Ray Rah Sis Boom BAH!

OK, more catching up to do.

So after our week in Myrtle Beach, we came home to a week of Dance Camp in the morning(work for mommy, fun for girls)  and cheer camp at night for Miss Grace.  Can you say hotter than H-E-double hockey sticks?!?!?  The temps were in the nineties with heat indexes reaching 112.  Cheer camp was in the middle of a field, with no shade except for the tents brought by some of the parents.  The first night was the worst.  After each jump, chant or cheer learned Grace would plop on the ground to try to rest and drink as much water as she could.  After dance camp the next morning she pleaded to see if Grandma could come so she wouldn't have to go back to dance class. 
As the week progressed, we spent several afternoons at Walmart buying the appropriate colored shorts or shirt for pictures, first it was pink to match the camp shirt, which then changed to blue or black to go with the high school colors and totally not match the shirt; then we had to purchase black shorts and a blue shirt for the performance Friday night.  Each day Grace got a little more tired, the heat did get better and Lily was able to stay home with Daddy.  Each day Grace also started coughing a little more.  Not a huge whooping cough or deep guttural cough, it seemed to be just a tickle.  By Friday night she was barely eating, only drinking and ran a fever on Saturday. 
Grace continued to be grumpy the next week, not wanting to do anything until we went to the bookstore on Tuesday afternoon to get her free book from the summer reading program.  We then went to see Winnie the Pooh in the Theater.  We came home around 6:30 to eat dinner, daddy was teaching class.  As I was asking the girls what they wanted, Grace kept telling me she had bumps on her bottom that were really itching.  Upon inspection I realized they were hives and she was running a fever of 102.  We called Grandma and Papa and drove to the Children's urgent care facility closest to our house.  After watching the hives travel around her body, giving her Tylenol, a dinner of snack machine items and finally seeing a doctor, he did the routine strep test and a chest xray.  She had full blown Pneumonia!
I was in shock, I have no idea if it was the condo we stayed in that had evidence of mold or whatever chemical they used to spray the fields she cheered on or if she inhaled salt water that caused her lungs to become infected.  She had to take a STRONG antihistamine and zithromax to get better.  It changed our plans for our trip to Florida, we were supposed to leave on Thursday for Grandma and Poppops and she was supposed to get to spend the night with her cousin.  Instead we did not leave until later on Friday and no sleepovers occurred.  More on that later.

Lazy days of summer?

Wow, where did July go?  We spent a week in Myrtle Beach, a week sitting in the heat at Cheer camp and working at dance camp, a few days preparing for a trip to Florida and battling Pneumonia, a 6 day trip to Florida and then it was meet and greet, back to school shopping, birthday presents than bam it is August first and School is here.  It seems that gone are the lazy days of summer, no more days at the pool, or laying in our pajamas until noon.  School is in session, work is starting and life marches on....

But here is to the memories.  These are some of the photos from our trip with the Edwards to Myrtle Beach.  We had a great time and enjoyed seeing some of our Musser relatives.

I am hoping to get some of the other photos on here soon, but for now this will have to do.

Lily's doughnut

chocolate iced face after licking the doughnut clean

Grace's Brownie Dessert that she ended up sharing with Lily and Taylor and still had some left over.

Look down here Papa

Just playing in the sand.

She would lay in the sand and roll and play and build sandcastles all day.  Then we would have to give her like 3 showers to get all the sand out of her hair, bathing suit, diaper etc.

Loving on Cousin Taylor.

Boss

I you boss!

What she tried to pull to get a cookie, after already eating a rice crispy treat.

Miss Priss

 So the week before the Catherization I entered a contest on Facebook. I never win contests, but I thought what the he-double-hockey-sticks. The contest was with Emmy's Got Style for a Miss Priss tutu.  Emmy's Got Style makes individualized hospital gowns for chronically ill children. I bought one for Lily back in April before her MRI.  She also makes bows which are beautiful. Miss Priss Tutu's is a website, that coincidentally is owned by Grace's first grade teachers' sister-in-law, and sells the most beautiful tutus.

Anyway, I WON!  So Courtney from Emmy's Got Style, brought the tutu over to the house before we were even home from the hospital.

 So this week, after the 3 days of being still last week, we put it on her and set her loose.  She absolutely loves the tutu, dressing up, dancing and twirling.  So now I have to go and buy one for Grace.

Before the storm....

So the Sunday before the cath, we did nothing. Now that is not all true, we cleaned bedrooms, did laundry, packed a suitcase, toys, electronics and books. In the morning before getting dressed and accomplishing those things I looked over to find this....

Snuggling on the couch

I love you

I lus you too.

They were so loving to each other.  I know they felt mommy and daddy's anxiety about the cath.  Would we be staying overnight?  How would she recover?  What would the following week of being quiet be like? 

We finished Sunday early.  We got everyone in bed and mommy couldn't fall asleep until around midnight.  Then Lily decided to get up around 2.  She stayed awake until 3:30 and mommy was up to stay.  The alarm was set for 4:45 so we could get to Egleston on time.  We got up, got dressed and got in the car.  We arrived at the hospital around 6:05 and were done with check in by 6:15.  Lily had a grand time playing with the toys in registration as well as the cath lab.  She, Papa and Daddy were playing with cars when they called her back.  She got very upset and said "No Doctors".  Unfortunately since that is what we got up so dang early for mommy was insistent on going back.  Lily was weighed and measured , I have no idea what the measurements were, they do not use pounds or inches which drives me nuts, plus 2 hours of sleep not so good for the brain.  We then put on our personal hospital gown and got settled into the hospital room.  We answered all the same questions, when did she last have food, what medicines is she on, name, date, diagnosis....at least 3 times.  We met the Cardiac fellow(not a self practicing cardiologist yet), the cardiac anesthesiologist Dr. Tassone(LOVE him), the interventionist cardiologist and director of the cath lab Dr. Vincent and lots of great nurses.  Then it was time for the versed, the wonder drug.  Makes everything ok and Lily so loving.  Wish they would give me some.  :)  Two hours later she was waking from anesthesia, and fighting all the way.  Uunfortunately she needed to be still for 3 hours so that she could let her veins heal and not bleed.  So after soothing didn't work, it was a shot of high powered pain killer to sleep off the nasty anesthesia.  She slept in my arms for almost two hours.   Upon waking she had 2 juice boxes, Honey Nut Cheerios, half a banana and some chips.  She got angry at the IV line being taken out.  Took 3 adults to hold her down to get it out.  She hates the stickiness of all the bandaids, and tape they require to keep her IV's and EKG leads etc in place.  Then we came home for our week of keeping Lily still and resting.

Well let me tell you a little something.  Quiet is not in Lily's vocabulary.  We got our tutu from Miss Priss Tutus in the mail, that we won via a drawing on Facebook from Emmy's Got Style.  It is beautiful but we did not put it on our Miss Priss because we were afraid it would induce fits of dancing and jumping that she was not supposed to be doing.
We spent Wednesday at the mall, with Lily in the stroller to keep her still.  We bought father's day gifts, ate lunch, went to build a bear, rode the mall train and went to the Disney store.  Then we got a milkshake on the way home.  On Thursday we had to make a run to the grocery store and Grace had a swim meet that night.  Thank goodness for Grandma and Papa staying home with Lily.
And then the week of staying still was over.  We are still not allowed to touch her boo-boos, diaper change is a struggle. She still has sticky residue from the skin like bandage they first put on.  But she hasn't had a bandaid on since 9:00 Thursday night and looks pretty good.  Just a bruise on her left hip.
Thursday morning this arrived via the UPS man and we are so excited.  We had to open it immediately and try out the red cookies.

Yummy!

Sank you gamma!

Anxiety

There are so many things that I should be doing.  Getting ready for Grace's swim meet, laundry, cleaning, taking out the trash.... But instead I am so anxious I am almost paralyzed.  I am anxious for Grace to swim tonight, she hasn't practiced all week.  She has been to VBS instead, which she has loved.  But mostly I am anxious for Monday.  The fear of the unknown can be awful.  Logically I know it is just a test, that she has had a cath before, she has been sedated before and come out clear and that this time next week she will be off of all restrictions, probably even able to take a bath.  But instead I am up until way past midnight, what iffing.  I pray every chance I have, I worry all the time and still life keeps trucking.  I want it to be June 14th already.  I want it to be over just as much as I want it not to happen.  We don't know what time to be there yet, they will let us know Friday.  I have to pack an overnight bag in case we have to stay.  We have to make arrangements for Grace to have things to do next week.  I don't even know what happens after.  Where do we go for our check up visit, when do we have to do that?  I cry for unknown reasons, I can feel the anxiety in my heart.  I am writing in hope to alleviate some of the anxiety.  Oh well, time to pack the bags for tonight.  I hope Grace does OK and is not too tired to perform at her best.

TTFN

Big Girls Don't Cry, especially when dancing.



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keep smiling!



Lily had her first recital this year.  Her group being between the ages of just turned two to around 33 months was a hoot.  They danced to "Big Girls don't Cry".  It was great.  At any given moment one child would be looking on the stage for their sticker to stand on, following Ms. Amanda as she demonstrated the moves or waving to thier parents; but none of them did this simultaneously.  The only thing that they all seemed to do together was clap when it was all over.  Lily had a great time dancing, smiling and most especially being a part of something she has seen her big sister and mommy do now for 3 years. 

Grace did a spanish ballet number and then tap danced to "We Got The Beat!"  Her group is our studio's oldest group of girls.  They did really well.  They knew their dances without assistance and performed each step with precision.  Grace even smiled some, however both my girls when they are concentrating seem to chew their tongues.  It also seems to be hereditary in that my mother and Aunt do the same thing.  Me not so much.



Both girls looked beautiful and made me one proud momma.  They also made a long day for mommy even brighter.  I need to say a big thank you to Grandma and Poppop from Florida for coming up for the weekend.  Your help and yummy food was greatly appreciated.  Also thank you to Granma and Papa for helping get the girls hair done and bringing Taylor to recital. 





Sisterly love!

At this point we have recieved the professional video, 2 days ago and I am surprised it still works.  We have watched the DVD at least 6 times most of them in succession.  I hope that my girls had fun and will always have fond memories of dancing and I hoped they learned from my one number that was titled "I hope you dance."  This journey we call life can be a struggle, I hope they remember to enjoy all the good moments and wash away the bad.