The Wonderful World Of Ornaments

One year I bought peach and white and gold ornaments, lots of peach and white pearly garland and white lights. Only white, nothing but white.

I waited till the kids were in school and my baby {Kaysha at the time} was taking a nap and I decorated the tree myself, making sure each ornament was exactly the same amount of space between the next and making sure everything was strategically, perfectly in place.

OMG, looking back...how I hated that tree set up.

Yes, it was gorgeous. Yes it was touched up to perfection.
It had no imperfections, no color clashes and no kiddie finger prints on anything.

I never, ever put a tree up like that again and the following year I pulled out my box of sentimental store bought and hand made ornaments and let the kids go at it.

Perfecto!!!

Till this day, I've never gone back. :0)

Today {and maybe tomorrow too since this is pretty graphic heavy} I'd like to welcome all of you into the "K" family world of Christmas tree ornaments.

Every year since our very first was born, we have gotten each kid a "special" ornament for the tree. Our oldest always remembers her Dad and me, pretty sweet, huh?

It all started off with this pink ball announcing our firstborns first Christmas...



And although this one will be the last ever "Baby's First Christmas" ornament we will buy, it certainly won't be the last ornament we buy....



I buy the ornaments to remind myself of something big that happened that year. Like the year Kody was on steroids and developed a love of chocolate milk like nothing I have ever seen before...



Or the reason why he was on steroids in the first place. This is his first childhood cancer ribbon that hung on a big ole' Christmas tree in Washington DC...



This was Kolin's, the year he scribbled out his very first official "Dear Santa" wish list {I still have it}. He had Kody help him write it in crayon...



Kaysha's when she was 14 years old and ALWAYS had her CD player plugged in with music blaring by her side....



Who doesn't love a good "Snow Day"? I got this one for Karyelle the year she moved back to New York. BTW, in Florida we have "Hurricane Days". LOL!....



The year Kyle was into every sport you can imagine. The trunk of our car looked like his locker room and we schlepped him to every practice, every game, every stinkin' day...



Living in New York, Karlio and KK were both volunteer fire fighters. Did you know Christmas and Thanksgiving are the two busiest times of the year for accidental fires? We ate a lot of reheated holiday dinners those years...



There is a windy road in Putnam valley, NY called Dennytown Road. On that road is a house with the coolest mailbox. It has a normal one down low and another up high that reads "Air Mail". Our second daughter was completely obsessed with that mailbox. When I found this ornament I knew I had to have it to remind her of her childhood {and weird obsessions}...



Lastly, for today, can you guess who's ornament this one belongs to? *wink*...



Have a beautiful day everybody, I'll have more ornaments to show you tomorrow.

BTW, Kody is still a little headachey but definitely feeling better then yesterday. They said it could take up to three days for him to come around. :0)

Kody 2.0

Hey All!!

OK, so we made it back and he's "fixed a/k/a upgraded" again. :0)

As it turns out, although his shunt settings have stayed exactly to the way they were set last October when he needed an adjustment, it seems after almost 2 months down the road, his ventricles were over draining again.

So, he went from a 1.5 to a 2.0 on his shunt settings which basically means it was turned up a stop {or is it down a stop?} to prevent more fluid from dripping out.
I hope I explained that right.

Anyway, he's feeling better and much more active.

We have his MRI scheduled for Monday morning and a stop into his Dr's office so the shunt can be adjusted again. The magnets in the MRI mess up the settings in the shunt and it takes another magnet to get them back. Go figure.

Now, they did warn us that he might start going downhill again and if so, because of too much fluid building up, we would have to bring him back to try another shunt adjustment.
He had a shunt series {X-rays that go from his head to his pelvis} to rule out any damage in the tubing. There isn't any so all is well there.

All in all it was a long day but a good day. We're happy, he's happy, everyone's happy.

Before I leave, I'll leave you with a little something that makes me happy cuz Kolin snapped it 2 seconds before Kody and me started doing the "Cupid Shuffle", or maybe it was the "YMCA", or maybe, well anyway...we danced our butts off at the Boggy Creek party last weekend and we had a great time doing it.
Cuz ummm, Kody, much like me, we are not shy when it comes to rockin' out. LOL!



That picture makes me happy but it also makes me realize that lifting heavy arm weights are in my near future. I should never leave the camera where Kolin can find it {re: 200 plus extremely unflattering pictures of me and Kody line dancing}. Also in my near future, lots more frizzy, windy, Florida hair products...lots and lots and lots. hehe

Have a great day everyone!!

BTW, I'll do the ornament thing tomorrow for sure. :0)

Part Three

How can the Dr's accept the insurance but the hospital they are affiliated with doesn't? Grrrrr. This is getting crazy. We're still on for tomorrow but the MRI the Dr. wants him to have right away isn't happening yet.
Just keep a' swimmin'.:0)

Kody Part Two Today

He's being seen in the E.R. at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Nothing to eat and drink after 2 AM just in case we end up staying.

Kody....

He has had a two day bad headache and it is getting worse even with his max dose of med's so today's update will be up, I am just not sure when.
He's home from school today and I am working on a bunch of calls to get things in motion so he can see his Dr. out in Orlando.
He could have shunt problems again {like he did in October} or it could be tumor related {because of the insurance thing dropping him he is 3 months overdue in getting his MRI}.

This morning at 8:15 I found out that he will FINALLY be insured again starting immediately and his case nurse is simply WONDERFUL! I've actually talked to her twice already this morning.

Anywho's, I'll update later, there is lots to get done this morning...phone wise that is.

Because a blog post isn't quite a blog post without a little something, here's two of the boys doing what they do best...eating!! LOL!!

These were taken at the Boggy Creek Holiday party on Saturday.
Yes, they ate absolutely everything there, especially if it was sweet.

Fried Twinkies..



Cotton Candy...



TTYL!!

Things Around The House

A/K/A The kids now have too busy a social life for me anymore so I am currently snapping photos of things that don't complain, much. :0)

These are just random things you can find around our home this Christmas season.

This Santa jar holds something very near and dear to me. Candy. hehe



Gingerbread Men Salt & Peppers Shakers {that never have S&P in them}...



A cute little penguin one of the kids got me from the Wally World crane machine, sitting next to a box in a basket...



Kody's out of place but so adorable anyway, Patrick Star...



A cookie plate with fake cookies hot glued on for safe keeping and accidental eating...



Tomorrow I'll have some "Welcome to our world of 28 years of collecting ornaments". You won't want to miss it. LOL!

Have a great day everyone!!

PS. Boggy Party pic's coming real soon. :0)

Turkey Legs

Did sombody mention "Galactic Gobblers"?
Heck yeah I did! :0)



The party was AWESOME today!! Many more pictures to come soon.

TTYL!!