It's been awhile/Faibanks pictures 4

I love mountain shots. This is right outside Denali on the way home.

This is Mason's shot of the passenger train we passed going through Denali.

Our only family photo we have. Mason was not wanting to have his picture taken.

Close-up of Michael.

Mason helping his aunt Jenny water her flowers.

It's been awhile/fairbanks pictures 3

This is my sister-in-laws house. I like to call it the mansion on the hill since she lives on a hill.

This is a view of Fairbanks from my sister-in-laws front yard.

Michael's enjoying himself on the air mattress.

Mason and my sister-in-laws dog Abby resting on Mason's bed.

Mason enjoying his corn on the cob and hot dog he ask to have for dinner.

It's been awhile part 2

Here are some more pictures from our 10th anniversary trip to Fairbanks to visit Mike's sister.

Well I didn't realize how late it was getting so I will have to continue in another post tomorrow. I have a lot more pictures to upload.

It's been awhile

Wow it's been too long since I've posted anything. I can't believe that summer is over already and it is now fall here in Alaska. The leaves are turning and falling and the snow is almost halfway down the mountains now. It's been getting into the 30's in the mornings and I've been having to scrap my car windows in the morning before going to work. Not sure if I'm ready for winter yet.

This summer was pretty busy but we did manage to have some fun. Mason went to summer school this year and I think it really did him some good. His reading is so much better now. If he would of have 2 maybe 3 more weeks I think he would have been to were he needed to be when he finished the 1st grade. He started the 2nd grade and this year he had a really good teacher that seems to really be willing to work with him. Since he has ADHD the medication he's on only tapers his behavior it doesn't control it completely he still needs structure. This year his teacher is really trying to help him like his kindergarten teacher did. I think he's going to have a really good year.

Michael has been doing really well also. He didn't have to attend summer school again this year and he's really seeming to retain a lot of information. Therapy has been going well for him too and he's adjusting so well to change. He's had so many changes this year. First change his occupational and speech therapist moved to a new building. It didn't take him as long as it usually does for him to adjust to a new place. Second he got moved to a different classroom and has a different teacher this year in school. Originally he was suppose to stay in the class he's been in for the last 3 years but his teacher got an unexpected student and she had to move someone up. There was only Michael and another kid in his class that moved up to the 4th grade. Well it turns out that the other kid and another kid in the other class don't get along and they yell at each other all day long so they decided to move Michael instead to avoid the yelling. He was a little confused the first week of school but he seems to be adjusting well to his new classroom. I'm not sure if I really like his new teacher this year. The verdict is still out at the moment. There are some things that she does differently than his teacher that he had the last 3 years and I'm not sure if I really like the differences. Maybe I'm the one that is having a hard time adjusting. I really liked his old teacher. She was one of the best teachers Michael has ever had.

In July Michael celebrate one year post leg surgery. He seems to be doing really well and his legs are really getting strong. Mike and I also celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in July. I can't believe that we have been married for 10 years. We've had our shares of ups and downs but I can't imagine my life with anyone else. Mike is the one and only for me. We really didn't do anything too special for our anniversary. We hadn't see Mike's sister is quite a while so we took the kids to Fairbanks the weekend of our anniversary to visit her. We had a wonderful trip there and back.

These are some pictures that I took on our way to Fairbanks. The fireweed was so beautiful and Mason was so cute standing in front of it.

We went to Chena Hot Springs while we were in Fairbanks and above is some of the pictures I took there. Michael didn't get in the water with us. He really wasn't into the whole thing so he sat in his wheelchair and played with his music. He seemed to really be enjoying himself as you can tell in the above picture. Mason had a blast. He was really fasinated with the fish pond they have there. It use to be the theraputic pool but the closed it down and turned it into a pond.

Well this entry is turning out to be pretty long so I will post more pictures of our trip and the rest of our summer in another post.

Mother's Day

This year was a wonderful Mother's Day. The kids out did theirselves and my heart was overflowing with love and joy.

In school Michael planted nastersiums in a pot that he got to decorate and made me a card and in his speech class at school they planted a gladiola bulb in a pot that he got to decorate and also made me a card. I love the homemade cards my kids make me. Right from the heart.

On Mother's day we went to church and I got 2 cartnations. Every Mother's Day they give carnations out to all the mom's. In Mason's Sunday school class he got to decorate a pot and they planted a petunia in them for their mom's. After church we went back to my parents house and the kids gave me their cards and present that grandma helped them make. Mike and I got this etched crystal picture frame when we got married. My mom and grandma before she went back home got the picture frame and in the middle they put a wedding picture of ours and on either side they put a favorite picture of mine of each of the kids. Mason was so excited to give it to me. After the gifts were given, I got my mom a beautiful azalia and a card, I played with Michael on the livingroom floor for a while then I went outside with Mason and watched him ride his bicycle. He's so proud of himself that he can ride it now without his training wheels. He can really make that bicycle move. LOL

I am so grateful that god has blessed me with a wonderful family especially my kids.

Summer days....Mama's little helper

Yesterday was a great day. The sun was out and it was really nice outside. Tuesday when I got off work Mike needed to go to Home Depot and he was in a very generous mood and got me some more flowers. I had two hanging baskets that I still needed to complete. Since we are already into June he let me pick out the remaining flowers I needed for the baskets plus I got another rose bush. I've been trying for a few years now to make a rose bush last and come back the next summer. About two years ago I thought I was finally going to succeed but Mason had other ideas. I babied my rose bush all summer long. It was full and beautiful. When fall came I mulched it really well and put it up on the deck so it would be out of the snow. It was looking like it was going to make it and I would have my beautiful rose bush come summer. One day I went outside to check on it and I found out that Mason while he was outside playing decided to trim it back for me and broke all the limbs off. Needless to say the rose bush didn't come back for the following summer. Last year I decided not to even bother, mainly because I couldn't find the type at the garden centers that would survive in a container up here. This year while we were at Home Depot I found the kind I had the year before and Mike told me to go ahead and get one. I haven't gotten a chance yet to plant it in the container I have for it. I was going to do that today but Mother Nature had other ideas. It's been raining on and off all day today. I did get my baskets done yesterday and I let Mason pick out a couple of flowers and I got those planted also. I bought another hosta for under out tree and I still need to get it planted too.

After I got done with all my gardening, I also weeded all of my beds too, it was time to get dinner started. I promised Mason I would make corn on the cob because he absolutely loves it so when I got started he came into the kichen and helped me. He helped me husk the corn. We also had mashed potatoes and I let him help me cut the potatoes up. Of course he almost gave me a heart attack because he came close to cutting his fingers a few times so I had to continue to show him how to do it. After that he finally lost interested and I finished dinner by myself but it was fun having him in the kitchen with me.

I'm missing my boys at the moment. Since Mike and I both have to work on Fridays and Mondays and school is out for the summer my parents are watching the kids for us until school starts so we have to drive the kids out to the valley Thursday evenings and they bring them back home on Monday. I have tomorrow off. It's going to be weird being home all day long with no kids and no husband around. I will have the house all to myself. A very rare occasion but one I will enjoy nevertheless.

Happy Memorial Day!

It's been awhile since I've written. Hard to believe that May is almost over and today is Memorial Day. Nothing special going on here. We were going to go to Fairbanks and visit Mike's sister with Mason since Michael had therapy on Friday but I forgot that my sister-in-law and brother-in-law go to Dawson City every year with a group of friends Memorial Day weekend so those plans got cancelled and we ended up having to stay home. It's not bad though. Mike and I went out Friday something we usually don't get to do because of the kids. Saturday we hung around the house. We did some shopping then barbequed.

Mason's birthday is Wednesday so we decided to celebrate it on Sunday since Mike was off because he took the weekend off. We went to church with my parents then we through Mason a small birthday party at my parents house. My dad grilled some hamburgers and hotdogs and we had cake for Mason's birthday. Mason was happy with all the presents that he got. Mike and I decided to do something educational for Mason this year instead of typical today. I found these kits at Fred Meyer's from the Smithsonian Institute. One is growing crystals the other is making gummy bugs that he can eat. Mason was very excited about them. Today I'm going to clean house a little and clear off the kitchen table then Mason and I are going to sit down and do the crystal kit. They can't be moved once the process is started so we have to have a nice clear area to start off with. I think it's going to be a lot of fun for both of us. Mike may even join in.

We finally got our new vehicle. We got a Toyota Sienna and I absoutely love it. Two weeks ago we took the van in and got the auto starter, seat warmers, and DVR player installed along with the undercoating done. We still need to get the wheelchair lift installed and the crystal fusion but on the windshield. That's going to have to wait though because the second week we had the van a rock hit the windshield and now we have a crack in it that needs to be fixed before they can do the crystal fusion. Not sure if we are going to be able to do it at all because since the crack happened before the crystal fusion was put on we have to pay out of pocket to have the windshield fixed and right now our finances aren't the best. Long story that I really don't care to go into. Personal reasons. I'm hoping we can get it done though because I think it will really come in handy this winter.

The kids last day of school was Thursday so they are both enjoying summer vacation. Mason was suppose to go to summer school but we got a letter like the second the the last week of school telling us that they had too many kids sign up for summer school so Mason got put on a waiting list. Now we have to wait for someone to drop out and then it depends on how far down the list he is. More than likely he won't be going at all. My parents are going to be watching the kids every weekend until school starts since Mike and I both have to work on Mondays and Fridays so my mom is going to work with Mason on his math and reading 15 minutes a day and so am I. Hopefully that will help him out. It's not really summer school but it's close enough.

Michael is doing great and getting stronger and stronger every day since the plates were taken out of his legs. We found out that he's not going to be in the same class next year like we thought. We had his transition meeting Friday and met his new teacher. The jury is still out on what we think of her. She's defintely not like Michael's old teacher. I guess only time will tell how well she is going to work out. It's going to be a big change for him next year. New teacher, new classmates. He's also going to have a new physical therapist and occupational therapist at school. It's going to be a rough beginning for him. He doesn't handle change very well so it's going to take him a few weeks to get use to all of the new people. At least he's going to be going to the same school and there will be familar people around so hopefully that will help some. I'm going to take the first day of school off so I can take all of his incontience supplies to school and see how his handling the change.

I need to get Mason in to see his pediatrian because we need to get his medication changed before the new school year begins. I'm hoping the second grade will be better than first grade was.

We just need to keep praying for strength and courage that we can make it through the rest of this year.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Once again I've fallen behind on keeping up with my blog. Things have just been very busy around here. One of the nurses at work went away for a little over a month to visit her kids in the phillipines so everyone else had to pick up the slack which meant I had to work every Sunday except for one in March. She was suppose to be back the second week of April but Mt. Redoubt blowing it's top put a halt on that and she didn't get back until last week so things are pretty much back to normal at work until June when we loose another one to maternity leave until August.

My car died on me again so we have finally decided to get our new vehicle. We are going down to the dealership on the 23rd and sealing the deal. Turns out my new transmission they installed back in January died on me. I found out the hard way when I was on my way out to my parents house last Saturday. I got to the first stop light in Wasilla and my car wouldn't go anywhere. I finally got it into 1st gear and from that point on I had to treat my automatic transmission like a standard. Mike took it into the shop on Tuesday and they had to seen my transmission back to Subaru and they are waiting for them to return it now. Fortunately we have a 1 year warranty on the transmission so we don't have to pay anything when we get it back.

Michael went back into surgery on April 2nd. This time he had the plates and screws removed from his legs so he's back in the healing process now. It's not so bad this time around. He's already back to walking and crawling. Hopefully there won't be anymore surgeries for a very long time. Michael had his IEP last week and he's doing very well in school. He had met quite a few of his goals and they are starting to work on a new set now. It also sounds like he may be in the same class again next year which makes me very happy. I love Michael's teacher and she is so good with Michael as are her aids. Since he will be in the 4th grade next year he was suppose to move to a different class but that class seems to still be pretty full so they are probably just going to leave him where he is and he will just do 4th grade work instead.

Mason has his IEP the first week of May. He's having some troubles in reading and math so he will be attending summer school this year.

East was nice this year. Mason dyed eggs with my mom on Saturday and on East we attended church as always and when we got home we hid the eggs so Mason and Michael could go out and find them. The East bunny also brought both kids a huge Easter basket with lots of goodies in them that both kids enjoyed. As so as I get my pictures uploaded I will be posting them.

Birthdays, Valentine's, and doctor visits

February 12th was my 39th birthday. Hard to believe that in one more year I will be 40. Time sure does fly when your having fun. We ended up celebrating my birthday on the 13th. Mike and my 2 best friends Rhonda and Bradley took me to dinner at Benihana's (I guess that's how you spell it) then we went out dancing afterwards and met up with a few more friends out to celebrate my birthday with me. We had lots of fun. Mike was even very romantic too. The only jewelery he has ever gotten me since we have been together has been my engagement ring and my wedding band. So I was very surprised when I got home from work the day of my birthday and saw two jeweler's boxes sitting on the kitchen counter. For my birthday he got a a diamond and amethyst ring and a diamond and amethyst necklace. I took pictures of them but they didn't turn out very well.

Usually he combines my birthday and Valentine's day together since they are so so close together so imagine my surprise when I am woken up on Valentine's Day by a phone call from the florist telling me they our outside and they have a delivery for me. I have to say I was pretty surprised because I really wasn't expecting anything since he had gotten me the ring and necklace. The flowers were gorgeous though. Some of my favorite.

Michael had his follow-up with Dr. Arnold and his eye's are still doing pretty good. No significant change so he didn't need to have new glasses this time around. He did give us a new prescription though so we would have it if we needed to get new glasses. He tends to be pretty rough on his glasses. He also had his follow-up with Dr. Geitz and it looks like Michael's legs have heeled up very nicely and he can have the plates and screws removed at any time. We have scheduled that sugery for April 2nd. He also had his pre-IEP evaluation and it looks like he's meeting everyone of his goals that his therapists and teacher have set for him.

Mason is doing pretty good also. I got a letter from his school and I have to call some gal there and discuss his IEP with her. He's met all of his goal so his IEP has to be changed.

As for me I saw the surgeron and I ended up having my gallbladder removed last Thursday. I've been off work for the past 5 days but I will be returning tomorrow. I had orignially taken only 4 days off but yesterday my body was telling me that I needed one more day so I called my manager and he went ahead and gave me today off. I should be ready to go tomorrow. It only hurts now when I laugh, cough, or sneeze but it's getting better. They did the surgery laparoscopicly so I only have 4 small incision marks. Not bad. Mason was such a sweet heart when he came home from grandma and grandpa's yesterday. He knew I wasn't feeling well and that I had just had surgery so he picked out a bouquet of roses for me and a get well card. I almost cried when I saw them. Looks like I'm going to have a romantic son on my hands. LOL

Well that's my update. I'm definitely going to try and not go for so long before posting again.

When it rains it pours

Well this hasn't turned out to be a very good new year for the Street family. Last month my car started making a funny noise almost like I had something stuck in one of the break pads. It got to be so bad that we finally took the car in to have it looked at. Turns out the transmission was going out. Matter of fact when the mechanic opened up the transmission things fell out. We planned on getting a new vehicle this spring. That of course is still the plan but we have to order the car that we want so we ended up having to go ahead and pay to have a new transmission put in my car since it's the only car we have that Michael's wheelchair will fit in. With cost and labor it cost us #3400.00. Can you say ouch!!!! But now the car runs fine but it looks like that the shock on the back passengers side of the car isn't working right but we can live with that.

Now it looks like I may be having to have surgery at the end of this month. Saturday morning around 2am I woke up in the worst pain I have every been in my entire life. The pain from my c-sections didn't even come close to the pain I was in Saturday morning. I hurt so bad that I couldn't even breath so I had Mike take me to the emergency room. Funny thing is if I wouldn't of been having a hard time breathing I wouldn't of even have gone to the ER. I thought that I had a rib out in my back and it was pinching a nerve or something because that is where the pain seemed to be radiating from. My whole chest hurt right down to my stomach. I was nauseous and had the cold sweats. I was in the ER from around 2:30am to 8am. After some blood work and an ultrasound turns out that it wasn't my back after all. I had a gallbladder attack. They found that I have a stone in the neck of my gallbladder. Now I have to go see a surgeron on Tuesday and discuss with him whether my gallbladder should be removed or not.

The ER was miserable. When I got there they got my back to a room almost immediately because I was in so much pain I could hardly answer their questions. I started to feel a little better once I was laying down. Well sort of laying down. It hurt more to lay completely down. I was really nausous though so the doctor had them give me some anti-nausea medication. I should have took the shot to begin with instead of doing the pill. The pill did nothing for me. I thought it was working until they came in to give me the antibiotic the doctor wanted me to take to fight off any possible infection I could get because of the stone. Well about 20 minutes after they gave me the pill I ended up throwing it up. I was also still in pain so they ended up giving me a shot of morphine in the arm and a shot of anti-nausea medication in the hip. I felt so much better after that.

Turns out that the antibiotic I'm on makes me nausous so I have to continue to take a pill form of the anti-nausea medication until I'm done with my antibiotics which is 5 days. The doctor gave me another pill about 15 minutes before I left the hospital and by the time I got home I was ready to throw it back up. I was suppose to work Saturday but I couldn't go in because I was dopped up on morphine and I was very nauseous. I was on the phone with the manager that was working yesterday letting her know that I wasn't coming in and I was fighting off the urge to throw on the phone. I was ok when I was laying down so as soon as I got off the phone I ran to the bedroom to lay down. I knew I couldn't throw up because then the pill would come up. I tried to get some sleep but the nausea wouldn't go away so around 10:30 I ended up giving in and threw up. I knew by that time that the antibiotic and already disolved and made it's way through my system so I would be ok. I ended up sleeping the rest of the day and into the evening. I woke up at 8pm. I'm on a very low fat diet because large amounts of fat will make my gallbladder act up again. I managed to rummage around the kitchen and found some things to eat that were low fat. I was so hungry since I hadn't eaten since 11:45pm the night before and then threw that all up at the hospital.

I'm doing better now. They sent me home with pain and anti-nausea medication and my antibiotics. I go in Tuesday to talk to the surgeron. As long as I stay away from a lot of fat I should be fine. Just please keep me in your prayers.

Happy New Year

Well a new year is upon us. New Year's Eve was quiet around our house. We were going to go out and celebrate but decided to just stay home. My best friend Rhonda and her daughter Tia came over and we played on the Wii and just hung out until midnight. I let the kids stay up because there is usually some pretty nice firework displays in our neighborhood but I guess all our neighbors decided it was just too cold to be outside because there was none to be seen. I ended up heading to bed with a full tummy ,from all the food we ate, and a happy heart around 12:15am. New Year's Day was pretty quiet too. Since both Mike and I had to work the Friday my parents were going to watch the kids all weekend for us. I also had to work this weekend as did Mike. We drove out to my parents house and dropped the kids off then came home and just spent some quality time together. It was very nice.

Now that the new year is here I have decided to cut down my resolution list that I have every year and just concentrate on two major resolutions that mean a lot to me. The first is to quit smoking. I have smoked on and off for several years. I know it's a very bad and nasty habit but it is a very hard habit to break and I'm bound and determined that it stops here now today. I am on day 1 of my not smoking and I'm doing good so far. I've noticed I've been a little grouchy but that is to be expected. I've just been trying to keep myself busy. My best friend is joining my in this quest so hopefully it won't be so hard.

Second I plan on loosing weight. I was suppose to get the Wii Fit for Christmas but they were sold out of it. I have Tuesday off so I think Mike and I are going to stop by the Dimond Center and see if they have any in stock now. If they do we are going to get it. I think with that and the elliptical Mike got me last year for Christmas I should be in shape in no time. I'm not getting any younger and with two kids to chase around the house I want to be in the best shape I can get myself into so I can enjoy my time with my children and hopefully on of these days my grandchildren.

It's been really hard to get motivate to do much of anything around here lately because it's been so cold. It's been in the double digits (minus double digits) for the last few days and just plane below 0 the rest of the time. I really hope it warms up soon.