Windy Ole' Florida

We're under tornado warnings till 5 PM today and I've got to tell ya'all..it is wicked windy out there.
Just another day in Florida though...funny how you just get used to it.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, sunny skies, warm temp's, heck..the boys even had themselves a big ole' water balloon fight.
Oh..wait, let me show you how sweetly warm it was...



Because we have green everywhere and absolutely no foliage at all, this year once again, I dragged out the plastic leaves and tried to get a couple of autumn snaps before December gets here.
So..here's Kolin trying his best to have patience with me....







When we all know he'd rather be doing this...



Which is exactly how I found him yesterday when I walked out the front door to take out the trash can.

Here's one of Kody from yesterday and as you can maybe see...he's all about the NY Jets this year. :0)



And not wanting to leave out anyone who happened to step in my way, here's Tiki, enjoying some sunshine and ahhhh, some fake leaf props. :0)



Well my friends, I had better get to packing up Kody's med's and anything else that's important just incase we do have to make the mad dash out of here for a while.

Have a beautiful day everyone!!!!

Love, Kim

PS. Sheila...just go right to "You Tube" and type in the name of the poem/song and it will take you right to it. :0)

A Solider's Silent Night

Requested this morning by my Mom and dedicated to our "K" family good friend {mostly Kaysha's}, Travis M. who is bravely serving our Country in Iraq as we speak, and to all the other men and women of this great Country's military...may God bless you all this Christmas season and always.
Thank you.



As we go on to spend time shopping, eating good food and being with the ones we love, please, for us, take a moment everyday to pray for these awesome men and woman of the United States Military.

Have a beautiful day everyone.

Love, Kim and Mama/Grammy Janet

Guitar Hero/Dragonforce

I wish ya'all could see Kolin fly though this song on
"Guitar Hero", he does it flawless and makes it look so easy. :0)



Me? I've only made it through level one and if it has more then 3 chords..I am completely lost, but I do look pretty funny trying. :0)

Have a great night everyone!!

Love, Kim and Kolin "The Guitar Hero Expert/Legend"

Happy Turkey Day!

From all of us in the "K" family, to all of our family and friends...best wishes for a very happy "Turkey Day". :0)



Love, Kim and the "K's"

Cat Country's Cutest Kid

Our Adriana made it to the finals!!!

Please, please, please stop by Cat Country, Tampa's radio station and vote for #13, our very own firecracker, Adri!!!! :0)
(scroll down a bit towards the bottom of the page}

Thank you sooo much everyone!!!!!



Love, Adri's Really Proud Gramma

Get Yourself A Box Of Kleenex....

Before watching this beautiful and incredible little boy...



Talk about a perfect Angel. :0)

Today's Kody

Taken this evening...



He is a pretty cool kid, isn't he?

Today was the last day of school for the kids, Thanksgiving vacation starts tomorrow. Unfortunately for us older folks living here, vacation day doesn't officially start till Turkey Day. The good news about that is we're done with the Thanksgiving shopping, The even better news is that Wal-Mart is conveniently open for peep's like me who forget something important every year. :0)

Welp, I better go..the boys and I are trying to babysit tonight and it's just not going well. One more hour and...

Her....

Mother........

Gets................

Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man, I hope this hour doesn't drag. LOL!!

Till tomorrow..have a wonderful night everyone!!

Love, Kim

That's HOT!!

Guess who's back?



I know I said that I didn't have any new pic's..then I remembered this one. :0)

The update below this one is Kody's...scroll down a little to check out our MRI results day.

~Kim~

Celebrate Good TImes!!

Sorry it took so long for me to get on here but, I promise it's worth the wait. :))

Kody's MRI came out FANTASTIC..PERFECT..AWESOME!!!!!

His ventricles are beautiful and filled with just the exact right amount of fluid to keep him healthy.
He has no new signs of any tumor growth anywhere.
The two suspicious spots have not changed and are official being called "Gliosis", which is just a medically fancy word for nothing more then "scar tissue". :0)

Today was definitely a really, REALLY good day and with Thanksgiving just around the corner, this was the best news and we give thanks everyday to everyone of you awesome friends and family who keep him in your prayers everyday.

Dr. Gegg said to bring him back in 4 months for another follow-up MRI and visit. If he's still perfect then we wait 6 months. But, Dr. Gegg likes MRI follow ups to be more frequent, we will most likely never go more then 6 months between them.

Kody only had one small problem today and that is after the MRI he started getting a headache, probably due to the MRI magnetics messing around with his shunt settings.
As soon as we got to the Dr's, Kody's favorite nurse, Abe, reset his shunt back to his comfortable 1.0, and things looked good.
However, while waiting for the Dr. to come in, Kody decided to lay down and when he got up he felt alot of pressure in his head, and a feeling of a rush of fluid leaving and then he got pretty dizzy and darn near fell off the table.
This was really all due to the fluid that built back up between the MRI and him getting his shunt reset. Though, the fluid collect quickly...it also exited quickly, so it's just something that we have to keep in mind for the next time.
Other then that...after his shunt was reset back, his headache left the building and he's been doing just wonderful since.

We also got to see Kody's MRI and brain up close and personal today as Dr. Gegg brought his laptop into our room and pulled up everything for us and Kody to see. He answered every question we had and Kody had and again, I know I've mentioned this before, but Dr. Gegg is the most AWESOME doctor ever. We are so happy and feel so blessed that he is in Kody and our lives. Just another reason to give thanks. :0)

Welp everyone..I really must get a move on.
I still have a ton of things to do before I can hit the sack.
I have to work all day tomorrow but I will be back on tomorrow night for sure and hopefully with some new pictures.

Have a beautiful night everyone!!!

Love, Kim

Waiting At Arnold Palmer

Kody's just about to wrap up his MRI, we're waiting for them to compare his new films to the 6 month priors and we are off to McD's for some breakfast and Dr' Gegg's for our results. :0)
Don't you just love technology...so cool that I can sit here and update for ya'll.
I'll update again when we get home.

Have an awesome day everyone!!!

Love, Kim

The Shunt Families Picnic

We had such a great time yesterday at the Hydrocephalus Family Support Picnic. Lots of good food, games, new friends...just an awesome day for sure.
Heck, I even won a $20 Dominoes Pizza gift card, which will come in real handy on "Tuesday Night Movie Night."

Here's just a few pic's from yesterday..I have more but not enough time tonight {sorry} to get them all done. I will though, I just need one more day.

Kolin, going down a slide with some roller things on it. I'm sure your supposed to sit on it like all the other kids did, but Wild Man was having none of that easy going down stuff....



Towards the end of the day, it was getting chilly so my boys took total advantage of the still hot grills. OK, truth be told..I was right there with them warming up 3 seconds before I snapped this. I'm sure the temp. was down to a chilly 60-ish degrees or so by then.



Stud Boy won the hearts of everyone there, this cutie in particular. Her name is Willow, she digs mohawks, she's almost 13, and she has a shunt since birth. :0)
BTW, Kody thought she was real cute too. :0)



I think the most memorable part of the day was just hanging out and listening to the conversations between these special kids.
I mean, on any given day, the talk between a couple of tweens/teens and even the elementary group would go something like this...video game talk, sports, skateboards and such.
What I heard was in depth, intelligent conversations about things like inter-cranial pressure, the differences between VP and programmable shunts, hydrocephalus, hospitals, drainage tubes, ventricles, cysts and tumors.

I've never seen such a bunch of awesome old souls in my life and I have to say, we are super excited about next month, because we've been invited back for the HFSG {hydrocephalus family support group} big Christmas bash.

Tomorrow morning bright and early we leave for Orlando so that Kody can get his 6 month follow up MRI over at Arnold Palmer Hospital. We'll find out the results tomorrow morning also so I'll update when we get home.

Have a beautiful night everyone..and don't forget to hang with our favorite peep's over on Wisteria Land tonight. :))

Love, Kim

My Sister From Another Mother

That's Sheila..my sister from another mother that I've never met yet. LOL!!
My long lost sister who laughs with me and worries about me.
Sheila..Your The BEST!!

But honestly, no worries..I've just had a super busy week, a few work related dramas that had nothing to do with me but did make my workload double.
I'm still trying to get over that lingering lung hacking, I haven't even thought of Thanksgiving shopping and Christmas is being forced upon me everytime I walk into the grocery store, my kids don't get clean socks often enough and Kody's been trying to borrow his Dad's, the cats cling on anyone who walks by in hope of a handful of dry food, I volunteered and got accepted as Kolin's only class Mom, back in the day when my life was more chilled out and now I'm wondering what was I thinking, my husband has turned into me, he's our families new chauffeur, chef, and appointment maker and taker, I'm three weeks behind in all my e-mails, and the worst thing that causes me alot of sleepless nights...
I can't even find five minutes to call my own Mom, who would walk in front of a semi if it would make her kids happy.
I'm an awful daughter, I am, for real, no joke.

But, other then all that, life continues to rock on as it always has.
Thanks so much Sheila...why can't we live closer? :0)

Tomorrow I will be able to get some new photos on here because we will be spending the day in the park, in Orlando, at a huge blast given by Kody's neurosurgeons office. It's a "hydrocephalus support group" party for kids of all ages and their families to meet and have a day of fun in the sun. Kody will be able to finally meet other kids with shunts and the whole day is gonna be awesome.
Heck, even Karlio is way into it...making 40 pounds of chicken, two giant sized tins of mac and cheese and is helping running the BBQ's.

Sunday is my goal day to have every last hat order finished and ready for the mail on Monday morning. I apologize again for the delay, but like I mentioned..I didn't want to go anywhere near the supplies and hats while I was sick for safety sake. All's good though and new, cool, funky hats will be on those little noggins very soon.
Thank you everyone for understanding.

Monday is Kody's MRI day. We have to have him at Arnold Palmer Hospital at 7:30 AM for his 8:00 AM MRI. Then we go see his surgeon for his shunt to be reset {the MRI will mess up his shunt setting, because of the magnets} and we will also get the results of the MRI while we are there.

OK, I think that's it in a nutshell. We've been busy, but busy in a good way. :0)

I'll be back on tomorrow night to let ya'all know how much fun we had at the park.

Have a beautiful night everyone!!

~Kim~

PS. How about Sunday Mom?

To My Mama

I love you!!!!!!



Love Your Baby Girl

Please don't be mad, yes I will call you. :0)

Things To Do...

Not Much About Anything

Goodness, I am boring myself to tears...I have nothing to say tonight...seriously, I can't think of a thing.

So....I'll add a few more K&K pics and maybe get some inspiration.

A couple of my youngest young'un, Kolin...




{this one looks really sweet when clicked on to enlarge}

One of the Bear...



Here's our favorite "Coppertop"...



And just to prove that they ain't always the "brotherly lovey" type in photos, an outtake for your enjoyment tonight...



Back to work day #1 went pretty OK today, gawd I was busy trying to play catch up though. No doubt the rest of the week will also be insane. It's alright though, I'd rather be crazy busy then sitting around waiting for the clock to hit 5.

Oh, I have a quick note on hats {cuz that photo of Adri just reminded me}.

For everyone waiting the makings and delivery of any hats recently ordered..they will be done this week. While I was down with the flu bug I didn't want to go anywhere near the hats, for safety sake. Since I am no longer contagious, I'm back to stitching them up. I apologize for the delay..I really didn't want to spread the bug.
Miss Dot, I'm working on finishing yours as we speak. :0)

Well my favorite peep's, I think I better jump off for tonight and get my kiddo's to bed.

I'll see ya'all tomorrow!!

~Kim~

My Boys

I just pulled this one off the camera, brought it up in Adobe Bridge and had a total "Awwwww" moment, so I thought I'd share it.



Gotta love those warm fall colors on a chilly Florida day. :0)

~Kim~

Thanks Kolin And Kody!

You both jumped in and took over when your Mama needed you the most..YOU GUYS ROCK!!
Sorry to give you the boot though, but it's back to me, all me baby!! :0)

OK..I kid, seriously, I am a jokster.

The weekend went by quick, too quick and tomorrow starts back to work for me, although I would love to keep the mini vacation up a few more days...hacking up lungs in the comfort of my own home is not keeping the boy "K" kids fed, and let me tell you..they eat alot, I am talking ALOT! You know, some days I just watch them devour plates of food and wonder a few things.

1. Where the heck they put it all?
2. How in the world do they move, let alone run outside and jump on the trampoline, right after they finish eating.
3. What is their secret to staying so dang thin. Peeps want to know, peep's like me.

I'd also like to give those two hellions a bit of Mom advice.

1. One day you too shall become middle aged.
2. Enjoy those Chips Ahoy while you still can.
3. One day it will catch up to you.

Don't forget tonight is a brand spankin' new Desperate Housewives for your viewing enjoyment. I'll be there and I hope you will too. :0)

Thanks everyone for making sure my substitute blogger boys were appreciated. Ya'all are GREAT!!

I'll leave you with one more of Kolin for tonight. I've got some Bear ones on the camera I still need to pull off. Let me go and see if I can get that done fore Wisteria Lane takes over my night. :0)



Have a beautiful night everyone!!

~Kim~

Tonight's Update Brought To You By Kolin a/k/a Little K Wild Man

By tomorrow i ought to be back to bloggin', but in the meantime..feel free to stick around and chat with this little hellion of mine...



hi i`am Kolin Kruppenbacher and I am Kim`s son and i love bacon and egg platters I am helping my mom because she is ill *faker* 8-] DO YOU ANY WANT TO HAVE A HAT? MY MOM IS TEACHING me how. i made a forty seven foot chain. go me. 8-] When you see that sign, tilt your head.
My fav band`s. Slipknot, 3 Day`s Grace,.
My fav movie.Halloween 12345,Never Back Down,
My fav parent. my momy
That`s enough Good bye.

ps.LEAVE A COMMENT!!! thank you.

If you've followed this so far, your awesome. I'll be back tomorrow!!

Todays Update Brought To You By Kody

Because I still feel the need to slurp cough syrup, sleep and give the Puff tissue company all my business and never ending love and devotion for inventing the most wonderful Kleenex on Earth, today's update will be brought to you by none other then Kody himself.
Enjoy!!
Oh, and no matter what he say's, he did not have surgery yesterday...he did have a procedure on an ingrown toenail..which in itself is pretty dang gross to begin with...add Kody's description, and well...don't eat anything while you read his update...warning, just a friendly warning.

Kody's Blog Update

Later Gators!!

We Have Been Wienered!!!

Talk about making it to the bigtime, when you are loved by a wiener, you are loved forever.
Imagine my surprise when I finally got on the computer to find out that we have been featured on The Wonderful World Of Wieners blog.

My many thanks to my most beautiful, Wienerific friend, Miss Hallie, who is not only one of my best buds on-line but soon to be neighbor, one day, when her youngest youngun' graduates HS.

Now, go forth my friends..and become a Wiener too!!!

The Wonderful World Of Wieners

Oh, one thing....I'm warning you about Monday's on the Wiener blog. This will be your only warning, fear Monday's....FEAR MONDAY'S!!!
{unless your a warped sicko like myself, then you'll love them!!}

Now, I must go back to my hacking up a lung because this blogger has gotten herself a nasty case of the flu topped with a whopping dose of pneumonia.
I feel like poo. :0(

Have a great night everyone!!!

Up And Over

Boys and trampolines, it's a great match even though it scares me to death.

Here's "Wild Man" doing his thing....





Just another day in the neighborhood today, so I'll wish you all a great night, and a promise to really do a for real update. :0)

Later Gators!!!!!

My Gramma's Been Busy

Busy making me model new hats again, but I'm OK with it because I get paid in fruit snacks, diapers and more silly hats then I'll ever possibly wear. :0)





Stop on by From My Heart To Your Head for an update. :0)

Love, Adri

My Bookends

Because that's what they remind me of...



{click on image to see bigger}

Not much to say today so I'll just wish ya'all the most beautiful of Sunday's ever.
Till later on...

Our Yesterday

Take one sunny, hot day.
Add 25 eleven year olds.
And one all day class trip to a Renaissance Fair.
What do you get?

One beat up tired Mom and one 11 year old kid named Kolin who wants to go back again, and again, and again.

Here he is, knife throwing..which was pretty much all he wanted to do all day.



Other then trying to keep a bunch of kids close together with a million food distractions in the way, this was probably everyones favorite part, the jousting show.



Isn't that horse beautiful? There were two and they looked almost identical. They were gentle enough to go up and pet, yet strong, graceful, amazing...really.
You would have thought they were horses that cost top dollar...but guess what?
We found out that the both of them were rescue horses..how absolutely cool is that?
I've got more pic's of them...I just have to get to downsizing the them this weekend.

That's about it for today..I'll be back tomorrow sometime.

Have a great night everyone!!

Turtles

Aren't these guys cute? They hang out on that pipe everyday at the park I hang out in once in a while during lunchtime.



Kody's doing much better but his most awesome teacher, the famous Mrs. Jones, who has been stopping by each day making sure he doesn't fall behind, insists that I keep him home for the week because of the crazy outbreak of strep that is going around the school like wildfire. Actually, his principal had sent Mrs. Jones to relay the message for her..no school until the outbreak has died down.
No worries about school work though, he'll just be home schooled and home tutored until next week.
Oh..I almost forgot, the boys got their report cards and did PHENOMENAL!!!
The best report card they've ever gotten..and that is all with thanks to the awesome teachers they have this year.

Well, I better get to going. I'm going on a class trip with Kolin's 5th grade class tomorrow and I've got to get some sleep before spending my day with 25 eleven year old's. :0)

Have a great night everyone!!!

Mama's Boys

It's not too often I can catch a shot like this, one of my two youngest hellions together and they're not even getting each other in headlocks.
Yeppers, this one is a keeper for sure.



Kody's amoxicillan started kicking in today and though he's still a bit on the cruddy side, he is getting better.
My fear is that when he is off the antibiotics, that the strep will attack his brain again like it did the last time he had strep...a year and a half ago.
Hopefully, he's much stronger this time around and honestly, he never even seized this time like he does everytime he comes down with a virus.
In any case..he'll be fine, he has to. :0)

Welp, I'll keep it short and sweet tonight because it's about 11 o'clock and I think I'm gonna have to get myself some ZZZZZ.s

Have a great night everyone!!

PS. Don't forget to check out "Boutique Your Baby" {scroll down to see the entry}. If you find something you love, use your "Looking Through The Glass" promotion code to get 10% off. Promo code is: "lttg".

PPSS. They have Babylegs and little tiny shoes that are too darn cute for their own good. :0)

Lieutenant Kolin

I have to go back to work today {yuck} although Bear is still feeling miserable.

I wanted to get on real quick this morning to let ya'all in on Kolin's great news.

If you remember I had mentioned that he joined "Safety Patrol" in his elementary school this year. At first it started out as something he wanted to do because of the Universal Studios trip at the end of they year.
Well..Kolin has proven himself such a leader that yesterday he was made "Lieutenant" of the safety patrol
Man, I hope it doesn't go to his head..he does like to threaten push up's on peeps and we know how those "runners" can be. LOL!!



Anyway, he wanted me to spread the word this morning.

Have a great day everyone, gotta run!!

Back To The Dr's

***EDIT AT 1:16***

Bear's got strep. :0(

Bear came down with a fever last night and this morning a fiery hot sore throat. Which, is actually a good thing because I know it cant be shunt related.
So..day off for me {YAY!} and a Dr's visit for him

Here's a few we took yesterday.











I'll have more up later, gotta run for now. :0)

Boutique Your Baby

Looking Through The Glass is happy to announce that we will now be affilated with Boutique Your Baby.


"Boutique Your Baby is a retail store and website based out of Ontario, Canada. The Baby Boutique is a natural parenting and baby
store focused on sustainability. This means that we will be selling cloth
diapers, slings, nursing gear, wooden toys, sustainable fibre clothes for baby,
and more as we grow."

Last year, if ya'all remember...Adriana was a featured baby on the Babylegs website. Through that, I was contacted by Boutique Your Baby who also sells Babylegs in addition to many other natural baby products, which range anywhere from baby bottles to strollers and everything else you can think of inbetween.
If you are "going green" as we are, you'll love this store.

And, because we love ya'all so much, Boutique Your Baby is offering Looking Through The Glass readers 10% off any purchase.
Please use promotion code: "lttg" to receive that 10% off.

Click on the logo below to get there {you'll also find the logo permanently located on the sidebar}...



Happy shopping everyone and BTW, the baby shoes are absolutely TDF!! Adriana, I am sure will be sporting the little black girlie shoes with the cherries on them soon enough. :0)

Bright Eyes

OMG, check out those baby blues. I did nothing in photoshop to enhance them.
When the light is just so, they sparkle like sapphires. :0)



Imagine walking around everyday with eyes that pretty?

I wanted to get on here this morning actually for two reasons.

#1. To wish ya'all a very happy daylight savings time day. Hope you got that extra hour of sleep. I did, but then again I was up till 3 AM making hats. That extra hour was needed bad.

#2. For all my fellow bloggers who are preggers or have teeny, tiny little ones, I have got some awesome news to be posted this afternoon. Ohhhhh, I can't wait to let you all in on this, you'll love it.
Keep checking, the good news will be up by this afternoon.

Later Gators!!!

Atreyu..You Had It Coming

Paybacks my darlin' middle of the night foot biter, paybacks...



We also have a dinosaur costume, and I'm not afraid to use it. :0)

TGIS!!

I do love Saturdays, Saturdays are meant for sleeping in till at least 9. So, I did...no wait, I didn't, I slept in till 9:15 when our cat Atreyu woke me up rudely by attacking me whenever I moved. Dang cat..I'll so get him back today for that. LOL!!

Yesterday was one of those beautiful afternoons where there was no way I was going to stay indoors. On my lunch hour I escaped to a park a block away and told nobody so that I couldn't be found.
Then, I walked myself around Main Street and on some back road I found these beauties just sitting there begging to be shot.



On this one, I tried to learn more about "manual focus". I'm not sure if it's because I have the worst eyesight, but I think I have alot to learn..it wasn't as quite in focus as I thought it looked when I took it.

Here it is with some goth texture {because it was Halloween}..



And the same photo without texture, just the way it was with that gorgeous blue sky..



Ahhh, I hate to cut this short but Adriana just woke up and since her Mama is working, we are on the babysitting patrol.

I'll post more pic's later.

Have a BEAUTIFUL day everyone!!!