Life can be such shit. (from Novemeber 2009)

Life was great mangable up until Friday.  2009 for the most part has been good to us.  I couldnt complain.  Until Friday.  So far this year I have almost completed 2 semesters (3 more to go!)  Kevin has opened two stores, with his company.  Aedan, Maddie and I had a fantastic trip to ND to visit my family.  Things have just been moving along.

Friday a door was shut in our faces.  We were ripped right back into reality.  And now thinking back 2009 hasnt been so nice to us.  Between my energtic little girl getting diagnosed with Lymes Disease and now this. 

On Friday we learned something that NO ONE should EVER have to learn.  We learned about Cancer.  My father in law, who is the light of my son's life, and he the light of his, has cancer.  I dont know how to do this.  Be there for my husband, my in-laws.  Most people are not blessed to have great in-laws.  I do.  They have been the parents that I have never had (which thankfully now I do have a relationship with my family, and it is a blessing <3)  even my sister and brother's in laws are my everything.  I dont think that I've ever said that to them, but they are.  They have showed me what a family is.  The true meaning of it.  The true meaning of unconditonal love.  The true meaning of support.  If it wasnt for them, I can say, I wouldnt be where I am today with school. 

I cant begin to tell you how sad and angry I am.  I do not know what I'm supposed to do with this.  He is a mess.  He doesnt look like himself (well maybe himself, but himself with some major weight loss)  He has no control of his left side of his body, thanks to that shit cancer.  He is not independant, and we cant tell if he will ever be again.  It kills me. 

Halloween and spooky spiders :)

Howdy

Aedan's 1st Halloween Party is today :)  He origionally wanted to be a Ninga just like his big brother, but we decided to sway him to something else....something real cute and very 3 yearoldish ;)  Isnt he the cutest Cowboy you've ever seen????

This is his "treat" to share with his friends at school

Very easy and kid friendly recipe

Marshmellows

Chow main Noodles

Chocolate Chips (melted)

and

M & M's for the eyes!

Yummy! 

1st Mid Term Done!

Ive been stressing something crazy lately :(  I really think this semester is going to make me or break me.  The funny part is, its not my classes for my disapline that are giving me Hell, its the core classes.  I am completely lost in Algebra....I know for a FACT that I am not going to need that when I become a therapist!  I handle the bills in the house, I do our budget.  I've been out of High school for um lets see 13 years and I've yet to come across a point where I need Algebra, and if I did?  Well I would find someone who knows it ;)

I had my 1st mid-term today, I think I did ok.  It was for my Practices with Individuals class.  I love that class.  It is the meat and bones of therapy.  Very interesting.

I came home from school today and just wanted to do NOTHING!  I made some yummie banana muffins and had a nice little nap.  I think if I could sleep the stress away I would!

I set this pic from the summer as my backround on my desk top, he just makes me smile.... I <3 him!

Im really worried about Jake, he is really having a hard time will his spelling and confusing B's and D's.  I get so frustrated when helping him and thats not fair to him :(  I really want to know if this is true deslexia. 

CRAZY :)

Well so much for the chance at the summer that never was....WEATHER SUCKS!  Its October and for the 1st time (that I can remember) it snowed in October....YUCK!  The weather has just been plain crappy, this morning it is rainning and freezing, the kind of day where nothing gets done, you lay on the couch and watch movies and the house seems to just fall apart around you. 

Well life has been a little nuts to say the least.....School is back in full swing.  The kids are all adjusting and I'm only now finding my footing.  I am taking six classes and in hind site, I thought it wouldnt be a problem.  The classes that I chose are pushing me to my limits.  I have to keep reminding myself why I'm doing this, and in the end how worth it, it will be. 

Jake is struggling a little bit this year, he has had trouble with reading and remembering since he started school and we are starting to see a little clearer and have an idea what might be going on.  Together with his teachers we are thinking dyslexia.  We are going to have some testing done and hope that we get some kind of answer soon.  He has lost out on some very presious time and we now need to play catch up. 

Aedan LOVES school, this I didnt expect.  He is at the same school as the other kids and has just surprised all of us with how well he is doing!

Maddi is such a good kid at a bad age.  She really reconginizes the nuttiness of other kids her age and can see (for now) how wacky kids can be.

Julie, is Julie~ still my free spirit.  Laid back and loves life.  She has not had any side effects from her Lymes Disease and I cannot even exlpain how happy that makes me.  She will have it forever, but should not have any symptoms unless she becomes re-infected (which because of where we live, is possible)

Kevin is still working his tail off, but enjoys it.  His boss is out on maturnity leave and he now has the responsiblilty of 2 people, he is doing fine.

So thats the update for now.  I really need to get better at this whole blogging thing.  If I had the time/energy and posted half the crap that happened from day to day, it most likely would be a hit, but I'll take it as my venting space for now.

Fun in the sun :)

Took the kids to a sprinkler park today to beat the heat :) They had a blast! I think we will be going there again!!!!!

North Dakota Here We Come.....

So yesterday after about 3 hours of sleep and packing for 6 people to go in 3 different directions Kevin is opening the 2nd store this week in King of Prussia, PA, Julie and Jake to North Carolina for a visit with their dad and Madison, Aedan and myself trecked it 1/2 way across the country to North Dakota. We had 2 uneventful flights and made it here with the whole afternoon to spare!

Oh what a day :)

I goofed on my posting today...I usually do all my writting then I add pictures, today I added pics and wrote around it, it came out backwards....LOL! So what you are reading is really the end....confused? Ya, me too!

Also, I didnt realize this but I had my settings to only allow registered users to comment... :( I would love for you all to leave comments about the blog or the pictures so I enabled that!!! PLEASE let me know what you think!!!!! :)

Here is a picture of Aedan playing in the foutain, I didnt put this out last year because I was afraid of little hands making big boo-boos. This year is 10x's worse than last and I just said forget it, life is too short and there is no sense in having it if you are not going to use it!

Look at what happened today when I decided to do a little gardening and left the big kids incharge of the 2 yearold.....

The kids had the annual "carnival' day at school today and Jacob ended up "winning" some face paints. They ended up covered in the crap...LOL someone felt the need to write Aedan's name across his forehead, like we didnt know who he was ;)

Some of my flowers.....

Just wanted to share some of the "neglected" flowers from my "neglected" gardens ;) Our lawn mower is at the lawn mower doctor and my yard looks horrible! So now wide angle pics for you all just yet ;)

Decided that this year I would not be cheap and put some mulch down. I think it looks nice. My grandmother spent almost 50 years putting these gardens together and now I am trying like hell not to kill them!!!!

This Past Month....

May is almost gone! What the heck happened????? Updates, updates, updates......I will start with me :) selfish I know! LOL! I finished the semester at the beginning of the month and got my grades for this semester last week.....My GPA has gone from a 3.0 to a 3.21!!!! EXCITED! My grades are as follows....Philosophy B+, Addiction and Recovery A, Corrections and Rehab B+, and Racial and Ethnic Groups B!!! Pretty good for having 4 kids in 4 different directions and a husband who, well, is pretty much none existent right now do to his CRAZY job. (all set with that right now!) Classes that I am taking in the fall....Yoga, College Math, Sign Language I, Social Research, Social Welfare and Policy, and the 6th...that's right 6 classes next fall! Social Practices with individuals and families! YIKES! And yes, I am completely NUTS! So I have 3 semesters left of my BSW and then another 3 God willing of my Masters. Not sure where yet, but I'm seriously considering UConn at this point.
On the photography front....My BFF's sister in law had her baby and I did a photo shoot at the hospital. Pics came out great! I am giving them a couple of days to get settled at home and when our sun comes out again will take more pics of the little cutie! I finished editing a wedding that I did back in Aug. (I know sounds like a long time, but it was a probono thing that I did backup photography on, I wasn't impressed and I'm not quite sure I will ever shoot a wedding for free again!)
House is getting back to normal...weeding out a lot of junk! My goal is to have a tag sale, sell some crap on ebay, and good will the rest of the crap.
Ok so enough about me.....
Aedan~ is doing great! He is going to have his finial eval for speech next week and we will be transitioning him! It is amazing to think that this time last year he started speech 2x a week(they wanted 3x) he wasn't even talking to now....wow! It is just amazing! He is loving to be outside! Loves to get dirty, typical boy!
Jacob~ almost done with 1st grade! I think he is ready for summer. We have had a time of it this year! His teacher (which I have the up most respect for teachers, just not this one) has been nothing but a huge pain in my ass! She is fine to Jake, but an ass to me! Red, handwritten ink with notes to "jake" all over his papers. I've had a couple meetings with her (lucky me) and to make a long story short, "we" think there may be some underlying issue with him.....many tests later and great grades with the exception of spelling and reading, we think it may be dyslexia (sp?) I think he is fine and just a slow to start, but only time will tell. I tell ya, if we lived in an area that had good public schools...that is were he would be! I think they put way to much pressure on kids now....reading in kindergarten????...great for some kids, but geeze they are not all at the same level!
Julie~ Is ok. She is definitely ready for summer. However, I'm not! This means that when she goes back to school she will be a middle schooler! 5th grade :( Jewelz has gone from my girlie girl to my tom boy this year. skate boarder, scratches all over, forgetting to shower....so not Julie! Julie has an appointment at Shriner's in the A.M. for her back....the Dr seems to think she has scoliosis (I do) and might need a brace....poor kid double wammie this year....braces in the mouth and a new one on her back!
Maddie....oh Maddie! She's a good kid....just challenging these days! She is on strike with her homework....IDK, I'm on her about it, but she is out smarting us some how. She went camping with a friend from school this past weekend. She appeared to have had a good time. I guess I am trying to figure out this whole Pre-teen to Teen thing. I think at this point if I survive it, I will be Sainted in the end!
Kevin, well all I can say about that is....Busy! We dont see much of him these days....they are scheduled to open store #2 the 1st week of July in PA so you can only imagine.

The commerical that the kids did for the company. It is on constantly around here so the kids are like mini celebs. Jake has the speaking role so he is getting the most attention and he doesnt really know how to react! LOL!

Yuck....

So Jewelz woke me this morning at 5:30 to inform me that our "guard cat" was grawling at a bear that was having breakfast from our garbage this morning! It was neat to see and it was a pretty big bear! I have to remind myself to put the trash in the garage. One of the pros/cons of having 3 acres of land in the woods! Wildlife is all around!

Went to the dentist today and had some xrays done, I know I have a nasty cavity, I cant eat anything on that side, but they cant see me until the end of May! WTF! They said if it hurt so bad that I couldnt stand it, that I would walk in as an emergency....nice....

And my big vent of today.....I took Aedan to Kohls with me early this afternoon to look for one of those covers that you put over your mattress, not a plastic one, or one of those foam ones, just a plain or cover...no luck...so I headed over to the women's clothing department....shouldn't have done that!!!! Miss Sarah needs new clothes...nothing fits. I since October have put on about 20lbs. I went from a size 2 and could wear a curtain and make it look good to I cant figure out what fits and how to hide my baby belly that doesn't have a baby in it! If one more person in my family asks me if I'm preggers I will flip out! They talk like it would be a horrible thing. They say oh well 5 would be too much to handle, and aedan is a handful. Thanks, but you don't live with him or me and you dont ever visit but a couple of times a year and you live 5 mins away! Kevin and I were watching a show about women who didnt know they were pregnant, I joked by the way I look I could be one of those women! But really, the fact is that I have fluff that I don't know what to do with because I have never had it before except when there is a baby in there. I cant really wear sweats constantly and its almost summer, so I think I'm screwed! SPANX? will that work? HELP!

Wow!

Some pictures of the kids from thier vacation last week! (maddie was with her dad)

Time flies! I cant believe that it is almost May! I promised myself that when I started this, that I would be consistant....LOL! With the 4 kids in 4 different directions, school full time, Kevin and his crazy job, keeping the house somewhat clean....ya all I do with free time is sleep!

I have (fingers-crossed) made it threw this semester! Finials are on Monday :) 3 more sememsters to go! Then 3 semesters of a Masters program, I'm not getting ahead of myself right now, I will be happy getting my BA. But needless to say, this time next week, I will not know what to do with all the free time!

I am also planning on writting a little bit more detail about what is going on and I am going to try to get this blog off the ground. No holding back type writting, which I think will be theraputic to me and maybe to some readers. My focus will still be on us and whats going on, but not candy coated ;) We'll see what happens....

Family stuff for this week~ Well, not much has happened in the past month! Easter was very nice. Kids were on spring break last week and it rained the 1st part of the week! The second part was nice and we took the kids to Six Flags and got their passes squared away and was able to ride a couple of rides.

March comes in like a lion....

In honor of the month of march.....one of my faves from last march! (its rootbeer)

I cannot believe that it is March already!!!! The kids and I have a snow day today and I am VERY thankful!!!!!! (i had an exam tonight that i now dont have to take! ) It started snowing at 11 last night and it is now 3:30 and it is still snowing! We are sooooo ready for Spring!

Since I wrote last (xmas I believe) things have been nuts! Kevin in chin deep in this new job! He loves it, but I dont think that either of us thought that it was going to be this crazy. He is working all sorts of crazy hours. I am at midsemester and all I can say is, this semester is going much smoother than last! I'm taking Philosophy, Racial and Ethic groups, Corrections and Rehab and Addiction and Recovery. I LOVE everyone of them! School is coming much easier now than it was as a nursing major! I still feel that Photography is were I should be, but with the field that I am going into, I will be able to do both!

The kids are doing well. Maddie celebrated her 12th birthday 2/11, I celebrated my 28th (again) and Jakes is coming up this weekend! Jake has been kind of having a hard time with his reading and his teacher wanted us to have some testing done. Nobody wants to hear that there might be something wrong with their child so me being the way I am (stubborn) decided that we would have some private testing done 1st. Jake had speech when he was younger so I started there. That part went great and he doesnt have a speech issue but when we did the next test which was a hearing test, we found out that Jake is not hearing great in his outer ear canals. They think that he has the same issue as Aedan had and we will be going to see the specialist on the 13th of this month. I was told that they will most likley just go ahead and put tubes in. So we will see!

The McIntyre Christmas...

I wasn't sure how Christmas was going to turn out this year. Everything just seemed to be out of control and unfortunately i know that it was due to me going back to school full time. I had finials and the adjustment alone to a private collage was super hard. I did no shopping until I was done with school the end of the semester which was the 2nd week of December. Another issue for me was spending money. I have terrible guilt about spending money. So part of my plan was to wait until the closer days to Christmas to get some good deals. The kids Christmas lists were reasonable and thanks to other family members, the kids got EVERYTHING they asked for!

Aedan enjoying what he insisted Santa was going to bring him!

making music!




He was sooooooooo excited to see this! He LOVES IT!!!!! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

Jacob being cute!

his awesome new spy gear!!!!

Jake holding Julies new skate board from Memere and Pepere and her new "skull" cap from Santa (it was the girlie~st he could find)!

Miss Julia with her gift from Grandma and Grandpa Simmons...

Madison and her new comfy boots from Grandma and Grandpa Simmons....

christmas pic 2008 style :)

So this is the "holiday" pic for this year! It is funny how this happened....Kevin and I took Aedan to Walmart to pick up some lights for the Christmas tree, out of the six packs that I bought last year, 1 worked! So we left Maddie with Julie and Jake (Maddie took her babysitting course through the red cross this past fall, so we figured it would be a good time to try it out). We told them we would be gone about an hour and to behave and we were off! Maddie had called at one point and said "mommy make sure Aedan comes in first when you get home." I said "why?" and she said we will see! This is what we walked into! She found the Santa suit that Kevin wore last year to hang lights outside. Aedan thought it was the BEST EVER!
I decided that due to the 47 cent stamp rate, that i was protesting and not sending cards! I thought I would be doing my "green" part, but I caved last minute and I did print them off and gave them with gifts, those who I didnt see, well yours will arrive shortly!