All About Me...from the lips of Emma Rose

Each child in Emma's PK class gets to be "Student of the Week" for one week during the school year. Next week it's Emma's turn and she is very excited. She was singing "Student of the Week, I'm Student of the Week" around the house tonight.

As part of her "assignment", we filled out a poster sent home that is "All About Me". At the top, Emma wrote her whole full name (with some help on Montgomery-- that's a doozy for a 4 year old!) and then I filled out the rest as she answered each question.

So here's All about Emma in her own words (I think you might see what was on her mind the moment we were filling it out). Her answers are underlined.

Fascinating Facts About Me:

I am 4 years old.
My birthday is July 9.
I am in this grade: Pre-K (she had to have a little help on this one...she first said "little school")
My teacher is Ms. Laxson, Ms. Ackley.
I get to school by Mommy's Car (a little help here, too-- she didn't quite understand)
These are the members of my family: Daddy, Mommy, Carol (sorry Gabby cat)
When I grow up I would like to be: A Princess.


I show others I care by...Give them a hug and a kiss.
I am a star because I can read. (Well...we are getting there!! She is recognizing the little words that they have been working on in class like "my" and "the")

These are a few of my favorite things:

Color: Dark Pink (apparently just pink wasn't a good enough description)
Animal: Ducklings (yes, ducklings, not just ducks...I think the episode of Wonder Pets she had watched before church was still in her brain).
Food: Candy (I sadly wrote that down...and then asked her what other food she liked) Mexican (that's my girl!)
Book: Princesses (i.e. any book about a princess, specifically Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Mulan or Pocohontas)
Sport: (long pause....) Ball. (why choose just one?)
Things to do in school: Play Princesses
Thing to do at home: Dress Up

Three Super-Cool Facts about yourself:
1. I can Dress Up.
2. I can put on hats.
3. I can play weddings.

And then the picture she chose to attached is one where she is dressed up in a fairy outfits, complete with wings.

We definitely have a little girl on our hands.

I love you my princess!

Chocolate Chip Cookies!!

So (unfortunately), I found a great chocolate chip recipe off of allrecipes.com. It got like 5000 recommendations, so it is pretty good. Here it is:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tbl vanilla extract
2 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar using a mixer. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips. Drop cookies onto cookie sheet
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven.

Hints::
- start checking the cookies at 9 minutes. if the edges are starting to be brown, take the cookies out-- it will continue to cook on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes.
- I have found that these are even better on the second day, after spending the night in a ziploc bag. They get moister that way.
- The cookies won't expand or flatten out while cooking, so shape them how you like-- I go ahead and flatten mine out on the cookie sheet.
- Luckily, I don't have instant vanilla pudding mix in my pantry all the time, so I can't make these as much as I might want!!!

Update on Daniel...

Well after this week's events and today's emergency room visit, I needed to give a quick update on Daniel's health.

Since seeing the ENT a couple of weeks ago, Daniel has been on a steriod regiment while taking all of these tests to identify what exactly is causing his headaches and dizziness. He took a hearing test as well as a balance test, during both he got extremely dizzy. He had actually gotten to a point where he could go through his day and survive, I guess you would say. We were even able to drive to Arizona for a friend's wedding.

However, last Saturday, things took a sharp turn for the worse. Since then Daniel's dizziness and spinning have been non-stop to a point that he cannot function for periods of time. He had to come home from work early several times this week and just lay in bed to get through the rest of the day. Even when he just turns his head, the room starts spinning uncontrollably.

This morning when he woke up, he said things were different, not in a good way. The best way he could explain it is that he felt outside of himself. He was trying to just watch a movie with Emma and had to go lay down on the bed. I went to go check on him and to tell him that I was going to take the girls to the zoo (since the weather here is beautiful!). As we were talking, all of a sudden he said that he was numb on the right side of his face and down his right side through his hands. Then he literally lost all motor control of his head, and it rolled from one side to the other with no impulse from Daniel. I immediately called 911, thinking maybe he was having a stroke or something. He never lost consciousness but even tually the numbness spread to his left arm and hand. He also started shaking uncontrollably, probably due to shock. Kristen and Summer came over to take care of the girls immediately while Daniel and I went to the hospital in an ambulance. Blessedly, Summer had Emma playing in her room with the door closed so she didn't see daddy being wheeled out. I told her that Daddy's head was hurting even more (she's been very aware that he has been sick and hasn't been able to play with her as much as he normally does) and so mommy was taking him to the hospital in an ambulance to have the doctors check him.

At the hospital, they drew blood samples, and all of his vitals looked good. He got another cat-scan to make sure his cyst wasn't leaking or growing. Laying down in a dark room helped Daniel a little bit, and he eventually did regain feeling in his arms. They did give him a medicine through an iv for headaches/nausea as well as a bag of fluid. All of his tests showed that he did not have a stroke or anything that would be of immediate danger. Basically we got a diagnosis of exclusion- knowing everything it wasn't. The doctor (named Dr. Disney by the way which we thought was unusual!) basically thought that the numbness was just a manifestation of bad side-effects of whatever is causing all of Daniel's symptoms. He told Daniel to rest, gave us a prescription for the headache/nausesa medicine and told him to call his ENT when their office opens on Tuesday (argh Labor Day).

Once we got home, Daniel ate a little bit and then needed to go lay down and slept for several hours. When he woke up, he was back to the "status quo"-- nonstop spinning and headache like he has been feeling for the past week. So we'll keep our eye out for any additional symptoms and prayerfully, we are close to a diagnosis this week now that his tests are pretty much complete.

Thank you again for all of your prayers. We are pretty exhausted over this all, but thankful because we know there are many things that are worse.