Easter at home

We were going to try to visit Erie at Easter but it's too difficult with my physical therapy, Carey's infusion, Emma's orthodontist etc. We just can't fit it in. And Carey is not feeling well, she is complaining about rib pain now. I have called the doctor and waiting to see if he wants to xray or something else. It's just very frustrating and depressing they cannot get the disease under control. I don't know why we are even taking her to pamidronate infusion because it doesn't seem to be working this time around. The pain and how it slows her down is getting to her. I feel terrible that I cannot fix this! Keegan has decided crocodiles and alligators are the same so he has named them crocodators. He loves animals and loves going to the Zoo when we have decent weather. Feeding the ducks are his favorite and playing on the slide. He met another little boy the last time we went and he and his nanny were on the 2nd time around the zoo so we tagged along with them. Keegan loved having a friend to see the animals with. Usually we are there 20 minutes because he runs from exhibit to exhibit but this time we were there over an hour. Emma's soccer season started...well sort of. It's been raining a lot here and Derry Twp is obsessed with their fields..which is good but the kids never get to practice or play because if it rains the day before, there is not practice the next day. She did play one game so far, she scored the teams 2 goals and they won 2-1. Once she figures out off sides she'll be set...she was called for off sides at least 10 times during the game. :) Carey begins golf soon, and I'm hoping she can participate. With her limp and then altering her walk, ankle and back hurting do not lead to good golf. She's doing pretty well in school and her class will be going to the Hershey's Chocolate Factory for a tour which she's excited about. Well off to work. Have a great Easter! Jenn

March is here...that means Spring is just around the corner!

We are all patiently awaiting Spring to get here. We want the warmer weather so we can get out and play, take walks, ride bikes etc.

Well swim season has ended (though summer swim practice begins in April!) and Emma just competed today in her last meet (well maybe, there might be one more) of the season at Level 5 Sectionals. You had to get a 31.00 All Around at one meet this season to qualify for Sectionals. Not everyone on her team qualified so we were very proud of her. She did a great job today. She got stuck her beam routine and got an 8.75 and received her best floor score of an 8.7 today! At this meet you had to get a 33.00 All Around to qualify for States. Emma did not qualify but we never expected her to since she is still missing the "kip" on bars so her bar score always drops her All Around score. But it says a lot for her other there events that she could still qualify for Sectionals with only a 6 on bars! She was so proud of her floor score. The first thing she said to me when the meet was over was "Did you see my floor score?" She received a 7.0 the first meet of the season so it was a great accomplishment for her to increase her score by 1.7. This nice gentleman next to me at Sectionals took this picture of Emma during her floor routine. It was so nice of him to take some shots of her and email them to me.

Carey has had some difficulty still with her back and other ankle but she's hanging in there. She goes for her 3rd pamidronate infusion on the 24th. I don't know if it's helping yet but we'll see. This disease is so frustrating! She's itching to get golfing but her pain level has got to get under control. She alters her walking which in turn hurts her back. Keep her in your prayers please.

Keegan turns 3 this month and I can't believe it! He still is NOT potty trained. We had a good 2 week stretch of consistent peeing in the potty every day, multiple times a day but this week he's only gone once. Sigh.

I have been having neck problems and our lovely insurance company has denied my MRI saying it's not medically necessary. Well, I'm in pain, have to take muscle relaxers and cannot coach gymnastics right now. So I wonder what makes it medically necessary, if I'm paralyzed or something? So now I'll be on the phone with the doctor trying to get more muscle relaxers since my last pill is tomorrow and hopefully they can at least send me to PT which the insurance will probably reject as well. I can't even lift Keegan without pain or even bend down or look at the ground. Something needs to be done. Another sigh.

We plan to visit at Easter time, but the girls vacation days were cut due to snow so it will be a short trip. Hopefully it will be done snowing in Erie by late April!! :)

Take care,

Jenn

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! We had a very nice trip to Williamsburg, VA. We got there and they had snow from the Christmas Day snowstorm. I guess Virginia Beach had more than Williamsburg! But the snow didn't slow anyone down. Everything was decorated beautifully and they have a contest for decorations and we saw many houses with blue ribbons. The wreaths are made with fruit, pine cones and we even saw one made with a deck of cards!

We toured the Capitol and the Governor's Palace. Keegan was tired and wanted to run after being in the car for 5 hours so he lasted 10 minutes in the Capitol tour but was perfectly behaved (yes this is Keegan I'm talking about) at the Governor's Palace the next day. We did a lot of walking when we were there and Carey was a trooper since her ankle and foot bother her. We ate at two taverns which was EXPENSIVE for lunch! But the food was good and the kids enjoyed seeing how everyone dressed back in Colonial times and of course they had people playing music while we were eating.

It was in the 50s on New Year's Eve which was great since we spent New Year's Eve at Busch Gardens. It was beautifully decorated for Christmas. Each country was decorated differently and at one point we were walking through France and a Christmas song was playing and Emma stopped and said "Is this in a different language?" I said yes, it's French...lol. We lasted until 8pm there and then went to Applebees for dinner and back to the hotel for a swim. Keegan was asleep by the time Andy and the girls got back from the pool but the rest of us made it until midnight.

I have to mention that if you are in Williamsburg, you can find a pancake and waffle house every couple blocks. We ate at IHOP and the National Pancake and Waffle House. Carey wanted to eat at Mama Steve's but realized it was only a pancake house and she wanted a waffle that morning....so if you like pancakes and waffles, Williamsburg is the place to be!

Well now I've got to get back on the diet even though the Farm Show starts this weekend...potato donuts and milkshakes will be calling me so I better work out everyday this week.

Love to you all,

Jenn

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Hershey...no snow...yay...but it's coming right now. The kids had school Thursday and swim practice so our vacation started Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve consisted of laundry, cleaning and then baking cut-outs and frosting them. This was Keegan's first time making cut-outs and he loved every second of it. The kids took showers and put their jammies on and we went to look at Christmas lights. We went to a house that has their lights set to music on a specific fm channel that they program. The lights go with the music and it was great. They do this for a St. Jude's fundraiser. There are 5 families that do this in our surrounding area but this house was closest to us in Harrisburg.

Santa arrived at our house even though Carey and Keegan were on the naughty list (portable north pole sends emails to your child based on answers to questions that mom or dad answer). The girls got bedding for their new bunkbeds that Grandma Patty bought them for Christmas. Keegan got the roundhouse for his train set. Since we are going to Williamsburg, the kids wouldn't have anything to open other than their one santa gift, so the gift cards we received from family at Thanksgiving were used to buy things the kids had on a list and then I wrapped them up and put them under the tree so they could have presents to open. I obviously did a good job picking out stuff from their list because the girls said it was the best Christmas ever!

We had Christmas Dinner at our house with Mike, Beth and the kids which was nice since we don't get to visit with them too often. Julia is almost as tall as I am! We got to watch her beautiful figure skating performance at Nationals where she and her partner Sasha won the gold medal in the Juvenile Dance category at Jr. Nationals! We've got a national champion in the family!!

The Christmas decorations are all down already...different from last year when they were all up past Valentine's Day!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Talk to you all soon.

Take care,

Jenn

New York City Trip with Emma

Well Emma and I had a great time on her early birthday trip to NYC. We had to catch the train in Lancaster because they were doing bridge work between Harrisburg and Mt. Joy. We grabbed a cab to the hotel which was right next to the Hershey store and across from M&M World. Great for me who is on a diet! :) So our room wasn't ready so we stored our luggage and headed to the American Girl Store. We had lunch there and Emma bought the "feel better kit" for her doll and I bought her doll a swimsuit. We walked around a bit but Em wanted to get back to the hotel to go swimming. So she went for a swim, and then we got dressed to go out on the town. We went to Toys R Us...which is HUGE...it has a ferris wheel inside the store! We ate dinner at Planet Hollywood and then went to Sephora and tested all the makeup. We hung out in Times Square and people watched and then went to a couple souvenir shops and then headed back to the hotel.

The next day we went on the NBC Studio Tour like I did with Carey last year. The rest of the day was spent at Central Park and FAO Schwarz before we headed back to the hotel to grab our luggage. Of course traffic was awful...it seems Sundays are worse than Saturdays. Not one cab would take us to Penn Station. They'd pull up to us, I'd tell them we were going to Penn Station and they'd say sorry, won't go that way. What the heck. So we walked 16 blocks with our luggage to Penn Station. I welcomed the 3 hours of sitting on the train so I could rest my feet!

We got home to find a sick Carey in my bed. She had some stomach bug. Her ankle is bothering her again. It seems like now that the weather is cold, it hurts. She had a great summer, running around, having no pain and now it's back. This is so frustrating. She has an appt. next week but I really don't know what else they can do for her.

Right now Keegan is sitting on the potty...I'm bribing him with chocolate...he went potty one time a week ago but still has no interest. We'll see if the M&Ms from M&M World will give him some incentive to start peeing on the potty!

We are getting ready for a visit from Grandma Patty next week. The kids are excited, they love having family stay with us.

Have a great week!

Fall is here!

We are definitely into the fall activities right now. Carey is still golfing, Emma has started soccer and Keegan loves school! When he sees me come to pick him up he tells me to leave. He wants to stay! He loves being there and seems to have a great time since when I peek in he's smiling and laughing. Andy and I took him to see Thomas The Train in Strasburg this week. It's very rare that we take him just the two of us. It's usually just me with him or just Andy with him since the other parent is usually running the girls somewhere. We had a blast! We rode Thomas, got our picture taken, bought some ridiculously high priced trains and a cute hat that Keegan says "All Aboard" everytime he puts it on.

School seems to be going well with the usual adjustment period. Carey has already forgotten to take in her homework 3 times....sigh. Emma has gotten a "warning" on her conduct calendar for talking too much. So we've had discussions with both of them so hopefully they can get on track. Carey has joined the chorus in addition to the band. So December we will have 2 concerts to attend!

Well I must end this...off to pick Carey up from golf lessons and then head over to the Hummelstown Arts & Craft festival. It's my favorite. The close down Main Street and have all the vendors on the street and they have music, food...it's fun. I'm taking Keegan with us...this should be interesting. It's too crowded for a stroller so I might have to put him on the toddler leash!

Jenn

The First Day of School

Today the girls went back to school. They were excited and Keegan thought he was riding the bus with him...boy it wasn't a good scene at the bus stop when they got on and he wasn't allowed to. He threw his toy bus and train and ran down the sidewalk toward the house. He continued to scream and cry for about 10 minutes. He kicked the door, he ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut (for some reason he has chosen the bathroom as the room he goes in when he's mad). He starts school the Wednesday after Labor Day...between him saying "crap" all the time and his temper, the teachers are just going to love him!! :)

The girls both wore their new sneakers and new shirts. However last week when it was the last week of summer vacation for them, it was cold and overcast...this week, sunny and in the 90s so they couldn't wear their new jeans.

I'm busy at the gym getting ready for the school year session to begin and we have open house and swim team registration as well this week. Busy, busy!

Take care and I'll update next week when Keegan goes to school!

Jenn