New Tattoo!

He says, "Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exhaulted among the nations,

I will be exhaulted in the earth."

~Psalms 46:10

Ten On Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday - August Edition

10. I am admitting I have a problem. I am addicted to pop.

9. While on a biking trip from Kalamazoo to South Haven my mom hit some loose gravel and flipped her bike. Since they were between check points she had to ride to the next one before they could take her to the ER. Her leg isn't broken, but it's the size of a melon and strange shades of purple. So glad she's okay!

8. I am also admitting that I am addicted to WordFeud on my phone. I play a scrabble-like game with different people. Right now I have a game going with my hubby, my mom and my mom's friend. It's pretty cool.

7. My mom just called and told me she found a baptism outfit for Mollie - but it's a doll's outfit! She girl is so tiny she can fit into doll clothes! LOL! I will make sure I post pictures.

6. Troy is going to be the next great gymnast in the Deaf Olympics. That boy has so much energy that we have started him in toddler olympics. He is so good at it!

5. Last week our work did our 2011 community day. All 2000+ employees chose 1 of 20 projects to volunteer at during the day and then we got a free Whitecaps game at night. Thom and I worked at the VSA (Very Special Arts) of Grand Rapids. We worked with over 200 special needs kids of all abilities to do art projects. It was very rewarding!

4. My 5K is next weekend! Grand Rapids Mud Run HERE I COME!! I am running with my girlfriend from 2nd grade :0)

3. Next week (2 days before my 5K) my husband has dual carpal tunnel surgery. I have a feeling I am going to be doing A LOT to help him!

2. Dean ended up in the emergency room at 6:00 am on Sunday morning. He woke up with a crazy rash at his Aunt's house and she had to bring him back home. Luckily with some antibiotics and steriods, they are under control.

1. SCHOOL STARTS 3 WEEKS FROM TODAY!!! My kids aren't excited but I'm thrilled!

Confirm that I am not doing this for no reason....

Any readers? Who are you? Where are you? HELLO? Is there any reason for me to continue this thing? H-E-L-L-O???

Mollie's 3 Month Photos!

Mollie's 3 month pictures are here (only about 1 1/2 months late). I love them all (the third one is my favorite) and I just thought I would share. ENJOY!!

Ten On Tuesdays

Ten On Tuesday

#10. 2 year old soccer is NOT what I thought it would be. We all dread going each week. Troy doesn’t understand the concepts. We usually just spend a lot of time by the net letting him kick it in and go and get it out. He seems to love that.

#9. Daniella made it into National Junior Honors Society. WHAT A SMART COOKIE! So proud of her. Last Wednesday we drove up to Kalkasa to watch her invocation and then for a small gathering at her mom’s house. It was nice to get together with her mom and show the kiddos we can get along. Plus it was nice to see where the kids live (been there a few times, but never inside).

#8. Our nanny starts again next week Tuesday! She is bringing her 1 month old with her to watch my kiddos. I can’t wait! I miss her so much!

#7. We are switching bedrooms. Since it is taking much longer to get the 2 additional bedrooms built we are going to do some moving for a few reasons. Mollie and Daniella are going to share the boys’ room (which is across the hall from us) and the 2 older boys are going to move to Daniella’s room in the basement. Mollie needs closet space – BADLY and it’s too hard to let her let her cry herself to sleep when she’s 4 feet from us. TIME TO MOVE!

#6. My boss went to his son’s graduation the other day and heard the name “Troy Stambaugh”. He double checked the program and sure enough…Troy Orin Stambaugh just graduated with his son! I honestly never thought there would be another Troy Stambaugh out there! (I do like the sound of Troy William Stambaugh much better!)

#5. I don’t think my garden is going to be accomplished this year. I really wanted to dig up, split and re-plant my hostas, and put a garden where the hostas are, but I honestly don’t see it getting done. With it so crazy hot 50% of the time and raining the other 50%, it is too hard to take a 4 month old outside. Unless I do it at midnight…it might have to wait until next year.

#4. Allergies are slowly killing our family. Troy is clawing at his skin on a daily basis until he bleeds. The doctor’s office finally gave us cream, nose spray and chewables for him. Poor Mollie’e eyes are watering every day. And me? Daily: 3 different allergy pills, eye drops, nose spray, and nasal irrigation. And allergy shots once a week. AND I just got prescribed an Epi Pen! UGH!!

#3. The new rule at our house is ‘dimes’. The kids get dimes for helping and being good. They lose dimes for being disrespectful or naughty. We are going to try this during the summer and see how it works.

#2. Thom and I are going to attempt and take Troy to his first movie when Cars 2 comes out. He is OBSESSED with “Cars” now and I’m sure between the popcorn, pop and movie he will sit through it. Or not.

#1. By the end of this week, I will have: a daughter in 7th grade, a son in 5th grade, a son in 4th grade, a son done with his first year of Deaf/HH school. **Sigh**

This Weekend

We had a GREAT weekend this weekend.

Luckily I kept my camera nearby and was able to photo-journal most of it!

Saturday morning I took Brady and Troy with me to go pick up Dean. On the way home we picked up doughnuts from Susie's Doughnuts. We just happened to walk in as the 4 most amazing looking cinnamon rolls were being put in the case. Now, these weren't any regular cinnamon rolls, they were the LARGEST cinnamon rolls I've ever seen (see below for a photo compared to a regular doughnut)! The boys talked me into getting all 4!




We then spent the morning playing. Our 10 year old, Brady, loves to play chess. So on many occasions Thom and Brady will play a game or two. Troy loves to be just like his big brother! Below is a photo of Thom and Troy "playing" chess:


Soon it was lunch time. We were able to eat the most delicious watermelon! Below is a photo of Troy eating his 3rd piece in full watermelon gear (apron) to keep his clothes from being destroyed:




The afternoon called for some sister bonding time. Daniella is so wonderful with Mollie. Dani was able to find some of Troy's puppets and put on a puppet show for her little sister. Mollie LOVED it!



That evening the children at our church put on the musical that they have been practicing for months called "Happily Forever After". Dean played the roll of Sir Court Lee. It was a great fairy-tale version of the kindgom of God. Dean had 21 family members come to see him! We were all so proud! Then our church had a free carnival and a silent auction. We all came home happy and completely exhausted!


Dean as "Sir Court Lee" in the black & red outfit in the middle


Sunday we woke up and decided not to go to church (this is a very rare occurance that I am not proud of). Every Sunday Thom makes the whole family pancakes and sausage, but as I forgot to buy syrup this week we were treated to cheese omelets, sausage, toast and coffee. Usually the coffee is just for Thom and I, but Troy loves it too much to deny. So this morning as he sat on my lap (as I held Mollie in the other arm) Troy was able to have a 1/4 cup of cold coffee:




Then the newspaper came and Daniella and I were able to coupon! I love couponing because I am now saving about 60% on my grocery bills. Here is a quick snapshot of my coupon binder:



Then as I cleaned the kitchen I noticed that all the kids were gathered around their sister. I was able to sneak in on them as they were playing (that's why no one is looking) for a rare moment!



After a quick run to the store it was lunch time. With 4 kids and a very hungry husband, every meal is quite a production. I thought I would give you a little idea of why we go through food so fast:


Normally the kids would eat outside on the deck, but with the weather being so nasty, they decided they wanted to have another kind of picnic:


Now lunch is cleaned up, Troy is asleep, Thom and the older 3 are at the hobby shop and Mollie is just waking up. Time for a little me time.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed my weekend!

Super Savings!

I have recently started using coupons! They are soooo much fun! Look at the deals I got today:

Walgreens: Buy a 40 count Zyrtec - Get a 12 count free = $29.99 - $14.99 = $29.99
In-store coupon = $29.99 - $1.00 = $28.99
Mfg coupon = $28.99 - $4.00 = $24.00!!
**Then the lady at the cash register thought that was too high. So she re-rang it
and I got it for $17.50!!! (Total savings of $27.50!!!!!!!!)

Meijer: Kelloggs cereal: 4 for $10 PLUS buy 4 get a gallon of milk for free.
Normally: $3.29 + $3.19 + $3.19 + $3.19 + $2.99 (milk) = $15.89
In-store deal = $10.00
Mfg Coupon = $10.00 - $1.50 = $8.50
Purex Liquid Detergent: Normally $5.99 on sale for $2.99
Mfg coupon = 2.99 - $1.00 = $1.99

TOTAL STORE SAVINGS: $23.95
TOTAL COUPON SAVINGS: $7.50
____________________________
TOTAL SAVINGS : $31.45!!!

****HOLY COW****

Some of my favorite new pictures

Troy decided to pour his own cereal one day:

Grand Rapids Children's Museum had a day

for special needs kids. Below is a photo of Troy with

his teacher and one of his friends:

Troy kissing his baby sister as Papa holds her:


The 4 oldest kiddos at Christmas. About 20 days
before Mollie was born:

Brady had a chess tournament. One of the photos

of him deep in thought:

Ten on Tuesday

This is my first Ten on Tuesday attempt. From what I am understanding it's just a list of Ten things you want to blog about. So here I go:

#10: When my husband's ex-wife is nice to me, it makes me happy. The woman actually took a swing at the back of my head a few years ago (in front of all my children) and has been particularly nasty to me since Thom and I have been together. However, she has been pretty nice the past month of so. She called a few weeks ago to let us know that gas was going to be going up overnight and she "just wanted to let us know so we could fill up our tanks". Also, she emailed me today to let me know she is mailing me some coupons for diapers, baby items and allergy pills since she knows I have allergies. Weird....

#9: My sister and I have gotten a lot closer lately. I freakin love it!

#8: Troy has had bloody noses the past 2 mornings. Since the weather has been terrible with snow (yes, snow at the end of April) I am assuming it due to the air in our house being dry.

#7: Thom got a Keurig coffee maker from my parents for his birthday. I LOVE that thing. We just ordered a case of "chocolate glazed donut" flavor coffee. I can't wait until it arrives!!

#6: Dean got 20 out of 20 on his spelling pre-test this week, so now he has the challenge list - those words are HARD. My 3rd grader has to spell archaeologist (wait...did I spell that right??)

#5: Troy starts 2 year old soccer on Saturday - it's going to be soooooooooo cute! I explained to his coach last night about his processors and that I was going to be on the field signing to him, so if he needs to explain something to Troy that I could help.

#4: I just realized today that the outfit my friend gave me for Mollie to wear on Easter is waaaaaaaaaaaay to big (since Mollie is still only 10 lbs). This means I get to go shopping! Shopping for an Easter dress?!?!?! How much more excited could I get?? NONE!!

#3: I'm bummed that my next door neighbor is moving. I bought the house that I grew up in from my parents and she did the same thing - so we've known each other since we've been born. She only moved back in last spring, so we haven't had much time together. I love that her kids come and hang out with Troy and Dean and now they're leaving! To New Mexico they go...only good part is that I get a gently used dryer for relatively cheap.

#2: I'm annoyed with Thom because I want to go on a marriage retreat on October 7-9 (October 7 being my 31st birthday) and he says it's too far away and too much money. Whatever. I'm so annoyed. Check it out: http://www.winshaperetreat.org/index.php/come/programming/marriage_programming/romantic_adventure.php

#1: I am finally giving in and putting Mollie on a schedule. This eat every 1/2 hour from the time I get home to the time I go to bed is killing me. Someone suggested the "Babywise" book, so I am going to get it and start reading ASAP!


Okay...how did I do? Hopefully you didn't fall asleep at your computer. It felt like a mini "rant" session to me, so I feel better. PHEW!

Let's Try This AGAIN!

Well, I obviously fell off the wagon. What wagon you ask? The blog wagon.

I started this whole thing when Troy was born deaf. So much of our family is in Indiana that I started this to keep them updated on Troy and his progress. I was doing great for a while there - I loved writing this and sharing our family's story. However I started to notice that less and less people were reading it and I thought...what's the point.

So I'm starting again with 1 rule: that you let me know if you read (via email, comments on here, comments on facebook...I honestly don't care. The comments don't need to be each time, but it's nice to see that I'm not doing this with no readers). If no one reads, then I'm not going to waste my time. So let's try this again.

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In the past few months we welcomed the newest addition to our family: Mollie Elizabeth. She is currently 10lbs, 1 oz of pure baby love! Below is a picture of her this past week (12 weeks old) with one of my dearest friend's new baby "Ellie" (short for Eleanor - a name I absolutely LOVE).

Mollie is a GREAT baby! She only cries when she's hungry, which seems to be all the time between the hours of 6pm and 10pm. Last night she slept in her crib for the 3rd night in a row and slept for 9 1/2 hours - only waking up once!! S-C-O-R-E!

Baby Troy is not a baby anymore! My little deaf boy is now 2 1/2 years old. He has listed many words to his small vocabulary which includes: bye-bye, NO, MINE, and Mollie (both "no" and "mine" he tends to yell). Troy goes to his deaf/hard of hearing school each morning and 4 days a week is bused to Kindercare in the afternoon.

Daniella, Brady and Dean are all so big! Daniella is now in 6th grade. That's right...I said 6th grade. And as of last Sunday, Daniella is now 12 years old. Only 360 days until we offically have a TEENAGER! UGH!!! Brady is awesome! Still the strongest kid I know...he is now skateboarding. It's awesome to see how much he loves it. Dean is still awesome and this summer is going to have another new sibling on his dad's side of the family. All three kids love to be together and love their younger siblings.

I am hoping to get some pictures of the kiddos up soon! They will all be here this weekend so hopefully I can remember!!

This Pregnancy

Holy cow this pregnancy is FLYING by! I can't believe I'm starting my 25th week today! Maybe it's because I'm not having a massive baby boy who started kicking at 14 weeks. This time I seem to be having a smaller, gentler girl who kicks like a lady :D

My in-laws just scheduled a baby shower in Indiana for December 11th. It's hard because it's right around the holidays, but it gives us a great excuse to get down there and visit. It's also nice because my house is overrun by boys that I have NO little girl things.

This picture of me is at 19 weeks. In the past 6 weeks I haven't grown a lot - which is amazing to me. I've only gained about 14 lbs altogether which is also amazing to me because with pregnancy #1 I gained 80 and with pregnancy #2 I gained 40!

I suck...

Well...I suck.

Yup...I do.

Why? BECAUSE IT'S BEEN 9 MONTHS SINCE I POSTED!

That's why.

So let's start updating:

Troy:

Troy turned 2 on Saturday! 2 years old already! How the time flies. He has been attending his special D/HH school for 2 1/2 weeks and LOVES every morning. In the afternoons he is bussed to Kindercare. He loves it there too! He loves the bus. He loves his teachers at both school and daycare.

Troy can now say Mama, Dada, Owwww, and Uh-oh!

**Big news: Troy has his 2nd cochlear implant surgery next Thursday. Yup...he will be bilateral! I'm scared to death for his surgery, but am very excited that his world of sound will be increasing!**

Dean:

Dean is in 3rd grade this year! Yikes! He is excited to learn cursive and do math at a harder level. His reading is still several levels behind, but we are working on getting him "level appropriate" books to help him. Dean is attending after-school care this year. He absolutely loves being able to go there after school, eat a health snack and play games. He even promised he would make me something to hang on my rearview mirror out of fuse beads.

Brady & Daniella:

Brady is in 4th grade and Daniella is now in 6th. Both kids seem to really be loving their school (the little they want to talk about it on the weekends we see them). They are being bombarded with loads of fundraisers that we are trying our best to stay clear of :)

Thom & I:

Thom and I are doing really well! Both working 40 hour weeks and enjoying our jobs. On top of our normal day jobs, Thom teaches 1 night a week and attends school for his master's program 1 night a week. I run a kitchen for a churched based recovery program 1 night a week and attend choir 1 night a week (additonal nights are needed if I'm on praise/worship team that week). Thom feels like his life is lived with his nose in his book and I feel as if I live at church.

On top of all that we are also re-doing our basement. We are in the beginning stages of changing our very large family room into 2 more bedrooms. So far we have torn down the original walls, pulled up the carpet and bought the 2x4s. We have also gotten 2 egress windows installed to make them legal bedrooms.

So...why are we increasing our space? Oh yeah...I'm 22 weeks pregnant! That's right! In approx 16 week we will be welcoming a little GIRL to our family! We are so thrilled!

Time to play catch up!

Sorry it's been so long since I've written. I get so busy with everyday things that I forget there are my friends out in cyber-world waiting for my important updates (yeah right!)

Anyways...we had a WONDERFUL Christmas here in the Stambaugh household. We were able to have all 4 of our children which was the best present possible. My in-laws came up and visited overnight which was a huge surprise. Thom and I had vacation PAID from Christmas day until January 4th. Here are some of our pictures:

Dean very excited to get a new DS!

All 3 of my older children playing on their electronics and Troy deciding to terrorize them all!

Troy playing with a new toy from Paumee.

One of my favorite presents!

Troy got a new Curious George hockey stick. Posing here with Uncle Ryan.

Me...very excited about an over the toilet stand.

Troy beating Brady with one of Dean's new presents.

Troy very excited about Uncle Nate's new golf club.

Kids opening gifts at our house Christmas morning.

Thom got a new drill!

My son's processor won't stay on!

Okay CI mom's...I need your help. We went with Cochlear's baby worn system for my son and everything is going...well honestly it sucks. The behind the ear processors will N-O-T stay on!! As you can see by the picture, it just hangs there!

We have tried toupe tape and regular 2 sided tape (from Home Depot) and neither sticks to skin very well. He won't wear his aviator cap anymore.

I'm out of ideas! I need your help!!

Activation Video

Well you can imagine my SURPRISE when I come to the blog and notice that my dearest HUBBY has updated it! What a wonderful man! I'm so lucky!

Well, it's offically been 1 week and 2 hours of hearing for our baby boy. It's going good, but honestly the last week has been stressful!!

Last year, while I was still pregnant, my husband and I found a WONDERFUL daycare lady to watch over Troy once he was born and I went back to work. She has watched him since my 9 weeks of maternity leave were up. Well...when Troy's processor was activated, I was nervous with the other kids at her house, it would be a lot for her. However, we moved forward knowing that God would take care of any situation. After giving her a run-down of how everything worked on Tuesday afternoon, I went back to work on Wednesday. Everything seemed to be going okay, until she called me on Thrusday afternoon to tell me that it was just too much for her. How my heart was broken, but I couldn't be mad. Honestly, Troy does need one on one attention right now. THANKFULLY and by the GRACE OF GOD, my sister does not have a job and is now Troy's full time nanny! She is also there to get Dean off to school in the morning and waiting for him when he gets off the bus in the afternoon. God is so good!!

Anyhow, as my dearest hubby's post told you, Troy's activation went great! He is a trooper and I will get some pictures of him with his processor up as soon as possible!

The video my mom took is about 8 1/2 minutes and is much to big to be linked to here, so I am letting you know that if you click HERE, it will take you to the video on YouTube!

Thank you all for your prayers and we are excited to move forward from here!!

Troy is activated!!

So, This is Thom.. I went on the Blog today and noticed that Shell has not been able to update everyone.. God bless her, she's at home today making sure that the daycare provider is up to speed on what she needs to know and making sure that Troy is as happy as he can be.

SHE IS A GREAT MOMMY!!

Ok, enough about my awesome wife..

Troy was activated and we were all excited. His Nana and Aunt Coco was able to make it to the hospital to help with video, pictures and general keeping up with Troy. It was as I expected.. THERE WAS NO MAJOR REACTION.. not in a bad way of course.. we knew he may do it but his cracker was much more interesting to him than the new noises in his head.. That is until the audiologist kicked the processor up a notch.. Level 2... He looked at me, then at Shelley and buried his head into his Mommy's lap with a little bit of crying. We were saddened and happy that we knew he was getting something.. but we moved back to level 1 for the rest of the day.

As anyone that has been through this can attest to it is a fun battle to keep it on his head. Thank goodness for aviator caps.. they are the best thing ever.

I am sure Shell will get on here, realize I beat her to the punch, change her password, and then post pictures and the link to the Youtube video. We were not able to load it here or on Facebook due to the size of the video clip of the actual activation..

Thank you all for keeping up with our family.. God bless you all....


"King"? Thom

4 days until ACTIVATION!!

That's right...Monday, November 16th at 1:00 TROY GETS ACTIVATED!!!


I AM THRILLED!!!!!!!!!

24 Days until activation!

I just scheduled Troy's activation with the hospital:

Monday, November 16th at 1:00 pm!!!!

I can't WAIT!!!

~*~*~24 days and counting~*~*~

Surgery is OVER - Picture Update

The cochlear implant (left side) surgery is OVER!!! Sorry I did not update earlier, but I was a MESS. Here are the pictures of how it went. We go to get the stiches out in about 1 hour.

6:00 am on Tuesday, October 13. Troy was all smiles as he got to play with some bubbles. His mom, dad, Nana, Papa, Pummy and Grandma Kelley were all there.

Right after surgery. It may look like he's smiling, but he's just waking up and crying pretty hard. I was crying pretty hard too...

After 16 hours of not eating, he finally got some glucose water in the recovery room. And then the meds made him pass back out.

Waking up a few hours later in the hospital room, he got his first bites of good food. Some vanilla pudding and crackers (his favorite) were yummy. Too bad he threw it up all over mommy an hour later.

Aunt Coco came over from her job at the other part of the hospital. Troy really was happy to see her, but too tired to deal with company at this point.

Look at the doll Nana brought him. She even put a bandage around it's head so it could be like Troy! I love this picture - so innocent!

Even big brother Dean came up to visit that night. Troy was tired and getting sick of company, but was VERY happy to see his big brother.

He's always happy when his Nana holds him.

Much better now that I threw up again. Notice mommy's change of clothes?

It was night time and I decided I didn't want to go to sleep. I would much rather play in my metal hospital crib.

At 3:00 am I still didn't want to sleep, so nice Nurse Kim decided to take me out to the nurses' station so mommy and daddy could sleep for a while. If you notice the clock in the background (on the wall) says 3:00 am!!

Just as the doctor predicted, the next morning Troy was feeling MUCH better. He would wave out the window inbetween taking bites of Mommy's breakfast.

2 days after surgery mom and dad get to remove my "helmet". I am happy here because Mommy cut my chin strap off.

Showing off my new do. 18 stiches that daddy says "looks like a worm". The incision was much bigger than mommy and daddy thought it would be. They also shaved off more hair than they thought...I didn't have much to begin with!

Troy is 1!!

Troy turned 1 at 8:07am this morning! Here are his 1 year old pictures! Enjoy!!!!