Lily's Growing Up...

I took pictures of Lily for her 1st Grade school pictures. She is growing up so fast. Can you believe she is already 6 1/2?! My how the time flies.

We went to the JC Raulston Arboretum here in Raleigh. It's a wonderful place to spend some time in nature.

While there was not a whole lot in bloom, the rose garden did hold some late surprises.

Those picture packages the school offers are just ridiculously priced! And there was a lot of added value we got out of doing it ourselves.

And the photo is not always that awesome. They make you pose in awkward positions. PS, Lily posed herself for the most part. She's always loved having her photo taken.

 You never get to feel like a super model. I gave her a few directions here and there. But I tried to let her run the show.

We spent a couple of hours just the two of us on a lovely fall day together. We both had a lot of fun and I think we got some lovely photos. Some of them are just beautiful Lily. And a few are silly Lily. I think we captured a lot of her personality. I also think we will do it again next year.

...or not moving....

We did move to North Carolina, but I am not moving my blog :)

North Carolina has so many trees! Holy crappin' moly are there trees. But no wind. I think we need to work out some kind of nature trade between North Dakota and North Carolina. We'll send up some trees, if you send down a breeze. I am not joking here. It is a rare thing here to see a tree branch wiggle from a light breeze. After daily winds ranging from 10 mph to 40 mph, this is nuts! Especially with the heat and humidity. A gentle breeze down here wouldn't kill you, Mother Nature!

Side note: Currently watching Gordon Ramsay's "F Word" show from the UK. Really like him in this show as opposed to his American shows (except Master Chef, that one is good). He's not the complete jerk that he's made out to be.

Moving

I'll be moving my blog over to tumblr as it will be a better platform for the little bit i post :)  Here is the new link http://kristalrowland.tumblr.com/

And we will also be moving our household, all the way to North Carolina!

To eat, or not to eat.....

That is the question on almost everyone's mind these days. Whether they are on the latest fad diet or just trying to eat more real, whole foods, eaters are faced with this decision every day, at each and every meal.  One thing that brings me a little bit of inner peace, is educating myself and others on healthful eating. Now, I am not a Dietitian or Nutritionist nor have I been trained in any such thing. I am just a wife and mother of two looking to keep my family well nourished.

Let's just pause for a moment here and define "diet". Many people hear the word diet and assume it is some kind of crazy plan to lose weight. When I say diet, I am using it as a noun as defined in the dictionary: the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.

Whether you are looking to change your eating habits to lose weight or to just eat healthy, the first and most important step is to read. That's it.  You have to read those food labels. There are very few regulations as to what manufacturers are allowed to put on a food label. You cannot trust the front of the package. You have to read the nutritional information box and the ingredients. It may look good up there in the nutritional info, but the ingredients tell a whole other story.

Sensory Processing Disorder. What the?!

Earlier this year, our daughter was diagnosed as having a Sensory Processing Disorder. So we have been throwing ourselves into the world of Sensory Integration. I had no idea what any of this was. Not a clue. Slowly we have been mucking through various books, websites, thoughts, and everything in between to find out what we can about this so that we can help our Noodle to live a less frustrating life.

Her life is very frustrating for her since she cannot get enough sensory input to meet her needs. She has a Sensory Modulation Disorder with a sub-type of Sensory Seeking. Basically, her body's systems are not reading the sensory input that she receives so she craves more in order to satisfy those systems. So talking ends up being shouting as she tries to give her auditory system more input and she is constantly talking, singing or making noises. (We have not known silence in our house in at least 2 years now!) She has an uncontrollable urge to touch everything she encounters to add that extra sensory input about the item to her system. She still tends to put things in her mouth even at 5 years old.

At the same time, some of her systems get a bit overloaded and it causes a complete and utter catastrophic meltdown/freak out. This is mostly an auditory issue for her. So you can no longer make loud or unexpected noises in the house or it sets her off. She usually handles it okay if she has a warning and can leave the room first. Makes using a public restroom with the automatic flushing toilets a bit awkward since she is trying to race out of the stall and pull her pants up at the same time :) Lily has gotten very good at getting across the stall with her pants around her ankles before the toilet flush hits its peak!

We are not sure really where to go with this one. I have signed up for the Sensational Brain website and we are going to start using the recommendations from there for some occupational therapy for her at home next month (after we have finished moving). We will give her a few months to calm down from all the moving and schedule changing (preschool is over next month too!) and see how she is doing then.

Poor vision woes

Not everyone is blessed with 20/20 vision. Some people can't even get their peepers corrected to 20/20 with glasses (I am one of those!). While sometimes blurry vision can be a good thing (bokeh photography anyone?) it's not always all it's cracked up to be.

I don't wear contacts because they do not improve my vision any better, I have dry eyes, and they require more maintenance than I am willing (or have) to give them. This makes a lot of things that some take for granted very difficult for me.

Where I've Been

Phew! 2011 was a busy year! Of course, you have no idea what I was up to since I didn't blog about anything :) Oh my! Here is a quick recap:

• Charles got hired by the company he was contracted to work with. He is almost working his dream job. He's working on getting them to do more 3-D animation.
• We moved into a townhouse from our apartment.
• Major flooding in North Dakota. We had no problems from the flood, but my sister in Minot did. Britt and Chad are real troopers!!!
• We had water problems in the basement of our townhouse from all of the groundwater. There was mold and mushrooms and a lot of yuckiness.
• Lily (Noodle) started preschool! When did she get so old?!
• I quit my job to be a stay-at-home mom. We felt Lily needed more of her parents than both of us working full-time allowed for.
• Ethan (little guy) arrived on his own before my due date. He is almost the total opposite of Lily.
• I finished my Associate of Science degree. Finally!
• We found out that Lily has a sensory processing disorder. We start occupational therapy later this month.

2012 is going to be a busy and quick year also! Lily is going to start kindergarten in the fall. (I am totally terrified!) Ethan will probably still be laid-back like he is now; he might learn how to be louder than his sister :)

Right now, our main goal is to try and be the best parents that we can. We have started using the Nurtured Heart approach and it has worked wonders on the defiance and general misbehaving! It has also improved her focus and listening. We will be starting occupational therapy later this month which should help with the sensory issues she is having. I will post more about her issues later. I see the little guy stirring across the room, so it must be time to eat!

Career

Sooooo, I am again questioning my choice of career.  I don't know if I am getting burned out on accounting from the bad teachers I've been having or my not-that-great accounting job.  Either way, it's become a chore, a mundane task, a don't-wanna.

Calculators are so dull.

july

july has been a very busy month for us.  i started working a full-time job in accounts payable at the beginning of the month.  it might be a foot in the door to an accounting department, but it's still a very dull job.  not much thought required, but it pays the bills.

charles has been super busy at his job preparing for a short trip to cincinnati at the end of the month for his brother's wedding.  he is a groomsman in the show.  he left today, and so far, his directions that he got from microsoft streets and trips have been wrong twice which has added a couple hours almost onto his trip.  once again, wisconsin is the black hole of that drive.

life in the big city.........Bismarck

So we are moved to Bismarck. The house is nice and it has an awesome backyard with a deck! Britty did a good job scouting for us :) And apparently we are hosting her graduation party in May! The cat is still naughty as ever. The Noodle is still naughty as ever. Not much has changed :) I am not working yet, but am working on school fulltime and my etsy shop. I will have a spring inspired line of hotpads and dishcloths debuting in march. So much easier to crochet when I have easy access to loads of places to buy yarn!!