Wow, I can't believe in less than a month and a half it will already be 2009. What a year our family has had. I should have known what kind of year we were going to have when between Steve and I there were Dr appointments after Dr appointments, and well this is exactly how we are finishing off the year! I will get into all of that in just a few! As far as the rest of the family goes, they have been doing well and keeping active in sports.
Keona celebrated her 3rd birthday at the end of June. It was the most elegant princes ball any 3 year old could ask for. Keona is a lil diva. I have tried and tried to fight against that, but truly I think its in the female gene on the Fourstar side! She loves to play dress up and loves her big sister Brittney's high heals. She is very much still a daddy's girl. I love watching the two of them together. She knows exactly how to play daddy and get what she wants from him. He's such a softy.Ocean started off the year with a tonsillectomy, because she had one too many visits to the Dr for unexplained fever and strep symptoms, so He thought it would be best to refer her to an ENT and have them taken out. In the spring Ocean & Marie both played softball on the
same team, that I coached, and they took 1st place in for the whole season. This was Ocean's first year playing softball and she really came a long way from the start of the season. She played centre field (one of mom's old positions). Ocean celebrated her 8th birthday this year, and had an American Idol theme. Her and her 8 lil friends sang there hearts out on our karaoke machine (yes the migraine meds were very close by). Ocean is in second grade this year, and has been moved to extended studies for math and reading. She is reading at a 4th grade level. With her being in the extended studies classes, she will be challenged a little more and will get to do some more fun, exciting, advanced things at her own pace, just so she doesnt lose interest. Ocean has been blessed with a very sweet Christian teacher that I couldn't be more happy with. Her teachers words to describe her were... "Ocean is the light of the class, she shows up every morning with a huge smile on her face, she is never unhappy, she is our lil social butterfly, she is always willing to lend a helping hand to her friends and even me." Hearing those words sure made me proud, and all teary! Ocean really does look forward to going to school, she loves it. She also loves the fact that I come in and volunteer in her class room every Wednesday for a few hours.
Like mentioned Marie & Ocean played softball in the spring. Marie was the star pitcher and pitched the whole championship game. When she wasn't pitching she played short (another one of mom's positions). I was soo proud of her she had to pitch a whole game in about 105* weather and listen to mom nag at her from the bench, she was beyond exhausted. She most recently celebrated her 11th birthday, and her theme was a spa evening with her friends. It was a total hit, her and her friends had SO much fun. Honestly I was really struggling with what kind of theme to do for a bunch of pre-teens, and thought the spa thing might be a little too much for them, but it went of with fireworks. Right now she is waiting for Volleyball season to start. I think she is going to see how that goes and put basketball on the back burner this year.
Tyler has had a pretty mellow year. He started the year playing basketball for school and a traveling team. Then surprised us all and joined the school track team and did very well at that! He decided that he wasn't going to play football this year for the freshman team and just concentrate on basketball. He too has just recently celebrated a birthday, his 15th to be exact. He is now old enough to start drivers ed, but has made a mature decision and decided to wait to do it after his sports are over, so that hes not trying to juggle too many things at once. Stay tuned for reports on that.Like mentioned earlier I started my year off with Dr apts after Dr apts. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia at the beginning of the year, just when I thought I had things under control I was attacked with these unexplained and unexpected periods of pains that I can only compare to labour pains. After a few months of dealing with that I finally got into my OB and found out that I had a couple ovarian cysts. So I was scheduled for surgery and had them removed along with a little bit of endrimetriosis. Then when that was all said and done, I went in for a routine dental appointment and had an x-ray done. The dentist was not happy with what he saw on the film and wanted to redo it. So after a second film was taken he still wasn't happy. He had explained to me that he was seeing what appeared to be a large mass in my sinus, and referd me to an ENT. After visiting with the ENT and having an MRI taken, he too was not too happy about the results and mentioned that I had a cyst in my left sinus that was taking up the whole sinus, I also had a smaller one on the right side, as well I had a huge bone spur that was blocking my whole left nasal passage and was starting to push things out of the way. SO again I was scheduled for surgery, and had the cysts removed as well as my bone spur removed. I have to say, since having both of those surgeries pretty much back to back, I have had no normalcy in my live, which is really catching up to me. I don't do well with change and I like to have my routine.
Steve started his year with a lil bit of a struggle as well. Trying to get his pain meds under control to help relieve his back pain. He too had many many visits to the Dr for acupuncture or epidurals to help relieve his pain. He attempted fires this summer with his pain and had a very hard time, but he stuck it through a couple just for the sake of supporting the family. Once fires were over he decide it was time to go through and have the surgery, so just a few days ago he did just that! He was in hospital for only 2 days and is home now working hard at doing what is required to a safe speedy recovery!