Color Guard...

I've been meaning to get this up for awhile (sorry to those that asked me for pics so long ago. ;) But I've finally got a few.

This is my second year with ISU- but my first year as one of the captains. There are 3 of us- one for flag (Sandra), one for dance (Shayla), and one for rifle (me).
It's been fun- the beginning of the year was stressful- trying to get everything choreographed and ready for the shows. I get frustrated at the first of the season- because of the "all work-very little play" motto- But, now that the season is in full swing- it's been really great and all of the hard work has paid off. I have a couple of pics from this year, and hopefully will have more to come. Homecoming is this weekend, and although my wrist isn't 100%, I'm so excited for the game. This is the last one Clint will be able to make it to, so I'm stoked to have him there. It's just not as fun unless he and the kids are there.

Here's parade practice from early in the year. I'm on the far left of this picture- but now there will be four rifles in front and four flags behind.
-After one of the Saturday games. KayLynn, my instructor that I absolutely LOVE is in front. She brings such a perfectly balanced work ethic to the team- We work REAL hard, but have lots of fun- and laugh, endless laughing some days. I couldn't have picked a better person to work with. Love ya KayLynn!
Goofing last Saturday with Angela... (we were having a "can you move this" part of your face competition, I beat her in eyebrows. ;)
Angela is my bud from last year's rifles. She isn't in guard this year and since I had to sit out last Saturday for the invitational, she hung out with me all day. We had so much fun. If I could change anything about guard this year- it would be to have her back in- no doubt. Miss ya, Ang!

I realize there aren't many 'action shots' so far, and that's because the only time Clint was able to be at a game, so far-this year, he had both kids with him and couldn't cross the field to take pictures. :(

I've been wanting to get these up, though. They are from last year- and since I wasn't blogging at that time I wanted to put these up for publishing:

From left to right: Myself, Lynae, Amanda, and Shayla.
I realize this picture looks as though we are terribly OFF- but we were all in a sort of ripple at that point- SO- needless to say, it worked in the show, but not well for a still picture. ;)
After catching our "big tosses" from the picture above.

I remember the fear I had when I was contemplating try-outs for ISU last year. I was so nervous to get in with these younger girls and try to keep up with them. But I couldn't be more thankful I did. It was a big step outside of my comfortable little box, and it's rewarded me by getting more involved in ISU activities, new experiences, and friendships. Not to mention, buff-ing up my arms again. ;) I'm so happy to have gotten to know these girls and to gain some sense of self and confidence that I had lost. GO Bengals!

Picture Tag...

As you can see, I'm totally procrastinating my housework and homework...so I'm going to try out this fun picture tag I saw on Kjerstin's page (thanks K!)- You google image all of the answers of the tag and them copy them in...

I tag EVERYONE!

My First Name: Andrea

Hurricane Andrea

My Middle Name : Jo

My Maiden Name: Klingler

(This was a picture taken by Mark Klingler- which is my dad's name)

Klingler Cemetary

My last Name: Corrington

Corrington Cemetary (I'm noticing an unsettling trend, here...)

My Age: 27

27 Dresses Movie

My Guilty Pleasure: Music

Listening and spending money on Itunes ;)

My Fave Food: Chocolate Cake (who doesn't like chocolate cake?)

Where I want to go someday: Ireland to tour castles...
My Fave animal: English Bulldogs
(looks like Meatball!)

My First Job: Bagelby's!

(Oooo, the delicious calories!)

Where I was Born: Boise, Idaho

Where I grew up/live now: Pocatello!
I had to use this pic for Cara (rainbows!)
And this one for Clint (This is where he proposed to me)

What I am doing right now: PROCRASTINATION!!!!

(Picture reads: Procrastination: Hard Work Often Pays Off After Time, but Laziness Always Pays Off Now.) :)

Winter woes...

Ahhh... it seems winter is truly here. Here's what we woke up to yesterday morning... sigh...

Yeah... you thought that was shocking, here's what we got this morning...

The saddest part is Clint's snowed in somewhere in Burley. I haven't seen him since before I left to Holt Saturday morning. He just started his driving job for Transystems on Thursday (his shift is 3pm-3am) So, he's really gotten thrown into it all. Hopefully he'll be home sometime tonight. Clinton and Cara have had a hard time adjusting to him being gone. We were all so used to having him around all of the time. :(

On the bright side, Clinton has at least found an ideal place to get warm. He loves to sit on the heater before school and soak up all the warmth he can...


It's been quite awhile since I've caught up on pictures and everything we've been up to. So here's a quick run down:

1. A few weeks ago Clint decided to finally put up new can lights in the living room. We have needed these SO badly- our house was always so dark. And since he's learned so much from working with Cannon (making him even more handy- IF that's possible) He wanted to try it himself. We went to Home Depot and got all of the stuff, he started, and then Cannon dropped by, so he didn't have to do it alone after all- It was a messy process, but thankfully, a quick process also. They got it done in about 4 hours.

Clint had to climb up in our yucky-insulation-filled attic to finish up. It was roasting hot up there and really dirty... poor guy :(
Eehhh...
All worth it! It's so beautiful! I L-O-V-E IT!
Just to prove how absolutely behind I am at blogging... Here's a pic of me and Cara on our first days of school. Isn't she so cute??? Seriously...
Clint finally got the race car he spent countless hours building back from his sponsor... he and Clinton were ecstatic about it and spent countless hours staring at it- really, just staring... ;)
Opening parts for the race car together, bound by a love of "racey-car parts" as Clinton calls them.
More grinning and Ooogling over the car- this time with Brian too...
A couple weeks ago we got the HUGE pleasure of watching Ms. baby Maddy while Shannon went out. There was NO lack in entertainment for her. She was completely overtaken with these two fighting over who would get her Binky, who could help feed her, who could give her their blanket, ect.. Clinton woke up the next morning and threw A HUGE fit when he realized she hadn't spent the night. Since then, he keeps telling me, "Mom, you need to get a baby in your belly." :)

And finally, Cara has started up in her gymnastics/dance class. She and Cadie take it together and they both really seem to like it. Here's some pics and video of her last week:


Here's Ra on the balance beam- and doing her favorite, Somersaults.

So, as you can see - we've kept busy, as usual. I have some pictures from the competition at Holt (Saturday) that I'm waiting to get by email. I will post them all with a quick run-down on guard happenings soon, hopefully. Homecoming Parade is next weekend- and I'm so glad Clint will be home to take the kids. Last year we were snowed out and couldn't do the parade, so- I'm hoping we'll actually be able to do it this year. I don't know if they're more excited to get to see me and the band- or if it's the candy. Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for sunshine. ;)

I *heart* Edward!

Ha-ha... I saw this and couldn't resist! ;)

Tagged again...

I got this tag from my friend Teresa (thanks T) and since I've written about next to nothing, I'd better jump in and do it before I put it off. ;)
Things have been staying busy- I took Cara to her Gymnastics class today, this was the first time I have been able to take her because I'm usually helping in Clinton's classroom at the same time. Clint has been taking her and she really loves it...it's way cute. I have some video clips I'll try to get loaded and post soon. Other than that...same ol', same ol' ;)

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:
1. The OFFICE!!!!!
2. Everybody Loves Raymond (re-runs)
3. Real World/ Road Rules Challenges (that's my guilty pleasure- those people are skanky!)
4. Seinfeld
5. Family Guy
6. Friends
7. Man vs. Wild
8. All Food Network

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Mandrin House
2. Olive Garden
3. Ruby Tuesdays
4. Sizzler
5. Carl's Jr. (I know this isn't a 'fancy' restaurant, but seriously- their chicken clubs are so tasty, I dream about them! Oooo...yum.)
6. Mama Inez Express
7. ? - I can't think of anymore... I like ALL food, really.

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
1. Got myself and kids ready, dropped them @ Jodie's, then went to school.
2. Came home ate lunch
3. Changed clothes, went to color guard practice and KILLED my wrist. -It's really angry at me today :(
4. After practice, I was SO exhausted, I took a nap - yay.
5. Woke up to find both of my kids asleep on the couch- yay,yay!
6. Talked to Jode on the phone
7. Made dinner for me and Cara
8. Watched Harry Potter # 5 with her (We Netflixed it, and I've been patiently waiting to watch it with her. Very good, Love those HP movies!)

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:
1. More rain
2. Pre-game and half-time tomorrow. Even though my wrist is seriously NOT cooperating with me, Hopefully, all won't be lost and I'll be able to show off some of my hard work- and I do mean 'HARD WORK' - I've been workin my little toosh off at practice lately, it's like doing cardio for 2 hours! I'm really excited to be able to finally do a show.
3. Conference Sunday- It'll be nice to chill at home and watch after a crazy Saturday.
4. Halloween!! I decorated my house about 2 weeks ago- I can't wait for it this year!
5. Clint's new job beginning- I'm anxious to see how we handle his schedule.
6. Holidays! I can't wait for the goodies!
7. Finishing the semester, just one more under me belt.;)
8. I love guard, but I also look forward to finishing it and getting more free time.

8 Things On My Wish List:
1. QUIET time
2. Crazy huge and well stocked kitchen (thanks T!)
3. The time and money to entertain with crazy huge and well stocked kitchen (T!)
4. More time to read, read, read.
5. No financial worries - yeah, right. ;)
6. Watching my kids grow up and staying close to them and loving each other as much as we do right now.
7. Graduation!
8. To be able to balance family, extended family, church, school, work, hobbies, health, and time to myself, flawlessly...
again.... yeah, right.

Keep on trucking...

Things have been very busy lately, I know I say that all of the time, but since school has started back up, it seems like we never get a decent break. Last week I took Clinton down for his check-up and things are looking fine. The doc was very happy with his progress. The only bad part of that was that I had to miss class (again) for about the 4th time in 3 weeks- not good. The homework is starting to become consuming, to the point where it's always in the back of my mind, that happens every semester- I just hate it when it finally gets to that place in time. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to play some serious catch-up and be able to be homework-stress free for a couple of days. Yesterday was stressful, my poor gramps has had his heart out of rhythm for over a month and was just able to get it shocked back into rhythm yesterday. He was pretty worn down from not being able to get it fixed sooner and worried about the procedure, so I decided to venture up to the hospital for it. My gran was wanting to go with him, but wanted a back-up ride home just in case she got to feeling sick- so I decided it would help to have one extra body there to help with that as well. He did well! The procedure was so quick, I couldn't believe we left the hospital so fast. His color returned and almost immediately he gained some energy back. It was awesome to be there with him and to know that he would get feeling better. I love my gramps so much- he's been there for me, my mom and my bros. through countless issues in the past, and it was nice to be able to give some support back to him. Love ya grampie!
(Isn't he just unbelievably handsome??)
Yesterday was also my birthday, which Clint and I had previously celebrated this past weekend with dinner at Texas Roadhouse (YUM!) and a movie (Batman-Dark Knight-also awesome)- and he took me to pick out a fantastic new guitar, the one he bought for me on Ebay was crap (sorry babe)- no fault to him, we just didn't really know what to look for the first time. (And for anyone who maybe plans to buy a guitar in the future- heed this advice: Spend MORE than 40.00- it's worth it in the end ;)
But this new one is AWESOME! It's beautiful and sturdy and lovely- I'll be posting pics as soon as I can. But- such a cool b-day gift! Thanks babe! So- anyway, we celebrated my b-day early simply because I knew Tuesday would be crazy- Plus I added in the unexpected visit to my gramps in IF that morning, then zooming home to change-pick up Cara- and get to guard practice- then running back home to get Clinton off the bus, feed the kids, and running them over to Shellie's until Clint got home, and rushing to my night-class... I purt-near fell over by the end of my last class. It was a struggle just to keep my eyelids lifted through the last hour. Poor Clint had a big day too- since I had to leave so early to get to the hospital on time, He got the task of getting the kids up and ready and off to school/preschool. He helps me usually (if he's here), but he's never really had to do it all himself- PLUS- he had his first day of orientation for his new job, so he was pretty nerved up. He did great with the kids (and luckily Jodie did Cara's hair for her ;) Clint tried, though- he gets credit) - so all turned out well. He's really excited about his new job with Transystems. They are supposed to be an awesome company and getting some Benefits will be such a relief. ISU insurance is Way TOO much $ to insure Clint- so I will be very thankful to get benefits again. He's gonna be working from 4pm-4am. That I am VERY nervous about. But, hopefully he'll adjust well- he's already pretty backwards on his sleep schedule, so maybe it'll be easier than I think. That all starts in about a week and a half. Good luck to him.:)
SO, that's what's been going on...guard starts to get REAL crazy in Oct. so things will be hit and miss until I'm done with that...then it will be finals, and then the holidays...so the craziness is not likely to subside. Bear with me. ;)

"O"

CR Update...

We're back from surgery and Clinton is doing quite well with his leg. Tuesday was hard (the day of surgery)- Clint and I got VERY little sleep and SLC was frustrating as ever for traffic. We waited around until about 11:00 for him to go back. They gave him some Versed (anti-anxiety) before he went back and it made him super-loopy. He went from acting like a baby, to yelling, to making faces... all in about 60 seconds. It always makes Clint and I laugh when he gets Versed. He goes from being worried about what going on- to giggling and goofing off in about 3 minutes. It's such a dramatic difference it surprises us every time. Here's a video just after he got his 'drugs.'


The happy feeling didn't last long though, unfortunately. When the docs came to take him back he started to get nervous. Clint and I walked back as far as we could with him, but when we came to the double doors he broke down. That's by far the worst part for me. I dread it every time. His face is so sad. Luckily, we had a great anesthesiologist that promised he would take good care of him. He told us later that Clinton put up quite a fight, but they were able to sedate him pretty quickly. It took about an hour/ hour and a half and when we went back to see him I was really surprised to find him awake already. Usually he's out of it for hours afterward. - Then we learned the reason he was awake so early...he hadn't had his pain meds yet. His face quickly turned from happiness to see us to wincing and then sobbing from the pain. The injection fluid they use to clot the veins is made with alcohol, so it burns-burns-burns. His blood pressure soared up to 170 systolic and his heart was racing. As soon as the nurse gave him his Fentanyl he fell back asleep and his heart would relax. This pattern would repeat over and over until he'd finally been so drugged he zonked out for about 3 hours. Then we go into the apnea phase. This is the other part that I dread. He eventually gets so drugged out and tired he forgets to breathe while he's sleeping. - Doctors don't like this much, understandably, but Clint and I expect it every time. We have to nudge, pinch, and shake him out of it about every 2 minutes. This gets real tiresome after about 3 hours. And we eventually begin to lose compassion to allow him to sleep and become obsessed with getting him to wake up enough to start the discharge process. It was a long day, Clint and I were STARVING,(we'd only eaten a pack of peanuts and some Mn M's all day) and Clinton suddenly remembered we'd promised him a present if he was feeling ok. This became his obsession and he worked real hard on staying awake so that we could go get a toy. He did great and we left U of U hospital at about 6pm. But before we left entirely, we wanted to go pay a visit to the woman we give credit to for saving Clinton's life on countless occasions. Ann Kamp. She is a Nurse Practitioner in the Nicu at Primarys. University Hospital is connected to Primary's by a large elevated walkway- so we thought we'd take Clinton over and introduce him to the woman who worked so diligently to figure him out. He was still kind of tired, but we quickly became excited to see Ann.(It had been about 6 yrs.) She remembered so much about him- much more than I would have expected, she also told us about how nervous she was to send us home with him when she did. (She didn't want to send him home because he was on 23 medications at the time, most of which had to be given 4 times a day- and she knew this would overwhelm me- I disagreed, I was DESPERATE to get him home)- But- she was very right- I was overwhelmed ,not to mention, severely sleep deprived, but we made it- it was by far the most difficult part of my life. And I had to tell her how right she was about the amount of physical and emotional exertion it would be. She then told us that she never had, and never since then had sent a family home on that many meds- not even close. And that even though she was scared, she knew we could do it. She said too, that Clinton had inspired her to research and give educational speeches on hypertension in Neonates. (Clinton had severe hypertension (high blood pressure) as a newborn- he still does, though, it doesn't affect his heart the way it used to. She said she thinks of him every time she speaks about it and often uses him as an example. I was so happy to hear that he had a lasting effect of her, as she has had such and effect on our lives. Here's a couple pictures of us with our beloved Ann...



And here's a few pictures of the aftermath...




He's been feeling good- too good actually, he won't settle down- he's had next to no rest this week. But, I'm just thankful he's feeling well. Thanks for all the prayers! ;)

Clinty happenings...

OK- first off, I have to start by saying I am well aware of the Blogger-slacker I have become. School started for me about 3 weeks ago and with that/guard/Clinton's school starting/Cara beginning preschool/ect... it's been an understatement to say I've been busy. I still have 3 birthday blogs to do, and I will get to them just as soon as I get the chance. Clinton's kept me really busy- he's started school, now a full day of Kindergarten, and he loves it. He's been more tired than usual- and a bit mouthy along with the tiredness, so we've had to work on nipping that in the bud. (wish me luck) Last week, he had an appointment to check out his right leg again. First off- I'll start with a little bit of background on him. He's had troubles since the very beginning with his right side. When Clinton was born we found that he had a couple of old bleeds in the ventricles of his brain. They happened in utero and there was nothing that could have been/could be done to fix them. This is a typical sign of CP- Cerebral Palsy. Clinton's muscles, however, seemed fairly pliable and he was able to move around well as a baby. The only part of his body that was really affected was his right leg and foot. His tendons have tightened further and further through the years, disabling him to walk at full capacity. He is unable to put his heel flat on the ground without stretching and gets painful arthritis in the wintertime. We've have 3 surgeries to stretch his tendons (where the tendons and muscles are cut or perforated to allow more flexibility)- and he's trying to tough his way through the pain of it all. When he was very young we noticed a slight blueish hue to his leg. We were told that since his leg wasn't used as frequently as the other that a circuit of veins had sort of formed and pooled there making his leg appear blue. His right leg is also smaller than his left and we figured the reason we could see these veins so clearly was because the kid has next to NO fat on his body and the veins were simply superficial and no more than an issue of vanity to worry about. Over the past year, Clint and I both noticed that the veins seemed to be getting darker and it almost looked as if there were more of them. I made an appointment with our pediatrician and he referred us to the vein center at University of Utah. We went in May and they performed an ultrasound to make sure none of his arteries were attached to the clump of veins and that there was no clots or blockages that were making it harder for the blood to travel up and out of his leg. They said that the system was totally superficial (just on the surface) and were not connected to any of his major arteries.

(The pictures don't really do it justice at this size, but it was the best I could get.)

This was good news because we then had lesser of a worry about him cutting his leg and bleeding profusely out of these veins. He said that if the veins became painful or varicose then Clinton would need to come back for treatment. We were jinxed. - Just a few months later we noticed the veins beginning to bulge out and Clinton would frequently say "my veins are hurting." I made another appointment with the doctor in Utah and we went down last week. They did another ultrasound and though things were definitely abnormal, they still couldn't see well enough to say whether or not he had a blockage. The doctor agreed that it had become much worse very quickly and that we would need to do varicose vein treatments. This is a small thing in comparison to what problems could have been. I'm very grateful for that, but he still has to have 3-4 sets of injections to endure, which in Clinton's terms means 3-4 sedations, intubations, and recovery weeks. I'm feeling bad for him because the doc said it would be much more painful for about 3 days afterward-(not to mention the funky brown color his leg will turn)- but I know if we don't do this now, it will only become worse. Hopefully, he will handle it as well as he's handled all of his other surgeries and procedures and he'll be up and running in no time. ;)

Along the same vein as that (ha-ha)- These ventricle bleeds have affected his ability to speak and eat as well. CP has a tendency to affect speaking and eating in it's victims. And although Clinton does incredibly well with forming words and sentences, he struggles with eating and swallowing food. His body is able, but his mind is against it. Clinton has not ever been able to eat and swallow food as the rest of us can. He's had a feeding tube since day one and hasn't been able to overcome his oral aversion completely. Once, when I was explaining my frustrations to our pediatrician about people who would say, "just don't feed him, he'll get hungry and eat"- The doc said, "tell them it's like trying to get used to being punched in the face, that's how uncomfortable it is for him to try to put food in his mouth, chew it and swallow." I couldn't have said it better myself. He's come A LONG WAY from where he was. He used to throw up at the sight or smell of food. Touching his cheeks would make him gag. Just in the past year he's been able to come away completely from being fed with his tube. He now drinks the amount of Pediasure in a day that I used to have to feed him by tube. - That alone is incredible. But, last night was a huge achievement for him, he placed in his mouth, chewed and swallowed his first piece of real food. - He's been able to eat foods like yogurt, pudding, baby food, ect... for months now- but this was his first bite of something that needed to be chewed (a foreign concept for him). What was this magical piece of sustenance? A corn niblet. That's right. And it took 50 minutes- but he did it! It was gut-twisting and heart-wrenching to watch him struggle and at times cry, even- but he did it! Clint and I sat at the table and coached him through chewing and how to put it on top of his tongue- how to try to swallow it with a drink of milk (which we tried A LOT)- but he'd subconsciously keep it under his tongue so it wouldn't go down. Finally, I got a pudding cup out and had him take some bites of pudding to try to get the corn skin down- after about 5 tries, it went. I was so elated, I cried- Clint screamed and Cara high-fived. We were all so proud of him. It's so easy to take the functions of our brain and muscles for granted. What would've taken me 2-3 seconds to complete took Clinton almost an hour. Life is so much more challenging for him at times- but he does it all with a smile, has the best work ethic of any 7 year old I've ever seen, and genuinely enjoys life to the fullest. He is the best example of what a human being should strive to be. I couldn't be more proud to be able to be his mom. Love ya, Clinty-boy!

Cake-wrecks...

I checked out this site that Teresa recommended on her blog- she was right-
it's HILL- ARIOUS! But, the one post that had me rolling was this one, I liked it so much I had to post my own link. Check it out...http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-made-me-laugh-til-i-cried.html