Its been over two years since I updated people, mostly because we didn't have tons to update on? I mean, sure we had some crazy going on, but I was so caught up in it I didn't take the time to report it. SO lets see if I can remember all the big stuff from the past two years...
May of 2022, I had some horrific pains that ended up with me in the ER. I almost just drove myself (it's handy living five minutes away) but since it was the middle of the night, I decided to let Austin drive me. I ended up being diagnosed with kidney stones. I had surgery in July to deal with that, which wasn't super fun, but could have been way worse. They didn't all go away, so in May 2023, I had a second surgery and apparently there are STILL stones hanging out, so I have a urology appointment in August to check on those. I'm hoping for not another surgery, but whatever. They weren't super invasive, just uncomfortable.
June of every year, we do CALF and the kids enjoy it. Less so this year. Asher has decided he's too old for it now, so he stayed home for most of it this year. The younger three have taken swim lessons every summer. 2022 it was at our friend Ashley's mom's house, 2023 it was our friend Elizabeth's in-law's house, and this year it was at the house of a friend of the instructor, who just so happens to live literally across the alley from us. It took us less than a minute to walk to them. We enjoy that a lot. The kids want to make friends with them so we can swim whenever we want.
In July 2022, we went to Dallas for a family vacation. AUstin took the boys to Mideval Times, I took the girls and my older sister to see the Frozen Broadway show, and we all went to Legoland (which was pretty lame) and the aquarium and spent a lot of time in the pool of our air bnb.
This year, we went to Chicago and had a great time and walked so much. Asher has decided he doesn't want to go anywhere or do anything anymore, so he was a bit grumpy, though overall a good sport.
August of 2022, I took a short weekend trip with a friend to Granbury where we ate delicious food and read books and just hung out without children and it was glorious. I need to do that again.
2022 was also Rebekah's first year of school and she was nervous, so I told her I'd take care of her plushies for her so they wouldn't be lonely. Enter the Plush Adventures. I did it for three weeks with her, Elijah, and Eden's plushies of choice, taking pictures and documenting their activities for the kids. I turned them all into books they got at Christmas and they all three still occasionally ask me to do it again and Rebekah for sure still reads her book.
September of 2022 and 2023, I went to Fiber Fest in Irving with a friend and enjoyed myself, for not being a knitter or crocheter. I managed to find books both years and made friends with that booth.
Over the past two years, we have been to practically every pop up and event at 7&1 Books, and I'm not mad about it. Even the newer employees know me, which is fun.
Austin and I have made a point to attend more local live theater type things, so we've hit every Cabaret Under the Stars at the Paramount for the past few years, plus a few productions at ACT (we want to go to more, but it seems we frequently have other obligations the nights they're on). We've also hit the live theater stuff at the Paramount. So far, everything has been very enjoyable.
I've also started doing some of the art nights at the Grace with my sisters-in-law and we have a lot of fun doing those. I am not an artist, but my projects are fun. We have also gotten involved in a lot of the art things at the NCCIL, with the girls going any time they can, just about. They've done multiple artist workshops and Eden even impressed one artist enough that he said "Wow, she's really good!"
July of 2023, we started a family movie night tradition that's fun. We watch mostly older movies from my and Austin's childhood and the kids critique them.
August of 2023, the school the younger kids were attending that was based in the Mulberry house let us know they were moving. It wasn't the best timing, since TLCA started in about two weeks, but we did what we could and got the girls enrolled. Eden was able to start the first day, but there was a delay on Rebekah's acceptance and she didn't start until the third day. Elijah was rejected for behavioral issues, which was bananas. He ended up in public school at Craig and really thrived there. About 5 weeks into the school year, Eden had had so many behavioral issues, that she was invited to withdraw. So she ended up at Purcell. She struggled a lot. Like, A LOT. We had her tested for a variety of things and she was diagnosed with EDD, depression, anxiety, and very likely autism (it was hard to tell because of the behavioral issues, but they're reasonably sure she is). All that on top of ODD and ADHD have made the last year super fun. We have gotten some accommodations for her for next year, so...fingers crossed it works out. Rebekah decided one year of TLCA was enough and she's going to Purcell next year. Elijah is staying at Craig, and Asher is going to ATEMS. (I'm not going to dwell on the fact that I now have a high schooler. Yes, sure, he's a year ahead, BUT STILL.)
August of 2023 our cat Patty died very suddenly. It was sad and there were tears, but we've gotten adjusted to her absence. Jack seemed to take it the hardest and he wanders the house at night yowling, we think for her.
Elijah got invited to a pretty awesome STEM camp in Denton, where he spent a week learning all kinds of neat stuff. Medical, forensics, robotics, space, all of it. He had a great time, though he didn't talk about it much, and wants to go back next year. So anyone who wants to contribute to that, it is pricey and we will take your money.
He's also going to be in band next year, having given up piano lessons after two (?) years. He enjoyed it, but he'd rather do other stuff. (Rebekah also took lessons for a little while and wasn't bad, but time for lessons was hard to find, so she dropped them, too.) He went to instrument selection and I won't lie and say we didn't try to influence him a bit and miraculously he chose the clarinet. We got the instrument looked at and fixed up a little and we now just need to get some reeds and he'll be ready to go for next year. He'll be in 7th at Craig and is looking forward to it.
Asher...well, I already said pretty much all there is to say about him. He's 13, doesn't really seem to enjoy spending a lot of time with us, though he tolerates us. He'll be a freshman at ATEMS next year and also seems to be looking forward to it. His foreign language some computer language, which I think is cool.
Rebekah is definitely excited about Purcell next year. Her main reason to switch was so she could wear whatever she wanted. She had two years of uniforms and that was more than enough. She requested to skip a grade, so she spent a few days last week testing and we'll hopefully have results soon, but we all expect her to be in 3rd in the fall.
Eden...well, there's a lot. It's basically it's own post, but I'll try to be succinct. She is going to be in a special program for kids with higher needs next fall at Hartford campus (which...is behind Red Lobster? I think? So everyone is in opposite directions. LOVE THIS). She'll be doing a half day, starting at noon, and a bus will pick her up at our house and take her to school, then bring her back home at the end of the day. All four will be bus riders, so the pick up parade has ended. She says she's going to miss her friends, but there was some bullying going on, so I think maybe this is for the best.
In 2022, we had two visits to the cardiologist, then in 2023, she decided she only needed to see Eden once a year. Great, sounds good. In April 2024, we had our visit and things were not great. Her pulmonary stenosis is thickening (thickened hole where the pulmonary artery goes into the heart) and things seemed to be weakening a bit. She's also been having some shortness of breath when she exerted herself, so they ordered a stress test. We went back two weeks later (a week after the total eclipse, so three weeks in a row to DFW) and had that. She didn't do super great, but she is a bit of a drama queen, so who knows. They also ordered a sedated MRI and a catheter to get images and more information about the anatomy and workings of her heart. We were scheduled to go on Mother's Day and have the procedures the next day, but Eden developed a cough, so they rescheduled for July. Yesterday, in fact.
Eden's heart seems to be doing "ok" but the topic of surgery is back on the table. Something screwy electrical wise happened during the cath, so there's a possibility of another procedure to investigate that. Everything needs to be figured out before we decide for sure about surgery, but it is coming up sooner rather than later.
Our options are a simple procedure where they'll carefully widen the stenosis and close her VSD. There's concern that the left ventricle isn't doing quite what it's supposed to do, but it seems like it is. It doesn't appear weaker, like it hasn't been pulling its weight, for lack of a better word, but who knows. They said it could turn out that it hasn't been and we won't know until after surgery. This surgery generally goes well for kids like Eden and if they do start to have issues, it's not for 40-50 years. And who knows what medical science will be able to do then.
The other option is called a double switch, where they switch a couple things, namely the arteries. It's much bigger and the hospital stay would be longer, 2-3 weeks as opposed to just 2 weeks. This is a newer procedure so they don't have decades of information to know how kids do with it long term. It's at least 10 years old, because they were talking about it when she was a baby.
We didn't see our regular cardiologist at all this visit, but we have a follow up in September where we can talk about the electrical check and the surgical options.
Eden did well, though again she fussed about A LOT of stuff. She has a massive bruise on her thigh and on her hands from the IVs (they started one on one hand and it didnt' work so they switched to the other hand). She slept most of Friday and we're all tired so we'll likely sleep most of tomorrow. The other kids split up and stayed with grandparents and seemed to have a good time.
Austin doesn't have much to report. He still works for the same company and is in the same band. If he has anything to add, he can.
My migraines have still been a huge journey. I went off the initial meds because they make kidney stones more likely (woo) and tried something else that basically didn't work, then went on hormonal birth control, skipping all the placebo days, and that didn't work either, just added 50 pounds to my frame. So now I'm on ANOTHER med and so far, it is working. I haven't had a migraine since I started it, which I greatly enjoy. Though now I'm having issues with my feet and ankles. It just never ends.
We did get a renter into the Mulberry house in January, so it sat empty for 4 months. We really enjoy having them there and they've done a couple little updates to the house that are things we wanted to do but just couldn't afford when we lived there. Plus it's nice to offset the cost of the house a little. We hope they stay for a while.
There's probably something I'm missing but this is already ridiculously long. Thanks for sticking around through the whole thing and have a great rest of your week!
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