Do you have one of these yet?

I was VERY reluctant to get a Kindle.  I mean, I love getting a book and turning the pages and looking at them on my bookcases, blah, blah, blah.  That was BEFORE I actually got one.  I got one in May last year as a present from my Aunt Deborah who thought she was buying me an IPad :)  She is not very technology savy but I still benefit, so who cares!

Let's just say, I am hooked.  Millions of books at my disposal.  I can finish a book and find another one immediately.  No looking at the grocery store, book stores, drug stores, etc. when I am already pressed for time.  And now that Borders closed, where was I really going to get any book that wasnt in the current top 20 sellers that Kroger had? 

As much as I like reading, I also like the deal.  I mean, I really had to be certain about the book before I spent $7.99 on a paperback that I can read in just a few hours.  But now, holy moly, there are books for FREE!!!  Nothing is better than that!  I follow a few Facebook pages that alert you on books that are newly reduced or free-- "Kindle on the Cheap" "Kindled Hearts" and "Casting Pearls".  I have set a limit if $2.99 unless it is a new release that I have been waiting for.  Because of this new obsession, I currently have 192 books downloaded on my Kindle.  Some I read a few pages into and I realize it is not for me--nothing lost, just move on to the next one.  I have also found a few older authors that I would have never read before.  I will probably never get to all of these books in this lifetime!!  Anybody have any good sites that they use for cheaper books?  Any good book suggestions?

But I do need to say, for Christmas I asked for one thing.  I wanted a "real" book.  I have every Nicholas Sparks book in hardback and there is something about crying through one of his books that just can't compare.  Bear came through :)  and "The Best of Me" sits on my bedside table awaiting me. 

Meet our new house....

I already gave you a brief synopsis of how we got into buying a new house but not to the extent of how extremely difficult it was to actually own the house.  Being a short sale property, we not only had to deal with owners but the banks also.  After going through this process I have learned, you either want to deal with one or the other!

 After our offer was accepted and we did inspection, we had an appraisal done.  A few days after the appraisal, the owners, who lived out of state, came back to the house to get the belongings and clean up.  When they got to the home, the WHOLE bottom floor was flooded.  We have no idea how long it had been that way, but fingers started getting pointed in every direction as to who was at fault.  The source was a faulty pipe in the half bath downstairs that was noted on out inspection, however the owner's did not disclaim the leak but had the water cut off to the bathroom.  Hmmmm, makes you wonder what else could be covered up!  Thankfully, the bank had upkept the owner's home insurance policy and they agreed on a set payment to repair damages.  You think we would have walked away by this point.  Oh no, we wanted this house.  You would think that the owners would have it repaied and we would just make sure it was acceptable and done deal...right?!  Never that easy.  Basically, our fabulous realtor took over, lined up the workers and added bonus was that we got to pick the floors!  I decided to upgrade on the floors and blew the budget ;) but who really needs paint on the walls!?!

This is what a house looks like when it has been flooded completely.  Did you know that you can just cut sheetrock up to a certain level and just have it replaced.  I had no clue!  The sheet rock in the whole bottom floor was cut 18in up from the floor except in the actual bathroom and adjoining closet which was closet to the water.  It had to be cut 48in up from the floor.

We have lots of plans for every light fixture, every paint color, and even a few walls will be coming down.  But right now we have beautiful distressed Hickory floors next to brand new two-colored painted sheet rock.  Just homey if you ask me!

Seriously, I am overwhelmed at where to begin.  Bear thought I would be in heaven getting to decorate a whole house, so did I.  But right now, I am so commitment phobic.  I have painted the kids rooms and our master bath (pics to come soon) just because these rooms are easy.  All the other rooms require fabrics ,curtains, rugs, light fixtures, etc.  I haven't quite gotten there yet, but soon it will come to me...........I hope!

Bedtime prayers...

Kinson is really good getting in his bed and starting his prayers.  But as any other kid that I know he can kind of get long winded.  So I have started generalizing a few of his favorites--- he would name EVERY SINGLE kid in his class, so now we just say we are thankful for our friends, EVERY SINGLE toy that he owned, now we just say we are thankful for ALL of our toys to play with.  You get my drift. 
Well the other night he started veering a little after thanking God for food to keep him growing.  He then goes into, and I am thankful for mama's brand new refrigerator to keep it all in!  He really listens doesn't he!  The first 3 weeks in our new house we did not have a refrigerator indoors.  We had very shallow counters that required a special counterdepth refrigerator that no one kept in stock.  So we had to use our garage refrigerator until our came in.  Needless to say, we ate out alot and I think we all lost a few pounds because we were all too lazy to go outside or way too cold.  So when the fridge finally got here I literally praised God that we could be normal again.  Not only normal but it is soooo nice and I am in love with it!!

DROOL....

Birthday wishes...

Kinson turns 5 in just 3 short weeks!!  Can you believe it!?!  Neither can I.  As I came home early today and spent the afternoon with the kids, we addressed his party invites and talked about his ever growing list.  Things included piggy banks, fireman walkie, talkies, and the never ending list of train tracks that he does not have yet.  Later this afternoon he came to me and said he remembered one thing he wanted.  And I asked why, only half listening to the answer.  But then he mentioned "little brother."  I asked him to repeat what he said and he replied "Momma, I want a little brother that can talk to me."  It broke my heart. 
I have always complained that my kids don't get along but lately things have gotten somewhat better.  She will attempt to play with him and he doesn' kill her.  They will chase each other around the house screaming at the top of their lungs and stop and laugh.  He has even started telling her "good night" and "I love you, CoCo."  As much as Cohen has progressed, it takes a lot of patience and training to understand when she talks to you.  Yes, I said that she has started "saying" so much more, but only those closest to her actually know what she is saying.  So in Kinson's mind she still isn't "talking."  What do you say to a almost 5 year old when he asks repeatedly why can't she talk? or calls her a baby because in his mind only babies can't talk?  He understands how people are different, heck he even knows why I am different and why Cohen wear's little ears.  But those are all tangible.  He just can't grasp why she can't talk to him.  Any advice on this matter as to what to say or books to read to him would be greatly appreciated.

I stole this from a friend on FB but it really spoke to my heart. 

Mark Kelly speaking about his wife Gabby Giffords..."Most of us have contemplated what it would be like to be blind or deaf. But until Gabby was injured, I had never once considered how disabling it is to be unable to speak."

No one truly understands disabilities until you are faced head on by one......

And to answer his question, he will probably be getting a piggy bank and a nerf gun, and a DS game, and a new train but NO he will not be getting a little brother :)

2011.......where did the year go??

It has been awhile for me and I can give many excuses as to why I never blogged but really they are not excuses........it was just life.  And our life has been a roller coaster over the last 6 months and I feel like until this day, we have not been able to take a deep breath.  Things have settled down dramatically!!  Hopefully I can just pick up from this time and keep it going.

However, I would like to recap a few highlights from 2011 for me to remember--the good and the bad.

A few days after the last post I wrote, I got a phone call from my mom that shook our world.  Literally my world stopped and life shifted. 3 weeks later the news was confirmed-- my mom had ovarian cancer.  She had a total hysterectomy and went through 6 rounds of chemo.  She handled it better than the rest of us and is the strongest woman I have ever known.   December 22 we learned that she is CANCER FREE!!!

I will use this post to let woman know to be proactive in their health.  My mom's cancer was Stage 1C-a fairly early state.  Ovarian cancer is a silent cancer with usually the only side effects being GI issues and because of this, when it is diagnosed the percentage of survival is very low <10%.   My mom was persistent and her dr listened.  Luckily it was found early.  My eyes have also been opened and spoken to my drs about my family's history of breast and ovarian cancer.

Cohen started a new class in August that has she has flourished in.  Cohen has been challenged in ways that have made her successful but has also pushed her.  She is still severly delayed in her verbal communication but has demo great improvements.  She has started to say "I want ___" and "Thank you, ___".  She puts several words together but is a struggle for us at times to understand fully what she is saying.  She has ALOT to say, it is just the pronuciation of it that she is struggling with.  With this struggle comes a new wave of behaviors.  Behaviors that we did not experience with Kinson--or we did but it was short lived.  Cohen is acting out due to her frustration and has also learned that her acting out gets her things.  So part of us has to realize that not all "fits" are frustration rather than typical toddler behaviors that require discipline.

Kinson will be 5 years old next month!  Can't believe it.....  He is truly the smartest kid ever and so inquisitive.  I can not make up answers to his questions when he asks because he will always remember verbatim what I said.  He played another season of soccer, this time at Brandon city league.  We were worried because he was going to play with kids he did not know and we did not know but he did great.  He ready for Spring soccer but we are playing NWRankin this time.  He has also asked to play tball, tennis, karate, and piano.  And if we can find time he wants to take swimming lessons all the time!!  I am struggling with this because it all takes up so much time, time that we can spend together each night.  But now when a child starts a sport or class at age 6-7, they are already behind everyone else!  We are hoping to take karate this spring with hopes that it will build a since of self discipline and concentration in him.

Throughout all of this we decide that it would be a great time to move!  yeah, really, what were we thinking right?  It started the weekend before my mom has surgery and I was worried and stressed and Bear suggested we go our riding and look at houses-- I love to do this!  We found a house that we liked and for the fun of it called our realtor friend, it had a contract on it already.  While in the hospital, our realtor sent us a few houses to look at that fit our criteria.  We quickly realized we couldnt afford what we wanted.  So we found a home a few miles away and put in low ball offer and was rejected.  Well once you start offering things just snowball.  So then we decide maybe we should just put our house on the market and see where it goes.  In the meantime, 1/2 mile down the street in our neighborhood, we found out a house was about to go into foreclosure and was listed as a short sale.  Bear loved the house immediately, I knew it need a little TLC but could make it something that we could normally never dream of.  Because of short sale, we had to deal with a bank and owners.  So we offered them and put our house on the market.  I have never been so stressed in my life.  The bank accepted our offer, had a 38 page inspection list that we okayed, and 3 weeks before closing the whole bottom floor flooded due to a leaky bathroom faucet.  What should have been a 4 week pocess took exactly 3 months.  We had to have the whole bottom floor flooring and sheetrock replaced  before we could close.  While all this was being done our house had to stay spotless because we had tons of showings.  How easy is that with 2 toddlers running around!?!

Finally it came time to close on our new house and by a miracle of God, we got an offer on our house as we were signing the papers.  They wanted to close in 3 weeks!!  A few back and forths and sleepless nights and the time finally came where we were a single house family again. 

I have lots of construction pictures to post so anyone can fully understand the meaning of "gutted the whole bottom floor!"

So 2011 was a memorable year and i am sure that I left out so much over the last few months but we have been consumed with life and just doing what we do.  Hopefully I can keep up with this now that we are out of boxes and Christmas decor is up!

Crazy Busy!!

We are here, when you can catch us that is!!  This summer has flown by and it has been SUPER busy.  I haven't captured much of it on camera but I do have a few things to post about. 
Cohen's school doesnt start until August 15, so we have one more week of goofing off and cramming as many appointments as we can in so we won't miss school.  Hopefully, I can post this week!
Off to take the 2 to the dentist.........Kinson is promising that as long as Dr. Tiffany doesn't give him a shot that he will behave!!  That is yet to be determined!!

Geaux Tigers!

It was sports day at Magnolia and what other team would we support!  I have no idea what she was telling us this morning but after looking at it, it seems like she was cheering to us :)

Maybe she has a future cheerleading career...........

Magnolia Sock Hop

Magnolia always has fun things for the kids to participate in.  Last week, they dressed up to a specific theme each day and ended the week with a Sock Hop! 

The best picture she would pose for!

The boys in her class were sick that day, so the girls were in charge :)  Her 2 best girl friends, Selasie and Hailey.

Mrs. Betty, Selasie, and Mrs. Hillary

Cohen dancing with her teacher, Mrs. Mary!

Cohen and Hailey "dancing"

Taking a break!

Mrs. Mary's daughter, Julie has been helping since her school got out.  Cohen LOVES her! 

This is Cohen's beloved Speech Therapist, Mrs Hillary.  We have LOVED working with her this past year!  We are so sad to be saying good bye to her as she is moving to Laurel for her husband's job.  She has been such a tremendous part of Cohen's progress and we are going to miss her so much :(

Magnolia Sprint-- June 4

A few weeks ago, we got up EARLY to get ready for the Magnolia 5K.  We had a great team that made up "Cohen's Crew", we had 27 people sign-up to run for our team!!  We actually had 5 team mates that placed overall and in age groups.  Even though it was hot and I had hurt my achilles a few weeks before, it was lots of fun.

I have the BEST. FRIENDS. EVER!!  I am surrounded by people that not only love me, but love my children also.  Just in this picture are my best friends from high school, college, and work. 

In the blue is my niece Mackenzie starting the "fun run."

Kinson taking off....

Good form!!

Kellen running, he won 1st place for his age group!!

Mackenzie won 1st place for her age group!!

Poor Kinson had been "warming up" for his race since 7:00am for a race that didn't start until 9:00am.  He was exhausted before it started!!  He ran his first lap fantastic and things slowly went down hill from there!

We are going to have to work on pacing ourselves before the next race :)

Cooling off with sno cones!!

Kimberly got 3rd place in Women's Overall-- YAY!!

These are a few of the winners that were able to stay til the end to get their pictures made.

Thank you to all of our friends and family that supported Magnolia!!

Hypothyroidism, Hearing Impaired and Apraxia

I saw this link up on Kelly's Korner Blog and I just felt compelled to give a brief synopsis of Cohen's story just to help connect with another mother/parent who might can relate or use any of Cohen's interventions in their own situations.

Cohen was born October 2008 after 7 weeks of on and off again bedrest due to preterm labor.  She aspirated after delivery and was in NICU less than 24 hours but other than that was deemed to be a very healthy baby.  We brought her home 2 days later and felt like we were the luckiest parents alive.......Cohen slept 7 hours straight from night 2 on.  She very rarely woke up, and if she did it was because she was wet, not really hungry but we fed her because we knew we should.  We were also lucky in the diapering area also, she never went!!  At 2 weeks old, her big brother brought home a present from school, RSV!!  It landed both of them in the hospital for almost 3 weeks.  She bounced back well. 
Like any parents, we took hundreds of pictures of our baby girl and after showing them to many friends and family, they always commented how cute it was that her tongue was sticking out in every picture.  Hmmmm, should we be worried?  At 4 months old, we also noticed that Cohen tilted her head a certain way.  The dx:  Torticollis, treated and resolved by a few months of Physical Therapy.  Also at that time we noticed she still wasn't smiling.  But baby #2 I tried not to worry and wish her to "grow up" any faster than she did.  Finally, a few smiles came around after she was 5 months old.  At her 6 month check up, it was noted that she was very small for her age, especially in length.  The dr also inquired about her tongue, "Did it always stick out?"
 After having a few tests ran, it was determined that Cohen had Hypothyroidism.  No biggie, I have hypoT, right?  Well, in kids it is completely different.  It pretty much controls the whole cognitive development of the brain (this is why it became mandatory in the 1980's to test all babies at birth due to undiagnosed children often were labeled "mentally retarded").  Cohen was tested at birth........right?  After months of trying to find out the answer, we think she was but the test results only state "Normal" with no actual numeric value.  Anyway, we start her on Synthroid to regulate her thyroid and began seeing our beloved Endocrinologist.  We read every article or journal we could to help explain our diagnosis and our prognosis.  I will not lie, we were really devastated that she might not be "normal", not for our sake, but for hers.  I did not want her to go through any turmoils from her delays. From what we read and were explained by many drs, it would take at least 6 months for her to regulate and then at that time we could determine how far behind she really was. 

A few more months passed and I really began to get concerned about her eating and oral motor skills.  Her tongue got in the way of everything!  The drs said it might take 2 years for her tongue size to regulate.  Still, she never babbled or laughed.........No sounds.  We already saw an ENT for tubes but he said she was fine.  After she was 16 months old our ped decided she needed to be tested by another dr.  At 18months old, after ABR (hearing test done by brain activity under sedation) it was determined that Cohen was hearing impaired and would need hearing aids.  That same month, we also found out that Cohen was Growth Hormone Deficient (she was 27" tall and weighed 17lbs).  To say we were overwhelmed would be an understatement.  Luckily, we were referred to a great school in Jackson, Magnolia Speech School.  The staff explained everything to us and educated us and our family to a new situation.  Cohen also began daily injections to help her grow.  We felt we were given a new diagnosis every time we saw a dr.  Things began to fall into a good routine when we began her new school and were given daily notes on her progress.  After 4 months,(December 2010), Cohen was still struggling verbally.  After meeting with her speech therapist and her neurologist, it was determined that Cohen also had Oral Motor Apraxia.  Basically, when she voluntarily wanted to do things with her mouth she became very uncoordinated.  The signal from her brain got jumbled up.  Luckily, Magnolia specializes in this communication disorder and we were already in the best place.  This semester she has had a few new strategies put in place to optimize her speech. 

Cohen is a very energetic, unstoppable 2 year old!  When you see her, besides her small size and cute "little ears", you would not know a thing was wrong with her.  She is catching up quickly with her peers in cognitive levels and physical capabilities.  Her only category that is behind is verbal communication and we are hoping with her curriculum and determination that will also be a goall that can be surpassed.  We feel very blessed to be chosen to be parents to Cohen.  We have been given so many opportunities to meet others and she has taught us so much.  Like I said earlier, this is a very BRIEF synopsis of the last 2 1/2 years.  You can read back to older posts that give great detail, symptoms and diagnosis as they unraveled.

Where, oh where is the Smith family?!!!

We are alive and BUSY BUSY this time of the year.  We have been playing baseball, field tripping, field daying, and enjoying every moment of good weather that we can.  I will let you enjoy the pictures of the last month (not in any particular order;))

Easter egg hunt at church!  We hunted ALOT of eggs this year...

Baseball ready :)

On the Mother's Day train ride...

He LOVED seeing Thomas and Friends

Yes, there was a real man in that suit and it was H-O-T there!!

As Kinson said, "We are in Sodor!!"  We spent a day in Springhill, AL (don't recommend the city) to go to A Day with Thomas.  We rode Thomas and they had multiple activities set up for the kids to do.  Great kids activity just not the best city, plus it was HOT!!

BeBe's recital.  Cohen was mesmerized by all the dancing.  She will get her shot at it next year!

Magnolia's Field Day- Cohen's class was the "Busy Bugs"

Cohen was supposed to be doing the motion to a cheer, however she thought it was more fun to wave at everybody!!

Sweet Court!

Ring Toss

They made up their own rules ;)

Pool time at school.  She definitely LOVES the water

Not really sure what to do with the pop ice

Her classmates do!!