Long Overdue

Where do I begin? 

 April, instead of bringing showers, it brought us Shriners Maple Sugar Bowl banquets!

The first one for the football players...

and the second was for the cheerleaders and band members.

Taylor was on cloud 9. Ashtyn was pretty excited too but obviously a tad jealous.

We cured that, at least temporarily by the beginning of May when we went back to Springfield Mass for the 

Melha Shriners Circus!

 

And we had a blast!

The girls of course had to stalk the clowns ;) 

CLOWN LOVE <3 nbsp="" p="">

"Fix It"

June came along and brought with it A HOME! We finally FINALLY have a home again! In between moving and unpacking and running around like a bunch of crazy people, we snagged a few moments to go out and have fun as a family ;)

The day after we bought the house was our annual Shrine On Springfield walkathon for Shriners Hospitals. It was a much smaller group this year due to the multiple graduations that were happening that day as well as 3 different alumni "happenings" and parades but we still raised $1733 for Shriners Hospital in Springfield and we had a fun time doing it. "Fix It" even came up from Mass for our little shindig and made the girls' day ;)

Then it was back to craziness.......

July (and especially Grammy) brought us a trip to Old Orchard Beach Maine......

.....and then sent us to see TAYLOR SWIFT! 

Which was an experience I can't say I ever want to relive. The show itself was fine, good even, but getting into Gillette Stadium was stupid! Then the first 30 or so employees we dealt were so beyond idiotic and down right mind numbing....... its no wonder some people just go postal. Wow! Luckily we met a few employees who had common sense, personalities and were completely down right awesome and turned our (or at least my) anger into a fun time. Liv, Auntie Momma and Boss Man, you guys saved the day ;)

We got a little soaked....... but all in all they enjoyed their first concert.

But if I ever even think about going to a place......

that seats 60,000 people again....someone slap me please!

Then it was time for another Sugar Bowl event............. the Golf Tournament. Ashtyn got to drive a golf cart at the country club and decided that was "the best thing EVER".

And then came the crowning of the King and Queen at the pre-game banquet last Friday

followed by the Saturday parade..............

 and THE GAME!!!!

 Tayt and her buddy Dan

We then all got a little R and R when the girls spent this past week visiting our Lakes Region family. Jeremy and I got to dust off our motorcycles and finally ride them. And the girls had their days filled with all the usual Chaos and Mayhem type fun.... Making trips to see some "Tabbies", heading to Maine for another adventure in Old Orchard, feeding reindeer and visiting with Santa up at Santa's Village, camping, baking, shopping, bubbles, bicycles and having a blast. 

I don't know about you but I'm exhausted just thinking about all of this ;) 

That's all I've got for now but there's plenty more to come........

Mayhem's New Armie "Pink Dora"

Taylor, Ashtyn, my Mom, my Aunt Lisa and I went down to Springfield MA Thursday night to beat the snow and ice storm that was heading our way and ensure we would make it there for Taylor's appointments at Shriners Hospital on Friday. I can honestly say my girls were never so excited to see a hotel room or tub.

We stayed at the Comfort Inn and Suites. My mom went with a suite, as you can see from the enormous tub, and made Ashtyn's night Thursday as the 4 of us bigger people put on our bathing suits and sat in the bubble filled hot tub while Taylor was snoring away. Ashtyn was pretty excited to have some focus-on-ME time. In the morning Taylor was able to splash and play in the tub with big sister and the girls had a blast. Then we filled our tummies with waffles, sausage and yogurt before heading over to Shriners hospital to pick up Taylor's new "PINK DORA" Armie.

Almost as soon as we arrived at the O&P depatment, my thoughts were confirmed.....  My Aunt Lisa's friend, "Big Lisa", gave Taylor a pink Dora dress. No one knew or had any idea that it was almost the exact fabric that Taylor was having put onto her newest Armie.

The only differences between the fabrics are her Armie is darker pink with slightly darker flowers and Dora's hair is more rounded than it is on the fabric of her dress. It was so awesome to see that dress. It couldn't have been more perfect. Taylor was so excited.

I still can not get over how much bigger this Armie is. When we were down for her fitting 2 weeks ago we were actually debating wether or not it was time for a new one. Seeing the old one and new one together pretty much confirmed that it was in fact time.

But the day did not end here.....

We also dropped off our current pile of Tabs For Taylor.

(don't laugh at my swollen face....i had my jaw cut open the morning before this and yes its very swollen and not so comfy)

And then the surprises continue too......

Little Miss Mayhem's Armie is set up to operate not only her hook hand via figure of 9 harness, which is what and how she has been using it since July of last year, but it also has Li'l EZ hand (the one that opens and closes...kind of the exact opposite of the hook hand......she used to have this hand on her green and purple zigzag armie). This hand can be operated with a different cable and harness. AND.....AND......Taylor received the Anchor System!!!!!!!!

For those who do not know about the Anchor System...........

(this article is from SingleHandedSolutions  and Springfield Shriners Blog)

"Debra A. Latour, M Ed, OTR/L, has worked at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Springfield, Mass for 13 years. Before she was employed by the hospital, she was a patient. Her parents sought treatment at Shriners when she was a toddler for an upper limb deficiency.

For many years, Debi used the traditional body-powered prosthesis which is activated by a figure-of-eight or a figure-of-nine harness system, using the opposite shoulder as the power source. Many users of this system complain of discomfort from the harness, typically the rubbing on the skin by the harness, asymmetry of the shoulders, pain in the opposite shoulder area, difficulty while performing tasks with both limbs, and diminished physical appearance. When Debi began to experience her own problems with the usual harness system, she relied on her 30 years of experience to solve her issues.

As a Senior Occupational Therapist, Debi knows exactly how to help patients develop skills needed to live as independently as possible and to help improve the quality of their lives. In an effort to achieve these goals for patients with an upper limb deficiency, she invented a new and improved way of harnessing a body-powered prosthesis called the Ipsilateral Scapular Cutaneous Anchor system (the “Anchor”). Her design eliminates the usual harnessing, often a source of complaint and one reason why children reject prostheses.

Debi submitted a paper on the “Anchor” to the American Academy of Orthotists & Prosthetists which was accepted for presentation at the 2011 Annual Meeting & Scientific Symposium in Orlando, FL. Presentations such as this serve to inform professionals in the community of new and creative solutions in treatment and also promote Shriners Hospitals for Children as a center of innovation and excellence in treatment, research and education.

While attending the symposium, Debi was interviewed by a reporter for O&P Business News. She provides a wonderful account of how her invention and her blog, Single-Handed Solutions, materialized."

THIS ANCHOR SYSTEM HAS BEEN ONLY AVAILABLE TO SHRINERS HOSPITALS PATIENTS!

Until now! 

Debi has been granted sole license to market and manufacture this system and it is now available to everyone. It can be purchased directly from Single-Handed Solutions, LLC. For more information, contact Debi Latour at LatourAnchor@gmail.com

As soon as my little monkies come home next week (they're on vacation with GrandMaMa & Papa) I will be documenting Taylor's experience with this new Anchor technology. I am so excited to be a part of this and I can not wait to tell everyone all about it.

Ashtyn worldwide

The green mountain flyer put a picture of Ashtyn on their fliers!!!! I'll get it up here soon but this is the link to see it online

Oh the joys of the last days of April

The entire month of April is a crazy one as far as my family goes. There are somewhere around 18 birthdays!!!! Of those, we usually are part of 5 parties, 2 of those I get to play hostess (Ashtyn's and mine, which are generally celebrated the same day). Saturday was my birthday, Ashtyn's birthday party day and Jeremy's going away party night. Um, busy much?! Yeah. I don't do the one party thing anymore, all of our parties have become multi-party parties. But, anyway, Ashtyn had a blast, I enjoyed myself (Thanks for the Dos Equis Brucie) and Jeremy had a tough night, or should I say morning. My cake came out pretty good. I was killing myself trying to come up with decorating ideas. Shrek, Dora, Sponge Bob, My Little Pony, ZuZu pets, blag blah blah.... I'm tired of that kind of stuff. I like the self designed stuff better. If I'm making it then I want it something I made, not Disney or Nickelodeon made.


Sadly, pictures of the cake are basically all I have for photos. I was too busy running around and forgot to snag my mom's photos before she went home. I didn't even get a picture of the cake Sue got for me (which was awesome by the way, Thank You!!!)
Our "Night of Mayhem" was a lot quieter than expected but Jeremy did fire up his chainsaw at 1am to cut up pallets for our very little "bon fire" (I married a redneck). His little shindig was the usual crowd: Me and Jeremy, Brian, Sam (his wife Rene was here for a while and even got to witness me kick Sam's butt in a very random wrestling match....Sam won the 3rd round, but I won 2 out of 3 HAHA), Chris showed up and decided to be "smart" and not drive home...problem was he didn't call his wife to let her know...dummy, I told you so.....and then Jeremy's friend from work Chris and his wife Tracy, and "T-Bone" aka Mack (who "tackled" our F-350) came for a bit and Justin and Crystal. Its sad and funny, as I'm writing this and re-reading it I'm seeing how redneck we really are.....I'm not sure how that happened.....yikes. All in all it was a good night, and day, and I think the fact that about half of the people I invited showed up was actually a good thing. The little crew of us just sat around our mini bonfire and shot the breeze until we were too tired to speak and went to bed.
Reality set back in today and it was work as usual. My morning kid pulled a no call no show, so it was just me and my girls until my afternoon kid showed up around 3:30. Jeremy moves up to camp in 4 days!!!! I'm sad, scared, horrified, and hoping somehow this all works out. My house has yet to be shown, let alone sold. I don't do the two-weeks-without-seeing-my-husband thing. I'm not a fan of the idea to be honest. I only have to deal with it for 5 weeks......hopefully those 5 weeks fly by.

Seriously, I need to pause life

Everything is flying so fast I barely have time to think about it, let alone write about it. Last Wednesday, Taylor took her first digger. The 3 kids and I were getting ready to run away from the house for a little while and Taylor was last up the (cement) stairs..... suddenly my dog decided she wanted to go back outside.... Taylor going upstairs + Dog RUNNING down stairs = bump and bruise on forehead and road rash on the nubbie. The even more cruddy thing about it is: if she had her prosthetic on, she would have caught herself, therefore not smashing her poor little face and nub. She started acting shy about her nubbie lately so I decided I'd give her a couple days without her arm to "gently force" her to not be embarrassed or whatever about her arm..... nice idea that worked out horribly. So I called down to Shriners and talked to a couple of the OPD crew and had my thoughts confirmed.... no arm until its healed.
A little while later my so far lousy day got better. I received an email from a guy named Jim who saw my Tabs For Taylor ad on Craigslist .... and to my surprise.... this email wasn't spam.... he informed me he had a 5 gallon bucket full of tabs that I could have if I knew a way to get them from him in Rochester..... no problems there thanks to my Aunt Lisa who went and picked them up for me. So that made me pretty happy.
Then, Little Miss Chaos, broke her nite-lite. SCREAMING, bleeding EVERYWHERE, more screaming.
"Where is the glass honey?"
"I broke it in the kitchen"
"Well if you had broken it in here there would be more than just the one piece that was stuck in your finger"
"I brokted it in the kitchen!"
This goes on for 5 minutes while I run frantically around looking for this glass before either of the 2 little ones find it. I then get her band aided up and continue my hunt. I can not for the life of me find it anywhere. She laid down and watched some TV while I continued frantically searching for the pieces of light bulb. I blocked the little ones in the living room so they can't get into the kitchen and find the glass for me..... another couple minutes go by and I hear it. The sound of a little metal pan from the kids kitchen set falls to the floor and lands on the itty bitty pieces of glass. And where is this glass? RIGHT WHERE THE LITTLE ONES ARE PLAYING!!!!! There was a baby doll outfit on top if it so I never saw it. What a monster. Thank God neither of the little ones touched it. I grabbed them and put them into the glass free kitchen and vac'd it up. Once Ashtyn woke up I found out she was trying to hide her nitelite so I wouldn't be mad. She failed, but she won't be touching glass again anytime soon. So my day was kind of back to not great. The phone rings. My father in law is calling to let me know my dog ran away and is at their house. Once the kids all wake up from their naps, we walk down to get her (they live 3 houses away). Taylor and my "borrowed kiddo" are in the stroller and Ashtyn's holding onto the stroller with me and the dog is practically glued to my left knee (the one closest to the road). We get about 30 feet from the end of the side walk where we would cross the street to my house and SQUEEL BAM YELP This idiot hit my dog. The dog limps over to the house and lays down in the yard. I'm standing there stunned thinking: A) my kids are watching their dog die, B) they're going to see me kill that moron and C) they're going to see me die when daddy gets home and finds out "his baby" is dead. I hurry across and check her out and she's okay, just really scared. The 90-someodd year old guy huddles over and asks if she's okay. Once I tell him she's alright he starts going off on me. He's lucky I was the one he dealt with and not Jeremy.
Long story short: Wednesday wasn't a good one, aside from the tabs.
Saturday the kids and I went with Grammy and Grampa Precourt to Yankee Candle and Ashtyn got to make a jarred candle at their wax worx station. She thought that was just the best thing ever. And then we had an awesome lunch at Chandler's (the restaurant at Yankee). Sunday was Ajlyn's birthday party so we hung out at Sam and Rene's house from 11:30 until around 8. We brought up the tractor to do some work in their yard so I got to "play" with the 'bota for a little while which is always fun.
And now for this week: Ashtyn's learning to ride her bike (finally). The little one is just too little for her and we still haven't found (or remembered to look for) the itty bitty inner tubes for the little bike....so I brought down her big one. She did awesome! She went all the way down our street and around the round-about-thing and back up the street a bunch of times. She loved it. Other than that its been normal craziness: getting ready for the birthday party/going away party on the 24th, getting ready to move Jeremy, Ashtyn's school stuff and all the last minute stuff for my Shriners fundraiser. Oh I can't wait for August. I'm not doing ANYTHING! (I hope)

Had to put this one on.... gotta have my princess dress on with my muck boots to play in the mud..... that's Mommy's girl.

Bektash Shrine, Concord, NH

Hopefully the weather (and girls) cooperate tomorrow so I can attempt to get some better pictures on our way home.

The pictures I took of Jeremy and Taylor came out pretty good, with the exception that neither of them were smiling :( The sun was being kind of evil though....it was blindingly bright.

Dirt-y girls

You'd think it was summer already here. It has been in the 60s and even touching 70. We've been having a blast outside. Taylor got to finally ride her ATV and she loves it. She figured out how to attach her prosthetic hand to the handle bar (and how to remove it) within a few minutes. Ashtyn took her ATV out for a spin too. I don't have video of that since I was holding her "kill-leash" while she drove. I'm pretty proud of my little redneck kiddos.

Taylor's New Arm

We went to Shriners yesterday and picked up Taylor's new arm. Taylor's prosthetist showed me some "sport hands" (as I call them) for bicycle riding, baseball, stuff like that. Its really wonderful that there are so many different attachments to do different things. I was also able to bug Bernadette and Lee for a bit which is always nice. And I brought down our tab collection...... almost 100,000 tabs!!! That was interesting..... trying to carry 4 5-gallon buckets, which were full, as well as my purse, camera and diaper bag....and both girls.

I grabbed the blanket I made for her and she realized right off that her arm matched her blankie.


Ashtyn and Taylor worked their charms on a Shriner that was there in the morning and he gave them each a Potentate pin. Miss Ashtyn decided to wear her chocolate milk instead of drink it so she got to sport the very last Shrine On 09 shirt instead of her St. Patty's Day greens.

You can tell Taylor was exhausted. It was a very long day.....too much car time and not ANY naptime.
I'd jabber on more but no one wants to nap today either so I have to cut it short.

Calm and Relaxation-ish

Both the girls have an evil cough and I'm stuck with a stuffy-nose.....but all is not overly horrible. I taught myself to knit over the weekend and rather than do something easy like a pot holder or wash cloth.....I made Taylor a sweater. You can't tell from this pic but the left sleeve is shorter to allow her smilie to be free when she's not wearing her prosthetic. Its a little shorter than I would have liked but I just went at it without a pattern or anything....so keep your criticism :) Ashtyn's a little jealous so now I'm going to start making her one.



And even with the runny noses, booger faces and tears, the girls shared the love with one another. Cute as always!!!

Finally! The holidays (and year) are almost over.

I'm such a crank this time of year. The craziness of too many people at the stores, the people who forgot how to drive when it snows, or even "dusts" a few flakes, the wrapping like theirs no tomorrow, then the opening like theirs no tomorrow..... if it weren't for my girls, I'd be done with all of it. I just feel like I don't have time to breathe, let alone do anything else. It makes me nuts. And then the fighting with random family members about how I don't want 15 Christmas's.....I want my girls to have one. Santa comes one time a year....not every day of December. Grrr. Enough ranting....well, maybe......

As 2009 comes to an end...

1) Where did you begin 2009?

At Camp. We missed the ball drop yet again. We started the night at Marge and Louis' house.....for some foolish reason we left to go back to camp (apparently at 11:50ish) to fire up the generator to power the TV so we could see it and shout our "Happy New Year" and then go to bed. Needless to say, we got to camp, found out it was already 10 after 12....so we just went to bed.

2) What was your status by Valentine' Day.

married

3) Were you in school (anytime this year)?

no

4) How did you earn your money?

watching kids, cleaning, plowing, mowing, etc

5) Did you have to go to the hospital?

Yes and Sort of. Ashtyn needed to see the Doc for an "issue" with bubble bath soap and her pedi was on vacation, so I took her to Urgent Care (its really slow as death care in my book) and Shriners Hospital is a "hospital" and we went there 6 times I think. Oh yeah....I got to go to the ER because I'm a moron and put my hand through the door. Yippee that was fun. I ended up gashing my other hand a few weeks ago too (because I'm great like that...who cuts their hand open on a can of peas????....I do) I needed stitches for that one too but I said to hell with it....bandaids and medical tape.

6) Did you have any encounters with the police?

Yes. Only one time this year. Again, those stupid jerks from BF tried to break in to my neighbors house. I caught them in the act and called my ever so useless PD...big shocker, they didn't find them. I love paying taxes for stupidity.

7) Where did you go on vacation?

Orleans, Vermont.....to our camp

8) What did you purchase that was over $1000?

Kubota L3400, backhoe and brush hog

9) Did you know anybody who got married?

Justin and Crystal, Jason and Crystal, Leslie and Rob

10) Did you have any new additions to your family?

Nope

11) Did you know anybody who passed away?

Emily Brown and ( I didn't know him, but he was Jeremy's uncle) Travis Honeycutt

12) Did you move anywhere?

not yet

13) What concerts/shows did you go to?

Ashtyn's Preschool's Christmahanakwanzika Concert

14) Are you registered to vote?

yes.

15) Who did you want to win Big Brother?

I don't watch it

16) Where do you live now?

New Hampshire....still

17) Describe your birthday?

My birthday was "forgotten" by my awesome hubby. All his friends remembered though. That was a bad day :(

18) What's one thing you thought you'd never do but did in 2009?

3 things: Host a fundraiser. Enroll Ashtyn in preschool. Put my house up for sale.

19) What has been your favorite moment?

When Ryan's court stuff was over and heard he wasn't going to jail. When I heard Shriners Hospital wasn't closing Springfield.

20) What's something you learned about yourself?

I'm still a very negative person.......and I can inspire people to help do great things.

21) What was your best month?

I think they were all kind of equal. Everyone had their ups and downs.

22) What music will you remember 2009 by?

none

23) Who has been your best drinking buddy?

Ashtyn and Taylor.....we get to be sober together...yippee

24) Made new friends?

Jen, Jen and Lisa

25) New or old best friend?

I still have no idea what I am supposed to say to that...

26) Favorite Night out?

Ummmmm When I have one, I'll let you know.

Ashtyn's Preschool's Winter Concert

I apologize for the random shakiness and occasional blurriness.....It was almost as much a challenge for me to video the performance as it was for the little ones to get on stage in front of 500 people to sing.



Ashtyn was not very impressed by being on the very end of the stage. Jeremy and I thought for sure she was going to fall off at any given moment....she even tried to weasel in a few places away from the end.....but her classmate wasn't allowing any of that.

Santa Claus is comin' to town

Today was Get-ready-for-Christmas day at our house. Ashtyn went to the salon this morning with Grammy and Grampa to get her hair and nails done....something Mommy would never ever do......and then Jeremy and I took the girls to get our Christmas tree at Bishop's Farm in Springfield, VT, which is where we've been going since Ashtyn's first Christmas. After that we went to visit with the Claus's. Ashtyn obviously loved the visit but Taylor had other thoughts about it. Santa and the Mrs. thought maybe it was a little too chaotic at their visiting venue, so they made a special surprise visit to our house after their other visit was over......Taylor still wasn't happy.....


...but we did finally get her to come out to the kitchen for a minute...


and Miss Ashtyn got to tell Santa 8,000 more things she wanted for Christmas and even show off dancing for him and Mrs Claus.....


....but she still doesn't want her picture taken.



And now its time for music and tree trimming.