Sunday, May 31, 2015

May Highlights

A little recap of May 2015

{We started the month with a little fever for LT. He is pretty warm-bodied, but this was more than that. Luckily, he recovered quickly!}

{Stunna Shades}

{Jillian finished up preschool through her hearing clinic. She has done so well, that she will not be returning to this particular preschool in the fall. It was a bittersweet day for us!}

{We had a few days of just crazy-nasty weather! We had enough of a close call to our house that I had the kids in our hidey-hole with their helmets on. Fortunately, nothing came about, but it was definitely not enjoyable! And if you didn't hear, we had a wildlife refuge that originally thought some of their tigers had escaped due to storm damage. This turned out to be false, but memes like the bottom picture were fun to see the next few days ;)}

{I had a sweet Mother's Day corsage to wear thanks to my thoughtful family!}

{After having to reschedule due to colds, I finally got my birthday gift to myself - some pink highlights! They are fading now, but it was definitely worth it! It was fun to have fun hair for a little while. I am totally keeping the blonde in though :)}

{I love his Einstein hair when he wakes up :) This particular morning, he had a curl sticking straight out. do you see it?}

{I made a special popcorn cake for the last day of preschool! I thought I'd make this an annual thing, but I may just make a cake/dessert instead of this every time. It was a little messy and SUPER sugary. The kids, and Phil, did enjoy eating it!}

{I finished a hat I crocheted for Jillian! It is so cute, and I can't wait for her to wear it this winter :)}

{Jillian officially graduated from speech therapy on Phil's birthday. (Big day for the Coghills!) We brought some special cookies to celebrate :) We still go every 3 months for a booth test, but she will not be in speech therapy. I wrote more about my feelings with this here.}

{We had a few sunny days between torrential rain, so we played with chalk! Looks more like a crime scene than a driveway ;)}

{David LOVES brushing his teeth. Doesn't he look like such a little man standing at the sink? *le sigh*}

{More flooding for us. The top picture is just outside our front door. The bottom is of a mall we used to live near. And yes, that is water coming into the mall! (It has a steep hill going toward the entrance)}

{My how our anniversary celebration has changed! Phil and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary by seeing Avengers: Age of Ultron, running to the grocery store, and getting ice cream at Sonic to take home. Good thing I love doing life with this man :)}

{This is a house in our neighborhood. Someone was having a big 50th birthday, and for whatever reason, their family/friends put these huge signs and huge wooden birds in their lawn. If you know me, you know I don't do birds. This was NOT a welcomed sight for me! Luckily, they took it down shortly.}

{Jillian told me she made the Octopod with her blocks! What a creative girl :)}

{I made this for my dad for Father's Day - a crocheted golf tee bag. This was the finished project! He seems to like it :)}

{The kids and I ended the month with a trip to the Railroad Museum in town! They both seem to love trains, and it was nice enough outside to explore. We'll be back in September when Thomas the Train comes to town :)}

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Over It {Tornadoes}

It is not a secret that I really don't do severe weather. Actually, no, that's not true. I like it, find it fascinating, and would even consider storm chasing if I knew the vehicle and driver were up to the challenge. However, it there's severe weather in the state of Oklahoma, I don't like it. Not one single bit.

There are several factors that go into this.

1) I have lots of family and good friends that are spread out in Oklahoma. I have the most important ones marked on my weather radar app so I know if they're about to get hit or not. I've always been overly protective of those I care about, so this is no different.

2) My house was hit by lightning once. I believe it was around 1999 or 2000. Whatever year it was, it was ridiculous. That's why I hate thunder and lightning.

3) Hailstones broke our window in our last apartment before we bought our home. We were luckily not at home, but it did scar me.

4) Most of the time since Jillian was born, I am with the kids alone when things get nasty. That means I not only have to be calm to keep them calm, I also had to make a lot of executive decisions about our safety. That can be pretty nerve-wrecking in certain situations.

5) Based on my experience that day, I assume any tornado is going to be like May 3, 1999. Is that irrational? Oh absolutely. Can I change it? Not a single bit.

I feel like, because we do not have an underground storm shelter at the house yet, my family is not safe, and there is no way for me to protect them in our current residence. When we do finally get a shelter, I would probably be a little more at ease, but only if it is an underground one. And you better believe I'll be in there a lot, even if the tornadoes are far away.

Phil has tried several times to educate me in meteorology. {Most Oklahomans are amateur meteorologists anyways amIright?} Over the last 7 storms seasons we have endured as husband and wife, I feel like I have a pretty basic understanding of when to panic.

This is where it has gotten tricky...

I know just enough to know when I need to start paying close attention to storm tracks, wind velocity, etc. I know what rotation, and what a debris ball looks like on radar. Ever since I gained this confidence through knowledge, something has changed: the weather.

Hear me out.
In 2013, we had some anomalies throughout the storm season. Sometimes it would be the intensity of the storm, and sometimes it would be the number of storms we had.
In 2014, the season was an anomaly because we had a "tornado drought" of sorts.
And this year. Oh 2015 is really being ridiculous. Almost every storm we've had, and this is on top of the historical amount of rainfall we've had, has been an anomaly. Tornadoes forming after a cold front goes through. Tornadoes popping up at 6:45 am. Tornadoes forming over and over and over again in an area that didn't even have a Tornado Watch issued. My favorite was a few days ago when three storms near each other had storm tracks going every which way! One was going north, another southeast, and the third going straight east. Then, they didn't even merge together! It was the strangest thing.

With that being said, I am done. Done dealing with storms that look like it's just rain, and then it becomes tornadoes with hail and flash flooding following it. I'm done packing up my bug out bag in case we need to go to a friend's house across town to be in an underground shelter. I'm done having to come up with new dinner plans because we have to wait until the storm passes just in case we lose power. I'm done being so nervous and sick to my stomach that I don't eat dinner at all, then I'm hungry at midnight. I'm done watching the back yard grow so tall that I'm nervous Phil will have an asthma attack when it's finally dry enough to mow. And finally, I'm tired of feeling like my knowledge will help ease me just to have storms act differently so that I feel completely helpless and stupid.

So storm season 2015, you can finish any time please. I'm over it!

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Jillian's Speech Therapy Graduation

{If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you already saw what today was all about. For my sake, I wanted to record it here too.}

Today was a bittersweet day in our family. Today was Jillian's last official speech therapy session. We may go one more time before school starts, but we do not have any on the calendar as of now.
{We took some cookies to share with the clinic to celebrate!}

I have always wondered what this day would be like. Would I be happy? Sad? Relieved? Excited? Worried? Honestly, I think I'm a mix of most of these with an emphasis on proud. I am so proud of Jillian and all she has accomplished. I'm proud of our family for finding a way to help her. I'm proud of her speech therapist, who really did amazing things in and out of the therapy room!

Our journey to this place has definitely been a roller coaster. From the time she was officially diagnosed with hearing loss, to the day she started talking full sentences, we have had many things that truly made me worry that I couldn't do this. I didn't feel equipped to handle this, and I didn't want to make anything worse for Jillian. There was a stretch of several months where Jillian could obviously understand us, but chose not to verbally answer. Her hour long speech therapy sessions would be 50 minutes of her just screaming and balling her eyes out. It was so hard.

In a years time, we went from sessions with tears to this:

Take Me Out To The Ballgame by Jillian Coghill 10/24/2014 from Courtney on Vimeo.
{This has been awhile, but it's still appropriate being baseball season and all ;)}

Jillian's hearing clinic gave us so much more than speech therapy sessions, booth tests, and a preschool for Jillian to attend. They gave us hope. They gave us triumph. They gave us love.

Anyone in that clinic loved my daughter. No, they loved all of us! They helped me realize that I can be the parent Jillian needs. I have it in me to do what it takes. I have it in me to be my child's advocate. I have it in me to be a source for other families who are going through the same thing. I have it in me to defend my daughter when people make comments one way or the other about her hearing loss and/or lack of hearing technology. I have it in me to be a cheerleader for other children.

For Jillian, they taught her that she can do anything. It may be hard work, but it can be done! I mean, you just try to tell Jilly that she has hearing loss and that it will hold her back. She would laugh right in your face, then speak as eloquently as a 15 year old. This girl can do anything. It's what I always wanted for her, and the hearing clinic helped me do just that. She is so confident in herself!

I can't tell you the number of times I have teared up or ugly cried when I hear about another child's successes in speech therapy. I know what it feels like to wonder if and when your precious baby will ever get there.

It is my hope and prayer that, if you or anyone you know is going through some type of hearing loss diagnosis, that you get to be connected to such an amazing group like we did. It was truly a God thing that we ended up where we did. Before Jillian was even born, I researched pediatricians, Phil and I met with/interviewed the one we ended up choosing, then he is the one that had us to the official test at this clinic. Then, just weeks before Jillian's diagnosis, legislature was passed so that Jillian's services were covered by the state until age 3! With Phil still being in graduate school for his PhD, that was the only way we could afford the services.

I wish there was more I could do to express just how thankful and happy I am. It is hard to think that this part of our life is over for now. We were recently told that, with some new research evidence, Jillian may need a hearing aid, or even a cochlear implant at some point in her life for that ear. Definitely not something we need to worry about in the immediate future though. It makes sense, and I am not worried whatsoever. If I learned anything, it is that the clinic will go above and beyond to make sure Jillian gets the best care she needs. {Their therapists actually go visit the families of kids who have surgery for cochlear implants!} We do get to go ever 3 months for booth tests, but it won't be the exact same. I just hope that clinic knows just how much of a blessing they are!

To Ms. Casey, Ms. Jenn, Ms. Krystal, Ms. Tami, Ms. Megan, Ms. Laurel, Ms. Jackie, Ms. Reyna, and everyone else at Hearts for Hearing, thank you from my whole entire heart!

Monday, May 11, 2015

Mother's Day 2015

Mother's Day this year was overall good! It was certainly different from last year. Not that last year was bad, but I am in a completely different place mentally and emotionally.

We had some rough storms during the week, including the day before Mother's Day. I told Phil I just wanted hot dogs for dinner, and to still have a house to live in. Luckily for me, I got both of my wishes :) {When your expectations are low, you are usually pretty happy with the outcome! HAHAHA}

Phil offered to watch both kiddos while I showered and got gussied up for church. I was playing in a handbell trio for both worship services, so I still had to wake up early. Phil was sweet enough to bring me some coffee while I did my hair! Then, Jillian came in and said, "Mama! I have a surprise flower for you!" Hahaha We'll have to work on her surprises later ;) I got a beautiful corsage to wear to church. {This use to be a tradition in my family for Mother's Day as well as if you had a birthday on Sunday morning. It fell by the wayside once I got older, but I mentioned to Phil that I wanted to start it back up again!}

The one downside to Mother's Day was that Phil ended up having to be at work for a good portion of the day. I understood why, and I wasn't upset at all. Besides, him having a job is way more important to me than getting a nap! We did get to eat dinner together and put the kids to bed before he had to go back to work. I also tried making my first strawberry rhubarb pie. It tasted ok, but it was too liquid-y. I was a little disappointed, but I'll just make a few changes for next time. Overall, I had a great day! I hope all you moms got to feel special too!

Here are a few pictures from the day:
{My beautiful corsage! They did a great job picking it out :)}

{Of course I wouldn't be a mom without this great guy! I'm glad I don't have to try being a single parent. It is an honor to parent alongside Phil!} 

{Honestly, this was the best shot I got of me with my babies at church. Hey, when you have a 3-1/2 and 1-1/2 year old, this is as good as it gets! I would have loved a picture with all of us smiling and looking at the camera, but this is so representative of where our family is right now. Some day I'll truly treasure pictures like these.}

{Hot dogs and sweet potato fries! Just the dinner I asked for :)} 

 {My liquid pie}

{Amen!}

Sunday, May 3, 2015

If It Ain't One Thing...

Well lookie lookie. I'm finally able to jump back on to Blogger! I will have quite a few backdated posts here in the next week or so.

My 5 year old laptop is going kaput. At first we assumed it was the internet, but now we know it's more than that. For the most part, my computer is backed up on an external hard drive. {No worries on that front!} It will be at least a year before we can afford a new computer for me. Luckily, our family desktop that has been neglected for several months is it great working condition. Bear with me as I transfer ownership.

School is quickly wrapping up for Jillian, so our almost bearable normal is going to change to a new summer normal. Prayers are always appreciated ;)

See y'all soon!

But I Know What It Feels Like

This post is going to be awfully vulnerable and hard for me, but I really want to finally say it out loud. I got permission for my daughter ...