Cricut craft day!

Yesterday was Cricut craft day at our house. What is a Cricut you ask? A cricut is an electronic personal cutter! AKA the most amazing crafting tool ever! I have the original Cricut Expression personal cutter, since I bought my machine four years ago they have released a Cricut Mini which is a smaller and simpler machine and also the Cricut Expression 2 which is a new and updated version of the Cricut Expression. The Expression 2 also comes in a few different colors. I love to use my Cricut for paper crafting, scrap booking,card making, and even vinyl letters, shapes and such.

What inspired Cricut craft day is the lack of Thanksgiving decorations available in the commercial stores these days. We happen to think that Thanksgiving is a very noteworthy holiday here in the Abbay household and feel that decorations are an easy simple daily reminder of the holiday itself as well as everything that we have to be thankful for. So of course I started browsing Pinterest for awesome homemade decoration ideas and although I am no Martha Stewart I can craft with the best of them. So on our outing to Joann's and Micheal's the "staple" crafting stores here in town, the kids and I picked up all the necessary supplies to make a "Happy Thanksgiving" banner.

With all the supplies and my trusty Cricut I set out on a mission. I used the Celebrations cartridge in my Cricut to cut out the triangle banner base, set on 7". Then I used the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge to cut out the letters for HAPPY THANKGIVING, set at 2.75" and all capital letters. I used the Accent Essentials cartridge for the background leaves in various sizes and combinations. To tie it all together I just used some orange bakers twine from the pack I picked up a Micheal's and Ta-Da! we have a neat, easy,and simple, Thanksgiving banner.

Can I just say again how much I LOVE my Cricut?!?! Ron loves my Cricut too. I've cut him vinyl letters out for his hard hat at work, or shall I say hard hats and probably about 15 of his friends hard hats as well. The cricut machine is one of the things in our household that if it broke tomorrow we would go out and buy another right away. Not so much teh blender, waffle maker, popcorn popper, or microwave, but the Cricut, I'd have a spankin new one the same day. I highly recommend any level of crafter investing in a Cricut. It is going to be priceless for all of our school projects in the upcoming years.

IEP, 123, ABC

We got through our IEP meeting! Another weight lifted off my shoulders! Now just to take what they wrote and what we want and put them together to make an awesome education plan for Ronnie. 

I am very excited for Ms. Jones to be Ronnie's teacher. She seems very excited to work with Ronnie and assured me that she thinks we can meet our goal of Ronnie going to kindergarten IEP free. The occupational therapist (who's name I can't remember.) seems like she is on the same page as Ms. Christine our current occupational therapist. I think that this preschool is going to be a great fit for Ronnie. 

Lately we have been trying to ignore all of the Christmas decorations and such that have been plaguing the store since early October and teach the children more about Thanksgiving. After surviving the IEP meeting and getting a little rest in we went to pick Evee up from school and headed to the craft store to pick up some supplies to make some homemade Thanksgiving decorations. W got stuff to make felt  turkeys and supplies to make a Thanksgiving banner kind of like this.

This is my project for Sunday while the kids make the felt turkeys. I refuse to start decorating for Christmas this early. The children need to know the meaning of Thanksgiving. They need to be thankful for the things that they have, for the freedom of our country, for the basic freedoms that we take advantage of everyday. At our house Thanksgiving is a big deal.

Today I am thankful for...

Today I am very thankful for therapy days and getting 45 minutes of quiet time that I can sit and ponder things. There happen to be quite a few things that I am thankful for, not just today but everyday.

1. I am thankful for my family. Ron, the kids, my mom, dad, sister and brother. 

I learn new things from the kids everyday. Now smart they are, how much they care, even though they are a challenge they challenge our lives for the better. Ron, because things are a challenge everyday with life, our kiddos, Ronnie's needs and everything else we deal with but we continue to grow and learn about each other and life every single day. My family because they always sick by me and get me through the tough stuff, and that they always stand by me through the good stuff as well. For always being supportive, loving, and caring. 

2. That we have the means to make the life that we want. 

I'm thankful that we both have great jobs and love what we do and that we are able to provide each other and the children with the life that we want. I'm thankful that we have the means to get Ronnie  the help that he needs in therapy and school. I am thankful that we both get to work at night so that we can spend time with the kids when they are awake and home. 

3. I am thankful for hot food on cold days and warm clothes when its raining.

 I urge you to clan out your closets this season and donate the clothes you no longer want or wear, not to goodwill, but take the time to find a shelter, hospital, nursing home, somewhere in need of clothing. Don't donate last years cocktail dress, stilettos, or other items of the like. Donate that sweater you don't wear or doesn't fit. Donate that pair of jeans that doesn't fit you just right but you hold on to. Someone out there doesn't have the warm clothing that you do. 

I am thankful for so much more than I could ever put in to words. I am thankful for thanksgiving and down right irritated that I can't find any thanksgiving decorations at the stores to decorate our house with the kids, I am more than outraged by stores being open for shopping on thanksgiving day! The people who have to work at those stores on thanksgiving day have families who I am sure they would rather be with. I know. I worked retail for a few years. 

So before you go out there and shop on thanksgiving day, stop, think about all you're thankful for and have already. You do not need to rush out and buy a cheap tv, or an iPod, or a Barbie doll. You have a much to be thankful for already. Take the day and express how thankful you are to your family. Whether it be with a meal, a card, or a phone call from far away, let it be known what you are thankful for. 

Helping out a friend and karma in a good way

In August I accepted a new position at work. One that would take me off call and onto a regular set schedule. At our hospital when you work on call you get paid 15% more a hour in lieu of benefits and paid time off. Well two weeks ago I got a call from our HR department saying that when I accepted my new position they forgot to take that extra 15% off and that I have been getting paid extra for the last oh almost two months and I would need to pay it back. 

Well bam that puts a smack right in our holiday! Just about $700 I owed them back for something that wasn't my fault nor did I have any control over. You can believe that this left me fuming! But oh, that's ok, payroll has decided that they will take it out over the next 4 pay periods for you. Awesome! All 4 checks right before the holidays yay!  I contacted my union representative and put her on the issue because she agreed with me that it wasn't fair to make me pay back another persons mistake. More on this later.....

Another friend at work has a son who has some heart problems and will be heading to Southern California later this month so that he can undergo his second valve replacement surgery. I have organized a fundraiser for their family and a gift basket for him to help keep him busy during the month long stay. Our fellow employees have gotten together and donated a nice sum of money to help them out with costs while they are down there, as well as donated some paid time off to her so once she used all of hers she will have more paid time off instead of unpaid. I have put together the most awesome gift basket with Legos and games and such for her son all donated by fellow employees and myself. Right now I'm working on a hospital gown for him to wear during his stay to put in the basket. 

More on my work issue...yesterday I got a call from an HR manager acknowledging that it was their mistake for the error and that the one payment that I made to pay back the money was they only one I would be responsible for and that the next three would be forgiven and that I would not have to pay them another dime back towards it! So yay!!!! This made my entire day better. 

I am a firm believer in karma of all kinds and that the universe works in all ways. This just goes to show that its true!

Therapy, neurologist, a sleep study, I'm surprised I still have hair.

Things have been rather rough at our house lately. It seems that as Ronnie gets a little bit older our days are full of different struggles. Some of the new things we are dealing with are screaming, bitting, hitting, latching on to things, all out refusing to do things, especially eating. 

Everyday is such a hit and miss with how it's going to go that each one isn't a bit like the day before. A few months ago the OT and I talked about a sleep study to see if he is really sleeping well when he sleeps. So yesterday we went back to Mary Bridge neurology to consult on the sleep study and saw a wonderful neurologist named Dr. Makari. I was very impressed with the way that he listened to me and didn't brush off the things that I was saying. He did agree with me that a sleep study was a good next step for us and referred us to the sleep clinic. 

Now it's more hurry up and wait for the appointment while they collect everything they need from various Dr.'s that we have seen along the way. But as soon as they get those records we can get our appointment on the books!

In the mean time let's just hope I don't lose all of my hair! I have to remember that we will get there in the end and we are very lucky to be where we are today. 

It also helps that we live I. Such a beautiful state! Look at this picture I took on my way home from work the other morning, its simply breath taking. I love the cotton candy clouds of sun rides and sun sets in the PNW. Oh and a cute picture of the munchkin. 

Playing catch up...

To catch up the last two weeks happenings, Ronnie’s SPIO came in the mail on Tuesday and he hasn’t taken it off since then but to wash it one day. I find that it has been helping him sleep at night and he has even taken a nap a few days this week! So I think that so far it has been helpful. He did take it off again tonight so that I could wash it. I’m not sure that it’s really going to last for a year if he wears it all day everyday though. 

 On Halloween I made an appointment to take my car in to get some work done and when Ron picked me up we decided to stop at Truck Town and test drive a new truck. We’ve been talking about buying a new truck for him for a while, one that would actually fit our entire family. Come to find out that a bunch of people that my dad used to work with now work at truck town. The first trucks that we look at are Dodges and although we like the way they look they are really small inside. Then they showed us a GMC and it was very nice and roomy, so nice in fact Ron decided he wanted to take it for a test drive. He then liked it so much and liked the deal that they threw at us so much he decided to buy it. So we have a new truck now. It was so cute when we picked Evee up from school that day her and Ronnie had a cute conversation.

Ronnie- Evee we went to truck town today!

Evee- Wow! Was there a lot of trucks there?

Ronnie- Yeah! And a lot of cars too!

Trick or treating went very well this year. We went to our usual housing development and ended up with a bucket full of candy and saw tons of cool costumes. The kids even took a picture with an awesome minion costume. We all went home that night tired and ready for bed.