Another short update.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  At least once I got past the panic of the last minute notice of family coming and the knowledge that my house was upside down from a month of sickness and sleepless nights following Travis around!  Things went smoothly, everyone pitched in and cleaned up quickly and happily!!!  Travis made the turkey, and I must say it was the BEST turkey I have ever had!  I love cooking with him.  We got to work in the kitchen together and that was a lot of fun.  That's about the only way I like to cook. 

Caitlin is doing better.  Her appetite has picked back up and she is almost back to her energetic self.  No fever since Thanksgiving.  She went in for a follow up last night and the doctor is concerned because her right lung still sounds very congested.  We go back in on Thursday for another follow up.  If it hasn't cleared up considerably, we will be doing more antibiotics.  The doctor casually mentioned that this could possibly lead to TB if it doesn't clear up.  I couldn't question her more, because I had all four and it was 7 pm, so they were grouchy and whiny and not sitting still.  Trying to keep hands out of everything and bodies in their seats while listening to someone isn't a very good combination.  Anyway, have any of you heard about that before?  Pneumonia leading to TB?  I haven't.  I need to do some research on it.

Travis has been doing better the last couple of nights.  Someone recommended that I cut his sleep med in half and see how that works.  The first night we did that, he went straight to sleep, no problems, same with the second night.  Last night, it took 3 hours for him to fall asleep.  However, he wasn't jittery, his eyes weren't flickering, he wasn't seeing things and was able to speak clearly.  It's been a long month.  I hope the doctor figures something out soon.  We can't keep going like this.  Up until 12-2am every night.  Travis started his internship last week and is excited about it.  He has another offer for an internship.  This second one would be an easier transtition from the Army to the job than the first one.  He's thinking about doing a couple of days a week at each for a few weeks to see which one he likes best and then stick with that one.  He found out that the VA has finished their evaluation and now we are just waiting on the Army to do the rest of their research for his med board.  We were surprised that the VA was finished so quickly.  Travis thinks it will still be sometime around Feb before we hear anything.  The Army can take forever making up their mind.  The VA told Travis that he can't get his other two surgeries until after he is outprocessed from the Army.  He is not happy about that and is going to speak with someone about it.  Right now is the perfect time.  He can actually take 30 days convalescent leave now.  After he outprocesses, he's going to have a new job and they aren't going to be too happy to find out that he will have to take 60 days off for 2 surgeries.  Not to mention the fact that it may not be paid time off, since he's just starting.  Plus, it would be through the VA, which is a pain in the neck to deal with!  We will see what happens there.

Well, so much for a quick update.    Oh, one other piece of news.  We got a new van!  I'll try to post a picture later.  We thought it over and realized that we have paid over $1000 in the last 6 months on repairs and were going to have to pay at least $1400 more.  The van was over 6 years old and had 100K miles on it.  We've always kept up with the maintenance, but it was getting old and major things were starting to fall apart.  So, we did some research and found a cheap used car, that I swear looks brand new!  The boys are very excited about it.  They've promised to keep it nice.  To which I replied, "Good!  Because if you don't, we have to take this one back and get the old one!"  (Our old one was a MESS!  All the kids went through their drawing on stuff phase in that one.  We made many long road trips in it, so there were a lot of stains in it.)  So far, it is still looking really good.  We'll see if we can keep it up.  Mama likes driving in a clean car.  Especially, when it's time to pick up the boys from school.  No more opening the door and watching half of the world's paper products go flying across the parking lot! 

I was happily surprised today to find out that my neighbor downstairs uses K12 homeschooling curriculum!  I have been looking at this program for about 2 years.  I really liked it when I first started looking at it.  Do any of you out there use K12?  If so, what do you like about it and dislike about it?  If you homeschool, but don't use K12, what do you use?  Do you pick and choose your own materials?  Do you have an umbrella school?  Part of my worry is keeping up with all of the stuff that is needed for the school systems and making sure we are following the law.  We are in Virginia and I'm not sure how strict they are here.  If you have any good websites on homeschool laws, I'd love to know what they are! 

'Tis a sad day when you head to the cookie shelf in the pantry and this is what you find...

So, in other news...

Travis got home from his internship today and as he was changing, Caitlin went in our room to talk with him.  She leaned in close to him and while pointing across the room, whispered, "There's a pony set in that box, Daddy!"  Travis, brushed it off and came out to the living room where I was and relayed this to me.  I nearly fell over!  How did she know that?!  The little scamp snuck into our room at some point and found her Christmas present!!! 

Who me?  I'm so sweet, I would NEVER do something like that, Mama!

Uh-huh.  Right.

Are you talking about me?