As part of our homeschooling routine, we review Greek and Latin roots each day. The boys have taken a shining to doing charades for our roots review. Here’s a sampling of the pantomiming that goes on every morning before lunch.
Arbor/Arboris (tree)
Centum (one hundred)
Caput/Capitis (head)
Dens/Dentis (teeth)
Mosey's Dens/Dentis interpretation-- showing where his tooth *was,* in any case.
Digitus (Finger, Toe, Inch)
Dormio/Dormitum (Sleep)
Duo (two)
Lithos (stone)
Luna (moon, although they like to give me the "loony" sign)
Necro (dead)
Pes/Pedis (foot)
Phobos (fear)
Syn (with, together)
Tres (three)
On a different note, Joseph had a rough day yesterday. He didn’t get his school work done until 10:45. And that would be in the P.M. But we had a good talk afterward, and I am hoping today will be a better day…
Mosey had a hard day. He had a cavity filled about 3 1/2 weeks ago, and it had been hurting him on and off since then. Yesterday he got hit (not hard) in the cheek and he came running to me in tears. I looked at it (or tried), and from my brief glance, it looked swollen, so I called the dentist. Sure enough, the dentist looked at it and it was infected. Since it was a baby tooth, he extracted it right then and there. It was a little more than he bargained for. I think the dentist didn't give him quite enough numbing medicine, because when he was pulling it, I could tell by Mosey's body language that it was hurting him. But Mosey is one tough kid. By the time we were in the car driving home, however, he was crying hard.
I gave him tylenol and lay with him in bed and watched a Scooby Doo DVD. Scooby Doo fixes a lot of things. :-)
After the tylenol kicked in, he was fine, and ready to work on his K'nex rollercoaster that we've been whittling away at for a few weeks.
Poor Mosey, after the numbing medicine, before extraction, watching Sponge Bob. He looks a little worried.
Connecting the last bit of track.
All done! Well, nearly. We still have to connect 260 links of chain, but then it will be done. His poor mouth is still swollen, but he hasn't complained about it since earlier this afternoon.
The boys had a friend over today. This friend knows about all kinds of free internet game sites. Unfortunately they are absolutely useless, mind-numbing games. Look how zombified they all are, when only one of them is even playing!
I let them play for a while today (last day of vacation), but I warned them that starting tomorrow, those games are banned until the weekend. They are exactly the same as T.V. which is banned from our house entirely. Maybe I'll ban those games entirely. There are lots of fun educational games to be found online!
I'm looking forward to the moaning and groaning when they realize I am serious.
Amidst all the holiday fun last week, I got shingles. Merry Christmas to me! :-)
Here is how Buzzle.com describes it:
Shingles is a sister disease of chickenpox and is more annoying in nature. (Editorial note: I agree.) Shingles (also known as Zoster) is a medical condition in which painful blisters are developed on the skin. Zoster is caused by a virus ‘Varicella Zoster Virus’ (VZV) that also causes chickenpox in humans. Any person who has had chickenpox in childhood is at the highest risk of developing Shingles disease.
If a person develops chickenpox, even after recovering from the disease, remains of the VZV virus still remain dormant in the patient’s body for the rest of his/her life. Shingles disease is also considered as revisiting chickenpox disease, which surfaces once the required conditions for the disease are met such as: patient is under stress or his/her immune system is damaged (certain medical conditions/disease cause significant damage to patient’s immune system such as AIDS (another editorial note: Also bone marrow transplantation-- 1/3 of all transplant patients develop shingles)) which gives way to the virus to attack the nervous system of the patient. As it is chickenpox re-surfacing (shingles), it becomes more painful than its sister disease chickenpox that keeps annoying the patient even after the patient gets rid of the painful blisters.
Fun, right?
The rash develops along the nerve line, in my case from the middle of my back, around my side, and across my abdomen to my belly button. It's really ugly. I showed the boys ("Boys! Do you want to see something really disgusting?" "YES!"), and Joseph asked me if I was going to take a picture and post it on my blog. Um, no. I'm not interested in recording the horror for my posterity. You can look up images on google, if you want. Although I don't know why you'd want to. Mine is worse than any I saw on Google, for what its worth. Hey, whatever I do, I do it right! What kind of perfectionist would I be if I didn't? :-)
Actually, the poor souls who get it on their face and eyes are the absolute worst off. I can't even imagine.
The good thing is that I have some degree of numbness from my ribcage down, and it would definitely be more painful if I had full sensation. Go M.S. Oh, wait, if it weren't for M.S. I wouldn't have this disease. Oh, well. :-) It should clear up in 3-4 more weeks, so it's not forever.
So, in lieu of a picture, here is an internet diagram of the course of the disease.
Well, Christmas is over, New Years is over, and lessons start up again this week. I suppose that means the holidays are really over for another year. Time to put away the Christmas decorations. I love Christmas! I wish we could keep everything up all year long. Maybe I should wait until 12th night-- that would be Wednesday, right? I think that's a very good idea. :-)
The past four days the boys and I have been doing some big reorganization projects. The introduction of the organ to our household has necessitated quite a lot of shifting in order to make it fit into the limited space of our house. You know those sliding puzzles with the little numbered square pieces that can slide up or over in the frame-- there is one blank square in the frame, and somehow with that blank square, you have to move the pieces around in order to get the pieces in order? I feel like that's been our house this last week! In order to fit the organ into our bedroom, we had to move the big dresser. In order to move the dresser, I had to remove all the contents of the drawers and put them in the other dresser. In order to do that, I had to remove the contents of *that* dresser (the boys' clothes), and put them in dressers in their rooms. In order to do that, we had to move Mosey's big white dresser up into his room, the big dresser from our room into Brigham's room, the two smaller dressers (which had to be unloaded--they were filled with my photography backdrops and such-- onto another set of shelves of which we in turn had to consolidate the contents onto some other existing shelves) from Brigham's room into Joseph's room. In order to do *that,* we had to move the desk in Joseph's room down to our room. In order to do that, I had to move the game shelf from one side of our room to the other. Then, in order to put up the new bookshelves into our living room, we had to unload the old bookshelves, and move those now-empty shelves up into Joseph's and Brigham's rooms, and then, of course, assemble the new bookshelves, a project which took several hours due to my limited mobility.
Anyway, you get the picture. I *think* we're all done now. The boys clothes I believe are now all upstairs in their own dressers. They are all now going to be responsible for their own laundry! We'll see how that turns out. The big boys are big enough to do it on their own now-- they can reach down into the washer to transfer into the dryer. Mosey may still need some help.
It's taking a big leap of faith for me, and a big relinquishment of my OCD tendencies (the boys folding their own clothes?! What if they don't do it right?!). But it will be a huge burden off my shoulders if they can take care of their own laundry.
Of course, the problem with reorganization, is that it serves to highlight how *much* more there is in our house in need of organization! I don't go upstairs much, but I've been up there a few times over the last several days. The bookshelves and DVD shelves in Brigham's room are in a state that is going to give me hives if I think about it too much. The food storage in Joseph's closet is going to give me nightmares. It's just all piled in there! Our camping gear is randomly stacked up along the wall in Brigham's room. It needs a home! This is one of those times when my M.S. really, really annoys me. I'm itching to go up there and get it all in order, but I just cannot do it.
Still, it's pretty fun to get everything moved around and (hopefully) working well in our home. I always think if I can get well-enough organized, my life will suddenly run like a well-oiled machine. I'll have time to take care of all the unfinished projects in my life, AND sleep. It probably won't work exactly like that, but it can't hurt, right?
Here is our card from this year. My boys (all of them!) were so helpful and cooperative in helping me put this together. This year's was a little complicated because I had to digitally combine the separate pictures of each of us, with the pictures of the JOY blocks (which are 4-6 inches tall in reality). Lots of Photoshop work. But I am happy with how it turned out.
Here is the front:
And this is the back.
As I was working on the card on the computer, Mosey came and tapped me on the shoulder and wanted me to take a picture of *his* Christmas card that he designed. These are all his Webkinz. I thought he was very creative! So I printed out several of these and included them in the cards I sent to grandparents and cousins. Maybe Mosey will design our card next year!
And here is the letter we included:
Click to see it bigger in case you don't have microscopic vision!
Our Christmas Eve and Christmas were sweet and simple.
Last week the boys and I made and delivered 19 loaves of the Christmas braided bread I make every year (and I still have 5 more I need to make and deliver!), and I got all of our Christmas cards addressed, stamped, and mailed off, so I was pretty busy. Ben and I finished up our Christmas shopping on Tuesday night. Christmas Eve morning I took Mosey to a couple of stores to finish up his shopping for his brothers, and Ben took Brigham and Joseph on a hunt for the perfect present for Mosey. It took them 3 stores and about 2 hours, but they got it!
I made my last 5 loaves of bread, and we all went to deliver them, and then to HEB for our annual shepherds dinner shopping. I love doing this! It had been raining all afternoon and got pretty cold, so it was feeling very wintry and festive.
At home, Ben made dinner and I helped the boys get all of their presents wrapped. Ben made chicken caesar salad and warmed up rolls and we drank egg nog and Martinellis, and then we began our Christmas program.
The boys all played a couple of Christmas songs on the piano, and I played a few on my violin.
Mosey played "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" which he'd been working on all month.
Joseph played "Gesu Bambino" (his recital song), and "Stars Were Gleaming" from the Children's song book.
Brigham played "Go Tell it On the Mountain" (his recital song), and "Picture a Christmas" from the Children's song book.
Ben played a medley of carols from the hymn book.
Brigham and Mosey listened very reverently, as you can see.
At least Mister was attentive.
I played "O Come, O Come Immanuel," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and "O Holy Night."
Then it was time for our Nativity pageant. We have not done this in the past. I've read the Christmas story from the bible, we've done a little play using figures from our nativity scene, and even done a puppet show. But I really wanted to act it out in a real pageant like I did when I was a kid. I didn't think the boys would go for it, but I decided to do it anyway. I even bought a couple of extra bathrobes so we'd have the right costumes.
I was so surprised and really happy about how it went. The boys were so excited to get dressed up and act in the scenes. I played Mary, Ben was Joseph, and the boys were shepherds, an angel, and the wisemen in different scenes. The boys were reverent and serious, and when it was over, they wanted to do it again! Joseph told me he wanted to do more plays like this. I was so pleased. I didn't want to interrupt the flow of the play by taking pictures, so I only got pictures at the end, when the boys were dressed up as wise men. Next year I'll have to take pictures of them in their shepherds costumes, too. They looked great!
Me and Ben as Mary and Joseph. I'm sure Joseph wore robes just like that. :-)
Mary and the three wise men carrying their gifts. We discovered that using belts to keep the turbans on, as well as the shepherds' head coverings worked great.
Brigham the wise man.
Then the boys donned their PJ's, and we had our dance party! (You know, just to wire them up a little *more* before bed...)
This is the same song that I posted a video for last year. We did listen to other songs, but it's fun to watch this one, and then the one from last year.
Finally, bed time came. We thought they could all sleep in the same room, which they frequently do anyway, and which I always did growing up. I have many fond memories of whispering excitedly with my sisters late into the night, being unable to sleep for anticipation, and then waking up well before dawn, and counting down the hours (it seemed!) until my dad would come and get us out of our room. However, the boys' evening was not so idyllic. They hadn't been in their room for 5 minutes before fighting broke out. I don't even know what it was about. Someone wouldn't lay still, or was making weird noises, or something like that. We talked to them and tried to work it out, but soon it became clear that they could not stay in the same room. I was pretty annoyed. Could they not get along for ONE night, on Christmas Eve?? Apparently not. So they separated rooms, and then all was quiet. They were instructed not to make a sound or come out of their room until 8:00. Then they could start singing Christmas songs and we'd get up.
Then Ben and I began the massive present-wrapping project. Again, I thought that one of the big reasons parents may want to encourage Santa belief, is that it gets them out of wrapping lots of presents! :-) I did the majority of my shopping via Amazon this year, so I had a gigantic pile of boxes and packaging stacked up against the wall in my room by the time we were done.
I also discovered a very effective method of torture for perfectionists like myself. Force me to watch Ben wrap presents, and very soon I'll be begging for mercy. Is is agonizing to watch. Ben's parents did an absolutely wonderful job in raising Ben in so many ways, but boy did they ever fail in leaving Ben with any kind of present-wrapping skills at all. :-) I'll leave the details to your imagination, but I will say that he used *at least* twice as much paper as he needed to for each present, and he used up an *entire* roll of tape for about 4 presents. I kept wondering if he was doing it on purpose, but he really wasn't! I finally told him it was too painful for me, and I needed to finish the present-wrapping myself. :-)
We finished everything up around 2:00 AM, and then went to sleep.
8:00 came very soon, and we heard a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells" coming from upstairs. We made the boys wait even long while we got dressed. This year, we set out the presents in the play room to keep our living room a little less cluttered, and also so the boys couldn't peek over the balcony and see everything (not that there was too much to see since almost everything was wrapped). Before we gave them the go-ahead to come down, Ben started off the morning excitement by playing several Christmas carols on our biggest Christmas surprise:
An organ!! Ben found this absolutely wonderful organ on Craigslist for an incredible steal. Like, much less than 1/10 of what it would have cost to buy a similar used organ from a dealer.
We let the boys open a couple of presents each before eating breakfast (one of my braided breads and the sugar-cereal of the kids' choice-- Brigham got Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Joseph got Chocolate Pocketinis, and Mosey got Fruity Pebbles).
Then it was time for present-opening in earnest. Here were some of the highlights:
Joseph and Mosey both got new bikes (Brigham already had a new one).
Mosey got a leopard gecko! This was the present Brigham and Joseph shopped for on Christmas Eve with Ben. It turns out that Spots (the one we already had) is a girl! So the boys decided they wanted to get a male to keep her company. He's a good looking little dude, which the boys named T-rex.
Brigham got new blocks (yes, more). They are architectural blocks with columns and arches and things.
Joseph and Brigham got the Power of Three Warriors series, and Joseph finished the first book in 2 days.
Mosey got his remote control tarantula, which I was tempted not to buy after his shenanigans at Target, but I did anyway, and he loves it.
My mom got us a set of handbells, and I gave each of the boys a recorder, so along with the organ, we've had lots of music (or at least noise) in our house recently.
All 3 boys got a new Nerf Marauders sword. We've already had an injury and near-fist-fight because of them. Ahh, the peaceful life of boys.
Binoculars! We got them each a pair of really nice binoculars. They're really nice and they better not break them.
Joseph got Brigham a matchbox car and a giant sparkly bouncy ball. He got Mosey the gecko as well as 2 cool matchbox cars. He got me lotion.
Brigham got Joseph a blue sea dragon that will go well with their other knights and dragons, and went in with Joseph for the gecko. He got me a new calendar.
Mosey got Joseph a Hexbug remote control inchworm, which Joseph has really had fun with and which I really, really hope does not break, and got Brigham a giant box of Junior Mints, a set of mechanical pencils, and white-out. He got me 2 toothbrushes.
The boys got Ben new cologne and a canister filled with dried fruit and nuts that he can take to work for snacks.
There were lots of other really nice things, as well. The boys have lots of thank you notes to write now. :-)
Joseph sitting amidst the Christmas chaos.
After present-opening, Ben went to take a nap, and the boys got started building their giant Christmas tree city.
When Ben woke up, he joined in the fun.
Mosey played with his Tarantula, harnessing it to pull a train with soldiers around the "city."
Chrissy hid behind the Christmas tree, a little confused at all the activity.
Finally, it was time to get our shepherds dinner ready. We turned off all the lights, except for a few Christmas twinkle lights, candles, and the fire in our fireplace. We had our usual dried fruit, nuts, cheese, flat bread, roasted lamb (did shepherds eat lamb??), and fruit juices. I made a pear tart for dessert, although Joseph protested that real shepherds did not eat pear tarts. I figured they were a lot more likely to eat pear tart than the dried papaya in our fruit bowl. :-)
Brigham donned his shepherd's costume to really get into the spirit.
Mosey and Joseph were total pyromaniacs. Ben and I had to keep yelling at them to keep the burning sticks *in* the fireplace, and not to carry them around. Joseph made an incredible mess playing with candle wax. He got melted candle wax all over the table, which, when it dried, was really hard to get off! (Thanks for getting it all off, Ben!)
And finally, it was time for bed. Another Christmas, over!!
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And the angle came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with the: blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.
And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. For with God nothing shall be impossible.
And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call has name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house and lineage of David); To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasured, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
So I accidentally elbowed Mosey while he was holding one of our tall glasses (thankfully empty). I knocked it out of his hands and it shattered on the floor. Another cup bites the dust. :-)
So that is our 3rd thing to fall and break in 2 days. That means we should be clear for a while, right?
So here are the pictures I took the other night. It got hard to take good pictures toward the end because it was so dark and my zoom lens is pretty cheap (anyone want to give me a 30-300 mm lens for Christmas? It's only $2,500... :-)). I guess sometimes the moon turns red during an eclipse. I didn't notice any tint here, but it was still cool.
Eclipse progression, full to just about gone (click to see bigger)
You're supposed to look at this one zig-zag--L-R on the top, R-L in the middle and L-R again on the bottom.
Mosey laying on the front walkway with his blanket and pillow. Gotta love these balmy Texas nights. It was probably 65 degrees.
The boys stayed up to watch the lunar eclipse last night. I made the mistake and told them about it before hand. I should have just made them go to bed and then woken them up when it started. Lesson learned! They went to bed at 9:00, but then they couldn't fall asleep because of the excitement (I had no idea a lunar eclipse would elicit the kind of anticipation that it did...). *I* fell asleep, but at midnight the boys came down and woke me up. So we watched it until it was fully dark, and then everyone went to bed. It was going to be another 2 hours until it was visible, and clouds were passing by overhead, so there was no guarantee it would still be visible by the time the shadow moved off the moon.
So they didn't get to bed until after 2:00. I'm either the coolest mom for letting them do this, or the worst mom for letting them do this. I'm not sure which. They just *better* remember it for the rest of their lives! :-)
They slept in until about 9:30 which is 2 hours past normal, but still not nearly enough sleep for them. It showed, too.
Brigham was washing dishes, and had just finished with my nice frying pan and lid. He asked me where it goes, and swung around with the pan and the lid on top of it. As he swung around, the glass lid flew off the pan, landed on our tile floor and shattered into a million pieces. I just sat there in shock for a second and then said, "Back carefully out of the kitchen, Brigham, and then get me the broom." He looked pretty appalled. After it got all cleaned up I said, "I'm not mad Brigham, as long as you can tell me what you learned from this." He said, "I learned to be careful and to hold the pan and the lid separately." OK, very good. Poor kid.
Just a few minutes later, Joseph was feeding the crickets (which we keep to feed Spots, our leopard gecko). "Somehow," without warning and for absolutely no reason, according to Joseph, the lid, containing the 4 cylinders where the crickets spend most of their time, the lid just "popped off" the cage, and landed on the floor, scattering crickets everywhere.
Sigh...
Crickets are a lot harder to clean up than broken glass, although a whole lot cheaper than that lid will end up costing (I think I'll have to buy a whole new pan). Most of the damage was done in the playroom, which is currently covered in legos and blocks, so I couldn't even get in there and help (legos and blocks and wheelchair wheels don't mix). I think most of the crickets were somehow rounded up, but I'm expecting to see a few hopping around for the next few days.
Anyway, they're all in bed now and I'm hoping they'll sleep in a bit again tomorrow morning.
The eclipse *was* cool (especially since it was on the night of winter solstice--the first time this has happened since 1638--how cool is that?!), and I took a lot of pictures. Haven't uploaded them yet, though. I'm still recovering from the late night. At least the next total lunar eclipse visible in North America won't be until 2014.
I am a Christian, a wife, mother, homeschool teacher, perfectionist, night-owl, reader, conservative, photographer, and a lot more.
I have 3 boys-- 11 year old twins named Joseph and Brigham, and a 9-year-old named Moses.
I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2005. I went from a 30-mile-a-week runner to being mostly wheelchair-bound in 2 years. In 2008 I was accepted into the HALT-MS study-- a clinical trial in which I underwent an autologous stem cell transplant (bone marrow transplant) in an attempt to put the disease into remission. So far, I have remained stable for more than four years!
I am grateful every day for the new lease on life that God (and modern medicine and awesome doctors, but mostly God :-)) has granted to me, and the chance I have to teach and raise my boys, love my husband, and experience the joy, frustration, happiness, and heartache that life brings.
