Wednesday, January 9, 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well, here we are....2013.  It's been so long since I've written.  Honestly the past year blew right by me, and was gone before I knew it.  Our holidays were fantastic and we got to spend two whole weeks with Gary here, doing all kinds of family stuff together.  Stuff that we all missed.  We had dinners together, we had family movie nights, we went out with our friends, we spent time with extended family.  It was fantastic.  Seriously fantastic.  I wish it didn't have to end but unfortunately, he went back to work on Monday and the kids and I have fallen back into our crazy daily routine here.
.
As for Gary's job, he is now working in Shreveport, Louisiana.  His company did not get the job in Tampa as we had hoped, when his time in Pensacola was through, so they've sent him to Shreveport for the next several months.  But....there is good news.  Rather than him living there permanently, his company has agreed to fly him home every weekend.  So, we do get to see him Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.  Which is certainly better than only seeing him once a month : )  Right now, we are taking things as they come, learning to go with the flow, and be grateful for the time we do have together.   This has all been such a learning experience for us, and we are hanging in there.

The kids are growing up fast, both of them becoming such different little people.  McKenna is loving second grade and has a wonderful teacher this year.  She finished a few months of gymnastics and loved it but she gets bored easily and was ready to move on to something new.  So for now, we are doing Girl Scouts (Brownies) and soon she will start horseback riding lessons.  I think she is going to love them.  She's started her orthodontics and is currently wearing a top and bottom expander.  We have to turn a key on each of them on a regular basis and it has caused her a bit of pain and discomfort but overall she has adjusted pretty well.  I'll be glad when this stuff is over though.  But that will be a few years.....

Our sweet little Michael is doing much better after a really rough second half of 2012.  Poor thing was suffering from bellyaches and headaches constantly and had some very strange things going on in his body.  After running tons of tests and lots of bloodwork, he went through an upper  and lower GI in order to determine that he could possibly have Crohns Disease.  Basically, his colonoscopy showed postitive signs of Crohns, but his genetic testing for Crohns was negative.  So while the doctor can't diagnose it with 100% certainty, he also cannot rule it out.  The plan of action has been to treat him with a medicine that is specifically for Crohns for 6 months, see how he reacts and then take him off of it and see what happens.  If his symptoms go away, then we're clear and hopefully his intestines have healed all together.  If not, then they'll do another colonoscopy and go from there.  He has been such a trooper through all of it.  He's been poked and prodded and had blood drawn a thousand times.  He never complained, he never fought any of it.  He had to fast for 48 hours and did better than Gary and I did.  It's hard to see your little one go through something traumatic like that, but in the end, we are grateful that his medical issues can be treated and dealt with pretty easily.  He's been on the meds for 2 months now and is doing FANTASTIC.   He is like a different kid.  And he's growing, eating, and just happier all around.  Our fingers are crossed that he will stay healthy after going off the treatment.
Other than that, he is loving preschool, learning a lot and enjoys playing trains and cars and swinging on our swingset.

Like I said earlier, we are taking things one day at a time.  2012 proved to be a very challenging year for my entire family. But we made it.  We're still here, and we're ready for bigger and better things in 2013.   I'm really hoping to write more this year.

Until then, xoxo.
-jana

0 comments:

Post a Comment

 
© Jana Slater Photography
CoffeeShop Designs