We had a good Thanksgiving

I have been MIA since Thanksgiving we went up to Washington to visit with a friend of ours from when we lived in Pheonix and when we got back our internet was out and we weren't able to get it back up till today. We had a good one mostly except Kenzie and Izzak ended up getting sick. Kenzie hadn't been really feeling well for most of the week but it was her normal symptoms of a tummy ache which she has all the time anyway. Thanksgiving night when we went to bed she was up all night throwing up and Izzak was having problems on the other end... Poor kid.

We had a good visit though and enjoyed our visit.

Izzak got his cast on last Wednesday, it is blue but is now covered in black sharpie signatures! I think that is the main reason he was really excited about getting a cast on. He is getting tired of it though already because it is heavy. He only has to wear it for a total of 4 weeks though so he only has a couple weeks left and he will be out before Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

What am I Thankful for this year?

1. A loving husband who stands by me and tries to understand even when I am a little off.....
2. 4 kids who may not always be good but they are mine and I love them all. They are each a miracle for our family.
3. A home
4. Food on my table
5. Friends that I can talk to when Kelly doesn't quite get it.
6. Family that I can count on, mine anyway and Kelly's sister Gloria.
7. God!
8. Izzak is healthy this year and even with his broken arm there is no sign of us spending another holiday season in the Hospital.
9. Izzak only has to spend 3 more weeks in the cast so he will be out of it by Christmas.
10. Joshua is healthy and hasn't broken anything.
11. Madison is healthy and other then her bladder issues she is doing great.
12. Kenzie is as sweet as ever and just told me this evening that she is getting moved up into a higher reading program, yah, we have been so worried abou ther having problems in school like Izzak has (she was showing some early signs).
13. Wonderful drs that help my kids feel better Dr Smucker our family dr, Dr Terry the GI dr, Dr Holland our opthamologist, and Dr Lashley our urologist, also my hem/onc Dr Menashe, my neuro Dr Sax and even Dr Buehler who did my elbow surgery recently, and we can't forget Dr Sullivan Kelly's Chiro who has been so instrumental in getting Kelly's back injury diagnosed and figured out by the regular medical community.
14. The fact we were all born in the USA which means we have a right to our own opinions and have the best care available to us!
15. I am sure there are many more I can think of but I am getting tired and should really get to bed!

One week since surgery

So it has been a week since I had surgery on my elbow. The arm is good, a little sore, but I am sad.

Why am I sad? Well because I know I only get another week till I have to go back to work and I really don't want to! I was a stay at home mom for 8 years before I went to work. The main reason I can't quit is the medical insurance and with the kids and my problems, well Kelly's insurance is not at all good enough cover much and has higher monthly premiums and you pay 20% for anything and some of the things we have done on a regular basis just would leave us so unstable financially it isn't funny. I was reading miraclebabyb's blog today about the stay at home moms job consisting of mostly one thing (washing, everything) and ended up feeling a little jealous. Don't take that wrong Becci, please, or anyone else it is not meant that way at all. I hate working, I don't most of the time enjoy the adult company (a lot because I don't usually have much in common),

I mean I have my friends but it's not the same. When I was home with my kids I know they were so much happier, the house was cleaner, moms was happier, and they always knew I would be home when they got there not their Uncle Zac ( who I really do appreciate but he is not mom).
Also issues that have come up this week, like Izzak breaking his arm, if I was at home I would be trying to get okay's from my boss to miss so much work and I wouldn't have been home the day he came home after school complaining that his arm hurt and telling me what happened.

We had to get the school Police (which is the Portland Police just there job is the schools) involved this week starting on Monday because the kid who broke his arm obviously didn't learn anything from his 2 day suspension (or should I say 4 day weekend) and came the first day on Monday telling Izzak he had faked a broken arm and harrassing him at school and having several other kids as well which wound up with some kid who lives on our block actually threatening him with very foul language outside our door when he was trying to play with his little sister in the front yard. The school wouldn't do anything so we had to get the Police involved to let these kids know just how serious it is and let them know that Izzak could file charges against the boy that hit him.

Anyway I am always fighting to get days off of work because my kids need to see yet another one of their drs and I hate having to fight for it. It should never be a fight! Not to mention my kids let me know how much they hate me going to work on a regular basis.

Oh well I need to go and stop this rant there is so much more I could say but people would just get bored and probably stop reading anyway........
Hopefully I will be in a better mood tomorrow or when I write again.

We are going to Washington to visit with a friend of ours for Thanksgiving I am really looking forward to that!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Do I really need anything else this week?

So the week has been interesting with me having surgery on Tuesday and I have to say it does seem to take longer to feel better the older you get. I know I am only 30 but my body feels so much older then that and this was my 5th surgery in 10 years and seems to be really taking alot out of me!

So you ask why the Title well no only am I basically in a cast from the shoulder down due to the surgery but now Izzak is also. Yes he is also in a cast from the shoulder down due to breaking his elbow. Well he didn't break it some other kid broke it when he wouldn't let the kid steal his bike right in front of the school. Its a temporary cast for now till he gets in with the Ortho dr hopefully on Monday but since the xray department missed sending the xray that shows the break they weren't able to view it on Friday and now I have to run it over there on Monday morning.

And I thought things were getting better, but apparently no one at said school felt it very worrisome that an 11 year old refused to use or barely move the arm all day and never did call me to let me know something happened so it was not until he came home from school complaining his arm hurt and he couldn't move it that I knew anything about it. I am a little irritated obviously and I don't feel the 2 days suspension they gave the kid is at all enough! I mean any other weapon brought to school would be an imediate expulsion, not that I am saying that this should happen but 2 days for breaking a kids arm on purpose just does not sound right to me.

Joshua had an appt on Friday with Dr Smucker (my all time favorite dr) who is our family dr (when I say family I mean it literally Kelly,myself, all the kids, my parents, my brother and Hannah and her kids all see him). It was just for his 10 year well child appt and to check up on his adhd meds he is growing great 73lbs and 4 foot 6 inches now they say according to the charts he is in the 50% but I don't see it he is so skinny! We discussed his behavior lately and how he is doing in school and decided since he has gained 13 pounds in the last year and grown several inches it may be time to increase his meds. We just started the new dose today so we will see how that works then he has another appt to see how it is going in a month.

Kenzies Birthday is tomorrow and she will be 8 so big these kids are making me feel old lately. We are going over to visit my sister as she hasn't seen the kids since Kenzie was born and she is going to make her a cake since we are comming over. The kids are looking forward to that!

Nothing new with Maddie she has 2 weeks till she turns 6 and we are going to figure out how to get all these kids a birthday party done before Christmas (what was I thinking with there birthdates???).

Happy 10th Birthday Joshua

Joshua 10 years ago yesterday (I tried to post this yesterday but the computer kept throwing it out or something). Joshua under and oxygen hood unfortunately it wasn't doing the job and Joshua had to be transfered to a different hospital with a level 3 NICU and was put on cpap for several days. This was a very scary day for everyone since both Joshua and I almost died.

Joshua a week later on the nasal cannula also hooked up to multiple monitors and an IV in the soft spot on his head. This was the first time I actually got to see him at 5 days old. I was taken in to see him before he was moved but have no memory of the first two days after he was born due to such drastic blood loss.

Some of the things he used in the hospital that we were sent home with his tiny arm band, blood pressure cuff, eye covers for bili lights and a tiny preemie nipple for the bottles they would mix his iron with breast milk



Joshua on his first morning after getting out of the hospital at 3 weeks. This is one of my favorite pictures of both of the boys isn't it sweet how Izzak is cuddling with his brand new baby brother in his sleep? Izzak was only 19 months old in this picture but suddenly seemed so big next to his 4lbs 12 oz brother. Of course he was 22 bounds so he was about 4 times his size.

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth!

Madison lost the second of her two front teeth today so I reminded her of the song "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth" she thinks it is pretty silly.
I love they way they look when they lose those teeth but for some reason with Maddie it makes me a little sad. Since she is my last baby once these teeth grow back in we won't have anymore toothless kiddos in the house. She of course has two more teeth lose that will probably be out before Christmas so will have to amend the song to All I want for christmas is my 4 front teeth. That should be cute. Izzak and McKenzie lost their teeth the same way though. It makes for some very messy faces when eating anything though since finger foods have to be eaten a little different.


For some reason though when Madison lost her tooth it spurred other loose teeth to need to come out and McKenzie lost a tooth also. I am not so sure it was originally ready to come out but since Joshua pulled a tooth also apparently McKenzie didn't want to be left out! Kids are weird......

It took me forever to get this picture of McKenzie to post but she wanted to make sure I got a picture of her missing tooth also, she couldn't be left out could she?. Why is blogger so difficult to post pictures to sometimes. I go through the upload proceedure and it says it is there but then I look at the post and it is not why is that?


I tried to get a good picture of Joshua today after he lost his tooth but he is apparently irritated at me today. I wonder if it could be that he has been in his room all day. He is supposed to clean it but it is not happening so this is the best I can do for today. Or could he possibly be headed into that puberty stage and getting moody? I don't know but his attitude has been terrible lately. I feel like I have to fight with him anytime there is something he needs to do.

Yesterday I went to a Mary Kay legs party with my friend Melanie we had a good time learning about their leg products. We used products to help shave, moisturize and even sunless tanning but the only thing is it was only for one leg as she wanted us to see the difference by doing it on one leg. So this morning I woke up with one leg very nicely shaven and smooth with a rather good job on the sunless tanning I might say but on the other leg I can now really see how bad I needed to shave and the tan didn't take quite as well. Oh well I guess that means I need to start from scratch and do both legs but for some reason I am just not in the mood today so it looks like I will definetly be wearing long pants tomorrow.......

My surgery is on Tuesday so I am getting a little anxious although I am really looking forward to some time off of work for awhile even if it is for healing from surgery I will take an extended leave from work any way I can get it. I just don't know how I will want to go back afterwards!

Halloween Montage finally

Make an online slide show at onetruemedia.com

Busy weeks ahead

So it seems we have a lot going on this week and I have just not felt up to updating so far so I will see what I can do.
First of all is the good news (I hope) with Izzak, we had his conferences this week with his advisory teacher on Wednesday and I felt like it was the most productive conference we have had in a long time. His teacher seems to like him a lot and that is a great thing. He is a male teacher and I think that is great for Izzak. Anyway the student who was supposed to go before Izzak did not show up so we were able to start earlier and since we were the last conference we stayed later and the teacher was all for it and made us feel like we could stay as long as we felt we needed to to discuss Izzak. It felt great for once to have a teacher willing to give us as much time as we needed to make sure we were able to discuss everything we needed to get out. I feel like a lot was accomplished but am as usual causiusly optimistic..... I have thought this before only to end up frustrated again. But this conference felt different! He seemed to really understand Izzak and was excited to get more information regarding his disabilties like the working memory disorder and central auditory processing disorder both of these seem to be things that teachers really don't understand and so often seem unwilling to really learn. He said that so much of what I was explaining really made sense and gave him more ideas on how to help Izzak and we wants to extend these ideas into his other classes! The sad thing was seeing his report card with mostly D's and F's on it and comments like he is not organized or paying attention and that some of that was affecting his grade. The problem is that these two issues are a direct result of his disabilities! He seems to be not paying attention but it is really a different thing going on. Its hard to explain but he has done that since a baby and that is one reason why he didn't speak till he was 3. It is not that he is not paying attention but that he can't focus on things in a situation where a lot is going on it sounds alot like an add issue but is in many ways so much different but hard to explain but his brain completly tunes things out as a defense mechanism and that defense mechanism has only gotten stronger since he has had so many teachers who don't understand or want to understand and don't know how to help him. Any way we were able to discuss several ideas to help him in his classes and they sound very promising! I felt optimistic after his conference and not complete sadness for my little boy. Also the teacher said that within the next week the boy who has been harrasing him will not be in any classes with him anymore, that is a huge answer to prayers.
His disabilities really make me sad at times because it is so hard on him, but people in general do not understand because it is not something they can see on the outside and the effects they do see don't always get interpreted the right way. Also the people who notice the most unfortunatly are students in school and I hate the fact he has to deal with this. He is a very friendly kid and for the most part makes friends easily but also tends to be an easy target for those mean kids out there who enjoy teasing kids for not being as smart as everyone else. Izzak has enough problems trying to figure out how to get through the academics of school let alone the kids add to his stress with teasing and threats. I wish I could stay home with him and pull him out of school to teach him at home. There are so many programs available for him to have just as much socialization as he would at school but without the kids needing to know his problems..... My friend Melanie appoligizes for feeling this way regarding keeping her daughter Kennedy out of public school but I aplaud her for keeping her home and making sure she gets the help she needs. I really need help to help him myself but never feel like I can really get it.
So besides Izzak what else is going on this week? I don't know just a lot of planning for things right now. First I am having surgery on my arm next week 11/14 I am a little nervous about this of course but it also falls on Joshua's birthday and I am feeling bad about that but it needs done because my hand is getting worse. I have no feeling in most of my fingers in my left hand and the hand is getting very weak. I have been doing therapy and wearing a full brace on my arm most of the time since May but it has only gotten worse so surgery is the next step and if I wait to much longer permanent damage will be done and I will have little chance of getting the strength back in my hand and for the next two weeks it will be someones birthday pretty much every week then there is Christmas and Thanksgiving so next week it must be..... Joshua says he is okay with this and we will still have a party for him just not in the next week but on his birthday his grandma will be making his favorite dinner and making cupcakes to have a little celebration on his actual birthdate. I still can't beleive he is going to be 10 next week! Especially after what happened when he was born! On next Sunday 11/19 will be Kenzies birthday she will be 8 and then Kelly on 11/22, Thanksgiving the next day, and a week and a half later will be Maddies 6th Birthday on 12/6! So much going on for the next couple of weeks and that is just the big stuff not including drs appts comming up and the fact that there are several other close family birthdays comming up including my neice Kayla who is 8 today!
This week I got to visit my friend Hannah's babies and I love to see them they are so sweet I have to show new pics.

Here is Simon...
Isn't he the sweetest thing you have seen! I think so not to mention he can be awfully cuddly... I really miss the baby days can you tell? Look at those bright eyes though aren't they beautiful, his mom his hoppng they will be brown like hers but so far they are still blue.

Here is Emily and I think she is adorable with her big blue eyes and gorgeus blonde curls! She is a very silly 1 year old. Not to mention adorable! Don't you agree?

For Becci

I have left a couple of messages to you on your blog ( www.miraclebabyb.blogspot.com ) about how the kitty is doing and he continues to do great but I thought a would share a photo to give you a little idea of how well the kittens are getting along. The shirt on the ottoman they are sleeping on is one of Kellys and Mouse (our gray kitty, don't ask how he got the name) has always been big about sleeping on Kelly's clothes, I think it is cute! When they aren't sleeping cuddled up together they are playing throughout the house like sweet kitties do. It is pretty funny to watch. I was glad to help out by taking him and I think our older kitty is grateful also since he can now get some rest himself without Mouse wanting to sleep with him so much or playing with him when he wanted to sleep or maybe just take an older kitty catnap. As I write this post they kittens are chasing each other around the living room flying off of the furniture it is pretty funny to watch since occasionnaly they do not land exactly how they planned. I just wanted to share the picture with every one especially Becci so she could see her kitty is doing well and has settled into the family just fine.

Pumpkin Carving

So since I didn't celebrate Halloween as a kid there are certain things I really get into and one is the pumpking carving. Of course the kids really enjoy it to they clean them out really well, with a little help of course and they choose what designs they want from a book. Once they found out that we could buy pumpkin carving designs they decided the plain ordinary pumpkins designs weren't as much fun. They then hand there pumpkins and designs over to mom to finish off for them, except Izzak of course he has gotten big enough to cut them himself with a bit of help from mom on the smaller portions. Of course I can't complain since I kind of like it myself but this year we kind of put it off till the last minute and mom ended up carving pumpkins till 1 am in the morning the day before Halloween!

Izzaks handiwork resulted in this with only a little help from mom. He did pretty good don't you think?





Joshua chose this ghost which has more details to it but is hard to see in this picture.






Miss McKenzie ever the princess of course
chose a princess pattern for her pumpkin.
Not the tradition Halloween type pattern
but definetly a Kenzie thing.






Then Of course there is my sweet Maddie she chose the kitty pattern but that seems to be her thing lately it looks a lot better when the light is right but I couldn't seem to get it to work at
night without either washing the background
out with the candles or looking like it was
daytime with the flash.

Halloween was cold!

So the kids really enjoyed Halloween but we froze outside the wind was bad with those great Gorge winds blowing in I heard it dipped pretty low but not sure exactly where. Fotunatly it did not rain which is quite common around here, the weather was nice and held off on the water till yesterday.
Like I said the kids had a lot of fun they enjoyed dressing up even though there coats didn't go real well with there costumes but I guess that is the price you pay to get all the candy though, right? It actually worked better for Madison who was having difficulty keeping her wings up until I figured out a way to pin them to her jacket and they stayed up the whole time except when the wind was really strong and pulled them down!


I know its dark but doesn't she looked thrilled in this picture? I am not sure why she was frowning since she really liked her costume but I think she was little irritated with the coat being added to it.









Once again she is giving me a funny look in this picture, not sure exactly why though and I didn't get to many pictures on Halloween for some reason I didn't get any of Izzak though at all in his costume and Joshua was only from the weekend before when we were trying them on. If you click on the picture though you might be able to see the hair color and makeup on Madison a little better.



Maddie is such a funny little character though. Since Kenzie was an angel we had a couple of houses that people commented on 2 angels and Maddie was quick to correct them and the one she got the most attitude with was this huge biker guy with his harley in the front yard I mean he was probably 2.5x taller in hight and weighed enough to fill it out and she gets her little hands on her hips with her little attitude and tells him "I am not and angel, I am a fairy" the way she said it though there was no doubt she was not being an angel but fortunatly the guy thought she was pretty cute and laughed. I am not sure if she liked that either though, funny little girl....She walked with us close to an hour then she needed to go to the potty (and she made it, I was really happy about that) and once she was back in the nice warm house where daddy had turned up the heat to try to keep the house warm with all the opening of the door for trick or treaters she decided she had enough of the cold and would rather play games on the computer till we were done. Kenzie's wings held up pretty good no problems there but her costume was pretty covered under her coat and she had clothes on underneath she commented she was still cold a couple of times but refused to stop any sooner then the boys when aunt Gloria came over she was more then happy for another trip down some other streets we hadn't hit yet and mommy was just happy for some adult conversation while walking with the kids. Joshua was difficult with trying to get him to dress warmer he was very convinced he would be fine with just his costume and thought it was plenty warm enough out side (have i ever commented this kid is insane?) after all when I got home from work he ran out to meet me wearing only jeans no shoes no socks and no shirt (he seems to think the only thing he should wear is his pants lately and getting a coat on him is really difficult which I don't get since the kid is skin and bones he has no body fat to keep warm but I guess that is where the energy level must come in. Izzak was really happy with his vampire costume even with no blood or gory stuff somehow I didn't manage to get any pictures of him in it since I didn't really get any pictures except 2 of the girls then my camera started going weird and wouldn't take pictures well I will try to post those later this evening when I am home again. After the trick or treating where done the kids fed, candy hiden till the next day and kids put to bed I went to my friend Hannahs house to watch Childs Play we used to watch it together when we were much younger but her SIL Becci had not seen it yet and we had been talking about a movie night so figured what better then to watch it on Halloween right? I hope you slept okay that night Becci!
So there is always alot going on and I know i need to update or write about several other things and I will try to post more soon but as I said we have been very busy and never a dull moment. Thanks for stopping by and if you read please don't be afraid to leave comments I see that people come by but no comments, I wanna know what you think!

Thoughts on Halloween

So since it is only 2 days till Halloween I thought I would write about my
thoughts on the day. I have mixed feelings about Halloween personally. When I was born my mother becamea Christian she was actually prayed f or by the obstetrician who delivered me. My dad was saved shortly after ward about 6 months after a very scary dream of losing his family when God came back and him being left alone. Anyway they decided on a few things after this and one was that they didn't want to celebrate Halloween as they felt God didn't want them to and that it was an evil holiday. So I never celebrated it. I never thought to much about it when I was little only a little jealous of the kids and there candy but my dad had a sweet tooth so we had something pretty often around the house anyway. When i was a little older it only bothered me a little because I felt like we had to hide in the house on Halloween night while people didn't pay attention to the light being out and would ring the doorbell or knock all the time. So we tended to hide in the house watching tv in the basement with the upstairs lights out.
When Kelly and I got married and had Izzak we needed to decide what we would do for Halloween. He had always celebrated it but wasn't allowed to trick or treat past the age of 12 or 13 other then walking with his younger siblings while they did. I decided that I was okay with it, I didn't feel like I needed to eliminate it completely but wanted to make conditions to it such as no evil, scarry bloody etc costumes for the kids. The girls are easy they generally want costumes such as Princesses Kenzie was Belle for 4 yrs, Sleeping beauty for 2 and tinkerbell for 1. This year we have ventured away from the Disney store and she is going to be

an angel!













Madison who has always been a disney character also 1 time Piglet and 4 years and cinderella will be


a fairy!












Joshua has had more of a variety of costumes including army man, race car driver, dinasour and my favorite was his 101 dalmation costumes when he was a baby this year he is:

a white ninja












For Izzak it was a little harder to come up with since he is away again with his dad on the last hunting weekend of the season he wasn't around I knew what he wanted but it wasn't really on my approved list but I gave in he wanted to be a vampire so I decided to go ahead and let him but he will not have any blood on him and won't be really scarry looking. He isn't here so I can't post a pic right now but I will post pictures of all of them again after Halloween.

Update on shopping extravaganza for Kennedy

Please note the location is Mt View Christian church and had been a different location previously
address is
Mountainview Christian Church
1890 NE Cleveland Avenue
Gresham, Oregon

a partial list of vendors is
Big Yellow Box
Pampered Chef
Body Shop at Home
Cookie Lee Jewelry
Creative Memories
Princess House Crystal
Arbonne International
Gold Canyone Candles
Home & Garden Party
Jafra
Mary Kay
ID4Kids
Juice Plus
Stampin’ Up
Usborne Books
PartyLite Candles
Tastefully Simple
Safe Smart Strategies
Home Interiors & Gifts
Michelle Baratta Jewelry
Northern Lights at Home
Southern Home Living

All of these companies have agreed to donate a percentage of their profits to help care for our little girl. Not only will you get a jump on the upcoming season, YOU can make the difference in the life of a child.
I plan on attending sound like I can get some of my christmas shopping done! Also help Kennedy's family at the same time which makes buying things all that much more enjoyable..

Now what?

So Izzak got home from school today and called me
Izzak: Mom can I have Top Ramen for lunch? (he got out early for early dismissal) Oh and I had In school suspension today. (in a tone as if it is a normal occurance)
Me: Uh what was that?
Izzak: Can I have top ramen? (not sure if he was trying that one)
Me: No the second part...
Izzak: I had in school suspension today.
Me: Why?
Izzak: I got in a fight... with "D"at school today, he hit me in the stomach and I got mad and started hitting back. When they pulled us apart they sent us to the principals office and I had to go to the ISS room today for the rest of the day.
Okay the problem here is "D" has been harassing Izzak physically and mentally for several weeks now, he has tried talking to teachers, the counselor and others but the only thing he has gotten from them was "ignore him he'll leave you alone" . Apparently this didn't work. I don't know does it every really? I mean it is one thing to say that between your own children but when the problem goes over several weeks and one such time involves my son feeling intimidated by this boy holding a pair of scissors when does it become something the school feels needs to be dealt with? It should be long before my son is worried about this kid and a pair of scissors! Apparently the school now thinks there is a problem with the boys only now that my son decides he has had enough and fights back. My big conern here is Izzak has had problems with bullies and just plain bad kids in the past and been able to handle it without fighting himself even though his dad has always told him if someone hit him and he defended himself by hitting back he would not be in trouble with us. Now that he has had the experience of fighting with another child other then the normal fighting with his brother have we turned a chapter? I really don't want my son to fight or have to fight for himself or anyone really. I spoke to the vice principal and he will talk to Izzak tomorrow as he wasn't there when it happened and has promised me he will try to get the boys seperated to different classes but I have heard this before and had lots of promises from the schools I feel like I am holding my breath now to see if anything will happen or will my son have to fight to defend himself again! He is only in the sixth grade now I don't want to worry about fights for the next 6 years, he has enough to deal with at school!

Holiday Shopping Extravaganza for Kennedy Duval!

HOLIDAY SHOPPING EXTRAVAGANZA FOR KENNEDY DUVAL!
On Saturday, November 4th, join us from 10am – 4pm at
Mountainview Christian Church
1890 NE Cleveland Avenue
Gresham, OR
Get started on your Christmas shopping BEFORE the big holiday rush with our many wonderful vendors such as Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Creative Memories, Michele Baratta Jewelry and Usborne books. All of these companies have agreed to donate a percentage of their profits to help care for our little girl. Not only will you get a jump on the upcoming season, but YOU can make the difference in the life of a child.
Kennedy Duval was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on 5/9/05 at age 4. Her family originally had no medical insurance but Kennedy was approved to receive benefits from the Oregon Health Plan for 6 months. That assistance was terminated 11/30/05. Although her father had insurance benefits through his employer, they refused to cover any of Kennedy’s cancer related expenses. She started chemotherapy in May 2005 and will continue treatment until August 2007. On June 1, 2006, Kennedy was approved for benefits from the Oregon Medical Insurance Pool/Regence Blue Cross-Blue Shield. Her medical bills and care expenses are continually overwhelming because of the period of time that she had no medical coverage. An account has been opened in the name of Kennedy B. Duval Contribution Fund at Wells Fargo Bank (12005 SE Division St, Portland, OR 97266)/Acct. #2246146969. Donations may be made at any Wells Fargo Bank. The Tax ID Number for the Kennedy B. Duval Contribution Fund is 83-0484895. Any donations to her medical fund would be greatly appreciated. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers! For progress updates, Kennedy’s website is http://www.courage4kennedy.com/.


Kennedy is a great little girl who I have had the pleasure of meeting both her and her mom Melanie. Kennedy is the same age as my Madison and they are actually quite a lot alike and have played with each other as well as Kenzie. The girls pray for her regularly and have t-shirts they love to wear and Kenzie refuses to take off her courage for Kennedy bracelet same with Izzak. Izzak makes a point of telling everyone even his teachers about Kennedy! I plan to come to this event and hope lots of others come too!

I have another prayer request

So am making another post asking for prayer from friends who read this.
I just got a call today from my friend Kara. I have talked about her before and her son Conner comes over to our house frequently. Anyway when I talked to her today she was pretty upset as her house burned down yesterday. Fortunatly no one was inside but the house is a loss. She had needed to leave and left her laptop on not thinking anything of it as she has done this before. It overheated and and at first there was no flames but the house got really hot and melted everything and smoky causing smoke damage there weren't any flames really so no one noticed anything for a few hours till a neighbor notices there was smoking comming from the vents and called 911 not knowing if it was on fire because he didn't see any flames. When the fireman came and broke out the windows it causeda backdraft effect pretty much causing the upstairs of the house to blow up. If anyone has ever seen the movie backdraft that is when there is everything needed to cause a fire but not enough oxygen for the flames but gettting very hot and as soon as the place is filled with oxygen the fire is rapidly feeding off of it. The whole upstairs was a complete loss though what she says is weird is that the bottom of the house has no fire damage only smoke and smelling bad.
What makes it worse is that this is not there first house fire. About 4 years ago their house burned up also due to an electric problem in the gas fireplace that time the insurance company that made the fireplace and it had to pay for a lot of it.
She also had bladder cancer at 19 when she was pregnant with her daughter Acelyn. So obviously she is feeling a little frustrated right now things were just starting to go really well and now this.
Please pray for them they are really close friends of ours and have done a lot for us and I wish there was more we could do to help.

100 things about the Dunn family

I got the idea for this post from another website I visit:
1. Our names are Kelly, Terri, Izzak, Joshua, McKenzie, and Madison
2. Izzaks first name is Kelly but we call him Izzak because I thought it would be to confusing to have 3 Kellys in the family Kelly, his dad and Izzak to much!
3. Izzak is spelled the way it is because Kelly couldn't figure out how to spell it right and figured he would never remember the right way unless he spelled it himself.
4. Both of Joshua's names are after family members Joshua is Kelly's younger brothers name and Robert is my dads name and on my dads side of the family there is a Robert in every family. I do get the fact that I would not call Izzak by his first name because of the confusion but then named him after his uncle who has lived with us several times and does come around alot....strange huh....
5. Kelly came from a family with 4 kids 2 boys and 2 girls just like ours.
6. Even though Kelly figured Izzak's spelling would be easier for him. It took me over a year to really remember the correct spelling of my own sons name every time I filled it out, sometimes having to check to make sure it was right by looking at his social security card....
7. Izzak played hockey for 2 years and picked it up quick until they closed the skating rink at clackamas town center.
8. Joshua and McKenzie both are in Tae Kwon Do.
9. Maddie is not in anything yet we are still waiting to see what she has the attention span for.
10. In my family I am the baby, so is my dad and so is my mother.
11. Kelly is not he is number 2.
12. Kelly and I were married at the young age of 18, 2 months after we graduated from high school (no it was not because I was expecting Izzak, although I was).
13. Kelly and I met at our high school church youth group.
14. The first time I saw him I thought he was a jerk because he and his friends were duct taping a smaller kid up and taping him to the wall (no I am not sure where the leaders were).
15. Kelly broke up with his girlfriend that summer to go out with me.
16. My parents loved him from the start.
17. His parents didn't like me?
18. I am still afraid of the dark.
19. Kelly loves the dark?
20. I have a half brother and sister I have never met. And a half sister who I rarely get to see, and one full brother who I see almost every day.
21. Kelly's brother Joshua and his 2 daughters lived with us for 2 years when the kids were smaller putting us in a house with 3 adults and 6 kids ages at the beginning of 2, 3, 4, 4, 6, and 7. way to many high pitched little girl voices for me.
22. Kenzie is convinced she is a princess and tells people that is what she is going to be when she grows up also.
23. Mom is a poor sport and daddy refuses to play any games with me as he says I always cheat (I don't cheat, most of the time).
24. We have owned 23 cars since we have been married.
25. We have been married for 11 years.
26. Izzak is a poor sport also and can't stand to lose. so he doesn't play a lot of games.
27. Kelly owns a 78 international scout, it really needs work right now.
28. Kelly and the boys were in a bad accident 2 1/2 yrs ago in said scout, which is why it needs work/restored.
29. Kelly hurt his back seriously in the accident and only just recently had a deposition for the accident for the lawsuit against the person who hit him driving reclesly (I know I spelled that wrong).
30. We all want to move to Alaska some day.
31. Izzak was my only baby born naturally.
32. After Joshua I was only able to have c-sections so I have had 3!
33. Joshua is 2 yrs and 5 days older then Kenzie and Kenzie is 2 yrs 2 wks older then Maddie. Everyone calls them my stair steppers.
34. I liked having my kids in winter.
35. Obviously I wasn't paying attention to it being just before Christmas as Joshua and Kenzie are November babies and Maddie is a December baby.
36. Joshua was born prematurly at 33 weeks.
37. He spent 3 weeks in the NICU at Emanuel Childrens Hospital.
38. Izzak was born at 42 weeks.
39. He is the only one in our entire family not born in Portland, Or. He was born in Pheonix, Az.
40. When Kelly and I got married we moved the same day to Phoenix, Az.
41. We never had a honeymoon.
42. Kenzie and her cousin Kayla are only 9 days apart!
43. Kenzie is shy.
44. Izzak can be.
45. Joshua and Madison do not have a shy bone in their bodies and will talk to anyone who will listen.
46. Madison is in Kindergarten this year and her class already calls her the class clown.
47. In the 1st grade I got a call from the school because Joshua decided to spray pee all over the boys bathroom wall on a dare.
48. The janitor was not happy!
49. Madison has been playing jokes since she was a baby.
50. Kenzie split her lip when she was 15 mos and had 4 stitches. I had to take her and a 3 and 4 year old to the ER with me as I couldn't get hold of anyone.
51. Joshua broke his leg in 2 places above his left knee and below his when he was 6 mos falling down the stairs with Kellys dad.
52. Mom is now very paranoid of stairs and carrying babies.
53. Mom is just plain paranoid.
54. McKenzies favorite princesses are Belle and Sleeping beauty and she has dressed as one or the other for Halloween her entire life.
55. Madisons favorite princess in Cinderella because she wears blue and she has been Cinderella for Halloween every year except her first when she was Piglet.
56. Joshua's favorite movies are the Star Wars movies.
57. I think he has way to many star wars toys.
58. Izzak has always loved Scooby Doo.
59. But his favorite movie is The Dukes of Hazard.
60. When Izzak was in the Hospital last December we watched Dukes of Hazard over and over for 4 days.
61. I am a scrapbooker and Kelly thinks I spend way to much on it.
62. Kelly and Izzak have gone hunting for the last 5 years but have never shot anything.
63. Izzak is a better shot then Kelly.
64. We own 2 cats named Milo and Berney (both named by Kelly).
65. Izzak has a hamster named Harry Potter.
66. I love to take pictures of the kids.
67. Kelly went to school to be an auto and deisel mechanic, but he is now a heavy equipment mechanic working on hydraulics.
68. Kelly has been told he needs to quit his job due to his back injury, but can't since he really doens't know how to do anything else.
69. Izzak wants to grow up and join the army and has told us this since he was 4.
70. He also wants to be a heavy equipment mechanic.
71. Madison says she is never going to grow up because she is always going to be my baby (sweet :) )
72. Kenzie thinks kids are to noisy and don't listen and says she doesn't want kids when she grows up, and says princesses don't have kids they are to busy.
72. Kenzies favorite color is pink, because it is a princess color.
73. Madisons is blue.
74. The boys like camo and insist it is a color, but its not?
75. I used to bake everyones birthday cakes and cookies every week.
76. Now that I work I don't like to enter the kitchen.
77. Madison can count to 10 in spanish and several other words she has learned because she has been obsessed with Dora the Explorer since she was 2.
78. I think she has every singing Dora doll there is and so much more.
77. I work in the staffing dept for Providence Medical Groups and work between 25 clinics.
78. A doctors office is a bad place for me to work because I am to paranoid.
79. Madison refers to the boys as the brothers.
80. Kelly never lived anywhere other then Portland growing up and only in 2 different houses.
81. Pheonix was the only place other then Portland he lived and that was for school for 2 years.
82. I am a navy brat and lived in 5 states including Hawaii, Midway Island, California, Oregon and Arizona.
83. Kelly only went to 3 different schools one for elementry, one for middle school and one for High school.
84. I went to 11 different schools.
85. I became an aunt when I was 7 and my nephew will be 22 this year.
86. Kenzie and Izzak both have asthma and acid reflux.
87. Joshua is the only one of my kids who has never had surgery.
88. Joshua wears bifocals for crossed eyes but never seems to keep them on for pictures.
89. Madison wore bifocals for the same reason when she was 2 until she had eye suregery and her eye dr says she did so well he should use her as an advertisement for great results.
90. Between my kids we see a Family Dr, and opthalmologist, a peds urologist and a peds gastrointerologist.
91. Izzak is learning disabled and has very poor memory skills.
92. Joshua has ADHD and drives me insane.
93. McKenzie is adored by all of her teachers who say she is like another adult in the classroom.
94. I already commented on Maddie being the class clown. She drives her teacher nuts and I wonder what will hapen if she every has any teachers who had Kenzie first, They will be in for a surprise!
95. I did well in school.
96. I did all of Kelly's english homework our senior year and he ended up with a better grade from the same teacher!
97. I am running out of ideas.
98. Right now we own 3 vehicles.
99. Kelly has told Izzak the 78 scout will be his when he is old enough to drive and Izzak tells everyone it is already his.
100. Izzak wants to be just like his daddy someday even at 11 he says this.

Hopefully people found this interesting. It is really hard to think of 100 things about your family like this.

Izzak again

 He is also having problems with his anxiety this time due to another student who is threatening him at school. He decided to tell us about it this week. Apparently this kid threatens to hit him and has hit and kicked him a couple of times and so far Izzak hasn't hit back surprisingly, it is frustrating. He says he tries to tell the teachers and all they say is okay so he doesn't feel like anyone there is willing to help him out. That is just not right. I know it gets harder in middle school and as they get older but with his problems he just doesn't need this! So I need to call the school apparently and speak to someone about talking to this kid or both boys as this kind of thing only makes his anxiety issues worse and we are having a lot of complaints from him about his tummy hurting and I really hate to see him like that.

I am going to try and get in touch with a peds pshychiatrist this week to get him in sometime to try and find ways of helping him cope a little better. I just think we need help to figure out how to help him with his stress or I am afraid at some point the pain in his stomach could really end up finding something physically wrong with him. Please pray that we are able to figure something out for him to feel better.

Possible resolution on the Izzak IEP front?

So I talked to the school for Izzak more specifically the ERC teacher (special ed) to find out what exactly they are doing/going to do for Izzak this year since so far nothing was being done. I was told that as of last week he would be pulled out of 2 classes, reading and language arts, which are his most difficult classes obviously and put in a special education classroom (maybe they have finally decided to do something?, hmm we will have to wait and see) also the ERC teacher was to speak to the teachers of his other classes and try to better explain his disabilities to them and what needs to be done/altered for him to be able to participate in their classes one being making copies of the overheads that they are supposed to be copying and giving him the copies so he is getting a copy and not having to try and copy it himself since he is not able to do that. Make sense to me but I was surprised that I was the one to bring this idea up and she had not thought of it! I mean if he has dyslexia how is he to be able to really read what is on the over head and then with his working memory disability how is he to be expected to copy what he can't read onto a piece of paper which gets to the next problem his disgraphia which means he has a writting disability (basically even if his mind knows what to do it doesn't know how to tell his hand to do it) Those 3 problems make that one activity pretty much impossible for him, hopefully giving him the copies will eliminate two of the issues and he will only be working with the dyslexia portion (which still is a major issue) but at least a little of the stress would be off of him. She is also supposed to explain to them that he needs more time and is not really able to do timed tests etc as like I said sometimes his brain doesn't know how to tell his hand to write things and it takes him a lot longer. Anyway I am pretty happy with the converstation mostly but a little aprehensive still and taking a wait and see approach to it since I know that these have been brought up before and so often it seems that "the plan" isn't always followed through as it should. I am still a little frustrated as it seems it has taken to long to get to this point in this school year as he has already gotten his first progress report for the year and he had mostly F's a couple of D's and an A in choir which is tells us he likes because there are a lot of girls in the class (thats my little man for you, he needs to stop growing up and liking girls!)
I should find out this week how all of the other kids are doing in school this week. They all have conferences on Wednesday to discuss how they are doing and you can be sure i will update on how they are doing as well. Thank you for reading and I will be back soon.
p.s. please remember to pray for Gage.

Please Pray

So I frequently visit several kids websites here in our area that are battling cancer or in remision etc. One of the kids who began with Ewings Sarcoma but has been off treatment for a little while now recently went in for regular follow up scans and blood work only to find that as a side effect of all the treatments for the first cancer he has now developed AML (a type of leukemia) Another mom Melanie who has a website for her daughter Kennedy emailed this message and it was posted on another childs website I am now posting so that anyone who reads this will also hear about Gage and pray for him also...

"I am sending this e-mail in hopes that heaven will be bombarded with prayer for this amazing little guy.
We met Gage through Emanuel Children's Hospital when he was battling Ewing's Sarcoma (a tumor type of cancer). Through very intensive chemotherapy and proton radiation (in Boston, Mass) he was able to beat his cancer and appeared to be getting back to the business of living. His family just found out today that he has developed a secondary cancer as a result of his treatment for Ewing's. This is every cancer parents nightmare and a terrible possibility that we all must face (for Kennedy, the big fear is brain tumors and other forms of leukemia). He was diagnosed with Acute Mylogenic Leukemia and if that wasn't enough, it is a chemotherapy resistant form leaving his family with no choice but to prepare for a bone marrow transplant in about a month. For a BMT to be possible, they must get him in to remission (no active sign of cancer), completely wipe out his bone marrow through chemo and total body radiation (meaning that without a donor it would NOT recover and his body would be unable to make any blood cells ever) and they must find a perfect match. Full-blooded siblings are the best chance someone has for a match and Gage is an only child. Please, please pray that a match is found, that they will be able to attain remission and that the BMT is a success. Also, prayers for protection, healing, strength and all the things you can imagine they are needing during this very difficult time.
My heart just aches with sadness for them tonight and my tears fall continuously. It would mean so much if you could take the time to stop by his website at:
www.caringbridge.com/visit/gage
and leave an encouraging message for them as they need it now more than ever.Feel free to pass on this information to others...you can never have enough prayer!
In His hands,Melenie www.courage4kennedy.com
"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway."John Wayne"

please keep Gage in your prayers....