August and September

Well Its been a few months and I am just not sure where the time has gone. Orson is bigger, we spent the month of August in the UK with Dad, this month I started online classes towards my masters in Emergency Management, Drea got married and we flew out to Iowa (yes it does exist) to participate, and I've started EMDR to treat my PTSD ) I love acronyms :) Oh and I won a book from Kelley's Healthy By Choice website and the combination of what I learned in it and of what I had already been thinking about caused us to completely overhauling our diets (especially Orson's) to cut out GMOs, meat hormones (yes we still eat meat, we are just trying to eat grass fed meat and drink and eat only RBSt free milk products) and pesticides.

So, the first topic and my favorite :) Orson. He is so much taller, I can't wait until his 18 month appointment (well more like 20 month) to get his measurements. He is stringing multiple words together now and we can have simple conversations together. One of my favorite moments from this month is when he asked me (looked at me and then patted the spot next to him) to sit in the backdoor way with him and look outside at the butterflies and flowers. As I sat there I realized that between signs, words and sounds I was able to understand that he wanted me to see the butterflies sniffing the flowers in the back yard as well as the squirrels and birds. It still fills me with wonder that that was our first "conversation." He is also trying to figure out how to assert his will....the tantrums are trying and the screeching is nerve racking, especially since he does it both when he is happy and when he is upset. Lastly, he has his two bottom eye teeth in now and is working on the tops, I can't wait until teething is over! It seems like we have been dealing with that for forever (well since he was about 3 months) and we still have molars to go. But as one of my mom friends said, what will we blame their crazy behavior on when they stop teething :)

All of the bears of our house

Orson made an apple out of play dough, he was very proud to tell us what it was (and yes he did it on his own after watching me make one)

Dressing up has become a favorite past time of the little ones

London was so much fun this year. We started the month off by flying in with Anne and my cousin Liz. Liz was there for 7 days, I think, and in that time we went to the Natural History Museum (and learned that Orson's screeching is not museum friendly), Bath, Cambridge, Buckingham, and all over town. It was so nice to spend time with Liz (its been way too long) and I am so thankful for the extra hands on the air ride over. Then Orson and I got some one-on-one time with Anne and we had a blast! We went to all kinds of outdoor places around London, including Camden Market, Covent Gardens, Kensington and Hyde Park, tons of train rides and walks. We also went to the land of chocolate and lace, Brugges with Dad for the weekend. Brugges is a fairytale town! We took boat rides around the city, could walk anywhere from our hotel, watched horses and carriages go by....its amazing what a town completely untouched by bombs and battles can look like. Lastly, thanks to Dad, Anne and I got to go out for an evening without Orson to see Wicked. So much fun! Then Anne left, Lynda came home and Orson and I took it easy doing simple things with Lynda for a few days before Matt came in and rounded out our stay. The day after Matt arrived, all of us including Dad took off for a long weekend in Oslo. We spent it with family friends Jane and Oddbjorn, who took us out on the fjord in the boat for a day, fed us amazing meals and made sure we enjoyed our stay (they even arranged for amazing weather the entire time we were there). We also went to the folk museum, the viking ship museum, naked people park, Holmenk ollen to see the new ski jump, shopping and just walking around town. It was magical. When we got back to London, we went on a bus and boat tour of the city, Lynda took Orson for a day and night so that Matt and I could spend sometime in non-Orson proof areas like St. Paul's, the British Museum and at the play 22 steps. And then we wrapped up the weekend with Dad before taking off for the states and home. It was a great month, I enjoyed it so much and can't wait until Christmas to see everyone again.

Bath with Anne and Liz

Playing in the park and backyard with Grandpa and Anne

Tea with Lynda at the Orangery (gluten free cake!!!!Yummy!)

They even had tea and cake for little people, Orson loved his. The two main words he learned in England were Tea and Cookie (for biscuits).

Brugges, Belgium

Norway

London

This month we flew out to Des Monies, Iowa for Drea and Matt's wedding (yes another Matt). I was in the wedding and it was so much fun to spend the weekend with the girls. Matt and Orson had fun visiting the zoo and just having father son time. And the best part was that I actually got to dance with both of my guys before calling it a night. We also got to see Kelley, Jerry and Brayden as well as Emily over the weekend. I miss having my Amerigirls near by. Such an amazing bond we have. The same week I also started my online classes. Lets just say, it has been 10ish years since I have done a lick of school work and now I am reading 100 plus pages a week and writing 6-10. Boy howdy, I didn't miss it but I am in for the haul now, so I might as well bite the bullet and do a good job. So far I have an A in both classes but I also have a 15 page research paper dues in both at the end of this month. Keep me in your prayers!

Last, we made some major changes in eating and lifestyle since we've been home (or at least we are trying). I am now going to therapy every week and we are doing a treatment called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). It is really hard and tiring work but also seems to be helping me a lot. Basically, the treatment involves me holding a small vibrating disk in each hand while I picture a scence from Katrina, mom's death, the miscarriage or the car accident in my head. The disks alternate which hand vibrates and I let my brain follow whichever path the scene takes me down. I have started at mom's casket and ended at Orson laughing, been stuck in the middle of a map of the gulf coast spinning around in circles and feeling like some one is stabbing my brain, and even gone from a thought of Katrina down a winding path past Katie's death and into the world of my crazy dreams....our brains are so crazy and complicated, it is amazing. At the same time we have also been cleaning up what we eat at our house. We have always drank hormone free milk but now we are making sure our cheese and other dairy is too. We have also cut out food dyes, started receiving an organic fruit box to go with our veggie box and started cooking in almost every night. Shockingly enough, we are managing to save money on our groceries and meals, since we now are being very picking about what we buy and we aren't going out as often. We decided to go this route after I started researching about Genetically Modified food and the links to childhood illnesses, allergies and the plain old fact that GMs haven't been tested at all. I have also formed a healthy dislike for the way the FDA is currently run and the lack of separation between the government and the leading (read, making the most money corporations) GMO creating organizations. Even Russia doesn't let GMOs in grocery stores without labeling and warnings...why can't we do the same here? I refuse to let Orson be a test subject in all of this. If you want to know more feel free to drop me a line or read The Unhealthy Truth.

Anyway, I hope you are all having a nice back to school/fall season. We are swinging between autumn and summer temps here and I can't wait until we settle into fall temps for good. I love having my windows open and sitting on the porch watching Orson play. Love to everyone.

Flowers from my garden