Slime

Tonight Ellie & I went to the Science Theater with Missy and Clay (Ellie's boyfriend). We had a great time. This is usually an outing she has with her dad, so it was nice to have a peak into what they enjoy each month. Tonight's theme was Slime! It only costs $7 to get in and well worth it. They had several tables set up with all kids of different slim: snow goo, glow-in-the-dark slime, gel goo, oatmeal goo and on and on. Ellie & Clay have a lot of similarities, one of which is not getting their hands very dirty, so Missy & I had to take care of swishing up the goo, etc.!
I could kick myself for not having my camera tonight. I always have my camera. But tonight I came from Cleveland Court and Jeff brought Ellie to meet me at the mall (of course he didn't think to grab the camera.) Anyway, when we were walking in the mall we turned around and Ellie and Clay were holding hands. How sweet!!!
I got to volunteer in Ellie's class again this morning. I just love being there! I traced Turkey's and fixed a little spider book then got to participate in their reading station. It's so neat to be in there and see how it all runs like clockwork. Her teacher is so organized. It's also amazing to me how much they expect out of them as far as following directions on their own and even working independently at some stations. She is learning so much and really enjoying it. I'm glad that we made the decision to send her on to kindergarten!
Report cards came home today - All S's for Satisfactory. Apparently you don't get grades in Kindergarten.

Camping - Fall Creek Falls

My sweet kidos! I AM SO LUCKY!!

It was a little chilly - Fisher didn't know what I put on his hands!!

I am so far behind on my blog that I'm not sure where to start. Guess I'll start with last weekend and see where I end up! Ha. Anyway, went camping with both kidos last weekend at Fall Creek Falls with my mom's church family -- well, my family, too -- had a blast. Kids are so easy to entertain outside! When we first got there Ellie said, "I'm bored. There's nothing to do." Not two minutes later she was climbing on the bunk beds wondering what we were going to do next. It was quite chilly this weekend for our rustic cabin, but we toughed it out. The cabin had a little bit of electricity, enough for an electric blanket (THANK GOODNESS), but not enough for a space heater. But we stayed with the Clements and their kerosene heater :-). I didn't get much sleep for checking on Fisher all night, keeping his hat on and keeping him under the covers, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I had the smores all talked up with Ellie, but, unfortunately, as soon as we got to the fire to make them, the fire popped out an ash, one of the guys jumped up screaming like a baby (DAN), and scared the crap out of her. Anyway, from that point on she didn't want to have anything to do with the fire, which meant dry smores for her! So we'll have to try that again someday.

The best time was just spent out in nature on our walk down to the creek picking up leaves, acorns, grass, pinecones, etc. Oh, and playing with Arden was pretty high on the list, too. So glad she was there for Ellie to enjoy! They are turning out to be big buddies :-)

Halloween Party

This was Ellie's (and Fisher's) first Halloween party. It was so fun. We had lots of kidos eating hotdogs, cupcakes, playing games, doing craft, coloring and just running around the house playing. It was so fun to see everybody in their costume. Thankfully, Christy and Matt came dressed up so I wasn't the only adult in costume! I've dressed up every year with Ellie. I did it the first couple and now she demands it! This is definitely a tradition that we're going to have to continue on!!

In case you can't tell, Ellie is a ballerina witch and Fisher is THE HULK!

Good news

I got a call yesterday from Pfizer saying that Fisher's medication had been approved for another year!! - YEA! We got approved with BCBS last year in October for one year of his medication. Apparently we have to get it approved every year. I was already dreading having to do it, wondering what I was going to have to do to get it approved. Things are really getting easier for us in this regard. I just couldn't believe it was approved for another year and I didn't have to do anything!!! Wow. I'm not sure what all Pfizer does. I know they paid for his medication every month until we got it appoved, thank goodness, but it also looks like they keep looking after you. It's so nice to have something handed to us - you just don't know.
Also, we've finally paid Fisher's last medical bill - YEA! Good news all the way around. Now that should free up a little bit of money for us each month just in time for Christmas.
We've had a great weekend. It's so nice to be able to just do absolutely nothing but hang out at the house on Saturday. That seems to be the only day that we can do that. I made some food for Fisher, we decorated Ellie's Halloween Party Invitations and just played, played, played. Fisher is so much fun! He's really becoming quite a chatterbox. Of course, Ellie is still his favorite person :-)
Jeff and I are going to the Fireproof Movie tomorrow afternoon. Clear Creek rented out the theater and gave the tickets away. I'm really looking forward to it. It's supposed to be a great movie.
Can't wait for Desparate Housewives tomorrow night!!!!

Halloween

Yes, it's that time of year. It's definitely the Bryden Family's favorite Holiday. Ellie was so exctied about decorating this morning. The first thing she said when she got out of bed was, "where's the halloween boxes?" So we've spent the better part of the day unpacking all the boxes of stuff and convincing Ellie that our 6-foot mummy wasn't real. Tomorrow we'll do some more specific placement of items. It's still a mess here. Our living room looks like a Halloween shop!
Ellie & I are also trying to plan a Halloween party for her and Fisher. We thought about doing it last year, but since we went to Disney, that would have stressed me out too much. This year looks like it will work out. She loves Halloween as much as I do. Fisher is just going to have to love it, too - he's got no choice.
Ellie's cousin Allison came over to play tonight, too. That was so fun for the girls. We don't have kids up here to play very much and tonight just made me realize that we need to do it more often. They had a blast. Of course, I tried to stay out of the way and let them play, but Fisher wanted to be right where they were! We were playing in his room and he could hear the girls upstairs and couldn't stand it. He crawled right out of his room and up the stairs (with me right behind him, of course.) So needless to say, we were right in the middle of their fun, but they didn't seem to mind.

Please be patient

I'm trying to get my blog up and going, so you'll just have to be patient with me. Everybody is good. We finally went to the infectious disease doctor yesterday for Ellie and the doc said she thought that whatever Ellie has had the past 6 weeks was just coincidental and that's she thinks she's doing good now.

All her tests that Dr. Shumaker did were negative, thank goodness. She tested her for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, leukemia,, etc., all scary stuff, so we're glad to be free and clear of the doctors for a while. She's been basically symptom-free for two weeks, but I went ahead and kept the appt yesterday, b/c I knew if we didn't that Ellie would have a fever this morning. That's just the way our luck goes.

Kindergarten is going really great except that she doesn't like going every day. She hates that part of it so much that she was crying the other night. She says that she doesn't get to see/play with Fisher as much. How sweet is that? Other than that, she's got a great teacher that seems to like her a lot. Now, if she will just start eating her lunch at school we'll be in good shape.

Fisher is so much fun. He does the "Hulk" all the time, so, of course, that's what he's going to be for Halloween. Ellie is going to be a ballerina witch. She's also decided I'm going to be a witch! Ha!

Fisher is crawling everywhere now and is so cute to watch. He's starting to pull up on everything!! He's even cruising a little bit. Oh, that boy is going to get going real soon. He's also starting to say Ma-ma! Yea!!!! He's also finally getting a few signs down. He knows several, but he can now sign eat, milk, bath and one more I'm drawing a blank on. He seems to understand a lot of what we're saying, too. I can ask him if he wants to go outside and he crawls right to the door and gets all excited.

Work is good, but life is just too busy. Hopefully I'll get better about posting!
D

What's going on

Hey. Well, I've finally done it. I'm a blogger. Still not real sure what that means, but I'm doing it! Yea! Hopefully this will give my friends and family a way to keep up with what's going on in the Bryden family. I've missed journaling.

As most of you know, Ellie has been taking medicine for Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever and we're finally done with that. She got a clean bill of health from Dr. Shumaker on Monday. Unfortunately, she was complaining about her muscles in one of her legs again last night to the point of tears, so I'm still not sure what that means. I'm just going to monitor that for a few more weeks and then make another appt if it continues. I'm thinking it's probably just growing pains, but who knows?

Fisher, as well, got a clean bill of health on Monday from Dr. Shumaker. He is 24 lbs and 33 inches long - WOW! He's 18 months old already. I can't believe it. He also saw his endocrinologist and gastro doc last week both with good reports. He is also going to be switching from feeding therapy into more of a speech therapy and we're going to combine that with physical therapy and occupational therapy which means one appt a week now - Yea!! I know Mom is glad of that. I'm so thankful that she's able to take him to all his therapy appts. What would I do without her?

Ellie has started Kindergarten - YIKES! She is actually there right now about to get out. This is only her second phase-in day. She starts full time next week. I am so thankful that she's enjoying it. But what a schedule for us to get used to. I've been really fortunate that she'll eat breakfast at Mom's most mornings, but now we're having to do that and get out the door for school by 8! We'll get adjusted, I'm sure.