Hey all...I would sure love some extra prayers for Giovanna. She has had a slight cough for a few days, and running a fever at night for about two or three nights...last night she woke up at 3:30 with a 103.7 temp..burning up~ We took her clothes off gave meds and put cold rag on her..she drank a little juice and i held her. She was so tired but was crying to be held. I told William (which had just gotten home from a week long work trip) that she was getting sick again and we needed to get her to the Dr in the Am. He got online and made her appointment. I took her at 10 and they did blood work, flu test, chest xray and strep test. Her white blood count was higher than normal and her chest did show signs of pnuemonia. so we are once again on meds. This is the second time in 7 days she has been sick. Last week it was stomach bug and had to have IV fluids for dehydration and nausea. My poor girl. She is my one that when she shows the first stage signs of not feeling good you better react right away!

She is laying on the floor playing with her barbies and laughing at her sisters, but doesnt feel too great...

Here's to a great weekend!

WELL WELL WELL....its been two weeks!
WE are all alive and well now. The girls are doing great in school, Lyndsey is packing up for her big move to Kansas, her first duty station and well we are just busy!

Lets see, a week ago, lyndsey had a bad reaction to something in the tanning bed and I had to take her to PriMed for IV and meds...she is better.

Giovanna got the stomach bug and was bad throwing up, I knew she was getting dehydrated because she totally was refusing to drink for fear of throwing up...we took her to PriMed and sure nough she was in a bad state. She got IV fluids, med's for her nausa and she did recover after a few days. Praise the Lord!!! She is the one child that when she gets sick, you better watch it...because you will be in the ER or better yet a few days stay in the hospital.

Lily, Bella and Gabby are all doing well. Michael is back in FL and is recovering from Mono. He was a sick guy, weak and just totally not himself. He is hoping to get his application resubmitted for the Montgomery Police Academy and see where that may lead him. He is still in the ARmy Reserve unit in Dothan.

Rita (me) well Im just busy taking care of it all. I have started on my mission of living a healthier life, eating right and loosing my 78 pounds! Im 5 pounds down!!! Yippie for me! I am REALLY trying to get my walk/run up so William and I can run in a 5k. Well he totally can do this since he has run a marathon but I need him by my side as I TRY to do it! Pray for me...Im Fat and slow!....BUt not for long...this year of 2010 is the year of ME! Im gonna be one hot momma come my 41st Birthday!

Well that is my recap...sorry its taken me a while to do it.

Update on Bella's new preschool.

after speaking to the director and sharing my hopes and dreams for Bella and also sharing with her what i observed on Tuesday we have come to a decision. They are moving the EI children into a classroom and will pull about 4 or 5 other children into the room for the days they will be in session. She agreed that the complete craziness would NOT be good for our children. So today I happily toook Bella and will pick her up at 11:15. YEAH! She was excited to see the kids and to get to play with new friends...


Lyndsey made it home last night around midnight. She has finally graduated from AIT and will be moving to Ft Riley Kansas in just a few weeks. This will be her first duty station.......William will drive out there with her and then fly home. This will help her with the LONG drive and the nasty drive in the winter, snow ice etc. I know she is so excited to finally after one very long year get somewhere and be settled. She graduated AIT exactly one year from the day her journey started. Funny!

This is so awesome. Maddy is the daughter of another mom who helps advocate for the children of Reeces Rainbow. WAY TO GO MADDY...you have the whole down syndrome community rooting for you! you sound like a angel.

Tuesday:
Today Bella started the new Early Intervention "preschool" on Tues and Thurs. i took her in high hopes that this would be a good fit for her and she would enjoy going. She will still continue with her preschool at Glynwood and will move into kindergarten in the fall. Well I took her this morning and it is a total disaster! The class she is in has been in place since Aug when school started and they just today added the Special needs children to the class. Well this teacher has NO control what so ever! I talked to the special needs teacher who is coming along side her and will basically be in charge of our children with sp needs and told her bella would more than likely not be back on Thurs. Im going to call the head office and talk to them...I want them to come and see how out of control this class is and then tell me how this is going to be a good setting to put my daughter in that loves to "WATCH" the other children and "DO WHAT THEY DO!"


We will see.....

Good morning Monday!

All 4 little ones go back to school today and i have a full day! So much to do since I was sick last week everything was pushed back a full week....not good for a busy momma! I also get to fit the GYM in my schedule.....that is a FIRST for me!!!!

Michael will be home for at least a week. His medicines are helping him feel better but after the steroids are out of his system he maybe hitting rock bottom again. Yall have any suggestions for me to care for him....he has mono. Ive never had it so have no clue! Ive just been keeping him drinking out of ONE cup and not hugging on anyone in the house. Anything else??

Well if you want to follow along on the train wreck cleanup of my weightless ....come aboard and travel this LONG journey with me. I will need all the encouragement I can get...so please leave me some!

You can follow along here as i start my year 2010 off training away and loosing some weight as I go. I haven't really done anything like this for myself since BEFORE the twins were born and they are now 20 years old. Im ready to start on Monday and i will be posting ALL my dreaded pictures on my blog for the whole world to see so this will MAKE me stay on top of my goal of loosing 78 pounds this year!! That will be loosing 1.6 pounds a week for the next 49 weeks.....

At each 10 pound loss I will reward myself of some kind...stay tuned to see what rewards...BIG MOMMA gets first!

At our house we go for FLORIDA GATORS and the University of ALABAMA....so when ALABAMA won on Thursday night, yes we were happy. I am so glad they won, however, from what I heard from the Texas player at the end of the game.....I was proud of him too. Texas played a good game and I am proud of the young man "thanking Jesus for being his rock and proclaiming to be a christian." It takes alot out of these young men to stand up for Christ in such a crazy football high that this nation is in. Good Job Texas....

AWESOME JOB ALABAMA.....ROLL TIDE ROLL!

Its official..

Michael has mono, i have strep throat and Bella is now better! GESH, cant we catch a break here?


Have a blessed day.

UPDATE ON OUR HOUSE!

Isabella is still coughing terribly...Im taking her back tomorrow to have another chest xray.
William and I are both starting to feel like the crud has hit us. I do believe we will go tomorrow as well granting we can get a appointment.

Yesterday Mon Jan 4 we were up and had G & G ready for school, the bus didnt show up by 730 (30 min late) we laughed and I said let me check to make sure they do go back today....well they didnt...so guess we had a practice run...

Tuesday All 3 of the bigger girls went to school. They all had a great day. Bella and i layed around all day until 245 to pick up lily from school...My chest is hurting.

AWESOME NEWS: Giovanna has really been trying so hard on her potty training....I think January will be the month to finally say GOOD BYE TO PULLUPS during the day. She has been dry for the last 2 weeks all day (going every hour half)...Isabella is trained day and night!!!!! Praise the Lord this will be a huge step for us! WE will still wear pull ups at night for both of them for several months but thats better than a whole pack every TWO days!

Isabella will start next Tuesday going to a Early intervention preschool for Tues and Thurs. The program is finally starting after TWO years of talking about it...and its a three day week program. However she is still attending her preschool on M W F and we will not pull her out of that...so they are making a exception. I think she will like it now being with kids 5 days a week. We pray she will do good. if we see negative behaviors she will be pulled out instantly.

Have a great Tuesday...I have homemade chicken dumplings cooking for dinner.

This is probably one of the few days that all over the internet on blogs, facebook, myspace etc...that everyone will be saying the same thing....

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!
I PRAY THIS YEAR BRINGS YOU EVERYTHING YOU HAVE ASKED FOR AND WELL WISHES TO YOU ALL.

We started out our 2010 New year with a bang! Isabella is one sick girl. She was up all night with a terrible cough, congestion, and high fever. Finally at 545 I got up jumped in the shower so I would be ready to head out the door to get to Primed when they opened at 7. I left at 620 to be sure we were first in line..I get there the parking lot is EMPTY and I find a note on the door that said they would open at 9AM today because of the holiday. Well why cant they changed their answering machine to mention it??? So home we come, i put her down to rest and out we went again a hour later. WE were number 2 in line. Here is how our time went while there...

She has pneumonia and sounds TERRIBLE! her oxygen was down to 86 when we got to the Dr. They started her on O2 and a breathing treatment right away. We then did a chest xray and come back to finish up the O2. She did great. Oh and they check her CBC....it come back Normal and the RSV come back Neg. WE once again seen the Indian Dr at Primed....and for those of you who remember my several visits with him and his comments about the girls will get a kick out of this,.... She was wrapped up in her blanket with her head covered...he walked in and say "hi i remember you....you have the fiesty indian daughter" I giggled and said...YEP YOU REMEMBER US...And he then said and you have umm like 3 or 4 daughters like her...her condition...I once again smiled and said ...oh you mean do i have 3 daughters with Down Syndrome? He always acts like she is contagious. today he kept smiling and saying...you are doing so good by her...she is a smart girl. Keep up the great job with your girls...in my country you dont see them out and about and it is nice to see your girls learn so much! In my heart I know what he means but inside I just cried....Cry for sweet Varsha...because she is in "his country" and noone sees children with Down Syndrome out and about or even better....ones who talk, walk, and are happy people. I cry for her! Someone please help her!!! If we arent meant to go for her...someone PLEASE do!

WE are home now and Bella is playing with the girls. She still sounds terrible but we will do a different nebulizer med for the next 3 days and she is on antibiotics and cough meds. Poor girl. I hate her being sick! She is just a miserable girl and what a way to start out the new year....isnt today suppose to show you what your new year ahead will hold......Um if so please can we reverse the time?