My dog is missing

I am so sad tonight, our doggy is gone! Her name is Abby and we've had her almost 6 1/2 years. We actually bought her when we were still in our apartment waiting to get into our new house (it always takes longer than expected to close on a house but being a first time owner we didn't know this). We had to hide her in the apartment for 2 weeks or so, and this wasn't so easy being a 8 month old German Shepard/Border Collie mix. Oops! She's been our baby when we couldn't have any, we love that dog so much. She is smart as can be and was always getting into trouble because no matter what we did she would get out of the fence... too smart for her own good. She was the mom of the house and took care of all of us. Unfortunately Friday or so she dissapeared, we're not sure where she is. Her buddy Rusty, our other dog, misses her terribly. He's hearbroken and it kills me. I hate not knowing where she went, if she's hurt or if she's dead even. I hope she's not scared wherever she is. We are going to head over to the pound tomorrow and check that she's not there (they told us they don't have her but I have to at least try). Had to share my sad story tonight, I never thought I'd be a dog person and here I am missing her badly. If she doesn't come home we're going to go find another one from the shelter for Rusty to have with him, he hates this so much.

Primary Program

Alright, so I almost forgot about Alex's first Primary Program! lol. It was this last Sunday and he was nervous to go up but gosh did he do well. His teacher came and got him to go up after sacrament and he did perfectly for her. He sang along (well, you know how 4 year olds sing the primary songs). He had a line "I love my family" and did really well, you could tell he was proud of himself and for a kid who is in speech it was more clear than we thought it might be. He also walked around the chapel when they wanted him to holding up a picture of the prophet as proud as could be. (He loves the spotlight apparently). Then during one of the songs he actually got up by the mike and started singing loudly... oops! They caught him and got him down quickly (he wasn't even singing the words...) but it had us all giggling. There is always one right? He was excited the rest of the day because he knew we were proud of him. We were of course the giggly first time parents, proud of our 4 year old up on the stand. (I used to laugh at those parents by the way!)

WE HAVE A DIETICIAN!!!

Okay, what a long battle this has been. I'm still cautiously optimisitic and hoping for the best... so many doctors have let us down. We have a new pediatrician (again) and she was shocked no one had tried to help! Within 5 days from our first meeting we've seen her twice, had a round of bloodwork done today, and even have a referral to a dietician in the works. Praying this works! He did SO well today too. They did a tb test and he didn't even flinch. They took 6 vials of blood and he watched interested, didn't say a thing! We're going to have to get clearance with the insurance for the dietician but darn if I can wait a few weeks for that, we've waited 4 1/2 years already! . The prayers from family and friends have worked lately and we're finally feeling on the right track. Thank heavens! Thanks for the support and love!

Cool Cooking Blogs

Alright, I have a few favorite cooking blogs and gosh do these women make me laugh and wish that I could cook better. :) Thought I'd share my cool finds... I know I have a bunch but here are two for you today.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/

http://bakerella.blogspot.com/

Photos

Alright, so I never did get any Halloween photos up from the actual night. For those wondering about Ariana's Halloween costume, well, we knew she would change her mind. She's always done that and heaven forbid it change! Originally she wanted to be Tinkerbell. Then it changed to a Princess when we told her we were going to a family dance that night... Her logic was "I have to dress up as a princess because only princesses can go to dances and dance with my brother Alex". Aww... really cute. Well mommy found yet another costume on sale and bought it for her on Halloween, I really did mean to save it for Christmas but darn if she saw the bag when I got home. She of course got her way and was the cutest ballerina at the party. :) Here is Ariana and mommy ready to go. (I was in charge so I figured I'd better dress up right?) Look how smug she is... (she just didn't want to take pictures anymore).



Here are some other really cool photos I took outside lately, figured I'd do it before it got too cold for it!



Look at these awesome tights Ariana wears all the time now. I thought this was the funniest photo!

Halloween Costumes

Alright, so I'm in charge of the Halloween party for Oak Hills/Phelan ward this year (along with their leader Wendy Demke) and I don't know how many photos I will actually get that night. That being said I did a "photo shoot" with the kids to capture the costumes so I wanted to share. Heavens knows I may not have many from Friday. :)

Here is Mr. Incredible... ironically the skinniest kid I know wanted to have huge muscles. (And no, we can't stop laughing when he wears that costume). So cute! (We're going to fix the "bottom" of the costume before Friday, it's a little saggy... lol).

Ariana is Tinkerbell this year... unless she changes last minute to one of the Princesses from her dress up box. (lol).

This was the most recent time I tried photos... nothing better than a pouting Tinkerbell. lol. (She's mad that Camden won't wear his hat in this photo).

Camden is a teeny knight... cutest costume ever!

((Grumble)) Doctor appointment today

For those who don't know we had an appointment with specialists today because I really was hoping they'd help us figure out how to help Alex. He needs OT (occupational therapy) again and he also needs to see a dietitian who might have ideas for a crazy mom. Well, to say it went badly is an understatement.

First of all the appointment was canceled because we had the wrong insurance (they thought we were still on "state aid" insurance which we haven't been for over 2 1/2 years.) That's understandable, we had that when the surgery was done. I called, complained, and the appointment was "back on" for today.

I was so excited, hubby took the day off from work and everything for this darn appointment. We got there with plenty of time and as they were measuring/taking weight they dropped the bomb on our lap.

See, apparently with our HMO we have to have authorization not just for the team but have to have *each* of the doctors we need to see authorized. We had no idea and had jumped through several hoops and had waited months just for *this* appointment. She said we had to choose which doctor we wanted... we chose the pediatrician because maybe he could get us information we needed.

We waited fir a while and the *surgeon* who did the cleft repair came in to see us. She was thrilled and said that the pediatrician had given her the go-ahead and felt it was more important. I was crushed... absolutely crushed that my choices were ignored.

2 minutes later we were told we were going to have to leave because our "one doctor" quota was up (so to speak). We were there for no longer than 2 minutes. Good news is that his cleft repaired nicely. Bad news was I didn't see any of the specialists I had wanted.

I refuse to go back... it does me no good now. They don't have a nutritionsit like I had thought and any other help I need I am positive I can find with the right pediatrician. As soon as we were home I got online and changed the pediatrician once again. This kills me but I really need one who will look at our concerns as valid. I actually chose a woman this time, something I've not done before. This particular one is supposed to be really good (reputation is that she works with a lot of kids with needs.) Just never thought we could get in until now...

So crossing my fingers this finally gets someone's attention. I feel like I have been working for years and NO ONE has helped me. Not one darn doctor. It's devestating... they know he's too small but it's not something I know how to help anymore. He's 25 lbs and 39 inches at 4 1/2 years old. We do the darnedest most we can and I am determined to keep screaming for help until someone listens. This is our 5th pediatrician in the last 2 years by the way. (Grumble).

Thanks for the support and for listening. I'm so grateful I have other moms who don't think I've lost my mind.