5.... WOW!

As always time has slipped by too quickly for my liking.
Gibson is 5 today... Oh my goodness how time has flown. It seems like just yesterday that I was checking in to the hospital on the day that I would meet my very first son. It's crazy to think that 5 years have passed.
So much has happened since that sunny September day. Gibson has grown into a sweet and silly little boy. He is full of imagination and is too smart for his own good. He loves taking his time putting his puzzles together and loves books. He is doing great in school and we are pleased with all of the progress he has made in the last few years. We know that life for Gibson may not always be easy, but he sure does get through it all with a big smile on his sweet little face. To say that I love him is an understatement. I don't think there are enough words in the english language to share how much he means to us.
Happy Birthday little man!! We love you Bubba!!

Okay so I have done it again.... I keep falling off the wagon when it comes to the family blog!

Needless to say I promise to set a reminder for myself to catch everyone up on what is going on in the Black house!

Currently we are working with Gibson's teacher to get Gibson setup for next school year. We are working on getting him in the half day pre-k program as well as continuing with the special education class that he is currently in. He will be at school all day at least 4 days a week, possibly 5 days a week. Secondly we are getting Chad all setup for his first school year! He will follow the same program that Gibson has been on for the past two years. We are anxious for him to get started because we have seen such growth out of Gibson since he got into school.

On the subject of Chad he just finished a study that we were a part of through the Oklahoma Autism Network called Connected Kids. It was amazing because I was able to learn tons of techniques to work with him on at home that are all related to ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) therapy which is the therapy that research shows works best for children of any degree on the spectrum of Autism. We are so happy that Chad is finally progressing in his speech both in receptive and expressive language.

Gibson is also doing really well. He has made SO much progress in the last year it is like a completely different child. He has been on ritalin for about a year now and we have seen huge changes in his behavior. We still have a lot to work on but we are finally getting much better results. He is doing great in school and is ahead of his age in a lot of educational areas. He is already doing almost everything he should learn in pre-k and even a few things taught in kindergarten. We may be behind in social and emotional skills, but we make up for it in knowledge. He is like a little sponge. Right now his favorite thing is you tube videos in foreign languages. His favorite seems to be Trotro, a little donkey cartoon, which he watches in French. It makes for an interesting conversation when he suddenly says something in French and you have no clue what just came out of his mouth. This is an every day occurrence in our home.

As for Gerod and I, no major changes except that we are doing the Insanity workout program and it is one of the hardest things I have ever done!! Its just crazy. Hopefully we will get some great results and be able to post our changes in about another 55 days! :)

Hope all is going well in the lives of our friends and family.

Where have we been?

I have not blogged in... well almost a year. Time has really just escaped me and we have SO much going on all the time making it really hard to get on here and post.

In the time since I have last posted we have had a lot of changes. In September Gibson celebrated his 4th birthday! I cant believe he is 4 and will be 5 in only 5 short months. My baby is about to be a "little kid", not even a toddler anymore.
Later in September Chad was also diagnosed with high-functioning Autism. It was a diagnosis I knew was coming, but was still hard to hear. I know that both of my boys have lots of struggles ahead of them, but I also know we were given these two amazingly Autistic boys for a very special reason! We may not know it yet, but we will one day.
Gerod celebrated his 30th... yes you heard right... 30th birthday! Old man! We had a GREAT party with all of our friends and we were able to celebrate Gerod and how wonderful we all think he is. It was a great night! So excited to see what 30 brings for this amazing man of mine.
We celebrated our first Christmas without my grandpas. It was very different than past years, but we tried to make it as normal as possible. We were able to remember things about them and how amazing it was to have had them with us as long we did.
Gerod and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. Amazing how time flies! It seems like just yesterday we were heading to the chapel to get married! He is such a great husband and amazing Daddy. I couldn't have asked for anyone better!
On Valentines Day Gerod and I celebrated 10 years since our very first date! Again, I am awestruck at how quickly time passes us by. I look forward to MANY more years to come.

And that brings me to today... no special day or anything... just the day I saw someone post about people who stop blogging and I thought... I need to start doing that again. What a wonderful outlet for my feelings as well as a great way to document the things our little family goes through.
I know we have many things in store for the years to come and I cant wait to get back into blogging to keep track of ALL the things we do as a family.

Here are our recent family pics by a friend of mine: Neely Jacobson.

LOVE THEM ALL!!

Big COWBOY Birthday!

Chad's 2nd birthday party was a big success... minus the sweltering heat! It was 108 degrees on the day of the party and the location was the beautiful, yet not air conditioned, Express Clydesdales barn in Yukon. Even though the heat was horrible that day the kids still seemed to have a great time.

This was the massive Clydesdale barn

 The yummy cake pops I made that melted in the heat. :(

 Cupcakes, again by me.

 Chad LOVED all 4 of his cupcakes! We gave in since it was HIS birthday and all.

 Cutie BOOTie!

 Love his boots... they are actuall Gibson's old boots but we plan to get both boys a new pair of boots for Christmas.

 Miss Emma! This is Gibson's girlfriend, her Mommy is my best friend so they just HAVE to end up together one day!

 Miss Paige... she has twin brothers who will be turning one in November. I dont know how her Mommy does it, but its amazing. Isn't Paige just too cute?

 Chad enjoyed exploring the farm.

 Gibson LOVED the horses!!

 One of the many beautiful Clydesdales.

 Someone needs a teeth cleaning!

 The staff member that gave us the tour of the facility and showed us the clydesdale, BIG JACK I think was his name, showed us the difference between a normal horseshoe and a Clydesdale horseshoe.

 Ms. Ashley (Gibson's teacher from last year) and Reis. I absolutely adore this picture for so many reasons.

 Ericka and Rilee! Love these two girls!

 Gerod and Chad touching the Clydesdale. It took Chad a little while to warm up to him, I mean he was HUGE, but once he did he loved it.

We had a great time celebrating Chad's 2nd birthday! I cant believe my baby boy is already 2... time sure is flying by for our little family of four!

The worst day of my life

I have not blogged in a very long time. I have been overcome with grief, sadness and so many more emotions that I didn't even know existed. I hope to never go through the pain that my family and I have gone through these past couple of weeks ever again.

I'll start from the beginning...
Saturday May 21, 2011
This was the day that everything started.
The boys were already in bed when we got the phone call... Gerod's Granddaddy died in a motorcycle accident driving home from his lake house. Gerod was crushed. I have never seen him so broken. All I knew to do was to hold him, allow him to cry and comfort him to the best of my ability. It was a horrible night.

Monday May 23, 2011
We made the long drive to Gerod's hometown in TX for the funeral that was to be held on Wednesday.This was actually a really good day, the drive went well and we slept well after we arrived late that night.

Tuesday May 24, 2011
Another tough day as this was the day of the viewing. Gerod's Granddaddy looked really good and we were able to say our goodbyes. It was a very emotional time for all of us as Gerod and his Granddaddy were always very close. He was in perfect health so this was just the most unexpected tragedy that we could imagine. Little did we know things were about to get much worse.

Wednesday May 25, 2011
We woke up and got dressed for Gerod's Granddaddy's funeral service. We made the drive to town and met with the family at Gerod's Granddaddy's home. The service was so large they had to hold it at the civic center and it was beautiful. Afterward Gerod and I talked to some of our friends and I was able to speak with both of my grandparents and my parents who all came to the service. I hugged my grandparents and said goodbye because they were not going to attend the grave side part of the service.
The burial service was led by the Masons of the Masonic Lodge that Granddaddy had been a part of for most of his life and they did a beautiful job.

Little did I know that my whole life was changing during that service.

When the family arrived at the church for the meal that was to be provided to us there was quite a lot of talk going around. We found out that my grandmother had been in a serious accident and was in the hospital in the town. Panicking, Gerod and I rushed to the hospital. When we got inside I told them who I was looking for and they asked me to give them some of her information. At this point I wondered why my grandpa hadn't given them this information, where was he? Moments later a nurse came out of he ER and told me that I could see my grandma and that she was ok. I was confused, overwhelmed, scared and anxious all rolled into one. Once I got into the room and saw that my grandma was responsive and able to speak to me I immediately felt better. She was in serious condition but otherwise really didn't look all that bad. She asked where my grandpa was and I told her I would find out. I told her that everything would be ok.

At this point they told me they were going to medi-flight her to a bigger hospital about 30 min away and that I would need to sign some forms to release her. I asked a nurse where the other three people were that were in the car with my grandma and she didn't respond. It was like a movie, everyone was looking at me, hearing my words, but no one was saying anything. After asking multiple times a trooper finally walked over to me and said the words that will forever haunt me, "Ma'am, the two males are deceased"... what he said next I am not sure of, I completely lost it. The "two males" were both of my grandpas... my only two grandpas... they were two amazing men in my life, and they were gone.I had just seen them not even an hour earlier and they were gone! As I type this my heart breaks all over again. I kept thinking this all just had to be a dream, no, a nightmare. How could they be gone?

They took Gerod and I back to an empty part of the hospital where I cried hysterically. About that time my parents walked in. No one had told them yet.
I didn't realize until later that I am the one who told my mom; I am the one that told my Mom that her father and father-in-law had just died. I don't know if I will ever be okay with that.
Then it was time to make phone calls, Aunts, Uncles, Sisters, Brothers... we called them all.

I felt numb, as my parents, Gerod and I all drove to the hospital to check on my Grandma as well as my Grandpas girlfriend who was also in the accident.
When we arrived at the hospital we found that we would not be allowed to see my Grandma until after her surgery, but we were able to see my Grandpas girlfriend before they wheeled her to surgery. She seemed to be alright but was also in very serious condition.

In the waiting room, surrounded by family on both my Mom and Dad's sides I wondered how something like this could happen. I couldn't imagine that it was all real. It couldn't be real?!?

Around 9pm we were able to go in to the ICU unit to see my grandma and my grandpas girlfriend. My grandma was alert and asked the question we were all dreading hearing, "Where is Jim (my grandpa)"?
My Mom, her sister, and my grandmas sister had all decided to tell her the truth if she asked this question. I am sure that my grandmas heart broke in the instant that she heard the news. My grandparents had just recently celebrated their 55 year anniversary. Just heartbreaking.

That night Gerod and I drove back to his hometown with his parents to stay one more night. We left the boys with his parents and we stayed in a hotel. Even though the kids weren't with us I still struggled with sleep. I woke up frequently, crying and didn't get good rest at all.

Thursday May 26, 2011
The next morning we prepared to drive back to the hospital but then decided to go back to my hometown instead. We ended up traveling on the same road that the accident happened on. I thought I was prepared, I thought I would be fine, but that was anything but the case. As we turned onto the main road in town I felt my fingertips starting to tingle and then it crept into my hands and arms and then my whole body was numb. I couldn't breath, it was like the air had been sucked out of my body and I cried uncontrollably. My hands and arms went stiff and I had no clue what was happening to me. Gerod got me to my parents house as quickly as he could and once I got home my family got me calmed down, and they told me I had probably just experienced a panic attack. It was the craziest thing to ever happen to me, although I guess the entire situation is just the craziest thing to ever happen to me.

Continued later...

Evals... Oh how I am sick of evals!

Gibson has an evaluation tomorrow with a doctor that can diagnose ADD/ADHD. Yet another evaluation for one of our little guys. As much as I dislike taking the boys to doctors for evaluations I am excited to find out if Gibson indeed has something else going on. We shall see how it all works out, I am just glad we are finally getting this checked out.

I will also be calling an ENT (Ear Nose & Throat doctor) tomorrow because Chad failed his second Tempanogram (?) test the other day during his evaluation with Sooner Start (which he qualifies for... more to come on that and what all services he will be receiving). I am hoping that because Chad flat lined on both the Tempanogram tests that tubes might possibly solve our problems and he may not have Autism after all. I am not going to get my hopes up but I am also going to try not to dwell on the fact that its still a definite possibility.

I am also calling up some doctors to see if I can get my shoulder situation figured out. I swear, after this is all said and done I don't want to see another doctor for a while. hahaha! Doesn't look like that will ever happen though.

I will update with our results from the doctors appt sometime tomorrow (or today since its 2am)!

Piece Walk - Oklahoma

We participated in the Oklahoma Piece Walk today and it was a blast. We got to enjoy the beautiful weather and were able to see all of our friends. It was a great morning!

Gibson was so excited!

 Mommy and Gibson (this was the best picture we got)

Waiting for the walk to start!

 Not sure what this face is, but it sure is cute!

 Love him!

 Gibson LOVED playing the chimes at the music station they had setup. We may have to get him signed up for some kind of music therapy soon!

 Our entire group, not bad since we were a little behind on signing up for the event! :)

We had so much fun but we wish that Daddy could have been off of work to join us. That would have made the morning even better.

Next year Gerod and I are thinking about taking on the 5K together as well as raising some money and getting a team together for the walk. I cant wait for next May! :)