Ode to Jesus- Evan style

Evan loves to sing, and like any proud parent.... I thought I would share his favorites with you. (Don't forget to pause the music on my playlist)

School Already.....

I can say that I am so totally thankful and blessed to be able to stay home and raise my kids. It is an experience that I wouldn't trade for anything. That being said, although the title states differently, I was ready for school. I knew I would miss them, but there is something to be said about a routine. Especially when you are as Type A as I am. So here we go with the First Day of School!! Tristan would be starting 3rd grade and Ty 1st grade. Dum Da Dum Dum Dum.....

My immediate thought on this was, "Ahh! I have the odd grades together this year". As some of you have been told, the odd grades seem to be more challenging. I swear half the time I help them with their schoolwork, and I feel like I am back in school. It is time consuming for sure. Both of the kids got great teachers, and we are looking forward to an amazing year. Although I may be pulling my hair out with all of the work and learning this year.

Evan also started Parent's Day Out this year at Grace. He went to PDO last year at our church, First Baptist Powell. They have an amazing program, but I knew I wanted to have all three kids at one place. So I made the switch. Evan has a great teacher, and has had so much fun so far. He has made two little friends already, Mason and "Booger". Yep, you read that right! He kept telling me that he played with Mason and "Booger" everyday. I would say, "You played with Parker". Evan would keep telling me, "NO, Booger!" Finally I decided to ask Mrs. Diane, his teacher, who this Booger kid was. She died laughing. Turns out the little boy's name is Booker! Whew, I was nervous that Evan was picking his nose, and he and his new friend Mason were proceeding to play with it. Thankfully, that is not the case. Here is Ev on his first day. Notice the backpack is bigger than he is.

Mrs. Diane sends home a newsletter each Thursday.(Evan's PDO is on Tuesdays and Thursdays) This past one says that one of the goals for the end of the year for her class is for all of the kids in there to be potty trained. I had to horse laugh on that one. Evan is more than ready, and actually has peed and pooped on the potty for me some, on his terms of course! He would much rather come to me and say, "Mommy, I poo in my diater.. please change me!" He is killing me. So I plan to keep tabs on the whole potty training thing. In fact, Ty was 3 1/2 years old. It was the longest time in my life I swear!! I hope E doesn't follow the same path. Training boys in my experience is no piece of cake. Maybe Mrs. Diane will have better luck.

I will say though that boys are so easy to please when it comes to planning things for their birthdays. Ty turned 7 years old on Sept. 4. Instead of a big friend party, we opted to take him to his first UT football game and then have family over on Sunday. He was so fine with this. I loved not having to plan a big party either. Here is a look back on our baby boy after his first laser treatment at 2 1/2 months old, and then at the UT game this past Saturday.

My how we have come a long way, by God's grace only, in such a short time. He has been through so much in his life, but God has given him amazing character. It makes me cry every time I think about how God has equipped my Ty to handle what he was born with. Our God is an amazing God who promises not to give us anymore than we can handle when we put our ultimate trust in HIM.!!! Is it hard to do? Yes, sometimes it is, but I can't imagine tackling these trials in our own strength, and I am so thankful that Jesus is there to catch me when I fall!!!

Here is a picture of Ty showing off his dance moves and his personality. It is never a dull moment with him for sure.

Last but not least is my final update on Ty's eyes. I am so sorry that I have been so bad at blogging and keeping up to date on this. I know that many people check the blog for the purpose of finding out how they can pray for our family. I will try to do better at that.

So can I get a drum roll please................................... As of Ty's last doc visit this past Thursday, Sept. 9, his pressure is at 16, and his vision is 20/30. He is only on two drops. One he takes three times a day and the other one he takes at night. He will see Dr. M here on Oct. 22, and then he will go back to NYC on December 16 to see Dr. R. He will have another visual field test and optic nerve pictures to determine if any changes have happened. Oh yes, and he will have another laser treatment with Dr. G. The laser treatments have kind of fallen to the back burner, but I want to make sure we at least maintain the progress that he has made. So I have to fit in at least one per year. It makes it hard now with school. It will be an appointment close to Christmas time, and NYC is so neat at that time of year!! I promise to keep you all updated from now on. Ha!!! So until next time...........

Long time no talk....

Wow! I am sure behind on my posting. I think somehow life has been getting in the way. Do you ever have so much to say, but when you think about journaling it out, or typing it out in this case, you just feel overwhelmed? Well that is my excuse!

So much has happened since my last post. First of all, we had an awesome summer. When I left off the last post Ty had been cleared by his doctor to be able to swim. He was so excited, and frankly so were we. Imagine telling a 6 year old he can't get in the water. Not my idea of fun for sure! So at the last minute we decided to go on our annual trip to Destin, Fl with my BIL, SIL, and niece. We have gone for the past two years all as a family and have had a blast. Andy unfortunately had to stay home this time to help his mom out. He insisted that we go on and we did. I made the drive to Destin by myself. I thought I did pretty good though. That was my longest trip driving by myself. Tristan went on down with Jimmy, Susan, and Rachael so it was just me and the boys. All I can say is that Honeynut Cheerios in a ziploc baggy, milk in a sippy cup and thermos and plenty of DVDs helped out a ton. We had a great time as you can see below.

The one stipulation to Ty swimming was that he had to wear goggles. Sounds easy enough, but this began my whole summer of this, "Ty, put your goggles on". I swear it was every 2 seconds. It is more difficult than you might think to make sure a 6 year old is wearing goggles and protective glasses at all times.

Evan's favorite pastime was drinking the pool water. Yes, it is gross I know. Let's just say that he had no problems filling those diapers up for me!!!

We spent the summer going back and forth to Dr. M here in Knoxville, and Dr. R in NYC. Almost every week we were at the doctor somewhere. Andy and Ty made many up and back in a day trips. Ty would rather go with his daddy. Apparently, I am too stressful for him. HA!!!! Never!! I do get stressed out a little. I am very thourough with my question asking. I am sure those docs love to see me coming. We kept receiving great reports and Ty was finally able to stop his liquid medicine that he was taking four times a day. He also was able to stop one of his eye drops. His pressure continued to come down all summer. It is currently at 15!!!

One of our NYC appt. was over my birthday weekend. We decided to take the whole family and drive there. We made a stop in Amish country on the way back. That was really fun. The kids enjoyed it and it really was beautiful!! We could learn alot about simple living from the Amish. We took a horse and buggy ride through the country and it was cool. The kids did well and thought it was great. Here we are waiting for our turn!

Next up was another trip to Destin, Fl with Andy this time. We also invitied my mom and step-dad to come along with us. It was so nice having Andy with me this time. I really missed him on the first trip. I loved spending time on the beach reading with my mom too. It was very restful.

We had lots of Splash Country trips with our friends this summer while little Evan stayed home with the babysitter. He is not quite old enough for me to take to Splash Country all day long with the big kids. All in all it was a great summer. After Ty's surgery Andy and I both had the mindset that we were gonna make this summer as fun and memorable as we could. We have no clue how long his eyes will be stable. I want him to have wonderful memories of his childhood. I praise God that he has blessed our family to be able to do that. We want to thank you all so much for your prayers, thoughts, and just caring about our family. Up next.... school already, Ty's latest appointment, and Ty's 7th birthday!