=6 months later=

Wow, it really has been a LONG time since my last post. I'm not sure what got into me. I really didn't have much of a desire to write. But that's all changing now...I hope. :) No guarantees though, but I will try my best to keep up. At least more current than every six months. Haha! So, there hasn't been too much going on with the Carey's since my last post...yet it seems like everything has happened. Lets start where I left off....Hailey and her glasses....

Well, her eye is still crossing, so before we try surgery, we are trying a stronger prescription to see if that trains her eye to see without crossing. It's been about 2 weeks since we started the new prescription, and I haven't seen any changes...except that her other eye is start to cross. Uh oh...she has an appointment on Wednesday to get it checked out. Cross your fingers....

Hailey started Preschool the first of October. She is currently going to Kiddieland, the preschool that our church has. She loves it. Ever since she started going, we've noticed a huge change in her temper and listening skills. Not to mention her writing and recognizing skills. In one month, she recognizes pretty much all the letters and can even write her name. She's so amazing! We noticed she listens better, doesn't throw tantrums hardly at all and no longer bites her nails since she starting going there. It's one of the best decisions we could have made. Not to mention, it's only $65 more a month than her in home daycare was...not too shabby!



Michael has been off of work on L&I for a few months now. He hurt his elbow stocking his propane bottles. L&I isn't paying us much either...and we are definitely feeling it. The past few months have been really hard financially...but in the end, God always provides. I just have to trust that He will. It's tough for someone who always wants to do things on her own to put full trust in God....very tough. But I will...prayers are needed.

The first of October I got a promotion....so that extra money has helped out. It was a raise of $3.01 more an hour, and that couldn't have come at a better time. It has helped us make our money last at least one month longer. Yay! Anywho, I am no longer the Title Specialist at TwinStar Credit Union. I am now the Operations Product Developer. Sounds pretty spectacular huh? Well, to put it in simple terms...I'm a project manager. :) So far, it's fun and it has definitely tested my abilites and problem solving skills. I'm still learning and everyone is being very patient with me, thank goodness! :)

I'm going to end on a super funny note. I want you all to know that I live with one of the funniest kids on the block. She has been cracking us up lately. Her personality is hilarious and the things the come out of her mouth are super cute! Here are just a few things she said lately:

Hailey: Mommy...I-I-I-I want some ass-cream!
Mom: Hailey....it's ice cream.....

Hailey saying Blessing before dinner, they say this before every meal at preschool: God our Father, God our Father, we thank You, we thank You, for our many blessings, for our many blessings, ottoman, ottoman (sometimes it is ahman, ahman)

Last but not least...Thanksgiving Turkey at pre-school...all the kids are asked what they are thankful for...Hailey's response was: Chicken Nuggets and Minnie Mouse.

I love my kid!

=hailey update=

Hailey had her eye appointment on Friday to check up on her glasses and how she is doing. The glasses are correcting MOST of the turn in, however there is still a slight turn in with the glasses on. Because of this, she is going to need the surgery. In addition to this news…we have more. Not necessarily good either. We covered her right eye (her good eye) and asked her to point to certain pictures. When she would point, she pointed about ¾ of an inch to the right and slightly up. That means, the light is shining to the wrong part of the eye inside. The doctor said it’s hard to fix, but that it’s possible and that we need to start working on it now. It becomes harder to fix the older she gets. So, eye patch, here we come. I bought a pretty pink patch with a butterfly on it that slides over her glasses. She has to be patched for 2 hours a day, can be broken up, and during that time, we have to do “projects”. Ie: putting a cup over a tube, putting beads on a stick, etc. Hopefully this will train her eye. She has to get checked out again in 4 weeks, max. In the mean time, the eye doctor is going to be calling another specialist to see if there’s any other suggestions that they may have. Until we fix this, or try to at least, she’ll have to wait for the surgery.

Hailey has done some work with the eye patch since Friday. Not 2 hours a day, but close. We want to gradually work her up to that over the course of a few days. Saturday she started at 45 min, then went up to an hour and 15 min. Last night she had it on for an hour and a half. Tonight, we'll try 2 hours. She gets really frustrated with it on, but she leaves it on, which is good. When she gets frustrated, she says she can't do it and can't see, etc. It's really hard for me to hear and see her struggling like that, tears come to my eyes every time. I just have to keep in mind, it will (hopefully) help her eye. So, everyone say a little prayer that this corrects itself.

On the upside, I had a great Mothers day, Pandora isn't blocked today at work and neither is the blogsite. :) I can actually log in and blog today!!! Yay!

Mother's day was great. Woke up, showered, and was out of the house by 11 am. We went down to the Farmers Market downtown, checked out the boats and hit the brunch at Bud Bay Cafe. It was delicious! After that, we came home and all took naps....for 2 hours. ha ha, it was great. We ate dinner together, went to kohls and target in search of my Dirt Devil Curve. BUT!!! They didn't have them anywhere. Ugh. Hopefully we can find one somewhere. I've wanted one for a LONG TIME! ha ha.

=adios=

Hailey got her glasses a few weeks ago and is doing really well with them. At first she kept trying to take them off, but now, she only takes them off for me to clean them. She wakes up in the morning and asks for them right away. The first day she wore them, I noticed her studying everything. Poor thing. She sure looks cute though!!! Her check up is in about a week and an half. That's when we'll know how her eyes are truly responding. Everyone say a little prayer.


Lets see, what else is new? Oh thats right...NOTHING! Lol. My life has been pretty boring lately. Michael has started working Saturdays again so now we only see each other Sundays. It's not very fun during the weekends anymore. I miss our time together. It's hard to find time to do things as a family as well as just the two of us. Doesn't make for a very fun summer.

We are getting rid of our cat, Olive. She's horrible with Hailey. Attacks her every chance she gets. So, we are having her spade on Wednesday and then it's off to my co-workers on Friday. I'm disappointed that it didn't work. I really wanted a kitty. She's cute too....oh well. Maybe when Hailey gets a little bit older we can get an Olive II Lol. That won't be for a while though. Hailey has to get out of her "terrible two" stage....and then some. *sniff sniff*

Aside from Hailey's terrible behavior, she's saying the funniest things. Like yesterday, when we were eating breakfast, she looked at Michael and I so serious and said "Santa Claus is coming." ha ha! What? Lol...not for like 7 months sweetheart. Lol. She's been singing Jingle Bells and Santa Claus is Coming to Town A LOT lately. That's basically all she sings. Ha ha...funny kid. About 20 minutes ago, she was playing with her baby and said "mommy, i'm going bye bye and driving in the car, okay? bye bye mommy, bye bye." So, I play along and say, "drive safe Hailey, I love you. See you Later, bye bye." Then she says "Adios mommy, adios!" ha ha, where did she learn spanish!? Crackin me up!!! Probably the funniest thing she's said...because it was a total surprise! Lol. Oh!!! **Melissa, you'll love this one!** She pointed to her glasses to day and said, "These are Melissa. Melissa? Magenta." ha ha! Too cute!

Well, that's all for now. Off to snuggle up for a bed time story.

=i survived=

Well, it's come and gone...Hailey's first stomach flu. I had been dreading it for about a year now...if not more. I don't do well with bodily fluids, especially vomit. I'm one who can't even talk about it. If I do, I start feeling sick to my stomach. I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to take care of my little one. I was wrong. I did it! I took care of her like a mom should! It was so difficult watching her not feel well. Probably one of the hardest things I've had to go through with her. Not fun at all.

On a side note, it's been nice having a couple days off from work, even if it was for the flu. I've enjoyed snuggling and taking care of Hailey. I've done a lot of side jobs around the apartment that I've been meaning to do lately. It's nice. I think that I would really enjoy being a stay at home mommy. I just wish I could. Someday....

Well, that's my update for now. Back to laundry.

=life lately=

Hello my friends. Lately things have been a little crazy and hectic here at the Carey household. Lets start about a month ago. Michael and I have been noticing one of Hailey's eye's starting to turn in. After a bit of wondering and watching, my sister and her daycare provider both mentioned something to us. So, we finally made an appointment for her. I took her to a great pediatric doctor today and confirmed that what we were seeing was in fact what we were seeing. Dr. Haws told me that what she has is called Esotropia. She said that it's obvious she has a hard time seeing out of her left eye and is really farsighted. There are two ways of correcting this: 1. glasses and 2. surgery. Glasses don't always correct it, but it's what we are trying first. We ordered them today and trying them out for about a month. After which we will go see her again and she'll then decide if she needs to add a bifocal or not. After some time with glasses, we'll see if it's fixing the issue. May or may not be corrected permanently, we'll see. If the glasses don't work, she'll have to have surgery. So, here's praying that the glasses are the fix she needs...

Next subject. On Tuesday night, Michae's car was broken into here at the apartment complex. Cool. April fools! Yeah, I wish. Luckly, he parked next to the only video camera we have here. So, we have footage. From the looks of it, the guy knew what he was doing. He broke the back right window and took some clothing and Michael's work briefcase. Thank goodness he didn't take the stereo, xbox games or the car seat. However, it did cost us almost $300 to fix the window. Needless to say, all of this really stressed Michael out and of course, made me worry. Ugh...I'm just glad it wasn't worse than it was.

Now onto me. I was told by a theropist that I have anxiety disorder. I knew I had problems with anxiety, but I didn't really realize that I actually had the disorder. This link I just posted is me....nothing said in this website is untrue. EVERYTHING pertains to me. I read it yesterday at work and started crying. The last couple weeks, I felt like I was doing great. Hailey has been EXTREMELY hard to handle, even worse than before. However, I had been handling it well, not losing my temper as much and really working with her with it all. Then...Tuesday night happened. I melted. I came home, Hailey was difficult, things were all over the place, unorganized, dirty, cluttered, no counter space to cook, etc. Everyday I work extremely hard, way too much and then I come home very night and clean. I clean up the same things every day. The house is clean when I go to bed and I come home and it's a mess again. That night, it hit me and things just weren't working for me, and then....something fell on my toe. Yep, that did it. I completely lost it. Cried hysterically for 45 minutes and finally called my mom...still crying hysterically. She was only a couple blocks away thankfully...she came right over, took over dinner and Hailey and made me go take a bubble bath. I've kind of taken a step back from things at work (with manager's approval), I've asked for more help around the house, etc. I'm doing alright, but still not the best. It's like, I kind of needed the breakdown in a way. Helped me realize just how much I stress about things. Does that mean it will change overnight? Heck no! Lol....but at least I'm aware.

Well, that's all the updates for now. I'm about to head out to visit the mom-in-law with some bailey's brownies and booze!

=unpleasant=

Hailey and I took a walk tonight after dinner, around 7:15. It was probably the most unpleasant walk I've ever taken and the fastest I've ever walked. I bundled Hailey up in a coat, socks, slippers, beanie and blanket. I had on a double coat and scarf. I was numb 30 seconds into it. I was miserable. It was WAY too flippin cold out for a walk....bad idea....

=pneumonia, kitten and more=

So, it's been what seems like forever since my last post. A lot has gone one...but not at the same time.

I'm definitely ready for winter to be over. The weather has been crazy. Just today: It was snowing when i got up..not to much, but just enough to coat the ground. Smaller snow flurries. By the time I was at daycare to drop Hailey off, only about 10 minutes away from our apartment, it was basically a blizzard. It was so hard to see outside while driving and the little walk from my car to the door at daycare had my hair all sorts of frizzed out and fuzzy. It was a disaster. :0) Then, two hours later, the 2 inches that was on the ground was completely gone and it was blue skies and sunny. Lunch time rolled around, it was sunny and snowing again. By the time I left for work, it was snow hail. That's right, snow hail. Not hail, not snow, but snow hail. Rolled up balls of snow falling form the sky. They looked like hail, but they were soft like snow. It was the strangest thing. Now, it's snowing huge flakes. You know, the really really big ones that fall really slowly. Those are my favorite. Anyways, I'm done with all of this. Done with snow, done with rain, done with cold. I want sun, flip flops, warmth and blue skies!

Next update: Hailey is recovering from being sick...surprise surprise. Who isn't sick? Lol...ME! Not yet at least. Ha ha. Anyways, last weekend, Hailey started complaining of a sore throat and developed a cough and runny nose. She started running a fever as well. So, on Monday, Michael took her to the doctor. Sure enough, she had the beginning stages of pneumonia. Great! So, my poor little sick girl stayed home all week with Daddy. Her fever finally broke and she finally started eating just a few days ago. Her energy is back now that she doesn't have a fever. However, she has her nasty cough and runny nose still. I'm just glad she's doing better. I hate when kids are sick. Of course, being a mom and being me...I started thinking the worse with her illness. It was not fun. Lol...imaginations can definitely run wild. She's doing better.

Oh! We got a kitten. My mom surprised Hailey with a kitten two weeks ago. She's about 9 weeks old, black, green eyes...totally cute. Her name is Olive. You know, like black olive...as Hailey says, ha ha. So cute. Well, we are still debating if the kitten was a good idea. I know they have a lot of energy, but Olive is out of control. I also think Hailey is kind of feeling left out. She doesnt handle the kitty well, however, she loves her. But she's been acting out even more than normal since we got her. So, we have been talking lately about if we are going to keep Olive, or not. We've already gotten attached to her, so it will be sad if we have to find her another home. But, if it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be. We're starting to go about it in a different tactic, so, we'll see how that works before we make a decision.

As I said above, Hailey has been acting out more than normal. In a previous blog, I asked for advice on her tantrums. Thank you all for your advice, it's greatly appreciated. Lately, I've been focusing on the good and found a different way for Hailey's "time outs". Hailey is horrible at listening, to me especially, so when she does listen to me, I make a big deal about it. I clap and say "yay, you did it! good job!" and sometimes, she gets a candy (one little m&m) :o). So, it seems to be working...kinda. Lol. Better than before. As for time outs, I put her in the corner like I was when I was little. I had forgotten about the corner until a good friend reminded me of it. :o) Thanks becca! She does it. She stands there, doesn't move, keeps her hands at her side....and when it's done, she's better...for at least 15 min. *wink* We're getting there.

Well, I'm off. Hailey and I are watching a Winnie the Pooh movie. It's cute! So, I keep getting destracted....I'm going to go watch now.

I promise, I'll try to be better at updating...ha ha!