Christmas Soapbox Moment

Excuse my soapbox moment, but I've seen enough comments and posts lately that I feel moved to share my point of view on the subject. I have heard people say that Christmas stuff shouldn't start until December, and that December is the only acceptable time for it. Halloween stuff comes out in August, over 2 months before the holiday itself, and no one seems to bat an eye about the appropriateness of that. There are a lot of people (including myself) who like to buy a bit here and a bit there to spread out the cost rather than buy everything in one big trip. Is that so wrong? Who decides what is appropriate and what isn't? I feel that you start buying for a holiday when it's right for you. If you don't feel quite ready yet, simply don't buy yet. Seems fairly simple to me.

Also, there seems to be some misconception that it is not humanly possible to respect veterans and to listen to Christmas music at the same time, which is completely ridiculous. Remembrance Day is treated sacred in our home, yet the kids and I have been happily getting into the Christmas spirit this month as well as I busted out the Christmas playlist. It makes us happier and reminds us of something we are so grateful to be able to enjoy so freely thanks to those who fought for our freedoms. While I personally don't start decorating before November 12 (which is a tradition I chose for myself), I would find it incredibly rude and judgemental to pick apart someone who chose differently. It's completely unfair to assume that someone doesn't have respect simply because they choose to enjoy the festive Christmas spirit longer than someone else does.

Sorry, but this is a topic I've become passionate about the past few years.

October Update

So apparently I'm sorely lacking in the 'remember to blog' department. Oops! Here's an update and I will do my best to get back on track next week.

Brettley has been doing eye patching for the past few months. He has one pair of glasses that his cloth patch remains on permanently and then his big boy glasses that have no patch for the rest of the day. He has been working hard at learning all about letters and numbers. If he keeps up the hard work, I may actually get to teach him some sight words before he starts Kindergarten next fall. He is very close to being able to get out of the car seat and into the booster seat, a day we are ALL awaiting.

Tyrell is loving grade 2. He has the same teacher that Caleb had last year, which I may or may not have fist pumped over (okay, I'll totally own the fact that I did). He is still a big chatterbox and ball of energy when he's not at his desk at school. He just turned 7 last week and keeps talking about how excited he is to turn 8 next year and get baptized and start Cubs. This week he moved into the room with the double bed (Caleb moved in with Brettley), and he is so excited to have a space of his own. Our plan is to have them rotate who gets a room to himself every year.

Caleb is doing alright, after we got him settled into grade 4. He had a hard time adjusting, and so the principal and I have decided to go through trying to have him get coded for next year (due to his ADHD aggression, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and anxiety) so that he will qualify for extra help and so that when he goes to junior high and we have to deal with many teachers instead of just 1, I don't have to fight too hard for him to get the accommodations that he needs. He still absolutely loves science and has shown an interest in computer programming, so he and John are getting books out of the library to introduce him to that. He turned 9 last month and already has a teenage attitude, ha ha.

John is doing fairly well, other than his bout of shingles these past couple of weeks. A huge blessing, though, that it was an extremely mild case and was more of a nuisance to him than anything else. The biggest down side was that because Brettley hasn't had his second chicken pox immunization yet, he has been living at my dad's for over a week. He gets to come home tomorrow.

I am doing pretty well, aside from the case of bronchitis that Caleb so kindly shared with me this week. I have been doing lunchtime supervision at the school (my dad watches Brettley) and I really enjoy it. I am still happily serving away as the Mia Maids adviser in Young Women to a wonderful group of girls. I have been focusing a lot more lately on getting more out of my scripture study and just about increasing my learning in general. It's been a lot of fun and it keeps me very motivated.

So I think that's our updates, or at least the Coles Notes version of it. Have a great Halloween weekend!

Our July

Wow, I sure haven't been using this as regularly as I'd planned to. Hopefully once the summer is over and we're back in the school routine it will be easier. The day after my last post I had a checkup with my 'new' family physician. We've seen a heck of a lot of each other the past several months, the average was every 2 weeks. I am thrilled to say that he was happy enough with my current medication dosage that I get to go 3 months between that checkup and the next one. That was such amazing news, I got into the van and just cried and cried with happy tears. Of course, I still have tough days, but the difference now is that it takes so much less effort to get back to feeling stable again. Horray!

Last weekend we went to Calgary to stay with my brother and sister-in-law. It was the weekend they were finishing renovating the basement suite of their house, so I even got to help with a few things, including the staging for pictures, which was SO much fun. On the way home on Monday we detoured to Drumheller to check out the Royal Tyrrell Museum (the dinosaur museum). Brettley was very scared at first when he heard dinosaur noises, but after a bit he calmed down and enjoyed himself.

John was off work this past week and is off again this week. Aside from our few days in Calgary, we are holidaying at home this year and it is THE BEST! John's birthday was on Thursday and we had a Dr Pepper themed day. For breakfast we had Strawberry Dr Pepper Jello and whipped cream. For lunch we had Dr Pepper meatballs. Supper was Dr Pepper BBQ ribs and baked potatoes. For the dessert we had Chocolate Cherry Dr Pepper Cobbler with whipped cream. It was a great day. I think I'm still trying to make up for his birthday in 2010 when our van died on the way to Utah.

I met with the surgeon on Friday and he recommended that since my gallstones are asymptomatic, that we just leave them alone for now. He did say, though, that as soon as I actually get symptoms that it will be coming out. I'm pretty happy to not be facing surgery at the moment though, to be honest.

So that's been our month so far. For the last week we plan to have Brettley's eye checkup to see how he's doing with the new prescription, a trip to the pool and a ladies' night in there as well. July has been a great month!

We Got A...

The boys had a great last few weeks of their school year. They maintained the exact same grades that they both had back in March. Both teachers commented to me about just how much progress Caleb and Tyrell have made this year, which is always awesome to hear. Last week all 3 boys were at my mum's. Brettley managed to bust his chin open and had to have it glued shut while he was there, but apparently he was very brave and handled the whole thing incredibly well.

I have been doing well. We went to the park and were out for almost 4 hours straight on Monday. I forgot that my meds make me more susceptible to effects from heat and sun and I got a bit of a sunburn. The boys have been doing chores each day to earn spending money. They also have educational work that they do on John's work days.

Our biggest news is that we got a family pet. While the boys were gone, John and I decided to check out a couple of pet stores to just price out a hamster and all the gear for that. John held a hamster at Petland and I was a goner. She is so adorable. She is mostly black with a bit of white fur on her belly and her name is Rogue. She is very loved by all of us. Caleb helps change her food and water as well as helping to keep her cage clean. Several people have been shocked that I am able to tolerate having her, given my extreme fear of mice. Because her tail is so short, my fear is, thankfully, automatically able to register that she is not a mouse.

I forgot to mention it as I caught up before, but a couple of months back I was told that I have a gallstone as well as fatty deposits on my liver, the results of my abdominal ultrasound. To deal with the fatty deposits, I was ordered to lose weight. It has been almost 9 weeks and I have managed to lose over 16 lbs so far. As for the gallstone, I had the option to have surgery as a preemptive strike before it becomes a serious issue and I decided to take that option, so I meet with the surgeon later this month.

So that's our update for now. Hope you're having a great summer!

Update

I will do my best with this update, but if I don't write it down, I tend to forget it as of late. We went to visit my mum for Mother's Day weekend. In part because she is still getting used to holidays without Grandma and also in part because Mother's Day is still a tough day for me. While I was there she sewed a new topper for my dining room window and we repainted my FHE magnetic board. She and the boys made a very nice brunch for me that, of course, included bacon. The older two boys each gave me what they made in school and John and the boys gave me season 3 of BBC's Sherlock on Blu-Ray. I'd been trying to hunt down a Blu-Ray copy for quite a while.



Lilac season came while I was bedridden for about a week with a stomach bug and then a nasty kidney infection that need 2 different antibiotics to kick it. So while Caleb and Ty were walking home from school each day they picked me some lilacs so I could still smell them. What sweet and thoughtful boys I have.

At the beginning of June Caleb's class went on a field trip to the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, which I was a parent volunteer for. It was awesome to go with Caleb and share in this part of our own heritage with him, and showed him dwellings like the ones his ancestors used to live in. It was my favourite field trip I've helped with to date.



We also started a Dungeons and Dragons group with a few of the guys from our ward. It's really fun to play with other people, and is something that we're really enjoying.

I also planted new flowers in my planters a couple of weekends ago. The boys love them and are always concerned about them and asking if they need water each day. We've been getting more rain, so I don't have to water them quite as much as the first week.

I think that's basically the major stuff. We're just winding down at the end of the school year. Today I'm off to the zoo with Ty's class for a field trip and next week I'm helping his class with an in-school field trip. We're all looking forward to the summer break this year, which is a first for us.

I'm Still Here, Honestly

Just a short update to say that no, I have not fallen off of the face of the planet. I was very sick for a couple of weeks and stuck in bed for a large portion of that. I have been adjusting to a new dosage of my medication, which I'm very happy with but the increased dose makes me exhausted for a couple of weeks as my body adjusts. Also, I've been helping with things at the school as the year winds down, catching up on housework after being so sick and just life in general. But I'm doing very well and hope to have a proper update either this week or for sure the next.

The May Update

Life in the Bly home at the moment, hmm. The kids and I have started spending a lot more time outside now that spring is finally (mostly) here. They have gotten in lots of bike riding. We bought Brettley a brand spanking new big boy bike and finally got rid of the tricycle. They LOVE riding their bikes. We also bought a bunch of different things for them to use outside (chalk, soccer ball and pylons, etc).

Caleb and I went to see Big Hero 6 in the cheap theatre as a mommy and son date. He has done extremely well in working to get his anger under control. Hardly ever any issues at home or school now, so he no longer sees the psychologist or psychiatrist and just works with our new family doctor now. I'm so proud of him for working so hard, and his hard work really showed through in his March report card (his best one yet).

Tyrell won a citizenship award at school last month for being particularly good at team work. He also has his non-prescription glasses now, which he loves.

Brettley's glasses finally came in, and he loves his red Miraflex glasses. His eye looks a lot better with them too, so they are doing their job to prevent a third eye surgery. We are still waffling on the idea of putting him in Kindergarten this fall. I have very mixed feelings on whether or not he is ready. Intellectually I have no doubt he can do it, but he is very small for his age and would be very close to the cut off date for age, so he would probably be the youngest in his class anyway. Still not sure what we'll end up deciding on.

This Monday the boys were sure to celebrate Star Wars day in our geeky little family.

I am doing well. The decision to switch to pills instead of vitamins was definitely the right call for me. I still have off days, but they are far easier to pull out of now. I have been blessed to be the Mia Maids adviser for over 14 months now and am enjoying every minute of it with these amazing girls.

John is doing good as well and we are just happily enjoying life right now and looking forward to spending this coming weekend with my mum. And that's your monthly update on the Bly family :)