And there was one...

For those of you who know about the dreams that Matt has been having about us having twins, the debate was laid to rest today. :-) I had my first OB appt. today at which my doctor did a quick ultrasound and we saw ONE very active little baby. It doesn't matter how many times one is pregnant in my book...each time you see with your own eyes the miracle of life growing (let alone kicking and flipping!) inside you it is just as amazing as the first. To see little arms and legs and a spine. My doctor has decided to keep me "high risk" since 2 out of the last 3 of my pregnancies haven't gone smooth. Kinda bummed about that, but at the same time, it brings a sense of relief, knowing that they are going to be watching this kid close!!

Gabe continues to do well in school. Yesterday he came home with a progress report with NO frowny faces. Matt has promised him a cool Connex roller coaster thing if he comes home with all smily faces. That will take awhile :-)

Zoe gets to go to swim lessons with Evy again tomorrow...she is so excited. Hopefully we will survive...I have been without contacts for over a week and won't get them in until next week so I will be swimming partially blind tomorrow with her! I could go in with glasses, but that would probably not work very well.

And in the last random tidbit of the day, who else is excited for the next episode of LOST tonight?? Matt's theory is that Desmond put something in the water he gave Jack at the stadium. And that somehow over the last number of years Desmond has come into contact with all the survivors and they secretly given them whatever.

School

We survived day one!! Wahoo! There were a few rough spots, but overall Gabe's teacher said he had a good day. We talked with him about the things he could do better at today and praised him for all the things that went well. More and more this school looks like it is going to be so good for Gabe. If you click on the link to his blog on the right you will see he has updated you all...it's quite amusing. I love that kid. There is so much creativity in there it just bursts out at the funniest times and in the funniest ways.

Not too much else to report...just the constant cleaning chores (kudos to Mandi for her big day of accomplishment yesterday!!) and piano lessons.

And we're off!

Well, the day has finally come. Day 1 of public school. We successfully got Gabe into his classroom and at his desk and he seems to be really excited. I also had a meeting this morning with all the wonderful people who will be working with Gabe...PT, OT, Speech, Social Work, Psychologist, Principal, etc. This was the official evaluation meeting where we talked about all Gabe's needs so that they could all know how to evaluate him. It went very very well and we are so encouraged. Anyway, I will update again later today once Gabe is home...

Gabe goes Public

This post title was adopted from Mindy's comment from last post. :-) I thought it was great. Anyway, it is official. Matt and I met with the principal this morning and enrolled him. He will be in first grade starting Monday, Sept. 26th. The meeting with the principal went GREAT and we were literally amazed at how on top of things this school is going to be for Gabe. I really believe he is going to flourish there. Just wanted to give you all an update!

You know you haven't blogged in awhile when...

...you have no idea where to start to catch everyone up!! Boy oh boy. Last week was quite the week. Long, long story very, very short, we decided to pull Gabe out of Livingston Christian School last Thursday. It didn't work out. I would have loved for it to work out, but it was evident after last week that this was not the school for Gabe. And add on to that that the principal basically asked that he not come back. After talking with all the special ed people in our school district, we found out that there is no way the state would provide a full time aid for Gabe in a private school. So that kindof ruled out any private school, so we are left with public. But let me say that in all the conversations I have had with the public school in the last few days I have been so impressed. As opposed to LCS, they say things like, "We want to do everything we can to make school successful for your son." It is so sad to me that this scenario is not switched around. So I am waiting to hear from the principal of the local elementary to set up a meeting with her. And I am waiting to hear from Gabe's Dr. to see if she will allow Gabe to go to public...the concern up to this point has been how sick he gets when he is around large groups of kids. If all goes as it seems it should at this point, we will have Gabe enrolled sometime this week. We COVET your prayers for us. We really need God's wisdom on this one. Ultimately we want what is best for Gabe. Cool side note...his gym teacher at the public school would be this lady who goes to our church and knows him really well. How cool would that be? Anyhoo...we will keep you posted!!!

I'm an Aunt!!

Just had to post this on here. I would like to introduce you all to my beautiful new niece, Michon (pronounced mish-on) Riley Maiberger. She was born September 12, 2005 at 11:07 am to Matt's brother Kurt and his wife Susanne. We are extremely excited for them!!

In other news, school continues to go well for Gabe. Our most recent conversations with him have been on how it is not ok to kiss his friend (a girl named Samantha). :-) I love Gabe. There is just no one on earth like him.

A heavy burden lifted

This morning Matt and I had a meeting with Gabe's teacher, principal, and another teacher who will be working with him regularly. I am VERY happy to report that the school is very willing to work with us to help Gabe be able to learn how to successfully be in a classroom. Gabe can stay. Hallelujah!!! We had a great conversation about the different things that we do at home to help with obedience. His teacher is very open to learning how she can best help Gabe. It is just amazing. If you would have asked me a week ago, I would never guessed that we would be at this point. God has done some amazing things this week on our behalf. Thank you Lord! The highlight of my day was when Gabe came home. I opened his backpack and much to my delight found this note from his teacher:


In other news, Zoe's head is doing a bit better. We had to go back to the ER today because the not so super super-glue came off and her wound reopened. But they said they couldn't really do anything more for it, so they gave me a script for an antibiotic ointment and sent us on our way. It has reopened once since then, so if it does it again I am going to take her to her pediatrician's office tomorrow morning. Poor kid...she has been so brave. I hope she remembers none of this!!

"We can glue that!"

You might be thinking that my title refers to a broken chair, a busted toy, or some craft project requiring adhesive. But oh no, quite the opposite, this quote was spoken by the ER doctor in reference to Zoe's head. At roughly 5:10 this evening Zoe and Gabe were chasing each other through the house. Long story very short, Zoe tripped and her head planted into the corner of Gabe's small desk. I have never seen so much blood from a wound in my life. Off to the ER we rush. I did NOT want to go to St Joe Livingston simply because there have been too many people who have had bad experiences there. But when your daughter's head is gushing blood, you are not going to drive 45 min. to Ann Arbor. They got her right in, and within an hour we were out of there. Thanks to modern medical advances, Zoe was able to receive this new cool super-glue for gashes stuff instead of stitches. I was VERY happy to not have to go through watching my child be stitched up!! And I know Zoe if she knew would be very happy for the choice as well!! So we are back home now. I am struggling with Gabe to get his homework done. O Lord I REALLY REALLY need your strength!!!! Please help Gabe!!!

Hooray for the NEW dishwasher!

So we ended up getting a new dishwasher yesterday. We were going to get just the cheapest one we could since we don't plan on staying in the house very long, Lord willing. But then in the end with the special Lowe's was running, we ended up being able to get a decent dishwasher for the same price as the cheap one...too difficult to explain here; we were just happy to have the skills to think it through and figure out the best deal. So our new fabulous dishwasher will be here sometime in the next 3 days. Seriously, isn't it funny what we take for granted? Then of course in light of what the people in Louisiana are going through, the dishwasher seems like such a trite thing. In the background this morning I heard the "Thankful" song from Madam Blueberry...the words couldn't be more appropriate:

I thank God for this day
For the sun in the sky
For my mom and my dad
For my piece of apple pie
For our home on the ground
For His love that's all around
That's why I say thanks everyday

Because a thankful heart is a happy heart
I'm glad for what I have
That's an easy way to start
For the love that He shares
'Cuz He listens to my prayers
That's why I say thanks everyday

Dishwasher for sale?

The one thing about manufactured housing that just stinks that Matt's parents tried to warn us about back in the day is that after about 5 years, everything starts breaking. So far we have replaced our kitchen sink, none of the outside lighting works and the back faucet is broken. Then as of today, our dishwasher went kaput. Now, granted, a dishwasher is more of a luxury we have become accustomed to rather than a need, but I find my pregnant, hormone surging mind screaming, "not the dishwasher!!!" Matt is still going to go online to see if there is something he hasn't thought of to try and fix, but according to our plumber friend from church who also lives in our neighborhood and had the same dishwasher, it's pretty much toast. So anyone know of anyone who's looking to sell their dishwasher? :-)

oh blogger shmogger!!!

MAN! I just spent 20 minutes typing and update post on Gabe and school. When I went to post it disappeared. UGH! I totally do not have the energy to type all that again so this is the extremely short version:

1. The school thought Gabe had a worse condition than ADHD and didn't think their school was the place for him. We were welcome to stay, but we would be wasting our money.

2. Gabe's pediatrician replied with "what are they smoking?" and said that he is fine, that what he has is ADHD, nothing more. We as parents need to stand our ground and work with the school to help Gabe as private school is his only option at this point (would get too sick in public school.)

3. We are waiting to hear back from the school to see if they are willing to work with us. If not there, our search continues.

4. Please pray for all involved that we would have wisdom and in the end what is best for Gabe is what happens.

The Dreaded Phone Call

*sigh* this first post will be very brief but I wanted to get it on here so those of you who see it can pray. Gabe's teacher called late yesterday afternoon and set up a meeting with herself, the principal, and me and Matt this morning at 8 am. As I knew was inevitable, there are behavioral things going on with Gabe in the classroom that she wants to discuss. Please pray for understanding on her part, clarity of communication between all of us this morning, and ultimately for peace for me. I don't want to jump to any conclusions and I want to hear what is going on but as all of us moms know, we are the ONLY advocates for our children. Please pray...I will update later today.