The Jenkins Family Blog

Happy 3rd Birthday Emma!

2009-06-24T14:54:00.002-04:00

Three years ago today, God was looking out for all 3 of us. Thank him for giving Chad the courage to watch his newly born daughter be whisked away to have emergency surgery without having the chance to hold her. Thank the Lord for giving me the strength to remain calm as I watched on the monitors as my baby's heart stopped and wondering as the mask went over my face if she was going to make it. And most importantly thank the Lord for giving Emma the fighting spirit that she has because without it, she would not have overcame all of the obstacles that was laid out before her. God made her a fighter and boy is she ever! I think this day will always be emotional for me simply because Ems and I might not have been here today if we didn't haul tail to the hospital when we did.

We have had a great year-Emma gained 12lbs and almost a foot in height. Her way of pooping now has greatly reduced the stress in all of our lives and contributed to her growth. And since she started Speech and Occupational Therapy, she is a talking, thriving and happy 3 year old. Its simply amazing to see how much has changed in a year. She started pre-pre school part-time (8-12) during the week so I could go back to the office and Emma loves it! Swim lessons are up (maybe) for the later part of the summer and maybe a mini-vay-cay in August. She loves Dora, Princess stuff and most importantly, the cat. She enjoys playing in the water, riding her bikes and eating ice cream cones-she lives the life!

Happy Birthday Emma Rose!

Another doc to add to the blog

2009-05-20T14:07:00.002-04:00

Seriously? Like we need yet another specialist? I thought 2009 would be the first year Emma would not see an inside of an OR but I was wrong.

We had a standing appointment with the ENT since March when the 4th ear infection of the year failed to clear up. Dr.Curry made the appointment, along with a hearing test b/c she felt that some damage (a.ka. HEARING LOSS) could have resulted from the back to back to back ear infections since Christmas. Well, she was right.

Fast-Forward to this month. She started speech and OT therapy-about a year behind with all of the chit-chat. Ems drops consonants and endings on almost all of her words. It's like she doesn't hear the "end" of them (or chooses to ignore them-typical Emma fashion). Oh and no sentences yet among another things. She has a senorsy processing disorder which I am simply too exhausted to talk about right now.

But today explains a lot- mild hearing loss in at least one of the ears, if not both. The audiologist wanted to know the whole "what does she say/doesn't say/doesn't say correctly" and when you put 2 and 2 together, it makes sense now of why she says the word "HOUSE" like "HOW"....drops off the ending. Duh, she can't hear the ending. So we think. Because while Melissa was trying to admin the test, Emma was screaming so hard she puked. So lovely. Goldfish and Juice. So we got about a 80-90% accurate test. It was a rotten morning.

After this lovely ride, we got to meet with Dr.Derkay, the head of ENT at our children's hospital. He took a quick peek in her ears (as she was screaming and dry-heaving) and remarked on how strong she was....I just couldn't bear to go into the story of WHY she was that strong.
Good news....no ear infection, just lovely seasonal allergies. Bad news.....we won a ticket to the OR come this July. He wants to examine her ears under anesthesia to really get a good look without having to torture her while she is awake. And he feels that tubes will help, tubes will go in. I don't want her in hearing aids if we can drain the fluid so she can HEAR. Good gracious does it have to be this hard??!!! We will also have a ABA test done (auditory brainstem response) to really get a accurate account of just how much (if any) of a hearing loss she may or may not have. This is the best test you can do and frankly, I can't believe we were able to get any results after how hard she cried today.

As she was crying and coughing.....he went into her whole EA/TE repair and history. He is actually more worried about the snoring and cough than the ears lol! Dr. Derkay is going to do a scope of her trachea to see if any stricturing has occurred, check to see if the trachea is growing with her and check the healing from the initial surgery. It's never been done before b/c I just accepted that she will always snore and have a scary barky cough while she sleeps. He said it's not normal at this point. Of course not right? Before he takes a looksee, I am going to have Dr.Kuhn in the OR with him since she did the first repair at birth. I always drill the docs and the anesthesiologist before anybody sticks a ET tube down her throat b/c of all that has been done. He'll scope first before placing the lovely blue tube down the hatch and Dr.Kuhn will be standing by protecting her work.

Lovely eh? Explains a lot with speech which her therapists will be delighted to hear. Looks like we meet our $5900 deductible this year after all :) I am pretty pissed, or more like annoyed or just simply exhausted of having yet another thing out of place with Emma. God is up there thinking....lets give her yet another issue to deal with and see how she swims with the fishes. Its frustrating that's all. I look around at her healthy "never has seen the inside of an OR" friends and I am still bitter about it. I thought I was over it but I am apparently not. It's hard to explain to them how I feel b/c frankly, they haven't had to say goodbye to their baby while someone else takes them away to be cut open. And on the other hand, we have friends that have gone through similar things, sometimes even more than us, and then I feel guilty bitching about a simple minor surgery. Emma has been through much much worse.

All I want to do is have a tall glass of something alcoholic and go to bed. More likely I am going to mop my kitchen floors, do an enema and go out to buy an overpriced cupcake to make me feel better.

8 things...For Amber S.

2009-05-02T14:09:00.002-04:00

Yeah, I am a MIA blogger.....things have been so crazy with the move, with Emma in preschool, with me going back to work (she is in school 8-12, I work 8-12), a doctor and his family staying with us (might open up a office for him here at the beach) and well....blogging has taken a back seat. I still keep up on everyone else's blog which leads me to post the "8 things" since Amber believes I have fallen off the face of the earth :) Which in the blogland, I have :) So for Amber, here is my 8 things-love ya!

* Mention the person that tagged you* Complete the list of 8 things* Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends* Go tell them you tagged them :)

8 Things I look forward to:

The start of summer....lots of 90 degree days and trips to the beach
Emma going to preschool 5x a week so I can work at the office
My cup of coffee in the morning
My sister's wedding in MEXICO this fall (we love the swine flu, bring it on!)
Emma's 3rd birthday in June
Getting sod in our front and back yard
Grilling out on the deck and eating outside....before it gets too hot lol
Unpacking the last of the boxes in our FROG

8 things I did yesterday:

Drank coffee
Took Emma to school and had her pryed off my leg with a crowbar (aka as Ms.Jeffries)
Ordered wobble chairs and CT units for the office
Had a cupcake
Drank another cup of coffee
Cooked dinner for Jason, Cassie, their kids plus mine
Played bubbles outside
Drank another cup of coffee (decaf, 9pm)

8 things I wish I could do:

Get rid of the debt (doesn't everybody)
Grow my hair out faster so I can can just get it cut again
Watch the last 6 episodes of Grey's so I can finally talk about it-isn't it almost over for the season?
Keep my kitchen floors/fridge clean...a constant daily battle
Workout more...period
Get a tan that didn't come from a bottle
Unpack the last of the boxes in the FROG
Cook scrambled eggs that didn't stick to the pan....again

8 shows I watch:

Greys Anatomy
House
Good Eats
What Not to Wear
Jon and Kate plus 8 (just started, again....sigh)
Cops
My friends Tigger and Pooh
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
(Ok the last two I watch b/c well Emma watches them lol)

I tag Amber S, Becca, Toni, Mindy and since my laptop is going to lose its juice, that is it for now!

Happy Butt Day!

2009-03-05T08:07:00.003-05:00

Hello from my hospital bed 3 days after surgery-still on the good drugs!

I forgot to update this blog on Saturday, but it's been a whole YEAR since Emma got a new heiney courtesy of Dr. Levitt. What a difference it has made in our lives. It simply floors me to think how far we have come with her, how amazing she is doing now and how wonderful Dr.Breech and Dr.Levitt has been with us. I am relieved to know that they will continue to follow her until who knows when...maybe they will stop when she has children of her own? If we get her potty trained for pee by the fall, then we will be going back to Ohio for a laxative trial in October. If she isn't potty trained, it will have to wait until March of 2010 b/c spending a week in Ohio from Nov-March is well, cold. I hate cold :) I will wait until the weather is nicer so we can do some traveling during that week.

Hanging out in the ER on our last day in Cincy

Yes, our cruise was fun and no the house isn't done b/c we keep failing the inspection because our dishwasher STILL hasn't arrived.....but that is another story :)

I promise more pics, but I have a facebook page which has a bunch....search Laura Young Jenkins and you will find my page. Well, gotta do Emma's poop thing now so we can get on with

Taken about 2 months ago-she is TALL!

Hmmmm....

2009-01-14T14:58:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I haven't posted in forever. Seems like when there is no drama, I have nothing to write about :) We are going on a cruise to Mexico/Belize next month which will totally rock b/c I'll be somewhere warm in the middle of February :) We had to get a letter from Dr.Levitt saying all is ok for Emma to travel (since we have to bring all of her supplies on board with us and well that raises a lot of questions). All should be fine :)

And our house is almost done!!!! About 5-6 more weeks and it will be move in ready. Paint is on the walls, tile has been laid and the cabinets get installed next week. Whoo-whoo! I have had all I can take from the lack of available storage in this house...the new house has closets galore!

THis is a short post because Emma is yelling the name Ella in my ear because she is ready to go down the street and play with her. I will miss having my friends less than a condo away but good thing we all have cars to go see each other! Ta-ta!

A year ago today.....

2008-12-04T14:08:00.002-05:00

A year ago today was a day from hell, literally, hell. We just finished another horrible dilation in Dr.Kuhn's office and had a big pow-wow with everyone saying that Emma needed a colostomy and another PSARP b/c she wasn't healing up from her surgery (the biggest DUH inserted here). I know after that appointment I puked in the bathroom with the door wide open for everyone to see and ask if I was okay. No, I wasn't okay-I felt like the world was crashing down all on top of me and Emma was coming along for the ride. I had to pull it all together because I had to meet with her geneticist for her yearly checkup. I think I had the mini-nervous breakdown in between her weight and height check (3% on both) and when the genetic counselor came in. I don't even know how I made it through that appointment. I cried all the way home, cried until Chad came home, cried over the thought of having to do this all over again. It was simply surreal that night.

But what started as the day from hell ended with these words from Dr.Levitt "Sure I would be happy to help you". Our saving grace. I got an email response in less than 1/2 hour.....simply amazing. In less than 3 months, she had her surgery in Ohio.

And now a year later, a new butt later, she is 28.5lbs and 36 inches tall (60% baby!). What a difference a year can make.

Thanks Mindy!

2008-11-20T14:50:00.001-05:00

I love the new background, courtsey of thecuteblogontheblock.com, which I found off of Mindy's blog :)

Time to start waking Emma up-we are going to see Madagascar II....should be fun!

Emma's new glasses

2008-11-19T21:16:00.003-05:00

Wow, back to back posts! Well here are some pics for ya'll!

Its not cancer-YAY!

2008-11-18T13:50:00.003-05:00

If you are not into reading TMI.....I would stop now!

Anyway, my breast biopsy came back negative for cancer. Yes, cancer. I had some weird things going on with my left boob/nip area and my gyn wasn't too concerned. I however, was, because this is the same boob that had a lovely tumor removed from it in 2002, in the same area where the tumor once had a lovely home. My gyn said fine, lets get you in with the surgeon.

Last week, I saw Dr.Stewart. She talked to me first before examining me and I read in her face..."she is a silly girl here over some rash that probably isn't anything". Fine lady, wait till you see it. And when she did, her demeanor changed which in my world, is bad news. And the ever so famous words which I heard from a breast surgeon back in OKC...."I can't be certain that it is not cancer without some additional tests" (i.e. involving stitches, needles and lots of anesthetic). And when she said she was going to do the punch biopsy that day, I knew she was serious. They look a lovely chunk of skin out of my breast/nipple and placed some wonderful prolene blue sutures that hurt/itched all week and sent me on my way. Ow. Ow.Ow. The stiches were the worst-the actual procedure was a piece of cake.

But I have to add a tidbit here....Emma had to come with me today and Dr.Stewart's office was great-they kept Emma for me (and she let them) and she was happily playing in the nurses lounge with stickers, highlighters and pens and having a blast. All the staff was just loving her and I got to have 15 minutes of peace with the doctor. And they sent her home with stickers and a lolipop-that is a nice office-I will have to write a thank you card.

The pathologist just faxed over the report this morning, indicating that my boob is cancer free. Now I can apply some cream to the boob and see if this takes care of the "stuff" that is going on. If it goes away, yay, I am done seeing Dr.Stewart. But if it doesn't clear up, there is a slight, slight chance that she didn't get enough tissue of the breast (hey you can only do so much with a local) that the next step will be a quick trip to the OR to take a deeper tissue sample out. Eeeeeeee....I hope it doesn't come to that. If you are curious, they were testing for Paget's cancer of the breast, which is rare, and even rarer in those under 50.

I didn't worry about the results, because I know worrying doesn't change the outcome. Its harsh, but when we knew in utero that something was not quite right with Ems, I stayed positive for the remainder of my pregnancy. It didn't change the outcome but worrying would have done nothing except generate fear. Boo for fear!

Now that I am out of the woods, I shall celebrate by eating cookies!

Not Fair!

2008-11-10T13:50:00.004-05:00

First of all, I am finally ready to upload some pics of Emma and can't find the other digital camera that has the most recent pics. These were taken yesterday at the new house (and I so love her Ohio state shirt). So maybe I will try and find the other camera and get some halloween ones up :)

Ok, not fair....Emma will be getting glasses this week. Really? Come on!!! Can't she catch a break? Seriously, she has surgery at less than day old, more surgeries after that, metal things stuck up her rear, plastic tubing stuck up her rear, nasty chalky stuff she has to swallow 2-3x a year (with another UGI next month) and now you want my baby to wear glasses????? I had a breakdown Friday night after I got home from the ophthalmologist's office b/c it was just too much to handle. And yes folks, its just glasses. It could be worse. But its glasses and you are 2. You are stuck wearing them the rest of your life. And your amblyopia is so bad that you might have to have surgery (FREAKING A) to correct it at a later date. Oh and your prescription doesn't qualify you for our kids package b/c its so bad. I wanted to scream at everyone in the place-ugh! And what is ironic (or whatever you may call it) is that I love, love my glasses. I have multiple pairs b/c I love them so much. However, kids glasses are not cool like mine and I don't bend/twist/step/drop on my $200 a pair Nine West frames. I got Emma 3 pairs of glasses (1 from the ophtho office and another 2 pairs at America's Best) because hey you are 2 and glasses are fun to break. Did I mention that Emma hates sunglasses/hats/scarfs or anything remotely on her face/head? I can't even get this child to wear a bow in her hair and now I have to force her to wear glasses?

Yes, it could be worse.......pity party for me day. In better news, our house is framed and will have a roof on it in about 2 more weeks. We went out yesterday and its huge, I mean like double if not triple the size of our place now. And the back yard is about the size of the park I take Emma to now LOL. It will be so nice to have some wiggle room and STORAGE space, which we lack now.

Ems is up-gotta run!

lack of pics, lack of time

2008-11-03T20:37:00.003-05:00

Stupid bloggger......had an entry and it gave me an error message! Whatever-I will post some pics on Wednesday :)

Go vote!

Do we really need a fireplace in Chesapeake, VA?

2008-10-24T14:38:00.004-04:00

Seriously people, it doesn't even get "gotta wear a hat cold" here. Then again, once you live in Iowa and suffered through some winters like we have, you'll have a whole new level of cold to compare everything to.

Yes, our new house is FINALLY being built-the foundation is down, the blocking has begun and framing should be finished within the month. More cool (or boring) pics to follow. Since I decided to blog just as Emma was waking up from her nap, this is all I can give right now!

Chuck-E-Cheese and binkys

2008-10-11T20:50:00.004-04:00

I have a feeling I will get to know this C-E-C place very very well over the next decade LOL! I am surprised I got her to sit long enough for the "drawing ride" but I can't explain the look I have on my face! She was chomping on a noise thingy to compensate for the "no binky during the day rule" I am trying to enforce (Emma is silently laughing about this topic in her sleep). Maybe she is cutting teeth but I swear this child has to have something in her mouth at all times, whether it be some noise maker, dolly doll's foot, a corner of her lovey or a mangled up straw she found from an empty juice box. If I could, I'd pop a piece of gum in her mouth to satisfy this fixation but since it poses a choking hazzard, I will have a wait a few years and resort to her chewing on whatever she finds appealing at that moment.

I am over the binky. Done with the binky! Ready to pitch them all to the binky fairy done. Except I am a wuss and can't break her off the habit cold turkey. She still wants it when I am doing her enemas or when she is in a tiny room with lots of people in white coats. She runs around the house calling for her "bee-bee" and will say in a frantic voice...."bee-bee"? bee-bee"? over and over and over again until she finds the stupid thing that I didn't hide in a very good spot. Her teeth are starting to shift and that scares me so "the bink" has got to go for most of the day. I will have to wait until Chad is gone for a very long seminar somewhere before I break her of the night binky habit. Lord help our neighbours when we decide to do this!

Butt update

2008-10-07T08:53:00.002-04:00

Real quick here b/c Emma is taking everything out of my suitcase that is still on the living room floor.....

Butt looks FANTASTIC!!! No more surgeries on her million dollar butt hole. Dr.Levitt is having us continue with enemas until she is potty trained for pee. Once she has that down....well we will be back in Ohio for a week of bowel managment doing a laxative trial to see if we can do this route instead of the enemas. This probably won't happen until early next summer or early fall 2009-whenever she decides that peeing in the diaper is no longer cool, then we'll start making plans.

The va-jay-jay looks great too-everything has healed up nicely. Dr.Breech will keep an eye on her for like, forever, so I am sure Emma will get to know Cincinnati very well growing up.

Okay, must clean up cat puke, shower and get the day started!

Jumping Monkey

2008-09-29T20:46:00.008-04:00

Last week in the middle of the Nor'easter that was slamming Hampton Roads, the booby club (yes Dad, I did not refer to them as the N.C. girls) chicks and their kiddos went to the Jumping Monkey-a bounce house thing for toddlers. So I can set the record straight for my confused family, these are my FRIENDS that I met 2 years ago but when all of us are together, its easier to refer to us as the booby club girls so you know who we are talking about. As opposed to the Tarleton Oaks Condo Moms that I hang out with that live up and down the street from me :) Everyone had a good time and I got some good pics which I still have not emailed to the other moms..but enjoy some of the cuties I took pics of!

The youngest one in our group....3 months old. He is just too cute!

Can you say HAPPY BABY!!!!!

Emma and Timmy rocking out!

Shelia, Jayden and Sara riding in the car.

Emma and Jayden going down the slide. I have the cutest pic of these two when they were about 9 months old, before they were even walking yet....time does fly by....

Emma "bouncing" in the house LOL

After this little outing, Emma napped for 2 hours. Gotta love tiring the kids out!

Part of Growing Up....

2008-09-22T20:50:00.007-04:00

The lollipop made things a little bit better...... she isn't exactly smiling in this pic....

We went to Pigtails and Crewcuts for her first 'do....overpriced but since she'll only have one "first haircut", why not right? They have cool seats for the kids to sit in (firetruck, race car) while they cut your hair BUT they also have "adult seats" for those kids like Emma who did not want to sit in the special seats. Emma sat on Chad's lap and cried while they snipped a few inches off of her head. She really wailed when they started cutting her bangs. But a little while later, a lollipop and a new brown hair bow (since most of our fall clothes has some sort of brown in it), she was happy as a clam. She also found the store's treasure box and came home with 3 star rings (a.k.a our little multi-colored choking hazards).

And since we got the "first haircut package", they sent us home with a lock of her hair and a pic of her afterwards. See if I had extra time on my hands (before Emma was born), I could have scrapbooked the whole thing. Now all I have to do it plop this page into an empty sleeve in my current scrapbook and I just saved myself an afternoon! I think the last thing that went into my scrapbook were her ultrasound pics circa March 2006 LOL. One day I will scrapbook again but in the meantime, all my "stuff" can continue to collect dust in the corner of my bedroom.

The Nipple Club

2008-09-18T13:54:00.002-04:00

Or the booby club or what it is officially known as the Breastfeeding support group at Chesapeake General Hospital. Without the booby club, I would have given up breastfeeding the first week we had her home from the NICU.

I remember the first day I went, a Friday, and it was right after Emma had some pictures taken with her cousins at JC Pennys. I remember how freakin' exhausted, frustrated and scared I was to be with Emma all day......and back in those days she cried and cried and barfed and barfed all day.....it was a mini-hell for awhile back then. Anyhow, I remember walking in this big room with all these mamas bf and having fun with their babies. And there was chocolate cake. I remember the cake clearly b/c that was the first meal I had all day. I ate cake and had some tea and met a lot of people who I long forgot some of their names now. The leader of the group then was a older lady name Jacqueline, who my doula told me about. Technically speaking, I shouldn't have even been there since I live in Virginia Beach and I wasn't a part of the WIC program but she said to come anyway. I had dragged in my stroller, her carseat, my huge diaper bag, her bag with pumped breastmilk oh and yes, I dragged my favorite pal at the time, my yellow Medula Symphony Breastpump b/c I didn't know how long I was going to be there for. I got there right at the end and Jackie was able to watch Emma bf, give me some pointers, show me how to get her positioned and lots of other things to try. I told her if she didn't catch on soon, I was going to pump for 6 months and be done with it-it was draining the life out of me trying to get her to latch on and stay on and oh yeah, not barf doing it. She was still healing from the TEF surgery and probably wasn't feeling too well and with me not feeling too well (still anemic from all my blood loss from the C-section) we made a lovely pair. Jackie continued to help me like the entire month of August before Emma had her PSARP surgery to try and get through things day to day.

Anyhow, today was a booby club day thing. My friend Verda runs the show now (I think) and it isn't quite the same (or as large) as it was 2 years ago. However, there are a few of us that still do things together since our kids are so close in age (and we all started at the same time 2 years ago). I was watching all four of our kids play today and I couldn't believe how fast the time has gone by. They were just bitty babies not too long ago and now they were running around chasing each other at the library. I am not always the best at showing up to these things b/c of dr appts or other typical Emma things but I hadn't gone out with everyone in a long long time and I am so happy that I got my rear in gear and got to go today. My goal is to try and come to these things more often now that we don't spend our lives at the children's hospital. Emma gets to play with her friends and she had a blast doing it today.

Long story short, if it wasn't for the booby club, I wouldn't have bf'ed her for 1.5 years(and had a whole bunch of support behind me), wouldn't have known what craigslist was (thanks Denise) or met some great mamas! Yay for the nipple club!

Before and after

2008-09-11T11:58:00.004-04:00

Before: blah blah boring hair (this shirt makes me look preggers, which i am NOT)

After: No more ponytail for me!

My so not exciting life

2008-09-10T17:39:00.003-04:00

Here it is, another Wednesday, and we are bored to pieces. It is that misty/humid/rainy day that makes it impossible to go outside and play, for the fear of getting poured on at any second or struck by lightening (my biggest fear). The only exciting things we did today was 1) Go to Dillards to get some more moisturizer (since I am scraping the last bit out of my jar) and it happened to be bonus days at Clinique (I use the super defense moisturizer which is AWESOME) and I got some freebies of lipstick and mascara, which is always nice.
2) I FINALLY sold something this week on CL-I have about 10 items for sale and I have sold, the only thing I have sold, was her old leapfrog playtable, in which Emma proceeded to grab the table out of this poor girl's hand as she was heading out the door. Emma hasn't played with it in months.....the cat however, has been sleeping underneath of it so I am sure HE will miss it more than the kid.

Yesterday was the real exciting day when I decided that I was going to lob off about 8 inches of hair and get a real "style". My hair looks amazing and I finally ditched that "mom" look that has been driving me nutso lately. I would take a picture, but I have no idea where my camera is. The kid has it somewhere I am sure. Plus, I look like crap today b/c Emma was up all night with some post-nasally-coughing-congestion thing so I got zippo in the sleep department. Once I have the camera, I will post some pics of the new do. Its short, as in above the chin short. Chad, not surprisingly, hates it but alas, he'll deal with it somehow.

Oh well, maybe something exciting will happen tomorrow. You never know with a 2 year old!

Prayers for Lilie Clark's Family

2008-09-03T20:53:00.002-04:00

It breaks my heart to know that Miss Lilie Clark passed away a few hours ago. I have been following her life (blog) for almost a year now and she finally earned her angel wings tonight. Through the help of Amber and many others, we were able to send Lilie and her family to Florida this past spring for a wonderful vacation, knowing it would be their last one with Lilie.

She was truly a fighter and will be missed dearly by her family. If you are reading this, please pray for healing for this family-their toughest days are yet to come. They are donating some of Lilie's organs for research on GM1 Gangliosidosis.

It is a rare, incurable lysosomal storage disease (enzyme deficiency) that has no cure and most children do not live to see their second birthday. Lilie surprised most of her doctors and lived a wonderful life with a family who loved her ever so dearly.

I hope you are finally able to run free around Heaven Miss Lilie-you are finally healed!

Myrtle Beach-we are home!

2008-08-28T19:34:00.022-04:00

We are home-had a great time away, ate some good food and enjoyed the beach....its crazy that we had to drive 6 hours to go to Myrtle Beach when our "own" beach is only a 20 minute drive down the road-seriously we never go to the beach and we live here LOL.

We stayed at the Royale Palms (part of the Kingston Shores Resort) and it was super nice-the condo was bigger than the one we live in. We stayed on the 18th floor and had a awesome ocean front view. We got a 2 bed-2 bath condo b/c those were the only ones that had a oceanfront view like this. It was well worth the money for the view and the extra space. We even had a doorbell-I thought that was pretty cool.

View of part of our deck-it continued out to the left and wrapped around to the other side. Emma and I had breakfast out there one morning.

View straight down looking down at the many of the pools at the resort. Part of the pool had a real sand bottom and a waterfall. Pic taken on Monday, in the rain.

View of the building from the beach. Ours is the one on the left, the other one on the right is the Hilton.

View of the living room/dining room from the deck.

Gotta love the decked out kitchen-laundry room on the right. I love this kitchen!

Dining room/living room

We got there around 2 on Sunday, spent most of the afternoon at the waterpark on the other side of the complex (I forgot the camera a lot while we were down here) and then had dinner at a pizza place on the other side of town. We were almost in North Myrtle Beach so most of the stuff to do was about a 15 minute drive from us. Chad and I took her to a local park to "play" (ie to tire her out). This was followed by a trip to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store (which I had to go in b/c of the name) and for the fact we needed to stock up on snacks/juice/milk. Meltdown at the check-out line followed....

The trip to the park didn't work b/c she didn't conk out until 10 that night.

Had a little too much fun on this day.....

We went to Barefoot Landing, which was 5 minutes up the road from our hotel-and she rode a cow, the carousel and had a butterfly balloon made for her. I have her monkey harness on her in this pic-that way she can walk in crowds and we still have a good hand on her. I get some "I would never put my child on a "leash" look but then again, I used to give those looks....until I had a child who won't always hold my hand. And Emma LOVES the monkey and she loves having us "walk with her".

Snack time on the beach.

Checking out the waves with Daddy

At the Ultimate California Pizza place with Daddy

Where am I? Behind the camera. And Emma wouldn't want to pose with my anyway on this trip. This was a "da-da" trip. Daddy had to dress her, change her diapers, shower with her, walk with her, sit next to her, hold her hand, put her in her carseat, put her to sleep, cut up her food for her, ride on rides with her, walk with monkey with her, push her stroller and play ball with her. Mommy was left out in the cold most of the trip. I don't know if she finally realizes that Chad isn't around much ('cause he is working, making us money, putting food on the table) and by golly, she was going to get everything out of him on this trip. Chad had to take her to the bathroom with her b/c on the first night, she PUKED from crying so hard when he got up from the table to pee. I couldn't even push her stroller without her turning around and saying "da-da push". If I held her, she wanted daddy. If I tried to change her diaper, she would run, grab the diaper and give it to Chad. It was great :)

Our last night there we had dinner at Rioz, which is a Brazilian Steakhouse. It was the best meat I have ever had there. It's basically an all you can eat meat buffet (with an awesome salad/seafood bar) but the "buffet" is guys walking around the restaurant carving various types of meat at your table. I am butchering the description so you better check the link to see what I mean. They gave Emma mac and cheese, freshly baked nuggets, fries, polenta sticks, grilled bananas and mashed potatoes with cheese. The fries arrived before our drinks did LOL. It was the best meal we had down there.

It rained on Monday and then the rest of the week the weather was beautiful. I got some sun finally and was able to lay out by the pool for a bit without Emma in tow. The waterpark at the end of the resort was a big hit with Emma (2 slides to go down) and she had fun playing in the water. Forgot the camera of course :)

All in all, we had a great first va-cay with Emma. Now back to the real world :)

Myrtle Beach

2008-08-22T21:57:00.002-04:00

We are hopefully out of here without any drama tomorrow morning. Chad has to go adjust for an hour, and then pack up the car and we are off! We are going to drive 1/2 way tomorrow to Durham, NC to visit an old college friend, spend the night there and drive the rest of the way to the beach on Sunday. We are just about all packed up so all is left is the little odds and ends.

Surprisingly (big shocker here), we have a hard time finding someone to check in on what Avery, my niece, calls "cujo cat" because lets face it, when I am not here and other people try to make sure he is alive, has water and food, the cat goes nuts....so people tell me. My mil will check on the crazy cat only if my fil comes with her. Pungo spits and hisses all the way from the front door to the kitchen, where the food and drink are at. He about ate our friend Heidi alive a few years ago when we lived in Ohio (and he wasn't a year old yet) when we had to drive back to Iowa for Chad's graduation....after that, she didn't volunteer to watch the cat if we happened to go away. Why have a dog when you can have a cat like mine?

I am sure cujo cat will be fine, since we have left him alone this long before....actually, we have left him longer when we left to take Emma to Cincinnati this past spring and boy was the cat pissed when Chad walked in the front door without me :) Chad was trying to get over the nasty stomach flu and the cat was biting him all night. I am more worried about the neighbor's cat who we feed 2x daily (don't ask) so hopefully he won't camp out in our backyard waiting for food.

I am tired and now that the last load of laundry is finished, I am going to bed. I will try and post some pics while we are down there, but don't hold your breath b/c I can't seem to post pics while I am staring at the digital camera across the living room. Now add the vacation into it......so we'll see :)

Fantasy Football

2008-08-17T21:22:00.003-04:00

I made a passing comment at lunch last week that I wanted to play FF with Chad (one of his patients formed a league last year) and he said no go- it was all filled up so maybe next year.

But then, today, a new league has been formed and now I am playing....LOL

I need a cool "girl power" name so when I win, it won't be forgotten :) I found "Victorious Secret" to be the best so far....

Obviously Chad and I have nothing else better to do (pack/put house up for rent/build new house/clean house/sell stuff) after our va-cay next week except worry about the draft.

Love the fact we have our priorities straight!

Traffic....Traffic.....More Traffic....Truck off bridge....

2008-08-11T20:59:00.002-04:00

*Sigh* We spent about 15 hours or so in the Jeep this weekend. Our friend Jim was getting married in Bethesda, which is a suburb just outside DC. My parents live in Catonsville, about 30 miles north of there and was going to watch Emma for us while we had some fun living it up. Just zip on up there, drop her off and relax at the wedding.....NOT!

Leave VA Beach at 10:15 (b/c Chad just had to have the office open for an hour on Saturday). Get to the bank and realized he forgot his dress shoes. Backtrack back home, grab the shoes, get on our way. This is a bad omen-I check my bag to make sure I got my heels!

Traffic Delay 1: 5 mile back-up at the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, one of two ways to get out of this place...we quickly jump off the interstate 64 and go down 264 to 164 to 664 and pick up the Monitor Merimac Bridge Tunnel....this was somewhat out of our way and not a big surprise-always a back up on Saturday mornings on the stupid bridge-tunnel.

Traffic Delay 2: We are back on 64, across the bay.....7 mile back up at Jefferson Ave in Newport News. Off 64 we go again up some back roads to Williamsburg and get back on 64. Traffic is still not cleared and we crawl up to Richmond at 40 mph. Count endless cars on side of road.

It is now almost 1:15pm....3 hours and we are finally in Richmond, which normally takes 1.5 hours to get to. Snarf down Chick-Fil-A and off we go around the city on 295N.

Traffic Delay 3: Sign reads...Major Delay at 295/95 split....off we go onto route 301 N to avoid 95 for the rest of the trip. If its bad in Richmond, DC will be hell and we would never make the wedding. We are moving, but there are lights, 55mph speed limit, little towns..ect. And I am driving and I am a lousy driver when it comes to speed LOL.

Finally cross into MD at 4pm....wedding starts at 4:30.....we decide that we are going to miss the wedding and make it our goal to get to the reception. We get off of 301 and onto 97 to head to my parents house. You guess it! Accident. But we get through quickly. I start to speed b/c I know these roads better than life itself. We arrive at my parents at 4:45pm (the wedding is shot, we are trying to make the reception at this point). Hurry up and change, I do my hair/make-up (mascara included) while Chad zips down dreaded 95 S (but no traffic) and we arrive at the reception at 5:45pm-one of the first people there. Nice wedding. Good to see all of our friends from our college days, which were about 10 years ago....has it been that long? We seem so old. And no one wants to dance :( It was different when we were back in our twenties with no wedding rings, no kids and lots of booze in our systems. We last until 9:30 and have to go home.

Time in Car on Saturday: 7.5 hours

Emma and Chad snore all night.....4 hours of sleep is what I get.

Sunday: We are out the door at 10am, grab some McD's and head down 97 to go to our college on the eastern shore to visit a friend. I am not anticipating anything big b/c in the 100 or so times I have made this drive over the past 15 years, I have hit traffic on a Sunday maybe 2 or 3 times and 1 major jam in 1996 or so on a Saturday morning trying to go to the beach.

Traffic Delay 1: See flashing sign.....delay at exit 27.....about 10 miles from the bridge. We should have turned around and scraped the visit right then and there b/c we were at the 97/50 split. 50 would have taken us back to DC and down 95. But we press on and then WHAM! Sitting in traffic at exit 27, right before the Severn River Bridge. But we are moving, slowly and decide to wait it out. An hour goes by and we have not made it to exit 29, 2 miles away. The bay bridge is still 8 miles away. At this point we decide to turn around, scrap the visit (b/c that is the ONLY way to get to Salisbury without going back through B-more, up 95 N and down 301....about 5 hours out of our way). Turn around at exit 29 and head towards DC. ***It turns out a truck had run-off the bride and fell 40 feet into the bay at 4am......perhaps if we wern't listening to Barney's trip to the zoo we would have heard about the backup from hell on the radio*****

Traffic Delay 2: No traffic at all through DC.....no traffic heading into Virginia and then we hit #&$^$ Springfield and lo and behold a sign flashes ....8 mile back up......expect delays. Off we go on the back roads again. Thank GOd for our GPS in the car.....we would have totally been screwed without it. At some point we decide to try out 95 S again and we get on right before the IKEA store. Got on 95, got off 95 and had lunch and shopped at IKEA so poor Emma could see something other than the back of our heads. Got food, got coffee, got a new stuffed cat and some stuff for the office. 2 hours later, back in the car we go.

Traffic Delay 3: And now it is POURING outside, we get on 95 and.....oh you guess it......accident b/c of the rain but after about 15 minutes, we are moving through the rain. On the other side, I think I counted a 15 mile backup.....that just sucked for those drivers trying to get back home in the storm that turned the sky purple (I wish I would have taken some pics).

Traffic Delay 4: We get on 64 E and all was good. I was checking the 511 info line for delays and couldn't find any. We get to the split with 664/64 and see a sign......3 mile backup to bridge-tunnel.....freak.....are you kidding me?????....we take the long way around again! And then.....the gas light comes on-we don't even have enough gas in the damn car to get home. Off the interstate, get gas and hauled some ass to get back home. Fed Emma some turkey and cheese in the car to calm her down.

We finally walked in our front door at 7:45-Emma is finally free of the carseat!

Time in car on Sunday: 7.75 hours

Total round trip time: 18 hours

I cannot believe how many cars were on the road this weekend-even through these little towns there were cars everywhere! And the traffic jam at the md bay bridge....holy cow it was at least 20 miles......they only had 1 lane open to get across the other span of the bridge. All these cars had to go through the toll plaza and then merge into 1 lane, cross the stupid bridge and then you have all these cars flooding the towns on route 50 trying more likely to get to the ocean before summer is over. If we sat there, it would have taken over 6 hours for a 2 hour trip to Salisbury. Thank the Lord we turned around. The driver of the truck did not make it....looks like he ran into on-coming traffic, lost control of the truck, crashed through the concrete barriers and fell 40 feet off the bridge into the bay. It was a horrific accident and who knows when the other bridge will open back up.

Did I mention we had fun at the wedding and Emma was a perfect doll for my parents? I pray that our trip to Myrtle Beach in 2 weeks goes a little smoother!

GI update

2008-08-04T20:56:00.002-04:00

Waiting....we just love to wait at the GI's office. Arrive at 9 (early for once), appt at 9:15, wait about 1/2 hour to get vitals and into a room, wait another 1/2 hour for Dr.Kobak to come in, have a 1/2 hour appt re-hashing the previous 3 months of pooping/eating/developmental stuff and finally at 10:45, we were out of there, almost 2 hours later. I except this so I came prepared with snacks, toys and lots of milk in her sippy to hold her over.

Emma loves Dr.Kobak and was making lots of conservation with him today, which is rare for her to do with all the doctors that she sees. I think out of all of them, he is the most laid back one and always reassures me that I am doing a fantastic job raising her and addresses every single one of my questions.

I thought he would would totally flip out over the daily enema thing but once I told him the story on how we ended up there, he was perfectly fine with it. The less we stress about poop, the better off everyone around here is. He also told me to not worry/stress out about the whole potty training thing either-though he agreeded that we could save some trees if we got her to sit on the potty after the enema LOL-we go through about 200 diapers a month just for collecting the enema solution. His advice is if she is scared to sit, don't push it and when she is willing to sit on the potty for a longer time, then start trying it more and more often.

I thought this time we would be scheduling the esophageal dilation but....no. He wants to see her in November, see how things are going and get an upper GI in early December. He said as horrible as this test is for us, its a heck of a lot less invasive than taking her back to the OR and doing a dilation that may not really need to be done. If the UGI shows the same size stricture, then we'll wait another 6 months and repeat the test unless something changes. If the stricture is larger, well we'll be booked for an OR in the second week of December. He doesn't want to put her to sleep unless she has to. I like his approach and he never wants to rush her to the OR unless something absolutely needs to be done-hence repeat the test to see if things really have changed. If not and she is doing fine, then we spare her from being put to sleep for the almost 15th or something time-its hard to keep count.

Next year, this is the year we drop down from every 3 months to every 4 month visits with GI and the year after, 2x a year and then 1x a year. Kind of like our dilation schedule LOL. I have a feeling most of her specialists will be seeing her at least 1x a year until she is 18. I have traveled a lifetime's worth of visits to our childrens hospital so any decrease in appts is a good thing.

I am beat-massive migraine so I am off to bed-yay for a good day. Oh, she is 34 inches and 25.8 lbs...2 lbs and 2 inches since her visit in May.