Managing Depression

Raw & Real Video at the moment I was struggling with depression but using every ounce of my strength to overcome it!

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These monkey bars were a big obstacle for her at the beginning of school. But with practice and friends helping her learn. She is doing great! She really wanted to show me this today! 

Smile..even when you feel like crying

I am so glad I did

Learning to use the online catalog at the library

She would get so excited when she would find the book!

Waiting for her FREE personal pan pizza she earned from reading!

We bought one for Devin too ;) 

I typically diffuse the Balance Blend oil for anxiety but since I don't have the other oils yet so I will try this out this evening to see if it helps with depression as well.

Click HERE for doTERRA website

Since I started using lavender to help Arianna with sleeping I got the Balance for my anxiety since I deal with that more often than depression. But I think I need to get the other 2 oils as well. This is a great visual for how oils can improve your mood!

The beginning of new things

Arianna started speech therapy last week at the public school. I was really nervous about exposing her to germs but she it's only one other little girl. She had a really good time last week and already picked up some good speech skills. The reason she is there is for her articulation which has alot to do with her weak muscles. We just need to train her to say words the right way and hopefully she won't have long term issues. :)

I'm still without a camera but was able to snap this picture of her outside her class. This is such a HUGE step for us! I know many people think I'm crazy or over paranoid but I was told by her doctors to not let her do this and I'm making a mom decision and overriding them. It's not like I have her in a classroom full of 15 children. We'll work towards that one day but in the meantime it's nice to start having more normal days.

Another new thing for Arianna is going to Sunday school. I have found a nice small church that is just starting up and Arianna is actually the only child her age that attends. She has had a few guests attend so it's been nice for her to have some time away from mommy in her own class. She loves her teacher and talks about her all week. It's really cute!

We can't forget about our new heart baby we are watching on Mondays and Tuesdays. Arianna is having alot of fun having Brendon around and it's good practice for when her baby is born.

I can't end without showing you the cutest picture. Miss Arianna making cookies!! Let's just say I should not be allowed to have sugar cookies in my house. I'm pregnant and they are WAY too good. :)

Cardiology Update

I am finally getting around to blogging about Arianna's cardiology appointment. I know some of you already heard a little bit about it on Facebook.

Well the night before her appointment we practiced doing an EKG because it's been since she was 5 months old since her last one. Arianna was a little apprehensive at first but at the end she was asking to do it again and again.

Practicing with some stickers and string

The night before Arianna's appointment we made cookies for the doctors and nurses. Arianna just loved handing them out to the nurses. Sorry the pictures are blurry.

We waiting for an hour and a half before the doctor came in and it wasn't even our doctor. Last time we had this guy come in our room I told him I wanted to see our doctor and that was that. Well I asked about Dr. K (our doc) and he said it could be awhile till we see him so I decided to go ahead and let him proceed with the visit. It doesn't hurt having 2 docs taking a look at her. He has never meet Arianna so he read over hear chart then did his exam.

He said her heart murmur sounds the same as is written in her chart from 6 months ago. Thank God! He wanted to get an echo but I told him "our" cardiologist wanted an EKG done at this visit so he decided to go ahead with that instead.

She did okay at first since we practiced but after 3 or 4 minutes she was ready for it to be over.

After the EKG was done the doctor reviewed the strip and said her QRS wave was a little bit longer than normal. However, children with a tetralogy repair never have a "normal" EKG anyways. I guess the QRS wave looks alot worse on paper than it measures out to be. That being said he wants Arianna to have a 24 hour Holter monitor done to see if she is having any arrhythmias because that is common in tetralogy patients. I'm actually really glad they are doing this because there are no major signs of arrythmias and alot of children with tetralogy have died from them. I'm still waiting for someone to call me about getting the monitor so I will probably give them a call tomorrow to make sure they haven't forgotten about us.

So we were leaving the clinic and about to walk out the front door when I hear someone yelling my name. It was the cardiology nurse. She said Dr. K (our doctor) saw Arianna's name on the board and he wanted to say hi to her. :) That made my day so we rushed back to clinic and spent a few minutes with OUR doctor!

Arianna just LOVES this man...and so do I! He asked how her summer was going and what she was doing. She told him about bowling, swimming and her cousins. lol! I told him about the EKG and the Holter and that I'll be emailing him when she gets it off so he could take a look at it. At this point there is no need to stress about anything since this is just a precautionary test.

As far as other things going on, we meet with the school district this week to have our transition appointment for preschool. Basically it was all about getting her paperwork in order and telling them about her medical issues. Now don't get too excited...she probably won't attend preschool but we wanted to see what the school would offer her for therapy since she is being cut off at 3 years old from the Arizona Early Intervention Program. We have to go back for testing in the next few weeks so see if she even qualifies for special education preschool. Right now we are just looking at possible speech therapy being the only need for her. :) Which by the way, this week was her LAST speech therapy session! So I'm not sure if she will even qualify. We will just have to wait and see.

Friday we see the immunologist so that will be interesting. I'm praying for a wonderful report!

Final results

I know this is normally about Arianna but I had to let you all know.....I PASSED!!! I'm so excited but a little bummed that I didn't make Honors. I know...my mom will tell you I'm anal when it comes to my grades. I'm going to retest to try and get honors or high honors. It will be good practice and I'm not as nervous about it this time. Besides I'm not planning on looking for work until January so it's no big deal. I'm just happy to be done! :)