welcoming 2010

well Christmas has come and passed, hard to believe we are embarking on a brand new year already. Christmas was wonderful, Santa was VERY nice, and went a bit overboard in every aspect, but thats okay, this was our FIRST christmas together at home since Zach was born, christmas 2007 was spent in houston at texas childrens hospital, 2008 the boys and i were home but Harold was in korea, so it was VERY nice to have everyone home. especially since Zach was hospitalized only 5 days prior, we got very lucky that he was released after only a day's stay. i think its times like that that remind us not to get to comfortable with our health. not to take it for granted.

Zach was taken to the er on sunday morning with a 105.5 fever, he was then hospitalized, the flu test they ran came back positive, so they were treating him for the flu and pnemonia (once he was released and we had a follow up we learned much different news) at the follow up his pedi informed us the backup test done after the rapid flu test was negative, so zach didnt have the flu, he also didnt have a new case of pneumonia...but looking at his discharge note we learned he DOES have an infection, his white blood count was at 20 thousand, but no bacteria was found in his urine or his blood...once again zach was throwing us for a loop. the same day we had a ENT appointment, the doctor had NO bedside manner, never took in consideration ANY of zach's other health concerns, but wanted to immidatly do surgery on his ears to release the fluid and pressure, said that could be the cause of his infection. with this information we went for a second opinion, have an appointment on jan. 7th, im sure he will need tubes, but we needed to have a doctor who works with zach's other specialists, such as his pulmo, cardio, etc. and so we needed to put the surgery off for a bit. he has been a trooper though and hasnt let it bother him much.

Christmas was very nice, we woke all the boys up about 730 and opened gifts, mikey and chance got loads of nerf gun stuff, some wii games, light sabers for wii, light sabers just for play, some transformer stuff and star wars lego stuff. Zach got a small ride on car, some small toy/rattle type things, a wooden sound puzzle, and a vtech story book musical toy, DH got a tool box, a shirt, some fishing stuff to get him started, and a xbox 360. i was also very pampered this holiday (ill bask in it until the credit card bills show up. lol) i got a brand new high speed camera with a extra lense, filter, carrying backpack, an awesome foot spa and a cool mudd purse, for my birthday (yea got the gifts early) i got a awesome burts bees collection of 25 items, and a beautiful wooden cross.

like i said santa went overboard, but i think it was kinda trying to over compinsate for not being together last year. it was worth it.

the new year is approaching, ill be 28 in a lil over 3 days and in 4 days 2010 will be upon us! i have lots of hopes for this year,
~the health of everyone in the family, especially Zach
~get more finacially stable
~more organized
~more quality family time

some of my resolutions are
~ eliminate as many chemicals from our daily lives as possible
~eat less processed foods
~ cook more meals at home
~ work out more at the gym
~ loose weight
~ give up sodas
~ eat less sweets
~ in general, help me and the family get healthier

new year, new start

k i didnt make any Resolutions so to speak, i upped my expectations of myself and what needs to get done, i guess you could say. one of my big ones was to get to the bottom of mikeys issues....bam done, asperger's....fine now we have a name lets get started on therapy.....started those calls today.

got chance and zach set up to meet this developmental pedi too, so if there is any concern he should be able to help us out. also have zach getting ready to get seen by an opthomologist. zach is also weaning off meds, in 4 weeks he will be off keppra, he has been off xopenex for over a month and off the oral steriod for about a week now, its wonderful!

i feel like im speeding right along, i finally dug out all my unmatched socks and rematted them, attempting to get clutter dealt with here at home,trying to clean more often and stay up on it, not easy with the washer being broken and my new one not gonna ship for about another week, but hey, my electricity bill should be much lower!

so anyway im making lots of changes, i have stopped drinking soda, i only drink diet soda now i really like coke zero. im trying (much harder done than said) to eat more at home and not out so often, its just soooo easy when therapy ends for zach to go out verses getting up and cooking, im tired and im lazy. but i am working on this. i would love to loose some weight, id love to drop like 50! maybe more. so we will see. i had wanted to join a gym, but decided not to spend the money when i do have work out stuff in the garage all set up, but it seems i cant even find time or energy for that! but soon.

so things are sliding right along and then it hits me, we throw away too much trash, we leave too many lights on, the kids waste water, they waste food, i worry about chemicals in our everyday stuff, so i searched thru MANY blogs today, ill eventually get them posted on here as well. but have decided its time to try again and get a bit more green. i have ordered more burts bees lotion and shampoo for zach, the boys got organic shampoo and toothpaste, i ordered some hylands products and am looking forward to those getting here. in addition to that, im going to be more energy aware, what we are using, what we need to use, the "vampire" plugs that are sucking our energy out, you know the ones, item not turned on, but still plugged in....yea its still sucking money out of your pocket and energy from our planet. im trying to get more paperless statements from our bills, do everything online. try not to make unneeded trips out of the house and save gas. trying to be smarter with meal planning and not waste food.

the BPA is still a concern in our products, everything from cups, to bottled water(thats a whole other story) baby bottles, plates, lunchboxes, and even dental sealants......yep you heard right some dentists are using the sealants that contain BPA! check with your dentist ASAP. i did and found out ours isnt using that and am VERY happy i stumbled upon this information as next week mikey is due to get 4 sealants done.

so i need to start small, but i have a very high long list of things i want to accomplish before Harold returns in Oct. i also have high wants for the boys too, mikey i want to be more self sufficent, better adaptivly and socially, reading really well, chance to calm down, not become so spazzy, and zach, i want him sitting on his own, i want him playing with toys, i want him trying to crawl and trying to talk and eat by mouth. me i want to get the house in order, get appointments under control (about to add the opthomologist and developmental pedi to zach's already overwhelming load, the developmental pedi to chance, ocupational and speech therapy for mikey) loose weight, get healthier, get more GREEN.

Chance will also turn 4 on the 1st of Feb! wow its so hard for me to think he is 4! he is growing like a weed and doing wonderfully. such a big boy and a big helper.

so heres to the next few months and the list of to-do! wish me luck