Morning of day 4

Quick update on our 24 day Challenge, we both can tell we have more energy thanks to SPARK :)  As an added bonus, we've lost a total of 5 lbs (3 for Tim and 2 for me)  Happy Saturday all ! 
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Patience

Having patience is not one of my best attributes.   I drive fast, walk fast and complete tasks at work as fast as I can.  I always feel the need to hurry and get where I'm going, no time to drive a little slower and look at the scenery.
I know without a doubt that my patience has been tested big over the last several years, but evidentially I have failed to learn the lesson so the testing continues......

...........waiting for almost 3 yrs to find Reed and work through the obstacles to bring him home
...........waiting through appointment after appointment and surgery after surgery
...........waiting for months to get speech therapy approved and scheduled through the school system
...........waiting for insurance to approve additional surgery, and now that pre cert has been denied,
...........waiting for the appeal process.

As I type this post I realize that my biggest lesson in these things is to do exactly what I have failed to do-  SLOW DOWN.  I should enjoy these days because even though we may spend them waiting for things to happen, they pass by was too fast and each one should be lived in the moment.

Stopping to smell the roses,

Special friends

Reed is enjoying kindergarten, he loves learning and can hardly wait to show us each afternoon every paper he colored, every letter written and every word read for the day.  It is such a good feeling to see the joy on his face when he accomplishes something new.
We have however had a few hard days, kids making fun of him and asking why his nose and mouth look "so funny".  He got in trouble one day for "not keeping his hands to himself" when a couple of boys were pointing and making fun of him on the playground.   He talks alot about missing his friends from preschool, especially one little boy that he loved to play with, "T".
One Saturday we ran into the preschool director and Reed cried when she gave him a big hug.  Since that day, he has been talking about his friend T and how wants to see him.  We didn't have a phone number or address for T so Reed wrote a letter letting him know that he misses him and that he would love to see him, stuck a stamp on it and dropped it at the church to be mailed .   Well, last night guess who called!!!  Reed was soooo excited that he answered the phone sobbing saying "I miss you buddy".  I spoke with T's mom after the boys talked and they are buying a house in the same school district and T will soon be coming to school with Reed and could even end up in the same class.
We're going to set up a play date after they get settled in from the move. Don't you just love it when you get a clear glimpse of God's work?!  Reed prayed for T when he got off the phone and still had a smile on his face when he fell asleep.......thank you Father for putting a smile on my baby's face.

8/22/12 first day of school, all smiles

Exciting news!

This year has been especially hard.  Reed had a major surgery and now he struggles with sleep apnea.....that means Dad and Mom are also going without sleep.  We are up most of the night checking on and repositioning him to help him breathe better.  The nightly routine is wearing on us and I've been thinking alot about our overall health and what we can do to feel better and make the most of each day.  I refuse to just let each day pass by sitting on the couch, so I bought a treadmill  and started walking.  The walking turned into running so now I'm thinking I should be feeling great!  NOT....even though I am off the couch and exercising, I still feel exhausted by the time I get off work @ 5:00 and want to just put on the comfy pants and go back to the couch.  Uh, no way.

I have been hearing exciting stories about AdvoCare products and the wonderful chance to trim down, have more energy and feel better overall. We are sooo stoked to become AdvoCare distributors and start our journey to getting in shape and having more energy so we can keep up with one energetic 5 year old boy!

If you'd like information about AdvoCare products or the business opportunity, leave a comment, visit the site or give us a call.  We'd love to have you join us in this exciting journey.  Tim and I have placed our first order and we'll share our results as we go :-)

(Click on the link below)
                                                                   AdvoCare

Denied

Well, the insurance company has denied approval for nasal surgery.  Reed is still struggling to breathe at night and we are very concerned.  The reason for denial is that their studies show sleep apnea is not improved through surgery.  I do feel it is more complicated than that since Reed's septum is pushed to one side and the turbinate is large.  Both of these factors make it impossible for him to get enough air during sleep......praying and believing God will help us work it out, I've cried all I can cry!!

Medical update

Reed has been having difficulty breathing since the p-flap surgery in May.
We've been back to the plastic surgeon and to an ENT.  Right now we have 2 separate issues that are causing nasal airway obstruction.  His ports are small and Dr K wants to go back in and open them up- the tricky part is opening enough to improve the airway without losing the purpose of the flap.  He also has a deviated septum and turbinate blocking one nostril.
We have a sleep study scheduled for tomorrow night to see how bad his sleep apnea is at this point, and to give us something to compare before and after the next surgery.

God is good and He has a great plan for Reed.  Oh what a story he will tell someday!!
One bump at a time, we will keep traveling down this road and learning as we go :)

Singing in the rain =)

A+

I definately give us a big A+ for this project!  We worked hard on building an outdoor bar for our patio and we are so proud of what we came up with.......

We picked out a beautiful slate tile to cover the back, it is so beautiful when the water hits it all the natural colors come out- green, red, gold, grey- looks amazing.

By accident, I discovered we could cut 2" strips of the slate and stagger it to look like brick work.  We had planned on buying a stone tile for the front and was able to save a bundle by cutting the slate and making our own pattern for the front (0.75 per sq ft instead of 3.98!!)  Here's the result of lots and lots of cuts with a wet saw (I made the cuts while Tim laid the tile)

Oh,  we also built another pergola to extend our patio space!  We started out with a small pergola covering 1/2 the patio and we made it twice the size.  Never have built anything like this before and Tim and I did it all on our own (with help from his nephew lifting the heavy boards!)

The part over the bar is the original pergola, we added to the existing structure and now our entire patio is covered 
Next project......?  We'll come up with something :))

Graduation

Reed is a preschool graduate!  So proud of him!!

Doing well =)

After 6 nights in the hospital, we were so glad to get home.  Reed has done well this week.  Sleeping is improving, he wakes up less often but the snoring is just something he will probably always do.
Wednesday was our follow-up appointment and Dr K told us to come back in 6 months. 
We are going to start back with speech therapy soon and can't wait to see the results!