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How do you want to be remembered?

Prompted by plinky

I want to be remembered for my love and devotion to God. For my sacrifice of luxury to give others their basic needs. To never let material things get in the way of doing God's will. I want to leave my children a legacy- a legacy that will leave them wanting more of God and being Godly men. I want to be remembered for my ability to care for those I normally would have ignored. I want to be remembered for being a good mom and wife.

How do you want to be remembered?


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He does a lot of this!

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Little piggy

Mattox had a stuffy nose and was sounding like a piggy. He also snorts when he gets upset. Love it!

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Welcome Mattox Isaiah

December 7th 2010
7lbs 11oz and 19.5 inches
Welcome Mattox Isaiah!



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A rainy day

Rainy days are amazing. Riverside doesn't have them very often but when we do it simply reminds me of how God washes away our sins and we can start again with a brand new day. Rain drops representing our sins and the bright sun that dries them up being God. I don't often do everything I am supposed to- I try as hard as I can and often fall short. I am constantly looking for Him in every day moments and that's when I tend to remember I am not doing enough. God is good, so here's to a beautiful rainy day!

A memorable video

Another sad day

Today was the funeral of Ryan Bonaminio. We salute you and paid our respects to you as your family, friends, and co-workers said good bye to you today. A classmate from Ramona High School class of 2000 was killed by a man who should have never been let back into society. A perfect example of how our justice system fails all the time. Unfortunately, it was at the cost of someone's life....over 8,000 people from all over came to pay their respects. Officer Ryan Bonaminio, you will never be forgotten.

Journal Entry: being the mom of a sensory child

As some of you are aware, back in February we had some concerns about our son and his development. He wasn't really talking anymore, when at one point he had been learning new words. We went to the Inland Regional Center in which they did a telephone interview and then felt it warranted to send some people out to assess him. They came out and assessed him and the results they gave us sounded sooooo bad! As a parent, the last thing you want to hear is that your child is not perfect and that he needs special attention. They did decide after the assessment that we move forward in having teachers come to our house to work with his specific needs and to try and bring him back up to speed on his language and cognitive development.

For those that follow my Facebook have been seeing some if his improvements, but this is the first blog I've actually written about it in depth because for a while it is extremely difficult to deal with. The amount of time they originally were working with him was 1 day a week for 2 hours. The occupational therapist that worked with him decided that it would be in his best interest to increase his hours to give him more exposure as she had pretty definitively knew that he had what was called a Sensory Processing Disorder.

So, you're probably wondering... what is a Sensory Processing Disorder? I asked them the same question when they told me this is what he had. They have not been able to tell us yet that he is eliminated from Autism but when they assess him before he turns 3 we will be able to have an answer on this. For now, we've been working on his Sensory Processing problems. My son specifically is under-responsive to tactile responses. When we tickle his neck lightly he wouldn't feel it and he has a hard time discriminating between textures. In a bucket full of pinto beans if we hide a toy, he would not be able to find it unless he saw it first with his eyes. Or in a bubble bath if we hid a toy under the water he would not know it was there until he saw it. To combat this problem, we have to overexpose him to textures and activities that will help his neurotransmitters become more sensitive and be able to discriminate between the objects.

In addition, he also has a proprioceptive dysfunction. This really refers to movement in general to put in basic terms. He is under-responsive to this system as well. For him specifically, he has problems with postural stability. Items like swings or a rocking horse he absolutely hates. We have been slowly working with sitting in the swing without it being hung up and for the first time since February he sat in the swing actually hung up but without moving. As soon as we started moving it, he wanted out, but progress is progress! With his dysfunction, his brain has a hard time processing what his body feels and what it sees. Things like elevators scare him, because his eyes are telling his brain that he isn't moving but his body is telling him that he is moving and so his brain is not able to process this type of movement. So, exposing him to the swing and other items like this will help his brain process this better.

His language is behind just a bit now but with all the other developments progressing his language as well is developing and he can say 4 word sentences now (when he wants to). Part of his personality is very independent, so he is not a good on demand performer. He has to feel like he has come up with this idea on his own. He says now over 200 different words and just yesterday for the first time vocalized that he wanted something. He asked for a "sticky" which is a lollipop so we had to search around the house trying to find one!

Nothing changes your life more than dealing with a child that has special needs. We've had to change everything we do with him. To making sure he gives us eye contact if he doesn't tell us what he wants before we give that item to him. To reading more, to introducing tactile items into everyday life, to types of extra cold or tart drinks, etc. We keep pretty busy both being working parents and involved in ministry at our church.

Seeing your child progress in this disorder gives me a joy that I wish I could explain to other parents. It's so much different than just seeing your child smile at you, or walk for the first time, it's a greater joy even beyond that! I hope that explains what we've been through the last couple of months and we have 3 more months to go with these teachers so we are looking forward to finding out if he will need to be enrolled in specific preschool or if he has progressed enough to not worry about needing anything special.

I will keep you posted on the progress as he turns 3!

13 weeks

Today starts the beginning of week 13 being pregnant with baby #2. My husband swears I am having a girl simply because of my cravings, and I hope to have a girl but I guess we'll know in a few short weeks.

I feel great still except for exhaustion, which I know is to be expected taking care of a toddler and myself.

We had a busy weekend. Saturday I photographed Paul & Sylvia (pictures to come later) celebrate 25 years of marriage. They decided to renew their vows in Carlsbad, CA. Sunday we went to church, BBQ'd some carne asada, Andrew baptized one of our youth group kids, Jerry, and we went swimming and enjoyed the rest of our day relaxing. We had a busy and good weekend. Wish I had more exciting stuff to talk about lol!