Faith's Mom's Blog

Every year I am disappointed because neither Faith nor Rob wants to go to the 4th of July Parade in Mandan with me so I end up not going at all. This year was going to be different though. This year I would have a parade date - my dad! Also, I was going to be meeting up with my friend Kristi and her family who sit in the same spot every year. I was so excited to go to the parade! The night before the big event, Rob and I asked Faith if she wanted to go too. She has only gone to the parade twice and didn't seem to really enjoy it either time. So I was totally expecting her to not want to go again this year. But then she said she did want to go and started asking all sorts of questions about what we were going to see at the parade. Even though she seemed excited, I didn't get my hopes up too high. Sometimes she acts excited about something but when it comes down to actually going through with it, she changes her mind. Whether she went or not, I was still happy to be going w

I knew this would happen. Ever since Rob's parents told us about their plans to fly from Toronto to Winnipeg, we looked so forward to driving there to meet them. And now, after spending five days in Canada, the fun is over much too soon. Faith gets ready for our drive to Canada Rob, Faith and I made the 420-mile drive on Monday and Jean and David arrived by plane on Tuesday morning. When we told people we were driving to Winnipeg, they said, "That's kind of a long drive." But after driving over 1,300 miles all the way to Toronto in October 2011, this drive was going to be a breeze! And it was. Faith once again proved to be a great little traveler and was content to listen to her music CDs the whole way. Of course we didn't make it in 6 hours and 20 minutes like Mapquest said we would. With stops to eat, gas up, get Faith changed and get her feedings started, it took us more like 8 1/2 hours. Practically the whole way there, Faith asked, "Are we in Winn

It seems we've been celebrating Valentines Day all week as we spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday making our homemade Valentines boxes and cards. Faith's class had a party today and we had our own "old school" Valentines Day party at work. Faith normally doesn't stay at school on Thursday afternoons so we decided to give her the choice of whether or not she wanted to stay for the class party. I was a little disappointed when she said she didn't want to stay for it because I don't like her to miss out on doing fun things with her classmates. I do think though that the parties can get a little chaotic (especially with all that sugar intake) and I know it's hard for her to relax in that kind of atmosphere because her startle is constantly kicking in. Still, after dropping her off at school I couldn't help but feel a little sad that she was going to miss out on the party. We did have fun making the boxes and cards and looking at all our Valentines

I thought it would be interesting to see what blog posts in 2012 had the most views. I was a little surprised by the post that was visited the most. I was also very proud that the guest post written by my father-in-law made the top 12, in fact it almost made number one! I had a big surge of views during the month of December. In fact, four of the posts I put up that month ended up getting more page views than the posts I had written at the beginning and middle of 2012. I wrote 42 posts during 2012 and here are Faith's Mom's Blog top 12 of 2012: Number 12 - Good News About Faith's Hips publish date: 2-25-12 It's Saturday morning and after a busy, somewhat stressful work week, I can finally take a moment to enjoy a nice cup of coffee while doing some writing. Sitting here, I am reflecting on the wonderful news we received on Wednesday. Faith's left hip has not pulled out any further from its socket! Read More Number 11 - Conscious Sedation - A New Exper

This year in review is a little belated - I had wanted to do it before the New Year actually began but both Faith and I fell ill with the flu and I had zero energy. It's hard to be creative with no energy! While I became sick shortly after Christmas, Faith got sick on New Year's Eve. On Friday, she finally felt well enough to go to school. Thank goodness for the miracle drug, tamiflu, which helped decrease our symptoms and the flu did not last as long as it might have without it. I am also thankful that although Rob had mild symptoms for a few days, he is already back to being well. So while we did not end 2012 very well, the New Year started off great as on January 5th the NDSU Bison won their 2nd straight football championship! Here is how 2012 went for us: JANUARY - Although last winter was pretty mild for us here in North Dakota, January still got pretty cold which kept us indoors a lot. One of Faith's favorite things to do is SKYPE with our friend Kimberly in

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Christmas music has been playing now for about a month or so but honestly, I think it could play all year long as far as I'm concerned. I love the beautiful lyrics about the baby born in a manger; some of them written hundreds of years ago. While the traditional ones about Jesus are my favorite, there are a few Christmas songs that I really have fun listening to - and singing along with! When Faith was very little I used to play The Denver Mile High Orchestra's swing version of Jingle Bells and would have her in my arms and we'd go dancing around the living room together. Maybe that's why that song is one of her favorites! Faith actually doesn't do well listening to the slower, more traditional songs as she gets very emotional and even a little weepy. To learn the history of where these Christmas songs originated check out my Article: My Top Ten Favorite Christmas Songs and from Whence They Came It was hard to narrow it down to just ten - but these Christmas

This season is known as the most wonderful time of the year and probably the busiest time of the year as well. Along with starting Christmas shopping, putting up our tree and thinking about getting our Christmas cards ready, we have taken part in some great Christmas events. Faith checking out some of the ornaments on our Christmas tree! Last Monday we kicked off the week with Faith's program at school called "Old Man Winter's Icicle Follies." Faith's music teacher had given us a CD with all of the music on it so Faith could learn the words better. And I must say, when Rob and I both heard the fast-moving music with all of the tongue-twisting words, we both thought the songs were a little ambitious for third graders. Wow were we surprised when they pulled it off! All of the third-graders did great!  The best part was seeing Faith in the front of the gymnasium alongside the kids in her grade looking relaxed and singing right along with the rest of them. Alth

At least once a year, Faith's school has a fun week where there is a theme each day on how to dress. When Rob was getting Faith ready in the mornings, he really didn't put too much effort into making sure Faith was dressed according to the theme of the day. I used to love having these fun weeks at school and I loved getting Faith ready each day this week. Here is what her fun week looked like: Monday - Faith's favorite day of all - Pajama Day! Tuesday - Backwards Day - even Faith's smile is backwards! Wednesday - Tie Dye Day! Thursday - Faith sportin' her school spirit - Centennial Roughriders Friday - Wacky Day!

For Faith's birthday this year, we decided to keep it pretty low-key. And even though we really didn't do a whole lot, Faith had a very fun-filled birthday. On Thursday, she took her favorite snack - goldfish crackers - to school to share with her classmates. Then after school she got to play her new Wheel of Fortune game on the PS3 with daddy. This is what I found when I came home from work that evening: Of course Faith wanted to play her new game with me, which I very happily did. During all of this we took a little break to talk to Faith's Grandparents from Canada who called to wish her a Happy Birthday. We opened her presents from them while both Grandmother and Grandfather were on speaker phone. Friday evening was another night of playing Wheel of Fortune then on Saturday, we finally had a chance to have birthday cake, for which Grandma came over. We also opened some cards from her aunties and their families. We've definitely had a great three days of celebr