Jens Wreaths

Every year around Christmas I get this crazy bug that tells me I NEED a wreath, now because of costs of live department or grocery store wreaths I find myself digging threw the scrap pile at the local home improvement store to gather up the scraps from their tree trimming, to in the most horrible way rig myself up a *wreath* (using that word *wreath* loosely). I am far from the crafty kind and i think thats pretty well known in my family ~
Last year I did a blog contest for Jens Wreaths and was so thrilled to win one of her fresh Christmas wreaths.
I received the Wreath in the mail very quickly it came perfectly packaged with no damages to it at all. I immediately had to open the box and the house just filled with the fresh wreath sent, talk about putting you into the Christmas spirit. The wreath was made extremely well and to perfection! The best part about Jens Wreaths is her prices! If you havent bothered to look, maybe you need to go ahead and do that now.. The prices are anywhere from $20 (18 inch undecorated Balsam Wreath) to the mother of all Wreaths for a low $150 (48 inch Traditional Wreath). But it dont end there, she also offers Centerpieces, Door Swags, Crosses, Candy Canes, Bows, Cones, Ornaments, Thanksgiving Decor, and lets not forget about the Early Bird Specials (who dont love saving money?).
Now back to the beautiful Wreath I won last year from Jens Wreaths Facebook Page .. It was absolutely perfect in every way.. I received tons of compliments on it from family and friends as well as the mail lady who was very impressed with it. I actually hated the idea of having to take it down after the holidays, so to be quite honest I didnt.. It stayed green and beautiful for the longest time, I would say probably a good 2 months before I started to notice any color changes in the Wreath itself.. It never lost any of its parts, no needles fell off, no pieces fell, It honestly dried beautiful and was as beautiful dried as it was when it was lush and green .. it did lose the smell but it just looked perfect against the house. Finally around May I was out voted by the family and made to say fair well to my lovely wreath.
I want to add that Jen's Wreaths is a family owned business (you can read all about them here) and they are top notch at their customer support, if you have any questions feel free to check out their FAQ section of their page or feel free to contact them using their contact section.
We all look for perfect ways to decorate our homes for the holidays and honestly you cant go wrong with a Jens Christmas Wreath, we hunt high and low for great gifts to purchase those special people in our lives, Jens Wreaths has that perfect gift covered. You honestly cant go wrong with a Jens Wreath. Check her out, make and order and you will NOT be sorry!

and again

to much time has passed.. i remember the day when i kept up with my blog faithfully this became my outlet for all the things in life i needed to get out of my head, my internet diary for smaller simple'r words and yet here i have just let it lapse into almost nothingness ..
so where has life taken me in the last few .. well however long it has been since my last update?
owen is now potty training full speed ahead, im so so proud of him, yesterday he even pooped in the potty! okay maybe a bit TMI to share but as a mom with a potty training baby, well this is HUGE news! im so proud of him. today we were laying on the bed and playing .. he was holding his little blue pot with the lid on that was filled with *goofy's soup* (see mickey mouse club house episode where goofy is camping and sick to fully understand) goofy soup in this blue pot is a very common occurrence in this house. i had finished doing a few things in the bedroom and had laid down on the bed with him as we talked about his pot of soup and than as i went to get up, i was told i couldnt leave because the zombies would get me *lol* thanks to wyatt for introducing the wonderful world of fake zombies to owen *lol*
and as we laid there and talked and played i realized that i love that he let his hair grow long again... each blonde curl perfect.. its *him* short cut hair.. not so much but the long blonde curls is oh so my baby boy!

little ron has been busy fishing and hanging out with friends since school let out.. enjoying every bit of his summer vacation as it should be enjoyed! filled with the things he loves, laughter, friends, and of course.. fish! he hasnt *worked* with uncle chris so far this year but i like that hes enjoying his time. hes going to be 18 this year.. one more year of high school than college and than a life time of working to support his family and himself .. and so for now.. this is how i think his time should be spent.. just enjoying the simple things. looking at him even with his sometimes teenage attitude, i know that we have raised a fine young man and someone to be very proud of.

wyatt.. oh my sweet sweet wyatt .. we finally got his last report card and he is going into the 4th grade next year! this was filled with tons of congratulations and a nice cake for him! going into 4th grade is a huge deal as this year has been the most trying so far of them all.. the meds im still on the fence about.. confused if they are fully doing their job or not but i will speak to his counselor about that this coming week.. somethings he has changed so much on.. others the changes are slow moving .. some days are great days.. some days are good.. other day.. to be desired?
this summer we have a pool and he is loving every minute of it, quite disappointed that we were rained out of our pool time today but tomorrow is a new day.. on filled hopefully with sun and swimming and all them great things!

fathers day is just around the corner so for the special men in everyones lives, the dads ... happy fathers day to you all! i hope your day is filled with the best of everything!

yes i know its been to long ...

seems that im all ready to post something and than something happens and i walk away.. and never do get to that post.. now geesh way way to much time has gone by *grr* anyways ~
ttc wise things suck as normal.. im so so tired of trying over and over again and getting no where in results wise.. its always the same thing.. do all you can do to end up with the freaking hag and im so tired of that. than i read online about all the lil ones murdered and think.. why would someone who is such a monster be give'n a baby but yet some of us try so hard and for so long with nothing but the freaking hag and a part of our heart dying every new cycle, why is it we have to pep talk ourselves into how a new cycle is just a new chance at getting a bfp but than you read about some monster who dumped a baby on the side of the road in some small town (one of the latest headlines out currently) .. i just dont get it, dont understand it.
however i do know how blessed i am to have my babies and know that i was given each of them for a reason..
lil ron is doing good went to his junior prom and looked so nice.. but made me realize hes turning from a boy, a teenager to a fine young man.. makes me want to cry to think that he will be 18 this winter and after 1 more year of high school will be well on his way to college and his adult life.. it just breaks my heart.. i wish we could just go back in time or that even time would slow down a bit rather than going fast track that time seems to be on..
wyatt oh my sweet wyatt.. he has taught me patience .. i still wish that ppl could see the world threw his eyes ... we have an official diagnosis of ADHD and while he remains in counseling and will for a long long time, we have also ventured into the world of meds. today is actually our med appointment and since his current meds arent working like they should, its time to switch them up and try something new. which is the way it is.. just trying to find the right dose and right meds for him. trust in that getting meds wasnt an easy decision but one that was needed, not only for behavioral changes but also for his concentration and education. hes such an amazingly smart boy with the biggest imagination ever, however he doesnt have the abilities to concentrate like others do and its making his grades suffer so badly. one thing i do hate is when ppl see a child misbehave and automatically assume that child is not disciplined. wyatt is very disciplined however due to his ADHD still acts out or doesnt listen. and what i hate even more is when ppl think *oh your child has a behavioral problem.. leave him at home.. i refuse to do that, wyatt is NOT someone im going to hid behind closed doors because he might have a temper fit or break down or not listen .. but im also that mom who will remove him from the situation based on his actions and the same mom that will speak to him calmly yet firmly about his actions when he is doing the wrong thing, and i will praise him when he is doing the right thing.. just drives me nuts when ppl have the opinion that neither ron nor i discipline him .. but i guess its the ignorance of the world when it comes to that. just because you cant see an issue when looking at a child dont mean there isnt one. so next time you see a kid running rampant or not listening or even see them throwing a temper fit dont just automatically assume hes not disciplined instead realize there might be more going on than you know.
Owen is doing good i cant believe he is getting closer and closer to his 3rd birthday. hes so sweet and loving and so so smart. still my mickey mouse lover, my 2am crawl into mamas bed, snuggle bug.. and you know i wouldnt trade any of it for the world. i think when it comes to some things im a more relaxed mom than others are.. i will not push him to go back to his own bed and not be in mine.. but i know all to well these years end before you know it, and soon enough he isnt going to want to come to my bed in the middle of the night.. that he wont think twice about wanting to snuggle on the couch or what not.. so im cherishing every moment of it. We have ventured into the world of potty training and its going okay so far.. he isnt big on telling you when he has to go so its a lot of timing and watching the clock for now.. but he does good. all this week he has managed to wake up dry so our first thing is taking the time to potty.

truth is .. my boys are my world and i wouldnt change a thing about them.. not the great times .. not the harder times.. not one thing.. each of them are amazing individuals and im so lucky to have each of them in my life.

its going to be another busy week

have a lot going on this week..
need to get the boys in for haircuts before wed as lil ron has to cook on wed for class and he is not wanting to have to wear a hair net *rofl* but at least its stopping the sudden stand off on him getting a hair cut.. ooh not that my child loves having long hair but because he was to *busy* with friends to bother to get his hair cut the last time we were going soo i refused to take him .. i mean why make 2 trips we would have been in and out and yeah he refused so deal with the long hair thats annoying me as much as i know it is you *hahaha*
on wed i get to go pick up our rings finally :) i cant wait.. they have only been in the shop for a week but i feel oh so nekkid without them!
and on friday is wyatts first appointment with the counselor at the drs office.. fun fun fun! not sure if we will have the IEP retest stuff back from the school in time but im hoping we do.. im sure i can shove a quick meeting in there sometime this week before the appointment at the drs office .. i am curious though if they will see the same things that we see or not.. guess only time will tell. but my uneducated google'n way to much opinion is.. hes ADHD of course that is not an official diagnosis but everything i read on ADHD and what not points to a lot of the way that wyatt is.. but im trying to not get ahead of myself and taking the process one step at a time.. truth is hes an awesome kid just has a few issues we need to get looked into.. but i wouldnt trade him for the world .. love him oh so much!
owen finally got his stitches outta his butt and is healing up greatly .. woke up this morning when the bigger boys were getting ready for school (there went my option to sleep in a bit longer) but hes mr snuggle butt on the couch :) oh how i love our snuggle time.. before you know it, the snuggles and what not are gone.. so i cherish every second of them.
we got the isuzu pup truck home this weekend and avoided a broken arm *woohoo* apparently when off loading the pup truck from the car hauler something went wrong and i was woken up by lil ron saying *mommy i think i broke my arm* so i went to look at it and what not and we came to the conclusion that its just badly bruised .. soo at least there is no busted bones as of yet...
as for the pup truck, its getting on the road today! rons picking up the part we need (water pump) and going to have it installed and get all the registration stuff done, so that he can hopefully start taking it to work tomorrow.. needless to say the van is having a few issues (needs a break job and sounds like the passenger side bearings are going) soo it will get fixed over the week and than get its new plates and safty inspected..
im thinking by the end of the week, the bank accounts not going to be feeling any love thats for sure.. need to get ron to order that part for the heater too.. but at least in the end of the end.. everything will be fixed up, done and outta the way! which is a good thing.. but yesss a busy week indeed!

stitches for owen :(

today was a day i wish we could have skipped thats for sure! owen and i woke up like normal, me in time to get the bigger boys off to school and owen early enough to watch the buses which he loves to do..
than it was some snuggle time on the couch and plans for hours of mickey mouse playing for my mickey mouse lover.. funny how he has to keep it going in the room even when hes busy doing other things..
but anyway ..
yep life was a typical normal day for us.. wash was going etc etc etc.
and than it happened..
owen was walking around with the nerf sword and must have tripped or whatever.. but he fell..
butt first into the curio cabinet.. i was on the phone with ron when it happened and hung up quickly because owen was screaming bloody murder..
pulled his shirt off since it had glass pieces on it, and started to check him over.. back, head, butt.. oh hell! there was a piece of glass sticking out from his diaper.. omg.. my heart still sinks thinking about it.
so i pulled the glass out and omg it was huge! looked at his butt and saw where it went in at, grabbed the phone and called my mom. that phone call went something like this *mom we gotta take owen to the hospital now* she said *okay on my way* and hung up.. i hurried tossed on a pair of jeans and my shoes.. tossed a clean shirt on owen and grabbed my purse, mother got here as i was just grabbing my purse and off we went.
poor ron didnt even get a phone call back until we were headed down the road. called him and told him we were taking owen to the ER and explained what all happened.. he told me *im on my way, i will meet you at the hospital* so he left his semi with his driver manager that happened to be working with him yesterday, took the driver managers truck back to the warehouse and jumped in the van.
we got to the ER and everything there went pretty quickly.. surprisingly enough the longer we were there the more owen was acting like his normal self. he was a bit iffy about the x-ray when they took the first one.. but the second x-ray he didnt seem to mind to much. when we got back from the second x-ray ron was in the room waiting on us in the ER with mother.
thankfully the doc said he didnt see anything on the x-ray but he said that glass is hard to see on an x-ray so to keep an eye on it as it heals.
doc went ahead and had us pre-numb him up before he did the main numbing.. once he was pre-numbed the doc came in and did the main numbing on him and than cleaned out his boo boo best he could as well as looked around to see if he could see any glass which he didnt..
owen ended up with 2 stitches in his butt.. still breaks my heart that my bubba got a booboo that required stitches :(
we came home and i dunno who was more wore out and tired.. me or owen but none the less we both laid down and took a good nap together.. i knew he was tired and i just wanted to lay and snuggle with him.
my poor poor bubba :(
its been a crazy 2 days and im ready for the craziness to give me a break because lawd knows i need it.

wyatts IEP update

Originally i was told that this would all take place in 2 separate meetings, however it ended up being one meeting all rolled into one.
The last tier wise it was easy, i mean yes we all know that the interventions that was being done wasnt working, that was obvious at tier 3 however you have to jump threw all the hoops to get the help..
with that being said it was time that we do the re-evaluation for wyatt needing special education, for him to get the extra help he needs in math tagged onto the IEP he already has.
because wyatt hasnt been tested since he first entered into special education we are going to have him re-tested on 3 different areas again, educational, psychological, and this time we are adding to it behavioral which that one hes never been tested for before.
The reason we are tagging on behavioral is because there are certain things that we are starting to really worry about and things that even for us are tossing red flags into the air.
for one, no one can seem to keep wyatts attention for very long. its not so much really if your in a one on one setting, for example if im sitting at the table doing homework with him and dont leave the table at all, i can normally keep him on track. however if i get up for any reason and leave the table, i loose wyatt, than you have to sit back down and get him back on task and get his focus back on what he is supposed to be doing. they are having this same issues in school with him however they arent able to sit next to him all day, lets face it there are another aprox 19 students in his classroom.
we have also noticed a big flag that popped up for me and i think his teacher got it as well when i pointed it out. in reading when all of this started, wyatt was having major issues with what they call *sight words* these are a list of words that a child should know by just looking at them, example the word *the* however when they would work with wyatt on sight words (both his reading helper and his 1st grade teacher) he was never consistent with what he knew. on day 1 he might know a group of lets say 5 words, on day 3 (test day 2) he would know only 2 of that original group and say 4 others from the list, however on day 5 (test day 3) he would know say 1 of the group from day 1, 2 from the group on day 3 and maybe 2 more new words. it was never consistent in what he knew from his sight word list.
now we are starting to see the same issue with his math, on day 1 he might know the answers to problems 1-5 .. however on day 3 he only knows 2 problems on that first group and a few others and than on day 5 he knows maybe 1 of the first days group, 2 of the second days group and were back to adding in a few more to tag onto what he knows today.
as i told his IEP team it is in my opinion that this is NOT normal and something that deff. needs to be looked into more. which is why im going to ask his doctor to do their own testing as well as get him into an actual eye doctor for an eye exam (weve noticed him hanging on the TV vs sitting and watching from a distance). Our appointment for the drs is on the 21st and the IEP team told me they would try to have his stuff back before than from his new testing so i can carry it with me.
Along with this we did discuss some of the issues that we have at home with wyatt, and one lady i think said it best, *when he gets home he is just done* and you know thats exactly what it is. exactly how he acts.. that he is just done with the day.
i did have to get a giggle out of the ladies telling me the normal, wyatt has a story for everything or a way to relate things to a story that he can and will share, wyatt is a talker thats for sure! than add to that the cute'ness of him telling his teacher that he used a calculator for homework and he i guess got a problem wrong and he informed her that she must be wrong because calculators do not lie *lol* only my youngin.
so thats where we are for now, and we will go on from here .. once we get the testing results back from the school and once we get the ball running with the doctors office, we will know more.

are you scared?

I dont know what it is these days but for about.. oh geesh 3 months or so something has totally been creeping me out, like big time creeping me out. the best way to explain this i suppose is jumping into my childhood.
Mother had been dating *R* for about a year when she decided that they should move in together, *R* never seemed to be that bad of a guy for the most part. It was clear that our mor-mor (moms mom) didnt think very highly of him but other than some minor (on the grand scale of things in years to come) incidents, *R* was a pretty good guy .. after all he did *love* this woman and accepted that she had to kids (ah this is one of them times that you wish you had a crystal ball or at least had the abilities to take the wolf out of the sheeps clothing and expose his true colors). none the less mother thought he was *perfect* and so she decided to move herself and us girls in with him (wonder if looking back she sees that as a big mistake now)~
we were living in our first rental home that we lived in together as this *family* and well honestly its where my sister and i's really hell began in life ~ but thats another story for another day.
anyways.. i cant say that life was always horrible, grant it on the scales of life it was much worse than it was good but i cant delete out the *good* parts even though they were far and few in between. however im not sure what category to put this one under. funny i havent given it much thought in years, at least not until the last 3 months. and to be honest its kind of freaking me out.
we were living on clark street in Hammond and im not sure what possessed *R* to do it but mother says it was near halloween, i cant tell you what time of year it was, just that i remember it being cold out.
he sat us girls down and went into this huge long story about this man who escaped from a mental institution, from his crimes he committed, murders and such, and how he was this huge danger to society as a whole, down to the details of his clothing, hair, etc etc etc. i cant even remember all the details of the story.. but i will never forget that we were getting ready for bed that cold night when it all happened.
the place we rented was an upstairs apartment of a house, the main level of the home. the landlords had renovated the basement and lived there. there was this enclosed back porch and 2 back doors, one of which was on our apartment that led you into the enclosed back porch and one off of the back porch which lead you outside. we were in the kitchen area which had 2 rooms off of it, mother and *R*s room as well as the one bathroom.
anyways .. there we were in the kitchen when all of the sudden this person who *R* described in grave detail, popped up in the enclosed back porch beating on the back door leading into the apartment and trying to get in, my sister and i screaming, crying and just generally freaking out ran into the bathroom.. with no escape from there .. i think most would have ran out the door in the opposite direction of the crazy escapee but not us, we ran into a bathroom with no escape.
of course mother and *R* thought it was so hysterical .. because of course the man who was trying to break into our home was *R* himself in a mask.. but to us it was just so real.. maybe it was our age? i dunno but i still can feel the fear ~
now i hadnt thought about this at all until about 3 months ago.. now though, it haunts me daily..
only in the dark hours of the night or morning, when i go to let my clyde out to use the bathroom do i think about it. maybe it was triggered by the psycho looking (im guessing) homeless man we saw walking down the street shouting at mother car that triggered it, im not sure. but whatever it is or was.. its freaking me out and i cant find the answer yet.
I however freak out every time i have to let my clyde in or out of the house, that same fear that i felt as a child comes back.. i have to close the big door into the house, lock the screen door, and see as far as i can as well as i can before unlocking the door to let clyde in or out of the house, i always always expect to see a deranged looking lunatic beating on the back door..
quite honestly its totally freaking me out and i dont know what to do.. why now? why all these years later?
thankfully when ron is home and awake he handles letting clyde in and out of the house since we have talked about it, but of course thats not always possible.
is it a sign of something to come? a warning? is it my mind screwing with my head yet again? is it *R* haunting me possibly from the grave? okay maybe that ones a bit far fetched. but still.. is it?
ive looked, googled and searched for any sign of *R* but have found nothing.. maybe i will talk it over with my sister and see what she says.. maybe she has some indication or even is going threw the same thing? im not sure.. one thing i am sure of is its freaking the crap out of me.. day in and day out month after month and i wish to hell it would stop already!