Welcome 2007!

The Crumbo Clan sure ended the year with a bang and we're ready for some calmer days ahead in 2007. Fingers crossed!

First of all, we had to "move" our blog to keep you all informed ... you'll hear more about this later in the post. Welcome to our new little corner of the Internet, and I hope you'll visit us here often. Please update your feeds or bookmarks to find us at: http://thecrumboclan.blogspot.com. Thanks!

I'm going to update this by trying to make it short and sweet ... but to the point as to fill you in on everything that has been going on.

December was a busy month. My family came to visit for the holidays. My mom and step-dad, along with my brother, sister-in-law and their 2 children joined us for Christmas for a few days.

Here is a photo of my mom and step-dad. I wish I had some more photos (of my kids with them, and of my neice and nephew, brother and sister-in-law) to share, but I was down right AWFUL at taking pictures over the holidays. Plus, the ones I do indeed have, I may get shot if I actually posted them!! Ya know, "morning" pictures.

Sad news on Christmas morning, Chris's Grandfather "PaPa", passed away. We were very sad. Chris was very close to his PaPa and we will miss him dearly, though will always hold the special memories near to our hearts. Here is a photo of Chris with his MaMa and PaPa at a favorite place to eat in New Albany, IN. Papa decided to go for a margarita at lunch (you go Papa!) and I think I even saw MaMa sneak in a sip or two. :)

My mom and step-dad stayed here at the house at watched Jessie dog while we left at 1am the day after Christmas to travel the 10 hours to New Albany for the visitation which began at 11am. The kids found it very exciting, feeling as though they were on an "adventure" leaving on a trip in the middle of the night ... obviously not fully grasping what we were leaving for.

Fueling up for the trip back on Thursday, Chris's wallet must have fallen out of this pocket at the gas station ... leaving us with no cash for the remainder of the trip (next time we'll be smart and split the cash between us) and left us to spend our hours driving and calling credit card companies to cancel cards that were in the wallet. Most turned out fine, but our bank turned out to be a nightmare, cancelling our checking account rather than credit cards, leaving us with no way to pay bills and many returned checks, until they finally corrected everything approx. 2 weeks later. Sigh! With that said, that is why I moved the blog, because when the other blog company tried to take it's payment for the month, it wouldn't go through and they cancelled my account. No big deal ... I'm just moving it all over to this FREE blog account which is just as good.

Taking a few steps back, on Christmas Eve, Emily was not feeling well and decided to take a little nap. When she woke up, she was cross eyed. We waited a couple of days (when we went to the funeral) to see if they would correct themselves, but they only got worse. A trip to the doctor told us that it was either an eye issue that was not working because the brain wasn't communicating correctly ... or a brain tumor. An appointment was set for 2 weeks later to see an optomologist to determine what was going on. THE LONGEST 2 WEEKS OF MY LIFE! She also developed an inner ear infection during this time which caused her to sleep constantly, be off balance, and not hear very well. All symptoms of the tumor that had me freaked out, but once she was diagnosed with the ear infection, a HUGE sense of relief came over me (and the doctor). LOL! Thank you to my mom, Lynn, Lori, Denise and Jolynn for the many hours of talking and support while I waited for the appointment. At the optomologist, we determined it was more than likely a brain issue not communicating with the eye IN ADDITION to her having horrible eye sight! LOL! Not really funny, but GREAT news to us. She will wear glasses for the next 3 months and then be rechecked. If the crossed eye isn't corrected by then, we'll entertain the possibility of surgery. If this isn't corrected, her sight will continue to deteriorate (sp?) and she could eventually lose sight in her left eye. ANYWAY ... we're confident that won't happen. We allowed Emily to pick out her own glasses ... not our first choice of frames, but we don't have to wear them, right? She calls these her PRINCESS glasses and is VERY proud of them. We've had no issues with her trying to take them off or anything ... Knock on wood ... thank Goodness!

We opted not to have the MRI, as our doctor said that it would be more of a risk putting her completely under for it, than just waiting to make sure the glasses corrected the eye. I am COMPLETELY confident that it's not a tumor, but promised the doctor that if ANY other symptoms came up we'd bring her in immediately! :)

That's our BIG news ... and all is well now! Whoo Hoo!

Quick updates on the other kids:

Jake started baseball practice on Saturdays and will have practice one other night of the week, they haven't determined what night yet though. He loves to go to practice and I think he'll really enjoy it. Flag football season is right around the corner and he is all signed up and can't wait to start. He opted out of soccer again this year ... I think he has lost all interest which is fine by us ...one less place he has to be. :) School is going great for him. He continues to do well in all areas. Now that it's cold and snowy he doesn't go out for recess. His teacher allows him to stay in and read. DWEEB! LOL! He has never liked the cold and snow ... and I can't say I blame him ... I don't like it much either.

Drew, oh Drew ... he is just ... Drew! :) Always into something, talking loud, buying for ANY attention he can get! Doing well in school ... though his work habits could still improve. Maybe someday, right? :) He is going to play flag football too this year ... and is thrilled! He literally beams when he talks about it. Soccer is on his agenda too ... Dad will coach again this year and has even taken on responsibility of being commissioner of the 1st and 2nd grade league. I will sponsor a team (IowaMoms.com), that's about all I can offer right now. LOL!

Molly is really growing up. Man, she is getting tall and her vocabulary and really taking shape. She LOVES to torment her older sister and does so on a regular basis. Molly is no push over and will not tolerate anyone taking any toys from her, she goes after them by God! We do need to work on NO HITTING ... because that and screaming "NO MOMMY!" are two of her most favorite things. :)

I think I have you all caught up ... sorry for the never ending post. I'll be back into the groove now and can post more often as to not completely overwhelm you with a TON of updates rolled into one. :)

Hope everyone is doing well ... drop us a line ... we love to hear from you!

Wendy