Ok, that is just weird.

Couple of weeks ago, the little one had a several appointments with Children's - speech, neuro, and ophthalmologist. We rotate thru these doctors about every 3-6 months, so they fall usually within several days of each other. It makes for a crazy time especially when it is during tennis season. We thought her neuro visit would be routine, but it was determined the little episode she had this summer was in fact a seizure. Thankfully it was very mild and short compared to the last one, but it did mean that she did have to up her medicine. She has not had any seizures since she had been on the medicine, but it seems that the medication was keeping them from happening. This one broke thru the wall most likely because she was at the top threshold of her weight versus medication amount. This also meant the clock restarted for when she could come off the medication.

While we were dealing with this news, her platelet count had dropped earlier in the week - so we were monitoring that and hoping we were not going to have to get a treatment on top of an already crazy week.  She was to start getting her immunizations up to date, but now it was postponed again. As if this were not enough, we had the second follow-up visit with the eye doctor.  Thankfully her eyes are now almost perfectly aligned, but she is still seeing double.  We are hoping it is just her brain taking time to work around the damaged area to get to "normal". He is going to check the progress again in 3 months, but if it is not better she may have to get glasses fitted with prisms to help.  She usually doesn't complain about it, but I do find her closing one eye to block out the second image.

Here is the new wrinkle - sometime after her last eye surgery, an eyelash got into her eye and is now embedded in the eye membrane. YIKES!! It was not very comforting when the doctor said that is was only the SECOND time he had seen that. Thankfully she does not feel it. We have to watch it so it does not get infected or cause her problems.  Best case scenario is that it could dissolve, but if not he will have to surgically remove it. We do not want to have to do surgery again!

Even though all of this is going on, she is doing well in speech and is almost up to grade level.  She will see a reading specialist soon to check her progress and to see where she is.  She is excited that she has started her 3rd math book (MUS Beta) and continuing to work thru her phonics books in Explore the Code.  The big thing we work on is bringing up her vocabulary.  She knows and reads alot of words, but the meaning of those words are not always there.  It is fun seeing her unlock the code to reading words.

Add-in... Deuce... Add-out...

If you haven't guessed, we are in the full swing of tennis season. The older girls are on 2 different teams this year. Hannah is on Granville High School team and Emily on the middle school team. Thanks to the new ruling of the state legislature, Hannah did not have to take a class at the high school to be on the team. She is happy that she did know some of the girls from when they were all on the middle school team. It has been challenging for her working it into her school schedule, but she is working hard and loving playing tennis.

Practice started the beginning of August, but matches started a couple weeks ago. Hubby and I are  dividing our time between the 2 girl's matches, since most of the games are often the same time and at different locations. We switch who gets to see who and where.  One thing that does help is that Hannah has to ride the bus to the game with the team. Another thing that is new for us is when the team does not have a game, there is practice after school.  I am happy there are a couple of girls in our neighborhood that are on the team, so usually I just have to get her to the school for practice.

Both girls have had wins and loses in their matches this season.  They are both playing better than last year thanks to their tennis coach they have. The middle school team is smaller this year, so Emily is playing again in the top of the group again.  She usually gets to play 2 matches against the opponents playing singles and doubles.  Hannah is on the JV team, and they have a large team with 24 girls this year so she usually has to wait to play.  It reminds me of when she first started on the middle school team. She mostly has been playing doubles but is missing playing singles.

In the match, yesterday, the other team had 14 players so the our coaches chose a varsity line-up and a JV line-up - 7 and 7.  Hannah was wondering why her coach didn't ask her about doubles when she was going around.  When they announced the line-up for JV, Hannah was called as 3rd singles.  She was so excited! When I got the match, she ran and told me. I hated her dad was not there, but he was in Dublin with the Emily who was playing there. Hannah has been working hard to prove to the coaches she could do it, and she had finally gotten her chance. She was a little nervous, but she was up for the challenge.  The match started, and she had gotten behind.  Thanks to her conditioning, she was outlasting her opponent.  She came from behind and brought it to a tie-breaker. I was grateful for FaceTime so hubby watch the tie-breaker via phone. She was the last one on the court playing, but sadly she lost in the tie, but was happy how she played and knows what she need to fix. She was also happy the coaches gave her the chance to show them she could handle it. Hannah was the first freshman this year to get to play a singles match.

Hopefully, we will get some more good stories from the season.  We have a few more crazy weeks of matches all over the place.  So, if you need us, we will be either at the courts or in the car.

Lil' Farmer Tour

Last week Rae and I went on her first little kid only field trip. One of our local fruit farms was starting a new tour and needed some guinea pigs to see how the tour was going to work and to work out any bugs. The family that runs this farm are homeschoolers, so they reached out to our group for help. The tour is designed for K-2nd graders. Students learn where their food comes from when they ‘harvest’ their goods as they travel along the path of 12 interactive stations. “Milking the cow, collecting honey, gathering eggs, and digging potatoes are just a few of the activities they will experience. Once their work is done, they ‘sell’ their goods to the ‘market’ where they will collect Lynd Bucks used to ‘purchase’ a cup of cider. Then students go to the orchard and pick a 2 lb. bag of apples to take home! All students will receive a complimentary coloring activity book complete with Lynd Fruit Farm coupons to be redeemed during a future visit!

Rae and I had a lot fun going to the different stations and learning interesting facts. Rae's favorite was "fishing" for blue gill. I think it was a favorite of all the kiddos. She was hoping we would pick some apples, but they did not open the u-pick till the weekend. 

Learning about what they will be doing.

Picking pumpkins

Picking corn, but wishing it was real.

shearing the sheep

fishing for blue gill

taking her harvest to market

getting her coin for apple cider

yummy!

Only a few tears

Week one of the 2013-14 school year is in the books. The girls worked hard and had good attitudes (most of them anyway). Some things are coming back to memory from last year and others are not. The school day is longer for the older girls, so finding things for the little one is proving a little more challenging. I am proud of Hannah who is willing to take on the challenge of doing algebra and geometry simultaneously. Thankfully, she is already half-way thru algebra, so it makes it a little easier. Emily is not thrilled school is taking longer, but she is handling it well. 

The next few weeks will be interesting with more activities being added to the schedule.  In addition to tennis for Hannah and Emily, that is in full swing, art, drama, and piano will be starting after Labor Day. We will be running hither,thither, and yonder till October.  It will be crazy, but over in October.

Hubby has started his grad classes back again too.  He is taking 2 classes this semester which is going to be killer because his professors are requiring alot of work this time.  He has all of this in addition to the church work, the occasional helping me run kids somewhere, and making it to as many tennis games as he can. Can you see why we are looking forward to our vacation? 

This weekend we are looking forward to having Noel's dad in town.  The grill will be in full force preparing all sorts of goodies.  One good thing when we have family come up, projects around the house get done that we put off. The girls are very excited for their granddaddy to come up.  They were hoping he would get to see one of their tennis matches.

Emily with her double partner Kaitlyn in their match @ CSG Tennis Day.

Hannah in her first match as a high schooler

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First Day of School - 2013

My summer has been hijacked. Is it really time to start back? Didn't we just finish school? Our summer was filled with 4H projects and fairs, 4 camps, swimming, tennis, and finishing projects around the house.  The girls were not excited about starting this early, but with tennis season already underway and a vacation coming in November, we started this morning.  Many discussions over dinner were held between hubby and I about what we were doing and what goals we wanted for the girls.  With a freshman, we are getting in college prep mode - YIKES!!

So, this morning we started the 2013-14 year for the Dear School for Girls today! Hannah is a freshman, Emily a 7th grader, and Rae a 2nd grader.  We are working on trying some new things in our school, but with several the same.  Hubby is being even more involved this year with subjects for Hannah.  I am so thankful that I married a math major! The girls are really ready for band, drama, and art to start so they can see their friends again. Emily is excited she is old enough to go to Teen Night.

Tennis season is going strong. Both girls have already had matches, and it plans to be an exciting and busy season. We will be running between middle school and high school matches and practices.  I am thankful for parents in our neighborhood who can carpool for tennis.

Here's to a successful school year. Ready or not here we go!

The Basement Remodel

This process started over a year ago. Since we homeschool, we try to have an area dedicated to our school room stuff. When we moved in our current house, the extra bedroom was our school room. After adding Rae to our family, the schoolroom became her bedroom. Our school stuff and all my office stuff was moved to the playroom and the basement.  Emily had to do school in the dining room, and all the other stuff was a mess and disorganized. It made doing school hard and the landing in the basement was always in a state of disarray.

Last year we came up with the idea of turning the storage area in the basement into an office and new schoolroom.  This area had been our workout space, but since joining the gym, we no longer used it as that.  It became the best solution.  I needed a place where we could be organized.  I also wanted a desk that was not a 6 ft. folding table.

This summer we decided we were going to finish what we started last year.  We had been working this past year to get our home more organized, and this was the last area to conquer.  So, this past weekend it was finished (almost).  A great deal of blood, sweat, and tears have gone into this project, but we are so happy with the results. I now have an awesome set up for school, crafting, sewing, and my office. We even have been able to get my photography lighting set up in part of the playroom.

Sealing the wall to get ready to add shelving for storage

The disorganized mess!

The walls are up.  The other side will be our storage or the "tunnel" as the girls call it.

My office area which also serves as the area for crafting and sewing.

School books and one kiddo's desk. The other one is on the other side of the short bookshelf.

This is the view from my desk.  The curtain hides all the house's mechanical stuff.  The table is for group projects and fabric cutting.

I am so thankful for this all to be done.  My hubby worked hard, and I am very thankful for him and his abilityto do little projects like this. There are a few little things left to do, but it is ready to go.  We just feel sorry for the trash man who has to pick up all the things we got rid of.

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Has it been that long?

Two years ago today, the girls and I were working on cleaning out the basement storage. We were working hard, when my phone rang. It was a call from Virginia. I thought it was odd for our agency to call out of the blue. We had been waiting several months on those late night calls when referrals would come in, but our phone never rang on the those nights. So, I answered the phone, and it was Amy our coordinator. She said that they had just received a referral for a 6 year old girl whose special need was a maybe on our list.  Did we want to look at her file? Yes, we were interested in looking at her file.  After trying to get hubby on the phone, we looked at her file and happily sad yes to this little girl whose smile we fell in love with.  What a journey it has been, but one we would do over again.

Funny that today we are still working on the basement, but it is now being turned into our new schoolroom/craft room/office (will post pics later).