Catching Up

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here and so I thought I would give a little run down of what's been going on...

The first two weeks of May, Connor and Parker were both really sick with terrible coughs and runny noses. They shared the sickness with me on Mother's Day and then a few days later with Jason. Connor added a few more days of missed school bringing his total days absent to 20 (he really was sick all those days)!!! Parker scared us while he was sick because he was having a hard time keeping his oxygen saturation at a normal level and he kept having coughing spells where he would cough so hard he would gag and have a hard time breathing. He had a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia and it was fine, thank goodness, but whatever it was, it really threw him for a loop--he hasn't been that sick for over a year. It took him about 3 weeks to get back to normal.

Connor played soccer again this year, however he missed half of the games while he was sick and the games he did play he kept volunteering to be the sub that sits out! I kept reminding him that we were there to play soccer, not sit out, but he said sitting out was fun... Needless to say, he really didn't play much, but he still had fun and got a trophy so that's all that matters, right?

In 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade in North Carolina they have "end of grade" tests or EOG's for short. The students work hard all year learning the information that they will be tested on and they have to receive a score of 3 or 4 to pass and move on to the next grade. I suppose they do similar testing in other states as well. Anyway, Kelsey worked really hard and was really, really nervous. We weren't worried because she is such a smart and intelligent girl and she does extremely well in school. They had 3 tests, 1 reading comprehension, and 2 separate math tests (1 with a calculator and 1 without)--she scored 4 on all 3 tests! We are so proud of her! She performed with the 3rd grade in a short musical last week and they did a nice job. She also started coach pitch baseball, which will continue for the rest of the summer.

This month Jason and I were finally able to use some of our respite hours (additional hours of nursing care for Parker, separate from his regular weekly hours) to go to the temple in Raleigh. It was wonderful to have that time together and be able to serve the Lord at the same time! We also were able to go on a date for Jason's birthday--we realized it's been years since we've officially been on a date for one of our birthdays. Once again, it was great to have that time together. Hopefully, we will be able to continue to take advantage of the respite hours for more dates and temple trips!

I spent a good part of the month working on my new business, Part of Me Pump Packs (I'm making and selling the IV backpacks that I designed for Parker). I received my first online order last week which was really exciting and I also received 3 orders from somebody here locally. Not too bad for my first month! I have worked a lot on my website adding some videos of how to put the pump pack on and how to anchor the IV tubing. I hope they are helpful for the people that need them--I know they would have been helpful for us when we were starting out with Parker's IV care. It has been a new adventure for me and it has been very gratifying to help someone else who is going through the same things that we have been through.

So, that's about it for May! I can hardly believe the kids are almost finished with school and summer is here. June is already filling up--it looks like a busy couple of months ahead!!!