Heavenly Homeschool

When I homeschooled Zechariah for K, he came up with this name for our homeschool. Check it out here. Since our purpose is to return and live with our Heavenly Father again some day, it is fitting. Since Monday was a holiday, our first day of Heavenly Homeschool was Tuesday. It consisted of piano lessons, a trip to Manassas, VA to meet with a LDS homeschool group, then to a friend's house to play while I took Elijah to get his stitches out, then home for math, chores, and dinner. It was busy and I did not feel like I had started school at all. Wednesday came and I was ready. It was amazing! I believe in "let sleeping dogs lie" so I let the boys wake up whenever they wanted. Gabriel and Ammon were up first. I made them breakfast and Gabe did his math, handwriting, grammar, and practiced piano before Zech finally got up at 9am!!! It sure made it easy for me. Ammon and Elijah enjoyed hanging around and playing with teddy bear counters and ABC blocks. I am kinda shocked that Gabriel is proving to be harder than the rest right now. He is kinda whiny and picks on his younger brothers a lot.I think he just needs some attention right now. I dunno-we'll figure it out.  Today was great fun too. I really love the curriculum I chose for the boys. We are using "History of the World" from The Well Trained Mind and their Grammar program , "First Language Lessons". Gabriel is on Saxon 1 Math. I am still debating Zech's math curriculum. Right now I am working on his math facts as I find his instant recall and memorization of the multiplication tables are lacking. They both use Handwriting without tears for handwriting and I have a spelling workbook. The only thing I do not have a set curriculum for is science. But we have TONS of books and I am trying to get better about experiments. (I hate the mess!)Anyhoo, I took a pic of my boys all working together at the table today. I posted it to facebook and said "I've never been happier!" It truly is a blessing to be able to be at home with my children. I am in love with them. Even though there are times I feel like there is not enough of me to go around, I still enjoy where I we are as a family.

A whole new world

Remember that song from Disney's Alladin? Emma Lee has been here for 3 weeks now and already things are very different. There is more color in our lives. Girls' clothes are so much more bright and cheery than little boys. She doesn't just wear onesies and shorts or pants like my other kids did. She wears dresses with cute little diaper covers that match! My boys are softer. They know she is different and treat her as such. My sweet husband is different. He marvels at Emma. He is head over heels in love with this little girl. The best and probably craziest thing I've ever done is get out of the hospital on Wednesday and a couple hours later, board a plane for TX. You see, I had a National Rally convention for my home based business, Premier Designs Jewelry. Gary and I both went and he took care of Emma  while I was in conference. What as great bonding experience it was for him. He fed her sometimes, he changed her, he put her to sleep, and he held her-constantly. Thanks to a friend of ours, we were able to use a Moby wrap for the 1st time. Gary LOVED it as he could be hands free but still be carrying Emma. He was adorable as was my little princess. :)

So why the post? I have always been "one of the boys". I loved it. It made me special and unique. I have 4 brothers, 4 brother in laws, I had loads of guy friends growing up and loved every minute of it. Now I have Emma Lee and my life will never be the same. I am embarking on a whole new world. Our family dynamics just changed dramatically. My heart has completely changed as well. I look forward to all the new joys, differences, and brillance that having this little girl will bring.

pictures to be added at a future date that is not naptime :)    

Welcome to the World Emma Lee!

Wow! I am crazy behind in blogging but right now I don't care. I'm just going to tell you about our beautiful new addition to the family:

Emma Lee Rose Griesmyer 

 was born July 11, 2011 at 6:10pm. 

It was kind of a weird story so here it goes: You see, the doctor's and I had a disagreement on my due date. The conception wheel said July 7th, the ultrasound said July 17th. That's a big difference in my book! I talked the Dr (the 2nd one cause I fired the 1st) to induce me at 39 weeks due to my history of huge babies and them distressing during labor. So the date was set for July 11th. I figured I would start trying to induce myself on July 7th. I tried-nothing happened. I tried again the next day, nothing. No progressive contractions or anything! I was shocked! My OBGYN visit revealed that the ole cervix was 100% rock solid and I was only about 1.5 cm dialated. UGH!!! So Monday Gary and I went to the hospital to be induced for the 3rd time. Zech was the 1st, Elijah the 2nd, and now Emma. They finally hooked me up to PIT around 9am. We waited, the nurse eased me in and at about 2pm, we opted for an epidural. Not b/c the pain was bad, but b/c I have a history of not progressing without one. I'm weird, I know. But after 5 hours on PIT, I was still only 1.5 cms! I got the epi and got to a 4. Then around 4pm, I started having SERIOUS pain. I mean, BAD!!! I mean, what's the point of the epidural if I'm going to be in that much pain? I worked through it for about an hour with Gary's help until it got so bad that I asked for the nurse. She came in and found that Emma was sunny side up and that is why the pain was so bad. (And the epi wasn't working?) She got the anesthesiologist who came and gave me a little bit of pain meds  and they left. Bad idea. Remember when I said that the only way for me to progress in labor is to have an epidural well that really means that I need to be pain free. wouldn't that be nice? :) Anyways, as soon as I got the pain meds I started asking Gary what was going on. He said nothing. I said, no, she's ready, check for her head. He said he didn't see her. The nurse came in and said she couldn't find Emma's heartbeat on the monitor. She moved it around and still couldn't find it so she flipped me over to my right side-nothing. She flipped me over to my left side and still couldn't find the heartbeat. She then checked me and I was 100% complete and ready to go. So, she left to get the Dr. It was hilarious. He walked in with my nurse and another  nurse. My nurse and  Dr. went to the monitor to read all the stats but the other nurse had come over to me, looked down and said, "I need a suction!" Yep, Emma's head was already out. The Dr. didn't even have time to put on his jacket. He slapped on the closest gloves and told me to push and out she came! Just like that. He then took his sunglasses off his shirt and put all his other gear on for the rest of the procedure. Emma was immediately put on my chest and took to nursing like a champ! I gotta say, she is practically perfect in every way. I am still in shock and awe that we have our girl. 

What a blessing from heaven she is!

 Here are my boys decked out in their "Big Brother" t-shirts that Grandma got them to come see their baby sister.

 Introducing Emma Lee to her band of brothers.

 My mom, AKA Grandma,  was SOOO excited. I am truly thankful to her for caring for my boys during all this. I love you Mom!

 Ammon and Eli clung to their Dad-they really needed some love and attention.

 Kisses from Zechariah

 Here is our attempt to get all the boys lined up for a picture with Emma. It was OK. :)

Gabriel has turned into Emma's protector. He loves her, adores her, and barely leaves her side. He is first to help whenever I need something.

I've got loads more pictures but they will have to wait for the next post. I'll just close by saying that my life will never be the same and I am  excited for the new adventure!

Good vs Best

For a while now I have been contemplating homeschooling my children. I home schooled Zechariah when he was in Kindergarten and it went pretty well. I researched the heck out of it, set my toy room up into centers, had a great schedule and found good curriculum too. I felt accomplished after that 1st year and happy with both his and my progress. I was pleased that when we moved to MD and he went to public school, he was WAY above his peers in reading and math. Our elementary school is great. It has wonderful teachers and I really like their curriculum choices. Zech recently got assessed and picked up for TAG and Gabriel is on a 2nd grade reading level already and his teachers call him a wiz at math. I can toot my own horn about Zech's success b/c I taught him how to read and his basics with math but I can't do that with Gabriel. His teachers and school are truly wonderful. So, I vacillated. Why take them out? It's a good school. They are doing so well! I'm about to have another baby!!! Which means I'd have 3 at home, why not 2 more? I'm so tired of not seeing my boys.

When pondering about decisions like this, I typically feel strongly one way or another. My feelings on this issue (to home school or not) was that they were both "good" choices. In May, I even went to the LDS homeschool conference with my SIL. I had still not made my decision but was interested in finding inspiration. I didn't. There wasn't that lightening bolt I was looking for or the "YES!" declaration in my mind and heart. I became frustrated at not receiving a prompting one way or another and not being able to say a definitive "YES! I will homeschool" or "YES! they will go to their elementary school next year". After praying for inspiration for a few days, I woke up one morning hurting-I'm kinda big at this point in my pregnancy :) I decided to take a hot bath. I typically like to read whenever I do this so I picked up the Oct conference ensign and flipped through the talks. I rested on one by Dieter F. Uchtdorf entitled, Of Things That Matter Most. It was a good read and I was enjoying his thoughts on simplifying our lives and such when I read this quote that hit me like a ton of bricks:

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, in a recent general conference, taught, “We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.” ² 

Well, my friends there you have it. After reading that I knew that homeschooling was "best" for my children and my family. I took it to prayer and He agreed. Wish me luck b/c we have begun a very important journey.

Elijah turns 2!

 My sweet baby boy turned 2 May 28th. Since he loves all sports that deal with balls, I decided to have a sports party for him. There has been so much going on that I didn't even know if I could pull it off but b/w my 4 boys, our 4 cousins next door, and Jordyn-who is here visiting from Utah, we had quite the turn out by ourselves! Being my 4th son, there was little I thought he needed and we didn't have. I have always wanted to get a little tykes basketball hoop and set out to find one. I went to Goodwill first and found a perfect one for $5! SCORE! I set up 3 stations: Soccer, Basketball, and T-ball. The kids were divided into groups of 3 and rotated through the stations. Afterwards we had cupcakes and presents!

 Baby boy Batter Up!

It was really hot so Gary decided to cool them off with a little spray from the water hose.

      



When in Doubt-Fire the Doctor!

DRAMA! 

That is the word that surrounds much of this pregnancy. Overall, I have really good pregnancies but this one has been one thing after another: debilitating migraines, trips to the ER due to migraines, an ultra sound scare at 20 weeks due to white spots on her brain, an ultra sound scare due to low AFI, early labor (contractions) where the doctor put me on meds to stop them, an allergic reaction to said meds, bed rest to stop contractions since I couldn't take the meds, a follow up with the doc and his nurse who seemed to want no responsibility for the fact that they did no testing to find out why I was contracting. So...what do I do?

FIRE the doctor and get a new one! 

So I did. I am now back on Tricare Prime so that I could be seen at Andrews Air Force base. Guess what? I had an infection which was causing the contractions! Hmmm... Didn't I say to the previous dr-I've NEVER gone into pre term labor before? How do you know I'm contracting? I always have to be induced or induce myself? I cannot stand it when doctors don't listen to you and think you don't know anything. Yes, I know they went to medical school where they learned everything about everything (insert sarcasm) but who walks, talks, and breathes in this particular body every single day? Why the arrogance? I'm not a combative person. I just want dialogue. You talk to me and I'll talk to you with respect! Oh well, needless to say, I am back to my Wonder woman stage. I'm big as a cow and I have lost a whole month of shows (I desperately need the money) and a month of ability to get stuff done. But! I have learn that people are willing and ready to help. My children are capable of more than I let them do. Hahaha! Poor kids are doomed now! Prayer works. Why do I always have to be reminded of this? Oh yeah, cause I'm thick headed! My husband can handle much more than I let him do...(insert a sly smile!) And family rocks! I love mine. My SIL's in Alabama got together and figured out this whole time line on who could come when to help me. My SIL next door brought meals over for almost a whole week and took my little ones as much as she could AND pulled soccer duty for at least a week or more while her hubby was in Germany and mine? is owned by the Army and is never home to help! Yep, I'm a blessed little lady. I love my friends and family. I love my life. And I LOVE this beautiful little girl inside me. And I can't wait to meet her in person. :)

(Sorry no pics---boring huh?)

Egg hunt fun, a trip to L & D, and Easter miracles

Sarah decided to host an Easter egg hunt and party on Saturday. It was great fun to make and hide the eggs and then watch 12 children canvas the yards (4 of them!) for their goodies! She grilled hot dogs for the kids, chicken and steak for the adults, I made potatoe salad, Emily McCammon made a fruit salad. Our new neighbors came over, Sarah's friend from Bowie, her brother, Sister in law, and their twins were there as well as Emily and her children. We had a great time visiting and socializing.

 Elijah's 1st real Easter Egg hunt! He loved every minute. He was more interested in opening the eggs right away and eating the candy out than he was in finding more eggs though. So cute!

                                                   Ammon and his friend, Rowan, hunting for eggs.

 'Lilla' is pretty in pink as she braves the very soggy ground in hunt for candy filled eggs. The kids were all pretty muddy by the end. I don't think they minded. :)

                                                                Rowan with his loot!

                                      Ammon and Elijah with William still looking for more goodies!

 Rowan's sister, Blythe in an adorable outfit that I couldn't resist taking a pic of. Is this what I have to look forward to? It'll break my bank! :)

Hannah, William, and Gabriel had found their alotted 12 eggs they were allowed to find and dug in!


A trip to Labor and Delivery
Sunday morning brought excitment as the kids got up to see what the Easter bunny had brought them in their baskets. After snapping some pics on our phone b/c I left my camera at Sarah's; I got up to make deviled eggs and take my medicine b/c I was having some contractions. Now, let's back up to Friday. I went to my regular OBGYN apt and took my glucose test. My dr felt my uterus and said I was contracting and to take these meds to stop them to give the baby more time to mature. That's it. I said "I am?" He said, have you been? I said, maybe during relations but I don't really notice any other time. Come on, I'm a busy woman! He said to rest and drink plenty of water. (He ALWAYS says this!) Ok, I'm upset, I'm confused, and I'm a little mad. What? No cervical exam? No baby monitoring? No ultrasound to check cervical length? What the heck! So, i go home, fill the scrip and start paying attention to my body. Sure enough, I was contracting! Weird! They weren't hard just there. I took my meds 2x on Saturday. About 15 mins after taking them Sunday morning, I start itching my ankles while I was cleaning the kitchen and making the deviled eggs. The itching doesn't stop so I look down to see how dry my skin was only to find my legs are bright red! Oh crap! I get online and find that this is a allergic reaction to the meds. I callec the dr to see if I could take some Benadryl but they tell me to go in to labor and delivery instead. I had to make some phone calls to cover my nursery class and to pawn the kids off to my SIL, Aunt, and others to get them to church  and then we were off. By this time, I'm having trouble breathing.

Easter miracles
Yes, having an allergic reaction to the meds was in fact a miracle. Why? Because we were able to get tests and answers. They took such good care of us! They put me on the monitors for baby heart rate and contractions, they did a sonogram where they measured my AFI at 20!!! I went from low AFI to 20!!! Our prayers have been answered, our fasts were accepted! Emma Lee looked great and healthy and the cervical length was good. A cervical exam showed no dialation or effasion. I was elated to know ALL this news! What a blessing that challenge turned out to be! I missed Easter church but was able to make it home in time for our family to join us for an Easter feast.

 Jesus lives and loves us and is in charge of all things! 

Now, I am still contracting and really do not know what to do about it but one thing is for sure, I am finding a new doctor! :)