Potty Training

About a week ago I decided that it was time to potty train Marlee. There were three mornings in a roll that I would come in to get her and she was completely naked and pee all over her crib. I finally had enough and figured it was time to potty train.

So it began! We went to Walmart so she could pick out panties, stickers and a reward. We hit the underwear section and they were just about out of her size in every character. But she managed to pick out Hello Kitty and then Toy Story ( they are boys but they look so cute). Now we are off to find a reward. Marlee is my kind of girl and loves Reese's peanut butter cups. So we went to find some and she was so excited. Then off to the stickers! She of course picked out the Disney's princess stickers.

We got home and I striped her down. At first we started with the panties on but she just kept peeing in them, thinking that they were a diaper. So for the next 2 days she was completely naked. That helped so much. The first day was a night mare and I wanted so badly to quit. She never once peed in the potty. We had 6 pee accidents and 1 poop! Can you say gross?? The second day was better! She actually peed in the potty for the first time and we were so excited! We still had an accident or two but was a huge improvement. Third day, no pee accidents but one poop! :( Then from there on out no more pee accidents and so far only one more poop accident!!

Tomorrow marks one week since we started and I can't believe how grown up she seems. It makes me a little sad just thinking about my little girl no longer in diapers. Oh well I guess that means we need to have another one! ;)

Win, Lose or Blog

Hey everyone!!! Guess what I am the newest contestent on Win, Lose or Blog. I am so excited! What is it you ask? Well it's a competition of 8 women that last 7 weeks. We blog on there blog about our journey. Then at the end, the person that lost the most week by % wins. Last season I watch Brittany go throught the competition and win!! I am going to keep the title in the family!!!

Click on the Win, Lose or Blog tab on the right side of my blog and follow along. They also do a mini-contest for the follower. So you could win prizes too!!

Can you say STRESSED!!!!

In my life stress comes in waves! Some days I feel like I am free to do whatever. I can craft, watch tv, take a nap or just enjoy life with my little family. But then the mother load hits. Like this week for example, I had my first test of the semester. The first test is always stressful because you are trying to figure out how that teacher test. So the whole week before was nothing but study in my spare time. The test came and went and I only missed 3!! Yippie! All my studying paid off! Then on Wednesday I was asked to teach CPR/First aid to the young women from church. I didn't look at any of the material until the day before (because I was so focused on my test). I was worried that it was going to be fun and upbeat for the teenagers but it went well and I had a great time doing it. Then moving on to care plans due before Saturdays clinical. That's what I worked on all day today (Thursday). I don't know if it's good enough but it's not worth a grade and I have to do another one that is suppose to be better than the first. So I'm happy with it at this point. Then to top it off, I have another test on Tuesday. The crappy thing about that test is, it includes the material we go over on Monday night too. So that basically means you teach yourself that information and come in with any questions. Well do you think I have done any study for this test? NO!!! Yikes! I am stressin! It's a good thing Roy is going to therapy and I have someone coming over to watch Marlee so I can sneak away and study for a couple of hours!! Saturday is clinical and I am gone for 12 hours but you better believe I will be studying all night. Then Sunday, oh Sunday that reminds me I still haven't figured out what I'm doing for singing time in Primary!! HEEELLLLPPPPP!

One question, How do you deal with stress?

2012

Hello Everyone!!!

We are still here, alive and well! I can't believe it is 2012 already! I'm excited to see what this year brings to the Brandon family!! 2011 had a lot of ups with a couple of downs. This year we are looking forward to ALL ups!!

Marlee is already 2, can you believe it. She is just the best little girl though. She is very well mannered ( well most of the time), just aims to please, she talks a mile a minute and she sure loves her daddy and wants to do everything he is doing.

Roy is still doing awesome! He isn't progressing fast but he is still progressing! This May will make 2 years since his stroke and for him to not stall out yet is just amazing! We still have huge goals for him this year, like get out of the wheelchair for good, but he is motivated and deteremined. Roy just started attending therapy 3 times a week this month so we are hopeing that will help him a long a little faster!

As for me, I am in my lsat semester of nursing school! I am excited and ready to be done with this part of my life! It has been hard trying to balance the daily activities of my life and I'm just ready to quit worrying about school and just focus on my family! In my spare time, the little that I have, I have been pretty adventureous with the power tools. I love this new indenpendency that I have. I don't have to wait for anybody to do a project now!! I have made things like a stand for my washer and dryer, a cute post to hang signs on, and a couple other little projects. My next huge project that hopefully I'll get started this week is a bench made out of a head board. I am so excited! I'll post pictures for sure!

Any who, sorry it has taken so long to update this thing! I promise I'll be around more!

1st Week of the New Year!!

This first week of the new year has been an eventful one and our new years resolutions are under way. We actually started our the Monday after Christmas and have been doing good ever since!

Monday, I took Marlee's bottles away!! That morning we went downstairs and she help me pack them up!! She did great the first day! Didn't even seem to faze her until day #2! That day she was a nightmare! The first part of the morning she was screaming and crying, which she rarely does but after that day she seem to figure out that they weren't coming back! She has done good ever since!

Tuesday, or I think I was Tuesday! ha ha We got a call from Social Security!! Roy has been approved! I was so relieved and thankful! Roy and Marlee will be receiving checks from Social security disability! What's even better is that we will receive a retro check for 2 months!! again, so very thankful!!

Thursday, Roy had a Doctors appointment and I thought we were getting his Peg-tube out but it's a different kind of tube, one that is stitched in on the inside of his stomach! So we go to Casa Grande on Wednesday, where Roy will be lightly sedated. They will go through his mouth to take it out! Oh yummy! At first, I was scared because I didn't want Roy to be put to sleep and on a ventilator again but Doctor reassured me that it will be a light sedation!
Then later Thursday, I was helping Roy with something ( can't remember) but then all of a sudden Marlee is screaming bloody murder. I go over to her and the 5 pound weight next to Roy's bed is on the floor. I immediately so grab an ice pack and the Tylenol. She won't let me touch or even try and look at it. She also won't stand up! So I laid her down put the ice one it and gave her a sippy cup of milk. After about a half hour I put her down for a nap! She slept for 2 hours and when she woke up she was jumping in bed like normal! The foot hasn't seem to bother her since! YIPPIE!!

Friday, I took Roy into therapy to see how that was going! Man they really work him! He was even sweating a little bit! It was good to see he work hard!! Our amazing friend Jenna watched Marlee for us so I didn't have to run after her all day at therapy!

Saturday, we have an aide come in and sit with Roy! Well they come other days too but I like Saturdays because it's from 8-4 and I can go and get out of the house for a bit. So Marlee and I went to the mall, which I haven't been in forever! It looked so different!, then to Target! I got Roy 3 outfits with gift cards he got for his birthday! Thanks everyone for those!! We will got home Marlee decided to trip on the ramp in the garage and now she has a huge fat lip! She was so good though because she sucked on 5 or 6 cubes of ice so it doesn't look to bad! Also, after I got the car unloaded, the aide ( that was a fill in by the way) told me that she had trouble getting Roy off the toilet! She had to lower him to the floor and then go grab the neighbors to help get him back up! She felt so bad! Roy was ok, actually he was laughing about when I asked him about it later! We joked that he had fallen and couldn't get up! Poor Roy and aide!

So today is Sunday and I wonder what is in store for us today! Hopefully it will just be a day of rest!!

Marlee's new likes!!

The last couple of days Marlee has been funny! She is trying new foods and loving them. Yesterday for dinner we had candy chicken, rice and broccoli!! I know she loves chicken and rice and she has had raw broccoli once so I didn't know if she would eat it cooked! Well she looked it! She ate about a cups worth, along with chicken and rice!!

Then later that night Roy and I were snacking on the leftover cheeseroll I made for New Year's and then here comes Marlee!!

What what do you know, She Loves it!!!

Happy New Years!!

Words can not express how excited I am that 2010 is over. It was a rough year for me and my little family. I know that we are given challenges to help us grow and I definitely feel like I have grown. I have made several New Years Resolutions this year and one of them is to Blog more. Actually I am deleting my Facebook, so if you would like to keep up with my family and I then you will have to stop here!

This New Years Eve, we spent it at our house. We just decided it was easier for us with Roy and Marlee. We had a small group of people but we had a blast!! We played a couple of games and had a ton of laughs!

On Christmas Eve I won a tube that had a yard of licorice! Actually it had 10 rope, a yard each of licorice. So we decided to have a licorice eating contest using no hands. Man it was hard but a lot of fun! He are some pictures I got while trying to eat my licorice!!

This is Jenna, trying not to drop hers!!

Heather, cheating using her arm!! HAHA


These two were the finalist!! And Kalob WON!!!

Us girls with our leftover licorice!! My mouth is FULL of licorice!!

After we got down with our licorice we decided that we needed to say Happy New Year's to Lance and Brittany!! So we piled in Heather's xB, all 7 of us!! :) Then we got there, we snuck in through their garage and then just sat in their living room. It was to bad Lance saw something move in the living room and decided to come see what it was!! Then we shouted, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!" It was a lot of fun!!

Thanks guys for spending new year's with us!!