Update at last . . .

I find myself so wrapped up in the little here and there posts on facebook that I have all but forgotten my precious blog. My blog... where I get to project a little bit more of "me" than is possible on FB.

While our lives continue to be plagued with financial stress - actually more so than I ever thought I would ever be able to endure - I do have some happy-ish developments. Since I quit nursing my daughter, my body is finally releasing much of the weight that has been my heavy companion all these years. I have lost more than what I gained with the last pregnancy. I think the last time I was this weight was around 2004 ( between "Power Ranger" and "Tinker Bell"). I've dropped about 20 pounds in the past 2 months. I should be ecstatic... why would I call this "happy-ish" developments? Well, I have noticed a sudden recurrence of symptoms I had when we left our last house. It made me sick... VERY sick. I have recently found myself stuttering, losing muscle strength for a few seconds, headaches, extreme exhaustion, fatigue, confusion, disorientation, lack of desire to do anything etc... Our old house suffered from mold. I was having major neurological problems towards the end. It was during an extended vacation (11 + days) that I realized that my symptoms were lightening up (while away from home). About a month after moving to this "new" house I began to feel human once again. Why are my symptoms suddenly returning now? While laying on the sofa, holding my head and covering my ears in an attempt to calm the rising throbbing pain in my head the thought hit me.... I'm losing fat.... the same fat that has encased and protected me from the toxins that made me ill for all those years. The fat was now being used to give me energy but it was also releasing my greatest enemy.

I am more determined to push onward and lose the remainder of the weight. In 20 more pounds I would be at my goal - what I weighed at my wedding... the same I weighed in high school. Hopefully I can lose all the nasty toxins that are stored within the fat that remains. This is a side effect I was unaware to be on the look out for.

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4 out of my 5 kids are now in school. This is the last year that everyone will be in elementary school. Next year the twins move on to Jr. High. Time is just flying by faster and faster. I don't want to miss anything. I really enjoy these kids.

I need to count up just how much reading I did over the summer. It was quite an impressive amount.
5 out of the 6 books in the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series. 2,142 pages
Catching Fire and Mockingjay (hunger games series) 781 pages
Beyonders (Mull) 454 pages
Twilight series (4 books) 2,446 pages (read series in 2 1/2 weeks)
Candy Shop War (Mull) 409 pages
The Last Olympian (Riordan) 381 pages

These are all I can remember reading. There might have been others.
14 Books - 6,613 pages
All this from a girl who barely cracked open a book throughout all of high school and college. I guess I'm using reading as my escape from life. It never fails to crack me up... I went from cringing from the tiniest of books to purposefully seeking out those with the fattest spines so I have a lot to read. I picked the Inkheart series based on the InkDeath book - 683 pages.

The School Master

Oh.. I just love Rowan Atkinson. I love his qwerky style of comedy.

Rowan Atkinson as a schoolmaster taking attendance at a British school for boys.

Awesome News

I just met this morning with the special needs coordinator at my kid's school. Recently Dragon Girl was retested to see where she is in her abilities. WHAT A SHOCKER!!! Yes, there are some areas where she is a tiny bit behind. They score by age level. She was tested at 9 years 7 months old. A small handful of the items they tested she was a tad behind by as much as 6 months delayed. No biggie. MOST of the items tested she scored a full year ahead (as a 10 1/2 year old). There were several in the 11 1/2 year old range and one way out at a SENIOR in HIGH SCHOOL!!! Just shy of a 17 year old!!!

When she was in 1st grade her teacher kept PUSHING me to put her on meds to MAKE her pay attention better. Basically the teacher didn't want to deal with anyone slightly "difficult". I am SOOOO glad we just let Dragon Girl have TIME. When she got her special learning time I was told she didn't fit in there either. Most of those kids were really behind. Her only area she needed help in was fluency (the speed at which she does things - read, write etc...). She was VERY slow. Dragon Girl has sped up a LOT since she first started school.

I also believe that her not having to be hospitalized with pneumonia in over 2 years has helped a TON. Her ped. always told me that each time she was hospitalized she would fall behind in her brain development a bit. Most likely from the oxygen deprivation. She's been fighting to get caught up from several bouts of pneumonia as well as being born so premature.

I'm just soooo EXCITED about this news! Who knows.... maybe in the near future she'll get pulled out not because she needs help but because she's getting bored and needs a challenge..... It could happen.