Crazy long update on Dylan

I haven't blogged in a little while because I have been really busy hauling little miss all around the town to her many (many) appointments! Just this week we had four, in one week, and we aren't even done!

I have been taking Greyson to most of the appointments and he has been so good but I have been feeling a bit bad for him because when we are done with the appointments I am ready to SIT and he just spent all that time sitting. So I don't feel like I have been doing a good job meeting his needs during the day. It doesn't appear to be slowing either so we may need to re-evaluate finding a school or an option for him. We have been talking about it for a while and we will see.

I am pretty sure I mentioned that we went to the Neuro Surgeon to get a referral to the spinal defect clinic in October. We finally went to the clinic and it went really well. The only real problem that I had with it is that all the people we saw that day required follow up appointments so I have to go to their offices for whatever anyway. I suppose it's better than two in-office appointments but this has been a bit crazy.

Here's all of the most recent appointment updates.

Urology
My impression of this doctor was meh. I didn't love him. he just walked in the door and told me I needed to start giving her a medicine to relax her bladder walls and start cathing her every four hours. I was like "back the truck up!" Then he slowed down a bit and did some explaining but sheesh... We have been cathing Dylan 3 times a day but because her diaper is wet in between the cathing it means that there is pressure which could be bad for her kidneys. I guess we assumed she could pee if she wanted to but just not go all the way? Anyway... bad. Uneven bladder wall at her last bladder study? Bad. Basically we need to relieve the pressure before it builds up and causes problems for her kidneys.

To be clear, there was no reflux before... but he is just super cautious about protecting the kidneys on going.

The medicine that we have added for her apparently makes the walls relax and she shouldn't really go until we cath her, so dry diapers in between cathing. But we had to up the amount of times we cathed her. For now it's just about four times a day but I don't know if I am supposed to be waking her up at night for their recommended four hours or whatever.

We have to follow up with them in their office next week. We will have a bladder study on that day as well. I don't know if the follow up was with the same doctor I saw at the clinic but they called me back and said there was a conflict and can I see the NP and I said YES! I like NP's better than doctor's anyway. Don't tell the doctors that. All the knowledge with less ego!

Social Worker
This lady was nice but talk about an information over load. She kept handing me all kinds of papers and information about support groups, kids activities, camps, disability services, on and on. I left with a huge envelope of papers that I've yet to wrap my brain around.

Family Doctor
I can't remember what this guy's title actually was but it was a crazy time. I mean... he basically walked in and said "Forget about Dylan, she has enough people worrying about her.... how are you?" And it ended up being some sort of very weird counseling session. I liked him and he had some great information but, odd, not at ALL what I was expecting, that's for sure!

He told me that I wouldn't want to live with my parents all my life and they wouldn't want me to, so there's a possibility that Dylan might (and should) live somewhere else when we are old and we can't take care of her any more. Which frankly sucks. when I told Matthew he said "False!" (basically) and that we would have someone come live with us before she went to live somewhere else. Sadz.

He told me that each parent needs to be spending 15 minutes of one on one time with each of the kids every week. He said it shouldn't be planned because then they get embarrassed and won't talk, but it has to be planned or it won't happen. Which was really cute. He said people try to go on larger trips once a year and that's not going to cut it. "You don't build a solid wall with large rocks, you build it with lots of little rocks" or something much more eloquent when he said it.

He also said that Matthew and I need to go out on dates. Like a lot. Wayyyy more than we do (we don't). He said something along the lines of looking at how much we love our kids, and we didn't even chose them, but there is also person that we actually CHOSE to be with and that relationship needs fostering. He said we have to leave the house and it has to be a minimum of two hours and that we can't talk about kids the entire time. He started spouting off facts about how much water Orlando is trying to take from the St. Johns river just to water golf courses and how the military could have prevented ISIS by just doing one thing, and one other very interesting one that I actually wish I could remember. His point? There is a LOT to talk about outside of kids, find those things.

I wish I could remember more of what he said. He was a good guy. Been a ped for 35 years and started in the military. I am kind of scared if him.

Orthopedics
Well this appointment was really interesting. So in January Dylan had the hemiepiphesiodesis to get her legs straightened out in the back.  She stopped walking because of the surgery and the bend is actually worse. These guys basically gave me the impression that they wouldn't have done this surgery for this, they would have taken a different route. Wahhhhh! Basically the angle is so bad that she would have to grow A LOT to make up for the bend and for the surgery to make sense so it's likely we did it for no reason. :(

They wanted me to follow up in the office to get x-rays to make sure the screws are still in place and that her femurs are growing at the same rate.

We went to that follow up appointment on Friday and it took FOREVER. The doctor was running late but Dylan was actually being very cute and fun so it is what it is.

Have you seen the commercial where the xray room is all white and they can change the color of the room and projection on the wall depending on what the kid likes? Yea, they had that. So when we went in it had soothing music and it was cycling colors of blues and green, the whole room... the room was blue... and on the wall was the ocean, like you were under water and swimming with the turtles. FANCY. I gave them a heads up and they had some Katy Perry happening which was super helpful until they tried to turn it down and stopped it and Dylan realized we were doing something not terribly fun.

The xrays came back and everything on them looked good. I wanted to take a picture of them so they just printed them for me which was so nice. The doctor told me about some other options, botox, cutting some muscles, even cutting the bone, but that we would see how things progressed with PT for two months and then follow up and see what we need to do. If it doesn't get better though... bad stuff coming.

The doctor seemed quite intent on making sure Dylan walks again (as does pretty much everyone here that knew she once walked and now doesn't...). She talked about braces that go past the knee for support when she's walking and some other things that I can't even think about. I am hoping that the therapy helps. I follow up with them again in February.

They have prosthetic guy in their office "Bob" and he was so nice I really liked him. I don't know his nationality, very dark skin, an accent, I should have asked. I was telling him about her walking and why we like the braces with the carbon fiber ankle and said her "gait was..." and he said "messed up a little bit." and started laughing and then looked at Dylan and said "mom said that! I didn't!" Though her braces still fit her fine now (and we got them a year ago... hello slow grower) she has been OBSESSED with the velcro on them and he fixed them up a bit. I will talk to him again in February.

Awesome people in the Orthopedics office. I loved all the people I saw at the spinal defect clinic and everyone I saw at the appointment. From the desk peeps to the nurses, everyone passes out their card (that I lose), their emails and their numbers in case I need anything. Crazy helpful.

Physiatrist
Do you know what this is? I didn't know... I am not sure if I still do after we have seen one. And now I have actually seen her twice. Don't tell her that though, she was very nice and she knows Mike because she worked in Salt Lake for a while. I stealthily took a picture of her and sent it to him and was like "this lady know you."

Anyway, apparently this gal coordinates all of the therapy and equipment. We need her.

Before we left Utah we tried to get a stander for Dylan and the company who ordered it got the decline letter and dropped the ball. By the time we knew it was declined we were headed off out of state, with no established care, and would have to be set back. The Physiatrist did the referral for that stander as well as a bath chair because Dylan is too long to lift over the tub these days and it's only going to get worse.

She referred us to PT and OT too. She briefly talked about in house intense therapy... but I blew that off for now.

We have been to both of those follow up appointments. PT and OT are together (I think?) and we did the evaluation this week. Dylan was in NO MOOD to be trifled with. The PT put her in this walker thing that had her suspended from the top in this harness. Dylan complained, loudly, but when the gal pushed it back Dylan did one foot in front of the other, even though she wasn't supporting her weight well. She did it forward and backward a couple times and saw stuff she was pleased with. That's good. Her recommendation is to do therapy twice a week. I set up appointments, before Thanksgiving was tricky, but after... Dylan will be going to PT twice a week. More than ever.

Both the Physiatrist and the PT mentioned knee immobilizers. The sustained added stretch over-night is supposedly the best thing ever. I can't imagine putting her in these things all night and having her be happy, but both of these gals say they are willing to put it off but it's very possible that we will need to do that if she's not getting more flexible after a few months of therapy.

We did the equipment appointment too. Apparently in the state of Florida insurances require that the therapists have ruled out the less expensive options by actually putting the person in the equipment. That's why we got the origional decline. So they take you in a room with all kinds of everything equipment related and find the best fitting thing you are looking for and submit all the required stuff. She said she didn't expect a decline but they automatically appeal if it is declined so if we get a letter ignore it and if I ever need to find out the status of her equipment I can call her.

I am excited for the stander because then we can do it at home. Mike said if you only do the stander once a day for a stretch you might as well not put her in it. You have to do it multiple times a day for brief periods of time. The report from school is that she loves the stander because it puts her at eye level with the kids. Awesome. She loved walking so this doesn't surprise me other than she's in a contraption that makes it so she can't move... okay, so it surprises me a little.

With that we went back to the Physiatrist She basically wrote down everything we did so far. She also wrote a prescription to have Dylan in the stander at school for an hour a day, broken up... which was nice. As is it was just 15 minutes twice a week. She really wants to bump it up for the stretch which is cool. I gave that to Dylan's teacher. They want her walking just as badly as I do so I am sure they will work with her.

GI
This doctor was fine but eh... I haven't really done anything we talked about. At the risk of TMI, she suggested adding Miralax to Dylan's diet with the Senna and using a glycerin suppository every night for a clean out. You can see why I have't done it can't you?

Medically Complex Children's Pediatrician
No longer at the spinal defects clinic but as a referral from it, we went to a new pediatrician also down town in the big tall buildings. I didn't know what to think about it but I was willing to give it a shot. We went this last week and I met the doctor, the nurse and another social worker (another!). The appointment went well, the doctor was really nice, he had a thick accent and I am terrible with accents but I think I managed okay. This practice has more experience dealing with the more needy kids than any other pediatrician we have ever had. So Dylan will switch to this Pediatrician where the other kids will stay with the one I had set up for them.

We started talking about Dylan's diet and how much she eats and how do I know when she's hungry or to change the amount. I explained how and he asked me if I have ever seen a nutritionist. I was honest (probably too honest) and told him I have seen a few and I have never liked them. He asked why and I explained that all the nutritionists I have ever seen try to over-engineer their diet. Plus, we didn't mesh well, but I didn't say that. All you have to do is look at Dylan and you can see that she's doing really well, she is getting enough food, not too much and everything is going great. I have mad Dylan skills, don't question me! He recommended theirs, I told him I would agree to one time... haha. he told me I wouldn't have to go frequently and I told him that's what they all say and here I was with four appointments in one week!

Also at this appointment we addressed out home heath care issues. Since we have been here we have used Apria for medical supplies because I didn't know where to go and the doctor didn't know (because she's not used to these kids and GI would usually do it) so I found Apria which is a national company. They have been HORRIBLE. Their billing is terrible, they kept charging my card and over-billing so I finally removed my Amex because I was tired of calling and having them credit back just to bill it again. They charge over $5,000 a month for her supplies (for reference IMC charged $1800) and we have weird insurance and after our deductible we still pay 10% so we have to pay $500 a month for food for her. That's lots. The nurse at this clinic said thy don't have any kids using Apria and are going to call Apria and get the info on what she gets and change us over to a local company, they have two to chose from. What?! AMAZING. If I could figure out just that I would consider this appointment a success!

She also got a flu shot which I hadn't had time to do so yay! Also a win for the day.

This office will now be her primary care doctor and it's 30 minutes a day but guess what? They have s 24 hour number and they will attempt to diagnose over the phone and call in scripts, even antibiotics without an office visit. Also AMAZING. I love a doctors office that trusts it's parents!

Then it was the social workers turn, she mentioned the huge waiver paper work packet that the other social worker gave me. Egads, I will have to look at that at some point. The waiting list is LONG, I really should get on it.

She also asked if Dylan has ever been granted a wish. She hasn't, we haven't ever pursued it though because we didn't know what she would actually enjoy and also we can afford to go on a trip if we wanted to and some families can't. But... after seeing Dylan at Disney I have come around. And honestly, we can't give her and the other kids what a wish would. She said all the kids in that particular clinic are qualified and she will start the paper work for the referral. I have been all sort of emotional about it ever since we talked.


The appointments that we have coming up are the Nutritionist and Neurology... and I think something else that he said there was a referral out there for but I don't recall what it is... I will know when they call me to make the appointment I suppose. And then all the PT appointments.

Over all I have really liked the care that we have gotten here. I love that we have new eyes on her. I think because we've had the same specialist for 9 years they have kind of let her slide a little. Not intentionally, she's just easy. So that part has been great.

Annnnnd I'm spent!

Dylan was so patient at the long ortho appointment. We had a lot of fun while we waited. She didn't love the paper gowns though... but I held her through it which was fun for me. :) 

Check out these babies with prosthetic legs! 

Hurricane Matthew

We survived a hurricane. That's a BIG DEAL. Storm of the century!

As far as hurricane's go Jacksonville is actually pretty well located. Usually any big storms that are headed our direction tend to fizzle out or turn because of that, East wind? What's it called? Anyway.... they rarely get hit very hard with anything but a tropical storm but it's totally possible, anything is possible! :)

We happen to be about 20 miles inland and away from any major water ways. Oddly enough, when we were looking at houses we didn't consider ANY of this. I mean, there is a VERY clear evacuation map, it goes A-E-ish with A being the closes to waterways. As the storm worsens, the letter that are recommended to evacuate go up. For this storm is was A and B that were recommended to get out of dodge. We aren't even on the map, there's kind of a sweet spot and we happen to be in it. That of course, is only for the flooding and wind is a huge factor that is more wide reaching. Mental note, check the flood maps when ever moving!

Matthew really wanted house on the water with a dock. They are amazing, pricey, but amazing... but his commute would have been way longer and I didn't love the idea. Even more happy about that now!

Anyway, this one was headed right for us, it was going to be awful. They said we would be out of power for a minimum of four days if our power was effected, and that was almost a guarantee. I commenced the ice cream eating. Stat. You know, just in case.

We had a couple loaves of bread, plenty of foods that were bad enough for you to last for several days. We had six cases of water already (Six! Why do we have six cases of water?!). Greyson and I put a bunch of water bottles in the freezer, we had plenty of room since we haven't built up the freezer stash yet.

We were ready!

Then I got a phone call from our Sister Missionaries in our Branch. The sister missionaries in At. Augustine got evacuated up to these sister's apartment and then they got the call that they were actually too close to the river and they were being evacuated. We had four amazing girls who needed somewhere to spend the night for a few days. We were fortunate to have a last name that starts with "A" so we were one of the first calls! And well, what the heck, let's do this!

We ran over to get some air mattresses from someone else and then we set up the two spare rooms upstairs ("Jessica's room" and the exercise room). It worked out really well, the girls had their own space.

My kids LOVED it. They loved them! Over all I think it really was an amazing blessing to have those girls come stay with us but but the boys LOVED having people to talk to and play with! Those girls really did a lot for my own personal experience with missionaries. It was so sad to see them pack up and go when they left but it was good that all of their apartments were safe.

While they were here they helped us sort Legos (on our never-ending quest to reassemble Lego sets), organize the game closet and cut out Halloween decorations. They are not used to sitting around and can't watch TV so we put them to work, errrr service! Along with having to listen to Asher's terrible jokes and draw pictures and play "extreme tic-tac-toe" which one of them taught Ian.

Asher's best joke "Why does the piggie go to the store?" then "To get some beans!!!" (Laughs) "... only he didn't need beans because he already had some!" (laughs hysterically.)

While they were staying with us I took some pictures and sent them by text back to their families. I had no idea what they were hearing from the mission leaders but I know if it were my child out there I would want to know what's up! A few of them text back that they were kept informed and were very well aware of what's going on but they were happy to see their girls smiling and doing well which was nice.

We buckled in for the storm - at one point we had the pool draining as quickly as the water was coming down... for hours... It was pretty scary outside so I just pulled all the blinds and left them closed and we played in our own little world for a while. I wasn't ever really nervous or scared and neither were the kids.

At the last minute, right before us, the hurricane actually stopped following the coast line and continued to go north which actually gave it a little bit of space between us. This is a crazy good thing, because if it go any closer it would have been even worse on into land where we are.

Disney has ever only closed up shop three previous times in history... twice for hurricanes. This was the fourth time.

We didn't even lose power. 

Some of the neighborhood lost some trees and branches but over all I am not aware of any major issues around us. 

The coastal areas and St. Augustine it's a bit different. A lot of houses along the beach lost their bottom floors and hd the back of the houses pushed through the garages in the front of the house. There is a big debate about "sea walls" to protect the homes right now. But hey, you build on a beach... I think you know the risks, as scary and as bad as they may be. The environmentalist are opposed to the wall, some of them even live on the beach. Anyway, I find it interesting because they have fought for years to make it so the general public can't access the beaches behind the homes. You can't get there unless you park below and walk up so it's basically their own private beaches and they want the city to supplement the cost of the wall. All these things I never thought about before! 

The missionaries were so excited to be able to go out and do service for people. The Mormon's Helping Hands has a base out of our church and they got shipments of household goods, food, chainsaws, gloves and all kinds of things. The girls helped unload trucks and have moved on from there but I need to talk to them and see what they have been doing. Because our church is a "home base" they only had church services for the volunteers before they went on their way to clean up. The plan is to resume church services this coming weekend and the home bases are moving up north now to some of the areas hit harder. 

So, got that huge storm out of the way... Hopefully we won't have to deal with another one!

I am telling people it's an "art installment" so they have full warning when they remain up the rest of the year. What else and I going to hang on the wall?

Sister Gibb, Sister Brian, Sister Colson and Asher's favorite Sister Pennock.
Boy did he have stars in his eyes for that girl! 

Greyson's Birthday and More

Greyson had a birthday! He's now four. I had SUPER high expectations of four but thus far... it's proving to be just like three. I remember being concerned about Asher not caring about what anyone thought of him, or responding to you, and having just a general bad attitude and he is the BIGGEST sweetheart now so he did come around. (Seriously, he's like... the best.) Right now Greyson's having his turn at not being very personable... but we are working on it. And four will bring big things.

But for now, he's just demanding. It's like dealing with myself a little...

He had a great birthday - he got a bit spoiled between grandma and his parents... he loved it. Traci and Shane and grandma Shirley send him cards with money in them. He LOVED it. after he opened them he said "Yay! Let's get more cards!"

Then I did what I haven't been able to do with the other kids... I put him in the car and we ran right to the store so he could spend his money on something he can choose himself. He picked two Paw Patrol guys and his total came to $14.92 - The cashier handed him his $.08 and his toys and he thought it was the best thing EVER. Birthdays are the BEST.

I put together a bunch of questions for Greyson's and asked them over the course of a day so I wouldn't lose him as he got distracted and started answering all the questions the same... but I think I tossed it... I have no idea where it went so you get these impromptu few questions.

Favorite Show? Team Umizumi
Favorite movie? Big Hero 6
Favorite Song? Big Hero 6 song
What are you going to be when you grow up?: Police Officer
How many kids are you going to have: 100
How many girls? 100
How many boys? Infinity
What does daddy do for work? Gets money
What does mommy do for work? I don't know
What does mommy like to do? Get money like dad.
Favorite thing to eat? Umm, I lot of food.
Favorite fruit? Bananas, I love bananas
Favorite snack? Pizza
Favorite Book? Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Who's your favorite person? mom "Awww, it's me?" "Yea, I love you."

Asher has become this amazing little artist! Every day he comes through the doors and wants to color, draw or paint and he makes these amazing creations, and books, and even long paper pieces that he's glued together that he can walk on on the floor. They have numbers and shapes and letters and words. I love it, I love all the amazing things he draws... the only problem I have with it is that he takes them and gives them all to his teacher! I have to hurry and snap pictures of them if I ever want to see them again!

He is SO smart, he loves Math. I have a bunch of flash cards I ran out and got (because they were $3 and not a bad thing to have around) and he plays with them almost every day. He looooves being right and with math, there is always a right answer. Kind if the reason I like math. He is also reading really well. All if this he is totally self-taught. We read to him and stuff and help when he needs it but he is totally the driver of learning new things. It's so cute.

Ian also loves Math and loves the flash cards but has a hard time not being smarter than Asher to his face... Like asking harder questions because he knows the answer and knows Asher doesn't which drives Asher nuts. But with some moderation they both learn something. Asher some new math and Ian how to not be a butt face to younger kids. :)

Ian finally got his 'take home library' book from school and the first book he brought was HARD. It's instructional reading level so it's slightly higher than his personal reading level but I was like what?! It didn't help that they were all like alphabet tongue twisters with "gazelles galloping and grazing in the grass". Here in Florida they have a series of questions you ask them after they read to make sure they process the information and you talk over new words (like zeppelin). His parent teacher conference is next week and I am sure she will say she loves him, everyone loves Ian.

Learning new words as we are reading is fantastic until you get this big idea to read The BFG with the big boys (sans Greyson) and all the freaking BFG does is say made up words. AmIright? I finally had to say "I don't know what it means, I have no idea, he makes up words! He's FUNNY." I hadn't ever read the book so I had no idea what I was getting myself in to. The book is perfect though because it has a hundred million chapters that are only a few pages each so if the boys are being good I can go on but if they are losing it there is always a good stopping point. Duncan could buzz through the book so the pace is kind of killing him but we are having fun reading together so he deals. Generally we work on homework and then read a little while I am watching for Dylan's bus, so 20 minutes of reading for everyone.

Duncan and I are pressing on in school but it's just HARD. He has to work really hard. So I am trying to tone down my personal drive for A's and just tell myself nothing matters yet anyway and by not doing as well now he will learn the tools needed to try hard later. Right? He's not worried when he doesn't do well on a test, I am not making him paranoid, don't worry. We just talk about what he's done and work through anything that he's missed or just tried to hurry on. I think he will actually start to do better just so he doesn't have to have the one on one time with us going over every problem! It seems like we are hitting our stride with homework time where we work together for part and then he works independently and doesn't get frustrated or procrastinate but gets the work done and we move on with the fun. It's been a great week, I hope we can keep it up.

We really haven't done much of anything super fun in the last couple of weeks. Still swimming a lot now that they little cold spell has passed. And by cold, I don't mean really COLD... but when it cools down at night (like below 75) the pool loses all the heat it's collected during the day and it's too chilly to swim! There is a heater but apparently it costs a hundred million dollars to heat so we are chicken. It's warming back up now and we had Nohemi and Ezra come play for a while yesterday. I love those little peanuts and she is hilarious because she's the only girl with four boys in the pool and she is definitely the center of attention. (Duncan's too cool. :) )

I ran to the scout store with some people from church the other day and it's a pretty cool store! There are things to do, things to build, things to COLLECT! Duncan would love it, it's far away but when I go again I will have to make sure to bring him because I think he will get a kick out of it. I had to get my leader shirt... which was $50... holy smokes, it was expensive. And then I had to get all the patches. I brought everything out the other day with the intention of sewing on the patches and I couldn't even pin the big patch in place to even start! Where are my mothers when I need them?! So I googled and there is some or of sticky patch stuff that works alone but can also hold them in place if you want to stitch the edges... I ordered it. Can I get an 'Amen' for a no sew option?

Matthew has been out of town this week and it will be good to have him back! Duncan had early scouts this week so I had to bring him and the other four kids to my scouts... With the 6 boys that were supposed to be there and the 6 kids that were not it was a bit crazy but I think we got the job done. It's such a crazy job for me to have with Matthew traveling but whatever, you get what you get right? And now I have a new $50 scout shirt so by golly I am going to keep on keeping on.

Greyson with the puzzle he got from grandma Kathy. 

This is how much we love our missionaries. 

Several weeks ago the sister missionaries had casually talked about a gator head that they were in a contest with other missionaries to get. So Matthew went out and got each of them their own. We are having them over for dinner next week but we had to hurry up with the gifting because one was last minute transferred with only two weeks left before she goes home! She won't even have to unpack. Happy for her, but sad to see her go!

This is how you make an alligator head kind of cute... 

At the bus stop - These little ones were having fun all trying to collect under the same umbrella. Cute!

Sneaky church picture.
We take church ipads away at 8 so I am not sure what Matthew and Duncan are working on over there. This was after Matthew got done actually talking on the stand and came back to his seat for the rest of the meeting so I wouldn't be the lone adult on the back row. 

This gum ball machine went to Mrs. Grabb this morning. 

Special visitors! (And school and stuff...)

We had a special visit last weekend... and I don't mean the hurricane!

My kind of hurricane though, for real, the only thing exciting was a tornado warning for a half hour on a Friday. Other than that, schools were closed and it was just a big rain and wind storm. The pool got a TON of water and it's all of a sudden freezing! Anyway, I mean a visit from Jared and Aarika and their cute little family!

They came into town on Saturday and crashed here. It was SO FUN. Not only was it a little piece of home, but they are good people with a cute little flock of well-behaved children. We swam, a lot... and did some fun things around the house but that was about it which is perfect! Hoping some of that well-behaved-ness rubbed off here instead of us rubbing off on them!

Toward the end of their visit we asked the boys who they were going to marry and at least got Ian, Duncan and Asher paired off to the girls. It was highly convenient that they each chose a different one! Of course, I am not sure they know at all what marriage entails yet... we will work on that later.

We were all so happy to have them here and then sad to see them leave. On our family meeting the day they left it was all the kid's "worst part of the day". Duncan is IN LOVE with Bea. He thinks she's the best thing that ever happened and is convinced he needs a little sister now. I told hime if we couldn't have Bea he was out of luck and her mom said no, so we don't get to keep her. He still busts out with an "I love Bea!" a week after they left.

Greyson and I have been making the most of mommy and me time this week. Of course he does so much better when he has a little bit of an outlet. Our church branch has Wednesday play date activities they try to plan to meet somewhere or do something fun that they saw at the library or whatever. We hadn't gone until this week and we went to the beach for an hour or so with two moms and their three kids. They still play independently so the kids just played in the sand for the most part and didn't say a whole lot to eachother. Greyson thought it was amazing though so we will have to go back.

Assuming I can handle the sand.

Because... sand.

During the month of September annual zoo pass members can get two people in to the zoo with them for free so that was the plan for Friday, I am not opposed to buying a pass for Greyson and I to go but I think I would at least like to see what I am paying for first right? I volunteered to drive because honestly, the huge van is totally excessive when I am not running all of the kids around every day. As is, we are only in there one day a week, Sunday, and that's it. To down size or not to down size... that is the question. I mean, when there is seven of us, there's seven of us an a wheelchair.

At the zoo there were lots of us, like... 8? 10? Most pushing big strollers. There was hardly anyone there and it was great. Hot, but great. We didn't see much of the zoo because we weren't there that long and we were traveling at a 3 yo's pace but it was still a great adventure and fun.

They played in a little splash pad there towards the end. Cute to watch, but it was hardly a splash pad by Utah standards. Total weak sauce. But it was cool water and they were hot kids so it was totally fine to them right?

Dylan had an appointment with Neurosurgery this week. It was really nothing at all exciting, you just need to see a neurosurgeon to be able to get a referral to the spinal defect clinic. Interestingly, most of the doctors you see at the clinic are the same as in Utah except in Utah Neurology ran the clinic instead of neurosurgery and Neurology doesn't even attend! So you have to go see them separately. However... to balance out the goodness, you can actually see GI here in the clinic instead of having to make an appointment there so I guess that's good.

We have an appointment for clinic in October but I think Matthew might be out of town and it's at 12:30 so I am not sure I can go and get the kids home from school? A neighborhood and church friend offered to maybe get her kids from the bus, then come to my house to play if the kids can get off the bus and come home with each other and be here for ten minutes until she gets here. That should be easy? Ugh... I don't know. But if we don't go in October we won't be able to go again until December since they only do the clinics once a month.

I did like the Neurosurgeon, she was great... I had requested a lot of Dylan's records and scans and she basically took them all to go through and add to their system . Unfortunately, the scans they sent did not include her brain and spine MRI's (What?! I said all scans!) so I had to request those and we will hopefully get them. They just need a baseline in her records so we don't have to repeat them and if there is an emergency they have something to work off of. Hopefully this new request does the trick and I can get them to her. A neighbor sent me a text and told me that this neurosurgeon was the one that did surgery on her daughter for her chairi malformation and they really liked her so YES! All that calling around and trying to get into the right place was apparently helpful.

I did have to drive in to downtown for it and I will have to for the clinic which is a bit intimidating but clearly we could handle it. My friend said if you want any kind of serious healthcare you go down town so that's what we will do!

I also went to Ian and Duncan's 'curriculum chat' which is like a back to school night for them. Ian's was on Tuesday and it was great. His teacher is AMAZING. She's quick though, which probably makes her a great teacher for their quick brains! She said she has the sweetest class this year and she would say if she didn't. She is able to have them do some different table activities while she does one on one and testing and she said she normally isn't able to do that with her classes until into October so they have been great and they are moving along nicely.

Duncan's was a little bit of a different story. I have really been struggling with him because he has had SO MUCH homework. Like a ton. The other week he had to do some homework on an elevation map, locating and listing high and low point. I asked him if he knew what an elevation map was and he didn't... So homework on a subject he didn't know about? Hmmm...

He brought home a test from school and he got a 69% and it had NOTHING to do with the homework we did. I was kind of irritated, if he needed to focus on those concepts why weren't they in his homework? Help me help you, for real. However, a lot of his marked off things were what they call "non-negotiables", punctuation and spelling... his bad. We talked to him about slowing down and checking his work.

Needless to say I was a bit irritated about the not studying. I thought homework was re-enforcing what they learned in class, not having to teach them entirely new concepts. It was only the beginning of the challenges that I have had with his class but in spite of that he LOVES it. He loves school and he adores his teacher. So the fact that we(me) are struggling with homework wasn't reflected in his enjoyment of learning... yet, which is good.

I wrote the teacher an email, I didn't want to be *that* parent but for real... come on. I was nice though, I promise. I genuinely am grateful that she is fostering a love of learning but I did want to check on a few things. She said she is working on better aligning their homework to the testing and it will fit better. But then I went to this back to school night and guess what folks? It's not her... it's US. There are things she mentioned that Ian's working on getting the concept of this year but Duncan's missed out on two years of learning the Florida way of doing things. He's behind in math, he's behind, not in reading, but in reading comprehension, he's behind in the non-negotiables, he just a little behind... and he's not a behind kid.

Basically I got out of back to school night that we are going to have to bust our buns for the next month or so to get him caught up but that once he is caught up it will be easier and worth it. I came home and had a one on one with him, spent 10 minutes and taught him some multiplication that he should have probably already known (0, 1, 2, 5, and 10) and sent him on his way. He gets it, and he's a fast learner. I was concerned though...

Then Friday he brought home the assessments for reading and Math and reading he is totally off the charts (higher than expectation/goal, higher than the school average, higher than the district) and in Math he's in the target zone where the school and district averages are below the zone entirely. I don't know what to think now! Is it possibly she pushes them hard now so they have a great 'most improved' grade? Is that the way they do things here? He doesn't seem to be discouraged which is great. We will just keep plugging away and busting our buns. Gosh I hope he continues to love it.

We were tired of the hurricane weather and finally just decided to go swimming in the rain!

Jared's trying to get out of the picture, sorry Jared, this was the best one.
(My camera kept fogging up, welcome to Florida...)

This baby turns FOUR tomorrow!

Oh my Bea, honestly. I really do want to keep her.

It's my baby Ike! 

Ian, Lenna, Asher! Brave Lenna, learning to swim!

Everyone needs goggles AND sunglasses, totally normal right?

The big kids were still swimming, the little ones came in for Play Doh

More of this cute face... and some other goof balls.

Duncan obsessing over Bea.

Honestly, I would take him too.
He was a little thrown off his game here but he'd get used to it. 

Zoo trip! Look at all these yahoos! 

Julie and my yahoos.

Two peas in a pod these two. They behave the exact same. 

They are very, very three.

Okay, so these two are adorable! Her birthday is at the end of the month. 

 Uh huh.

Adorable.

Just a cute one of the pickle I snapped at her appt.

Turtles and Turtle School

I took Jessica out to see a turtle nest dig and it was a big fat failure. There were actually two that night and neither had any live babies. The ideal nest has all happy little cracked eggs, no dead hatchlings and no live ones, meaning they all got out okay. So I guess... whatever... Ha. There were I think 7 dead hatchlings, the turtle pro figured, because it's been so blasted hot, that it's likely they got dehydrated before they got out. Sad. So with neither nest having a baby that makes four attempts with no babies!  I was starting to think I was bad luck!

I was considering giving it all up because I have been having Matthew come home from work early in order for me to go and for Pete's sake, I can't keep having him come home early! (Early is by 6, so he's still putting a day in, but I think he would normally try to leave around 6.) A few girls from church mentioned that there was another nest they just added for Saturday and Saturday I could maybe do so I tentatively planned on it.

Duncan and Ian an I headed to the beach and walked the half mile to where this nest was. Not too bad but the boys naturally thought that it was the end of days. They instantly started playing in the sand and building things. All the times before it was about the ocean, tonight it was about the sand! They didn't even go very far in the ocean at all just played on the beach with other kids. The tide was high and the waves were HUGE so that might have had something to do with it.

Because of the weather, there wasn't that much beach actually! Compared to other times we came I was totally surprised because in the past the sand stretched out for days!

They saw a lot of ants initially which is a bad sign. She put on the rubber gloves they normally wear and then slipped knee high panty hose on over her arms! The ants can't bite through the hose! Ants are a horrible, no good, very bad sign so they were hesitant but it turns out that the ants were pretty much just at the top and she ended up able to take the hose off.

When they started to dig up the nest it went really quite slowly... it was this particular lady's first time doing a dig and she was getting her rhythm on.

Then there were dead little hatchlings, just one after the other after the other. It was so crazy. There were SO MANY! One of the ladies has been doing this for 9 years and she thinks it was probably the most dead hatchlings that she has ever gotten. And extremely large nest, turns out the largest one of the season with 144 eggs, but so many didn't make it! They don't know why, she joked turtle CSI, but said one reason might be that the tide was so high that it packed the sand too tight. and they couldn't get out. They were also spread out over 12-18 inches so if they aren't all working together and going straight up it doesn't work quite right. So sad... 

But then, as she was past the babies and collecting the eggs, one moved. She was so excited! As was I, finally! There were two hatchlings that were alive that we were all able to send off which was SO COOL! Totally worth all the effort! I am okay now not having to force all the stars to align so I could go watch.

More turtle school for those interested - Every time I have gone I have learned something new. This is what I got from the last two nest explorations. 

Babies can live up to two weeks in the dirt out of their eggs and they get all the oxygen they need from the sand. They basically sit and wait for enough to hatch to start digging upwards. If they sense that the sand is too hot to continue digging, they stop, and wait to continue until it cools. Which is why the hatches mostly happen at night. Though the Mickler's Beach Turtle Patrol has a video of a nest hatching that happened at about 8:30 the other night because it was nice and cool. The video is pretty incredible. They are all spilling out of a hole in the sand!

This is the first year that Florida has participated in DNA testing on the turtles even though they have been doing it other places along the coast for up to 9 years. Only Northern Florida participates. They take one single egg out of each nest and have been able to find links between mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers.

The turtles nest 3-6 times in one year, every couple weeks, and each clutch has between 120-145 eggs.

I mentioned only one in every 1,000 makes it back to nest 30-35 years after they are born. She talked today about how they have had a ton of nest this year and it's largely because the conservation efforts started 30 years ago and they are finally reaping those reward, it
s showing now that it's been working. Is that crazy? Putting all of these things in place and not knowing if it's working for 30-35 years? Amazing.

These are loggerhead turtle nests, they have about 3 foot wide flipper marks up the beach but she spoke of Greens and Leatherbacks as well. Greens have about 6 foot wide flipper span and apparently Loggerheads are much wider even than that. She said people that have seen them nest say it looks like a VW bug on the beach! Unfortunately Leatherbacks are so endangered and they dive so deep in the ocean that their nest are most often unfertilized. They just never see another one so when they lay eggs, the entire clutch is no good.

One of the little guys tonight had a weak little fin, he was having a hard time getting everything coordinated. When we asked about it, she said it was fine but said that turtles can live in the wild with only three flippers. They have pulled some in for tracking and found that some had been "naturally amputated", like by a shark, and they do just fine with the three.

One of the volunteers spent time in Costa Rica doing turtle stuff. There, the locals dig up the nest and eat the eggs. The volunteers are there to cover up the tracks from the nesting and hide the nest as best as possible. They don't mark the nests like they do here, but rather GPS it an then use trees and natural land marks to be able to tracks the nests.

I have been waiting for this turtle for a very long time!

It was more about the sand than the water this time.
The other boy is Caleb, he's one of my scouts and he's the sweetest. 

Turtle charts.

Bit of a crew. Totally unimpressed with the nest at this point.

Yay! My first live baby!
They named him hope on account of all the turtle carnage he was under.

Lots of dead hatchlings. This lady was full of info, she talked to us the entire time. 

Not my kiddos, but amazing. 

Setting them free!

I wish I wish I wish this wasn't blurry! 

 Doing their beach job and refilling all of their holes before we leave. Just in case any baby turtles need to find the water that night.