Category Archives: Cochlear Implant

Aug1

Cullman to Huntsville to Opp to Huntsville to Memphis with Hartselle, Birmingham, and more Cullman in-between

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So, it’s July.  I’m way behind.  We’ve had a busy summer, and it’s almost over.  It hasn’t been the relaxing summer I had hoped it would be, but it has been awesome nonetheless.

It didn’t take very long for the dog to get acclimated to our house and for the kids to love her.  She became the 6th member of our family very quickly, and has become quite the protector.  We need to work on how to tone it down for when we don’t want her to attack someone.   Right now EVERYONE but the 5 of us are intruders.  She can’t turn off the protector inside her.

Jeb had a fun Father’s Day.  We actually spent it in Huntsville with my family.  Jeb is such a great dad to our munchkins.  We are so blessed.  It was such a blessing to be with my dad this father’s day and both of my grandpa’s.  My dad cooked some stellar Filet Mignon.

Some girls from our Sunday School Class went to see New Kids on the Block, 98 Degrees, and Boyz 2 Men in Nashville.  It was SO much fun!!!  We didn’t get back till 2:30AM, and this grandma is getting too old for that.  I need more sleep than 3 hours…the kids didn’t care that I stayed out late.  They got up bright and early, and wanted to PLAY, PLAY, PLAY!!!

Ella Kate learned how to pedal her big wheel this summer, so we bought her a bike.  It’s still a little big for her, but she loves it anyway.  She went from not understanding pedaling at all to going full speed.  It’s hilarious to watch her focus and her little legs going around and around as fast as she can pump them.

She and “E-My-Tah” (Eliza) have become best of friends.  She loves her puppy to pieces and Eliza lets her lay all over her and get in her face.  She loves her right back.

Our appraisal and inspection went well with both houses, so we closed on our house July 1, and our house we are buying July 8.

Regardless of the amount of things that needed to be packed inside our house, we still played outside most of the day.  I have never been so behind in packing as I was this move.  It was crazy how much I didn’t have done just a few days before the move.  On the days Jeb wasn’t home or I didn’t have any help, I literally would get 2 boxes packed all day.  That’s all.  2 boxes.  It made it tough to actually accomplish anything, but we had fun riding bikes outside.

And sometimes we all played outside even when Jeb was home.  We just threw packing obligations to the wind and enjoyed time with the kids.  They’re only 3,5,and 7 once.

We had a laid back 4th of July.  It pretty much rained all day.  We grilled out and shot roman candles under the patio.  We also had wars with the little popper things.  We threw them at each other.  It made me laugh really hard.  We did get to shoot fireworks on the 3rd too…the kids talked us into doing it 2 nights in a row.  Thankfully it wasn’t raining on the 3rd. :)  

Ella Kate got a new Barbie doll.  She’s all about barbie dolls these days.  They take a bath with her, they go into Walmart with us, they sleep with her at night, their hair gets dragged on the ground….they ride bikes with her…and sometimes their hair gets tangled in the wheels…and their heads pop off.

We lived among chaos for a few weeks.  It was a little unnerving.  We FINALLY got everything out of the house at 11:50PM on moving day…we had to have it all out by midnight.  10 minutes to spare.  BOOM.  It was the least prepared I’ve EVER been for a move, and we’ve moved A LOT.  I hope to not move for a very very very long time!!

The day before we moved, this little girl had a 4th birthday.  I am so proud of her.  I’m proud of her progress.  I’m proud of her independence.  I’m proud of her determination.  She’s my girl, and I’m so thankful for her.

She makes me laugh really hard most days.  I love this kid.

The boys were in Opp for her birthday, so I took her to get some yogurt to celebrate with just us girls.  When Jeb got home we went to Logan’s to celebrate again (because it totally makes sense to do that on the night before you move).

We went down to Opp Friday and were reunited with these 2 crazy boys.

They were actually  happy to see us!  It was so nice to all be together again. 

Saturday morning, the boys, Jeb, Jacob (his brother), Kim (our sister-in-law), Gramps, and Wyatt (our nephew) went fishing.  EK felt like she needed to model a fishing hat.  Grammy and I took Colt (my other nephew) and EK to Jeb’s grandparents house in town.

Unfortunately it was raining, but fortunately for me…I wasn’t going.  I don’t like to fish in the rain…or really in the sun either. ;)

Caden on the other hand LOVED it.  He was in his happy place.  He caught some blue gill and bass.  JL did as well, but we don’t have a picture of him.

These 3 are best of friends, and I am so thankful.  They don’t see Wyatt very often, but they have a blast with him when they do!While we were in Opp EK got to use her new Aquabag from Cochlear.  Her implant stayed on so well and she LOVED hearing while she swam.  So thankful for the technology we have!

After we left Opp we headed back to Huntsville to resume our 20 days of living with my parents.  First day with all 3 kids was a fun one…we went to Ulta, Toys R Us, Panera, and hung out at the house.  The kids are getting so much better.  They have their moments where they act like wild hoodlums that have never set foot in public, but for the most part they’re taking steps in the right direction. :) They all got a pastry from Panera because they had been sooo good!   The boys requested that Grangran and Grandaddy keep them while I took EK to therapy, and GG and GD were beyond thrilled to do that…so EK and I had a fun lunch sans boys.  She thought it would be fun to wear a lei into Urban Cookhouse. Why not?

We spent some time with my meemaw and papaw too.  The kids love going to their house and swinging and picking vegetables…and EK insists on pottying in the garage.   After MM and PP’s we stopped by the mall and used $45 worth of gift cards a friend from residency had given us.  We got these 2 stuffed animals and these 2 kids were super happy.  Their names are “colorful” and “kitty cat.”  Our kids are so imaginative.  Except, not really. We had a little birthday party for EK at Mom and Dad’s on Saturday.  If you’re counting, that’s 3 parties for her.  I know.  She needs more attention.  It’s sad really.  Anywho, she picked out this precious dress to wear.  She’s big on wearing dresses these days.  

And she was so very thrilled with all the presents she got.  4 princess dolls, playdough, doll cars, princess slippers, princess sheets, and lots more. :)  So glad she’s a girly girl. :)
Her party came complete with entertainment too!  John Luke the amazing helicopter flyer show…and Caden…outside on the oasis…4:30, 5:00, 5:30.  Love them.  They put on quite the show. :)

Well, that’s an overview of what’s been going on up here.  I’ve been trying to finish this post for days, so there’s been more that’s happened since I started it…that will have to wait.  And Jeb took me on an incredible 10th anniversary trip, but that will get it’s own post.  BEST trip of my life.  We go to Memphis this weekend for one of our best friend’s weddings, and we move MONDAY!!!  So excited!

Mar2

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We are just finishing up Dr. Seuss week here.  Cullman City Schools do not miss an opportunity to have a dress up day.  This is the reason why I was cutting duck feet out of orange foam paper at 715 Friday morning and making bookmarks for Caden’s class at 9:30 Thursday night.  Thankfully Caden’s teacher didn’t go all out with the dressing up.  She only had them do things 3 days.  Not too bad.  I got so wrapped up in getting stuff done for Caden’s class and then JL had an Unbirthday party on Wednesday too, I totally forgot to dress EK up every day. :) Oops.  Poor 3rd child.

We also had to take JL and EK to the ENT Tuesday.  JL’s 2nd set of tubes is trying to come out, which is fine, but he has fluid behind the ear drum on the side that’s trying to come out.  We’re going to wait it out and hopefully not have to put more tubes in.  He does have some mild to moderate hearing loss on that side.  EK also has fluid, but if we put tubes in, it could get the internal part of the implant wet…so we’re hoping that clears up on its own.  After their appt. we ate lunch at The Summit at a place I can’t ever remember the name of, but it’s excellent.  Then we went to Target and bought 4 gigantic boxes of different kinds of fruit snacks because that’s what our kids live off of.  And then we checked Caden out of school, so we could go ahead and go to Publix instead of waiting 30 minutes for him to get out of school.  Before you call DHR on us, they were watching Green Eggs and Ham.  All he missed was a movie, and he got that in the car, so there.

There’s nothing really new going on with us.  Just day to day stuff.  Jeb had to work today, and Caden likes to get out of the house on Saturdays, so we headed to Decatur to return some things to Old Navy, and wander around Target.  Tonight Caden went to his first spend the night party with friends.  His best friend Peyton turned 7 yesterday, so he had 4 boys over to spend the night.  I haven’t gotten a phone call that he wanted to come home yet, so I guess it’s going alright.  We went to dinner after dropping him off and ate with JL and EK…it was so calm.  It’s weird how you can drop any of the three and the crazy level drops dramatically.

Oh, last weekend we went to Birmingham (me and the kids) to try out the aqua bags Cochlear is coming out with.  EK loved wearing her ears in the water.  She laughed and threw her head back in the water.  The boys had a great time swimming too.  We swam about 30 minutes and then headed up to get changed into dry clothes.  I don’t know if you have been to the YMCA lately, but it’s not the best place to get yourself and 3 kids changed.  Our options were a bathroom stall with a hole in it where the trash can should be (so you could see to the adjacent stall), a shower, or the middle of the locker room.  We chose the middle of the locker room and hoped for the best.  We got dried off, ate some pizza there, and headed to Gardendale to eat at Full Moon.  I had promised them Full Moon, but they ate the pizza Cochlear provided as an appetizer.  We had our 2nd lunch and then went to Target to look around (apparently this is what we do on Saturdays Jeb is working).  We ended up buying a Skylander and some other stuff we probably didn’t need.

Tomorrow Jeb’s teaching Sunday School at our church and then we’ll head to Daystar to go to worship there and pick up Caden (that’s where his buddy goes to church).  Then our friend, Michael, and his girlfriend are coming to spend the night with us tomorrow night.  The boys are very excited about meeting her and seeing Michael.  They’ve been asking me questions all week.  When I told them her name was Brittany, they got excited because one of the Chipettes is named Brittany.  I hope they’re not disappointed when she shows up and isn’t a 6 in furry chipmunk with a dress who sings “All the Single Ladies.”

Nov9

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Something I forgot to mention in my last post, the boys have their own rooms now!  They decided one Sunday morning they wanted to split up.  I thought it would be tough on them since JL hadn’t had his own room since he was 15 months old and Caden hadn’t since he was 3, but they really seem to like it.  Here’s a mid-way through photo of JL’s room:

Ella Kate got a little room makeover too.  Her room is the only one I have a final photo of, of course.  Poor boys.  They get the photo shaft most of the time.

We also got a cat.  Yes, my daddy is allergic to cats, so I was raised to think cats were closely related to Satan himself.  After I left my parents home I held firm to that belief, but eventually did some soul searching and concluded that cats weren’t all that bad.  My friend Jesse would like to take credit as that being her legacy to our children, cats.  She brought cats into our world.  They have 2 cats at their house, Edgy cat and Sally cat.  They started naming their animals after U2, but for some reason they stopped after thier initial naming of The Edge (aka Edgy cat).  I kind of wish our cat was a boy so we could have named it Bono.  Cat number 1 was given to us by a friend from Sunday School.  It was a pretty cat.  It hung around for about a week and a half.  We played with it on Halloween and then put it back outside…and haven’t seen it since.

Ever since Allie the Cat (aka Shila – the name given to her by her original owner) ran away, the kids (mainly JL) have been bugging me to get a new cat.  One afternoon we were discussing how after we knew Allie was definitely gone we would get a cat from the shelter.  I talked to them about how it was good to get a cat from the shelter because it had already had shots, been spayed or neutered, and had a micro-chip inserted into it…and they put animals down at the shelter after they’d been there too long…so we needed to rescue one.  Well, they started asking if there was any chance our cat who had run away was there…oh I definitely didn’t see that coming.  We ended up going to the shelter and Pet Depot to make sure Allie wasn’t at either place.  At one point during the afternoon I thought we were going to end up with a school of goldfish and a cat, but ended up with NOTHING.  I felt like that was a huge victory for moms everywhere.  However, he next day JL started in again about wanting a cat.  He knows how to get me to agree to something…bug the crap out of me until I cave.  Worked like a charm.  We got another cat.  This cat’s name is Izzie.  

Izzie is a sweet cat.  Until today she’d try to dart in the house any time the door opened, but tonight she calmed down and would stay in the garage when we’d open and close the door.  She went on an adventure with Jeb and the kids this afternoon.  She stayed right with them like she was a dog.  :)  That’s what I need, a cat that acts like a dog.  I really want a dog, but don’t need something else to potty train…because apparently I’m not so good with that these days.

Caden had his 5oth day of school last week.  They celebrated by dressing up in 50s attire, having a sock hop, drinking soda, and doing other 50sey things.  

We were rebels on Halloween.  We didn’t go to our church fall festival.  Yes, I know, we are horrible people.  Y’all don’t realize how much those things stress me out and make me anxious.  I do not cope well in crowds with Ella Kate.  Someday it will be fine.  Halloween 2012 was not that day.  We went trick or treating with some sweet friends, who I have deemed will now be our Halloween buddies.

Caden didn’t want to be anything for Halloween.  I don’t really push Halloween, so I didn’t really care that he didn’t want to dress up.  Dressing up isn’t really his thing anyway.  At the last minute he decided he would be a Trash Pack kid.  He was Rank-instein…or stink-instein…I don’t remember it’s Trashy name.  JL pulled an audible at the last minute and decided to be Mario.  Whatever.  I threw EK’s outfit together that day.  She was “girl in poofy skirt with adorable ‘pig tails.’”

I love these 2 boys.  They are the best of friends, which makes me so happy.

Here’s JL and Sadie.  They have been good buddies since they were 2.  Wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long!    

 

JL says Sadie is his girlfriend.  He also says he’s “in love with her.”  I asked him what he thought love was, and I’d give anything if I had the conversation between him and Caden that followed my question.  JL mentioned love had to do with holding hands, getting married, and going on dates…then Caden chimes in, “Oh you can’t be in love then, you don’t have any money to take a girl on dates.” JL is notorious for spending every last cent once he gets any money, leaving him with nothing.  Here are a couple pics of Sadie and JL from Christmas last year.

This picture cracks me up.  Lukey is laid back on me all spread out, and Sadie has her hand perched on his knee. :)

And here they are before their Christmas Program

 

If only we could do an arranged marriage…

 

The Friday after Halloween was a Community Field Trip for Caden.  They visited different places in our community and learned about each one.  After they finished, the parents were asked to meet them at Depot Park for a picnic.  It was Caden’s birthday, so he got to wear his birthday crown.  He loved it.  He also loved that he got to check out after the picnic.  I need to add more about his birthday, but it deserves a post in it’s own.

We had some friends over Saturday night for the UA vs. LSU game.  That was one of the most nerve wracking games ive seen in a while.   I may have screamed at the top of my lungs and scared a small child toward the end of the game. The kids played together so well, which made watching the game more enjoyable.

Sunday I grabbed a craft I had planned on doing over the summer with them.  Better late than never.  The boys had fun building with their gum drops.  Ella Kate preferred to eat them.  

And that bring us to this past week.  You know, I envy the people who sit down every night and write on their blog.  I wouldn’t have to catch up on 3 weeks of info in one post.  I’ve almost fallen asleep 3 times since I started this…pressing on…We celebrated election day (not the election results…just the day).  I love a hands on activity, so I googled electoral college map and printed one out.  The boys then colored in each state as it was called out.  They had a great time, but then got too tired to stay awake…much like me right now.

Caden’s school always does a Veteran’s Day program, and honors the student’s family who are veterans.  Grandaddy has been able to be “Caden’s veteran’ the last couple for years.  I can’t get my picture of the two of them to upload to the blog.  I’ll try again tomorrow.

Here he is with his teacher.

Today, Caden had his pizza party for his class winning most box tops.  They had 2,200.  That is so great because it means their classroom will be able to get $220 from Box Tops for Education!  Such a great program.  We cbecked Caden out after the party and hung around the house all afternoon.  We even got most of our Christmas decorations up.  :)  Well, that’s all I can muster up for tonight.  I still have NYC and C’s 7th (yikes!) birthday to post about.

Oct28

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A couple weeks ago we went to The McWane Center to celebrate Dr. Woolley’s 300 implant recipients.  He’s done many more than 300 implants since most of the kids he implants now are bilateral.  EK wouldn’t look at the camera for our pic with Dr. Woolley…probably because the room we were in was LOUD and full of people.  We are so thankful for the gift of cochlear implants and are forever grateful for them and Dr. Woolley.  The McWane Center is such a neat place, but I was happy to be headed home afterwards.  I’m not much of a museum person…especially with a 3, 4, and 6 year old.  

We’ve been doing therapy as usual.  We decided to mix it up a little and put together a Mr. Potato Head.  EK did this by herself!  I told her to pick up various body parts and put them in, and she would do it.  Yay!  She was proud of herself too.

We’re still reading books nightly.  This particular night Caden read aloud to me while I was cleaning up the kitchen.  Jeb was working late, and we had to make it work.  EK decided she would “read” with him.  It was fantastic.  What she was “reading” made NO sense, but was priceless nonetheless.

I’ve been a regular up at Caden’s school too.  EK started preschool there.  I expected the worst when I picked her up the first day.  Much to my dismay, they went on and on about how awesome she did.  They were so impressed with how well she learned routines, sat in group time, etc.  We decided to extend her to 3 hours 2 times a week.  She did fine with the extra hour, but it messed up our therapy we did at home.  We decided to change it back to 2 hours, and add an extra day.  She’s going 3 days a week, 2 hours a day.  I am so thankful for this little class.  They work one on one with EK, as well as give her time to interact with other kids her age (who aren’t her brothers)…and she doesn’t have to be potty trained to go. :) The past couple of weeks have been full of box tops, fall festival, Golden Apple, and Parent Picnic.

Here’s the basket me and the other homeroom mom got together.  This is one of the fund raisers for the school PTO.  It’s a basket for the silent auction.  Our basket brought in $190. :)

The wretched box tops I had to count, cut, and separate for Caden’s class.  In case you are wondering how many are in the 3 gallon zip lock bags, that would be 1600.  1,600 box tops.  So far, Caden’s class is winning.  Caden is so excited they will probably win the pizza party given to the class who brought in the most box tops.

Golden Apple is awarded to students displaying “good citizenship.”  We are so proud of Caden for his award. :)

After the Golden Apple presentation I took the little kids home to do a quick therapy session before we had to get back to the school for Caden’s Class Picnic.

After the picnic I checked Caden out of school and we geared up for a fun weekend!  We headed to Walmart, like we usually do on Fridays.  We buy our dip ingredients on Fridays.  Last weekend we had 3 dips.  It was UA vs. UT, so that called for a lot of dips.  We had Pioneer Womans Black Eyed Pea Dip, Buffalo Chicken Dip, and Snickers Dip.  I think I’ve gained 10lbs this football season.

Saturday morning Jeb woke up wanting donuts, so he took the little 2 with him. JL had just gotten his Toad costume the day before, so he decided he should wear it to the Donut shop.  EK couldn’t be the only one without a costume on, so she found her skirt and put it on top of her pajamas.  I got them all to pose before they left, because I needed proof of what they went out in public wearing. :)

Later we made caramel apples, went to the boys soccer games, glittered pumpkins, ate dip, and watched football.  Such a fun fall Saturday!

Before soccer, dipping our apples in caramel…

After soccer decorating our caramel apples…

Decorating pumpkins with glue and glitter.

Jeb has a new little football set up.  He watches 3 games at once now.  Ella Kate kind of likes it.  She sits her little chair in front of one of the little tvs and just takes it all in. :)  

This past week we’ve been immersed in planning for the Fall Festival.  I’m PTO Treasurer, which I’ve found out is more than just writing checks every now and then.  The Fall Festival was a huge success, but full of stress along the way.  We are so thankful for the school Caden goes to and the parent involvement.  We ended up making close to $6000 for CCPS.  

This past weekend we made Mississippi Sin Dip in honor of playing MSU.  It was about as good as MSU.  It had the potential to be good, but fell short when it counted.

We also had:

Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken Chili
2 chicken breasts, still frozen
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can corn kernels, do not drain
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix
1 T cumin
1 t chili powder
1 t onion powder
1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese
_________
Put the chicken in the crock pot.
Top with the tomatoes, corn,
the drained and rinsed beans,
ranch dressing, cumin, onion and chili powders,
stir to combine then top with the cream cheese.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours, stirring one or twice
to blend in the cheese.
Shred the chicken into large pieces
and serve over rice.
Can also serve in tortillas or taco shells.
Serves 4
This was SO easy and it was phenomenal.  It will definitely make it in the regular rotation of soups around here.
Today we went to our niece’s 8th birthday party.  The kids had a great time, like they always do with their cousins.  When we got home I took a few pictures of the boys looking cute in their warm jammies.  I take pictures of Ella Kate all the time, but I don’t take them of the boys too often.  After we got EK to bed tonight (she fell asleep on the way home from Millbrook) we did our Bible story time together and I took some phone pictures of the boys.  So thankful for these two wild kids.  They make me laugh on a daily basis.  They are so full of love, thoughtfulness, and crazy. :)
Oct2

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Ella Kate would like to tell you, she’s so excited about the Cullman city school system agreeing to provide her with AV Therapy!  They will be paying for her to go to therapy in Birmingham at the HEAR Center.  We are praising the Lord!  These meetings were prayed over, and we give Him 100% of the credit for the outcome.

She’s pretty pumped.  :)  We had a 2 1/2 hour meeting Monday morning trying to revise her IEP.  I am very pleased with the outcome.  She will continue 1 hour of speech therapy in Bham 1 time per week and also start the preschool at the Primary school in our city.  She will resume School for Hearing when she is 100% potty trained.  I don’t want to put her in and then her have another accident. We may wait until November or so…

Remember the adoption fundraiser I mentioned in the last post?  This is the treat John Luke wanted from Frostings.  He called it a “cookie burger.”  It was close to the size of this head.  He ate approximately 1/8 of it and said he was finished. $5 well spent.  Glad 25% of it went to Jim and Kelly to bring Anna Grace home from The Congo.

This makes for some interesting conversations with Caden.  He has quite a time saying different words right now with his lack of teeth.  He has to try multiple times to say certain things.  He has 2 teeth growing in on the bottom, and no teeth on the top.  We’re having family pictures made in 3 weeks.  :)

This is our neighborhood biker gang.  Aren’t they fierce?  One of EK’s favorite things to do when she gets home is to go play with them and steal one of their bikes to ride.  :)

We had speech therapy today and we have 10 vocab words to work on with EK this week.  She’s going to be “tested” next Tuesday to see if she’s learned her words and can say them.  This is a new challenge for EK.  Hoping we’re to the point where she can rise to the challenge.  I have high expectations for her.  Praying she decides to not be stubborn, and meet my expectations. :)

Sep28

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  • The air conditioning repairman came today.  We have a broken coil.  He didn’t have a replacement for said coil.  He fixed us up good enough to get us through till Monday when he’ll get the coil from Birmingham.  I have the air on 74 because I can.  I’m thinking about turning it down some more.  
  • Ella Kate let Jeb put her to bed tonight. Yay!  She loves Jeb.  She lets him play with her, hold her, she’ll ride with him in the car…but she WILL NOT let him read to her at night, put her to bed, or give her a bath.  Not sure what’s up with that.  Thankful she let him read to her and put her to bed tonight.  She’s started this new thing where if you try to do something to her she doesn’t want to do she’ll yell “Ow!!!!”  For example, Jeb was trying to put her pull up on her tonight, so he stood her up on the counter (she had been sitting on the counter), and she starts yelling “OW!” and making her legs go limp so she doesn’t have to stand up.  She’s such a mess.  She was laughing about it the whole time too.  This was also around the same time she was trying to cut freckles off our hand with a set of keys and then stick the keys up our noses.  Good times.
  • I picked JL up early from school today.  He was prayer helper this week, so he wanted to stay until his job for the day was finished.  He gets to say the prayer at snack time and lunch time.  He’s been calendar helper, teachers pet, and something about a mouse (quiet mouse maybe…I don’t really understand this one).  He takes his job very seriously.  I tell him he doesn’t have to go to school on Fridays, but he chooses to go so he can do his job.
  • Currently I’m watching “You’ve Got Mail” for the 392nd time this “season.”  It is my background movie.  Love.
  • The roles are changing around here.  JL has turned into the wild child.  I’m not sure what’s going on.  He suggested I take red dye away from him. Ha!  He’s started not listening and running through the house like a wild Indian.  He’s crazy!!!  Caden on the other hand has been such a helper.  He is cleaning up after himself, taking care of his own things, keeping the car clean inside, listening, etc.  And there was a time tonight when I was sitting with EK changing her pjs (because I accidentally sat her in chocolate ice cream and it was all over her pants…oops), and I thought “how did you get to be the calm one?  I never saw this coming!”
  • We have some friends who are adopting a little girl (Anna Grace) from the Congo.  They are having a fund raiser at Frostings Bakery in Cullman tomorrow from 12-2.  If you could come by, they would be so appreciative.  There will be flyers on site, so don’t worry if you do not have a flyer! 
  • Cochlear came out with a new accessory so EK can swim, shower, bathe, stick her head in water, etc. and hear the whole thing.  This will REVOLUTIONIZE OUR SUMMERS.  We have stopped going to the pool because it was just too hard.  It was too hard to protect her implants from the water.  It was too hard to keep them dry.  If we took her implants off it was too hard to keep up with her because SHE COULDN’T HEAR A THING.  So, this my friends will be phenomenal.  She LOVES the water.  Absolutely LOVES it!  
  • We have 2 soccer games tomorrow, then we plan to come back and clean the boys up, and then head to “sleep in the mall.”  The boys are so excited they can’t stand it!  I’m looking forward to it as well.  I love time with our little family.  They make me smile. :)

 

Sep16

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It’s the day we’d been waiting for since March.  The day we’d been potty training for.  It was finally here.  My stomach was in knots.  I had Ella Kate home with me all day every day since March.  We had done therapy.  We were inseparable.  I had no idea how this school thing was going to go.  Would she have accident after accident?  Would she cry all day and not get anything out of it?  I knew it was were she needed to be, so we went.

We took the boys to school, and then went off to Birmingham.  We walked her into the school and met other “friends.”  It was so fun to see her with other kids like her (but all older).

Her school lasts for 4 hours.  We went back to pick her up and here’s her expression…

I probably was crying at this point.  I shed a lot of happy tears over the past 2 weeks.  Our baby is finally “getting it.”  She’s repeating short phrases.  It doesn’t sound just like what we say, but  it’s getting there.  This school has been the best decision we’ve ever made for her.  She loves it.  She has learned the routines.  She’s doing great at potty training.  She did have one accident, and we’re praying it won’t happen again.  She’s also having trouble staying in her seat at lunch and not touching other friends food.  We’re praying she will learn this routine quickly (that would make meals at home nicer too if she’d learn it).  I have seen such a difference in her.  While I still get down that she’s 3 and isn’t a “normal speaking” 3 year old, I try to remind myself of where we were at the end of July.  At the end of July she understood around 120 words and could come up with 20 words on her own.  Now, in September, she knows over 300 words and can come up with at least 115 on her own.  She’s saying 2 and 3 word phrases…not all of them are super clear, but, like i said, we’re working on it.  That all happened in 1 1/2 months.  When I get down about where we are, I think of how much she’s progressed in such a little time, and I’m so thankful.  I am seeing a light at the end of this tunnel.  I can’t wait to see what every new week holds.

You may be wondering what in the world I do in Birmingham every day.  Mom and dad gave me a gift card to Ann Taylor Loft (yay!), so I’ve been taking advantage of their 40% off sale.  I’ve been able to grocery shop at Publix!  Publix!!!  It really was a pleasure.  I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect pillows for our bed.  I never get to look for any here in Cullman because you know what kids don’t like to do?  Shop for pillows, or follow me around shopping for anything really.  I have looked at Target, Walmart, TJ Maxx, World Market, and then the angels sang and trumpets sounded as I entered into Pier 1 and found the perfect little paisley pillows.  It hasn’t been all shopping, although that has taken up a significant portion of my time (I’ve been told to get a handle on that).  I also went running one day, however I decided, being sweaty in Birmingham all day wasn’t going to cut it (we ended up buying a treadmill today in hopes to get back on the running bandwagon…this new schedule and all it demands have killed our running).  And, last but not least, I hung out in Barnes and Noble inputing PTO forms into google docs for 3 hours one day and only got HALF of them done.  I had resorted to using peoples email addresses and requests to be notified by phone but not listing their phone number entertain me, then the man I love (that’s Jeb in case some of you were wondering) sent me a text telling me about a website I needed to go to for a humor break.  Y’all, I was in Barnes and Noble.  I was doing the quiet polite chuckle at first because it was quiet in the bookstore.  Then I would accidentally overcompensate for my quiet chuckle and let out a loud laugh.  I finally had to stop reading and wait until I got into my car.  It was hilarious.  Here is a link if you feel so inclined to read:  http://hahasforhoohas.com/the-fart-that-almost-altered-my-destiny/.  Yes, it is a post about a girl who has to fart.  If you think that wouldn’t be something I would think is funny, we probably shouldn’t be friends anymore.  Just kidding.  So, yeah, I find things to fill up my time.

This is what happens most days on the way home.  She is exhausted, and she rests until we get into Cullman.  We’re dealing with some over exhaustion still.  I’m hoping she catches up on sleep soon.  When she gets too tired, she has trouble sleeping.  All of our kids have had this problem, but until now it’s been from a long weekend or something…it hasn’t been something that will be lasting for 3 years.  We’re trying to get her to bed by 730.  She’s been getting up in the middle of the night and again at 5am.

And I’ve been doing a lot of research and writing trying to show our school system why they need to provide Auditory Verbal Therapy for her, so I’ve been up past midnight.  We’re all so very tired.  I sent my last email to the school system yesterday, so I’m hoping our nights get back to being veg out times once the kids go to bed. Advocating for your child is more work than I ever realized it would be.  We have our IEP meeting September 24th to try to get the school to change EK’s IEP to include an AVT (which is what she’s received from the HEAR center for the past 3 years).

As you can see in this last picture, she got a big girl back pack and  new lunch box to match. :)

On our days home (Monday and Friday), we enjoy the “laziness” of the day.  Last Friday, I had a PTO meeting, then we picked JL up from school, went to Walmart, ate Popcorn Chicken as we shopped, and then picked Caden up early from school for fun.

Jul16

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July 5 we woke up early to head to Bham. We had to get to the HEAR Center at 8am for an audiogram and speech perception. Here are Eks results…

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Compare the 2 audiograms. You can see how well she hears with her implants on. It is very exciting to see how she hears almost everything on the audiogram. She may or may not hear the birds chirping or the leaves rustling, only time will tell. Her speech perception test had 3 parts. The first part was the only part she was expected to pass. She had to get an 8 out of 12 to pass. If she got below an 8 they would recommend we try some other form of communication with her, or we begin a different approach in some way…she got a 12 out of 12. So encouraging! She didn’t get many of the next set right and just said a few syllables/letters of the repetition part, however she should make progress and
be able to pass these as well. We are so thankful for these signs of her progress.
After testing we headed to Opp for the weekend. We did a LOT of swimming. The kids had so much fun with their cousins and we enjoyed our time there as well.


EK loves the water so much. We tried to keep her ears on her while she was in, but she kept wanting to get her head wet. We ended up leaving her glasses on (so she wouldn’t cross her eyes) and we’d put her ears on her when she’d wander out of the pool. I can’t wait until
Cochlear comes out with the pouch do she can swim in her ears!


She wore herself and me out with the swimming and not napping.
Here’s a pic of the kids with Grammy and Gramps at their store. They love their Grammy and Gramps!


We headed toward home Saturday with a stop in Millbrook for our twin nieces bday party. We got home late Saturday and resumed our regular schedule Sunday…


That brings me to 2 Sundays ago…I’ll add more in a little bit…

May27

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Day 3 continued the there’s no where to eat for breakfast saga, but this time without one of the leading cast members. Jeb had a conference Friday through Sunday. Friday I took the kids to the pool which proved to be quite a handful. We have been leaving EKs ears on her because of this very informative, yet apparently too enthusiastic, email cochlear sent us saying her ears were water resistant (saying we could wear them in bath, sprinkler, etc). I let her wear her ears. They got splashed a time or two. Nothing big. Certianly, not soaked or drenched. So, the first issue of the day was one stopped working. We put it in the dryer and went potty and BOTH of them fell in the potty. I already had right back up on, so I dried it as best I could and then put left back up on and put both wet/not working ears in the big daddy dryer. By this time it was lunch time so we went to where Jeb was having his conference and ate lunch. We ate, JL slept, we met Jeb, and then I noticed one ear wasn’t flashing…so I turned it on and it was flashing orange (which is what is supposed to do until it touches her head), when I put it on her head it would turn off…sending my heart into my stomach. If you want to fluster me, make EKs ears not work. It will do it EVERY TIME. I tried not to panic, not to think, “OH MY GOODNESS SHE HAS AN INTERNAL FAILURE AND WE’RE ALREADY USING THE BACKUP FOR THE OTHER EAR! WHAT IF IT STOPS WORKING TOO AND SHE HAS NOTHING!! NOTHING!!!” We walked back to the hotel as fast as we could. As soon as we got into the room I put on the back up that had been drying. Phew, it worked. Sigh. Of. Relief. Come to find out…I got our audiologist to look at the implant cochlear sent us that wasn’t working properly and…it had NO MAPS IN IT! Cochlear sent us an empty CI. All of our implants are working properly at the moment and the empty implant has been mapped. It sure is nerve racking sometimes when we depend on an electronic device for our child’s hearing, but I’m oh so thankful for them!!

Apr12

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Did we find the implant? No. No we did not. Sad story. It was not for lack of trying. I went back up there about 9am. We used the under water camera again for a while, then the diver went back out and looked. Eventually we used a huge magnet on wheels and still nothing. So about 11am I called Cochlear and went ahead and cashed in our one time replacement. We get one replacement per ear within the first 3 years. I’m sad we’re cashing in the one replacement less than 6 months after she got her implant, but I’m thankful we have that option. This afternoon we headed over to our insurance agents office and got a personal articles policy on those babies too. They are double covered now. We can just throw them in the trash for funsies and we’re fine now…not really…I kid. We can lose them 2 more times though. After that, we’re sunk, no pun intended. After year 3 with Cochlear, we can purchase some other insurance through Cochlear which would allow us to lose one implant per year. I feel so much better about it all now.

I am so thankful to the good ole boys who helped us yesterday and today. They were all volunteers, so they got paid nothing to do what they did for us. They spent 7 hours of their day searching through the lake for our babies implant. I got to hang out with some motorcycle riding, overall and camo wearing, tobacco dipping, unemployed Southern guys. It was quite an enlightening week. While they did not find the implant, it was certainly not because they didn’t give it their all.

So, there you have it…we didn’t find it, but it’s not a huge deal. We have a back up right now, and I’ve filled out all the paperwork to get the replacement. Hopefully that will come within the next week.