My sis and her grandbaby, Elizabeth, she is a doll!

My sis and her grandbaby, Elizabeth, she is a doll!

My nephew Will, his wife Nicole and the newest family member, my great niece Elizabeth

My nephew Will, his wife Nicole and the newest family member, my great niece Elizabeth

Mom, me, Barb and Myles (my sis and bro)

Mom, me, Barb and Myles (my sis and bro)

Missie and Uncle Myles (my brother)

Missie and Uncle Myles (my brother)

Missie and grandparents

Missie and grandparents

Missie at park in Brockville,Ont. Canada

Missie at park in Brockville,Ont. Canada

Missie and I went to Canada in October

Missie and I went to Canada in October
Mom and Jim

Part of Preston's room, he has large room, calls it his apt.

Part of Preston's room, he has large room, calls it his apt.
has a recliner and little refrig.

Missie wanted her room lime green and black

Missie wanted her room lime green and black
turned out very nice!

Left side of kitchen

Left side of kitchen

Right side of kitchen (sunflowers)

Right side of kitchen (sunflowers)

Other half of living room

Other half of living room

Part of living room

Part of living room

Part of our dining room, it is a large room

Part of our dining room, it is a large room

Our new home!

Our new home!

Jr.s shop

Jr.s shop

2 car garage

2 car garage

This is the only way it would let me post :(

Here it is December, where has time gone. I just realized this a.m. I have not posted pics of our new home, where we moved to in May. I am really bad at blogging now :( Preston is doing great! He did have a cold, but other than that, he is doing well! We are so thankful for that.Missie loves Union Bible Academy. She has moved into the dorm so she won't have to drive 1 1/2 hrs/day and during winter it would have been hard. She loves living in dorm and having her friends there. She is in choir and absolutely loves that and travels when they travel. She is maintaining a B average, and that is great! It was a big switch to switch from ACE cirriculum to textbooks, but she has done very well. We love our home, and spending our first holidays in it! Will post some pics.

Preston and Missie before surgery

Preston and Missie before surgery

Preston before surgery

Preston before surgery

Preston after his surgery

Preston after his surgery

Monday, November 26, 2007

Where to begin?

The days fly by and sometimes I don't take the time to blog.

Homeschooling is just part of it; caring for Preston; trying to make some $ by selling on the internet; keeping up a house; sleeping when I can; making Christmas gifts as an alternative to buying them because of lack of $, need I say more? My life is full and by early evening I feel so exhausted. Then to top it all off, Preston has been having trouble getting to sleep. I wait to be sure he is asleep before I can go to bed; but one good thing is he does sleep late in a.m. and I couldn't survive if he didn't. One night he was awake most of the night and tried to wake us up and couldn't; so I have to know that he is asleep before I can relax and go to bed. At 2:30 Sun a.m. he did get me awake by blowing his whistle. Thank the Lord I heard it. I guess I need a baby monitor again; I am just afraid every time he moved I would hear it. I just cannot function without sleep. I know part of it is my age, my fibromyalgia, just the wear and tear on my body with having a sick child, etc.

On another note, I called to see about getting 100 gal. of propane for our gas tank to heat with. We do not have natural gas here, but propane. I said to the lady that it probably had gone up and she said yes, it had. I wasn't prepared for the total she gave me for just 100 gal! $323 and some odd cents!!! It blew me away. I thought it might be cheaper to get a kerosene heater and use it, but guess what? Kerosene is higher per gallon than gas, so we are hoping 100 gal. will last a looonggg time!

I made a loaf of cheese bread today in the breadmaker. It was loved by all at supper tonight. I really like having a breadmaker; as you throw everything in there and it does the work. I got it for $2.50 at Salvation Army!

So not much more to say this time. Try to check back in later in the week, Lord willing.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

My blessings!

"Count your many blessings, see what God has done."

Today is Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for.

I am thankful for Preston; he was supposed to have died this last time in the hospital, but God spared his life.

We have a home, food, clothing, a car, and each other most importantly.

And above all, we know JESUS in a real way; and He has blessed us in untold ways that I could never recount in this blog.

Hope you all are thankful today and have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Sad day

Both our children, Preston and Missie, have been crying. Our family pet, Scrappy, died today. He has been sick the last few days and we didn't have money to take him to the vet. But he is gone now, and we are sad. I know animals are not as important as people, or to some people, but Missie especially has a way with animals and she had gotten Scrappy a few years back. He was one of the best dogs we ever had. He has been deaf for a few weeks now so we kept him in as much as possible to avoid his getting run over. We are not sure what happened to him; but Jr. and Missie has buried him. Preston had a good cry and then he felt much better.

I have taken a picture of Preston since his fall. He said his nose hurts, but overall, we are thankful he is ok.

We had invited a family for Thanksgiving but found out today they are not coming. So it may just be us for Thanksgiving, but we are sooo thankful we are not in the hospital but at home. We have so much to be thankful for. We are used to not having family for holidays or hardly ever going anywhere, but I still tend to feel a little sad on holidays when everyone is so far away.

I hope you all have a good weekend.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Never a dull moment!

Well, this a.m. Kim came to stay with Preston about 11:15 and Missie and I left to go to Greenville Memorial to see our ex-neighbor, and didn't think we would get to see Isabelle since she is in neo-natal. But Pam, the mom, was able to take one person at a time in with her and Missie and I got to see Isabelle. She is sooo tiny and so beautiful. After I went out and Missie went in, she opened her eyes and was looking around. I must say she had a snooty nurse. She didn't want Pam touching or talking to the baby. I spoke up and said we were told that the baby needed to hear her mother's voice. The nurse ignored that statement. I have never seen a NICU nurse act the way this nurse did, and I recommended she ask to not have her again. Anyhow, after we left the hospital, we stopped a couple of places and our last stop was at Ingles. While we were in there, my cell rang and it was Kim. She said Preston had fallen, and said he had a spot on his nose and his head but was no longer bleeding. But Preston was crying so hard and wanting me to come home, so I left everything in the basket and we got home as fast as we could. He was not crying when we got here and she had gotten him into his room and he was laying on his bed, so his nose would stop bleeding. He actually fell twice. He went outside to sit in the swing on the porch, and fell, got up and fell again and the last time he fell face first into the propane tank on the gas grill. It knocked his sunglasses off of his face, etc., and he then yelled for Kim. She went out and saw what had happened and called the head nurse from the agency and asked if she should move him, but she said Preston basically got up by himself. Susan, the head nurse, told her if he could move his extremities he was probably ok, and to call me. So that is the story of our day. I am just so thankful that he didn't break any bones. He has a gash on his nose, and it is bruised and a spot up by his eyebrow. His nose has wanted to bleed some this evening, too. Hopefully it won't bleed during the night.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Disappointment

Well, we have had a disappointment.

A man came out today to see about a ramp and they cannot build one at the front, because our house is so high up and it would cost over $4,000 to build it. They can only build part of a ramp off the back porch, and he would still have to go over the front yard in the wheelchair to get to the car, van, etc. So we are going to tell them not to do it, because we are planning to move from here, anyhow. Preston wanted to go to the daycare for special needs people each Friday, and I thought it would be good for him, too, but it is too hard for them to get him loaded in the van. So! The Lord knows what is best. He will not even think about walking down all of the steps to the driveway now, but as he recovers maybe he will do it once again. I have been nervous about him and the steps though, because it was very hard on him, even before this illness sometimes and I was afraid he would fall. We have to move from here anyhow. We have to get a 3 bedroom place wherever we move too; Missie cannot keep sleeping in the tiny space of the foyer. And we have to tear up her room every time we take Preston somewhere or the ambulance comes to get him for an appt. That is hard on her, and I understand that. And we are planning to move to PA anyhow by April of next year, Lord willing.

Missie is having a lot of nervousness again. As long as he was in bed and not able to get around, she knew things would be ok. But since he is up and around she remembers all the bad times we had with his rages before the illness. But overall, Preston is a much happier person and doesn't have the rages he had before, but she cannot forget the bad times. He still worries some and one time he threw his cane, but overall he is doing great! We are so proud of him. It hurts me for her to nervous all of the time. I feel so torn; I love both of my children immensely, as any real mother does, and I want them both with me for as long as I can have them.

My ex-neighbor, had her baby today, 7 weeks early, and she is in neo-natal, but is breathing on her own, and only has 1 IV. So that is a miracle. Missie is very anxious to see Isabelle when the time comes that we can see her.

I have to get to bed early, as I have to get up at 5:30 and take Jr. to work, so Missie and I can have our 3 hrs. together while the aide is here to stay with Preston.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Fall!

I love the fall of the year. I think it is my favorite season. I love the fall colors! I am going to post a picture of one of the trees in our front yard.

Well, Preston seems to have gotten back on track with his sleeping, thank goodness. Monday he was very tired, too, but he didn't nap, and was able to go to bed without any extra medication last night and sleep! Tonight he has gone to sleep without any extra medication as well.

He has been enjoying going out and sitting on the porch. The fresh air is good for him.

Missie is still having some dizziness. When she takes a decongestant it does help, so I feel it is fluid in her ears from allergies. I have had it before myself.

She is wanting to switch from Alpha Omega history to BJU history. So we have borrowed a book from the Bylers. Thank goodness they are willing to lend us some of Laura's books from last year, because we do not have $ right now to buy books for Missie's schooling. I appreciate it sooo much. Anyhow, Missie has been so bored with her history. She wants to learn something new! So we will see how that goes. She is very disciplined about school now. She does it on her own unless she has problems and scores it and writes down each day what she does. That takes a big load off of me. In the evenings, she and her daddy do her math. He is so good at it, and can help her. I am so thankful for that. I have forgotten a lot of what I learned; my brain just cannot handle everything, and some things have gone. Anyhow, he does help in the evenings with anything she and I have problems with concerning her schooling.

So, that is the update for this time.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Well, it's Monday again!

Sometimes I don't know where the weeks go.

Yesterday none of my went to church. Preston had insomnia on Sat. night and was so wiped out yesterday. He was too tired to get dressed and go to church, and begged me not to go and leave him. I was just about ready to go, and Jr. was going to stay home, but I couldn't leave him. Missie also didn't have a good night on Sat. night. Her feet were aching and she has blisters on her feet. These are from ice skates that we rented. We won't be renting ice skates again! The way these are made causes blisters every time. She had a lot of dizzy spells yesterday too, probably has fluid in her ears. So we just stayed in and missed going to church. I guess the Lord knew all of this would happen so that is why He helped me make both services last Sunday. That was a treat.

Anyhow, Preston wanted his night meds. last night at 7 so he could go to sleep as he was so tired. So I gave them to him and he promptly went to sleep. Well, by 9:15 he was awake again, and couldn't go back to sleep. I told Jr. I was afraid he would be up all night and I wouldn't get any sleep. He asked for more meds. to go to sleep so I gave him another tablet which they gave him in the hospital and it helped him and he slept well, thank the Lord. I cannot survive without my rest. Missie slept better last night, too. So we all feel better this a.m.

Missie is doing school, Preston is being lazy on the couch and I am washing/drying clothes, doing kitchen etc. in between getting on the computer.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

I have started another blog for....

stuff that I am selling.

http://salesofnormas.blogspot.com/

I will be putting lots more on there as time permits.

We are having a good week. Jr.'s work is busy and he is working 10 hrs/day but that overtime will be wonderful.

Working on altering a clipboard today to sell, make a great Christmas gift.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Our God is an Awesome God!

Yesterday was a great day. Missie and I went to SS and worship in the a.m. and it was such a wonderful spirit and I was so glad to be there!!! I had to rest in the afternoon, to be able to go back that night, but that is ok! Preston was so proud of himself and the people were proud of him, because he WALKED in the church!!! He used his one handed walker and walked up the ramp and into the church; rested at the back to visit with people, then up the aisle to his seat. Everyone was so happy to see this big improvement. His new depression medication is doing wonderful, and he hasn't mentioned wanting to cry, and is sooo happy and less nervous. He has such a big smile and is so sweet. He may be 19 1/2 but he is still our "little" boy in many ways. We have talked about his having his own apt. within our home if we can get a big enough place for this to happen. It would give him a sense of independance, as if he were normal, he would want to be on his own at this age. So that is something to consider when we move.

Well, I am trying to help Missie with school, as well as all the Monday morning work a mother and housewife has to do!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

November????

You mean it is November already? Hard to believe.

Well, Preston is doing good. Some of his nervousness has come back, though. We made a trip to his psychiatrist this week. We are having to give him some anxiety medication especially in the afternoons. If we don't have to go anywhere he is better. He has always been this way. He has been sad and wanting to cry too, and the dr. changed his depression medication. So we will see how that works.

Preston's new aide came today, Kim, and she is very nice. Of course, she is not Mildred. Mildred hated to be idle and did a lot in the house when she was here. Kim did wash dishes and bathed Preston etc. Preston said he told her to check the clothes in the dryer, but she wouldn't do it, LOL. He said he will train her like he trained Mildred, LOL.

His walking is much better. He walks with his walker (cane) alone a lot now. So that is a big improvement. He feels more secure with the walker and that is great.

Missie and I went out today while aide was here. I was able to get my groceries. If groceries keep going up, I don't know how we are all going to make it; and gas as well. My brother (lives in Canada) says US is headed for a depression. Could be, but like I told him, I cannot worry about it; I have to take one day at a time and not get overwhelmed. The Lord has promised to supply our needs. Anyhow, the aide comes back tomorrow, and I am taking Missie and a friend to ice skate in Greenville. So they will enjoy that. Never a dull moment when you are raising children. But it is good that Missie and I can get out for a change when Preston has someone to stay with him.

Well, it is my bedtime, just wanted to check in.