Some news

I have a whole bunch of pics I am trying to put together about my brother Ezra leaving on his mission. I'm waiting on getting some more pics from my sister Jessica when her and my other sisters dropped him off at the MTC.

Anyways, not much else going on here. Devon gave Luke a hat and he now wants to wear it all the time. He would never really keep any hat on but this one he just loves. He thinks Devon and Kathryn are the best so I'm not surprised that he loves that hat. It is really too big for him but he loves it anyways.

He can say Devon pretty well but for whatever reason he calls my sister Kathryn, "Boss". It is really cute!! He's been saying that for awhile but I never knew what he was talking about until he said it around Kathryn and pointed at her. It is so funny. Who knows how he came up with it though. It's not anywhere close to her name.

He is starting to speak better as well. He is putting together sentences and other people can tell what he is saying now too. I don't always have to decipher his words and meanings for everyone. Last Sunday, he even was good in nursery after I left with about 45 min. left of church. He only cried twice and for just a short time period!! Yay, he's slowly getting better. He will be turning 2 in one month!!

Cameryn is still being her difficult 3 year old self right now, but we're dealing with it. I still have no new ideas but I'm really looking forward to her being four. I've heard good things (mostly) about four year olds.

I still like to peak in at her while she is playing by herself in her room. She is usually playing with something Princesses and it is so cute to hear her sing and do her little voices for the princesses and the one or two princes she has. Usually while I'm watching her the princesses are nicely arguing and/or sharing one prince. It's so cute.

We've been going to the park and just outside alot recently. Luke is starting to think that he doesn't need naps anymore and I'm not ready for that yet. I need to make sure he is nice and tired out from a morning of playing.

I'm doing okay myself. I have finally decided that I needed to go see the dentist. I haven't been in years (stupid I know, but I'm learning my own lesson now so no lectures). We don't have dental insurance so I've had to save up some money to go. I had my initial visit on Monday and they took x-rays and pictures and did a whole work up on all the things that I need to do to have my mouth be perfect (or close to it). I've never had a cavity so this kinda sucks but that's what happens when you neglect yourself. I decided to get the most expensive stuff out of the way first and got my two upper wisdom teeth out on Tuesday. They had an opening for the very next day so I thought, why wait. My wisdom teeth on top were already out so they only had to pull them instead of going digging which was nice. I've already had my left bottom one out in an emergency thing right after Cameryn was born. It was impacting on my gums and was making my whole mouth hurt so they took it out. That was really expensive though cuz it was partially under my jaw bone so they had to break the tooth in half and pull out both halves. My other one on the bottom is almost completely under my jaw bone, so he said I'll most likely not have any problems with that one and can leave it be. Anyways, it was very quick and easy and I've had relatively little pain from it which is really nice considering that the vicodin they gave me makes me really super nauseous. They gave me that and some 600 mg Ibuprofen which work good during the day. I do take the other stuff at night though that way I can sleep off the gross feeling but also be pain free at night. I've got my super-de-super cleaning coming up that I scheduled but couldn't get in sooner then a month later and then after that all my money will be gone for awhile. I'll have to save up some more quickly to get all my fillings taking care of cuz I really don't want to charge them, but I might have to if it takes to long to save up the money. They have a really good plan for that stuff though so I should be fine either way.

I'm still on medicine for my thyroid so I'm feeling good. I went to see my specialist this past Wednesday and they took more blood to redo the tests and see were my levels are right now. There is another test that they wanted to do but I have to be off the medicine for at least 10 days and I'm not ready to go back to being sick again. My doctor said they will adjust my medicine if they need to after they get my results back and then we will go from there. She doesn't want me to have to go off the medicine either since I have two little kids so I'm grateful for that. I have to go back and see her again in about 6 weeks.

After my appointment, I went out to lunch with 2 people I used to work with down in Rockville, where my specialist office was. It was really fun to hang out with them and talk again. I have been seeing Amanda more often lately and we email back and forth too but I haven't talked to Carolyn in a while. It was so nice to see her. We sat next to each other for about 3-4 years so it was fun catching up. I told them we could have lunch again when I have my next appointment in six weeks so at least I have one thing to look forward to.

Luke with his new hat on.

Cameryn dancing to Princess songs

Cameryn with our kitten Chipmunk (she named it).

They're at it again!!!

Just look at what those stupid mosquitos have done to my beautiful baby boy!!!

Saturday morning
Right after he woke up from his nap on Saturday
Sunday morning

I have got to do something about these stupid mosquitos around my house. My poor little baby Luke is just getting attacked!! He was outside one late afternoon with Mike for like 4-5 minutes and got about 6 huge bites on his legs. I forgot to take pictures of those ones. So we've been remembering to put on the bug spray everytime we take him outside evern for a few minutes.

So I was out front picking cherries off our cherry tree so I could make a pie (yummy sour cherry pie!!). Luke was running around with Cameryn in the front yard (mosquitos aren't as bad out front) and around our cars. I didn't put any bug spray on him cuz we were out front and he was fine while with Cameryn. He comes over to where I am on the side of the house picking cherries and he's stealing them out of my bowl to eat them. Next thing I know, I'm smacking mosquitos off him and I left and right. Finally after they got him right on his eyelid (and I killed that one for sure- it left blood on his face), I pick up the bowl, him and tell Cameryn to come inside. I got about 3-4 bites and somehow he only got two of all the ones I killed while landing on him but the one on his eye is just awful, as you can see. That's the way they all get but this one is especially bad cuz he's rubbing his eye and it's just way more sensitive right there next to his eye.

I've been putting Calamine lotion on it and we give him Benedryl but it doesn't seem to help too much. There has to be something that I can do for him!! I think I'm going to take all the pictures I took last year from all his many bug bites and the ones from this year and go to the city to try to get them to spray in this area. There is this very small creek around here and we also have a storm drain right next to our house. I don't know where they are coming from exactly but I know we aren't the only ones with a problem around here. I just hate those stupid bugs!!!!

Cameryn's going to preschool

I have been so forgetful and lazy about doing my blog lately that there are so many things that happened awhile ago that I'm just now remembering that I wanted to put on my blog.

I signed Cameryn up for a preschool. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to do that just because they can be so expensive and I really doubt that they make a difference really. I'm sure once the kids are all in 5th grade that you wouldn't be able to tell who went to preschool and who didn't. Anyways, I was going back and forth when my mother-in-law, Robin, said that she would pay for it if Mike and I wanted to put her in a preschool. I still wasn't really looking into it too much though until a friend of mine said that she was going to check out this one for her daughter (who is around Cameryn's age).

I decided to check it out with her and I really liked it. It is a small classroom so there are a ton of kids which I really liked. They had all sorts of toys for boys and girls and they also had dress ups which Cameryn went right over to. They do crafts, story time, snack time, outside play on this nice playground and they have a big black top with tons of tricycles and other things for the kids to ride around on. They of course do the usual school stuff of learning their ABC's and numbers. They do fun field trips and lots of other events that the whole family is invited to. The two women in charge were really nice and it is held in a church, which I think of as a plus. It's pretty inexpensive too. I liked it so much, my friend and I put down our reservation fee so our girls would already have a spot saved for them for September.

I probably should have checked out more places, I guess cuz that's what people normally do but I don't care. It was small and close and cheap. What's not to like? So, I'm kind of excited about it and nervous. I think she'll do really well. Cameryn does good in a classroom setting. I am always hearing praise of her from the leaders of the Primary. She'll even say prayer during her classes.

Her birthday being in September has become kind of annoying now. The cutoff here for entering Kindergarten is August 31st. At the preschool it's Sept 1st and her birthday is Sept 2nd. They have gotten pretty strict with those deadlines now too. I'm not to upset about it though cuz I really don't have a problem with waiting another year for her to start school. If I fought and got her into Kindergarten in the year she turned 5, she would literally be the youngest in her class. I would rather her be one of the oldest by waiting till the next year to start her. She would have another year to mature and be really ready. I don't really know why I worry about it sometimes. I guess I worry about people thinking something that I don't want them to think, like she isn't smart or whatever. I don't know... I'm just worrying like usual about everything that I don't really know about. I have no idea about any of this stuff and I don't even know where to begin, which is probably why I signed up with the first preschool I saw, though I still don't regret that so my good feeling must have been for something.

I am excited about it though, I can't wait to take pictures and pick her up on the first day and let her tell me all about it. I love being a mom!!

Luke is the Hulk, who'd a thought

Somehow I forgot to post this funny video with Luke wearing Hulk hands. It happened back in May and I just forgot to upload it. Enjoy!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Where's the sweetness gone to?

I am really struggling with Cameryn right now. She has suddenly just... I don't even know how to put it. I know no kid wants to hear no but she used to not take it so badly like she does now. She can be so sweet and nice and funny and then you tell her no to something and it's a little devil popping out and taking her place. She glares at me and screams and throws things and tells me she doesn't like me anymore. She throws the biggest fits I've ever seen and all I feel I can do is take her up to her room for a timeout. She screams while she's up there and I hear lots of banging and crashing. Sometimes she comes out into the hallway to scream down the stairs and I go back up put her back in her room and tell her she's not allowed to open the door unless she is quiet and calmed down.

I know it's her testing her boundaries and limits with me but I just wish that it wasn't everyday! I miss my sweet little girl who was so nice to her brother. Now it's just a back and forth with them too often for me. Cameryn takes a toy from Luke, Luke pinches her, she hits him, he hits back, she cries and pushes him, he cries and bites her wherever he reaches first. It's the most annoying thing. It's impossible for me to take showers during the day anymore cuz I'm afraid I'll come out of the shower and one of them will be bleeding or something. Cameryn doesn't always instigate it cuz Luke is older now and tries to take stuff from her as well.

Of course they still have their really nice moments with each other and they still get along most of the time, but it's seems more and more that I have to breaks up their squabbles. Cameryn is just a very very very very very stubborn girl. I think I have something over her so she'll cave in but no she comes out telling me, "okay". I've stopped trying that now and just take her up to her room. That always works (so far).

Especially with meal times. She has been sneaking snacks while I'm doing things and then doesn't want to eat any of her meals. Mike and I got fed up and hid or got rid of all the snacks. Her and Luke both like snacking way too much (what kid doesn't) so I've had enough. I'm not going to make dinner 3 different times with 3 different things. Mike and I are not a restaurant. Cameryn either eats what we give her or she goes to her room where she screams for the whole 3-5 minutes of time out and says she wants to eat, she's hungry. I calmly open the door and talk to her for a minute to explain why she's up here then take her downstairs where she usually will start eating her dinner. The other night though, that didn't work because she had snacked for what seemed like all day. I would find her eating a string cheese, then with some crackers or asking me for fruit snacks and cheetos. She gets out the popsicles or eats the fruit in the fridge. Of course I know that she's hungry cuz she didn't eat her breakfast or lunch that I made her that she asked for.

Anyways, the other night we were having leftovers and Cameryn was crying that she wanted something else which we said no to. She sat there for I don't know how long and then I took her upstairs then brought her back down. She took the smallest bite possible and then cried that she was done. I knew she probably wasn't hungry because she had been eating Goldfish all afternoon from my bowl, Luke's bowl and her own. She spent the rest of the night in her pj's in her room while we played with Luke and gave him a bath.

I hope that with no more snacks that this will stop soon and she will revert back to my good little princess Cameryn but it feels like it's been forever (when it's only a recent thing actually). I have been allowing one snack that the three of us eat together on the front porch outside after Luke wakes up. Yesterday it was the cherries that I bought at the store and Cameryn and I were spitting the seeds and seeing how far we could get them. She was just using her tongue with hilarious results and the day went really well. I think she just has too much sugar and she gets mean after it wears off. That stuff never really affected me (still doesn't and neither does caffeine). Anyways, I went to see a movie with my friend last night and Mike fed the kids and put them to bed. He said that they both ate every scrape of food on their dinner plates (nothing new for Luke) and were really good. This no snack policy seems to be working already!!

I am just going to have them be outside constantly cuz that seems to help them get along better. I am sooooooooooooooo glad that it's warmer now too. I don't know what I would have done if Cameryn started this attitude thing during the cold winter. But most of the winter all I dealt with was this:

and this:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Update on me

I am really starting to feel a lot better. Thank you for all of you that have sent me emails and comments hoping that I would feel better soon.

I had my ultrasound done last Monday and there were no nodules on it, which was good. But I got a letter from my doctors a few days later saying that I have an enlarged thyroid, which I'm not sure if it is a side effect from hyperthyroidism or just another symptom.

I still wasn't feeling that great even though I was taking the medicine last week. I kept getting horrible headaches, insomnia, and I was still nauseous, shaky, weak and most of my other symptoms. On Thursday, I went to the chiropractor to try and help lessen this horrible throbbing headache I was having in the right side of my head (it was so bad I felt like my brain was contracting or something). That helped a little bit but since these headaches are caused by my thyroid and not my usual neck issues, it didn't completely go away. But it did lessen a little every day and would go away completely for a few hours if I took medicine. By Saturday, it was finally completely gone and I haven't had a headache since!! I still get shaky and still have muscle weakness but most of my other symptoms seem to be so much less that I barely notice them. I love feeling better!! You never appreciate good health as much as after you've been sick for a long time. I'll have been on the medicine for two weeks on Friday and I'm so grateful that I'm already feeling better.

The only bad thing is now I have very little excuses for not cleaning my very dirty house. Oh well, I'd rather be feeling better then I was before this medicine any day!!

Luke ate veggies!!!!!

I was so excited last night cuz Luke finally ate some veggies with dinner without us having to hide them!! Luke never eats anything green which of course means almost every veggie out there. He'll eat corn and I think that's it. We can hide stuff in spaghetti and other pasta things but other then that he won't even try them. Last night we had zucchini that mike cooked on the grill with salt and pepper and probably some other stuff. Well Luke was only eating his potato and he would put the steak in his mouth and chew for awhile and then spit it out (and try to give it to me for my plate).

He started pointing to the zucchini and then his plate, so I decided, sure, what the heck. I put one small piece on his plate since Mike, Cameryn and me all like zucchini and I didn't want to waste it. He ate it (obviously from my title) and then demanded more. Mike and I exchange shocked looks and I give him two more pieces. He eats those before I can eat another bite of my own food and still wants more. More surprised looks and I give him more and then more again and more again until it is all gone and he has eaten half of it. I was so surprised and happy!! Though I'm sure it won't happen again, but you never know.

More Pictures by Cameryn

She is getting better with some of her pictures. I sure am glad that I have a digital camera though. I would hate to develop a roll of film and find nothing but pictures of door, knobs, drawers, light switches and up close faces. Anyways, these ones are pretty good. I did delete all the doors, etc though. Enjoy!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Results

I meant to write this on Friday but I just haven't gotten around to it. I wrote about getting my blood taken on Monday and then on Wednesday the nurse called me back and scheduled me to come in to talk about my test results. She made it for Monday but after thinking about it, I didn't want to wait 5 more days feeling like I was so I called and rescheduled for Friday.

The doctor went over all my results starting with my blood sugar (and some others that i don't know what they are but they are all fine), my cholesterol is PERFECT, and some other one that was fine too. Then we got to my thyroid tests. Bear with me as I try to explain this. They had at first ordered one test on my thyroid to measure the hormone coming from the pituitary gland (called TSH) that told the thyroid to produce it's hormone. The normal results are 0.350-5.500 and my TSH was 0.021. As you can hopefully see that is really low. My pituitary gland didn't need to send much of a signal because my thyroid is over producing by a lot (obviously). After they got that test in they ordered more to find out how much my thyroid was overproducing. They got those while I was there on Friday. The normal level for the hormone that a thyroid produces is between 0-40. Can you guess how high mine is? My level is 329!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's just a tad over, right.

I am just glad to know the reason for all of my problems. And I do mean all. The symptoms are nausea, headaches, shaking, heart palpitation, insomnia, high metabolism (weight loss), increased hunger, muscle weakness and there are more that I can't really remember, but these are the ones that I had. I was also extremely tired but my doctor said that the reason is probably because all my systems are going going going because of my hyperthyroidism which is making me VERY tired. I am now on medicine to get my thyroid under control and a beta blocker for my heart so it will slow down too. My resting heart rate was 110 beats per minute which is way too fast since I think it's supposed to be somewhere between 70 and 80. I keep reaching to feel my pulse because it's so nice and normal now, it's weird to think for three weeks it was pumping so fast. If hyperthyroidism goes too long without treatment, you can have heart failure and I can definitely see why.

So, I am starting to feel a little better but the thyroid medicine probably has to be in my system for longer to completely work. I did have to cancel my surgery because of all this but I would rather be on the safe side, especially with having to be on heart medicine. I feel all old though having these problems. I have to have a ultrasound done of my thyroid to see if there are any cysts or gouts on it making it go crazy and then I have to go back in to see the doctor. She also referred me to a specialist in Rockville. My mom went there to that practice and she really liked them. When they tell me that my thyroid is back under control then i can reschedule my surgery. I just hope it's soon, I wanted to be all healed and better by summer. I know that's dumb to worry about with all my problems now but still. I want to go to the pool!!!

Twilight Movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I found this today and I just had to post the first official trailer for the Twilight movie!!! I am so excited. Of course I have to wait until December but it looks good from some of the other stuff that I have seen. I hope that they follow the book at least pretty closely. Eeeeeeee!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!! Enjoy the preview!!