Kids and Turkeys...sometimes the kids ARE turkeys.....

Maybe someday I'll be good about updating this, but we're a fairly quiet household without a ton going on that I feel would be of interest to others, and my thoughts aren't usually....public friendly at times. lol

Asher went on his field trip to Cowboy Stadium and enjoyed himself. He got sick on the way up there and threw up on himself but luckily his grandparents were meeting him so they graciously went to Target to get him some clean clothes to wear. He doesn't like to talk about school or the field trips, so it took a while before he finally said anything about it. He enjoyed it and would like to go again, but only if he doesn't get sick again. I've thought for a while now that he has my Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome and nervous stomach, so we'll have to teach him how to control his emotions some for that.

He's doing pretty well in school. The content stuff is a piece of cake. He knows all of it and has all year long. He's reading beyond 2nd grade (he passed the TPRI reading test for 2nd grade with flying colors, spelling "mule" as "maul" and "which" as "witch") and the math stuff is, in his words "so easy."

Where he's struggling is participation in gym and music and his behavior towards his classmates. If he doesn't like an activity, he won't do it. He says that the activities are dumb or stupid and preschool activities.

Honestly, music and gym are not the classes I care about that much. Not doing well in those is not going to hold him back. I do want him to participate, but I really don't care if he doesn't do well in those classes. I never enjoyed PE classes or piano lessons, so it doesn't surprise me that he doesn't either.

I had a parent/teacher conference about a week and a half ago with his teacher and she admitted he knows everything. She gives him the handouts and while she's explaining it to the other kids, he does them. Then he gets to read a couple chapters in a book and go on the computer. Since it's a kindergarten class, the books are easy readers and he's read pretty much all of them, most of them multiple times. So we personally bought some older kid books (Encyclopedia Brown, Boxcar Children, and the Magic Treehouse) and sent them up there so he'd have something more challenging to read. There was talk about trying to get him into a 2nd grade classroom for a part of the day to see if that helps challenge him but so far it hasn't happened.

He says his behavior comes from sometimes just getting angry, so we've talked to him a lot about ways to handle his anger that aren't destructive or harmful. We've had mixed success with that, but we've only been working on it for a couple weeks. I've noticed a difference at home, but we'll see if it sticks.

He's a pretty typical 5-almost-6 year old in his behaviors, but I think being bored in class is also contributing to his behavior issues. So I've set up a time that I'll go observe his class, mainly him, and see what I think. We're really leaning towards pushing to have him moved up to 1st grade next semester. Even if he ends up doing 1st for three semesters, I really feel like he needs to move up soon.

Elijah is so 4 it's not even funny. He's at times crazy and sweet and endearing and lovable and cuddly and at other times you want to pull your hair out. He's doing well at school, too, with his occasional 4-year-old fits of anger. He had some struggles at the beginning of the year but he's doing better. He still has fits of rage at home but he's quit throwing things and instead growls and stomps his foot. It's still annoying, but decidedly less destructive. He frequently comes to me wherever I am and acts like a goofball because he wants to make me laugh. He's usually successful.

Eden is sweet and sassy and so much her own person it's crazy. She's opinionated and bossy and sweet and adorable. I swear, each kid is cuter than the last, but she's going to be hard to top. She loves to poke her head around the doorframe when I'm in my chair in my room and say "Hi!" in this bright cheerful voice and as soon as I respond she says "ok bye!" and leaves. She also loves cheese, almost as much as her older cousin. She saw me grating cheese last night for our Thanksgiving dinner and insisted she get some. I had exactly enough for the recipe so when I finished, I gave her the scraps in the grater. She stood at the bowl until every last morsel was in her mouth.

I'm doing ok. I'm 26 weeks tomorrow, so beginning the 3rd trimester, and definitely feeling it. The round ligament pains are worse every pregnancy and they started about a month ago. I basically can't sleep comfortably. I've also got some indigestion, which I never had before, and a variety of other pregnancy things that aren't fun. I'm already counting down until 37 weeks when I'm full term and safe to deliver at home. I seriously sleep fairly well the night after delivering, mostly because delivering is hard work, but also, I'm not pregnant anymore and some of the pains are gone. It's weird, I know, but what are you gonna do.

Some interesting things have come up with our midwife and based on my previous deliveries, we've made plans to have a birth kit in my house starting at 37 weeks, with Mom agreeing to be my back up baby catcher. I'm not at liberty to discuss the issues (they're not mine) but we did get some resolution today about them. I'm trying to stay positive, but the resolution is making me a little anxious. Someday I'll be able to be less ambiguous, but this is not the forum for that. Rest assured, I'm ok, the baby's ok, everything will be fine in the end.

We're prepping for the annual Walke Thanksgiving trip this week and that is a real chore. Getting five of us packed up to go is hard enough, but throwing in the food we have to prepare, either at home first or there, and all the sundry things we have to bring because we have small children....well, we've been packing and prepping pretty hard core for about three days at my house. And we're not totally done. I'm most looking forward to my birthday dinner at The Melting Pot on Friday with some friends of ours who's wedding we had to bail on in July because of my morning sickness.

We've got lots going on the next few weeks with travels and holidays and doctor visits and I'm so exhausted I just want to take a nap and sleep until New Year's. We'll make it through, though, and then kids will enjoy all the stuff we have going on, so that makes it worth it. Mostly.

I'll try to post more regularly as things happen. Nothing super exciting is happening for about three weeks, so we'll see how I do.

We were the Mario family for Halloween: Toad, Mario, Bowser, Princess Peach, and Luigi

Me last week. I'm looking rather bulbous here. I'm in the "cute" phase currently. 

Another boring update on our lives

It occurred to me last night as I was trying to fall asleep that I haven't posted in a while, so here's a long overdue update.

Not much is going on. Asher has been enjoying school for the most part, we think. He doesn't like to talk about it. The most we typically get is that he had a good day. Occasionally we'll get other little nuggets, but not often. We don't push it, because we figure eventually he'll talk.

He had a fundraiser at school a few weeks ago and he sold enough items to earn a free trip to Cowboy Stadium for a day, which he's super excited about. Luckily our family is big enough that we didn't have to hit up people outside it to sell items. lol That field trip is next week, so I'll try to report back on that.

Elijah is now officially 4! And still having some behavioral issues on occasion. I'm beginning to wonder if its some misdirected anger about the baby or something. He's had occasional rage issues for the last couple of years, since Eden was born, but they had tapered off for a long time. Then a month ago they started back up. The kids are always worse behaved after a trip or a visit from grandparents, but this was beyond any of that. He's slowly calming down, though we had visitors this past weekend so this week has already been a little tricky. He's so funny, because he gets angry so fast and then calms down just as fast. He's definitely got my temper. Most of the time he's a pretty sweet kid, though.

Eden is the same old same old. Cute, sassy, opinionated, independent, doing great. She was sick for a week, but didn't have much in the way of symptoms other than lethargy and reduced appetite, so we didn't call a doctor (other than my mom). She bounced back and is totally back to normal.

Austin is enjoying work and the extra-curricular activities he's involved in (church music worship leadership, which is technically a job, a band that he's involved in, BEST robotics, etc).

I'm doing well, too. The baby is growing, so I am too. I'm trying to watch my weight, but I'm not dieting or anything, so don't worry on that front. I just started this pregnancy about as heavy as I finished the other three, so I'm trying to keep my weight under control.I know I should exercise more but ugh. I get tired and just want to sleep.

Because of the position of my uterus and my placenta, I don't really feel the baby move that much. It's weird to be nearly 21 weeks pregnant and know I should be feeling lots of kicks and flutters and hiccups and feel only a little tap occasionally, like at the very beginning of a pregnancy, and even though it's not always clear if it's baby or body. Everything is good, though. We're measuring right on target, so nothing to worry about. I just hope my placenta shifts so I can feel stuff soon.

Coming up is the craft fair, some field trips, fall fest, and an open house for TLCA, Halloween, stuff for church, the annual Walke Thanksgiving trip, BEST robotics, trips to DFW for the echo, a Christmas gift from Aunt Cari, and then we're into Christmas and Asher's birthday. It's getting busy and I'm not just loving that. I like my quiet boring days and weeks. My calendar being crowded isn't my favorite thing ever....lol

Oh well, it keeps life interesting.

Q&A Time

We may have lost our minds, but hey, life's more interesting this way anyway.

We're pregnant! Again! For the last time! Most definitely! At least I hope so. I'm due March 1,2017 so we're anticipating a mid-late February birth.

Here are answers to your burning questions:

1. You do know how that happens, right?
Yes, actually, we do. Apparently we're pretty good at it, too, seeing as how this is the fourth time in six years. Or is that a question? Do you not know? Do you need me to explain it to you?

2. Was this planned?
Absolutely. I know how babies are made (see #1) and we planned every one of our children.

3. Is this the last one?
I really hope so. Surprisingly since I have so many planned kids, I hate being pregnant. Each child is basically a dedicated year of my life to misery and discomfort. And that's before we include all the breastfeeding. I figured out at one point that at the end of this pregnancy, over the preceding 7 years I will have been pregnant, post-partum, or breastfeeding for 4.5. I think that's enough. We'll take permanent measures next summer.

4. Are you hoping for another girl?
Honestly, yes, but another boy would be just as loved and welcomed.

5. You're probably going to move now, right? Your house is so small!
It's actually not. It's 2500 square feet. People forget we have a huge room upstairs that's mostly storage. We haven't quite figured out how things will be shuffled, but they will be. Asher spends most nights in a different room than Eden and Elijah anyway, and the baby will sleep in our room until he/she is probably about 4 months old. Plus I really hate moving. I did it a lot between 2001 and 2010 in various ways (into and out of dorms, switching rooms in Mom's house, moving into and out of houses and apartments) and there's nothing quite like being downtown at this stage of our lives. There's a house I love about a block away that was recently for sale, but at $300k, it's a teensy bit out of our price range. Plus, I hate the thought of ANYONE else living in this house. My current plan is to move out of it in a body bag.

6. Do you know what you're having?
People. I'm 12 weeks pregnant. No.

7. Will you find out?
Yes. In about 8 weeks or so.
Edited: We've decided to wait until our 29 week fetal echocardiogram to find out for various reasons. We don't fault anyone for having as many ultrasounds as they or their doctors want, but reading a few things online make us a little concerned about overexposure and since the fetal echo (see question 13) will be about an hour long procedure, we've decided to skip the 20 week gender ultrasound. All that said, if a reason arises and an additional ultrasound is deemed necessary, we'll do it. 

8. Will you tell us the name?
Nope. It was actually kind of fun not telling anyone what we had decided on and NO ONE COMPLAINED ABOUT EDEN'S NAME! It was great. We'll redo that.

9. Really? Not even family or close friends or ...?
I mean, you might get it out of my kids, but that's playing dirty. (And there's no guarantee they'll tell you the real one. Elijah has some doozies of suggestions.) We did tell a select handful of close friends and family with Eden, because we loved the name so much, but sadly, not everyone is on the list of close people we trust not to rain on our parade.

10. Do you have a name picked out yet?
Not really. We have a list of names we like, but it's hard to focus and narrow it down until we know a gender.

11. Will you have a shower?
Well, my Abilene baby showers have a notoriously low turn out, which is disappointing and embarrassing, especially since the wonderful people who have thrown me these showers have put so much effort into them. Plus this is my 4th baby in 6 years. I've pretty much got everything I need. We may have a diaper shower (a friend asked about doing that for me early next year) but we'll see. It feels greedy and uncomfortable to me to have another shower when I had three for Asher and one for Eden.

12. Are you having another home birth or a hospital birth?
We're planning for a home birth. I've seen the midwife twice, once for an establishing visit and then once to hear the baby's heartbeat. She couldn't find it at the first appointment because it wasn't quite 10 weeks yet, but the second time we heard it clearly and strong at 150.
Edited: this may change. We'll keep you posted. 

13. So Eden's heart didn't scare you off more kids?
Well....it almost did. But Eden's doing so incredibly well it almost feels like her whole situation was a fake out. She does have a serious heart condition and we do have to keep an eye on it and her growth and development, but...it's so mundane after the first few months of insanity its almost like it's nothing, if that makes sense. All that said, because of her heart, this baby has a 3% chance of having a heart condition as well, instead of a .009% chance every other baby has. That means we need to have a fetal echocardiogram between 25 and 31 weeks (during the holiday season) to check the baby's heart. We're still figuring out the ordering and scheduling of all that but once it's worked out, I'll report back. We're choosing to look at it not as 3% chance something is wrong, but 97% chance everything is perfect. Those are pretty great odds.
Edited: a fetal echocardiogram has been schedule for December 14, when I'm 29 weeks. I'll have to drive to Dallas the night before and stay in a hotel (woe is me) for the appointment at 930 in the morning. It'll take about an hour for the echo, then another hour or two for evaluation and the doctor's consultation with me. Luckily, we get our favorite cardiologist, Eden's primary cardiologist, to do the exam. Woo!

14. How are the other kids taking it?
I think for Asher it's old hat at this point. Elijah keeps suggesting weird names. Eden....is 19 months old. She doesn't know.

15. Have you felt the baby kick?
Well, since I'm only 12 weeks, not really. I've felt a few little weird flutters that could just be gas, but might also be baby making him/herself known. I'll definitely start feeling stuff in the next few weeks. I'm already showing (of course, I started this pregnancy looking about 3 months pregnant, so people may not really notice for a while) and I'll just get bigger and bigger and more uncomfortable as the weeks go by.

That's all I can think of for now. If you have any questions I haven't answered, feel free to post them. ;-)

We're adding another book worm!

Edited to add: 

16: What's this baby's animal going to be? 

Well, we've got a bird, a mammal, and an insect. I suppose we should go with reptile or amphibian, but we're leaning towards another insect, a bee. It's gender neutral, which we like, and kinda sorta raises awareness that we need to save the honeybees...so there's that. 

My Not-so-Baby Boy

Asher is at a fun age. He has a lot of thoughts and opinions and questions and generally speaking, we can answer his questions. His favorite way to pose these questions is "Mommy, I have a question about life." Rarely does he ask something that isn't actually worth asking.

He's really into video games, so everything with him is percentages: his thirst is at 3%, his anger is at 100%, his interest is at 40%, etc. This makes for some interesting exclamations from him.

I have a very sensitive startle reflex. Like...if I'm asleep (I rarely get very deep asleep and even when I do if someone comes near I immediately wake up) and someone gets close, I gasp loudly (LOUDLY) and sometimes flail. It drove my college housemate nuts because we shared a bathroom and it was in my room, so she'd come in early in the mornings before I was awake and EVERY TIME I gasped and started. I don't actually always remember these events. The boys have learned to jump back when waking me up so I don't smack them. About a month ago, I was taking a nap and Asher ran up and poked me in the stomach. I gasped and flailed, smacking him in the face (not hard). He yelped in surprise and I asked what was wrong. After it was established that his hunger was at 4% (very hungry), I sat up and started to get my bearings to get him a snack. He asked me why I hit him. I said I didn't mean to, he just surprised me. He responded "yeah, I probably shouldn't punch you in the stomach when you're sleeping." Or ever, really.

When talking about getting ready for school, I'll ask him what he's looking forward to and his answer is always "playing on the playground." After Meet the Teacher tonight, it might be the computer room.

Meet the Teacher night tonight was interesting. I don't remember doing anything like that as a kid, but then all my teachers until 8th grade were my friends' moms and women I'd known a huge part of my life. So it didn't make a lot of sense. We stood in line to get into the cafeteria to get some paperwork we needed to fill out regarding pick up, then we went to his classroom and found his desk and filled out some papers for the teacher. One question was "What motivates your child?" I have no idea. Maybe she can find something, because I really haven't. Another was "What is your child's favorite school subject?" Asher answered "Playing."

After we filled out our papers, he explored the classroom and found some legos with letters on them to form words and settled in for some educational play. He abandoned the legos pretty quickly for puzzles. I approached the teacher. She needed a warning about Asher.

I started off with "I know a lot of parents think this, but Asher is really smart. He's been reading on a second grade level for about a year now. He can do some basic fractiony type math in his head. He's read The Invention of Hugo Cabret to himself several times this year. He started Harry Potter but gave up because there weren't enough pictures. It wasn't that it was too hard, he just likes pictures. He's very smart and so he sometimes gets a little bored and obnoxious and smart assy. So brace yourself. If you're reading something and he can see it, he will correct you if you skip a word or mis-say something. He'll read for the other kids and he'll read ahead."

She literally sat down and stared at me.

I also pointed out that he loves computers and he is literally the closest kid to the classroom computers. I said she'd probably have to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't just get up and get on them. She might even want to move him across the room.

She said she'd find stuff for him to do, that this was going to be an interesting year. I sure hope so.

On the way home, I asked him if he was excited about school.
"Not that much."
"No?"
"I said not that much....I'm 45% excited."
"Do you think that number will get higher or lower over the next five days?"
"Probably higher."

I'm not a super sentimental mom. I didn't cry when I left him at the church nursery or at MDO the first times. I wasn't super upset the first night I spent away from him when he was 18 months old or the first night he spent away from me when he was 4 or 5. I haven't felt that way about any of the kids. I think being a SAHM who's also an introvert who doesn't really like being touched or touching, having that time away from my children who are all extremely touchy was just a relief. Plus, the people taking care of my children were people I knew and trusted completely and who sent me pictures and texts during the day and communicated with me at every pick up and drop off.

The closer we get to his first day of actual school, the more sentimental I get. Buying his school supplies and getting his uniforms and figuring out how to communicate with everyone at his school has taken my mind off the fact but still. Periodically I look at him and am just astounded that the tiny baby who drove me INSANE his first few weeks of life is now this gangly nearly 6 year old with all this attitude and opinions who is about to start actual school, not just MDO. He'll be spending 7 hours a day 5 days a week away from me and I won't know as much about what's going on as I've been able to in the past.

This is just what life is going to be like, I suppose. I'll adapt, but man. I didn't think this would hit me so hard. I mean, I'll still have two at home driving me nuts for the 4 weeks until CCF starts. I have a feeling I'll feel a little sentimental when Elijah goes off to school and more so when Eden does.

The early years of a child's life are SO hard in so many ways, but I'm not quite sure I'm ready for the next part. Though I am kind of ready to be done with the hard part, at least a little of it anyway. (And yes, I know each new stage brings new challenges. We'll deal with them as they come.)

New Baby Asher

Doing puzzles in his kindergarten classroom. He's 45% excited about it.

I'm terrible at updating.

Heyo!

It's been a while. I know. Sorry.

We've been doing stuff. We had a wedding in Austin in late July and had a lovely weekend, relaxing at the beautiful Via Libre and visiting great restaurants and Deep Eddy Pool, as well as seeing some good friends get married. The kids did ok at the wedding, but it was Catholic, so fairly long. They ended up in a different part of the church with Austin while I witnessed the wedding. At least there was a room just for kids at the reception, and you know they had a good time because Elijah went home with a black eye....lol

We've been trying to get things together for Asher starting school soon. We have him enrolled at the Charter School, TLCA, which is just a few blocks away from us. Not being able to find any information online, I assumed they followed the AISD schedule so we were planning around that. Turns out that they don't follow AISD. They start six days earlier, so their Meet the Teacher night is a week earlier. And the school supplies list from last year is slightly different this year, so all the pre planning and shopping I attempted was for naught. Well, not all, but some. So we had to return some school supplies and get others. We also had to get his uniforms, a mesh backpack, and appropriate shoes (no characters). I THINK we have it all, but I have no idea how he's going to carry it all on the first day. My plan is to hopefully be able to go with him his first day, both to walk him in for the first time and to help carry in all his stuff (y'all it's so much).

Elijah is seriously bummed he can't go to school. He keeps telling people "I'm 5" because he knows you have to be 5 to go to school. The school secretary believed him at first because he and Asher are just a few inches and pounds apart. Unfortunately he'll have about three weeks before his school starts, so I'll try to do something special so he doesn't feel so left out. I've let him get a few school supplies just because it takes a little of the sting out.

He's going to miss his brother when Asher is at school. They play together all day and keep each other entertained so I don't have to. The family dynamic during the day is going to change a LOT.

Eden is 18 months old now and has entered the clingy stage where Mommy and Daddy are pretty much the only acceptable people. She talks ALL. THE. TIME. but I have no clue what she's saying. She's pretty earnest about it, though. For some reason, their room is super hot these days so she's frequently wandering the house in nothing but a diaper. She'll occasionally find her shoes, though, and bring them to me to put on. She doesn't care about wearing clothes, but if she can she wants to wear shoes.

Austin's doing well at work. Nothing too exciting to post there. He's got an interior office, so frequently he doesn't get my texts, so once in a while when we try to meet up for lunch or want him to bring something home, he doesn't see it until he's leaving for the day.

For now, we're mostly trying to just get by to the end of the summer. It's hot, I'm drained, the kids are a little crazy. We're keeping out fingers crossed that things will change for the better once school starts back up and we get into the swing of things again.

Then again, they might get crazier when we're trying to get a kid up and off to school every day by 8am and then picking him up at 3pm and keeping two others entertained in the interim. I'll try to report back in in less than a month but I make no promises. :-)

Hot Summer Days

Its hard to believe that the summer is already halfway over. School starts in about six weeks and we've still got shopping for that and two out of town weddings ahead, but we've been busy so far.

The boys have enjoyed a total of three VBS's (and there's at least one more coming) and Asher went to Kindercamp at the Grace, where he did some art projects for a couple days. We've been to the splash pad and swimming in friends' pools. We've had multiple picnics in my room and watched lots of movies, a couple even at actual theaters. We did CALF and went to play miniature golf and went to friends' birthday parties and played at the park and playgrounds and did art projects.

Mama's tired.

I'm digging that the favorite activity seems to be picnic in Mommy's room. I spread an old blanket on the floor and get out sliced cheese, juice pouches, grapes, salami, crackers, and whatever else tickles our fancy, and they sit and eat and watch a movie while I eat and then nap or read a book or whatever. It's pretty great. Of course, currently the tv show is being ignored for wrestling but hey. Boys need to expend their energy sometimes.

We've been keeping busy, but nothing too extraordinary has happened, so there hasn't been tons to report. Eden's cardio appointment went well, as I noted in my last update. Austin's jobs are going well. The kids are happy and active though of course they still have to complain sometimes about silly things (like the ice cream is too cold and the pizza is too hot).

Eden had her annual eye exam today. Her doctor said she has no problem seeing Eden here until time for her eye surgery and then referring her to a pediatric ophthalmologist in Dallas for the surgery. She recommends we wait until Eden is 4 or 5, about time for school, to do the surgery. The bigger her face, the better the results. Her vision isn't being affected by her ptosis so there's no need to do anything sooner. I'm good with that.

It'll be an out patient procedure, which I like, and they'll basically cut a bit out of her eyelid muscle then attach it to a different muscle so that it doesn't droop. Currently, the muscle is stretched out and it won't get better on its own.

Eden was a trooper at the doctor. She complained about the eye drops but otherwise was cheerful and sweet like she always is. The doctor commented on how good she was.

The next couple weeks will be busy for traveling reasons and then we'll be busy for school reasons. I'm looking forward to a nice stretch of time off sometime in September maybe? lol

Hunka hunka burnin' ..... plastic?

Y'all. Raising boys. What. the. hell.

It's been a long couple of weeks, what with CALF (awesome and exhausting...doing it solo with three kids is no joke) and Austin traveling, and it being summer and Eden being a little sick (teething sucks for everyone) and having a regular cardio appointment today....those were the "normal" things. Then there was Austin managing to SHATTER a pyrex dish in the sink and now the garbage disposal doesn't work. Then Elijah got mad and kicked his foot through a window (he's fine, the window was not). Then today with the appointment just exhausted me and I laid down to take a little nap, the boys telling me they'd be ok for an hour. (I don't deep sleep, they still come and go).

Waking up to the smell of burning plastic and little boys shouting "fire! fire!" is never a good thing. Ever.

The best I can figure, because they sure aren't explaining it, is they wanted Easy Mac and couldn't figure out how to do it. The fourth cup they attempted lit on fire. Literally. There were flames in the microwave visible from across the room and smellable from all over the house and probably three blocks away. Plus the contents of the previous three cups were in the sink. Where the garbage disposal doesn't work.

Jesus has to like these boys for me right now.

Uncle/Big Brother John is going to come and look at it later this evening and we'll see if it's salvagable or if we need to make a trip to Lowe's or Home Depot tonight or tomorrow. We don't use the microwave every day, but we use it frequently to reheat leftovers.

But hey, at least I got the broken window fixed today! Only cost about $200! Add this cost to that (and for all the other stuff they've broken over the past couple years) and the boys are going to owe me their first paychecks out of college. No student loans, but Mom Letting Me Live fees.

As for Eden:

Her appointment was great. We were there for three and a half hours because of who knows what, a problem with the computers, over booking, whatever. We waited for over an hour for her echo, then that took a while, then we saw the doctor for about 15-20 minutes. We got home around 2 from her 11:30 appointment.

Her numbers are all good, upper 80's and lower 90's for pulse ox, her weight is good, her length is good (she's 30 inches....she might be a tall woman). She was so tired by the time they did the echo, she just laid there perfectly still for them and they got great images, so that means we don't need to schedule a sedated echo in Dallas later this year. Yay!

The main thing the doctors are keeping an eye on in her echos is the tricuspid valve. It's a valve between the top and bottom of the right side chambers of the heart. It opens and closes, allowing blood to flow from top to bottom but not bottom to top. Since Eden's pulmonary artery and aorta are switched and the right ventricle works harder than normal, this puts more strain on the triscuspid valve. If it starts to show signs of leaking or not working well, that's when we'll revisit surgery. Her tricuspid has a mild leak currently, which is to be expected, but nothing so serious that we're doing anything anytime soon.

In fact, they don't need to see us for another six months, unless Eden starts to show signs of distress.

Six months, you guys! That's awesome! I'm certainly thrilled not to have to go up there more often. She's heavy and there's several things I have to take, plus each visit costs about $3000. Our out of pocket is $3000, so we only pay for one, but still. (This is why we have her medical fund set up. Thank you to all who donated and continue to do so. It'll go towards her heart stuff, not the busted microwave, I swear.)

Austin came home from work and took the boys to VBS for the last night at Broadview (seriously an awesome VBS) and I'm at home with the girl child. I'm exhausted from the past few weeks and THERE'S STILL MORE SUMMER TO GO! We still have two trips for weddings coming up, two more VBS's, and summer activities planned in town. I'm gonna need a vacation at the end of this summer.

At the end of the day, we're all ok, the house is still standing, though it is a little smokey and smelly. We're out some money, but that's all. It could have been so much worse.

I may never nap again without confining children to cages or something. Lawdy.

First three failed attempts. 

No idea what happened here. 

Mac and cheese anyone?