Fragile X

I started this blog to share my summers with my boys, but I have not written  a lot about the boys and fragile x and how it has affected our life. I have had a lot of ups and downs since I got the first possible diagnose of fragile x when I was around 3 months pregnant with my younger son. My older son was 2 years old when his interventionist finally convinced me to take Seth to Chapel Hill for an evaluation. This was a very hard day for me and for Seth. They put him through so many test, checking his motor skills, intellectual skills, and speech. After it was all said and done I was told that Seth was either mildly autistic or he had fragile x syndrome and if it was fragile x that the child I am carrying has a 50/50 chance of having it to. I was devastated when I learned that this was possible and went in to a deep denial. When Clay came along and showed the same signs of delays that Seth had I was heart broken. How could this be? Where did it come from? I don't know anyone else who has it. I felt so alone. Both of my parents had passed away before any of this was obvious or before there was a concern to Seth's delays. When Clay was 2 years old I finally took him to Chapel Hill to have blood drawn to see if Fragile x was what was causing all of this havoc in my family. The blood work came back positive. Wow!

Well that has been almost 17 years ago and Wow!! We have come a long way since the diagnose but it has been a journey that I sometimes still can not believe we have survived. I am not saying that this journey is over but know there is a whole other set of issues. Back then we worried would they talk, walk, be able to go to school, and so many other things little kids learn and meet milestones. Now I worry about what will happen to my boys when or if something was to happen to me and the farmer. I worry a lot about the future and how it will be when the boys are both in their 20's, 30's, 40's and so on. I never dreamed that the older years would be stressful. We have other issues now that we have grown men. Now I worry about Seth and his nerves. He get so stressed over things that he never worried about before like riding in his daddy's pick-up. Worry about going places with his paw paw that he adores and loved to go places with. He has almost totally stop going places with him. I don't want him to get where he does not want to go anywhere. I don't want him to lose his social skills but it is so hard to keep this stuff up when you live in the country and have grown children. You don't have play groups to go to any more. No more school and I can not even think about sending him to the college program because I don't trust people and how they would treat him.

Clay has a whole other set of issues. He is affected in different ways than Seth. He still need help with his independence with everyday life skills. He has meltdowns because of his disability  gets the best of him. He gets something set in his mind that he wants and it is hard to get it off his mind.

I love these boys to the moon and back and in so many ways I would not change one little thing about them. I am really learning to enjoy Holland.

What a day!!!!

What a day!! Do you ever wish that sometimes you could get a break? I know I am a whiny person sometimes. I also know that there are a lot more worse things in this world to worry about than little petty things but sometimes a woman just needs to vent right?

I know I don't have many people reading my blog so I am not worried about what I am about to say. The world is crazy!!! I get so sick of hearing about all of the idiotic things that go on in this world today. Who ever said that money was the root to all evil was correct. Even though I know we have everything we need to survive it still seems like every time we turn around we need more money for something else. We always are having repairs. I am still feeling guilty because I ended up going to the emergency room when I got sick with my kidney infection. My goodness 1300 something dollars for me to get an iv and give an urine sample and antibiotics.I got a bill today for 500$ ER bill 30$ lab 5$ lab. We took are car to have the air bag light looked at and turned off and inspection. Was told that the sensor under passenger seat need to be replaced 600$ for the box not counting labor. We were also told we need new brakes 199$ for the front and 199$ for the back. Also had to have new windshield wipers in order to pass inspection 40$. We ended up spending 88$ on the car today. 112$ on tags and taxes.


Oh well the life of a farmer and his wife and family.

Now I am going to whine about my weight. I might as well get everything off my chest right? I have a lot of excuses why I have not lost anymore weight, but I know why. I have been working with an old high school friend trying to lose weight with. We have been doing this now for 2 weeks. The first week I gave the excuse of going to VBS that I was doing bad and not exercising. This week I have had a horrible cold that I must have caught  getting out in the world. I did walk 3 miles on my treadmill one day this week and the next day my lower back hurt and I was scared I was going to get another infection. I have eaten over my calories almost everyday. I am out of control. I also feel so whinny that I don't want to exercise. I am 47 years old and when I exercise I ache so bad that I don't want to do it. I always think that life is to short to ache this bad. But then I watch stuff like The Biggest Loser and and Extreme Weight loss and this people exercise really hard. Wait.........(here comes the excuse) I am older than most of these people. Are you really suppose to exercise and ache and take Ibuprofen everyday? I need to make up my mind what I want more in my life to lose weight and be healthy and achy or be happy and fat???



Thanks for listening to me whine....

Great week at VBS

I have a lot to talk about. All week we have been going to VBS (vacation bible school) at Smyrna Church in Robbins NC. This is the first thing I have done with the boys by myself since we have become farmers instead of students and teacher. I am so proud of Clay he has had a great week and I am still in shock at how well he done. Seth had a good week to hanging out with some old class mates. He has been going through a phase where he is nervous and scared of everything. So I was so proud of both of them.

Clay riding on the horse and wagon

Clay having snack

Clay did participate in the water balloon fight

Clay standing on stage 

I only got one picture of Seth. He was showing be he got hit with a water balloon . 

It has been a good week but I am so behind on my house stuff and I am doing terrible with my diet this week. I have a busy day tomorrow. I have some tomatoes to can, and some green beans to can. I am so tickled that it rained and it helped our garden. It brought on the beans!! 

I have so much more to share maybe I will blog more this weekend. 

I want.....

Things I want!! Everybody wants something so I know I am not writing about anything that is unheard of. I also want to make it clear that I am not a spoiled I got to have this now kind of person either. There are several things I have on my mind that I want sometime but I will survive without them. Here is a list of things I want: some of them are material and some are not

1. I want my family to be well and happy. I hate for them be troubled, worried or nervous.
2. I want God  always to be in my life guiding me and saving me.

1. I want a new laptop
2. I want a new camera
3. I want a building
4. I want a big shower
5. I want to be able to stay at the beach more during the summer
6. I want lose weight and meet my goal of 155 pounds and stay around that weight.
7. I want to have friends and family in my life more. I miss them so much. I hate that everyone is so busy that no one has time for this anymore. I also know that I also have children that need me all of the time and I am not always available to do things with friends and family.
8. I want a fit bit
9. I want a pool
10. I want to remodel my house. Really remodel it.
11. I want a new bed
12. I want one day a week to do what ever I want
13. I want a friend that I can talk to everyday. I miss having a friend
14. I want a pet preferably a dog. A smart dog that is easy trained and does not roam, and chew up everything.
15. I want to learn how to take better pictures.


I know this sounds like a lot but most of it I can live without. Some of the things I can make happen if I would really set my mind to it and some of it may or may not ever happen. All of this makes me think of what my granny use to tell me when she was alive. "Want in one hand and Shit in the other and see which one get full the quickest."

Rain

We finally got some rain!! I am so happy we really needed it around here. Yesterday it looked like rain all day but it never really rained just a few drops here and there. Yesterday around 7:00 we decided to go try to catch a fish over at the pond and to put out the deer cam. While putting the camera out  sitting under the trees it started to rain. We sat under the trees for a little while and then made our way to the barn.

The cows were loving it.

Sitting under the barn

We had company in the barn Jenny and sweet Valentine was in there out of rain to

After the rain the sun came back out and so did a rainbow. 

We went to the pond and I took some pictures of some frogs that where hiding under the chair that were stacked up in the shelter. There were 4 frogs but they started jumping away before I could get my camera ready. 

Here are 3 of them 

The other one jump onto the floor. 

While I was taking pictures of the frogs, farmer was fishing, Seth was watching and Clay was swinging .

Well then we heard some thunder and decided we better head home since we were riding on the mule. 

We made it home way before it started raining again and it was going on 8:00 oclock. We had not had supper yet so we decided to have BLT's. I had to send the farmer out to get some bacon and man they were good. One of my favorites in the summer time. 

It was a better evening than I had during the day. It started raining again at 8:00 and it rained until 9:30. I know my garden and yard was loving it. We got .7 inches of rain

During the night another one my bradford pear trees split. 

I think the farmer is going to cut the tree completely down. I will take some pictures of the yard later if he does cut it or not. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Thursday blues....

 The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3rd and ending August 11th, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. These are the days of the year with the least rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere.^{[dubious – discuss]   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Days}


I am having a really down day. You know that it is officially the " Dog Days Of Summer". It is so dry around here. The grass is drying up, the ground is cracked and every thing looks so sad and droopy. We had a greater chance of rain yesterday and today and tomorrow but so far we have not even gotten enough to settle the dust. I keep praying that the clouds will open up and the rain will come.

I am also aggravated with myself on over eating my calories. I will never meet my July goal at the rate that I am going. I have been eating a lot of corn on the cob!! I love corn on the cob in the summer. I can eat 4 ears and some other veggies and I am good. I was going to start walking again this week but I have been to lazy to do this to. To be truthful about it I am so scared of getting sick again it is not even funny. I don't want to have a kidney infection again. On top of all of the antibiotics I got a terrible yeast infections. I know this is probably to much information but I ended up being sick for around 4 weeks. I am ready to be healthy. I have been drinking cranberry juice and drinking a lot of water. I know I am complaining. There are a lot of other people who have true sickness and may never get better from it but when it is you going through it, it is so easy to complain.

I have been making humming bird food and watching the humming birds devour it. I counting 10 at one time at here eating. I love sitting and watching them.

Last night when the Farmer came back from the chicken house he called for me to come look out the door he thought that there was a flying squirrel laying on the branch in the big tree. I took my camera out to capture a picture of it. 

Baby birds sitting on a roosting on a branch together. 

I wish I had a better camera and the knowledge on how to use it. I am hoping I will get a new one this year. I just wish I new if I should get a one with changeable lenses or another automatic point and shoot. I just want a new one. I have noticed little things that are acting different on my camera and there is more blur when zooming in on a picture. Oh well maybe one day. Here I am complaining again instead of being thankful for what I have. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Getting Healthy

I have been off my diet for 2 weeks now and today is the day to get started back. I want to set a goal for July to lose 10 lbs by the end of the month. I weigh this morning and I am at 209.2 This is doable and I know that I can do it. I am going to log my food this month I have not even been doing this in 2 weeks I will start and maybe make it to lunch and never finish logging my supper and snacks. I am so happy that I have only gained 1 pound in the 2 weeks that I have been so slack. I really want to get the pounds off. I feel bad because I gave my brother a hard time. He just got out of the hospital with bile stones. He has had health problems for a while with gall bladder issues and had it removed but has still had problems. He even had to have a stent put it. I know since he has gotten married and has two small son he has a harder time keeping healthy but I told him he needed to do better. I told him he needs to drink more water and get some exercise. I love him and I want him to take care of himself.

My brother and his family

I felt so guilty fussing at him when I have days or weeks that I have bad eating habits. I have the same issues with heart burn and acid re flux. I am hoping by losing more weight that I can get rid of all of my issues. I need to do so much better myself. Oh well enough of my rambling.

Week of the fourth!

We have been home 1 week from the beach and I miss it so bad. Not a day has gone by that Clay has begged to go back. He loves the beach so much. I have not been real busy this week but on Monday I went to Carter's Farm and got some sweet silver queen corn, 10 dozen to be exact. I love to eat fresh corn and eat it is what we have done. I did can 14 pints and I might can a  few more not sure. Here is a picture of my canned corn and a few things that we picked out of the garden Saturday. We need rain so bad.

Our tomatoes that we planted in the bed is loaded with green tomatoes and they are starting to get ripe.

These are doing good but they are close enough to water, but we have noticed they are getting some end rot on them. Not sure what causes that but it is so discouraging. The garden is so dry I am not sure how anything is still living. I thought for sure we were going to get a little rain from hurricane Arthur but no such luck. 

I took a picture of the rain and then it stopped maybe I jinxed it. Oh well it was pretty while it lasted. We have not really had a good rain in over 3 weeks. See the hose stretched out across the yard to water my flowers. They are all still pretty. I am not to happy with my herb bed this year one side is prettier than the other side.

See how dry the yard is it is so sad. We really need a good soaking rain. The temperature cooled off some after the hurricane went up the coast. It made a beautiful day to go to Dentons Threasher's Reunion.

A car in Meyers Garage 

Bobby Myers race car

Seth and Chocolate Myers Dale Earnhardt retired gas man

Seth with Barney's police car

Country Hillbilly

We have had a great week but we still miss the beach. 

Wish I was back!

Thanks for stopping by!

Vacation

Wow I can not believe that it has been 16 days since I have written a blog entry. I have been putting it off because of vacation and not feeling like I have anything interesting to write about. We had a great time on vacation and it is truly the only time Clay is at true peace. I truly wish we could live at the beach but I know it is not reasonable. Clay would not like it in the winter time and he could not sit on the beach in the water.

Seth 

We had a really good time but I did eat really bad while at the beach. I have not gotten back on track since we have been back home either. I only gained 3 pounds but that is 3 pounds in the wrong direction. I am doing a little better each day but I am still eating over my calories and I have not been logging my food. I have got to keep up and get back on track. 

I am feeling better with the kidney infection but I feel like I am getting a head cold now. I really want to feel like myself again. I need to get me some fruits and vegetables to eat. We had Krispy Kream doughnuts 3 times at the beach and bought four more when we returned home. We also ate at our favorite hamburger joint in the whole world River City Cafe.They have the best cheeseburgers in my opinion in the world!!!

Me standing beside the sign.

We also visited Brookgreen Gardens and Huntington Beach State Park. I got a really great picture of my family at Brookgreen Gardens.

A little metal goat  sculpture

Alligator at Huntington beach

A turtle laying eggs.

A alligator crossing the path just a few moments behind us.

 I hope everyone enjoyed my rambling.