Why does time go so fast?!

This year has just flown by-it seems like it was just July and here it is the second week of October! We have been really busy with all of the boys. 
Connor got his cast off his leg but he still walks like he just rode a horse all the way from Texas! The nurse told us that he would walk funny for a couple of months and she was not kidding!! Connor goes back to the orthopedist this week to make sure that his leg is healing okay. Connor also turned 7 last week Tuesday~he is such a big boy now. It is hard to believe that he was ever in the NICU or so sick! He is just a bundle of energy now!! He loves his DS and X-Box and is always excited about school.
The doctors started TPN feeds on Danny 3 weeks ago. He has been home for two weeks and we are slowly getting into a routine. He seems to have more energy now since he is getting enough calories but I am just so worried about the trade off. I hate to think about what the TPN may be doing to Danny's little liver but I just have to trust the doctors. I just can't wait for him to be back to the little ball of energy he was before he got so sick. It is hard to remember how he used to be sometimes because it seems so long ago. It is just not fair!!!
Anyway, I am hoping that we go to Columbus, Ohio soon; we are just waiting on everything to be set up before we make the long trip there.  Hopefully, they will be able to give us the answers that will fix my little Super Danny!! On a happier note, Super Danny will turn 5 on Thursday the 14th!  He wants Iron Chef movies for his birthday! He loves the Food Network now-he discovered it in the hospital and now he watches the channel non-stop! It is so cute! I think that he is going to be a little iron chef one day!
Well, Dillon is Dillon-I am not sure what is worse my teenager or my 2 year old?! I think it is a toss-up depending on the day. Dillon got his first bike and already thinks he is Evil Knievel-I see lots of ER visits in our future!!:) He tries to ride Christopher's big bike and he is only 2!
Christopher "Tank" is playing tackle football for the first year this year! He is really good and with his size he can go far if he puts his heart into it! His team has given him the nickname Tank-he is big! Right now, his team is one game away from going undefeated this year-he is so excited! I am so proud of him. When I look at him now, I can't help but smile when I think about how tiny he was when he was born. He was the smallest of all my babies-only 5lbs 6oz and now he is as big as his dad!
Oh how the time has flown by! It makes me want to cry when I think about all of my babies growing up-where did the time go? I wish it could just stop for a little bit so I could spend more time with them while they are little, when they still think their dad and I are cool , I am still Super Mommy in their eyes and they believe that we can do anything!
Wow, I so didn't want this to be depressing but I am tearing up as I write this so I am going wrap it up because I have to go wake up my little troopers for another great day in Super Mommy's world!

What's Been Happening!

I have not posted in so long for a few reasons-we moved into a temporary home, I started homeschooling Connor and little Danny has been in and out of the hospital since July.
Danny has lost weight-he is down to 25-26 pounds, he doesn't tolerate his feeds now, and he is always so tired. It is hard to imagine that this is the same little guy that was unstoppable last summer! The doctors think that Danny has some motility issues-on top of everything else and he is waiting to have motility studies now. I think that he is going to begin TPN feeding (again) next week-he is only getting in 600-850 calories a day and that is not enough to gain weight. This is probably the hardest thing that his dad and I have had to go through. It has gotten pretty tough to see him almost wasting away to nothing. I can't really think about it to much or to long because it is just to hard.
On another note, I have started homeschooling Connor and Danny (when he wants to cooperate). I do have to note that even though Danny is so run down, he still has his strong attitude and temper-which is a good thing!! Connor is really excited about starting school because he loves to learn. I will go into the why and curriculum that we are using later.
I think that we will finally be buying our house and moving for good-YAY-this month! I would love to be moved before the boys' birthdays next month. I know they are all excited-even Roxy!
Well, Super Mommy alone time is over now! :)

Trying to Stay Positive~Much Easier Said Than Done!

I have always tried to be positive and make the best of a situation but it is starting to become so difficult! We moved again-Howells was a horrible town! We moved to Norfolk in order to be closer to my husband's job. When we lived in Howells, he had to drive about 50 miles one way to work every day. It was hard on him and our kids so we moved into Norfolk.
Since we moved, my husband has worked pretty much non-stop. His children don't see him, I don't see him and all the responsibility of the unpacking and moving details falls on me. I feel so trapped and frustrated. He gets off work and then sits at his shop and drinks a couple beers (at least) before he decides to come home-usually sometime after 10pm. I know that I should be grateful that he is working and his job is secure but sometimes it just doesn't seem fair!!
I am so alone here, I don't know anyone and I can't really go anywhere with all of the kids. Sometimes I really hate my life. That seems horrible to say because I love my kids more than anything but I really need a break!!!! I go from 5 am until at least 9 or 10pm with the kids everyday-even when my husband is here I am still the one who gets up with them and puts them to bed.
My husband doesn't seem to notice what I am going through or maybe he just doesn't care. I don't want to make him feel guilty because I know that he really likes his job and the people that he works with but something has got to change. I don't know how I can go on like this!
Sometimes I wish that I could just leave-just walk away from everything-my kids, my husband maybe even my life. I hate feeling like this. I just want to be happy again but I feel like I have lost myself-like I don't even have an identity anymore.
Oh well, it is time to suck it up and shake it off because the kids are up and they are expecting Super Mommy and I can't let them down!

Rain, Rain Go Away!

OK, I had just started this entry about the flooding here in Nebraska. I considered my family to be lucky, although we live in the flooded area, our home has been spared because we are on a hill.
Then my husband called from work-he had some bad news. Both of our vehicles are at his job right now-long story-anyway, he called to let me know that the city that he works out of is evacuating the area around his job. The Elkhorn river is out of it's banks and it will be flooding his job-where both our vehicles are-by 7pm tonight.
Great!! The roads between our home and his town are water covered so there is no way I can get either of our vehicles so now I guess I wait and see. My husband is working out of town so there is no way that he can move our vehicles-so if his shop floods-so will our vehicles.
Of course, losing our vehicle is nothing compared to all of the families in our area who have lost everything.

Swagger Wagon-Cute Commercial or Racist Propaganda?!!

I was having just about the worst morning ever and then I saw this ad-I couldn't stop laughing! It is so funny-I think because it is so true.
When I found the ad, I read that some people are calling it racist-I don't see why.
Why do people have to throw race into every single thing? What happened to the days when things could just be what they were-with no hidden meaning or racial undertone? It seems like today people look for a hidden agenda or bad motive in everything. I think the world would be a much better place if everyone would start just letting some things-like commercials or movies-just be what they are--entertainment!

We Figured Out What to Do!

Well, after much discussion about whether or not to homeschool our son, we have decided take him out of public school and homeschool him. I plan on working with him over the summer to make sure that he is ready for starting 1st grade material in the fall.
Last night, we went to Connor's spring concert and it was very cute! I was very impressed with the music program that the school has here and it made me second guess our decision to take Connor out of school. That feeling didn't last long because when I got home, we opened the IEP we had received in the mail earlier. It said that Connor's speech was only intelligible to strangers 10-15% of the time. That was kind of surprising since his teacher-who had known him for a couple of weeks-reassured me that she and the para in the class didn't have any problem at all understanding Connor. I am kind of confused-do they understand him or not? I think that they said they understood him at the meeting because I was asking about whether assisted communication devices might be beneficial to him.
I am not sure why they would say that if it wasn't the case-maybe it is because they don't want to pick up the expense for the assisted communication devices. I don't think it really matters anyway-Connor will be out of the school system in less than two weeks.

What to do? What to do?

OK, before my son started kindergarten my husband and I had talked about homeschooling him but we decided to give the public school a chance. Even though his preschool said he was ready to start kindergarten in the fall of 2008, we decided he wasn't ready for several reasons, one of which was that he was only 4 and wouldn't turn 5 until a couple of months into kindergarten. The school district really put the pressure on us to start him but we held our ground and he started one year later in August of 2009. I had just
gotten my first taste of how controlling public schools can be; especially when you have a special needs child.

We had an inkling that things weren't going well at school but we were constantly reassured that he was "doing great" and "had lots of friends" by his teacher and all of the members of his IEP team. I had some doubts because of little things that he said but when I asked his teacher or anyone at the school, they brushed off my concerns and made me feel like I was wrong to even question them.

At one point, my son was coming home every day in tears and saying that kids were being mean to him. I asked the teacher what was going on; of course she said nothing was wrong-he was doing great and always happy. The school had the school psychologist talk to him to try to find out what was going on-without my knowledge. The psychologist called my home and left a message on my machine in which she said she couldn't understand what he was saying but she told him that it "makes her sad when he goes home from school and cries". I thought about pulling him out of school then but we waited since we knew we were moving!

Just before we moved I met with his IEP team and that is when they decided to tell me that there were issues with him at school but "he was ready to go to 1st grade".  Then we moved....

Two weeks after being at his new school, the school called an IEP meeting to "update" his IEP. Wow, was I blindsided!! They told me among other things that he wasn't "mature" enough to go to 1st grade, he couldn't follow 2 step directions, he didn't know all his letters, he couldn't count to 20 and he needed to repeat kindergarten.

I was speechless because this was completely opposite of what my husband and I had been told for the past two years. According to the system, he had been ready for kindergarten for 2 years and now he isn't ready at all?!

Now my question  is what to do? Should I homeschool him or give the school another chance? I so confused by the system-it doesn't make any sense and my son is the one who is losing here!

So today I will try and decide what the best option for him is. There are a couple of other issues and I will go into those tomorrow.

Moving to a Small Town~~A Really Small Town!

Four months ago I thought that our family would be in Alabama right now-instead we are in a tiny town in Nebraska and as much as I am trying to like it---I HATE it here!!
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with Nebraska, it's just that I was really looking forward to moving back to the South. We were all excited about moving and starting over in a new place.
Things have turned upside down since February, when we found out that we wouldn't be able to move until 2011 at the earliest. All of the arrangements and plans that we had been making for the past year went out the window and we had to make a new plan. Our lease was up at the end of March so we had to move. Omaha has become so violent over the past few years, we decided that we would move to the country.
Finding a home to rent in a small town in Nebraska is challenging to say the least! It took us 3 weeks and about 700 miles before we found a cute little home in a cute little town.
Of course, all of the cuteness has worn off and I am sitting here today wondering why I ever thought that moving to a small town was a good idea!!
Oh well, I am sure that tomorrow things will seem better!:)