So far I really HATE this winter, 6 out of 7 people in our family have been sick. Jake is very lucky that he is healthy.

So I have a lot to update. There's big things that have been going on.

Austin almost hung himself with the seat belt. I had just gotten the kids from school and was just coming up our hill. Everyone was really quiet and didn't think much of it. But then I pulled into the garage and no one jumped out like normal. I opened the door to help them and Austin was hanging with the seat belt around his neck and his hand blocking the belt from cutting off his oxygen. I'm surprised how calm I was. I cut the seat belt off. And all the kids were crying. I asked them why no one told me what was going on. They didn't really reply with great answers, they just shrugged their shoulders. That was very scary to say the least!! He had a deep marker around his neck.

Kendra and Maliyah had another surgery on the 10th of October. It went fairly well. We are just having problems with the pain meds, the side affects are getting worse. Not sure why. But we change to Tylenol, ice and a lot of distractions. Seems to work really well for Maliyah, but Kendra was a lot harder to help control her pain. But it was their decisions to not have anymore pain meds.

This last Sunday Kendra was playing outside with her friends riding her big wheel. She hit a large bump and got hurt. Took her for x-rays and nothing was broken. Maybe she is just being a drama queen, hard to tell. But before school she is crying and can't get around so of course she stays home from school, during school she is getting around just fine, and the cycle starts over the next day. She said that she couldn't stand all the way up. She missed several days of school, before I finally just told her she was going, got her a stroller to help her get around. And the very next day everything was great. What a stink!!

We have been worried about Maliyah's blood levels over the last month or so. I was very worried she was rejecting her kidney, her creatinine was slowly going up and her infections were out of control. We even took her to the urologist several times, he wasn't sure what to do. So I had a great idea, and guess what? It worked like a charm!! Boy, I'm so glad things are better with Maliyah. Her creatinine is even back to it's baseline, 0.4!! Love that number!!

Justin was having a lot of problems at school, he didn't want to do his work. So we decided that if he did all his work at school and then came home and did his homework quick we would get him a new video game. He's been doing great!! The tank game worked like a charm. I was really feeling bad about him having such a hard time at school, so I searched a little about different things. I came to a site about a little boy Justin's same age and his behaviors at school. I felt a hole lot better. I'll take my little problem over that mom's HUGE one. I felt horrible for her.

Courtney and I are becoming better friends the older she gets. She really tells me everything that is going on in her life. She is almost taller than me, in a week I'm sure she will be. The boys at school notice her a lot more. Courtney had her first dance and a boy perposed to her. She said that she just ran into the bathroom. We have a rule that none of our kids can have boyfriends or girlfriends. I hope that rule does last.

As you can tell this last month or so has been crazy to say the least.

Love,

The Herrin's