The spring to autumn 2004 update
Wow! what a busy year this has been. So much has happened in our family this year that it is hard to know where to start. Some of you say the beginning would be nice but you never know, it could be very boring and then you would just skip to the next section. But since the beginning seems like the most convenient I will go ahead and start there.
Well as I already noted on the website we purchased a new vehicle to replace the van and have really enjoyed the change. But I would like to fast forward to February 7th 2004 when the first major event happened for us in our home.
As many of you know and have already read on our website that we have had Matthew on a special diet for the last 4 years. Now this diet was a lot of work for Terri in particular as she would have to make all of Matthew's foods. This work was long and in certain instances physically demanding on Terri.
The biggest issue was the making of Matthew's bread which required the hand mixing of the dough. Unfortunately Terri's wrist has been giving her a great deal of trouble as she suffers from carpel tunnel. She has to wear a brace at night and receives steroid shots to keep it manageable. So considering this she was really getting tired of making Matthew's bread and finally said she would like to try him on regular store bought bread.
So on February 7th we made our first change in his diet with excellent results. A couple of weeks later we extended that by letting him try regular cookies and then changing from the all natural peanut butter and jelly to the standard off the shelf brands. Within 2 months we have almost completely mainstreamed him into all regular foods with the exception of milk as he still showed signs of allergic reactions.
This diet change has been good for us in a number of ways as Matthew no longer has to worry about what foods he eats and we are saving literally hundreds of dollars each month since we no longer have to order up this special food product. Now we still continue the vitamin therapy as we clearly saw changes if we reduced or removed any from his daily allotment.
Matthew had a great school year and completed 2nd grade with highest honors. I managed to get to go on a field trip with him to the zoo and we had a good time. Actually I enjoyed it enough that Terri, Matthew, and I went to the zoo on our own a few weeks later. I will post a few pictures from the trip for you to see.
Next on the list is Christopher. Ok he has been living with his father for the past couple of years and has had time to grow and make most decisions regarding his life on his own now. Just FYI for everyone, he turned 18 on July 3rd and has already graduated from high school.
I had mentioned in my last family update (almost a year ago) that Chris was getting his paperwork together to join the Air Force. Well since that time he completed that and all the plans were set to enter basic training on July 13th 2004. But before he entered in to the military he was to make one more visit with his mom and family here in Tennessee. So in the beginning of June when Terri went to Virginia to see him graduate high school he returned with her to spend a couple of weeks here before heading back home.
When he arrived he looked much like he did a couple of years ago with the exception of the long hair and earrings. He also looked white as a ghost just like he had looked a few years back when he had no iron in his blood. He was supposedly taking his iron pills but you could clearly see that he did not look healthy. Needless to say that during his visit and actually on our first family camping trip together he became deathly ill and when he arrived at the hospital was given 3 (maybe it was 4) units of blood to bring him back to life as it were. And yes the doctors performed multiple tests on him just as we have done before and nowhere could they find the source of his blood loss. However they did apparently assure him that he would be fine during boot camp and as long as he took his iron pills should continue to be.
Entering boot camp was no big thrill to him but on July 13th as scheduled he entered into the 8 week course. All had been well the first couple of weeks but by the 4th week he was not doing well and had grown very weak and light headed. Back into the hospital he went and 2 or 3 units of blood later was starting to look normal again. The doctors in the Air Force also performed a number of tests on him to find out where the blood loss was happening and they too found nothing. Unfortunately by this time Chris had been kept out of circulation with the rest of his recruits and it was decided by the Air Force that he would not be able to complete his basic training nor would he be able to continue with the military with this elusive condition he has.
So in mid August he was discharged from the Air Force to pursue a different career on his own. Since then he has been looking for work back in Virginia and watching all the movies he can as that was not an option in boot camp. He will be going to college somewhere around his home but is not sure which one yet.
Terri has been working of course and as school started again for Matthew she spends her evenings going through his homework with him and keeping his piano practices in check. She still gets up at 2:30AM each day and goes to work then picks up Matthew from school and does the above with him and when all that is done (don't forget the dinner and bath for Matthew) gets herself ready for bed just in time for me to get home. So I don't get to spend to much time with her on her work days.
I (Tim) have been working as well (why shouldn't I) and this year has brought a great deal more traveling for me as we seem to be taking on new accounts as well as expanding our existing ones. This has been a bit of a hassle from the perspective of child care as I normally take care of Matthew in the mornings and take him to school etc. Unfortunately when I am on a trip Terri has to either rearrange her work schedule or work out a schedule with her mom to get Matthew to and from school as well as watch him when she goes to work in the morning. Besides that, I spend my time in hotels and am not home to do the things I like to do with my time and there is the bed issue. Remember last year we bought a new bed which we spent some serious time looking into for that perfect comfort. Well as the saying goes "I miss my bed" as the ones at the hotels just don't measure up. But the upside to all this is job security which makes up for all the hassles of traveling. And once in a while my travels to me near family members such as Sue when I go to Detroit.
And now for the most exciting part of this family's year and that is the camper. As already posted on this website we bought a camper, but let's go back a bit to the reason why it happened. (at least in my mind)
Back in May just before school got out for Matthew I had talked about doing one of those father and son things called camping. Now up to this point Terri did not have a real interest in the camping thing including my long time desire to buy a camper. In fact I had resigned myself into getting at most a pop up as that was something I could tow behind my truck. Anyway I had talked to Matthew about our little summer adventure that we could take and I was beginning to make plans. That's when something changed and my wife said that she may want to go along with us on this little trip and I quizzically replied okay?? So while I was on one of my trips in early June I get a call from my wife who says that Matthew thinks that he and I are going camping when I get back home at the end of the week. I said yes I had planned that with him and she says well he thinks we need to buy a tent etc. To make a long story short, my wife goes out to Wal-Mart and buys a 16 foot 3 room cabin tent which is pretty much what I would have got.
So I get home and we decide to put the tent up in the backyard and try it out before taking a more involved trip. Well as it turned out Matthew and I made it through our first night in this tent but not without the zipper tearing on the tent door which disappointed all of us. But the seed was planted for this camping thing and Terri and I agreed to take this tent back and invest in one that was of a better quality.
Now we have a new tent a lantern, stove, sleeping bags, you get the idea, we are all learning how to camp. This brings us to our first family camping trip when Christopher was here. Although he had some issues physically, other than that it was a good trip. We did it again in July with just Terri, Matthew, Bailey (the dog) and myself. We had a great time and were looking forward to doing it again.
But as things would have it there was always something that would get in our way, be it my traveling, the weather, or Matthew's school. However during all this time I had been looking at campers and popup trailers on the Internet and would show them to Terri to see what she would think. She really didn't want to get a pop up as she liked the hard sided campers more, even though many of them had a bathroom and shower built in. I agreed and had been looking at hybrids that may meet our desires. A hybrid for those who don't know is a hard sided camper with beds that fold out in a tent. These type of campers are popular with people such as ourselves who do not have big tow vehicles and are not ready to put out a bunch of money for a vehicle that can tow large campers. Hybrids are generally lightweight and most offer all the comforts of home such as a microwave, stove, oven, and bathroom.
After showing my wife what I thought would be nice, she agreed but said it would have to wait until next year. Like a kid who's toy had been taken away I responded okay and moped off to my computer where I staged the plan for my next attack. I did this by printing out the brochures, requesting information to be mailed to the house etc. Soon the items were dropping on her desk and in our mailbox, the plan worked. I took a day off from work in September as she had it off and Matthew did not have school and we went to the camper dealer (whom I had already been to see) to have her take a look at these campers. This was just to get an idea of what we may want next year right? So we looked and we bought the one I had been considering for about 2 months and that is how we came to have a camper.
Now that we have the camper we have taken a couple of trips in it and have learned a great deal. We always look forward to going and spend a lot of our time reading about different places and planning trips which is probably half the fun. Another thing that has come up is that I (Tim) can't go anywhere with the camper without my wife. This is forbidden in her eyes and all I can say is "who's idea was this camping thing to begin with?" But it has been fun and I can't wait for us to go again, maybe tomorrow? You never know and that's the beauty of this family hobby.
Well I have to load the camper up with some food for a trip so I will close this family update, but be sure to check out the links on the home page and in this update as we will put our little adventures pictures on the website for you to see no matter how short the trip is.
Take care for now
Tim