CC is in culture shock a bit

The first two days of school for CC went great. Today was the third day and things got a little bumpy. This is her first year to be back in main stream classes since she started having the seizures in 1st grade. She has worked hard to catch up. Her teacher gave an assignment today. Write a page on why you chose this class. (Leadership Skills) CC with a straight face explained to him that she did not choose this class. He said write the paper anyway. Ticked her off. We broke it down for her and she is writing her paper. Over all she is adjusting very well. I think a few bumps are to be expected. This was a major leap for her. She is stepping up and changing things for herself. We are so proud of her.

The funniest shopping trip ever.

The funniest shopping trip ever.


Everything started yesterday at the Gap. Kevin decided that the requests for 50 dollar shirts and crazy amounts for jeans shorts and skirts had gone on long enough. By this point the girls basically had everything they “needed” so he went to the ATM and gave them each 100 bucks. He told them they had till Sunday night to spend their 100 on school clothes or what they had not spent went back to him. We walked around the mall for 5 hours and neither of them would part with their money. Finally Kenzie broke a 20 to buy a cookie because the excitement had dropped her blood sugar into the 50’s. So we got that handled and went back to shopping. I think they both bought two shirts after checking that they were on sale and rang up correctly.


We went back at it today. This time we drove over to Kohl’s. After a couple of hours we went to check out. CC went first she did good she got three shirts and still has 40 bucks left. Kenzie was up next. The man started ringing her stuff up and as she watched the total go from 20 to 50 to $73.08 the color in her face drained. She panicked and asked if she could put stuff back. We told her there was a line. She said ok and started counting her money. With each 20 she laid on the county she started wobbling. We ended up being seriously concerned that she was going to pass out. The man handed her receipt to her and told her that she had saved $94.92 She froze in shock. We handed her the huge bag and headed outside. By the time we got to the car she had tears running down her face. It was very sad. Kevin told her if we get home and you still want to bring some of it back we can do that tomorrow. With big tears she said “No I like it all and want to keep it.”


We decided that because both CC and Kenz did such a great job handling their money we would treat them to custard. As we checked out the menu the girls took notice of the prices for the first time in 4 years of going there. On the way back to the car Kenzie told us she was sorry for getting so upset that she just does not like to spend so much at once and that it might not hurt as bad to spend a little at a time. We giggled. Meanwhile CC got a little bit of her chocolate ice cream on her new Eddie Bauer T-Shirt. She stopped laughing at McKenzie long enough to have a cow about her shirt getting a stain and that it was on sale but it was still 10 dollars. Oh my Lord Kevin and I were laughing so hard. We got home and CC went and changed shirts to immediately try to get the stain out of her’s.


I love our girls so much. I have to say though it is a bunch more fun to go shopping with “their money”. I think they both learned a lot and hopefully will carry it with them forever. They didn’t only buy stuff that was on sale but they figured out they could offset the price of the stuff they were willing to pay full price for by shopping around for sale stuff also. Kevin did a great job and the girls are ready for school, well except that 40 bucks CC probably has stashed under her pillow as we speak. Ha ha.

Court Situation.

Pena v. Smith. Cindy Pena AKA my Mom was sued for the alleged breach of a real estate sales con-tract. Attorney Michael A. Smith sued Cindy because she refused to sell him the mineral rights to a rather small section of land. The mineral rights had never been discussed and where not included on the deed in fact if the Judge had required Attorney Smith to use a title company like anyone else would have had to they would have performed a standard title search and realized the mineral rights had in fact been reserved. This entire situation has been out of control for two years and has coast my family and me a lot of money, time and the ability to do anything with the land that sat illegally in Mr. Smith's name until today when the appeal court reversed the trial court’s ruling. However it's not over because the case has been remanded back to the same trial court to try again. I hope and pray things go better this time around.

• Pena — Appellant’s Brief



• Pena — Appellee’s Brief
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/trial-error

• Pena — Reply Brief
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/trial-error

• Pena v. Smith — Court’s Opinion
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/trial-error

Not the happiest

We made it to CC’s orthodontist appointment today. We are really trying hard to not miss any appointments so she can get the braces off as quickly as possible. I am ticked off tonight however because they left the bottom wire sticking out about a quarter of an inch on both sides in the back after adding bands that will already cause her enough pain to take Advil or something. So on top of the normal pain she is dealing with wires sticking into her gums err. We will be back in there first thing in the morning. She is 15 and insists on going to the back by herself but they don’t listen to her so we are going back to at least Kevin stepping back before they finish to check everything out. If we had went ahead and headed out of town she would have major sores and have even more to deal with. I am not happy.



The next thing is a new Prosthetic Eye on Monday and Tuesday. After that she should be set to start school oh guess we will finish school shopping at some point in there.


McKenzie is ready for school for the most part. We had her three month check up with her endocrinologist a couple of weeks ago and her A1C was a 6.2. That’s awesome she sneaks stuff now and then but she is getting really good with her pump and most of the time I don’t even know she had anything extra. That’s ok as long as she handles it and does not let it spike her blood sugar.


Kevin and I are both registered and set for our classes to start shortly after the girls go back. I got my final grades back today for summer 2. I ended up with two As YAY !!! I worked my tail end off for these two. Kevin did well in his classes also. We will get finished someday lol.

Last night was pretty big for us.

Last night was pretty big for us. McKenzie let me change her site without Kevin in the room. Silly but she has only had the pump since January and we have had a couple of times not go perfectly. She cries and wants him to do it so we set it up so that she would think he was asleep. He was ready if something did not go right but it all went perfect except the dang needle stayed in the site not huge it happens you just have to pull it out before she realizes it. He is going to be pretty busy when she has to have it changed this weekend and might not be able to jump and fix stuff so we are prepared and it was a great step for us. I am proud of her for being so brave and trusting. I know it is hard knowing I am not able to see as well as most people. I am proud of CC for taking my place in letting McKenzie squeeze her HAND as HARD as she POSSIBLY CAN. I am proud and thankful to Kevin for encouraging me and showing the girls that he has confidence in my ability to handle anything that comes up. I am also proud of myself for pulling the needle out even though McKenzie was upset, yelling and trying to get up. That is much harder than it might sounds. The next step is for Miss McKenzie to learn to change her own site. I think we will be helping her for a bit though. She is a tough little princess but it is hard to put a needle that long into your belly and even harder to pop it into your own back/butt area. We still love the pump it is amazingly better than shots without a doubt. It is still painful though and we never take that from her. She always gets the biggest hugs when it’s over and she calls the shots as far as where we put it, there just aren’t a bunch of options for her to pick from. We will never change her site while she is asleep. That way she never has to think about it being a possibility as she falls asleep. We always count before the pop and if she says wait we totally stop. We have given her as much control as we can and she takes that control and uses it as a responsibility. That makes her in charge and in good control of her diabetes. She is a trooper and will continue doing what she has to till a cure is found. She defiantly got the stubborn hard head honestly. After all she is her Great Granny’s name sake ha ha.