Unexpected

My sweet youngest daughter Megan has always been a tough kid. She has a lot of little quirks that we have always just chocked up to being "Megan". However, recently it has become obvious that her life has become a bit more frantic. We have known that she suffers from ADHD and had originally decided not to medicate her for it. But it has been starting to affect her schoolwork. So we took her to the doctor last week to discuss putting her on medication so that she is able to focus and catch up in school. However we got more out of the appointment than we were expecting.

It has been discovered that Megan also suffers from a form of Autism called Aspergers. We have only had a few days to absorb this information so I don't have a lot of details to pass along. But I do want to get it out there as a means to explain Megan. All these things we thought were possibly naughty behavior are actually from the Aspergers and she honestly doesn't have any control over these behaviors.

So please bear with us as we navigate what this means for Megan and for our family. We have some serious adjustments to make. Please keep Megan in your prayers. She is going to have rougher time in life than I wanted for her.

Until next time,

It's Girl Scout Cookie Time

Guess what everyone, it's that time of year again. We are now selling Girl Scout Cookies. Megan is our newest little salesgirl this year. And she is excited to be selling cookies.

If you are interested in ordering some cookies just let me know. I have a couple girls that are really looking forward to earning the cookie dollars that they can use towards things at the Girl Scout office or for camp.

The cookies are $4 a box. New this year are the Thank U Berry Munch which has cranberries and white fudge chunks. Sounds good to me. Of course we also have Lemon Chalet Cremes, Trefoils, DO-SI-DOS, Samoas, Dulce De Leche, Tagalongs, and Thin Mints. We are currently doing pre-orders. The cookies will arrive around the end of March.

Just let us know if you would like to order some. Thank you very much!!

Until next time,

Girl Scouts and Firemen

Megan's Girl Scout troop had a field trip to a local fire station. She had fun and the kids had a lot of "what if" questions.

I have lost track of how many fire station field trips I have been on. But this one had some good looking firemen so it wasn't so bad.

And get ready because it is almost time for Girl Scout cookies. Just a heads-up.

Until next time,

Sisterly Love

"Sam took the fin off my Flounder. And she is holding my Ariel in her dirty little filthy hands."

Oh the love between these two sisters.

A Little of This and That

Today I picked up our finished pottery. I think they turned out totally cute!!!! I can't wait to go back and make more. I think I have a new obsession. Oh how I wish I could go there more often. It is very therapeutic.

________________________________________

Today I also got the chance to babysit Mady. I love having her all to myself, well except for the girls playing with her too. She is soooooooo adorable!!! Gosh I just adore this little girl.

Can you believe that these two are related? Jeez I don't see a resemblance at all.

Oh, and did you notice Sam's cute new haircut. It is really short and she LOVES it!!

______________________________________

Tomorrow is my weigh-in at work for the Biggest Loser. I am REALLY hoping that I have lost something. I wasn't able to get the gym membership set up last week so I haven't been to the gym yet. But I did a fantastic job of sticking with my diet this past week. Seriously, lots of fruit and veggies. And I made a big effort to make sure that my meals were very low fat. My biggest problem now is trying to come up with a bigger variety of dinner ideas. I am not a fantastic cook, nor do I really like to cook, so it is hard for me to figure out what to make. Usually if we are short on food or time I just run out and get fast food. Well I am not doing that anymore. So now I have to figure out how to be creative in the kitchen. I am open to suggestions.

I will let you know how the weigh-in goes tomorrow.

Until next time,

Girl Time

Today Megan and I went to Polka Dot Pottery with her Girl Scout troop. We had a fun time together and I tried to control my "perfectionism" on Megan's project. She chose the cutest penguin piggy bank. If you didn't know, Megan LOVES penguins!!! She actually worked really hard on painting her penguin. I just helped clean up the outlines. And then she chose a tiny penguin to paint while she waited for me to finish my project. I didn't help her do any part of the tiny penguin.


I made my very first mug. And I am so proud of it! Now I can't wait to see it glazed when I pick it up next weekend. I think I am going to use it for tea at work. I don't know, but I am so using that mug all the time!!

And thanks to my friend Denise for taking my picture with my first mug.

Until next time,

Jaime

Happy New Year!!

Megan was up to ring in the New Year with us last night. Samantha was at Gigi's house.


We went outside after we watched the ball drop and were treated with a fantastic fireworks show we could watch from our backyard. There were some fantastic fireworks being fired off not too far away and we really enjoyed watching that together.

Well here's hoping that 2010 is a great year. We have entered it with a new attitude and some great resolutions as well. Normally we aren't really resolution makers but this is a new year and a new decade following a horrible year for us so we are giving it a shot. Maybe I will write a post about our resolutions if you all are interested.

Thanks for hanging with us through the last year. It was a rough ride and I hope that I can get back into the upbeat swing of things now.

Until next time,

Jaime

Christmas Morning

I think that the pictures speak for themselves. The girls were very excited Christmas morning and Santa treated them well (although I wonder if he got them confused with some other girls). They were super excited to play with all their new toys. But of course the new things are opened slowly as we figure out where to put the new stuff and what old stuff to get rid of.

I hope that you all had a great Christmas! We sure did.

Until next time,

Jaime

Christmas Eve and Pajamas

We had a wonderful Christmas with family this year. It was nice to spend time together and celebrate. I love Christmas because of the time spent with family. Of course Christmas Eve is still a work day for Rick and I so we didn't get to spend the entire day together but we did spend the evening at my Mom's house. We had a fantastic dinner and opened presents.

____________________________________

And we have our Christmas Eve tradition of opening a new pair of pajamas. The girls know what it is but I wrap them anyway. It is fun to go to bed in brand new jammies on Christmas Eve. I should have bought a new pair for myself.

The girls were so excited for Santa to come. Sam went to bed and basically fell right to sleep, which is amazing!! Megan, on the other hand, had a REALLY hard time falling asleep. She was up really late and she came out to the living room saying "someone please help me fall asleep." And then not too soon after that she was in bed calling out "PLEASE HELP ME FALL ASLEEP!!" It was sooo cute, and yet so sad. She was so worried that Santa wouldn't come because she wasn't sleeping. Luckily she did eventually fall asleep so that Santa could bring presents. Santa was pretty late though, like after midnight. I hope we didn't make him run late.

Until next time,

Jaime

Christmas Lights

One of my favorite things to do during the holiday season is to go look at Christmas lights. I have been doing this every year since I was a little kid. Last year we didn't get to go because of the 5 feet of snow. But tonight we started our adventure by going to Manito Park to walk through the conservatory. It was all decked out with poinsettias and lights. It was so gorgeous. I took a couple pictures (of course).


After that we went downtown for pizza. And then we took off looking for decorated houses. We found a house with a huge light show. They had A LOT of lights that were set to music. The girls LOVED it!! And I loved it too. As we drove around we listened to Christmas music and sang along. My favorite was when the girls and I sang along with a Raffi song that I used to listen to when I was a kid. It is special to share moments like that with the girls.

The craziness of Christmas begins now. Starting with Christmas parties this weekend and a special Church program. We will be busy busy for the next week. Even my work is in on the Christmas fun. Today we had a potluck and next week is Christmas spirit week.

Ahh, the holidays!!

Until next time,
Jaime

Christmas Program

Megan had her Christmas program at school on Thursday. It was cute and Megan was so excited for her program. Although you never would have known it by how serious she was while on stage.

This is a picture of Megan with the tree that her class made.


The parents are always given a minute to take pictures before the program begins. I told Megan to make sure that she looked at me and smiled so that I could get a good picture. And she actually did look at me and smile. Amazing!!

The program only lasted about 25 minutes. The gym was packed to standing room only. Good thing we got there an hour early. Rick and I were able to get two seats in the front row.

"Christmas cookies, Christmas Pie. Christmas goodies, my oh my."

Until next time,
Jaime

Happy Halloween

The girls have been super excited to get to wear their Halloween costumes. They finally got to put them on yesterday for their class parties. They both picked out what they wanted to be without any influence from me. Sam chose The Flash. Apparently it is a superhero from Justice League. I don't know, I'm not very knowledgeable in superhero. Megan chose Daphne, from Scooby Doo. I know, big shock. She is a huge fan of Scooby Doo. At least I knew who that one is.


Nana and Papa with all their little goblins.

I hope you had a fun Halloween. It was a busy day to end a busy month. And it is just going to get busier with the upcoming holidays. I am already exhausted, oh please Lord give me strength.

Until next time,

Jaime

Daisy Scouts/Soccer Saturday

Tonight was Megan's second Daisy Girl Scout meeting. It was the first time she wore her Daisy vest. She was super excited to wear her vest and go to another meeting. We (and by "we" I mean "me") made name necklaces. And she was able to recite the Girl Scout Promise so she has earned her first official badge. It will be the center to the Daisy petals. I am so proud of her.

_______________________________________

Sam had a good game this past Saturday. She played goalie for the entire game. Although her team didn't win she was able to make some really great saves. And she is getting really good at her drop kick.

I have really bad at taking pictures lately. This was the first game I took pictures. She scored a goal two weeks ago. I missed the game because I was at a band competition with Rick. My Mom said that Sam was so happy. Apparently she had a HUGE smile on her face. I am really proud of how she is blossoming as a soccer player this season.

I will take some more pictures at her next game and hopefully Soccer Saturday will actually post on Saturday.

Until next time,

Jaime