First week of school!!!!

It's that time of year again! Our summer is over and school is back on! WOW!!!! Where has all the time gone, I'm so bummed that our fun filled, carefree days of summer are no more. Oh well we'll be making it to Reno for Labor Day and can't WAIT to see my Dad and some of my old friends along with my big sis Karin!!! YAY!

Anyway Jesse started 6th grade this year, Joe entered 4th and Jordan went into 2nd. The kids are all in Gifted and Talented combined classes so it will be interesting to see how it goes this year, but they seem super thrilled and happy to be back at school and focused. They all really love their teacher. I also got the opportunity to speak with all of their teachers and while I didn't get any warm fuzzy feelings off of them (something I am SOOOOOOO pleased about, structure is not a bad thing for these kids) I am so excited at what the new school year will bring. I think this one is going to be a great year and oh so much fun, with a lot more Mom involvement!

Daddy unfortunately was gone again for the first day of school but got to relive it through pictures and really enjoyed getting to see the kids. Now it's time to get ready to get this litter of puppies home and enjoy our first weekend after school!!!! Here are some more pictures of the kiddos and school. We hope everyone is doing well! God bless you and Keep you!
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What a busy summer!!!

Okay so we took off for Disney in June and spent 3 fun filled days there with all 5 kiddos! Then it was back home to play here in Vandyland and go camping for four days!


So then after we got back from having way too much fun camping for four days at lake San Antonio it was time to hang at the house for a while, then head back to LA for our trip to Knott's Berry Farm and the Santa Monica Pier! SOOOOO MUCH FUN! They rode all the rides with Daddy and had a great time. After we got back we found out that Precious Mamma was preggers again and welcomed our second litter (this time she had 7) at our Church Family Camp. Family camp was so much fun! We had some awesome fellowship and had a great time hanging out in Morro Bay. Joseph managed to get up on the board and surf. So much fun! Huge thanks to our Pastor for taking him out to surf, he had a blast! Of course papa bear wasn't stoked about the california weather. If you ask him it's UNUSABLE OCEAN!!!
He was a little chilly and really wasn't up for the photo opportunity ;).

Fortunately at night we had a nice fire to keep us warm and hang out around with some irreplaceable fellowship!











WHAT AN AMAZING FUN Summer we've had - I'm so bummed that it's over and now time to get ready for the real world and for school to start for the kiddos tomorrow!!!! WOW! I hope everyone had as amazing of a summer as we did!

Here we go again.....

Well here we go again. It's time for epidural injection #2. So we're off to Santa Maria for a 0930 showtime for a 1000 injection. Good news is that my left side has felt much better but my right side has been worse, so I'm not sure what that means but I'll chat with the doc over it and see what he has to say. ;)

Anyways, I have no doubt that this time things will go easier!!! Well I don't have too much to say, Jordan has started softball and is enjoying it. The boys started baseball here on base and are enjoying it. Jesse had his skills day on Saturday and actually did better than I thought he would!!! I was super surprised.

Puppies go to their new homes on Friday!!!!! I'm so excited! They need to go home with children to play with and take care of them because they are DESTROYING my laundry room and making my house stink!!!! That and poor Mamma dog is so skinny right now and is just needing a break from them, so I think she's ready for them to go home too. LOL!

Well we're off, I'll post an update when I get back and feel awake. ;)

Slowly feeling better

Well I showered today, for the first time in the last two days (I wasn't allowed to shower on Monday after the procedure, but I figured that so I showered before that and yesterday I was in a massive amount of pain so that wasn't happening). Anyway, things are looking better today, but It's only 0919 so I'm going to take it slow and give it time. The shooting pains are lessening and just the weakness and tightening cramping pain is constant right now, I do have more strength to move around and keep going. I'm just hoping that by tonight I don't have the same massive shooting pains that I did last night. It has been really hard to sleep and even with being on all of my prescribed medications I'm finding that I have to take my sleeping pills because the pain has been pretty intense, I'm hoping that this will lighten up in the next few days. The prospect of living like this for the next six weeks is fairly daunting but it is just a means to an end I hope!

The housing people came by and finally gave us our second garage door opener. YAY, now Eddie has one if he rides his bike to put on the back of his backpack. Anyway, I'm super excited because it's getting close to the time when the puppies are going to be heading to their respective homes and I'm STOKED!!!! I'm ready for all of them to go to their homes and I can get my laundry room back. Hopefully when these injections start working Tony and I can start spending more time together walking and enjoying ourselves, but I'm only mildly optomistic.

On the other hand Tony's massive amounts of anxiety are now fading and he is truly turning into my big boy! He's starting to fill out, the vet says he is gorgeous, I've had people offer to buy him (NO WAY IN HELL!!) but I'm super proud of all the kudos and offers from how I first got him as a scrawny scared puppy!

Kids are amazing and getting ready to start softball, Jordan's should start soon here. Other than that just lots of rain here on the Cali coast and we can use it! It's kind of nice to have some warm time inside snuggling with the puppy and just enjoying ourselves. I'm sure that we won't be breeding again until next year sometime at the earliest, we need to make sure to give our Precious Mamma a break, she has been such a good mamma but is truly in need of cuddle time now with Eddie, she really misses being with him.

Anyway, nothing else to really report. Love to all!

Jen

Update from yesterday

Hi everyone, here is my fast update, I will write more later but this is what I sent to my family. I'm pretty out of it still and slightly sore, so I'm off to take my meds again and try and get some more sleep.

Yesterday I had an epidural injection under heavy sedation. The basically floated cortisone on top of all 3 of my buldging discs with xray guidance. I'm not too sore just tired and periodically when I have been up for too long (either sitting or standing) I start to get sharp shooting pains down my legs and my spine weakens (this was happening before the injectios, so nothing to worry about). I was just told to take it easy, no standing or sitting for long periods of time, no vacuuming, no taking the dog on a walk, no long walks, make sure I ice it etc.... for 3 -4 days so that the cortisone can be absorbed into the right area and not be jossled around.

So Eddie is helping tons and I'm following doctors orders! Just a short not to let you know what happened and that all went well. I have another procedure on the 22nd and on the 9th of March.

Love to all!!!!

DUN DUN DUN.........

Well tomorrow at 0930 I have to be in Santa Maria to start my epidural injections. I'm hoping that they go quickly and I'm up and running around in no time (and that my back feels better so that I can get a decent night sleep), but I'm just not sure. The cortisone injections didn't work well when we did them on my knee so we'll see what happens. I'm trying to blog more so I will try to update this more often.

Well wish me luck everyone and I will post an update when I get back and can see straight!

Hugs to all!!!!

New Puppy Pix!

So I'm feeling pretty yucky today and decided to lay in front of one of my many sliding glass doors in my home on the carpet and play with the puppy's (this is always bound to lift the spirits even if my tummy is trying to keep me down)! With that said they were all too cute at almost 4 weeks now just not to take new pictures of them so here they are!!!


TJ and PJ (left) both Sold to good homes!













Negron's Meathead- he's staying with the family!














Porkchop with PJ and TJ, she still needs a good home!

WHEW!!!! It's been a while but I'm trying....

Well the puppies arrived 12/31/2008 - 1/1/2009!!!! They are just gorgeous and two of them have all ready found homes! We couldn't be more pleased with their new owners. Precious and Tony are both doing fine and Precious is now letting Tony get closer to the puppies. We have decided to keep the largest brindle male (meathead aka meaty, thanks Issy your nick name stuck)! He is beautiful but a handful and is definitely the more active male!

I spent new years in Mexico with my dad, stepmom, sisters and new brother!!! WOW what a trip! Dad got remarried and I picked up another sister, a brother-in-law, two niece's, two nephew's, a brother and a sister-in-law!!!! They're all amazing and I'm so stoked to have a big family! I've always wanted more and I'm not the oldest anymore!!! YAY ME! I now have a big sister and I couldn't be more stoked!

Well Eddie and I are still in love and going strong. I'm so blessed to have a man in my life that loves me so truly and so unconditionally and one that is strong enough to handle all that I have to fight. I just can't imagine my life without him, he is truly my strength!

As for the kids, they are all getting into sports and starting to play softball!!! A new sport for them but everyone is loving it and truly enjoying it. Joseph is a natural (as always), Jesse has tons of heart and is trying very hard to be perfect, Jordan is right in the middle and is having batting issues but is trying her best (I personally think she would prefer dance and/or soccer). Jesse wants to play tackle football this year and so does Joseph, so I think that's going to happen, and little Jordan wants to be a cheerleader, LOL go figure! We had a fun time not too long ago at Knott's Berry Farm and even Jordan was tall enough to ride some of the rides!!! She was bummed when she couldn't go on all the really big rides but soon the last baby will be able to hop on all those big roller coasters and freak me out even more! I'm always so worried that they're going to get hurt!

I on the other hand am continuing to fight the medical battle. I just got back from another doc's office and I still need to get my TWO MRI's now, one with IV contrast and the other without. They have added a pain med for me and upped a few of my other prescriptions, while I wait for my epidural injections. Once those happen (Feb 9th, Feb 23rd, and Mar 9th), I am to go back to my Rhuematologist and let him know if they helped. If they did we are considering steriod treatment to get this nasty beast under control. Mostly because Humira is not working as well as Enbrel and we don't want to double the Humira for fear of having the same reaction that Enbrel did with me (rash and risking anphalactic shock)!

So we continue to drive on and as my husband says SOLDIER ON HOOAH! Anyway, I keep soldiering on and so does our family! We hope all is well with you and yours and love you all!