Lazy Summer afternoons

OK with 3 kids it's never truly a Lazy Summer afternoon. It is truly nice not to have to be on the go all the time with school being out. We have spent the first 3 weeks of summer rather busy and on the go.
We have spent most of the day time hiding from the heat. It's exhausting just to walk outside to get the mail. It's been in the 100's during the day and not out of the 80's at night. We get blessed with wonderful late afternoon thunder storms and the kids and I look forward to the cool down they bring. We are looking at heading to the library some this summer and maybe a few trips to the beach. The kids and I are going to pull out sometime towards the end of this month and go to my home town to stay with my mom for a week or two. They really enjoy being with their Nana and I love spending time pampering my mom. She works really hard and when I am their her and her husband never have to cook and they get a break from having to worry so much about that. I am hoping to get out to my Granny's farm as well. I haven't seen her in a while and I need that time with her. Then we will do some school shopping and get all the stuff that all 3 of the kids will need and we may even do some shopping for Rob and his back to school items he will need. That seems crazy to say but it looks like it will be a reality soon enough.

Here is a little update on everyone:

Rob is doing great. He is still working hard at Pizza Hut. He has decided to go to school in the fall. We are waiting to here back from the Pell Grant office to find out if he is able to get some assistance in going back. He wants to do story boards for commercials and for TV shows. He is super excited and I am hoping it all works out for him and for us. We need a change.

Jordan is doing wonderful, she is getting ready to enter high school in the fall.She will turn 14 this July and is super excited about the possibility of getting a job soon after her birthday. She is truly an independent soul. She loves to spread those wings of her's and fly. I am really proud of who she is becoming and who she wants to be. We are truly blessed to have such a bright and smart and beautiful daughter.

Logan is doing really well. He will remain in Kindergarten for one more year. He has a few things he has to work on to get him ready for 1st grade. He is happy that he gets to have the same teacher again and is really excited that he will know most of the stuff already. He has been informed by Mrs Dean that he has to be a leader and a big help to her. He loves the idea of being the big helper. So I am sure he will do fine.

Serenity is just a ball of energy. Now that her crohn's is being managed better she is non-stop. She loves to learn and loves to have all eye's on her. She loves to show everyone how smart she is. We can be with people she doesn't know and she will randomly start counting in Spanish or she will start naming shapes and counting to 20 with no help. She loves to have people tell her she is smart. She starts Pre-school for 3 yr old's as a model student at Logan's school in the fall. We are working really hard at losing the pacifier so far it's going well. She really loves that thing.

I am doing great,trying to keep up with everyone and make time for myself. Really enjoying not having to cook so much now that school is out. The kids don't like to eat as much during the summer so I am going with the flow. If they want sandwiches for lunch and dinner then that is what we are doing. If they just want yogurt and home made granola then we are doing that too. I am not getting as worked up as I normally do over what they are eating. I tend to stay pretty worked up over little things and I am trying hard to let all of the worrying I do be only over the things that matter. I have 3 cakes to make at the end of July. One is the wedding cake for my nephew and his beautiful bride. I am really excited about getting the chance to make a wedding cake. It's something I have never attempted before so I am praying with everything I have in me that it all works out well. The heat has me concerned but I am going to work around it the best I can.

Well time to go enjoy that afternoon thunder storm. HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE!! Hope that you all stay safe and that you do something fun with your love ones.

Happy 3rd Birthday Serenity

It's so hard to believe that she is just three years old with the year we have had. Seems has if a whole life time of stuff has happen to her in the three short years she has been with us.

We had real reason to celebrate this year and real reason to be grateful for all that has happen and all that we can slowly put behind us. Just two short days before her birthday we were told by her GI doctors that she looked great. That her labs had come back all in healthy range and that she was finally right at the correct weight for her age and height. She was no longer showing signs of flair ups and she seems for once to have her colitis and crohn's disease under control. That was like music to my ears, it had to be right up there with the day she was born and we heard her first cry.

I made a huge cake for a big BBQ and we had tons of family over for her big day. She loved every minute of the all the attention she got. She loves to be the center of the attention. She got tons of barbie's and dress up stuff, a tea party set and clothes. Everything a little girl could ever want.

The BOSTON CREAM PIE is Rob's Birthday cake. He turned 39 this past week as well.

How with the old and in with the new

Seems like 2009 just drug and drug right along. I can't say I have ever been so happy to see a year over with as I was last year. It's seemed there were more things wrong with last year then there was right.

This year I am hoping to have a better year. I have never been good at making resolutions for what I want out of the new year. I have always felt those are just huge promises you make to yourself that you never really keep and then at the end of the year you are let down again. So instead of lying to myself from the get go, I just take each day as the come and embrace whatever happens and keep on moving. I can't say that I don't get down or get mad about things because that would be huge lie. I just try not to dwell on it.

I am hoping to get better at baking this year. I really want to start making better quality cakes. I also want to make more from scratch and stop using so many store bought items. I have been working on cutting our budget down at the grocery store. I don't know that I am really making head way there but I am truly trying.

I do need to work on me but I am not going to get hung up on that or worry about it if it doesn't happen. I need to loose weight. I have needed to do that for years. Sometimes I lose a little and then I stay there but for the most part I have stayed the same weight for 4 yrs. So I am pretty comfortable with the weight I am. Not that it's a healthy weight or that it's something I want to stay at. I just don't worry about it or get all hung up on exercising or eating things that taste like cardboard. We eat pretty healthy and I don't over eat and I try hard not to stress eat. I drink lots of sweet tea and diet Dr. pepper and very little water. So I am sure if I cut those things out and maybe walk a mile or two I would be fine. I'll just play by ear and see what happens.

So far this year in the baking department I am off to a busy start.

January 6th- I am making a cake for Logan's teacher. It's her birthday and she loves Chocolate,cheesecake,strawberries. So she will get my Cheesecake stuff chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and chocolate covered strawberries on top.

January 9th- I am making a ton of cupcakes for my niece's baby shower. She is doing a black and white theme for her shower. I will be adding a little pink since her baby is a girl. We are super excited for her arrival and I can't wait to make the cup cakes.

February 1st- Is Logan's birthday. I have not clue on the cake as of yet but it will be fun. Also cupcakes for his class.
February 1st- Is my mom's birthday. I want to make her a nice cake and have her over for dinner. She rarely does anything on that day and her husband doesn't push her to do stuff. So I am wanting to do something great for them.
February- My Mom and Step dad both turn 50 this year. We are having a big party for them. So that is another cake.

March 14th is my Anniversary and I will make some kind of fun cake for that.

April 4th Easter and I am hoping to host an Easter egg hunt and make a ham and cake and some other great goodies for that.
April 14th- Rob's birthday and I am going to make him a boston cream pie(cake)
April 17th- Serenity will be turning 3. So that is another cake with lots of pink.

May 9th- I will host my mom and my MIL over for a brunch. I am hoping to do a small desert of some sort for them.

June 20th- Father's day. Not to sure if anything will happen that day.

July 4th- I am sure we will cook out and I'll make a flag cake or something like that.
July 27th- Jordan's 14th birthday. WOW (tear tears and more tears) I have no clue on the type of cake or if she will even want one. Teenagers are so funny.

That is as far as I have gotten with my baking and party plans. I am sure the details and plans will all fall into place and things will work out nicely.

Hope everyone has a Happy and healthy and a blessed 2010.

Where we stand.

I know I left everyone hanging with what's going on with Serenity. I never meant to do that I just needed the time to try and wrap my brain around what I do know for sure. Which isn't much considering all the stuff we have had to do to her here lately.

I deleted the Dairy and Gluten Free Princess blog, because gluten isn't an issue anymore. We found out that she isn't allergic to gluten. We still have issues with Dairy but it's not as serve as we once believed. In moderation she can tolerate some dairy. So that was good news.

She is still having trouble with her stomach. We got referred to a GI specialist a few weeks back. We went and seen him and he schedule and Upper and Lower GI test done for June 22nd. To be honest it was the very best he could do to get it done that soon. He is one of 2 specialist at Nemours that do that test and they are super booked. I feel blessed to be able to have it done that soon.

While we were there he was looking at all the blood work and said that he didn't believe she had problems with her Iron levels and that he believed that it was something else. In the back of my mind that sent up TONS AND TONS of RED FLAGS!!! He asked me to bare with him as he went and spoke with a hematologist on the next floor up. What else could I do but wait. All the while I wanted to grab my child up and run and pretend now of this was really happening and that she was just a normal healthy 2 year old. He came back and said to stop giving her the iron that the Ped had order and continue with chewable vitamins with Iron. That he was referring us to the Hematologist who said that she needed to see Serenity as soon as possible. He also let us know that while Serenity was under for what he needed to do that he was be drawing extra blood for the Hematologist. He was reassuring that it was something that could be quickly solved and told us not to worry.

So here we sit. Knowing no more then when all of this started. And feeling like there is something more to it then all of the doctors are really telling us. I can say that we are not dwelling on all of this and we are going on living a normal every day life. It does sit in the back of our minds and it is hard not to call the doctors every 5 minutes to see if we can speed things up. I am truly having my patience tested and my faith.

So if you are praying people, please pray for us and for Serenity and for her doctors. I promise to keep everyone posted on what they find and what is happening here. And I promise to post some happier post soon..

Much Love...