The Real Jenn is Back

It is official! I have completed the academic portion of my DPT degree.  I am beyond excited, but at the same time it hasn't truly hit me yet.  The last three years have been a rollercoster of emotions for me.  There were many nights of tears, many nights of only 3 hours of sleep, many times I wanted to put my hands in the air and call it quits, and to put it bluntly probably the worst three years of my life.

I've felt like as a mother I have missed out on so much with my children, even though I haven't actually missed hardly any of their special events.  I just could never relax when I was with them and focus every ounce of my attention on them because deep down inside I was worrying about what I needed to do for school when I had 10 minutes kidless.  It wasn't fair to them and all too often they would say, "mommy, you must have a test, you are crabby and there are notecards everywhere." It was hard on both Michael and Mary-Ann, however, especially hard on my sensitive little man, who over the past month has been my own personal cheerleader.  In the mornings before I left for school he would say, "mommy, how many more days until your done? I know you are going to pass! Good luck Mommy!" Today, as I received emails with my final grades, they would both cheer with glee as I said, "yeah, I passed" They would both scream, "mommy passed her test, YEAH!!!" It was precious!  I can't wait to be able to enjoy my time with them, live a somewhat normal lifestyle of a working mother, sleep a full nights sleep without heart palpitations (i hope) and waking up whipping out a book to check something one last time. 

The extremely dark tunnel I have been stuck in for the past three years is slowly starting to shine light. Without my truly amazing parents, husband, friends, and children I would never have been able to get through this.  As my "normal" life begins again, I look forward to being able to eat dinner as a family, put the kids to bed, READ A BOOK (first one being 50 Shades of Grey), Exercise on a regular basis, bake and cook again, watch reality television, do my photo albums, and play with my beautiful children.  I CAN'T WAIT!!! Here's to my "new normal" life!


 

MIA

I have been MIA! Lost in the world of school, constant studying, and endless nights of sleep. In less than 24 hours, I will be on vacation for a week. I am looking forward to this vacation as it is the last one before I enter my last 12 weeks of the academic portion of my Doctorate Degree! YIKES!!!
The most exciting part of vacation is being able to spend LOTS and LOTS of time with my loves, my family! I am so blessed for each and every single one of them.

Tooth #2!!!

The tooth fairy comes again! Last night was a very busy night! We learned to tie our shoes and Mikey lost his second tooth!

Tying Sneakers is a Process!

"I did it, I did it Mommy!" Those are the words I heard over and over again as Michael repeatedly practiced tying his shoe for an hour last night. We even had to skype Ahma and Ahpe to show them this huge accomplishment! He is so proud of himself. This morning he woke up and got dressed away only to put his sneakers on by himself! I can't begin to tell you how proud of him I am. He is such a determined little man.

When it Rains it Pours!

The McMaugh house is FLOODED!!!!
Sunday night after a ridiculously long stressful weekend Mary-Ann was in the ER with Coup until 2:00 am. Monday she stayed home still with a terrible coup cough. Monday afternoon Mikey comes home from school saying his head hurt and had a low grade fever. Mommy is running around ragged trying to cram in 400 pages of notes so I can just pass my test. Tuesday morning Mikey wakes up with a fever and continued headache and Mary-Ann is STILL coughing up a lung (if she even has one left). Daddy calls and says his throat hurts, and Mommy has a sore throat and tickly nose...plus still has TONS and TONS of studying to do. Both kids tonight have fevers, one is hacking away even with prednisone and Robatussin with Codeine and one has a fever with bad bad headache and is crying! Oh topper is phone call from Uncle Rick that Nan has developed a long infection and will need to be in the hospital for another week! Praying for Nan to pull through. I love this lady so much!

I want to scream, cry, run away, put my hands up in the air and call it quits...but I have the most AMAZING parents in the ENTIRE world that are helping me and motivating me to stay strong and picking up for my slack while Mike continues to slave away to support us sick and all!

Amazing Grace!!!

Fourteen years ago, I was introduced to Nan. She was living alone, teaching in the ghetto, drove a car, cared for the ENTIRE family, and was completely independent. November 8, she will be 97! It has only been over the past year that she has been declining functionally. She no longer is able to ambulate Independently. She requires a rolling walker to walk. She quite frequently gets urinary tract infections that land her two week visits in the nursing home, but quickly bounces back and is home again, living with her son. To me, she is an AMAZING women. I have been blessed with getting to know her very well. I truly admire and love this women to pieces.

On Thursday morning, Nan fell and broke her hip. That evening we drove to RI to visit her in the hospital. Our visit was good, lots of laughs partly because she was so drugged up. She remembered us, the kids, my parents, however, had no clue where she was, the time of day it was. Her speech was slurred, she was "missing her toe", she was going to make us some dinner, and told me I was PERFECT! How funny!!! I asked her if I was as perfect as Mike and she said, "well, not quite!" LOVE HER!!! Friday morning she was due to go in for surgery with a 50/50 chance of survival. I was so nervous. I had to stay home to chaparone a field trip and watch my little man present his sandwich fair project to the school, so I was unable to go down there for the day. At 4:00 she had made it out of surgery and was in recovery. I was on my way down to see her. I felt like a thousand pounds were off my chest. Arriving at the hospital I was alone. Mike was up with Nan. When I walked in, it was NOT the same experience as the night before (obviously). She looked awful, the poor little lady. She has been constantly on my mind and of course I have a huge exam on Thursday that I am now so far behind with studying! I know that she is going to make it through this, she truly is AMAZING, however, I do feel like it is just a matter of time, and my heart (as well as Mikes) will be broken.

HOORAY FOR THE FAYAH!

The fall is my FAVORITE time of year. One of my favorite events of the fall is going to the fair! Last year we started a tradition of having a Hooray for the Fayah party. It was so much fun. So, this year we of course had another party. Once again it was a blast. I got to kick back and relax all weekend without opening a book, I spent time with my amazing family, and I saw some old high school friends. I think the worst part of the weekend, was going on a ride after a night of drinking and an empty tummy!