So no…I did not fall off the planet and everyone in the
family is doing really well. I am sorry
to disappoint my loyal followers; I didn't realize how many of you look forward
to reading about us. It blows me away
when I see you in person and you mention our blog. I am not an excuse person, or try not to be,
but honestly I have been so extremely busy. Besides business of life I have
been working a lot of extra overtime.
Our company is upgrading to Windows 7 and I am one of the leads from my
team on this huge project. I made many
attempts to write between the last time I wrote and now, but never got to
complete those entries. I looked back as
my last few blog posts and couldn't believe how long it had been since I last
wrote. Obviously so much has happened
since. I will give you some snip-its and
try not to be long winded… Ha…ya right,
LOL!
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| Pumpkin 2012 |
October: We
survived the move from High Ridge to Ballwin. We are still hanging pictures on
the walls and getting ready for our favorite holiday, Halloween, which is also
Sara’s birthday. Growing up my family
always went above and beyond for Halloween. Really it was a time for my dad to
be a big kid; he really enjoys celebrating this holiday. So when I met Sara and found her birthday was
on Halloween it was perfect. We have new
and old traditions we both have brought into our family and the most important
being one upping the year before costume is in full affect. When Sara was pregnant with Jackson we dressed
up as Juno and Paulie Bleaker. Jackson’s first Halloween we dressed as a
skeleton family and we only took Jackson to a few houses. I made my famous Jack Daniels chili and
Sara’s parents came over to celebrate and give out candy. I set up the fire pit to keep us warm. Chili
and fire pits were something my family did every year. Jackson’s second
Halloween we dressed a family of vampires and for his third we dressed as a
family of pirates. Jackson usually only
makes it to about 5 houses before he is done with the trick or treating. The first year we took him it was hard for us
because I think we both wanted him to be really into it. Either way, we keep on trying. This year I loved our theme, Sara was a
sunburned tourist, Jackson was a Shark, and I was deep sea diver
photographer. This year was also special
because we had just moved into our new house.
Jackson helped us carve the pumpkins; he seemed to enjoy pulling out
guts. We also went to a Halloween party
at Sara’s work where Jackson showed off for Miss Jen. On Halloween it was go time as soon as I got
home from work. I pulled the fire pit out front before dark, made the chili,
and we all got ready to go trick or treating.
We took Jackson to the houses around our culdesac. Meeting our new neighbors and working with
Jackson on taking 1 piece of candy and not dumping the bowl out people’s
hands. Sara explained Fragile X to all
our neighbors. We figured we would just
hit our circle and Jackson would be over it, I would start the fire pit and we would
give out our treats, but Jackson completely surprised us. He loved going from house to house, saying hi
to everyone and signing thank you as we left.
He also wanted to make himself at home at each house we went to which the
neighbors thought was so cute. It was so
much fun and he did so well. Sara’s dad
stayed behind giving out candy at our house and when we returned we still had
two full bowls of candy and treats. We
had noticed when we were out that there weren't very many other children out and
about. After we were home there were
only 2 more trick-or-treaters and by they were teenagers. I didn't even get a chance to start the fire
before the night ended. It was great
night and I was so proud at how well Jackson did. By the way it is now May and we still have a
bowl full of candy, please stop by in your costume any time for a treat…
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| My little carver helper |
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| Halloween 2012 |
November: The
month of Thanks! I traveled back to back
weekends for work so Sara had to take care of all our family stuff solo. We still have our other house on market and
there was a lot Sara had to do with that house. She also organized a panting parting at our
new house and half our basement is finished.
Yay! One of the weekends I was
gone Sara found that our house on the market was broken into and they took call
the copper piping and the AC unit. No so yay…
Slowly we getting more pictures hung up on the walls in the new house. Jackson started at his new school and
everything is going really well there. I didn't get to participate in his IEP review, but Parkway was as shocked with
the lack of services that were written in his IEP from Northwest. The most important thing Parkway did was add
an hour of speech week on top of his 30 minutes of language. Northwest argued with us when we asked for
speech because Jackson didn't make 3 of the 5 required sounds. Um, hello…he is
non-verbal…required sounds to qualify for speech….I know you are shaking your
head with me here. Sorry….side tracked
on the negative, back to the positive because it is the month of Thanks. Jackson’s speech is coming along
wonderfully. He is learning the sounds
of all the letters of the alphabet and knows a couple
letters by sight. I am so proud of
him.
We decided to host Thanksgiving at our house and bring both
our families together under one roof.
The Tuesday before Jackson had a seizure. We finally had our follow up
visit with the neurologist a few weeks prior to this episode; follow up from
the February big seizure ICU visit. We developed a seizure action plan in which
if the emergency medicine brings him out of the seizure and he doesn't have any
more that day, then we do not need to head up to the hospital or emergency
room, but keep him home from school, keep his activity level low, and don’t
leave him unattended. I was at work when
the seizure happened, so Sara had to take care of everything solo. Jackson had a rough night sleeping and to be
honest I was really worried he might have one.
When we saw EBK in the spring she said erratic sleep patterns could
trigger a seizure. When Sara and Jackson
woke up, she said he was not himself.
When Sara tried to give him his medicine, he fought it a bit then after
one bite threw up, shortly after had his seizure. Sara administered his emergency medicine and
called me while he was coming out of it.
I hated not being there for that.
Sara called into work and Jackson stayed home from school. He got a lot of rest and by the time I got
home from work he was more his high energetic self.
We discussed it thoroughly and decided to still host
Thanksgiving. The night before I smoked
a turkey breast and on the day off baked a traditional turkey. Everyone else brought the rest of the feast. We had yummy h’orderves, a wonderful dinner,
and delicious deserts. Jackson had a
blast playing with his cousins, and Auntie Tricia. Having his trampoline and
swing available is helpful keeping the hair pulling down in numbers. It was so wonderful to have everyone together
and it was great to actually have enough room to host. I am so grateful for having such a loving,
fun family on both sides. We were told
at the end of the day that we are hosting Thanksgiving from now on.
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| Maple glazed smoked Turkey |
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| Tradition bake Turkey |
To be continued….
