The Last Day

The day has finally come where me and Maddy say goodbye to her daycare. It will feel so weird to walk out of those doors knowing we will not be back. Maddy has shown mixed emotions over no more school. When I first told her about staying home for school, she was beyond excited. Every day she would ask me how much longer. When I decided to go ahead and bump up her last day I started talking about staying home for school all over again, but she wasn't as excited about it as she was before. I will admit I panicked yesterday thinking I made a huge mistake in pulling her out of daycare and began to pray. Yesterday was an all around bad day and I think the devil was trying to get to me. I feel so much better today and KNOW this is what God wants for us. I asked her yesterday if she wanted to stay home today or go to school and take dance one last time. Surprisingly she opted for school...she NEVER opts for school. It's funny because the three years she has gone to daycare she has always been so clingy and refused to let go. Most days she has been pried off me with a huge frown on her face once they finally got her to let go of me. This week, however...her last week, has been completely different. They have a new teacher in there that actually reminds me of me. She is super sweet and Maddy absolutely loves her. This week Maddy has washed her hands and told me she wanted to go to the table this teacher was at. The teacher would welcome her on in and get her started on their art project and Maddy would instantly let go of me and go to the teacher. Talk about a shocked mom lol. Today she didn't want to let go, but I think she was having fun with the teacher lol. I decided to bring my phone in with us this morning to snap some last pictures of her school. They turned out blurry because Maddy was bouncing all over the place. Oh! This morning I told her today was her last day and she was super excited and said, "And then I get to stay home forever, and ever, and ever!!!"

I can NOT get my pictures to go to my photo stream from my phone. The whole point of this post was to share the pictures I took of her on her last day. As soon as my technology wants to cooperate with me, I will post them :)

Her official last day of daycare was Friday, November 8. She keeps talking about when she sees her friends again, so I know she does not understand still. She seemed to have a GREAT last day. Her first week of homeschool will be Thanksgiving themed and I do plan on posting throughout our week. Home school has definitely taken over my blog. I would appreciate prayers that this transition will be smooth for Maddy. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Schedule

By the time you all are reading this we will be on our final countdown until Maddy permanently stays home. Right now we are roughly two months away from that time. Two months seems like a long time, but when you think about lesson planning and all that good stuff it really isn't that long. I decided to sit down and try to make out a schedule for us last night. I came up with a tentative schedule that will work great if I can keep my end of the schedule up. Here is what Maddy's schedule will look like. I tried my best to keep her in the same routine she is used to at school:
7:30-9:00-Wake-up time (I will not get her up at any set time...just whenever she wakes up)
9:00-10:00-Breakfast/TV time
10:00-11:00-Outside
11:00-1:00-Free choice
1:00-1:30-Lunch
1:30-2:00-Wash hands/Afternoon meeting
2:00-4:00-Nap
4:00-4:30-Snack
4:30-4:50-Circle Time
4:50-5:00-Music/Movement
5:00-5:45-Outside
5:45-6:00-Free choice

As you can see it looks like a typical daycare schedule. Her lunch is about an hour later than I wanted it to be, but since she gets to sleep in later than she would normally for daycare I think she will be ok. Obviously if she gets hungry before lunch time I will feed her. Our schedule will vary from day to day because she isn't always going to get up at the same time.

My schedule is what I'm most concerned about. For those who really know me, they know I am in NO way a morning person. If I could sleep till 9 or 9:30 everyday that would be awesome by me.
4:00-7:30-Work
7:30-7:40-Break
7:40-9:40 Work
9:40-10:30-Lunch
10:30-10:45-Work
10;45-10:55-Break
10:55-12:55-Work

Provided I don't have overtime and can really keep this schedule, I will be done with work everyday by 12:55 p.m. I tend to have quite a bit of overtime, so for those overtime days I will either work an extra two hours, or I go ahead and log out and then come back after dinner to finish my last two hours. I really hope my manager will allow me to start work every day at 4 a.m. and I am able to make myself get up. It would be awesome to get to spend the rest of the afternoon with Maddy or to actually be able to clean and cook during the week instead of saving it all for the weekend. I am going to try to start this schedule now to get used to it, but I have NO work right now so I am having to wait until I can get some more work before I start this routine. Anyways, that's our tentative/goal schedule :) Hope you all are having a great day!

Two Week Notice

Maddy turned in her two week notice at school today. She actually had a rough morning. I woke up at 5:32 a.m. feeling pretty rested. In fact, I could not go back to sleep. Why can't that happen when I have to work? I eventually did fall back asleep and when I heard my alarm going off, I woke up to find it was 8:23 a.m. We have to leave by 8:30. I started to just let her stay home, but I had to turn in her dance fees and I wanted to get this two week notice thing over with. So we quickly got ready and headed off to school. She was in great spirits in the car. When we got to school, however, she refused to go in her class. She stood outside and when I tried to pick her up she ran from me. I did get her in her room thank goodness and her teacher whisked her away to make a bat.

I had been dreading letting her school know she would no longer be going there. I knew they would ask a bunch of questions and try to convince me to stay and all those good things. I just wanted to tell them and be done with it lol. Sure enough I told the director I needed to talk to her. I know she thought it was about a problem I had with a teacher like it has been in the past. Trust me, there were plenty of things I could have said about the teachers Maddy has but there's no point in doing so when you are just going to pull your child out anyways. I instantly started to tear up as I began. My exact words were, "I have some bittersweet news to tell you." It is bittersweet for me. I've mentioned them in other posts so I won't mention them here. She asked me where I was going to take her. I just told her I had an opportunity come up where I would be able to homeschool Maddy. She wouldn't take just that answer...she wanted details. I told her I had an opportunity to homeschool/tutor other kids with a friend, which I do, but do not want to discuss that right now. She asked me how many kids we would have and where I would get my benefits from, etc. I felt like I was being interrogated and essentially I was. I don't think she believed me and I really feel like she thinks I'm sending Maddy to another daycare. She made me promise if it didn't work out to call them first to see if there was an opening for her before I sent her anywhere else. I have to turn in a handwritten letter this afternoon to confirm the two week notice and put the dates. Maddy's last day will be next week. I originally was going to have her only go through Wednesday of next week, but since I just had to throw away $60 for dance I decided she would go through Friday which is her dance day. I am so excited that she will get to stay home with me even though I am a little nervous. Maddy has been very excited about staying home for school as well. I don't think she fully understands yet that her days at her current school are numbered, but she is about to find out. We will count down each day until it is stay home with mommy time.

Since I am pulling her out earlier than I had anticipated, I am going to have to scramble and get the rest of her curriculum together. I think I am going to use some of her daycare themes and combine it with the christian curriculum I found online. I don't want to purchase curriculum right now because I want to look at what I'm buying first. I hope to post each week what we are learning about and have some cute pictures of crafts we do. Let the countdown begin :)

Maddy's Fall Haul

Maddy is a growing girl. She no longer can fit in anything T related...4T 5T. She just got an outfit for her birthday that is 5T. The shirt is ok....the pants are too short. I was shocked when she put those pants on and saw highwaters. I typically have her fall/winter wardrobe complete by now. In fact, I usually take a trip down to Georgia to visit the OshKosh outlet center. Since moving back out on my own, that is definitely a luxury and something I don't do anymore. I don't have her wardrobe ready and it's not nearly as big as it usually is. I'm ok with that though. I just feel thankful that God has given us exactly what we need plus some. To get her fall/winter wardrobe started we went to Wal-Mart. I did take a look at the OshKosh outlet center in Pigeon Forge, TN and spent way too much money on 2 shirts and 2 pants. Their selection wasn't as good as it used to, or they just have cuter things for babies lol. Prior to our Pigeon Forge get away I had also checked JcPenny and The Children's Place. I must say I was highly disappointed in both stores. They hardly had anything in her size and what they did have was horrible. I wish designers would keep kids clothes cute and innocent and stop trying to "grow them up" earlier than they should. Wal-Mart had some really cute things for Maddy and I'm so excited to show you them. It's nothing fancy or fall out of your seat adorable, but I think they are pretty cute and practical. Before I show you I have to say though that it was a bittersweet shopping trip. She is no longer in the baby section of Wal-Mart. We have officially graduated to the big girls section. The big girls section has more selection than the baby section did, but it's more confirmation that she is growing up way too fast.

We even had to get new socks. Even if she wasn't growing she really needed new socks because hers are caked with dirt stains from crawling around outside in the gravel. I have no idea how to get them out. They have soaked for hours in vinegar and baking soda . I pretreated by scrubbing a baking soda paste with an old toothbrush. Nothing is getting the stains out. Her foot is growing as well. She is pretty much in a size 11 now so I got two different sizes. Her current shoe is a 10.5 so she got socks for size 6-10.5 and then socks that are size 10.5-4. Hopefully these last a little while and I can keep the stains off!

I picked this shirt out. It's probably my favorite out of what we got. I did of coarse ask her if she liked it. I really think she wanted one of everything lol.

Pink is her favorite color so of coarse we had to get some pink. Actually we got more pink than anything.

We got this shirt, but in the blue color you see above it. It is a solid color shirt and we also got the matching leggings to go with it. 

 

 

 

 

We got one more pink shirt that has an owl on it...it's fleece. I can't find the picture online and my photo stream from my phone isn't showing the pictures I took of her clothes. We got more pants than shirts We got 3 pairs of the leggings (denim, black, and purple). It's a good start to her fall/winter wardrobe. 

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was a very special day in our household. Yesterday, October 20, Manny turned 6 years old. I will admit and say I've been a bad fur baby mama. The last 5 years I have not really given his birthday the attention it deserves. I will never forget standing at the vets waiting on some tests to come back. I was fully expecting to hear that he had diabetes. When the vet came in and said he was in kidney failure, I wanted to just fall to the ground and bawl my eyes out. I won't go into the whole story, but if you'd like to catch up on or take a look back you can read about that post here. Hearing he had a max of 3 years left to live really hit me hard. December 7 of this year will be the one year mark since getting the diagnosis. I have spent a lot of time praying over him. The last time I had his kidney panel checked they were much better than they were when he was in the hospital. I'm pretty sure the vet was surprised...with God NOTHING is impossible!!!

I wanted to have a full fledged party for him, but I wouldn't really have anybody that would want to come and celebrate with us. I also wanted to give him the biggest cake, but since his kidneys are failing he has a very strict diet. He cannot have people food and his dog food is a special kidney food that is not harsh on the kidneys. Most dog treats have what is called phospate or phosphoric acid in it and that is what is hard on kidneys, so he really shouldn't have treats either. All I knew to do for his birthday was give him lots of lovin and I tried to give him some time outside. He doesn't ever get time to just run around outside or sniff or anything like that. I took him outside and of coarse Maddy wanted in on this action. Manny seemed so confused. He went to the bathroom and then kept trying to go inside. It didn't help that Maddy was running around screaming at him. Everytime she would charge towards him he would take off running and then look at me like help lol. We finally got everybody calmed down and enjoyed just running around and Manny enjoyed eating grass.

I had a day of reflection. I just happened to find one of his puppy pictures in my car. I will never forget the day I got him and I will never forget the sleepless nights he gave me from biting me as a puppy. I seriously had wondered what in the world I had done. We bonded over the years. I remember when he had to stay in my mom's fence once I had Maddy because I couldn't care for him until I healed. I remember feeling so horrible that he was outside. I wondered if he hated me. I never wanted him to be left out once Maddy was born. It was soon after she was born that I think his kidneys started failing. He really loved playing with my mom's outside dog, but one day he just acted funny. My mom wondered if someone hit him or tortured him outside the fence because his whole demeanor had changed...he definitely seemed depressed and lost a lot of weight. We brought him inside, but he was never the same again. That was about a year before we found out his kidneys were failing. I thought about the first Christmas I had him. We spent the night at my mom's house Christmas eve and she got some of the cutest pictures of him with a bow around his neck and in a basket under the tree. He is such a sweet, loving dog. He literally hugs you and it's just so sweet. He is so much a part of our family and loved so much. I pray he has many birthdays to come.

The top 3 pictures are prior to the diagnosis. The top picture he was anywhere from 10 to 12 weeks old. The next two are in 2010. Then the rest are all after finding out his kidneys were failing. You can tell in his eyes he doesn't feel good. The last picture they were both giving me kisses lol. I feel so thankful to see another birthday come and go and have him here with us. I want to be selfish and keep him forever. I know eventually there will come a time when it's his time to go...I just pray he goes peacefully in his sleep.

I know I'm not great at writing and it doesn't help that I just watched The Heart of Christmas and bawled my eyes out. I don't mean for this post to be a debbie downer. I am truly blessed and we had a great mini birthday celebration for our buddy Manny.

Time For Your Checkup

Today was the dreaded 4 year checkup with the dreaded shots. I prayed and prayed that God would go before Maddy and make the pain be non-existent. I've actually been given an IV without feeling even a pinch. I firmly believe that God can take the pain away. I felt bad because I didn't tell Maddy she was getting shots today. She knew she had a check-up, but didn't know what that entailed. I have been nervous over this appointment because to this day I remember my 4 year appointment. I don't remember every detail...just the shots. I remember the nurse telling me it would feel like a mosquito bite. In my head I was like whew, those don't hurt. Apparently that nurse got her bugs mixed up because it hurt!!! I knew if I told Maddy she would dwell on that and ask all kinds of questions. I didn't want to put fear in her so I let her find out on her own. I do wonder how she will perceive doctors now. Her appointment was at 4:10 p.m. We got there 5 minutes early and waited maybe 2 minutes. She weighed in at 35 pounds, which is average for her age. She is 41 inches tall and fell in the 75th percentile for her height. Her BMI, which is weird to even write about at this age, is 14.64...I'm told that's normal. Her blood pressure was 82/48 and her temperature was 97.5. It looks like she is going to have my body temperature because that is what my normal temperature is. After they took her vitals and asked me a gazillion questions, they had her put on a gown.

While we waited for the doctor we read a couple of books. One book we read was about ABC's and I let her help me. She can identify the letters of the alphabet, but a couple she has a little trouble with. I was impressed. I let her doctor know that she complains off and on about not being able to hear. She said it can just be excessive ear wax or there could be a problem. She looked in her right ear first and with the amount of time it took her, I figured there must be an infection. She looked in the other one and asked Maddy which one hurt. Maddy refused to talk to her so I asked her. She finally took my hand and pointed to her right ear. Her doctor looked at me and was like yeah, that's the one that doesn't look normal. My heart kinda stopped for a minute. I expected to hear an infection or ear wax, but NOT normal caught me off guard. She told me her ear drum looked fine and she could see through it and there was no puss or anything, but she looked like she had fluid on her ear. She diagnosed it as swimmer's ear and prescribed her some ear drops. She proceeded on with the exam and stood Maddy up on the floor and had her bend over. Maddy stood back up and started walking to me. Her doctor was like sweetie I need you to stand real still because I think.... Again, my heart stopped for a minute. This was supposed to be an easy exam minus shots. After a few tries of getting Maddy to stand up tall and still she finally was like yeah, she has a slight length discrepancy. She had Maddy turn around so I could. If you look at the back, the knees are supposed to match up. I believe it's Maddy's right leg that is longer than her left. Her doctor said it's more common in girls and she should grow out of it, but if she doesn't and starts complaining of any issues, she would have to see a podiatrist. After all that I was ready to pack up and go home, but we still had shots to go. She had the DTaP, MMR, Varivax, and Polio. I can attest that the MMR shot hurts SO bad!!! I had to hold her hands and oh man...it always breaks my hear because that is something I can still remember to this day. Shots hurt so bad and the fact that it's forced on you as a kid makes it seem so unfair. All I knew to do since I couldn't really hug her is put my head on her as if I were giving her a hug, but without my hands wrapping around. She seemed like she was trying to hold her tears in. I told her to just let them out and cry...it was ok to cry. I completely expected a full break down, but she was too busy trying to bow her back. As soon as she could sit up she clung to me and finally let out her tears. I for one am so relieved for her sake that that appointment is over. I tried to talk to her throughout the day that just because she goes to the doctor, it does not mean she is getting shots. I am hoping she will not hate the doctor after today. She won't have any more vaccines until 11.

I really like her doctor. What I don't like is how she lets her opinion show when I make a decision she doesn't like. When she found out I wasn't nursing, it was pure disappointment in her tone and on her face. I wanted to nurse just as much as she apparently wanted me to, but my milk just wasn't there. I had that same reaction today when she asked if I wanted to get the flu vaccine. She asks me at every check-up and I always decline it. This time was the first time she really showed her disappointment over my decision. Everybody has their own personal beliefs on vaccines. I personally do not believe in the flu vaccine. I have never had it and will never give it to Maddy. I don't like that they wouldn't tell you the swine flu was in it unless you asked...why? I also know that there are many different strains of flu that the vaccine will not protect you from all strains. I know people who still got the flu even with the vaccine. I don't just trust the information that is given to me...I would have to investigate it myself to know whether or not it is really safe/helpful before I would give my daughter the vaccine. If I had known how to NOT vaccinate Maddy, I probably would have chosen that path. I think there are some vaccines I may have chosen to give her, but I don't think I would end up giving her every single vaccine that is required today. I realize everybody has their own thoughts on this subject and whatever you decide for your child is just fine in my eyes...it's all about doing what you feel is best for your child. As the doctor was walking out prior to the shots she came back in the room and said you don't even want the flu mist for her today? I'm sure the look on my face was not very nice, but that's when her personal opinion started to shine through in my eyes and I wanted to say you know...you just told me she is very healthy. She has been alive for 4 years and I have NEVER given her the flu vaccine. She has had the flu ONE time in her 4 years. I think she's doing just fine without the flu vaccine. Of coarse I didn't say that to her...I just said, "No."

I had plans of taking Maddy to get some ice cream, but unfortunately I knew there would be no time. We had to run to the store to get her an orange shirt for her picture day and orange day at school. I let her pick up some ice cream at the store and then sometime this week we will go for some Sweet Frog :)

A Few Tidbits:
Maddy is potty trained. We are almost completely potty trained, meaning no diapers at night. I told you when you are dry 5 times in a row we will get rid of diapers. We've made it 3 nights in a row so far. Friday night doesn't matter because I can easily give you a bath. When you do wear a diaper you are in 3T-4T pull ups.

You are in a size 5 or 5T shirt and 4, 4 slim, or some 5T pants.

You wear a size 10.5 shoe, but I think you are about ready for size 11.

You eat so much. You pretty much eat around the clock.

Your favorite shows to watch are: Dora, Doc McStuffins, Sofia the First, Jake, and Mickey Mouse

You can brush your own teeth now but Mommy has to make sure you brushed really good.

You don't seem like you are going to be a morning person. Some days it takes you forever to wake up.

You sometimes have sleep problems. Sometimes you can't get to sleep and other times you can fall right asleep but wake up a bunch throughout the night.

You love to play outside.

You love to party...toddler style of coarse. You loved your birthday party and are already asking how many days until your party.

You have separation anxiety wherever we go. You refuse to let go of Mommy whether it be at school, church, or even when it's time for bed.

You sleep in my bed with me and Manny every Friday night. Friday nights are also dedicated Mommy/Maddy nights and we stay up late.

You still love movies and have been to two movies this year...Despicable Me 2 and Monster's University. You absolutely LOVE the popcorn.

You want us to get a new car...Mommy wants this too.

You are starting to pray on your own and that just melts Mommy's heart. I pray you will accept Jesus into your heart and live for Him.

You can identify your letters and numbers and name.

You are still so very spirited ;)

Weekend Randoms

I'm actually procrastinating cleaning right now. I don't know why I've been putting cleaning off all day. After I write this I must get that cleaning done!

I've been sick lately, so I have been trying my best to take it easy lately. I am past exhaustion, which is the reason why I am getting sick. How do I know this? Let me give you example A. We took a weekend trip to Pigeon Forge, TN the weekend of September 27. We came back that Sunday...no...make that early Monday morning. Me and Maddy did not crawl into bed until 1:30 a.m. Monday morning. I didn't bother unpacking and just threw everything into the living room. I will write a separate post about our trip later. I forgot my alarm was set to 6:00 am and so I snoozed for a while and decided Maddy would just have to stay home. She would have only gotten 5.5 hours of sleep and considering she is used to getting 10-12 hours a night I knew that wouldn't be good for her. Monday at work was a huge struggle. I sit in a chair for 8 hours a day and it felt like torture. I was sluggish all week. I realized Tuesday after I got a good night's rest that the way I felt was not just tired, but sick tired. Friday morning I woke up feeling nauseous and was running a fever. My body hurt so bad. Needless to say that weekend I laid in bed all day. I started feeling better Sunday and was so thankful. I woke up Monday morning just fine. On my lunch break I decided to start cleaning up my room. Once I logged back into work I started feeling really bad again and the fever came back. I really think had I not cleaned I would have been just fine. I ran a fever through Tuesday and then it went away. I decided the rest of the week I would lay. I can still tell if I were to clean a whole lot or exert a lot of energy I would end up sick. That's probably the reason I am not wanting to clean.

I've been working on Maddy's curriculum. I decided since we are starting in the middle of the school year that I would not purchase any curriculum. I really want to see, touch, and feel the different curriculum's that are out there. I decided to kind of write my own curriculum. At the beginning of the year, or when she first switched into her new class...I was given a booklet about the classroom. They gave a schedule of the different units and when they would be learning about that unit. I am going to be teaching Maddy the same theme she would be learning if she were still in daycare. To help me come up with activities I am using this website. I am also using this site to help teach her about Jesus. I love that they are free. Obviously there will be some trial and error with how we do school once she is home, but I hope everything goes as smoothly as possible. I went ahead and ordered me a lesson planner for preschool. I love that they have a page for center ideas. My house is quite small so I won't be able to have a dedicated center area so to speak, but I have some pretty fun ideas to try.

This is what my planner looks like. I clearly couldn't wait to start filling it out. The first homeschool theme we will do is called "What is hibernation?" I wrote a post about what our schedule would look like that will publish in December. Can you tell I'm just a wee bit excited about this homeschool thing?

This isn't anything exciting to you guys and you may wonder why it's exciting to me, but if you had 7 bags of garbage piled up in your house plus 2 outside you would understand my excitement a little more. I finally bit the bullet and got garbage service. I'm hoping they will deliver my can Monday so I can get this stinky garbage out of the house! My garbage day will be Wednesday and I think they are probably the most decent priced corporation that will still pick up Christmas trees. I will be the odd ball of my neighborhood as most of my neighbors don't use a corporation, but a local service. I went with what my gut told me and so far I'm pleased. I knew to stay away from Allied Waste. People have actually left reviews on them online and they are all 1 star. My mom hated using them when she had garbage and I believe her bill was close to $80 a quarter. The company I chose I 4 stars, but only two people had left reviews. The local company my neighbors use will not pick up your Christmas tree...that is fine for my neighbors because they either don't have trees or use artificial trees...I get a live tree. I'm sure at some point I will start taking my garbage service for granted, but it will be a long time before that happens :)

I am going to attempt to start doing daily vlogs on youtube. I started filming today, but I'm not sure if I got enough footage. I also am not sure I can keep it up during the week because we tend to do the same thing every week and it would get boring and I tend to forget to pick up the camera. I still want to try.

A month into my weight loss journey and I have lossed 2.7 pounds. The first week I only lost .5 of a pound. I quite weighing myself after that and must have maintained my weight because I'm pretty sure I lost 2.2 pounds this past week. I'm finally seeing my stomach shrink and I have hope that I really will get close to my pre-pregnancy tummy. I will never get back to my weight because I was roughly 20 pounds underweight.

I will wrap up my long post now. Now that I have empty memory cards I hope to do better at getting some pictures. At some point I will have to decide if I want to blog or vlog because both is a full time job in itself. I'm hoping to take Maddy to the pumpkin patch next weekend and that is definitely a good blogging time :)