CATCH UP

It has been an extraordinarily busy few weeks...full of wonderful celebrations and profound stress and sadness. I'm exhausted. Here's the run-down...


On Dec. 29th. Evan and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. It was wonderful. He really went out of his way to make it extra special. He surprised me with a GORGEOUS walnut jewelry box and filled the box with some special stuff! Most amazing, was an extra long strand of real pearls. Love them. Love him. It was a joyous day and I am so, so blessed to have this wonderful man by my side forever.

I've blogged before about my friend Randi. We've been best friends since we were 15 (going on 20 years). At noon on Christmas day, Randi's sweet, sweet mother quietly passed away. I loved Eunice. She was a rare and wonderful woman of extraordinary humor and kindness. I took Anne up to Seattle with me to attend the funeral on New Years Eve and spend a few days with Randi. It was such a blessing to be able to be by her side during this very difficult time. While there, I decided to get the worst stomach flu of my life. It was so bad the Rad had to drive me home and take the train back to Seattle.

With our bizarre winter weather behind us at last, we finally were able to Bless Baby Anne. My amazing parents made the Marathon drive from Montana just to be with us for a couple of days. Evan had lots of family come from different places in Oregon and Washington and we had a lovely time with everyone. It was a beautiful blessing and a wonderful day full of family.

Grandma McAllister made this beautiful blessing blanket. Isn't Anne a doll? She has such a sweet temperament.

Thanks, Vicki, for the help Internet shopping for the dress. This was just what I wanted!

What a nightmare. I walked into the kitchen one afternoon to find my son almost killing my daughter. It was terrifying. Heather had pushed the children's little table up to a window in the kitchen, stood up on the table and wrapped the cord to the blinds around her neck. Ewan (unaware of the cord) decided to "take Headah for a ride," and pulled the table out from under her. She had a nasty rope burn on her neck. I am so, so, so profoundly grateful that she is OK...

Yesterday was my 34th birthday. What a wonderful day. Thank you to all who made it special. I felt very, very loved. Here's how it went down:
slept in 'till 10, had breakfast in bed, went to Macy's and got myself some new jeans, relaxed with my kidos, opened presents, went to dinner at a sweet little french cafe downtown Portland, came home for cake with the kids, went to a movie with my hubby. Thanks Marilyn, for dinner and a babysitter!
My sweet Cameron is really struggling. Please keep our family in your prayers. After making an adjustment to his medication to address progressively deteriorating behavior, he had what the psychiatrist called a "manic break" this week. As a result we have taken him off all medication indefinitely. We are at a cross roads where we have some serious decisions to make regarding his care. Last year at this time, Cameron had a nervous breakdown in Kindergarten and was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder on top of his Asperger Syndrome. We reluctantly began treating him with some medication. It was miraculous. He stabilized and thrived for the rest of Kindergarten. Then we had to take away the meds. that really helped him because they caused him to gain 12 pounds in 6 months. We have been adjusting the medication ever since to try and find the right fit. Turns out part of the behaviour we were trying to address, was not Cameron at all, but a side effect of the medication. Here is an example: Over Christmas Cameron became obsessed with counting money. He could not stop. He would hide money under his covers and count it into the wee hours of the morning over and over again. He would sneak our wallets and take out all the money to count it over and over again no matter how well we thought we had hid them. Evan caught him trying to sneak out to the car, bare-feet in the snow at 4 am to see if he could find loose change to count. This is just one example of what Cameron has been suffering. There is a lot else going on that I won't go into. I'll just say that we are in the process of re-evaluating our plans of action to help him. We love this extraordinary little boy. Our hearts break when we see him suffering and this past week has been especially rough. Please pray for Cameron. Pray that we will find the answers we need.

Well. That pretty much catches us up. Happy January!