Not a professional blogger.

So I haven't posted in 5 months and I still have no pictures up. I am not real good at this.

I have become a Facebook addict lately. It is funny to have people send you a friend request that you have not heard from in years and possibly decades. There are some people from your past that you had somewhat hoped you would never hear from again. Luckily you can just ignore them.

The kids are all doing pretty well. Parker actually got into a fight at school because another child was teasing him. I am proud that he defended himself. I guess the other kid had not heard that he had older brothers that taught him how to throw a punch. There was blood (not Parker's) but he didn't get into trouble because he was provoked. The problem was that the child he was swinging at ducked and the little boy behind him caught the punch in the cheek. Luckily he knew it was an accident and his mom was VERY understanding. Such is life with boys.

Noah just went through another round of genetic and neurological testing. It is always fun to see your child knocked unconscious (not really) with IV's coming out of his arm. His geneticist and neurologist thought that there was something else going on with him because he was almost 4 (now he is) and still not speaking. Despite having an diagnosis of neurofibromatosis type 1 it is so mild that it should not affect him at all. He shows no signs other than a few spots on the skin. His geneticist calls him the mystery child. Anyway they did an MRI and some very sensitive blood tests. Luckily there was nothing awry on the MRI but something came up on the blood work. We all have 23 pairs of chromosomes. Females have "XX" chromosomes while boys have "XY". With Noah one pair of chromosomes is "XXY". Only one pair not all 23. If it were all 23 pair it would be something called Klinefelter syndrome but since it is only one pair they are calling it "diagnosis unknown". Great.

When your child gets a dx (abbreviation for diagnosis to those of you who have perfectly healthy children) it really sucks....I have been through it twice before this. But you run to your computer and find out as much as you can about it. When they cannot even tell you what it is or give you a name what are you supposed to do? Apparently whatever this is on his DNA is keeping him delayed and I cannot even get a prognosis or an educated guess about what the future holds. How do you google "unknown"?

Because there is a chance that I passed it to him (boys get their "X" chromosome from their mothers) I went and had my blood drawn to see if I carry this. Even though it is something that I could have done nothing about I will be devastated if I find out that it originated from me.
Luckily the lab is doing the testing for free. The last round was over $14,000---thank goodness for insurance. Apparently there is a dr who wants to write a paper about this "unknown" genetic disorder so they are not charging us. We should know more in a month or so.

We are putting the house up for sale! Yes the time has come to find more land for the boys. We are making the house look like we don't have four active boys and a big dog. It makes me laugh that we stage the house to look so much nicer for strangers than we do our family. This includes new curtains, paint, ceramic tiling (so not looking forward to that) and even a fireplace (thank you Craigslist). We are so grateful for Ikea and their inexpensive home decor. We hope to have it up for sale in about 3-4 weeks.
We are trying to decide on land but it is somewhat pointless because in this economy we will not buy anything until we sell the house we are in. Double mortgage payments are not fun. Been there, did that for TWO LONG YEARS.

Scott is doing well at work. He has come up with a new program that could net his company over $250,000,000. Yes that is $250 million. That would be job security for a long, long time. In these times that is a wonderful thing and we feel blessed daily by his continued employment.

At the beginning of December Reece began telling us about a new friend in his class. His name was Jack and he had just moved from England. At the same time a friend in the neighborhood was selling her house due to a divorce. One day we were driving home and Reece yelled "Hey that is Jack at Beth's house!". Well my friend had sold her home to Jack's family. A few days later we invited them over for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day since we assumed they did not have family here. The family includes Nikki, Jason, Jack Ashley and Mitchell. They are wonderful and have become like family to us. They are from Northern England (Manchester area). Nikki is probably my best friend in Louisville and we are joined at the hip. We always joke that we should just buy some land and build houses next to each other. Jack says we should just connect them with a big garage. We don't even knock on each others doors, Jack calls me "mommy #2" and we are supposed to go with them to England next summer.
Sometimes you just know that people were put in your life for a reason. Nikki is one of the most wonderful, giving, caring people I have even known. She is almost selfless to a fault and would give you the shirt off her back. If you have a problem she is the first to ask what she can do to help and she really means it. I feel beyond blessed that she and her family have come into our lives.

On a compete tangent I have to write this so I will not forget. Parker comes up to me today and says "Mommy did you know that sneezing protects you from cavities, dragonflies and germs?". Where do kids come up with this stuff?

I am going to stumble downstairs and watch something mindless on TV. Daylight savings always throws me. Forgive any spelling and/or grammar faux pas. I am past tired.