lost in the land of textbooks

Hi everyone!
well I made it through my first semester, passed all four of my classes with a 4.0, got through Christmas and have started my new semester since I last blogged! LOL This semester is considerably harder. I only have 3 classes, and they are all in town, however I am spending nearly 20 more hours a week than I was last semester. I'll save you from going back and re-reading...that's nearly 60 hrs a week that I spend in class or with my nose in a textbook! BUT, its paying off! we have been in class for 5 weeks now, just had all three of my first exams and I know I passed two of them with B's and am confident about the other. taking two science classes, one chemistry the other human anatomy/physiology has been VERY challenging! but I am blessed with a very supportive hubby who has helped me study and kept the kids busy so that I can have quite time to myself. My easiest class is actually the one I didn't even expect to like: research English!
My family has been getting along pretty well. there have been a few glitches with school stuff and dad getting his groove, but we are all managing!

we had Matthew tested in Dec/Jan. the Psychologist who did the testing was really great. the official findings we that he has an above average IQ, and PDD-NOS, as well as ADHD. all things we pretty much expected to hear. The positive side of getting an official diagnosis is that now we are able to get him signed up for the children's skills building group therapy, some OT for his repetitive hand movements, perching when he sits, pencil grasp issues, and possibly some outside community resources and support for all of us. I am hoping we can make the call this week to start getting things set up, because he and we certainly need it! Last week he decided to go one block behind ours when he was supposed to be playing out front on his bike. to make matters worse, he had removed his jacket and shoes, and left his bike in a friends yard (it was a chilly 45 degree evening!) and talk to some strange man at the mailbox! he just doesn't have the fear of strangers no matter what we do. this is the 4th time since kindergarten that we have had to reprimand him for befriending complete strangers and disappearing from where he is supposed to stay. Each year he seems to finally be doing better and then bam we are back to square one.
Luckily he did talk someone who didn't cause him any physical harm, and one of the moms on our street saw him and told him that we were looking for him and to go home! he desperately wants to do things that the kids his age are doing, but he just doesn't have the "common sense" to keep himself safe! its a catch 22 between letting him be a "normal" kids and being overly protective for us....I'm hoping some help from a professional will give us some direction.

the other two kids are doing good. Samantha is not at all interested in learning or school and would much rather watch movies and be lazy, not sure where this comes from but we are diligently trying to remove it from her understanding of what life is about! Robert is doing well, he still struggles in school but is passing his classes, ready to turn 18, and can't wait to finish this year of high school so that he can enlist in the navy, finish his senior year and get on with his life!


Rob is doing pretty well. he had a partial obstruction just two weeks ago, but it finally got him back in to see the GI Doc. he is having an upper GI x-ray some time in the next two weeks, and a colonoscopy on the 12th of march. they are also upping his remicade to 2x the dose he is on now. down side there being that he will be even more immune suppressed, and his risk of cancer will increase. He had some lab work done and his platelets were on the low side of normal and his RBC count was on the low side as well and WBC count was slightly elevated. of course all of these are typical of an immune-suppressed person, so we will just watch them. One big plus for him was that the VA came to a final decision about his disability claim. we are waiting for a call to find out the details, but in the mean time we saw a substantial deposit in our checking account for back payment, which has alleviated some of our stress about affording therapy for Matthew, getting the new washer and dryer we needed and just paying the bills in general!

I think that's all of the major updates. Oh I guess the fact that I am officially a year older now too! seems like the last 5 months have just FLOWN by! but we are 5 months closer to our future! :)