Another day in the Escher household.....

Last night we actually got some rain!  It's about time!!  I love the dreary, cool, rainy days.  So, today has become a "do-nothing" kind of day.  I am still sitting here at home in my jammies.  Julian, Cleo and Westin are also in their jammies.  I just put Mr. Baby Guy down for a nap and it's probably time I make something for lunch.  But, I thought I'd type a little ditty, since I'm not keeping up with this blog like I wanted to!!  I thought I'd write every day, but I haven't been successful.

Yesterday was the first day I didn't hear from Jeff at all.  I think we have actually talked every single day that he's been gone but one.  And that day he texted me.  But yesterday there were no texts and there was no chatting.  I knew that he wouldn't be calling, because he said he would be "in the field" for a few days straight.  What this exactly means, I'm not sure.  I just know he's doing Army stuff and he can't chat!  It was okay to not chat, because Marissa and I got to have a lovely phone date!!  (Thanks, Girl!  I needed that!)  I must say I'm surprised that I've gotten to talk to Jeff as much as I have.  Everybody was telling me that I would be lucky to talk to him once or twice a week, but I really get good chats and texts daily from him!  So, I've been pretty "spoiled" in that respect.  He's been gone for 48 days now and sometimes it feels like he just left and other times feels like it's been an eternity since we last saw him.  He only has 8 days until he's done at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma!  Then, he's off to Ft. Knox, KY!! It's funny, because we have no idea when his final day is at Ft. Knox.......or so we thought.  You see, Jeff has an online account with AKO (Army Knowledge Online) and I have access to it.  It turns out it's full of information!  I found a link that shows all of his training dates and I found one for Ft. Knox, Kentucky!!  So, when he called the other night I was teasing him......I said, "I know more about you than you do!!"  He was confused.  I told him, "I know when your last day at Ft. Knox is going to be!!"  He said, "Really??  When?"  I told him that according to the website he would be done on June 25, 2010.  He was a little ticked, because he thought he'd be done sooner, but I was happy!  I thought we wouldn't see him until July!  I understand that the Army can change things at any given moment, so this "date" might not stick.  But at least I have an idea of when he's going to be done.  So last night I made a giant colorful paper chain with the kids.  It has 73 loops on it and we will cut one off each day to countdown when we will all be together again!  It's spans most of my big wall in my living room, but at least the kids can have something to visualize and to help them understand how long daddy will be gone.  Looking at this paper chain is depressing and exciting, all at the same time.  On one hand, it looks terribly long and feels like it will take forever, and on the other hand I know that there's an end in sight!  I am so very excited to be done with this part of "Army Life." 

I don't know if everyone is familiar with the Army and how it works with getting stationed.  (I'm still learning about all of this myself).  Well, each Army member gets a "wish list" or a "dream sheet" of places you would prefer to be stationed.  Jeff found out that you can fill it out online through his AKO account.  So, he told me to go find it and fill it out!  I was super excited!!  I found it and you had to pick 3 places in the US and 3 places that are Overseas.  There were little dropdown lists and the choices we had were NOT what I thought they would be.....but in a good way!  (I texted Jeff before I actually picked the places, to make sure we wanted the same thing). 

Here are our US choices:
1-Ft. Carson, Colorado
2-Ft. Lewis, Washington
3-Ft. Drum, New York

Here are our Overseas choices:
1- Germany
2- Hawaii
3- Alaska
(Alaska and Hawaii are considered Overseas, I guess)

So, now I am SUPER excited!!  If we get any one of our 6 choices, I would be ecstatic!!  I know that we might not end up at any of our top choices, but it's nice to know that we COULD end up at one of them.  Some of our picks are places we didn't think that we could even end up going to, so this is exciting to us!!  Now we just have to wait and see what happens!!  (In the mean time, I will keep my fingers crossed hard for one of the 6!)

Okay, we'll steer away from Army talk now.  I'm sorry.  I'm not even IN the Army or on a base and it consumes a lot of my thoughts right now.......But I'm sure it drives people nuts to talk about it a lot, so I will stop for now!

Owen had a doctor appointment last week and his weight to height ratio was off.  He's super small for a seven year old.  I know this.  His height was on the very bottom of the curve, but it was following it.  His weight, though, was way under the curve.  (I think he weighed in at 37 or 38 pounds....).  The doctor was a little concerned and suggested they do a few blood tests to rule some things out.  They tested him for anemia, Celiac's, and some other electrolyte panels.  Well, I was really hoping it wouldn't be Celiac's......If I had to remove gluten from his diet, that would suck!  He already can't eat apples and that's been a challenge, because a lot of the stuff he likes to eat and drink have apple in them.  But, the doctor called me last night (yes, his actual doctor called me) and said all of his blood tests came back normal.  So, he's just a wee boy!  We just have to hope that he'll gain a little more weight soon!  But he's okay!  The doctor also said at his appointment that he has what's called "Ligamentous Laxity."  I guess it's over-flexibility in his joints.  He can bend his arms and ankles further than most people.  I asked if that's a problem.  He said that it's not a problem now, but as he grows, his ankles might not support his legs the way they should so it could cause his legs to turn in, which would then affect his knees.  It could also affect his shoulder joints depending on what sports he might want to play.  So, we just have to keep an eye on that, too.  He isn't into sports, but he did just start a Chess class after school yesterday!  He's really into chess and he's actually really good at it.  For the next 5 Mondays, he'll go to a Chess class and hopefully have lots of fun and learn a lot!  I taught him the basics of chess a few months ago.......I didn't even think he would be able to grasp it, because of all the different rules for each piece, but he did!  So instead of a sport, he wanted to do Chess! 

Owen has also been practicing his voice exercises and I can tell that it's getting stronger and louder!  It's happening slowly, but it's happening.  I know I need to get him in to see an ENT again, to make sure his papillomas aren't growing back in his throat.  I'm really hoping that they aren't coming back already, but we will just have to see.  But at least his voice is coming back a bit.

Julian is still doing fine in Preschool and he's learned so much!  I just wish he'd act the way he does at Preschool when he's at home!!!  Oh, well.  He's my little red-headed crazy boy!

Cleo has been working on using the potty.  You know, I've heard people say that it's easier to potty train girls than it is boys.......Yeah, well they don't have my daughter!!  She is by far harder to potty train than my boys!!  She is so sassy and puts up a fight when she doesn't feel like using the potty.  It drives me nuts!  I know she can do it.  I know she gets it.  Her independence is getting in the way of it happening faster!!  Oh, well.  She's been doing pretty well this past week.  I hope she can be fully potty trained within the next month (at least during the day).  We just have to keep going!

Westin is still being his slow and lazy self.  He is 15 months now and he still has only 2 teeth and he just crawls.  He can pull himself up on things, but only into a kneeling position.  He eats a lot more "people" foods now and he doesn't gag at every new thing I give him.  It's nice to be able to feed him big boy food now.  He's just a happy little guy and he loves to watch the world work around him. 

Well, now my kiddos are REALLY hungry, so I better quit for now!  Again, to the people who read my blogs..........Thank you and I'm sorry!!  Thank you for taking the time to read my ridiculously long stories about nothing and I'm sorry that you are reading my ridiculously long stories!!  I appreciate everyone's support right now and I love you all!  I will write more later!

~Rachelle Escher

The time is flying by...

Oh my......It's been so long since I've posted anything!!  I'm terrible!!  My house is always a chaotic crazy mess!!  Eeek!  Most of you know Jeff left on February 25th, so we've been doing our thing for over a month now.  I must say, it's gone by very quickly so far......much quicker than I could ever have expected!!  I'm sure most people wonder if I talk to Jeff or know what he's up to.  Actually, since he left, we have talked every single day except for one.  He texts me all the time and we usually have a mini phone date every night.  Sometimes it's only a 5 minute conversation, but we've also had hour long chats, as well!  So, it's been very nice to be able to talk to him regularly.  He's doing well in Oklahoma.  He has about 2 1/2 weeks left there and then he'll go to Fort Knox, Kentucky for the rest of his training.  I don't have an "official" date that he will be completely done with all of this, but hopefully as soon as he gets to Ft. Knox, he'll know some more we can begin our "hardcore countdown!!"  He's keeping busy and so are we, so it all works out!

We've finally gotten the sickness out of this house!  Ugh!  That seemed to last forever!  It just kept going around and around!  But now that that is done with, I hope it doesn't come back!!  Owen is doing well.  His voice is slowly getting a little stronger!!  I brought him to a Speech Pathologist and we figured out some sounds and techniques to use to make his voice smoother, louder, and stronger!  The Speech Pathologist believe Owen will definitely be able to get his voice back with lots of practice and hard work!  We will work at it, that's for sure!! 

Julian is still doing well in Preschool.  He's actually a lot better at school than he is at home!!  (Go figure!)  But he really enjoys school and he's learning so much!  I can't believe all the things he can do now that he couldn't just a few months ago!  It's crazy what they learn in a short amount of time!! 

Cleo is still her sassy little self!  She thinks she's a princess and she's always dancing around and posing at random times.  And when she doesn't get her way, watch out!!  That girl has looks that could kill!  She's a stinker, but I love her girly ways!!

Westin is such a good little boy.  He just sits and watches the world go by.  He's so calm and he's getting around  a lot more now.  Not walking, but he crawls really fast!!  He loves to go after the cats and the dog!!  He will sit and pull on their fur and they will growl at him and he thinks it's so funny!  I'm constantly moving him to other places in the house so he doesn't get hurt!!

As for me, I'm just a crazy busy mama.  I am still taking 2 online classes that take up a lot more of my time than I expected them to.  It's nice, but frustrating at times.  Sometimes I just wanna scrapbook.......but then I have to do my homework first!!  I've been really itching to scrapbook and I have even bought myself a few new scrapbooking toys (The infamous Cricut machine....I got a killer deal on it and a few cartridges to go with it!! Yay for scrapbooking nerdiness!!)  I'm also going to attempt a new business venture!  I have an obsession with Ebay and I love buying and selling, so I've already purchased some wholesale clothing and I'm going to resell it on Ebay to try to make a profit!  If I don't, that's okay.  But I'm going to try.  It's something I enjoy doing, regardless of the money factor.  I just think it's fun.  Plus, I'm not working right now, so it will make me feel like I have a "job!"  I have so many ideas swimming in my head!!  I just have to find the time to do all of them! 

Speaking of time, I need to go to bed.  It's been a long day!!  We went to the MN ZOO today and had a blast!  Of course, it totally thunderstormed on us while we were at the farm looking at the goats, but then it cleared up and it went fine.  The kids were terribly exhausted and so am I!!  So, I will go to bed and "try" to sleep in tomorrow.  But I'm sure Julian will pop out of bed at 6:15am like he normally does.......oh, I hope not!!  Anyway, perhaps I will type more tomorrow.  It's my "Do Nothing Day!"  I finally get one!! YAY!! 

Well, you all have a wonderful Easter if I don't post before then and I love you all!

~Rachelle   :)