I'm thinking about starting a different blog. One that, hopefully I'll be able to keep updated frequently. That's the goal anyway!

Avery's Bucket List

This last month I heard about a little girl that changed the world. Her name is Avery and she was diagnosed with SMA. Her parents are an inspiration. As a parent I can't even imagine the devistation of hearing the news that your baby has a disease that will quickly take her life. But the inspirational part is that rather then curling up in a ball in the middle of the bed under a mountain of blankets, these parents helped their baby girl live every day to the fullest and created a bucket list for her. How many people I know could actually do that? And the blog, written by her daddy (from Avery's point of view) isn't filled with saddness and dispare. It's filled with love and laughter and the joy of every single minute of her short life! The best thing about Avery's blog? It has brought awareness to a disease that prior to 2 weeks ago, only the families affected by it even knew what it was. Sadly, Miss Avery passed away a week ago. My heart hurts for this loss. Especially for her family but for every person out there who fell in love with this sweet baby girl. Myself included! I guess I just want to say Thanks to Avery and her amazing Mommy and Daddy for bringing the world awareness of SMA and for sharing your lives with us.

Giving it another shot...

Ok, so the whole "being a faithful blogger" thing hasn't clicked for me...at least not yet. Well, I'm going to give it another shot.
Life sure has a way of throwing curve balls at us. We are no longer living in Ferndale, I am no longer working at Walmart, and Kia is no longer in school.
We ARE living in a nice apartment in town. I AM working at a different job doing reception work. Kia IS still trying to figure life out.
Kaylee is now a "middle schooler" at one of the smaller districts in the area. Last week she went to "Outdoor Ed" camp at Deception Pass for 4 days. She had a lot of fun and made some great friends. She has made some friends at the apartment complex where we live and after a few difficulties at first, she's adjusted to school pretty well. She's still in contact with some of her old friends from Ferndale, in fact, one of her best friends dad actually lives upstairs so she gets to see her on a fairly regular basis.
Life with Kia continues to be an adventure. The migraine is now 31 months old. For those of you keeping track, that's 2 years and 7 months. It seems we are no closer to answers now then we were 2 years ago. It's very frustrating to see what this has done not just to Kia but to our family. We are definitely looking at things differently now. Being the mom of a teenager is hard. Being the mom of a teenager with a chronic medical condition that effects judgement and choices is harder. But I WILL get through this. I don't have a choice.
And on a good note, the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming.

A little closer together :)

Well, it hasn't been 2 years! That's something, right???
Life is just as crazy as always. I got a new job!!! I am a Customer Service Manager at our local Walmart. Yeah, yeah... I know. But it's a job and I actually like what I do. Well, I can't say I "like" getting yelled at by customers occasionally but I like the rest of it. And I've lost 10 lbs since I started so that's something too! Go me!!! I'm not sure if it's water weight that I've lost (I'm having to be very careful with the whole dehydration thing) or the approx. 4 miles I walk around that store every day but whatever it is, I'll take it! Kia won't be the only one in the family that shrinks out of her clothes!!!

We're still living in our little apartment in town and it's not so bad. Other then the fact that I think every... single...teenager...in town knows where we live! It's funny, when we lived at our old place pretty much nobody even knew where we lived and other then 1 or 2 of Kia's friends, nobody every was at my house. Now it's like Grand Central Station around here some days!

I got to play "Grandma" last weekend. That was fun. Kia's older half-sister let us have her 2 little ones for a couple of days. The 3 yr old girl reminds me a lot of her Auntie at that age! The 2 1/2 month old was perfect "birth control" LOL Well, the first night he slept pretty much the whole night and didn't fuss at all. The second night he did his job a little better and woke her up a few times. The third night? Yeah, it was perfect! He woke up screaming at 1:30 am and she couldn't get him to stop. I ended up taking him and cuddling with him and calming him down and he slept in my room the rest of the night. He loves his "Grandma" so he slept in until 8:30. :)

Working pretty close to full time and helping with Horse Camp every week has kept us pretty busy this summer.
Hope you're summer is going great!

2 months!

See, I'm already getting better! It's only been 2 months since my last post! Yay me! :)
Lets see, in the last 2 months a lot has happened. Kia finished her Biofeedback sessions at Children's Hospital. The migraine is still there but she is able to control it a little better so that's something. She is still struggling with it but the really bad days seem to be farther apart. This picture was taken on our way down to Bellevue. Her appointment was at 4:45 pm so of course that put us right in the middle of ugly traffic. I drove down so she actually took this one but she drove home and did a great job! It is still taking some getting used to being a passenger in my own vehicle but I'm adjusting to it.

Kaylee played her first season of Fastpitch Softball and did a great job! She got to play most of the positions and even got to pitch! I don't see how those girls can swing their arm around like that, makes my shoulders hurt just THINKING about it! But, she had a great time and learned a lot. We're not sure yet if she's going to play again next year but she made a lot of new friends and had a really great coach so it was a fun experience for her. She did way better with this then she did with soccer a few years ago!






Miss Kaylee also visited "Auntie's Beauty Salon" and got her hair cut. She had enough to donate to Locks of Love so we went ahead and went a little shorter then we had originally planned but it turned out really cute and she really likes it! The best part? No more fighting in the mornings about brushing her hair!!!









My AWESOME sister and brother-in-law came to visit for Mother's day! She and I
got to spend a little time together and it was completely a recharge for me! For most people, their "Happy Place" is a place, for me, it's a person! I love my sister and miss her terribly so when I get to see her, we make the most of it.





Oh yeah! I should probably also mention for those who don't already know... I FINALLY GOT A JOB!!! I am currently in training but my new position is Customer Service Manager (CSM) at our local Walmart. I am excited to see where this leads me. It's pretty unusual for someone to start as a CSM without transferring from another store so it's a pretty awesome blessing that I got this position.
We also started Horse Camp so if you're free on Wednesday evenings from 6-8 you should come join us. It's a whole lot of fun!

2 years and 5 months

That's how long it's been since I posted anything on here. Pretty sad actually since I really wanted to get into this like some ladies I know. Oh well, we'll just have to start again.

Kia is now 17 Where the heck did all those years go? She transferred to the alternative school here locally and seems to be doing much better. I am very proud of her for making the commitment to stay in school, even with some very difficult health situations she's had. In October 2009, Kia had H1N1 (aka Swine Flu). About 2 weeks after she recovered from that she got a migraine that never ever ever went away. We are now at 18 months of every minute of every day pain for my girl. It's had a huge impact not just on Kia but on Kaylee and I and everyone around us. We continue to try different medications and she's been trying Biofeedback Therapy at Children's Hospital for the last month and a half. It seems to be helping a little, in combination with the physical therapy and the medications but the actual pain is still there. She will have another MRI soon and we'll see if that shows any clues as to why she has been in this much pain for so long.



Miss Kaylee is now 11 and also recently switched schools. We moved into town and her new school is only a block from our apartment! YAY for walking to school! I have transported at least one child to school every single day (sometimes 4 times total in one day!) for the last 12 years and I no longer have to take anyone! Woo and 2 hoo's!!!

We did move into a 3 bedroom apartment in town and the girls are very happy to have their own rooms! We've been here since the last week of January and I have almost everything unpacked but I'm still trying to find places to put it all! It's coming together nicely and I'll post up some pictures when I get it all put together, hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

Enough of a quick update for now. I promise to try and be more consistent then every 2 years or so!

Our busy lives...

So apparently I'm not very faithful about this. But in my defense things have been super crazy around here. We just have busy schedules and not enough time to do all of the things we desire. As I mentioned before I'm going to college. I'm currently 2 quarters away from graduation and things are getting a little stressful. The 2 classes I'm taking right now are very homework intensive and THAT's not fitting into our busy schedule very well.

A typical week in our home right now looks kinda like this...
Sunday ~ Sunday school and Church from 9:30-12 than the last couple of weeks we've had rehearsals for the Christmas pageant that's coming up. Last week we also had Christmas Choir practice and Drama rehearsal on Sunday afternoon. On Sundays we also do a bible study with my brother and sister-in-law at 6:00.

Monday ~ Morning class for me, school for the girls than usually Drama Team meetings from 6:30-8

Tuesday ~ Morning and afternoon classes for me, school for the girls than I co-teach an afterschool Good News Club at Kaylee's school from 3:30-5

Wednesday ~ Morning class for me, school for the girls than from 6-8 we head back to the church for Faith and Fun Night for which I am one of the secretaries. After dropping off extra kids I usually get home about 8:30 or so.

Thursday ~ Morning and afternoon classes for me and school for the girls. AND our first free evening of the week!

Friday ~ Morning class for me and school for the girls and another free evening.

Saturday ~ This is usually the day we work around the house. Well, at least the day I work around the house. I also sing with the Praise Band at church and we have practice from 7-8:30.

So do you see why I haven't been very faithful about getting new stuff on here?


Now that Thanksgiving is coming we are getting into the holiday mood. I'm not as into it yet as Cutzi (I haven't broke out the Christmas CD's yet!) but getting there.

This Friday starts "The 4 weeks of Brinkley Birthday's" around here. Ezekiel will be 1 on Friday the 28th, than Kaylee will be 9 the following Friday the 5th, and my birthday is the 6th, then Timber (my nephew and Ezekiel's daddy) is the following Friday the 12th, than Kia will be 15 on Friday the 19th, than Christmas is 6 days later!

It makes me tired just thinking about it.

And just to make things a little more interesting around here I'm working on switching bedrooms with the girls. They need the bigger bedroom more than I do but I'm definately painting that little bedroom before I move my stuff in there! That means I'll have to sleep on the couch for a few days but I'll just have to live with that.

So in a nutshell, that's what's going on in our lives...