Beautiful

The weekend weather we had here was just beautiful.  We had a busy last week so it was nice to have a fairly relaxing weekend.  Mackenzie drama practice Sat afternoon and Ainsley and mommy went on a mommy date.  Ainsley decided to get her ears pierced again with her own money, then decided not to, and then decided to..well you get the picture.  She ended up not doing it and when we finally told the girl that was going to pierce them that she wasn't going to get it done, she was surprised and said most of the moms just make the kids do it.  My response was that it wasn't my idea in the first place and it is her money.  So when she's ready, she can get it done.  We also went to the bead boutique that our neighbors own because the girls like going there and buying random things.  Then off to pick Mackenzie up.  We also went to the park in the back of our subdivision for a little hike Saturday morning.  The girls love going down to the creek.  Jeff found a salamander and we say two snakes!  In addition to that, there were was a group horse back riding through the park and we got to see 13 horses.  I thought that was pretty cool. 

Yesterday was spent outside a lot and then we just hung out as a family inside later in the afternoon.  We made roll-ups and went for a walk and then off to bed for the girls.  We of course stayed up to watch the Red Sox Yankees game.  I am pretty sure that the coolest part of the game was when Jacoby Ellsbury stole home!  I couldn't believe it.  Still in shock...what a bold cool move.

Very busy week this week so probably won't blog much.  I am going with Ainsley on a field trip today while my neighbor watches Ellie.  Tomorrow another visit for Ellie's medicaid program. On Wednesday I leave for a 3 day Children's Ministry Conference outside Atlanta!  I am pretty excited.  Jeff has the girls Wed-Sat so I can go.  I am going with two other women and I think it will be a lot of fun.  

The weekend

Mackenzie and I went on a date yesterday afternoon.  I took her to the mall and we had Auntie Anne's pretzels and then she wanted to ride the carousel.  There were several older children riding it and she got in a teacup with them and spun around until I thought I was going to be sick! We did  little shopping since we needed to...but we are apparently cut from the same cloth because she hates shopping too!  I got her some black jazz shoes for her Suessical performance which they requested she have and then got her some sandals and flip flops for the summer.  Now I just need to get Ainsley some sandals and I think we will be good for at least a while.  Then she requested Starbucks hot chocolate so off we went to Starbucks.  My friend Amber was working and let us use her discount.  She is just the best!  And what I can't figure out is how she is always working when I go in there!!  I go VERY infrequently and at VERY different times and she seems to ALWAYS be in there.  Craziness but I love seeing her smiling face and since she knows a lot more about what to order, it is even better:)

Then off to the park to walk around and play a little bit before heading back home.  A fun time with my oldest girl.  She is getting so big and growing up so quickly. I can't believe how the time flies.

We had a leadership huddle in the morning and then the counter top guy came and measured our counter top to replace it.  We just need to go to Home Depot today and pick out a sink fixture and then go to NK Stone and pick out a sink tomorrow and they can start work on our counter top.  Jeff mowed the lawn since it is supposed to rain for the next three days. Mackenzie ended up going out with one of our neighbors for ice cream and we went on a walk with the other two.  Ainsley rode her bike the whole way with no complaining and did great.  I was proud of her and I let them have ice cream once they got back home since we had a little left.

Not much planned for today except church and getting a faucet fixture for the kitchen.

Forgot

I forgot to post one of the funny things Mackenzie said while we were on vacation that just cracked Jeff and I up.  On Sunday night we ate at the restaurant in the hotel.  It was Scottish food. Monday night it was off to the Italian restaurant.  So on Tuesday night when we headed out to the restaurant she wanted to know what kind of food we were going to be eating.  Actually, her exact question was "are we going to be eating KY food?"  KY food??  What kind of food is that...oh, you know, the kind of food that you eat in KY!  Hmm...is that anything like American food, mayhaps?

I love the way our kids can make us laugh!:)

Pictures from St. Louis and Easter

Ellie in her swim vest and floaties.  She needs both to stay above water.

Ellie in her little bed between the beds...she never sleeps on a high bed because she still rolls quite a bit and I would be concerned with her falling off the bed..she gets the floor with extra padding:)

The girls in our rental as we are getting ready to leave

Our rental van

The girls in the park near the arch

All of us at Max and Erma's

Ainsley and her new build-a-bear (or lamb:)

Mackenzie and her new build-a-dino

Mackenzie at the pool

This is taken from the top of the arch and is a shadow of the arch on the ground...

This is Ainsley's writing...gotta love it!  We were playing tic-tac-toe while waiting for our lunch at Fitze's

Ellie in the small cart that takes you up to the top of the arch

All of us in the little cart that take you to the top of the arch

The bottle making process at Fitze's..they were making strawberry cream soda

The family at Fitze's minus me...since I am taking the picture:)

Jesus is Risen

Happy Easter to all who read our blog!  I love Easter because it is the reason for our ultimate hope.  If Jesus had not risen there would be little to celebrate.  He wouldn't differ from many other gods who claim to be gods.  But He did rise and that's where our hope lies and I am so thankful for his death for my sins and His resurrection that brings us hope.

We went to church this morning and had a great Sunday morning time.  Then we took the girls out to our favorite Chinese restaurant.  Mackenzie and Ainsley like it because they have amazing fruit smoothies.  They don't like chinese food so they get American food and fruit smoothies. Ellie of course likes anything you put in front of her but we usually get her chicken lo mein and she eats it up.  I branched out and had beef lo mein.  I think I like veggie much better but it was still good.  I shared some of Ellie's fruit smoothie because they are fantastic but jeff got his own which means he got more because I wouldn't drink after Ellie started blowing bubbles into hers!

We stopped and got some candy and we will do an Easter egg hunt later this afternoon with the girls after Jeff is done mowing the tropical rainforest that is our yard!  Hopefully early to be tonight as I am still under the weather and coughing up a lung.  I should probably take some cough medicine before I pull a muscle....

I will catch up with pictures sometimes soon...maybe later today or maybe tomorrow!

Spring Break is almost over..

I can't believe how fast spring break has flown.  I spent thursday doing load after load of laundry and cleaning the house.  Oh and of course another trip to the medicaid office.  While we were in ST. Louis I got a call from our case worker checking up to see if I had applied so I thought I had better get it done.  Apparently she needs the medicaid number to progress any further.  So I hauled all three girls over to the office.  Brought in my application, answered a few questions and sat down to wait..and wait...and wait.  About an hour later, I was taken back, to answer more questions.  We were in that little office for about 30 minutes and by this point Ellie is getting antsy.  By Antsy I mean fussy, irritable and grumpy.  It is getting close to lunch and they are all hungry.  She graciously told me she had about another 20 minutes that she needed to work on this application so I could back out to the main waiting room and wait some more!  By the time we waited some more and went back in the office and I signed a bunch of papers I was pretty much done.  She then explained that I have to essentially fill out yet another application, submit all of financial records for banks, life insurance and paychecks for the last 3 months and then write down all the doctors that she would need to send forms too.  I can bring that in at my convenience but the quicker the better since they can't move forward without it.  Apparently they use these forms to send all the doctor's yet another form they have to sign off on saying she has a disability.  Her case then goes before the Medicaid medical review board for them to make a determination.  By this point, I just wanted to leave and never come back!!  This is harder than actually adopting which is insane!  I am still working on the application and collecting all the necessary documents that are needed.  I am hoping to turn it in by Monday but seriously wondering if it is worth it.  I guess time will tell.  

St. Louis Day 4

Today was out last day in St. Louis.  Jeff took most of the day off, meaning he had a conference call at 1:30 that he had to take but other than that he was off.  We packed up our stuff and took some of it down before breakfast.  Then after breakfast, we were off the arch.  We didn't have to technically check out till 12 so we left some stuff there so that we didn't have to pay to park at the arch.  A beautiful day today!  Mid-60's and sunny!  We walked from the hotel to the arch and I took some pictures of the girls.  We bought tickets for all of us to ride up the arch and it was actually not nearly as scary as I expected.  The cart that brought us up was really small but didn't go too fast up or down.  Mackenzie was a little scared but did fine.  It didn't seem to phase the other two girls.  Once you get to the top, you get out and there are little rectangular windows that you can lean out onto and look everywhere.  Very cool!  I got 1-2 pictures before the battery I had just changed went dead.  I must not have charged it long enough!  Then back down to the ground. Everyone thought it was great.  Then back to the hotel to pack up the rest of our stuff and drive around the suburbs, just in case we ever have to move here.  It is bigger than Cincinnati but still feels pretty midwest.  No plans to move but thought it would be cool to check out.  I co-worker of Jeff recommended this restaurant for lunch that bottles their own soda.  You can watch it happen while eating and they are known for their root beer floats.  It was fantastic and the girls LOVED watched how the soda got bottled.  Our last stop of the day was the zoo, which is free to go to though you do have to pay to park.  A great zoo!  Lots of things to see and do but lots of walking.  Ellie of course loved the monkeys!  By 4 pm we were ready to head home.  We didn't end up getting back to KY till close to 11 pm.  Ainsley and Ellie napped on the way home so it wasn't too rough and went right to bed when we got home. Thanks Grammie and Grampie I for the Easter flowers that were waiting for us!  Our neighbor actually took them in concerned that it would rain but when he saw us pull in he brought them over to us.  Such wonderful neighbors!  A great trip with lots of fun family memories.  

St. Louis Day 3

Today was a fun day.  Jeff left for work a little bit earlier but we lazed around and finally got up at around 8.  We went to breakfast and then back to the pool for lots of swimming.  We then went back up to the room after swimming and Ellie and I showered.  The other didn't want to so I just let them get dressed.  We watched Princess Diaries 2 on Disney and then ate some lunch.  My plan was to take then to the Science Center in the afternoon.  I thought I had done sufficient research on the metro and I thought it would get us there.  But when I asked at the front desk they told me the closest it came to the Science Center was still a 3 mile walk.  Needless to say, we opted for a taxi.  They called him for me and then gave me his name and number so I could call when we were done.  Not a cheap venture out but a fan one:)  The girls had lots of fun at the Science Center.  The two older ones got Build-A Bear's as there is one in the basement of the Science Center.  Awful idea in my opinion but I bet they think it is brilliant!  That was there one thing they go on the trip with their spending money.  There was a Science Woman doing experiments on Peeps and yes I mean the little yellow chicks.  She was testing different hypothesis and it was really cool.  She had a control peep, whom of course she named but I can't remember it:)  Then she put one in a vacuum, one in a boiling pot of water, one in the microwave and one she covered with liquid nitrogen.  It was so cool:)  Ellie was overtired of course and ready to go to bed which means she threw lots of fits but we took a snack break and that helped her out.  Food always helps Ellie out:)  She actually doesn't eat that much but eats so slowly it seems that eats a lot.  Then we called the taxi and they came and got us and brought us back to the hotel shortly before 5.  Jeff came home and we were off to dinner at Max and Erma's right down the road from the hotel.  On the way back, I stopped at the Visit St. Louis shop and bought all of us sweatshirts, except Jeff.  I don't think I have ever seen him wear one and he wasn't about to start now!  Off to do some more swimming in hopes that they hot tub was open..but alas something must have been wrong with it because there was no water:( Very sad for me but we did have lots of fun swimming.  Then off to bed!

St. Louis Day 2

I don't think we brought the transfer cord for our camera so I think I will have to wait till we get home to post pictures of our trip.  After spending about 2 hours in the pool yesterday morning we came back up and I took a warm shower.  The pool wasn't cold but after that long I got cold.  The girls had a blast though.  We watched a little Disney and then ate some lunch in our room.  I brought a few food items to try to save money.  Bread, peanut butter and jelly, raisins, goldfish, yogurt and granola.  Mackenzie really wanted to go to the park so I said sure...after being out for about 3 minutes they were cold since we didn't bring coats.  So back inside we went.  We walked around the hotel for a while and then went down to the lobby and played some checkers on the big checkerboard.  While we were there, they were popping popcorn so we got some of that! Yummy butter covered unhealthy popcorn...so good!  Then I took them to the game room but the machine that converts money to tokens and they wanted to go into the pool area.  I let them roll their pant legs ups and stick their feet in the pool.  They wanted to get their suits on again but I said no.  I decided maybe we could try to get out and do something.  It has warmed up to a balmy 38 so we put on our sweatshirts and sweaters and walked over the the park that surrounds the arch.  By the time we got there we were a little cold and decided to go check out the museum at the base of the arch.  Pretty cool and it warmed us up.  We checked out the gift shop and then went back outside.  The girls wanted to see the geese so we went down but apparently they didn't like out because they hopped out and were trying to chase us.  We hightailed it out of there pretty fast!  Then back to the hotel.  It was a nice break.  We watched a little disney while I tried in vain to get Ellie to take a nap.  

Jeff came back around 5:30 and we made reservations to go to Cunetto's House of Pasta.  Apparently they are a fantastic Italian restaurant here in St. Louis.  The food was fantastic and we loved it.  I think even the girls liked it though they aren't big on Italian.  Of course Ellie will eat anything but Ainsley and Mackenzie are much pickier.  We have a lot of leftover food in the fridge right now!  Jeff took the older two girls back to the pool when we got home while I put Ellie down to bed and watched the beginning part of the game between Michigan and UNC.  By the time they got back to the room , I was ready to go to bed and Ellie still hadn't fallen asleep. We did end up all having a pretty decent night of sleep and are all awake now.  Jeff left for work around 6:30 St. Louis time...7:30 our time.  

There's a lot happening here in St. Louis this week so the hotel is pretty busy.  Yesterday was opening Day for the Cardinals.  A pretty cold day for opening day but there are people here for opening day.  And then the women's Final Four has been here too.  The first game was Sunday night  and we watched some of it on the big screen at the restaurant.  The championship game is tonight right down the road from our hotel.  Pretty cool.

I think we need to get ourselves ready and get some breakfast.  I am not sure the plan for the day.  I think we will get some breakfast, go to the pool, get ready for the day and then either take the metro or grab a taxi to go to the Science Center.  Spend the afternoon there and then head off to another great restaurant for dinner with Jeff.

St. Louis Day 1 1/2

We left for St. Louis yesterday after church.  Jeff picked up our rental and we loaded it up and off we went.  5 hours later we arrived.  We made good time, despite stopping once for a bathroom/candy break for all of us and having to drive slow through some seriously rainy weather.  We got ourselves unpacked and then went down do the hotel restaurant to eat.  The hotel's restaurant is called Tigin and has a generally Scottish pub theme.  I had a chicken pot pie that was awesome!  The girls of course split a chicken finger and fries appetizer because when we go out that seems to be all they eat!  Before heading back up to our room, we stopped by the hotel's pool and workout room.  I hope to run while we are here and the girls hope to do LOTS of swimming:)

After a pretty good night of sleep, everyone is up and watching cartoons.  We don't have much planned today.  This is a business trip for Jeff and since I honestly am not to keen on driving around St. Louis when I have no idea where I am driving, we are going to stay at the hotel.  Oh and it is supposed to be a high of 38 degrees today and we forgot coats!  So pretty sure that will keep us in for the most part too!  But that's ok.  The girls are looking forward to going to eat breakfast, hanging out in the room and doing lots of swimming at the pool.  I look forward to the same thing and watching Opening Day for the Red Sox on ESPN at 2 PM!

We will probably go out to some of the local attractions tonight when Jeff gets off work and then grab dinner.  

And on it goes..

Just wanted to update with another quick post about my medicaid experience.  So today I go to the medicaid office closest to me.  I have previously been told to go there and pick up an application for the adult medicaid waver program because kids also fall under the same program. I go to the front desk and there are already like 10-15 people sitting in seats in this room.  I walk up to the desk and she asks if she can help me.  So I explain exactly what I need.  She tells me to sit down, fill it out and wait till they call me up.  Call me up??  What on earth...I just want to fill it out and send it in.  Well that's now how we do it.  You have to fill it out and then we have to interview you.  Can I make an appointment for that?  Nope...you need to sit down, fill it out and then we will call you up.  I ended up taking the paper and leaving, having not been prepared for a 3 hour jaunt to the medicaid office.  I am now no longer a fan of medicaid...at all!  And am definitely wondering if it is worth all this!!  I am not sure when I will have a 3 hour block of time to go into the office without kids any time soon.  But I will keep you all posted....

Life has a way....

Of preventing me from posting.  I mean I have VERY good intentions.  I actually have sat down on two separate occasions to post and voila..no post!!  I sit down and start typing and then I hear.."mom, can you..." and it is all over.  20 minutes later I have forgotten what on earth I was posting and have started on dinner.  And so it goes every time I have sat down to post in recent days.

So here I sit now with the same intentions.  I started to post, got distracted by one of the kids needing something and now I have my two little friends over that I watch on Wednesdays.  If this post actually gets posted I will be amazed.  I have had to put Ellie in time out 3 times already this morning and it is only 8:40.  3 tantrums later hopefully she will be able to come out and function with Jonah in the house.  They have days when they do soooo well.  And then there are the other days.  I am thinking that today might be one of those "other days" since as soon as she saw Jonah sitting on what she terms "her bench" it was all over.  I don't know if she hit him or not but he was crying and off to her room she went.  I am thinking that at this rate maybe she should just stay there till she goes to school and things might flow a bit smoother.  But then again a 3 hour timeout might be a bit much even for me.

She is now out of time out and talking about her bench...hmmm.  

The first time she was put in time out was because she asked for a waffle for breakfast and then didn't eat it but wanted yogurt.  My policy is that you can absolutely have yogurt but you can waste food.  So you need to eat the waffle and then I will get you yogurt.  She proceeded to throw a fit about not getting yogurt and refusing to eat the waffle.  I can't stand wasted food.  I  feel like there are kids everywhere without food and you are wasting the food you were given. It just should not be happening.  A crust on the pizza is ok, or a little crust from a sandwich is ok but an entire peanut butter covered waffle???  Too much...so she is now back downstairs from picking up her books and she is whining again about yogurt.  After carefully explaing that she still will not be getting yogurt unless she eats her waffle for the 3rd time, I think she has given up and is moving on.  For the time being that is...

We are in the process of applying for medicaid for Ellie.  There is a program that a friend of ours mentioned called the medicaid waiver program.  She thought Ellie might qualify and gave me the info a while ago.  I finally got phone call back and was originally told she didn't qualify. 3 days later I received a call saying after checking some things out she thought Ellie did indeed qualify and we made an appointment for someone to come out an do an assessment on Ellie. The assessment happened last week some time and I got a call from them saying she received a LOC (level of care).  Now it is up to me to call and get the financial part of medicaid rolling. Her LOC was for a year which means she gets evaluated every year to see if she qualifies.  I feel confident that in a year she probably won't qualify.  But I am going to take advantage of every service I can to get Ellie the necessary services to progress as much as possible.  Now we are dealing with the medicaid office.  What I am finding out is that dealing with medicaid is definitely not for the faint of heart.  I called yesterday to start this process and the first lady I talked to had NO IDEA what on earth I was talking about.  She of course transferred me to yet another woman who had NO IDEA what I was talking about.  The natural choice would then be to transfer me to yet another person who had NO IDEA what I was talking about.  After 15 minutes of being on the phone with people who obviously had no idea about the medicaid waiver program but worked for medicaid, I was about to pull my hair out!  Then finally the 4th person knew what I was talking about..thankfully!  So now I need to go in to the office in person and pick up an application.  I am going to try to do that this afternoon.  Just from my 15 minutes of experience with the office, I am confident that I am going to be in for a long process. I will definitely keep you all posted as a go along.  I hope this isn't an indication of the future because if it is this complicated and I make it to 69 or 75 or whatever age it is when I can actually use medicare services, I will be doomed.  Maybe Medicare will be radically different than Medicaid!!

So here are a few recent pics of the girls from when my mom visited last week.  We had a good visit and the girls have missed grammy since she flew back to Maine.  I have a lot of Ellie since she is one of the only ones who wants to get her picture taken.  Ainsley doesn't like it and Mackenzie doesn't mind but often is at school when I think to get the camera out.

We are looking forward to going to St. Louis over spring break.  The girls are so excited!  Jeff has a business trip and we are joining him for it.  The hotel has a pool and they are really looking forward to swimming.  St. Louis apparently has lots of free things to do so we will partake in as many of those things as possible.  They have a free children's museum, zoo and multiple other attractions.  The only one that I think we may need to pay for is to go up the arch.  But of course we can't pass that up!

Ainsley experimenting with the camera

Ellie

Ellie hanging out in the laundry basket

Reaching for the camera!

Ellie and Ainsley at the computer

Mom and Mackenzie making pizza

Making pizza take 2

Ellie

Mackenzie eating pepperoni

Mackenzie a mess after helping with the pizza

I love my new kitchen paint color...a much grayer and softer blue. I just got new kitchen curtains to go with the new paint color. They are a chocolate brown suede and look great. We also got new darker wood blinds for the windows and love those too. The next purchase I think will be the countertop. We are still not certain as to when we will do this but I can't wait to have it done! We dream of stainless steel appliances but that will probably be a long time in the future. I will keep you posted if anything new pops in to our kitchen:)

My new kitchen curtains..chocolate brown suede and I love 'em

More new paint color