Just tryin' to earn a buck

Oh my this kid is a piece of work! Today he set up this little drum set and put a bucket and started playing. when Trent walked by he said," Hey Dad, remember when we were in Washington, D.C. and those guys were playing the buckets for money? Well that is what I am going to do, so you can go ahead and put some money in my bucket."
I guess I should be glad he didn't set up shop out in the front of our house! I bet he would make some sweet moulah!

Snow day, Snow play!

 Saturday January 21, 2012 we got a skiff of snow. They cancelled Pierce's basketball game. the kids were super excited to go out and play in the snow. Still in the pajamas, we dressed them up nice and warm and they headed outside for some fun. I thought that Jaida would cry and think it was too cold, but she was having the most fun out of all of them. She was running around like a crazy lady.

 She was running around laughing and having so much fun. It was really cute. When it was time to come in we literally had to drag her in kicking and screaming. NOT HAPPY BOB!

 Brock and Jaida are pretty good little buddies or should I say partners in crime. She pretty much thinks he walks on water.

 Their short lived snowball fight. They learned pretty quick that it really was more like ice and that it hurt when you got hit with it. That didn't stop them from throwing it at their Dad, which got them in some trouble.

 All smiles here...

It was a fun morning and made me for a minute remember how excited I was as a kid to go out and play in the snow. I am a huge wimp though and was getting too cold, so I made them all come inside and built a fire!

Trent's BIG day!

 January 13th was a very special day at our house. You see our daddy/ Tbird/ Pup turned the big 36!!!!  Yes he is getting OLD! The boys were so very excited for this day to come. We made him a decadent chocolate cake and decorated our house for him. We put a big banner on our front window so every one would know it was his Birthday. Several of our neighbors came over and wished him a Happy Birthday!! The boys went to the Dollar Store and picked out some treasures for him. I got him a new Celtics shirt and some new jeans.

We had our friends the Haretuku family over and Trent's parents too. is was a super fun party. Brock insisted that we play games. We had a very interesting game of pin the tail on the donkey!
Trent and I celebrated the next night by going out on a date to Outback with Stephanie and Mo. We had a great time. Sure do love ya Pup!

Brock's Scissors

Hahaha.. these pictures make me laugh. January 4th was an exciting day at our house. Brock got a "new" (to him at least) desk. Something that he has wanted to have for some time now. A place that he can color and cut and  paste to his desire. Sounds like Heaven to a boy who loves art. In the morning I took him to go and buy some "kid friendly" scissors and gave him the "this is only to use on paper " talk. Well that was in one ear and out the other.
Later that night he was driving me nuts asking me to do a million things at once like he always seems to do. I told him to go down stairs and do whatever he wanted on his new desk. I suppose now that I should have given him some more guidelines. When he came back up 20 minutes later this is what I saw! Great, just Great! I really couldn't stop laughing at it. Which made him mad! When I asked him why he told me," well, I was sick and tired of people thinking that I was a girl. Plus I needed a haircut, I told you a million times!!"
Don't you worry he got the full on buzz cut, yes even though it is winter here. And an extra added bonus school picture were a few days later, so we will always look back and remember Brock's awesome hair cut.

Just not feeling it lately

I guess I should start this post off with a big SORRY. I have definitely been slacking in the blog world. I feel like I have been slacking off in a lot of other things too. Sometimes I just get in those moods when I just don't want to document what has been going on, because quite frankly I am not sure that I want to remember them. Maybe there is something I should learn from this though and actually take the time to jot these things down, because I am sure I will probably have crappy times like this again and maybe it will make me feel better knowing that I will make it out alive.
We are coming up on our two year mark, with a  lot of different things. First with our move here, and I am okay with that. It has been challenging at times. I do miss seeing family and friends, but have made some pretty amazing friends here too. Second, Jaida is almost two. Can hardly believe that she is going to be two in just a few short months, crazy right.?! Along with that allow me to be a little pessimistic, remember that I do remember what a special blessing and miracle she is. Most of all she has been a never-ending example to me of the fact that I need to endure to the end. Man, it is getting old though. The doctors visits and tests are so old and I get so over it! Some times when I am in the doctors office I just want to scream.
Well this past month has brought some new challenges. Jaida is getting older now and can jibber-jabber (some words we can make out and others not so much) and she is definitely a very strong personality. If she doesn't want to do something than you can pretty much forget it. She will kick, scream, cry and do whatever it takes to make sure she doesn't have to do it. Getting her dressed in the morning is sometimes a complete nightmare. So you can imagine my anxiety as I have to schedule these CT scans, Sleep Studies, and Echo cardiograms... right?
Oh yes, it is just a blast!The CT scan for example when we have to go in and be there 1 hour early and wait for what seemed like an eternity to be seen. Let me also remind you that it is done at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was an inpatient for a little over 3 weeks. I am not kidding you this girl has radar for this place and once we step foot into this place the gloves are off. She hates it there. So they take us back and give us a male nurse, I immediately knew this was not good. Because if you knew Jaida, you know that she also has a huge problem with trusting males for whatever reason. (Trent and I think it may have something to do with her extended stay at the hospital and being always around female nurses and for whatever reason the male doctors and nurses were the ones always poking and prodding with her.) So I asked to please have a female nurse come in, that immediately brought Jaida's anxiety level down a notch. You should have seen the look on the poor guys face, DEJECTED! They place her IV, that was no easy task. It took me and another nurse to physically hold her down so that they could accomplish this task. Then finally they take us back and  then they tell me to stand in the room with the scanner and hold her very still so that they can get some good pictures. Yeah right, they just tick her off to no end and she has this IV in her arm and now you want me to hold her completely still. All the while she is crying and screaming " No, Mommy, No Ouchies!" The saddest thing! Skipping forward... after holding her down screaming, they got her pictures that they needed and she had actual bruises on her arms from me holding her down. We both left feeling traumatized! Who likes to see their sweet baby have to do things like this? not me! That test came back normal. I guess that is the good news.
Now the sleep study. I absolutely do not look forward to these night that are supposed to "simulate" a normal nights sleep. I am not sure I know of anyone who normally sleeps with 50 electrodes and wires coming from their body. I felt the anxiety creeping up on me about a week in advance for this test. I did find peace in knowing that their were many people fasting and praying on her behalf. I felt it. I was grateful for it. In my head I was envisioning what happened during the CT scan and did not want a repeat! Things actually went pretty smooth. Jaida got a pretty good nights sleep, but I was not so lucky! We have to share a twin sized hospital bed and every time I attempted to move she would kind of whimper. So in fear that it would wake her up and we would have to start this over, I laid in a weird position all night and closed my eyes here and there. I knew it meant she didn't pass when at 3:30 AM they came in and turned on her oxygen. Shucks! I went into this knowing that there was a pretty good chance she wouldn't pass, but you always have that small hope. She made it 2 hours longer than normal without oxygen and her oxygen levels didn't dip as low. We are celebrating her baby steps here!! Both of us couldn't wait to get out of there the next morning.. they kick you out at 5:30, we beelined it for the door.
Echo cardiogram.. what a joke! We had to wait forever in the waiting room. it was super crowded and they were way behind. Jaida was not having any test done... PERIOD... she was just not happy at all. They tried for a good hour and after that I was like ~okay, enough!!!~ This was not working. We gave up and they said to come back in 6 months when she was a little older and could sit more still.
So you see we have just been having a blast here at the Belliston home! Somedays I just want to scream and throw a fit just like her, but I don't I hold it all together. Okay I lied, sometimes I do throw little tantrums. And you know what, it is okay!
So we have almost hit the 2 year mark... it seems like longer. We still have no answers, no reasons why, no new insights. The doctors say wait and watch. Remember how I said I was learning how to Endure, yeah it is not very easy. I am trying to be graceful, brave and not the crazy psycho lady!

I have been blessed beyond measure. I have friends who pour out love and support all the time. So much that sometimes I feel like a leach. My family (all of them) is amazing. I lean on them lots! Best of all I get to snuggle and love the cutest little Jaida Lovey in the whole world and for that I wouldn't change these past 2 years one bit... it brought me her!  

~Happy Birthday 29 Years Young~

 I turned the big 29 on December 28, 2011. If you ask me if I am starting to feel old.. my answer would simply be, Yes! I had a really great day. I woke up and went to the gym, sounds like what an old person would do on their birthday. Truth of the matter is that I new I would be eating unhealthy the whole day so I needed to counteract it with some calorie burning. I came home to my Christmas Tree being taken down, I hate having the tree up for my birthday. I was super glad that Trent made this happen for me. My Awesome Dad was cooking up omelettes, hash browns, Bacon (yuck), and toast in the kitchen. Our breakfast was super yummy, I totally miss my Dad's cooking. I got ready and then got to spend the day shopping with just my mom, NO KIDS!!! It was amazing how many stores we could hit and how much more we accomplished. After returning home my cute Husband took me out to dinner at Outback for some yummy steak.

 We met back up with everyone (kids, my parents and Trent's parents) all at the Mission home. I got totally spoiled with gifts.

 We ate this yummy cake and Ice-cream.

 Took some pictures

 Me and my Cute parents. They were a very good Present, they came just for my birthday, at least that is what I tell myself, I am sure my kids had nothing to do with their visit.;)!

 Party Animal!

 Still in love

Every Party has a pooper.. that is why we invited Lumps! Thanks to all who made my day very special. I had a fantastic day. Here is to my last year in the 20's!

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

 Trent and I are pretty big fans of the show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on Food Network. Whenever there is a restaurant that is showcased near us we feel obligated to give it a try. My parents flew into town and we figured that we would take them out to G&A Restaurant. It is a "some-what famous" Hot dog place here in Baltimore. I think it would probably be classified as a Dive.
It is in a rough part of Baltimore.
 We were up for the challenge. At the top of the "big guy" himself .. Andy. He was a pretty cool guy.
 We had to get a picture of Guy Fieri too.

Honestly I don't know what my deal is with pictures, but really I cannot keep my eyes open. We even tried twice and in both my eyes are closed.. well you get the point we were there and liked it. Their fries were tasty and they serve them with gravy, surprisingly good. I had the Baltimore burger and it was a good burger. One good thing is they have the good ice, simple joys!