work and applying for jobs

Well, I don't know if you all know that I graduated in secondary education, but since I graduated I have had no luck in finding a job in my areas. I am working for an elementary school and loving it, I love to work with special needs kids and have had a blast doing it. I am still looking. Embree and I after the fire just seemed to not be able to get well, so we went to an ear nose and throat doctor and found out that I had a deviated septum and it was 100% closed on one side of my nose and about 75% of the other side was closed so they said I had to have surgery immediately because the open side was closing fast. Embree failed her hearing test and her tonsils were huge so they said that she also had to get her tonsils out, adenoids out, and get tubes in her ears asap as well. So I had my surgery a week before her and then she had hers we were both down an out of school for 2 weeks, but are a lot better now. The day that I got back to work I saw a posting for a job in my field and was so excited, I turned in an application and was called the next day for an interview. The interview went great and I was real hopeful in getting the job it would have been a dream experience. Needless to say about two weeks later I got the sad news that I didn't get it, I also was told that there would be little to no luck in me ever finding a job in the fields I specialized, because they are both science based and schools want two to three different areas. So on top of not getting the job it was not fun to also be reamed about my education. But the next day my boss came and said that she wanted me to be her assistant and that it would include working in the summer and more responsibility so that helped make things better. I am looking forward to it, and so far this summer have had a blast working with these special needs kids.

Fire part 2

We then went to bed and I was really struggling with breathing because of the smoke so needless to say, I didn't sleep much. The next morning we took pictures and assessed the damages. We had at least a 3 inch radius around the chimney that has been distorted by the fire, the huge crack that was now spreading to the wall by the chimney. I also had to go to work because it was to late to call a sub I thought. Well we had so much smoke damage and I could still barely breath that we all looked and smelled wonderful ;o). Well when I got to work something snapped and all i could do was cry and cough, my boss took one look at me and sent me home. I went to the doctor and fount out that I had smoke asphyxiation. I had to get a few breathing treatments and put on some medications to open my airway so that I could breathe. When we left the doctors office I got the phone call that the day before my grandmother had fallen and was in the hospital. So we went to visit her while Jace was talking to the insurance agent. We got there and found out that she had broken her back and was in a lot of pain, and boy did we smell like smoke we felt so bad. But that was when we realized that we could all help each other, we moved into grandmas that day to help her and she helped us by allowing us to get out of our smoke filled house till it was fixed. It took exactly a month to get everything fixed and taken care of, it was really hard to not be in our home for that long and to have everything everywhere. We had to have my parents care for two of our animals because we couldn't have them with us at grandmas. My grandma had surgery and is all better now so we cared for her while she cared for us. So after it all we had to get everything cleaned and washed, had to get new carpet, chimney fixed, we had to get a lining in the chimney, new fireplace, and repaint the front room.

Fire

Well all things come in threes don't they? It seems to be the way things lay out, I guess. Well in January we found out that my husbands grandfather had bone and lung cancer and that seemed to hit the family hard we had all the family here to try and be with him and help him out. Then about a week and a half after we found that out we get a call from my in-laws and were fold my mother in law had done something to her back and was in serious condition and could barely move and was in massive pain. So here are two things, that happened so you think we would get the hint at look out somethings going to happen one more thing has to happen. Well then you go on my side of the family, my parents home has been for sale for a long time and they finally got and offer and accepted and right when they thought they could buy a home and move the sale was canceled the buyer backed out. So there is one for our family, a day before our insident with the fire we found out that my grandmother had fallen and literally broke her back and was in the hospital. So now we get to thinking we have had two things happen on both sides of the family something is going to happen to make it three, we just were hopping that it wasn't going to involve us. Well fate chose us as you can see. what happened, was on the night of the 8th of February it was a really cold night so just before Jace left for work I asked if he would start a fire so that the house would warm up. Now get this we had had fires in the fire place at least a dozen times this past winter already so we didn't expect anything. After he left I started to smell smoke and that wasn't to different because we always get just a little smoke from the fire place. Now I also have to say that I am allergic to smoke and I can smell it and get plugged up almost instantly upon smelling it. That said, I started to smell more then normal and started to get a big headache. I opened all the windows and went and checked the fire place and saw nothing out of the normal that would indicate in less then 10 min there was going to be a fire. I called Jace at work and informed him that there was more smoke in the house than normal and that I had to open all the windows to air out the place. At this point it was 10:15pm. He told me to try and stay up a little longer and let the windows stay open for the night but, my head hurt so bad and I was so tired that I just wanted to go to bed. I also guess that I am a wimp, where Jace works at night I never leave windows open just to make me feel safe, so needless to say I didn't listen to him and decided to close up the windows and go to bed. Well I was in bed and really started to smell smoke and could now see it in the dark winding in through my door from our front room. I ran out to the front room to see why it was worse and that is when I saw the flames coming up from between the chimney and carpet (our fireplace is in the basement). The flames where small and so I ran and got a bucket of water and poured it on the flames there and they seemed to die down so I grabbed my phone and a fire extinguisher and ran down stairs. I called Jace and told him we had a fire and that I needed him home and that I would call him in a minute to tell him to call the fire department if needed because I don't have much cell service in the basement. When I got downstairs the smoke was worse then we had upstairs. I got over to the fireplace and saw a huge crack on the chimney and saw that that it must have gotten too hot to quickly and it expanded and cracked and that was where the fire had come out. I saw some small flames there and tried to use the extinguisher but I couldn't get it to work no matter what I did. Luckily our water out put is no more then 10 feet away and luckily there was a bucket by it I had to throw water for about 10 minutes before I noticed it just smoking and the flames out, I then ran up stairs and poured more water on the chimney from there. That is when I noticed the huge crack went all the way up the chimney. At about this point Jace arrived home and I had him check the attic and see if there was any hint of fire there, luckily no crack, smoke, or fire up there. We called our insurance agent (we had called her not 3 days before and put fire insurance on our insurance because we noticed we didn't have any at our last appointment) We talked with her and were told that we didn't need to call for the fire department where I was able to get the fire out.

so sorry

Well it has been another long time since I have posted I am sorry. Things have been so crazy that I don't even know how we made it to this point so I guess that I will be catching up a lot now to let you all know what our lives have been like these past few months with great apologies! I guess to start off I will give you a list of what went on and then I will go and explain them a little more in detail: * Fire in our home * Work and apply for jobs * summer fun * Parents home renevation * ( i know there is more but my mind is blank right now sorry)

Embree's Dance Performance

Ponderings

Well this week has been a week that has caused a lot of thought and reflection time for our little family. We are having the same issues that a lot of others are having with finances, and are trying to over come the problems that we have caused, but that is not what we are focused on at this point. Our ponderings are based again on our daughter. I don't know if you all know but when she was eight months she gave us all the scare of our lives when she first got sick. The story is bellow if you don't know about it. Well she started kindergarten this year and has loved every moment of it. The only thing is that almost every week to every other week she is sick. Either with a massive cold or with a string of the flu. for the pas two months though it has been the flu. She has had all of her shots and has gotten her flu shot but still is getting sick all the time. We give her vitamins and make sure that she gets all the nutrients she needs to help her be healthy and happy but are still at a massive loss as to why she is sick constantly.

We know that, yes this is her first time at public school and that sickness goes around, but every week getting sick? We don't let her go to school or any where for that matter if she is sick and wait till she is 100% better before we let her go back into the public but there has to be something else doesn't there for why she is always sick? This is why we are pondering, we are thinking, is is something to do with her thymus again? Is there anything else wrong that is causing her to be sick? We haven't taken her to the doctor yet but are contemplating but want to have a list of questions ready for when we do. But all we can think is, is this normal for kids to be constantly sick their first year of school or is this a little extreme? We definitely will be taking her in but it is just wondering what is going on that has a worried. I guess that is why these are ponderings and why it is nice to get them written down and out of my system to see if anyone has any ideas.

Story to help understand Ponderings

At eight months old Embree had, had a cough for almost a month and no medication was working and it just got worse. We had been to several doctors and still couldn't figure out what was going on. The last doctor finally said we should get x-rays and see if maybe it was pertussis (whooping cough). He was able to set up an appointment to get the x-rays right then. Embree didn't like them at all and it took Jace, two nurses and I to hold her down so they could get the x-ray. Well it took a day to get the results and when they arrived our lives changed. Jace had just gone to work at his parents restaurant and I had just got Embree out of a bath when the doctor called. All I remember is my grandma (who we were living with at the time) coming into the bathroom and telling me the doctor is on the phone and he said it was an emergency. When I got to the phone all i remember is hearing it is a tumor between her heart and lungs and it looks cancerous you need to get her to primary children's asap. The doctor said he had already called the hospital and told them we were on our way and he had a folder of the x-rays for us to pick up to take as well.

All I remember was calling Jace and balling, I guess that was all I had to do and he was on his way home. I tried to call my family and none of them were home but my brother, and once I heard his voice I started balling again, which caused him to find my parents and he rushed over to help. My dad was able to give us all blessings before we left to help and then It took us only 30 minutes to get on the road to the hospital and we never could have done it without the help of all of our family. It took us seven hours to get to the hospital because of construction. Luckily Embree slept the entire way there. When we arrived at the hospital they rushed us back and did tests on Embree and took more x-rays. At the hospital they are able to work with the kids more to get better x-rays. After what felt like days, the doctor finally came in with the results. NO TUMOR AND NO CANCER! We breathed a sigh of relief but then he said, "but there is something that has us concerned." Her Thymus which was supposed to look like a sail on a sail boat, was very enlarged and mishapped, looking more like a giant pair. He told us the only treatment for that was time and it should adjust itself and shrink as she gets older.

Well after that which was about 11om we were able to go home, Embree was so exhausted and because of the adrenaline Jace and I were wide awake. We were going to stay with family if we needed to that night but decided that all we wanted to help us relax was to go home so we drove all the way back that night. After this ordeal, we thought that our only problems were going to be dealt around her thymus but all of a sudden she stopped everything. before all of this she was eating everything, sitting, rolling around, and was rocking on her knees. After all of this though she stopped everything, she just layed there and stopped eating. Well with a lot of help from physical therapists and occupational therapist and doctors it took her till she was two before she crawled and a few months later when she walked. She has also been very small being in the negative 15% for both height and weight up until a year and a half ago when she finally started eating and her thymus finally started shrinking. We had her looked at and x-rayed by about every doctor in primary children's to try to figure out why she stopped everything and finally found that it was caused by massive phobias created because of the ordeal that we had. The one problem she never had was speech, she talked full sentences at one years old.

Well through a lot of work and effort to get over these phobias, yes she is six now, she is finally 100% potty trained, she is eating a lot more then crackers which was her only diet for almost two years and pedia sure with that, she now loves every fruit, corn, peas, and carrots in the vegetables, almost every kind of carb you can think of (pasta, breads, crackers), almost all the dairy items, but she is still a self proclaimed vegetarian, she will have nothing to do with meat at all. But this all only started when she was four and a half years old. She was still only wearing 24 month old clothes and at times could fit into 2t and 3t outfits but not many. When she started to eat she has grown a ton! She is now at a positive 25% for weight and height for her age and is almost as tall as any other six year old out there. If you were to look at her now you would never know that she has gone through any ordeal and ever had any problems (other then eating). We love her to death and are grateful and blessed everyday by the gift of life she has brought with her.

Memories

Well, I am pondering the happenings of six years ago. I question myself, am I really that old, where did the time go, and have I been the best that I could be? These questions all fall on the subject of our sweetheart and light of our lives, Embree Anne Thompson.

At exactly 1:17am today our little baby will be six years old! Wow, how time flies! I still feel like it was yesterday when we went into the hospital, and through all the complications and misgivings we were blessed with this beautiful child. From the moment we saw her, we were changed for the better. She has had many hard times in her life that have challenged her physically, mentally and emotionally; and yet she has turned out to be a sweet, loving, fun little girl.

She is turning six and is already calling herself old, her comment to me this morning was"mom, it is hard being old, you have to do a lot of things and that makes me tired. It is hard being old, so hard!" If she is old and is only six what does that make the rest of us I wonder? She loves school and can't wait till she is home and able to do her homework! For Christmas all she wanted was crayons and a case that had crayons, markers, colored pencils, scissors, and glue so that she could do her homework. We just hope this love of homework last through the rest of her life.

She is the life of our little family and the joy of our lives. We can't believe that she will be six, but have enjoyed every minute that she has been with us, and look forward to the future with her. We LOVE you Embree!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Love,
Mom and Dad