sunday sickies

Well, the whole family now has the nasty virus that Sydney and Marlee had ( marlee's turned into pnuemonia ) We are all hacking and coughing and generally feel like crap :(
Lots of herbal tea and honey, lots of water, and laying around like lazy bums. That is what we will be doing today. You know how when you are truly sick, you dont even feel like watching a movie?? That is us today.
I had so hoped to go to church, its been so long and with Dylans good news on his immune system, I really wanted to take everyone. But unfortunately we DONT want to share this with others!!!
:(

Come to my home to visit

Welcome! Right now as I sit here at my computer, there are all kinds of things going on around me! Pull up a chair! In the living room we have a big box that is holding one child, who is coloring away. It is a beautiful box. It has been decorated with flowers, people, and a dragon! It is a fun place to sit in and color!
In the dining room we have the remnants of last nights games sitting on the table still! Uno and yahtzee! We have so much fun playing games after dinner. Sometimes its connect four and checkers! You never know!
In the kitchen is the dishes waiting to be done! lol. The sun is shining through the big kitchen window though, so doing dishes today will be a pleasure with the sun shining in my face.
In the playroom we have two kids playing. One is in the tent, reading books, the other is playing with strawberry shortcakes berry cafe. Would you like some raspberry tarts?
In the kids bedrooms mommy is especially proud because they all three made their beds! hooray! Books are laying in the tub beside their beds, ready for bedtime reading tonight. what a comfy tradition. Dylans room has all kinds of toys ready to be played with as soon as he is done in the box lol.
Our home may not be immaculate, but it is full of love and learning and that is what makes it a home! :)

Dylans Appt in St Louis

We waited sooo long for this appointment! We had to get up at 4 am!!! It was worth it though! We got bad news and good news! The good news is Dylans immune system is trying to work all on its own!! HOORAY!!!!! The bad news is his lungs are a mess. We knew that of course, but that is the reason he is so sick alot. His lungs have to work sooo hard. ;( Stinks, but they adjusted meds, and hopefully that will help the little man. He was awesome at the dr as always :)
We rewarded him with a trip to the Science Center! It was kind of a bust, because they are remodeling and alot of the stuff wasnt open, but we got to see a cool mummified baby and look at dinosaur fossils! All in all, it was a super long day... soo long, but we were thankful that his immune system is showing that it is making the right antibodies, we just have to get his lungs under control. They couldnt promise us that they would ever get under control, but we are willing to work hard to keep him alive and healthy! Keith and I decided to look into vitamins, and of course lots of healthy food and sunshine!! ( come on spring, we need you!!)

SO SICK OF WINTER!!!!

This is a rant . lol. I am so tired of winter I cant breathe!!! I need sunshine in my life!! Plus my poor kids and I have been cooped up in this house for months!!! I am out of ideas for keeping them entertained! We have built barbie houses, we have made tents, we have colored and done every single craft available to mankind. We have cooked every cookie known to mankind. We have our garden planned out. UGH!!! Make it go away!!! I need to see my beautiful sunshine and just stand outside in it for like 5 minutes!!! I dream of my fantastic house on the beach!!! lol.
Oh, and its supposed to snow. again. tonight. 2 inches. not fair.

The book is HERE!!!!

I have sitting right beside me, an actual copy of the book that I wrote with the help of some pretty darn amazing women!!!!! I am a bit dissapointed in the editing ( hey im a writer not an editor lol) and the print is tiny!! But the content is amazing and heartwarming and it will give you a great idea of what homeschooling is like! So many cute and spiritual stories! I love it!!!!
So.... if you want to purchase a copy, go to the link on the sidebar... and enjoy!!!!
Im excited!!!!! :)
Love, JL

Mardi Gras, The Olympics and Ancient Greece

This weekend we took the kids to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It was fantastic! We had a blast! With the Olympic Games going on in Canada right now, we have all kinds of fun things to learn about in school this week! Here's the lowdown, lol. We wil be learning about The history of the Olympic Games, we will be learning about Greek mythology, and learning some greek words, and we have asked a couple of friends who live in Canada to send us postcards from Canada! We will be learning about Canada as a country, etc. Its going to be fun! For Mardi Gras, we will be making a Kings Cake! Fun! Im in a baking mood, spurred by my purchase of real amish made apple butter this weekend! The amish white bread is getting ready to head to the oven, so we can feast on it tonight at dinner! YUM!!!!!
So, we will be busy this week, having a BLAST with school! Isnt that how it is supposed to be!!! :)

AVON Grand Opening Giveaway!!

For my grand opening Im offering a great giveaway! Here are the rules ( there must be rules, lol)

* Sign up as a customer! Easy and free!

* Check out the online events tab-- we are doing a fundraiser right now!

* Facebook about my website www.youravon.com/jkaylor

*Twitter about my website www.youravon.com/jkaylor

* Ask me about the earning opportunities with Avon and how easy and CHEAP it is to start your own business! ( 10 dollars baby!)

Each of these rules that you complete, you get one entry into the drawing!

Do as many or as few as you like! But email me and let me know what you have done, so I can keep track of it!

Now......... for the prize unveiling!!!

AVON Gift Bundle:

* 1 Super Extend Mascara ( all new, all amazing!!!!)

* 1 Sparkly Diamond Glimmerstick Eyeliner ( all new, super amazing!!!)

* Red Rose and Peach Shower Gel ( my current fave scent!!)

* Haiku Perfumed Skin Softener ( my grandma has used the skin softeners her whole life, you should see her gorgeous skin! so soft and practically wrinkle free and shes in her 70's!! amazing!)

* Brochure and assorted samples, yay!

With Love, JL

jaelleerica@yahoo.com

Fundraiser for Whittaker Family

Cindy Young is a good friend of our families and her daughter Christina went missing a couple months ago. It is super scary and Christina has a beautiful little daughter and a loving mother and a very sick loving grandmother who miss her so much. They need to hire a private investigator, all police leads have ran out. They have also spent alot of money on flyers etc.. trying to find her! I am having a fundraiser to help them raise some funds to continue their search. Think about it... what if this was your daughter?????? Please go to www.youravon.com/jkaylor and click on the online events tab... it will tell you all about what we are doing and there is a special promo code to enter at checkout: christina15. That way I know what money goes to the family. Avon isnt just makeup anymore!! You can find pretty much anything you want there and the prices are awesome! Not only do you get things you want, with free shipping, but you are helping this family find their beautiful daughter.
With Love, Jaelle
jaelleerica@yahoo.com
www.youravon.com/jkaylor promo code : Christina15

A cowboy camp-out, a new email, and more...

One of the cute things that I forgot to write about Marlee's surgery, was that the first night she was home, she had me read her a couple books, and then she tried to fall asleep. She was still pretty drugged up and was having a horrible time sleeping. Neither of us got any sleep! In the middle of the night she rolled over and looked at me and said very quietly, "Mom, I dont know how to lasso." Um... ok? I told her, " its ok Marlee, I dont know how to lasso either" then she told me that she had to learn before it was time for her cowboy camp-out! I finally got the whole story the next morning when she was more alert... I had forgotten that I had read her a cowboy Mickey Mouse book before bed, she has decided that she wants to have a cowboy camp-out for her birthday this year, and she was very upset because she couldnt lasso! Well, it sounds like we have some work ahead of us learning how to lasso!!!!
Dylan got his first email address today! It is so fun watching him learn where the keys are and how to use proper punctuation, etc. I just love watching my kids learn!
Sydney has been working on making cards all day.. she has decided to start a card business lol! She has a whole tub full of beautiful cards she has made! They are such cute kids! :) I love them!

Marlee's Surgery

Wow, it has been 5 days since Marlee-girl had her tonsils and adenoids removed! She is finally doing a little better! Yay! Even though I was really nervous about the surgery, Im very thankful we had it done... we found out the day after her surgery that a test they did confirmed that she had terrible sleep apnea! Also, right after the surgery her doctor told us that she not only had the lymphoid tissue on her tonsils but also her adenoids! He was able to make her airway much more open! Two reasons that Im thankful we had this surgery done! Also, the worry of the tissue turning into lymphoma is now gone! This was basically the first "trial" on our journey with Marlee's neurofibromatosis. We are going to go ahead and treat her as though she defintely has it, because it is much safer that way, and it takes a blood test from a geneticist to confirm it and the fastest they can get her in is JULY!!!
Here are some cute things from her surgery journey. The first thing she did when she woke up from recovery was take a piece of paper and write " popsecle" lol. We had to wait for the throat numbing medicine to wear off then she could have her "popsecle" LOL!! I probably wouldnt have been able to spell it either if i was just out of surgery! The second thing she wrote was " I have the free credit report.com song stuck in my head" she was VERY unhappy about this!!! It was the last commercial she saw on tv as they were wheeling her into surgery! I laughed so loud when I read that and the nurses were laughing and she just got a grumpy look and shook her head no. Then she wrote " NOT FUNNY" :)
The first night was horrible... neither of us got a wink of sleep, but that is very understandable. The second night was also horrible as she developed a nasty cough, ouch!!! We ended up back at the dr on friday, he was afraid she had aspirated on blood during the surgery, but thank goodness no pneumonia! Everyones prayers worked so well! God is good! She did have a ton of swelling and irritation and she was trying so hard not to swallow she would end up gurgling and coughing. So we were able to add delsym to the lortab and she has done so much better sleeping at night. We are already seeing improvements in her sleep and she is still recovering! AMAZING!! I just can't get over how amazing our Heavenly Father is! He loves my baby girl so much! She is finally starting to eat a bit of solid food, and is still drinking well and eating her "popsecles" lol. For the most part she is doing great, but you can tell when her meds start to wear off poor baby! I just tucked her into her own bed, and she is wearing her little bed buddy ice pack, and is ready for hopefully another good night sleep! Im just thankful to be able to say we made it through this trial and now we pray and wait for Dylan to go to St Louis on the 23rd.
Thank you so much for your prayers for my beautiful daughter. I appreciate it! If anyone wants to... please pray for my handsome son for the 23rd!!!!!
Love, JL

A Post On Weight....

My friend sent me a text the other day... it was of a sign she saw at hobby lobby, and she thought of us when she saw it.. it read:
"There is a skinny girl inside of me screaming to get out... I can usually shut her up with cookies"
How awesome is that???? A little background on me. I was always really petite, and when I turned 13, an innocent comment from a boy down the street made me realize, maybe im not as petite as i thought!! With other huge trials going on in my life, a sick mom a sick grandma, and having to care for them, I needed some control in my life. I could control what I ate. At this time I also was getting into animal rights and activism. What better way to begin to control my weight by becoming vegetarian! It was a win-win situation! Well, as I went along in my life, at age 13 and on, my weight got lower and lower, I ate less and less, and felt pretty dang good about myself! I started getting compliments like " you are sooo skinny!" to me that was an amazing compliment! It became more and more a part of my life, this "weight" journey and by the time I was 17 I weighed about 80 lbs. I thought I looked amazing. Well, I kind of looked like a skinny lollipop, with a big head. i was in the throes of a very serious eating disorder. An eating disorder that didn't end until I got married and my dear husband said to me, you are so beautiful, no matter what weight. Then I couldn't get pregnant. The doctor said, gain about 20 lbs. I was up to about 100 lbs by then already, and I couldn't FATHOM going over the 100 mark. But I wanted a baby!! So I ate. and ate. and ate. I gained exactly 20 lbs and boom! I was pregnant! Then I got to really eat whatever I wanted because I was pregnant! Then after I had Dylan, I got pregnant again! And I ate whatever I wanted AGAIN!!! Then after Marlee was born, i lost some weight, just from chasing two babies under the age of 2 around. Then I got pregnant again. With twins. I lost one of the babies, and for awhile we didnt think that the other baby was going to make it either. So I ate. and was depressed. Then 9 months later I had a beautiful baby girl. And I ate. Then I got sick. I was diagnosed with early onset parkinsons disease, fibromyalgia and depression. The medicines helped me to walk, but also helped me to gain even more weight!!! At the last count, I am pushing over 200 lbs!!!! YOWZA!!!! So.... I decided that I was going to get moving more, eat clean and better, and be a good example to my kids. But I have to tell you, I have lived my life in fear almost, that someone was going to "see" me in this condition, ya know. FAT.
When my friend sent me that text and I saw that sign I laughed. Hard. I then realized that I wasnt the only person in this entire world who was overweight. So I then decided that I was going to let people see me. I was going to stop living like a little hermit and get out and be ME!!!! Me is a fun person you see. I am loud and giggly and energetic and fun!!!! Of course, I havent been that person lately. I have been living my life worried about what others would think of me. So.. I am going to exercise, eat awesome, and be healthy. If I lose weight awesome! But Im not going to let it become who I am . Im going to be me. But hopefully a healthier me. I wanted to write this post, so that everyone knew, yup, im fat. But im also super fun!!! So to all the girls out there who are feeling down about your weight, dont. Remember you are not the only one and Heavenly Father loves you no matter what! Be healthy with me!!! Im going to start keeping a blog about what I eat, how i move my body each day and most importantly, how i FEEL!!!! If you wanna come along for the ride, let me know!!! :) With Love, Jaelle