rachel's continued ramblings

sunday: next week, layla is acolyting for the first time, so shane got her all trained. also sunday: first baby geese sighting of the spring! one more sunday: just me and toby, playing mario kart. micah took this picture, and i love the angle he chose… making sure to get the screen in the shot, too. wednesday: shane left in the middle of the night to meet his JROTC group at snohomish to head to the airport. they flew out at 6:30 in the morning for 5 days in san diego at camp pendleton. this just seemed really far away. and grown up. thursday: a little game of apples to apples after dinner. this particular round was quite hilarious. no, the chicken dance was not chosen as the most frightening. LOL. saturday: toby is just checking it out to see if layla might be eating something tasty. also saturday: game in north seattle. micah on second, ready to steal. more saturday: dave got his company’s sounders tickets. awesome seats. the kids didn’t really want to go, so we wound up taking...

sunday: easter! we actually remembered to take a family picture! after church, we came home, put the ham in the oven, gathered some wood from the clearing for the fire, played some corn hole, drank mimosas and hung clothes on the line for the first time this year! it was a totally gorgeous day. very unusual for easter in western washington!   layla helped get the apples ready for applesauce, and she and micah took turns hiding eggs for each other and for grandpa. they thought it was hilarious that they hid one egg in a pair of micah’s underwear that was hung up to dry. then we got the back porch all cleaned up so we could eat outside!   this was definitely a first. we’ve never had an easter warm enough to eat dinner outside. as usual, micah pouted about the food. then we invited bailey and her family over for a fire. the wood was a little damp and stubborn to get going. dave was determined to try all sorts of crazy ways to get it going. he and shane took turns blowing thr...

spring break week. i have a TON of pictures from this week, and i’m not entirely sure how i’m going to get them all in the book, but we shall see… sunday: getting the second coat of paint on our chairs. also sunday: it was an exceptionally nice day, so we decided that dinner should be cook-out style. hot dogs and s’mores. healthy! monday: micah has decided that what he wants to do for spring break is camp… in the living room. this is where he slept all week. also monday: on spring break, we walk the cat… apparently. also, this is your one and only shane sighting for the week. he was off doing this and that all week long. and, layla had an appointment for an MRI at childrens, trying to sort out what’s going on with her jaw pain, and if it is or isn’t arthritis. post-MRI frappuccino – dripping with caramel. we met with her rheumatologist afterward to go over results. yes, it’s arthritis in her jaw. so we went over the new treatment plan, which includes adding injections of methotrex...

i haven’t written too much in the last few years about layla’s arthritis. she was officially diagnosed with JIA (Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, or just JA) about 3 years ago, in May of 2014. She was 8. That diagnosis was almost 3 years in coming, with a lot of confusion, frustration, and various other issues and treatments in the meantime. She had just turned 6 when she had her first flare (that we know of), although we didn’t catch it for what it was at the time. I blogged plenty about that process, but around the time she was diagnosed, is when my blogging updates kind of fell off. somehow i never made a “label” for arthritis, so most of those updates will fall under the label “doctors”. my plan is to go back and retroactively label anything having to do with this, even before we knew what it was, with the JIA and arthritis labels, so the back story of all of this is easier to find, and not mixed in with posts about colds or ear infections, and goodness knows there were plenty of th...

sunday: i had some professional development classes to take for work, so i was chained to the computer for a good chunk of the day. this was my companion as i worked. monday: very odd day. there was a threat of violence at the high school, so pretty much most of the student body stayed home. shane was among those lobbying for a day at home, so to ensure it wasn’t just a day of fun and leisure, i made him a lengthy to-do list to keep him occupied. i think it worked out very well. ;) also monday: when i got home from work, i took bonez on the longest walk ever, because it was such a nice day. this is some of the awesome spring color we saw on our walk. wednesday: i was making white chicken chili for soup supper at church, and was tossing my cans into this bag for recycling. i seem to have attracted the local wildlife. saturday: school’s out for spring break, which means it’s time for my traditional school break to-do list. i make one for every break, and usually don’t get that much o...