Makenna swims

Makenna started swim lessons this week and she's doing great!
Here is a quick video of what she's learned so far:

Week in review

We are having such a good time with Mikes Mom and Dad! The weather hasn't been so great, but Makenna and Shane love having their Nana and Grandpa visiting. Here are some pics from this past week:



Grandpa and Nana playing with the kids


Father and Sons


Girls


Mom and sons


Cake I made for Rita's Birthday


Bro and Sis




Shane stuffing his face with cake



I caught them in bed like this this morning

and..Makenna started her swimming lessons today! she did great!

Weekend bust...

Its been a rainy weekend, and its a bummer because we had 2 pool parties to go to this weekend, and I was gonna go see Boyz II Men in Concert! We still ended up going to one of the parties- a friend of ours had an ice cream social/pool party so we did that today. It was really wet and rainy but still fun. I am bummed I am missing out on the concert though! Boyz II Men reminds me of my high school days, and it would've been fun to see them!

Makenna has only one day left of school and then summer time! She has a party that day so hopefully I can get some pictures!

better week

Shane has gotten better! No more fevers thank goodness, so he didn't need to be admitted to the hospital. Its Makenna's last week of school, then Mike's mom and dad will be here on Monday.

I am soo excited Kris Allen made it to the finals of American Idol!

Shane Update

Mother's Day started out pretty horribly for us. We had to take Shane to the ER again because he had spiked another high fever and had another convulsing seizure. They hooked him up to an IV and gave him an antibiotic through his IV. They tested him for the flu, swine flu, meningitis, and pneumonia, and they were all negative. The ER doc wrote him another prescription for another Antibiotic and sent us home when his fever went down. Today I took him back to the doc for a follow up and he said that it looks like its a viral infection because his blood cultures haven't gone up and they are going to test to see if he has mononucleuosis! They said if he is still spiking high fevers by tomorrow they might admit him to the hospital. AHHH this is soo stressful. I can't believe this is happening! So shane has been on Antiboitics since last week (when i took him last monday for his eye infection) , and it hasn't helped at all. I'm sooo tired!

This recipe looked good to me...

No, I haven't tried it yet, but it looks really good. Yes I love pork, and no, I won't stop eating it because of the Swineflu.

from: http://justbento.com/handbook/recipe-collection-mains/miso-marinated-pork-butaniku-no-misozuke

Miso Marinated Pork (butaniku no misozuke)

Something for the omnivores! Pork is the most popular meat in Japanese cooking, but so far I haven’t posted any (non-bacon) pork recipes on Just Bento, though I do have a couple over on Just Hungry that are bento-friendly, such as tonkatsu (breaded and fried pork cutlets). This classic sweet-salty, intensely flavored miso marinated pork is really well suited to bentos. It is similar to miso chicken, but a bit more complex in flavor.

Recipe: Miso marinated pork

This makes enough for 2 to 3 bentos.

Time required: 5-10 minutes to marinade, some hours (up to 24) to marinate, and 5-8 minutes to cook.

• 2 thinly cut boneless pork cutlets, each about 100g / 3 oz (A cut with a bit of fat marbling will be tastier, but lean filet is ok too. A very fatty cut such as pork belly would be too much.)
• 3 Tbs. white miso
• 3 Tbs. red miso (if you don’t have 2 kinds of miso, using one kind is fine. Or you could come up with your own blend!)
• 1 1/2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
• 2 Tbs. sake or sweet sherry (see the role of alcohol, ginger etc. in Japanese meat dishes)
• 1 Tbs. sugar

If your pork cutlets are too thick (they should be about 5mm / about 1/5th of an inch thick), pound them out a bit with the side of a heavy knife or a meat tenderizer until they are thin enough.

Put all the ingredients except for the pork in a plastic ziplock bag. Mix the ingredients together by massaging the bag with your hands.

Put the pork cutlets in the bag, and close the bag up, expelling as much air as you can when you do so. Then, massage the marinade over the pork so that the pork is completely covered. See the photos below.

(Note: I’m using a method that keeps the hands as clean as possible, since the miso marinade is a bit messy. Of course if you object to the use of plastic bags, you can combine the marinade in a bowl or other container, then spread it over the pork with a spoon and your fingers.)

Make sure the bag is completely closed, and leave the meat to marinate for several hours or overnight. You should not marinate it much more than 24 hours though, or the salt in the miso will draw out the moisture of the pork too much and make it very dry.

When you are ready to cook the pork, pull them out of the bag, squeezing off as much of the miso as you can. The meat will have turned dark and rather transculent.

For bentos, cut the meat into bitesized pieces, and fry in a frying pan with just a little oil over medium heat for just 2-3 minutes or so on each side. Watch the meat so that it doesn’t burn (the miso on the surface may turn a bit black, but that’s ok.) When done, it should be cooked through but still juicy, and the surface should be a burnished brown.

Notes

Freezing: Put it in the freezer as soon as you put the meat into the miso marinade. The freezing process seems to retard the penetration of the marinade, so that it doesn’t draw too much moisture out of the meat. Thaw the meat marinade and all in the refrigerator the day before you intend to use it. You may want to freeze individual cutlets wrapped separately, so that you can pull out just as many as you need at a time.

If you don’t want to deal with messy miso in the morning, you can squeeze the meat out of the miso-marinade bag the night before,and keep it covered on a plate ready to just cook in a frying pan.

Ok, i'm better.

Ok I guess if the kids do get their tonsils out that will mean no snoring! That will be awesome! Also, I'd rather have them get them removed as kids rather than adults because when Mike had his removed last year he was in some major pain!

Today I watched the show "The Doctors" and they had an awesome episode on Autism. The kids they talked about reminded me so much of Shane. It gave me some hope that we can do something about it!

American Idol. Ok, so I do agree that Adam is an amazing singer. BUT... geez, I just can't see him as the one! I mean, I'm sure after he has won, he's gonna make some kind of glam rock type of album...which I just can't see the majority of American's being into! I just know that after this AI stuff I will never care about his type of music. Sorry! Also, I just started getting into the Biggest Loser! OMG I was crying hehe I am a dork!
Sorry for rambling!

why why why??!!

Arg, I am so frustrated. Makenna woke up coughing this morning , - Ugh starting to get sick again! Then Shane woke up this morning with discharge and redness in his eyes, so I took him to the doctor, and he is starting to develop an eye and ear and throat infection . He said it was good I took him in early because he probably would have developed a fever in the next day or two. (which now makes me so paranoid because of his risk of seisures)
They gave him antibiotics, but also said that Shane had the largest tonsils he's ever seen in a kid his age! He wants to check him again when he's not sick, to see if they are still large. And if they still are, he recommended Shane get his tonsils out! I told the doc that he does snore, and so does Makenna, both really bad, and he said that the large tonsils could be causing it. So he wants to see them both and said that they BOTH might need their tonsils out! I told them Mike had the same problem and had his removed also. He said since they are already snoring, it could cause sleep apnea and all sorts of stuff. This is the pits.

thoughts of the week.....

We had a good week with Shane! I have been putting omega 3 oil in his oatmeal every morning. I donno if that's why but he seems to be making more eye contact this week and laughing more! He said Apple! well its more like "AaaaaaaOh" but you can tell that he's trying to say apple. Its cute.

Makenna had a good week at school too. Her last day is May 18th. I hope I can survive the summer with her! haha, j/k. I am putting her in Vacation Bible School for the summer though, so hopefully she will be liking that.

Ok, (to Mom, and auntie Bulee and those who watch American Idol) YES I am SO extremely disappointed that Matt left!!!! He is so awesome. I am starting to really like Kris Allen now. I hope Allison goes next. You just know Adam will win it all. Still dont' get him, sorry.

We are looking forward to our visit with Bob and Rita coming up! They will be here in a couple weeks and we can't wait!

Mother Son Luau

I took Shane to the Mother Son Luau here - Shane seemed like he really enjoyed it! He wore his Kukui nut lei the whole time! He seemed to love it when I did the electric slide with him! I was gonna go with my neighbor and her son, but ended up going by myself because she had to work, so I couldn't get good pictures unfortunately!

More about Shane's Diagnosis

Shane is already in the Georgia Early Intervention Services, and already does Speech Therapy twice a week and Occupational Therapy once a week. The doc said it was really good that we had already started him on that early. In addition, he will be getting Sensory Integration Therapy. He is also gonna get some lab work done to test his DNA to see if it is genetic.

We are enrolling him in the military Exceptional Family Member Program, which is for dependents with Special needs and also something called ECHO, the extended health care option, which is supposed to supplement the tricare benefits. Hopefully we can get him started on ABA therapy as well, which is applied behavior analysis therapy, which is supposed to be really good for Autism. I have done a little research on it and unfortunately I can't find anywhere here in Valdosta that does it. They have a place in Tallahasse, FL or Albany GA though but they are both about an hour and a half away. I will try to find out from his current speech therapists if there is anyone available near here. There is also an Autism support group that meets once a month that we are gonna go to. I hope I am doing enough! If anyone has any advice lemme know!

Shane's Baptism/ Easter last day on Kauai pics!

Aww, wonder what he is thinking??








with our Godson Daelin!!


Mike and his God kids! Daelin and Isla



Mike with niece and Goddaughter Isla


Justin holding Shane down!




He actually seemed to enjoy it!








Shane and Auntie Jamie, his Godmother!


Shane and Uncle Justin, his Godfather!


All the kids getting their Easter baskets from Auntie Bulee and Uncle Bill!!!


Baptism Party at Poipu Beach!!!








Easter Egg Hunt!