Our Christmas

There were too many pictures so I made a slide show. Asher was up first, and Jaden shortly after. We opened our presents and had breakfast then went to open presents w/the cousins. After that we came back, had quiet time, and then had our turkey dinner. I was quite impressed w/how well it turned out. We had turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls.

As for christmas day, Shaun had the boys so I spent the day w/my friend Crystal. then my sister Charity came over at night and we played the Wii till late into the night.

Everything considered, it was a great holiday!! Merry Christmas and I hope you all enjoyed yours as well!

Christmas eve church program

For the past 3yrs, I've gone to my church on Christmas Eve. They always have a great program, and I'm never disappointed. Not to mention, I just love singing Christmas carols :)
This year for the children's story my pastor read "You Are Special". I didn't recognize the title, but I did recognize the story. It's about these wooden people who hand out gold stars to the "perfect" people, and gray dots to the "not perfect" people. One wooden person always got gray dots bc nothing he ever did was good enough. Then one day he met someone w/no dots and no stars. While others had tried to give her some, they wouldn't stick. He asked her why, and she said it was bc she spent time w/the Carpenter who had made them all. She encouraged him to go see the Carpenter to find out for himself. So, one day he goes to see the Carpenter who tells him that He made him, He cares for him, and the only person who's opinion matter is His. When the wooden man decided to believe that was true, his gray dots started to fall off.
Then he went on to the Christmas story, reading where the angels went to the shepherds first to announce Christ's birth vs going to the "important" people. How the shepherds were the lowest of the low. Most of them were criminals, and being a shepherd was the only job they could get. They were crude people, and not someone most others wanted to be around.
Made me think about how there were a couple churches that pulled out of a food program bc 2 of the churches involved supported the diversity act that was passed recently. When I heard that, it made me think about past sermons where our pastor had pointed out that when Jesus came to earth he went to the "unlovable" and reached them w/his love, not His condemnation. And how a lot of Christians turn off non-Christians bc they're more like the pharisees that God rebuked than the example Jesus Himself set. Here, at the time of Christ's birth, instead of reaching out to the people who probably need the church to reach out to them the most bc of how unworthy "Christians" have dubbed them, people are celebrating that churches took a "stand" to not be involved bc of them.
Am I saying that being transgender or gay is right? No. God clearly states right and wrong. But, God also states that a sin is a sin. W/out HIS grace, all of us would be going to hell no matter how "perfect" we felt we were compared to others. So why did Jesus CONTINUALLY go to the "unworthy" and "unlovable" people, and most Christians refuse to even be around them?? HOW are we going to reach those that need it the most, if we feel we're too good to be near them??
Wasn't expecting to get such an insightful Christmas eve program, but that's what I love about my church!!! Merry Christmas to EVERYONE!!!

appointments

Well, Asher's appointment didn't happen. The psychologist/psychiatrist called in sick. So, he is now rescheduled for the end of January. I'm kinda upset that we have to wait another month, but what can you do?
As for J, he had his eye check up today. After waiting a WHOLE HOUR in the waiting room filled w/a bunch of old people wanting silence (now picture my two boys and see how well that went!), we finally got to see the doctor. She said there's a little more swelling than expected and that his eye isn't staying most enough. So, he has to stay w/the eye ointment and go back in 3mos. She said if his eye is still dry that he may need to be on the ointment for up to a year. I was really hoping that this chapter in our life was over, but again, what cna you do?

mood disorder

Tomorrow Asher goes to be tested to see if he has a mood disorder on top of his sensory integration disorder. I'm pretty sure he will be diagnosed w/something. I currently have no intentions of putting him on any medication. The psychologist or psychiatrist (not sure which nor the difference between either of them) that he's going to see also isn't big on perscribing meds which is good w/me. I'm hoping that whatever it is, we can try to teach him how to deal w/it w/out meds. I think theres a lot of kids out there that are diagnosed and put on meds that really just need a good spanking and some rules/guildlines. I'd like to teach Asher how to self-regulate as much as possible so that he doesn't have to be med reliant for the rest of his life. Obviously, if we feel he needs them, we'll put him on them, but putting him on meds isn't my goal. I just want to know everything he's dealing w/so we can be understanding, and help him be a happier, healthier person!

pink hair

Ok, so I've always liked experimenting w/my hair. Before I would color and cut my hair, chop if all off if I felt like it. But, Brian likes my hair long, so I've been keeping it longer for him. Well, I've always wanted to play w/more colors, but when working, you have to be a little more careful as to what you do. So since I'm not working and won't be working for a while, I thought what better time to experiment than now? So, I went pink :)
on my way to color my hair

ta-da!

the eye

Well, the surgery is done, and all went well according to his doctor. She said the main muscle they had to work on really couldn't be called muscle. She said it was as thin as tissue paper so it made things a little more difficult, but she's still pretty confident. We go back next wednesday to get his eye looked at. Right now he's pretty much sleeping, but who can blame him. Having been up since 3:45am this morning, sleeping is really all I have on my mind too :P Of course, we all know I couldn't go w/out taking pictures, so here you go:
waiting to be hauled away

FINALLY got him called back down


no he's not looking at you, his eye doesn't close

looks like he got beat up, right?

J's eye surgery

It's the day before surgery. I got the call this afternoon that he has to check in 6:30am which means we need to leave here aroun 4:30am. His surgery is scheduled for 7:30am and is supposed to take an hr and 45mins. They say it's supposed to be 2hrs for recovery, but you never know. I'm just praying that everything goes smoothly and correctly the first time around. It will be an early rise and a long day....keep us and the medical staff in your prayers!

Halloween/Thanksgiving

I realized that I didn't post anything from Halloween nor Thanksgiving. So, here are some pictures from those two events:

Halloween
















Thanksgiving w/Brian

whose idea was it?

So, I wanted to get the family photos done in time for Christmas cards, and b4 J has his eye surgery bc who knows how long it will take his eye to heal from that. So, I decided that today would be the best day for it since we didn't have any appointments till this afternoon for Asher's OT. Well, I should have known not to schedule it bc the boys came back from a wkend w/their father UNCONTROLLABLE! They have been awful! Jaden was evidentally running in Shaun's parking lot and gave himself a scraped up eye, which should have been enough to make me cancel the pictures, but no. I put concealer on J's eye and scheduled the appointment. Did I mention the boys were being awful???

To top it off, the shirts that I bought the boys, I bought too big for BOTH of them. So, we get there early so I can exchange them. It was a big to do bc they didn't have J's color in the size smaller, so I had to change colors on the boys' shirts. So then she wanted to charge me more bc since they were different colors she had to return and resell and the shirts were more now. I was like, I don't think so! We got a manager over who told the lady to just over ride it which is good bc otherwise the boys would have just been in too large of shirts bc I WASN'T paying more simply bc I had to change colors. But we get there and amazingly they get us right in. I'd never seen any of the photographers that were there, but I guess it has been a year since we've had our photos done. People usually do change jobs eventually... So, we get this lady whom I've never seen, and she starts trying to take pictures. The boys aren't listening. Come to find out, they didn't take the security tag off J's shirt (not sure how we got out of the store w/out it going off), so we had to make sure it was hidden in every shot. Luckily it was in the back, but right on the top of the shoulder so it did make some poises impossible. But this woman is just snapping photos like it's a race to see how fast she can get us out of there. And, now that they're digital, you can't see the pictures as they're being taken. But, I could tell they weren't good even though she kept assuring me they were perfect.

So, it's time to look at the pictures. They were AWFUL! If one boy was smiling, the other was looking somewhere else or not smiling. She kept saying, oh that looks great, and I'm thinking, who approved you to be a photographer??? I straight out told her, I don't like them. There weren't any good family photo's to send out to friends and family, and only a couple of the boys that were actually decent. So now, I get another lady to do another shoot. The boys decide they've had enough. While they have PLENTY of energy to play in the waiting room, they have no energy to smile for anymore pictures. It was ridiculous! We did FINALLY get at least 1 pose of the family and the boys, and I said, we're done!

Here are the ones that the lady thought were perfect:





Jaden looked as if he could careless to even be present for the photos and half of the time Asher wasn't even looking in the right direction.

Now here are the ones I went with:
(this first one I didn't get any of, but it is cute)

the Christmas tree

So yes, I realize we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet, but today we went and bought out Christmas tree & set it up. The boys had been begging, and well, we had nothing else planned so why not! It was fun. Asher was being a little bit of a stinker, but did finally pitch in.

it's up

yeah, that was a little too heavy




doesn't he look thrilled!




complete