I decided I've been neglecting this blog for too long, the summer's been busy busy so far! June flew by with Ashlyn spending a week with our good friends, the Wolf's, and then both kids going camping with Omie & Opie A and then a trip to the beach for Ashlyn's 16th birthday with 3 of her friends and her Omies and Opie (pics here ). Then we had a couple of weeks before Colten went to Hermann Sons Camp and then this week Ashlyn has been volunteering at a VBS in Mason and Colten has been going to the VBS and had a football camp. Next week is more football camp for Colten. So far he's held up pretty good!
Today we went to see Ashlyn's neurologist in Austin again. She's had 4 seizures now, the last one of which happened the Monday before her birthday and we don't know why. The two before that, we were pretty sure came from lack of sleep. Since the last one, she's been zoning or blanking out more and recently started twitching her hand and head on occasion. This has been very concerning and we are always worried about how she's feeling and if she might have another seizure, even with her medicine. The doctor wasn't sure what to make of it exactly and said we could try upping her meds and see if that helps or test her more thoroughly to see if the blanking out episodes she experiences are mini-seizures or just some side affect of the medicine. We decided to go with the latter, so we'll be scheduling the test for next week or the week after and she'll be spending 1-3 full days in the hospital being monitored by an epilepsy monitoring unit or EMU. Hopefully they can find something out and figure out how to fully control it. It's so frustrating not knowing how to fix this, especially since it's preventing her from driving.
So besides this, we've been trying to take it easy so she can get enough sleep (doctor recommends at least 9 hours every night, tough to do for a teenager!) and trying to stay cool. I will update again after she has the test, please pray for good news!
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Easter & Stuff
We had a great Easter weekend, the weather was awesome, the bbq was delicious and the sunrise was amazing!!! Hope everyone had a great Easter!
Here are pics from the weekend:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115602357358508646145/Easter2012
In other news:
Colten had his last Cub Scout meeting and first Boy Scout meeting! Which means, we are no longer leaders (for now) and get to pass the honor on to some other parents. They are hoping John will be a leader in Boy Scouts, but we are waiting awhile before committing. We'd like to see how things work before leading anything!
Here is Colten with his awards from Cub Scouts:
This week, we signed Ashlyn up for her classes for next year (Junior Year!!!) scary!
We have been enjoying the beautiful Spring weather and all the flowers, but we need rain again. Hope it keeps coming! Our garden is slowly growing and the chickens are getting big. Soon we'll need to get a bigger area for them to roam.
We have been discussing Ashlyn's 16th birthday - coming up in a couple of months. Instead of a party, she wants to go to the beach with a few friends. So now I'm on the search for a condo or something for us to all stay in. Didn't realize everything booked up so early, wish me luck!
Here are pics from the weekend:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115602357358508646145/Easter2012
In other news:
Colten had his last Cub Scout meeting and first Boy Scout meeting! Which means, we are no longer leaders (for now) and get to pass the honor on to some other parents. They are hoping John will be a leader in Boy Scouts, but we are waiting awhile before committing. We'd like to see how things work before leading anything!
Here is Colten with his awards from Cub Scouts:
This week, we signed Ashlyn up for her classes for next year (Junior Year!!!) scary!
We have been enjoying the beautiful Spring weather and all the flowers, but we need rain again. Hope it keeps coming! Our garden is slowly growing and the chickens are getting big. Soon we'll need to get a bigger area for them to roam.
We have been discussing Ashlyn's 16th birthday - coming up in a couple of months. Instead of a party, she wants to go to the beach with a few friends. So now I'm on the search for a condo or something for us to all stay in. Didn't realize everything booked up so early, wish me luck!
Friday, March 16, 2012
Spring Break
Our spring break has been pretty good so far. We had one day of gallivanting about when we went to pick up my car from a recall service in San Antonio, then went to BJ's Brewhouse for lunch, did a little shopping and then went to the Natural Bridge Caverns. We showed up there at the exact wrong time though, as everyone else came then too. We waited in a long line, but it moved pretty fast. I was glad we didn't go the safari part as the cars were lined up there even when we left (the cavern line had dwindled significantly at this point). After the caverns we drove on some backroads back to Fredericksburg and ended up eating at Alamo Springs Cafe for the first time (voted best burgers in TX). The burgers were yummy and huge and none of us could finish them! Then on the way back, we were lucky enough to stop at Tractor Supply the day the got chicks to sell. Colten has been wanting chickens for a long time and he and John have been working on getting a place set up to keep them. Since they were there and we would still have time to get their habitat in order, we went ahead and bought some. So now we have 8 red female chicks and 2 random black chicks, crazy! The kids love them though and have been having fun taking care of them. We will have lots of fresh eggs come August-ish if we manage to keep these all alive... put your orders in now :)
Other than that, Colten and John camped out in the yard one night and we've been working in the yard and garden. We are a little more optimistic about having a garden this year since it's been raining. Hopefully it keeps up!
Here are pics from all of our Spring Break shenanigans:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115602357358508646145/SpringBreak2012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCN6_tvP5k4_YRw&feat=directlink
We still have some fun coming up with our Cub Scout Fishing Derby and Cookout on Sunday. Hopefully the weather holds out, but it looks like it'll be a nice day so far.
Other than that, Colten and John camped out in the yard one night and we've been working in the yard and garden. We are a little more optimistic about having a garden this year since it's been raining. Hopefully it keeps up!
Here are pics from all of our Spring Break shenanigans:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115602357358508646145/SpringBreak2012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCN6_tvP5k4_YRw&feat=directlink
We still have some fun coming up with our Cub Scout Fishing Derby and Cookout on Sunday. Hopefully the weather holds out, but it looks like it'll be a nice day so far.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Colten's (very belated) Birthday Celebrations
Colten had friends over for a sleep over for one weekend and then we finally had his family birthday party this last weekend. In fact this last weekend was pretty packed. We had the pinewood derby Friday night (his last one - he made it to the finals, but didn't place in the top 3), then had his last basketball game for this year (his team was undefeated!), then had his birthday party that night. Crazy! I think he enjoyed them all. I made a crockpot chocolate lava cake which I think turned out pretty good.
Here he is with his friends (with cupcakes I bought):
Lots of gadget playing went on since the weather wasn't the best for kicking them outside (but it was raining so I'm not complaining!):
Here he is setting up his truck for the pinewood derby:
And here he is blowing out his candles in his crockpot cake :) It was yummy!
And today we finally got the new water well hooked up so we now have decent water pressure in the house - enough to do laundry and take a shower at the same time, I'm so excited! :)
Here he is with his friends (with cupcakes I bought):
Lots of gadget playing went on since the weather wasn't the best for kicking them outside (but it was raining so I'm not complaining!):
Here he is setting up his truck for the pinewood derby:
And here he is blowing out his candles in his crockpot cake :) It was yummy!
And today we finally got the new water well hooked up so we now have decent water pressure in the house - enough to do laundry and take a shower at the same time, I'm so excited! :)
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Basketball and Postponed Birthdays
Colten's 11th birthday has come and passed and we still haven't officially celebrated. We weren't able to do anything the weekend before his birthday and then it was the stockshow, so we put it off until the last weekend of January. Unfortunately, he got what we thought was a stomach virus that Friday and so we postponed it. When he still wasn't better by Monday, we took him to the doctor and he ended up having strep throat, so strange! He never had a fever or a sore throat, so we're still trying to figure that out. Fortunately, no one else has got it from him so far, hopefully it stays that way! I think we'll end up having his birthday at the end of February, better late than never!
He has started basketball and has had 4 games so far. He missed one the weekend he was sick, but they won all of the games they've played. The last one was a nail-biter at then end. They were behind most of the game (it was the 2nd in a row that they were playing and you could tell they were tired), but in the last 5 seconds, his team scored to bring them ahead 27-26, crazy! Colten is enjoying it, but doesn't get into the middle of the action too much. We asked him why he doesn't go for the ball more, and he said he was helping other people get the ball... that's my Colten!! He does pretty good shooting in practice, so hopefully he gets a little more aggressive before the end of the season and tries to make some points. We'll see, I guess!
Here's a pic of him (number 12) guarding at the first game:
Ashlyn had an art competition last weekend that she went to in Brady called VASE. She did a colored-pencil sketch that I'll post a pic of here when she brings it back home, I thought it was very cool and had to do an interview about it. She made it to area in the competition, but not state, only one student from Mason got that far. I think she enjoyed it though and will try again next year.
In non-kid related news, I'm happy to report that I got a good review from my new manager for last year. I was worried about it since I had had Rafael for my manager for so long. It has been an interesting time getting used to the new manager, but I guess it's going pretty good so far. He even went as far to say I don't need to come into Austin so often since he knows I get my work done and he'd rather I work more than spend that much time on the road. So now I will only drive to Austin every other week, yay! Also, I've been able to work at home since we are able to get Hill Country internet at the house amazingly enough (we can see the water tower in Mason from the roof, yay!). I have only been driving to Fredericksburg once a week the last month (so I can get groceries) and now that I only have to go to Austin every other week, I sure will be able to save mileage on my new car and our gas bill should shrink considerably also! It's so nice to not spend so much time on the road. I have a great view too!
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He has started basketball and has had 4 games so far. He missed one the weekend he was sick, but they won all of the games they've played. The last one was a nail-biter at then end. They were behind most of the game (it was the 2nd in a row that they were playing and you could tell they were tired), but in the last 5 seconds, his team scored to bring them ahead 27-26, crazy! Colten is enjoying it, but doesn't get into the middle of the action too much. We asked him why he doesn't go for the ball more, and he said he was helping other people get the ball... that's my Colten!! He does pretty good shooting in practice, so hopefully he gets a little more aggressive before the end of the season and tries to make some points. We'll see, I guess!
Here's a pic of him (number 12) guarding at the first game:
Ashlyn had an art competition last weekend that she went to in Brady called VASE. She did a colored-pencil sketch that I'll post a pic of here when she brings it back home, I thought it was very cool and had to do an interview about it. She made it to area in the competition, but not state, only one student from Mason got that far. I think she enjoyed it though and will try again next year.
In non-kid related news, I'm happy to report that I got a good review from my new manager for last year. I was worried about it since I had had Rafael for my manager for so long. It has been an interesting time getting used to the new manager, but I guess it's going pretty good so far. He even went as far to say I don't need to come into Austin so often since he knows I get my work done and he'd rather I work more than spend that much time on the road. So now I will only drive to Austin every other week, yay! Also, I've been able to work at home since we are able to get Hill Country internet at the house amazingly enough (we can see the water tower in Mason from the roof, yay!). I have only been driving to Fredericksburg once a week the last month (so I can get groceries) and now that I only have to go to Austin every other week, I sure will be able to save mileage on my new car and our gas bill should shrink considerably also! It's so nice to not spend so much time on the road. I have a great view too!
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Stockshow & Baptism & Stuff
We had a busy weekend with the Kerriville Stockshow, the pigs didn't do too great, but we're done with stockshowing for the year now. Colten did get in the top 13 of his class, but didn't place. Ashlyn's pig got sifted, but it was stressed with the move to Kerrville and wasn't eating and so didn't look very good at the show.
Here are some pictures:
Then Sunday, we were blessed to become the Godparents of our friends, Emily and Scott's new baby, Emery Jacob Wolf. It was a nice ceremony and we had a great visit after. Even my parents came to watch and they had a good time visiting too.
Here are some pictures of that:
Also, as most of you know, John got injured when a bull kicked a gate, which in turn hit his face. He had to get 8 stitches and had 3 cracks in his cheek bone and also cracked the bone between the cheekbone and nose. He is doing much better now. After the stitches came out, it has been healing fast and looks pretty good already. He still has a hard time chewing on that side of his face, but it will still be awhile before that is completely healed. So thankful it wasn't worse.
And then also Ashlyn had another seizure :( We were done with the stockshow Friday, but she was going to stay and help her friend, Jayde, show her goats on Saturday. Unfortunately, she missed a dose of her medication on Friday morning and also didn't sleep good Thurs or Friday. And, she was also nervous about showing the goats. I think all of this contributed to it. She was with Connie in the drive through at McDonald's Saturday morning when it happened. It only lasted about 30 seconds, but it happened. John went and picked her up and brought her home and she rested the rest of the day. Sunday morning we let her sleep in and she was feeling much better. After this, we decided we'd let her quit athletics. She'd been wanting to, but I didn't think she should. However, she has been feeling so much better and less tired this week since she has more time to do homework and doesn't have to be at after school practice every day. I think this will be good for her. She's taking another ag class now, and will be doing more for FFA, but at least that doesn't require practice every day.
So now, I must resign myself to use a word I hoped I wouldn't need to. I had hoped and prayed that her seizure was just a fluke and she wouldn't have another one. Now that she's had two (that we know of anyway), it is what it is:
What is Epilepsy? (from http://my.epilepsy.com/101/ep101_EPILEPSY)
Epilepsy is a neurological condition, which affects the nervous system. Epilepsy is also known as a seizure disorder.
It is usually diagnosed after a person has had at least two seizures
that were not caused by some known medical condition like alcohol
withdrawal or extremely low blood sugar. Sometimes, according to the
International League Against Epilepsy, epilepsy can be diagnosed after
one seizure, if a person has a condition that places them at high risk
for having another.
The seizures in epilepsy may be related to a brain injury or a family
tendency, but most of the time the cause is unknown. The word "epilepsy"
does not indicate anything about the cause of the person's seizures,
what type they are, or how severe they are.
I think this is a good definition, but for me the word has had a stigma. I will have to get over that. It was a strange and mysterious disease that I knew very little about. Now I know it's not a disease, but a condition, kind of like a tendency for migraines, and it describes many, many types of seizures. Thankfully Ashlyn has a tame version that only causes her to stiffen up and lose consciousness for a few seconds or minutes. There are much worse.
The worst part for Ashlyn is the driving. State law says you have to be on medication and seizure free for 6 months in order to drive. Letting her drive terrifies me just a little bit now. I know how teenagers push themselves, she will have to be extra super responsible and aware of how she feels at all times (not stressed or overtired) in order to drive safely. Ugh, this is going to be hard (as if it wasn't before all this happened!). The other thing is swimming. We will no longer be swimming in deep water where we can't see the bottom. If she has a seizure in the water, she will sink like a rock to the bottom. So scary!
I think she will be ok, as long as we keep her less busy and make sure she is always getting her meds and enough sleep. We will definitely be more diligent about this now.
I think she will be ok, as long as we keep her less busy and make sure she is always getting her meds and enough sleep. We will definitely be more diligent about this now.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
2012!
So I've been kinda lazy with the blog, so here's a quick update:
The kids had a great year at the stockshow this year, we're very proud of them, and I'm proud of John for helping them raise such great pigs. Hopefully we can do good at Kerrville in a couple of weeks. Here are some pics:
https://picasaweb.google.com/dlynnb/2012MasonCountyStockshow?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJCkmaujh6CXOA&feat=directlink
We had a great Christmas and New Years with lots of family visiting and more than enough eating.
Here are a few pics I posted on facebook earlier:
We also had excitement with the Mason Punchers and were able to watch them win the state 1a highschool football championship in Dallas Cowboy's Stadium - that was an awesome experience!!
Ashlyn is still playing basketball games occasionally and is doing a great job. Colten just started basketball and will have his first game in a couple of weeks.
That's all I can think of for now. Hopefully I will do better at updating this. It's nice to go back and look at these later to remember what all was going on - I'm having a harder time remembering things these days :)
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