Life and Times of The Johnston family: Getting Back to Life(February in a Nutshell)

So I've been working on a post to cover January, but I'm just having a really hard time getting through it. So I've decided to just leave it as a draft and work on it as I can....it is more of a healing tool for me than info for you anyway. If by some chance you didn't hear my brother went into the hospital about a week into January with liver failure and passed away very unexpectedly on January 29th. Eric's funeral was on Monday Feb. 3rd(my mom's birthday :( ) and the rest of the week the kids pretty much had to fend for themselves as I just couldn't get checked in, thanks to Elizabeth's amazing maturity (when it was needed) we made it through the week. Moving on and getting back to life was extremely difficult for me, but because I have a gifted 5 year old I homeschool and an ASD 3 year old with lots of therapies, and other things going on in his life, I had to do it, no matter how impossible it seemed. So Saturday Feb. 8th Tony and I went to Desert Star, which was in itself hard for me as it was one of Eric's favorite places, has been since our family started going there when we were teenagers, but we did manage to enjoy ourselves, Desert Star is very good at that! Oh backup a day on Friday as something fun to help Elizabeth through the hard times she'd just had to endure Ketty agreed to have a "girls night out". It all started the night Eric passed away. Ketty took the kids from the hospital for us after we found out Eric was essentially crashing, and Elizabeth was under the impression she was going to get to spend the night as we though we'd be at the hospital, but since Eric passed quickly we ended up picking the kids up that night and Elizabeth was very sad about missing a sleepover opportunity, so Ketty suggested she come back the next weekend while they guys of her house would be away and have a girls night with her an Emily. Then to help cheer Elizabeth up Ketty worked it out so all her girl cousins were there too! Even grandma came for a bit! Tony's dad picked her up on his way from Ogden on Friday and I've never had such anxiety about letting my little girl out of my arms and sight and care, but Devin's tantrum helped take my mind off it a bit, after he calmed down though I prayed like crazy for their safety! After Desert Star we picked up the kids(we dropped Devin off at Ketty's before the show), and Elizabeth reported having a super awesome time(even if she did have a naughty moment or two) kudos to Ketty and Johnny for putting up with her at such an emotionally off kilter time! Sunday I was not at all up to going to church and hearing another apology or having to lie about 'how I'm doing' so we just stayed home. That week was catch up on all the therapy and other appointments that had been rescheduled on my 'check out week'. So Monday was OT in Bountiful, Tuesday was the behaviorist, and piano/tumbling. Thursday was kinda crazy, in the morning Devin had home OT and it the afternoon he had his rescheduled preschool evaluation, where he showed off his amazing vocabulary and smarts. That evening was tumbling and scouts. Friday was Valentines Day and the kids were super excited about it! So right after breakfast I gave them their little Valentine's gifts which they loved and had a fun time playing with until it was time for Devin to have a speech consult, you see Devin's vocabulary is awesome but his articulation and pronunciation struggles a bit so she just came by to give me some tips and tricks to help him improve. Then we had a very fun Valentines Day reading stories watching shows. Elizabeth did Valentine's school, they both made some Valentine's for daddy. Elizabeth and I made Valentine's cookies....it was a great day! Tony and I try to just show our love for each other everyday and make it special when we feel it needs to be, not when the calendar tells us to. That Saturday morning we went to Walmart to pick up Valentine's stuff for next year at 50% off, and found some great stuff! Then we went and dropped our kids off with Ketty while Tony and I went to the RV show to look and dream about trailers, and we found one we really love too! Awe well maybe someday, for now it's fun to look! We got some lunch then picked up our kiddos then drove to IKEA as Devin NEEDED a new bed, he could touch head to headboard feet to foot board in his toddler bed and was usually crunched up to fit(no parenting gold star for us on that one!). The problem was his room is so small that putting a twin bed in there was absolutely NOT an option, we toyed with the idea a building a custom loft bed to accommodate for more floor space, but the more we looked at it the less worth it it seemed....and the more expensive it got! Then my mom decided to turn their 'formal living' room into her 'craft room' and went to IKEA for an awesome desk and brought back a catalog, which I looked through and found the wonderful concept that is the Junior bed! It's as wide as a toddler bed, but almost as long as a twin....which is EXACTLY what Devin and his little room needed! Then as my own weird form of therapy I started looking at ways to completely organize his room, as things just weren't working in there! IKEA was crazy when we got there Saturday, but we got everything we needed, including dinner! Then came home and put Devin's bed together as I didn't want him to have to squeeze himself into the toddler bed another night! (I really did feel awful about him being in a bed too small for him)
That Sunday I still just wasn't ready to go back to church(I'm terrible I know) so instead we spent the day putting Devin's new improved and totally organized room together. It is soooooo much better now, I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! In fact I loved it so much I decided to do Elizabeth's room as well. Her room was a HUGE challenge as it was a hot mess! I spent a lot of time in her room with a tape measure and pieces of paper trying to decide where everything would work best. Pinterest was a lot of help as well! Monday was home OT, and it was President's Day, Elizabeth was very interested in Abraham Lincoln this year and learned a lot about him! Tuesday was the behaviorist and piano/tumbling. Wednesday Tony took the train into work and the kids and I picked him up from work and from there we went back to IKEA and man was it dead! We were even able to let the kids stay at Playland while we did most of our shopping. Then we picked them up and got dinner, then went down to pick up the same Junior bed we'd gotten Devin, just to discover they were out! So we ended up picking a different slightly more expensive one just in case the other one didn't get stock in anytime soon, as I wanted to put her room together that Saturday. In the end we got everything we needed....and then some!(The cheaper bed like Devin's came in stock on Friday so Tony switched them out on his lunch break) Thursday afternoon I went to a new family practitioner for a much needed(mother demanded)physical, where I was praised for getting up in the morning and being able to stand on my own two feet. She advised me to 'let grieving happen' and get out away from my many responsibilities once and a while, and not let them consume me. I really liked her and will definitely be keeping her! She gave me a flu shot, tetanus shot and whooping cough shot then sent me down to have a full blood workup...four viles worth! Luckily they got the vein on the first try! She is going to monitor my liver pretty closely, pretty much from now on.(I can't imagine why) that night was tumbling and scouts. Friday was Devin's IEP(Individual Education Plan)meeting in Farmington, Mary watched the kiddos for me. Devin is eligible for Developmental preschool because he has an official ASD diagnosis, and has delays is more than three areas of development. So we got all the legal formalities and paperwork out of the way, and got him all set to start 3 year old preschool at Syracuse Elementary. Saturday the 22nd in the morning Tony helped my dad a bit then took Elizabeth's loft bed apart and took it to our storage unit, and put together her Junior bed, which fits so much better in her room! He put together the cube storage units we bought at Lowes earlier that morning, then my mission organization began! And the transformation of her room is truly inspiring! We still have a couple of finishing touches in both kids rooms, So I only have pictures of Devin's room as I really want Elizabeth's finished before I take pictures and reveal the transformation.(I'll do a separate post with the pictures of their rooms) That evening we went to Tony's parents' house for the February and Devin's March birthdays bash. Devin did pretty good actually, it took us a little while to convince him to come up and open his presents(he didn't like being in front of everyone) but eventually he came up and managed to take the presents from grandma bring them over by us(with his back to pretty much everyone else) and open the present. He has the cutest reactions! We even managed to get him to say thank you to everyone! He ate a little bit of ice cream and disappeared again. It was a fun night. Sunday was a hard day, and I was hanging in there until Relief Society, then I started struggling, and by the second verse of the closing song I completely fell apart and had to run out and hide in the empty mothers room until the sobbing stopped. I had done such a good job of not loosing it in public until this point. Ya can't win 'em all I guess. Tuesday morning Devin had his Behaviorist, and in the afternoon he had OT in Bountiful and since Devin fell asleep in the car on the way to Mary's house to pick up Elizabeth after the behaviorist I decided not to drive home just to drive back, so we stopped by the target and got lunch(for Devin that meant pediasure but we did find banana!) then we went to a fun little park by the Centerville Library and ate lunch and the kids had lots of fun playing in the sunny warm weather for over an hour! Then we went and visited with my grandma until it was time to drop Elizabeth off with Mary again. It was actually a very fun afternoon! Megan(Devin's PCMC OT) got to see how different morning Devin is from afternoon Devin, and she said it's probably a good thing we're working with him in the afternoons now as he has lots to work on! Wednesday morning the kids and I dropped Shadow off at our neighbors to be groomed as she desperately needed it! And then I got Elizabeth's bike and Devin's Cozy Coupe and we walked over to a nearby church parking lot so they could ride around for a while. After picking Shadow up and taking her home I packed up a picnic lunch and we walked to a playground and had lunch and the kids played for quite a while again. Devin took a little nap then had home OT in the afternoon. Thursday afternoon I had a follow up with my new ENT and there was good new and bad news, good news was the infection in my left ear was gone! The bad news was my right eardrum looked like it was sucking in a bit probably do to nasal congestion so I was told to start using my nasal spray again(man I hate that thing!) so hopefully an infection won't occur. That night was tumbling and scouts. Friday morning Devin had his last Play Project therapy which went well actually, and shortly there after miserable sickness swept over me...the worst body aches I've ever experienced! So the kids got a movie day. That night after the kids were in bed Tony talked me into going to Insta Care as my throat was obviously swollen, and I felt so awful. Turns out I had a bad case of Strep Throat, so I was given antibiotics and had a horrible night of no sleep. And that is where I'm going to end this post! YAY I got through February!!

Here are just some pictures from January when the air quality was really bad so we had to do a lot of "recess" inside.

We and my parents used a coupon we had for a fun bowling night with pizza at the local family fun center.

This is just a random picture Elizabeth wanted me to take of her zoo. It's pretty good!

Now onto the Valentine's Day pictures! We started with the gift.

Just some pictures of them with their little stuffed animal.

Watching a Valentine's Cat in the Hat and doing fun Valentine's art!

While eating lunch they watched Happy Valentine's Day Charlie Brown, then Devin went down for nap and Elizabeth put the cookies on the sheet for baking then did her Valentine's school!

And here is one of her doing a Valentine's Day reading comprehension worksheet.

Here is a video of Elizabeth doing some simple addition and subtraction.

Elizabeth decorating and eating the Valentine's Day cookies.