not posted any in awhile due to blogger's picture loader being broken for a few weeks.This was Palm Sunday, our family. Unfortunately my father-in-law only took one picture for us so even though us girls are smiling pretty...the boys have their usual look.

Tater and her Daddy. (Note he has the same look as above photo) Such a sweet picture!

My poor Zandey on the egg hunt. He had a fever all day, and we just assumed it was a combination of teething or ears. So, he was a bit clingy and unhappy for most of the day. When we got home we took his temperature and it was 103.0 under his arm. It ended up he had Rosiolla and had the fever all of Monday and Tuesday then got a slight rash on Thursday.

Little Zandey collecting his eggs at the egg hunt at grandma and grandpa's. I think he did have some fun despite the fact that he had a fever.

Tater finding an egg...notice her facial expression she takes after her Daddy quite a bit in this department. Quite the excitement on finding eggs.

Here she is right after she found her basket. She is showing me her Duckie Fur-real. I forgot to mention that she just had to have a polka-dot dress. I looked all over to find a cute one for Easter, this was a second favorite as it was not the spring colors. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures on Easter Sunday when she was in her dress:(

Is this how I use the bucket mom? This was Easter Sunday and he was feeling much better. We had our egg hunt after we got home from church because my kids do not like to get up early (and neither does mommy).

Here is Tater finding an egg with another goofy face. If I would post pictures of my hubs you would understand that it comes naturally. Also please don't mind how busy the picture is because I was too lazy to crop it.

Apparently I need to be more clear with my directions. He is looking for his basket "under the desk." I laugh just looking at the picture because the basket is just staring him in the face and I had to point it out to him.

Hannah had much better luck finding her basket. She learned how to play the hot and cold game at Grandma Chips house practicing egg hunts. It was so funny because the first time Grandma said you are getting hot...you're burning up, Hannah asked why Grandma said she was going to start a fire. It took us a minute to figure out what she was talking about. Here she is exclaiming that she got "Pongo mobee." Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures at my Mom's Easter...not sure why because I had my camera!

Overall it was a great Easter. We celebrated with family and it was not too busy. I did make three pies from scratch and it took me a lot longer than expected. Of course I waited until Saturday night to start them, but that is typical. I made an apple, coconut cream and a sugar pie. Overall they turned out good, but the sugar was not what I expected. And we got a BUNCH of candy!

He looks so much older!

We took Alex to get his very first haircut here. We mainly went for the fun chairs, for pictures...however I did not really like the chair he was put in. He did a great job at first.
Check out that wicked mullet! If we were back in the 80's he would be stylin'. That is why we decided it was time to get his hair cut, we did not want people referring to our son as Joe Dirt.

We got to pick out a move for him to watch. So of course we picked out the Wigg-les. As you can see below, he was zoned out for the first part of the haircut.

If the stylist would have been faster he would have done awesome, however it took her almost an hour. Seriously, I am not exaggerating it took an hour people. If you know my son you know he does not sit still for five minutes....imagine an hour long haircut.

Here is where it started to get interesting, I held him on my lap, held his head and finally gave him a sucker just to keep him still. At one point the hubs was holding his head down so that the slowest stylist on earth could finish. It would have been a great experience if she was not so stinking slow. Would I recommend this place to a friend? Well, yes as long as you do not get Ashley as your stylist. Unfortunately I did not take an after picture because by the time she was done he was hysterical and I was just ready to get the heck out of there! We did get a cute certificate with a picture and a lock of his mullet and now he seriously looks all grown up...sniff, sniff.

The right place at the right time

When hubs was scheduled for his second tour to Iraq, we debated on what to do with our house. Should we put it on the market when he leaves so we have plenty of time to sell it, or wait until he gets home. If we sold it when he left, we would not have the extra costs and could save up money. However, when he returned in October, he would still have two months and if we sold it we would not have a place to live. Not to mention the fact that I had a baby and that the market was so good in our area we decided to wait. Mainly because I wanted to be with hubs when he got home!
So we waited. We figured we would sell our house in no time flat. When we were buying our house, houses were selling after only being on the market for a few days so we were not worried. The problem was that we had no idea where we would go. Hubs did not have a job lined up so if the house sold we would have had to put our stuff in storage until something came up. We put our house on the market towards the end of October. Then November came and went with no offers. Then December, of course things would slow down during the holidays so we had only a couple of people walk through the house. By this time I was really starting to get nervous! Our insurance had went up, making our house payment almost 300 dollars more expensive. January started off slow as well, then we started getting calls.
Well, hubs was officially discharged on January 1, 2008. We had decided around Christmas, that to save money we would pack up our clothes and go to Ohio to stay with family during our time of transition. In the meantime Tony's Grandma was getting ready for a three month visit to her daughter's house in South Dakota. In mid January we got an offer on the house, after a few counter offers, we sold our house! Our closing date was February 22. However, we were still not sure what we would do with our stuff.
About the time we accepted the offer, Hubs' Grandma decided that she was going to move to South Dakota permanently. Meaning we would have a place to stay! Isn't God good? The week before our closing, we boxed her belonging and Hubs and his Dad drove her belonging to her. THE WEEK BEFORE! If things had happened in our timing it would have been a big mess. We would have not had a place to live and would have had to move our stuff twice. However, God saw the big picture. He knew that Grandma would be moving and that it would be a perfect opportunity for us. I am so thankful that He is in control!

Welcome Leah Grace!

We would like to welcome the newest edition to the family, Leah Grace. She was born at 8:28 am and was 7 lbs 13 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. Proud sisters Anna and Abbie (above) were so excited for her arrival. Anna and Abbie were at my house waiting for the big news, my Mom dropped them off at 7:00 am. Starting about 7:30 Anna kept asking when her baby would be born and when she could go see her etc. We finally got to go visit at noon and we could not get there soon enough! They are so precious, and we are so excited to have a new niece!

Dude, don't be so moto!

As our house is being (very slowly) packed up I have been reflecting on the past four years of military life. Mainly reflecting on things that I have learned, some deep such as how I can be a strong "single" mom of two while hubby is deployed for seven months, the pride of being married to one of the few, and some silly. For now let us focus on the not so serious. The followings are words and phrases that I had never heard of prior to enlistment and for those of you not in the know I will give you the definition:

Head - bathroom

Field-day - sounds fun, but really it means cleaning

Rack - bed

Moonbeam - flashlight

Go fasters - tennis shoes, you know cause you can go faster in your tennis shoes then your combat boots

Semper Fi(delis) - Always faithful

Devil Dog - a nickname for any Marine

Oorah (not to be confused with Hoorah) - can mean a number of things, like if somebody asks a group of Marines how they are doing, it is usually answered with a loud oorah!

PT - no not physical therapy, physical training

Various ranks

The significance of 10 November - The Marine Corps birthday in 1775, which is to be celebrated every year with a ball

Commissary - Grocery Store

Exchange - a mini mall!

Boot - Usually refering to somebody fresh out of boot camp who is still in that deer in the headlights phase. Commonly used like so: "That guy is so boot!"

Skate - referring to not doing any work, just skating by

Moto - Referring to somebody who is really motivated

Key Volunteers - A network for wives, sometimes really, really informative and others not so much

A few phrases my husband picked up:
That's a negative, or sometimes he just says "negative."

Roger that

The phonetic alphabet, you know like alpha, bravo, charlie which sometimes gets a bit annoying when I want a simple answer to a simple question like how do you spell...

Funny story about hubby field-daying. When he fresh out of boot and at his specialty school he would call me whenever he got a free minute. Usually when asked what he was doing, he would say that he was field-daying and wasn't supposed to be on the phone. With my limited knowledge of such terms I just assumed it was something recreational, like jogging or something. I mean don't you remember when you had a field day at school and would get to be outside all day doing various fun physical activities? It took me a few weeks to realize what he was talking about. Mainly because he started being so specific, saying he was field-daying his room and that his roommate was a slob. Um, ok! I don't know if I ever told him about that or not.

Seriously, it has been a great experience. Being here has made me sad. I miss the community, the instant family, the (ahem) steady job, great benefits and most importantly seeing my cute husband in uniform. Have you ever seen a man in uniform? Seriously, almost any guy looks good in uniform, so take my cute hubby + uniform = hottness!!! That being said my husband is happy to be a civilian. However, I think once he gets a "real" job he will be shocked at how easy he did have it. I mean how many jobs do you know of where you go in at 7:30 get a two hour lunch and usually be home by 4:30? Of course that was not always the case as they "owned" him and technically he was on-call 24-7. It has been a great ride, we have had our ups and downs but we would NOT trade it. So, good-bye Havelock. Good by Marine Corps, Semper Fi. I will miss you...(sigh)