It really has been awhile

Wow, I don't even know where to begin. It's been such a long time since I posted anything here. So much has happened in the last year. Matter of fact I'm not even going to get into any of it. It's a new year and a new me I guess you can say.

I've been having some anger issues so I've been seeing a therapist since the beginning of December and she has really helped me made better choices. As the old saying goes choose your fights wisely and that is what I have been doing.

Things have been better than ever between Mike and I since I started seeing the therapist. I'm happy for my decision.

I have also decided to quit smoking. I am working on day 6 and doing very well. The money we are going to be saving is going to be great. We are planning a to take Mason to Hawaii in July and that is going to be extra mad money for us to use. I've also started working out on the wii fit again. My goal is to do a little everyday. Yoga is my thing. I've done 2 days in a row now. If I can get Mason off the wii I can make it 3 days. LOL...

The kids are doing ok. Mason has been having some issues in school and we are wondering if he is going to pass the 3rd grade. He really wants a Nitendo DS so we are making him earn it instead of just out and getting if for him. If he gets 100% on his spelling tests he gets a $20.00 credit. We aren't giving him actual cash. So far he has 60 credits which is $60.00. This is giving him some incentive. I hope it continues.

We went to Fairbanks and Chena Hot Springs for New Year's Eve. We spent 2 relaxing days at Chena then spent New Year's Eve with Mike's sister and came home on New Year's Day. If was a great trip.

Other than that not much more to report on. Just wanted to drop a line since it's been quite awhile. Really am going to try and post a little more this year.

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.

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.

First Entry

Welcome to the first entry of our blog. I've been blogging for about 9 years and have had about 4 or 5 different blogs but haven't been able to find a place where I'm really happy. I'm hoping blogger will be different.



My name is Cynthia but most of my friends call me Cyndi. My family and I live in Alaska but Alaska is not where I'm originally from. My dad was in the Air Force for 20 years and I was born in Delaware but since my entire family is from West Virginia and I've spent probably most of my life there West Virginia is where I call home.



I have quit a few hobbies that I enjoy when I get the chance to do them in between work and kids. I love to garden. I think that is a great passion of mine. I'm more into flowers than vegetables but that is only because I don't have a huge area to do my gardening so I have decided to just stick to flowers. My flower garden wasn't a huge success this year because we had pretty bad summer. It rained just about every day. I think we may have had a total of 3 or 4 weeks of good weather out of about 3 months.



Besides gardening I also love to cook, scrapbook, knit, photography, and do lots of outdoor activities. I also am into collecting shot glasses from the 50 states and around the world. I also collect nic nacs that are cobolt blue and cats.



I put cats right up there with gardening. I have all kinds of cat collectibles including 2 real cats. I had 3 but I had to put one of my cats to sleep right before Christmas last year because he was really sickand the vet told us that his problems were irreversible. He's in heaven now with god and I know that every now and then he is looking down upon me and happy.



I'm also a certified medical assistant and I work for a local pediatric clinic. I absolutely love my job. I started out working ob/gyn but there was just something missing. Pediatrics was my first choice but I couldn't find any openings when I was job hunting right after I got my degree. I ended up quitting the job at the ob/gyn clinic and took some time off to be with my kids until they both were in school all day. That happened last year and in February of this year I found my dream job and I plan to be there for many many years.



Besides everything that I have mentioned I am also married to a wonderful man who I consider one of my best friends and my soulmate. Mike and I use to work together. We ended up falling in love and getting married. We've been married for 9 years now. We've had our ups and downs as most married couples have but I wouldn't change anything for the world. Mike is a network analyst for I have my own personal computer geek to help me out when I get into a jam. LOL...



We also have two beautiful little boys. Michael who is 8 and Mason who is 6.



Michael is a rather special little boy because we almost lost him but thanks to lots of prayers and people behind us he pulled through and is a happy healthy little boy.



Do to some complications that we still don't know exactly what Michael was born not breathing and because his brain was without oxygen for about 3 to 5 minutes he suffered significant brain damage and now has spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy. He's doing well though. He has physical, occupational, and speech therapy once a week privately and once a week during school. He also has an excellent eye and orthopedic doctor and a pretty good pediatrician too. Just this this summer he had what is called derotation osteotomies done on both of his legs and he was in full casts up to the middle of his thighs for 4 weeks then half casts for 2. When they came off finally he ended up having to go in for one more surgery because the hardware on his right leg was coming off so his doctor had to go back in and remove the old hardware and put new hardware on. He has to wear the cast on his right leg for 4 weeks. Next Wednesday he should be getting it off and if all goes well he won't have to have any more surgeries until it's time to remove all the hardware permenantly which should be around January or February I believe.



Mason is a happy healthy and all around 6 year old. He's had his moments though. Ever since he was about 3 I thought that there just wasn't something right. He was always so active and hyper. I kept asking his doctor if this was normal and she kept saying that it was until he hit kindergarden. At that time I mentioned to his teachers that I thought he may have ADHD. They did some testing and come to find out they agreed with me. At the end of the school year I got him in to see his doctor and took the school evaluation and had his teacher do the clinics evaluation and sure enough he has ADHD. We have him on medication now and it seems to be doing the trick. He is much more calm that he use to be and focused. We can really tell the difference when he doesn't take his medication. This past weekend he had only 2 pills left. He had one on Saturday and I saved the other for school on Monday. Tuesday he didn't have one and there was a big difference. I got his prescription refilled so Wednesday will be a better day for him.


Besides school Mason is also taking swimming lessons and is in the cub scouts. He's on a little break right now from swimming but will be resuming in November. There are 6 levels and he is in level 3 at the moment. He's been there for quite some time but I'm glad to know that they want to make sure he knows his stuff before they move him up. As for cub scouts he hasn't made it to a meeting yet. I was hoping to get him to his first meeting this Friday but that's not going to happen because I have to work on Saturday so Michael and him will be going to grandma and grandpa's house on Thursday because there is no school on Friday and they will have them until Sunday when I go out to the Valley for church and to pick them up. I think cub scouts will be a good adventure for Mason. It will give him more useful skills and get him around more kids his own age and for him to have fun because lets face it he doesn't get much interaction from his brother since Michael can't do the things that normal little boys can do. Plus he can't really carry on a conversation with you and pretty much just repeats whatever it is you say. Doesn't give Mason much to work with. It's hard for him to understand at times but as time goes on he will start to understand what is wrong with his brother and learn to work with it.