First Year Let's Play Music Registration

I have begun registering first year Let's Play Music students! I am only teaching one first year class and it will be Tuesday mornings at 10am. I am doing a sample class in April. If you are interested in signing up or have questions just let me know. If you want to learn more about this great program go to www.letsplaymusicsite.com. I have absolutely loved teaching this year. I'm amazed at how much the kids are learning. I honestly wouldn't be teaching unless I really believed in the program.

Miracles Do Happen!

So, Emmet escaped his 12 x 12 cell this morning. The sweet miracle I had been praying for all day yesterday happened!! This morning the nurse had Emmet not eat or drink anything after 9am and she was getting him prepped for his surgery. I kept thinking his neck looked significantly better, but I'm no doctor. A little later the ENT doctor walked in looked at Emmet and gave me a great big smile. He couldn't believe how much the lump had changed and sent us home. I have strict instructions and will have to call him daily for the next 10 days on the progress of the lump. Emmet is taking oral antibiotics and hopefully he'll start getting more movement of his neck. I can't believe how wonderful everyone had been. It was a long seven days. I honestly thought after Sam's death I wouldn't have to have a kid in the hospital. Thankfully I had lots of support and Emmet was a trooper. I'm proud of him. If you ever need someone to take you to the ER and sit with you for days on end in the hospital I'm your woman!! I was counting up how many days I have been in a hospital in my life and it's somewhere close to 75 days!!

My Little Sickie

Tuesday afternoon I took Emmet to the doctor assuming he had a horrible case of strep throat. This set off a fun chain of events.
--It was not strep throat
--we were sent immediately to the ER
--a cat scan and a spinal tap later they sent us by ambulance to the children's hospital
--six days later he's still in the hospital getting ready for a minor surgery tomorrow
--it is not cancer
--however he had elevated white blood cell count and swollen lymphnodes surrounding his neck!!
--a cluster of lymphnodes are still so swollen the doctor will surgically open them up and drain them tomorrow
--Emmet will have a drain coming out of his neck for two days
--He's bored, I hate sleeping in the hospital and let's hope the next few days go quickly

Our Crazy Weekend

I have been training to do a triathlon for about two months. I had been vacillating on whether or not to actually do it. I didn't want to drive to CA by myself, so when my brother Chris offered to go with us, there was no turning back! We left early Friday morning and arrived in San Diego by noon. We stopped four times before Yuma, I seriously thought we would never get there. My kids kept needing to go potty and we didn't even have drinks in the car. My kids had a great time playing at the beach, in fact Emery came close to getting completely in.
We stayed with my r girl friends who were doing the triathlon with me. We were up and out of the house at 5am and headed to Fiesta Island in San Diego. I was quite nervous, but excited and when we arrived it was so fun to see how many people were there. It was dark when we arrived and setting up our transition area was a little tricky. It was cold and I put on my wet suit hoping to keep me warm. Here's the four of us trying to get acclimated to the water so we wouldn't hyperventilate once the race started. I was feeling pretty good at that point, butthe race started and I did hyperventilate anyway. I seriously was turning back to the shore to quit! Thankfully, my friend Heather and this random women gave me the best pep talk as we were side stroking in the water. I didn't turn back and I began swimming. My wet suit was choking me so I loosened it and did back stroke the entire way. It was 1/3 of a mile and I actually had a mean back stroke. Three of the four of us came out at the same time, we call Rachelle the shark. She's a great swimmer! Transitioning from swimming to biking was hard. My legs were shaking and getting the wetsuit off was tricky. It was nice to have friends right there for help! I loved biking. It's my favorite and I borrowed my brother's street bike and I finished a little ahead of my friends, but I knew they would pass me in the running. My goal was to not walk when I ran the three miles and I didn't. I think I could have pushed myself a little more, but I was just so happy knowing I was going to finish and not be last that I didn't feel the need to sprint at the end. I was ahead of my group for a bit and then I heard Rachelle and Heather singing behind me and knew they were coming. I think I finished about a minute behind my friends. I don't know my exact time, but I know I completed it under two hours!!
I loved having my kids there to cheer me on and I loved doing it with friends. I couldn't have done the race without them. Chris was a saint and was so great with my kids during the race. Now that I did it, I want to do another one. So, if anyone wants to join me let me know, the more the merrier. We had so much fun doing it in a group. It was so exhilarating to make a goal and then reach it. We cleaned up, took the kids to the beach and then we headed home. The rest of the group stayed, but I went to do the triathlon and was ready to get home. I'm tired, but so relieved I completed it and wasn't last!!

Happy 31st Birthday Sam

I think he will forever be 28 in my eyes!!

I Finally Did It!!

One of my new years resolution was to learn how to make home made wheat bread. My parents gave me an electric wheat grinder for Christmas and all of my mom's old cans of wheat. They date back as far as August 1988! After four tries my bread FINALLY turned out. I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. I talked to anyone and everyone who had ever made bread. Then today I happened to glance at the expiration date on my oil. Yeah, it had expired a year ago! Obviously I don't do a lot of cooking. Using fresh oil made all the difference and my bread tasted so yummy, I was shocked!! One goal down one more to go. I am participating in a sprint triathlon February 21 in San Diego. My friends convinced me to train with them. I've been apprehensive to do it because of the swimming. I was not sure I could swim half a mile in the San Diego Bay, but I've been practicing and each time I get in the pool I'm a little better. My goal is to just cross the finish line. I've loved training up to this point. It's been so fun to have a goal to reach towards!!

Okay...So We're Finally Recovered

It's taken us awhile to recover from the holidays. If I could be tranquilized from about mid November to the second week in January I think my life would be less emotional. All joking aside, Christmas turned out to be great! Emmet's dreams came true, Santa gave him a box full of individually wrapped Bakugan! He has figured out that there is metal around the window frames in our home and that is where he keeps his "army" of Bakugan. (If you don't know they are magnetic balls that pop open into an action figure) Emery got her first bike and is a kamikazi on it! In fact, we have been out on bike rides almost daily since Christmas!This picture was taken Christmas morning. Emery has her own sense of style. She picked out her outfit!!

As for me thank goodness it's so sunny in AZ. I think a combination of the sunshine, happy children who are beginning to be a little more independent and I"m finally beginning to have the energy to make it as a single mom, this year will be a good one for us.