Mother's Day

I want to express my grattitude and love for my husband and kids. That even though yesterday was rough for us all I still love you. Haydan, you are my hero for so many reasons. If it weren't for you I wouldn't have accomplished anything in the last 7 years. My love for you will never flicker nor dim. And if it weren't for my kids I wouldn't have had the faith and courage to finish the repentence process and stay on track of getting my life back in order. I know it was a long road for me (7 years) but I can now proudly tell you that I am worthy to again enter into our Father's home and do his work. Hopefully by the end of this year I will be ready to get endowed and do more work for our Father that can only be done by those who have the means and authority to. I hope that one day, Haydan, Olivia and Alex, you will see what I am doing and how imprtant temple work is to me and one day accept all of the gospel into your lives and follow me in the Lords footsteps. I know we will be an eternal family someday. We just have to be patient. Olivia and Alex I hope that you will want to be a great exaple of Christ.
Well anyway...(Haydan just informed me that I need to get the roast in the crock pot.) But I want all three of you to know that I thankful for you and all that you bring into my life.
~Always and Forever~

March 2010

Haydan has decided to skip on going to school and find a full time job. He wants to do a 12 week training thing to be an electrician. But till he gets off his duff and fills out the forms to start that he needs to find something else. He says he knows he needs to find a job but does practically nothing to find one. He wants to do something in the construction business. So if any of you know of any entry level construction jobs around please let us know.
Alex was diagnosed with SPD (sensory processing disorder). I have heard it is extremely closely related to Asburger's autism(sp?). SPD made sense for at first, but now some things aren't starting to fit with the diagnosis. So I am leaning more towards autism. I have also heard that because both of these disorders are so closely related that most professionals get the diagnoses wrong. Anyway ... Ales is supposed to be starting Occupational Therapy and Social Therapy whenever his health insurance company says we can. And because Alex is in medical through DSHS who knows how long anything will take in order to be able to start making appointments. All I know is that Haydan and I are frustrated to no end with Alex and we needed therapy to start like two weeks ago. I love my little boy to death and I just wish I knew how to help him at home in order to help keep Haydan and me sane.
Haydan and I had a parent/teacher conference last week with Olivia's kindergarten teacher. Olivia's teacher is so wonderful. Haydan and I found that Olivia is much smarter than she likes to lead on. We also found out that we are all on the same page as to what Olivia needs to improve on and what is expected of her school and homework wise. Olivia is on a 1st grade reading level and is getting better as each week passes. She has made many new friends and she made them very quick. Which I am very happy about because she has had to change schools 3 times in about 4 months because we were trying to get an apartment of our own (still I know but we have one now and have had one since the end of January thanks to my Friend and now next door neighbor, Jeni). The school Olivia goes to now is not the school that services the specific area that we live. She is and "overflow" student. Meaning that the school that services the area of which we live was all full in all their kindergarten classes so Olivia is bussed to the closest school in the district that has room. But next school year she will start first grade in the school she is supposed to be going to. Which yes, means that she will once again have to switch school and make new friends. But I feel that with her making so many friends and the fact that she made them so fast makes me feel more on the positive side that she will transition just fine.
Nothing much to say about me. I am trying a new way of making sure things get done around the house (well apartment). Everyone has chores and each week we rotate. This was everyone takes part and shares in the responsibility of taking care of the home and I don't get overwhelmed and over worked. So far it has worked. Everyone excluding me obviously, was surprised to see just how much it takes to keep our home running and clean. It was nice to have so much help this last week with the cleaning and picking up. Olivia got the most out of it besides me. She had started to do the dirty dishes all by herself. She needed a little guidance but not much. She did great. Alex got to gather all the dirty clothes each night and make sure they were all in the laundry room on laundry day. Olivia today expressed and interest in trading her dad dirty dishes for taking care of the cat. So we'll do a test run and see how that goes.

Usually not a follower.

I saw my friend Jeni's e-mail about updating her blog and thought I should follow suit in updating ours as it has almost been year sense I have written here. Like Jeni i will not be catching you all up on the last year but be updating from here on out. So with that here is the last few weeks.
January 30th, thanks to Jeni, we were able to get our own apartment after 14 months and are now able to be our own family and relax as so. Olivia loves her school and is doing very well in her curriculum. Alex was evaluated for autism and behavioral socialization and was found to have trouble with not autism but sensory processing. So soon he will be attending one-on-one sensory therapy and then group social therapy. Haydan still does not have a job and frankly i am frustrated with that as he is not putting in any effort to find even a part time job. But I am glad to report he will be starting full time school at Pierce College on March 29th. He will be using the most current GI bill to pay for 100% tuition and our housing costs. I am still a stay at home mom taking care of the family and our home. I have been thinking about maybe working from home. I don't know with what or who or any of those details but right now it's just thinking. I also could get a part time job somewhere within waling distance of our apartment, but I love to be a home organizing and making sure things are in their place and each place has their things. Anyway ... I really don't know where I was going with that. I guess thinking is best when ideas are written down.
If you want to follow us elsewhere you can find me on facebook or you can e-mail me at olivias_mommy11204@hotmail.com.

F.Y.I/The 411/To catch you up/The Update

So as most of you know (and if you don't) my pregnancy of baby #3 was deemed nonviable. Meaning there are things wrong and I will not carry to term. I will eventually miscarry. And I did. I miscarried in early February. I am okay physically and emotionally. Haydan eventhough he is abroad knows everything. I did send him a red cross message and then he called a few days after I had my procedure. The procedure I am talking about is a D&C. I don't remember what thiose letters stand for but pretty much it's a proceedure to remove any tissue and whatever else that was left after the fetus had aborted itself. Hopefully we can have another baby in the fuure. I do still have plenty of child bearing years ahead of me.
Olivia was in a ballet class for a month or so. She loved it. She learned the basics of the basics. She will be starting kindergarten here in September. She and I are very excited. She will have to wear uniforms again just as she had to in her pre-school in California. The first day of school is September 8th. And if you didn't already know, James, Olivia's biological father, had twins with his wife in February. They were born 3 1/2 months early so they are and have been and will be in the NICU. So Olivias has two more sibblings(half siblings). James had a daughter and a son. His daughter's name is Anaviana (unusual but pretty) and his son's name is Lucas.
Alex is talking a mile a minute now a days. H e has learned so may new words. He repeats himself so much. That's the only irritating part. He is a fast learniner once it comes to learning his abc's and 123's and what not. On the other hand it seems he never learns his laesson on not to do something that hurt him again. He acts liike he has no fear of anything that is actually dangerous. He is afraid of the noise a lawn mower across the neighborhood makes or the hair dryer when I am drying my hair but he is not afraid of falling 20 ft off the banister and onto the first level stairs or out of a second story window.. He is going to give my mother-in-law a heart attack one of these days.
Anyway,here we are in the begining of may. We are coming up on Mother's day. Happy Mother's Day to my mother's and grandmothers. My birthday is the 15 of this month. I will be 23. I don't feel 23 though. I feel much older for a number of reasons. Man how time flies.
To those who have been asking ... no, we don't know yet if we are re-enlisting or getting out and settling. You'll know as soon as I know. So that's everything in a nut shell.

Number 3

Yes number 3. If you have guessed it correctly it means I am once again pregnant with child number 3. I am as of today 9 weeks and 3 days along. My due date is August 4th 2009. This baby and Alex will be about 30 months apart. No it was not planned. I actually was on the pill. SO SUPRISE!!! I am happy about it. It took me a day or two to get use to the idea. Haydan was not happy about it at first and I am still not sure how he feels about it. He has been so stuck on not having anymore children period.

We found out we were expecting on December 26th. Haydan flew back to California on December 29th to work before he delpoys. He deploys on January 9th and so far doesn't plan on being back till sometime in September. So he will miss the pregnancy and the birth. I am just glad that I am surrounded by family and friends. I have my support and hope that this pregnancy because of the support I have around won't be as hard as I am thinking it will be because my husband will miss the growth of the abay and finally the miracle of life being given to our child. Not sure if I want to find out what gender the baby is or if I am going to leave till the baby is born. We are prepared for either gender so it really doesn't matter if I find out or not. So wish me luck. When I get sonogram pictures I will get them up.

This last month.

So Olivia missed her appointments with the pediatric psychologist and after missing two appointments she wan't allowed to have another. I guess the receptionist said if we miss two we can't amke another appointment because there is a long waiting list to see her. SO anyway I founf another psychologist that was willing to see Olivia. He said he doesn't hink she has ADHD or even ADD. But he definitely see's a problem. He said it seems she has ODD (oppisitional defiant disorder) which is usually linked to ADD/ADHD but doesn't have to be connected. So me and Haydan and Olivia's teachers at school filled out some surveys on Olivia's behhavior and such so the psych should get an idea of what each person notices about her behavior. The surveys form haydan and I totally contridict the surveys from Olivia's teachers. I Don't get how she is an angel at school but has prooven that she can be a monster at home. So we are trying to get to the bottom of this all and hopefully see a light at the end of a tunnel and get a handle on Olivia's outrageous behavior. Don't get me wrong, is a very Sweet and carring litle girl, but she definitely has her moments and they ccome more often than they should. ANd we just don't know what to do or how to redirect her bad behavior to good behavior. We need help understanding why she acts the way she does, why she acts this way, what triggers it, and how to help her however we need to be helping her. I am determined to get the help all of us need.

We are still moving to Washington next month. WE do not have a place of our own yet be we are trying. Our plan at this moment is to move in with Haydan's parents till we do find a place since it will be easier to find a place when we are physically there instead of 1400 miles away. And his parent's home is bigger than mine so we will have a room for the kids to share and a room of our own. We will also be able to put all of our stuff in their garage so we don't have to rent a strage space. The military isn't going to move us like we were told because we are not within 180 days of Haydan's EAS. So we are going to have to spend the $$$ to rent a truck and get boxes. Lot's of fun ahead of us. Our date of move is Dec. 19th. There is a unit Christmas party that Haydan's presence is manditory so we will get packed up and be ready to leave after the party. We hope to arrive at the in-laws on Dec. 23rd if all goes will with the snow in the moutains. Not ooking forward to that. ICK!!!

Last night was the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. We went and had a blast. Met up with tons of friends and met new ones. The Marine Corps was established on Nov. 10th, 233 years ago. I finally got to wear one of the formal dresses, still bearring a tag, never been worn, hanging in my closet. And the choice of shoes was bad. Just wearing them sittin gin the car hurt. I am not use to walking like Barbie. They were silver strappy things with 4 inch heels. Anyway we got pictures so take a look. Haydan looked . . . well I'll just say he looked extremely handsome in his dress blues. What I want to say probably isn't appropriate. Till next time...

UPdate on the kids and the family

Alex's toe is healing wonderfully. All has grown back all that's left is a scabb. I mean it's a pretty big and nasty scabb, but his toe in general is doing so much better. As for Olivia, we finally found a doctor that listens. He watched how Olivia was reacting to things and how she was in general. He dicussed her behavior with me and disipline. The next step is seeing the behavior specialist. That will be in the 22nd of Oct. She will do a series of test for development and other things. The doctor suggested a couple weeks of counseling and then she will start taking medication. I have an appointment with the Doctor on the 17th to discuss medication. Like wich one is best for her specific issues and age. I have been researching the different medications used to treat ADHD to get a better idea of what I think is best for Olivia. I am so glad that after a year and a half I have finally found someone who listens and observes instead of just writting everything off as it all being part of her age. Because yes, some of it is part of bing 4 1/2 but when she takes everything to a major extreme and hurts others it's not just her age.

As for the family... we were aprroved for a loan and were able to buy a new car and get rid of our two junkers. We got a 2007 Saurn Ion 2. Yes it is a sedan but we needed to down size for gas price reasons. We got the car for just under $10,000. Our Payments are $208 a month and with only 12.7% interest. WE got a loan through Navy Federal credit Union. The people we at first were going to get a loan through had our payments at $247 a month with 18% interest. So THANK THE ALL MIGHTY LORD for answered prayers. We have been struggling with cars since 2004. Never could get one reliable. And finally we do. I don't know what I have been doing or maybe not doing to be blessed this way but I am eternally greatful. On another good note, we found a 3 bdrm apatment in our home town of Puyallup, Washington for under $1000 a month with all deposites 100% refundable. It's a nice well kept and clean complext about a 20 minute drive north of both my parents and my in-laws. So the last thing we need to find is a mover to get our belingings for cheap. Since this is a personal move and not a PSC or end of contract move, we have to pay for the move out of our pocket. And we know that it is not that cheap but we can dall we can to find the best price. So as we find movers we have lots of furniture to sell/get rid of. Just in case you are curious as to what we are not keeping let me know and i will have pictures for you.