Saturday, December 27

My Christmas Season

Things seem to be returning to "normal" in our household. We went to the opthamologist for Rebecca a couple of weeks ago, her perpherial vision has taken a nosedive this past year, but her central vision has remained the same. The opthamologist mentioned a surgery that could slow things down and referred us to a specialist which we will see in May. I'm not sure if surgery will be worth putting her through that for the results, but we will talk to the doctor and make our decision then.

Jasmine finally popped about a week ago. I don't know why she has to push things to the very brim and then explode before she starts feeling better, but that is her cycle and the way it works with her. She will have 2-3 hr tantrums for months and then finally one day she will absolutely lose it and have an all day tantrum, the next day it will be tantrum free and we can experience that for the next couple of months and then it will all start again. So, right now we are in happy family mode.

We were blessed by friends this holiday season so much! Yesterday, my 2 Deaf friends took our family to go see ICE in Grapevine at the Gaylord. The girls really enjoyed it! I had read on the internet that it would only take us about 15 minutes to go through it, but we chatted along the way, took lots of pictures, etc. It took us about 45 minutes. It was really cool! It has tons of ice sculptures.

We went Christmas night to go look at lights and drove through a light parade just outside of Sherman on the way back from my grandmas in Oklahoma. It was beautiful and the girls really enjoyed that.

We had a great Christmas since Jasmine's bubble popped prior to Christmas, that was the best gift for me! The girls actually got both of us gifts which was the first time they had done that, so that is progress. They had earned bible bucks with bible drill and bible drill had a store that they got us gifts from. Jasmine was sick that night so between a friend and me we picked out some gifts for her to chose from. I brought them home and then she chose who to give what to. It worked out well.

Sunday, December 7

Crazy Christmas Time

Joy to the world did not include my house. There is little joy to be found during Christmas in our home. Did anyone see the 20/20 (or maybe it was Dateline) special about RAD? That is my household and it is only ramped up around Christmas time. The kids start doing wierd things and acting out in wierd ways around the holidays. For example, the other day Jasmine smuggled sugar into her room (we normally do not keep sugar in our house, but I needed some for Thanksgiving). We lock the pantry at night, so I am not even sure how or when she got it - but anyway, she took the sugar and sprinkled it all throughout our house on the wood floors and tile and then there was a pile of sugar in her room. We are getting used to these episodes but they are still tiring. As I am writing this, there is an hour and 1/2 long tantrum going on in the background.

Jasmine broke her arm on the monkey bars a day before Thanksgiving so that also is making our holidays more interesting and giving her more amunition to complain about life. Kimberly is going to participate in the science fair this year and so in our "spare time" we are working on that. My car has a HUGE oil leak that started when my friend was in the hospital so we are also down one vehicle. I filed a complaint with the hospital with a local deaf advocating agency - still waiting on the latest information from that.

I have also started interpreting more at church to sharpen my skills so that hopefully I can become certified to help the Deaf in our community more. Last week, I interpreted a funeral - that was interesting.

Rebecca had her yearly opthamologist appointment and they said that her perpherial vision has worsened, but her central vision has remained the same. She was upset that she was not getting new glasses - we may still get her some new frames. We are going to a retinal specialist in May to have her evaluated further. The doctor mentioned that we may be able to have surgery to prolong her sight longer, but that it is not a cure. I'm not sure yet if I want to do that, we will have to see how much her sight would improve and the pros/cons of the surgery. We will find out in May.

So, I appologize for not blogging more but as you can see my life has been full lately. Hope everyone has a great season and I will try to keep in touch better.

Happy holidays!