Sickness

A horrible sickness plagued our home this last week! It started on Thursday with Nathan suffering flu like symptoms. Then on Friday Alex was not feeling well and threw up that evening. By Saturday Luke and Abby were coughing and Abby had a fever. Sunday it hit Lloyd and he ended up calling in sick on Monday. I am the only one who did not get it. Abby and Lloyd are still fighting it and the rest of the family seems to be doing better. I hate that Abby has it because she is miserable. She sounds hoarse from coughing and I keep having to suck her nose so she can breath. I took her to the doctor and he says it is just a cold and she should be better in a week! That seems like an eternity to me! He also said not to give her medicine because it does not make the cold go away it just makes her feel better! Well DUH! Isn't that the whole idea is to make her feel better. I have been giving her little bits of cough medicine when I feel she is really needing it, but I try not to give her to much. With this sickness has come new challenges with Luke. He is not eating much these days. I would say he gets 95% of his calories from drinking milk. I am trying to put a stop to this, but it is hard when that is all he wants. To get him to eat these last few days we are having to treat him like a baby. Even then we can only get him to take about 3-5 bites. It is very frustrating! I know this shall pass and prays it does so quickly! On a side note, Nathan got a position on the Freshmen football team and is working hard to stay with it. He has practice everyday after school and does not get home until after 6pm. I wish Alex would find an extra curricular activity to put all his energy into!

Update

WOW! A lot is going on in the life of the Dunwald-Campbell family. With the end of the year right around the corner; I am looking forward to a fresh start! This has been a long year. As some of you know, we have behavior problem with Alex. Well top those behavior problem off with puberty and we are in a whole new ball game now! These behavior problems started when Alex was about 2, but got worse as he got older. These last few years have been the hardest. With this year topping the charts. He started Middle School this year, a new school, is going through puberty and has been off medication. Well all this bundled together to make life very difficult for us. We have had to make some decisions that are not exactly what we had planned. Some of the changes include, new therapy and therapist, new phychiatrist, possibly being put back on meds, and new plans for school and home discipline. This as all taken a huge toll on our entire family. It is hard on our marriage and the other children. I am losing time at work and lots of patience. We are at a loss as to what is going to happen next. We don't really know what to do with Alex at this point. Talks of him going to a behavior school have been thrown around, but we are doing everything in our power to keep that from happening. However, if something does not change soon that may be the only option! I have been praying and have lots of prayer warriors on our side, so I know the whole issue is being protected and guided by the Lord Almighty! He is leading the way. We are believing for complete restoration of Alex's mind and body. I am going to be requesting the pediatricion to to a full blood work on Alex to rule out any hormonal inbalance or thyroid issue. Please be in prayer with us that all will turn out well even if it means putting Alex back on medication. This has been a long journey for our family and we know that longer roads are ahead. However, we stand tall and strong knowing that God is leading the way!

Love is the answer...

Have you told you kids that they mean the world to you? Have you told them that you are proud of them? Have you told your spouse that he/she is your everything? Have you told them that you could not picture your life with out them? We are parents and spouses I think forget these little things. I know I do! We are learning about love at my church right now and it is really hitting home for me! I think a lot of us really do not know what it means to Love. Did you know that Love is a choice and a commitment? My husband and I made a commitment to one another and to "our" children (I had two children from a previous marriage for those of you who did not know) when we got married! We made an agreement from the very being that divorce is not an option. No matter what we are going to commit to one another! Did you know that love is an action not just an emotion? Yes, it is great to have the emotion to go along with it, but remember love is a choice! Love is a skill that you can learn and practice makes perfect! What I am getting at here is that if more of us would just take the time to love then there would be more love. You know what comes around goes around. I think one of the hardest things to do is to love unconditionally! If we could all just abide by the golden rule what a difference the world would be. Now I know that not all people are capable of this and I know that the world is not a perfect place, but I also know that it has to start somewhere! Let's choose to love one another and let love be our #1 goal! Reach out to your family, your friends, your neighbors, or even strangers! "Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it!" 2 Corinthians 13:5

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Sometimes you have to take the good times with the bad times. I like to make the best out of all times. As a blended family we have had a lot of what I like to call "rough" times. Lloyd does his best with what has been dealt to him. What I mean by this is that he came into our lives when Nathan and Alex were already formed. They were 8 and 6 years old I believe. They had and still have a relationship with their real father. This is hard for all of us because they constantly remind Lloyd that he is not their dad. Mostly it is Alex doing the reminding. Nathan and Lloyd have a good relationship and there is a good respect between the both of them. However, Alex and Lloyd have never and unfortunately will probably never bond. It is not becuase Lloyd hasn't tried; it is more because Alex will not let him in. Alex really does not let anyone in. Not even me! Last night we had a really emotional conversation; a rather heated discussion. I laid a lot of things out on the table for both of the boys to hear. Mostly it was for Alex. I know he gets singled out a lot, but if you lived our lives you would understand why! What started the conversation was Alex saying that I do not care about him. This is spoken from his mouth quite often lately. He even took it as far last night as to say that I was probably not even his mom and that he was probably adopted. It was very hurtful to me and I was done hearing such lies come out of his mouth. I tried to explain a lot of things to him, but to be honest I feel it all went in one ear and out the other. Things have never been easy with Alex. His form of reality is all messed up. He has a very low self esteem and I do not know how to help him. We have tried everything you can think of to help him. On Thursday of this week, I will be discussing many options with his counselor. I have to find out if there is anything else that we can try. I hate that it is the way that it is, but it is what it is and we have to take the good with the bad. I have to say that I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband because I think any other man would have ran away a long time ago, but Lloyd stays. He takes the good with the bad a majority of the time. Unfortunately he gets the bad more then the good. There is good trust me there is. Alex is really a sweet loving and kind person when he shows that side of himself. He does use his manners and I get a lot of compliments when we are out about how well mannered he is. Just when it comes to school and home he struggles. It is anytime he is faced with authority. I know where most of it steams from, but I will not go there in this post. He is going through a lot of changes right now as a preteen, but that is only a peice of the puzzle. I know that there are a lot of things that I can do better, but I have to take the good with the bad. I do what I can when I can. I may not do my best and I may not give it 100%, but I will never give up.

ReCap

I thought I would Recap for those that are new to my blog or haven't visited in a while. I am a mother, a wife, a sister,an aunt, granddaughter and a daughter. I am also a loyal friend and born again Christian. I am by no means perfect and never claimed to be so. I refer to all my children, husband and friends by their real names unless they ask otherwise. I have four children, three boys and one girl. I have many nieces and nephews as I consider my friends children my nieces and nephews. I have one sister and two brothers. I have been married twice. My first marriage is an interesting story that I will have to blog about another time. The only great thing that came out of it was my two oldest children. Now I have been married to my knight in shining armour for four years and we are raising all four of our children. I refer to him as my knight in shining armor because without him I do not know where I would be. This blog was mostly created for family and friends that have moved away, but I also use it as a venting tool. I am an open book what you see is what you get. I am very simplistic. You will not find anything special here, just a family trying to make ends meet. We live pay check to pay check and sometimes outside our means. We eat left overs and go out to eat more then we should. My house is clean, but lived in. I do not dust so watch out for spider webs. I do kill the spiders if I see them and any other bug that makes its way in. I HATE BUGS! I drive a mini van (as of April of this year), but I am not a scoccer mom. We cannot afford to put our kids in sports. My middle son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was three, but we have had him off medication for almost a year. My oldest son is quiet and stays out of trouble. Then the two youngest well they are not old enough to really cause any trouble. I had my oldest son when I was seventeen (twenty days before I turned eightteen). I will be thirty-three in August and just had my daughter in May. There is a fifteen year age difference between my oldest and youngest. That is what happens when you become a blended family. I love it and would not change it for the world. I work very part time as a preschool teacher and have been in that field for over fifteen years. I have my AA degree in Early Childhood Education and love what I do. I was voulenteering in the children's ministry at my chruch until I had my daughter. I will go back to that in August. I am a born again Christian, but I do not read my bible. I go to church almost every Sunday, but I cannot quote scripture. I believe in God and have accepted Jesus into my heart, but I do not try to force that onto anyone else. I know that you are suppose to share the good news, but I have a hard time doing so when I do not know much about it. All I know is that I believe and I cannot force someone else to believe. We live in California and have done so most of my adult life. As a child my dad was in the military so we moved around a lot. Now I like to stay put. However, with as bad as the economy is getting if we were given the opportunity we would move in a heartbeat. Well I think that is the just of things. If you have any questions feel free to ask. Like I said I am an open book!

Mother of Four

I never in a million years thought I would be a mother of four! I do not know how my mother ever did it! She raised all four of us and half of that time she was disabled. I was sick this last week with a very bad kidney infection that almost landed me in the hospital. I had to call on friends and family to help me because I just couldn't do it alone. My husband is a very hardworking man and was out working. Much like my father was while I was a kid. My father served 3 terms of a year each time in Korea. My husband works 24/7 on call and is frequently gone at night. I called my mom crying and asked her, "How did you do it?" She replied with a very simple, "I just did." Well, I guess it is time for me to just start doing because I am now a mother of four. When it is just the two babies at home with me we are okay. Even when it is all four of them at home with me I am ok. It is when we have to venture out into the big world that I struggle. Trying to juggle a baby in a car seat and a toddler, who likes to wander into parking lots, is not an easy task. I never thought I would put my child on a leash, but I bought one the other day for Luke. We call it his backpack and he has not offically been out into the world with it yet. We have put it on a couple of times to try it out. I look at it this way I would rather he be safe then hit by a car!
Abigail is doing well. She had some nursing issues in the beginning due to a tounge tie and some movement restrictions, but now that we clipped her tounge and attend theraphy she is good. I cannot believe she is a month old already! We cannot get over how pretty she is. I just love having a little girl. She is going to be a mover and a shaker. She is already holding her head up. When on he tummy she pushes with her feet like she wants to crawl and when on her back she tries to roll over! She knows she has three big brothers she has to keep up with. I have to go back to work on July 6th which is going to be really hard on me. My friend Stephanie and my mom will be watching Abigail. Luke is going to go into preschool!
Speaking of Luke, he will be two in a month and is talking more and more everyday. He loves to watch movies, draw and play with his brothers and daddy. He loves to be outside! I am not sure what we are going to do for his birthday yet, but I am thinking it will be Cars Theme. He loves cars, trains, dinosaurs, and monkeys.
Nathan and Alex are both attending summer school. Nathan will be a freshmen this school year and Alex will be in 7th grade. They are doing okay. Normal teenagers. Nathan got to go to Washington DC, New York and Pennsylvania with his 8th grade History teacher. He had a great time and I am very jealous he got to go!
Well, I think that is about it for this update. I promise to post some pictures next time.

Sneek Peek

If you would like a sneek peek at Abigail's newborn photo session check this out!

http://www.outloudphotography.blogspot.com/