8/25/10- First Day of School

Well there you go folks. That day has finally arrived here in the Reed Family household. Time for school.
Marilyn, Katie , Hannah and Maggie all woke up , got their breakfasts as I made their lunches for the day. They were super exicited and Maggie was disappointed that she wasn't going to start today.She won't start until September 7th but that's okay.
She learned that she can watch what she wants on t.v and play with the toys while her sisters are gone and not have them yell at her. She is a little whinney though so she is definitely going to take a nap this afternoon for sure.

It is so strange not to have them here at home. After homeschooling for 8 years I have found that I'm not sure what to do with myself without the girls. I'm sure I will figure it out but in the time being I'm just going to get some much needed house cleaning done. Its kind of nice to be able to clean stuff up and not have the kids tear it up behind me. For the first time in 8 years my kitchen table is clean.

I am so looking forward to hearing how their day went. Its only 10:24 and am thinking about them already. What are they doing? Are they having fun? What are they learning about right now? Have they met any new friends yet? The only thing I know is that at 9:30 am they have snack. I'm sure I'll get lots of papers to read tonight about what they do , when they do it , and how they do it. LOL.

We will see how this all goes. It doesn't feel quite right but in the same breath it needs to be done this year. I need to get my health in check so I can be the best mommy that I can be that's for sure.



The girls this morning



The girls met up with their friend Alicia.



Out in the parking lot




In the Multipurpose room waiting for their teachers to line them up.

Here is to a great school year for the 2010-2011 school year. I can't believe how my babies are growing up. Maggie starts September 7th, and was a little disappointed that she wasn't starting today. I told her all in due time because I have a feeling that me leaving isn't going to be the easy part for her. Or maybe it will and she'll surprise me. Who knows?

The Countdown is On!

School supplies : Check

School Uniforms: Check

Tugging on Mommy and Daddy's heart strings: Check

With 9 more days to go I think the reality is beginning to hit me that my little girls are all goingn to school. The older girls are enjoying every last minute of their summer vacation and Tim and I have been preparing for everything they will need for school. I'll admit it was quite a bit more work then I wished for but its worth it and I think they will have a positive experience with school this year.

It was quite a roller coaster ride when it came to getting nursing for Maggie. Since our school doesn't staff a full time nurse I had to go private. That didn't come without its 'fun'. First we had to get the diagnosis which led to our trek to Cincinnati. Once we had that getting the ball rolling for nursing was less then fun, but we managed and insurance is going to cover it. So this week we are going to interview nurses hopefully and find someone we are comfortable with.
I am hoping that everything will go alright for Maggie with even going to school in the first place. Whenever she gets sick it always ends up in some drama either taking longer to get over to ending up in the hospital. So we'll see. Even if we just get preschool in it will do Maggie a world of good. It really will.

Speaking of school right now our school is participating in a contest to see if we can will $500,000 dollars. What a blessing that would be. Our little school building is about 80yrs old and is in need of an overhaul. Unlike public schools we don't have money set at our finger tips to fix it up. We depend on fundraisers and everything to just keep it open. Its been sad to see so many Catholic schools close. Less families have the money to send their children to private school. Not that we have lots of money. We surely don't. We took advantage of the scholarship program that they have, which I think not many people realize it exists. So that was how I was able to manage to get the girls into private school. Otherwise we would have never of been able to afford it either. But it would be such a miracle if our little school wins it. So on the sidebar of our blog is a Kohl's Cares button. Click on that button. I'm not sure if you have to type in the name of the school and state but its St. Thomas of Corry, PA. And you have a chance to give 20 votes. You can only give 5 votes per school so don't worry if your school is participating as well as your school can only get 5 votes per person. So vote away and help our school get a much needed makeover!

3 more weeks!

I can't believe in three more weeks the girls will be going back to school. Not so sure about whether Maggie will venture off to preschool yet or not, but the other three will be going.

We've been doing some school shopping and getting prepared. The only think left are book bags, lunch boxes, and school uniforms and shoes. The girls are really excited yet at the same time a little nervous with this new journey. I know they will do absolutely fine.

Unfortunatley Maggie isn't any better off from our trip to Cincinnati at the moment. Don't get me wrong I am so happy that she isn't pooping 24/7. But she isn't out of diapers. We basically traded in one problem for another of course. So we get the constant pooping out of the way but add in cathing every four hours to keep her bad kidney from damaging her good kidney. Plus the fact that we aren't quite sure what to think of the motility problems she has been having. Hopefully we'll get the results of that sometime this week and we can get it figured out. If her blood work doesn't show anything we will do a trial of Flagyl and see if it helps at all or not. If that doesn't help then her GI would like to scope and see if this is allergy related. Sometimes allergy cells can get into the esophagus and GI tract and can lead to diarreaha ( a.k.a hypermotility). If nothing shows up with all of that then her GI suggests looking into her motility then. Even so if it happens to be motility related its not going to matter what type of testing we really do because there really isn't much to do to fix it, other then what we are doing now(Immodium and Enemas). If this is the case that will really stink for Maggie. Even though we went to Cincinnati, saw the Colorectal guru guys and went through the whole bowel managment program. It doesn't mean that Maggie still won't have accidents, and we all know how embarrassing accidents are. The older she gets the more its going to matter to her.

I can say if we do manage preschool for Maggie this year I will guarentee that it will be the only grade she attends brick and mortar school. With all of the hassle this has been, trying to come up with ways for diapering, which turned out going to Cincinnati. Then adding the cathing, trying to get a nurse for her to do this, insurance , insurance denials,. Its just not worth it in the end. Its a darned shame because Maggie will have so much to offer the world, yet I find that the world has nothing to offer her.