Our Christmas Break

Elijah and I are off for two weeks for Christmas break and Jacob will be home for a whole month. My hone still has to work, but has the next three days off! We have actually gotten to sleep in a few mornings and we are enjoying the nice weather.

I completed my Master's Degree in Special Education from Texas Tech University this month. I am not a certified Educational Diagnostician. I am still waiting for my diploma to arrive in the mail! I can't wait to get it. I was able to print my certification out on the TEA website, and that definitely made it feel more real. I can't believe I have my master's degree! Jacob has only one more semester left in school and he will graduate with his associate's degree in May of next year!

Elijah is doing well. We went to see his doctor for his Tourette Syndrome, OCD and ADHD. She got to see a lot of his impulsivity at this visit. He was persistent at trying to get his way when she tried to talk to him. We are changing his medication a bit, and will go back in about six weeks. She mentioned a genetic test that might help pinpoint which medications would work best for him. The interesting thing, is this was mentioned at the Tourette Support Group meeting we attended back on Dec. 12th. I called the genetic company, and our insurance is not on their list yet, but I was assured the out of cost for me would not exceed an amount that I am willing to pay. I am going to take him next week for a cheek swab and then see what we can find out. The family at the support group meeting said that when they had the testing done, they learned a lot about the medications that would help their son and it has been very helpful. The doctor wants to possibly change his ADHD medication, but it is hard to know what to change him too, but hopefully this testing will help. I am excited about it, but don't want to get too excited

We are very excited about Christmas. Elijah got a new bed, which my hone, Jacob and I put together yesterday. Elijah helped some, but it was a small room and we needed all the room we could get to put the bed together. He did run some things back and forth for us and keep an eye on our progress. He was so excited to get his bed. Jacob's big gift is the car he is now driving. I have a few surprises for both boys. All of my other shopping is pretty much done. I have a few more things to pack. My honey and I want to go shopping and look at some jewelry. We just aren't sure if we want to fight the crowds tomorrow.

We have also been busy baking. I have been making snow ball cookies and will be making pralines later this week. We have also been making truffles! Jacob and Elijah love to help make truffles.

TRUFFLES

 My honey and I roll out the truffles and then put them in the sprinkles. The boys are in charge of making sure the truffles are covered in sprinkles.  They then put them in the mini muffin cups. Every 10th truffles requires a taste test for quality control and we each take our turn testing the truffles. We let them know what time we will be making truffles and the boys make sure they are there, or they know they miss out. We have fun as we make the truffles and it is a nice time to talk! We have made several batches of truffles.



Jacob and Elijah making truffles.

Today my nephew and niece came over and we made Christmas cookies. This is something else I enjoy doing this time of year. We had a lot of fun and the kids got to cut out cookies, bake them, and then decorate them. We use sprinkles on the cookies as well! My honey also has some Christmas favorites she likes to bake. We have been baking for several months. Elijah takes treats to all of his teachers and I hand treats out to my staff.


I am looking forward to 2016. I can't believe how much has happened this past year!! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!


Decorating the Christmas Tree!

Jacob, Elijah and I spent the day decorating for Christmas! Jacob helped me get all of the boxes and the Christmas tree out of the attic. He then got the box of ornaments that we keep in his room. Grandma Linda made him this box back when he was a baby to keep all of his ornaments in. After Elijah was born, we started keeping his ornaments in there also! These are the ornaments that either my mom or another relative has given them. Some of them are the ornaments they have made over the years. Both boys like hanging their ornaments, along with the other ornaments we have collected over the years. Whenever we travel, I look for ornaments. We now have a "Blue Bell" ice cream ornament from Brenham and an ornament from the birthplace of Texas; Washington on the Brazos!

One of my favorite ornaments is one I made when I was in the Girl Scouts in 1976. It is a ceramic gingerbread woman! I painted it and it was put in a kiln (I think that is what it is called) and finished, so it has held up nicely over the years. I also have some ornaments that my mom actually made when she first got married. I have ornaments from Fredricksburg, Texas and Gulf Shores, Alabama. I have ornaments that friends have sent me. I have a group of 10 women I have corresponded with for about 18 years and we do an ornament exchange each year. I love finding these ornaments.

The three of us had a really nice time decorating the tree. It was nice to see that both boys enjoyed it and didn't consider it a burden. They enjoyed finding the ornaments they had made in school. I told both of them that when they are married and have their own families, they will get to have some of these ornaments, and that they will begin their own new memories!

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my mother's house this past Thursday. My sister came into town with my nephew. They stayed with my mom. My brother, his wife and two kids came out on Thursday and then all four of us went out. Jacob drove out on his own so he could leave when he wanted too, but he stayed out for quite a while. Of course, we ate too much, but we do that every  year.


The younger kids, ages 10-14, played on electronics and had fun. My nephew, who is 4, entertained us with some of his funny sayings! We looked through all of the Black Friday sales. My honey and I ended up ordering several things through Amazon. I am not sure if any one else in the family got anything on that day. We drove home around 6:45 and were in bed by 9:30! It was a long day.


Yesterday, several of us went to the movies and then some of us went back to my mom's house. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant and then came home. Elijah went with me on some of my mystery shops today and we have had a nice lazy afternoon. I'll have to start getting ready to go back to work on Monday! Three weeks and counting until Christmas Break.

White Christmas

We had a White Christmas here in the Dallas area yesterday. It started around 1:30 in the afternoon and finished up around 6:00. We got at least three good inches of snow. Jacob went out in it for quite a while and even built a snowman. Elijah enjoyed some time out there too. Later, at my dad's house I challenged my little sister(age 21) and my little brother(age 24) to a snowball fight. We all went out and had a fun time, but boy were my hands cold. Both boys had a great Christmas. I ordered Elijah his mini iPad...he is using the money he got for Christmas plus the money he has earned from chores and being good at school. We set up Jacob's new desk today too!

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas too. Here are some pictures and a video!

Elijah and his cousin Tabitha!

                                         

Jacob and his snowman!

T

Elijah outside!

Update on Elijah

Well, Elijah had a much better day at school. Hoping that the tweak in his meds is finally kicking in. He had four greens on his status sheet yesterday and six today, so that makes 10 greens. If he gets 10 greens then he gets a blizzard......and he got his blizzard! I was very proud of him. Only one more day left until Christmas break! I think we are all ready! I have to remember days like today to make up for those not so good days!

Christmas Break!

Today was the first day of our Christmas Break. The boys have off until Jan. 3rd and I go back on Jan. 2nd! I think we are all ready for the break. I am taking Elijah to the audiologist on Dec. 22nd because his right ear processor is "bugging him" as he puts it. We tried his back up processor and even got a new one in the mail and they all bug him at some point. Hoping we can get it all figured out. Jacob has a pediatrician visit to discuss ADHD meds and Elijah sees the psychiatrist the week after Christmas for a check up.

Of course, we will celebrate Christmas! My mom is coming in on Christmas Eve and then will drive to see my sister on Christmas Day. We are going to cook here at the house with my brother, his wife and their two kids. We will visit with my dad and his wife too! We will hopefully get some REST!

After two weeks off, I may be ready to go back to work! We shall see! Elijah had a great last two weeks at school before the break and Jacob is doing well too. Hoping they both like what Santa brings them this year. I hope you all enjoy your holiday!

Thanksgiving Break!

The boys were off for the entire week of Thanksgiving. I had to work Monday and Tuesday. They actually survived being home alone together for those two days! I spent Wednesday running some errands and then we had a pulmanologist appointment at 3:30 that afternoon that went to 6:30. Not my idea of fun, but it was the only time that day they had available and I was trying to avoid taking a day off from work. Jacob grew over an inch and gained a few pounds. Elijah grew 1 cm and lost two pounds! Elijah sounded great and had a great breathing test. Jacob has a sinus infection and his breathing test indicated he hasn't been taking his advair like he should, so I am going to have to step in and monitor that more closely.

We drove out to my mom's for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. My sister and her son were there as was my brother and his family. He has one girl and one boy, who is now about 15 months old and of course was the star of the day. He entertained us quite a bit. We ate way too much, as you should on Thanksgiving and enjoyed some great desserts. The boys and I drove back that evening.

A friend and I went shopping on Friday morning, but it was late that morning before we got out. We still managed to find some great deals though. I got our Christmas decorations up on that day too, including the Christmas tree! My sister and mom drove in yesterday and we had dinner last night. Elijah got to spend more time with his cousins and they enjoyed playing on the Wii. We are recuperating today and gearing up for the three weeks of school prior to Christmas break. I am hoping Elijah will stay on track with his behavior. He was doing well the few days before Thanksgiving break! Jacob needs to buckle down and get his work turned in!

I will be busy with work over the next three weeks and with baking. I like to give cookies as gifts and they aren't hard to back but do take some work. I am almost done with my shopping, but still have some things left to get! Christmas will be here before you know it!

Walls are Closing In

We had a great Christmas with my brother and his family. We then visited with my dad, stepmom, aunt, brother and sister. We all got some nice gifts and Santa was very nice to the boys. Jacob got my old Iphone when I upgraded to my Iphone4(which was my gift to myself and some Christmas money is helping pay for it and I LOVE IT!). He also got an external hard drive and MONEY, which any teen loves.

Elijah got a lot of nice gifts also. One is a K'Nex set that makes a roller coaster. We have worked on it for several days and still have a lot to do with it. He also got several lego sets. We started on a Harry Potter one today!

However, we still have five days of until they go back to school and I go back to work and well...WE all have cabin fever and the walls are closing in. Jacob stays in his room and really doesn't want to be bothered. He is no problem. Elijah and I have worked on Legos, played the Wii and he plays on the computer. However, late in the afternoon he starts to just get a little "wild"....nothing too horrible, but he tends to grate on my nerves. Maybe it is just me...who knows, but I think I will be ready to go back to work on Monday! I have gotten out of the house a few times to run errands, but the boys have been home all week.

Of course, come next week, I'll be ready for Spring Break, but for now, I am ready to go back to work!

The week before Christmas

It is now five days to Christmas, and I am pretty much ready. I have all of the presents I need hidden away. We did Christmas with my mom yesterday. Elijah got a K'Nex roller coaster(got about 1/4 of it together today) and two lego sets. Jacob got a nice head set/microphone for his computer and web cam. My brother and his family were over. Jerry III is just TOO cute! Tabitha looked like a princess. We went and got some lunch too!

I only have two doctor's appointments with the boys this week and neither should take very long. I have some pralines to make later to give as gifts and also some snowball cookies. I took some cookies to school last week and they were all eaten up pretty quickly. My niece will come over one day and we will bake sugar cookies and then icing them! We need those for Santa Claus.

My brother and his family are coming here for Christmas dinner on Saturday and then we will go and see my dad and family later that evening.

Next week should be a pretty slow week. Not much going on. I do have plans for New Year's Eve and even got a babysitter for the boys! I haven't been out on New Year's Eve for a long time. It should be fun!!!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Memories!

I was home today with Elijah and decided to go ahead and get our Christmas tree up! I really do enjoy putting up our tree. One reason is because of the memories I have of past Christmas' and from looking at the ornaments. I have taken a few pictures of some of my favorite ornaments and here they are. This first one is of the boys. I have an ornament for the boys going back to Jacob's first Christmas. I also have a lot of homemade ornaments they made at school.



This is an ornament from one of my LOOPIE moms! This is a group of mom's that I have corresponded with for 14 years and each year we exchange ornaments. This is an angel with the "I love you" sign.







This is a gingerbread woman that I made in the Brownies back in 1976. It reminds me of that Christmas and it is an ornament I look for each year!!








This is an ornament we got on vacation in Fredricksburg. We went to a wildflower farm and really had a good time. There was also a butterfly area and we got to see lots of butterflies. We all really liked it!






This is an ornament that my mom gave me because I am the first born!!












This is an ornament from our trip to Disneyworld in 2005! It was an awesome trip!












This is our Christmas tree this year!



















The octupus came from our trip to Orange Beach about three years ago and the starfish is another ornament from one of my LOOPIE moms!

Yes Mam!!

Elijah has been very good today! Now tics are still around. I would say they are better, but not a LOT better. He is still making lots of noises and yelling. Right now he is playing a Wii game and has not tics at all. I put together(and please note the I!) Lego racer set he got. While he and I played with it he ticced up a storm. All day today though, whenever I have asked him to do something he has said YES MAM! This is a good sign to more compliant behavior. The only time he didn't really mind was when I asked him to get off the computer and that is typical for him.

Jacob did finally wake up at 8:30 last night and had breakfast for dinner! He was in a much better mood and has been great today. He spent some of his Christmas money today on a computer game and is back in his room playing it right now. He came out for a while to play the Wii with two friends. I am just glad he is in a better mood.

Not much planned for this week. I still need to tackle Jacob's dresser and get clothes organized. I will probably do that tomorrow. The Cowboys are going to be playing in a bit, so I will be watching that! I sure hope they win!

The Day After

Well it is the day after Christmas. The boys had a good day yesterday. Elijah has several lego sets we need to put together. He also got several Wii games that he has been playing and also some nintendo DS games. We went shopping with some money he got and he was pretty frugal. He got one game and a nintendo DS case that holds the game. It is made of NERF so if he drops it, it won't break! His tics have not been too bad today and attitude has been better. Elijah has been very cute the last few days saying "A HA" when he finds something new and using such cute inflections in his voice when he is excited. Of course he also has the "I am mad" voice down too! I am hoping tics calm down before he goes back to school. OH and he made good use of his music links with his processors...plugged them into the computer and we didn't have to listen to his computer game while we visited in the den before Christmas eve dinner....and OH we got snow on Christmas eve. NOT a lot, but enough to cover the ground and make for a White Christmas. By the next day it was melting and so we didn't really get to play in it, but it was pretty.

NOW Jacob has been asleep since about 8:30 this morning. I think that kid must have stayed up for the last three days and just cat napped between different activities. It just all caught up with him today. He may just sleep through until tomorrow. He did get a laptop for Christmas and so he has enjoyed that and that is what has kept him up the last few nights. I am hoping he wakes up fully rested and ready to tackle his room! It is a mess! He got some nice new clothes that we need to put away, but first I need to go through his other clothes.

My mom went shopping with us this morning as did my sister-in-law and niece. It was fun. We looked for Christmas bargains. Mom got a Christmas Tree for $48!! I stocked up on gift bags for next year. I also spent some of my Christmas money and got new sheets for my bed, a new pillow, a wireless mouse for my laptop, a Wii fit extra(NEED to exercise) and got myself an Itunes card so I can treat myself to some music!! Mom left to go home around 11:00 this morning. I was sorry to see her go, but I have been a cleaning mad woman since she left!

We are headed over to my brother and SIL's house in a bit to chow down on leftovers. I am going to let Jacob sleep.

Reflections

As I sit here on Christmas Eve I reflect on all of the good things in my life. I have my health(although I could love a FEW pounds), my boys, my home and a good job. There are days when things are tough, but I try to remember the good things and today is one of those days.

Even though Elijah was a pain in the rear the other day with a neighbor boy, he did say something that quite surprised me. The other boy was shooting at lego trees, to get studs, wich are worth points. Elijah yells, "Don't shoot the trees, they are natural resources!" How can I be aggravated with him for yelling when he uses such big words. Today while we were out running errands, I said something funny to Jacob. I hear Elijah in the back seat say, "That is outrageous!" I had to stop for a minute and really ponder on what he had said. It was used approrpriately and with the correct tone of voice! He even giggled as he said it! Tics are better today and even his attitude is good!!!

Jacob is such the young man. I can't believe he will be 14 in July. He is so handsome. He will be beating girls off of him! He is very helpful too and always jumps in to help with his brother!

My mom is on her way and my brother and his family are coming over later. We are going to eat wings and open presents. We may even do some singing and guitar playing to guitar hero on the Wii. I just made, what I hope, is my last batch of snowball cookies! I am planning on getting back on Weight watchers after the New Year!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Day to myself

The boys' dad came and got them today at 1:30 to celebrate Christmas. I took off for the movies and grabbed some take out to bring home. I got a pasta meal from Macaroni Grill and some cheesecake. The meal was great and I just ate the cheesecake. I only ate 2/3 of it, it was SO good, but so BIG! I enjoyed my time to myself. I love my boys but Elijah's tics were beginning to grate on my nerves.

David brought them home and they had their gifts. Jacob has been on the Wii since he got home and now has two friends over playing with him. Elijah got three lego sets. Two he put together at his dad's apartment and he and I put together a plane set from Indiana Jones. Elijah ticced through the whole thing. He slapped a bowl full of legos at one point and almost sent them flying. We separate legos into bowls so we can find them more easily when making them. This is something Jacob started and Elijah has continued. I don't really mind Elijah's tics. I feel bad for him though. I was exhausted from watching and listening to him. I don't know how it doesn't drive him crazy.

I have a feeling I'll be putting lego sets together for the next week or so. Santa is bringing him some and several family members may be getting him sets. I hope I can survive it. Jacob has a few surprises coming too.

Today has been a good day. Yes, Elijah has ticced a lot, but behavior has been so much better! Jacob has been happy since he woke up and he got a break and got to go out. He is such a home body sometimes.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Life with Tourettes

Well teh tics continue. Yesterday was another day of lots of noises and kicking/slapping at things. We had some friends over to decorate cookies and one of them wanted to play the Wii with Elijah when we got done. He is much younger than Elijah and Elijah was very bossy and just mean/rude. I finally put him in time out in his room. Jacob went over and played with the boy and with him being so much older the boy really liked having him to play with.

After the neighbors left I let Elijah come out. I decided that I didn't want to cook and would rather go out to eat. I needed a margarita! Elijah was very loud at dinner, which didn't bother me, but I hate it for him. He was slapping at the table too. It wasn't crowded so no one seemed to notice. I rubbed his back and let him know it was OK. The tics really don't bother me, it is the behavior. He didn't tic while the neighbors were over so I wonder if he was trying NOT to tic and this leads to him acting badly. he is focussing so hard on not ticcing that he can't focus on behaving. Who knows? I told him I would rather he tic then misbehave.

As I sit back in my bedroom and type this he is just a screaming and hollering with tics in the other room. He is very excited about Christmas so I wonder if it is that making the tics more extreme right now. Maybe they will calm down once Christmas gets here.

Jacob takes it all in stride. he helped me fix the heppa filter/fan that Elijah dumped legos down into. he was very patient and acted so mature helping me. I was proud that he and I were able to take it apart and put it back together again AND it worked.

I feel like he has made so much progress and then he has a day like yesterday and I feel like he has made no progress. All I can do is be patient and keep trying. That is all he can do too.

The Sounds of Christmas

This is our first Christmas since the boys dad and I divorced over the summer. I wanted to go ahead and get the tree down and do some deocrating. Jacob and his friend Chris were able to help me get everything down from the attic, however the tree was no where to be seen. I searched all over the attic and in the garage. I finally just went out and bought a new one. The other one was pretty old and we needed a new one anyway. I ran to Walmart and bought one that was pre-lit so that was very nice.

Jacob did not want to help decorate the tree, but Elijah stopped playing the Wii and joined me in decorating. We had a great time. He then found several of the wind up decorations! He sat and wound them up and listened to the music each one played. He really enjoyed it! I am so glad he has his implants so he can enjoy that part of the Christmas! I didn't put up all of our decorations and may not! We may just have the tree this year and a few other decorations that play the music!

I have already started some Christmas shopping! The boys are pretty much done, just have a few more people to buy for and I'll be about done. I also do a lot of baking and give those items as gifts!

Home for the day!

Well I got an uplanned day off today. Elijah got sick last night and threw up! He at least made it to the bathroom! He woke me up around 4:00 and tossed and turned after that. He then got sick while in bed with me! OH FUN FUN! I was UP at that point!

I got Jacob up and off to school. I have avoided giving Elijah his usual morning medicaiton because I figure it will just upset his stomach. I have not given him his antibiotic yet either, but he did have a breathing treatment. He has held down teaspoons of water/gatorade every 30 min since this morning and even ate a cracker. Now we are just on wait and see!

I have been busy cleaning up the mess from this morning! I also got a head start on paying bills! Feels wierd being home with no PLAN for the day! I am getting some Christmas stuff handled, but can't say much just in case my oldest decided to check out his mom's blog!