A Seizure Free Saturday!

The prayers are working. Matt has NOT had a seizure today!

It's been a while since they've been quiet and we (especially Matt) are loving it!!!

5 Days Later

1st off, my Grandmother is doing much better. When we spoke earlier she said that the meds seemed to have kicked in. She was able to get out and ride her stationary bike today. Praise, God!

Now for Matt, he is still having seizures. It looks like we won't make the 4 weeks as his doctor had hoped. If he's not better by Friday, we'll make the 2 week appt he told us to make as a back up.
Please just keep praying. Matt looks different to me........

More on Matt and now my Grandmother

Matt is doing ok. We spent yet another night in the ER on Wednesday. Matt began having strange pains in his head and then went into a seizure like I've never seen. We met with his Neurologist yesterday and his medicine dose has been changed AGAIN. If he's not better witin the month, he will get a 2nd medicine introduced.


My Grandmother is in the hospital as well. She had a heart attack today while having a heart cath done. They transported to a better hospital that's better equipped for cardiac patients. The doctor performed another cath and found a blockage. He said that since it's so small they can control it with meds and she won't need surgery.

Faith spent the Wed-Fri night with Matt's parents and Lauren stayed Tues - Fri with my dad/step mom. I really appreciate their helping us out during this time. I also really appreciate my sister in law, Catherine. She is all Faith has talked about. I'm glad they got to spend some time together.

Maybe tonight will be quiet.

Update on Matt

We spent from almost 11pm - 4am in the hospital last night/this morning. Matt had a series of seizures and the reason that we sought medical help is because all of a sudden he yelled that he couldn't feel his legs. The tremors were some of the worse that I had seen since last November.

We sat in the waiting room until 3am and watched people come and go ahead of us. We finally learned they had graded him a 3 which meant they didn't feel he was in any danger or an urgent need. It was 4 hours before he was seen.

Anyway, by the time they got him back, he had perked up. They gave him some medication and then we were on our way.

Anyway, while we were there, a friend of Matt's came in on an ambulance and later passed away from a massive heart attack. He leaves behind a wife and daughter. Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers.

That's all for now. We're exhausted!

Faith's Answers about her life thus far

A girl in my playgroup posted some questions for us to ask our kids when they turned 5. I forgot until tonight when another mom posted what her birthday boy said.

So, that reminded me to do it. Here is Faith's answers to my questions. Some of these answers were funny.

FAVORITE FOOD – grapes
FAVORITE DRINK – apple juice
FAVORITE SONG – Alive, Alive
FAVORITE BOOK – Pinocchio
FAVORITE TV SHOW – Big Comfy Couch
FAVORITE MOVIE – Sleeping Beauty
FAVORITE ANIMAL - Rooster
FAVORITE BUG – caterpillar
FAVORITE BIRD – blue bird
FAVORITE FLOWER - roses
FOOD YOU DON’T LIKE – raisins
TV SHOW YOU DON’T LIKE – Sponge Bob
FAVORITE CHARACTER – Snow White
CHARACTER YOU DON’T LIKE- Sponge Bob
FAVORITE PLACE TO EAT – Applebee’s
FAVORITE STORE – Kroger
FAVORITE SHOES – my baseball shoes
FAVORITE THING TO DO WITH MOM – play hide and seek
FAVORITE THING TO DO WITH DAD – tickle
FAVORITE THING TO DO WITH LAUREN – hug her
FAVORITE THING TO DO AT CHURCH –Play with the legos
FAVORITE THING TO DO AT HOME – play with my toys and play outside
FAVORITE THING LIKE THE ZOO, AQUARIUM, ETC? – to my Mimi’s
WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT HAPPENED THIS PAST YEAR THAT YOU LOVED? – going to see the fireworks with Pappy and Nan.
WHAT ARE SOME THINGS YOU WANT TO DO THIS YEAR? – paint, color, and make stuff
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WHEN YOU GROW UP? – get married and get a baby and I want to drive a car
ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE KIDS? Yes HOW MANY? 5
WHAT KINDS OF THINGS DO YOU THINK ABOUT A LOT? – Fireworks all of the time, going to school soon, Christmas, and Spring
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A KID? It feels great
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT ME TO LIST HERE? I want to tell everyone that I love them forever and forever very much. People think my eyes are pretty and I know it. Love Faith

Made it to Wednesday!

I am so tired. It has been one crazy and busy week at work. Matt said the girls have actually been good this week so that's a blessing for him. Stay at Home Moms and Dads have a tough job that's for sure. :0) He seems to love it though and it works for us. I don't have to get up to super early to take them to my dad's and that's sooooooo nice (and everyone knows I love my sleep).

I keep telling myself that we only have 2 more days to this week. The girls, Matt and I are going to my nephews birthday party on Saturday. Afterwards, Faith is going home with my Grandparents and niece for a few days. Lauren might go stay with my dad and step mom but that's doubtful. She's not much of a fan of being gone from home over-night. And we don't push it with her.

The girls were supposed to have T-ball lessons last night but it was rained out. I am loving the rain!! To go so long without it makes it such a welcomed sight.

Oh, and, I have begun a workout regimen at work. We have a small gym. I just started 2 days ago but am loving it! I started out doing 15 mins on the treadmill and today worked my way up to 30. Tomorrow, I plan to do 15 in the am on the treadmill and then 15 on the eliptical machine and then back to 15 in the afternoon on the treadmill. By next Monday, I hope to have 10 mns on the treadmill, 10 on the elliptical and 10 on the bike. I need to get some upper body training in there too. But, that's all in good time. I'm loving the not being under pressure like at the gym with the trainer or being stared at. I feel more comfortable here. I wish Matt could work out with me but since he can't, he uses his weight lifting set at home.

We are back on line at home. That's pretty exciting.

Alright, I need to get out of here and get home. I have a meeting tomorrow that I'm not prepared for. Bad me!

After a year, Finally

We are going back on-line and this time it won't be dial-up! Thanks to Roger, my Father-in-law, we have a pretty good deal with AT&T. I was told the equipment would be in around July 13th but Matt just called and said that it's here! Whoo-hoo!

So, wish us luck as I head home, grab a quick bite, and then get to work getting back on-line.

What are some of the best kid sites now? What do your kids enjoy playing on?

Ever heard of Happy July 6th?

Seriously, at 6:15am our neighbors decided to shoot off fireworks, this was after their dog barked ALL night long. Not only did it wake me and Matt, but, Faith and Lauren as well. At first, I thought it was those little pop rocks that we used to play with as kids but then Matt said that it really was fireworks. He said that he thinks they were doing it to get the dog quiet. These are the people with 3 pit bulls that are allowed to run in the evenings. This is one reason I’m so grateful to have a fenced in yard.

Man, oh, man, these people are something else. So, they’ve gone from stealing their neighbors car and going for a joy ride to shooting fireworks off at the crack of dawn. Where did they come from???

The kids and I are going to a birthday party tomorrow morning and then the rest of the day will be spent at home. I’m excited about that!

Have a good weekend!

4th of July - fun, fun, fun

We had such a good time yesterday. We all slept in (of course for me that’s only until 7:30 am) and I thought the day was going to be horrible. I went to bed on Tuesday with a horrible headache and woke up on Wednesday morning with one as well. But, it eased off enough around 4pm that I could get a shower and get the gang ready to head to my Grandparents, Bob and Edie’s, house.

That was the first time that we’d all been together like that since Christmas. We had your typical cookout food (hamburgers, hot dogs, etc) and my mom had me order a key lime cake. Man, it was sooo goooooooood. Even Lauren ate well. Poor Meme’ had to pick up Faith’s plate off of the ground twice so she had her move to the ground and things went better from there. Speaking of that, we were so glad that Siv (Meme’) and Roger (Grandpa) could join us.

Faith and Lauren were less that thrilled with my decision to forgo watching fireworks. Due to my headache and the traffic, we opted out of going to see fireworks and ended up watching them on tv. I couldn’t believe the amount of people that were at Lenox Mall in Atlanta. It was wild! Lauren kept touching the tv, she said she was trying to touch them. Afterwards, I watched a few minutes of the Boston Pops 4th of July celebration. If and when I become independently wealthy, I really want to go see them perform. I bet they put on an amazing Christmas show.

We got home little before mid-night and off to bed we went. With Faith losing her 2nd tooth, we had to prepare for the Tooth Fairy (she actually lost it Tuesday but we forgot to put it under her pillow). She came right on schedule during the night so Faith is the proud recipient of $2 now.

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well!

And by the way, thanks to Grandpa, we will be getting the internet back at home. He told me about a great deal with AT&T and it’s one that we can afford. I just have to figure out what to give up to make it work. It should come in July 12th and I’ll install it from there.

Meet Lauren

Lauren….man oh man. Let’s just say this about Lauren. Anything that I did as a child to my mom is getting paid back 10 fold. I’m teasing, Lauren is my more active one. She turned 4 in June and will be attending a 2 day preschool program starting in August.

Last October, Lauren was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Basically, this can mimic some of the signs of autism. Lauren’s dysfunction lies within her textile system. Lauren has a hard time with food and can go from eating great one day to eating maybe one thing the next. We just went through a phase of not eating and it really can get scary. She started to loose some weight but I’m hoping that she’s on her way back up. At this end of this post, I’ll put a link to a website that breaks it out even clearer. The ONLY portion that we and her Occupational Therapist found NOT true with Lauren was about touch. She’s ok if we touch her, love her, etc but she is very unresponsive to strangers and it takes a few minutes to warm up to other family members. Children with this form can be unresponsive to ANY touch so we’re thankful that doesn’t seem to affect her. She can NOT stand for her hands to be dirty, sticky, and anything but clean. I’ve already written a letter to the preschool and explained this so that they don’t try to force her to finger paint. I think everyone that knows Lauren really well will pretty much agree that she’s come along way in the last 7 months. And another thing with her is that structure is SO important. I love the idea of Matt being home because she isn’t forced to change environments. You have to also tell her ahead of time what’s going to happen “we’re going to the store”. Before getting her diagnosis, we were so frustrated with her one night when we said we were heading to the grocery store and on the way had to make another stop. She was so upset. She kept kicking and screaming “you said we go to store”. I thought the kid had lost her mind. But, now we know, you can’t change your plans all of a sudden with her.

Her favorite thing right now is dancing. She loves to dance. She has this crazy flighty dance she does and it’s hysterical. She also loves to sing and read. We’re working on spelling her name right now and she’s got the L down but then the rest is all over the place. A couple of nights ago she asked me what AEUISH spelled. I told her nothing and she said “it spells dog”. Yeah, we have some work to do. J

Anyway, here is the link that explains what’s going on with her better: http://www.autism.org/si.html.

So, just remember when you meet Lauren and she seems really shy or scared it is absolutely nothing personal. She just needs to work through the whole idea of someone new being introduced (or re-introduced).

And that’s Ms. Lauren, my little bouncy, giggly, tough girl.

Meet Faith

So, here is an update on Faith. She is 5 and such a sweet, sweet girl. A couple of weeks back she lost her first tooth. Last night she came running up to me and said “shake my tooth” (wiggle is what she meant) and when I did, you could tell it’s about to come out. It’s been lose since the first of June but is just now really loose. Her favorite thing to do is sing. She loves to sing. Everything in her life is pretty much a song. She sings about getting dressed, eating, getting a bath, pretty much everything. Her favorite song right now is “Alive, Alive”. It’s a song about Jesus.

She will begin her journey in school in August. She’s heading to Kindergarten and so excited. The teacher explained to me at the lunch meet and greet that she must know how to spell and write her first name, Amanda, by the time school is over. That is a state law. So, we’ve been spending the last few weeks going over Amanda and our last name (for safety reasons I’m not listing it). She has Faith down pat. So, Amanda is a little hard as you imagine and the new way to spell our last name is “Kesr”. A friend of mine suggested making up a song where you would spell our last name in it to help. We did that with our new phone number and she has it memorized now so it’s a really good idea.

For my friends reading this, I’ll post the words to our song and if you need to work with your child, feel free to use it (or any tune to another childhood song). I got the idea from a girl on a local Atlanta board. She used Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

I used Camp Town Races. (where we live, you have to dial the area code before calling anyone in any area)

Faith and Lauren have a phone
Doo Da Doo da
Call and see if their home
Oh do da day
***-948-****
Do do da day

Have a good day!

Matt says....

Hi, this is Matt. Nicole is bad, she showed me this at church and then said "say something" so here I am.

I'm still feeling dizzy at times and Dr. Cohen said that is seizures. My new ADHD medicine has helped me a lot. I feel like I can talk slower and focus more instead of having a several things in my head all at once.

Well, I better go. We are at church now. Nicole just had 2 meetings and she's finished. She has a lot of meetings.

Talk to you later.