Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Cut the vegetables

We are just going to go through today and maybe by the end I will have wrapped it up in a nice bow...

The morning started fine... Jilli's heart rate was a little high overnight so I was a little nervous because she crashed this week last year and had issues this week when she was a baby too so it can be a week that swings either way for us, but she woke up in a really good mood and we cuddled to watch a show together. Lydia woke up in a mood... she had a full melt down before I even got her out of bed... then Jilli was sad that mommy time was over so she was crying but I got everyone calm and Jilli helped me pick up the entry way and get things ready for oxygen delivery. She then asked to read some of a book together so we did that and then we did a 100 piece puzzle together that she got in the princes basket from Kade's Klassic. Oxygen was delivered... I always feel bad for our oxygen delivery people because we have a split level house it is a flight of stairs outside to get up to our front door... that is heavy when carrying oxygen tanks.
I watched a Disney youtuber while I ate lunch and then the kids and I headed to Walmart to pick up a few things. I don't normally shop at Walmart because we live in a tourist town our walmart can cost more then Target. But Jilli needed some new hair ties and they don't have them at Target and I needed to pick some things up for serving dinner at RMH on Sunday and Walmart has a better selection. It has been a long time since we have gotten so many yucky looks while out in public. My children were super well behaved and barely even talked most of the time we went down the isles... but for some reason today we needed lots of staring... staring is one thing but when it is accompanied with mean looks it makes me want to run out of the place... but loading the kids up to get them places is work so we just tried our best to not make eye contact with people and got our shopping done... but by the end of the shopping trip I was feeling the weight of the looks. We went to a check out lane that looked like we should move through quickly however the person in front had to have management called over multiple times at which point Lydia started to be less helpful in the shopping experience. We left the store and it was raining some but by the time we got to the car it was downpooring. Jillian's door decided today that it doesn't want to close which was fun in the rain and by the time I got in the car I was dripping wet. I sat in the drivers seat and looked over only to see a tick crawling across the arm rest. I hate ticks and this is the 4th one we have found in the last month. So took care of the tick and decided that I had recently gotten a gift card to Starbucks and there is a Starbucks in the Walmart packing lot that I was going to get a drink on the way home... I am not sure what happened but the drink didn't taste right. I was getting really frustrated at this point but put on a podcast and worked on changing my attitude about the situations because that I could control... were all of those things annoying.. sure... were any of them life changing... only if I allowed them to be. By the time I got home I was in a better mood. I got the kids in the house and put the groceries away and sat down to watch a Disney vlogger with Jilli. We had just started an episode and my phone rang showing the hospital.
I answered and talked with the nurse who let me know another situation is working on being taken care of (long story short on that... we were told we needed to see a new department, made the appointment back in April and first available was last week, the day before the appointment I get a voicemail that the person can no take on our case but they were trying to figure out someone who could... still don't have someone who is taking on our case for that new department...)  and said that their main reason for calling was because they needed to set up an appointment with our head doctor and just Brent and I... that they did not want the girls there. Finding childcare for our girls is not easy especially since they can not go to sib care at the hospital. The nurse said they wanted to talk to us about some things without the kids in the room. She gave me the date and time they had set up the meeting for so I was busy trying to figure out if I could make that time work. This date is in just over 2 weeks. The call ended and my head started to swirl. While one the phone I was preoccupied with figuring out how I could make the logistics of this meeting work on a day I know Brent has stuff going on at his new job and figure out the girls... but once off the phone my head was swirling with trying to figure out what this meeting could be about.
We just saw this doctor for a very long appointment last month. We normally only see them every 6 months. This doctor has also called me on more then one occasion and we have had long phone conversations before. This is different. This has never happened before.
Now yes, we did talk to our team after Jilli's last hospital stay about how she is getting older and while we do not hide things from her medically we also need to have wisdom about how things are said... this request stems out of a really unfortunate situation that happened where how something was presented to us was not done in the best way when she was in the hospital and it was not ok that it was present that way to me, but it really was not ok that it was said the way that it was infront of her. But this still feels like more then just following that request for our team to remember her age and cognitive level.

This is where the honesty of the baggage I hold at this point comes in... I know I have trust issues with doctors and frankly I feel like a bunch on that is earned right now between a few different situations we have had in the past year. I am scarred after how a few situations have been handled.

One of the first things I was really mad about after the call was that I finally in the last 3 weeks have for the first time all year felt like I was in an ok place. I felt like the fog had lifted and every motion was not as heavy. It felt like spring had finally come after a really harsh winter and I felt like with that call that it meant that the heavy was all coming back and I felt like the break from the heavy wasn't long enough. I felt like I was morning the peace that I had for those few weeks. God grants me peace in the midst of every situation but this rest was a gift I was treasuring and felt like was being snatched from me.

With the stress of the last few months when something hits it feels a lot stronger then it had for a while. When Jilli was a baby everything felt so intense but as the years went on we developed cooping and when things hit they didn't feel like huge blows except when they were huge blows... but right now things can feel more intense. My GI system felt like it was on the worlds more intense roller coaster... my GI system has stuff on a good day and stress strikes there first. My EDS has been rough for a few days... I dislocated my ankle yesterday by sitting down on the couch. I became very cold and was shivering. My whole body was feeling the stress.

This is what reality is some days... these are the things I try not to talk about too much. I try to talk about all of the joy and great things in our lives because there really are so many... and I feel like the last few months I have posted a lot more negative then I want to. I was talking to someone the other day and I said that I feel bad that when we talk about NIH it is all the bad stuff because there were good moments in there too like meeting the people who work with the chimps in space and the chaplain.

But what I am really thankful for is the people who stopped and prayed when I made a facebook post about crying in bed. I was nervous making that post because I didn't want to seem whiny but man could I feel those prayers and I am SO thankful for them!

While at Walmart I had bought fresh veggies to make home made pizza for dinner but when Brent called to tell me he was leaving work I told him I didn't think I could eat dinner so I didn't start making it but around 6:30pm I decided I needed to eat... and everything in me just wanted to eat junk food, but I knew my body was in stress and I needed to support it in a loving way so I walked in the kitchen and started to cut up the vegetables. I made veggie pizza for dinner and it was so yummy and kind to my body.



A few people asked on that facebook post if I was going to call the nurse back and ask about what this appointment is about... and I might... here is some reality here... I really struggle with feeling like I am "too much"... too bossy to direct to demanding that I often shy away from those things when they are directly related to me. I always worry about seeming pushy. I also try hard to respect that if they call with a brief phone call like that it is because they do not want to talk about it over the phone and I try to respect that because I know on a professional level what that can be like. I try really hard to keep positive relationships with our team because I feel like my kids get the best care then. We are all human in this equation and if our team doesn't want to talk to me that is going to make it hard for us to work together as a team... now I hope we have a professional enough team that it wouldn't be an issue, but once again, we are all human and bring baggage with us to every conversation. People say to not worry about what others think of you... but honestly in relationships it matters.

My head has come up with tons of possibilities about what this meeting might be about but I am trying not to live in the what if land because that just digs a bigger hole. And we still have many other things we need to do before this meeting... we are making dinner at RMH on Sunday, then in the next two weeks we have echos, cardiology, tube changes in IR, and our yearly genetics appointment. We have a lot to walk through in the next few weeks... one step at a time.

Lydia doctor


Monday, June 24, 2019

Kade's Klassic

I wrote about Kade's Klassic back in May (CLICK HERE) and yesterday was the big day!

Saturday night Brent, my parents and Jilli went to see Toy Story 4... Lydia is not in a stage where I think sitting at a movie is going to work for her (we tried at home on Friday night and it didn't work) so while they went to the movie Lydia and I headed to the set up for the event.
I just stood there kind of in awe as I watched gift baskets come in. Everyone worked together to get baskets set up and then to work on getting shirts together.

Sunday morning Lydia decided that she and I needed a 4:40 wake up which ended up being ok because I was able to get a few things done before we headed out the door at 6:30. When we left our house it was raining... but when we got to the golf coarse the sun was peaking out of the clouds.

First was the walk/run portion, then the 18 hole golfers and then the 9 hole golfers. Once all of the golfers were out we headed out in two golf carts and went to each hole to introduce ourselves to the golfers and to say thank you for coming. The girls thought riding in the golf carts was amazing! Lydia kept asking to go fast!

We came back to the building and had a little down time before lunch started. It was an amazing lunch of salad, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, roast beef and dessert.

Then the program started. First was the 52 card draw and the prizes for the golf teams. Next was the 50/50 raffle which Jilli got to call the number for which she thought was very cool. Then the live auction started which was crazy. In typical us fashion the girls needed a does of meds during the auction but my kids are so use to medical that doing meds at the front of a room full of people didn't even make them bat an eye. The the raffle baskets closed and were handed out and the silent auction closed. The girls were most excited that grandma won them both silent auction items... Jilli got a princess basket and Lydia got the Bitty Baby twins in their stroller (we had to keep her away from them the first part of the day because she wanted to play with them soooo badly and has no concept of an auction). Then it was clean up time and then we headed home where Lydia took a nap and I fell asleep really early.


If that all sounds like just a mater of the fact recap of the day that is because it is... because honestly I still don't even know how to emotionally process yesterday. I don't know how to say thank you enough or how to even start to explain the magnitude of the day.

I listened to a podcast recently with Richard Rorh where he talked about how our brains can not comprehend God and because of that we start putting Him into boxes to try to understand Him but in doing that we try to make Him smaller for our comprehension... I think that is kind what I am doing here about yesterday... I don't even know how to comprehend it, so all I can do is tell you the order of how things happened because that is the only way my brain can wrap my head around it right now...

But please don't take that is lack of gratefulness... I spent all day yesterday holding back tears because I knew if they started flowing that there was no way that I could stop them. I don't have the right words to be able to explain yesterday... and so I will do what was demonstrated yesterday and continue to pay love and kindness forward.

The golf carts full of golfers

Lydia cleaning our bedroom floor at 5am... that big box is another piece for the bathroom... Brent is hoping to spend the first weekend of July working on the bathroom... the sooner that is done the sooner we can start looking for a house that better helps the girls

Jilli wanted her hair fancy

the sun coming out as we arrived

the raffle tables











I had already eaten most of the veggies before I took the pic lol










The girls with their Ms Angie

Lydia and her new babies

Our shirts were pink with brown polk a dots after the girls love of pink and this blog... like seriously we have not known the people involved in Kade's Klassic for very long but they still took the time to learn about us and made the perfect shirts

Thank you to the shirt sponsors
Yesterday was also an exciting day that it was a person who has been very dear to me since college Birthday. Jaime and I became friends in a college Bible Study and have been by each other through the years. From struggles with infertility to all of the girls crazy health stuff... we have been a constant in each others lives and for that I am so very thankful! Happy birthday!


Saturday, June 15, 2019

Happy 3rd Birthday!!!

How is my baby 3?!?!?!?!


Lydi is our little spunk... we joke that she lives up to the whole red headed second child thing lol, but also is one of the sweetest kids in the world.

In true second child fashion Lydia was never even bought a baby book so the rest of this post is going to be my "baby book" entry for her to remember some great things about her:

Favorite toys:
-Baby dolls
-Barbies
-Play food
-Play salon
-Anything doctor related (especially Doc McStuffins)
-Play dough


Favorite Shows:
-Daniel Tiger
-Doc McStuffins
-Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
-Peppa Pig
-Pinkalicious
-Sesame Street


Favorite Activities:
-Going to RMH and playing shopping cart
-Riding in shopping carts
-Bubbles
-Wonder Wow
-Playing iPAd (especially mommy's to watch J.J. videos on Youtube)
-Whatever Jillian is doing
-Chewing on teethers 

Getting So Big:
-Working on getting her own shoes one
-Pooped once on the potty this week (she often plays the Daniel Tiger potty song and was doing that and happened to poop while doing it this week!)
-Sorts out her own meds from the pile at med time
-Moved to a toddler car seat
-Lifts belt so we can connect her extension
-Working on stairs
-First week in a big girl bed (on a maybe related note... I am tired and maybe Brent is too... he started making coffee this morning and ended up catching it in his hand because he realized he never put a cup under it)
-Counts to 20 and can name latters

Fun things about her:
-Thanks any child she meets is a friend and greets them by saying "hello friend!"
-Loves to cuddle and loves to sit in my lap and would sit there for hours
-Likes to smell things all of the time and then tells us that 99% of things smell disgusting
-Gets very worried anytime a baby cries
-Is very empathetic... to the point that she doesn't like getting her diaper changed so if she sees another child getting their diaper changed she will go over to hold their hand and comfort them
-Says some of the funniest things
-Loves the play family
-Likes at least 2 mimis to sleep


We celebrated her birthday today by going to the museum to play! Lydia was gifted some birthday money from some relatives so we put that together and got a membership to the museum to give us somethings fun to do this summer. One of the girls top things they ask to do each summer is to visit as many museums as possible and the membership we got has reciprocal membership to a few other local museums so we are able to visit several in a less expensive way. Lydia is a kid who likes to play with toys but she really just focuses on a couple toys or types of toys that she loves to play with and we knew that she would get some new toys as gifts for her birthday so we thought the best use of the money would be to spend it on something we can do as a family and make it so it is something affordable. She LOVED going to the museum today!

  Today at the museum:


















Pictures from Lydi's birthday party last week. She wanted a Doc McStuffins party with friends so we had a simple party at church and invited a couple of friends to come play hospital with her... it was perfect! 
















Each year for Christmas Brent's parents gift us a zoo membership. When Jilli was little we did a lot of zoo classes when I stopped working but it has been trickier the past few years because it costs more to sign up two kids and its not something I can take the kids to myself because each class is by age and siblings can't go to each others classes so it requires two adults but we were able to work it out so I could take Lydia for one last class while she was 2... the carousel class! She had a great time! It was nice to have one on one time with Lydia