Kayla's MRI

Well, yesterday morning Kayla had her MRI finally. I had been working on getting it done for months now and it's finally done and over with. The morning started off with me taking Joey to work because I told him he didn't need to worry about coming with us for this. When I got back home I got Kayla up and ready to go since we had to be there at 830. We got there and went to registration, then up to the 2nd floor to get all settled in.

We sat for like an hour and a half doing nothing. They wanted us there at 830 because I was told she would be getting some contrast to see stuff better and what not. I don't think they ended up doing that. She got a liquid to drink that was like valium. It made her a little goofy and slurred her speech some. It was actually quite funny.

It was a little after 10 when we finally went to MRI. She was laughing and talking on the ride down. Once she got settled in by the machine, I went back up to the waiting room. I sat for like 2 hours!!! I'm a horrible waiter. The good news is I took my kindle with me so I had something to do.

I was so happy to go back and see her when she was done. She was such a grouch trying to get her up though. I blamed the medicine for making her a cranky butt. I told her the faster she wakes up, the faster we can go home. She kept asking if we could go to the zoo. I'm like "Kayla, you can barely stand on your own 2 feet. How are you going to walk around the zoo?" I told her maybe this weekend if she's good. She then cracked me up at dinner time. She looks at me and goes, "so mommy, when am I getting the MRI?" She didn't remember anything after going down to MRI. I'm like "you had it done already Kayla. It's over with."

Today I got the call from her pediatrician. The MRI came back fine. So the skin lipoma is nothing to worry about. I'm so relieved it's nothing else. She was going to give us the number for the pediatric surgeon but I said not to worry about it if it's something that won't get worse or better. I'd rather not put her through surgery if she doesn't need it.

Now something that happened that didn't deal with Kayla but with Emma's one doctor. While I was down in MRI my phone rang. I didn't answer, so I called back when I was walking back up to the waiting room. It was Emma's urologist's nurse. She's like "Dr Woo asked me to call and check on Emma to see how she was doing." It was out of nowhere too. I'm like "she's doing great with everything. Cathing is going good and she only gives me trouble at medicine time because the medicine tastes yucky." So then we left it at that. So while I'm sitting waiting for Kayla to come back up, the desk secretary calls Kayla's last name and said she was done and I could go back. Before I walked back Dr Woo comes out into the waiting room. Then it all clicks. She saw Emma's last name on the surgery board probably and was worried about Emma. But it wasn't Emma at the hospital. It was big sister Kayla. That really showed me how caring these doctors are up at rainbows!!! So everyone is doing good for now. Next big day is September 19th! Tonsil and adenoid surgery for Kayla. That's gonna be a long day!

life and stuff

Well, it's been a crazy couple of days. Emma has had 4 days of preschool already! She seems to really enjoy it a lot. The one security guard already knows her. He says hi as soon as we walk in. He calls her his little M&M. I'm not sure if that's creepy or just fun. We'll go with fun though! Emma and Alex are on a new schedule. Emma goes to bed early and wakes up between 5:30 AM and 6 AM. She watches Mickey while I get her ready. Alex usually gets up while I'm getting her ready. The plus side is, early bedtime.

So Saturday was an adventure. My dad came over to help fix our dryer. The belt broke so the drum wasn't spinning. My dad took the dryer apart to find out the belt had broken. We then ventured up to Lowe's to get a new one. It wasn't too bad of a fix. Just annoying. I tested it out today. It works! Yeah!!

Sunday night, Joey, Kayla, and I spent some time together and played some games. We tried out this game called Uno Tiki Twist. It was a new twist to a classic game. We had a blast playing it. We can't wait to play it again. We're going to try and have more game nights. We have to build up our board game collection again though. I want to get Sorry. Also some matching games for Emma. I also need a new Monopoly because it's missing all the $1 bills. No clue what happened. Card games sound fun too. We used to play Skip-Bo a lot. That was always a fun one.

Last night, we spent 3 hours in the ER at rainbows. Alex's right index finger was all swollen up. I originally went to urgicare but they said it looked infected and to go to the ER. So that's what I did. Let me tell you how angry I was to sit up there all that time for the doctor to just give us Benedryl!!! I could've did that at home. The urgicare doctor could've done the same. I was just so mad.

Alex slept basically the entire time we were up there. I was so glad when we finally go home. I dropped my bag on the floor, put Alex in his bed and climbed right into my bed. I went to sleep immediately. We got home at 12:30. I had to be up at 6. I'm somehow still functioning right now on that little bit of sleep.

I got a call a little bit ago about Kayla's MRI tomorrow. The MRI is at 10:30. We have to be there at 8:30 though to get her all settled in and make sure the contrast has time to get through her body and what not. It's funny. I wasn't nervous at all about this appointment until I got that phone call. Now I got the butterflies in my stomach. The purpose of this MRI is to check her butt bump as I have been calling it. Right above her butt crack, she has what looks like really dry skin that needs lots of lotion. Her doctor told us it's called a skin lipoma. It could be the very mild case of Spina Bifida where you don't even know you have it. When I had asked her original doctors at Metro, I was told it's just dry skin. They sent us home with hydrocortisone cream. Finally at 8 years old I switch her doctor and we find this out. Hopefully by next week we have answers from the MRI. Hell maybe tomorrow we'll have some answers. It just annoys me that Metro couldn't figure this out. I could've taken more precautions with Emma and starting vitamins sooner. That's life though.

Now I'd like to back up to Saturday. Saturday was a pretty rough evening for us. Joey and I had a pretty bad argument resulting in him leaving for the evening and not coming home until Sunday afternoon. Yes, I kept pretty quiet about this. All sorts of emotions ran through my head but I needed to be brave for my kids. Kayla was a complete wreck and didn't understand what was going on. I tried explaining the best I could. I spent a lot of time with her just hanging out and talking. I told her to let me know if anything was bothering her. Sunday morning she had a huge temper tantrum again and trashed her room.

To me, that is trashed. She was hurting so bad. She went into my room and sat by the window crying. She just wanted her daddy home. I texted him a little after that episode and told him we need to talk things out  because Kayla wasn't handling things well. So we did. We talked. Now you're probably wondering what the heck kind of argument lead to all this. Well, I'm the type of person who lets stress and anxiety build and build until I explode on the wrong person. It's awful, I know. This time I let it out on Joey. He had had enough of me doing this and walked out. He said when I go back to my doctor in a couple of weeks that I need to get on something for my anxiety. I agree with him on that aspect. I do need something to calm me down at times. My life is just a huge ball of stress. I bottle everything in until I break. It either ends up with me screaming and yelling or crying so badly. Sometimes it's both. A lot of people don't like to talk about stuff like this because they worry what people will think. My anxiety leads to depression at times and it leads to anger. There are times I do get pretty low and just want to die. I can't though. I can't die. No one will be here to take care of the kids then. Yes I realize Joey is here, but I feel like no one would be here for them. The kids need us both. For them to have us both, I need to work on getting me better. Joey and I need to work on our communication skills. We just gotta work at us. 10 years together. We can't throw it all out the window.

Emma's 1st day of Pre-K

Today was Emma's first day of Pre-K. I had been dreading today for the past week. Especially with how Emma would do with waking up. Now let me back up just a tad. We found out yesterday at her meeting with her half day teacher that Emma could not be in the afternoon Pre-K class. Yes there was an opening, but it was left intentional. There's a child in the afternoon class who is the work of 2 children. So I'm like "Oh! That's fine. I understand. As long as she can still come to school." So I signed a few papers agreeing to the changes we made in her I.E.P. So since she is in morning class, her schedule is 7:40 AM until 10:10 AM. Just a couple of hours but enough time to get her used to everything. So this morning actually went by smoothly getting Emma up. I got her up a little after 5:30 and I was lucky enough to see that Mickey Mouse was on. So she was happy and watched Mickey. I got her dressed and cathed and brushed her hair.

Before heading off to school, we had to drop her daddy off at work. Then it was off to school.

We were told 7:20 was start time so that's when we got there. Well the teacher and the helpers then said to come closer to 7:40 if i drop her off. We're still working on getting her transportation fixed since she's not full day anymore. Hopefully by next week we hear something. So while waiting Emma's teacher, Mrs. Seaman, brought the walker that Emma could use at school so we wouldn't be lugging Emma's walker back and forth. I didn't get a pic of it. But it was nothing like her own so she was unsure of it at first. At that point, I decided it was best I go so she could start walking and get her day started.

 When I picked Emma up, I asked how her day had gone. Mrs. Seaman said she had a good day!! The only problem she had with Emma was Emma not wanting to really eat any food and she kinda fussed during diaper change. I'm like yeah she does that for me too so no biggie there. Each day I will get a report on how she does in written form. Here is today's report.

She got to play outside and went down the slide 3 times with her teacher. By the looks of the report Emma had a good day. I can't wait to see how she keeps progressing through the school year.  Now if only her and her brother would stop fighting today.

crazy and wild weekend

What a weekend!!! We started it off on Friday with Emma's appointment for something called an Anal Rectal Manometry. The test is basically to see if Emma's but muscles know how to push the poop out. We weren't there too long though. Emma cooperated and just watched her tablet. She had to have 4 enemas! She had some poopies that were being stubborn and not letting the test read right.

She cried a little bit during the beginning but then she settled down. Once the test was done, Emma got some stickers. Not very exciting for such a rough test.

Saturday I sat and decided, I wanna make paracord Bracelets for extra cash. All my friends have little side business type things going on and I kinda felt left out. I didn't think there was anything out there I enjoyed doing, but I do enjoy making these bracelets. I'm still getting the hang of things but I can do it now to where I don't have to be sitting at the table looping the string on the table. I can free hand it so to say. So if you'd like me to make you one, let me know. Prices will vary depending on if you want one or 2 colors!

Sunday, I spent the morning de-cluttering the kids toys. I actually finished it up this morning. I wish I would've taken pics but let me set the scene for ya. I use 18 gallon totes as toy boxes because it's cheaper than a million toy boxes. Out in the dining room I had like 4 or 5 totes of toys. I now have it down to 4. But let me continue. It sounds like I didn't get rid of anything but I did. I also had 2 totes in my back closet. There are now 2 totes in the dining room with just odds n ends toys(I.E. action figures, cars, blocks), 1 tote with vehicles(I.E. barbie's various modes of transportation, Peppa Pig cars, and a truck or two, and 1 tote with barbies! I do need to get a smaller tote for barbie odds and ends though. The 2 totes in the back closet are only holding bigger play sets I couldn't part with. I'm really proud of myself for how much i tossed out. I'm not a hoarder at all, but getting rid of toys that the kids don't play with anymore, especially baby toys, is hard to do. It puts things into prospective. I threw out baby toys. My kids are not babies anymore. I have 2 toddlers and an 8 year old. 

After all that, I got the kids ready to go over my dad's house. He set up the bounce house for the kids to play in. They had a blast as always. We grilled out on the grill. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ chicken, and mac and cheese. It was all very tasty. Emma got a bath when we had gotten home. Alex was already asleep. He slept the entire night until 8 AM this morning. Emma fell asleep after her bath. She slept from like 8 PM until 9 AM. All in all it was a good weekend.

Back to school

Well today my oldest angel entered the 3rd grade!!! Time has really gone by super fast with her. 8 years old and 3rd grade.

my morning was a little hectic getting her ready. After I got home from taking her dad to work, I packed her lunch since she didn't want to get lunch through school today.

She requested a ham and cheese sandwich, a banana, fruit snacks, and a cherry hug juice. She actually didn't eat the fruit snacks until I picked her up from school because she told me she didn't have enough time to eat??? I don't know. So after I packed her lunch I waited until 730 to get her up and get her breakfast and get dressed. I completely forgot we were out of cereal so she had some chicken nuggets(don't worry, we have cereal now). After breakfast was all done, i went into my closet to grab her surprise.

These are our mother/daughter bracelets. We both wear them all day long. When we miss one another we just look at our bracelet and know the other has theirs on as well. Kayla absolutely loved it! It was something different for us to try.

Kayla had a good 1st day of school. No homework yet thank goodness. I remember last year she had homework going starting the 1st day!!! I don't think she has anything until later this week. But I'm sure it won't be too bad. This year they start learning multiplication and division. YIKES!!! Will have to bust out some flash cards.


The other school fun I had today was meeting Emma's would be teacher. Now let me explain why I'm calling her "would be" teacher. So the meeting was with a couple other parents for how the day will go and whatnot and get initial questions and fears taken care of. After this meeting, I had a sit down with her teacher and the PT and OT and school nurse. Well towards the end of the meeting, it somehow got brought up about me talking about Kayla only doing half day of preschool when she started. I told them at the preschool clinic they told me that half days didn't exist anymore. They all looked at me like I was crazy but light bulbs went off in their heads. They told me that half days do exist and there was a half day classroom right next to the full day preschool room. That sent us all into a small rage. The teachers were very upset that I was told there wasn't any half day options. They were all so confused before meeting with us as to why a 3 year old was being placed in a full day setting. I told them I wanted to do half day but was told all those lies. We got the problem fixed. I called downtown to the clinic and talked with the one lady and told her half day wasn't offered for us at all. She looked at the half day roster and said there was one more opening for the afternoon class. I said I will take it. So I let Emma's full day teacher know what was going on. She's going to give the half day teacher my number and hopefully tomorrow I get some phone calls. As a parent, I was terrified to send my child who has basically never left my side to all day preschool but I wanted to believe in my heart that she would do fine. I'm so glad things got better and we were now given another choice. She's gonna have so much fun when she starts school. I hope she makes a lot of new friends. It took me an hour to fill out all her paper work. It's safe to say i know my name, Emma's name, our address and what day today is. Ugh!!! What a day!!!!

appointments and back to school

Well, this week we had a lot going on. I started my physical therapy that I have to do for the next few weeks for my back. It's been pretty helpful so far. I'm enjoying it. Although I do need to remember to wear sneakers and not sandals. With it being summer time I just got so used to throwing on my sandals and going. I have stretches that I have to do at home to get my back in better shape. The kids help me out while I'm trying to do them. Heck even our dog tries helping me. It's too funny.
So lets back up to why I needed to start physical therapy. Well last Monday I woke up at 6 AM with tears in my eyes from the pain. I ended up at the ER. They took x-rays to make sure all was okay. They finally came in and told me that I was having some back muscle spasms. So they gave me a shot of tordal and a muscle relaxer. 2 shots. 1 in each butt cheek. I was not happy, but I was relieved when they kicked in. I was sent home with a prescription of ibuprofen and a muscle relaxer. I don't really take the muscle relaxers because they knock me out.



On Tuesday, Emma had an appointment to get her twister cables adjusted to a higher height for when ever she may need them.

These ones pictured are not Emma's but look exactly like hers. Right now she does not have the cables on the plastic braces. She just uses the braces. Now we were also hoping to get her quad canes that we've been anxious to get.

We found out that the company our orthotist goes through no longer makes quad canes, so he is still looking. It annoys me to some extent because she does good with these at physical therapy and if she can't practice at home then she's going to be stuck using her walker for right now because I'm not sure she's ready for forearm crutches.

I plan on talking with her therapist on Monday to see what our next step will be if we can't get her the quad canes.


Our next adventure in the same day was Kayla seeing the allergist. This appointment was actually before the orthotist appointment. Kayla just had to do a checkup and see how she's been doing. Kayla has been doing very good. I told her about our issue with the surgery scheduler never calling for Kayla's tonsil surgery so she was able to get us a phone number to schedule. We now have a date set! Kayla is super scared but I've told her it will all be okay. I promised her a Disney princess marathon if she would like. Tonsil surgery keeps you out of things for 2 weeks. So she will miss school for 2 weeks.

Thursday we had Emma's open house to check out her new school. She will be starting pre-K this year. Can we talk about me being a nervous wreck???? Her teachers seem so awesome though. Emma will be going for a full day. School starts at 7:40 AM and ends at 2:10 PM. She will be getting transportation to and from school. She is riding in a van with a wheelchair lift. I'm hoping it all goes well and she does okay. I feel like I'm just throwing her out there into the world. Most kids start with a half day program. It seems like all the half day programs don't exist anymore or want the child to be potty trained. Emma has medical issues that prevent the potty training. So she will have a nurse at her new school. She will also have PE that fits her needs. I go on Monday to meet with her teachers and school nurse to get a more in depth preview of what will be going on with Emma at school. That will be a lot of fun.

Today we had Kayla's back to school event. We met her new teachers and saw her classroom. We got a couple of forms filled out early so one less thing to worry about the first day of school. Her school was redone over the summer so now they have new windows and AC. So i don't have to worry about her dying of heat exhaustion. Last year they had a couple days off early in the year because it was too hot out and the kids were just too hot. Crazy to think of a school have a it's too hot day. Also at the event, they had a fun picture booth to take silly pics. Me and Kayla gladly accepted the fun times.

I forgot that Yesterday(Thursday) Kayla hand I went to the zoo. We only did half the zoo because my back had started to bother me but we had a blast as always. I needed her out of the house so her dad could work on the surprise I have planned for her on Monday morning before school. We saw a lot of animals. Some were sleeping though but some were out and about. It's always an adventure at the zoo for us.

Welcome to my life!

Welcome to my life! I'm Heather and I want to share my life with you all. A little about myself to start things off.

I'm 31 and I live with my 3 kids and my hubby. He's not actually my hubby but being together for 10 years is basically marriage to me. He's stuck with me and I'm stuck with him. We live in Cleveland, Ohio. Our kids are Kayla, Emma, and Alexander. Their ages are 8, 3, and 2(Alex will be 2 on August 14th). I'm a stay at home mom because our daughter Emma is a special needs child.

I love being able to stay home with my kids but there are days I would love to be out and making money. I'd love to be able to do an at home job but there's just nothing that peaks my interest. When I do get time to myself when the kids are occupying themselves, I love to play video games! I'm an xbox girl but also will play some playstation 4. My go to game to play is Call of Duty. Yes, I know. LAME! But it keeps me entertained and I have met new friends playing online. Other hobbies I have are listening to music and writing when I get a free chance. Not much to myself but it's me.


Now onto my kids.....my first born. Kayla!

This girl just cracks me up at times. She's 8 years old and I still wonder how the heck we're at this age already and why has time gone by so fast. She's so smart too! She's heading into the 3rd grade this year. At the end of her 2nd grade year, her teacher gave me a letter stating that Kayla would be in an advanced Math class this year. I was surprised she didn't get accepted in an advanced reading class. She's a little book worm. Mid year last year they took a reading test to see what level each child was at. She was at a 4th grade level. I never found out her results for the end of the year testing but they usually start these state tests in September or October. I'm sure her reading has progressed a lot more over the summer. The end of the school year last year Kayla started dealing with a lot of anxiety issues. She had some other stuff going on as well which made me switch hospitals and pediatricians. She ended up getting referrals to a few different doctors. We saw an allergist and an ENT. She also had a sleep study done because she has huge tonsils. She was supposed to get her tonsils out over the summer but after many phone calls, I never got a call back to schedule her in for surgery. So now I'll have to wait until next summer because with tonsil removal, that's 2 weeks out of school. She can hold off for another year I hope. For her anxiety issues I made her an appointment to get some counseling. She's been doing great with her all summer. She goes once a week. I'm almost certain the anxiety is going to kick back up next Monday when school starts, but fingers crossed it doesn't.

My sweet little 2nd born, Emma. Our lives were flipped upside down when we went to our ultrasound appointment to find out if she was a boy or girl. We ended up getting a phone call a couple of days later stating that something was wrong with her brain. I wasn't even home when I received the call. I was out at my cousins. So after a couple of phone calls we were scheduled for a 3-D imaging to get a better view of things. That appointment we learned Emma had Spina Bifida. It's a neural tube defect that happens before a woman ever knows shes pregnant. Most dr's claim it's lack of folic acid but I know other moms who took their folic acid before getting pregnant and still had a child with SB. My pregnancy felt like it took forever because all my questions wouldn't get answered until she arrived. I was scared and terrified. I was told to have an abortion. I couldn't though. I had heard her heart beat and saw her little face. She was mine and I was going to do whatever it took to keep her happy. After Emma was born, she spent a month in the hospital and had 3 surgeries. 2 of those surgeries were just in the first 48 hours! She was an amazing fighter though. It always amazes me how fast she bounces back from surgeries. Fast forward to now.....She's been through 9 surgeries in just 3 years. those surgeries included 2 back closure surgeries, 6 brain surgeries, and 1 eye surgery. She does wear glasses. She also uses a walker to get around. Tomorrow we actually go to get her quad canes I believe.

This fall she starts preschool! I'm still in shock over this. She will be going all day as well! I'm freaking out a lot about it but I know she is gonna have fun and make new friends. She's hopefully going to be taking a bus as well(still waiting to hear from the transportation department). The school she will be attending is a different school from her sister because she needed a school with a full time nurse and 1 floor. She needs a nurse at the school because she gets catheterized a few times a day. She will need it done at school once. We go later this week to get a peek of her school too! EEK!!! Mommy jitters!

This is my handsome little man who will be 2 next week! My Alexander! He's been a little turd since the beginning. In all reality, Alex was not planned. We were content with our 2 girls, especially with the fear that another child would have medical issues. I was on birth control but as we all know, that doesn't always work. I was in denial. I hadn't gotten my monthly visitor. I just assumed I was still not completely normal from having Emma. I was having a meeting at home with some nurses who wanted to check up on Emma. This was in January so Emma was 6 months old. They had asked how I was and told them. They insisted I should go get a test just to be safe. So after they left I did. I bought 2 to be on the safe side. Came home and took the test. Surprise!!! I fell to my knees in tears because I was not ready for another child yet. Joey wasn't home at the time I found out. He was at work. When I picked him up, I showed him the picture of the test. He looked at me like I was nuts. I'm like nope. We are pregnant again. When we found out Alex would be a boy, Joey was so excited because now he finally had his boy. Alex was born a healthy little guy. Of course the only difficult thing he could have done was coming 1 day early. So he was born at 36 weeks and 7 days making him a preemie technically. So we had to stay an extra day in the hospital. Alex has been a pretty good kid the past 2 years. He has some eczema and when he gets bad colds he has to use an inhaler for his coughs. He also has 2 toes that are kinda fused together. It's kinda cool. It's gonna be me and him this fall since his sister's will be at school so we're gonna try potty training!!! That will be an adventure.


So that's my life so far. Just living life with my family and enjoying the crazy ride called life! Can't wait to share more life experiences with you all!!!