Giving Thanks..

As Thanksgiving Day approaches us, we see a lot of people giving thanks to everything around them. I think as an American, we should be thankful all the time. Everyone likes to forget that we live in a free country and have the right to freed of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly and Petition. There are millions of other people on Earth that do not even get one of these opportunities. So, as you are thankful for technology, your job, or your family, please remember the basics...

Moving onto our Thanksgiving, I am planning my Thanksgiving Eve meal. We have an important family member that will be joining our dinner for the first time. My grandma that I haven't seen since Elizabeth was 1 years old, will be joining our family (hopefully) in celebration. To say this is normal and shouldn't be a problem, is totally hitting it wrong. There are many variables in the equation and once she gets here, it will be all I can do to keep the peace in my house. I will finally have both my grandma's at dinner and just praying everything goes okay... My Thanksgiving wish is that everything goes okay and we can try a repeat of this at Christmas time at the new house....

Speaking of the house, if you are on my Facebook, you will see the stress that has been. We asked for some repairs to be done (because there was more wrong than meets the eye). The seller asked for an amount without repairs. When we sent both back, he threw a fit and basically went to walk away from the contract. While we went and looked at a few more houses and let the seller cool off, he talked with his wife and agent. we came to an agreement on repairs and now we are onto one of the last things. Now to just get the house appraised and if that goes well, we are onto closing. The kids are excited to be moving into the new house...

Speaking of the kids, E is soo excited Christmas is coming and so is L. E and L have been writing out letters to Santa and so far, their lists are way longer than in years past. We keep telling them they have to narrow those lists down... But, soon we will be sitting down to write out the official letters and getting them up to Santa, so he can fill the order.

Johnny and JJ are both still trying to figure out this potty training stuff. I would sooo love it if they are done before we moved. Sadly, I don't think that is going to happen. Johnny is starting to finally get the hang of it but JJ still is having a hard time.

So, with that all being said, I am off of here. I think a sinus infection is on the brink. I woke up this morning with a very sore throat and no voice (and yes, everyone was happy about that). I had to take a nap and woke up the same way again. I am just not feeling well all around right now. Mike is home until the morning and then he is headed back for the road until Thanksgiving. I will be praying for save travels and hoping he makes it in for my big dinner (if not, I know he is shooting for his mom's dinner)..

Until next time, Happy Thanksgiving Everyone....

On a time line...

I added another picture of our soon to be house. We have had the inspection done, now waiting to hear back from the sellers at this point. We are still looking at closing mid-December!!

If you can tell, this house has taken alot out of us, not only to find the perfect one but then to get paperwork, signatures and phone calls made. I am still working on my schooling and the holidays are around the corner. If I survive the move and holidays I will consider myself really lucky!!!

E is doing well in school and is starting to learn about herself and people around her. She just celebrated her 8th birthday (inwhich I haven't had time to even upload the pictures yet). She enjoyed celebrating at school and then at home with family. She also got a very big present that we cannot seem to keep her off of and she is learning to have to control her time using!!

L is, well, what can you say about that child. She is excited that her first baby tooth is wiggling.. Her adult tooth has already came in on the back side of her baby teeth and she cannot wait for her first visit from the Tooth Fairy!!

Johnny is trying to fix everything in the house. I will be including pictures of him and Daddy on their recent fix-it adventure soon. He is really starting to take to potty training without even being told...

JJ is starting to learn the word "No" and "I don't want to" very well. He is starting to test his boundaries on what he can and cannot do and get away with. Sadly for us, his cry about breaks our hearts but everyone (including Gon-Gon) knows how to put him in his place when need be...

Well, I am going to get off of here. I just wanted to give a heads up on the home front. Understand if you call and get voicemail, please leave a message or write us an email. We are running a mile a minute at some points and we will try to respond as soon as we can!!

Changes to come...

As you can see, there are changes coming. The picture above is a picture of our house we have under contract. We are so excited to be pre-approved for our first home. We are just hoping everything keeps going as smoothly as it has been. The house inspection is Friday and then the appraisal comes after that. We then have to get to closing which is set mid-December. You heard that right, we will be hopefully moving right before Christmas.

The kids are understanding and are ready to get their own rooms. We have explained to all of them that Christmas will be small and the tree may go up the night before Christmas, this is a big change because I would usually already have our tree and whole house decorated for Christmas.

E is doing well in school and is thriving. She is catching up with her current pupils in classwork and we are still working on her speech issues.

L has been learning to control her impulses. The doctor put her on ADHD meds and we can tell a huge difference between when she has it and when we forget. L's teachers think she is an angel and love having her in class.

Johnny has been following in his younger sister's footsteps. He is starting to act a little ADHD and we are going to be watching him carefully over the next few months. He loves doing everything with tools and computers...

JJ is doing great and has shot up out of his 3T pants and is now in 4Ts. He is a very loving child but still loves to play with his train and cars..

As far as us, we celebrated our 9 year anniversary today! Lots of tears and laughs but we are still making it. We still love each other and are together, so that is all that matters. Well I am off to get the twins to preschool. Until next time!

Back to School Time....

School time is back upon us here in the Rasnake household. E goes into 2nd grade and L started K this year. They started back last week and so did I. Summer school kicked my tail and I am starting to breath easier, now that fall semester is upon me. Of course, this is not saying it is any easier, just the older kids are in school.

E is soo excited to see her friends again. She was upset that she still doesn't have the same teacher as one of her friends and that her bus driver has changed but she is rolling with the punches and is happy with the new driver and her current classmates. The only issue we are having right now is that she is having issues with not getting her work done fast enough and is missing recess because she has to take that time to do her work. Hopefully that will change in the future...

L is overjoyed with school. She is excited to be riding the bus with her Sissy and she loves school. So far, no tags have been pulled (tags are demerits if the child gets in trouble that they must pull).

So, to move on to the twins. As you can see J&J have started potty training. Not to say that it is going well but at least they are sitting on the potties without crying and they have went a few times. But, nothing consistently yet..

J&J do start preschool this year (hopefully, I am still waiting on the paperwork for the first day information). But, as long as everything stays okay, they will be going 3 days a week for 3 hours a day. Hopefully this will give me time to get house and school work done...

So, we are still here and going. Hopefully everything will calm down in our household. Hubby got some a great truck 2 weeks ago thanks to his company. He is sitting in a either 2011-2012 brand new 18-wheeler, that isn't giving him transmission troubles like his previous truck. He headed out this morning for Florida even.

I am getting the hang of having 2 kids up and bus ready by 7am and getting my course work done for school. I am taking a full-course load this semester and planning to talk with the Dean over at East Campus about what I need to do, to get my Masters degree in CJ. Just taking it one semester at a time and trying to get my AAS first.

Well, gotta get back to the kids, until next time...

Starting Over...

After a long break from my blog (over a year, wow), I decided it was time to just wipe the slate clean and start new. So, here it goes..

For anyone that doesn't know me, I am RA. I am married to a trucker (Mike) and we have 4 kiddos together E, L, Johnny and JJ. I am a full-time student at the local college. E is getting ready to start 2nd grade. L is getting ready to start K. Plus, we are hoping that Johnny and JJ will get to attend preschool this year (still holding our breath to hear back about that though)...

As of last September, I got really bad sick. After having several tests, visits to different doctors, I had my gallbladder removed. I was still feeling sick after that happened and by the first of the year, was back at the doctors going through more testing. After several visits with them and tests being ran, it was known that I have a severe case of diverticulosis and was suffering an attack of diverticulitis by March. After several types of antibiotics, pain killers and other medicine, I was sent to another GI specialist (after suffering an over-dose of pain killers). From there, they were able to do scopes to find out how severe the diverticulosis is and to tell me that I will probably have to come to terms with surgery in the future but for now, here is a bunch of medicine to hopefully stop the minor attacks...

So, I live day by day at this point. I have great days, good days and then I have days that I don't even want to get the kids breakfast. The pain is the worst part of my days and when it attacks, there isn't much I can do. I am still in school and refuse to give up my goal in getting my degree. It takes everything within me to get my assignments done some weeks, while other weeks, it seems so easy.

The worst part is my kids. They have had to see Mommy suffer alot and they have to deal with not going to the park or not even going outside because Mommy just cannot get out of bed because of the pain. I try to make it up to them when I am feeling better but I can see the hurt in their eyes when Mommy tells them we can't make it to story time this week or that Mommy can't make something because the pain is just to much and I can' t think about going to the grocery store.

But, enough about that. They are really great kids. Even though I feel like I am about to pull my hair out. I just even enrolled the girls in their 3rd year of dance (this year they are doing cheer/hip hop and jazzy gym). I am hoping they enjoy it and the best part will be they are in the same class.

Well, the kids have been in bed for hours and I think it is about time for me to head there also. I am planning on updating once a week atleast from this point out. I may update more and some maybe less. Like I said, just depends on how I am feeling... Until next time...