Back To School: Part 1

Today, the girls headed back to school. They were both unbelievably excited to go back. Emali was most looking forward to seeing her friends, playing in band again, and having art first class. Erin was excited about showing off her cast, seeing her friends, and recess. Yep. That's my girls. Alvin doesn't start back to school until after Labor Day. Even then, he won't go his first week due to doctor's appointments. The girls were also excited to have the same bus driver they had last year, Miss Amy. They really really like her, which is awesome because I -HATED- my bus driver when I was in school. Mean old Mrs Phillips. Anyway, here are some pictures from this morning!

 THE sequin blue leopard boots that Emali just -had- to have for school.

 She was making faces at me and didn't think I'd take a picture. She was wrong. 

 There we go. A nice one. I can't believe how grown up she is already.

 Getting on the bus to head to her first day of SIXTH grade.

 Erin giving me the stink eye. The child just loves to ham for the camera and I wanted a serious picture.

 Her zebra pettiskirt she just -had- to have or she'd die. (Her words)

 The whole outfit. Pink, leopard, zebra, gingham, ruffles, and a skull. But she makes it work. Plus, you gotta love the 'broken doll' model pose she's striking. Too much "America's Next Top Model", methinks.

Getting on the bus to head to her first day of THIRD grade!

The Day Before School

Today is the last day of summer vacation for the girls. Tomorrow they'll start 6th and 3rd grades. Their outfits have been chosen, bookbags have been packed. They are really looking forward to it. Then, this happens.

Yep. Erin broke one of her fingers.  So we spent the morning in the ER getting that taken care of. No gym or recess for a week. She'll have to wear the cast for 6 weeks. How did it happen? Well, Alvin shut the lid to the toybox on her finger. Broke it clean in the middle part of her pinky finger. It was black and blue and swollen within minutes. So, needless to say, she's going to be missing out on a lot over the next few weeks. However, she'll be the center of attention in class. I'm sure of that.

Painting the town red

Ok. More like painting the shutters brown, but I thought it was a workable title. We spent the majority of the day yesterday painting my Grandma's shutters. They were this (ugly) light brown color that I've wanted painted for years. Grandma finally agreed, so paint the shutters we did! It made the house look completely different! However, I did learn that it's SO much easier just to buy them in the color you want to begin with. This lady will NOT be painting her shutters. Nope. However, it was fun doing it for Grandma. Me, Eric, and Emali all took turns painting. Alvin and Erin were the supervisors.

 Here are the shutters before. The light brown just kind of fades into the yellow that the house is painted.

 Here is a before/after color shot. Before on the left, after on the right. Don't you just LOVE the after color?

 Emali painting away. 

 The after! I think it looks a million times better. The shutters don't blend in with the house now. Marvelous!

This was the sunset on the way home. Just gorgeous. 

Weekend!

Once again, we had beautiful weather and a great weekend. On Saturday afternoon, Erin went to a friend's birthday party. Then we just kind of relaxed. Today, we went to the park! Eric worked first shift so he was able to come with us. Emali sulked around a bit, but we've come to expect that from Her Royal Tweenness. Attitude abounds with her these days. Where did my little angel go? Oh, yeah. She's growing up. Anyway, that's a post that could go on forever. Parenting kids is a tough gig.

 Look at Erin fly in the tire swing!

 My little man all smiles in a different tire swing.

 And this is why he was all smiles. His Daddy was pushing him. 

 I know it's a dark pic, but I love it. 

Alvin and Daddy. This boy LOVES his Daddy.

Sleepover

Em's sleepover went well.  She had two friends spend the night. First time she's had one since we moved from CT. We made pizzas, then I took the girls skating. Eric took Alvin to see a movie. Here are some pictures from skating. They are fuzzy because they were moving and my camera doesn't like movement and low light.

 Erin's first time ever rollerskating. She didn't do all that bad. However, she was done with it all about an hour after we got there.

 Em and her two friends skating on by!

Emali falling down. 

Em and her friends again.

Back to the drawing board, sort of

Today was the much-awaited appointment with Dr. Cohen at Akron Children's. I had been looking forward while simultaneously dreading this appointment. See, I had been told by several people that Dr. Cohen has a horrid bedside manner. However, if he does, I didn't see it. The appointment started like most appointments with a new doctor do: going over Alvin's medical history. The more we talked about, the more the doctor's eye lit up. Apparently, most of what's going on with Alvin has NOTHING to do with NF.

So what does it have to do with? Well, that's the million dollar question right there. It could be several things. It could be something called neurofibromatosis-noonan phenotype. That's when a person has characteristics of both NF and Noonan's. However, doc said there were too many things going on to just be NFNS, but he wasn't ruling it out just yet. Part of Alvin's issues could be from a tethered spine. Might be mitochondrial. Might be an not-discovered-as-of-yet gene mutation/deletion. Could be neurofibromatosis type I microdeletion syndrome. Could be a lot of things.

Which means, a lot of tests in the future. Today blood was drawn for the standard CBC, chem panel, lead, and something else. Urine was collected for an amino acid panel. A lumbar MRI was ordered to check for tumors on the spine and for tethered spine. Once those are over and we get the results, we'll go from there. He doesn't want to test for mito right now, as it's a highly invasive painful test.

The one thing the doc said he really really wants to have happen in the next year is to have Alvin's entire genome profiled. That's a $5k test NOT covered by insurance. Eep! Doc is going to apply for some grants, etc, but some, if not all, of that costs will have to come from us. He really and truly thinks that there's something hinky going on with Alvin and that's our best bet to figuring it out. So, that's going to be interesting.  I'm kind of hoping that we figure it out prior, but I'm more than willing to try to get the funds to get the genome sequencing done. 'Cause really, once that's done, we'll know exactly what's going on in each and every part of his DNA.

So to recap, MRI in a few weeks. Blood/Urine tests done today. Results on both will be in by mid-September. If those are negative, we go from there.

Also, he's sending Alvin to be examined by a neuro-psychologist. No clue when that's going to happen. Still waiting on them to call me back to schedule an appointment.

Meetin' Monday

So, I want to do something a bit different than what I normally do. (What I normally do is post anything going through my brain at the time, and randomly at that.) Today, I want to have Meetin' Monday. I'm going to introduce you to some of the blogs I follow. I have SIX (6) of the hundred or so blogs for you today. They vary widely in what they post about, who writes them, etc, but they are all blogs I check daily. Even if they don't post daily.

I realize that I'm a tiny little blog, but if you'd like me to follow you, please leave me a comment on this post. I'm going to try to do this Meetin' Monday every week to highlight different bloggers, pinners, and tweeters. We'll see how this goes.

So, here we go!

The Bloggess -- She is hysterically funny. I'm sure a lot of people already follow her, but if you don't, you should check her out. Small warning: she swears, she's morbid, she's off, and she has panic anxiet like I do. All reasons why I love her. Some posts of hers you should check out: Knock Knock, The Travelling Red Dress, Wolf Blitzer, and Wil Wheaton collating paper.

Navy Wife, Navy Life -- She is a sub wife and a person friend of mine. She loves to craft, read, Scentsy, and tons of other things. She hasn't updated in a few months, but her real life is insanely busy lately. Still a great blog to peruse for reviews of eateries in CT, crafts, book reviews, and just wallow in that which is a crazy Navy life. She's also the creator of that Hungry Caterpillar craft that has went viral on Pinterest.

My Chihuahua Bites -- Another sub wife friend, though they're out now. Her blog is chalk full of make-up and beauty tips, crafts, and mommy stories. She also has a feature she calls "Dear Fill in the Blank" that's hysterical to read. One thing Andrea is, honest. Completely honest. She's posted about her depressions after her son was born, her struggles with life, etc. However, her wit and humor are amazing.  Some posts to check out:  How to for thick hair, Dear FITB, Personalized Coasters, and Mommylogues.

Our (Wild) Renovation -- Shameless plug for my own blog. Well, one of them. This is the blog of our house remodel. Posts are sparce at times, then come every day at times. Once the house is finished, it'll be where all things related to decorating are. So, stop on in and follow!

IHeart Organizing -- A blog dedicated solely to organization! If it could need organization, it's on here. Laundry rooms, play rooms, diaper bags, etc. You name it, it's probably on there.

Broken Birds and Bees -- A graphic and honest look at infertility. Very technical, very real. You'll cry with Selbe and Bean as they take their journey. She is a Navy wife and a friend of mine.

So, there you are. Six blogs to take a look at. I have in no way been asked to do this for any of them.

The Day's Project

Today we spent the day working over at my Grandma's house. She's been wanting lattice around her porch for a few years, so today was the day! It was beautiful day for it too. Not to hot, not too windy, etc.

 This is the before picture. Nice little deck on the back, but missing 'something'.

 Eric getting things all set up.

 Emali spray painting the lattice.

 Eric installing the lattice.

 Ta da! Doesn't it look so much better?! Grandma LOVES it and I do too.

Because we had an extra sheet of lattice, Grandma asked us to paint it and hang it as a trellis for her clematis. I think it made it look even better than just the lattice at the bottom. Overall, Grandma loves it and I'm glad we could do it for her.