having one of those days

Have you ever started the day and just known it was going to be one of those days? Yep I was having one of those yesterday. It started early with a wake-up call from Channing wanting to climb into bed with me. I sent her back to her room but it was still difficult to get back to sleep.

After I got the kids off to school, I tried to use my new phone and it wouldn't work. Could it be possible I've killed another perfectly good phone? This time I am completely innocent of any foul play, the phone just isn't healthy! I rebooted the phone and it started working but Craig says I sound funny on it so looks like I'll be taking this one back to the store.

Of course, this is the morning of all mornings I don't have a lot of extra time. After getting the phone back to working, I needed to finish some burp cloths. Well, could you imagine the computer wasn't working and I needed these burp cloths today! It took a while to get it up and running but by then it was time to leave for a dr. appointment. Of course right as I was to leave, I got a call from the school saying Dalton was not acting his normal self. I had given his ADHD med this morning before school because special ed. was doing some testing and requested we start his meds back. I warned Dalton may be overly emotional but they were concerned with his behavior. But of course, of all mornings, I couldn't come right up and get him because I was off for a dr. appointment.

I got to the dr. appointment and a lady started apologizing to me for accidentally honking her horn at me and she thought I'd given her a dirty look. Nope, I didn't even notice her but she wasn't buying my story. She apologized over and over and over again. Yikes, what a day!

Finally, I finish my paperwork and get called back. I start some of the prelim stuff and the doctor comes up to me and says, he's called to the hospital to deliver some babies...I can wait or reschedule. I had no choice, had to reschedule! So after several attempts at calling the school, they reported Dalton to be doing much better just talking a lot (like after 10 cups of coffee.)

I got home, finished the burp cloths and off to visit a friend with a new precious little baby. From there, I was off to pick up Sullivan and Channing and beat Dalton's bus home. He was the funniest thing when he got off the bus. He had lost his voice from talking so much at school. When I asked him what happened, he said, "Mom I was talking too much but I love to talk..." and I don't think he ever stopped talking!

After homework, off to track where Sullivan had his pictures made. While he was doing that, I ran to a friend's open house. She had beautiful stuff for sale just a little out of my price range. Would have loved to do some shopping there. I didn't have a lot of time but had hoped to come back later in the evening to look at some things a little closer...that never happened.

From there, off to pick up dinner then to volleyball. Craig took the kids home while I played volleyball with our Sunday School class. It was lots of fun. After I was done playing, Craig met me at the church with Sullivan. He was complaining of his side hurting under his rib cage and wanted to go to the doctor. Luckily a friend of ours is a doctor and he allowed us to come to his house to give Sullivan a look. The funny thing, he was the doctor on-call that night and if we had gone to the hospital, he was probably the one we would have seen.

His diagnosis: growing pains. So, what a way to end our drama filled day! Praise God, nothing major.

Back to school

Dalton completed a week back at school. He was so happy to get back into the school routine. Hopefully the honeymoon period of being back to school doesn't wear off too quickly. As of right now, he's thrilled to be back and even "enjoying" handwriting. Everyone commented on how much he's grown since he was away. Isn't that funny how everyone can notice these things but I don't see any difference. His hair sure has grown back quickly though!


Thursday, Sullivan participated in his school bird program. Every 1st grade student had to memorize some lines and recite on stage at a microphone. Sullivan did wonderful! Must be the years of playing violin and getting up in front of others to play his solos.


Speaking of violin, Sullivan graduated from level 2 violin at Bellevue last night. He looked so handsome in his black suit playing Perpetual Motion on stage. I am very proud of him and hope to encourage him to continue with violin for another semester. He runs hot and cold with violin. Last night he was on a high getting his trophy and wants to continue. After a few weeks of practice, he's usually ready to quit again. If only I could bottle his last night's excitement.









Today Sullivan has another track meet and Dalton and I are going to visit Arlington in April. I wonder how many people we'll run into there that Dalton will just have to talk to?

Busy busy

Yes, I know it's been a while. Things have definitely been busy at the Peterson household.

This weekend Sullivan ran in his first pre-Qualifying meet. It was a long day for Sullivan to only compete in 2 events (the 200m and 400m). We were there from 8:30-2:30 and despite the rainy day, Sullivan and I managed to get burned!

After leaving the track meet, we picked up the family and headed to Jackson for a birthday party. The kids enjoyed the inflatables party while I enjoyed catching up with old friends.
Dalton latched on to "Mee-maw" pretty much as soon as we got there. He was glad to have a buddy and I'm pretty sure he gave her a good work-out. Channing and Sullivan enjoyed going down the large inflatable slide about 1,000 times.


The day didn't end at the birthday party.

We left there to meet up with Dalton's half brother's family. We arrived pretty late but the kids were energized to be a new place.
Matthew, Dalton's brother, was great about showing the kids his artwork and his guitar skills. He's quite the musician!

Channing enjoyed following Matthew's little brother around. It appears she already has eyes for an older man! Sullivan was won over with some of Mrs. Kim's macaroni and cheese.

Before leaving, we did manage to get in a game of "Go fish". But, I'm starting to think my car will never smell the same. Kim gave us a little parting gift...some perfume and cologne samples. Now, Sullivan doesn't leave the house without a little squirt and Channing absolutely loves her new girly scents!

Can't take him anywhere.

It's funny that since I'm with Dalton almost 24/7, the number of people I've met that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have met normally. Just yesterday we were in the line at Target and Dalton struck up a conversation with the ladies behind us. After the introductions and some talking, one of the ladies said, "Hey, my daughter just visited a little boy named Dalton in the hospital, she's a teacher and went with a group of teachers. Her name is Mrs. Pleasant." Yep, that's Dalton's teacher. Small world! Dalton was so excited by that. Of course, normally I would be in my own little world during the check-out, definitely not meeting new people and would have never known Mrs. Pleasant's mom was right behind us. He's a pretty neat kid. He loves meeting new people. I can't take that boy anywhere :)

At therapy yesterday, Dalton tried the bioness again. He doesn't tolerate the electrical stim very well. Hadn't in the past either so we're going to try to do some desensitizing to the stimulation to see if that helps with the toleration. It looked really good what he did tolerate. We go to the neurologist today to consult about using botox in his left leg to decrease the tone. Maybe less tone would equal lower electrical impulse on the bioness also helping him tolerate more.

While Dalton was in therapy, I was on the phone with the school nurse trying to get everything ready for him to return on Monday. She made one comment that is still repeating in my brain. She asked,"Do you know how close he came to death," after hearing about all he'd been through. I had never really thought about it and no one really mentioned THAT. I know he'd been through a lot, more than any child should have to, but close to death?

Well, he's doing so awesome now. He's made so much progress and asks daily when he can go back to school. I wonder how long he'll have to be at school before he starts asking when he can stay at home. He's got it pretty good right now.

While wasting time for Sullivan to get out of school, I took Channing and Dalton to the mall. At the Disney store, Channing found a dress she wanted and asked if she could have it for her birthday. Everything right now seems to be asked if she can have it for her birthday. Her birthday is still 3 months away but she's already counting down. I told her I didn't know but we could talk to dad. She said, "Oh, I'll just ask my dad." Then she asked for a few more things in the store and when I said no, she said, "Oh, I'll just ask my dad!" I wonder who she has wrapped around her finger?

Sullivan started his achievement tests yesterday at school. I'm not sure if he was blowing off steam/stress from the tests but I got a letter from him saying he was in trouble for swinging on the bathroom doors at school. When questioning him, he said, "Mom, it was awesome!" It's so hard to be a good disciplinarian when he was so excited about the action and looked so cute saying it. I put on my game face and spoke about how inappropriate those actions were....I wonder if he bought it?

Craig scored 2 free tickets to the Grizzlies game last night. Since Sullivan had achievement tests today he couldn't go and it came down between Dalton and Channing. Dalton won and he went to the game with dad. I hear Dalton was happy as long as he was eating. I also hear that he belted out quite a Star Spangled Banner and had a cheering section. Again, can't take him anywhere!

Easter

I hope you all had a great Easter. We stayed here this year instead of traveling to Bristol. We missed not getting to spend time with the family but we did enjoy participating in church activities. The kids were so excited about the Easter egg hunt. Channing got to go first. There was a little stampede of 2-3 year olds trying to get through the fence but there were plenty of eggs! I think Channing thought she was a bunny for a little bit as she would hop from egg to egg. She accumulated quite an amount of eggs. She even happily shared some of her eggs with others who didn't find as many eggs. She made her momma proud.

Channing on the hunt.



Channing with her friends.
After Channing finished hunting eggs, I sent Craig to find the boys hunting field while I took pictures of Channing with her friends. When I later went to catch up with the boys, they were already finished. I was surprised because the times were staggered. Well it turned out Craig got a little confused and the boys hunted on the wrong field. I'm sure there were a few mommas a little unhappy about the big boys stealing eggs from their little ones. Of course, I was mortified and ready to die from embarrassment after finding out what happened. Oh well, the boys had fun!



Sullivan on the prowl!


Don't look too closely at the competition...

Afterwards, we stayed for a message from the Pastor and then took a few more pictures before heading home.



We also looked up a trivia question the Pastor challenged the kids with. Whoever found the answer of the name of one of the men who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus and told the answer to the Pastor would get a dollar. Well you know my kids were all about getting a dollar.







On Easter Sunday we had to hunt the Pastor down so the kids could answer his question. Dalton chimed in first, "I know your answer!" He answered Cleopas, then Channing, then Sullivan. Yep, we left there with $3. Before leaving church, I wanted the kids to see Richard do his painting. If I can get a video clip of it, I will post it. Richard had 4 canvases and painted them with a brown cross, then various black lines. Then he rotated the canvases and put them back together forming an amazing painting of Jesus. All three kids enjoyed watching it. Sullivan commented, "He's a good artist!" I think he's amazing!


After church, the Easter bunny had left some goodies on their beds. After that, the kids raced around the back yard hunting eggs. Sullivan was caught trading toy filled eggs with his siblings' money filled eggs. They didn't seem to mind too bad.








We finished the day by making a cake in the shape of a cross. We had a great time! Channing added a flair of star spinkles. Besides missing spending time with family this year, we had a great Easter.

good Friday

Happy Good Friday. As the Peterson household prepares for Easter, we had a good discussion yesterday in the car. Sullivan was excited about not having school today because it is Good Friday. I wanted to talk to him about what that meant and he already knew. He proudly announced, "Mom, Friday is good because Jesus died on the cross for our sins." Channing chimed in, "Yes mommy, Jesus died on the cross." Sullivan then exclaimed, "and on the 3rd day, Jesus rose from the dead!" Yes, indeed. Praise God!

I love hearing my kids talk so openly about what Jesus has done for us. Sullivan still hasn't had enough courage to walk forward at church but I feel he's very close. Dalton continues to encourage Sullivan to come forward to get Baptized but I think the idea of having to speak to someone discourages Sullivan. Mrs. Sherri at church has offered to be there when he comes forward if that will help. Sullivan seems encouraged by that but still hasn't made the decision to walk forward yet.

I don't want to rush him because I want him to completely understand what coming forward means. Craig said at the Passion Play this year, Sullivan was brought to tears at the idea of what Jesus has done for us. Please lift Sullivan up in your prayers that he will be able to overcome his fear and come forward at church when he is ready.

I hope you all have a Happy Easter.

Bioness anyone?

Dalton is doing great. We're driving each other crazy but I think that's a good sign. We tried a new gizmo at therapy yesterday that I thought was super neat. It's called bioness. Anyone out there ever used it?

There are these electrodes that attach to Dalton's leg and then there's a sensor in his shoe. Every time he lifts his foot, the electrodes fire an impulse to stimulate his muscles to activate dorsiflexion. (this keeps him from dragging his toe) It was really neat to see this work. Of course, insurance probably won't pay for because it's new. I'm a numbers person so I asked, what would this bad boy set us back, $6200. Wow, looks like I need to have a mega-yardsale soon to raise some cash. Currently, we are going to continue to use it in therapy and see what kind of gains we might see outside of therapy. It looked pretty cool in therapy though.

Yesterday I tried to make a pot roast. Never made one but thought, how hard could it be? I make beef stew all the time. Many of you know my culinary abilities are quite limited but I tried. The kids hated it and Craig, well, he could eat it but probably won't be asking for that one again. We really enjoyed the pot roast from church when Dalton was in the hospital. Anyone got a good, easy recipe?

Last night was a long night and I'm still recovering. I got to shop the kidstown sale super early and found some really great stuff so I'm not complaining. Unfortunately with the crazy weather we're having, many people couldn't work their shifts because being sick or sick kids. I stayed to help and was there until midnight! I think shopping "ended" at 10 but the line of people was wrapped around the building. It was crazy! They still have lots of super cute clothes left...you should check it out at the agricenter Thurs.-Sat. (1/2 price sale on sat.)