Missing...

MY HUBBY

I am having a weak moment in my brief time away from John. And I better get used to it since in a few months, I get to do it all over again, but for EVEN longer!! This time John is gone for 3 weeks, next time he will be gone for 7 MONTHS!!! It has been a rough few days (since it has only been 5 days) Isaac is at the age where he realizes that John has left and every time he gets in trouble he cries "I want my daddy!!" Which breaks my heart. We have had 4am mornings and 9pm nights, which is all trying. But as John always saying "We are blessed because we get to be away from each other." Many of you may say WHAT?!?! But the time apart is aways a blessing. Most people never get to spend this much time part, a chance to appreciate each other. So I decided to share with the online world all the things that I appreciate about the best part of my life...

It is often the simplest things that we forget to recognize like;

• ALL things trash
• taking the kids when he can
• filling up the tank, (I am almost on E AHH!! I haven't gotten gas, since John was deployed to AFRICA)
• letting me have "girl time"
• putting the food away
• giving me a reason to cook
• putting the toys away

Some of my favorite things

• ability to make me laugh no matter what
• the amazing way he smells
• his quirkiness
• amazing father
• wonderful husband
• the way he supports everything I want to do, even if its not the choice he would make

I love him so much. I miss him so much. But we are half way to retirement and this too shall pass. I will count my blessings that he will be done before the teenage years. And that soon he will be home again. Until then I am keeping myself busy with my new business idea

proto types, and websites have kept my nights are quite busy. And it is getting all my scrapbook pages done in the process. Stay tune for pictures of what I have been working on.

Day for Kids

So John was at work on Saturday so I decided to take the kids to "A Day for Kids" by the boys and girls club. I then decided that I didn't really want to take the kids all by myself, so I invited my friend Lori from church, and she brought her granddaughter, who is a few years older than Isaac, but they had fun and played well together. So they had bouncehouses, velcro walls, bungee thing, and lots of crafts, along with a small petting zoo, some snake people, and a bird lady. Isaac loved touching and feeling all the animals and the bounce slide was probably his favorite!! And the best thing about it was it was all FREE!!!! Of course as true to form, without John around, I forgot the camera, but my new phone didn't take bad pictures if you asked me... The little petting zoo, had 2 month old baby pigs and Isaac loved them take a look...(be patient the first part Isaac is hard to find cause him and pig ran so fast...)

Yes, Isaac wanted to pet the snake, and no he didn't get that from me, it took all the courage that I had to zoom in close enough to take the picture.

Isaac was to small to jump on the velcro, mainly cause of the suit was 100 times to big for him, so the lady was nice enough to hoist him up there

The slide was probably the kids' favorite, we had to pull them off of there!!

Isaac was more interested in where the bungee came from, than where he could go being attached to it, we did finally convence him to run forward...

Isaac has balloons on his face, and Carli has a cat on hers.

Things are beginning to look Up

I have been concerned for awhile that Noah wasn't trying to stand or walk and had no interest to do such a thing. Isaac OT mentioned that I should get him evaluated a few weeks ago. Than last week when we had his 1 yr check up with his Dr, she was concerned, and even more concerned since his eyes aren't getting better and it does look like they will anytime soon. And his new eye movement specialist, Dr Demer, said that he thinks he need physical therapy since it doesn't look like we will know why his eyes are not wanted to look below mid-line for atleast another 6 months or so. So after Noah's eye appt on Tues, when we were told that there is no obvious reason for Noah's eye problem, and we would have to come back in 6 months see if we could find out more. I was in tears I just feel bad for Noah and all the challenges he has had to go through to this point. Well anyway on Wednesday I ran some errands in the morning and cause of John's CrAzY schedule this last week he was home, so I got to run the errands by myself as John stay home with the kids. So when I came home and walked throught the door I found this...
I screamed in excitement, and John was like "WHAT'S WTONG?!" As Noah fell to his butt, I told John that he was standing next to the couch. John replies so unexcited "What that, is that something new? He has been doing that all morning?" I was so happy, and sad, and stoked all at the same time. Happy that John got to see a first, he misses so many of those cause of work and such. Sad cause I missed it. The first time is special, exciting and so amazing!! And stoked cause I don't need to ruch to get him therapy. I will keep an eye on him and make sure that he is progressing and if he does need help as most of you know I will fight until he gets it. But until then he is progressing. Moving on up to walking, and a good thing too, cause all his 30 lbs get heavy to carry all the time.

Noah's 1st Birthday

Splish Splash it was Noah's First bash!! We decided to do the classic 1st brithday theme of ducks, mainly cause the only thing that I could think that Noah just loved was bath time. So I set out on a duck mission. And it was not an easy one!!I really like when birthdays have 3D cakes. I think it makes them fun. John the best decorator in the WORLD, ok maybe just in my house. He decorates the cakes if he is home. (He has done all of the cakes, except for Isaac's 2nd cause he was in Africa) Anyway, I bake 'em and lay them out for him and he decorates. So this year I saw this cake that I really liked, that used a wilton cake mold, but not one store sold it in the area, so we make it from classic round cake pans. But the cake I like this year had bubbles (oreos covered in blue almond bark), than it was placed in a bathtub. It was so cute so below is our recreation of the idea. I decided to make a baby duck for Noah so he could just dig into it. And I was sure that he would, he loves food so much. But he was just not quite sure what to make of all the people, singing, the candle, and most of all this yellow thing in front of him. He did try the frosting, but that was about it. Hey better than Isaac who screamed cause he got some on his finger.

Going with the duck theme everything was ducky this and ducky that. We painted our own ducks, and we had ducks swimming in the "quakers" and cheese, and even have ducks floating in my attempt at a pond (the punch), although it looked more like a toxic waste pond, as was pointed out to me more than once. (Couldn't find the right kinda sherbert). We even had duck prints on the walls leading to the party area. I have lot of fun planning for the duck theme, although it was harder than I thought to find ducky things.

Also my sister and her family, The Nolans, came to visit for Noah's party. They came up the night before and so I planned ahead as much as I could so we could go to the beach in the morning. It was a really nice day for the beach, and not alot of people so it was a fun few hours.

The MRI Shows...

Nothing!! That's right Noah's MRI results came back completely normal. Fasting and prayer really do work!! This journey is still not over, but the its not the worse case scenario!! We are now in the process to see a Eye Movement Specialist, Dr Demer, at the Jules Stein Eye Institute. I have been told he is one of the best eye Dr in the World. And the people come from all over to see him. His popularity have been proven, because although I have been calling since Thursday, I have yet to get through to the appt person. So lets hope it that the appts are not months from now.

I hope this isn't Isaac in 4 years...

you'll wanna turn down the music at the bottom and turn up your sound to listen to the this one...

The Funniest Things

So Isaac has got his dad's humor through and through. Below are all conversations that happened today with him:

1) Isaac was being sassy, and was put in timeout for not listening. When I called him out of timeout to talk about why he was in there. He told me he was sad. With a very sad face, one that would make anyone cry. I told him "well it makes mommy sad too, when you talk to people like that" I barely finished my sentence when Isaac replied "You can't take my sad away!!" I had to bit my lip to keep from laughing me head off.

2) I told Isaac "to be nice to your brother" and he reply "Noah not brother, I brother!"

3) I was reading the scriptures with Isaac before bed, and we were reading about the love that Jesus Christ has for the children, and how he showed it to the children when he visited the Americas. Well I told him that Jesus loves us too, and love him. He promptly replied "I not love!" Almost in disguist. See I call Isaac my bud or son, and Noah my love.

He makes me laugh almost all day. And John repeatedly askes me why is he so cute. In which I reply that its his fault. If it wasn't for the things that come out of that kids mouth, he might of been hung already. He is a trying kid that is for sure, but his looks, and his humor are going to get him in the hearts of people. I know that Heavenly Father knew that he would be trying for me, so he made sure Isaac had ways to make me laugh, or I might be on the 6 o'clock news!

The Powells Come to Visit

John's sister Katie, her husband Jonathon, and their kids Thomas and Ally came to visit just before the 4th. They arrived late, I mean LATE or early depending on how you look at it. Anyway it was 2 am on the 1st. The next day we jumped on the fun, by sitting around watching the kids watch movies. Fun I know. You can hardly stand it. We were hoping John would be off early in hopes that he could go to the beach with us, but no such luck. So we decided to go without him, and if he got done in enough time he could join us. Thomas and Isaac were the best of friends right off the bat. Thomas even tried to convience me to let him take Isaac back home with him. Assuring me that Grandma would help take care of him. LOL!! We went to the beach near the Oxnard Beach park, mainly cause the last time I went there, there were very very few people. The day we went there were some, but still not many. Just below are pictures of Jonathon feeding the annoying seagulls, which got more annoying after that, and then we left. But the kids got a kick out of it.

Below are the pictures from earlier in the day at the beach...

Sand Surfing its the new thing! If you haven't tried it you are so behind the times.
Ally trying to burry her daddy
Playing in the waves!

We went to Knotts Berry Farm on Day 2 of their trip

John explaining to Isaac to listen, don't run away, and be good or we WILL go home!!
The first ride
Yes Thomas is hanging on for dear life

Isaac really only knows Snopy and the gang from a Thanksgiving Charlie Brown episode, but he wanted his picture with them as soon as he saw them

Noah was so uncomtable when we first got there. It was a nice HOT summery California day. The was red, burning up, and very cranky. Then Katie, genius that she is, thought to put a wet T-shirt on his legs and WOW!! it was like night and day for that kid.

This was the long wait for any of the rides, and WOW it seemed like at least an hr

Isaac is definatly my son! Wanted every ride, and to then ride it again. He had no fear!!